"Well I don't prefer strawberry ice-cream with mint ones you know!" Henry argued back while pulling at his bowl from Lewis's hands. "Didn't you already have your bowl?! And now you are staring at mine although you hate cookies and cream!" The kid shouted while standing on the sofa and trying to hold it out of his elder brother's grasp.
"Fine! Just give me the bowl... And I promise to not eat it this time." Lewis snickered while trying to reach towards the glass bowl as the kid backened up and came to the edge of the sofa. Suddenly, while loosing control against the edge, the kid stumbled backwards and dropped the bowl on the ground, staining the carpet with vibrant colours.
Then, as if it were an instant reaction of the nervous system, a scream echoed against the room as the kid started sobbing for the lost ice cream. Across from them, seated at the desk, Aefia shut her ears with her palms. "Too loud..." She muttered as she watched the kid start hitting the silver-haired brother's shoulders with two fists.
"Can't we just get him a second bowl of that same ice cream or something?" She looked up at George, who was standing beside her with observant eyes towards the two other brothers. "We could, but only if a servant chooses to drop by in the short amount of time it takes to actually silence the kid down." He replied while placing the stapled pieces of papers beside her.
"Was it really a necessity for you to take the kid's ice cream away?" He asked while grabbing the Lewis' hair between his fingers and pulling it in a way to stop him from trying to strangle the little brother. "You could have stood up and got yourself an extra bowl. Henry, hit him at the face really hard." As the command left his mouth, his hands kept the brother pinned as the kid lunged at him and started his mission of planting punches at his face, which all went through the hands covering.
"Ow! Well that stings! It really hurts where he is hitting my knuckles!" He shouted in protest while heavy pressure was being placed at either of his shoulder. Irritated by this, Aefia grabbed onto the kid's waist and pulled him backwards while settling onto the opposite side of the sofa. Despite being removed from his main enemy, Henry continued his hammering against her arms as she shut one eye and gritted her teeth, her right eye watered as she fought to keep it open.
"Let me go!" He shouted while chomping down in her arm, and with that, she retracted her arm, which she wiped it against her sofa and used the other to keep him from moving forward. "Hold on! You can have my bowl!" She shouted against his ears as she felt her muscles sore and her eyes start to blind due to low iron. "I might actually black out again."
"Nooo! Why do you like sleeping so much?! If you sleep then I am ordering your bed to be broken the next time!"
"Then just quiet down or something?!" Lewis spoke while still trying to get out of the grasp of his elder brother. "Ow!"
George planted a slap to Lewis' back as he let go and took Henry away from Aefia's arms. He didn't say much as Henry continued complaining with a wide mouth at both of the siblings who were still sprawled up in the sofa.
"And both of you have some sort of a huge grudge on me where I didn't do a single thing to harm the either of you in anyway!"
"Henry. Keep quiet." George ordered while placing a hand onto the kid's mouth. "The two of you can choose what you want to down with those bruises. I won't say a thing since both of you decided to intervene like this."
With that, he left the room along with Henry.
Finally, Aefia leaned against the sofa and pulled back her sleeve on top of which Henry had bitten her. "The kid's got... Teeths like a shark." She mindlessly muttered to herself, as she stood up and reached for her bedside table.
From there, she took out a hand-sized jar containing pain killers, and took them. Lewis watched silently, as she pulled the latch and then closed it back. He wanted to say a few things, however, he had fully kept in this mind how Aefia had previously fought with him over this.
When she turned around, her face was surprisingly devoid of any sort of hostility.
"Fix that face or yours. Don't act like you don't know." She commanded while sweeping she gaze away from his face and heading towards her desk. There was a swift moment of silence before he finally found the courage to stand directly in front of her and speak with an increase in tone of voice.
But the time she had muttered 'make it fast', he was clenching his fists at his sides and looking down at her with stern eyes.
"If you are truly willing to die... Then at least die as my sister. If you are not going to last long, than at least spend your last days being the little sister I had seen all those days."
"..."
Aefia leaned her jaw on her palm and looked at him with boredom. "Why do you think I should be willing to do so?"
"Because I am not going to last long either."
Her eyes widened with shock as she straightened. The wound at the side of her head burned as she abruptly stood up. However, she couldn't make up her next words.
"Aefia, I may have been a torture of a brother to you during your first days in this family... However, it was all due to my hatred on this family itself. When I first came across the fact that we were having a sister to this family, I thought maybe mom would treat you a little better then what she treated me like and I was honestly jealous."
"However, that mentality of mine shattered the day I realized that she treats you worse then what I have suffered. So I felt bad, and wanted to apologize."
He then felt silent for a moment before continuing with his words.
"I always wished I had a sibling who would understand me or someone who I could spend some spare time with, comforting the other person so they could grow without a trace of trauma left in them."
"You have two other brothers... But what does that have to do with me?" Aefia sternly intervened while drooping her head down to face the table. "Look... I don't know how long either of us would survive... However... I don't think I care to find out whether I want to survive anymore. If you want to survive... You can keep that story to yourself because I don't want to hear anymore."
"The only reason I got worried is because Henry would have to grieve his brother once you were gone. And I don't want a little kid to suffer the damage."
