Here’s the next and final part of the story. It basically starts around where the last one ended but

Here’s the next and final part of the story. It basically starts around where the last one ended but it will have a lotof time skips, big ones and small ones, therefore the characters’ age willchange throughout the story.In case you didn’t read the other two stories or just want to reread them before this here they are part 1 part 2ThestoryAfterwhat happened in Artemyra, Ja’far seriously thinks things over and comes to theharsh realization that he can’t be there for his kids every second of the day.As much it pains him to admit it, he can’t always protect them, after all, he’sjust one person. And he won’t be around for forever.Hesees his mistake clearly now, how he failed to teach his children in this area,but he tells himself, it’s not too late to begin. Although Ja’far is a bituncertain, he knows it’d be beneficial in the long run. Not to mention, he’dworry less if he knew they could protect themselves.Butthen, Ja’far stops himself from planning ahead and takes a deep breath. Heknows Kadin doesn’t need all of this right now, he’s still very shaken up fromthe vacation, so Ja’far decides to wait with the training. But he makes a promiseto himself, once he thinks Kadin is ready, he’ll finally let them learn how tofight.He’sconvinced it’d be a better experience for them if they did it together, so ifKadin needed more time, then Ja’far refused to make Ain and Jaide start withouthim. This way Kadin didn’t have to force himself or to feel pressured to jointhe training in any way. That’s why Ja’far pushes aside this idea for a while.Andwhile Kadin gets better, he’s finally able to show an honest smile, talk andact just like how he used to before the incident, Ja’far notices those rarelittle moments when Kadin jumps in fear when something catches him off guard. Andthe fact that he still needed company during some nights because he was unableto fall asleep makes Ja’far think he needed more time.Kadinmanages to work through it slowly, but steadily, and he feels more secure, butbecause of work and lectures Ja’far pushes the idea of training away once again,into the back of his mind. He doesn’t forget about it, he’s just too busy withother things, and he’s still a little bit skeptical about Kadin’s condition. AndJa’far doesn’t want it to be a burden for him.Then,one evening when he and Sinbad are reminiscing about the past, the subject ofthe vacation comes up and Ja’far is reminded of what he planned for his kids. Afterwaiting for three long years, he’s sure they are ready for it, or at least in Kadin’scase, he hopes so.Soonce he gets the opportunity, Ja’far approaches Sharrkan and asks him to teachhis kids and he gladly accepts, saying that it was about time and he’s lookingforward to his new students. But then Sharrkan bluntly asks him if it’s a goodidea to let Ain join in as well.Andit’s not like Ja’far haven’t thought about that. He’s aware that Ain is reallyfragile, but it’d be unfair if Ja’far wouldn’t let him do this. Not to mentionthat Ain had to learn how to defend himself too, so Ja’far nods in response.However,before Ja’far announces this to his sons, he gets them some training outfits towear during the lessons and gives it to them as a present. Since they don’tunderstand why they got a sudden gift, it gives him the perfect opportunity tobring the topic up, and explain everything.Outof the three of them, Jaide is the most excited, he presses Ja’far for moredetails, when and what kind of training they’ll be doing and so on. Kadin instantlystarts to doubt in his own skills, but he promises to do his best while Ain is veryeager to start too. And even though Ja’far is glad they mostly took itpositively, he’s low-key worried.Thevery first lesson comes as a bit of a downer, Sharrkan states his rules forover a half an hour then puts them through various tests that are laughablyeasy. They don’t understand it yet, but Sharrkan does this because needs to seewho needs to work on what, then think about what kind of exercises the three ofthem could do together.Whenthe real lessons start, they all realize it’s not going to be just fun andgames. After getting through the first lesson, Sharrkan laughs and tells themjokingly he went easy on them since they’re just beginners. Which is also thereason why he doesn’t immediately give them a sword, he can’t build on theirnonexistent fighting experience. Andby the end of the lesson the three of them are extremely exhausted, to thepoint where they only have the energy to climb into their beds and go to sleep.As the weeks go on however, they get better at handling it. Jaide and Kadin evenend up making a fun little contest out of the simplest tasks, and while Ain isa little bit behind, he’s sure if he keeps working hard at his own pace, he’llcatch up to them.Sharrkan‘slessons don’t mean their lecture from Ja’far is neglected. They all have tokeep up with that as well, otherwise Ja’far wouldn’t have agreed on doing this,saying that learning to protect yourself is important, but it doesn’t comebefore education. Ja’far won’t let them participate in Sharrkan’s lessons ifthey don’t take their studies seriously, and he makes this rule clear in the beginning.Astime goes on the stronger, the quicker they become, and Sharrkan starts to seethe potential in Jaide. He lets Ja’far know that if Jaide keeps this up, thenhe’ll be considering teaching him how to use a sword. And despite Ja’farfeeling like it was still too soon, he agrees to it as long it was a practicesword, a wooden one that couldn’t harm him in any way.Eventhough Jaide pulls ahead, Kadin isn’t far behind. He still has doubts abouthimself, but Sharrkan noticed a long time ago that he takes this very seriouslyand tries to do his best, so he’s super proud of him. But at the same time Sharrkanfeels like he hit a wall with Ain because he doesn’t seem be to improving atall. He doesn’t want to give up on him, so Sharrkan keeps searching for asolution.Andwhile Ain was aware from the very beginning that he wasn’t on the same level ashis brothers, it still surprised him to see how quickly he got tired whileKadin and Jaide were still full of energy. But Ja’far makes sure to complimenthim every so often, so Ain doesn’t let this small thing discourage him. Hedecided to work hard, and he trusts he’ll get better with time.Notsoon after this Jaide gets to the point where Sharrkan can confidently give himthe practice sword to start teaching him the basics. With Kadin and Aincheering him on from behind once they’re done with their tasks, Jaide tries tomake sure he doesn’t disappoint his older brothers as he tries to concentrateon what he’s being taught.Butwhen Kadin gets a practice sword too, it becomes visible to Ain how big the gapbetween him and his brothers is. So he keeps working harder and harder, but notseeing any improvement, Sharrkan voices his concerns about him to Ja’far, andadmits that he truly tried to help him, but nothing seemed to work.AndJa’far expected that, he knew it wouldn’t be so easy for Ain, yet he hoped he’dmake, at least some progress. Even if it was done slowly. But Sharrkan wouldn’tlie about something like that and he’s a talented swordfighter, he can tell ifsomeone is actually improving or not, so Ja’far has no reason to doubt him.Hisfinal decision is to take Ain away from Sharrkan and to teach him himself. Thisaction confuses Ain, but Ja’far’s only explanation is that Sharrkan needs toteach sword fighting to two people now so he’d have less time for Ain. Ja’farmentally kicks himself for saying this, but he doesn’t have it in his heart totell Ain that the trainin isn’t going to work out for him.AlthoughAin