Chapter 89 - 87

Things were chaotic after that. Finding Takamori that way, unconscious and fighting for his life… Awoke something in the beast inside that was far more powerful and deep than the hunger I always felt, some sort of possessiveness, of… care.

I follow Asher back and forth as he gets busy commanding the soldiers around, and we only slow down at night, however not to sleep and rest but to go to Asher's office as he deals with paperwork and more soldiers.

Without much to do or help out at that point I'm left to watch him as he goes about, watching as the cold face is back in place, the one that I worked so hard to bring down the past few days.

And that fact bothers me… a lot.

Is not like I don't understand the situation, but I cannot help but feel distressed at the total regress in his behavior, on how he went from the charming cocky little bastard from this morning to the cold captain I saw the first time we meet once more.

I don't like, this distance he put between us again, I don't like it at all, and I'm not even in the mood anymore to question why I cared, I just did and frowned about it.

Once he finally gets off from that table and visibly tired sits down on the sofa I see an opportunity to approach him and go towards his side, asking what's wrong to know which of the many problems at hand is taking his peace away, but since I'm not good at thinking I end up only laying on his lap, trying to provoke a reaction and take him away from the troubles for a moment but being disappointed when he does not show any reaction, thought staying so close to his heart and being embraced by his warm body manage to take the tension away from me as I focus on the rhyme of his heart pumping that sweet blood in his veins, almost lullabying me to sleep.

And yet I cannot completely relax for when I look up I encounter his worried figure, eyes closed, eyebrows wrinkled, hand over his forehead.

The infection… why is it worrying him so much? Because of the many humans that can die with it? Or is it about the security of the city? Nah, I don't think that's it, he is a soldier, he is used to dealing with dangerous situations like this on a daily basis, so this much should not bother him this much…

Is because of Takamori? I mean, I'm upset about it too, but not on his level, but I can understand that they know each other longer too and that would cause a difference as such, hell, every time I see the man he tries to explode my bladder with the amount of tea he keeps offering me, I wonder just how much he himself drinks every day to have one for the go like he had back at the slums.

The slums… sounds like it has been so far in past, and yet everything changed so fast in between that is hard to keep track on time, nor that I have ever had the costume to do so, as a beast the only thing that matter is day and night, summer and winter, and that's about it.

But that's that and this is it, and there would not be any tea in the woods there after all, I think lazily as I remember the way angry Taka made the tea when we met the last time before things went deeper into shit.

But then I stop, almost forgetting to breathe, eyes widening and heart racing as things come into place.

That… that could not be right? I haven't just deciphered the puzzle that even Asher had difficulty with right?

Still things add up, all is explained by it… so I decide to speak up and wait for him to refuse my ideas.

"I know! I know what is causing the infection!" I say, turning towards him and finally having his attention as the cold tired eyes wait for me to finish answering.

"Is in the water! They managed to infect the water!"

He frowns, and I wait for his denial, but when it doesn't come and, far from it, his eyes light up again as he starts mumbling, I start getting the feeling that perhaps thinking of tea may have saved the day!

"The water from the city is mostly taken from underground currents and rivers, if they manage to find a way towards it from the outside it would be easy to infect the water and the people that drank it, plus the Golden Circle cleans their water a thousand times, most even drink from bottles brought from the Citadel, so they would not be affected either…"

I try to keep up with his line of thought, but as he starts mumbling, standing and reaching for his jacket, I end up staring at his moving figure.

He takes the phone from his table, giving instructions to his soldiers to have the water tested, and as he is about to turn it off something gets his attention, a pitter patter that softly hits the window at first, but grows in strength and intensity.

"Have some soldiers to gather water from the rain too as quickly as possible, we may need to ration it." He keeps giving his instructions out, spirits up once more, and left waiting I keep my gaze on his strong secure figure, taking him in slowly, from the long fingers curved over the phone, to the up straight standing, the broad shoulders, the short hair, thin yet soft lips that like to bite just as much as I, and most of all those blue crystal eyes, reflecting like a diamond with many layers in it.

My heart skips a beat while I simply watch him there, nothing but watching and still it manages to affect me, making me start to think that this sensation may have nothing to deal with the contract at all.

But if it wasn't from that… then what could it be?