Here’s the next and final part of the story. It basically starts around where the last one end

Here’s the next and final part of the story. It basically starts around where the last one ended but it will have a lot of time skips, big ones and small ones, therefore the characters’ age will change throughout the story.In case you didn’t read the other two stories or just want to reread them before this here they are part 1 part 2The storyAfter what happened in Artemyra, Ja’far seriously thinks things over and comes to the harsh realization that he can’t be there for his kids every second of the day. As much it pains him to admit it, he can’t always protect them, after all, he’s just one person. And he won’t be around for forever.He sees his mistake clearly now, how he failed to teach his children in this area, but he tells himself, it’s not too late to begin. Although Ja’far is a bit uncertain, he knows it’d be beneficial in the long run. Not to mention, he’d worry less if he knew they could protect themselves.But then, Ja’far stops himself from planning ahead and takes a deep breath. He knows Kadin doesn’t need all of this right now, he’s still very shaken up from the vacation, so Ja’far decides to wait with the training. But he makes a promise to himself, once he thinks Kadin is ready, he’ll finally let them learn how to fight.He’s convinced it’d be a better experience for them if they did it together, so if Kadin needed more time, then Ja’far refused to make Ain and Jaide start without him. This way Kadin didn’t have to force himself or to feel pressured to join the training in any way. That’s why Ja’far pushes aside this idea for a while.And while Kadin gets better, he’s finally able to show an honest smile, talk and act just like how he used to before the incident, Ja’far notices those rare little moments when Kadin jumps in fear when something catches him off guard. And the fact that he still needed company during some nights because he was unable to fall asleep makes Ja’far think he needed more time.Kadin manages to work through it slowly, but steadily, and he feels more secure, but because of work and lectures Ja’far pushes the idea of training away once again, into the back of his mind. He doesn’t forget about it, he’s just too busy with other things, and he’s still a little bit skeptical about Kadin’s condition. And Ja’far doesn’t want it to be a burden for him.Then, one evening when he and Sinbad are reminiscing about the past, the subject of the vacation comes up and Ja’far is reminded of what he planned for his kids. After waiting for three long years, he’s sure they are ready for it, or at least in Kadin’s case, he hopes so.So once he gets the opportunity, Ja’far approaches Sharrkan and asks him to teach his kids and he gladly accepts, saying that it was about time and he’s looking forward to his new students. But then Sharrkan bluntly asks him if it’s a good idea to let Ain join in as well.And it’s not like Ja’far haven’t thought about that. He’s aware that Ain is really fragile, but it’d be unfair if Ja’far wouldn’t let him do this. Not to mention that Ain had to learn how to defend himself too, so Ja’far nods in response.However, before Ja’far announces this to his sons, he gets them some training outfits to wear during the lessons and gives it to them as a present. Since they don’t understand why they got a sudden gift, it gives him the perfect opportunity to bring the topic up, and explain everything.Out of the three of them, Jaide is the most excited, he presses Ja’far for more details, when and what kind of training they’ll be doing and so on. Kadin instantly starts to doubt in his own skills, but he promises to do his best while Ain is very eager to start too. And even though Ja’far is glad they mostly took it positively, he’s low-key worried.The very first lesson comes as a bit of a downer, Sharrkan states his rules for over a half an hour then puts them through various tests that are laughably easy. They don’t understand it yet, but Sharrkan does this because needs to see who needs to work on what, then think about what kind of exercises the three of them could do together.When the real lessons start, they all realize it’s not going to be just fun and games. After getting through the first lesson, Sharrkan laughs and tells them jokingly he went easy on them since they’re just beginners. Which is also the reason why he doesn’t immediately give them a sword, he can’t build on their nonexistent fighting experience. And by the end of the lesson the three of them are extremely exhausted, to the point where they only have the energy to climb into their beds and go to sleep. As the weeks go on however, they get better at handling it. Jaide and Kadin even end up making a fun little contest out of the simplest tasks, and while Ain is a little bit behind, he’s sure if he keeps working hard at his own pace, he’ll catch up to them.Sharrkan‘s lessons don’t mean their lecture from Ja’far is neglected. They all have to keep up with that as well, otherwise Ja’far wouldn’t have agreed on doing this, saying that learning to protect yourself is important, but it doesn’t come before education. Ja’far won’t let them participate in Sharrkan’s lessons if they don’t take their studies seriously, and he makes this rule clear in the beginning.As time goes on the stronger, the quicker they become, and Sharrkan starts to see the potential in Jaide. He lets Ja’far know that if Jaide keeps this up, then he’ll be considering teaching him how to use a sword. And despite Ja’far feeling like it was still too soon, he agrees to it as long it was a practice sword, a wooden one that couldn’t harm him in any way.Even though Jaide pulls ahead, Kadin isn’t far behind. He still has doubts about himself, but Sharrkan noticed a long time ago that he takes this very seriously and tries to do his best, so he’s super proud of him. But at the same time Sharrkan feels like he hit a wall with Ain because he doesn’t seem be to improving at all. He doesn’t want to give up on him, so Sharrkan keeps searching for a solution.And while Ain was aware from the very beginning that he wasn’t on the same level as his brothers, it still surprised him to see how quickly he got tired while Kadin and Jaide were still full of energy. But Ja’far makes sure to compliment him every so often, so Ain doesn’t let this small thing discourage him. He decided to work hard, and he trusts he’ll get better with time.Not soon after this Jaide gets to the point where Sharrkan can confidently give him the practice sword to start teaching him the basics. With Kadin and Ain cheering him on from behind once they’re done with their tasks, Jaide tries to make sure he doesn’t disappoint his older brothers as he tries to concentrate on what he’s being taught.But when Kadin gets a practice sword too, it becomes visible to Ain how big the gap between him and his brothers is. So he keeps working harder and harder, but not seeing any improvement, Sharrkan voices his concerns about him to Ja’far, and admits that he truly tried to help him, but nothing seemed to work.And Ja’far expected that, he knew it wouldn’t be so easy for Ain, yet he hoped he’d make, at least some progress. Even if it was done slowly. But Sharrkan wouldn’t lie about something like that and he’s a talented swordfighter, he can tell if someone is actually improving or not, so Ja’far has no reason to doubt him.His final decision is to take Ain away from Sharrkan and to teach him himself. This action confuses Ain, but Ja’far’s only explanation is that Sharrkan needs to teach sword fighting to two people now so he’d have less time for Ain. Ja’far mentally kicks himself for saying this, but he doesn’t have it in his heart to tell Ain that the trainin isn’t going to work out for him.Although Ain suspects