suspects that this explanation isn’t the reason, he doesn’t question itsince it sounds logical. And at the very first lesson, it’s easy to see howdifferent Ja’far and Sharrkan’s teaching methods are, because Ja’far instructshim to do light exercises, which feels like a downgrade compared to what he hadto do before.Sharrkan’steaching was more about brute force, strength and focused on close combat, whileJa’far’s is all about defense, distance, stealth and focused on various methodsof escaping. Ja’far also does the exercises together with Ain so he wouldn’tfeel alone without Kadin and Jaide.Hetries his best to keep the lessons fun and lighthearted, constantly coming upwith new and exciting tasks, hoping Ain would find some enjoyment in them. Ja’fareven makes an attempt to create games out of the exercises too but Ain is awareof the fact that Ja’far lets him win. Which takes away all of his motivation.AndAin is baffled, what Ja’far was making him do wasn’t going to help him in areal fight, he was already behind his brothers and at this rate, he wouldn’t beable to catch up to them. He honestly can’t see how any of this is going tomake him any better.Soone night, thinking while lying in his bed, Ain gets an idea. He isn’t sure ifhe should go through with it, but he feels like it’s his only choice at thispoint. He keeps turning from one side to another, trying to forget what he justthought of but being unable to, he sits up.Aftera lot of hesitating, he sneaks out past his bedtime. Once he successfully getsout of the palace without being noticed, Ain does the tasks and exercises he canrecall from Sharrkan’s lessons and stays out as long as the lessons lasted.Hefeels incredibly guilty for going behind Ja’far’s back, and while he’s goingback to his room he’s terrified of the thought that he might be caught. But atthe same time, he feels much more confident in himself after training like that,which just further proves how this is the real way to getting stronger.Butwhat Ain isn’t aware of is that even though Ja’far’s lessons aren’t as tiring,they still require a lot of energy and attention. On top of that, he’s puttingmore pressure on himself with those late night exercises while he already hadproblems with handling the exercises from before.Andall of that takes a toll on Ain’s body and mind. He keeps sneaking out, not questioningnor caring why he’s becoming so sluggish, shrugging it off. He even becomes lessaccurate in his studies and starts to have trouble even with Ja’far’s lessons.Andeventually, Ain ends up feeling stuck because he can’t see himself improving. Hewants to get better because his brothers were already way ahead of him, and sincethey were naturally talented, it was even harder to catch up to them. The merethought of it seemed impossible. So he tells himself as long as he keeps training,everything would be alright.Afterthat, he starts to stay out even longer, increasing the amount of hours he spendsexercising in order to make up for lost time. And the result of that is him gettingeven more exhausted, slower and less accurate than before.Sincehe’s staying out longer, he also gets in bed later, which wouldn’t be too muchof a problem if he’d let himself sleep enough, but he doesn’t. The time Ain actuallyspends sleeping feels like nothing, so on top of everything else, he constantlyfeels tired during the day.Itdoesn’t stay that way for long either. Because eventually it gets to a pointwhere he starts failing at studying too. Ain gets worse and worse, until concentratingbecomes impossible for him. But that’s not the only thing, even walking getsharder since his legs, his whole body aches thanks to the over exercising.Andfailing in his studies is a really huge hit to his self-esteem because he’snever been bad at studying. It was the easiest thing in the world for him, andnow he was behind with that as well. So it doesn’t take a long time until hegets alarmingly bad results on tests.Andthat surprises Ja’far more than anything since Ain had always been the one whocould get almost every, if not all, answer right, so he starts to wonder if heshould go easier on Ain during the lessons. And he does because looking at Ainit’s easy to see how tired he is. So the tasks become ridiculously easy.Whichis, another huge low blow for Ain. All in his life, he’s been naturally good atstudying, he was quick to pick up on things and now it suddenly became reallyhard and Ja’far made the lessons easier out of pity. That irritated him morethan anything.Andat this point, the only thing Ain can see in front of him is how both of hisbrothers, even the one who is a year younger than him, are way ahead of him. Bothof them are capable of maintaining both things at the same time, so he startsto wonder, why can’t he do the same.SoAin keeps questioning it and he doesn’t have to wonder for too long. After all,the only difference between him and his brothers is the person who’s teachingthem to fight. And it was Ja’far who decided to take him away. That didn’t fullyexplain why he was so behind or why his own father would hold him back.SoAin thinks about it, over and over again, and this is the only conclusion hecan reach. It’s all because Ja’far was playing favorites. Realizing this makeseverything crystal clear. That’s why he always been so sheltered, that’s why hegot so many praises in his entire life, and that’s why he and Jaide driftedapart. And the reason why he wasn’t improving is because he’s holding him back.AlthoughAin doesn’t let it show how much these new thoughts hurt him, the conversationsbetween him and Ja’far become slightly awkward. Ain stays silent in order notto give anything away, and since Ja’far just writes it off as Ain feelingexhausted, he gets away with it.OnceAin gets all answers wrong on a test, Ja’far decides to give him a little breakfrom training to recover. Not only Ja’far is shocked to see Ain completely failon a test but his brothers are as well. This was something they never expectedto happen, they don’t even want to believe it. But looking at the test result,it’s hard to deny.Ainbegs Ja’far to think it over or to let him re-do the test so Ja’far puts hishand on his head, softly smiles and calmly tells him that everything’s fine, heprobably just needed some time. Then adds that the rule he made about the lessonsand lectures applied to him as well.Notseeing any other option, Ain reluctantly accepts Ja’far’s decision, and goes tohis room, almost slamming his door shut. After a few minutes Ain realizes hedoesn’t need Ja’far’s approval at all since his lessons were pointless anyway.He needed real training which he could do at night, so he shouldn’t even care thatJa’far prohibited him from his own useless lessons.Sowhen later Kadin and Jaide check up on him, a bit worriedly, thinking Ain mightneed some cheering up they find him on his bed. Assuming Ain doesn’t want toshow how much this upsets him, the two of them join him and they make sure theytalk softly and avoid the topic of training. Whilethis makes Ain incredibly happy since it seemed like this was the very firsttime in months they got to speak about something other than those stupid lessons,deep down, he feels like they are looking down on him too. Behind his calmdemeanor, he’s incredibly angry. Kadin and Jaide’s attempt to cheer him up justmade his blood boil.Itseemed like Jaide didn’t have to try much, and even if Kadin needed more time tolearn, he had talent as well. But no matter how much Ain tried, he never got anybetter. And he doesn’t understand how that can be possible when he was tryingso hard. It just wasn’t fair.Sonow, out of habit, Ain sneaks out and after everything that happened, in his frustrationhe puts his everything into the