Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Leona, are you there? Did you forget we have a special guest tonight?”

Leona raised his head from the desk to hear rapid knocking on the wooden door followed by Falena’s voice. Then, a maid was heard explaining that he knew about the appointment but had a lot of work lately and didn’t like to be bothered.

Leona stretched his arms and looked at the clock on the wall. He had indeed napped for longer than he intended, so he really needed to get back to work. 

Unfortunately it was not possible because, a moment later, Falena opened the door and entered as if he owned the place—which he technically did since this was his castle, but this exact room was Leona’s office. 

“Why weren’t you answering? I thought you’d fallen asleep,” he said, walking around the room and looking at the pile of books on Leona's desk. 

“I’m busy, I want to finish this current paper before I leave,” Leona said, putting away some of the papers. Fortunately they hadn’t crumpled too badly when he napped on top of them. 

It had been several years since Leona graduated from Night Raven College, but the school had recently sent invitations to all past students for its anniversary. At any other moment he’d simply reject the invitation, but lately his brother had been even more nagging, so he wanted to take a few days off.

“I thought you weren’t going? I’m surprised you even considered it.”

“I already confirmed my assistance,” Leona curtly said. He wanted his brother to leave him alone, but the man never knew how to read the room.

“When do you leave? I have some meetings I wanted you to accompany me to,” Falena said, sitting down in front of Leona and very much not intending to leave anytime soon.

Leona groaned internally, but replied with his usual bored tone. “In two days, the reunion is the 18th but I’ll come back until the 23rd.” 

Falena’s eyes widened for a moment before scowling in disapproval. “You’re taking a whole week? What else do you have to do over there?”

Nothing, of course, but this kind of behaviour from his brother was what made him want to be away.

“I wanna meet some researchers and other people,” Leona vaguely said. 

Falena didn’t buy it completely. “Related to your current project? Why don’t you invite them here instead? I do need you here.”

After graduating, Leona dedicated himself to ancient curses research for the local —and very prestigious— university, yet he still helped his brother with affairs of the kingdom. He knew he wasn’t much needed here, but his brother liked to have him close by. And there was a good reason why. 

“It is, I want to see some texts back at Night Raven College too. I told you, I already confirmed my assistance. I can't leave them hanging.”

Falena sighed. “Well, what can we do then? At least I hope you’ll have fun, locked away here doesn’t help you meet people.”

Leona continued arranging the papers on his desk in silence. 

“Speaking of that…”

There it was.

“Do you remember I told you someone was coming tonight for dinner? I want you to go get ready and make a good impression tonight. It’s important.” 

“Is it? I told you I’m busy. I have no time for business dinners.” He raised his head to glare at his brother.

Falena stared back at him with a knowing look. “It’s not a business dinner, Leona. You know well why I’m telling you this.”

Leona groaned and stood up, turning around to put the papers on a file cabinet, so he wouldn’t have to stare at his brother anymore. “You know the answer already. I’m not doing it.”

“You can’t continue doing this, Leona. You’re already 25, you need to get married and start a family soon. I was already married when I was your age.” His tone was unwavering and stern.

Leona ignored him and continued filing his papers without replying. 

“I gave you free reign to choose someone on your own, but did you appreciate my generosity? No, and we can’t keep waiting. Don’t be mad if I make arrangements for you to find a good partner.”

“My personal life is none of your business, and who is ‘we’? Who cares so much about this?” Leona slammed the cabinet shut.

“The people of this country, of course,” Falena said with pride in his voice. 

Leona grumbled and walked away, pretending to be busy tidying another cabinet. 

“Get ready. They come from far away so we shall make their stay enjoyable.”

“Brother, I’m not joking, I’m not meeting them. My answer is clear, I’m not interested,” Leona said and glanced at Falena. 

Falena stared back for a few seconds before sighing deeply. “Why do you make this so difficult? You’re not a kid anymore, you need to take responsibility for the course of your life. Wasting away here is not good for you.”

“And your idea of something good for me is to marry me to some random person?”

“They’re not a random person, I’m being careful when I pick candidates. I take into account their upbringing and their personality too.” 

Leona sighed and sat down in front of his brother again. “I’ll go to that dinner, but my answer won’t change. You want to keep doing this? Then I’ll be the same. No matter who you bring, I won’t accept.” 

Falena massaged his temples. “Then what do you want?”

“Just leave me alone.”

Arranged marriages were common in their land and Leona knew that well, at some point he figured that it was going to be his fate too—but Falena’s insistence was too annoying. 

Falena didn’t say anything and only stared ahead. Leona hoped that it meant that he was considering his words, but his next question left him speechless.

“Did you already find someone?” There was a mix of worry and curiosity in his tone.

For a moment, Leona thought about lying and making up a fake relationship just so his brother would leave him alone, but the mere thought of having to plan a convincing lie tired him, so he chose to tell the truth. 

“No, I don’t. I just don’t appreciate your meddling.”

Nonetheless, Leona’s hesitance made Falena believe he was lying.

“You are aware I gave you a choice to bring someone, right? Why are you hiding them now? What’s wrong with them?” Falena asked.

“What…? I’m not–” 

It really was tiresome to keep a lie like that one, but maybe his brother could actually stop nagging if he gave some vague replies that could hold until he gave up trying to get more information out of him. 

“There’s nothing wrong, I just didn’t feel like telling you.” 

Falena’s eyes widened. “You do? Who are they? Do I know them?”

Leona grabbed a random book from his desk and pretended to read, trying not to pay much attention to his brother.

“You don’t, and it’s none of your business. You won’t meet them anyway.” 

“Of course we have to! Tell me about them. Are they from work? Since when are you two dating? Ah Leona, why didn’t you tell me sooner. What am I supposed to say to all the people I already matched you with?”

Leona frowned. “That’s on you, I told you to leave me alone.”

Falena stared at him as if trying to read his true intentions. Leona didn’t worry too much though—his brother wasn’t too bright and was easy to deceive.

“Are you going to meet them there? Is this why you want to leave for a week?”

That seemed like a good excuse. 

“Yeah, I will.”

Falena sighed. “You really like to complicate things. Fine, you can go and you can visit your lover, but you’ll have to introduce them to the family later.” He stood up. “And you’ll still come to tonight’s dinner. We’ll decline the proposal, but you’ll have to explain why.”

After Falena left the office, Leona exhaled deeply. He knew he was getting into dangerous territory, but if he could have some peace and his brother could finally leave him alone, then it was worth it. He’d just have to think about what to do later.

Besides the ceremony, the school also had organized a party for all the new students, graduates, and staff. He’d planned on skipping it, but for some reason or another he ended up going. 

After graduating, he lost contact with most of his ex-classmates. Only Ruggie continued working for him, but even he had made his own life already. Leona didn’t care though, he wasn’t too close to anybody else and didn’t need to keep up with the lives of people he didn’t care about. 

At the venue, Leona was bored out of his mind staring at the old familiar faces while Ruggie stuffed his mouth with food and chastised him for lying to his brother. 

“And now what? What will happen to this phantom partner?” He asked after swallowing the food he was eating. “You’ll just keep lying until he finds out?”

“I don’t know, I’m sure I can fool him for a few months at least,” Leona said scratching the back of his head. “I’ll think about something.”

“Why don’t you just date someone? It’s not like it would be too hard for you.” 

“Too much work.”

“Then pay someone to act as your partner. I’m sure that’s easy too,” Ruggie said and laughed. 

Leona had actually considered the idea, but he also thought it was too much work. 

“Keeping a lie of a vague partner is easier than having a fake one. Too annoying,” Leona grunted.

Ruggie shrugged. “I’m just trying to help–”

Suddenly someone bumped into Ruggie, making him drop some of the food on his plate, and quickly turning around to see what had happened.

Several men were standing behind Ruggie having a heated conversation, so  focused on it that neither noticed what had happened. Ruggie grumbled a complaint that they also couldn’t hear. 

Leona let Ruggie clean his mess and simply took a step to the side, but the argument between the other guys got louder and it was almost impossible to miss.

“I’m telling you, he’s fucking him and they just changed the story now that it came to the light,” one of them said.

“No way, I don’t believe it. That’s too risky,” another added.

“You saw those pictures too, yeah? No way they weren’t fucking,” the first one continued.

“Poor woman though, she didn’t deserve any of that,” a different guy said.

“I know, she’s the true victim here, not what they are trying to say on TV.” 

“Victim? She’s gonna suck all his money! Tell me that it wasn’t just a stunt!” 

“What money? Isn’t he, like, broke?”

“No way, he’s acting in that new movie, he’s gonna be loaded.”

“New movie? Oh right, the one Vil Schoenheit got him into,” the guy laughed. “They really planned ahead.”

Leona was only partially listening, but once Vil’s name was said he paid more attention. 

“Do you think Vil Schoenheit would fuck a broke guy? Of course they planned ahead.”

“I still don’t buy it. Why would he risk his career to be with a married man? He’s all about appearances.”

“I’m telling you it’s true. And he’s not risking anything. Everybody is talking about him now, that’s all he wanted.”

“Exactly! That guy is–”

“Shut up!” Someone yelled and pushed the guy who was currently talking. “What the hell do you know? Vil-san is not doing any of that. He’s not fucking any married man and he’s not gaining anything.”

“Yeah, not anymore, the guy is getting divorced already. He did that.”

“He didn’t do anything! Stop talking behind his back when you don’t even know half of it,” the guy, who Leona now realized had a very familiar voice, said. 

“Shut up. Who even are you? Another of his whores?” 

Leona didn’t turn around but still was able to hear a loud slap, some struggling, and some more yelling. 

“Stop, stop! Don’t you know who he is? Schoenheit will come after you if you keep hitting him.”

“Fuck,” the guy said. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“That Epel-kun, as hot-headed as always,” Ruggie said with an amusing tone once the men left.

Leona turned around to see the man in question. He’d grown up slightly since the last time he saw him. He still had a pretty and feminine face, but he looked more mature now—those angry eyes, however, were still the same as years back. Seconds later, some of the guys who hanged around him arrived at his side, including Jack. 

Leona didn’t feel like greeting them, so he turned to Ruggie instead. “What was that anyway?”

Ruggie, who carried a new plate of food, raised his eyebrow. “About Vil-san?” Leona nodded and Ruggie continued, “Which rock do you live under? You don’t know?”

Leona glared at him. Vil was one of the few guys he still saw from time to time—not because he wanted to, but because the circumstances had it that way— but he didn’t care much for his personal life. 

“Apparently Vil-san has been meeting with this guy, this other actor who recently announced his divorce, so people are saying Vil-san was the reason.” Ruggie scratched his neck. “Going by Epel-kun’s reaction I guess it’s not true.”

Leona glanced back at the group who were now all trying to calm Epel down. 

“Give it time, they’ll learn the truth soon,” Jack said.

Epel was being held back by Ace and Deuce but still tried to wriggle out. “How? Nobody is willing to listen, they keep repeating the same thing.”

Ace sighed. “Shouldn’t he just… date someone else instead? To shut down all that gossip, I mean.”

Leona noticed how all the others, except for Epel, complained about his suggestion. Unfortunately, he couldn’t continue listening to what they were saying because Ruggie spoke first.

“Just look at that, Vil-san is in the same situation as you,” he said while laughing loudly.

Probably not the same situation, he thought to himself; but instead of replying, he opted to leave the spot they were in in case the group of younger men saw them and wanted to establish a conversation. He and Ruggie walked to another part of the room, closer to the dessert table, while he kept ignoring everyone who tried to talk to him.

Their peace didn’t last long because moments after they arrived at their new spot, two blond men approached them. 

“Roi du Lion! Monsieur dandelion!” The unmistakable voice called them. “It’s such a miracle and a blessing you are here!”

“Lower your voice, Rook, they can hear you well,” Vil chastised him next to him.

He looked as graceful as always, wearing an outfit that probably belonged to whatever latest collection he was in and a smile on that pretty visage of his. 

Vil noticed Leona was staring at him and couldn’t help but smirk. “I see that not even all these years could fix your slovenly appearance. Wouldn’t it hurt you to dress better for the occasion?”

Same annoying attitude too. 

“What a miracle that his majesty could attend the party,” Leona replied sarcastically. “Aren’t you alwyas too busy for anything?”

Their conversation-argument wasn’t too different from years ago—that hadn’t changed either, but Leona still realized how much they’ve grown these past few years, from their appearances to their mentality.

The four of them talked for a while and then went their separate ways, but by the end of the night they were chatting together again. They weren’t particularly good friends but, for some reason or another, they fit well together. 

Leona wanted the night to end quickly so he could go back to his room and sleep. He was meeting some other researchers the next morning, but afterwards he was going to spend all week sleeping away from his responsibilities. 

But, as if the world was against him, it proved impossible for his dreams to come true because —who knows how— Rook and Vil ended up inviting themselves to their hotel. More specifically Leona’s room since Ruggie chose to lie and said he was staying somewhere else. 

During the years after graduation, he ended up meeting Vil a couple of times when the actor had projects and jobs in his hometown. Nothing planned, they just happened to meet along the way and sometimes they’d go for a drink. 

Leona knew that Vil was more relaxed when he was away from the spotlight; so now that they were inside the hotel room —with alcohol brought by Ruggie— he had to admit it wasn’t as bad as he originally thought. 

Up until now, all their conversations had been quite superficial: about their public lives and work —nothing that they didn’t know already— but after some drinks, the topic changed to more personal matters.

At some point, Vil brought up the issue he was dealing with that Leona heard about earlier at the party. He explained that he was, indeed, not involved with the man like everybody was saying. Apparently the guy was a fellow actor and friend. The guy and his wife had a miscarriage a couple of months before, which brought them many issues —health-wise and relationship-wise mostly— so he had sought Vil for advice. In the end, even though the couple went to therapy, they chose to separate for both of their sakes. However, people didn’t know any of this, and they chose to make up a story about Vil breaking up their marriage. The pregnancy and consequent miscarriage hadn’t been made public, so it wasn’t like Vil could explain properly what had happened without exposing them. The wife wasn’t doing well mentally, so she hadn’t said anything yet, and the guy… Well, apparently he didn’t want to say anything to not make things worse, so now Vil had to deal with the consequences himself. All simply because he chose to be a good friend and support the guy. 

“He says he wants to wait until his now ex-wife is doing better so they can clear up everything, but I fear that by then both of our reputations would be too tainted,” Vil said, leaning back on the couch he was sitting on. “I respect his wishes, but I’m afraid it won’t be too easy to fix.”

Rook shrugged dramatically. “It’s a terrible situation, but your heart is truly beautiful for not wanting to expose their lives and worsen their already sad predicament.”

“But isn’t Vil-san paying for something he didn’t do? That’s too shitty. What are you gonna do?”

Before Vil could reply, Rook spoke again, “His manager proposed an idea, but Vil doesn’t agree with it.” Vil called Rook’s name to make him shut up, but Rook continued nonetheless, “She said that if he dates someone else then people would stop associating them together. Of course, Vil believes it won’t work.”

Leona perked up. That was the same thing those guys said earlier, so they weren’t too off-track. 

“Of course it won’t work!” Vil said heatedly. “As if anyone would believe it. She said that I should pretend we’ve been together for years, but who’s going to buy something like that? Besides, where would I even find someone willing to help?”

Leona smirked. “Are you saying the famous top-model Vil Schoenheit has a hard time finding partners? Who could imagine that?”

“Shut up,” Vil frowned, “of course it wouldn’t be a proper relationship. We would have to pretend for a while, until everything calms down, at least. Who’d want to be in a relationship like that? They wouldn’t gain anything either.”

Ruggie cackled loudly. “Actually I have the perfect guy for that job,” he said and elbowed Leona. 

Leona glared at him dangerously, asking him to shut up, but Ruggie ignored him.. Leona had already told them how his brother had been nagging him to find a wife, but he didn’t mention he had already fabricated a non-existent partner.

“Leona-san told his brother he was dating someone so he’d leave him alone,” Ruggie explained. “Of course, now he has to keep lying or, like I suggested, find someone who can pretend to date him.” 

“I’m not gonna do that. It’s too much work,” Leona said. 

“But it’s such a magnifique solution! Think about it! You could both work out your problems like this!”

Rook had a point, but pretending to date Vil? Surely he wasn’t the worst person he could’ve chosen, but it still didn’t feel right. He’d have to interact with Vil probably on a daily basis, and, truth to be told, they didn’t get along as well as anyone expected.

Vil’s expression showed he thought the same. 

“I was joking, but actually it’s not a bad idea?” Ruggie said in a thoughtful manner. “I mean, you both need some fake partner to help you. And you both know each other already.”

