Treasured (alver x og cale)

Part 9

Cale Henituse was an intelligent, intuitive, and sharp individual. That was precisely why Alver had judged that rather than words, it would be more effective to show his feelings through actions. It surely wouldn't take long for a person like Cale to decipher and it gave him the opportunity to reject those advances as well.

It was a show of sincerity. Words were cheap and Alver was good at them. Actions on the other hand required time and care, two things that Cale treasured.

So it was with a certain amount of surprise that Alver realized that Cale hadn't caught on to his intentions at all. He wasn't sure if it was possible to be any more obvious about his affections short of getting on one knee and proposing.

Yet Cale Henituse, a man who had constantly impressed and awed Alver with his abilities to read people and grasp the intentions of others with effortless elegance, remained entirely oblivious to Alver's motivations.

It was almost impressive in its own way.

Cale's family had certainly caught on. Violan had spotted it from day one but even the significantly more slow-witted Deruth and Cale's younger siblings seemed to grasp that their relationship was deeper than originally thought.

It was also a deeply troubling matter because Alver was running out of time.

He'd already extended his little 'vacation' quite a bit beyond the limit and had even taken to working remotely for pressing matters. The day when he would have to return to the palace was swiftly approaching and Cale was still blissfully ignorant of his feelings.

Alver had been hoping to invite Cale to stay at the palace for a bit of time should Cale be amenable to his advances and then they could take yet more precious time together. A slow and meaningful courtship with a man that he could not stop thinking about.

However, if Cale remained unaware of his feelings, the invitation would prove problematic.

Pursuing Cale here in the Henituse territory, where he was home and surrounded by loved ones that would happily decapitate Alver should he cross the line, allowed Cale the freedom to reject Alver without any fear of reprisal and no preparations.

It gave Cale both symbolic and real power to prioritize his own feelings above anything else.

It was different if Alver brought Cale to the palace.

Cale would be, to some extent, reliant on him. For everything. Going home would require Alver's explicit permission for the mage's to assist Cale and even leaving the palace could prove difficult without Alver's approval. Something that Alver had learned the hard way while wearing Cale's body.

Alver had absolutely no intention of trapping Cale there or using any of these things to his advantage, the trouble was that the implication that he could might cause Cale to respond differently than he might with absolute freedom.

Cale was great at grasping the power dynamics of a situation and cynical enough to suspect the worst. If the thought occurred to Alver, it would certainly occur to Cale.

And so, Alver would need to tell Cale now or wait for the next time that he was able to leave the capital. There was the possibility of talking to Cale about it via a communication orb or even a letter but neither of those methods were satisfactory to Alver.

It felt as though it would be disrespectful towards Cale.

All of this to say, Alver's problem was rather straightforward. He needed to use his words to make Cale understand his intentions and give an answer to Alver free of pressure.