exercises. He even stays outside longer thanever before. When he’s finally ready to call it a night, he’s really proud ofhimself, thinking this time he really earned sleep. But unfortunately, he nevermakes it to his bed because he passes out right in front of his room.WhenJa’far comes to finally turn in for the night, he almost has a heart attack whenhe sees Ain lying on the floor. Once he confirms nothing was wrong Ain was justsleeping, Ja’far is relieved. But the clothes he’s wearing are raising a lot ofquestions since he told him he wasn’t allowed to train.Aftertucking Ain in, Ja’far puts the two and two together and realizes what wasgoing on. Even though he has trouble believing Ain would do such a thing, hecouldn’t deny it. He saw the clothing and he’s upset and mad but mostly,confused. Ja’far helplessly looks at Ain as he sleeps but he knows he won’t getan answer out of him.AlthoughJa’far was able to guess what was going on behind the scenes, he had no real evidenceto back up his claims other than Ain wearing his training clothing. So he waitsfor the next night to set his plan into motion by putting an emphasis on how he’llbe working very late while in reality, he’ll be keeping an eye on the traininggrounds from afar.AndJa’far truly wishes he were in the wrong, to this to be a sillymisunderstanding. Even after seeing Ain, he still doesn’t want to believe it,but he can’t bring himself to watch what Ain is doing to himself. So Ja’farjust waits for him to finish, back at the palace. As the hours drag on the moreconcerned he becomes but he refuses to move.WhenAin finally decides to head back Ja’far grabs his arm from the shadows, whichstartles Ain. Ja’far immediately asks where he was, And Ain is horrified. Heknows he couldn’t lie since his clothing already gave him away so he just remainsfrozen until Ja’far had enough of waiting and pulls Ain into his room to makesure they wouldn’t wake up the others.AndJa’far starts to question Ain while pacing up and down, asking why would he dosuch a thing, doesn’t he know it’s dangerous to go out at that time, notmention how cold it was outside at night. And Ja’far keeps rambling on and on,but his only goal is to pull out an explanation from him.Hegets one when Ain suddenly bursts out that it’s because Ja’far’s lessons wereuseless. wanting to hear more Ja’far presses on and Ain continues, asking ifJa’far truly wanted to help him because it sure didn’t look like it, adding howhe never even got the chance to decide whether he wanted to stick with Sharrkan’slessons or not.Ja’farstays silent as Ain yells. It’s the first time something like this happenedbetween the two of them, so it feels surreal for him. When Ain is done heglares at his dad waiting for an answer, so Ja’far takes a shuddery breath. Witha wavering voice he tells Ain that he thought this might be better for him.AndAin just snaps back at him saying that it’s not better since it’s not working,he’s way behind. So Ja’far responds with more confidence, it’s not a race butAin refuses to believe that. Ain desperately admits that he needed to catch upand he could only do that with Sharrkan’s method because at least, when he wasdoing that he could see some improvement, then asks why couldn’t Ja’farunderstand that.Atthat, Ja’far finally raises his voice and lets Ain know that he doesn’t knowwhat he’s talking about since Sharrkan was the one who came to inform him abouthow his methods were not working, and that’s why he took it upon himself toteach him.Ainweakly tries to continue the argument, saying it’s not fair, he’s always theone Ja’far holds back and he always gets treated differently. Then with thelast of his courage Ain adds that Ja’far is the reason why Jaide distancedhimself from them.Andwith that last comment, Ja’far had enough. He still feels guilty about makingthose mistakes in the past, so he starts to yell too, telling Ain the reasonwhy he’s treated differently is because he’s weak, adding that he needed totreat him and Jaide differently because they needed other things growing up. Theywere two separate people with individual needs after all.Ja’farkeeps yelling about how he never should’ve let Ain train, saying that from nowon he could say goodbye to his lessons. And Ain knows at this point he couldn’twin this so he just mutters, but Ja’far can clearly hear him say that if theirmom were alive she wouldn’t have let things get so bad.Andif Ja’far thought he was angry before, then he was wrong, now he was fuming. Filledwith anger and trying to keep it together he tells Ain to immediately get outof his room. Being caught off guard, Ain only takes a few steps backwards, henever heard Ja’far use this tone of voice.Thefact that Ain still hadn’t listened to him and he already had lost all of hispatience, and the stuff that just got brought up makes Ja’far see red. The nextthing he knows is that he’s in front of Ain and his hand moves on its own.Forboth of them it takes a while to register what just happened. As soon as Ja’farrealizes what he had done, he’s horrified with himself. He immediately tries tocheck on Ain by crouching down but he just curls in on himself in response,clearly not wanting to be touched.Ainkeeps his face hidden away with his hands, holding the cheek that had been hitand Ja’far thinking it was because he’s got a bruise, he hurriedly stands up toget the first aid kit he keeps in his room for emergencies.However,the moment there’s some distance between them Ain finally finds the strength tobolt out of the room. And Ja’far doesn’t bother to stop him since seeing hisson being so scared of him broke his heart.Afterthat, Ja’far spends the night with thinking and blaming himself for a lot ofthings, and when Ain doesn’t show up for breakfast, he doesn’t have the willpower nor the courage to knock on his door to ask him to join them. So he justgoes to work, hoping if he’s not there then Ain would finally come out and atleast eat.ButAin didn’t do that on purpose because unlike Ja’far, the moment Ain reached hisbed he passed out from exhaustion. He used up the last of his energy to run outof Ja’far’s room. Since no one bothered to wake him up, he spends half of theday with sleeping.OnceAin wakes up, he freaks out because he missed not only breakfast and lunch, butJa’far’s lecture as well. Sitting up panicking he places his hand on his cheek asan instinct. Then he remembers the events that took place the night before andstops regretting not showing up. He couldn’t look at Ja’far even if he wantedto.Aftera while Ain stretches out and he’s surprised to find how different his bodyfeels. Even though he’s still sore thanks to his constant training, he feels asif a ton of weight had been just lifted off of his shoulders. Or rather, off ofhis entire body.Layingback he notices other changes as well, he feels more relaxed than he ever didduring in these past months. And thinking about it, Ain realizes this was the firstday in a long time when he actually let himself sleep in.Suddenly,recalling all the things that were said the night before, Ain rolls to hisside. He didn’t want this. And looking back on his actions, he doesn’trecognize himself. The way he behaved wasn’t like him at all. Remembering howupset, mad and sad he felt, all at the same time, and the way Ja’far looked athim was crushing his soul.Hequestions what exactly happened to him and Ain only has one answer. Constantlyputting his body through such treatment, so much pressure while not giving hisbody the rest it needed, made him unable to learn, to think, to feel, to enjoythings or just in general, to function normally.ThenAin swallows as he realizes how he must’ve known what he was doing to himselfall along, that’s not the real reason