***ICHIJI POV***

"What do you mean you can't fix it?"

The crew of scientists I had cornered in the lab quivered before me as I clenched my fists, trying to ignore the constant ache in the cavity of my chest.
"Y..Your Highness, w..we're very sorry, but w..we've ran every test available. There's nothing physically wrong with you, and your alterations are all functio-"

"THEN WHY DOES MY CHEST HURT?!" I slammed my fist into the wall beside my head, denting the steel and causing the men to skitter backwards. They had to be mistaken. There was clearly something wrong with me. I wasn't built to get sick, or to feel...anything, yet here I was, in pain and steadily losing my mind.

"W..We don't know, Your Highness..! We're very, truly sorry, but-"
"Then create more tests! Find out what the hell is going on with me, or I'll ensure you regret ever being born!" With that, I stormed out of the laboratory, stride stiff, just like the rest of me.

No matter what I did, I couldn't stop thinking about (Y/N). I couldn't even blame it on being horny, because whilst making out with her had been incredible, the things I was thinking about her were horrifyingly innocent.

The way her nose crinkled whenever she was angry, the way she spoke so proudly and clearly, how she so confidently stuck to her guns, even when it came to hating my very guts. Her eyes, her hair, her smile, the way she walked and talked. Every damn thing that I hated was on my mind in a whole different way. One that was unnatural for a person like me.

Surely my enhancements are stronger than a base urge like mate bonds...Surely...

I was really starting to doubt that they were. I had never felt this way before. I'd hardly ever even felt, period, then all of a sudden, there she was. A little taller, a little older, and perfect. Impossibly so. I could appreciate the beauty of women, just like any straight man, but with her it wasn't merely skin deep.

Was (Y/N) experiencing the same as I was? No, she hated every fibre of my being. She was probably celebrating the fact that I was staying well away from her. At the very least I knew she wouldn't be screwing that mouthy commoner I had always been able to smell all over her. I'd made sure to take care of that issue prior to heading to her room the other night.

But what if there's others..?

I couldn't refute the possibility that (Y/N) could very well be a whore, even if I had wanted to. We may have known each other since we were little kids, but I didn't truly know her. She had been letting some dirty peasant boy defile her body, after all, so there was a chance that there could be other men lining up for their turns whilst I hid out here in Germa.

No, I don't care about that.

But I did, and I couldn't for the life of me understand it. The thought of another man even considering the possibility of touching her body made me irrationally angry, and something else I couldn't pinpoint. It was a new sensation, and it was far from pleasant.

I was made to be above this. Beyond it.

Weakness - emotion - was stripped from me before I ever took my first breath. I was designed to be efficient, unshaken, perfect. And yet, when I thought about (Y/N), I felt something foreign stir in my chest. Something I couldn't dissect or ignore. It lingered, creeping into my thoughts without permission, twisting itself around my mind like a vice, alongside the gnawing pain her words had caused me.

It made no sense.

I really did try to tell myself that it was nothing. A fluke. A distraction. A trick. But if that were true, then why had the sound of her voice replayed in my head long after we had parted ways? Why did I search for her without realising it, my eyes betraying me before my mind caught up? Why does the idea of distance - of absence - leave something sharp and unfamiliar coiling in my gut?

I tightened my fists, my nails threatening to slice through my palms. This wasn’t logical. I knew who I was. What I was made to be. Emotions like this, whatever they were, weren’t meant to exist within me. And yet… they did.

I felt them.

I felt.

The scientists had to be wrong, because I was wrong. Very, very wrong, and somehow I just knew that (Y/N) had made me this way. I had so desperately wanted there to be a scientific explanation for what was happening to me and my body, and I still believed there could be a fix, but it all stemmed from those words.

"I HATE YOU WITH EVERY FIBRE OF MY BEING, VINSMOKE ICHIJI! I WILL NEVER, EVER MARRY YOU! I REJECT THIS BOND!"

Every time those words played in my mind that fucking pain flared - it scorched - and I found myself clutching my chest in a futile attempt to will it away. Had this been her plan all along? Had she known that this, whatever the hell it was, was my only weakness?

No, she was just some rough around the edges Princess that liked crawling around in the forest. She had brains, sure, but she wasn't smart enough to pull something like that off. It was unlikely she would have known it would have had any effect on me, anyway.

I stopped halfway down the dimly lit corridor, curving a few steps backwards until I was against the wall. Over and over, her declaration of hatred played in my head until it was almost too hard to even breathe. The feeling was mutual. I hated her so much that it was manifesting as something physical, that had to be it, surely.

Pure, unadulterated hatred - it made sense. At least I told myself that it did. I was sure that if I faced her again, this pain would leave me, and I'd finally be back to top form, ready to complete the mission at hand. I was so certain that I knew I could take my time returning to the Fell Wilds palace. There wasn't any rush.

I am the first prince of Germa, and second in command of Germa 66. This is nothing I can't handle. We'll keep doing tests, and it will pass. I'll be fixed. No woman will keep me from seeing this through...Not even a woman like her...

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***I am intoxicated so please forgive any spelling errors.

Next Time: Fake It Till You Make It***