V #3
"Hey, sorry to keep you waiting. Training ended up running a little long for me. Turns out the Prince wasn't a big fan of my "heroic act" of protecting you, as he called it, so he made me do all of our training drills more times than I can count." Kent rubbed the back of his neck.
Y/N took a step towards him. "Are you kidding me? There's no need to apologize. I'm so sorry you got punished because of me. If I had known that, I wouldn't have let you. I would have been ready to stand up to him on my own."
Kent smiled down at her. "Are you sure about that?"
"Well...no. But still! I wouldn't have wanted you to get hurt on my behalf." She muttered.
Kent places a hand on both of her shoulders, "I promise I'm alright. My arms and legs are a little sore, and my lip hurts like hell, but other than that, I'm fine."
Y/N checks his eyes for any hints of him lying, but finds nothing but the truth.
She lets out a sigh before lightly grasping his chin and pulling his face forward to inspect the wound.
For the second time today, she fails to notice how close in proximity they are to each other.
She also fails to notice Kent's surprised expression at her action and how the tips of his ears turned a light pink.
"It doesn't appear to be a very deep wound. I think a lightweight healing salve should help it heal almost completely overnight. Here, come with me. I actually finished making a new batch today, and you can be my test subject for how well they work."
She says, pulling him in the direction of the Physician's wing.
"Should I be worried about taking one of your healing remedies?" He jokingly asks.
Y/N scoffs in fake offence, "I will have you know that I was at the top of my class in the academy. But, if you annoy me one day, then maybe."
"Thanks for the warning." He says.
They arrive in the workroom, and Y/N guides Kent to one of the seats before walking over to one of the shelves and searching for the exact salve that she needs. The shelf was chock-full of them, and she sighed in frustration before shuffling through them, trying to find the correct one.
Kent clears his throat. "So... I never got a chance to hear about your soulmate before we got interrupted."
Y/N paused. "Oh... yeah. I guess you didn't. I was going to tell you that I haven't gotten my soulmark yet. My 25th birthday is actually coming up soon, so I'll find out then, I guess." She continued with her search.
"That must be exciting. I remember when I was around that age, it was all people could talk about." He mentions.
"And how exactly old are you, Mr. Kent Yoshida?" Y/N jokes.
"27." He answers.
"So, have you met your soulmate yet after all this time?" She asks.
A beat of silence follows, filled with the sound of glass jars clinking against each other. Y/N was about to ask her question again, thinking he hadn't heard her, before he responded, "No, not yet."
A slight tension filled the room at his answer.
Something about the way he said it told Y/N there was more to that story, but that she shouldn't pry just yet.
So, she decided to leave the matter alone and finally found the jar she was looking for.
Opening the lid, she grabbed a clean Q-tip and dapped it in the solution before walking over and tapping it gently on Kent's lips.
The featherlight weight of her touch made Kent let in a slight inhale, and Y/N paused, thinking that he was in pain.
"Are you alright? Is it burning at all?" She asked.
"No, I'm alright. I guess you didn't accidentally create poison, Miss Y/N. Good job." He joked, lightening the mood.
She exhaled a laugh. "I assure you, if I had any intentions of poisoning you, you would never see it coming."
"Wow, how reassuring. I definitely won't be sleeping with one eye open from here on out." He said sarcastically.
The two broke out into friendly banter as Y/N continued to apply a perfectly even layer on his lips.
She would scold him from time to time for speaking so much and ruining her work, to which he would apologize but continue talking.
They kept each other so busy that they failed to notice the presence watching them from a crack in the door, illuminated only by the moonlight.
Lennox stood behind the door, gripping a book tightly in his hands. The book that Y/N had left on the bench in the garden. He had overheard Kent's plans to visit Y/N later in the day before he walked into the training room and, for some reason, found himself following the pair.
He watched the pair head off to the Physician's wing and only then noticed the book that Y/N had left behind.
Picking up the book, he scoffed at the cover and description.
This girl truly had horrible taste in literature.
But when he opened the book up and noticed the annotations, he could tell the handwriting wasn't hers.
And it was in fact Kent's. Had he given her a book?
And a shitty love story at that. Lennox felt that flicker of irritation again and decided to follow the two back to Y/N's workplace.
And it was standing here that he came to realize something. If he really wanted to make Y/N's life a living hell, he found the perfect way to do it. Looking down at the book and back at the pair, he smiled to himself before walking off.
Yoshida is about to be the unluckiest man in Renetia.
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