why he got to this point. It was all becausehe couldn’t accept his own condition.Hepushed himself to his own limits, even beyond that, stubbornly believing hewasn’t different. He didn’t want to be weak, in fact he wanted the opposite. Hewanted to prove he could be strong. But more than anything, he just wanted tohave fun and be with his brothers, to catch up and just be able to do thistogether with them.Curlingin on himself Ain admits to himself that he couldn’t. He tried and tried yethis body wasn’t allowing him to do so. He knew deep down it wasn’t Ja’far whoheld him back, but he had to blame someone, even if now, recalling it, made himfeel terrible.Hearinghow weak he was from Ja’far’s mouth hurt more than anything, but Ain realizesnow, it’s the truth. He needed to hear that. He’s not ready to accept it, farfrom it. And he’s more than certain that he deserved that slap.SoAin takes a deep breath, Ja’far took the time and taught him even though he hadmore important things to do, he even desperately tried to reach out and tellAin he just wanted to give him what he thought was the best. He sees now howungrateful he had been.Aftera few minutes of staring at the ceiling, Ain makes up his mind and finally getsup. Surprisingly he doesn’t come across anyone, and then he realizes. Since itwas already afternoon, Kadin and Jaide were training with Sharrkan.Ainshakes his head quickly and declares that he has more important things to focuson. Bringing himself some food he sits down and goes over everything he failedon during the lectures, starting at the beginning.AndAin is shocked to find out that even though he still wasn’t feeling wellenough, he made more progress in under a few hours than in these last few months.Even if he was being a bit slower than usual, Ain works on getting through everything,and he realizes it wasn’t even that hard.Meanwhileduring a meeting both Sinbad and Hinahoho pick up on Ja’far’s gloomy mood andonce the three of them are left alone in the room they ask what’s going on.Ja’far reluctantly admits he has some trouble with one of his kids. At thatSinbad smiles asking what Jaide had done this time, leaning closer to make sureJa’far knew he was all ears.Ja’faronly responds it wasn’t Jaide, it was Ain, and it takes some time for bothHinahoho and Sinbad to process that answer. Then Sinbad just bursts outlaughing and tells Ja’far that it was a good joke, clutching his sides while hetries to stifle his laughs.ButHinahoho knew Ja’far wasn’t joking, from his pained expression and strainedvoice he could tell this was serious. So he glares at Sinbad and that’s when herealizes on how bad the situation really was. Both of them know that Ain lovedhis dad way too much and he was a well-behaved kid, so they want to know whatexactly happened.Ittakes them some to pull it out of him but eventually Ja’far’s explains whathappened and even ends up admitting that he’s horrible and he’s on the samelevel as Perseus. Ja’far even blurts out that he’s even worse, since heactually hurt Ain, and asks in a hushed tone if he’s truly suited for takingcare of children.Hearingall of this, Hinahoho immediately grabs Ja’far’s shoulders then tells him that he knows what kind of father he is,and he’s better than that scum who dared to call himself Kadin’s father. Hinahohoknows how hard Ja’far tries, so he refused to let him look down on himself.Sinbadplaces his hand on Ja’far’s back as he reassures him that Ain still loved him. Althoughit takes some time for Hinahoho and Sinbad to convince him that Ain is capableof forgiving, Ja’far eventually calms down.MeanwhileAin’s quiet study time gets interrupted when Jaide and Kadin join him to tellhim about their lesson and their new achievements. And during this Ain noticesthat he doesn’t feel anger towards them anymore, instead he’s happy and proud. Heeven finds himself smiling genuinely as Jaide and Kadin bicker with each otherplayfully.Butthe two of them are clearly tired so they head to bed fairly soon compared tohim. For a moment, Ain bitterweetly thinks he missed this. Since he doesn’tfeel tired after sleeping all day, he stays up. Which, doesn’t make things anyeasier for Ja’far since he stays in his office working extra late for thisexact reason. To avoid Ain.Evenafter all the encouragement Sinbad and Hinahoho had given him he can’t bringhimself to talk this out with Ain. And he feels guilty about it too, Ja’farwishes it’d be so simple but this time, he’s really disgusted with himself. Sowhen Ain walks into the kitchen and the two of them lock eyes, Ja’far has totear his eyes away.Buteven if that’s the case, Ain sits down. While Ja’far tries focus on cooking dinnerfor the next day but the new presence is bothering him, while Ain keepsthinking about ways to grab Ja’far’s attention but he doesn’t know what to say.Neither of them are able to break the silence.Ja’faris sure that on the surface he might seem cold, maybe a bit distant, but inreality, he wanted to fix this. He wanted nothing more than that because thiswas hurting him as much as it was hurting Ain. And for Ain this is a weirdexperience, he was always met with a smile when he looked at Ja’far. So hedoesn’t know what he could say in such a situation.Butwhen Ja’far places a warm cup of herbal tea in front of him, a small thank youinstantly slips out of his mouth. Ja’far’s eyebrows rise in surprise, but hedoesn’t say anything. Ain takes it anyway and keeps taking small sips whileJa’far returns to cooking.AndAin thinks it’s finally time for him to gather some courage and speak up, buthe can’t find the right words and by the time he realizes he should just hurryup and start somewhere then figure out what he wants to say, Ja’far is alreadywalking out of the kitchen. And it stung to be left alone like that.Ainpromises to himself to make it up to Ja’far so he spends the next few daysfocusing on his studies, aiming for the perfect score on every test. And Ja’farcan see that, so out of guilt, during a lecture he announces that Ain can continuetraining. Jaide and Kadin keep congratulating, but Ain can’t hear any of theirwords. Hedidn’t want this to be the first thing Ja’far said to him, this wasn’t his goalwith catching up. But not seeing any other way, Ain joins Ja’far for the lessonbecause a part of him was scared he might upset him if he didn’t show up. Buton another hand, this gave him the perfect opportunity to talk to Ja’far, itwas just the two of them, after all.Aincouldn’t have been any more wrong. Ja’far makes sure he has no time to talk,because he gives out instructions one after another and although the tasks arestill the same, Ja’far’s whole attitude had changed. He no longer forces thelighthearted atmosphere and gives Ain what he wished for, real challenges.Duringthese lessons Ja’far feels horrible, he never lets it show but it tears himapart to act like that. He’s able to be cold but doing it in front of and to oneof his sons is really hard for him. And seeing Ain struggle, he needs to fightthe urge to help him.EventuallyJa’far surprises Ain with small wooden weapons, and although at first Ainthinks he’s getting back at Ja’far’s good side since it seemed like they weregoing to play a fun game, it turns out he was wrong again. In reality, Ja’farwas figuring out what kind of weapon would be the most suitable for Ain and theresult ends up being rope darts. Soafter that Ja’far puts an actual target in front of him, a dummy. Ain tries hisbest to listen to Ja’far’s explanation but he couldn’t believe that this wasactually happening. Eventually Ja’far instructs him to throw it at the target. Althoughhe has a bad feeling about it, Ain picks one dart up with a trembling hand andthrows it. It perfectly hits the