I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 215

Rukelion hadn’t gotten as much money from Juliet as he thought he would. Way too many people knew his name for him to have only gotten $37,000!

He was incredibly annoyed by this. Running the calculations, that should barely cover all of his school expenses for the next four years. It wouldn’t help Daisy with her goal but at the very least it would keep him out of debt.

This was all going too slowly to the point that he was beginning to wonder if things would ever work for him. Right up until Daisy decided she wanted to be his girlfriend, that is. That changed everything!

He already knew she was afraid of being a mother. They had talked about that a lot both before and after she got pregnant with the baby they lost but she had eventually reached the conclusion that she was excited and looking forward to it despite having no idea what she was doing.

Rukelion wasn’t terribly concerned about that being a problem long-term. He felt rather accomplished gaining the title of Daisy’s boyfriend.

Boyfriend was so, so much better than roommate or even best friend. It was only two steps away from husband, which was ultimately what he wanted. Now that he had gotten this far it shouldn’t take him nearly as long to get there.

Back in his world it had taken him seven years to gain her heart. Now he had most of it already in less than one. At the very least she had admitted she liked him even though she didn’t love him yet.

Yet. A beautiful word. One filled with hope of a better future.

Nothing could bring Rukelion down right now! Not even Amy and her attempts to pry into things that she could never understand.

“I’ve never seen you in such a good mood, Leo,” she commented when he went to his next therapy appointment. “Did something change for the better?”

He knew she would only give him a hard time for it but couldn’t help announcing his relationship. He would shout it from the rooftops if he could! “Daisy said she would be my girlfriend. And she was the one to bring it up!”

“I see. When did this happen?”

“Saturday.”

“What changed? She seemed fairly resistant to the idea the last time you brought it up,” Amy noted.

“She asked me what I wanted out of her and said she wouldn’t get mad if I was honest so I was. And she didn’t get mad. She said that she wasn’t ready and we both had a lot of baggage to deal with so she couldn’t make any promises about the long-term future but that she cares about me and wants to be with me so we could take things as they come,” Rukelion told her.

“She was right about having baggage. Healthy relationships are a lot of work, Leo.”

“I know that!”

“Do you? Because it seems to me that you don’t know what a healthy relationship entails. If you don’t communicate clearly with your partner, work together, and compromise fairly it will always be uneven,” Amy said calmly.

Rukelion DID know that. Those were the exact mistakes he had made with Daisy before. He also knew that he wasn’t able to communicate clearly with her now because she couldn’t know the truth about him without her memories coming back. That would likely remain an obstacle but he was going to skirt around the truth as best he could without outright lying. He was very good at that.

“I’m not dealing with your negativity today, Amy. Let’s talk about something else.”

She let out a small, nearly imperceptible sigh but he did catch it. She was exasperated with him but he didn’t care.

“What do you want to talk about then?” she asked. “You’ve been coming here for months and haven’t given me much to work. If I’m going to help you process your emotions, you have to tell me what they are.”

Rukelion didn’t like thinking about his emotions. With how unstable they had been lately, he was afraid of bursting into flame if he pondered them too thoroughly. He hadn’t had any issues with that since Daisy agreed to be his girlfriend but if he brought up negative things again…

“Anger,” he confessed with great difficulty, digging his nails into his knees.

“Okay, that’s a great place to start. What are you angry about?”

“Everything.”

He had harbored anger for so long that it had completely taken over his life and ruined what little goodness was left. Even after he accomplished his revenge he hadn’t been satisfied. That was devastating because he truly thought it would make him feel better.

“That isn’t very specific, Leo,” Amy chided.

“I can’t get specific!” he protested, running a hand through his hair in agitation. “I can’t!”

“What can you tell me then?”

“I…” What could he tell her that wouldn’t give away the nature of his rather unique situation? “I’m angry that my family didn’t get to live full lives. They did nothing wrong.”

“You haven’t said much about your family. Normally, when you’re here you beat around the bush for the whole hour. I don’t mind wasting my time but you should mind wasting yours. Why don’t you tell me about them?”

Rukelion supposed he could use generalities. As long as he didn’t mention the fact that they were royalty or had magic he should be fine even if it was hard to talk about them. He had been able to do it with Daisy after taking over the castle. He could pretend like he was talking to her.

“I was the third child of four,” he began as he fiddled with his hands. “I had two older brothers and a little sister. My oldest brother was often busy with our father preparing to take over the family business but he was still very good to me.

“I spent most of my time with my second brother. He was my best friend even though he could drive me crazy sometimes with his constant teasing. Our sister used to follow us around all the time wanting to play and that drove me crazy too but after losing her I wished more than anything that she would chase after me one more time.”

Tears coursed down his face as he talked about them as generically as he could. Georgios. Llyris. Kessia. He had loved them all so much!

He wished he could have told them that one more time. Did they know how much they meant to him before they died? Had he been able to convey that properly or had they realized he had taken them for granted?

“How old were they?” Amy asked after a while of him rambling about childhood exploits.

“Seventeen, fourteen, and eight,” Rukelion said lifelessly. “It was strange getting older than my brothers knowing they weren’t getting older with me. I’ve done so many things they never got the chance to do.

“I’ll reach that point with my parents someday too but at least they had somewhat of a chance to live before they died. Obviously, their deaths affected me too but it was different than with my siblings. They were all so young.

“I used to wonder why I didn’t die with them. If I had tried to fight the way they had, I would have gone out at the same time but I couldn’t because if I died too no one would ever remember them.”

He was getting agitated again. He needed to calm down. He had made his choice: between their memories and a future with Daisy he had chosen the latter. Now he had to live with that. No one would ever remember the royal family of Katalya or anything about his homeland’s culture but that was the price he had to pay to find his wife again.

“Are you angry that no one remembers them?” Amy asked calmly.

“Of course I am!” Rukelion burst out. “They died in the blink of an eye, like they were nothing, and no one was left who cared except me. I played dead, injuring myself heavily in the process, just so I could live another day and see that their deaths wouldn’t go unnoticed!”

“You mentioned your injuries before. That Daisy treated them when you first met her and nursed you back to health. Is that where you got the scars on your arms?”

“And the one on my head.”

“I see. The physical reminder every time you looked in a mirror must have been difficult.”

“I didn’t think about it much,” Rukelion said honestly.

He had more important things to worry about than his scars. Most of the time they were covered by his shirts anyway. In this world the sleeves were shorter. The forehead scar was another story but there hadn’t been many mirrors in the farmhouse.

Besides, he had other constant reminders of what had happened that were much more pressing. Like the fact that he had to hide his name, one of his eyes, and his hair color. Every time he heard the name Leo he was reminded of all he had lost.. All he had at that point was his revenge to keep him going until he got closer to Daisy.