The Aftermath

"Aisha, slow down!"

Aisha doesn't so much as turn around as she sprints through the halls. I try my damndest to keep up with her, but it seems as though her daily exercise is paying off - she's consistently at least a few feet ahead of me.

After showing Aisha that Resilon is not, in fact, a utopia, the young princess went through a whole gambit of emotions. She ended up settling on anger, and immediately ran out of the room, with clear intentions to confront her mother.

I swear under my breath as I realize that we're almost at the room where her mother is holding a private meeting. I'm not sure who she's meeting with, or why, but I'm damn sure that she shouldn't be disturbed.

In the back of my mind, I remember the Queen telling me that she's just a figure head. If that's the case, why is she even having some mind of meeting with a diplomat...?

Whatever, that's a question for later. I'm more worried about Aisha right now, anyway.

Aisha stumbles a little, and I take full advantage of it as I close the distance between us, and hurl myself into her in a bodily tackle.

We hit the ground hard, our limbs a tangled mess as I struggle to wrestle her into submission. Fortunately, the only guards are around the corner, standing at the entrance to the room where the meeting is taking place, so I'm not immediately shot for tackling the princess.

"Get...off of me!" Aisha instinctively hurls her elbow back, catching me right in the nose.

Pain immediately radiates through my skull, accompanying a sickening crunch. I clutch my nose as it begins to bleed profusely, releasing a delayed exclamation of shock and pain as my mind catches up to what's just happened. Aisha effortlessly shrugs me off of her, and continues on her way, turning the corner and blowing right past the guards to barge in on her mother's meeting. I can hear confused shouting as the stunned guards fail to stop her.

Scrambling to my feet, I hurry to follow her, holding my nose to prevent more blood from spilling onto the floor. The pain begins to ramp up even more.

The guards have run inside after Aisha, but are powerless to stop whatever is happening. I cautiously stand at the edge of the doorway, unwilling to intrude on whatever meeting is going on.

"This is hardly appropriate! How dare you barge in here!?"

Peeking into the room, I can see that Aliza is glaring daggers at Aisha, who is glaring daggers in return. Some kind of diplomat sits, stunned, at the table.

"You lied to me - about everything." Aisha's lower lip begins to quiver as a torrent of emotions begin to overwhelm her.

"What? What are you-" Aliza's gaze softens as she realizes what her daughter is referring to. However, it returns to a hardened countenance.

"I understand that you are frustrated. But now is not the time. Return to your room. We will discuss this later."

"We'll discuss this now!"

"Young lady, mind your tone! I am your mother, and you will do as I say!"

Aisha stares at her mother, and for a long moment, I'm afraid that the queen is going to have to resort to having her own daughter escorted back to the room by the guards.

My fear subsides as Aisha wordlessly turns with a huff, and storms out of the room. She brushes past me, and I awkwardly linger, not really sure what to do.

Aisha resolves the uncertainty as she turns to me with a frown. "Peter, come!" She barks.

The second we make eye contact, all the anger in her seems to evaporate, as she sees the blood on my face, hands, and shirt.

Seemingly at a loss for words, she grabs my hand and pulls me along, guiding me through familiar hallways to a place I've only visited a handful of times.

"Ah, Aisha, what brings you here?" A Ygron woman looks up from a clipboard. She tucks an errant strand of deep blue hair behind her ear, which shares the same mint green pigmentation as the rest of her visible body.

Her name is Doctor Jena Alar, and she's probably my favorite doctor ever.

When she sees me, she hikes an eyebrow. "I see. Okay, Aisha, I'm going to need you to wait out here while I see him inside."

Aisha nods, and I follow Jena into the exam room.

"So, how'd you break your nose?"

"It was an accident," I immediately cover for Aisha.

"Oh yeah? It wasn’t just an excuse to come see me?" She smirks at me, pressing her arms together to accentuate her impressive bust. Her button down blouse strains against the movement.

"I promise you, I wouldn't resort to breaking my own nose to get a chance to stare at you," I retort. "Although, if having a broken nose will earn me sympathy points and let me do a bit more than just stare, I might consider doing that in the future..."

The doctor and I have a teasing relationship, but neither of us have ever gone past just making jokes.

And while I'd love to try to push my luck right now, I definitely have priorities to take care of.

"So, uh...I really have to go take care of something. I'd love to chat, but..."

"I understand - just hold still for one second..." She manually resets the bone, which is definitely not a pretty feeling. "Just make sure you keep your head elevated, and don't blow your nose."

I nod in thanks, and quickly return to Aisha. I'm relieved to see that she's still there, and hasn't run off or something.

"Are you okay?" Aisha turns to Jena, and repeats the question to her. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine. Just no more accidents, okay?"

Aisha nods emphatically, and abruptly takes me by the hand and leads me through the halls and back to her room.

Once we're behind closed doors, she immediately presses her forehead to my chest and begins to sob.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She repeats. I stay quiet, and let her get it all out of her system, gently holding her in my arms.

She falls silent, and after a few moments, we sit down on her bed together.

"I'm not going to harp on you," I announce. "But I need to know that you understand that that was entirely unacceptable."

"I know, I shouldn't have hit you, I said -"

"Not that," I interrupt her. "You were acting on instinct when I tackled you. No, I mean the entire thing. Running to confront your mother, barging into a meeting - that was totally inappropriate, and honestly, kind of shitty."

"But she lied to me, my entire life!" She protests, tears forming in her eyes. "What am I supposed to do!?"

I open my mouth to answer, but close it again with a furrowed brow. I sigh as I take hold of her hand. "I wish I had an answer for you. I really do. But I honestly don't know."

We sit in silence for a while. At some point I wrap my arm around her, and she rests her head on my shoulder. I can feel her breathing slowly steady as she calms down.

"I'm going to be in so much trouble..." She mutters, nervously. "I should've waited until she was alone... now whoever that was knows that my mom lied to me, and they're a complete fucking stranger..."

"Tell you what - when your mom comes to yell at you, I'll calm her down first, okay?" She nods silently. I smile, and give her a quick kiss on the forehead.

"I'm not going to lie - this is going to be difficult for you. There are a lot of unpleasant things that you haven't been exposed to."

"I know, but... I'm ready for them. I don't want to be lied to anymore."

I nod, and just as I'm about to say something, there's a knock on the door. Aliza's voice comes through the door, quietly and unsteady.

I squeeze Aisha's hand as we call for her mother to enter.