dummy in the face and Ja’far is so impressedhe instantly smiles, forgetting about everything for a second. As he turns toAin he finds that he was staring ahead blankly. Ja’far immediately asks in aconcerned tone if he was okay.AndAin looks back at him desperately, then slowly walks up to him. He buries hisface into Ja’far’s clothes as he shakes and Ja’far bends down to hug himproperly. At first he doesn’t know what to say but hearing Ain’s sobs hedecides nothing is more important than him in that moment, so he gently rubshis back while he reassures him that everything was okay.Deepdown Ain knew what the training was for, but he was way too naive to face the factsthat in a dangerous situation he might have take someone’s life. And That’swhen he realizes how weak he really is. Not just physically, but emotionally aswell. So he keeps crying and that’s when Ja’far’s cold and distant façade crumblesdown. Nothing was more important that his sons. So he pulls Ain even closer.EventuallyAin runs out of tears and lets go of Ja’far, then starts to walk away. And Ja’fartries to stop him and hug him again, but he gets brushed aside by Ain saying hewas done with the training in the most emotionless voice. Ja’far not seeing anychance at changing his mind decides to give him some space.Bythe time dinner time rolls around Ja’far needs to call out for Ain a couple oftimes before he gets an answer that he wants to skip it. Kadin and Jaide seemto notice something’s up, but since Ain gets sick pretty often it’s not thatunusual that only three of them are at the table.Aroundbedtime Ja’far knocks on Ain’s door and once he got permission to enter heannounces that he brought some food and he’d like it if Ain ate some. Aindoesn’t react in the slightest so Ja’far just puts it down on his bedsidetable.Ja’farslowly sits down on the bed and stares at Ain’s back. He wonders what kind ofexpression he has, if he’s angry or sad so he speaks up again, repeating therequest. He doesn’t get an answer but Ain shifts a bit which tells Ja’far thathe might be able to talk with him.Fora moment Ja’far wonders if it’s okay to put a hand on Ain’s head, to comforthim. But he decides against it. Sighing Ja’far turns towards Ain and asks himto listen then gets straight to the point and apologizes. He tells Ain what hedid was wrong and that he didn’t deserve to be hit.AndAin stops him right there saying that he did and that statement confusesJa’far, he didn’t want any of his kids to think like that. So stuttering Ja’farsays, a bit louder, that he shouldn’t have lost his temper like that. Hethought he could control it at this point in his life but he was wrong.Hisapology gets ignored once again when Ain asks in a quiet voice if Ja’far knowswhat was wrong with him. Ja’far seemingly misunderstands the question andanswers that he doesn’t which is why he’d like it if Ain told him.Tothis Ain shakes his head and asks once again, if there’s anyone who knew whathis condition, his sickness or whatever that was causing him to be sick wascalled or what it did. Ja’far is caught off guard by this question but hehonestly tells Ain that no, no one knows.Ainslowly sits up, but he’s still facing away from Ja’far when his next questionleaves his mouth which is, is this sickness the reason why their mother wasn’talive. Ja’far’s response doesn’t come quickly as the one before, so in thosefew minutes which feel like eternity for him, Ain actually believes it has tobe the case.Butthen Ja’far reassures him that no, it wasn’t the cause of her death. Ain isboth relieved and confused by this newfound information because he still didn’thave an answer. So Ain finally turns around and a more hopeful part of himasks, if there’s any way his condition could be fixed.AndJa’far feels his chest tighten a little bit hearing this. He wanted Ain to beas healthy as possible, but even if he was, Ain wouldn’t be able to live likeother kids. So Ja’far admits once again, that he doesn’t know. Before Aincould’ve given up on the idea Ja’far continues.Hetells Ain that when they found out about his condition, Yamuraiha actuallyoffered to look for a solution. But at that time Ja’far didn’t allow her to do so.Ain was just a little kid and Ja’far already lost his wife, so he refused to putAin’s life at risk with some experiments. And even though it wasn’t the bestdecision he made, he still stands by it.But Ja’far tells Ain that if he wants Yamuraiha to do something all he has to do isto ask her. This time, Ja’far won’t stop her even if he’s against it. And Ainjust nods in response. Then carefully, Ja’far tells Ain that whatever hedecides regarding the lessons, he’s fine with it.AfterJa’far leaves Ain spends some time thinking about it which turns into months.He eventually works up the courage to ask Yamuraiha for her help. She gladlyaccepts the job since she’s really fond of him and wants Ain to get better too.Sadly, everything she tries ends up failing. She’s incredibly upset andapologetic but Ain knows it’s not her fault.Ainis disappointed and devastated for a few weeks after that, and in order to getaway from that he buries himself into the world of books. If it weren’t forKadin and Jaide constantly checking up on him, he would’ve stayed that way abit longer. But his brothers don’t want to see Ain completely shutting himselfaway from the world so they make sure to keep his spirits up.Which,eventually leads to him asking for the lessons from Ja’far, to have somethingthat makes him feel like he can do something about his weakness. Ja’farof course takes up the role of a teacher once again. Afraid, that Ain developed some sort offear of darts he gives Ain a different weapon. A Bow. And Ain turns out to be areally good archer, so Ja’far is very pleased with his performance.Ain,however is not. As the lessons go on, he knows he’s still basically at thestart but he swallows that feeling down. So one night he decides to talk toJaide and Kadin about what was bothering him and in the end he’s really glad hedid.Bothof them are very understanding, but also sad that they couldn’t be there for Ainwhen he needed them most. But Ain is aware of the fact that he was the one who kept them in the dark so he doesn’t hold that against them. Thanks to them, Ain evengoes back to the rope darts and masters that as well.Ainoften feels down about himself but whenever this happens, his brothers arethere to cheer him up, to encourage him or just to give him a hug. So Ain knowsas long as they’re together, everything was going to be fine.Butwhile Ain admits his troubles Kadin stays quiet about his. He finally managedto get over most of his fears and to live without them controlling him. Hewasn’t ready to go back to the mindset he had after they came back from thevacation. Buthe found out that the memories still lingered. Kadin doesn’t know why, maybebecause he wanted repress it to the point where his brain couldn’t handle it but he starts to have nightmaresagain.  