Keifer's POV
The peaceful night did not last long.
I carried Jay Jay up to her bedroom after she fell asleep during my song. I tucked her into her massive white duvet and went to the guest room down the hall. I was exhausted, but my mind was spinning with the memory of her head resting against my shoulder.
Around 3:00 AM, I woke up because my throat was very dry. I went down to the dark kitchen and drank a glass of ice water. On my way back, I decided to check on her one last time.
The villa was dead silent. I gently cracked her bedroom door open. The dim moonlight fell across the floor. She looked perfectly still under the heavy blanket. Relieved, I started to close the door to walk back to my room.
Then, a strange sound stopped me.
It was a sharp, shaking gasp in the dark. It sounded like she was struggling to breathe.
I froze. I pushed the door open and stepped inside without making a sound. As I got closer to the bed, I heard her rapid, shallow pants.
Jay Jay was shivering violently. Her entire body was shaking so hard that the heavy duvet was vibrating.
"Jay?" I whispered, leaning over her.
I pressed the back of my hand against her cheek and jumped back. Her skin felt like a burning furnace. She was radiating heat. I quickly grabbed the digital thermometer from the nightstand and pressed it to her ear. It beeped loudly: 103.4 degrees.
The ice between us had turned into a raging wildfire.
Panic gripped my throat. I rushed to the bathroom, soaked a cloth in cool water, and hurried back to the bed. The moment the damp cloth touched her forehead, her eyes snapped open.
Tears instantly spilled down her flushed, red cheeks. She looked so small and helpless, crying from the sheer exhaustion of the fever. But within a second, her tearful face twisted into a fierce, angry scowl.
"If you press that freezing weapon against my skin again, Keifer, I will literally end you!" she gasped, her voice cracking with dramatic fury. She swatted the cloth out of my hand, crying and glaring at me at the same time. "You are trying to assassinate me with ice!"
"Jay, you are burning up. It is just a wet cloth. It will help bring the fever down," I pleaded.
"I don't want it down! I am the queen! I control the weather in this room!" she wept, shivering so hard her teeth clicked together. "I am freezing to death from the inside and you are bringing an iceberg to my bed!"
The cool water was clearly too much for her sensitive skin, so I threw the cloth aside. I needed to stop her shivering first. I quickly pulled off my own thick, oversized fleece hoodie. It was still very warm from my own body heat.
"Okay, no cloth. Look, wear this," I said, gently pulling her up by her arms.
She cried out in frustration, but she let me guide her arms into the massive sleeves. The hoodie completely swallowed her tiny body. The bottom of it reached past her knees, and my warm scent wrapped around her. For a second, she calmed down, burying her nose into the warm collar.
"Is this... a peace offering?" she snuffled, blinking her glossy eyes up at me through her tears.
"Yes, it is a peace offering. It is warm, right?"
"It smells like a predator," she whimpered, though she gripped the soft fabric tightly."But... a very warm predator. The border treaty is temporarily back on."
The peace lasted exactly two minutes. The fever spiked again, and the warmth of the hoodie suddenly gave her a burst of crazy energy. Before I could grab the fever medicine from the table, she scrambled out of bed. She dragged the long sleeves of my hoodie behind her like a royal cape.
"Jay! Where are you going? Stay in bed!" I yelled, chasing after her.
She bolted out into the second-floor corridor. By the time I caught up to her, my heart stopped completely. She had climbed up onto the polished wood banister that looked down at the marble floor twenty feet below. She was sitting right on the edge, her bare legs dangling over the dangerous drop. A wild, dramatic grin was on her flushed face.
"Step back, tree!" she shouted, pointing an oversized hoodie sleeve at me.
"Jay Jay, please. Do not move," I whispered, my voice trembling with pure terror. If she lost her balance, she would fall straight down. "Just slide back onto the carpet. It is a long drop."
"The nation of Jay-Land is enacting a scorched-earth policy!" she announced loudly, tilting her head back with a raspy laugh. "You think you can control me with your big clothes? If you take one more step into my zone, I am jumping!"
"Jay, you are sick, you are seeing things," I pleaded, keeping my hands raised, moving forward very slowly. "Please. I will give you whatever you want."
She leaned forward, her body tipping over the empty air of the foyer, deliberately testing her balance just to see me panic. "Oh, look at you. You are terrified. I am the Miss Universe of the sky, Keifer! Your Tagalog song gave me flying powers. Watch me fly!"
She threw her arms out, making a dramatic show of leaning into the fall. She was teasing me, playing a dangerous game with her own safety just to provoke me.
"Jay, stop!" I roared.
I didn't care about the rules, the treaty, or any timers anymore. I lunged forward with everything I had.
Before she could tilt past the point of no return, my large hands locked around her waist. With a powerful tug, I ripped her backward off the banister. The momentum carried us both to the floor, and we crashed onto the plush corridor carpet.
I didn't let go. I pulled her flush against my chest, wrapping my arms around her in a tight, unyielding hug. I buried my face in her neck, my chest heaving with terrifying adrenaline.
