The Heirs

ｃｈａｐｔｅｒ 51

"Hey Ross! Have you seen the news?" Luna asked as soon as she entered the room.

She and Ross are gonna be staying the night in Rasmus' room. He had to be confined in the hospital for recovery.

Annabelle insists on staying with him but her parents instead say that she needs to get better too and attend her sessions with a counselor along with Jamie and Cullen.

Steel and Mei are both staying over but they're already asleep on the couch in the middle of reviewing some topics for their upcoming exams.

"What's it about?" Ross asks as he is too lazy to check the latest news and prefers to look at the stolen pictures he has of Steel and Mei dozing off as they study.

Luna huffs and rolls her eyes before opening the latest trends on her phone again and shows it to her brother.

When Ross saw it, he let out an 'O' as a genuine reaction.

The topics reads;

"Shootings at ARES UNIVERSITY."

"Salem finally released a statement. The missing prince is found."

"Queen Amelia finally released a new statement."

"AU's ousted student turned out to be the missing prince of Salem."

"Prince Lucian finally returns."

"Wow! I guess it's gonna get worse now." Ross comments while Luna sits beside him.

They were quiet for a few minutes when the door suddenly opened. Surprisingly, their parents entered the room with a few bodyguards. Each guard had noticeable strange yet unique pins on their chests. And none of them are familiar to the siblings either.

"What are you guys doing here?" Ross asked, a little baffled.

"These are royal guards that came from Salem. And the hospital is now surrounded with military guards." Their stepmother, Laura explains in a wary tone and gives a side eye to the guards.

"You two should stay in a safehouse for the time being. I've already informed the school that you two will not be attending classes. Your friends will also be doing the same." Their father added.

"But what about our exams!? It's literally just days away!" Ross exclaims. But somehow hopes that his father would finally not mind about their grades at least just this time.

"You and your friends will take your exams together with a professor. But it will be taken in a safehouse where you will all stay. I have already spoken with your roommates' parents as well as the girls. This is what we agreed upon." His father explains. He seems even a little thrilled with the idea.

"Where's the safehouse gonna be?" Luna asks, a little disheartened.

She felt quite disappointed that they needed to leave school. The music and dance club will finally have a joint project and it's the first time she can perform. But apparently it won't happen now that they need to leave.

"No worries dear. Just think of it as a vacation. I've already called our secretary and your papers are almost settled. You will leave once the prince has recovered." Laura says to them.

Ross huffs and looks down. Then he turns to Steel.

"Is he coming with us?" Ross asked and looked at his father.

His father cluelessly looked back at him and eventually realized what he meant. He turned to Steel and Mei who were both on the couch and he didn't even notice them there until Ross mentioned.

"Who is he?" He asks and it made Ross scoff and obviously offended.

"He's my best friend! And a witness of Jairo's death. Shouldn't you know him by now?"

"Weren't you and the prince the only witnesses? I didn't know there was someone else." His father stares bluntly and it made Ross feel more angry.

Luna would have done something to keep him calm. But she didn't like how their father treats Steel either. Their father is fully aware that Ross is friends with Rasmus and Steel and that there are three witnesses. If Rasmus wasn't a prince he'd tell Ross to keep away from him.

It was so hard to even convince him to add protection to the two if it wasn't for the news going around and with big names involved.

"Steel is coming with us." The family suddenly turned to the bed when Rasmus suddenly spoke.

He had a blunt expression but his eyes looked like they're saying a lot of things. Ross looks away. He feels ashamed that Rasmus had to hear his own father being like that.

"You don't need to do anything for my friend. I'll take care of everything. But please..." Rasmus huffs tiredly and looks at Steel who was sleeping soundly and not aware of what's currently happening.

"Do not treat him any less just because his status doesn't level with yours."

The father only smiles and nods his head while Laura could only chuckle awkwardly. They decided to leave eventually since it was pretty obvious that there is a heavy tension if they continue to stay there any longer.

"Rasmus. I'm so sorry." Ross blurted out and looked at the boy with worry. Luna could not even look him in the eyes as she was too embarrassed to face him.

"For what? Haven't you ranted enough about your father with me and Steel? I already know he's gonna talk like that." Rasmus chuckled and reached for the older's hand.

"It's okay. Ross. Luna. I know you. You don't need to feel distant just because of his actions towards Steel. We're all friends. And you guys had always looked out for us and took care of us. No matter what others say, they will never matter because they know nothing." The boy assures them and shares a warm smile.

Ross let out a sigh as he walked to the side of the boy's bed, ruffling his hair and smiling back.

"How do you feel?" He asks.

Rasmus squints his eyes and scrunches his nose. "My shoulder feels a little sore. But it's nothing I can't handle." He said.

"Don't pressure yourself on your recovery." Luna said as she sat on the couch near the other two.

"Ross. Can I borrow your phone?" The boy asks.

Ross and Luna exchanged looks first having an idea why. But he still gave his phone and watched as Rasmus went over his trendlist.

"I-I'll go and call the doctor. Let him know you're awake." Luna says and leaves the room first.

Ross observed Rasmus' expressions as he check the trendlists on his phone. But he looked pretty calm to see all the news.

"The queen will eventually ask me to come home..." Rasmus said almost inaudibly as he returned the phone back to Ross.

"Isn't that what you always wanted? You're finally gonna be with your mom." Ross said upon noticing how Rasmus wasn't excited at the idea.

"Yeah... But... If I go home... I might not be able to see you guys again. Or Anne." He says with a small pout and looks at Ross with sad eyes.

It made the older's heart melt and somehow coo at the younger.

"Of course not. We can always visit you there, can't we?" He chuckled as he sat beside Rasmus and carefully pulled him to his embrace.

"I've always wanted to return to Salem..."

"To meet my mother and our people..."

"But these days. The more I think about it... I don't feel like leaving. I didn't realize that I became content with my life here."

"And it feels sad to just leave that behind."

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