Aligned For You

Chapter 12

Hyde wasn't hard to find. Never really was barring...a certain time. Without even asking a single person, Felix beelined for the library, knowing he was on the right track when Naomi wasn't at the front desk, but he could hear quick footsteps padding quietly throughout the shelves.

The secretary was bent over one of the bigger tables hidden among the shelves, texts and maps and half-written letters and notes laid out across the whole thing. The man had his sleeves rolled up, yet not a drop of ink from his pen had a chance to drip with his furious writing. It was...not the best time to disturb him, but no time really was. Hyde hated to be idle.

Sauntering his way over, Felix looked over some of the letters, getting a beat on what the secretary was working on today. A notice for the community board, reminding people of the date and time of the wedding if they hadn't been at the dinner, or had forgotten the finer details. Transcripted recipes of Luminary delicacies, letters to nearby farms and butcheries and bakeries... Music sheets copied from the masters they had...

Wedding prep.

"Wooow, you're sure giving Aunty Naomi a challenge today! Never seen a combo quite like this before."

Without any surprise or even looking up, Hyde grunted softly. "She'd already prepared many of the books I requested--it's not like this is a surprise for any of us. We could've been prepping for weeks, but our guests had to have the final word on their representation. Of course."

His voice was respectful and matter-of-fact, like usual, but there was a certain begrudging edge to it. No surprise there. While not as much at risk of starting an international incident, Felix still had to tread carefully here.

"Riiight," he drawled, carefully moving finished letters out of the chaos to let them dry. "They're really weird, right? More than I was expecting, at least. It's like every conversation goes somewhere you don't expect! It's kind of exciting, but confusing too. Cultural differences, I guess."

"You were talking with Ragna yesterday, right? Was it all business, or did something like that happen to you too?" Buy it, please!

Hyde only glanced up to Felix for a moment, giving a nod of thanks at his help. Seemed this wasn't anything too out of the ordinary. "Their customs are strange to us, definitely. Hopefully, we'll be able to update our texts appropriately with this exchange."

"...she was curious about the university."

Felix winced. It was telling enough that Hyde had paused, hadn't elaborated any. That Felix knew exactly why it was a touchy subject didn't make it any better. "...are you oka--"

"I'm fine," the secretary snapped, straightening from his work to look over at one of the paintings on the wall across from him for a moment. Five people grinning and slung casually over each other, wearing the graduation pins of the capital university. Getting back to work, the lanky man just shook his head. "She was curious about how every student is allowed to explore a specialty, rather than going into a program. As you know, many interests overlap, so it's easy to create classes that would be interesting for more than one or two students. It's the model all of our schools use, which was quite surprising to Secretary Ragna. It was an enlightening conversation for both of us--apparently, Prince Caius had been attending university in Luminary before the peace talks started. He should be able to finish his education here if he so chooses."

It took everything Felix had to not crumple the paper in his hands. Oh, so Caius could feel damn free to transfer from a different god-damned country, but Felix couldn't even attend primary school?!

He had his question answered--an 'enlightening' conversation with Hyde meant a long-ass one, so there wasn't a way Secretary Ragna could've made it into the kitchens in the time between the glasses were brought out and then to the table, or even to chat with people in the kitchen between arriving and having lunch. With a whirl, Felix turned to leave, giving a pissed, "Good for him!" before...fuck if he knew. Maybe get some work done himself. The kingdom hadn't frozen in stasis just because of a peace talk.

-

"A pet?" Caius said, having borrowed Alonne's journal as he jotted the idea down, his large, messy handwriting a noticeable contrast to Alonne's thin, condensed version. "Like, you know, maybe a cat? He seems like he could be a cat person. Or a dog! Oh man, we should definitely get a dog," Caius said, lining out cat and writing dog next to it...before putting a question mark next to it. "What do you think? Any votes for pet?"

"Somehow I don't think he'd like some new living responsibility as a wedding present, Caius," MacKenzie said, the two of them walking down towards what the servant who had clued them in had referred to as the 'Kid Room'. The Luminaries not wanting the kids to wander around randomly, but unable to find any sort of childcare 'specific' places in such short notice, had basically just taken up a spare bedroom and left the children to their own devices in there when their parents were working.

Alonne had gone off to do his task, and Caius had decided to go with MacKenzie to talk to the kids. After all, Even Crying Children Loved the Prince of the Stars!

Caius had been surprised when it had been explained to him that a group of small children were currently the most likely suspects of his poisoning. That it had either been one kid coordinating everything on their own, or the group as a whole cooperating under a shared goal of absolutely ruining Caius' day.

It was...interesting. Caius had some things to think about if it ended up being them. Thankfully, he was a simple man, and he had already thought about how he would handle it if the kids did end up being guilty, and was now occupying his mind with the far more interesting mission of wooing Felix again.