And those start to warp andchange with time.Fora while Kadin can easily ignore the dreams, but once it gets unbearable hewants to do something about it. Since he doesn’t want to scare Ja’far, he turnsto Pisti. This surprises her since he’s been doing nothing but practicallyavoiding her since the vacation they’ve had years ago, but she gladly listensto him without any judgment.Pistidoesn’t want to sound like she wants to force Kadin to give Artemyra a second chance because she adores her country, but she doesn’t know what else could helphim. She think if he could go there and have a few positive experiences maybe he couldmove on. Surprisingly Kadin agrees.So Pisti talks with her mother andcoincidentally after Kadin’s eighteenth birthday, he receives a letter fromArtemyra. Curiously opening the letter he finds out it came from Mira whostates that if he’s still interested in the country then he could stay at thepalace and learn. She’d guarantee his safety, even offering to give himpersonal guards during his stay.This letter proves to Kadin he couldconquer his fear, but he still doesn’t know if he should go. When Ja’far findsout about it he’s at loss of words. He’s fully against it. He doesn’t want tolet Kadin stay in that country after what happened the last time they werethere, but Ja’far eventually has to bite down his tongue since Kadin was oldenough to decide things for himself. So Ja’far has a long discussion with Kadinabout the matter, and he honestly tells him he’d rather have him in Sindria.Ja’far knows Kadin was able to protect himself, but he’ll always worry abouthis sons. Despite everything, Kadin’s final decision is to accept theinvitation, and no matter what Ja’far wants he’s aware he no longer has theright to say what Kadin can or can’t do, therefore if he wanted to go then heneeded to come to terms with it.Ain is torn up because of this, he can’tbelieve his older brother actually wants to go back to that place when he knowsthat terrible man is still there. But even if he doesn’t support Kadin’s ideahe’s powerless to do anything since Ja’far already gave him permission him toleave. Which makes him angry, and hurt. He doesn’t know what he would dowithout one of his brothers. Meanwhile Jaide feels upset, but he’s sureKadin has his reasons.Soon the day comes when Kadin would leave,and the three of them say goodbye at the docks. And before he gets on the ship Ja’far tells him that no matter whathappens he can always come back, this was his home. Then Ja’far adds that hewants Kadin to keep in contact, he needs to write at least one letter every month or elsehe’ll get too worried and jokingly tells him he’ll swim to Artemyra just tomake sure he was okay.After Kadin promises he’ll do that, andwhile Ja’far checks if he has everything packed, Kadin hugs his little brothersbefore leaving. When he gets to Ain, Ain doesn’t really want to let him go. Aslong as Kadin and Jaide were  by his side he felt at ease. With them, everything was alright.Which is why Ain doesn’t want to let Kadin go. Buteventually he hast to, and Ja’far makes sure he does by placing a hand on topof his head which catches Ain off guard and his grip loosens. He unwillinglylets Kadin go, who gets on board soon after that.Ja’far, Jaide and Ain wave until the shipis barely in sight, and once it completely disappears Ain breaks down so Ja’fargently pulls him close then does the same to Jaide. Even though Ja’far tries tokeep it together he tears up as well. Once he realizes they should probablyhead back, he wipes his tears away and places his hand on both of his sons’backs and together they slowly back to the palace.Even though they are already teenagers withAin being sixteen and Jaide being fifteen, Ja’far lets them sleep next to him,just to give himself and the boys some sort of comfort after Kadin’s departure.It’s a bit nostalgic and crowded since the two of them grown a lot bigger, butJa’far doesn’t mind.The first few days are really hard on allof them. Ja’far accidentally places one more plate than needed on the table andlooks for Kadin at some point before realizing he’s on a ship travelling toArtemyra. Ain keeps tearing up every so often during the day, and when he wasn’tcrying it wasn’t that hard to guess how heartbroken he was.Jaide is equally worried about both Ain andKadin, but more so about Ain since crying so much makes him weak and sick. Andknowing how hard this is on Ja’far, Jaide tries his best to hide his concernsand sadness, so he cries only when he knows for sure he’s alone, just like howhe did in the past. But for Ain and Ja’far, he becomes someone they can leanon.Jaide tries to spend most of his time withAin trying to cheer him up and to keep him distracted. He’s also the only onewho goes into Kadin’s room from time to time because he can find some sort ofcomfort in there. Ja’far only goes there to clean but he makes sure to be quickabout it, while Ain can’t even bring himself to look at the door.Sooner than they expected they get a letterfrom Kadin, and Ja’far, Jaide and Ain read it together. Kadin’s letter saysthat everything’s fine he got there in one piece, and mentions how much hemisses them already and how nervous he is. Kadin admits that he started todoubt himself, he isn’t sure if he made the right choice, even though so fareverything seemed to be okay and everyone’s been really nice to him.And even though Ja’far really wants him tocome back more than anything, he doesn’t want Kadin to feel so upset. So hejust writes a really long, encouraging response, telling him they’re still withhim even if not in person. Writing that letter, makes Ja’far feel better aboutthe whole situation.Before sending it, Ja’far asks if Ain orJaide want to add something but neither of them has anything to say, though hewas sure Ain looked like he wanted to. Ja’far quickly puts a post-scriptum inthe letter, and advises that maybe directly addressing Ain or Jaide he couldtell them about his experiences or ask something from them because they seem tobe too shy to initiate a conversation.Realizing Ja’far might be right, the nexttime Kadin sends two different letters, one addressed to Ja’far and one for hisyounger brothers. And while the letter is addressed to both of them and theyread it together Jaide lets Ain write the response. Jaide still adds some stuffhere and there, when they’re talking about what to write back and Ain makessure Kadin knows which parts came from him. Jaide knows this makes Ain feelbetter, so he never switches places to write a letter himself.For a while it works, Kadin tells them whatwas going on in his life and they do the same, but as more time goes on themore pain piles up in everyone’s hearts. Kadin never, not even once comes backto Sindria. Not even for a short visit, nor for their birthdays. And it wouldbe a lie if Ja’far, Ain or Jaide was okay with that.During these years, Jaide keeps ontraining, learning to fight with every possible weapon he can get his hands on.He quickly picks up on a lot of techniques, mastering the use of many weaponsand he eventually starts to aim to get into the Sindrian national militaryforce. Ain starts to help out in the offices as a pastime, and Ja’farappreciates the help so one day proposes the idea that Ain could work there ifhe wanted to. Ain isn’t sure what he wants to do so he just pushes the thoughtof working away.With Jaide being busy with training toreach his goal, Ain is left alone to figure out what to write as an answer toKadin’s letters, and after two years of avoiding the question he finally askswhen Kadin is planning on returning home. Even if Kadin never came home, healways kept sending letters so Ain gets a response fairly fast. But before hecan read the response, Jaide announces he finally got accepted as a guard andcan officially start to work as a soldier soon, so he wants Ain to celebratethis with him and Ja’far.Ain promises he’ll join them but he neededto do something first and asks to be left alone, to read Kadin’s response. Hecouldn’t wait anymore for the answer and hopes that thanks to his question Kadin would notice how much they missed him, so he refused tomove until he read the letter.That’s when Ain’s last hope of ever seeing Kadinfades away. Kadin seemingly wasn’t bothered by the question, answering with asimple ‘I don’t know’ and kept writing like there wasn’t anything wrong. Aintears up the letter in his disappointment and throws it across the room butlater on, he puts it away in a box where he keeps