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So, if Edarial wasn't sure that his wife hated him before, he's really, really sure of it now. It's pretty usual that if they're in the same room, he feels nothing but silent, seething hostility from her. Usually, his reaction to this is a poker face followed by running. He doesn't like having someone hostile just - there at the dinner table, glaring at him with her hissing familiar.
Zevros doesn't hate him, Edarial's certain of it, but he's not helping. He's literally never seen his twin this angry before. This is coming from someone who has seen his twin be angry loads of times. At meals, he just - sits there. Stabbing his food and glaring at Edarial while he does it. He gets why, he knows that Zevros is furious with him for the whole 'cold political marriage' thing. It still hurts, though, to have his immediate family just be so openly hostile.
He gets more withdrawn. Meals get delivered to his room rather than him eating with Iobel and Zevros right there, being near-openly hostile. He stops sparring with Zevros nearly entirely, spends an unhealthy amount of time in either his office or his room, and Berathyme spends all her time coiled around his shoulders, offering what little comfort she can.
She's pretty terrible at advice, but at least he has someone that doesn't actively hate him nearby.
He throws himself into being a king, gets lots of things done, and is generally considered by the public to be good at it. A good king. It's sort of tainted by bitterness, now. But the country does not fall apart, it does not break down into civil war - he handles it. The education system gets a shove in the right direction, the canals get cleaned up, various unemployed people get jobs. He wonders what on earth he's done wrong when he's doing good in the world, but he supposes it doesn't matter.
He knew what he was getting himself into, when he made this choice. He knew that Zevros would be upset with him. Maybe to the point where their camaraderie will just never recover. He doesn't know. From the beginning, he knew that he'd be shackled to someone he doesn't love. Edarial hadn't been expecting the random hatred from his new wife, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be happy.
Just, well. He wasn't expecting to be so miserable, either.
It shows, the misery. Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair. He loses some weight due to skipping meals just to avoid his close family. Or, other times, he just forgets, burying himself in work so he doesn't have to think 'What did I do?' over and over again.
But he's a good king. So that's something.
royal_obligation
royal_obligation
"Okay," mutters Edarial. "So it might not be him, but it's probably still him, because he's a wretched bastard and a fucking sociopath!"
royal_pain
"Who's fucking sociopaths?" asks Zevros, poking his head into the room with no sense of personal space and Edarial's familiar on his arm.
royal_obligation
"Solid eight. Iobel was coerced into marriage with the threat of being unmade and someone pinned it on me."
royal_pain
"Oh my god," deadpans Zevros. "It's almost like marrying someone you don't fucking know is a bad idea! Who the fuck would have thought, right?!"
royal_pain
Zevros rolls his eyes. "Yeah? 'Cause I'm seeing it is, you're the reason she's involved at all! Fruity drinks on an island! We could have had them!"
royal_obligation
Edarial doesn't have a reply to that. His face contorts to a mixture of guilt and rage and he flops into a chair.
Berathyme decides to defend him. "Go fuck yourself sideways with a rusty spoon," she hisses at Zevros.
Berathyme decides to defend him. "Go fuck yourself sideways with a rusty spoon," she hisses at Zevros.
royal_pain
"Oi!" says Zevros to the snake. "You can't use that on me, I'm the one who taught you it!"
royal_obligation
Edarial glances at Iobel, then says to Zevros, "Skip it. Lecture me later, hell, you can punch me if you want, fuck do I deserve it right now. Zev, remember the - how did you describe it... Miniature bear?"
royal_obligation
"It's fucking me asking you, what the fuck do you think, that I want him strewn about the courtyard?"
royal_pain
"Ugh. Fine. One piece, all of his liquids in him, nothing permanent, whine whine whine."
Zevros storms off to go do that.
Zevros storms off to go do that.
royal_obligation
"I would prefer it, but you're the wronged party here so if you leave him in multiple pieces I will only make disapproving faces at you."
come_midnight
"What are you going to do with him if I tell Cricket to restrain himself to hysterical growling?"
royal_obligation
"Tried for treason, tossed into the tallest tower with all of his friends and then I throw away the key."
come_midnight
"I'll take it." She starts murmuring to her familiar, who seems disgruntled but compliant.
royal_obligation
Edarial, meanwhile, goes silent and stares at the floor, deep in thought.
(Fuck, how could he have missed this?!)
(Fuck, how could he have missed this?!)