The Stupid Cannon Fodder is Stunning Today

Chapter 40: Exchange Of Thy Love's Faithful Vow

This chapter is brought to you by What If It Doesn't End Well by chloe moriondo. 

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The Calypto garden was quiet when Bel arrived. 

The music from the party could still be heard faintly this far out. Many people were still dancing and drinking and mingling this late at night. 

Tobus had already retreated from the festivities, something he always did once the clock struck midnight. 

Bel did not follow him. 

At first. 

After being caught by his uncle, he stayed behind and was forced to listen to a lecture about "fraternizing with the enemy." 

His uncle had cut himself off after Rowan spun past him while dancing with Jovette. 

"That stupid--" 

Bel made his escape. 

So here he was in the Calypto garden, passing the trees and bushes until he stopped and saw a figure standing on a balcony. 

The parallels did not escape him, not when Tobus told him about the infamous balcony scene in the original story. 

Though, from what he heard, Rowan flubbed the scene to hell when he climbed Jovette's balcony, having been unaware it was her bedroom when he tried to return a cat. Then he fainted. 

To think he had game in the original story... 

It seemed a balcony scene was inevitable. Perhaps that was fate.

Did the participants of the scene have to be Rowan and Jovette, though?

Bel stood there, staring at the man who was currently nursing a goblet of wine.

The outfit he wore during the party had been stripped down, leaving a loose red tunic and leather pants. The moon shined down on him, and his emerald green eyes sparkled.  

Bel faltered. No matter how many times he looked at this man, he was always left breathless. 

He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey!" he shouted, "Say something romantic!" 

Tobus froze just as he brought the goblet to his mouth. He glanced down and noticed Bel.

He took another sip of his wine and set it down. Then he leaned forward and rested his arms on the balcony rail. His posture was relaxed as he cocked his head. 

"Intruder, how dare you trespass upon my garden? Are you not Belwyn and a Monttevi?"

Well, it wasn't romantic, but it certainly was... something. 

Bel snorted and smiled up at him. "I am neither if you dislike both!"

He was met with an amused quirk of soft lips. "If my kinsmen find you here, they will put you to death."

"The night is my cloak, and my like of you will be wings and give me flight around the sun and around again."

"Shameless." 

"A thousand times the worse, to want your light. Around the sun and again, yet I still have no shame to profess my like," he declared. 

"What like?"

"I can see right through you! We've known each other in another lifetime, don't deny it!"

That had come out of nowhere and was complete bullshit, but something along the lines of a romance spanning three to five lifetimes seemed like the sort of romantic thing to say in the middle of the night.