that this explanation isn’t the reason, he doesn’t question it since it sounds logical. And at the very first lesson, it’s easy to see how different Ja’far and Sharrkan’s teaching methods are, because Ja’far instructs him to do light exercises, which feels like a downgrade compared to what he had to do before.Sharrkan’s teaching was more about brute force, strength and focused on close combat, while Ja’far’s is all about defense, distance, stealth and focused on various methods of escaping. Ja’far also does the exercises together with Ain so he wouldn’t feel alone without Kadin and Jaide.He tries his best to keep the lessons fun and lighthearted, constantly coming up with new and exciting tasks, hoping Ain would find some enjoyment in them. Ja’far even makes an attempt to create games out of the exercises too but Ain is aware of the fact that Ja’far lets him win. Which takes away all of his motivation.And Ain is baffled, what Ja’far was making him do wasn’t going to help him in a real fight, he was already behind his brothers and at this rate, he wouldn’t be able to catch up to them. He honestly can’t see how any of this is going to make him any better.So one night, thinking while lying in his bed, Ain gets an idea. He isn’t sure if he should go through with it, but he feels like it’s his only choice at this point. He keeps turning from one side to another, trying to forget what he just thought of but being unable to, he sits up.After a lot of hesitating, he sneaks out past his bedtime. Once he successfully gets out of the palace without being noticed, Ain does the tasks and exercises he can recall from Sharrkan’s lessons and stays out as long as the lessons lasted.He feels incredibly guilty for going behind Ja’far’s back, and while he’s going back to his room he’s terrified of the thought that he might be caught. But at the same time, he feels much more confident in himself after training like that, which just further proves how this is the real way to getting stronger.But what Ain isn’t aware of is that even though Ja’far’s lessons aren’t as tiring, they still require a lot of energy and attention. On top of that, he’s putting more pressure on himself with those late night exercises while he already had problems with handling the exercises from before.And all of that takes a toll on Ain’s body and mind. He keeps sneaking out, not questioning nor caring why he’s becoming so sluggish, shrugging it off. He even becomes less accurate in his studies and starts to have trouble even with Ja’far’s lessons.And eventually, Ain ends up feeling stuck because he can’t see himself improving. He wants to get better because his brothers were already way ahead of him, and since they were naturally talented, it was even harder to catch up to them. The mere thought of it seemed impossible. So he tells himself as long as he keeps training, everything would be alright.After that, he starts to stay out even longer, increasing the amount of hours he spends exercising in order to make up for lost time. And the result of that is him getting even more exhausted, slower and less accurate than before.Since he’s staying out longer, he also gets in bed later, which wouldn’t be too much of a problem if he’d let himself sleep enough, but he doesn’t. The time Ain actually spends sleeping feels like nothing, so on top of everything else, he constantly feels tired during the day.It doesn’t stay that way for long either. Because eventually it gets to a point where he starts failing at studying too. Ain gets worse and worse, until concentrating becomes impossible for him. But that’s not the only thing, even walking gets harder since his legs, his whole body aches thanks to the over exercising.And failing in his studies is a really huge hit to his self-esteem because he’s never been bad at studying. It was the easiest thing in the world for him, and now he was behind with that as well. So it doesn’t take a long time until he gets alarmingly bad results on tests.And that surprises Ja’far more than anything since Ain had always been the one who could get almost every, if not all, answer right, so he starts to wonder if he should go easier on Ain during the lessons. And he does because looking at Ain it’s easy to see how tired he is. So the tasks become ridiculously easy.Which is, another huge low blow for Ain. All in his life, he’s been naturally good at studying, he was quick to pick up on things and now it suddenly became really hard and Ja’far made the lessons easier out of pity. That irritated him more than anything.And at this point, the only thing Ain can see in front of him is how both of his brothers, even the one who is a year younger than him, are way ahead of him. Both of them are capable of maintaining both things at the same time, so he starts to wonder, why can’t he do the same.So Ain keeps questioning it and he doesn’t have to wonder for too long. After all, the only difference between him and his brothers is the person who’s teaching them to fight. And it was Ja’far who decided to take him away. That didn’t fully explain why he was so behind or why his own father would hold him back.So Ain thinks about it, over and over again, and this is the only conclusion he can reach. It’s all because Ja’far was playing favorites. Realizing this makes everything crystal clear. That’s why he always been so sheltered, that’s why he got so many praises in his entire life, and that’s why he and Jaide drifted apart. And the reason why he wasn’t improving is because he’s holding him back.Although Ain doesn’t let it show how much these new thoughts hurt him, the conversations between him and Ja’far become slightly awkward. Ain stays silent in order not to give anything away, and since Ja’far just writes it off as Ain feeling exhausted, he gets away with it.Once Ain gets all answers wrong on a test, Ja’far decides to give him a little break from training to recover. Not only Ja’far is shocked to see Ain completely fail on a test but his brothers are as well. This was something they never expected to happen, they don’t even want to believe it. But looking at the test result, it’s hard to deny.Ain begs Ja’far to think it over or to let him re-do the test so Ja’far puts his hand on his head, softly smiles and calmly tells him that everything’s fine, he probably just needed some time. Then adds that the rule he made about the lessons and lectures applied to him as well.Not seeing any other option, Ain reluctantly accepts Ja’far’s decision, and goes to his room, almost slamming his door shut. After a few minutes Ain realizes he doesn’t need Ja’far’s approval at all since his lessons were pointless anyway. He needed real training which he could do at night, so he shouldn’t even care that Ja’far prohibited him from his own useless lessons.So when later Kadin and Jaide check up on him, a bit worriedly, thinking Ain might need some cheering up they find him on his bed. Assuming Ain doesn’t want to show how much this upsets him, the two of them join him and they make sure they talk softly and avoid the topic of training. While this makes Ain incredibly happy since it seemed like this was the very first time in months they got to speak about something other than those stupid lessons, deep down, he feels like they are looking down on him too. Behind his calm demeanor, he’s incredibly angry. Kadin and Jaide’s attempt to cheer him up just made his blood boil.It seemed like Jaide didn’t have to try much, and even if Kadin needed more time to learn, he had talent as well. But no matter how much Ain tried, he never got any better. And he doesn’t understand how that can be possible when he was trying so hard. It just wasn’t fair.So now, out of habit, Ain sneaks out and after everything that happened, in his frustration he puts his everything into the exercises. He