Dawn filtered softly through the curtains, pale gold with a tint of lavender and soft breeze.
Alexis woke slowly.
For one suspended moment, he did not move. Did not breathe too deeply. He simply looked.
Hiral was there.
Asleep on his side, dark lashes resting against his cheek, hair slightly tousled from the night. One arm lay loosely between them, fingers relaxed against the sheets.
Peaceful.
Real.
Alexis watched him for a long while.
A minute passed.
Then another.
Hiral did not stir.
The stillness began to press in.
It was subtle at first—a whisper of unease at the edge of thought.
But memories suddenly flood Alexis's mind.
Alexis had stood beside this bed before.
Had watched this same unmoving face for hours that stretched into days.
His chest tightened.
"Hiral," he called softly.
No response.
The unease sharpened, sudden and irrational.
"Hiral."
Still nothing.
The air felt thin.
"Hiral!" Alexis's voice broke with urgency.
Hiral's eyes snapped open instantly.
All softness vanished. His body reacted before his mind did—muscles coiling, hand shooting out to grab, to counter, to defend—
Alexis lunged forward for a hug at the exact same moment.
The result was immediate.
In a blink, Alexis found himself flipped onto his back, the mattress dipping hard beneath him as Hiral pinned him down, instinct overriding reason.
One hand braced near Alexis's shoulder, the other hovering near his chest as if assessing threat and terrain in a single breath.
They froze.
Hiral blinked.
Alexis stared up at him.
Then—
Alexis burst into laughter.
Bright. Unrestrained. Almost wild.
Hiral frowned faintly. "Did you hit your head while I was asleep?"
That only made Alexis laugh harder.
The sound filled the room—warm and uncontained and certainly alive.
He hadn't laughed like that in months. Not once.
Hiral stared down at him, bewildered. "I am serious. That was not a light fall."
Alexis tried to speak, failed, and laughed again, one hand coming up to wipe at his eyes—
And stilled.
Because his fingers came away wet.
He hadn't even realized he was crying.
The laughter softened, but it didn't fully stop. It trembled instead, tangled with relief so profound it hurt.
Hiral's expression shifted.
Understanding flickered there.
Ah.
So that was it.
He cleared his throat lightly, awkward in the face of something so openly emotional. "It seems the impact was worse than I thought," Hiral said dryly. "You may have struck your head quite severely."
Alexis huffed out another broken laugh. "Right… and well it seems my heart was struck by your beauty so much so I was stupefied."
"Hah, very funny," Hiral replied evenly, though the faint stiffness in his posture betrayed him, "Glad I was able to mesmerize you with beauty alone."
That awkwardness—so unlike the composed strategist he showed the world—only made Alexis's shoulders shake again.
Hiral hesitated.
Then with a sigh, slowly, he lowered himself fully down and wrapped his arms around Alexis.
It was warm, and so endearingly gentle.
A quiet attempt to steady him.
To ease the guilt he could feel pressing at his own ribs.
Alexis's laughter ebbed.
Alexis exhaled shakily and buried his face into the crook of Hiral's neck, gripping him tight— as tight as the night before.
Warm.
Solid.
Alive.
Hiral held him without protest this time.
After a moment, Hiral spoke—voice low, steady.
"I'm awake," he said softly. "I'm alive. Surely you can feel my heart beats."
"Yeah."Alexis answered as he focused on listening to Hiral's heartbeat.
Hiral's hand came up to rest against the back of Alexis's head, fingers threading lightly through his hair.
"This is real," Hiral continued. "Not a dream."
Alexis's grip tightened.
"I will wake up tomorrow," Hiral added, quieter still. "And the day after that. And the next coming days after that. I will be here, alive."
The room was filled with nothing but their breathing.
Alexis swallowed hard and nodded against Hiral's skin.
For the first time since the nightmare began, the morning did not feel like something to fear.
Still Alexis trembled.
It was subtle at first—a tightening of his grip, a shallow pull of breath against Hiral's collarbone.
But Hiral felt it.
The faint quiver running through the body of a man who has carried more than he can handle yet still he held on.
"I…" Alexis began quietly, voice rough. "I let fear win this morning."
Hiral didn't interrupt.
Alexis swallowed. "I watched you sleep for too long without waking."
The words came slowly at first, as though pried from somewhere deep and unwilling.
"I wished," he admitted. "I prayed. I begged. I cursed every god I could name."
His fingers curled tighter into the fabric at Hiral's back.
"You didn't wake."
The room seemed to shrink around them.
"No matter how many days passed," Alexis continued, voice thinning. "No matter how many times I stood there waiting for your eyes to open. No matter how many times I told myself you were just… resting."
His breathing grew uneven.
"And every night," he whispered, "the torment begins anew."
Hiral's hold tightened just slightly, but he stayed silent.
"I see the horrific moment every time I sit beside you," Alexis confessed. "The moment my sword—"
His voice broke.
The memory rose vivid and merciless.
Steel cutting forward in reckless abandon.
A split-second of certainty—this is where I fall.
And then—
Hiral stepping into the strike instead.
The warmth of blood across his face. The shock. The slow, impossible collapse of the man he wanted to treasure and he had never wanted to harm.
Alexis's body shuddered.
"I thought… I thought you were ending it," he said hoarsely. "Ending me. And I was ready for it. I would've accepted it."
His grip tightened further, almost desperate now.
"But you stepped into it."
Silence stretched, heavy and reverent.
"I watched you fall," Alexis whispered. "And I have not stopped watching you fall since."
Hiral's fingers stilled against his back.
Alexis let out a fractured breath.
"By day, I stood straight. Spoke firmly. Led the men. Let them believe I was unbreakable." A humorless huff escaped him. "They called me the hero of Ro, the great general, the perfect composed king-to-be."
His voice dropped lower.
"But at night, I stood at your door and hoped… just hoped… that when I went in, you'd be sitting up already. Ready to scold me for hovering."
He swallowed again.
"I told myself I had to hold on. That I need to be present the moment you wake up. I need to be strong and well put so I can confront you properly when you wake up. And as long as I keep going you'll eventually wake up."
The admission was raw, stripped bare.
"That courage," he murmured bitterly. "It was brittle but was enough to keep me sane when I needed a clear mind, the thought of you waking was enough to push away the anxiety of a future without you but the line between was thin."
The room fell quiet.
Hiral let the silence linger, honoring it. Letting Alexis breathe through what he had held alone for far too long.
Then Alexis tightened his embrace once more.
"I'm glad I held on,"he said softly.
Hiral exhaled, his voice steady but thick with feeling. "So am I."
A pause.
"I am more than grateful that you did."
Their foreheads rested together, the space between them charged and fragile. The air shifted—tender, almost intimate—
Knock. Knock.
Both men stilled.
"My lord," came the head butler's voice through the door. "Your meal has been prepared."
Alexis closed his eyes briefly and let out a long, reluctant sigh.
"Of course it has," he muttered.
Hiral's composure returned with seamless precision. He gently pulled away, the warmth between them settling into something quieter but no less real.
"We better fill our bellies," he said lightly.
As if they hadn't just peeled open months of grief between them.
He rose from the bed with careful movements, mindful of his healing chest, and crossed to the wash basin.
The water splashed softly as he began to freshen up, expression once more calm and deliberate.
Alexis watched him.
Alive. Moving. Annoyingly composed.
And impossibly precious.
He ran a hand over his face, steadying himself.
"Don't think this conversation is over," Alexis said at last.
Hiral glanced at him through the mirror's reflection, eyes faintly amused.
"I would be disappointed if it were."
Alexis smirked.
"You better be prepared then."