Chương 21: Time to Heal

After two days of staying in bed, Basileus was nearly recovered. Stitches had already been removed by the doctor and he was slowly beginning to walk around again. His color had returned to normal, but he was becoming stir crazy, unable to exercise.

Each time he insinuated that he was going to go train, Varya would get upset with him. He enjoyed having her there as he recovered, but his pride would take a blow each time she insisted he hadn't regained his strength yet. He didn't have the energy to argue with her because of her serious expression whenever she spoke to him.

As she watched Basileus heal, Varya's desire to invent disappeared. The aura gun she created in the prince's absence was hidden under other scrap metal on her workstation. The thought of approaching him about it made her stomach sick. She could only somewhat understand what he meant when he said his aura had been depleted. No part of her wanted to ask when it would go back to normal because no part of her wanted to be reminded of what Emperor Kruos had done.

In the evening, they both sat at the table, eating food the servants had brought. It was the first day Basileus had eaten all three meals at the table and spent his day upright.

After eating, Varya wordlessly went to sit on the large couch. She knew she was being a burden with her worry, but couldn't help feeling miserable at the thought of losing someone else. It was a wakeup call, but she was powerless in changing anything.

On top of her worry, the silence between them since they had been reunited was heavy with the unaddressed events that had happened before. She wanted to treat him with fragility, but he wanted to grab her and kiss her with the exhilarating passion he felt before he left. Neither of them wanted to be the first to tell the other they were still thinking about that night.

To Varya's surprise, the prince soon joined her and sat on the other end of the couch. While his temperature hadn't completely returned to normal, he still used a small amount of his aura and threw fire into the fireplace.

She gasped at his actions, doubting he was supposed to do that while he was recovering.

"Varya," he started, his moderately deep voice was laced with annoyance. "I'm fine."

"What am I supposed to do if you get taken away from me, too?" she blurted out before clasping one of her hands over her mouth.

Surprised at her own admission of her worries, Varya stared at him with wide, watery eyes. She couldn't lie to him.

The last couple of days were starting to make more sense to Basileus. He reflected on her uncertainty and how quiet she had been. They didn't exchange as many words as normal, but she continuously doted on him.

Intent on erasing her worries, he closed the space between them on the couch. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her onto his lap.

She felt ashamed and tried to get out of his grasp.

"You're going to hurt yourself if you lift me up like that," she objected.

Ignoring her words, he asked, "Do you know how much I've been dying to have you this close to me again?"

Varya felt a blush creep onto her cheeks and she relaxed into his arms. He wasn't the only one who felt that way. There were no other points she could argue and she stayed quiet.

As he hugged her to his chest, his eyes focused on the metal pile in the corner of the room and what seemed to be a gun badly hidden in it.

"Should I be concerned?" he wondered

"What-?"

But she cut herself off when he quickly set her down and got to his feet.

"No, Basileus. Wait," she objected, but it was too late.

In mere seconds he had already walked over and picked up the gun, turning it in his hands so he could get a better look of it. She followed him there with her hands nervously clasped in front of her. She didn't want to explain herself.

"What is this?" he asked.

He knew that she was always building something, but he didn't know she was capable of creating weapons.

"It's nothing," she lied. "I was just practicing-"

"Don't lie to me. Tell me what it is," he asked again, but his tone pointed to his patience wearing out.

"I just…" she started, but quickly trailed off.

He looked at her expectantly and she sighed.

"Fine. I don't know why I built that, but you told me about your abilities and I just couldn't stop thinking about other applications for that type of energy," she admitted. "I couldn't stop wondering, what if someone like me could harness it even for just a couple of seconds? I don't know if there's any use for something like this but-" she cut herself off again and she met his eyes when she noticed he had a small smile on his features. "What?"

He had set her invention back down and moved closer to her as she spoke. While it was an idea he did want to explore later, all he heard was confirmation that she couldn't get him out of her head the way he couldn't get her out of his.

He lifted her chin so her face was angled towards his and he placed a firm kiss on her partly opened lips. Soon his other arm was around her waist and her arms wrapped around his neck. The hand that directed her chin was now on the back of her head, cradling it so he could devour her lips.

Again, all of his senses screamed for her. There was no mistaking it now. Kisses he had shared with others paled in comparison to how little control he had when her lips were on his.

He had backed her into the wall and his body overwhelmed hers, hard muscles pressing into her soft skin. He felt the warmest he had in days and it energized him. His desire to make her his escalated and when he started to notice, it caused him to back off, though he didn't completely leave her alone.

Their lips were no longer touching but he was faintly smiling down at her. He felt he had won a precious prize.

+++

Fortunately for them both, Emperor Kruos hadn't contacted Basileus for any missions. The prince was able to train all day and spend time with Varya otherwise.

As the days progressed, Basileus resumed his normal schedule of going to bed later than her and waking up before her. However, Varya had started waiting for him and not falling asleep until he was there - feeling the most safe with his arms around her. When he woke up, he wouldn't leave the bed for a moment, feeling overwhelmed by the beautiful being in his arms.

Their kissing became more frequent. Normally, they would kiss before going to bed, but occasionally the prince would steal a kiss from her simply because he could.

As amazing as his affection made her feel, Varya was starting to become more and more confused. They were getting so close, but the prince seemed to have an invisible wall that he would hit whenever their kisses became particularly passionate. No one had ever gotten her so heated up only to leave her hanging. She knew she wasn't alone in that because she felt him get turned on too.

Varya wanted to ask about it so badly, but had never been in such a predicament and didn't know how the prince would respond to her directness.

She was determined not to suffer in silence anymore.

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