even stays outside longer than ever before. When he’s finally ready to call it a night, he’s really proud of himself, thinking this time he really earned sleep. But unfortunately, he never makes it to his bed because he passes out right in front of his room.When Ja’far comes to finally turn in for the night, he almost has a heart attack when he sees Ain lying on the floor. Once he confirms nothing was wrong Ain was just sleeping, Ja’far is relieved. But the clothes he’s wearing are raising a lot of questions since he told him he wasn’t allowed to train.After tucking Ain in, Ja’far puts the two and two together and realizes what was going on. Even though he has trouble believing Ain would do such a thing, he couldn’t deny it. He saw the clothing and he’s upset and mad but mostly, confused. Ja’far helplessly looks at Ain as he sleeps but he knows he won’t get an answer out of him.Although Ja’far was able to guess what was going on behind the scenes, he had no real evidence to back up his claims other than Ain wearing his training clothing. So he waits for the next night to set his plan into motion by putting an emphasis on how he’ll be working very late while in reality, he’ll be keeping an eye on the training grounds from afar.And Ja’far truly wishes he were in the wrong, to this to be a silly misunderstanding. Even after seeing Ain, he still doesn’t want to believe it, but he can’t bring himself to watch what Ain is doing to himself. So Ja’far just waits for him to finish, back at the palace. As the hours drag on the more concerned he becomes but he refuses to move.When Ain finally decides to head back Ja’far grabs his arm from the shadows, which startles Ain. Ja’far immediately asks where he was, And Ain is horrified. He knows he couldn’t lie since his clothing already gave him away so he just remains frozen until Ja’far had enough of waiting and pulls Ain into his room to make sure they wouldn’t wake up the others.And Ja’far starts to question Ain while pacing up and down, asking why would he do such a thing, doesn’t he know it’s dangerous to go out at that time, not mention how cold it was outside at night. And Ja’far keeps rambling on and on, but his only goal is to pull out an explanation from him.He gets one when Ain suddenly bursts out that it’s because Ja’far’s lessons were useless. wanting to hear more Ja’far presses on and Ain continues, asking if Ja’far truly wanted to help him because it sure didn’t look like it, adding how he never even got the chance to decide whether he wanted to stick with Sharrkan’s lessons or not.Ja’far stays silent as Ain yells. It’s the first time something like this happened between the two of them, so it feels surreal for him. When Ain is done he glares at his dad waiting for an answer, so Ja’far takes a shuddery breath. With a wavering voice he tells Ain that he thought this might be better for him.And Ain just snaps back at him saying that it’s not better since it’s not working, he’s way behind. So Ja’far responds with more confidence, it’s not a race but Ain refuses to believe that. Ain desperately admits that he needed to catch up and he could only do that with Sharrkan’s method because at least, when he was doing that he could see some improvement, then asks why couldn’t Ja’far understand that.At that, Ja’far finally raises his voice and lets Ain know that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about since Sharrkan was the one who came to inform him about how his methods were not working, and that’s why he took it upon himself to teach him.Ain weakly tries to continue the argument, saying it’s not fair, he’s always the one Ja’far holds back and he always gets treated differently. Then with the last of his courage Ain adds that Ja’far is the reason why Jaide distanced himself from them.And with that last comment, Ja’far had enough. He still feels guilty about making those mistakes in the past, so he starts to yell too, telling Ain the reason why he’s treated differently is because he’s weak, adding that he needed to treat him and Jaide differently because they needed other things growing up. They were two separate people with individual needs after all.Ja’far keeps yelling about how he never should’ve let Ain train, saying that from now on he could say goodbye to his lessons. And Ain knows at this point he couldn’t win this so he just mutters, but Ja’far can clearly hear him say that if their mom were alive she wouldn’t have let things get so bad.And if Ja’far thought he was angry before, then he was wrong, now he was fuming. Filled with anger and trying to keep it together he tells Ain to immediately get out of his room. Being caught off guard, Ain only takes a few steps backwards, he never heard Ja’far use this tone of voice.The fact that Ain still hadn’t listened to him and he already had lost all of his patience, and the stuff that just got brought up makes Ja’far see red. The next thing he knows is that he’s in front of Ain and his hand moves on its own.For both of them it takes a while to register what just happened. As soon as Ja’far realizes what he had done, he’s horrified with himself. He immediately tries to check on Ain by crouching down but he just curls in on himself in response, clearly not wanting to be touched.Ain keeps his face hidden away with his hands, holding the cheek that had been hit and Ja’far thinking it was because he’s got a bruise, he hurriedly stands up to get the first aid kit he keeps in his room for emergencies.However, the moment there’s some distance between them Ain finally finds the strength to bolt out of the room. And Ja’far doesn’t bother to stop him since seeing his son being so scared of him broke his heart.After that, Ja’far spends the night with thinking and blaming himself for a lot of things, and when Ain doesn’t show up for breakfast, he doesn’t have the will power nor the courage to knock on his door to ask him to join them. So he just goes to work, hoping if he’s not there then Ain would finally come out and at least eat.But Ain didn’t do that on purpose because unlike Ja’far, the moment Ain reached his bed he passed out from exhaustion. He used up the last of his energy to run out of Ja’far’s room. Since no one bothered to wake him up, he spends half of the day with sleeping.Once Ain wakes up, he freaks out because he missed not only breakfast and lunch, but Ja’far’s lecture as well. Sitting up panicking he places his hand on his cheek as an instinct. Then he remembers the events that took place the night before and stops regretting not showing up. He couldn’t look at Ja’far even if he wanted to.After a while Ain stretches out and he’s surprised to find how different his body feels. Even though he’s still sore thanks to his constant training, he feels as if a ton of weight had been just lifted off of his shoulders. Or rather, off of his entire body.Laying back he notices other changes as well, he feels more relaxed than he ever did during in these past months. And thinking about it, Ain realizes this was the first day in a long time when he actually let himself sleep in.Suddenly, recalling all the things that were said the night before, Ain rolls to his side. He didn’t want this. And looking back on his actions, he doesn’t recognize himself. The way he behaved wasn’t like him at all. Remembering how upset, mad and sad he felt, all at the same time, and the way Ja’far looked at him was crushing his soul.He questions what exactly happened to him and Ain only has one answer. Constantly putting his body through such treatment, so much pressure while not giving his body the rest it needed, made him unable to learn, to think, to feel, to enjoy things or just in general, to function normally.Then Ain swallows as he realizes how he must’ve known what he was doing to himself all along, that’s not the