Shady

Ky felt her heart drop into the very bottom of her stomach and start racing wildly. Right. That. Yes. He was — gods. Gods she was dead. At least she ...

“I bet she likes comics,” Pratik said, but he smiled and nodded. “But I definitely do! So this will work out swimmingly.”

“Yes’m.” Tadaaki dipped his head and settled more firmly against his headboard to let it take the majority of his weight. What was ‘the difficult stuff’ supposed to mean? She ...

Pratik smirked as he skimmed through them. “Yeah, these are comics… I could read some to you sometime if you like?”

“Yes’m.” He nodded stiffly, determined to make her believe him. She needed to be spending her time tending to Ky. He was fine. Aleth could go fuck himself. Ky deserved ...

“Like, a… uh… isn’t that what it’s called?” Pratik asked, flipping through the book with a furrowed brow to see. “When there are drawings that tell the story with bits ...

Tadaaki saw it coming and braced himself in time so he was just tense, not flinched against it, even though it felt like it was melting his skin off. “Fine. ...

(Yeahhh… rather, I definitely made it not work. I discovered that. I tried to fix it. We shall see if I succeeded haha) “Like a comic?”

Gods. This was humiliating. That must have been what Ky was apologizing for a minute ago — he hadn’t been following the conversation. But. Well. Even he felt the urge ...

“Aww, this one is cute.” Pratik smiled as he thumbed through it. (I think I broke my ice maker oops)

“Yessir.” Tadaaki nodded reluctantly.

Pratik traded the books and flipped that one open next.

Ky wanted to answer, but she didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded shakily instead. “…is that enough?” Tadaaki murmured, looking up at the assistant. He’d managed to get ...

“Literally,” Pratik said with a little smile. The baths here were quite nice. He never took much longer than fifteen minutes or so. It put him in a vulnerable position ...

Pratik glanced over at him, heart breaking a bit. What had Rickard been used to, to find that pleasant? “… I certainly prefer baths here.”