Chapter 169 - 168 – Concerns

Princess Una buried her face in her large mug of tea. Who wanted to see their little brother snogging their significant other early in the morning?!

"What the hell?!" Prince Uno's loud voice rang out a moment later.

"Oh, you'll get used to it," Pax's dry voice came next.

"Fang, take Ren back to your bedroom. We don't want the babies to see this," Wolf said.

"The babies should be in their bedroom, aren't they? They all went to accompany Ren last evening," Pax reminded his twin brother.

"Oh, drat, that's right – well, there's plenty of rooms in this house!" Wolf said.

Fang let go of Ren rather reluctantly, but put his arm around Ren rather possessively, as if guarding his treasure that was being eyed by other people.

Both men were flushed, though. Fang had actually forgotten that his sister was in the room or that other people could turn up any time.

Pax narrowed his eyes at them. The slight wince from Ren as Fang put his arm around his shoulders didn't go unnoticed by Pax. He also noticed Fang's reddened eyes.

"Is Ren injured? How did you get hurt? Where? Your shoulders?" Pax asked, concern pooling into his normally cold voice.

Ren smiled slightly and shook his head.

Pax looked at Fang. "It seems to me that Ren's shoulders are hurting right now. Is that why you are upset?" he asked bluntly.

Fang froze and removed his arm from Ren's shoulders gently, turning to face his fiancé.

"Ren? Do your shoulders hurt?" he asked softly.

"Just a bit, nothing to worry about," Ren murmured.

Without waiting for anyone to say anything, Fang picked up Ren in his arms and rushed upstairs.

Prince Uno raised an eyebrow at Pax. "I didn't know that you were medically qualified, CEO Pax," he said in a sarcastic tone of voice. "Aren't Chairman Ren and little Cousin Fang the ones who are studying medicine these days?"

"I don't need to know medicine to notice someone wincing in pain," Pax said coldly. "I just need a pair of functional eyes."

Prince Uno blinked slowly, and then smiled at Pax. "Touché, CEO Pax," he murmured.

Pax ignored the prince and turned to Princess Una. "What happened here? How did Ren get injured?" he demanded.

Princess Una frowned. "I'm not sure if how he got injured," she murmured. "Unless…" Her eyes widened in shock and she fixed her purple eyes upon Pax. "Exactly how fragile is Chairman Ren's health at the moment?" she asked.

"We don't know," Pax said quietly. "We keep running tests, but there's nothing medically wrong with him at the moment. In general, he is delicate. Perhaps a bit like that princess in the fairy tale where they hid a pea in layers of mattresses and she couldn't sleep."

Princess Una's frown deepened. "So, he would bruise easily if he was held too tightly?" she asked.

Pax nodded. "Most likely, yes," he said.

Princess Una rubbed her temples. "What a troublesome pair of young men," she murmured. "I think Fang might have been the one that injured Chairman Ren just now, without realising it."

It was Pax's turn to frown. "Why was Fang crying, then, if he didn't realise that Ren was injured?" he demanded. "Fang cries this easily only when something happens to Ren."

Princess Una smiled wryly. "I suppose I should take at least half the blame for that," she murmured. She gave them a brief overview of her conversation with Fang and how Ren had overheard her words before Fang had a chance to explain things properly to her, and then Fang had panicked.

When she finished her narrative, Prince Uno had a thoughtful expression on his face, while Pax and Wolf's faces had turned dark.

Silence reigned for several moments.

"It is becoming a recurring issue," Wolf said with a sigh, after some time. He turned to his twin brother. "Should we have a chat with Fang? He is a grown up now, he needs to take more care when dealing with Ren now. He can't always be like an ignorant child at the receiving end of all the affection and pampering, can he? He wants to take responsibility for Ren and he wants to stand at an equal footing with Ren – but that's not going to happen like this. He's had his leeway this long partly because Ren protects him fiercely and cherishes him infinitely – but Ren is the one heading for a break down if it continues like this. I'm worried, Pax. Fang needs to start understanding these things, too, doesn't he?"

Pax sighed and nodded. "Let us speak to Fang after Ren's birthday," he murmured. "Fang has gotten a lot better, but yes, some basic things about a healthy relationship need to be conveyed to him."

"I agree with you," Princess Una said. "I was just telling Fang earlier that I wouldn't have let Uno speak to my Zeus like that, ever. I'm also not sure how this disconnect is happening. I can see it very clearly that Fang truly cares for Ren – and what I saw now was certainly no mere gratitude – but it is somehow not coming across in his actions and words at a level that can be seen. I could speak with him, too, if you feel that it is better for me to do so."

Prince Uno frowned. "Aren't we interfering too much in their relationship? Chairman Ren and Cousin Fang and how they work their relationship is their business – should we interfere to this level?" he asked.

Princess Una flicked him in the middle of his forehead. "Who was the one that started all this mess?" she asked crossly. "Who asked you to try to test Chairman Ren like that yesterday?"

Prince Uno rolled his eyes. "I needed to make sure that the man deserved our little brother, didn't I?" he asked. "Don't look at me like that. Aren't you the one that was trying to break them up today? Why are you being so goody goody now?" he accused, narrowing his eyes at Princess Una.

"Should we go and check up on Ren and Fang now?" Wolf asked, looking at Pax.

Pax shook his head. "We will speak to them later, as required," he said. "Fang would probably want to heal Ren first, anyway. And the babies are there anyway – those two won't fight in front of the babies. They know that the babies get really upset when their Daddy and Papa argue or become sad. And the babies will complain to us anyway if something goes wrong."

"Oh, right, the babies," Prince Uno said. "Una, you are not going to believe this – Sylvia – our little niece – she is actually a magical silver snake, and she is Chairman Ren's familiar. The other three furballs – Smoke, Shadow and Snow – they are all magical creatures!" He grinned as he relayed all of this information to Princess Una.

Princess Una's eyes widened in shock. "Magical creatures!" she cried. "And Sylvia is Chairman Ren's familiar? Why does she look like me, then?"

"Because you look like Cousin Fang, from what I understand," Prince Uno replied. "The two girls, Sylvia and Snow – have decided that Cousin Fang is prettier so they want to take after Cousin Fang in their human forms, and the two boys, Smoke and Shadow, have decided that Ren's face is very handsome and they will take after him, but they will work to build a physique like Fang." 

"They all have human forms?!" Princess Una cried out in shock.

"Not yet," Pax replied. "But they will."

"So – Sylvia is not Fang's biological daughter?" Princess Una asked.

Pax shook his head. "She is the daughter of Ren and Fang now. Before that, she was the magical familiar of Ren," he replied.

Princess Una looked at Prince Uno, a question swimming in her purple eyes that were so similar to Fang's that no one would ever doubt that they came from the same gene pool.

Prince Uno nodded. "I was thinking the same thing," he murmured. "I asked Mother as well, and she said we can take both Chairman Ren and Cousin Fang to that place when they come over to our Dragon Nation next time."

Princess Una nodded as well. "That would be good. If Fang and Chairman Ren could wake him up – we would be able to find out a lot of the missing pieces about what happened eighteen years ago…" she murmured.

"Yes," Prince Uno said with a sigh. "We may finally be able to get some solid clues on who killed my Big Uncle and Big Auntie – and once we know that, we will be able to take action properly, too.. I hope we are able to find out something about what had happened back then that leads us to the truth. The evil people who hurt our family have gone unpunished for a very, very long time – but I really, really hope that we are able to get hold of these evil people!"