Lewis gritted his teeth with a hurt look at his face. The sharpness of her words hit him directly as he watched her rub the side of her forehead to knead away the pain.
"Then you might as well say, for how long have you been taking those sleeping pills."
Aefia looked up at him with a newfound anger and misery. However, she wasn't reluctant to answer.
"Since signing the contract with the duchess. The first few weeks were easy, but then the dosage wore out and I had to increase the amount I took over the time."
"And how much exactly was that?"
"Five pills for now. And I still struggle to sleep as I wake up every three hours later. I am planning on getting a stronger one after this." She answered while looking away and towards her bedside table.
Lewis felt himself almost break into tears just by thinking about it. "Aefia... You barely have an year left then..."
"And I will ask again. Why does it concern you?" She asked while snapping her gaze back at him. "I need to sleep, don't I? I am always too tired to do anything."
"But you can just consult a doctor!" He protested while stepping towards her desk as she settles back onto her chair. "If you want I can get you one of the best!"
"What is the point? If you already know I am not going to last anyways. What is the point of watering a withering plant that has it's stems dried out?" Her expression numbed down as the words hit the back fo her throat. "I have always wanted to get out of this palace and out of the family. If I knew I would be suffering like this, I would have ended my life even faster. However... I just don't have the courage."
***
"That's enough for a day. You should go and rest." George spoke while placing down the piece of paper she had completed and looked up at her, sitting opposite at the desk. "You have a surprisingly strong memory." He smiled while watching her push her supplies to the sides, then retracting her arms.
"I don't know... I can clearly see now, so I think I am recovering. Even if some memories were lost, they have probably been regained at some point of the day." Her index finger reached in front of her, as a small flame erupted, levitating on top of her fingertip. "I guess the medicine is working too well to be able to distinguish the difference anymore. So even to that, I am not going to say anything."
Her free hand reached towards an empty bowl, where the spoon sat inside with unmoving shinyness. Before long, she held the spoon above the small flame and placed it inside her mouth while holding it onto her tongue for a long time. At the end, she had practically been burned, when she had placed the spoon back onto the bowl.
"Why did you just do that? You are going to lose your nerves and the next time, you won't be able to use one of your senses."
"But at least it helps with covering the bloody taste. It feels a little like I am about to throw up everytime it floods back into my mind. You can say I am just trying to keep myself from becoming sick due to this simultaneous nauseating sense." She answered while standing up. "Its almost ten. I would like to go grab a bite, but I kind of don't have the appetite for it now. So I just want to go and sleep. Besides, I am almost about to fall with this spinning brain of mine. Is it alright if I am don't finish up the assignments you had given me until tomorrow morning?"
"Yes, since you said you are feeling a bit sick. I can't blame the fact that you are still recovering, and you do need some rest." His eyes traveled to the side of her head which was starting to get less reder by the time, and a smile popped onto his face while he pulled out the prescription from his pocket and handed it to her. "Just remember to take your medicines before you go to sleep." As the slip pressed onto the centre of her palm, he placed a hand at the back of her head while pressing a kiss on her hair before walking away.
Immediately as the door shut, Aefia's eyes diverted towards the almost empty tabs of the mind-calming pills, with only one more at the last corner. She hesitated a long time, whether she wanted to have it before sleeping, or to keep it for an emergency. But then, she rolled her eyes and walked towards her bed, discarding the prescription at her bedside drawer and jumping onto the mattress while pulling the blanket hallway.
"Cindy, Puppet... Turn off the lights." She whispered while shutting her eyes, facing the ceiling because rolling to the sides would cause pain to erupt from her muscles.
***
Not long time later, when the room was empty and dark, the door swung open from the outside, a very delicate nudge against the heavy oak door. A soft rustle of duchess satin fabric, sounded against the black and white tiles. The expensive fabric was in the colour of a very deep purple, making her own hair slightly brighter then the gown. Her footsteps almost silent and conscious that she must not make a sound that would wake Aefia up.
Finally, the woman settled beside her on the bed, while pulling the comforter up to her chin and using a claw-like hand to comb out the hair from her face. Her head settled onto Aefia's forehead, as the heat from her fever surfaced against the woman's own head. Her mouth moved to form words, that fell in whispers that only Aefia could hear.
"You look adorable while you sleep... But it feels like I am speaking to a porcelain doll if you can't respond to what I say." Her eyes shut as she spoke. "I am honestly... Truely sorry for that day... But I know you won't be able to forgive me until you hear it by yourself. I can't do anything about that too, because I don't want others to know I am vulnerable for you, and I am not confident enough to say it to your face."
Her fingers stopped short from her hair and lifted towards a stray lock of black-silver hair, while tucking it behind her ear. "I may have seen you as a piece of tool before, but I hate the idea of keeping you like a machine at my side, and I also want to be like your birth mother." She paused a moment while looking down at Aefia's face. "Although I haven't seen what your mother might have looked like, I would think that she was a proud one. Because she gave birth to a girl who is as intelligent as she is beautiful."
Her lips touched Aefia's forehead as she sat up, only to realize that from the far distance, someone's frantic steps took off after what seemed to be an observation.