real reason why he got to this point. It was all because he couldn’t accept his own condition.He pushed himself to his own limits, even beyond that, stubbornly believing he wasn’t different. He didn’t want to be weak, in fact he wanted the opposite. He wanted to prove he could be strong. But more than anything, he just wanted to have fun and be with his brothers, to catch up and just be able to do this together with them.Curling in on himself Ain admits to himself that he couldn’t. He tried and tried yet his body wasn’t allowing him to do so. He knew deep down it wasn’t Ja’far who held him back, but he had to blame someone, even if now, recalling it, made him feel terrible.Hearing how weak he was from Ja’far’s mouth hurt more than anything, but Ain realizes now, it’s the truth. He needed to hear that. He’s not ready to accept it, far from it. And he’s more than certain that he deserved that slap.So Ain takes a deep breath, Ja’far took the time and taught him even though he had more important things to do, he even desperately tried to reach out and tell Ain he just wanted to give him what he thought was the best. He sees now how ungrateful he had been.After a few minutes of staring at the ceiling, Ain makes up his mind and finally gets up. Surprisingly he doesn’t come across anyone, and then he realizes. Since it was already afternoon, Kadin and Jaide were training with Sharrkan.Ain shakes his head quickly and declares that he has more important things to focus on. Bringing himself some food he sits down and goes over everything he failed on during the lectures, starting at the beginning.And Ain is shocked to find out that even though he still wasn’t feeling well enough, he made more progress in under a few hours than in these last few months. Even if he was being a bit slower than usual, Ain works on getting through everything, and he realizes it wasn’t even that hard.Meanwhile during a meeting both Sinbad and Hinahoho pick up on Ja’far’s gloomy mood and once the three of them are left alone in the room they ask what’s going on. Ja’far reluctantly admits he has some trouble with one of his kids. At that Sinbad smiles asking what Jaide had done this time, leaning closer to make sure Ja’far knew he was all ears.Ja’far only responds it wasn’t Jaide, it was Ain, and it takes some time for both Hinahoho and Sinbad to process that answer. Then Sinbad just bursts out laughing and tells Ja’far that it was a good joke, clutching his sides while he tries to stifle his laughs.But Hinahoho knew Ja’far wasn’t joking, from his pained expression and strained voice he could tell this was serious. So he glares at Sinbad and that’s when he realizes on how bad the situation really was. Both of them know that Ain loved his dad way too much and he was a well-behaved kid, so they want to know what exactly happened.It takes them some to pull it out of him but eventually Ja’far’s explains what happened and even ends up admitting that he’s horrible and he’s on the same level as Perseus. Ja’far even blurts out that he’s even worse, since he actually hurt Ain, and asks in a hushed tone if he’s truly suited for taking care of children.Hearing all of this, Hinahoho immediately grabs Ja’far’s shoulders then tells him that he knows what kind of father he is, and he’s better than that scum who dared to call himself Kadin’s father. Hinahoho knows how hard Ja’far tries, so he refused to let him look down on himself.Sinbad places his hand on Ja’far’s back as he reassures him that Ain still loved him. Although it takes some time for Hinahoho and Sinbad to convince him that Ain is capable of forgiving, Ja’far eventually calms down.Meanwhile Ain’s quiet study time gets interrupted when Jaide and Kadin join him to tell him about their lesson and their new achievements. And during this Ain notices that he doesn’t feel anger towards them anymore, instead he’s happy and proud. He even finds himself smiling genuinely as Jaide and Kadin bicker with each other playfully.But the two of them are clearly tired so they head to bed fairly soon compared to him. For a moment, Ain bitterweetly thinks he missed this. Since he doesn’t feel tired after sleeping all day, he stays up. Which, doesn’t make things any easier for Ja’far since he stays in his office working extra late for this exact reason. To avoid Ain.Even after all the encouragement Sinbad and Hinahoho had given him he can’t bring himself to talk this out with Ain. And he feels guilty about it too, Ja’far wishes it’d be so simple but this time, he’s really disgusted with himself. So when Ain walks into the kitchen and the two of them lock eyes, Ja’far has to tear his eyes away.But even if that’s the case, Ain sits down. While Ja’far tries focus on cooking dinner for the next day but the new presence is bothering him, while Ain keeps thinking about ways to grab Ja’far’s attention but he doesn’t know what to say. Neither of them are able to break the silence.Ja’far is sure that on the surface he might seem cold, maybe a bit distant, but in reality, he wanted to fix this. He wanted nothing more than that because this was hurting him as much as it was hurting Ain. And for Ain this is a weird experience, he was always met with a smile when he looked at Ja’far. So he doesn’t know what he could say in such a situation.But when Ja’far places a warm cup of herbal tea in front of him, a small thank you instantly slips out of his mouth. Ja’far’s eyebrows rise in surprise, but he doesn’t say anything. Ain takes it anyway and keeps taking small sips while Ja’far returns to cooking.And Ain thinks it’s finally time for him to gather some courage and speak up, but he can’t find the right words and by the time he realizes he should just hurry up and start somewhere then figure out what he wants to say, Ja’far is already walking out of the kitchen. And it stung to be left alone like that.Ain promises to himself to make it up to Ja’far so he spends the next few days focusing on his studies, aiming for the perfect score on every test. And Ja’far can see that, so out of guilt, during a lecture he announces that Ain can continue training. Jaide and Kadin keep congratulating, but Ain can’t hear any of their words. He didn’t want this to be the first thing Ja’far said to him, this wasn’t his goal with catching up. But not seeing any other way, Ain joins Ja’far for the lesson because a part of him was scared he might upset him if he didn’t show up. But on another hand, this gave him the perfect opportunity to talk to Ja’far, it was just the two of them, after all.Ain couldn’t have been any more wrong. Ja’far makes sure he has no time to talk, because he gives out instructions one after another and although the tasks are still the same, Ja’far’s whole attitude had changed. He no longer forces the lighthearted atmosphere and gives Ain what he wished for, real challenges.During these lessons Ja’far feels horrible, he never lets it show but it tears him apart to act like that. He’s able to be cold but doing it in front of and to one of his sons is really hard for him. And seeing Ain struggle, he needs to fight the urge to help him.Eventually Ja’far surprises Ain with small wooden weapons, and although at first Ain thinks he’s getting back at Ja’far’s good side since it seemed like they were going to play a fun game, it turns out he was wrong again. In reality, Ja’far was figuring out what kind of weapon would be the most suitable for Ain and the result ends up being rope darts. So after that Ja’far puts an actual target in front of him, a dummy. Ain tries his best to listen to Ja’far’s explanation but he couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. Eventually Ja’far instructs him to throw it at the target. Although he has a bad feeling about it, Ain picks one dart up with a trembling hand and throws it. It