Chapter 269 - 267: What The Fuck.

Chapter 269: Chapter 267: What The Fuck.

​" So ?" Gandy presses, when he makes no move to explain why he was summoned before his king out of the blue, and why, if it was for any of the eight hundred reasons they’ve theorised in his absence, he’s still in once piece.

​Gods, it’s killing him.

​"So what ?" Montrel asks, oddly cagey. Gandy smacks him upside the head, and gets glowered at.

​" –Why are you dressed like that?" Khobi asks, still busy chewing every last shred of meat off one of the bones he’d gotten with dinner.

In Gandy’s opinion, he makes an excellent point, but Rogard elbows him for being rude.

​"He looks nice ," Rogard corrects, and then he too seems to realise that there’s something terribly off about that statement, "...Wait, why are you dressed nice?"

​Montrel reminds them that he had a meeting with His Majesty, which sure, they all knew, but it’s not every day Montrel wears his uniform correctly, even when summoned by the literal king.

It just adds a new layer of intrigue, and even some of the soldiers who hadn’t been all that invested in how much trouble Montrel was in, and for what, suddenly seem interested.

​"So what happened?" Oddly, it’s Jaga who speaks up. And maybe it’s because it’s him that Montrel lets out a low breath and leans heavily into his knees, running his hands down his face.

​"Aw, come on man, be a sport," Gandy urges, giving him a nudge with an elbow, "If you’re a fugitive now, that’s fine.

We already got one of them." Khobi, who is obviously the person he’s talking about, just grunts, and spits a piece of bone at him.

​Montrel just lets out a huff of hot air and levels them with a helpless look.

​"We...had tea."

​There’s a collective echo of, " What ."

​" Tea ," Rogard states, the first to recover.

Not everyone seems to understand the significance of that, but Gandy most certainly does. In his parents’ circles, tea with the king meant business .

Such an invitation was absolutely coveted . Which begged the question of why the fuck Montrel had received one.

" You ," Rogard elaborates, just in case they’d all heard wrong. "Had tea . With the king ?"

​"...And the princess," Montrel adds, and Gandy is instantly suspicious when he catches him rubbing the back of his neck. It’s one of his tells.

Not that he’s lying, no, that’s always way more obvious –but that he’s nervous .

​" And the princess ?" he didn’t realise Rogard’s voice could go that high. It’s even more grating that his regular voice. " Why ?"

​"Gurdet...kind of..." Montrel coughs uncomfortably, "...Wanted to know if I was into her."

​What. The actual fuck .

​No one has words. Not a single one of them. But their slack-jawed faces say it all for them.

​"...You told him no, right?" Mural ventures, because any soldier with half a brain would know better than to admit something like that to his king’s face .

Their duty as soldiers was to serve their king and his family. Not lust after them .

​The face that Montrel makes is not reassuring.

​" Montrel ...you told him no , right ?" Gandy presses, more urgently, but also more quietly, because while Loac’s still over by the fire drying out and doesn’t seem to be paying any attention, he’s not quite far enough out of earshot to guarantee Montrel’s safety if he catches wind.

​"...I might have told him I was."

​As one, the soldiers all groan. Khobi’s the only one who doesn’t, but that makes sense. He wouldn’t get it.

​"Oh you’re so fucked," Gandy states flatly, expression grim. But then it occurs to him that if Montrel is so fucked, how is he still here?

"...Wait. How are you not totally fucked?"

Montrel just raises his eyebrows as if he doesn’t quite understand it either, and what he says next is more to the floor than to any of them.

​"...I might have asked her to marry me."

​The table goes absolutely dead fucking silent.

​And then it positively erupts into a chorus of absolute disbelief .

​"You did fucking what ?"

​"She said no, right?"

​" She said no, right ?"

​Again, the face that Montrel makes does not give them the answer it should.

​"Well, not exactly."

​" Waine," Gandy prefaces heavily. Even though he and Montrel go way back, they don’t make a habit of dropping each others’ first names very often, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

"What the fuck do you mean ’ not exactly’ ?"

​On bated breath, they wait.

​And then Montrel breaks out into an enormous, shit-eating grin.

​"...Apparently she’s kind of into me."

​Gandy hits him.

So does Rogard.

Mural, too.

Gandy goes for a round two.

​"Oh shut up ," he scoffs; a sentiment echoed by the other soldiers who have seen fit to smack Montrel for his hubris.

​"You’re fucking with us."

​"No fucking way."

​" Ow, fuck off –hey watch it ," Montrel complains, arms up to cover his head as he’s accosted from all sides; his friends prodding him to take it back –to laugh and tell them that he’s just fucking with them and they should’ve seen their faces.

​But that’s not what happens.

​"I’m being fucking serious here! That’s what happened!"

​And that’s not like Montrel at all.

​"Holy shit," Gandy whispers, because what if he’s not fucking with them? What if...?

"...Guys, I think he’s for real." Because it was weird that the princess had started coming to the training grounds, wasn’t it? And didn’t she always ask for Montrel, even when there were plenty of other soldiers around?

​" Holy shit ," Rogard echoes, "Montrel’s courting the princess."

​And thus the dam breaks .

​Jeez, you’d think the guy had just gotten married from the commotion that explodes from their table.

Montrel takes a new round of smacks, but there’s affection behind them this time, and he’s grinning by the time they all settle back into their seats, shaking their heads at the absolute absurdity of it all.

​"...Hey, this calls for celebration!" Gandy decides, slinging an arm around Montrel’s shoulder and pinching at his cheek, "Montrel finally got a girl to like him! Not sure why, or how , but it finally happened!"