Days to Remember (VI)

'No one would notice it.' I always thought that when subtly staring at him.

But I guess I could not be more wrong. 

"It will be tough for him." Armando dragged me out of my head. 

I nodded and said, "You will break him."

He just did a dry chuckle, "Nah." He shook his head.

"I wouldn't break him, you know why?"

I raised my eyebrows, "Why?"

He just laughed a little and took a single glance at me before continuing, "Because you will be there with him." 

I don't speak. My lips parted, but I drew them into a line. Narrowing my eyes at him.

This was the first time since Kaan's birth that I was this conflicted.

"The funny thing is, even though Kaan is so young, he thinks like an old man. He thinks everyone are under him needs protection and is weak, when he himself is the most fragile."

I just stare at him as he lovingly storks the last thing his sister left for him and me. 

"He is adorable like that...just like his mother..."

I sigh inwardly and say, "He will look at you weirdly if he finds out you called him adorable." 

"Jasper, why did you decide to grow up with Kaan? It can't be because you are still obsessed with my sister."

I blink, thinking how to reply, forming words in my head.

Then I say, "A part of it but also a promise."

Armando nodded and continued to brush Kaan's hair. 

The flames fell and rose as I kept watching the smooth and carefree movement of Armando's hands on Kaan's hair in an unknown rhythm.

My fingers twitched but I swiped them on my pants and kept watching them.

I watched, quietly.

I always watched.

Kaan breathed evenly. His face was relaxed and his chest rose and fell at an even pace. 

He was completely unaware of the conversation that was unfolding around him.

He looked… small like this.

Vulnerable.

A stark contrast to the sharp-witted boy who always carried more weight than he should.

I always have the urge to steal him from the world and lock him up but I know for certain that he will hate me for it very much.

Armando exhaled through his nose, amused. "You didn't deny it."

I looked at him with a blank expression. "Deny what?"

He said it with a smirk. "That you're obsessed with my sister."

"I said it was a part of it. Don't twist my words." I huffed and glared at him.

Armando hummed, turning his attention back to Kaan. "A promise, huh? To whom?"

I didn't answer right away.

The promise I made… it wasn't one I said out loud. It wasn't something spoken into existence, carved into stone. It was something deeper, something that had settled into my bones the moment I met Kaan.

A child born with too much weight on his shoulders.

A boy who would one day walk a path darker than anyone realized.

I had seen it early—before even Armando. And when I did, I had made a decision.

Kaan would never be alone.

Armando must have read something in my silence because he let out a dry chuckle, shaking his head.

"Does he know?" he asked, his voice quieter this time.

I met his gaze. "Know what?"

"That you'll follow him anywhere."

The words settled between us, pressing into the cold night air like an undeniable truth.

I looked down at Kaan, at the steady rise and fall of his chest, at the way he instinctively curled into the warmth of the cloak wrapped around him.

Then, I returned my gaze to Armando.

"He doesn't need to," I said simply.

Armando studied me for a moment before exhaling, running a hand down his face. "You two are going to give me gray hair."

I smirked. "I think that's already happening."

He shot me a glare, but there was no real heat behind it. Just tired amusement.

I crossed my legs and sat in the way someone who has lived for more than a few centuries might sit.

Armando glances at me, his eyebrows picked up.

I looked at him, a small tilt in my head, my expression blank but serious. 

"So you are back, old man."

I frown and say, "Old man?"

"You are older than me, plus shouldn't you be having gray hair?" Armando huffed this time. 

I stare at him in dumbfoundment.

'He really pushes my nerves and somehow passes the boundaries of my patients.' 

"You sit like an old man who has seen a lot," he murmured and rubbed his jaw.

"Because you have, haven't you?" he smirked.

'Look at this bastard asking such things when he clearly knows the truth.'

I didn't say anything, there was no need to. 

Armando was one of the few people who knew the truth. 

"You should know you may be able to change your age and appearance but you can't change your eyes. The look you have." He said leaning a little forward. 

I tilted my head again, brows frowning.

"You ever considered that the people who are great with judgment will definitely realize and notice this." 

I scoffed. "What's the point? Most people hardly notice."

"You wouldn't look like some war-weary old man trapped in a twelve-year-old's body."

I shrugged, adjusting my posture. "Kaan doesn't notice."

Armando arched his brow. "Kaan notices everything."

That made me pause.

I looked down at him and checked if he was still sleeping.

Armando noticed my glance and said, "Don't worry, the spell is still in effect."

I nodded and thought, 'It is true, Kaan saw and noticed more than he let on or say.'

'Its like he is also an old soul trapped in a boy's body.'

I sigh because I know that Kaan acts like I am normal but at the same time something in him knows the truth as well.

So if he acts like he doesn't know and treats me normally, I don't see a need to fix or correct him.

Armando sighed, rubbing his temple like this conversation alone had exhausted him. "You know, I used to wonder if I should keep you away from him."

I lifted my gaze, meeting his.

His eyes were unreadable, something flickering beneath them—uncertainty, maybe. But not doubt. Never doubt.

"But then I realized," he continued, voice softer now, "that you're the only one who will always be there for him. Not just for a lifetime." His lips curled into a small smirk. "For all of them."

The fire crackled between us.

I didn't answer. I didn't need to.

He was right.

I wasn't just Kaan's shadow in this life. I would be in every single one after it, for as long as he walked this world.

Even if he didn't know it yet.

'Hell, I would follow him even after death this time for sure.'