perfectly hits the dummy in the face and Ja’far is so impressed he instantly smiles, forgetting about everything for a second. As he turns to Ain he finds that he was staring ahead blankly. Ja’far immediately asks in a concerned tone if he was okay.And Ain looks back at him desperately, then slowly walks up to him. He buries his face into Ja’far’s clothes as he shakes and Ja’far bends down to hug him properly. At first he doesn’t know what to say but hearing Ain’s sobs he decides nothing is more important than him in that moment, so he gently rubs his back while he reassures him that everything was okay.Deep down Ain knew what the training was for, but he was way too naive to face the facts that in a dangerous situation he might have take someone’s life. And That’s when he realizes how weak he really is. Not just physically, but emotionally as well. So he keeps crying and that’s when Ja’far’s cold and distant façade crumbles down. Nothing was more important that his sons. So he pulls Ain even closer.Eventually Ain runs out of tears and lets go of Ja’far, then starts to walk away. And Ja’far tries to stop him and hug him again, but he gets brushed aside by Ain saying he was done with the training in the most emotionless voice. Ja’far not seeing any chance at changing his mind decides to give him some space.By the time dinner time rolls around Ja’far needs to call out for Ain a couple of times before he gets an answer that he wants to skip it. Kadin and Jaide seem to notice something’s up, but since Ain gets sick pretty often it’s not that unusual that only three of them are at the table.Around bedtime Ja’far knocks on Ain’s door and once he got permission to enter he announces that he brought some food and he’d like it if Ain ate some. Ain doesn’t react in the slightest so Ja’far just puts it down on his bedside table.Ja’far slowly sits down on the bed and stares at Ain’s back. He wonders what kind of expression he has, if he’s angry or sad so he speaks up again, repeating the request. He doesn’t get an answer but Ain shifts a bit which tells Ja’far that he might be able to talk with him.For a moment Ja’far wonders if it’s okay to put a hand on Ain’s head, to comfort him. But he decides against it. Sighing Ja’far turns towards Ain and asks him to listen then gets straight to the point and apologizes. He tells Ain what he did was wrong and that he didn’t deserve to be hit.And Ain stops him right there saying that he did and that statement confuses Ja’far, he didn’t want any of his kids to think like that. So stuttering Ja’far says, a bit louder, that he shouldn’t have lost his temper like that. He thought he could control it at this point in his life but he was wrong.His apology gets ignored once again when Ain asks in a quiet voice if Ja’far knows what was wrong with him. Ja’far seemingly misunderstands the question and answers that he doesn’t which is why he’d like it if Ain told him.To this Ain shakes his head and asks once again, if there’s anyone who knew what his condition, his sickness or whatever that was causing him to be sick was called or what it did. Ja’far is caught off guard by this question but he honestly tells Ain that no, no one knows.Ain slowly sits up, but he’s still facing away from Ja’far when his next question leaves his mouth which is, is this sickness the reason why their mother wasn’t alive. Ja’far’s response doesn’t come quickly as the one before, so in those few minutes which feel like eternity for him, Ain actually believes it has to be the case.But then Ja’far reassures him that no, it wasn’t the cause of her death. Ain is both relieved and confused by this newfound information because he still didn’t have an answer. So Ain finally turns around and a more hopeful part of him asks, if there’s any way his condition could be fixed.And Ja’far feels his chest tighten a little bit hearing this. He wanted Ain to be as healthy as possible, but even if he was, Ain wouldn’t be able to live like other kids. So Ja’far admits once again, that he doesn’t know. Before Ain could’ve given up on the idea Ja’far continues.He tells Ain that when they found out about his condition, Yamuraiha actually offered to look for a solution. But at that time Ja’far didn’t allow her to do so. Ain was just a little kid and Ja’far already lost his wife, so he refused to put Ain’s life at risk with some experiments. And even though it wasn’t the best decision he made, he still stands by it.But Ja’far tells Ain that if he wants Yamuraiha to do something all he has to do is to ask her. This time, Ja’far won’t stop her even if he’s against it. And Ain just nods in response. Then carefully, Ja’far tells Ain that whatever he decides regarding the lessons, he’s fine with it.After Ja’far leaves Ain spends some time thinking about it which turns into months. He eventually works up the courage to ask Yamuraiha for her help. She gladly accepts the job since she’s really fond of him and wants Ain to get better too. Sadly, everything she tries ends up failing. She’s incredibly upset and apologetic but Ain knows it’s not her fault.Ain is disappointed and devastated for a few weeks after that, and in order to get away from that he buries himself into the world of books. If it weren’t for Kadin and Jaide constantly checking up on him, he would’ve stayed that way a bit longer. But his brothers don’t want to see Ain completely shutting himself away from the world so they make sure to keep his spirits up.Which, eventually leads to him asking for the lessons from Ja’far, to have something that makes him feel like he can do something about his weakness. Ja’far of course takes up the role of a teacher once again. Afraid, that Ain developed some sort of fear of darts he gives Ain a different weapon. A Bow. And Ain turns out to be a really good archer, so Ja’far is very pleased with his performance.Ain, however is not. As the lessons go on, he knows he’s still basically at the start but he swallows that feeling down. So one night he decides to talk to Jaide and Kadin about what was bothering him and in the end he’s really glad he did.Both of them are very understanding, but also sad that they couldn’t be there for Ain when he needed them most. But Ain is aware of the fact that he was the one who kept them in the dark so he doesn’t hold that against them. Thanks to them, Ain even goes back to the rope darts and masters that as well.Ain often feels down about himself but whenever this happens, his brothers are there to cheer him up, to encourage him or just to give him a hug. So Ain knows as long as they’re together, everything was going to be fine.But while Ain admits his troubles Kadin stays quiet about his. He finally managed to get over most of his fears and to live without them controlling him. He wasn’t ready to go back to the mindset he had after they came back from the vacation. But he found out that the memories still lingered. Kadin doesn’t know why, maybe because he wanted repress it to the point where his brain couldn’t handle it but he starts to have nightmares again.  