I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 225

The timing of all of this was terrible. Rukelion had to deal with the most anger he had experienced since destroying the king of Mirea while midterms were going on.

He was exhausted. His focus was all over the place whenever he had time to think so he had to force himself to suppress again despite Amy’s directions not to. It was the only way he was going to get anything done so he had to!

That blasted prequel was coming out this week too. That only made his mood worse.

Rukelion wanted to burn down every bookstore carrying it but he would get in a lot of trouble if he was caught. He also wouldn’t be able to potentially do what Amy suggested regarding making people remember Katalya without it. It was a double-edged sword.

His very mixed feelings about everything were causing his emotions to go haywire again. Daisy did her best to be patient with him but he could tell she was getting frustrated so he tried to control himself better.

She tried to keep him distracted as best she could when he wasn’t doing schoolwork and he greatly appreciated that. Without her love, exasperated as it may be, he wouldn’t be able to handle things at all right now. As always, she was his anchor.

“Once midterms are done we should do some more fun Halloween stuff,” Daisy said as she scrolled through her phone next to him while he did homework.

They had already made Halloween-themed sugar cookies and gone to a corn maze. They had gotten very lost while she was choosing which way to go but he didn’t mind because it allowed him to spend more time with her. Once she gave up and let him handle it he was able to get them out in less than five minutes.

Rukelion didn’t know much about Halloween. Last year he had been too busy with other things to do more than basic research on it. Juliet went to a party by herself but he wasn’t interested in celebrating anything without his wife.

“What should we do?” he asked with a small smile on his face.

“We could go to a pumpkin patch,” Daisy suggested. “I normally carve a jack-o-lantern to put on my doorstep with pumpkins from the store but it’ll be more fun this way. We should go to a haunted house too. And I just saw something about an apple cider festival; I’m sure you’ll like that.”

He was fine with everything but the last thing she mentioned particularly caught his interest. “An apple cider festival?”

“Yeah. Says here they have live music and all sorts of apple-themed goodies.”

“That sounds amazing!”

His mouth watered just thinking about it. She was always so thoughtful. It was just like her to pick something she specifically knew he would like because he was extra stressed out right now even if she didn’t know the reason.

Daisy laughed. “I thought you’d like that one. Goodness knows you drank all of the apple cider in two days when I made it.”

She had made large pot of apple cider a few weeks ago and he had never had anything so delicious to drink in his life. It tasted even better than she kind she used to make back in his world because of the additional spices available here.

“What can I say? It was the best thing I’ve ever drank,” Rukelion said with a shrug.

“I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.”

“It really isn’t though.”

Daisy seemed to be under the impression that all he did was exaggerate whenever he complimented her or something from her world that he liked. This was likely because a) she didn’t think very highly of herself and b) she didn’t realize he had never experienced most of what was normal for her before.

She rolled her eyes but she was smiling. “You say that sort of thing about everything I make for you.”

“Well, you are a great cook,” he replied lightly.

That was true but the main reason he was so happy whenever she cooked or baked for him was because it reminded him of the way things used to be. A lot of her recipes had changed because of the extra ingredients available here but many things were exactly the same.

Sometimes Rukelion liked the new things better, sometimes he liked the old things better. Nothing would ever beat bread and jam for him but he had to admit that the addition of cinnamon and other spices to the apple and pumpkin desserts she made improved their flavor. There were some perks to the food here though that was primarily where desserts were concerned.

Daisy twisted around to kiss him. “Flattery will get you nowhere.”

“It isn’t flattery if it’s true,” he pointed out. Besides, complimenting her clearly had gotten him a kiss so weren’t her words and her actions too contradictory?

He didn’t mind the contradiction though. He could never complain about being kissed by the woman he loved. In moments like this he could almost believe everything would be alright someday.

Having her curled up next to him as he did homework wasn’t such a bad way to live. Sometimes he was even able to forget everything that was bothering him and enjoy being with her again. He felt more relaxed now than he had all week.

“You’re ridiculous,” Daisy said fondly.

Rukelion shrugged again. “Never claimed I wasn’t. You tend to have that effect on me.”

It had always been like that between them. She had brought out the dormant sense of humor he had thought would be lost forever along with everything else by consistently being her wonderful self during the darkest time of his life.

His men used to say he was too serious about everything but that was simply how he was about everything and everyone except for Daisy. Only she could bring out his lighter side.

He was certain their eventual children would too. He would love them every bit as much as he loved their mother. He had already loved the baby they lost deeply…he would never forgive Juliet for killing it. He may have gotten his wife back in some capacity but that child was lost forever.

Rukelion had been thinking about the baby more often lately as he went over things in therapy with Amy. He had tried his best to push that grief aside when he first got here because he was so focused on finding Daisy but now that he had and she loved him again thoughts of their lost son or daughter kept creeping in.

Though time flowed differently between the two worlds, he had been here for a little over a year now. He didn’t know how much time that would be back in his world so he focused on the time that had passed here.

A year after the baby was born it would surely be crawling. Smiling. Laughing. Possibly saying its first few words.

That beautiful red-haired baby who never got to see the light of day haunted him. He worried that when he and Daisy were able to have other children that it would only get worse. That every time he saw them he would think of the one they lost.

At least she didn’t have to deal with that sort of pain because she couldn’t remember anything. It was a weight he had to bear alone. One he deserved for being unable to protect his family.

“Leo? You okay?” Daisy asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

She had probably asked him something since she was looking at him expectantly. He smiled to reassure her that everything was fine even though it wasn’t. He had gone from content to upset again too quickly.

“Yeah, sorry. What were you saying?”

“I asked how much homework you had left. When you’re done I was thinking we could watch a scary movie or something,” she said with a slight air of resignation and annoyance.

Rukelion had screwed up again. He knew she was bothered when he spaced out and wouldn’t tell her what he was thinking. But he COULDN’T talk about this because her memories were gone.

“I need to finish this paper. If I buckle down and focus it’ll take me about two hours,” he replied apologetically.

It was a Friday night and neither of them had anything going on in the morning so they could watch a movie when he was done even if it would be late when it finished. That was the nice thing about weekends. That hadn’t been a concept back in his world. Days off occurred at random during the week and people only got one instead of two if they got them at all. They hadn’t on the farm.

“No worries,” Daisy told him. “We can watch it afterward.”

She pulled out her e-reader and curled up on the other side of the couch, likely so she wouldn’t disturb his ability to type. He truly didn’t mind it though.. He preferred when she was close to him but figured he shouldn’t push his luck right now after annoying her a minute ago.