33 In a time it takes to grow an eyeball...

The Regent put the nasty medicine aside and turned around to look at the Prince who was now standing in the doorway like some blonde, dazzling embodiment of a vengeance demon.

"What are you even doing here?" the Regent asked and rolled his eyes as if saying: "Such an impossibly fussy child!"

"Kear's supporters have arrived at the Palace. They are urgently looking for you, uncle. I guess they want to negotiate General's release," the Prince explained as he closed the door and approached the Regent.

"And you've come here personally to tell me that?" The Regent smirked. "Are you now an errand boy, dear nephew?"

Kai ignored the taunt and just spat out: "Are you going to deal with them or not?"

The Regent sighed and got up. He gave Aidan a concerned look, possibly trying to figure out if it was all right to leave him alone with the willful prince.

In all honesty, Aidan was not sure if he was okay with that. There were too many confusing thoughts in his head, not to mention the constant pain in all parts of his body. Besides, in light of the weird hallucination he had, he would have preferred to face the real Kai at a more opportune time. Or maybe not at all.

However, he didn't want to keep Jake away from his duties, even though some cowardly part of him currently felt like desperately clinging to the Regent's sleeve.

"You are not going to let Kear go, are you?" The Prince asked coldly as the Regent passed him by.

"Depends on what they offer," Jake responded and left, gently closing the door behind him.

"Of course, what else did I expect from a sellout?" The Prince sneered with disdain.

Vacantly, Aidan pondered whether one day Kai and the Regent would be able to clear up all the misunderstandings between them. Or was the rift already too deep for any kind of reconciliation? It's not like any of them were bad people...

Aidan looked up with his one good eye and noticed that the Prince was now standing only a couple feet away from his bed, staring at Aidan as if he had just seen a ghost.

Aidan wasn't sure how to face him. Thankfully, he could blame his awkwardness on his current condition. He still tried to lighten the mood at least a little: "Am I so ugly to look at, Your Highness?"

In response, Kai came up even closer and gazed at Aidan with his blue eyes, that for some reason, were brimming with anger. He then put his slightly cold hand on Aidan's forehead.

"Are you in a lot of pain?" he asked finally in a low voice.

Surprisingly, Aidan didn't mind the touch at all. It now seemed so familiar.

He smiled weekly and said: "I can manage." He really could.

It actually hurt like a motherfucker. But the pain was Aidan's old reliable friend – as long as it was physical, he could deal. On the other hand, looking the Prince in the eye, smelling his familiar scent...was for some reason much more unbearable than having several fractures.

The other Kai from the hallucination smelled exactly the same.

Why would his mind create such a sweet and violent fantasy about this man? Aidan now suddenly remembered in detail all the kisses they shared in that dream and all the other stuff they did... he couldn't help but blush.

But real talk - was there something deeply wrong with his brain that he was constructing inappropriate scenarios about another man while being brutally tortured?

Sure, it had been a while since he had last experienced intimacy. But Aidan hadn't missed it or even thought about it in years, so why did this young blonde prince suddenly trigger these weird feelings in him?

At the same time, Aidan also clearly remembered the hate and utter despair that the poor A.D. fellow felt before pulling the trigger. No, currently, just looking at Kai was too complicated. Aidan suddenly felt a strong urge to have a drink. And immediately remembered that this was out of the question. All he could drink now was the disgusting brew that Corus had so thoughtfully provided.

So, no escape.

The Prince also seemed to be increasingly tensing up. He took his hand away and suddenly raised his voice: "Do you even care about what happened to you?"

Aidan was surprised by this sudden outburst. Did he say or do something wrong?

"Don't worry, I'll get better," Aidan tried to calm the young man down. "And I don't really mind the scars. What's a scar on a man? I think they give me character."

Aidan was half-joking, but come to think of it, he did actually like his scars. Without his scars, he might as well be somebody else entirely. And wouldn't that be tragic?

Kai shook his head. "Why are you not angry at that piece of shit who sent you right into the lion's den?"

"Ah, right. I'm angry, very angry. I'm just too tired and sleepy now," Aidan tried to appease the guy. Right, he was supposed to hate the big bad Reo Atarian. Acting in character was a bit complicated when one was in so much pain and emotional turmoil.