And those start to warp and change with time.For a while Kadin can easily ignore the dreams, but once it gets unbearable he wants to do something about it. Since he doesn’t want to scare Ja’far, he turns to Pisti. This surprises her since he’s been doing nothing but practically avoiding her since the vacation they’ve had years ago, but she gladly listens to him without any judgment.Pisti doesn’t want to sound like she wants to force Kadin to give Artemyra a second chance because she adores her country, but she doesn’t know what else could help him. She think if he could go there and have a few positive experiences maybe he could move on. Surprisingly Kadin agrees.So Pisti talks with her mother and coincidentally after Kadin’s eighteenth birthday, he receives a letter from Artemyra. Curiously opening the letter he finds out it came from Mira who states that if he’s still interested in the country then he could stay at the palace and learn. She’d guarantee his safety, even offering to give him personal guards during his stay.This letter proves to Kadin he could conquer his fear, but he still doesn’t know if he should go. When Ja’far finds out about it he’s at loss of words. He’s fully against it. He doesn’t want to let Kadin stay in that country after what happened the last time they were there, but Ja’far eventually has to bite down his tongue since Kadin was old enough to decide things for himself. So Ja’far has a long discussion with Kadin about the matter, and he honestly tells him he’d rather have him in Sindria. Ja’far knows Kadin was able to protect himself, but he’ll always worry about his sons. Despite everything, Kadin’s final decision is to accept the invitation, and no matter what Ja’far wants he’s aware he no longer has the right to say what Kadin can or can’t do, therefore if he wanted to go then he needed to come to terms with it.Ain is torn up because of this, he can’t believe his older brother actually wants to go back to that place when he knows that terrible man is still there. But even if he doesn’t support Kadin’s idea he’s powerless to do anything since Ja’far already gave him permission him to leave. Which makes him angry, and hurt. He doesn’t know what he would do without one of his brothers. Meanwhile Jaide feels upset, but he’s sure Kadin has his reasons.Soon the day comes when Kadin would leave, and the three of them say goodbye at the docks. And before he gets on the ship Ja’far tells him that no matter what happens he can always come back, this was his home. Then Ja’far adds that he wants Kadin to keep in contact, he needs to write at least one letter every month or else he’ll get too worried and jokingly tells him he’ll swim to Artemyra just to make sure he was okay.After Kadin promises he’ll do that, and while Ja’far checks if he has everything packed, Kadin hugs his little brothers before leaving. When he gets to Ain, Ain doesn’t really want to let him go. As long as Kadin and Jaide were  by his side he felt at ease. With them, everything was alright.Which is why Ain doesn’t want to let Kadin go. But eventually he hast to, and Ja’far makes sure he does by placing a hand on top of his head which catches Ain off guard and his grip loosens. He unwillingly lets Kadin go, who gets on board soon after that.Ja’far, Jaide and Ain wave until the ship is barely in sight, and once it completely disappears Ain breaks down so Ja’far gently pulls him close then does the same to Jaide. Even though Ja’far tries to keep it together he tears up as well. Once he realizes they should probably head back, he wipes his tears away and places his hand on both of his sons’ backs and together they slowly back to the palace.Even though they are already teenagers with Ain being sixteen and Jaide being fifteen, Ja’far lets them sleep next to him, just to give himself and the boys some sort of comfort after Kadin’s departure. It’s a bit nostalgic and crowded since the two of them grown a lot bigger, but Ja’far doesn’t mind.The first few days are really hard on all of them. Ja’far accidentally places one more plate than needed on the table and looks for Kadin at some point before realizing he’s on a ship travelling to Artemyra. Ain keeps tearing up every so often during the day, and when he wasn’t crying it wasn’t that hard to guess how heartbroken he was.Jaide is equally worried about both Ain and Kadin, but more so about Ain since crying so much makes him weak and sick. And knowing how hard this is on Ja’far, Jaide tries his best to hide his concerns and sadness, so he cries only when he knows for sure he’s alone, just like how he did in the past. But for Ain and Ja’far, he becomes someone they can lean on.Jaide tries to spend most of his time with Ain trying to cheer him up and to keep him distracted. He’s also the only one who goes into Kadin’s room from time to time because he can find some sort of comfort in there. Ja’far only goes there to clean but he makes sure to be quick about it, while Ain can’t even bring himself to look at the door.Sooner than they expected they get a letter from Kadin, and Ja’far, Jaide and Ain read it together. Kadin’s letter says that everything’s fine he got there in one piece, and mentions how much he misses them already and how nervous he is. Kadin admits that he started to doubt himself, he isn’t sure if he made the right choice, even though so far everything seemed to be okay and everyone’s been really nice to him.And even though Ja’far really wants him to come back more than anything, he doesn’t want Kadin to feel so upset. So he just writes a really long, encouraging response, telling him they’re still with him even if not in person. Writing that letter, makes Ja’far feel better about the whole situation.Before sending it, Ja’far asks if Ain or Jaide want to add something but neither of them has anything to say, though he was sure Ain looked like he wanted to. Ja’far quickly puts a post-scriptum in the letter, and advises that maybe directly addressing Ain or Jaide he could tell them about his experiences or ask something from them because they seem to be too shy to initiate a conversation.Realizing Ja’far might be right, the next time Kadin sends two different letters, one addressed to Ja’far and one for his younger brothers. And while the letter is addressed to both of them and they read it together Jaide lets Ain write the response. Jaide still adds some stuff here and there, when they’re talking about what to write back and Ain makes sure Kadin knows which parts came from him. Jaide knows this makes Ain feel better, so he never switches places to write a letter himself.For a while it works, Kadin tells them what was going on in his life and they do the same, but as more time goes on the more pain piles up in everyone’s hearts. Kadin never, not even once comes back to Sindria. Not even for a short visit, nor for their birthdays. And it would be a lie if Ja’far, Ain or Jaide was okay with that.During these years, Jaide keeps on training, learning to fight with every possible weapon he can get his hands on. He quickly picks up on a lot of techniques, mastering the use of many weapons and he eventually starts to aim to get into the Sindrian national military force. Ain starts to help out in the offices as a pastime, and Ja’far appreciates the help so one day proposes the idea that Ain could work there if he wanted to. Ain isn’t sure what he wants to do so he just pushes the thought of working away.With Jaide being busy with training to reach his goal, Ain is left alone to figure out what to write as an answer to Kadin’s letters, and after two years of avoiding the question he finally asks when Kadin is planning on returning home. Even if Kadin never came home, he always kept sending letters so Ain gets a response fairly fast. But before he can read the response, Jaide announces he finally got accepted as a guard and can officially start to work as a soldier soon, so he wants Ain to celebrate this with him and Ja’far.Ain promises he’ll join them but he needed to do something first and asks to be left alone, to read Kadin’s response. He couldn’t wait anymore for the answer and hopes that thanks to his question Kadin would notice how much they missed him, so he refused to move until he read the letter.That’s when Ain’s last hope of ever seeing Kadin fades away. Kadin seemingly wasn’t bothered by the question, answering with a simple ‘I don’t know’ and kept writing like there wasn’t anything wrong. Ain tears up the letter in his disappointment and throws it across the room but later on, he puts it away in a box where