Bleeding Heart - 128 A Bit Guilty

It was two days after Lowks had asked Vixen to marry him when his sister made him feel incredibly guilty. He had been so caught up in his own affairs that he had let it slip his mind that he really should pay Kuryzan a visit. He was friends with him after all…

He sighed and looked at Tira. She had a raised brow as she looked at him and waited on him to say something. There was not much he could say. Her statement of him not being a good friend was rather true at the moment.

He really should have made time to just show his concern for the young elven man.

“Alright. I’ll go now. You want to come?”

“I’ve been going every day. Why don’t you go by yourself today?” There was an unconcerned note in her voice. “He can handle me not coming to see him one day, I’m sure.”

“…Okay.” Lowks nodded, he had not even noticed that his sister had been going to the castle every day. “I’ll get going then. Any message you have for him?”

“Nah.”

Lowks was not actually all that comfortable in the castle, but he was fond of Kur. Even though they were rather different. Lowks knew he was a bit on the quiet side, but Kur was shy and a bit unsure of himself around those he did not know.

It was not hard to find out where his friend was. Just like he had assumed, the guy was in his bedroom. He was let in without much difficulty.

Kuryzan seemed a bit despondent, as he lay on his bed staring out the window and looked a tad miserable. If it was any other citizen of Jarenkul Lowks would have assumed he wanted to be outside and about, but this was his reclusive friend who preferred spending all his time in the castle library. But he did seem to feel cooped up.

He looked a lot better than the last time that Lowks had seen him. His color had returned and he seemed a lot more conscious of his surroundings. His right leg was still in a cast, but other than that he seemed pretty much recovered.

A cat lay on his chest and he was lazily petting it.

But as soon as Lowks came in, Kuryzan’s head snapped to look over at him, and he actually grinned, “Hey Lowks, decided to come visit me? Is Tira with you?”

“No, she decided to stay home today.” Lowks may have been imagining it but Kur looked a bit crestfallen at that.

“I see…” He nodded, “She told me that you asked that girl you used to babysit to marry you. Congrats. Hopefully by the time you have the wedding I’ll be allowed to actually leave my room for longer than thirty minutes. They are really overreacting. I’m fine now.”

“The queen worries about you, I am sure.”

“…” Kur rolled his eyes, “Tch. I’m not a child, anymore.”

“I’m sure she knows that.” Lowks gave the elf a smile. “I doubt you’ve ever been a child in her eyes.”

“Huh. Yeah… it’s odd… our relationship… I still see her as a little sister, you know.”

Lowks nodded. It was reasonable. Kur let out a sigh, and shook his head, “Sorry. I know that I shouldn’t complain. Go ahead and sit down. I want to hear about what you’ve been doing. You’re engaged now, right?”

Lowks sat in the chair near the elf’s bed and fell quiet for a moment. The expectant look on his friend’s face made it almost harder to begin. After a few moments of gathering his thoughts he tried though, “Well, yes. I asked Vix to marry me, she said yes, so, yeah. we’re engaged now. Um, I’ve always liked her so I’m really happy about it…” It felt a bit weird to be talking to Kur about love. But he still managed a rough sketch of how he and Vixen had gotten engaged anyway. After talking about it and then ventured, “You seem rather interested in love, have you got someone?”

Kur looked down at his hands, a sudden embarrassed air to him. “Is it that obvious…?” He sounded as if he was talking more to himself.

Lowks stared at his friend, a bit surprised. He felt sorry for Kur though. With his shyness it would be a long time before he could even talk to the lady about it.

Kur seemed to be struggling for a minute internally, but then he looked up and in a soft voice, “I’ve been in love for a while… though I have not spoken to her of it. She’s quite wonderful though… at least I’ve always thought so. I… she’s very kind, though she can be…um, pushy? Is that the right word? Maybe opinionated would be better…” He paused, “But I like that about her.”

Lowks had never seen that look on Kur’s face. It was an interesting one though. He really did look like he was in love as he talked of this girl.

Kur was a good man. His wife would be a lucky woman.