The maids in the Ivanov manor prepared everything for Yue’s stay. They had all but moved Yue out of his dorm room and Anya had learned the ins and outs of tying a hanfu just so she could better serve Yue. Viktor of course only ordered for them to get some of Yue’s clothes from his dorm, he never ordered any of the extra stuff. The rest of the things prepared for Yue were prepared because of Elena’s order. Viktor had sent her a letter the day they defeated the Hundun mages and Skarr, asking her to send him a new sword and briefing her on what happened and on Yue’s condition.

 

Immediately when Yue and Viktor arrived, they were separated, much to their distaste.

 

“The mistress sent 3 swords for you to choose from, Young master.” A maid said and led Viktor to where the swords were being stored. Viktor sighed and just let the servants do whatever they were ordered to do, he knew his mother probably ordered it all.

 

-

 

Yue would’ve felt awkward as he was tended to by the maids but they actually made him feel relaxed. He was also generally very tired and loopy so he couldn’t be bothered to say anything.

 

He didn’t even know how he ended up in bed but he didn’t mind, he was comfortable so he decided to not think about it. He was half asleep when Viktor entered the room and clearly paused for a second. Viktor didn’t expect the maids to bring Yue to his room but he definitely wasn’t complaining.

 

He set down the sword he had chosen from what his mother sent and walked over to Yue’s side, noting that Yue had his eyes just barely open.

 

“Sleep well, I’ll wake you up for dinner,” Viktor murmured and kissed Yue’s forehead. Yue ended up fully falling asleep pretty quickly after Viktor kissed his forehead so Viktor chuckled a little before going back to his desk where he had set down the sword he’d picked.

 

The sword was much more decorated than his previous sword, but that was to be expected since it came from a dungeon, specifically the dungeon in London. The sword was mostly gold and had a light blue accent near the hilt. It was definitely very decorated, with gold accents going up the blade that was almost pure white.

 

Viktor knew the sword wasn’t normal and he was curious about it but he didn’t want to try and figure it out while he was in the room with Yue. He didn’t want something to go wrong and hurt Yue. He put the sword down and glanced at Yue as he was about to leave.

 

“...Again..?” Viktor murmured and walked back to Yue. 

 

He lifted a few strands of Yue’s hair, a lot more of it was white now. He still wasn’t sure of the cause for Yue’s hair turning white but he was sure his parents would’ve mentioned it if they thought it was something serious. Especially, Andrei, he had significant medical expertise so he wouldn’t just let it go.

 

‘I’ll write to them about it.’ Viktor thought and tucked Yue in before leaving the room.

—-

 

“You seem more awake now,” Viktor said and smiled, taking Yue’s hair Into his hands so he could tie it back to make it easier for Yue to eat the soup that the maids prepared for him.

 

Yue nodded a bit, “I feel better than I did earlier but I still don’t feel good…” 

 

He was staring at his soup for a while, he didn’t feel very hungry. 

 

“It’s okay if you aren’t hungry, you don’t have to eat it all,” Viktor said and kissed Yue’s forehead.

 

“Okay..” Yue murmured and took a couple of spoonfuls of the soup before he decided not to force himself to eat anymore. Viktor called the maids inside to take the soup out when he noticed that Yue didn’t want to eat anymore.

 

“Have a good night,” Anya said as she accompanied the other maid out of the room after picking up the soup. She had placed a few books in the room when she first entered, they were books that Yue had asked her to keep separate before the expedition so he could read them the next time he came to the manor.

 

“Can you give me one?” Yue asked, pointing to the books.

 

Viktor looked over at the books, “Do you want any one in particular?” He asked.

 

“No, any of them is fine.” 

 

Viktor simply picked the top book and handed it to Yue as he got into the bed next to him.

 

“You’re not sleepy anymore?” Viktor asked and moved him a little so he was comfortably in his embrace.

 

“Not yet... You can go to sleep if you want though, I’ll be quiet.” Yue murmured and raised his head a little.

 

“Alright,” Viktor said and pecked Yue’s lips. He read from over Yue’s shoulder for sometime before the fatigue from the last few days finally caught up with him and started to doze off while laying his head on Yue’s shoulder.

 

Yue noticed Viktor’s light breathing on his neck and turned to see Viktor’s sleeping face. He smiled a little and moved Viktor slowly so he was laying on his head on a pillow instead of on his shoulder. He was going to stay up reading for a while longer but he decided not to and just slipped himself into Viktor’s arms and went to sleep.

 

A few days later—-

 

“I get the feeling you’re enjoying being sick.”  Viktor laughed as he carried Yue around the library.

 

“J-Just a little...” Yue giggled, he had actually gotten much worse suddenly but his fever-stricken self craved entertainment.

 

“What’s the book called?”  Viktor asked, steadying himself as Yue squirmed in his arms.

 

“I don’t...remember...it has a blue cover..”  Yue murmured, slipping into Chinese as he kneaded his forehead to try and get rid of the terrible headache he felt.

 

“Yue I don’t know what that means…”   Viktor murmured, smiling helplessly.

 

“Blue...A blue cover.” Yue whined.

 

“Okay, okay…” Viktor murmured and used magic to take out all of the books with blue covers from the section of English books. He had them all appear in front of them so Yue could look at them and find the one he wanted.