“And you both like each other!” Rook finished for him.

Leona and Vil flinched at the same time. 

“What are you saying?” Vil said, his fingers combing through his hair. “I’ll give it to you that it could be easier to believe since we know each other for so long, but anyone who knows us would be suspicious. I don’t think it’s believable either.”

“I don’t know about that,” Ruggie said.

Vil frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Well you know,” Ruggie shrugged, “what they used to say.”

This time even Leona was intrigued. “What did they use to say? And who?”

Ruggie scratched his head and glanced at Rook who stared back with glee in his eyes. The hyena sighed, “I guess you never knew. Many of the students from our dorm thought you two were together.”

“Not just them, in our dormitory it was the same,” Rook added.

Once again, both Leona and Vil seemed taken aback. How did that even happen? What ever made them have such a ridiculous idea?

“So yeah, I’m sure many of those guys would still believe it. It doesn’t even sound that absurd, you know?”

Vil was the first one to speak. “Putting that aside, even though I do want to hear who was saying those things later, do you really think it’d work? I already think that if I were to suddenly start a relationship it wouldn’t seem sincere, but if you add Leona’s issue—wouldn’t it be too deceptive?”

“If I’m being honest, Vil, I also didn’t like the idea of you dating anyone just to fix that circumstance. Dating someone should come from the heart and not because someone orders you to,” Rook said, sighing deeply. “However I think this would be the best option for both of you.”

Vil sighed and hid his face in his hands. 

“I mean, it wouldn’t be too crazy to think you both were hiding your relationship, right? With Vil-san being an actor and Leona-san a prince, most people would believe you’d rather keep it a secret.”

Other than having to deal with Vil, it didn’t sound that bad. He was worried he’d have to do everything since he was the one who needed help, but if Vil was involved too, then he could take care of most things. 

“My family knows I’ve met you a few times in the past, surely they’d believe it too. I also told them I was meeting that person here,” Leona said feigning indifference.

“You met before?” Rook asked.

Vil ignored him and turned to Leona. “Are you considering it? Do you think it may work?” He asked with a slightly hopeful tone.

Leona shrugged. “I guess? We don’t have to do much, right? Just pretend for a while.” 

“It’s not that easy,” Vil said, staring at Leona from head to toe. “We’d need a plan, of course. We need to agree on things like when did we start dating, hypothetically, and why did we keep it a secret. Also, I guess you’d want to tell your brother about me or even have him meet me, as for me… I guess we have to be seen in public together.” 

“Oh là là, will you really do this?”

Leona shook his head. “Too much work, you think about all that.”

Vil threw a cushion, hitting Leona’s face. “If you want me to help you, then you need to do your part too. You are going to work for it.”

The way he said it sounded as if he was doing Leona a favour when it was supposed to help them both. Rather than continue arguing, Leona sighed and lay down on the bed. 

“Then, we started dating during our days at Night Raven College? We just kept it a secret for 5 years?” He said after a while.

Vil shook his head. “Nobody would believe we hid it for so long.”

“Then… we dated back then, broke up when we graduated, and recently started dating?”

Vil hummed. “That sounds better. When was the last time we met in the Sunset Savanna?”

“How should I know? A few months ago?”

Vil rolled his eyes and checked the calendar on his phone. “Three months ago, in December, but that’s too soon. I was also there in October, September, and April. That was just last year, but I went there the previous year too,” he said. 

“If it’s April that would mean almost a year, right? I think that sounds good,” Ruggie added.

“I think so too,” Vil agreed. “Alright, we started dating last April. Since we had already dated, we wanted to keep a low profile until we were ready to make it public.”

“Great, you have your story. That’s it?” 

“You need to remember this, we may be questioned,” Vil said and then sighed. “What will you tell your family? Do you want me to meet them?”

His brother may finally let him be if he met Vil, but it wasn't time for that yet. His brother was… a very merry familiar man, and if he ended up liking Vil then he wouldn’t leave them alone. It was better to keep him away from them for now. 

“Not yet, but I’ll tell them anyway. What about you? What’s your plan?” Leona asked.

Vil thought for a few seconds. “I need to think more about this, talk to my manager too, but I guess we need to be seen together in public so people know we’re together. Is that okay?”

“How in public?” 

“Nothing too drastic. Just meet somewhere where people can recognize us. Of course, once we make it official, then you’d have to accompany me to some events and parties.”

Leona groaned at the mere thought of having to do any of that. Yet, he knew it made sense, and if he introduced Vil to his family then they would probably ask him to bring Vil to their events too. 

“Alright,” Leona said. Not like he had much of an option now.

Ruggie laughed next to him. “You’re agreeing too easily when early today you said you didn’t want to.”

Leona ignored him.

“Anyway,” Ruggie continued, “you know that’s not just it, right? You need to act like you are actually together. You know, not fighting all day, holding hands, and maybe even kissing?”

Out of the corner of his eye, Leona noticed that Vil flinched but tried to remain calm.

Vil cleared his throat. “Who do you think I am? I am an actor, of course I can do those things. However, we can simply state that we do not like PDA if anyone asks. Or do you have any problem with this, Leona?”

Vil was good looking, so he didn’t mind holding his hand or kissing him once or twice —though he had to admit he’d rather not— and ignoring his nagging personality, he wasn’t that bad either. They could probably spend a few hours without arguing. 

He shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Vil checked his phone once again before asking, “When are you going back home?”

“I’ll stay a few more days. Do you want to start right away?”

“Yes, that should be ideal. Are you free tomorrow?”

Leona suddenly felt a pang of regret. Was he really going to do this just to make his brother shut up? What could be more annoying and tedious: pretend to date Vil or have his brother arrange marriage interviews every week?

Well…

“I need to meet some people early tomorrow, but I should be done by the afternoon. Why? What do you want to do?” 

“You’re meeting someone in the morning? What happened to you?” Ruggie amusedly asked. 

Leona rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I had a choice.”

Vil shook his head, but smiled nonetheless. “Get used to it, I may need you during the mornings too.” He stood up, picked up his purse, and motioned Rook to do the same. “Meet me tomorrow at that coffee shop we used to frequent. The one close to the school. Text me when you’re free, so we can meet then.”

Leona groaned, once again regretting his choice—though deep inside, he knew this was the better option. 

Just like they’d agreed, Leona met Vil at the coffee shop the following afternoon.

Vil told him he had already spoken with his manager and she was onboard with the idea. They also agreed to keep this arrangement secret. The only people allowed to know other than themselves were Rook, Ruggie, and Vil’s manager—for everybody else, they would be dating for real. 

Vil showed some regret at having to hide it from his father, but he knew it was better like that. He wasn’t sure if his father would approve anyway.

“Alright, then tell me: when did we start dating?” Vil asked, sipping on his drink with a gleeful expression.

“Again?” Leona asked but when he didn’t get a reply from Vil, he sighed and answered, “Last year in… April.”

“Don’t hesitate, it looks like you don’t remember,” Vil chastised him.

“Even if it was true, do you think I’d remember the exact date?” 

“You better,” Vil said with a frown which soon turned into a sigh, “but you’re right. That’s more like you, so I’ll accept it. Now, why did we keep it a secret?”

“Because… that’s none of their business, why would they ask such a thing?” Leona rested his face on his arm. “Too nosey.”

“I think the same, but they’ll ask, so you need to know how to respond,” Vil said.

“Because we were still testing the waters. After dating for two years back in college we weren’t sure if we were ready again,” Leona replied, relaying the words Vil said before. 

“Good, and why did we break up?” Vil asked, staring at Leona’s eyes and waiting for his reaction.

Leona frowned. “You didn’t say anything about that, what am I supposed to answer?”

Vil sighed. “Do you think they’ll only ask you what I’ve been telling you? They’ll ask many questions, a lot of them uncomfortable even. You need to be quick and know how to answer,” he shrugged, “think about something.”

Vil drilled into him several —useless— details for hours, and now he wanted him to make up stuff himself? It was absurd.

“Alright, we broke up because you cheated on me,” Leona replied with a smirk.

Vil’s face instantly flushed and kicked him under the table. “Wrong, you can’t say that.”

“Why not? That’s a common reason why couples break up, right?” Leona chuckled, wanting to, at least, get some entertainment out of this.

“You’d be really stupid if you went back with someone who cheated on you. And neither of us want that reputation, so think about something else,” Vil said in a calmer tone.

Leona shook his head. “Then… because I was going back home, and you wanted to continue working. We thought it was better to split.”

Vil smiled. “Now, that’s a good answer. You went to university and wanted a job closer to your home. I didn’t want to move. We argued a lot about that, and then we decided it was better to break up; now that we’re older we wanted to take the risk again. How does it sound? Credible?”

“That sounds like a script for some kind of third-rate movie,” Leona said, leaning back on his seat. “We don’t need all that crap.”

“Maybe we don’t, but I think it’s good to be prepared,” he sighed. “Anyway, there’s another thing. I have to shoot a commercial in the Sunset Savanna in a week, so I was thinking about accompanying you.”

Leona raised an eyebrow. “I leave on the 23rd, I thought you said you had something to do tomorrow.”

“I do, but I think this is a good idea. I have to shoot from the 28th to the 30th, but I can stay a few days after that; so my plan is: we go over there, you go back home, I go to my hotel, and we meet a couple of nights while I’m there. Nothing too grand, maybe you can come to the hotel and… I don’t know, sleep over there? Just so people start to talk.”

“I could do that, that would help me escape my brother for a while,” Leona said. 

He started to believe that maybe this wasn’t such a bad thing. 

“Great, then we leave tomorrow for the Shaftlands, so I can finish my business, then we leave on the 23rd to the Sunset Savanna. Sounds good, right?”

Or maybe not.

“Why do I need to go?”

“I didn’t come prepared, I need to pick up more clothes and everything I’ll need.”

“But why do I need to go with you? You can go do your business, come here later, then we leave together.”

“How is it going to look if I go back home and my boyfriend stays here doing nothing?”

The way Vil referred to him as his boyfriend was too natural. Maybe he really ought to take this more seriously too.

“Besides, what are you planning to do here? Sleep?” Vil continued, crossing his arms. 

“I have to meet some people here too,” Leona lied.

He had already declared he was only meeting people this morning and his next meeting was online, so Vil knew he was lying. Still, Vil played along and looked at his watch. “You have a few hours today, and we leave at noon tomorrow. You can meet them tomorrow morning.”

Leona waved his hand in front of him. “Alright, alright. You win, I don’t have to, but do I really have to go?”

“You can stay at my apartment,” Vil said. “Sleep all day if you want. We can go out once, but it’s not necessary.”

Leona stared at him. “I feel like you’re lying to me and will ask me to accompany you everywhere.”

Vil smirked. “Not yet, we’ll do that later.”

He couldn’t back down now and, as annoying as this was, all of this was for his own good too. He just had to go with it for…

“We didn’t agree on when we will stop this,” Leona said.

“We just started and you want to break up already, huh?” Vil joked. “I’m not sure. Probably a couple of months? For me, it should be until they stop talking about what happened. It can be either a couple of weeks or a couple years, but I believe a few months should be fine. I don’t know about you.”

His brother would probably only stop when he got married, but if he could stall the proposals for a while, then it was good. He could always think of a better plan later too.

“A couple of months is fine.”

“Great, then it’s all settled. From now on, we are lovers,” Vil said, standing up from the table and showing his hand to Leona so he could shake it. “Officially since April, but our agreement starts today.”

“Bless the day, then,” Leona said and kissed his hand instead of shaking it. 

Vil quickly pulled his hand away, sending a disapproving stare at Leona who laughed in turn.

“Then, let’s go. I want to do some shopping before we leave,” Vil said, however when Leona didn’t move, he spoke again, “Come on, the shops will close soon. We need to hurry.”

“I’m sorry? Why do I–”

“Because we are dating already,” Vil said and extended his hand again.

Leona shook his head, but took Vil’s hand and stood up nonetheless. 

This was for his own good. 

The following day they went through the mirror straight to the city Vil was currently living at. 

Leona had to admit he was wrong about Vil’s intentions because —just like he promised— he let him rest in his apartment during all their stay. Every morning Vil left for the gym, he’d come back, get ready for work, and usually arrive in the afternoon. Only one day he arrived early because he had online classes, but the apartment was spacious enough that Leona didn’t notice right away. 

Staying those three days with Vil made him realize the agreement wasn’t too bad. Maybe it was because he didn’t see Vil for a good part of the day, but he didn’t seem as annoying as he remembered him being. 

During their last night there, Vil dragged him to get dinner at a local restaurant which, again, wasn’t that bad, barring the fact that he had to dress up. 

That night Leona learnt Vil hadn’t told his dad yet and wasn’t sure yet when to break out the news. Apparently Vil and his father were pretty close, and while it made sense to tell his father first, he didn’t want to lie to him, so he was trying to find the perfect moment. Leona told him that if it was such a big issue, then he could just tell him the truth, but Vil disagreed. As much as he hated lying to him, telling more people would only make things more difficult.

Next morning, they left Vil’s apartment together towards the airport. They could easily use a magic mirror to go straight to the castle, but Vil thought it was inappropriate to impose like that—so there they were: waiting for their flight in the departure lounge. 

Leona was replying to some messages from his brother when Vil approached him from behind and held his left hand with both of his hands. Leona was decidedly surprised, but his only reaction was to lift an eyebrow. They hadn’t yet shown any public display of affection, partially because there hadn’t been any need and partially because they hadn’t talked about it again after that first night.

Vil smiled and moved closer enough to whisper in his ear, “Don’t fret. There are a lot of people here, so I thought doing something like this was appropriate.”

Saying that, Vil let go of his hand and tried to step away, but Leona grabbed his hand again and pulled him closer.

Leona chuckled without looking at him directly. “Why did you tell me not to fret when you’re doing it yourself?”

Vil whispered back with a stern expression, “It took me by surprise, I’m not fretting.”

“You are, I can hear your heartbeat from here.”

Vil quickly looked down to his chest before looking at Leona again. “Don’t lie, that’s not true.”

Still, they held hands until it was time to board the plane.

The plan was that, once they arrived, they were going their separate ways: someone was bringing Leona home, and Vil was taking a taxi to the hotel he had already reserved; then they’d see when they would meet again.

However, once they arrived at the airport, there was a car already waiting for them both. 

“Prince Leona,” the driver said once she saw them approach, “his majesty asked me to escort you both back home.”

“Both?” Leona asked, glancing at Vil who looked as surprised as he was.

“Yes, he informed us that you two were coming together and ordered us to bring you directly to the castle. He’ll be meeting you there.”

“I appreciate the gesture, but I already called a taxi which will take me back to my hotel. I believe it’s unnecessary,” Vil explained with a smile.

The driver seemed surprised that her words were rejected and didn’t know how to explain that it wasn’t a simple offer but an order. “Ah… then, please cancel the taxi and we’ll make sure to refund the money. For now, please come with me.”

Vil looked at Leona, asking for a solution or an explanation, but unfortunately Leona had none. 

It had been silly to think his brother didn’t know anything. Whether he sent someone to follow him or used other ways to spy him, it was clear he was aware of the situation. 

“Let’s go,” Leona said, pushing Vil to the car. “I’ll take you to your hotel later.”

Vil and Leona went into the car while the driver put their bags in the trunk. He knew Vil wanted to ask what was going on, but to not raise suspicions —especially since this driver was his brother’s personal driver— they chose to not say anything incriminating and opted to make small talk.

When they arrived at the castle, several maids were waiting for them. A couple of them took their luggage to who knows where, while another escorted them to the king’s private quarters. 

Leona was grateful for Vil’s acting abilities because, even though he probably was surprised or even nervous, his demeanour showed serenity—as if he was waiting for this meeting too.

After the maid announced their presence, Leona opened the door to the room. 

Falena was sitting at his desk, hands below his chin, and a huge smile on his face.

“You’re finally here. How was your flight?” He directed his question at Leona, but moments later he took a peek at Vil who stood next to him. “You must be Vil Schoenheit, my brother’s partner. Welcome to the Sunset Savanna.”

Vil smiled warmly, and bowed down in reverence. “Yes, you majesty. It’s an honour to finally meet you.”

“Sit down, I’d like to talk to you,” Falena said and pointed to the seats in front of him.

After they were seated, Leona couldn’t resist asking. “How did you know he was coming? I didn’t tell you anything.”

Falena dismissed his question waving his hand in front of him. “I’ll be honest, I thought Leona was lying when he told me he already had someone—but turns out he wasn’t! Unless he asked you to act the part.”

