Because I Love You✔️

Chapter 87: Of Orion and Fear

Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to @Xolsolz for her continued following and enjoyment of this story. I am truly grateful for your words on each chapter.
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Chapter Eighty-Seven: Of Orion and Fear

"Really, Sinmir?" Ella growled, voice grating against his pounding head. "Really?"

"Bah, be silent," Sinmir hissed, watching as Xaphile tiredly squashed his ears flat against his skull and took a deep breath. "You're being too loud."

"Oh, I'm too loud, am I?" Ella sarcastically shot back. "Well, it wouldn't be a problem if someone wasn't hung over! And it's no wonder, considering how much alcohol he drank!"

Xaphile wanted to die.

He had slept literally all day long, and probably would have slept longer if Ella and Sinmir hadn't started fighting not too far away from him. Sinmir had discreetly informed her about their little two-man birthday celebration near the end of the day when she'd inquired about how heavily he'd been sleeping. And that, unfortunately, had led to a serious squabble between them.

She was pissed since people in Aerika supposedly weren't allowed to consume alcohol until their eighteenth year. Sinmir was just as pissed because of her negative reaction, and he had blatantly reminded her that international leniency laws were in place for a reason.

Based on what Xaphile was hearing, Aerika's laws could sometimes be bent to accommodate a foreign diplomat's ways, particularly if that diplomat was a royalty... such as King or a King's son.

The latter of which he was.

"Shut uuuup," Xaphile finally whined, forehead pressed flat against the floor. "My head is killing me."

"And that's what you get for drinking alcohol!" Ella snapped, folding her arms and turning her glare on him. "Drinking it underage was a stupid move, even for you!"

Xaphile finally pushed himself upright, sat up, and looked at her through squinting eyes, trying to block out as much light as humanly possible. Sharp blades of pain sliced into his eyes and head as he did so.

"Ella," he muttered, letting out a disheveled sigh. "Until now, I've never broken a major rule in my entire life, and I'm not about to make a habit of it. Particularly since I feel like I might have made a fool of myself last night after I got hammered. But for the most part, I needed to cut loose."

She opened her mouth to fire a retort, but then stopped... and slowly lowered her eyes.

Taking a deep breath, she visibly calmed herself down before glancing at him again.

"Did it work?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Was the result worth the action?"

Xaphile planted his hands in his lap, thinking about it seriously.

Sifting through his memories of being drunk, he felt a little mortified, that much was true... but he now knew how much Sinmir cared for him thanks to the events that had come before it, so in the end, he would have been lying if he'd told her he regretted doing it.

So he simply looked her in the eyes and nodded.

"Yes," he murmured, meeting her gaze with his head held high. "It was. Not because of the fact that I got drunk, but because it was through the act of doing it that I realized something extremely important that..."

It was here that he trailed off.

"That what?"

He took a deep breath, then let it out.