Chapter 2:

Kai woke up from his dream-memory. Things were so much better back then, when he could go to his mother for support and she would always be there for him. He wished he could see his mother one more time, wished he could've appreciated her more, even when they argued.

Kai checked his portscreen. It was 3 A.M. He got out of his comfortable chair and headed down the freshly cleaned hallway when he bumped into Li, Doctor Erland's old assistant. She had been promoted to replace Doctor Erland for Letumosis research after he left his position. Her hair was pulled into a loose bun and her shoulders were slouched.

"I'm so sorry Your-" She was cut off by Kai.

"Hello, Li, why are you still here?" Kai questioned.

"I was finishing my shift when I discovered a possible breakthrough on Letumosis," she said, looking very proud of herself. "Would you like to hear it now? Or, if you would like I could tell you in the morning.

Kai weighed his options. If he went with Li now, he'd probably get no sleep from the possible excitement of the breakthrough. On the other hand, if he went to bed, he'd stay up wondering what the information was.

Either way he wouldn't be able to sleep. As always...

"I'll see it now."

"Excellent!" Said Li, suddenly perking up.

Kai followed Li to the research labs, feeling groggy from just waking up. They walked into the labs through the Employee Entrance. That was not something he, surprisingly, did not do often. It reminded him of when he was younger, when the research labs were freshly built...

At the time Kai was about nine years old, almost ten. He trailed behind his mother as they walked towards the newly built palace research labs. They had only heard three weeks ago that Letumosis had spread to the Eastern Commonwealth. By then Kai knew the full truth about Letumosis. How it worked, what happened in each stage, as well as other special information about it that not many others knew.

His mother had a neutral expression on her face. Kai noticed she wasn't as happy as she used to be ever since she heard the news of the spreading Letumosis, and also had constant dark circles under her eyes. It worried him to a point of him asking her about a week ago what troubled her. She only gave him a fake smile and said, "Nothing. Letumosis is just a big old stress causer on top of the other symptoms."

She turned to him just before they reached the new lab. "Kai," she said in an annoyed tone, " Honey, I need to talk to you about your behavior. Recently it's been ridiculous. Is it too much to ask you to behave for this? You don't realize it's kind of important right now."

"What are you talking about?! I've been behaving good all week!" Kai glared at her. Sure he might not have been using the best behavior, but it couldn't have been that bad... could it?

She glared right back. "You've definetly been worse than usual! It's unacceptable!

Kai didn't respond, and she didn't continue, thank goodness. All he felt was anger as they continued their walk to the research labs.

As they walked through the Employee Entrance, he noted that the lab smelled heavily of cleaning chemicals and the walls were lined with test tubes and needles of all kinds. His mother was there to approve of the lab so the new scientists his father hired could begin their in-depth research on Letumosis to try and cure it. They were positive it would be a breeze to find. Kai was there just to make it more official.

Kai saw the architect whose name he could never remember come over to them. She gave a bow. "Your Majesties," she said, "It is an absolute pleasure to have designed this wing. You're here to approve of the design, yes?"

"Yeah-I mean yes, I am. Sorry, it was a stressful night," Kai's mother said back to her with a forced grin. He thought it was strange that his mother had broke out of her normal formal language to a palace worker, also that she had stayed up late last night. From what he knew about her, she was usually the one to fall asleep first in the royal family. After a day of running around the palace, Kai had fallen asleep nearly the second he went to bed, and now wondered what his parents actually did after he went to sleep.

"Of course, I understand; it happens," the architect said with understanding in her voice. "Please follow me. Watch your step, Price Kai." Kai would've tripped if she hadn't said that. He still stumbled though, and bumped into his mother.

"Sorry, sorry," said Kai, his ears turning red from embarrassment. She shot him an annoyed glance but otherwise said or did nothing. He kept his head down and hardly said anything else during their time in the research labs. He could feel that his mother was mad at him, and he was mad right back. It was her decision to hardly sleep last night. It was her decision to be in charge of overseeing the research labs since his father had so many other things to do. It was her fault that he was here right now. It was, of course, his fault that he stumbled, but he felt like she had no right to be angry at him.

Right now, she was probably thinking the same thing, except with the decisions that he made.

Kai was relieved when the tour was over. He gave a respectful bow to the architect and practically ran out, feeling his mothers glare when he did so. His mother was staying behind to touch up on a few issues.

The rooms of the palace, fortunately, were spread far apart, giving Kai have a long time to collect his thoughts. He was still agitated at his mother for being mad at him for something he couldn't handle, but he was able to let most of it go after counting and breathing-a trick he was taught when he was younger.

A worker walked up to him. "Your Highness," he said, "your father is requesting an audience with you. He wanted me to tell you that he had a talk with your mother."

Kai felt his anger come back. This was just not his day. He ground his teeth and said through them, "Fine."

"KAI!"

He was brought back into the present by Li's sudden interjection.

"Are you okay, Your Majesty?" she stated with a worried expression.

"I'm fine. Thank you, Li. Just remembering something from a long time ago," he replied.

"I understand," she said before lecturing him about her small breakthrough again.

Like those many years ago, this was definetly not his day.

NOTE:

Thank you for the positive reviews! I appreciate it so much!

I wish I could've gotten this up a bit sooner but... busy schedule :)

Please review and tell me what you think!

~PinkiePie1oCait