PeaceMaker

"About wh-"

"Don't play dumb," Boris interrupted, his words short and precise like a sharp sword cutting at Adia. 

"About Dominic," Adia stated meekly, her voice quiet as the tension weighed down on her shoulders. 

Boris set down his pen and then the paper he was holding soon after and turned to Adia, his golden gaze settled in a tranquil state. Calm, peaceful, but yet the tension was ever so high for Adia. 

Before she could avoid his gaze, her eyes were sucked into his, dragged into locking with the golden undisturbed gaze. Her lips quiver slightly as she straightens out her back, an attempt to get her more alert, more apt, and ready to answer his questions. 

"Why aren't you speaking?" Boris asked, his head cocking to the side as he peered at her, "you seemed more than happy to be talking earlier." 

The confidence that she had barely managed to conjure tricked out of her body at those words. A long sigh slipped out of her mouth as she looked back up at Boris, his eyes leering down at her but his face remaining in a stoic expression. Gosh, she hated these moments.

It was hard to understand verbally if she tried to get someone to understand how it felt to be in a situation like this with Boris. The best way to put it would be a sleeping large tiger in the same room as a defenseless human, Adia being the human and Boris, the tiger. 

For the tiger, he was sleeping. He was in his own tranquil world, unbothered by the presence of the human, or rather, unaware of the presence of the human. For the tiger, he felt no sense of danger, no sense of tension, no need to be on guard but the human, on the other hand, is miles into panicking. They are in a room with a sleeping tiger with absolutely no weapons and thin clothing to protect their life. Even though the tiger was asleep, death immediately followed if they were to wake up. 

In Adia's case, Boris is unbothered in this because he has snapped and lost all connection to his present feelings making him feel composed but Adia, badgered with guilt, is in the room with someone who she had deeply wronged by her actions. It was like a ticking bomb.

Except she patiently waited for him to explode so instead of feeling like prey on the edge of losing her life, she would feel like a human having an argument with another person.

"Adia," Boris called out, his deep voice void of emotions. "You're spacing out."

Adia flinched as she blinked, snapping back into the moment. Her head was lowered and her peripheral view immediately opened to her hands where her fingers were digging into each other's nails to the point that she could see a light cut starting to fill with blood.

"Oh-" she muttered as she looked back up at Boris, her eyes slightly less panicked. "Sorry about that."

"Are you better now? I'd still like to hear your explanation," Boris pressed, his head tilting to the right slightly.

"Oh right…" Adia murmured, her voice trailing off to silence. She sat there for a few seconds before sucking in a deep breath and returning her gaze to Boris. "I was teasing you with Dominic.

"Why?" Boris retorted. 

"Because I wanted to see how you were going to react," 

"Why?"

"To identify your emotions," 

"Why?"

"Because you're unable to do so yourself."

Boris flinched slightly and for the first time, his face showed hints of reactions to her words. His eyebrows twitched. "What?"

"You're unable to identify your emotions yourself," Adia shrugged, leaning back into her seat and crossing her legs. She was gaining an upperhand. The more he freezes, the more he gains confusion, and the more she has a chance to actually say things without feeling constricted. 

"What do you mean by me being unable to identify my emotions?" Boris questioned.

She lets out a light chuckle, "Exactly as I said it to be. You're unable to identify your emotions," Adia repeated, "however, it's not in general. You have a pretty good grasp on what you feel on a daily basis of course. Tired, happy, sad, all those basic emotions and even more towards certain things."

"So then what is this about me being unable to recognize my own emotions?" Boris asked, his eyebrow-raising slightly. 

"You're able to think normally towards literally everything and everyone in this palace, except one person," Adia explained, "Dominic Aarvi."

Boris flinched, this time his entire face reacting from her words. Confusion was so strong in his eyes it may as well have been plastered on his face. "Huh?" he asked.

"I haven't been in this palace for long, literally one day actually since I came into the palace and in that short amount of time, I've already begun to soak up a lot of things about how you feel about things in this palace. The only thing that I haven't been able to understand is Dominic's relevance to you," Adia remarked.

Boris' eyebrows grew even more confused as she continued. "Why would you even want to know about that?"

"Why would I not??" Adia grinned, "I mean he is the prince and soon to be king of this kingdom and you are the person that he handpicked off the streets to come to stay with him in the palace. Your relationship dynamic is something not only me but a lot of people want to know of."

"So just splurging your curiosity to find out for yourself?" Boris muttered, expecting no reply, "you could have just asked me in that case."

"How would I ask someone who doesn't even know how he feels about the prince?" Adia refuted with a questioning gaze. She nearly smiled when she saw Boris' further perplexed face. "I mean I'm more than sure that you guys are on good terms. Afterall, you would be on the streets right now if you weren't so I understand that. But…" she leaned forward slightly, "it feels like there's more."

Boris' confusion reduced slightly as he grew more interested in the words that she was trying to say. "What do you mean?"

"You defend him, even in my presence. I have to be careful to not insult someone that just a year ago you were cheerfully cursing with me. You immediately tense up if something bad about him is mentioned and are quick to get demotivated if someone continues to badger you with bad things the prince supposedly did," Adia listed, "you talk about him quite a lot and show that you're thinking about something related to him a lot. Whether that be actually talking to me about him, something you liked to do when I wasn't in the palace myself.."

"Mhmn?" Boris murmured, urging her to continue.

"You stare at paintings of him, straight into his emerald eyes, and sometimes stare into places for a few moments as if you see something there. And every night you wander back to this place, his office and you sleep here on that couch," Adia continued as she nodded towards the couch. 

"How did you know that?"

"The blanket and your scent when I laid on the couch," Adia replied matter of factly.

Boris didn't even try to say anything in return, just sitting there quietly listening. Adia noted it. She paused for a few more seconds before continuing.

"I felt like there was something more there. Something more that was enough to make you miss him in the way that you do. The most fascinating part, however, was the fact that you didn't understand yourself either. I wanted to know what was the reason why you were like this to Dominic and what he means to you." She hid her lips behind her hand for a moment as a thought crossed her mind. 'It seems like something more than a friend would do… especially considering the fact that hate was the only emotion he had for Dominic for most of his life.'

Boris sat there quietly for a moment before nodding his head and sighing. "Ok, let's say that I understand what you're saying and your motive. But why that situation? In front of Falls too?"

"To that, I want to ask you why you're so pressed with the situation to begin with. Why are we even having this conversation right now? Why did you even get upset at it when I did?" Adia probed, "why did I talking about commander Litian upset you?"

"Simple. It felt like you were playing with me. Your word choices and conversation topic even though I don't like anyone talking ill of the prince. Such as 'scandals' or 'rumors' about him," Boris replied immediately. 

"No. That's wrong about why you felt that way," Adia intercepted. She froze when she saw the change in Boris' expression and proceeded to rephrase her sentence. Boris interrupted.

"Then what is it?" he mockingly asked. 

"It was the fact that I was talking about dating scandals with Litian and Dominic."