Gardenia of Blooming Desire

Aster stood under a withering tree. It was the start of winter, and the cold seeped into his bone marrow. He shivered as his feet started to become numb. Empress watched him from afar, with her warm dress. She smirked while drinking her tea.

Aster gritted his teeth, but soon his gritted teeth turned into tremble and he was unable to control the cold inside his body. He only wore a pajama without using warmer, he didn't even wear a shoe. It was six in the morning, and in this winter, it was too cold for fragile Aster.

Soon, he almost couldn't feel his feet and then it turned into pain, like hundreds of thin needles pierced his feet. After holding for a while, Aster fell to the ground as his brain felt numb.

"Tie him up," Empress ordered her guards. Aster was again forced to stand and his hand was tied up, the rope was hanging on the withering tree above him. Empress chuckled in mirth.

"Do you know what you did wrong?" Empress asked.

Aster glared to his aunt, he was unable to conceal the hatred in his eyes. Aster was dragged just after he woke up and was suddenly punished.

"This… humble trash… request an explanation from Empress," Aster wasn't addressing his aunt with her majesty title or calling her aunt. At this point, there was only hatred in his eyes.

Aster saw a flash of sadness in Empress' face, but she immediately turned back into her mean self. Aster sneered, maybe he started hallucinating to the point that he thought Empress was sad while seeing him suffering.

'This ugly woman, not only her face is ugly, but her heart also.'

"Your punishment is for accepting a food brought by a dead girl while you're currently forbidden to eat any food other than what I permitted," Empress said lightly.

Aster shivered, he thought that it was already well concealed, how could Empress knew about that previous incident.

'Did she knew about my deed?'

'No, if she knew, the punishment will be even harsher.'

Seeing Aster not fighting back, Empress was secretly grieving. She knew that Rosalie was secretly sending food for Aster, but she didn't do anything because she thought the punishment ordered by her Emperor husband was way too harsh. Not letting Aster to eat any proper food… he might die.

'What was the point of all of this? Was my husband's resentment to his nephew too great?'

Empress Ceci was afraid that Aster might got frostbitten or sick, she decided to end the punishment. However, just before Empress ordered her guards to stop the punishment, she saw someone straddling to Aster.

He had a sharp chiseled face, shoulder-length brown hair that was tied on the back with a white ribbon and his golden camellia's eyes that already turned pure black. He was in an extreme anger.

At this point, Empress was tongue-tied because she knew that her son favored his cousin so much.

Aster saw someone straddled to him, he could see that tall person used a blue winter coat with a fox fur covered the collar. His skin was still slightly bronzed after many campaigns, as the south didn't have winter.

Aster saw Charles approached him and all he could feel was shame. He hated being seen by his cousin like this, weak and vulnerable.

"Don't come near me, Charles. I'm… not in my best condition…" Aster said weakly. Charles stopped for a second before straddling again to Aster, his anger rose up.

Charles untied Aster's bind and he fell directly to Charles' embrace. Aster could feel his cousin's body temperature and heartbeat, then he felt warm.

"W--why are you coming back earlier? I… thought you wouldn't be back until next year…" Aster asked weakly. He still smiled to his cousin.

"I cleared the enemies faster, so I can see you…" Charles smiled at him.

"I don't think… this is the best time for you to see me… I look so bad, aren't I?" Aster said. He tried to lighten the situation, but it only angered Charles even further.

"Hush, you're still as beautiful as ever," Charles chuckled. He rubbed Aster's soft hair to calm him down.

"Hah, even at this kind of situation, you're still teasing me," Aster's heart lightened and he chuckled.

Charles smiled and only saw his darling cousin, his darling love looked so weak in his embrace. He turned his eyes to his mother, Empress Ceci, his hatred was obvious in his eyes.

Empress saw this scene felt that his back suddenly felt cold. She just angered her son by cruelly punishing her own nephew. She felt an horrible fight was about to happen between her and her son.

"I will settle this with Mother Empress later," he said, his tone was neither hot nor cold.

Charles carried Aster to his room. When he saw Aster's current room, cold, damp and small, he was raging and directly brought Aster to his room. He ordered the servant to bring warm basin, thick quilt and hot porridge.

Aster was still conscious, though very weak. He could feel Charles softly touched his hair, his face… and his lips. He frowned slightly, even at this moment, Charles was still overly touchy to him.

After Aster was warm enough, he slowly opened the quilt. He thought Charles already left, so he needed to leave this room too. This was Crown Prince's room, although Charles was his cousin, Empress might punish him again if he stayed for too long.

When he opened the door, he saw Charles right in front of him with a warm snack that smelled rich with southern spices.

"Where are you going?" Charles asked.

"I need to get back to my room," Aster replied, but he shifted his gaze as Charles' golden eyes felt piercing to him.

"To that small room? Why?"

"Because that is my room. Now step aside, Charles," Aster tried to squeeze through Charles, but he blocked the door easily.

"You're not allowed to live in that room, I will assign you to a better room. Besides, I just met you and you wanted to leave right now? Am I unbearable to you?" Charles asked. Aster could feel the storm brewing in Charles' eyes as he asked that question. Aster was unsure on how to answer this question, as he didn't want to incite any more fire between Charles and his mother. Charles already looked really angry to his mother this morning.

Aster knew that Charles cared a lot about him, but to the point of showing his anger in front of his own mother, he might need to rethink about his judgment about Charles.

'I can't let Charles' status as crown prince be harmed just because of this. He was way too impulsive, he might fight against Empress and Emperor,' Aster pondered.

Aster sighed, "Fine then, but relax, your mother was just punishing me for my offense. Don't do stupid stuff just because you're angry."

Charles smile and his smile only getting better when he realized that Aster was afraid that he acted impulsive in front of his Mother Empress.

'He actually cared…'

Charles held Aster hand with his right hand. He guides Aster to the small table and put the snack on there. He prepared the chair for Aster and they sat directly facing each other.

"Worry not, I haven't talked to my mother yet," Charles held Aster's hand and his eyes turned golden, "Because I want to talk to you first, I miss you too much, and your letters only make me miss you even more… Aster…"

Aster was slightly taken aback. He forgot that he wrote few letters to Charles before, because Charles was obsessively sending him love letters. He had to play along, otherwise, Charles will start terrorizing him with dozens of letters each week until he wrote one again.

Charles saw Aster's nervous behavior and his smile was unrestrained.

'My darling cousin, I know you're nervous because of our position, I wont scare you and make you love me slowly. But teasing me like this… I almost couldn't hold back.'