F O R T Y-S I X

The Autumn air was getting chillier. The sun shined but the heat was faint and getting weaker by the days. Still, Iris and Kai enjoyed their time outside. Especially when training. Since the weather wasn't scorching and not yet cold, it was that strangely perfect temperature.

The two were laying in the grass under the only tree that still had leaves on its branches. Kai wasn't the benevolent type when it came to training. If there was a task to be completed he'd make sure to accomplish it. Training Iris for a certain amount of time was a task, however Iris was much, much sneakier that Kai expected. And he used that skill to get out training.

He wanted to train, but he still had the habit of dropping a task to simply relax.

He was also very persuasive, unintentionally or not.

They'd find themselves resting in the middle of practicing, usually laying or sitting next to each other. They'd talk, but most times it was just silently listening to the birds chirp or any other distant noises. This has been going on for a few days now and finally Kai came to his senses.

He sat up from his laying position and glanced at Iris, who was on his side and facing away from him. Kai stared at him until his face turned from surprised to unamused in a matter of seconds.

"Are you seriously sleeping?" He poked the prince's back and he groaned.

"Five more minutes," He mumbled. Kai scoffed and stood up. He kicked Iris's foot until he rolled over rubbing his eyes.

"I can't believe you were sleeping."

"Well, more like just resting my eyes."

Speaking of eyes, Kai rolled his own in annoyance before moving away to pick up their items. He muttered under his breath and had to swallow down the urge to glare at Iris.

"Just get up. We're done."

Iris stretched before climbing to his feet. Okay, maybe he was sleeping, and it was probably the longest he got to in a while. Kai did notice this but didn't speak up about the matter.

"Do I have anything else to do today?" Iris asked in a tired voice. He fixed his hair while they walked back around the training building but got lazy and let it fall over his forehead.

Kai arched an eyebrow at him, "Shouldn't you know that, sir?"

Iris shot him a bored expression, "I forgot."

"Hm, no surprise there."

Iris glared at Kai while he walked into the building to put away what they borrowed. He stayed outside near the door, pacing lightly to try to wake himself up.

His dad has beem buying him under work and errands and with the long training hours, he hardly got any sleep. He tried not to let his lack of hours affect what he had to get done, but it was more difficult than he thought it would be.

When Kai returned they headed back to Iris's room. Kai informed him that he only had to join his dad for a meeting in a couple of hours, so Iris decided he'd dedicate his free time to napping. Kai just nodded when he told him, and the conversation ended.

††

The next day was a little more colder and crisp. Iris and Kai chose to train inside with the few other guards that were inside. Despite what Kai said, Iris was experienced enough, and skillful to hold a sparring match with a few of the other vampires. His victories surprised a lot of the watching guards, and he earned their applause.

While they made their way down the path from the mansion to the separate building, Kai kept glancing at Iris and his slow movements. Again, he didn't get much sleep and it started to show in his features. Kai didn't say anything till he realized that Iris's late reactions might affect his training, resulting to possibly hurting himself.

"Hey, are you sure you want to train today?"  Kai asked with mild concern.

Iris looked up from rubbing his eyes and nodded at Kai. "I'm fine." He waved him off, like he usually did, and they were soon inside, in a warmer setting, and getting ready.

Difficult might have been a slight understatement.

They weren't even ten minutes in and Iris tripped over his feet twice and simply gave up on trying to get up the third time. Kai helped him, asking if he was okay, but once more, the prince agreed to carry on. He constantly rubbed his eyes and shook his head to regain his focus from either zoning out or closing his eyes too long. Iris cherished sleep, so he was more sad than grouchy that he hasn't been able to sleep that much.

Kai finally told him to take a break and Iris slumped to the floor thanking him. Kai shook his head and wandered over to talk to the other guards.

"Where's Cyrus?" He asked Tamia, another first class guard. He leaned against one of the racks while she stood next to it. Her dark skin glistened when she turned her head at his question.

"I think she's with Neil and a few others. They're walking around somewhere."

Kai nodded and let his gaze skid around.

"So, how have you been? How's the royal life?"

"There is no royal life," He quirked his brow at her, "I'm still a vampire in their eyes; just one that happens to  watch over the prince, so I have to be involved in some of their activities. Incredibly boring if you ask me."

"Oh. Probably still beats being here."

"I liked being here, though. It was an experience I enjoyed."

"So, if you had the choice to be back here with us you'd take it?"

Kai stared at her before glancing at Iris. He was no longer laying on the floor but talking to a guard. Kai didn't know if seeing Iris positively interact with the vampires made him happy, but it gave him some sort of enlightenment. Kai gazed until Tamia shuffled next to him. He looked back at her and for some reason his answer didn't sit well with him.