Falena laughed loudly when he said the last part and Leona kicked himself mentally for being too obvious.

“Of course not, Leona and I have been together for a while, but we hadn’t had the chance to tell anyone about it,” Vil replied with a soft smile.

“Oh? And why is that?”

“Because it’s none of your business,” Leona replied.

Vil glared at him and cleared his throat. Then he recounted the ‘story’ of how they dated in the past, broke up, and how they decided to give each other a chance again. It was, however, much more detailed than what he’d asked Leona to remember—he made up some parts and his voice even cracked at some point. If Leona didn’t know any better, he would’ve believed him too.

“Leona,” he shook his head, “you should’ve told me before, I’m your brother! I support you in whatever you want to do.”

Leona looked away.

“So, tell me more about you,” he told Vil. “I’m curious to know what kind of person my brother likes.”

Leona was sure his brother had already investigated Vil, but he probably wanted to hear his story from his own lips.

“I’m an actor and a model—I’ve been doing that since I was young and I’m quite successful. Also I recently went back to college. I’m still in my third semester because work sometimes gets in the way, but I plan on finishing my degree even if it takes a while.”

Falena’s eyes lightened. “What are you studying?”

“Potionology.”

“There’s a course like that in the university you work at, right?” He asked Leona.

“Yes, it’s fairly new but it’s recognized as being good,” Leona said and yawned. “Do you need anything else? I’m tired and I need to take Vil back to his hotel.”

“Aren’t you staying here with us? We have many guest’s rooms. Unless you want to stay in Leona’s quarters. He doesn’t let us in there, but I’m sure he won’t have a problem with you,” Falena said and was about to call a maid when Vil spoke again.

“Oh, no, no. I don’t want to impose, and I’ll only stay for a couple of days. I’m working in the city, but then I have to return home, to the Shaftlands.”

Falena frowned. “Is that so? Don’t you have magical mirrors where you live? Actually, I was surprised you didn’t use one to come here.”

“We do have them, but I don’t see why–”

“Have you two thought about getting married?” He asked, interrupting Vil.

Both of them blinked in surprise. While Falena’s train of thought was unusual most of the time, this time Leona couldn’t understand where this was going.

“I’m sorry, was that too abrupt?”

Vil quickly came to himself and shook his head, smiling gently. “I’m sorry, it did take me by surprise. And to answer your question, we– we have, but we think it’s still too early to talk about those matters. I’m only 23, too young for marriage. Right, Leona?”

Before Leona could speak, Falena interrupted him. “But you’ve been together for a year now, and two in the past. So those are three years you’ve been together, plus the time you were just friends; it’s enough to get to know each other. There’s no wrong age to get married.”

Leona understood now, and he had to admit he wasn’t surprised. Falena’s goal was to get Leona to marry, so of course he was going to push them towards that.

“You’re right, but Vil wants to wait. We’ve changed a lot from our school days, so he thinks it’s better if we take it slow,” Leona explained. “I agree with him.”

Falena frowned. “But, how slow? What are you waiting for?”

“I mean, we already moved forward by telling you. I was hoping we could visit my dad soon, too.”

Leona nodded, hoping his brother could leave the subject alone. He knew he’d insist, but their excuses sounded reasonable enough for him to accept. 

“Honestly, when I heard that you went to his house and then you both were coming here, I thought it was because you were going to announce your wedding already,” Falena said with a melancholic tone. 

Leona was right about him spying on him, but before he could question his brother, he spoke again.

“Then, how about you move in together? That’s what a lot of people do nowadays, right?”

“That would be lovely, but I believe it would be difficult,” Vil said. “My job has me going to many different places, and I’m still attending school. Leona works here, so I don’t think we could find a middle ground.”

“Nonsense. You said you have magic mirrors over there and we have many here too. You can come and go easily.”

Vil glanced at Leona as if asking him for help.

“Brother, calm down. We’re only re-starting our relationship, we don’t know what will happen yet. We may break up next week or something,” Leona said. Their seats were close enough, so he placed his hand on the back of Vil’s chair. 

“That’s not a good thing to say, Leona. Especially in front of him.”

“Don’t worry, I think so too. Last time we rushed things, and that’s one of the reasons it didn’t work out. Let us work this alone,” Vil said, placing his hand over Leona’s. 

“Why don’t you give it a chance anyway? Stay here for a couple of days, and if you like it then you can move.”

Leona knew that Falena wouldn’t back down so easily, and the reason why he was so insistent was because he liked to keep him close. He didn’t know if it was a control thing or what, but it had always been like this. 

“Vil doesn’t know much about our traditions, I think he’ll have a hard time getting used to the castle. Maybe we can leave it for another time. He can come back later when there’s more time and–”

“I was thinking you could stay at the side manor. It’s been a while since the last time anybody lived there, but we keep it clean in case it’s needed. Recently we only used it for some meetings, but it’s still big enough for you two to live in. And honestly, I always thought to give it to you once you got married.”

If they agreed —even to only stay for a couple of days— then they wouldn’t be able to say no later. 

“Maybe we should think about it,” Vil said.

“Why don’t you go and check it? I asked the maids to prepare a room, they already took your things over there.” Falena stood up and walked to the door. “I’ll go with you.”

The two men shared a resigned look while they followed him to the mirror chamber. 

The side manor was in the capital of the kingdom too, but it was far enough that they’d rather use the mirrors to travel between there and the castle. It was spacious, fully furnished, and had a minimal amount of workers there: only a couple of maids, a gardener, and a handyman—though his brother let them know he’d send a chef and other people during their stay. In a different situation, Leona could consider moving there to be on his own, but not right now.

After a quick tour around the premises, Falena agreed to let them rest until dinner time—when they were meant to come back to the main castle to dine as a family. 

Once they were alone, in the confines of their new bedroom, Vil collapsed on the bed.

“You downplayed your brother’s insistence. I didn’t think it was going to be like this, just look at this,” he raised his hands towards the ceiling, “now I have to live here with you.”

Leona sighed and sat on the other side of the wide bed. “I didn’t know he was gonna send someone to follow us or that he was planning this, but if you don’t like it, you can leave anytime.”

Vil shook his head. “It’s fine, I knew what I was agreeing to. I’ll stay for a week and maybe we can convince him we’re together but don’t want to actually live together.”

“Good luck,” Leona said sarcastically. “Should I tell the maids to prepare another room?”

“No way, they’ll tell your brother and he’ll ask why,” Vil said, raising his head to look at Leona. “I don’t want more uncomfortable conversations today.”

“So we’ll sleep together? Don’t you think we’re taking this agreement too far?”

The plan was only to pretend to be dating, but things had changed and now they even had to share a bed for a few days. Back in Vil’s apartment they didn’t do it, Vil let him stay in a guest room. And that’s exactly what they should be doing here too.

“You can sleep on the floor if you want to,” Vil said with disdain. “But sharing a bed shouldn’t be too bad if you keep your hands to yourself.” 

As if he’d ever want to touch him.

Chapter Text

The following days were awkward, but they soon found a working pace. 

Vil woke up early and went for a run near the castle, then after he came back and Leona woke up, they’d go have breakfast. Leona would go back to the castle to work in his office, while Vil did his own thing—either going to work, taking classes, or who knows what. In the evenings, they met again for dinner, sometimes with Leona’s family and sometimes alone. Then they’d retire for the night. 

The day before Vil had to go shoot his commercial, they realized the maids were indeed telling Falena a lot about their activities, so they chose to use endearing names for each other and be more affectionate in public. 

When a whole week passed, and Vil was supposed to go back home, he asked Leona to stay after breakfast so they could talk.

“So, you want to stay here? For how long?” He asked Vil.

“I don’t know, maybe a couple of weeks more? I didn’t think this would work, but it’s actually really helpful. It’s easy for me to go to work, and all that gossip about that guy is starting to shift into me living with you, so it’s working. I think we should keep it up for a while.”

It truly wasn’t that bad. Thanks to this arrangement, he didn’t have to spend as much time with his brother recently. He only had to use the excuse that he wanted to go with Vil and he’d let him leave. He also appreciated the calmness of being away from his hyperactive nephew who loved to wake him up too early several days a week. And while the maids were nosey and loose-lipped, they were actually more agreeable than the ones in the main castle.

It was mostly all thanks to Vil, though. They all took a great liking to him and always did what he asked, even when it meant going against his or his brother’s orders.

Vil also got along with his nephew and sister-in-law, and some nights he spent way too long talking to them when Leona was dying to come back to sleep; but it was all part of the plan, so he swallowed his complaints.

That night before dinner, after Leona told his brother what Vil decided, Falena forced them to come to the castle for a small celebration since —according to him— they were closer to a proper marriage now. 

Around a week later, one afternoon after work Leona was about to enter their room when he heard that Vil was on a phone call.

These past days they’d both taken several trips to Vil’s apartment so he could bring some of his stuff back to the manor, so at first he thought it was something related to it. However, after listening for some seconds, he realized he was talking with his dad.

He’d mentioned he needed to talk with him, but the days passed and he refused to do it until the right time came—which apparently was now.

“Yes, dad. I know, I know, but I’m not lying,” Vil said. “I really… yes.”

Leona knew it was better if he left him alone, but his curiosity took the best of him and he stayed to hear what he was saying.

“No, I– okay, dad, you win. It was a lie.”

Vil said he wasn’t going to tell him the truth, and yet here he was telling him everything one phone call later.

“But not completely. See, we are dating, but we just started after that reunion at Night Raven College. It– yes, I’ll admit that played a part, maybe I was a bit desperate, but it wasn’t just that. I’ve had a crush on him since we were in school, and you knew– yes, it’s him. I just saw the chance and took it, so don’t think I’m making all this up.”

Leona was admittedly surprised by what he was saying. For Vil to be able to lie to even his father so easily, he truly was a good actor. 

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to hear more because someone else arrived.

“Here you are, you finished earlier today? I was looking for you,” Falena said, tapping him on the shoulder. 

Leona stepped away from the door and nodded to his brother. “What do you want? Couldn’t you’ve sent someone?”

“Am I not welcome in your home?” Falena asked without expecting a reply. “Anyway, how are you doing over here? Is everything okay?”

“Is that why you’re here?” Leona asked, raising an eyebrow. “Everything’s good.”

“I know it’s been hard for you two to adapt, I can see you’re uncomfortable here—everybody can tell! You don’t spend too much time together, and you barely go out. So Leona, if there’s anything you need I’ll try to get it for you.”

Uncomfortable? That’s not a word Leona would use to describe them, but maybe he was somewhat right. They couldn’t adapt to a life together because they weren’t together! He thought they’d been doing a good job at pretending, but maybe they needed to try harder. 

“Vil is not used to living with so many people around,” Leona said.

“Yeah, the maids told me he asked them not to come into your room in the mornings if possible. I understand, of course. So, what do you think could help to make him feel at ease?”

Leona shrugged. “I’ll ask him later.”

“Is he in there? Let’s ask him now! I also have something to tell you two,” Falena said. He tried to open the door, but was quickly stopped by Leona.

“He’s talking to his father. Let’s not bother him right now.” 

“Why don’t we invite him here, then? You don’t know him yet, right? I’m sure he’d be delighted to meet you. And I’m sure it will make Vil happy,” Falena said.

Leona wasn’t sure what to say —or how to reject the idea— when the door opened and Vil came out looking startled by finding the two brothers standing outside the room.

“Darling, your majesty, what are you doing here?” He asked, not masking his surprise. 

“Leona told me you were talking with your father, so I was thinking about inviting him here. What do you think?”

Leona was about to interrupt them, but Vil spoke first.

“That’s a great idea.”

Leona frowned. 

“Dad wants to meet you,” Vil said, noticing his displeasure. “He was just telling me so. His schedule is a bit busy right now, but maybe we can arrange something later.”

Falena patted Leona on his back again and laughed. “Get ready to meet your father-in-law then.”

Leona looked askance at Vil, but he wasn’t paying attention to him. Instead he asked his brother, “Is there any reason why you came all the way here? You must be busy too.”

He waved his hand. “Just a bit, but I wanted to talk with you. Some noble families are coming next week for an assembly, and I want you two to attend too.”

Vil looked at Leona for a moment before nodding. “Sure, I’ll clear my schedule.”

“Those are some of the families you rejected in the past, Leona, so we’re letting them know there was a good reason why you did what you did. So I hope you two are in your best behaviour.” 

Vil nodded again. “That won’t be a problem at all, and actually I have a similar request,” he said, looking at Leona. “My agency is organizing a get-together and I was hoping you could come with me.”

“Do I have a choice?” Leona asked, even though he knew that this was part of the agreement.

Vil smirked and shook his head.

“Alright, then I guess I’ll come.”

Falena laughed next to them. “I’m glad you get along so well. Then it’s settled, I’ll let you know the date later. And please, remember what I told you, make yourselves comfortable here. This is your home, after all.”

Once Falena was out of sight, they went inside the room with a fake smile on their faces.

“Were you spying on me?” Vil asked in an irritated tone. “Or how did you know I was talking with my dad?”

Leona scoffed. “You remember this is my room, right? I didn’t hear anything though. And anyway, why did you agree? I don’t want to meet your father.”

Vil crossed his arms. “I didn’t have a choice, he wants to. He said he wouldn’t be at ease until he met you. And it’s better if he comes here because that means you won’t be alone with him and you won’t mess up.”

Leona felt a headache coming and went to lie down on the bed. Vil followed him seconds later.

“Thanks for agreeing to come with me too. Adela has been insisting on it.” His voice sounded less annoyed now. “I know you don’t want to, but it’s important.”

“Yes, I don’t want to, but my brother thinks we’re not… close enough.” Leona sighed, remembering his brother’s words.

“What do you mean? We sleep together, we eat together. What else are we supposed to do?”

“Apparently it’s too obvious that we’re not too comfortable here. And he did say we don’t spend much time together,” Leona explained.

Vil bit his thumb. “Do you think he knows we don’t… do any couples’ activities?”

“What? Are we supposed to start having sex now?” Leona asked, but was quickly silenced by a pillow.

“Don’t say that, of course not. But calling you ‘darling’ is probably not enough. Ahh, maybe the maids told him we don’t do much together.” He shook his head.

Leona removed the pillow from his face and set it aside. “You asked them not to bother us here, so I doubt they’re telling him something they don’t know.”

“Then, how about we go on a date tonight?” Vil asked moments later.

Leona groaned loudly. “We don’t have to do it tonight. I’m tired.”

“You’re always tired. And we need to do something or else they’ll start to suspect. Leona, you agreed to.”

Leona groaned again. “Go where?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who lives here. But let’s come back late, and then we put on an act like we’re… eager to be with each other.”

“Alright, but you can’t complain about the place I choose. And don’t work out tomorrow, you always wake me up when you leave and sometimes I can’t go back to sleep.” Leona stood up and, without waiting for Vil, went to leave the room.

Vil quickly stood up and stopped Leona before he left. “I need to get ready first, but I agree with your conditions. I’ll work out here instead since I don’t like missing even a day, but it definitely will look better if I stay in.”

They went to a bar that Leona liked to frequent. It was clear that Vil was fighting his urge to complain about the place, but in the end they had a good night. 

He used to think he and Vil were like water and oil, but these past weeks he’d learnt to get along with him. He had started to understand his weird habits, and recently he was getting more comfortable with his presence. It really wasn’t too unbearable anymore. 

They’d agreed to stay until dinnertime, but they were so focused on their conversation that they forgot and stayed until midnight. They even forgot to pretend to act when they came back—partially because they were mildly drunk and partially because they were both in a good mood anyway; but in any case, Leona didn’t even notice the maids when they came back. 

Leona went straight to bed, while Vil took his time removing his makeup and applying lotions and creams. Once he was done he accompanied Leona.

The bed was spacious, so they usually didn’t even have to lie too close to each other; but tonight Vil chose to sleep next to him. 

Leona realized Vil was too drunk, so —to not make things awkward— he pushed him to his side of the bed. In response, Vil moved even closer to him, even going as far as grabbing his arm and cuddling it.

“Vil, you’re– you’re drunk,” Leona whispered while he tried to squirm his arm out. 

Vil didn’t seem to listen and sat up momentarily to grab Leona’s other arm. He didn’t understand what he was doing, but moments later Vil lay down again with his back pressed against Leona’s body, and pulled on his arms so Leona would be spooning him. 

Leona tried to move his arms but soon he found that Vil was quite strong, way more than he looked, and ultimately preferred to stop struggling. Vil always woke up first, so it was on him to become embarrassed in the morning. 