he keeps Kadin’s other letters too.With a sigh he calmly writes a response to Kadin’s letter, not mentioning home ever again, and leaves to celebrate Jaide’s success with Ja’far. During that night Jaide notices how quiet his brother is being and asks if everything was okay and that’s when Ain declares that he wants to work in the office. This catches Ja’far off guard but he couldn’t be prouder. In the end he’s celebrating both of his little boys taking their first steps into adulthood, even if Jaide was still a year away from being an actual adult.When Ain starts working at the palace, it turns out that he’s a perfectionist when it comes to work just like Ja’far, which meant he had less time and it was up to Jaide to reply to Kadin. Although Ain is aware he could take the time to do it himself, he doesn’t want to, he completely gave up on Kadin so he uses work as an excuse.And even though Ain is older he still gets sick, especially since started working. The way he pushes himself isn’t doing him any good. During the years he got really skilled at hiding his sickness, so it was only a matter of time before he learned to do his work despite feeling horrible. This meant Ja’far and Jaide needed to be extra careful and needed to keep a very close eye on him.Though, Ja’far doesn’t have as much time as he used to, now that his kids are all grown up he could finally take back the amount of paperwork he gave away to the other palace workers years ago. Back then he needed to lessen his workload because his boys were young and he needed time to properly educate and take care of them. But now he didn’t really need that time.So mainly it’s up to Jaide to notice when Ain isn’t feeling well, and he gets really good at noticing the small warning signs. Jaide often brings him a cup of warm tea, or if Ain falls asleep at his desk it’s Jaide’s job to take him back to his bed. On days when Ain is too stubborn to admit he’s sick Jaide waits until he lets him help. On some occasions when his sickness is so bad he can’t hide it, Jaide stays with him as long as he can to make sure his big brother was alright.With Jaide writing the letters, Kadin gets more insight into his family’s life back in Sindria than he ever did when Ain wrote him. Ain only told him about the good things, but Jaide makes sure to honestly inform him about everything and Kadin realizes that he probably missed a lot of things thanks to Ain only talking about positive things.Then before Ain’s twentieth birthday, Jaide gets a letter from Kadin stating that he’ll return shortly and he wants to stay for a while, if that’s okay with them. Jaide only tells Ja’far about it, who is a little unsure about this thing because he is just as hurt about Kadin never visiting as his boys are, but he’s also overjoyed because the son he hasn’t seen for a long time was finally coming home.The both of them start to prepare a surprise party for Ain. During this preparation Kadin arrives and Ja’far is really happy to see him, he barely wants to let him go of their hug and he even tears up. From Jaide he gets a warm welcome too and the three of them continue setting up everything together while catching up.Once they’re done, Jaide goes to Ain and despite his protests, he manages to pull him away from work. Ain is really surprised when he sees the party they set up for him, but he doesn’t mind, in fact he likes it. Then the smile freezes on his face as he notices Kadin.Kadin walks up to him to greet him, wishes him happy birthday then hugs him, but it soon becomes clear to him that everything about this was awkward since Ain wasn’t hugging him back. Pulling away to ask what was wrong, he could see the shock on Ain’s face. But once Ain realizes that everyone was staring at them, he plays it off like he was so surprised, he just kind of froze up.But it becomes very clear to Kadin that this was more than just a white lie, because Ain seemed to keep his distance from him during the party. He wasn’t avoiding him, but it’s obvious Ain would rather chat with other guests than sit down and talk with him. Which, Kadin supposed made sense since Ain probably developed new relationships since he’d been gone but there was a ‘what if’ in the back of his mind during the whole party.And in the next couple of days Kadin stops having doubts, because while he heard from Jaide how hardworking Ain was, he was capable of pulling him away from work. Now he used work non-stop as an excuse to avoid anything and everything that was related to Kadin. Ain even worked himself to exhaustion so he wouldn’t have to deal with Kadin.It doesn’t take long for Jaide to have enough of this, he knows that if Ain kept this up his health would worsen and he doesn’t want that so he straight up tells Kadin to go and fix this whole situation, to keep pestering Ain until he can get him away from work. It has to be Kadin, since it’s obvious he’s the cause of this. Kadin does as asked and he meekly tries to start up a conversation but in turn he gets shooed away by Ain saying he had work. Remembering Jaide’s broken voice when he told him he needed to fix this as soon as possible for Ain’s sake, Kadin gets the courage to keep annoying Ain. Although Kadin is really embarrassed about causing a ruckus in the office and bothering other workers too, he doesn’t let up until Ain agrees. Once he had Ain to himself for an entire afternoon, Kadin makes sure to make him eat and drink something while they’re chatting, mostly with Kadin doing the talking. He tries to get Ain to smile and it kind of works because as time goes on he opens up and talks more, and a soft smile starts to appear on his face. This gives Kadin a sense of familiarity since Ain was full of smiles back then.The first few times he saw Ain it was really hard to believe he was the same boy from his memory. Kadin remembered his little brother being happy and positive all the time, but now he missed a certain sparkle from his eyes and he looked more like a tired adult. And that’s exactly why it feels like an achievement to see an honest smile from him.A few hours after walking around they decide to sit on a bench, and the atmosphere completely changes between them, as if they were back to square one. Both of them sit in silence looking at the scenery, while Kadin tries to come up with a conversation in his head. Not being able to think of anything else he asks what made Ain decide to start working at the palace. And that question ticks him off.Kadin never gets a response from Ain, he gets a question instead. Ain asks how long does he intend on staying. The sudden change of subject catches Kadin off guard, he has no idea what to say and stutters out that he doesn’t know, and with that answer, Ain just gets up.  