"Why did you send the message to him and not to me?" the Prince asked, his eyes cast down as if he was slightly embarrassed.

If Aidan could raise any of his hands, he would have facepalmed. But currently, all he could do was wince. He had no simple answer to this stupid question, so he decided to do what any high-functioning person would do when faced with an unpleasant problem.

Pretend to fall asleep in order not to deal with it.

Surprisingly, the ruse worked, and in a couple of long moments, Aidan heard Kai quietly leave the room.

The long weeks that followed were pretty awful. The Regent had insisted on Aidan recovering in the Palace instead of returning to his manor. The main reason for this was, of course, to prevent him from secretly drinking.

That damn control freak.

Kai visited every single day, and soon he was solely responsible for bringing Aidan his food and making him take his medicine. At some point, he was even adamant about redressing Aidan's wounds, and it took Aidan and the Palace doctor a whole afternoon to make him give up on the idea.

The Prince was not particularly talkative – he would mostly just sit there and look at Aidan, often making him slightly uncomfortable.

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Aidan asked one day, genuinely curious.

"Just you," The Prince answered. Aidan wasn't sure if he was joking, yet decided not to say anything anymore. To be honest, he didn't dislike Kai's company.

To conceal that a certain part of his body was still intact, Jake was the one who gave Aidan his baths. Both of them were not happy with the arrangement, but there was nothing they could do about it until Aidan was finally well enough to be able to wash himself.

After that, Jake didn't come by so often anymore, and even when he did, he avoided talking about what was going on outside the castle walls. He just told Aidan to concentrate on getting better and not think much about anything else.

Aidan's physical recovery was surprisingly quick, so he had to begrudgingly admit the efficacy of the nasty brew. However, the better Aidan got, the stronger was his urge to drink.

He begged the Regent to let him have at least a little bit of wine, trying to explain to the heartless man that going completely cold turkey was not the best approach. Jake, however, had no compassion whatsoever.

"Don't you understand? I'm bored out of my mind and entirely on edge! If I could at least do that relaxing thing with the needles..." Aidan complained.

"You mean acupuncture?" the Regent asked thoughtfully.

"No," Aidan frowned. "I mean heroin."

"Not funny," was the only thing that Regent said in response. After that, he immediately arranged daily physical training sessions for Aidan.

"You said you were bored," he explained as he dragged him to the Palace training grounds. "So, soldier Lox here has kindly agreed to spar with you every morning."

Aidan was kind of happy to see Hayl again – the man had always treated him well. However, waking up before sunrise every single day was not his idea of a good time.

Besides, as soon as Kai heard about him sparring with Hayl, he also wanted to train together with Aidan.

And who could say "no" to this fair-haired little puppy?

Thus, Aidan's life had turned into an endless series of sword fights, hand-to-hand combats, competitive lifting, and all kinds of calisthenics. Aidan could almost hear his P.E. teacher vengefully laughing at him for skipping class so many times in high school.

Unexpectedly, Hayl was a little cold to Aidan – he rarely talked during their sessions and barely reacted to any of Aidan's jokes or attempts at conversation. But Aidan attributed this attitude to his weird-looking eyeball and didn't think much of it.

One morning Aidan even decided to take a risk and ask Hayl to smuggle some wine for him.

Before that, he had already begged Kai for alcohol, but, unfortunately, on this issue, "uncle" and "nephew" were on the same side. Kai only shook his head and then asked, if there was some other way he could help Aidan relax. Aidan was sure he wanted to go for another round of sword-fighting and escaped the Prince as quickly as he could.

Due to some unknown miracle, Hayl wasn't in cahoots with the Regent and actually had some mercy for him. What was even better, he immediately handed Aidan a full flask.

"I just need a favor back," the handsome soldier said as he watched Aidan finish the whole flask in three big gulps.

"I'm all yours," Aidan smiled a silly smile. A familiar feeling of warmth quickly spread through his body, and he was ready to sign up for everything.

"Meet Niki. Now," Hayl said stiffly.

"You mean the little dude?" Aidan remembered that he hadn't even thanked the guy for delivering his message to the Regent and basically saving his life. "Of course, no problem!"

Aidan poured the last drops into his mouth and followed Hayl with a satisfied "ahh".