However—

When he woke up, the first thing he noticed was a lavender smell invading his senses. He opened his eyes and saw a head full of blond hair, and little by little he realized his arm was still resting on Vil’s toned stomach while their legs were tangled together. 

Carefully, he removed his arm from Vil’s grip, but he hadn't completely disentangled when someone called him.

“Your highness, are you awake?”

Leona stiffened and looked for the source of the voice. Not too far from the bed, a maid was standing carrying a silver tray in her hands.

“What are you doing here?” Leona asked, rubbing the sleep off his eyes. 

“Sorry to disturb you, your highness. Master Vil instructed me to bring him this potion in the morning, but I was surprised to see he hadn’t awakened yet.”

“Hmm, leave it over there,” Leona said, laying down again. 

“Excuse me, your highness, since it’s later than usual, would you prefer it if I brought your breakfast here?”

“Yeah, just give us some time to wake up. You can leave now,” Leona dismissed her.

He noticed that light was coming through the curtains already but was struggling to find his phone to check the time. It was most likely lost between the sheets. 

When he finally found it, he also realized a pair of amethyst eyes were staring at him. 

“Finally awake?” Leona asked before checking the time on his phone. “Did you plan this? For the maid to see us?”

Vil yawned and covered his head with the sheets. “Something like that, however I didn’t expect to sleep in.”

“It’s past 10am, so not too late for me, but I’m surprised the supermodel Vil Schoenheit didn’t go for his morning run today.”

“Ten?” Vil quickly stood up. “What I was thinking? This will mess up my sleeping schedule.”

“Relax, it’s done anyway. Let’s just wait for breakfast.”

He didn’t know what he was thinking, but —as if it moved on its own— Leona’s hand caressed Vil’s hair in a comforting manner. Vil let himself enjoy the touch and sunk back on the bed. 

“I guess it’s okay for one day,” Vil said.

Indeed, one day like this seemed to be okay.

Days passed and they started to become more comfortable around each other—apparently they just needed to cuddle once to feel at ease. 

Leona accompanied Vil to his get-together where he introduced him to everybody as his boyfriend. They held hands and stuck together the whole night, making everyone believe their lie. Once they got home, they slept next to each other again.

When they met the other nobles families and Vil was introduced as Leona’s official partner, they behaved more dignified and solemn, but made it clear their union was genuine—and once again, the following morning, the maids weren’t able to deny that the couple seemed to be comfortable in each other arms.

They hadn’t met Vil’s father yet, but the invitation had been sent and their appointment scheduled for two weeks later. 

They fell into a comfortable pace. Even the dates they went on weren’t too annoying, and little by little, Leona grew used to the other man’s company. 

When Vil woke up in the mornings, he tried to make the least noise possible so as to not wake Leona up—but Leona quickly realized he liked it more when he was able to see him, even for a minute, than waking up to an empty bed. 

Recently, they began having their breakfast in bed more often too. Vil sometimes complained about the mess; but after his workout and shower, he also enjoyed having a brief respite in the confines of their room.

They became used to each other’s bodies too—not in a sexual manner, but they could hang around in their undergarments or similar clothing without making a fuss anymore. 

Whenever Vil was available, he’d go to look for Leona and they would have lunch together, sometimes with Cheka and sometimes alone; and while sometimes he found it annoying when Vil dragged him to a restaurant, he began to see the joy of sharing a meal with someone. 

In the afternoons, if he was already home, Vil would go to the mirror chamber when it was time for Leona to come home and wait for him. It really wasn’t necessary —neither maids nor anyone else lingered in the room— so they didn’t need to pretend, but it wasn’t a bad thing either. Vil’s schedule wasn’t consistent, but Leona still tried to make the effort to return the favour whenever he could.

They also got rid of the unspoken rule they’d set about keeping to themselves in bed. At first, it was only when they knew the maids were to come, but later Vil said that it was better to be prepared in case they came unannounced—even though they never did unless asked. The day they had to stay in Vil’s old apartment after a party he was invited to, which ended too late for them to return home —ignoring the fact that magic mirrors were completely safe even at night— they… Well, surely there was nobody around to see them, but it was already a habit at that point, so was it really an issue if they slept hugging each other again?

After that day, they didn’t even need to say anything anymore.

There were days when they argued —that hadn’t changed much— but even if they were angry, they didn’t change that pattern. Leona was more of a cuddler than Vil, who usually complained about being too hot, but Vil usually was the one who insisted on staying. 

At first, they’d kept their arguments for then they were alone, but with both of their personalities, it was hard to do it. The maids were worried the first time they found them arguing, going as far as telling Falena about it, but as the days passed, they all realized that was just how they were—and in the end it made their relationship seem more natural now that they weren’t hiding that side of them.

The kingdom was having an annual festivity and many noble families and important invitees were coming for the celebration. One of those invitees was Vil’s father who, as the father of the second prince’s partner, had a special seat with them. 

They had arranged for him to come the day before the festivities started, so he could meet Leona and his family. Then he’d stay for the celebrations the following days. 

And, for whatever reason, Leona found himself being nervous. 

“Stop laughing already,” he said while he buttoned his shirt.

Vil was applying makeup in the bathroom, but Leona could still hear him chuckle. His words only made him laugh louder. 

“Vil.” 

“Come on, it’s just my dad. What do you think he’ll do or say?” Vil said.

He really didn’t understand why he was nervous—they weren’t even dating for real, so what was the problem?

Vil left the bathroom and looked at Leona’s outfit. “Fix your collar, it’s crooked. And don’t worry, we’ve been doing a great job until now. Almost nobody is talking about the divorce anymore, and your brother is less suspicious. It’ll be easy—at least easier than tomorrow with all those people.”

Leona sighed and, unsuccessfully, tried to fix his collar. “Those people will believe anything my brother says. We could fight in front of them, and yet they won’t say anything if it doesn’t please him. But your father,” he shook his head, “he’s an actor, he won’t believe any lie.”

“He believed me already,” Vil said, stepping closer to help Leona with his collar. “I don’t see why he’d start doubting us now.”

“He’s your father, he’d believe anything you tell him, but with me…”

By now Leona knew that Vil and his father had a very close relationship, and according to the things Vil told him, he was very protective of him being his only son.

“Do you think he’ll give you a hard time?” Vil asked, and shook his head. “Sure, he will, but it won’t be too bad. Maybe if we were to meet him back home, it’d be worse, but not in front of your family. And I’ve told him countless times how in love I am,” Vil smirked, “so he won’t do anything that could make me angry.”

He’d finished fixing his clothes, so Leona stepped away, looking at his reflection in the mirror. He didn’t believe he was doing all of this. 

“Stop already,” Vil said when he noticed his expression. “How do you think I felt when I came here? And I didn’t even have any warning beforehand.”

“You were more prepared than me even then.”

“If things start to go south then I’ll pretend I’m not feeling well and we’ll come back, okay? But that’s our last alternative. Try to do your best,” Vil said, giving himself a last look in the mirror. “He’s probably already here, so let’s go.”

Vil was trying to mask his excitement at being able to meet his father after so long, but Leona could read him easily. It was cute.

“You look good,” he said to him. 

Vil was slightly taken aback by the compliment, but recovered quickly. “I always do, but thank you. You look handsome too.”

The air became slightly awkward, but they didn’t have much time to ponder about it since they needed to leave soon.

Eric Venue was just like Vil had described him: a handsome man who looked younger than his age and who was incredibly protective of Vil.

He questioned Leona all night, way more than Falena had ever done to him or Vil. Asking about his life, his work, his intentions, his aspirations—many things Leona didn’t even know the answers to; and yet, he didn’t seem to dislike Leona. He could even say he probably had already accepted him as his son’s partner.

He was incredibly charming, something he was sure Vil inherited from him, so even though his questioning was annoying, Leona didn’t feel too pressured. At least not as much as the night continued.

They had dinner all together, and afterwards they moved to a different room to continue their conversation.

“I thought it was only us who were unaware of their relationship, but apparently you too,” Falena said to him.

He was supposed to be making sure that everything was ready for tomorrow, but he insisted on staying with them for a while and instead his wife and son were checking the last details.

Eric hummed. “I truly was surprised that my dear Vil didn’t tell me sooner, he tells me everything. I even thought he was playing a prank on me.”

“Dad, don’t say that.” Vil shook his head. “I told you why I wanted to wait.”

“Yes, and I understand, but I was truly surprised anyway. Imagine that phone call, not just to tell me you were seeing someone, but you had already moved in with them. It was all too sudden.” He sighed and looked at the couple who were sitting next to each other, holding hands, and looking as affectionate as ever. “Of course, as soon as I saw him I understood, he’s really your type.”

“Dad.”

“And I remembered what you told me all those years ago when we were going through your school pictures. It was quite memorable, so I remember well. You said: he’s really handsome and his face is gorgeous, but he doesn’t have a good personality,” he laughed after saying those words, “I didn’t think much of that back then, but I see it now. You were just shy.”

Leona glanced at Vil with one eyebrow raised, and in turn Vil smiled.

“It’s not like you didn’t know that,” he said and squeezed his hand. 

Indeed, that was something Vil used to say a lot: that Leona was as handsome as he was annoying. That was a sentiment he used to share about Vil too. 

“I’d like to say the same,” Falena said, “but Leona never speaks about his personal life. I never knew he liked someone. And even after he told me, I had to investigate who this person was! And don’t get me wrong, we’re delighted to see it’s someone so hardworking like Vil, but when I first found out I was surprised too. They both seem so different.”

“That’s the beauty about love, right? To find someone despite the differences,” Eric said. “Of course, I don’t know you well enough to say what those are.” 

“Leona is a good man,” Falena started, “but he’s either always napping somewhere or holed up in the library reading. Not a man of many hobbies.”

“Ah, well, then at least you two have something in common. Vil is also a fan of reading.”

“Well, but Vil is way more hardworking too. The maids told me he wakes up early to exercise, and sometimes he works quite late, and he still goes to classes too. He’s always active.”

Leona knew that more of a compliment to Vil, his brother was taking a dig at him. However not everything was true. He used to wake up early when he still practiced spelldrive, he also sometimes had to work until late at night, and he had already finished a degree—what else did his brother want?

“Leona stays working late a lot too, sometimes he even brings home some of his research when it’s too much, and I’ve heard from good sources that the university is delighted with his job. Besides, he already finished his studies—it’s me who fell behind. I think he’s fine like that.”

Nobody, including Leona himself, expected him to defend him, so they all fell silent. For a moment Leona expected him to say he was joking and then agree with what his brother said; and yet, the moment never came. 

“Well, of course he does his part too. It’s just that– well, your work is impeccable. My wife recently told me about the commercial you shot here. I have yet to watch it, but she said it was really good.”

“Ah, indeed! It came out only a few days ago, but it’s been a big hit. I have it saved on my phone, do you want to watch it?” Eric said, pulling out his phone from his pocket. 

“Dad, it’s fine. You don’t need to– ”

“Nonsense, it’s some of your best work.”

“Well, if you insist,” Falena said. “Leona, you haven’t watched it either, right? Come on.”

Leona shook his head and went to Eric and his brother’s side to watch said video. Once they were ready, Eric played the video for them.

It was a perfume commercial. There were several cuts of Vil doing different things while he wore clothes traditional to the Sunset Savanna which, Leona had to admit, looked really good on him. In some he was under a tree, in others sitting on a rock, then standing while the wind blew his hair, below a waterfall making all his clothes wet. 

All the shots looked quite sensual, which according to Eric was normal for perfume commercials, and Vil definitely knew how to act his part; Leona couldn’t help but feel annoyed though. The parts at the waterfall were too much in his opinion, but the last scene was the worst. After leaving the waterfall, Vil showed the perfume in his hands while another man came from behind him, grabbed him by his waist, and sniffed Vil’s neck. 

He didn’t even pay attention to what the commercial said, he simply moved away to not watch anymore. He sat back next to Vil, but not as close as before and he didn’t hold his hand either.

“My wife was right. It’s really good. Congratulations, Vil. You did a great job,” Falena said after it ended.

“Thank you, I really enjoyed working here,” Vil said with a smile.

Leona didn’t understand what they were saying. Surely, they also realized those scenes weren’t proper? Was his brother just trying to make Vil feel better?

“And that outfit fits you too well. I hope we can see you wearing those more often around here.”

This time Vil’s smile seemed more embarrassed. “Thank you, and your wish will come true soon. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I don’t see why I can’t tell you now. The queen gifted me some traditional clothing, and I shall be wearing them tomorrow. I hope you like those too.”

Falena smiled widely. “If she chose the clothes, then I’m sure they’re great. You’ll look amazing, right Leona?”

He simply nodded without saying anything, but apparently Vil realized something was wrong because he sent him an inquiring and confused glare. Leona chose to ignore him.

“My Vil looks good with anything, but I’m also excited to see you tomorrow. And I’m sure everyone will love you too,” Eric said. It looked like neither him nor Falena noticed the couple’s exchange.

Why would those people need to love Vil anyway? It’s not like he was royalty himself. He was his boyfriend—pretend boyfriend. 

“Don’t exaggerate dad, but I do agree that I’ll look good. I can’t wait to show you.”

Vil laughed, but it was clear he was annoyed at Leona for how he behaved moments before.

“I’m not, you always choose the best outfits for each occasion, even for your modelling sessions. You chose the outfit from this commercial, didn’t you?” 

Vil nodded.

Did he choose only the outfit, or did he choose to show his body soaking wet? Was the man part of it too?

“I have some of his past commercials saved too, I’ll show you that I am not lying,” Eric said to Falena and then turned to Leona. “Do you want to see them too?”

They were probably not too different from the one he just watched and, if he had to be honest, he didn’t want to see Vil in such situations at all—but there was something that told him to at least watch them to be sure.

“Sure, I’m sure they’re great too,” he said, faking a smile. And once again Vil glared at him.

Not much time later, Vil told his father and Falena that he was feeling tired and wanted to rest before the ceremony the next day. Eric was staying in the castle alongside all the other guests, but Leona and Vil still had to return to their own home. 

At least he remembered to follow through on his promise to remove them from any uncomfortable situation, though in Leona’s mind, it was already too late.

“Leona… darling, can you give me a minute before we leave. I want to say something to my dad,” Vil said after they had just said their goodbyes to the older men.

“I’ll wait for you in the mirror chamber then,” Leona muttered and left quickly so they could have some privacy to talk freely.

He was still feeling irritated, so instead of waiting for Vil, he crossed to the side manor. For a second he considered waiting for Vil in their mirror chamber, but in the end he chose to go straight to his room. 

Twenty minutes later, when he was already in bed and almost asleep, Vil slammed the door open and turned on the light.

“What is wrong with you?” He asked, walking towards Leona’s side of the bed. “What was that?”

Leona looked over his shoulder. “You’ve been living here for two months, you weren’t gonna get lost.”

“My dad said it was rude that you left without me, but I’m not talking only about that. Before too, we were doing fine and then suddenly you were mad—for no reason!” 

“You think it was for no reason?” Leona asked, but suddenly didn’t feel like explaining at all. “Whatever, I’ll go to sleep.” He covered his head with the covers, but they were quickly snatched away by Vil.

“Then why? Tell me,” Vil demanded.

Leona covered himself again, but once again, Vil uncovered him.

“You’re so irritating. What impression do you think you’re giving?”

Leona sat up and grabbed Vil’s wrist, pulling him towards the bed.

“Me? Why don’t you tell me what impression you are giving?” Leona’s voice dropped a few octaves. 

Vil freed himself, not understanding what he meant. “What are you saying? I’m not the one who’s acting like a child.”

“No, but you’re acting like a whore.”

Vil was stunned for a moment. Leona was ready to continue explaining, but suddenly his cheek was struck by Vil. 

“How dare you talk to me like that? What grounds do you have to accuse me of such a thing?”

Leona’s cheek hurt badly, but he ignored the seething pain for a moment due to his anger.

“Then tell me what you were doing in that commercial?”

“Commercial? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t pretend you don’t understand. The one from weeks ago. You showing your body and that guy all over you,” Leona spatted. 

Vil frowned. “My job, you mean? What’s wrong with it?”

“Not just that one, many of the others your father showed us were the same. You even kissed some bastard in another.”

“Are you angry because sometimes my job demands me to act like that? You realize I’m an actor, right? Everything you watched there is called acting.”

“And you realize you’re acting as my partner, too?” 

“Yes I am aware, but I still don’t understand what you’re saying. Just because I’m,” he made air quotes with his fingers, “with you, does that mean I can’t act anymore?”

