Red Princess

79. Reunion

I finally opened my eyes and breathed in my surroundings. The familiar scent of my room hit my nose, and I felt safe. I felt at home again. I remembered the first time I had entered his house as Ariel. The place had felt cosy as if I had been there before.

I turned on my other side to face him, and my tearful eyes met with his longing ones. He was crouched down beside the bed on his knees, looking perplexed, borderline frustrated and scared. A sigh of relief escaped his mouth as his thumb gently dabbed the tears away.

He was the same gentle person. Nothing had changed about him in the last five years. Perhaps a tiny shade of darkness clung to him now, but it seemed to fade away every time he stared at me. He loved me. I couldn't tell him the truth. It would tear him apart. I would have to live as a different person yet again.

I couldn't leave him either. I left him once because I was too weak. Now I was strong enough to stand beside him.

I needed his strength. I couldn't have him distracted. Too many people had sacrificed a lot. I couldn't toss it out the window. Perhaps when all this was over, I could finally come clean to him.

"Does it hurt?"

I shook my head, and the creases on his temple eased. His warm fingers gripped the side of my chin, and I sank into his touch, relishing the feel of those loving hands against my skin.

Alex cleared his throat, announcing his presence to us, which was when I realised there had been someone else in the room. I slightly raised myself up on my elbow to get a better look behind Kai. There stood my brother, a giant behemoth leaning against the wall near the doorway, looking much different from the last I remembered him. I hadn't seen him all that much as Ariel. It was only after he graduated that we spent more time together. Now that I remember my childhood, I was suddenly comparing him to the frail figure he had five years ago. He had been so much shorter than me back then.

The expression on his face made him look flustered. When I smiled at him, he flushed a little as if embarrassed to have been caught being worried about me.

Does he know?

And then it hit me.

Sey.

He knew all along.

My smile froze, and the delight in my eyes faded away as I tried to process everything. A flurry of emotions hit me like a storm. I was mad at him for hiding everything but at the same time grateful about it. I was the one who asked him for an escape route. I didn't want to be a burden. He made me strong. He gave me the strength to fight back. To not be a damsel in distress anymore.

And he never touched me. He never asked for anything in return.

As I sat back up on the mattress, Kai wrapped his powerful arms around me, his body relaxing, his breath releasing the tension he had been harbouring.

"Don't do something like that ever again."

His touch made me forget my worries. My insecurities. I closed my eyes and let him hold me, feeling relieved and satisfied at finally being back to him. It didn't matter who I was as long as I was with him. As long as I could protect him from the pain and suffering.

I owed a debt to him. To his mother. It was I who took her feelings away from her while I was still in my mother's womb. Even if she was doomed to her death, I still had a part to play in it, and I would protect him as long as I breathed. I would give him the happy future his mother always desired for him. I was bound to him even before I was born. I had been his even in my death, and I would continue to be with him forever.

"Ariel, what was the point of all that?" Alex's raspy voice interrupted my train of thought, and I snapped my eyes open. I tried to pull away from Kai, but he didn't loosen his hold, his hands gently caressing the back of my head.