"You can help us fix this, Namar."
—
"And that is how the land of Fang rose in spite of all the monsters that wanted to destroy us. Because we're smart, resilient and we take car of one another." Chief Virana says to the children.
"Mother! We need to talk." Namar says coming up to her.
"It's Prince Namar!" The kids exclaim happily and Namar smiles, looking down at the children. He always wanted his own someday.
"Alright, alright, now, run along kittens. I have to speak with the prince."
"Mother, you won't believe what i saw."
"You saw a dragon. General Atitaya informed me that you'd be returning home without the gem pieces."
"It was Sisu." He exclaim. "She can fix what we broke. She can bring everyone back."
"And that's what scares me." She tells her son and he frowns. "When everyone comes back, who do you think they'll come for? You forget. The other lands blame us for what's happened."
"But we.. never meant for anyone to get hurt." Namar says.
"Yes, but if we had the dragon and the gem pieces, we would be forgiven. We could save the world. But more importantly, our people would remain safe."
"But Ray and Y/N aren't just gonna give Sisu to us." He says and his mother sighs.
"We're not going to give them a choice."
"What are you going to do?" He asks, worried for you.
"That's no longer your concern, my son." She says and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You've done enough." She tells him and walks away.
...
At night, you're sneaking into the palace while Ray and the others wait anxiously.
"If he refuses to help, we've just flushed our tactical advantage into the dung pot." Tong says.
"I know." Ray says.
"Yeah, he really has no reason to help us." Boun agrees.
"I know."
"Y/N's jerky is terrible." Sisu says.
"I know! But don't tell her that."
"Are you sure Y/N will be successful?" Tong asks.
"I.. don't know." He sighs.
...
You've snuck your way into the palace unseen successfully. Seeing Namar walking down a corridor, you follow from a distance. When he goes into a room you wait a few seconds and follow.
When you open the door and walk through you're suddenly backed up against the wall by a strong arm.
"Y/N?" Namar whispers as his eyes widen when he recognises your eyes from under your face cloth. He loosens his hold on you immediately.
You tug down the cloth from your nose and let it hang around your neck as you look up at him.
"How.. how did you sneak past the guards?" He asks in disbelief and you shrug with a smile.
"Would you believe me if i said with my charm?"
"Yes." He answers immediately and you laugh.
He's too stunned by your presence to react much other than the awestruck reaction he's stuck in. Looking at your face, him being so close to your face he realises and takes a step back. But doesn't move his eyes from your face.
You're here, in Fang, in his bedroom. His eyes widen and he looks around frantically to see the state of his room. He sighs in relief when finding it clean.
You chuckle at him and he turns to you, listening as that sweet sound leaving your lips. Oh, your lips. He shakes his head.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to give you a message from Ray." You say and watch his face falls a bit. "But I also wanted to see you." You admit and he looks up at you with slightly raised eyebrows. Staring at you while you glance around his room.
He clears his throat awkwardly and you chuckle again, making him weak in the knees. He pulls himself together a bit and looks at you in a more professional manner.
"What does he want?"
"We want you to come meet him with Fang's gem, not too far from here, I'll take you." You say looking around.
"Why?" He watches you move around his bedroom.
You turn and look at him for a moment.
"Namar.. I can't imagine you did, but i must ask. Did you mean for it to happen the way it did that day, 6 years ago?"
"No." He tells you immediately. "I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I just had to.. for Fang. It wasn't supposed to escalate like it did."
You give him a soft smile.
"I never got the chance to thank you by the way." You tell him and he looks at you in confusion. "For saving my life that day." He then remembers the moment he saved you on the bridge.
"I never wanted you to get hurt Y/N."
"I know." You reassure him with a soft smile. "You can help us fix this, Namar."
Namar frowns deeply seeming troubled. You move towards him unconsciously, but stop abruptly when you hear the door open. You watch with wide eyes, and you're about to hide, hoping Namar won't reveal to them that you're here, but you stop again when you see what comes through the door.
You look in amazement as the cat elegantly walks into the room, having opened the door itself and uses his back foot to close it after him. Then the cat freezes when he sees you.
It stares at you for a few seconds before just casually walking up to you and nudging his fur into you, making you chuckle and start petting him.
Namar watches as you interact with his cat, the angriest and strongest cat in their land. He was in awe, the cat was the feistiest and most intimidating cat they had, no one could approach him other than him.
And he was cuddling you, making you pet him, as he purred in delight, he wasn't even cuddling with him so this was a new side to his cat. You look up at Namar, meeting his awe filled eyes.
"He's beautiful." You say looking back down at the cat as you pet him.
You're beautiful, Namar thinks.
"Thank you." You say. His eyes widen in shock at what he must've said out loud, instead of just in his head.
He clears his throat awkwardly and look away in embarrassment to hide his burning cheeks. Seriously, you had this effect on him even after 6 years, he thought. He was supposed to be this strong fierce leader, but with you he was just a flustered mess.
As you pet the cat, you glance occasionaly at Namar who seems in deep thought with a frown on his face.
You walk over to him, leaving a pouting cat.
"My brother wanted to give you a gift." You say and take his hand.
You put the folded item on his open palm.
"Namar, i feel that, deep down, you want to fix this too. Fix the world." You say and Namar looks back up at you.
When he glances down at the necklace he then looks like he remembers something and walks over to a table. He opens a small drawer in it and picks something out of it.
You watch in confusion until he stands before you and holds out your mother's ring. You gasp, grabbing his hand that hold the ring as you look at it.
He then takes your hand and pulls the ring onto you finger. You blush slightly at the gesture, but both of you just stares down at the ring as Namar strokes his thumb over it as he still holds your hand.
He then, as if reluctantly, lets go of your hand.
"It was my mothers." You tell him and he looks at you with a sad expression, but you shrug it off and instead wrap your arms around him in a hug. "Thank you."
Though surprised at first he melts into your embrace, wrapping his hands around you.
The cat then appears needingly nudging himself between you, seperating you to Namars annoyance, to make you pet him again. You laugh and pet a smug looking cat.
"Ares, leave her alone." Namar tries to tell the cat.
"That's okay, i like him. Wait.." You say, but look up with raised eyebrows.
Namar looks at you in question before realising what you reacted to and chuckle softly looking down at the cat. You smile at the wonderful sound leaving his lips.
"You named him Ares." You state in a whisper, looking down at the cat you now realise Namar had talked about 6 years ago, just now a grown cat.
"It was perfect for him." He shrugs looking at Ares as he purrs into your touch and you smile.
You pet Ares for a long moment in comfortable silence, before turning to a thoughtful looking Namar.
"So, you ready to help us save everyone?" You say with an encouraging smile, holding your hand out to him.
—