Clarke was busy again with his job today. He woke up early after spending the whole night fighting against a supervillain.
He defeated that supervillain but could not catch her because she escaped right before Clarke could reach her.
Clarke returned at midnight with a bruised body and exhausted mental strength. So Gaius said nothing when he just slumped on the bed, still with his Superbman suit.
In the morning, though, Clarke readied himself for work, and Gaius tried to stop him, "Husband, you should take a rest. Just one day is okay, right? You can sit with me and read some books, or watch some soap operas. Or maybe you want me to cook something good for our brunch?"
"No, I can’t do that, Wife," Clarke refused as he checked his watch and fixed his ties on the mirror. He didn’t even look at his wife, only busy with the phone.
"Why not? You’re the CEO... of course. You can just tell the manager to handle the company, right? Just for one day...."
"No, I can’t," Clarke denied the second time. He read the chat from his staff on his new phone. "There is a meeting with the investors today. I can’t miss it. It’s crucial for the company. Besides, we can always do that menial task in the evening, right?"
"But..." Gaius wanted to protest since there was something that Clarke needed to know. But his Husband said there was an important meeting that couldn’t be skipped. "Okay, then, Husband, have a good day at work and good luck."
Clarke smiled and kissed Gaius’ forehead, "Then I’ll be leaving now, see you later, Wife."
...
Gaius sighed as he escorted his Husband to the front door and saw him leaving their apartment. He turned around and saw Hermes ready with his school bag.
Hermes stared at Gaius with a gloomy gaze. He was in a terrible mood when he saw his Dad just leaving without even checking on him or his sister.
"A—Ah, Hermes, are you ready to go to school?" Gaius asked nervously. Hermes disliked his Dad, it was obvious.
"Dad doesn’t even check on Artemis...."
"Oh, he’s just very busy, don’t mind him. You should go to school now," Gaius said. But Hermes kept staring at him. His gaze shifted from displeasure to anger.
"My sister is sick right now, and he doesn’t even want to check on her?"
"Hermes, he’s busy—"
"Dad doesn’t love us at all."
"HERMES!" Gaius yelled at his son again. He felt guilty, of course. But things always went out of his control whenever Hermes said stuff about his Dad.
Hermes obediently zipped his mouth because he loved and respected his Mom a lot. So he just turned around and disappeared with his teleportation skill, supposedly going to school.
Gaius sighed. He walked to Artemis’ room and saw at the bed, checking Artemis’ fever.
The fever had gone down a bit since the dawn, but it was still worrying. This must’ve been because of that vigorous activity in the water park. Artemis was still three years old. She had a lot of energy compared to the amount she could handle.
So she got sick out of exhaustion.
Gaius grew a healing fruit from a potted plant near the window and crushed it in a bowl. He forced Artemis to drink the essence of the healing fruit.
The healing fruit had an amazing recovering ability in it, but they still needed rest.
"Dear, drink this, for now, okay?" Gaius said as he poured the small bowl of healing fruit essence.
Artemis opened her eyes and stared at her Mom hazily, "Mommy... I want Daddy... Daddy said... he would buy me a Princess doll...."
"Oh, Y—Yes, what Princess Doll you want? Aurora? Cinderella? Mommy will buy it for you," Gaius offered.
"No, I want Daddy...."
"Daddy’s busy right now...."
"Daddy’s busy again?" Artemis’ gaze was hazy, but her sore voice indicated that she was about to cry.
Yet, she just closed her eyes and rested again, "I will wait until Daddy’s home...."
[Oh no, not like this...]
[Pupa: What?]
[This reminds me of my childhood. My Dad always told me that he’d spend more time with me, but nope, never.]
[Pupa: But from what I see in the background story, your Mom never treated you like this when you’re sick.]
[Hehe, yea, she always said that she’s too depressed to take care of me when I’m sick. So most of the time, I just lay on my bed, hoping the fever will go down on its own.]
[Sometimes, I want to beg my Mom to take me to the doctor. But she always said that’d depend on Dad. So I’ve never gone to the doctor when I was sick.]
[Oh well, things are gone now. Nowadays, when I’m sick, I can just eat ramen and watch Han Ye’s movie to ease myself, hehe~]
[Pupa:...]
Pupa wanted to say that was very tragic, but it seemed that Yunyu didn’t want to get called out for that. Maybe he was just masking his sadness.
Gaius was so worried that something might happen with Artemis. Although he was 100% sure that Artemis would be all right after a rest, he still wanted to make sure.
So he called Reed, the only one reliable when his Husband was too busy with his job and his life as Superbman.
After only one beep, Reed picked up the call, "Hello?"
"H—Hi Reed, are you free right now?"
"I am. Is there something important?" Reed asked.
"It’s about Artemis. She has a fever, and she wants to buy a Princess doll with Clarke...." Gaius felt ashamed to ask for Reed’s help again, but he was totally reliable compared to Clarke.
"Where’s Clarke?"
"He is... he is busy with his job...." Gaius replied. "Would you mind buying her princess dolls and bringing your private doctor here? Please..."
There was a long pause after that. Gaius feared that Reed might’ve rejected him, but then Reed suddenly accepted.
"Alright, I’ll bring my private doctor and princess dolls, but I want to ask you something later."