It took nearly two weeks before they could finally leave. Gael and his companions, including Alec, had continued to track the thief before the trail finally disappeared near the mountain range between the country of Friosan and Arkadin. Unfortunately, before they could look for more clues, a blizzard blew by, wiping away any signs of the bastard.
Gael ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. Before he could lie on his bed, he heard the satisfied growls and purrs coming from outside the window of their inn. When he looked, he found Alec wiping down the black scales of his drae, Asher. Iris, Kreis' white drae, stood to the side patiently waiting her turn. Gael smiled at the serious look in Alec's light blue eyes as he meticulously cleaned the gaps between Asher's scale.
After Crimson's death, Alec had mostly kept to himself at first, only interacting with them when it had something to do with searching for the thief. But over the last three days, the two draes had managed to coax the young man into interacting with him and the others. He was still mostly quiet though.
But Gael was starting to think that the silence was because he found some kind of entertainment in watching Gael and Kreis' interactions. He even overheard Alec asking Kreis' subordinates if he and Kreis were a married couple. Gael nearly spat out his precious coffee. Never in a million years would he marry Kreis. Blazen would freeze over before that happened.
He sent a solemn thanks to the Almighty Kosmos that Kreis had not been present then. If Kreis had heard, Alec would have received an hour-long lecture on how he couldn not be in a relationship with anyone because the love of his life existed. And by extension, Gael would have had to listen to it too. He was sick and tired of Kreis going "Meolie this! Meolie that"
Just ask her on a date already, moron. You've been pining for her for nearly a decade now.
Thinking of Kreis, Gael recalled the conversation they had a two weeks ago.
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"What were you thinking?" Kreis said as he barged into Gael's inn room. "Skilled or not, Alec is too young to be involved in this. He nearly died!"
Gael remained calm and answered his question with another question. "If I hadn't agreed, what do you think Alec would have done?"
Kreis thought about it for a moment, before a look of realization came to him. "He would've gone after the bastard all by himself and...." Kreis paused and turned to look him in the eye. "I see."
Gael raised a brow, silently asking Kreis what he meant by that.
"From the fierce personality we've seen so far, you thought this was the best way to protect him. Getting him involved allows us to limit the danger he might place himself in when hunting the thief. But that's not all there is to it, is there?" Kreis said.
Gael sighed. "I don't want to leave this kid here by himself. I just can't. He...reminds me too much of myself when I was younger. The anger, pain, and...loneliness. I just..."
"Can't turn your back on him, because it would feel like you're turning your back on your past self?"
"I promised myself, that I won't let anyone go through what I did if I could help it."
Silence fell between them as Kreis contemplated his words. It was soon broken by Kreis as he let out a sigh.
"First of all, Alec seems much more level-headed and capable than you were at that age, so doubt he'll need help often," Kreis said.
Gael chuckled, nodding his head in agreement.
"Second of all, if you want to help this kid, I'm sure he'll cause you headaches. That is unless he warms up to you by some kind of miracle."
"I'm a teacher. My students cause me headaches every other day. And I warmed up eventually, you know," Gael mumbled.
"He'll hate you for being nosy."
"I know."
"I'm not talking you out of this, am I?"
"Nope."
Kreis groaned. "Fine! Have it your way. If you come to me, drunk and complaining about Alec, I won't hesitate to say 'I told you so'."
Gael's laughter escaped him as he watched his friend fume. "Okay," he said. "But, trust me when I say you'll like this kid soon enough. You're only taking longer because you're being petty about the injury he inflicted on you."
"Let it go, you piece of drae shit!"
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He continued to watch Alec finish with Asher and turned to start cleaning Iris' scales. The kid still looked somber, but happier compared to two weeks ago. Gael hoped that his wounds would heal with time, like his own wounds did. Not all wounds.
He ignored the last thought and happily watched as Iris started to sink to the snowy ground from Alec's attention. The young man paused and looked around before his blue eyes landed on Gael. Gael raised a hand in greeting. Alec pursed his lip, hesitating for a moment, before nodding in greeting. Soon, he went back to ignoring Gael.
Gael found it funny. Alec did not like him one bit. But in the last two weeks, he had come to notice that Alec was physically unable to be rude to anyone polite towards him. Alec remained polite, simply because Gael remained polite to him. If someone was rude to him, he'd get snappy and blunt, glare with cold menacing eyes, or just straight out pretend that they don't exist.
Whoever raised him, did an amazing job, he thought.
But his thoughts soon turned to the townspeople of Gelun, and his mood plummeted just a bit. He had come to notice that they would avoid or glare at Alec every time they passed. He only knew that it had something to do with Alec's brother and the Red Boils epidemic, but he asked the Ryders to stop investigating the details. All he really needed were the essentials. His name, age, address, and family members. Any more than that would make him feel like he's treating the kid like a criminal. Maybe one day, Alec would tell his story himself.
He was pulled from his musings when his commu-crima started ringing. He picked it up from his bedside table and found that it was the Headmaster calling. He pressed on the crystal screen and brought it to his ear.
"Good day, Headmaster Donovan," he said.
"Gael, it's just us. You can drop my title," he heard an old voice say.
"Yes, Uncle," Gael said with a resigned sigh.
"Kreis mentioned a certain someone to me," Donovan said. "Are you bringing home a kitten?"
Gael's lips twitched in amusement. "He's more of a cub, than a kitten. He knows how to use his claws too."
A deep chuckle came from the other end of the line. "I hope you know what you're doing, child."
"With all you due respect, uncle," Gael began, "did you know what you were doing when you decided to take me in?"
There was a pause before a louder chuckle came from the old man. "Fair enough," he said. "So, how will you introduce this kid to everyone you know?"
"I still have to ask the kid if he's fine being my long-lost little brother."
Donovan remained quiet on the line before suddenly bursting into a loud and hearty chuckle. "If you like this kid this much, then he must be amazing. I'm so excited to meet him."
Gael smiled bitterly, not minding his expression because no one was there to see. There was a 50% chance that Alec would drop his politeness towards him when he introduces his new backstory. Even if it was for the sake of hiding his identity.
We could make people think that he hates me because I took him from his home and forced him to live with him. It was partly true. That way, it wouldn't be difficult to act.
He sighed. "I just hope he'll be a lot more polite to you than I was when I first met you, old man."
"Let's hope so," Donovan said. "The semester is about to begin, I hope you come back quickly."
"We're leaving tomorrow, Uncle," he said. "How could I pass up the chance of having fun with my students?"
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New family? New headache?