Kadin’s other letters too.With a sigh he calmly writes a response toKadin’s letter, not mentioning home ever again, and leaves to celebrate Jaide’ssuccess with Ja’far. During that night Jaide notices how quiet his brother is being and asks if everything was okay and that’s when Ain declares that he wantsto work in the office. This catches Ja’far off guard but he couldn’t be prouder.In the end he’s celebrating both of his little boys taking their first stepsinto adulthood, even if Jaide was still a year away from being an actual adult.When Ain starts working at the palace, itturns out that he’s a perfectionist when it comes to work just like Ja’far, whichmeant he had less time and it was up to Jaide to reply to Kadin. Although Ainis aware he could take the time to do it himself, he doesn’t want to, hecompletely gave up on Kadin so he uses work as an excuse.And even though Ain is older he still getssick, especially since started working. The way he pushes himself isn’t doinghim any good. During the years he got really skilled at hiding his sickness, soit was only a matter of time before he learned to do his work despite feelinghorrible. This meant Ja’far and Jaide needed to be extra careful and needed to keep avery close eye on him.Though, Ja’far doesn’t have as much time ashe used to, now that his kids are all grown up he could finally take back theamount of paperwork he gave away to the other palace workers years ago. Backthen he needed to lessen his workload because his boys were young and he neededtime to properly educate and take care of them. But now he didn’t really needthat time.So mainly it’s up to Jaide tonotice when Ain isn’t feeling well, and he gets really good at noticing thesmall warning signs. Jaide often brings him a cup of warm tea, or if Ain falls asleep at his desk it’s Jaide’s job to take him back to his bed. On days whenAin is too stubborn to admit he’s sick Jaide waits until he lets him help. Onsome occasions when his sickness is so bad he can’t hide it, Jaide stays withhim as long as he can to make sure his big brother was alright.With Jaide writing the letters, Kadin getsmore insight into his family’s life back in Sindria than he ever did when Ainwrote him. Ain only told him about the good things, but Jaide makes sure tohonestly inform him about everything and Kadin realizes that he probablymissed a lot of things thanks to Ain only talking about positive things.Then before Ain’s twentieth birthday, Jaidegets a letter from Kadin stating that he’ll return shortly and he wants to stayfor a while, if that’s okay with them. Jaide only tells Ja’far about it, who isa little unsure about this thing because he is just as hurt about Kadin nevervisiting as his boys are, but he’s also overjoyed because the son he hasn’tseen for a long time was finally coming home.The both of them start to prepare asurprise party for Ain. During this preparation Kadin arrives and Ja’far isreally happy to see him, he barely wants to let him go of their hug and he eventears up. From Jaide he gets a warm welcome too and the three of them continue setting up everything together while catching up.Once they’re done, Jaide goes to Ain anddespite his protests, he manages to pull him away from work. Ain is reallysurprised when he sees the party they set up for him, but he doesn’t mind, infact he likes it. Then the smile freezes on his face as he notices Kadin.Kadin walks up to him to greet him, wisheshim happy birthday then hugs him, but it soon becomes clear to him thateverything about this was awkward since Ain wasn’t hugging him back. Pullingaway to ask what was wrong, he could see the shock on Ain’s face. But once Ainrealizes that everyone was staring at them, he plays it off like he was sosurprised, he just kind of froze up.But it becomes very clear to Kadin thatthis was more than just a white lie, because Ain seemed to keep his distancefrom him during the party. He wasn’t avoiding him, but it’s obvious Ain wouldrather chat with other guests than sit down and talk with him. Which, Kadinsupposed made sense since Ain probably developed new relationships since he’dbeen gone but there was a ‘what if’ in the back of his mind during the wholeparty.And in the next couple of days Kadin stopshaving doubts, because while he heard from Jaide how hardworking Ain was, hewas capable of pulling him away from work. Now he used work non-stop as anexcuse to avoid anything and everything that was related to Kadin. Ain even workedhimself to exhaustion so he wouldn’t have to deal with Kadin.It doesn’t take long for Jaide to haveenough of this, he knows that if Ain kept this up his health would worsen andhe doesn’t want that so he straight up tells Kadin to go and fix this wholesituation, to keep pestering Ain until he can get him away from work. It has tobe Kadin, since it’s obvious he’s the cause of this. Kadin does as asked and he meekly tries tostart up a conversation but in turn he gets shooed away by Ain saying he had work.Remembering Jaide’s broken voice when he told him he needed to fix this as soonas possible for Ain’s sake, Kadin gets the courage to keep annoying Ain.Although Kadin is really embarrassed about causing a ruckus in the office andbothering other workers too, he doesn’t let up until Ain agrees. Once he had Ain to himself for an entireafternoon, Kadin makes sure to make him eat and drink something while they’rechatting, mostly with Kadin doing the talking. He tries to get Ain to smile andit kind of works because as time goes on he opens up and talks more, and a softsmile starts to appear on his face. This gives Kadin a sense of familiaritysince Ain was full of smiles back then.The first few times he saw Ain it wasreally hard to believe he was the same boy from his memory. Kadin rememberedhis little brother being happy and positive all the time, but now he missed acertain sparkle from his eyes and he looked more like a tired adult. And that’sexactly why it feels like an achievement to see an honest smile from him.A few hours after walking around theydecide to sit on a bench, and the atmosphere completely changes between them,as if they were back to square one. Both of them sit in silence looking at thescenery, while Kadin tries to come up with a conversation in his head. Notbeing able to think of anything else he asks what made Ain decide to startworking at the palace. And that question ticks him off.Kadin never gets a response from Ain, hegets a question instead. Ain asks how long does he intend on staying. Thesudden change of subject catches Kadin off guard, he has no idea what to sayand stutters out that he doesn’t know, and with that answer, Ain just getsup.  