"Yeah." It sounded like a lie to him, but it was his answer. He glanced back at Iris and tapped his fingers on the poles of the rack, thinking.

He was going to stop chatting with Tamia and return to Iris, but he noticed him start engaging in a small brawl with the guard he was talking to, so he continued his visiting. Two more fellow guards gathered near him and he had to retell his opinions about working, or basically living, in the mansion. The more Kai talked about the topic the more he realized how good it actually was to work along side the people in the mansion; better yet with Iris. Yes, he did annoy him to death, get on his nerves, and push buttons in ways he didn't know were possible, he grew to like the experience, even when he told himself he was going to be dreading every second of it.

The King was kind to him, more than he was before. Thankfully Kai didn't see Amelia that often. But over the year and couple of months, things definitely got more tolerable and less foreign. Natural.

Kai was in the middle of asking Tamia a question when they all heard a faint thud followed by a low groan.

"Oh! I'm so sorry!"

Kai turned his head to see what happened. He watched some guards start to hover near the prince and the vampire he was fighting with. Iris was sitting up with the help of the vampire and holding his hand to his chest. Kai quickly pushed himself off the rack and rushed over.

"What happened?"

The guard kneeling next to Iris flinched at his tone but Iris calmly looked up.

"I got distracted and when he attacked I landed on my wrist too hard." Iris rubbed his wrist with a frown on his face and Kai sighed.

"I'm sorry, uh, prince." The other vampire apologized with an honest guilty expression and Iris just smiled at him and shook his head.

"It's my fault. It's fine."

Kai crunched down and unintentionally pulled Iris away from the other guard so he was closer to him instead. He gently took his injured hand and examined it.

"It doesn't look broken. You probably just sprained it. Come on, I think we're done."

Iris nodded and brought his hand back to his chest before using his other hand to take Kai's. They left the building and headed towards the mansion, their destination preferably being Arlo's office.

Kai glanced down at Iris's hand and sighed. "You should've stopped when we took that break. I knew you'd be too distracted to continue."

Iris pursed his lip and looked down. "It was a break, which meant we were supposed to continue anyway. Also, I didn't think laying down was helping me...wake up."

Kai understood so he didn't say anything else.

The Dion's had a family doctor that lived somewhere in the first town. When they explained what happened to Arlo, he decided it would be easier to go to him instead of wait for his arrival. So, the King, Iris, and Kai left the mansion and made their way to the doctor's residents.

He had all his equipment there, which made Arlo believe it would be easier to visit him. It wasn't far down the town, it was very close to the mansion so they didn't have to walk long. When they got there the doctor greeted them with a smile and checked Iris's wrist.

Nothing was broken, not even sprained, Iris just landed on it while it was in an awkward position, and that made both Arlo and Kai relieved. The doctor told them the swelling would go down in a few days as would the pain. When he was finished, Iris and Kai sat outside the doctor's small office while he and Arlo conversed.

Iris thought his dad's worry was a little excessive but he stayed quiet when he wanted to talk to the doctor to make sure everything was okay.

The two boys sat in silence outside in the short hallway. The walls were thin, so they heard the cacophony outisde, in the village streets, like they were outside themselves.

Kai studied a painting on the wall while Iris shuffled next to him on the bench like he couldn't get comfortable. He heard him sigh softly before he stopped moving all together.

Then he felt something heavy rest on his shoulder.

Kai continued staring like he didn't feel him. Like he didn't notice the incredible warmth trickling through his shoulder and down his right arm. Like the smell of vanilla or–he never really knew what scent Iris had–invaded in nose and twitched his head to the right. When he looked down, he didn't want to look away.

Iris's frown stitched to his face, but he didn't seem restless. The sound of his heart was steady and his breathing was even. He was calm.

Kai jerked his head straight when the door opened to the doctor's office and he watched the King and the doctor walk out with a conversation still on their tongues. They paused when they glanced down.

Kai looked up with an almost rueful expression.

"Well, when I told him to get some sleep I didn't mean it right away."

"What would you like me to do, sir?"

Kai was stiff as the King stared down at him. He didn't know what he was thinking, his eyes were always blocked off in showing emotions. Kai could only hope the smile he gave him was innocent and not secretly furious.

"He's a deep sleeper when he wants to be, so unless you want to stay there all night, if you don't mind, just carry him back home using that weird...speedy...thing you guys have."

Kai partly widened his eyes and watched as the King smiled again before leaving down the hall. He glanced down at Iris then back up.

"Carry him..?"