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“Braid Head.”
Nahyuta didn’t look up from his case notes. “Yes, dear sister?”
Rayfa huffed. “You could at least look at me when I speak,” she said. Nahyuta barely let his eyes flicker in her direction, catching sight of her pout and reddening cheeks before returning to what he was doing.
“Braid Head,” she snapped. Nahyuta sighed, rolling up his scroll with a practiced flick of the hand.
“Happy?” he said, finally looking up, and she gave a curt nod. “So what is it you wanted my attention for? Surely it’s pressing enough that you needed to enter my private quarters, hm?”
Rayfa faltered. “I— er— th-that’s none of your concern!”
Here, he could have pointed out that she was the one that called for his attention first, thus it was indeed his business whatever she had wanted to point out. However, Nahyuta was never one to make things easy, and sensing an opportunity to tease the youngest Sahdmadhi, he decided to press in a different direction.
“We are retrying two murder trials today,” he said, flicking his braid back over his shoulder and reaching for the evidence lists, “are you up for the Divination Sceances?”
“Of course!” The bells on Rayfa’s wrists jangled as she brought her fists up, and Nahyuta felt a smile play on his lips. “I’ve been training, doing two in one day is child’s play!”
“Child’s play?” Nahyuta hummed, and Rayfa realised her choice in wording a split-second too late.
“Suiting, seeing as you are one.”
“Y-y-you—!” her face turned scarlet, nose scrunched and cheeks puffed, “you—”
“Nincompoop?” he completed, which only succeeded in angering her further.
She stamped a foot childishly, bells on her wrists once again ringing as she threw her arms down by her sides. “I was going to be nice to you today!” she shouted, turning on her heel to stomp away. She didn’t leave his room, however, hovering in an empty corner.
Nahyuta breathed out a tiny sigh, closing his eyes for a brief moment before reopening them and returning to his work. There was a lot to do today, if they wanted to stay on schedule with all the retrials.
Rayfa continued to sulk in the corner as Nahyuta worked, occasionally letting out a loud huff as if to remind him that she was still there. Eventually, it started to grate on his patience, and he set his pen down on his desk with a sharp noise.
“Sister,” he warned, and she took that as an invitation to march up to his side again.
“Finally! Braid Head, you better not ignore me this time!”
Nahyuta resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead reaching up to poke Rayfa in the forehead. She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t say anything, waiting for him to speak.
“O, Holy Mother,” Nahyuta droned, “please grant my dear sister the strength to sit in silence, for the good of our Kingdom.”
She scowled, cheeks once again reddening, and Nahyuta tried not to look smug, picking up his pen once more.
“I was going to ask if you wanted to accompany Mother and I to lunch tomorrow,” she hissed out, almost quivering with rage, “but if you are going to be so rude about it, you are no longer invited.”
Nahyuta leaned down to grab his bag, sliding his notes inside. “I will simply crash it, then,” he said, and Rayfa scoffed.
“No, you will not.”
“You hold no sway over me,” he said, “I outrank you, as of current, being Regent. Now come, we need to leave for the Temple, before Apollo starts shouting the courtroom down.”
Unable to argue any further, Rayfa made her way to where she had left her staff leaning against the wall.
“Is Detective Skye joining us today?” Nahyuta asked as he tucked the last of his notes into his bag, making sure his desk was neat before standing.
His head pounded, vision blackening around the edges, and he leaned forward to brace himself on his desk, trying to steady himself.
“–ed? Na–!”
And that was the last he heard, pounding in his ears and darkness taking over.
Nahyuta woke up on the floor.
“It’s Nahyuta!” he heard, the voice high and panicked, “he was fine, and th-then- then he–”
He groaned, reaching up to his forehead.
A gasp.
“O-oh he– he’s awake!”
“Regrettably,” he mumbled out, squinting in the light. Last he remembered, he was packing his case files for trial. Why did his forehead hurt so much? Why was he on the floor?
“Braid Head.” Rayfa said, and he became acutely aware of her feet by his head.
He sighed. “Did I scare you?”
Rayfa crouched down, pulling her cape off her shoulders and throwing it over Nahyuta, “N-no!” she said hotly, “what happened?”
Nahyuta slowly pulled himself into a sitting position, shuffling so his back was against the desk, making sure Rayfa’s cape didn’t fall to the floor. She stood up again for a moment, searching for something from above them on his desk.
“From context,” he said, closing his eyes for a moment, “I fainted.”
“I know that!” she huffed, returning down to his side, having found the water bottle in his bag, “I meant what happened for that to happen?”
Nahyuta unscrewed the cap of his bottle, taking a slow sip before answering. “I’m unsure,” he said, and she lightly punched his shoulder in response. “Careful, sister,” he said weakly, “I’m injured.”
“This is no joking matter! You–!”
“Hit my head on the way down?”
“Yes!” Rayfa dropped to sit on the floor properly, also leaning against the desk, “I called Horn Head to see if there was anything to do, and–” she held up her phone, a little device in a mint green case, “well.”