Kadin immediately asks if he hadsaid something wrong, wanting to know what was going on with Ain.And for the very first time since Kadin gothere, Ain truly looks into his eyes, and asks him if he really though that hecan just show up suddenly whenever he pleased after not visiting for years, andexpect them be okay with that. To that Kadin replies that he thought Ain knew,he said so in the last letter that he was coming back to visit.Ain dismisses that saying he was never toldabout such a thing, and keeps questioning him, asking if he ever thought abouthow much his decision had hurt them, if he ever really thought about themoutside of the letters, not just writing them as a dumb chore just to keepJa’far from dragging him home. And he keeps throwing things into Kadin’s faceuntil he’s heaving.Once he’s out of breath Ain stops to getsome air, then the last thing he asks from Kadin is to leave him alone. Afterthat Ain returns to the palace locking himself away without a word, and onceKadin gets back Jaide is really curious about what happened because Ainhappened to pass him in the hall and he refused to answer.With Ja’far soon joining them, Kadinexplains what happened, and starts to apologize to both of them saying howsorry he is for not coming home sooner, saying that he actually planned on returning for good but if Ain hated him thenhe should just go back. Kadin hides his face in his hands in shame and keepsrepeating that he’s truly sorry.And his dad and his brother pull him close,comforting him. Ja’far tells him that it’s true that it really hurt to let himgo but he knew it needed to be done, and even though he never visited he kepthis promise and wrote them letters just like he asked. Ja’far truly thinks thatKadin needed a second chance with Artemyra, and he’s glad he had a much betterexperience this time.After he was sure Ja’far had nothing elseto say, Jaide tells Kadin he knew he would come back, so he isn’t mad at himand he’s sure that Ain wouldn’t be able to hate him either. He tells Kadin whatprobably was going on with Ain is that he didn’t know how to handle thesituation, so his only reasonable solution is to push Kadin away. Which, wasn’thow Ain would’ve handled things in the past, but he also grown up and changed.Jaide wants to know why he spent so muchtime in Artemyra, and why did he choose to come back now, so he asks. Liftinghis head up, Kadin admits that he had more reason to stay in Artemyra than justto learn about the country. And Ja’far and Jaide give each other a confusedglace, wanting to hear more.Kadin tells them that back then, when hemet his father he realized how dangerous he was and even though he knew Ja’farwas capable of protecting them, he couldn’t take risks. Not to mention, duringhis stay he saw what that man had become. After the little vacation they took he hadbeen closely monitored, as Mira promised. But he didn’t seem to be forcing thefaçade on himself anymore, it was clear that he was a dangerous man, and sinceKadin basically told him they were in Sindria, that man could easily find them.And the thought that only a little bit ofclever planning and will, he could get away and sail straight to Sindria to searchfor any of them scared Kadin more than anything else in the world. The thoughtthat he might hurt Ain, Jaide or Ja’far was unbearable, so he knew he had toovercome his fear and to find a way to lock him away for good.He promised himself that he wouldn’t returnto Sindria until he knew his father was behind bars, so he kept gatheringevidence alone and thinking of ways he could get something out of him. He evenstarted to think about how he could confront and provoke him then  lead him away where there’d be a lot ofwitnesses.Then Kadin admits that on the first fewnights he was scared his father might get into the room he was staying in andhurt him, and he had many nightmares about his father hurting Ain and Jaide,sometimes Ja’far as well. Kadin tells them that he wanted to come home so badly,to just bury himself in the arms of his beloved family, but despite everything,he stayed.In the end Mira found out about his true intentionsand helped him out. Together, they came up with a plan that wouldn’t riskKadin’s wellbeing, and his father was put in jail for good. And only when Kadinseen him behind bars, he felt like he could return home for good.After hearing all of this, Ja’far harshlyscolds him, telling him he could’ve asked for help from him, and if he wantedto come home so badly he shouldn’t have forced himself to stay, adding thatgetting so close to his father to provoke him was the worst possible plan hecould’ve come up with. But then he quickly pulls Kadin into a hug saying howglad he is that he’s okay and strokes his hair, trying to make up for thoselonely days Kadin had to spend in Artemyra.Jaide softly smiles at the sight and tellsKadin that he knew he had to have a reason to stay there for so long,which is why he never held a grudge against him. But even so, he wants Kadin tosit down and explain this whole thing to Ain as well, and it takes some time toactually convince him to apologize but Jaide manages to make him agree sayingthe sooner he does it the sooner things will get back to normal.So with the support of his dad and hisbrother, Kadin checks on Ain. Knocking on his bedroom door, he doesn’t get ananswer. He didn’t expect anything so he peeks in and sees nothing but darknessso he goes in further. Once he taken a few steps, Kadin realizes somethingisn’t right with the way Ain breathes, and calls for help.Jaide comes rushing in with Ja’far closely followinghim, and places a hand on Ain’s forehead he tells Kadin that everything wasfine. Ain was just having a fever, then Jaide mutters under his breath thatthis is what he was so afraid of happening, and other than placing a coldwashcloth against his forehead they couldn’t do much until Ain woke up.Jaide offers to stay with him but Kadinvolunteers instead, so Jaide lets him. When Ain wakes up Kadin gives him a lotof water and even manages to get him to eat a few bites. Surprisingly, Ain letsKadin stroke his hair as he falls asleep once more, and while he isn’t sure ifAin is just too weak to protest or if he let him because he doesn’t careanymore, he’s fine with it. Ja’far and Jaide checks up on Ain separately, but Kadin’sthe only one who constantly stays next to him.After a few days of being in a daze Ainfinally wakes up feeling a little better. Seeing Kadin sitting next to his bedmakes him feel really uncomfortable so Ain tries to get up saying he’s okaynow, but he easily gets pushed back down by Kadin and no matter what he saysKadin refuses to leave him alone. Ain’s solution to that problem is to turnaway to his other side, so he doesn’t have to look at Kadin in any way.Finding out he’s still tired he dozes offquickly and the next time he wakes up, Ain notices that he scooted closer towhere Kadin was sitting and he took his hand in a way Kadin couldn’t stay inthe chair comfortably so he had to lay down next to him. As if that wasn’tenough, Kadin was hugging him close as he laid there.Hoping this would be his chance to get awayAin tries to slip away from his grasp, not being aware of the fact that Kadinwas awake despite his closed eyes, so he keeps trying. The moment Kadin feltAin shift he knew he had woken up and because he knows Ain still needed rest,he tightens his grip, just enough to make him unable to move away.With Kadin confirming with a whisper that he’sawake, Ain gives up the thought of escaping. After some awkward silence Kadintells him how sorry he is and that he doesn’t ever want Ain to push himself tothe point of sickness. Ain just softly hums, and after some silence asks if itwas easy to leave them behind, however he regrets bringing it up and looksaway.And even though he can’t see it Kadinsoftly smiles before answering that he spent the first few months crying andwanting to go back, and admits that the moment he got off the ship he was readyto sail back. If he didn’t get a ship, he would’ve been fine with swimmingback. After some silence Ain asks quietly why didn’t he do that.And Kadin finally opens his eyes, loosenshis grip on him and waits until Ain actually meets his eyes, because he wantsto let him know he’s serious about this. Kadin tells him the reason why hedidn’t come back was because he needed to protect them from his father, and hecontinues to tell him what he told a few nights ago to Ja’far and Jaide.And Ain just breaks down again, saying howdumb he is for taking this upon himself, wishing he could go back in time andconvince Ja’far to visit him so he wouldn’t have to feel so alone, or write amore honest letter and convince him to let out his concerns an -- source link
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