“You can’t act like that. You’re not with those men, you’re with me. What do you think people think of me when they see you flirting with other men?”

“Flir…” he shook his head, “since when do you even care what others say about you?” Vil asked exasperatedly. “You’re crazy, I can’t believe you’re telling me this.”

“You didn’t answer me. You’re dating someone from royalty. A prince. Not just anyone.”

Vil shook his head again. “They’ll say the same thing your brother and sister-in-law said. They won’t be as stupid as you to judge me based on the content instead of my acting.” 

Leona laughed bitterly. “Don’t be naïve.”

“I’m not going to stop acting just because you don’t like it, so either learn to deal with it or we can stop this now.”

Vil’s words seemed final and, while they made complete sense, Leona didn’t feel like listening any more of it. He turned around and lay down again, hoping that Vil would take the hint and leave. Vil stayed there for a few seconds, but when he realized the conversation was over, he walked to the bathroom and locked himself in there. 

Leona tried to go to sleep and forget everything that happened that night. ‘Tried’ being the key word. Normally he could fall asleep in seconds, but this time his mind was a mess and he couldn’t bring himself to do it. 

Some time later, Vil returned and silently got inside the covers. He tried to move closer to Leona like he always did, but this time Leona turned around so they wouldn’t have to face each other. Leona wasn’t sure what Vil did next, but he didn’t try to move closer to him again. And, for the first time in a long while, they didn’t sleep embracing each other.

Chapter Text

Next morning was not dissimilar to many other mornings where Leona woke up to an empty bed—yet this time he had a bad feeling in his heart. Last night, Vil gave him an ultimatum and though he didn’t respond, he didn’t doubt Vil could take the matters into his own hands.

He couldn’t have left like that, right? They had an agreement. 

Though, they never set an expiration date on that agreement. They’d said it would end when it was enough. Could this be it?

Leona panicked, trying to look for anything that could tell him if Vil had left. Fortunately, he didn’t have to look for a long time because not much later Vil opened the door to their bathroom. 

He was wearing his bathrobe, seemingly having just left the shower. He stared at Leona who was standing in the middle of the room, but instead of commenting on it he went to sit on his vanity and began to lather himself in lotion. 

After the shock passed, Leona quietly returned to the bed. As soon as he did, Vil spoke. 

“I’m meeting my dad for breakfast, you’re free to come.” His tone was devoid of any warmth, which wasn’t unusual, but it still bothered Leona.

The festivities didn’t start until noon, so for now they had some time for themselves until then. He was sure Vil would rather spend it with his father instead of him, but appreciated the invitation anyway.

“I’ll take a shower and then I’ll go with you,” Leona said.

Vil nodded but right before Leona entered the bathroom, he called out to him. “Disregard what happened last night for the time being, I don’t want my dad to worry. We’ll talk about it later.”

It wasn’t like there was much to talk about, but Leona agreed to not make things worse. 

Once they met Eric for breakfast, they both tried hard to pretend there was nothing wrong, but it turned out to be really difficult. They were acting more awkward than when they both started this farce, and it was clear Eric noticed. 

He asked them if there was something wrong, and Vil quickly reassured him that they were fine—just nervous about the evening festivities. Vil had already met some noble families, and everything had gone well; but this time every important family in the kingdom was coming, so, while it wasn’t their biggest worry right now, it wasn’t a complete lie. 

After they finished eating, Leona thought it was better to leave them alone. If they stayed together for any longer acting the way they were doing, Eric was going to find out what had happened. Vil seemed to want to catch up with him anyway. 

“I need to finish some things before the event starts,” he said standing up from the table. “You can stay here, I’m sure you have much to talk about.”

“That was my plan,” Vil said, seeing through his lie. “We need to be at the castle before noon, so don’t forget to get ready. I’ll return later.”

Leona stalled for a second. He was sure Eric was going to ask Vil what was truly going on, so rather than giving him more ammo, he instead walked to Vil’s side.

“I’ll see you later then,” he said and pressed his lips against Vil’s forehead. 

He felt Vil stiffen slightly. It was, after all, the first time he did anything similar; and yet Leona was not really paying attention to that. With his nose against Vil’s skin, he noticed a floral aroma —probably from whatever perfume Vil was wearing that day— that reminded him of the flowers in his favourite garden when he was a kid. Sweet but with a citric undertone. Were they geraniums? He couldn’t recall the name properly, but he knew he liked it. 

He couldn’t stop thinking about that smell and how well it went with Vil’s own scent, so when he returned to his bedroom, the first thing he did was look through Vil’s things to find anything that smelt similar.

It wasn’t too hard to find it since Vil left it in plain view. Leona quickly recognized the perfume bottle from the commercial he watched the day before.

So, this perfume, which smelled just like his childhood garden, was the same Vil was promoting, and the same he was wearing right now. It made sense for the commercial to have been filmed there then, but— just what was Vil thinking? Even though they’d argued because of it the day before, he still chose to wear it? Was he making fun of Leona?

Also, was this the reason why the man in the commercial had looked so obsessed with Vil? Why he had sniffed him as if his life depended on it? Not like he could blame him, but–

The image of that man sniffing Vil angered him, but it was worse when he realized that Vil most likely ended up smelling like that man too. Those days in which he filmed the commercial Vil returned and quickly went to take a shower, arguing that the set had been too hot and he’d sweated a lot—but was it a lie and was just trying to cover the smell of that man? 

He couldn’t stop thinking about it, but he knew better than to go and make a scene at the moment, at least not in front of Eric.

He had to ask Vil about it, and he had to do it as soon as possible; but at the same time, he wasn’t sure how to proceed. What if Vil got as angry as the day before and then his threat turned into reality and they stopped this play-pretend relationship?

…

Actually, there was nothing that said they couldn’t simply stop right now. Apparently the woman who got divorced from that guy recently came out explaining what had happened and basically absolving Vil from any blame. Vil didn’t say anything about ending the agreement, but possibly he didn’t want to appear too obvious. 

He decided to take a nap to stop thinking, but no matter what he did, he kept waking up every fifteen minutes. In the end, he simply went to get dressed and waited for Vil to come back. 

Vil arrived at 11:00, exactly an hour before the ceremony started. 

“Good, at least you listened to me this time. I thought you’d be sleeping,” he said and, without waiting for a reply, picked some clothes from his wardrobe and went inside the dressing room.

By now Leona didn’t know if he should say anything. He didn’t want to have an argument right now but considered telling him to wear a different perfume. 

Five minutes later, Vil returned to the bedroom wearing —just like he had said the day before— an outfit typical from his country. It seemed to have been tailored especially for him since it embraced his body in a very seductive manner. He hadn’t been lying when he said he’d look good. 

He wanted to tell him so, but his mind couldn’t stop replaying the commercial and the guy sniffing Vil.

“Why are you staring at me like that? Stop it,” Vil said and went to sit on his vanity.

Leona walked towards him, and just before he sat down, he grabbed his arm and pulled him towards his own body. He hugged him tightly, pressing their bodies together to the point Vil was struggling to breath. Leona placed his face on one side of Vil’s neck and then on the other, basically coating all of him in his own scent. 

When he thought it was enough, he released him and went back to bed.

“What are you doing?” Vil said after the shock faded.

“There will be too many people in there,” he answered without an explanation. 

Vil sent him an inquiring glare before something clicked on his mind. Then, he sniffed his shirt.

“Leona did you just– … Are you jea– I can’t–” he seemed dumbfounded considering he couldn’t even finish a sentence. He took a deep breath before marching quickly towards the bathroom, locking himself in there.

Leona figured he was going to wash himself and get rid of his smell, but if he did that then he’d get rid of the perfume too, so it was a victory anyway. 

Minutes later, Vil came out from the bathroom, but stayed standing next to the door.

“Is this related to what happened yesterday?” He asked calmly.

For a moment, Leona hesitated about telling the truth, but still nodded from his seat on the bed.

Vil sighed and muttered an almost inaudible ‘okay,’ before going to the bed and standing in front of Leona, placing his hands on his shoulders.

“Listen to me for a moment, okay?” He said and waited until Leona nodded. “We need to talk about this, but there’s not much time right now, so let me say this: I am an actor and a model, I’ve been working since I was very young—way before I even met you, do you understand? I won’t stop doing what I love just because you are… angry. However I understand your point, so from now on, before I accept a role I’ll consider your feelings and the image you believe I’m showing; but you need to understand that I will still work with other people and I can’t completely control what they ask me to do. But it’s just that, acting, and not real life.”

Leona wanted to say something, but Vil shushed him before he was able to. 

“I’m not finished,” he took a deep breath, “Leona, we are still doing this, okay? We– the agreement is still on, so no matter what I’m still your boyfriend here. This celebration is important. If there is anyone who still doubts our relationship, then with this they’ll know for sure we’re together. I’m not going to let myself be led away by anyone, and you are going to behave like an adult, am I clear?”

He wasn’t sure why he’d gotten worked up —possibly the stress from meeting Vil’s father and having to interact with all those distant relatives and other nobles who had never been fan of him— but hearing that their agreement was still on put Leona at ease. 

“Alright,” Leona said. Now that he was more relaxed, he realized that Vil hadn’t washed the scent off—it was still a mix of that perfume, Leona’s scent, and Vil’s own. 

Vil moved his hands from Leona’s shoulders to his cheeks. “We were doing so well, so let’s just go back to that.”

“Fine,” Leona said and placed his hand on top of Vil’s. “I’m sorry for what I said yesterday, I didn’t mean it, and I don’t think of you that way.”

Vil smirked. “I know, and I accept your apology, but if you ever disrespect me again, I won’t let you off easy. Saying that, I also apologize for slapping you, but you sort of deserved it.”

Leona released a sigh he didn’t know he was holding, and afterwards he felt much better. 

“Alright, I need to hurry or else we’ll be late,” Vil said and quickly made his way towards his vanity. 

From the bed, Leona watched in silence how he quickly fixed his makeup. The air between them was slightly awkward, but not as bad as it had been this morning.

When he was about to finish, Vil grabbed his bottle of perfume but, after some contemplation, he left it and grabbed Leona’s own perfume. He sprayed it on his neck and wrists, before setting it down and grabbing his own again.

“Leona, come here,” he said.

Leona thought he was about to lecture him again about something related to the perfume and how it was a simple perfume and nothing else, but when he approached Vil, he sprayed him with the perfume instead.

“Great, now we are the same,” he said and stood up. “I’m done, we can leave.”

He was dumbfounded until he realized Vil meant that their aromas now were the same—a better alternative to what Leona did before. 

As they walked towards the mirror chamber, hand in hand, Leona spoke. “It’s a good smell, are they geraniums?”

Vil nodded. “Indeed, geraniums. They’re common here as far as I know.”

“Yeah, we used to have many in the gardens, but I think they’ve been replaced by something else now.”

“Hmm, maybe we can try planting some here, they smell quite nice.”

Leona nodded, not thinking much about what he was saying. 

When they arrived at the mirror chamber, he looked at their reflection in the mirror. Their clothes matched even though they looked completely different on each other.

Vil seemed to be thinking the same. 

“You look really good today, though I wished I could’ve helped you with your hair,” he said.

“So do you, my sister-in-law has a good eye.”

“She does, everything she gave me was great and fitted my fashion sense. And she even had the tailor fix them so they’d look better. Of course, there’s not many things that don’t look good on me.”

Leona shook his head and muttered a quiet ‘if you say so,’ though he knew well it was true.

When the ceremony started and Falena welcomed the guests and gave his speech, Leona and Vil stood side by side with the royal family. Vil wasn’t sure if he was meant to be there since he was officially not part of it, but Falena assured him that it was fine. After all, he was the king and whatever he said was the law.

After the opening ceremony there was going to be a banquet and then some entertainment. Leona was supposed to go and talk to all those people during the banquet in lieu of his brother, but he really was dreading the sole thought of it.

“Stop being so grumpy, we will only say hi, you introduce me, we thank them for coming, and we leave,” Vil whispered. “It’ll be over soon.”

“My brother should be doing this, not me,” Leona whispered back.

“He’s busy.”

They both turned to look at the head of the table where Falena was eating and merrily chatting with some guests. 

Leona sent Vil a disbelieving look.

“Anyway, he asked you to do this. It won’t hurt to try, and we don’t have to go greet everybody. Pick some groups and we’d do those only, I doubt your brother will notice.”

The air between them had changed by now. Mostly because they were preoccupied with more important matters and didn’t have to think about what had happened, but it was a good thing that they weren’t fighting anymore. 

It was tedious having to go and talk to all those nobles, but it all became easier thanks to Vil’s eloquence and charisma.

They were chatting with some distant relatives when Eric approached them too.

“Dad, how is everything going?” Vil asked him.

“Everything has been lovely,” he said and looked at the couple. “I see you’re doing well yourself too.”

Leona wasn’t sure what Vil told him about them—if he confessed they’d had a fight or lied to him, but he seemed happy to know they were good now.

Leona nodded, and turned to the other nobles. “This is Eric Venue, Vil’s father,” he nodded to him. “Some of my distant cousins from the neighbouring city.” 

Eric nodded. “Pleased to meet you.”

“Such a handsome father for such a handsome son,” Leona’s… aunt? Cousin? said with an annoying giggle. “I was just telling prince Leona how lucky he is.”

Eric smiled. “I believe they both are, to find someone to establish a deep connection with is not an easy task.”

His words were endearing, but they felt empty when Leona remembered that connection didn’t actually exist.

“You fit so well here, Vil. Once you marry him, it’ll be perfect,” someone else said.

“A wedding! Yes! You already look so good with those clothes, I can’t wait to see you with a wedding outfit,” the same woman from before said.

Eric laughed. “Wedding? Oh my, so soon? They’re still so young.” His voice sounded slightly nervous. 

“Why wait if they love each other so much? Better to make it official soon.” She turned to look at them. “Surely, you’ve already talked about it?”

“Oh, we have. Of course, we have, it’s just that… we think it’s still too soon,” Vil quickly explained. Leona could notice the discomfort in his answer, not too different than when Falena asked them the same.

“It’s definitely in our plans, but we want to have more stability,” Leona said to help him. “Once Vil finishes his studies and once my research becomes more well known. And as much as we like living here, we also have to think if this is what we want or if we want to move. There’s too much to plan still. We’re together and that’s what matters, signing some papers won’t change how we feel.” 

Eric seemed to be amazed by his answer. “I think that’s very mature of you two. Of course, I’ll support you if you decide to tie the knot later, but I’m glad you’re not in a rush.”

“That was a lovely thing to say,” Leona’s cousin said. “I could feel the love coming from your words. Indeed, you’re both so lucky.”

Vil smiled faintly. “I agree, I’m very lucky to have him.”

The nobles ‘aww’-ed, which made Leona slightly uncomfortable. They needed to leave soon or things would become more unbearable. 

“Just kiss already, it’s clear you’re both very much in love.” 

“Oh please.” Vil laughed nervously. “For sure later, just not here.”

“Don’t be shy, it’s just a kiss.”

“Yeah, just show us how much you love each other.”

“Come on, don’t leave us hanging.”

As if it could be shown with just a kiss. Love wasn’t meant to be such a frivolous thing that could only be proven in such an easy way. These people were truly delusional. 

But, apparently it wasn’t just them. Eric was also looking at them with an intriguing and curious expression. He may have understood they weren’t arguing anymore, but apparently he still wanted to confirm if they had reconciled completely.

Ruggie did warn them before that they may need to perform certain romantic gestures in public. Holding hands, hugging, being close to each other hadn’t been an issue past the initial awkwardness, but kissing seemed to be a bit different. 

Though it didn’t really have to be that different—it really was just a kiss. Leona kissed Vil’s forehead this morning, so it didn’t have to be much different from kissing his lips. And Vil had already kissed other people because of his line of work.

He glanced at Vil who was already looking at him, waiting for him to either accept or reject the idea. Leona quickly glanced at Eric before nodding back. Then Vil took a step towards Leona and softly placed his hand on Leona’s cheek, pulling him forward until their lips met. 

Vil’s lips were soft —different from Leona’s chapped ones— and tasted faintly like vanilla. 

It was meant to be only a quick kiss, but Leona couldn’t help himself and pulled Vil forwards by his waist making their bodies cling to each other. In response, Vil grabbed Leona’s face with both hands in a more urgent manner. That was all Leona needed to deepen the kiss. He licked Vil’s closed lips, and he quickly opened his mouth enough for Leona’s tongue to go in. 

The taste of vanilla grew stronger now. Leona also noticed the mixture of perfumes and faint sweat on Vil’s skin alongside both of their scents. It was a very pleasing combination.