Nahyuta held his hand out, and she passed it over without another word. “Apollo,” he greeted.
“Nahyuta.” Nahyuta winced. Full-named by his brother, he was in trouble. “What happened?”
“Her Benevolence asked me the same thing, as you are well aware,” he said, once again reaching up to his forehead. He could almost feel a lump forming. “I assume you heard that, being on call presently,”
Apollo’s sigh was tinny through the phone’s speakers. “I just… I worry, ‘Yuta,” he said, voice losing its edge and taking on a more solemn tone, “you’ve been working so much recently.”
“Hardly an issue.”
“You’re going to drive yourself into an early grave.”
Nahyuta somehow found the energy to breathe out a laugh, humourless as it was. “And you are not, Mister ‘back in the courtroom the day after being involved in a bombing’ Justice?”
“Touché,” Apollo mumbled, “wait, how did you find out about that?”
“I read all I could about the–” Nahyuta broke off, holding back a hiss as a new wave of pain hit him, “we have two decades of verdicts to overturn,” he said instead, “I will not be the one to stand in the way of innocents and justice, I have already done that enough under Aunt Ga’ran’s regime.”
On the other end of the line, Apollo was quiet, mulling over his brother’s words. “Even so,” he said softly, and Nahyuta could almost see the crease between his brows, “taking it all on alone–”
“I know.” Nahyuta interrupted, hand once more making its way to his forehead.
There was another pause. “You don’t have to. Do it alone, I mean.”
“... I know.”
“Please, ‘Yuta,” Apollo said, and Nahyuta leaned back to rest his head against the desk, “take care of yourself.”
The phone call ended with a click, Nahyuta letting the phone slide out of his hand and into his lap. Next to him, Rayfa made a noise, snatching it back.
“Horn Head is right,” she announced, fixing Nahyuta with a strong look, “you need to take better care of yourself.”
Nahyuta blinked, reaching for his water bottle. “I have been,” he said, her eyes flashed with anger.
“That is phoney baloney, and you know it!” she said, little fists smacking into his shoulder once more, “you’re incorrigible!”
Nahyuta waited for her to let up on the punches so he could take a sip of water without spilling it. When she finally did, it was to stand up in a huff, arms folded as she turned away from him. “We are cancelling today’s court proceedings.”
Nahyuta frowned, “Your Benevolence,” he started, and she sent a glare over her shoulder. He wisely shut his mouth again.
“You are going to return to bed, and I shall let Horn Head and Pink Head–”
“Pink Head?”
Rayfa managed to stave off the red in her cheeks as she glared at Nahyuta again. “Y-you know, the lady with the…” she made two circles with her hands and motioned above her head, obviously an attempt to mimic Detective Skye’s glasses, “oooh forget it!”
Nahyuta made a mental note to tease Rayfa about it later.
“We will look at cases that can be settled outside of court,” Rayfa restarted firmly, and he nodded once, holding back a wince at the jolt of pain it gave him, “and you are forbidden from returning to work until after tomorrow morning’s Song of Ceremony.”
He sighed in defeat, screwing the cap back onto his drink bottle so he could stand up, bundling Rayfa’s cape in his arms as he did so.
“Move slowly!” Rayfa bit out, glaring at Nahyuta as he braced against the desk, “I do not want to have to pick you up off the ground again!”
“Not to worry,” Nahyuta assured her, only taking a second’s pause to stop the room from spinning, “I can handle moving across a room.”
Rayfa continued to hover incessantly at his elbow as he shuffled to his bed, squinting suspiciously at him as if he was going to go down again any second now. “You are lucky you work in your own room,” Rayfa said snidely, and Nahyuta restrained himself from flopping face down onto the bed, instead sitting on the edge so he could take off his boots.
“Am I?”
“I wouldn’t have helped you back if you weren’t.”
“You certainly did not help just now, Your Benevolence.” Nahyuta pointed out, not even looking up to grant himself the satisfaction of seeing her petulant glare. His second boot hit the ground with a thump, and he fell back with a weary sigh, letting his eyes slide closed.
There was a brief moment of blissful silence.
“You should raise your legs.”
Nahyuta shifted so his legs were on the bed, not even opening his eyes to do so. A moment later, one of his pillows was out from underneath his head and tucked under his feet instead, followed by another few seconds of rearrangement. Rayfa’s footsteps retreated and then returned, and there was the sound of his drink bottle being set down on the bedside table, from where he had accidentally left it on his desk across the room. Rayfa then made a satisfied noise, and Nahyuta cracked open an eye to look at her.
Her eyes darted away in embarrassment, and she pulled out her phone to presumably send notice to Apollo and Ema about the day’s proceedings. After a minute tapping the screen, Rayfa put it away again, and turned to Nahyuta once more. “I will check in on you after afternoon prayer,” she announced, and he closed his eye again, letting himself sink further into his pillows.
“Very well,” he mumbled.
It wasn’t until she had left the room that Nahyuta realised he still had Rayfa’s cape draped over him.