"You are breaking the law," Jay Jay muttered into my shirt, her hot breath puffing through the fabric. She didn't try to pull away from my arms, but her stubborn mind was still counting numbers. "Keifer. Release me. You have crossed your daily limit."
I held her even tighter against the floor to keep her safe and warm. "Jay, you almost fell over the ledge. The timer is paused for emergencies."
"Wrong!" she gasped, her glossy eyes rolling up to glare at me with total outrage. "My internal clock is perfect. You held me for exactly ten seconds during the hair washing phase today. That means you only had ten seconds left for the whole day!"
"Jay, please—"
"No! Look at the math!" she interrupted, her small chin digging defiantly into my chest.
"You have been holding me for a grand total of thirty seconds right now! You can only hold me for ten seconds! You owe the royal treasury twenty extra seconds of personal space! Release the asset!"
I let out an exhausted, stressed laugh, even though my heart was still beating wildly from fear. Her body was burning and weak, but her stubbornness was completely untouched by the fever.
"Fine," I sighed, yielding completely to her stubborn rules. "I confess. I am a hug smuggler. I broke the treaty, Jay. I will pay whatever fine you want tomorrow."
She blinked at me, thoroughly satisfied that she had won the argument. "Good," she grumbled, her head slumping heavily back onto my shoulder. "An unconditional surrender. Your penalty is that you must carry me back to my fortress like a sack of expensive goods. Move it, tree."
I didn't waste any time. I scooped her up into my arms and carried her straight back into the master bedroom. I laid her down on the bed. I reached for the cool washcloth again, but she let out a warning hiss the moment she saw it.
"The cold weapon is banned, Keifer! Do not test me!"
"Okay, okay! No cloth," I promised, putting it away.
Instead, I managed to make her swallow a spoonful of the fever medicine. She swallowed it with a dramatic look of pure betrayal. I tucked the heavy duvet back over her, pulled up a chair right next to the bed, and waited.
One hour passed. Then two hours passed.
By 5:00 AM, the room was still completely dark. A heavy, terrifying panic began to settle deep in my stomach. I checked the digital thermometer again.
103.5 degrees.
It had not dropped at all. It had actually gone up a bit. Her skin felt like a hot iron radiator, and her breathing had turned into a faint, shallow wheeze. She was completely still now, her small face buried in the oversized collar of my hoodie.
I stood up, my hands shaking as I reached for my phone on the table. My mind raced with scary thoughts—hospitalization, ice baths, calling an emergency doctor in the middle of the night. I was vibrating with stress. My knuckles turned white as I unlocked the screen to dial the emergency medical line.
But we're on island even if I want to call doctor here I can't,God why...
Suddenly, a tiny, burning hand shot out from under the massive duvet. She grabbed the cuff of my shirt with surprising speed.
I froze and looked down. Jay Jay's eyes were cracked open, staring up at me in the dim light.
The crazy, dramatic madness from earlier was gone, replaced by a soft, sleepy quietness.
"Stop walking around," she whispered, her voice very raspy. "Your heavy footsteps are shaking my mattress."
"Jay, your fever is not coming down," I said, my voice cracking with deep worry. I knelt down beside the bed, holding her hot hand in both of mine. "The medicine is not working. I need to call a doctor right now. You are too hot."
Jay Jay rolled her eyes heavily, letting out a weak, tired little huff. "You are so dramatic, Keifer. You are stressed for absolutely nothing. It is a standard body war. My immune system is just destroying the germs, and we're on island,a hidden Island."
"Jay, please, listen to me—"
"No, you listen to me," she interrupted. She tugged weakly on my shirt collar until I leaned down closer to her face. She looked into my eyes with sudden, sleepy seriousness. "You look like a giant, panicked monster. Your stress is polluting my air. Climb up here."
I blinked, completely shocked. "What?"
"The medicine takes time to work," she mumbled, her eyelids closing and opening slowly. "But your frantic energy is delaying my recovery. I am ordering you to act as a cooling unit. Lie down before I kick you out of the country entirely."
"Jay, I shouldn't—"
"It is a royal command, predator," she wheezed, her lower lip pushing out into that familiar, stubborn pout. She patted the empty space on the mattress next to her with her tiny hand. "Lie down. Shut your eyes. Stop being tense for nothing. The queen is not allowed to die until the Chicken Adobo is fully digested."
Seeing the absolute finality in her face, I slowly gave in. I climbed onto the top of the duvet, lying down fully clothed on the side of the bed.
AUTHOR POV
The next morning, the bright tropical sun streamed through the massive windows of the villa. Jay Jay was still buried deep inside the giant fortress of her white duvet, sweating profusely while her fever finally began to break. Realizing that trapping her body heat under a heavy blanket was only going to make her sick again, Keifer reached down and firmly pulled the massive duvet completely off the bed.
The peace was shattered instantly.
"NO! Return the royal shield!" Jay Jay shrieked, her voice cracking as she immediately curled into a tight, defensive ball.
She was still swimming in Keifer's oversized fleece hoodie, looking like a very angry, drowning bird. "Keifer, you traitorous tree! You are exposing me to the elements! I am freezing!"