He wasn’t sure how much time passed, but after a while Vil pushed him away and put some distance between them. Leona didn’t let go of the grip on his waist, however.

“I’m sorry, that was inappropriate,” Vil said, followed by an awkward laugh. 

“Don’t apologize for showing affection to your boyfriend, son. Besides, they asked for it,” Eric said. He smiled softly in a way that showed he didn’t have any doubt that they were indeed reconciled.

“Yeah, don’t feel bad. It’s such a good thing seeing you youngsters so in love.”

Leona didn’t pay attention to what they were saying because he noticed that Vil’s lipstick had smeared around his mouth, so he wiped it away with his thumb. 

“It was nice talking to you,” Leona said. His eyes were still fixed on Vil’s lips, so he spoke without looking at any of their expressions. “But we need to go back, so we’ll see you around.”

He didn’t wait for their reply and barely let Vil say goodbye to his dad before he dragged him away. Leona saw in the distance the next group of people they were supposed to meet, but instead of going their way, he led them both out of the banquet hall. 

They stopped when they were a few metres away from the entrance, away from the noise and guests. 

“How annoying they were,” Leona said, leaning against the wall. “I don’t wanna go back.”

Vil hummed and mimicked Leona, standing next to him. “A bit pushy, but I don’t think they were too bad.”

Leona grunted, looking askance at him. “Just a bit?”

Vil laughed. “Maybe more, but I still think it wasn’t that bad,” he said and quickly added. “If anything you are the one who is bad. What was that? You should improve your kissing technique.”

Leona raised an eyebrow. 

“I mean, they probably didn’t notice, but it was obvious to me.”

“Says who? I thought you were gonna eat my face,” Leona snorted. 

“Excuse me? At least I have experience–”

“Besides your job?” Leona asked. Vil didn’t reply so Leona knew the actual answer. Partially relieved, he continued, “I can’t believe I was angry at that guy for kissing you in that ad, now I actually pity him.”

Vil’s eyes widened. “What? That’s nonsense, I’m not a bad kisser.”

“You’re the only one who thinks so,” Leona said. “Wouldn’t hurt to practice more.”

“I could say the same about you,” Vil said, standing in front of Leona with his hands on his hips. 

They stared at each other for what it seemed like an eternity, before they heard the banquet hall open and close. 

“Come,” Leona said and, grabbing Vil by his hand, dragged him through the corridor until they arrived at an old and unused storage room a few doors down. 

After making sure nobody could see them, they walked inside and before Leona could even close the door, Vil was already grasping his neck and pulling him into a kiss.

Their first kiss had been awkward and uncertain albeit sweet—this one was a total mess. Their lips didn’t lock together at first and their noses crashed against each other, so they had to adjust themselves to be more comfortable. It was desperate and urgent, disregarding any sense of modesty they could’ve had moments before.

“Do you call this being experienced?” Leona asked, biting hard into Vil’s lower lip.

Vil gasped into the kiss, and soon the taste of blood mixed with the vanilla flavour in his lips. “You… you’re a savage.”

While their lips were still locked, Vil pushed Leona against the wall, positioning himself between his legs

“What did you expect from me?” Leona asked, kissing the corner of Vil’s mouth.

“Not much,” Vil answered in a breathy tone. “But now I expect you to get better.”

He grabbed Leona’s face and kissed him again, deeply and desperate.

Leona placed his hands on Vil’s hips, feeling him move forwards onto Leona’s body. The sensation of Vil’s body on his own, the floral scent that enveloped them both, the taste of blood and vanilla in their mouths, the sweating due the poorly ventilated room—it was all too unbelievable yet not unwelcome.

“Then bear with me for a little longer,” Leona breathed into the kiss.

“Hmmm, I can do that,” Vil replied.

Their kisses began to turn slower and longer but not with any less passion, as if they were truly practicing and not just taking advantage of the situation; and so for the next half an hour they stayed in the hot storage room, making out to their heart's content. They started next to the door, but by now they were already on the other side of the room. Leona sitting on an antique wooden chest and Vil on top of him, stranding him in place.

They had lost track of time and space, but for them it wasn’t something that mattered at the moment. Until the door suddenly slammed open. 

“This room is not used anymore, so you can leave all your equipment here– Oh!” Falena entered the room followed by three other men who were carrying different bags and boxes.

Instantly, Leona and Vil separated and stood up.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were here,” Falena said, staring at the two flustered men. He then turned around to talk to the people he’d brought in. “You know what? I’ll show you guys to a different room.”

“No need, we’re leaving now,” Leona said and gestured to Vil to follow him. He noticed that Vil’s makeup was smeared and his updo had come undone, but for his sake he chose not to say anything.

“You can stay here, though it doesn’t seem to be too comfortable.”

Leona shook his head and tried to make his way through the men blocking the entrance, but he stopped when Falena spoke again.

“Are you returning to the banquet or are you going home already?”

This time, it was Vil who replied in a very calm tone. If it hadn’t been for his disheveled appearance nobody could say he’d just been caught red-handed. “The banquet is not over yet, right? And if I’m not mistaken these gentlemen are part of the entertainment group, so we will indeed return to the hall now.”

“Alright, that’s great.” Falena turned around, but a moment later he turned to look at them again. “You should go fix your,” he made a gesture with his hand pointing at his face, “before you go back.”

Vil seemed to be unaware of his state, so he just nodded slowly before they both finally left the storage room. 

As soon as they were in the corridor again, Vil ran towards one of the mirrors in the wall and stared at himself in horror.

“Leona!” He hissed. “Look at what you did! Look at my hair and– is that a bite mark?”

Leona looked to where he pointed and effectively saw the mark of his teeth imprinted on Vil’s right shoulder. 

“Just cover it if it bothers you,” Leona said. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed that, other than being a bit sweaty, he wasn’t in such a bad state like Vil.

Vil glared at him. “Go back to the hall, and if my dad asks, tell him I’ll be back soon. I’ll go fix this.”

He couldn’t even protest because seconds later Vil had already disappeared into a nearby restroom. 

The rest of the day went well, or at least as good as a day like this could go. 

They weren’t bothered again by people wanting to see ‘how much they loved each other,’ but Leona could still hear them gossiping about them. 

The activities ended at 7pm that night and were going to resume the following morning at 7am, so he was hoping to sleep for as much as he could once they returned home. Unfortunately Vil made him take a shower first, so he ended up going to bed later than he expected.

When they were both finally in bed, there was an uncertain air around them. With his arm cushioning his head, Leona simply stared at the ceiling while Vil filed his nails next to him. 

“Tomorrow I’ll wake up earlier since we’re also starting earlier and I don’t want us to be late, so you should also plan ahead at what time you’re getting ready,” Vil said nonchalantly.

“I won’t take long, so I’ll wait until you’re here.”

“Hmm, you should try to look more presentable. You looked good today, but you can do a better job.”

Leona groaned. “No thanks, I won’t bother.”

Vil scoffed. “It wasn’t a question. Anyway, tomorrow we will be there all day, so try to wear something comfortable but stylish. If you haven’t chosen yet, I’ll help you tomorrow.”

Leona groaned again, turning to his side so his back faced Vil.

“Leona,” Vil spoke moments later. “We’re good, right?”

Leona looked at him over his shoulder. “Sure.”

Vil left the file on the bedside table. “Don’t you think we should–” he shook his head, “No, never mind. It’s fine. We should go to sleep now, we need to be well rested.”

Leona sat up while Vil turned off the bedside lamp, so when he turned around, Leona was already next to him. He slid his fingers below Vil’s chin and lifted it before pressing their lips together. It was a simple and sweet kiss, nothing like what they did in the afternoon. 

Vil relaxed and pushed Leona onto the bed, hovering on top of him and prolonging the kiss. Neither of them tried to deepen the situation though, so after a few moments they both moved away.

“Goodnight,” Vil said and quickly turned around to sleep with his back facing Leona.

Leona scooted closer to him, resting his chin on the juncture of Vil’s neck and shoulder before falling asleep.

The following morning Leona woke up to the sound of the shower being turned off. It was earlier than normal, and since he didn’t want to get up yet, he placed a pillow over his head. 

Not long after, he felt the weight of a body on the bed before the pillow was snatched away.

“Wake up, Leona,” Vil said loudly. “I let you sleep enough, but if you don’t hurry then we’ll be late.”

Leona groaned and tried to take the pillow back. 

“What an unruly prince,” Vil said, chuckling quietly.

Leona finally opened his eyes and stared at Vil, who was already clothed in a different yet still traditional outfit. His hair was still wet and he didn’t have any makeup on yet. 

Vil stared back for a few seconds, before sighing and dipping to place a quick kiss on Leona’s lips.

“Come on, go take a shower while I get ready.”

Leona ended up doing as he was asked, and some time later they were both looking impeccable standing next to his brother to start the activities for the day.

For the next four days their itinerary was similar in nature: they’d wake up with a kiss, then go to the castle for the festival while they pretended to be a happy couple. If they got tired, uncomfortable by the guests, or simply bored, then they’d look for an empty room and practice their kissing skills. By the end of the day they’d go back home and kiss goodnight. 

It was a rhythm they set for themselves and neither of them complained about it, but also neither spoke much about it. It was as if it was just a normal thing to do.

By the end of the last day, when most guests had gone back, Eric approached the couple before he was supposed to leave.

“Dad, are you leaving?” Vil asked. He had a smile on his face but there was a tinge of sadness in his voice. 

“Yes, I need to be in the Sunshine Lands tomorrow for work,” he said.

“I was glad you could make it. I’ll miss you.” Vil hugged his father. 

“I will too, but I’m glad to know you’re in good hands here,” he said, returning the embrace. He nodded at Leona who was standing next to Vil. 

“You’re welcome here anytime you want,” Leona offered. Even though he’d spend several days with him, he couldn’t help but still feel slightly nervous.

And he was sure Eric knew it too. 

Eric smiled at him. “If I wanted then I’d take Vil away, but I know he wouldn’t be happy. And neither would you, right?”

Leona scratched his head and nodded.

“Correct.” Eric sighed. “I’m going to be honest here, I’m surprised, really surprised. I couldn’t believe it when Vil told me he’d moved in with his boyfriend. I thought it was irresponsible of him, and even when I met you…” he shook his head, “but you both made me change my mind. I can see you still have problems and need to learn to communicate better, but I have faith in you. You lovebirds have my blessings.”

His words were slightly embarrassing, but Leona was grateful that their acting was good enough to fool him. Fooling his brother was easy, but if they were able to deceive Eric —who was an actor himself— alongside all the other guests, then all their doing had been a success. 

After the celebrations ended, and they were meant to return to their regular lives, they simply went back to what they were doing before, with the difference that now they kissed on the regular. 

Morning and goodnight kisses were part of their routine, even though Leona was sure those weren’t necessary since nobody could see them—but if Vil didn’t complain, then he wouldn’t either.

They also continued their ‘practice’ in the afternoons when they were free. And soon they became bold enough to do it in public too. That was the point of their practice, after all. 

They started going out more: to Vil’s social events, to meetings with his family, and simply on regular dates. By then nobody could suspect that their relationship was a mere act.

One afternoon, after several weeks of the same routine, Falena came into Leona’s office while he was getting ready to leave.

“Leona, do you have a minute?” He asked, and without waiting for a reply, he sat down on a chair.  “There’s something I want to discuss with you.”

Leona knew it was futile to argue back, so he left what he was doing and sat down. “What do you need? I was at the university all day and tomorrow will be the same, so I wanna go back to sleep.”

“How are things between you and Vil? I noticed you’ve been going out more,” he said, resting his chin on his hands.

“Hm? Is there a problem? We’re doing well. Vil’s getting used to living here and he’s had more free time, that’s why we sometimes go out.” Leona replied nonchalantly.

“No, not at all. I’m happy for you, I can see you’ve both got used to your living arrangements already.”

“Hmm.”

“Leona, there’s something I need to confess,” Falena said, though he did not sound any regretful. “When you first told me you were with someone, I didn’t completely believe you. I thought you only wanted to run away from your responsibilities. I mean, can you blame me? You barely spoke of your personal life and never went out much, I think it was fair for me to be wary. So, I sent someone to check on you when you went to that reunion. You said you were meeting this partner there, so I wanted to know if it was true.”

Leona had already realized this. There was no way his brother could’ve found out otherwise.

“I was completely surprised about what my informant told me. I just couldn’t believe you were telling the truth. That’s why I planned on having him stay with us, to see how true everything was,” he fell silent for a moment, “well, not just that. Part of me was suspicious, but part of me was really happy that you were finally settling down. Now, I see you two and I have no doubt I was wrong before.”

His words were similar to what Eric said before he left. He understood both of their suspicions and couldn’t blame them for thinking so—even he wouldn’t believe it if he hadn’t been involved; but they truly had to be making a good job if they both changed their minds by now.

“I was told that you said something interesting some weeks ago. About marrying Vil,” Falena continued. “I thought you were really considerate. I know Vil still thinks it’s too early for that, so I like how you handled it; but I also think it wouldn’t hurt to start considering marriage anyway.”

Falena reached into his pocket and took out a small wooden box, which he then passed to Leona without saying anything else.

It was almost obvious what the box contained, but Leona still accepted it, opening it slowly to reveal a ring inside: a golden band with a bluish green stone and several diamonds next to it. He’d never seen this ring before, but it was clear it was an engagement ring. 

“It’s part of the royal treasure,” Falena said. “Fitting, I believe.”

Leona closed the box and tried to return it to his brother. “Thank you, but I don’t think it’s time yet.”

Falena refused to accept the ring back and shook his head. “I’m not saying you have to propose now, I know you two want to wait, but you should still keep it. Talk with him, see how things are, and maybe one day you’ll give it to him. And even if you do propose, you don’t have to marry right away.”

Leona stared at the box deep in thought. All of this farce was meant to be only that—a farce; they were just supposed to fool people into thinking they were dating, but everything had gone too far now. He couldn’t propose to Vil when their relationship wasn’t real.

Still, he put the ring in his pocket and thanked his brother—if he didn’t, then the man would continue insisting.

He thought of simply putting the ring inside a drawer and forgetting about it. If his brother asked he’d say he was looking for the perfect moment. He could decide what to do later.

That evening he and Vil arrived at the mirror chamber at the same time, each from their respective jobs. As soon as Vil saw him, a smile formed in his face and approached him in a hurry to peck him. A maid that was near saw them, quickly diverting her eyes.

“Did you go to the university today? How was it?” He asked.

“Yeah, it went well. They said I may be able to present it soon, but I gotta go tomorrow too,” Leona replied. His hand rested on Vil’s waist like it usually did nowadays. “How was your audition?”

“Great, I got the role,” Vil answered with a smile.

“Congratulations.” Leona couldn’t resist and kissed him again. “So, you want to go out tonight?”

Vil shook his head. “I know you hate going out when you are out all day, and I’m actually pretty tired too. It’s still early, but maybe we can go back to the bedroom now?” Vil asked. 

The maid lowered her head and quickly left the room, most likely realizing she was intruding on a private conversation. 

Without knowing exactly what he agreed to, Leona found himself being pulled towards their bedroom moments later, ignoring the eyes of anyone who dared to see them. 

Vil pushed him into the bed and crawled on top of him, sitting on his lap with his arms on Leona’s shoulders. 

“Do you want to…?” Leona asked without finishing his question. Whenever they had a make out session it was always in some random room or in the corridors, never in their own room. It wasn’t like they’d decided so, it was simply how things always turned out. Until now Leona was okay with it since he was well aware that it could lead to something else.

Instead of replying to his question, he asked another. “Leona, would you mind if in this new role I’ll have to do some intimate scenes with my co-star?”

The question made his tail instantly begin to trash around, hitting the bed he was sitting on while his ears moved backwards. Vil laughed when he noticed.

“I take it you do?”

He definitely did. It didn’t matter how intimate they needed to be or how many scenes, he wasn’t okay with it at all; but he didn’t want another argument with him, and he was indeed telling him before he did anything.

“I don’t like it,” he admitted. “I wish you didn’t have to do anything with anyone else, I don’t wanna see you with others even if it’s just a role; but I know you tried hard for that one, so I can’t stop you if that’s what you want.”

Vil tightened his arms around his neck before speaking in a joyful tone. “Thanks for being sincere and for understanding, but you don’t have to worry. I told the producers I didn’t want to do those scenes.”

Leona was surprised and his face showed it clearly. “Wouldn’t that be a problem?”