 

“Ugh….it’s that one,” Yue mumbled and pointed to one.

 

Viktor put all the other books away and carried Yue back to the bedroom.

 

“You should sleep, you can read your book later,” Viktor said and laid Yue down on the bed.

 

“No….” Yue whined, opening the book to start reading it.

 

“I have to go out and I probably won’t be back until late tonight, so I won’t be able to help you pick out another book if you finish this one. So I’d advise you to slow down.” Viktor said and straightened his clothes and hair.

 

“Where are you going…” Yue said, trying not to sound too whiny as he said this.

 

“My brother-in-law is in Poland at the moment and he wants to meet with me. So I’m going there for the afternoon. I’ll try to come back as quickly as possible.”  Viktor said and kissed Yue.

 

“You better…” Yue murmured and kissed back.

—

 

“Mark aims to be a lord,” Alexei murmured as he took a sip of tea. They were in a lounge area in a manor in Poland, it was rainy outside so they couldn’t have tea outside as he hoped.

 

“Ha! Wouldn’t that be entertaining!” Viktor laughed.

 

“He might just make it. He’s got his brother on his side.”  Alexei murmured.

 

“Don’t you have authority over that kind of thing?” Viktor asked. Alexei was the leader of the lord of Belarus, the strongest members of the Belarusian council who were direct advisors to the king or acting ruler. Natasha was the acting queen of Belarus because Andrei and Elena preferred to stay in Russia and she was fine moving around wherever. This did often cause Alexei’s position as a lord to be questioned though.

 

“Well yeah, but I can’t just turn down someone who is qualified for no reason.” Alexei sighed.

 

“He’s Qualified? To be a lord?” Viktor asked incredulously.

 

“He’s not qualified but his family will make him seem qualified.” 

 

“Find someone who is more than qualified then,” Viktor suggested.

 

“That’s harder than it sounds.” Alexei chuckled helplessly.

 

“...There are plenty of outstandingly strong mages in Belarus but that’s not all being a lord entails,” Alexei said and held out his hand to Viktor.

 

“Out of all of the people currently affiliated with Belarus, only you and Tasha truly meet the qualifications.” 

 

“...And We can’t join because we’re ‘royalty’ or whatever…” Viktor sighed, “When is Kovalyov retiring?”

 

“Within the next 6 months.”

 

“Tell Natasha to put it under my jurisdiction...I’ll find someone… It might take a while because of my work at the academy but I’ll get it done.” Viktor murmured and took a sip of his tea.

 

“Alright then.”

 

—

 

“His fever got worse for some time but now he’s sleeping soundly and his temperature is back to normal,” Anya whispered to Viktor as she walked with him to the bedroom when he returned. 

 

“Anything else?” Viktor asked as he stood in front of the door.

 

“He wanted me to tell you that he still had 30 pages left of his book.” Anya laughed a little.

 

Viktor smiled a little and rolled his eyes before entering the bedroom as Anya wished him a good night. He walked over to Yue on the bed and watched him sleep for a little while with a smile on his face before going to get ready for bed.

 

“Viktor…Are you here..?” Yue whispered, waking up when he felt a presence in the room.

 

“Yeah, I’m back,” Viktor said and made his way over to Yue.

 

“Is something wrong?” Viktor asked, noting Yue’s tone of voice.

 

Yue shook his head slowly and motioned for Viktor to get into bed with him. Viktor did so and Yue settled himself into his arms like usual.

 

“You came back late…” Yue mumbled.

 

“So there was something wrong after all.” Viktor laughed.

 

“I’m sorry I came back late, we got to talking about legal stuff and it became lengthy,” Viktor murmured and kissed Yue as an apology after seeing that Yue wasn’t amused.

 

“It’s fine…” Yue said and rolled his eyes, rolling over so he was essentially laying on Viktor. He tapped on the nightstand to signal Viktor to turn the light off for him as he settled himself.

 

Viktor laughed a little at how Yue was using his chest as a pillow and reached over to turn off the lamp.

 

“Good night, Yue.” He whispered sweetly in Yue’s ear as he watched him doze off.

 

“Mmm….Night…”

 

—

 

“Do you feel better today?” Viktor asked, noting how Yue was up first thing in the morning and clinging on to him with a smile.

 

“I finished absorbing it all.” Yue grinned and kissed Viktor on the lips chastely.

 

“That’s good, do you want to spar with me now?” Viktor asked with a smirk.

 

“Ehhhh…I was a patient for days and you want me to fight you? Isn’t that too cruel?” Yue whined.

 

That’s not what I meant by spar~” Viktor sang and slowly started pushing Yue down.

 

“P-Pervert!” Yue exclaimed and blushed bright red as he found a way to escape Viktor’s grasp.

 

“I’m the pervert yet you knew exactly what I meant…”  Viktor chuckled and watched Yue escape to the other side of the room.

 

“I-I’m still r-recovering!” Yue said with a blush and hid over by the sofa in the little lounge area of the room.

 

“I’ll spare you for now,” Viktor laughed and got out of bed, “I’ll tell Anya to prepare a bath for you and to have your meal ready in the dining room.”