"Jay, your fever is finally coming down, but you are drenched in sweat," Keifer said gently but firmly, tossing the heavy duvet onto a chair out of her reach. "You cannot sleep under a massive winter blanket in the middle of a tropical morning. You need to cool down."
Tears instantly welled up in her glossy eyes.
She let out a dramatic, soul-shattering wail, screaming at the top of her lungs as if she were being banished from her own kingdom.
"You are stripping away my sovereign rights! I am crying from the sheer cruelty of this dictatorship! Look at my tears, Keifer! They are a national tragedy!"
"You can cry all you want, Jay, but the duvet stays off," Keifer said, completely unmoved by her theatrical breakdown. He sat on the edge of the mattress, blocking her path. "You're acting like a total brat. It's for your own good."
"I am not a brat, I am an freezing monarch!" she sobbed, throwing her head back onto the pillow and kicking her bare legs in a full-blown tantrum. The long sleeves of his hoodie flapped wildly in the air. "My lungs are bursting from the injustice! I am breathing in pure, unfiltered room-temperature air and it is violently offending my skin! Give it back or I will audit your entire lineage!"
"Nope," Keifer chuckled, crossing his arms. "The audit is closed for today. Just lie still and let the air cool you down."
Jay Jay stopped screaming for a split second, glaring at him through her messy, tear-stained hair with an incredibly fierce scowl. "If I catch hypothermia because you stole my fluff, I am writing a law that bans you from ever singing a Tagalog song again. You will be permanently muted, Keifer! Do you hear me? Muted!"
"I can live with that," Keifer smiled, reaching out to gently wipe a stray tear from her flushed cheek. "But right now, the queen needs to let her fever break. No heavy blankets. End of story."
She let out one final, exhausted, dramatic sniffle, realizing she wasn't getting her way. She buried her lower face into the warm collar of his hoodie, pouting so hard her bottom lip practically reached her nose. "This treaty is completely void. You are a terrible cooling unit. Next time, I am hiring a different tree."
Keifer didn't let her dramatic pouting slow him down. Her skin was still clammy, and he knew a lukewarm bath was the fastest way to stabilize her temperature. He walked into the master bathroom, filled the massive tub with cool—but not freezing—water, and walked back to the bed.
Before Jay Jay could even process what was happening, Keifer scooped her up.
"Wait! Where are we going? Tree, put the asset down!" she shrieked, her voice echoing off the high ceilings.
The moment he carried her into the bathroom and she saw the water, her eyes widened in pure horror. She began to kick her legs wildly inside the oversized hoodie. "No! Absolutely not! This is a human rights violation! Keifer, I am warning you, do not submerge the monarchy!"
"It's just a lukewarm bath, Jay. It's barely even cool," Keifer said, completely ignoring her struggles as he gently lowered her into the water.
The second her feet touched the water, she let out a piercing, tragic scream as if she had been dropped into an Arctic ocean.
"ICEBERG! You are drowning me in liquid winter! My lungs! My cells are freezing over!" Tears immediately surged down her flushed cheeks as she clung to the edges of the tub, her chest heaving with dramatic, loud gasps. "You are a monster! A cold-blooded, heartless assassin!"
"Jay Jay, stop exaggerating, it's practically room temperature," Keifer sighed, kneeling beside the tub to keep her from climbing out.
"It is below zero!" she wailed, sobbing with absolute fury, her small hands splashing water aggressively at his chest. "Look at me! I am shrinking! I am crying from the physical torment! If I die in this porcelain bowl, my ghost will haunt your heavy footsteps forever!"
She looked so small, shivering from the slight chill while glaring at him with a face red from crying. Realizing she was genuinely miserable—and being a total brat about it—Keifer decided to use his final tactical card. He looked down at his watch.
"Hey. Look at me," Keifer said softly, his voice cutting through her loud wails. "The ten-second timer."
Jay Jay's dramatic crying paused instantly. She sniffled loudly, her glossy, tear-filled eyes locking onto his. "What about it?"
"I am activating my remaining ten seconds of holding time right now," Keifer announced. He leaned over the tub, wrapping his large, warm arms completely around her wet shoulders, pulling her shivering body close against his chest. He held her tight, letting his own body heat shield her from the water. "Starting now. One. Two..."
Jay Jay froze. The sudden warmth of his embrace instantly halted her shivering. Her stubborn mind immediately began to process the math. She didn't push him away, but her voice still cracked with watery defiance as she counted along.
"Three..." she snuffled, her small chin resting heavily on his shoulder. "Four... you are cheating... Five... this is a blatant misuse of emergency funds... Six..."
"Seven," Keifer counted smoothly, rubbing her back to soothe her. "Eight."
"Nine..." Jay Jay whispered, her dramatic fury completely melting away into a sleepy, defeated pout. "Ten. Time is officially up. Release the asset."
Keifer smiled and slowly pulled back, but the bath had done its job. Her breathing had finally slowed down, her skin was cooling, and her dramatic tantrum had completely run out of fuel.
She sat back in the water, burying her nose into the wet collar of the hoodie, giving him one last, weak scowl. "You are auditing the books terribly, Keifer. But... your heating system is barely acceptable. The border treaty is renewed. For now."