Peace Maker - Chapter 204

It was around 6 when they finished working. They looked up at each other, exchanged a look and both nodded.

It had been a tie once again.

Kalmin stands up from his seat and begins to pack up the papers around the table. “It seems you get faster and faster at doing your job as the day pass, don’t you?” he teased, turning to Boris for his reaction.

Boris was already turned around, gazing out the window to the streets below being lit up by a darker sky, a dark red crossing the sky in a mix with orange as little stars began to come into view in the night sky. It didn’t seem like he was paying attention to the sky even though it was such a beautiful sky, but rather the edge of the horizon like he was waiting for movement, waiting for something to shift there. Waiting for someone to come into view.

Kalmin looked up at the sky and let out a sigh. “It’s quite beautiful isn’t it?” he asked to which Boris looked up slightly at the wide expanse of the sky.

It was dull.

He nodded his head, “yes… yes it is,” he lied.

Kalmin looked down at Boris for a moment then let out a groan and leaned over the table, turning Boris’ chair. Boris swiveled around and faced Kalmin who tilted his head, a slightly frustrated expression showing on his face. “You think I haven’t been around you long enough to know when you lie? It saddens me that you still think that.”

Boris stared up into Kalmin’s eyes and scoffed. “Saddens you? I doubt you could cry for anything that’s related to me.”

“It’s good that you also know that,” Kalmin shrugged letting go of Boris’ chair, “but still don’t lie to me, it’s stupid having to hear it. Especially from you.”

Boris watched Kalmin for a moment before leaning back into his chair and running his hand through his hair. “Fine. It’s dull. I can barely see anything really.”

Kalmin turned to lock eyes with Boris and then sighed again, bending down to organize the remaining papers on the table. “It’s still like that for you?”

Boris laid in ignorance for a moment before nodding his head. “MhHm.”

Kalmin chuckled lightly, standing up straight and stretching slightly. “Who’d think that you’d become this way after he left? I still remember the first time I saw that look on your face.”

Boris tilted his head slightly. “Look?”

“Yes. You have this little thing on your face where your face looks… blank. Like you say the sky looks. Your eyes look dull despite them being a bright gold and your lips barely slide up into a smile unless you are spoken to and force yourself to show signs of emotion,” Kalmin replied as he walked over to the table into the middle of the room in front of the couch and placed the large stack of completed papers on it.

Boris sat in silence before chuckling. “Haven’t you been watching me a bit more closely than you need to? I won’t be surprised if you know every crevice of my personality.”

“Of course,” Kalmin shrugged, turning to look at Boris, “he ordered me to closely watch you so I’d try my best to listen to his words, don’t you think?”

At the notice of “he” Boris flinched, his smile wiped off his face immediately. Kalmin noted it. He had done it on purpose afterall.

“Every time I see it I get shocked because I don’t expect it in the slightest but you…” Kalmin began, walking over to Boris, “you… you miss the prince?”

Boris froze at Kalmin’s words, locking eyes with Kalmin.

“It’s still surprising to me every time I see that expression on your face… it’s utterly confusing and yet entertaining how you, the one forced to take his seat without even having any prior knowledge of it, soon came down to missing the prince when he’s gone,” Kalmin chortled, “didn’t you guys have a bad relationship? You argued almost every day really.”

Boris didn’t respond to him, swiveling around to look at the colors in the sky.

“I thought Dominic would at least be the one to remember you when he was gone,” Kalmin continued, “he always looked so distressed when you argued, and even when I suggested replacing you with another person off the streets, he wouldn’t listen and even though he would argue with you again, would still want to keep you next to him.”

“You asked him to replace me?” Boris asked, turning around to face Kalmin, “and he refused?”

“Every time, like he was desperate to keep you. It as perplexing how someone who literally had everything in the world for him would not want to replace a simple scrap,” Kalmin muttered, his eyebrows raising, “it was almost like he was overdoing the phrase, ‘Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.’

Boris’ lips pressed into a thin line and he gazed down at the table, looking at nothing in particular.

“But it looks like all those emotions I didn’t understand are being reciprocated by you aren’t they?” Kalmin pressed, “you’re a lot more… down than I would have expected you to be.  You should be jumping off walls right now as the person who kept you locked down is gone but instead, you spend almost every hour of your day in his room, gazing out the window and working on his desk.”

Boris made no reaction but he was listening. Listening attentively.

It was weird to have all his actions being said back to him and he himself was confused at his own actions. ‘I ‘miss’ the prince. Why?’ he thought to himself. He wanted to answer that question but even through Kalmin’s words, he couldn’t grasp his own actions. They made no sense to him.

“And you’re always staring every night at the horizon as if you’re waiting for someone to magically pop up from there. Like you’re waiting for him,” Kamin smiled, squatting down so he grabbed Boris’ attention. “Judging by your expression. It seems like I’m not the only one that is confused at your actions since your empty face shows no sign of understanding.”

Boris flinched, looking away from Kalmin. “You should have been a detective instead.”

“I was surrounded by people since I was younger. People I was forced to understand for my own safety,” Kalmin muttered, standing up from his position on the ground. He locked eyes with Boris, “I have a feeling you know what that feels like.”

Boris looked up into Kalmin’s dark brown eyes, a shiver running down his spine. That look on his face, the look in his eyes, looked similar to one he had worn before. One he had relied on. So why did he go from being the one that understood everyone, the one that could read people to the one being read and the one that didn’t even understand himself?

“So they were right?” Boris asked, his eyes digging back into Kamin’s gaze.

Kalmin froze slightly for a moment before looking away. “Take what you want from it, I’m still in the end, above you in all aspects.”

Boris stared at him and watched him as he began to walk back to the table in the middle of the room. “I’m well aware of that.”

“Good,” Kalmin replied, bending over the table to pick up the papers. He turned around and began to leave. “I’ll be taking my leave now.”

Boris nodded his head, watching Kalmin’s back as he left. “Mhmn.”

Kalmin grabbed the handle of the door, about to pull it open when he paused and turned back to Boris abruptly. “Thank goodness I remembered,” he muttered in slight happiness, “I was not going to walk myself back in here if I did.”

Boris turned to Kalmin, his head cocked to the side slightly in confusion. “What is it?”

Kalmin walked over to the desk Boris sat at and reached into his pockets, pulling out a letter. “Some news from where his highness is,” Kalmin muttered, placing it down on the table in front of Boris. “I think it was written by the physician at the camp and sent to you.”

Boris flinched, staring down at the envelope on the table. It was a dirtied white, stained with dust from travel but still locked together by a stamp. He looked at Kalmin, his eyebrow raised, “Physician?”

“Yes, Axel Lewis. One of the best physicians in the entire kingdom. He was sent to take care of the battlefield and the prince,” Kalmin replied. Boris looked back down at the letters on the table and then back up to Kalmin. “Stop staring at it, and open it. It’s not going to magically be read in your brain by you staring,” Kalmin rolled his eyes. He turned around and began walking away, “anyways, I want to know the contents of that letter the next time I see you.”

Boris looked up at Kalmin as he walked away, he froze when Kalm suddenly stopped and turned around, locking eyes with him. “And think about what I said earlier,” he smirked, continuing his way to the door and pulling it open, “I want to see that clueless expression on your face change soon,” he stepped outside of the room and gazed at Boris one more time before bowing, “I want to see what expression you’ll wear then.”

The door shut as soon as Kalmin was finished with his sentence, the sound of the thud echoing through the room as Boris looked back down at the envelope on the table. He picked it up and stared at the royal stamp.. “A letter from the camp…” he hesitated and then removed the stamp.