The Trickster's Test {Prinxiety}

Chapter 23

Third Person

"I'm telling you, he was into me, but no you just have to sweep in anyway and absolutely ruin my chances. Worst wingman ever," Remy declared as Virgil and Roman approached him and Janus.

"Don't worry, next time I'll slip an entire bouquet of roses into your jacket mid-conversation and leave," Janus wouldn't, especially knowing of the feelings a certain mutual friend of theirs held for the coffee addict. Of course, he wouldn't directly interfere with their personal affairs when it was still entertaining to see Remy be almost completely oblivious to the idea of an actual relationship while Emile was insistent on not pressuring him, "Nice to see you two finally decided to join us, congrats on making it down here without getting kidnapped."

"Nice to see a royal that still has a sense of humor," Roman calls back, playfully glaring at Virgil.

"All I did was tell Tasha that I'm not interested in women," Virgil hurriedly argues, having already defended himself four separate times since they had left the gambling ring.

"She was jokingly asking you out to dinner and instead of playing along you took her so literally," He reasoned, laughing at the memory.

"How was I supposed to know? She could have easily been serious and I didn't want to hurt her feelings if she was actually interested. I was just shooting straight, or gay I guess because she's a woman and I- whatever," He cut off his own rambling in favor of facing Janus, and in turn, the journey ahead of them, "Where to first?"

"Woah woah woah, there's no need to rush princey-boy, when did you guys meet Tasha?" Remy asked, jaw agape in excitement at the mention of his self-proclaimed but only when they saw each other and remembered the other's existence best friend.

"And how do you both still have any valuables?" Janus added amusedly, familiar with the sailor's mostly harmless tendency to steal.

"Well I encountered her and her friends on my way to the deck, and we were all having a lovely time playing poker until she insulted my honor and skills," Roman decided to focus on Remy's question, partially because he didn't exactly know what Janus meant, and also because they didn't really have valuables in the first place.

"Still a bad influence, then," Janus mumbles with a smirk and fond expression. He truly cared for each member of his ragtag crew, despite some of their poor character traits, he had chosen them all for a reason. He didn't particularly like being attacked at sea, but his tightly-knit group of idiots and technical criminals kept the ship and its inhabitants in one piece so he could live with it, "First we'll be doing one of my favorite activities, I hope you don't mind. Normally I wouldn't engage in such a tedious activity with guests, but I wasn't exactly expecting company," Somehow, he managed to make it sound like it was their fault that they were here. Granted, treating kindness as an inconvenience could just be a part of Correan culture, Virgil's studies had strayed from the topic recently.

"And what would that be?" Virgil asked.

"I still need to do some business with one of my more...difficult associates," And while Virgil hadn't seen Janus swallow a lemon, it almost looked like he had unnoticed, "They always drive a hard bargain and never stay in Correo for long, so it's pretty unavoidable unless I want to wait until the dead of winter to get rid of these," He knocked on the crate he was sitting on, as if that cleared up any questions they could have about who this person was and what was in the crate.

"If you don't want us involved in whatever sort of shady deal you plan on making, you could've just left us on the ship. It wouldn't have been a problem, so long as you aren't worried about us taking your boat hostage," Virgil pointed out.