Kathie’s POV

It took what felt like an eternity for her to say anything, I could feel my heart thumping in my chest in anticipation.

My mind tried to calculate every possibility and drew blank every single time.

“Kathie…”

My name had never sounded so sweet, I don’t know if my mind was merely tricking me or if she really did say it with such tenderness.

Her gaze which was lost just a second ago locked into mine.

“Hug me and never let me go…”

My mind didn’t even have time to process what she said before my body reacted, I held her body tightly but was still careful enough to not hurt her.

Her sickly body felt warm and sweaty, but It didn’t bother me, in that moment all that mattered was holding her in my arms.

At first, her breathing was irregular, but with time it settled down, and not long after she had fallen back into a deep sleep.

I continued to hold her for a bit after that, the adrenaline rush I felt at first had already subsided.

My mind clearer I let her down into the bed slowly so as to not wake her up.

Now that I thought about it I had no way of knowing if what she said to me was her actual wish or if it was a result of her feverish state.

Panic settled in as to how I should act when she eventually woke up, should I act like nothing happened or should I act like I had accepted her wish?

What it even meant anyway?

 Hug me and never let me go…

Did she want me to keep her here with me?

But she was a princess, and I had kidnapped her, she would have to go back soon or the royal knights might find out about her whereabouts and come knocking ready to behead me.

A chill ran down my spine at the thought of that, us witches aren’t exactly very well thought of by society, so they wouldn’t hesitate to lay down punishment.

I was screwed no matter what, I needed to find a way to escape capital punishment…

Or maybe I should just accept it, I did kidnap the princess after all.

Either way, it didn’t matter right now, as I looked at Oriel sleeping peacefully I felt like nothing else mattered, I had to nurse her back to health before anything else.

I quietly left the room and made my way to the kitchen, I had to make sure everything I needed was easily available.

As I sat there watching Oriel eventually woke up, she looked around for a bit before eventually settling her gaze on me.

I could feel a warm sensation form on my cheeks but there was no time for that.

“Did you sleep well?”

I broke the silence, trying to speak as normally as I could.

Her face was one of confusion, there was a lot weird with the way I was acting, trying to be friendly while keeping my distance at the same time, if she complained I would distance myself but if she didn’t I would keep getting closer.

That was the conclusion I’d come to after thinking for hours while she slept.

She gave me a pained smile but didn’t say anything.

“I made something for you to drink”

I picked up a mug I had prepared in advance, the liquid inside it still steaming.

Her expression didn’t show much desire to drink it.

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t taste bad~”

I tried to sound as cheery as I could, which seemed to work as she took a deep breath before trying to get up.

Leaving the mug back in the tray I helped her slowly sit up on the bed, I didn’t fail to notice how drenched in sweat she was.

Noticing how I tried to wipe my hand on my pants before offering her the mug her face grew bright red.

“I’m… sorry”

Her voice was very small, I could barely hear her while standing so close.

“It’s fine, it’s not your fault you’re sick”

As she held the mug with both her hands I noticed that she seemed very uncomfortable with the way the pajama shirt stuck to her body.

I had prepared a towel in advance for her but it seemed she still wasn’t able to move very well, maybe I should help her wipe off her sweat, she would need to take her shirt off in front of me…

Stupid brain now is not the time to be thinking about something like that!

I tried to contain said thoughts as I watched as she slowly bring up the mug to take a sip.

“It- it’s good”

She even struggled to speak, so I silently watched her drink it.

It was a combination of herbal teas that had healing properties mixed with a bit of medicine, the tea must have masked the taste of the medicine because she seemed to be enjoying it as she took small sips.

Maybe it was still too hot though…

As I was worrying about what I could have done better she got closer to finishing it, she finally looked at me after taking a deep breath and looked ready to say something.

“Kathie I-”

Her sentence was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit, I was too slow to move and before I could even react I saw her drop the tea on herself.

It must have been still very hot as she instantly pulled her shirt away from her body.

“Quickly! Take it off!”

I jumped up to help her take off the shirt, without thinking much about what I was doing.

Once it was out my mind seemed to have caught up to me, I fought my hardest not to look directly at her, instead grabbing the towel and handing it to her.

“You can wipe it off using this”

As I did it though I noticed something, her skin was smooth and white everywhere, except a spot near her collarbone where there was a lot of red marks, including one especially big one.

It looked like a bug bite, this couldn’t be good…

topoko

It took me a while but here we are again, hope you liked it! see you on the next one!