(Leo)
***
"Akiyoshi."
He scrambled to toss aside a stack of documents the day after the kings' meeting, but I giggled and appeared right beside him like a shadow.
"Good boy." I slapped him lightly on both cheeks. "Stop looking at those. I don't know why seeing any of your parents' adoption papers for Koharu brings you any sort of comfort."
Well, I vaguely knew why he found solace in them. They probably made him feel less vile for crushing on his sister, who seemingly became the only option to him due to the circumstances under which he lived. (Not that I necessarily agreed with him.)
Every time he mentioned how he felt to me, he was always disgusted with himself like he was about to clean his mouth and body with bleach. Because he confided in me, I knew not to entirely condemn him, so I always gave him subtle warnings and gestures to try to get over her.
He glared at me and sighed, eyes still vaguely crimson from the broken blood vessels. "What do you need, Leo? You had better not tell them I stole those from the archives."
The mood from yesterday carried over, leaving a cold undertone beneath the guise of our otherwise warm conversation.
I snickered. "Away from your dad. And don't worry. I didn't." Flapping my wings to suspend myself on my side, I rested in the air. "Anyway, he's being ridiculous. It's been one day, and the man is ready to go storm the Terrestrial Kingdom. He already sent Sini to go convince Daemon and Lucy to deploy an aerial fleet."
"Did he now?" He neatly folded the papers and reached for an envelope.
"Yeah." I groaned. "I reckon Jisoo's about to grab a stone and knock some sense into Inei because everybody knows it takes longer than this to have an army search for someone. Mr. Heide already went home because he couldn't stand all the yelling. Plus, Seiji has just been giving your dad a soulless stare—he always does—and Gaeul said he's gonna put a clown nose on Inei if he doesn't stop complaining soon."
Akiyoshi giggled darkly, and he hid the yellow parchment under a couch cushion. "That would certainly be amusing. I might have to bribe him to do that."
"I know, right?" I drummed a gray fingernail against the wall. "And then, Hikaru's having a crying fit, too. Mr. Wen, Zhi, Hieu, and his brother are all trying to comfort him, but he isn't having any of it."
"Seems about right." Staring off to the side, he perched his eyes on a carving along the rim of his bed—his guilty look.
"Like, Koharu and Fifi are missing, and they suddenly start acting like they collectively have the intelligence of a bee. Not even the queen bee, either!"
The right side of Akiyoshi's lip tilted up. He snorted dismissively. "I can imagine."
"Leo!" Sinclair yelled from outside of the room.
"What?" I shouted back, giving them priority as I perked up to fly upright.
They barged in. I couldn't contemplate why they didn't just use magic, but they didn't use it all that often normally.
"King Inei needs you."
I smiled at them, changing the atmosphere of the room.
"All right." As I walked out, I turned around and tilted my head towards the sofa. "I'll talk to you later then, Akiyoshi. Don't get too hung up on that."
Akiyoshi nodded after breaking his concentration. "I won't. Good luck."
***
"Do you have any ideas on how to find those kids?" Inei squeezed the bridge of his nose so hard that I thought snot would erupt from it.
The thin form of Hikaru was visible in the room. He decided it was best to stay in his own castle to minimize conflicts. Inei needed a lesson or two from him.
"Now you're not being so stubborn—asking a fairy to help you!" Hikaru nagged.
Despite his translucency, the redness and thin lines down his face were apparent like from before. All his servants surrounded him, though they were spectres.
So much for a decent connection.
Inei replied, "Did I ask you?"
"That's my exact point," Hikaru quipped.
Like everything flashed back to the normalcy of a year ago, the banter already became over the top, so I held back a chuckle.
"I'm the one who's letting you two talk from afar,"—I smirked threateningly—"and I'm also capable of cutting this meeting short."
The kings went silent when they realized that. Their advisors looked at me as if to thank me with approving nods, surely as tired of the chaos as I was.
I said, "We don't need ideas right now."
"Why not?" Inei complained in a voice that was sharp like a lion's roar.
Sinclair sighed lightly. "Pardon me for butting in, but I think we only need some time."
"Exactly." I pointed to Sinclair. "I'm with noodle hair on this."
Sinclair huffed, a gesture of annoyance they didn't usually make obvious. Their reaction to being teased was cute, and I could not help but incite it occasionally to gush.
Inei tapped his finger against a cushion to keep from running his mouth.
Hikaru just stared at him and mouthed like a bratty sibling, "Told you so."
Of course, the Moon King slammed his hands down. (Only an idiot or optimist would have expected any different from him.)
"In a couple of days' time, they could be hurt or killed! Hikaru, do you not care enough about your daughter to demand a more thorough search in a timely fashion?"
The dried tears on the blond's face became hydrated once more. "Inei, I do care! How dare you say that?" It was hard to tell if it was from the glitchiness of the magic or not, but his hands appeared to shake. "You just have no sense of how long it takes to do things since you've lived in a castle all your life. Stop being so impatient."
Inei threw his head back and hit it against the chair. Seiji walked over to him with a concerned look and a mysterious bowl of ice.
"Damn! I already had a headache." He rubbed at the point of impact as a red rose grew its petals around it, and he swung his arms. "Ugh, you all can just do whatever you want, but I'll curse the entirety of the Sun Kingdom if something happens to them!"
Inei pointed to me. "You. Cut this off before I get any complaints."
I grinned. "Pardon, sir?" I asked sarcastically after cocking my head to the side.
Sometimes, it was funny to remind him of how much less power he had than he thought, especially when he closed his mouth.
"Then, if I get to decide," Hikaru announced, "we're going to wait three days. If nothing turns up, we'll send Leo there to perform the magic needed to find them."
That wiped the smile off my face instantly as the tables turned. He severely overestimated my strength.
"Hikaru… I don't have that power," I lamented.
"You and Sinclair will figure something out. I will take no excuses from the two of you."
He was stern. There was little use in arguing with him, but Sinclair must not have known that.
"Your Majesty—"
"Halt, Sinclair." Hikaru raised his hand before everyone. "Leo, remove me from this now."
I sighed. At least something was finally decided.
"As we have come to a conclusion," I began in a dignified manner, "with you two knuckleheads, I think I can perhaps do that."
Hikaru nodded, and his thin form disintegrated into tiny particles and disappeared, leaving his voice unheard. The vacuum left behind was the perfect petri dish for my thoughts as the meeting was adjourned so that everyone could pretend castle matters were completely normal.
I chuckled.
As if.