"Flowers, then?" Caius said, then pouted. "But this whole kingdom really already has the whole 'plants' thing down. What could I give him that he hasn't already seen? And it's got to be new, right? I can't give him any old flower, it's gotta be something special!"

"Caius, I get the impression from the prince that..." MacKenzie paused, considering her words as she tried to find just the right way to convey it. "...look, every time the prince mentions you, it sounds a little bit like a person might mention seeing the same roadkill on their path home for the third time in a row. Like, sort of muted, accepting disgust."

"Ouch," Caius said. "Damn, MacKenzie."

"It's the truth," MacKenzie said, looking over to her prince with something almost resembling sympathy if MacKenzie was actually capable of it. "I think he hates you."

There was silence for a little while as they walked before Caius shrugged. "So? That's the point of the mission! I can climb back up from hatred! I'm Caius Momento, the Luminary Prince of the Stars! I can do anything!"

"Why should you?" MacKenzie asked as they turned the corner, nodding respectfully to a passing servant. "He's gonna marry you either way. That's the other vibe I got from him. He's brave. He'll marry someone he hates for his kingdom. So that's half your work done."

Caius wrote down 'hot air balloon' on the list with several question marks next to it as he listened to MacKenzie, sticking his tongue out in concentration as he tried to think... "You sound like the General," he said.

"I'll take that as a compliment," MacKenzie said, spotting the room. She could hear the sound of children playing inside and steadied herself. Man...kids were so annoying. It was really frustrating they did find her as interesting as they often did. Guess with no real life experience, being around an assassin was just interesting, rather than terrifying. Shame.

"Hold on, MacKenzie," Caius said, stopping. "Just, try to imagine this, right? It's our wedding night. I like Felix. He hates me. And somehow, that night, I have to...to touch him...while I like him, and he hates me. Do you have...any idea how creepy that is?" Caius said, bending the journal in between his fingers as he frowned, his face looking actually sick at the thought. "Like...there are words for that situation. Words I really don't want associated with me."

"He's not unwilling. You're not forcing yourself on him. It's a business exchange," MacKenzie said, raising an eyebrow at her life-long friend. He didn't look calmed by this, just still abusing Alonne's poor journal as he overthought this whole thing. Idiot. "He's as willing as you are, remember? Neither of you had any real say in this. You're equals in this, legally speaking. Emotionally...you keep saying you like him. Do you? Because if you both hate each other that night, well, at least emotionally you're both in the same position. So there's no reason to lie to yourself if you don't actually like him."

Caius kicked the back of his shoe a little, wincing as the back of his knee ached at him. "I wanna like him," Caius admitted. "It'd be nice if I married someone I liked. What's wrong with wanting that?"

MacKenzie looked at him, then took a long, long look around. Was there anyone around? Could she hear any footsteps? See any shadows around corners? No?

She went over and hugged him.

"Life isn't fair sometimes," she said into his shoulder, as he hugged her back. "We endure."

Caius gave a hard squeeze back, before chuckling, letting her go. "Yeah. You're right. Thanks, ‘Kenzie...alright!" he said, taking a step back from her. "Let's go interview some potential murder children!"

-

The rest of the day was something of a blur. Felix had stopped by the mailroom, gathering as many letters as he could from the 'business' sections, and went to his room, setting to answer as many as he could. He'd probably be expected to answer the congratulation letters at some point, but...it'd look better if Caius signed them too. They could be put off for a little while.

He took lunch in his room, and while he did have to come out for dinner, it was calmer than it had been the day before--and he and Caius stuck firmly to water. It was...as normal a day as could happen right now, he figured.

Until night, after people had retired to bed, and Felix tapped quietly on Caius' door, slipping in.

"Please tell me you found a lead."

Caius rubbed his eyes, still heavy with sleep, his hair standing up, as usual, but this time in random directions. Looking back at the bed, he put a finger up to his lips, putting in a soft, "Shhh," before pointing at the bed.

In the bed, fast asleep, was MacKenzie, in her usual defensive sleeping position of sitting up with weapons tucked in her hands...with three little heads on her lap. Alonne had attempted to curl up in his spot as well, but little sprawling limbs had made it difficult, and instead, he had ended up in a sort of half-curled vise grip of hugs. At the very end of the bed, an additional body practically hung halfway off, as if he had thrashed and kicked in his sleep until he had ended up there before settling into a deeper sleep.

MacKenzie, Alonne, and seven children.

"Yeah, it was definitely them," Caius said, sounding distinctly exhausted. He was wearing one of his capes, a yellow one, as a blanket, but was otherwise just in pants, various parts of his body wrapped tightly in fresh bandages as he yawned. "They haven't admitted it or anything. I think they're trying to protect one of them specifically, and we haven't quite clued in who yet. But, like, when MacKenzie started asking them direct questions, it became real obvious real fast they were trying to keep a secret. When we realized we weren't getting anything out of them, we decided the best bet would be to, I don't know. Establish trust? At least keep an eye on them. So MacKenzie went to their parents and offered to host a sleepover for the kids, as, like, part of her Child Caretaker duties. Parents agreed, here they are."