Vil smiled. “They said they’d work around them. I will still have scenes with my co-star, of course, but I was clear that no real kisses or anything similar was allowed.”

“Thank you.” Leona felt relieved, albeit slightly guilty that his previous dissatisfaction was causing Vil to have to change certain aspects of his job, but mostly relieved and satisfied.

“Honestly, it wasn’t all because of you. When I thought of having to do it with someone else, I felt sick,” Vil said as if reading his mind. ‘I guess I’m really stuck with you now. Isn’t that great?”

Leona hummed and his tail twitched slightly. “What a shame, now that you are already starting to get better.”

Vil scowled, eyeing his lips with anticipation. “I should be the one saying so, but I understand. You have nothing to compare me with, and you won’t in the future either.”

Leona’s answer was to finally lock their lips together. They began slowly, like they always did recently, but soon their breathing began to become erratic and they quickened their pace. 

Vil stared at Leona’s glassy eyes before pushing him down and crawling on top of him. It was clear this was turning into something more, but instead of rejecting it, Leona found himself craving it. He thrusted his hips forward, making Vil groan when their crotches rammed against each other. Until now, even if they noticed, they simply chose to ignore their needs—whether it was to not complicate things or because they were uncertain, Leona couldn’t tell, but right now neither of them could deny them.

Vil began to kiss Leona’s neck at the same time he tried to unbutton his shirt. Leona also tried to get rid of Vil’s shirt, but it proved to be difficult when neither of them wanted to stay apart.

Unfortunately, before they could continue, the door flew open. They both stiffened and turned their heads towards the door at the same time.

A very flustered maid accompanied by a smirking, yet regretful, Ruggie stood in place. As soon as they were noticed, the maid apologized and ran away from the scene. 

“Haa… sorry to interrupt you. I guess I’ll come back later,” Ruggie said, looking away.

Immediately, Vil stood up and began to fix his clothes with his back towards Ruggie. “No need.”

Leona sighed and sat up, glaring at Ruggie. “What do you want?”

Ruggie scowled and waved a folder in front of him. “You left some documents at the university and they asked me to bring them to you, I’ve been calling you for the past half an hour and I was knocking for ten minutes before your maid came to help.”

“Couldn’t they keep them and give them to me tomorrow?” Leona asked exasperatedly.

“Hey, don’t take it out on me, I’m just following orders.”

With his almost pristine look again, Vil turned around. “Thank you, Ruggie, and don’t worry about it.”

Ruggie nodded and left the folder on a nearby table, not wanting to go into the room completely. “I see you’re really getting into your roles. When is the wedding?” He said with a smirk.

At the mention of ‘wedding’, Leona remembered he still had the box with the engagement ring in his pocket. And he also remembered that… well, that what they had was really not a proper relationship. He was confused about the development, but it wasn’t the time to think about it. 

“Don’t be stupid, that’s not gonna happen,” Leona said. “Nothing has changed.”

“Sure,” Ruggie said with an incredulous look on his face. “That’s a normal thing to do when you’re pretending to be lovers.”

“Shut up.”

“I mean, what was that then? Were you practicing for your fake honeymoon?”

Leona glared at him. 

Vil placed a hand on Leona’s shoulder before he could say anything. “Stop that. And I said, don’t worry. We’re still following our initial plan,” he smirked, “like he said, nothing has changed.”

Vil’s tone didn’t sound natural, as if he was delivering a line in one of his dramas, and Leona couldn’t understand why.

“Okay, if you say so. At least you’re getting along.” Ruggie said, looking around the room.

“Yeah, you could say so. Are you staying for dinner?” Vil asked, his regular tone returning.

“Sure, I came all the way here and I won’t say no to free food,” Ruggie replied, not looking directly at the frown that appeared on Leona’s face. 

“Great, I’ll let the maids know so they can arrange another seat,” Vil said and left the room in a hurry. 

Once he was gone, Ruggie spoke again. “You’re having fun, huh?”

“Shut up.” 

“Hey, you can’t say that was nothing and then get mad at me for interrupting you.”

He wasn’t sure what to think anymore, but he knew that he had to keep his plan of hiding the ring until… well, until he decided what to do. He went to the dresser and placed the wooden box inside one of his drawers, half hoping he’d simply forget about it soon.

Chapter Text

Leona had never forgotten the grounds of their agreement and their so-called relationship, but he couldn’t deny he was weak to Vil; so when they returned to their bedroom that night, he tried to make a move on Vil again, only to be shot down immediately. Vil said that they were going to be busy the next day, so it was better to rest. 

The problem was that for the following weeks every time he tried to start something, Vil always stopped him with a different excuse. They still followed their morning and nightly routines, but Vil started to become more distant, which in a way worried Leona—was he thinking of putting a stop to their agreement? Did he also realize they had gone too far?

He knew he should’ve asked him, but he didn’t know what he was supposed to ask. 

Or perhaps he was simply afraid of the answer.

It seemed impossible, but he had to admit he’d gotten used to their arrangement and was pretty comfortable with it, so he didn’t want to think what he would do if Vil suddenly decided to put an end to it. 

A couple of weeks later, Leona was about to leave his office when he received a text from Vil, asking to meet him for lunch. 

They used to have lunch together almost every time. At least when Vil wasn’t too busy, but recently that had stopped too. Leona’s desperation got to a point where he even insisted, trying to rekindle what they had, but Vil was quick to shoot him down too. These past days, Vil had argued that he had finals soon and he was going to be studying all day, so he didn’t want any distractions. He even took a break from work to focus on his studies completely. That was one of the reasons —or rather, excuses— why they hadn’t spent much time together lately too.

However, here he was, asking Leona to meet him that day. Obviously Leona couldn’t say no, even though deep inside he was a bit worried about the sudden change and if it meant anything. 

When he arrived at the mirror chamber, Vil was already waiting for him, looking relaxed and even somewhat happy. Leona realized he didn’t need to worry at all.

Before he could even greet him, Vil kissed him—deep and sweet. After weeks of being rejected, Leona couldn’t help but feel surprised. 

“Is everything okay?” He asked him. 

Vil nodded. “I needed a break from studying, I was too stressed.”

“Do you want to go somewhere then?”

“Yes, that would be–” he stopped himself before shaking his head, “actually we can do that later, I wanted to discuss something with you first.”

Unconsciously, Leona’s tail began to move from one side to the other. He couldn’t help but feel a bit anxious again. 

“Alright, here or…?”

“In private, let’s return to the bedroom.” 

They were currently alone in the mirror chamber, but most maids were nosey and liked to hang around where they could spy on them and either gossip or tell Falena what they saw. If Vil wanted even more privacy, then it was probably important. 

After going into their room and making sure the door was locked, Vil asked Leona to sit down on the bed next to him. It didn’t do anything to calm Leona’s nerves.

“First of all, I need you to know that I wasn’t snooping around. I really was stressed, so I decided to do some cleaning around. But the maids keep everything impeccable, and it was hard to find something to clean, so I chose to organize your clothes.”

Leona didn’t understand what he was trying to say. “Okay…?”

“I don’t want to assume anything, and I won’t judge you, but I don’t think you should have something so expensive just lying around. We have good security here, but it’s still irresponsible of you.”

It took Leona several seconds to understand what he meant by ‘something so expensive.’

“Ah, the ring…” 

He’d forgotten completely about it. After that day, his brother didn’t ask him anything, and he’d been worried wondering what had happened with Vil, so he didn’t have time to give it a second thought. 

“If you don’t plan to do anything with it, you should keep it in a safe, at least.” Vil opened the bedside table drawer and took out the wooden box. He looked composed and calm, but Leona noticed a glimpse of curiosity in his eyes.

Well… he still didn’t know what to do with it, so he may as well just tell the truth. 

“That was meant to be for you, ah no– well, it is, but–” He facepalmed, not believing his own nervousness. “My brother gave it to me, so I could propose to you.”

Vil nodded while he played with his hair and pretended like he didn’t know what the ring meant. “I see, and… were you planning to?”

“Huh? Ah… I don’t know, I mean… I wanted to see what you thought.”

“And what do you think?” Vil asked, passing the ring to Leona. 

Leona scratched his head. “I don’t know. We told your father we weren’t thinking about marriage yet, but my brother said we could just get engaged and think about a wedding later.”

Vil eyed him with curiosity waiting for him to continue, but since he didn’t, he spoke, “I think that it makes sense. Some people spend years being engaged, and it doesn’t contradict what you told my dad.”

“So, you want it?” Leona said, showing him the box.

“Sure, I think it would be good for us. I imagine your family would be happy,” Vil said, smiling in anticipation.

“Alright, then you can have it.” Leona placed the box back on Vil’s hands, but Vil quickly gave it back.

“If you’re going to propose, then do it properly,” he said with almost anger in his voice.

It wasn’t even a real proposal, so why did he have to do it? However, Vil didn’t seem like he was going to give in, so Leona had no other choice.

“Here in this room?”

“Sure,” he said looking around. “There are probably better places, but this one isn’t that bad. We spend most of our time together here.”

“Alright.” Leona opened the box.

“Wait, let me just fix this nail quickly,” Vil said and grabbed a file from his makeup bag which stood on the dressing table. 

Vil always kept his nails filed and in a good state, but Leona noticed that they were looking even better today—a pristine polish and perfectly cut, as if he’d got them done recently. 

“Done,” Vil said and sat down next to Leona.

Leona took the ring and left the box on the bed. He wasn’t sure what to say. He never thought about doing this, and he’d never paid attention to how proposals were supposed to be done. But it shouldn’t matter much, right?

“Ah, I’m not sure if the ring will fit your finger, we may need to get it resized,” Leona said, looking at Vil’s hands.

“Oh no, it does– I mean I think it does, it looks like my size or pretty similar,” Vil said, moving slightly closer to Leona.

“Then, huh…” he stared at Vil, “Vil, will you… marry me?”

Vil bit his lip, trying to hide his smile. “Straight to the point, huh? But it’s alright, that’s enough. Yes, I’d love to be your husband, Leona.”

He presented his hand for Leona to take, and in turn, Leona placed the ring on his finger. It surprisingly fitted him perfectly, just like Vil predicted. Once they were done, Vil laughed happily.

“It’s so pretty and surely expensive, but it has a very good design.” 

“Ah, yes it is. It looks good on you,” Leona said, looking at Vil who was modelling the ring. 

“Give me your hand, let’s take a picture.”

Vil interlocked their fingers together and, with his ring at the forefront and their bed as background, he took a picture with his phone. After that picture, he took several more of his hand alone. Overall he looked really happy.

“Are you gonna post those? People will go crazy.” Leona really couldn’t stop looking at his smile.

“I know, I can imagine it already, but not yet. I’ll wait. We’re not in a hurry anyway.”

After going through the pictures and making sure they were fine, Vil left his phone on the bed and, without saying anything else, turned to Leona and kissed him.

Leona didn’t waste time and kissed him back, placing his hand on his neck and running his tongue alongside Vil’s lips to get quick access to his mouth.

Vil smiled into the kiss, letting Leona in. 

Because of the shock from before, he hadn’t noticed that Vil’s breath smelled fresh, as if he’d just brushed his teeth. His hair, still faintly wet, had a strong lavender smell. 

—Everything was driving him mad.

He didn’t want to waste this chance like the last time so, before Vil could reconsider, he pushed him into the middle of the bed. 

Leona removed his own shirt before crawling back into the bed. Vil rested his body on his elbows, staring at Leona. He’d seen him shirtless many times, but this time his eyes seemed different—bolder, hungrier. 

“You won’t run away this time?” Leona had to ask. He would accept it if he did, but it would hurt if he did it after they started.

Vil removed his own shirt before he stretched his arms to embrace Leona, whispering into his ear. “I won’t, don’t disappoint me.”

With the confirmation he needed, Leona began an attack on Vil’s neck, alternating between biting, kissing, and licking. Vil intertwined his fingers in Leona’s hair, pulling on it when Leona became too rough. 

“Don’t… leave too many marks where people can see…” Vil said, pulling Leona’s head away from him.

Leona lifted his head. “Who cares? You’re mine.”

Vil wavered before he closed his eyes. “Still… I have to work and it’s a pain to cover them.”

Leona gave a last lick to his cheek before he moved down and licked one of his nipples, making Vil shudder in response. While Leona kept licking and biting both of his nipples, Vil moaned and pulled his hair more.

“S-stop, let me–” Vil said.

Leona ignored him. He didn’t want to stop now that Vil was finally letting him get close to him again. Yet, Vil didn’t like to be ignored, so he pulled on his hair forcefully and sat up. 

“Lie down, I’ll be doing this,” he said, and pointed to the bed with his eyes. 

Leona complained silently about being stopped, but once he was lying on the bed and Vil sat on his lap, he simply shut up. 

Vil kissed him first, before leaving a trail of pecks from his mouth to his chest while he rubbed their lower halves together. Leona groaned and grabbed Vil’s hips to increase the friction, but Vil slapped his hand away. 

“Not yet,” he muttered against his skin.

Just like Leona did moments before, Vil began to play with Leona’s nipples. He laughed when he felt Leona squirming and arching his back below him.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tease you much. I can’t do that to my fiancé,” he said with his mouth against his skin and his hands trailing down his abdomen. The coldness from the ring in Vil’s hand felt pleasant against his hot skin.

Leona’s cock twitched and he groaned audibly. 

Vil kissed his navel, while he undid Leona’s pants. Leona wanted him to hurry, but he knew Vil would purposely take his time if he let him know that. And as if he read his mind, Vil slid down his pants as slowly as he could—all while he stared straight at him, as if daring him to say anything. 

“You smell really good,” Leona chose to say. 

He'd been living with Vil for a couple of months now, so he had already begun to understand what sort of things he liked to hear and when to say them to not make him mad.

Vil seemed surprised, yet pleased by his response. “Good answer, and yes, I used a new shampoo today. I’m glad you noticed.”

He finally slid down his pants and underwear completely, revealing Leona’s erect cock. Carefully, he encircled the tip with his thumb and index finger.

“Do I make you this happy?” He asked, even though he was in a similar situation himself. 

Leona nodded and placed his hand over Vil’s and over his own cock. “You know you do.”

Vil slapped his hand away once again. “Don’t be hasty and let me take care of this.”

Leona had no other choice but to stay back, even though he very much wanted to take Vil right there. 

Vil slid his hand alongside Leona’s shaft slowly, using the precum that had already begun to leak as lube. 

“Leona, tell me you want me,” Vil said, applying more pressure to his hold. 

Leona raised an eyebrow, but the pressure on his dick made him stop thinking altogether. “I–”

“Tell me that you only want me, that you don’t want to see me with other people.” Vil let go of him and placed his hands on his chest, staring straight at his eyes. 

Missing the friction, Leona tried to rub his crotch on Vil’s, but the other didn’t let him move—apparently he was serious about this.

“I want you. Just you. Right now, so stop being a tease.”

“What else?” Vil said, staying completely still.

“What…? What else do you want me to say?” Leona asked, covering his eyes with his hand and sighing deeply. 

“Do you just want my body?” He frowned, and Leona knew this wasn’t going like it was supposed to.

“No, I don’t. I mean I do want your body, I want all of you– just tell me what I should say.” He’d rather give in to what he wanted than having Vil stop there.

Vil crossed his arms and stared at him, speaking sternly, “Tell me that you are happy when I’m with you, that you’re lucky to have me. Tell me that this is what you want.”

Leona pulled Vil by his neck until their mouths crashed together in a messy kiss. Then, he bit his lower lip, making Vil yelp. 

“Idiot,” he spoke only centimetres away from his mouth. “I wish I could wake up next to you every day because I hate it when you’re already gone. I wanna hug you to sleep every night even when you complain it’s too hot. I wanna keep living with you and I wanna marry you. I want you.”

Vil licked his own lips, tasting blood from the previous bite. “You’re so lucky I said yes. To all of this.”

“I am.” 

“Say it again.”

“I’m lucky to have you as my fiancé, Vil.” 

Vil smirked. “So you want my body?”

“I want you, including your body, right now,” Leona replied.

“Start begging then.” Saying so, Vil sat up again, putting some distance between their crotches.

Leona groaned at the lack of contact. “You…” He knew that even if Vil wanted it too, he wasn’t going to budge so easily. “Let me fuck you… please.” It hurt his ego, but he also didn’t care since it was him. 

Vil smiled. “Again.”

“Vil…” he groaned, “please.”

“Anything for my fiancé.” Vil gave him a quick kiss and stepped aside to remove his pants and underwear. Before returning to Leona, he opened the same drawer from where he got the ring before and grabbed a bottle.

