It had taken way too long, but Gath had finally convinced Retvik to bugger off for a bit so they could have some privacy. Gath didn’t like having to pull rank, but Retvik was getting clingy-defensive over their injured sibling, even though Relkir was doing a lot better now. And since both Rethais and Kuta had been busy, neither of them had been present to drag Retvik away.
“You look like you really want to talk about something…” Relkir sighed as they sat up in bed and looked out of the window. Gath noticed that Relkir had been doing that a lot, looking to catch a glimpse of the large, black fluffy kitty that had appeared there a few days prior.
“I do, yes.”
“Retvik means well.”
“I know. Retvik just needs to spend some more time socializing with other Rethans more casually…” Gath frowned. “I do not want to talk about an errant captain though.”
“You want to talk about us. Our future. The fact that you are unwell.”
Gath blinked. “How…”
“It is pretty obvious!” Relkir tutted. “The 1000th Legion spends a huge amount of time travelling to all the major cities of Threa, visiting the major Junior Stratoi, and you personally regularly accompany the High General when they visit the universities. You spend a couple of days every two months in Phos. But you have spent the last month here in the capital, constantly in and out of doctors’ appointments, delegating your travelling duties to your favourite captains. You are ill, Gath. More ill than you are willing to admit.”
The gentle giant smiled briefly. “You are a smart cookie. Very observant.”
“Being a smart, observant cookie is, like, half my job as the High Advisor. Something I would very much like to get back to. I am glad that Rethais has their own poten-partner, because I do not like how advisors Fekriir and Trevan look at them.”
“You are also quite judgemental and prone to envy.”
Relkir shrugged. “Well, of course. I have always envied how everyone else gets to live their lives, and I am bound in servitude to my much more powerful sibling, having only regained my reproductive rights two months ago. But that is beside the point. Gath, there is something you are not telling me, something you are scared to tell me. Whatever it is you want to say though, I will not be angry at you.”
Gath’s smile disappeared. They made their way over to the bed and sat down next to Relkir. They put an arm around Relkir, being careful to avoid their bandages, then pulled them tight.
“Unfortunately, my darling, the thing I want to say is rather… dire.”
“How comes?”
Gath sniffed. They stared out of the window, suddenly losing their trail of thought, and it took Relkir prodding them in the side to snap them back to reality.
“You are more ill than you say you are.”
“Unfortunately. Every time I see my doctors, they give me more medication. I seem to permanently have prostaxia and, because of my size, past trauma and imbalanced hormones, my heart is struggling. At the rate I am deteriorating, I will almost certainly not live to see triple digits.”
Relkir stuttered. “You are not ill… you are dying.”
“Well, not quite yet. I am 64 now, if I continue as I am, delegating my travelling duties to my captains, then I might be able to squeeze out twenty more years. If I retire at 70, as I plan to, I might be able to get twenty five years, maybe even thirty. But that is assuming a sudden heart attack does not kill me before then.”
Relkir didn’t respond, and turned their attention to the window. Gath sighed again, then stared at their feet. Now they had said all of that out loud, Gath was… terrified. Relkir was younger than them and, despite their size, they had good genetics and would probably live a long life. It occurred to Gath that, if they continued as they were and Gath only lasted the twenty years they were certain about, Gath’s death would leave Relkir a widower at the young age of 72. Not even middle-aged.
“Well…”
Gath glanced up at Relkir. Well, they glanced down at Relkir, Relkir was an entire metre shorter than Gath, but they wanted to give Relkir their full attention.
“Well?”
“Twenty five years is enough, if we start now.”
“Pardon?” Gath was very unsure about what Relkir had just said.
“This is a lot faster than I would like, but, well…” Relkir hesitated quite a bit, then shook their head and started speaking clearly. “I already wasted away my young adult years, most Rethans settle down with a partner in their thirties and forties. You tried to do the same when you were younger, and you had that all taken away from you. This entire time, we have been alone. But we still have time to settle down.”
“I…” Gath tried to speak, but Relkir reached up and put a finger to their lips.
“I love you, Gath. I know we have not been together that long. And I now know that we will not be together that long. I want to make the most of our limited time though. Twenty five years, heck, even twenty years? It is enough. We can be partnered, we can have a kid, maybe even two, and we will have plenty of time to watch them grow. Worst case scenario, I only have you for a few years, you get taken before your time. But I want you to be happy, to be able to live your life as best you can. And I want to be by your side, for as long as you live.”
Gath didn’t say anything at first. They gazed upon Relkir, staring into their pretty blue eyes, while tears welled up in Gath’s own eyes.
“I cannot even do that though, Relkir…” Gath whimpered. “I cannot lay, that is yet another part of me that is broken. And I certainly cannot burden you with my ill health and my other troubles!”
“Maybe I want to carry your burdens?” Relkir asked back. “I have spent my entire life considering myself lost and forgotten, wanting to give myself to someone but unable to do so. I want to give myself to you. Through the mud and the sand, through the ups and downs. You carried my burdens without asking me. I want to carry your burdens. I want to be with you. For however long you may live.”
“You… you do?”
Relkir snorted. “Of course. Otherwise I would not have just said what I just said! And, like, it does not matter if you cannot lay, I am happy to be the mother if you cannot.”
“But… you are tiny.”
“Hah!” Relkir waved their hand dismissively. “My mother laid three damn eggs at once, and the worst thing that happened was that I came out small and have blue eyes. Maybe, between my tininess and your hugeness, we will have a kid that is normal-sized!”
Gath blinked. Tears were still streaming down their face, but Relkir’s silly comment had caught Gath completely off guard. To the point that Gath started giggling. Gath’s sudden amusement made Relkir giggle too. After a little too long, Gath pulled Relkir into as tight a hug as they could manage.
“You are the best person ever, Relkir.”
“No, we are the best people ever, Gath. We complete each other.”
“We do. But we are both also in pain right now. I think we need a little time to recover.”
Relkir snorted again as they wriggled free from Gath’s grip, then glanced down at their stomach. “Oh. Definitely. I will be stuck here for a few more days while the doctors make sure they fixed my intestines correctly, I am still stuck on liquid foods in the mean time and Medics said I need to avoid strenuous activities for a month while I heal up.”
Gath smiled, then lifted Relkir up and tucked them into bed, before smirking and awkwardly climbing into bed with them. “That is not a problem. Like you said, we have time. Less than I would like, but, as you said, enough. I will stay by your side, while you recover, and forever. I love you, Relkir.”
“I love you too, my dear Gath.”