?Arius

The hospital bed wasn't comfy, not one bit, or perhaps I've become a bit sensitive after living a luxury life..

I thought about it and made a pouty face. Yup, that's the problem. Or maybe I'm feeling it more because of my injury. A back injury is bound to make lying down uncomfortable. I sighed at myself. What a prince I've become. I smirked at myself. Can't believe there was a time I slept on the ground with rocks as pillows. I closed my eyes and relaxed. My treatment had been taken care of and my wound was healing nicely.

The door to my room opened and Azalea entered the room. Her nose was bandaged and gotta say it was a bit funny. "Hey~ pretty nose you got there." I winked at her and passed her a smile.

It pissed her off, "Seeing how you can joke like this, you must be completely fine."

"Why wouldn't I be? I'm me."

"Yeah right." She walked over, " You flaunt about yourself so much yet you got hurt really bad so easily." She took a seat on the edge of my bed, "You're really nothing great after all."

I cleared my throat and looked at her, "I won't deny it was a close match." I sat up straight, "But the guy I fought wasn't an ordinary person or a simple gangster." She wasn't much amused by my talk. Is she taking my explanation as an excuse? I sighed, "Fine. Since you don't want to know I won't tell you." I laid back down.

"Hey!" She came closer, "I didn't say anything!" She tapped my arm with her index finger, "Huh?! If he wasn't an ordinary person then who was he?"

"You don't seem interested in knowing."

"I am!"

I snickered, "He was a highly trained assassin. I couldn't sense him, I couldn't even hear him. If it wasn't for the light that entered the place at that moment I would have lost Ayaan." Or not. I'm not sure myself, "And if Ayaan hadn't thrown that rock at him in that moment it would have been really hard to kill him."

"What? Why would a trained assassin be there?"

I could tell that things weren't processing right for her, so I made some space on the bed and then patted the mattress, "Lie down next to me."

She seemed confused, "Why?"

"Just come." I called her in by closing and opening my eyes a bit slower. She crawled in the sheet and looked at me suspiciously,

"We had a bet remember?" I said, "The winner gets to ask the loser anything."

"Yea. I won." She declared her victory before I could.

"No. I did."

"Excuse you. I killed two of them." She said.

"And I killed the other two. And clearly enough the victory goes to me since I killed the strongest one of them."

"That's not how it works. I killed the rapist so I win."

"Did you ask them who was rapist before you shot them?" I was asking the question as a form of sarcasm but it back-fired.

"As a matter of fact, I did." She seemed proud, "It was that guy who hit his head on the machine and passed out for a few minutes. After confirming the fact I shot him." She smirked, "So I win.

"I couldn't help but chuckle and her smile faded, "Why are you laughing?"

"No." I licked my lips, "Nothing." I closed my eyes and tapped my head with hers, "I'm just proud." I placed my hand on her cheek, it was rather hot, "You did good." I whispered. Then opened my eyes and went back to my original position. She was staring at me rather oddly, I saw a sparkle in her blue eyes. Actually it was the first time I noticed her eyes this closely. She had really beautiful ocean eyes. For a moment I felt like I would never be able to stop staring into them. The way they shone in the rays of light entering from the window made me want to keep looking. I forced myself back to reality, "So-" I cleared my throat, "Since we both tied let's do it like this. We both get to ask each other two things. Okay?"

She nodded, "Okay."

"Do you want to go first?"

She nodded and shifted a bit probably in nervousness, "I just want to ask you something. You'll answer them honestly right?"

"That was the deal."

"Tell me about Maria." I was sort of expecting this, among other questions, "I want to know everything from the start."

"Okay." I wanted to hide things not just because of me but because I was asked to as well, "Somethings will remain with just you after you know them."

"What things?"

"Like Maria wasn't Ayaan's sister." Azalea's eyes went wide, "What?!" I placed my finger on her lips.

"Don't interrupt me again. I'm going to start now." She nodded and I smiled, "Maria wasn't Ayaan's sister. She was his mother." Her eyes went even more wider than before but she managed not to say anything, "She had barely turned 30 when I ended her life.""

30?" She Whispered.

"Yes. She did look younger than her age because of the drugs she was being given. Maria's family did not belong to the underworld and was not really part of the clan war but her older brother helped the Siegfields in killing some important people from the Black's house. He was just a helper, and probably did it for some extra money. He got caught 3 years later, they killed him and her parents. Maria escaped the place with whatever she could take at the age of 16, although she couldn't escape the dread of being raped once before she could."

"Oh.."

" She had Ayaan when she was 17. She told me once how having him actually made her stronger and gave her purpose in life when everything left lost. She was a strong believer in her religion."

"Like Ayaan." She passed me a sad smile.

"Well he tries his best. Sad how in the world he is in now, is too filthy."

"Yea.."

"Well everything was okay for her, she was happy to have a son but she didn't have the money to raise one. No one was hiring a young girl with a son. People always like to assume and blame the person for being tainted without knowing anything. She got a part time job at a small inn and was able to manage things till it closed down and with no other option left she was forced into prostitutions when Ryan Black found her. For seven years she worked there and consumed various drugs. When Ayaan was 8 the Blacks took him in as a servant boy."

"That's child labour! That's wrong!"

"Everything is wrong in this world." I sighed, "He had discovered what Maria was doing to feed him and he began to lose his appetite. Ryan has a strong sense of hate, if he hates something, he wants to destroy it completely. That's why he didn't care even when he was torturing a child. Ayaan had developed vocal fold carcinoma by the age of nine but it didn't get diagnosed. I mean really no one cared there. I visited the Black's mansion once for business and by chance discovered a little boy whose ankle was chained because apparently he had tried running away." I paused for a break, "The first thought that crossed my mind at that time was 'It's got nothing to do with me.' And I was going to leave when the boy grabbed my pants and asked for help. There was so much desperation in that cracked voice that I ended up asking about Ayaan from Ryan and he offered me a deal out of nowhere to buy them. He was probably tired of them. Well in the end I bought them. But seven years of severe drugs that weren't even on the market had made her condition pretty bad and Ayaan's surgery that happened years later from the initial cancer development left him with barely any ability to speak."

"But you were working on a treatment weren't you?"

"Well, you're probably thinking why I killed Maria." I took a deep breath, "It seemed like it was working, she was getting better but 'that' night it backfired really badly. She started getting seizures and when it stopped she began to bang her head on the wall. Caesar was there with me at that time, he had gotten close to Maria during her time in the mansion but then Maria asked him to end her life at that moment but he refused. She snatched his sword out but he left the room." I paused again, "She said she would never get better and she had no pride left to live with anyway. Shortly after she said those words she got another attack and I did what she wished." I pursed my lips, "I didn't expect Ayaan to be there." There was a moment of complete silence in the room, the sound of gentle rustling of tree leaves made its way in the silent room as we both lay there on a single bed.