“Bear with it. It’ll be better very soon.”
Upstairs, in Faan’s room.
Faan rested his leg on a soft sofa cushion. Lili’an sat nearby with her chin in her hands while Xiweier took healing spray and moist alcohol pads from the medical kit.
The bleeding on Faan’s leg had stopped long ago. He had not lost much blood in the first place, and what had run down his pale calf had already dried.
The injury was only a surface scrape. On an Alpha—or even a Beta with slightly tougher skin—it probably would not have bled at all. It truly was nothing serious.
When Xiweier and Lili’an had first seen blood on his leg from a distance, they had been frightened. Now that they had a clear look at the wound, they were completely calm. A minor injury like this would heal with a single spray of medicine. Xiweier picked up an alcohol pad, intending to wipe away the dried blood first.
“Wait.”
The alcohol pad had already touched Faan’s leg, bringing a faint damp sensation. Xiweier was just about to move it when Faan stopped him.
“What…?”
Xiweier looked at him in confusion. Halfway through the question, he saw what Faan was doing and fell silent.
Faan moved Xiweier’s hand aside, opened the camera on his terminal, and took a huge number of photographs of the injury on his leg from every possible angle.
Perhaps because it did not look serious enough in the photographs, he even reached down, pinched the flesh around the wound between his thumb and index finger, and squeezed.
The scrape, which had already formed a tiny scab, tried very hard to bulge outward, but nothing came out.
…
Faan was not very satisfied. He could only reluctantly select a few photographs from the enormous batch he had just taken and apply a vivid red filter. Once the blood on his leg looked much brighter in the pictures, he finally sent the edited images to André with complete satisfaction.
“All done!”
Faan took Xiweier’s hand and offered his leg back to him. “You can wipe it now!”
“…”
Xiweier silently watched the entire performance and sighed inwardly. Lili’an beside him had already rolled her eyes without restraint and mocked him.
“Look at you! What hasn’t the General seen before? This tiny little injury… People already say Omegas are delicate. Be careful your beloved General doesn’t end up getting tired of you.”
“André would never!”
Faan was full of confidence. His terminal showed that the pictures had been sent successfully. André did not reply immediately, and Faan knew he must be busy with his own work.
“…Just wait and see!” He smugly swung his leg.
“Stop moving.”
Xiweier irritably slapped his calf and used the alcohol pad to clean the dried blood from his skin.
Faan obediently stilled. Before the scab and blood were cleaned away, the wound on his leg had at least looked vaguely alarming. Once it was clean, the tiny patch of broken skin was completely exposed. It looked as though it would recover on its own in a little while even without healing medicine.
Xiweier opened the spray, shook it, and aimed the nozzle at the wound. A fine mist settled over Faan’s calf. There was a faint sting as cellular activity around the injury increased, and in the blink of an eye the tiny patch of damaged skin was pale and flawless again, without the slightest sign of injury.
“Done.”
Xiweier put away the medical kit. Faan flexed his leg, and the terminal in his hand chimed.
It was an incoming voice call from André.
He seemed to be walking on his end. Hurried footsteps could be heard. Faan connected the audio call, and André’s lowered voice came through, speaking quickly.
“What happened to Baby’s leg? You were hurt? Does it hurt?” Violence edged his voice as he asked coldly, “Who did it? Tell me.”
Faan: “Waaah.”
Lili’an: …
Xiweier: …
The two exchanged a look and saw the same helpless expression on each other’s faces. Sensibly, they stood and headed for the door.
As Lili’an passed Faan, he caught her wrist and smugly gave her waist a pinch.
…She suspected the General who had fought in and out of insect planets and carved out his military achievements through battlefield blood had gone blind.
Lili’an glanced at Faan’s calf, already completely restored, and shook her head at his triumphant little expression as she left.
Love truly made people blind.
Once they were gone, Faan completely stopped holding back.
“André.” His voice was full of grievance, as though the injury on his leg had never healed. “Are you busy?”
“A little.”
The General answered, but did not end the call. Instead, he asked gently again,
“Does Baby hurt?”
With André coaxing him like that, Faan became genuinely aggrieved.
“It hurt so much.” Thinking about how he had not even properly started school yet before someone knocked him to the ground, while his fiancé was tens of thousands of light-years away, he immediately became delicate and needy. “You can’t even hug me or kiss me…”
As he spoke, he noticed André’s footsteps stop on the other end and immediately remembered that he must not interfere with André’s mission. His voice softened as he hurriedly changed what he was saying.
“I know you’re busy. That’s how it should be! …Actually, it doesn’t hurt that much. Just a tiny bit.”
“I miss you so much.”
Faan’s voice was soft and sweet and pitiful. André’s heart melted completely, as though squeezed in the tender little hands of his fiancé. His voice turned hoarse. He was no longer merely coaxing him; it was as though he wanted to send all the hot blood in his heart through the data stream and immerse the little wife reserved for him entirely within it.
