Khaat Lupin's Country Home

Garulia shook his head.
"I...er...have a confession to make. If I were to be a brother to this baby, I would technically have to be somewhat of a brother to Miseria. And...um...Ireallylikeher," he said fast, the words jumbling together. He blushed pure red.

She kissed the top of his head. "I am not surprised. And I wish you all the best with that. I really love you a lot, Gar. And I hope it works out with you and Miseria. But if it doesn't, you will always, always have a home here with me and Rob if you want it. That won't change, regardless of what happens with Miseria. Is your head feeling better now?"

Garulia sighed deeply.
"Um...can I ask you something? What should I do? I'm no good with girls..." he murmured, the only girl he had ever had had gone missing.

"To get Miseria's attention you mean? Be her friend first. You know, don't you, that she's pregnant. And I'm sure she is feeling very alone. I think all you need to do is be yourself and be her friend. I think the rest will come. And--if you really want to keep a relationship with a girl, become her very best friend first. Then, you have a better chance of the relationship lasting forever instead of just until the crush wears off. And right now, she needs all the support and people who accept her as she can get. "

Garulia gasped when she said that Miseria was pregnant.
"I...I didn't, actually," he said quietly. "That's gotta be rough...who's the father?"

"I don't know, but I don't see her with anybody, so ..I presume he isn't around much if at all. But I can tell you that being so young and pregnant, she is going to feel very alone and probably feels incredibly guilty and that everyone around her is going to reject her and treat her differently. Maybe your warm heart and acceptance and treating her like the wonderful young woman she is, is just what she needs right now."

"Should I go talk to her now?" Garulia asked her quietly. He didn't just want to comfort her because he liked her. He wanted to comfort her mainly because she was his friend, if not for very long, but he still viewed her as a friend.

"Absolutely. I have no idea what she's doing, but there's no time like the present." She waved her hand and caused the bowl of water and the cool compress to disappear. "If you get more headaches, please come to me or my father, and we'll stop them for you. There is absolutely no point in suffering if he and I can stop them for you so easily. Besides," she said softly, "I do care. And I don't want you to hurt--ever. You matter to me, Gar." She hugged him.

Garulia nodded solemnly and hugged her back.
"You matter to me, too. But I need to go find Miseria," he said, standing up but falling back on the bed. "Maybe after some more sleep."
He soon dozed off into a much more peaceful sleep.

Khaat smiled and, feeling motherly, pulled a lightweight blanket over the young man. The headache had drained his strength and he was pushing too hard. She left on one dim light and left silently, shutting the door. She made a mental note to tell her father about Gar's headaches. She wanted them to be less incapacitating than they were for him. Just as she closed his door, she grew viciously dizzy again, and her knees buckled. She clung tightly onto the doorpost to not fall. Something didn't feel right, and a panic came over her that she was going to lose her baby. She apparated into her room to avoid waking Gar, but once she got into her suite of rooms, she could not pull herself to her feet to get to her sofa or into her bedroom. She sat, helpless, in sort of a heap on the floor of her sitting room, terrified she was losing her baby. She took the red ruby ring off her left hand--the magical ring that would surely alert Rob if there was something wrong. She put it in her pocket and hoped that it would not alert him to this. Whatever she was doing wrong, she wanted to fix it immediately so that she kept her baby and didn't scare the daylights out of the man she loved.