Leona knew what it was as soon as he saw it. 

“Lube? Where did you get it?” 

“From a store, where else?” Vil opened the bottle and squeezed some of its contents into his hand.

“That’s… already opened. When did you use it?” They slept together every day, so he would’ve noticed if Vil had used it.

Vil encircled Leona’s cock with his lube-covered hand, making sure everything got on it.

“Today,” he glanced up at him, “on me, silly. I had to be sure I would be prepared correctly, I doubt you’d let me properly do it here.”

“You were ready for this, huh?”

“I had to, I’m sure you wouldn’t have thought about all of this, and it’s for my sake. You kept me waiting for a long time.” Vil used the remaining lube to scissor himself though, just like admitted moments before, he was already loose.

“I kept you waiting? When? You were the one who didn’t want to do anything.”

Vil was already hovering on top of Leona, just about to sit on his dick, but when he heard Leona’s words, he stopped and looked at him with an inquiring look.

“Leona, I think we’re not on the same page here. I– I thought I had been clear, but–” he sighed. “Let’s talk about this before we continue.”

Leona didn’t understand what he meant. Everything was going well until now, so what did they need to talk about? He really didn’t have to stop right then either.

Vil moved and knelt next to him on the bed, “I don’t even know where to start, I already gave you a chance and–”

“A chance?”

Vil sighed and covered his face with his hands, taking a deep breath before he continued. “Leona, we started this as a fake relationship, right?”

“Right.”

“When did we stop?”

“Stop? Do you want us to stop? Right now?”

He didn’t get it. He didn’t stop when Vil’s name cleared up nor when they had a fight, why would he choose to do it right now?

Vil facepalmed and then slapped Leona’s chest. “Are you really this daft? Do you still think we’re pretending?”

Leona scowled. “What do you mean?”

“You think I’d let you do this if we were just pretending? That I’d receive you every day from work with a kiss and let you grab me when we were sleeping and any of this? Do you still think I was teaching you how to kiss better?”

Leona’s face didn’t change—still completely lost. 

“And it’s not just me. Why were you jealous then? Tell me, is it normal for you to be jealous that I kissed another actor just because we were pretending to be together? Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

Maybe he was right, and it wasn’t normal, but… “Noticed…?”

“That you fell in love with me,” Vil said, crossing his arms. “And I of you.”

Leona blinked, but suddenly everything started to make sense. The reason why he suddenly didn’t mind Vil’s presence and started enjoying his company wasn’t simply because of their living arrangement; it was because he indeed—

He scratched his head. “Since when?”

Vil bit his lips. “I suspected it when you got jealous about the perfume commercial, but I believed it when you kissed me later. I didn’t think you’d do that otherwise,” he smiled wryly, “of course, I knew you weren’t aware yet. I thought you’d come to the realization at some point soon, I mean we were basically already a couple then. And I tried telling you my feelings the day Ruggie caught us, but then I realized you still thought we were pretending, even after I said what I said. So, I hoped that if I left you on your own, you’d realize.”

Leona started to remember what Vil had said those times, but he couldn’t recall being explicitly told anything. 

“How the hell you expected me to realize it if you didn’t say it in a way I could understand? And why did you think it would help if you ignored me?”

“I didn’t ignore you. I thought that if I was distant, then you’d miss me and figure out your feelings. Yes, I see where I was wrong now.”

Things made sense now, of course, but–

“Why didn’t you just tell me directly?”

Vil scowled. “I thought it was obvious, I didn’t think you’d be this slow. And then I saw the ring… I had the feeling it was your brother's idea, but I still thought you’d come around. I mean, you were quite receptive.”

“When did you find the ring?” Leona asked. 

Vil sighed. “Last week. I was waiting until you asked, but you were taking too long. I thought you just didn’t know how to bring it up, so I decided to help you. Ah, but I should’ve known. I got too excited and forgot you’re like this. Dad was right, we need to learn to communicate better.”

At the mention of his dad, Leona remembered something that he’d ignored before.

“Vil, you said that’s when you realized I’d fallen for you, but when did you do it?”

Vil raised an eyebrow. “At the same time, I guess? It’s not like there’s an exact–”

“You told your father that you had a crush on me since we went to school together.” Back then he thought it had been a very convincing lie, but now that all of this came to light, he wasn’t sure anymore. 

Vil’s eyes widened slightly before he grabbed a pillow to hit Leona with. “You said you weren’t listening! Why would you– wait. You knew I liked you since then?”

Leona shook his head. “No, not at all. I thought you were lying to your dad. I had no idea it was true.”

Vil hid his face in the pillow and spoke against it. “I can’t believe this.”

It all sounded like some kind of joke. They could’ve avoided a lot of confusion if they’d simply talked about it—or in Leona’s case, think about it for more than two seconds.

Cautiously, Leona placed his hand on Vil’s shoulder, pulling him up to see his face. “It’s okay, even if it took me a while and we did things in a confusing way, I know now.” He placed a kiss on one corner of his lips and then on the other.

“I guess. I didn’t expect things to go like this, and…” Vil stared at his ring, and then took it off and gave it to Leona. “Propose again.”

Leona groaned. “I already did, it doesn’t change anything.”

“But you thought it was not real! What were you thinking? That we’d marry to keep pretending? Or we’d just be engaged forever without even going to that point?” Vil hit him with the pillow again. “Honestly, when did you think we were going to stop this?”

“I don’t know. You didn’t say anything when that woman cleared your name, I really didn’t know where this was headed,” Leona said and grabbed the pillow so Vil could stop hitting him. “Look, I know I screwed up by not realizing sooner, but what I told you about wanting to marry you and going to sleep with you and waking up next to you was true. Now I know that.”

“Then propose properly,” Vil said sternly. 

Leona thought it was silly, completely dumb—but wasn’t all of this the same? They started a fake relationship to fix some of their problems and make their life easier, not knowing it’d soon turn to be real. And now here they were: both completely naked, about to have sex, talking about their feelings.

“Alright.” He put the ring between his thumb and index finger. “You’re nagging and too demanding, and I don’t know why but I still wanna spend my life with you. And I don’t want you to be with anyone else but me, so Vil Schoenheit will you marry me? This time for real.”

Vil smiled and crawled on his lap again. “Tell me how much you want me again.”

Leona raised his eyebrow, but the feeling of Vil’s skin on his own was too much for him to handle and he couldn’t pretend to complain anymore. “I love you, Vil.”

Apparently, Vil wasn’t expecting to hear those words because he froze for a second. 

“You’re impossible,” he shook his head, “but yes, I want to marry you.”

Leona slid the ring down Vil’s finger before locking their lips together. “I love you.”

“I know, stop that.”

“You’re the one who wanted to hear this, didn’t you?”

Vil placed his hands on both sides of Leona’s head and kissed him passionately, leaving the question unanswered. Then, he began placing butterfly kisses on Leona’s jawline and neck. 

Leona grabbed the discarded bottle of lube and poured some on his hand which then brought to Vil’s entrance, inserting two fingers at once.

Vil groaned and arched his back. “I told you I was ready, just put it inside.”

Leona moved his fingers around, “I don’t wanna hurt you, we will be here for a long time.”

“Hurry up, I didn’t wait for months for you to want to take your time now.” Vil raised his hips and taking Leona’s dick in his hand guided it towards his entrance. 

“Don’t complain when you wanna stop later.”

Vil smirked. “You better not fall asleep or I’m kicking you out.” He lowered himself, stopping when Leona’s dick was half way, hissing in the process.

“I warned you,” Leona said, however instead of letting Vil get used to the feeling, he pushed him all the way down. 

Vil closed his eyes and breathed heavily, some tears threatening to spill from his eyes; after a minute, he opened his eyes and pushed Leona’s chest down until he was lying down. 

“Savage.”

Leona laughed. He rested his head on his arm, while his other hand gripped Vil’s waist. “Don’t pretend you don’t like it.”

“Unfortunately I do,” Vil said. After taking a deep breath he lifted his hips until Leona’s dick was almost all out of him, and then slammed down again. He bit his lips, trying to suppress a moan.

“I wanna hear you, don’t contain yourself.”

Vil repeated the motion while he struggled to speak. “It’s… the middle of the d-day… we shouldn’t– they’ll… hear us…”

“Who cares?” Leona groaned. “It’s our house and we’re engaged.” 

Vil moaned quietly. “Still, I think–” he gasped when he felt fingers on his half-hard dick.

Leona began to pump at the same peace Vil was thrusting. Vil, however, still tried to be as silent as possible, using the back of his hand to cover his mouth.

They kept the same peace for several minutes until there was knocking on the door. Immediately, Vil stood still and turned his head towards the door. He waited a few seconds to see if they said something or left, but the person on the other side of the door simply kept knocking over and over again.

“The door is locked, so let’s just wait until–”

His words died in his mouth and were quickly turned into a loud moan because Leona decided to take matters into his own hands and, grabbing Vil by his hips, lifted him up and slammed him down.

“Don’t stop,” Leona said with a growl. He grabbed Vil’s hands to prevent him covering his mouth. 

Vil glared at him for a second and then shook his head, keeping his previous pace, without containing his moans and groans this time. 

Completely ignoring the person at the door and any message and call their phones got, they continued for hours. Every time they came, they changed positions, even moving to the couch and bathroom to continue, though they still took short breaks to rest and embrace each other. 

When they decided to stop and take a shower, going through one last round in the shower, they finally settled on the bed—after Vil made Leona change the sheets. 

“It’s almost time for dinner, I can’t believe this. Leona, don’t fall asleep now,” Vil said, checking his phone for any missing texts. 

“No wonder I’m starving,” Leona said, turning around on his stomach and covering his head with a pillow. “But I’m too tired, let’s sleep.”

“No way, we missed lunch, we can’t miss dinner too. It’s bad for our bodies, especially after so much activity.” Vil snatched the pillow away. 

“Then go ask the maids to bring our dinner here, I don’t feel like going out,” Leona said, crossing his arms in front of his face and resting on them while he amusedly watched how Vil tried to, unsuccessfully, get out of bed. 

“So barbaric,” Vil said after settling down back in bed, realizing he wasn’t going to be able to get out. “You’re lucky I’m taking a break until next week.” 

Leona laughed and yanked Vil down. “Does this mean we’ll stay here all week?”

“No, Leona, don’t– we already took a shower, we’re not doing it again.” Vil tried to free himself from Leona’s grasp, but when he realized it was impossible, he gave up and sighed. “Just go tell the maids to bring us dinner, I’m starving.” 

“I'd rather have you for dinner,” he joked, but still went to do as Vil had asked. He was starving too, and now he knew that Vil wasn’t leaving soon. He had all the time to be with him.

Next morning, Leona felt how the bed shifted because Vil was moving around. He opened his eyes and noticed that, while it was still early, the light shining through the curtain showed that it was later than usual for Vil. Next to him, Vil was about to leave the bed, trying to be as silent as possible.

Leona grabbed his arm, pulling him back to the bed. “Where are you going?”

Vil gasped, but quickly recovered. “Sorry for waking you up, I’m going for my morning run.”

Leona shook his head. “Stay. Can you even walk?”

“I… I’ll take it easy, I don’t want to miss my routine,” Vil said, looking away.

“I can help you burn calories here, no need to leave.” Leona pulled him back to his side. 

Vil resigned himself and let himself be hugged by Leona’s strong arms. “Such a spoiled prince.” He sat up and placed his hand on Leona’s cheek. “We won’t make a habit out of this, okay? I can’t continue missing my workouts.”

Leona nodded, even though he was already planning on how he’d keep Vil here the following morning. He wasn’t going to miss any chance to be with him. 

He sat up and, grabbing Vil by his chin, guided his lips towards his own into a very messy but satisfying kiss. Vil returned it, quietly complaining about not having brushed his teeth yet. 

A sudden knock on the door made them stop and groan at the same time. While they quietly argued if they should see who it was or not, the voice of a maid was heard.

“Excuse me, your highness, your majesty, the King, sent a request for breakfast with you two this morning,” she said.

“Is his majesty already here?” Vil asked in a loud voice.

“No, he hasn’t arrived yet, should I let you know when he does?”

“Yes, please. Thank you for relaying the message,” Vil said, dismissing the maid. When they heard her leave, he turned to Leona. “Let’s make it quick,” he said softly and kissed Leona again.

Half an hour later, they went —hand in hand— to the dining hall to meet Falena who was already waiting for them.

“There you are, you lovebirds,” he said from his seat at the end of the table.

Leona didn’t react to the nickname—he was used to them already, but Vil still squeezed his hand.

“Your majesty, sorry to keep you waiting.”

Falena shook his head. “I just got here, though,” he smiled awkwardly, “I was left waiting yesterday. I was looking for Leona, but I noticed you were busy.”

Vil squeezed his hand again, this time alarmed. He quickly glanced at him, before apologizing to Falena.

“Your majesty, I’m so– we’re both so sorry.”

Falena waved his hand in front of him. “No need to apologize, you’re both young and have your needs. A heads up could’ve been good though.”

Leona guided Vil to his seat before sitting next to him. “You could’ve said something. We didn’t know it was you. We barely get your visits nowadays.”

“Well, you left in the middle of the day and didn’t come back. I thought something was wrong. I couldn’t help myself.”

Vil sighed next to him, but Leona couldn’t help but feel that the situation was a little funny. 

Vil locked his fingers together below his chin and smiled apologetically. “Our apologies again, your majesty. Is that the reason you are here or–” 

“Oh my, is that–?” Falena interrupted him with a wide stare, before his joyous smile returned to him. “I get it now! Congratulations, you two.”

Vil didn’t seem to understand what was going on for a second, but when he looked down, he saw the beautiful ring on his finger. His smile turned warm and he looked at Leona while he spoke. “Thank you. Yes, Leona proposed yesterday.”

“It was about time! I was wondering if you forgot, Leona. This is amazing, I’m so happy for you two,” Falena exclaimed, looking genuinely happy. “Did you tell your father yet? I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”

Vil shook his head. “Not yet, but I was planning on calling him today. I’d rather tell him in person, but he’s been busy recently. I’m not sure if he'll be able to visit us soon.”

“Nonsense, he’s your father. I’m sure he’d come if you told him too.” He fell deep in thought for a moment. “Why don’t we start planning the engagement party right now? That way he can plan ahead and come visit then.”

Vil’s eyes glimmered and was about to reply, but Leona was faster.

“Engagement party? Isn’t that too soon?” 

“No way, we need to let everyone know! What about next week? Does that work for you, Vil?”

“I finish my finals the following Friday, so if possible I’d rather it be after that day.”

“Sure, that way you’ll be more relaxed too. Then it’s settled, I’ll see that the preparations start as soon as possible so we can send out the invitations.”

“Is it okay if I invite some people too?”

“I don’t see why not. It won’t be as grand as the actual wedding, so we’ll invite less people, but we can make it for around 200 people.”

Leona could only stare in silence at how his brother and fiancé spoke rapidly, already organizing an engagement party that was agreed on only minutes ago. 

“That works for me. What do you think, Leona?” Vil asked.

Leona hadn’t been closely paying attention, so he only nodded. “If that’s what you want.”

Vil noticed his uncertainty and asked, “Do you think it’s too soon?”

Leona shook his head. With his brother asking him to choose a partner almost every day for months he’d already stopped considering that a marriage at his age was too soon, but he wasn’t sure about Vil.

“You are the one who wanted to wait, are you really okay with it?” He asked instead.

Vil smiled. “An engagement party will only tell others we’re engaged, it doesn’t mean we need to host the wedding ceremony so soon. Though, of course we need to prepare for that too, but I’m sure we can wait a couple of months until we get married.”

Leona smiled too. A couple of months was still too soon for what Vil said in the past, but Leona figured he’d already changed his mind by now. He didn’t mind—he actually couldn’t be happier, but he knew it may be difficult to explain to Vil’s father why they changed their mind about not wanting to wait much more. 

“Ah– I need to let my followers and fans know too, but I think I’d rather wait until the invitations are all sent out. That way it won’t be a total surprise for the invitees, but I won’t have to wait until the party.”

Yet, seeing Vil so invested and excited made him want to take the risk anyway. They started fake-dating on a whim, trying to escape the caprices of others. Surely they should start to do things properly now.

However—

Their relationship hadn’t been conventional even in the beginning, and yet they couldn’t say it wasn’t real now—so why worry about the order in which they did things, or the time they had together, or just anything that wasn’t them? It may be the time for them to finally do whatever they want, without others meddling in their decisions.

He placed his hand over the hand in which Vil wore the ring, interlocking their fingers together while they shared a hopeful smile.