The King's Claim

t w e l v e - ingredients ✔️

The sun peaks over the horizon - it's glaring beams of light hitting my face. 

My eyes flutter open, trying to adjust to the brightness. I lift my head up and groan, my back is killing me. How did I manage to fall asleep on the desk? Last I remember, I was calculating the remaining measurements for the potion. 

I rub my tired eyes and get up to stretch my legs - everything hurts. Would it have killed me to take a couple minutes to walk to my comfy bed? I stand up and stretch my arms out when I hear a soft thud hit the ground. I look down.

It's a blanket.

I kneel down to pick the fabric up - pure cotton, expertly sown. I don't remember bringing a blanket in with me, someone must have seen me in here. I smile to myself at the kind gesture.

Must have been the librarian - I'll remember to thank her later.

I collect my books and make my way to my room - bringing the blanket with me. I take a hot shower to ease my muscles - I have lab work with Dexter in the evening but until then, I'm free.

Well as free as someone in my position can be. I should probably use this free time to collect the rest of the ingredients - I want to be done with this potion as soon as possible and get back to normality. Guess that means a visit to the garden.

I throw a sweater over my outfit and head down to the garden. Mindlessly descending the grand staircase to the lower floors - so engrossed in my own thoughts that as I turn to go down the next set, I don't see a body around the corner - I run directly into a chest. My head bumping against it.

"Fuck, sorry." I curse out, I look up to see who I've run into.

My cheeks blush a violent red.

Of course it had to be him.

"We just keep seeming to run into each other."  Gamma Lione smiles down at me.

"It seems so." My shoes sure look interesting today, can't seem to take my eyes off them.

"Where are you in such a rush to?" He puts his arm against the railing, stopping me from walking past. I stare at his hand gripping the railing, the motion makes my heart stop.

"To the Garden." I don't know where the sudden confidence came from, but I look Gamma Lione directly in the eyes, challenging him. His smile just widens.

"What a coincidence," he turns his body so that he's standing next to me, "I was just headed there." 

"Lead the way."

"You were going upstairs." I mutter, clearing he was going to his room.

"I'm bad with directions." He chuckles back - making my stomach do cartwheels.  

I keep my head down, uncomfortable with the stares and bows from the pack members upon seeing Gamma Lione beside me. But he just seems so at ease with it all, nodding to the pack members, hands in his pockets. Of course he's comfortable, I remind myself - he's used to all this attention. 

I pick up the pace, expecting Lione to tell me to slow down but he easily keeps with his long strides. Curse those legs.

We make it to the garden and thankfully its a cloudy day so there's few people out.

I look down at my paper and see the first ingredient I need.

'everlasting rose - 3 fully matured petals'

I look up to see where they could be, but I flinch when I realise Gamma Lione's face is directly in front of my own. He's bending down to see the list in my hand.

"What is this?" He asks, eyes narrowing at the paper. I move my face to the side and crumple the paper in my pocket, turning beet red.

"Ingredients needed for the X-bane research." I lie.

"Hmm," He looks quizzically at me for a moment, "okay." He goes back to smiling and leads me towards the back of the Garden through an intricate route, I'm assuming this is the way to the roses.

"I thought you were bad with directions." I point out, laughing at him. 

"You didn't really believe me, did you?" He takes a right and I see the roses up ahead.

I race ahead and take out my clippers. Crouching down, I carefully clip a couple petals. Lione crouches down next to me and watches me meticulously pick at the roses.

"So this is what Chemists do?" He plays with the roses in front of him mindlessly.

"It's part of it, the other part is being a rat's worst nightmare."

Gamma Lione smiles to himself, I find myself wishing he did that more. I've seen him smile more today than I ever have when he's around the pack.

"You should do that more." I note.

"Do what?" He asks, confused.

"Smile." I look back at him and offer him a smile of my own - I don't know why Gamma Lione decided to join me but it was nice having company whilst doing this. Dexter knows too much about chemist work so I could never ask him and everyone else in this kingdom knows of me but I don't really have friends here. I'm just the pack chemist - but right now I felt like something more.

We carry on the day like that, me listing the ingredients I needed and Lione leading me where I needed to go. We asked each other a lot of questions, trying to find more out about each other. I found out Lione likes to cook though he admits to being terrible at it - almost burning down a kitchen last week. It was refreshing to hear considering his image. Known for commanding the royal military, everyone's familiar with his harsh training methods - it's what gives our warriors their fearsome reputation. I never expected him to be so laid back and playful.

Before I know it, the list is complete.

"That's it." 

"That's it?" He asks, sounding almost disappointed.

"Yeah, the rest is being sent to the lab which reminds me," I check my watch, " I have to be there in 10." 

"Of course, training starts then too." We make it back to the castle grounds.

"Thank you, by the way, I really appreciated you taking the time to help me." I mumble, suddenly becoming shy again. Gamma Lione chuckles at my change in demeanor.

"Anytime Belle." He turns his back to me and heads off to the training grounds.

Even though I was getting late, I found myself watching his figure get further away till he turned the corner, out of eye shot.