“I miss you too, Baby,” André said softly. “Every day. Every moment.”
Faan’s face turned red, and all ten of his fingers tangled together.
The General’s words of love had softened even his ears. Although he knew André was busy, he still could not resist asking,
“…Why aren’t you turning on video?”
They had already video-called before, yet he still wanted to see the face of the person he loved.
“It isn’t very convenient,” André answered. After a moment, he paused and looked around.
He had just come out of a meeting room. Subordinates who had received their orders had already hurried to their positions. Only two guards remained a few steps ahead to guide him. They had now stopped and turned around, looking at him as though they had seen a ghost.
The General, who usually wore a permanently cold expression, calmly endured the guards’ complicated looks while hesitating. Remembering Faan’s injured leg, he unusually slowed down and, for once, mixed private matters with official business by compromising.
“…I can turn it on. Let me see your injury.”
“…”
Faan instinctively looked at his smooth, flawless calf and regretted that Xiweier had acted far too quickly. He curled the leg that had been scraped and, in a futile attempt to hide the obvious, pressed his other leg over it.
“…I’m fine. You’re busy. You shouldn’t turn on video.”
“It’ll be quick.” André frowned slightly. “I’ll take one look. Is it still bleeding?”
Faan was speechless. Of course he could say he had sprayed medicine and it was already healed… but then André would stop feeling sorry for him!
“I really am fine.”
He insisted firmly, “We can video-call again when you’re back. You’re too rushed right now.”
The guards ahead turned their heads forward again, but their ears remained perked high. Because they needed to continue the itinerary, they still had to glance back every so often as a reminder.
On the terminal, Faan sweetly called, “General.”
André pressed his fingers to the space between his brows and sped up.
“All right.” He gave in. “No video. Baby needs to apply medicine properly.”
“I have to work now. I’ll find you when I’m back.”
“I knooow—” Faan relaxed and answered sweetly. He leaned closer to the terminal as though leaning toward his General and gave it a light kiss.
Smack.
“Love you.”
His spoiled fiancé said.
André smiled silently and ended the voice call.
Faan was so accustomed to obeying him that when André told him to apply medicine, his mind remained on the call. After hanging up, he stood and took several steps toward the medical kit before realizing something was wrong.
He swung his completely healthy calf. Remembering that André would want to video-call after finishing his work, he still opened the medical kit and affectedly painted some red medicinal solution onto it.
The solution’s scientific name was Lu’an Cyan Red. Extracted from precious medicinal plants, it was expensive and remarkably effective for bruises, sprains, rheumatic aches, and bone pain.
Faan guiltily decided that perhaps the fall had made his bones hurt a little too. They felt much better now.
Not long after he finished applying the medicine, Nan Bai returned. He was carrying something as well: pastries he had bought for Faan.
Xiweier had left the lunch he brought before leaving. Faan was in the middle of eating and had not expected Nan Bai to thoughtfully bring him food too.
“Thank you so much.”
He hurriedly stood to take the small cake in its paper box and thanked him sincerely. “I really like sweets. Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, really.” Nan Bai waved his hands awkwardly. “I didn’t know you were already eating… If you’re too full, you can save the cake for later. I asked about it. This cake can sit for a while without the cream melting.”
Nan Bai had also returned to the capital planet only a few years ago from the planet where his father was stationed. Faan had not known him well before. But after comparing him with Anglia today, Faan felt Nan Bai was an unprecedentedly thoughtful little Omega. Evidently, there was nothing wrong with off-world environments after all.
There were three small cakes in the box. Faan took one out and bit into it directly. Pale yellow cream stuck to the corner of his mouth, and he gave Nan Bai a huge smile.
Nan Bai blushed under that smile and hurried to find a tissue for him. Two patches of red appeared on his honey-colored cheeks, like plum sauce sprinkled over chocolate.
He handed Faan the tissue, and when he came closer, he clearly saw the red covering Faan’s leg. Red medicinal solution dried quickly and formed a thin film over the skin. Faan had applied it over an enormous area, so now almost his entire calf looked red, startling Nan Bai badly.
“You…” he said in shock. “What happened to your leg? Were you hurt?”
“Ah.”
Faan belatedly looked down at his leg and said without concern, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it… The cake is really good.”
Nan Bai watched him elegantly wipe the cream from his lips and sit back down holding the cake. He gave Faan’s leg several worried glances. But since Faan said he was fine, he did not ask further.
Still worried, Nan Bai thought about it and chose not to go back out to explore the campus that afternoon, remaining in the dormitory instead.
Faan never imagined Nan Bai had stayed to look after him. He simply assumed the other was tired and even told him to take a good afternoon nap.