Caius yawned again, motioning for Felix to follow him as he sat on a small sofa, grabbing Alonne's journal. "Here, I'll show you their statements," he said, voice half-dead from exhaustion.

Felix's eyes widened at the...bizarre scene on the bed. That was one way to investigate, he supposed. But...maybe... After doing something like this, nothing too bad would happen to the kids, right? Whatever Luminary did to criminals...these were children, and it was a foreign country, and... They were kids. No matter how the Luminaries seemed...they wouldn't do anything too bad.

...right?

And, well, he had seen those guards bring a first aid kit, but it was comforting to see Caius in fresh bandages. It was disconcerting that he would need bandages at all after just sparring, but, hey. He didn't know shit. Otherwise, the prince just looked tired.

Felix hadn't bothered to undress, really, just down to his trousers and undershirt. He had taken the time, however, to rip as many pins from his hair as he could, leaving it a crimped mess, and to scrub the makeup off his face. He hadn't slept any, too much work to do.

But they had a lead now. They weren't clueless anymore.

"Okay..." he sighed, plopping down on the couch beside Caius to peer over the journal. "Kinda sucks, but at least we know now. Hopefully, they'll be convinced to not do anything else, and we can just get through this with no one the wiser. Once the treaty is signed, it won't matter..."

Readying himself for more reading, Felix carefully absorbed the kids' interviews, taking them at face value but also trying to string them together to see if they pointed any way in particular. Not even the squeaky yawn that escaped him could move his focus!

Still whispering, not wanting to wake up the pile of bodies on the other side of the room, Caius used his pencil to point at the individual names as he referenced them. "So, I was looking at this while MacKenzie and Alonne played with the kids, trying to exhaust them into sleep, right? Super cute, by the way," Caius chuckled. "Though one of the kids pulled MacKenzie's hair, and she hit them so hard with a pillow they flew. Thankfully they thought it was funny. Kids are something else. Anyway, so this one."

He pointed to the name Keenan, before pointing to the kid half falling off the bed, snoring loudly. "Kid definitely sees himself as the leader. Calls himself 'Hero'. They all gave themselves nicknames like that. Anyway, he was 'it' during their game, and I think his job during the whole thing was to make sure everyone on the planet knew they were playing hide-and-seek. Trying to establish alibis, right? Did a good job of it too. Too bad 'hiding on purpose' doesn't count as an alibi. Beginner mistakes in strategy."

Then he pointed to Damien, then pointed to his name. "The kid who most likely actually obtained the poison, stealing it from his mom, who was missing one dose, by the way. Alonne broke into her medicine bag and looked. Anyway, since he obtained the poison, I doubt they made him be the one to break into the kitchen too. Plus, probably didn't have the constitution for it. When we were questioning, the poor kid burst into tears twice. His nickname is 'Cleric', and I think he thought he was helping."

"Most of the kids were just meant to keep up the illusion of the game. Get seen lots of places, far away from the kitchens. Did a good job too. We made them tell us where they hid during the game, but that's where things got a little confusing for us since we don't know the area. We thought you might be able to decipher where some of these hiding places are. Take a look."

Caius handed Felix the journal, leaning his head against his shoulder as he leaned his whole body against the back of the sofa, his arm sprawled forward next to Felix's face. It was a relaxed position, as Caius just watched Felix, waiting to see his verdict.

Damien, he could've guessed at--the connection he got to the kids in the first place. Keenan was a little more interesting, especially since he thought of himself as the leader. That was an ego they could use for information. The others they had to take on a case-by-case basis, but, he supposed, that's what he was there for.

Plucking the pencil from Caius's hand, Felix looked down the list of hiding places. "...it looks to me that they each chose a section of the castle as their domain. Regina took the first floor, front areas. In the entry hall and landing, under the stairs to the second floor, the hall that leads to the other wings... That's fairly close to the kitchens, comparatively, but judging by the other statements she was probably used to draw even more attention. Be loud and visible so people would think that's as close to where we were as the kids strayed."

"The rest..." Felix scratched down the translations next to what Alonne wrote down, his loopy handwriting a stark contrast to the narrow one. "Back of the residential wing, the backyard, laundry room, library, mailroom, observatory..." Felix trailed off, adding another duty to the night. There were a lot of delicate tools and maps and journals in the observatory. He should check on it, just in case.

Rubbing an eye, he inadvertently tilted his head onto Caius' arm for a moment, perhaps nuzzling the prince a bit. "And...hm. It's a stretch, but... One of the places, er, Timothy hid, the greenhouse. It has a chute to the dumpster the kitchen uses too. But it's a five-flight slide that's completely enclosed--even for a daredevil that's kinda daunting."

