(Leo)
***
"I consider myself to be lucky to have a delivery here if this is what I come back to," another voice, which everyone immediately recognized as belonging to Sinclair, stated behind the Sun King.
Eyes bugging out, Sinclair sped over to me.
"Are you okay?" they whispered, reaching to caress my face as their eyes flickered a vivid magenta.
Filled with ease and light joy, I nodded back to them. Idly, I awaited what the Sun King would do.
Hikaru walked up to his husband and pulled on his ear harshly, ensuring his attention would not be diverted.
"I hope you can hear my words. Not just verbally, but I hope you *really* hear them."
He swallowed as Inei tried to nod. Nobody except Hikaru could talk sense into him or make him whimper like a cornered child. In some sense of the word, Hikaru was perhaps the most powerful man in the Galaxy Kingdom.
"This is *not* how you fix everything with me and our son. You hear me?" He was on the verge of irate shouting. "I want you to stop this nonsense—stop everything with the Terrestrial Kingdom—and then, we can all try to move on from this tragedy. Got it?"
When steadfast Inei didn't respond, Hikaru tugged even harder.
"*Got it?*" he hissed through clenched teeth.
Wincing in pain with tears now dotting his face, Inei struggled to speak.
"Fine," he conceded as the yanking grew too harsh for his liking. "I'll do it." He cupped his hand over Hikaru's. "Cut this shit out, darling."
Hikaru smiled at the name. "Good." He then whispered, "We're going to have a talk about this in your room later."
Reluctantly, Inei nodded as his husband released his ear.
"Algor," Hikaru snapped, refocusing his attention.
The fairy's face wrinkled. "Don't talk to me like that."
"Pardon my manners," Hikaru began while softening his tone to a tactful one suitable for a castle briefing. "I'd like to extend an apology to you from my husband and me for all the trouble we've caused you and the Terrestrial Kingdom."
"You had better," Algor grumbled. "It's taken far too long."
Clearing his throat, Hikaru waited for the man to finish.
"And I understand that," he nearly seethed as he tried to save face by masking his tone in a sheath of calmness. "Well, I know we can't change the past, but we wish to work with you in the future to fix what we can. A good person tries to make amends instead of staying static. It's the doctrine I live by. I think you can understand this, yes?"
Algor refused to nod. "Saying sorry doesn't change the past twenty years. A sorry from you doesn't change what Sinclair did to me. What will you do about that? Hm?"
I couldn't fathom why he wouldn't let it go when twenty years were so insignificant to a fairy, but he was the type to hold grudges. It seemed, anyway, as if he waited for Sinclair to speak rather than Hikaru or Inei. The kings' words were useless to him—only pennies he could count and throw into a fountain for good luck.
That led me to a question: Had Algor *really* never loved Sinclair, or did Sinclair just lie before to make themself feel better about getting involved with him?
Disdain for Algor bubbled within me, and I couldn't even look at Sinclair without feeling mildly possessive. (Which was idiotic when we had never spoken of feelings to each other. It frustrated me greatly.)
"Sinclair," Hikaru said after a while to give the fairy a turn to speak.
Their eyes flickered a series of cool colors before settling on a burning orange when they opened their lids again. They were a cat wagging their tail, and Algor was their prey.
"I don't know what you want from me after all this time, but I'm sorry about betraying your trust." Seeming as if they delivered a diplomatic report, they were emotionless.
Their colorful irises said otherwise.
"You know I… ah, never mind."
They shook their head and before letting their pink and blue eyes show, leaned it down. That was the only remorseful gesture they displayed, which was dubious in itself.
"I don't need to say that in front of everyone here when you already know what it is. I won't say sorry for anything else, though."
"Have fun with your young whore then," Algor spat, "since you can't even give me a proper apology."
Sinclair's eyes seared red as they glanced up, and they began advancing across the room faster than a wind current. I held them back by the waist as they swung their arms aimlessly, both of us knowing the only target for them was out of reach.
It was ironic that I was less infuriated by the comment than them, but it was probably because I predicted Algor would act like that and didn't care what he had to say. Thus, his remarks did not faze me in the expected, external way but instead incited a fit of stronger jealousy that made me bitterly quiet.
"Take that back right now," Sinclair hollered. "Take that back!"
"Sini… stop that," I whispered as my grip weakened. My voice would not project itself any further than their ears, but I supposed that was adequate at the moment.
Algor refused to say anything to them and snickered.
"I don't know what's going on between the two of you… but Algor,"—Hikaru glared at the fairy—"don't forget you're still subservient to your king. You should consider yourself lucky your conduct isn't being reported."
"That is the *least* you can do for me." Algor turned violent, exemplifying the expression of a bloodthirsty vampire.
"Anyway, you can't tell him anything if you have nobody to do it for you. Sometimes," he mused with a wickedly broken face, "it's okay to shoot the messenger!"
From his hands, he shot a rocky spike towards Sinclair with haste. Their eyes widened as it approached their abdomen, and they panicked with frantic changes in the direction of their gaze. I did, too, knowing their stomach wasn't an impregnable fortress for me.
*Shit.*
There was no way to stop the stone with the way it approached us and zipped past the archives.
Thinking fast (or whatever schoolteacher mantra they used), Sinclair knocked me over as they fell to the ground to avoid getting punctured—the spike instead impaling a cabinet and making its contents leak out like separated plasma. The fairy was situated on my lap as papers bled out, and we sat up enough so that the ceiling did not consume our eyesight.
Looking like geometric snow to us, one flying letter sliced its way across Sinclair's neck, leaving a thin scratch that must have hurt like hell.
"Algor!" Hikaru yelled after the impact. "Don't even think about testing me here."
Ready to get his jab in before time expired, Algor smirked. "It's not as if they haven't had other things in—"
"Hey!" Sinclair shouted in response to the crude comment, and I grew more frustrated with Algor, not wanting to see his damn face within fifty feet of me anymore.
It was eerie to watch the dissolution of what was essentially a parent-child relationship between us, but it was easy to justify some variation of disownment given the way he treated other people.
I reached for some fairy dust from my wings, placing it along Sinclair's wound. It healed itself instantly, though I did not think they noticed the gesture. They were too fixated on the other fairy.
"Algor," Hikaru said again. "Enough. Go back to your home now that your exile is over."
"No," he replied, headstrong as ever. "I have one more thing to take care of."
He curled his index finger.
"Bring your son here right now."