I’d Give Up The World For You - Chapter 239

Rukelion never did manage to find himself a hobby. He meant to but once Daisy got pregnant with Roselia he quit his work with the volunteer fire department so he could focus on his family.

It hadn’t exactly been something he enjoyed but it did get him out of the house putting his powers to good use. And his wife had been proud of him for it so that was something.

He truly didn’t need to have something that was only his. He had better things to focus on now than his anger. He channeled all of his time and energy into loving rather than hating. Parenthood truly does change everything.

He spent his nine hours a day at work including commute time and came home to his wife and daughter smiling and ready to greet him with hugs and kisses. He wasn’t close to anyone at work or at the volunteer fire department. He didn’t dare get close to anyone new again after what happened with Conrad.

Rukelion knew Amy wanted him to make friends. Daisy did too. But he neither wanted nor needed them.

What did it matter if he put all his eggs in one basket so to speak? He didn’t need anyone but his family! A family that was slowly but surely getting larger.

When Roselia was a cherubic toddler with her mother’s big brown eyes and freckles they discovered Daisy was pregnant again. He monitored her heat signature closely and noticed something that nearly made his heart stop.

His theory. His crazy theory that Roselia truly was the child they had lost before. He had been right! The child currently in Daisy’s belly bore a different heat signature. Somehow their lost baby had found her way home to them like he found his way back to his wife.

Rukelion had no idea how it happened. But as soon as he realized it he picked up his rather confused daughter and held her close. She thrived on the attention though and hugged him tightly around the neck before planting a wet kiss on his cheek. She had always been a daddy’s girl.

Why? Why would she be when he had failed to save her once? Had she chosen to come back to the same parents or was it some bizarre cosmic coincidence?

“Daisy,” he said in a low voice once Roselia had gone to bed and he had her alone. “I was right. Rosie IS our first baby.”

Her eyes filled with tears and she pressed a hand against her mouth, overcome with emotion. He understood why. He had been too. He may have failed to protect his family once but he would die before he let it happen again. He had been given a second chance with both of them.

“Then you mean—” Daisy began.

Rukelion nodded. “The heat signature is different this time. With Rosie it was exactly the same. She has the same soul. We never lost our baby after all. We just had to wait awhile to see her again.”

“Oh, Rosie!”

The dam broke and Daisy cried into his shoulder. He held her close and vowed from the bottom of his heart…on the fire within him…that he would never let anything happen to these two or anyone else he loved as long as he was alive.

This would be easier to accomplish if that number was small. Against his therapist’s advice, he would continue to only care about his family. Daisy. Roselia. This new baby. Any other children they had or grandchildren in the distant future. That was it.

Rukelion knew better than anyone how difficult it was to protect people. He had loved and lost before and refused to let it happen a third time.

Caring about irrelevant people would only disadvantage him. He didn’t need them.

How could he make friends, anyway? His closest friend aside from his wife had been Conrad and he knew almost all of his dirty secrets. Shared secrets built trust and that was an important base for any relationship.

He was a FICTIONAL CHARACTER. A villain no less. He had seen more in his twenty-seven years of life than most people saw in a hundred. The weight of his secrets was far too much for any friendship to bear.

Rukelion had only ever been polite to his volunteer fire department colleagues. They would chat about their lives on the surface. Dates with their significant others. What their kids were up to. How the local sports teams were doing during a given season.

He had come to understand much more about football, baseball, and basketball during his time there because that was one of the main things those men talked about. He hadn’t been able to relate to them much. Occasionally, he chipped in about something he and Daisy had done over a weekend or for a holiday but that was the extent of it.

Those men were much like the soldiers in his squadron had been. Close. Bonded together. Even though he was an outsider they still tried to include him. That was why some of them had come to his graduation.

Daisy had been so proud of him for that. She didn’t know the truth. That he didn’t care about them at all.

Rukelion kept up with them on social media—he had gotten it only to better blend in because people he met constantly asked him about it and seemed shocked when he didn’t have any—but that was the extent of their contact. His wife wasn’t suspicious of this because of how busy they were now with Roselia and the new baby on the way.

She didn’t know he would never have a proper friend again. No one would be able to replace Conrad. The only person aside from Daisy he ever spared the slightest bit of emotion on after his life fell apart. And it wasn’t much, honestly. These days it was mostly guilt.

He hoped his friend had been able to figure things out without too much difficulty after having the kingdom dumped in his lap. He also hoped he was able to live a fulfilling and happy life with Elaine. Conrad deserved that.

No, Rukelion didn’t need friends. He didn’t need allies either. Everyone in his life fit into a neat little box of their own.

Coworkers he needed to be polite and tolerant to. Former classmates and fellow volunteers got an occasional ‘like’ or comment on social media. Daisy, Roselia, and the new baby were to be treasured.

He didn’t need a hobby anymore because hobbies often involved friends. At the very least it would involve more acquaintances and dealing with people he didn’t particularly care for was exhausting. He hated pretending to be something he wasn’t.

Leo Blaze, quiet but hardworking family man, was very different than Rukelion Blaze, fiery villain extraordinaire. Sometimes he felt like neither. Sometimes he felt like both.

Rukelion didn’t have to pretend around his family. Daisy knew everything about him and Roselia knew how much he loved her. Right now that was all that mattered but he worried sometimes about how he would explain things when the kids got older if they found those horrible books.

What would he say? How would he explain his deepest shame to his children?

Right now his daughter looked at him like he was the stars in the sky. He didn’t want that to change. Ever.

It wasn’t as if he could destroy all traces of the book though. Tracking down every copy and wiping it from existence on the internet would be impossible. He was going to have to raise his children and pray that someday they didn’t turn on him because of Juliet’s spiteful lies.

“Daddy,” a small, scared voice said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

Rukelion had continued worrying about this after he and Daisy went to bed and lay awake in the darkness. He couldn’t get his brain to shut off. A glance at the clock told him it was shortly after midnight.

He sat up carefully so he wouldn’t wake his wife and walked over to the little girl. “What is it, baby?”

Roselia held her arms up with a pitiful expression. A silent plea to be held. He knew what had happened immediately. She had a nightmare and was turning to someone she trusted for comfort. Without hesitation he picked her up and held her close, stroking her little head as she burrowed deeper into his neck, trembling.

“I’ve got you, Rosie,” Rukelion said soothingly. “Daddy’s got you.”

He would protect her from anything. Even if it was only nightmares. He would never let anything or anyone hurt his sweet girl again.

She and Daisy were absolutely everything to him. He may not be perfectly at peace since he was so often anxious about their safety and well-being when he was apart from them but he was closer to it than he had ever been.

Amy said he had separation anxiety. That because he had lost his family twice before he couldn’t stand being away from his family now.. He was willing to agree with her assessment but there was nothing he could do about it aside from text Daisy every chance he got to make sure they were both still alive and use the breathing exercises and other calming techniques he had been taught if he began to panic after not hearing from her too long.