"...should check it out anyway... maybe there's... evidence on the chute..." He managed to stifle more yawns, though the gaps in his speech weren't inconspicuous.

Caius watched Felix talk, since there wasn't really anything else to look at, and Felix's voice always had this little...lilting quality to it. That was actually really soothing to listen to for a long period of time and Caius found himself less listening to the meaning of Felix's words and just...watching him.

He really was terribly pretty. And he looked exhausted. His uneven strands of hair were even wilder than when he had been Phe, going up and twisting into odd directions, and every now and again his neck would just...tighten. A little bit. Caius could see it in the back of his jaw and the front of his throat, this little stiffening in Felix's features. Maybe little yawns? Just the thought of it caused Caius to give out another long yawn, doing his best to be polite by covering the yawn halfway with the back of his palm, but otherwise just kind of too tired to care much more than that.

As he was about to apologize for basically yawning in his face, Felix, who hadn't seemed to notice either way, rubbed at his eyes, and for just a second...there was this soft warmth on Caius's bicep, the side of Felix's head hitting it and lingering for just a second or two before Felix righted himself, continuing to talk about whatever the heck he was going on about. Floors? Dumpster chutes? Sure, why not. That'd be tomorrow's problem.

That soft warmth...Caius wondered...if he were to brush his hands across Felix's face. Down his neck. Down his chest. Would it be soft and warm all the way down to-

Caius covered his eyes, his face burning bright red as his thoughts went places he hadn't actually meant them to. Well...not to that point, anyway. Fuck. His ribs ached. Focus on that. Focus on the pain in your chest, and don't think about those impossibly wide, impossibly purple eyes...

Good? We good? Alright, you can drop the hand already. Felix was gonna think he was a freak if he didn't pull himself back together. There was no need to blind himself.

Caius let his hand fall, resting his head against it, and nope. It was worse. Felix was looking at him now, and his gaze...did he always look like this? No, the makeup was mostly worn away now. Caius had almost forgotten what Felix looked like without it. That boyish charm...

An uncomfortable memory of the word 'disappointment' came across Caius' mind with the intensity of touching a hot pan, and suddenly Caius couldn't look at him anymore, looking back down at the journal. "Chute. Right. S-sounds good. Good job, Felix. I'll tell Alonne and MacKenzie when they wake up tomorrow, they'll go check it out."

He was too tired to really get pissed and...well, Caius didn't actually sound sarcastic, but...saying 'good job' like that. It was a dismissal, right? Thinking that the chute was more than just a longshot, but an impossibility. But it was still worth checking out!!

Felix shook his head and stood up (even if Caius leaning on him was warm and comforting and he kind of just wanted to curl up and go to sleep). "Don't bother. I'm checking it out ri...right now. Got some other stuff I wanna check on too. We don't have time for tomorrow--the sooner this gets settled, the better."

They couldn't leave it. Every moment without concrete proof, without a way of making sure that their saboteur wouldn't try anything else was a moment where the advisors and his father could decide to call the whole thing off. So close to peace, ruined. On his watch. Something he knew about and couldn't do anything to prevent. Like always. Useless Felix, letting his entire country down...

Fuck, he needed some sleep.

Maybe he could get away with sleeping for a full day after the wedding. He wouldn't be expected to do much after a party like that, right? Even if Caius would be sharing the bed from then on... Maybe he could sneak into a free room.

Scrubbing at his eyes again, Felix turned to leave. "Night. Good luck with the kids."

Caius frowned, the warmth of Felix's body leaving the couch chilling Caius as he watched the guy get up, Felix sounding...well, how he usually sounded when he talked to Caius. MacKenzie had really hit the metaphor on the head. Just...resigned disgust.

Felix was going to go check it out now? Why? Well, okay, maybe it made sense from, like... a smart person brain. Later in the night. Fewer people around. No time to destroy any more evidence they had already lost. Yeah. Of course. Fuck, Caius, at least try to keep up.

Caius looked over at MacKenzie and Alonne, buried in the pile of children. Maybe he should wake them… Nah. What kind of hero disturbed a literal pile of sidekicks and sleeping children? That wasn't heroic at all.

Looking over to Felix, he called out, his voice heavy. "Okay. Can I come?"

Felix's first impulse was to snap at the prince, say that he didn't need his help, jeer that, oh, he needed the big, strong hero prince to protect him because he was so small and weak, right?! He still kind of wanted to, but...Caius had left out the theatrics. And...it probably would be a good idea for someone to watch his back, even if their prime suspects were snuggled in bed.

"Do as you want..." he sighed, nodding his head a little towards the door. "You're too fuckin' big to fall down the chute anyway. Don't need to worry about your dumb ass."