Kadin immediately asks if he had said something wrong, wanting to know what was going on with Ain.And for the very first time since Kadin got here, Ain truly looks into his eyes, and asks him if he really though that he can just show up suddenly whenever he pleased after not visiting for years, and expect them be okay with that. To that Kadin replies that he thought Ain knew, he said so in the last letter that he was coming back to visit.Ain dismisses that saying he was never told about such a thing, and keeps questioning him, asking if he ever thought about how much his decision had hurt them, if he ever really thought about them outside of the letters, not just writing them as a dumb chore just to keep Ja’far from dragging him home. And he keeps throwing things into Kadin’s face until he’s heaving.Once he’s out of breath Ain stops to get some air, then the last thing he asks from Kadin is to leave him alone. After that Ain returns to the palace locking himself away without a word, and once Kadin gets back Jaide is really curious about what happened because Ain happened to pass him in the hall and he refused to answer.With Ja’far soon joining them, Kadin explains what happened, and starts to apologize to both of them saying how sorry he is for not coming home sooner, saying that he actually planned on returning for good but if Ain hated him then he should just go back. Kadin hides his face in his hands in shame and keeps repeating that he’s truly sorry.And his dad and his brother pull him close, comforting him. Ja’far tells him that it’s true that it really hurt to let him go but he knew it needed to be done, and even though he never visited he kept his promise and wrote them letters just like he asked. Ja’far truly thinks that Kadin needed a second chance with Artemyra, and he’s glad he had a much better experience this time.After he was sure Ja’far had nothing else to say, Jaide tells Kadin he knew he would come back, so he isn’t mad at him and he’s sure that Ain wouldn’t be able to hate him either. He tells Kadin what probably was going on with Ain is that he didn’t know how to handle the situation, so his only reasonable solution is to push Kadin away. Which, wasn’t how Ain would’ve handled things in the past, but he also grown up and changed.Jaide wants to know why he spent so much time in Artemyra, and why did he choose to come back now, so he asks. Lifting his head up, Kadin admits that he had more reason to stay in Artemyra than just to learn about the country. And Ja’far and Jaide give each other a confused glace, wanting to hear more.Kadin tells them that back then, when he met his father he realized how dangerous he was and even though he knew Ja’far was capable of protecting them, he couldn’t take risks. Not to mention, during his stay he saw what that man had become. After the little vacation they took he had been closely monitored, as Mira promised. But he didn’t seem to be forcing the façade on himself anymore, it was clear that he was a dangerous man, and since Kadin basically told him they were in Sindria, that man could easily find them.And the thought that only a little bit of clever planning and will, he could get away and sail straight to Sindria to search for any of them scared Kadin more than anything else in the world. The thought that he might hurt Ain, Jaide or Ja’far was unbearable, so he knew he had to overcome his fear and to find a way to lock him away for good.He promised himself that he wouldn’t return to Sindria until he knew his father was behind bars, so he kept gathering evidence alone and thinking of ways he could get something out of him. He even started to think about how he could confront and provoke him then  lead him away where there’d be a lot of witnesses.Then Kadin admits that on the first few nights he was scared his father might get into the room he was staying in and hurt him, and he had many nightmares about his father hurting Ain and Jaide, sometimes Ja’far as well. Kadin tells them that he wanted to come home so badly, to just bury himself in the arms of his beloved family, but despite everything, he stayed.In the end Mira found out about his true intentions and helped him out. Together, they came up with a plan that wouldn’t risk Kadin’s wellbeing, and his father was put in jail for good. And only when Kadin seen him behind bars, he felt like he could return home for good.After hearing all of this, Ja’far harshly scolds him, telling him he could’ve asked for help from him, and if he wanted to come home so badly he shouldn’t have forced himself to stay, adding that getting so close to his father to provoke him was the worst possible plan he could’ve come up with. But then he quickly pulls Kadin into a hug saying how glad he is that he’s okay and strokes his hair, trying to make up for those lonely days Kadin had to spend in Artemyra.Jaide softly smiles at the sight and tells Kadin that he knew he had to have a reason to stay there for so long, which is why he never held a grudge against him. But even so, he wants Kadin to sit down and explain this whole thing to Ain as well, and it takes some time to actually convince him to apologize but Jaide manages to make him agree saying the sooner he does it the sooner things will get back to normal.So with the support of his dad and his brother, Kadin checks on Ain. Knocking on his bedroom door, he doesn’t get an answer. He didn’t expect anything so he peeks in and sees nothing but darkness so he goes in further. Once he taken a few steps, Kadin realizes something isn’t right with the way Ain breathes, and calls for help.Jaide comes rushing in with Ja’far closely following him, and places a hand on Ain’s forehead he tells Kadin that everything was fine. Ain was just having a fever, then Jaide mutters under his breath that this is what he was so afraid of happening, and other than placing a cold washcloth against his forehead they couldn’t do much until Ain woke up.Jaide offers to stay with him but Kadin volunteers instead, so Jaide lets him. When Ain wakes up Kadin gives him a lot of water and even manages to get him to eat a few bites. Surprisingly, Ain lets Kadin stroke his hair as he falls asleep once more, and while he isn’t sure if Ain is just too weak to protest or if he let him because he doesn’t care anymore, he’s fine with it. Ja’far and Jaide checks up on Ain separately, but Kadin’s the only one who constantly stays next to him.After a few days of being in a daze Ain finally wakes up feeling a little better. Seeing Kadin sitting next to his bed makes him feel really uncomfortable so Ain tries to get up saying he’s okay now, but he easily gets pushed back down by Kadin and no matter what he says Kadin refuses to leave him alone. Ain’s solution to that problem is to turn away to his other side, so he doesn’t have to look at Kadin in any way.Finding out he’s still tired he dozes off quickly and the next time he wakes up, Ain notices that he scooted closer to where Kadin was sitting and he took his hand in a way Kadin couldn’t stay in the chair comfortably so he had to lay down next to him. As if that wasn’t enough, Kadin was hugging him close as he laid there.Hoping this would be his chance to get away Ain tries to slip away from his grasp, not being aware of the fact that Kadin was awake despite his closed eyes, so he keeps trying. The moment Kadin felt Ain shift he knew he had woken up and because he knows Ain still needed rest, he tightens his grip, just enough to make him unable to move away.With Kadin confirming with a whisper that he’s awake, Ain gives up the thought of escaping. After some awkward silence Kadin tells him how sorry he is and that he doesn’t ever want Ain to push himself to the point of sickness. Ain just softly hums, and after some silence asks if it was easy to leave them behind, however he regrets bringing it up and looks away.And even though he can’t see it Kadin softly smiles before answering that he spent the first few months crying and wanting to go back, and admits that the moment he got off the ship he was ready to sail back. If he didn’t get a ship, he would’ve been fine with swimming back. After some silence Ain asks quietly why didn’t he do that.And Kadin finally opens his eyes, loosens his grip on him and waits until Ain actually meets his eyes, because he wants to let him know he’s serious about this. Kadin tells him the reason why he didn’t come back was because he needed to protect them from his father, and he continues to tell him what he told a few nights ago to Ja’far and Jaide.And Ain just breaks down again, saying how dumb he is for taking this upon himself, wishing he could go back in time and convince Ja’far to visit him so he wouldn’t have to feel so alone, or write a more honest letter and convince him to let out his concerns and admit it was better -- source link

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