Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
G wil accepted the cup of coffee. Hyax rarely brought him anything in bed that didn’t have a sexual use unless he was ill, and that made him suspicious. “What’s going on?”
They’d returned later than he’d expected from Queen Talia’s garden party, Gwil admitting he enjoyed himself, but still not quite able to believe his future would entail more gatherings where he would be thought of as a valued guest. Hyax mentioned visiting his tailor, but they’d run out of time, and Hyax said he’d arrange a meeting when they were next at the palace.
Hyax had been insistent, and Gwil didn’t know why he was so bothered.
“Nothing. Can’t a man bring his best fang coffee instead of being accused of something?”
“No.”
Hyax tutted. “What do you mean no ?”
“I mean, you’re usually demanding I get you tea, not the other way around. So, what’s this about? I know you went off to talk to your mum, did she say something?”
Hyax got back into bed and pouted. “Yes, but not in the way you mean. There wasn’t anything terrible said, but I might need you to consider doing a few things that weren’t originally planned.”
His mind went to the least helpful place he could imagine. “You’re not gonna knock up Metra and have him give you an heir?”
“Fuck off! Even if it was possible, there’s no way I’d be breeding with him.” Hyax’s look of disgust was hilarious.
“Then if I ain’t gotta be a stepdad to a sparkly fae baby, I don’t think there’s much of anything I couldn’t get my head around for the right reason.”
“I had some news about how the Elementa has stopped mining for golashe. It could just be temporary for now, but my mother thought it could mean I might be able to petition for divorce sooner than we hoped.”
Gwil thought that was a good thing and didn’t warrant coffee as a bribe. “I guess we’d need to wait to confirm Hoffman is no longer paying the Elementa, but it sounds positive.”
“Yes, it is. We’d need to make sure to conduct proceedings properly, and have a real reason to divorce and not just that we don’t want to be married.”
The fae were weird. “I would’ve thought that was the reason to get a divorce.”
“Well, yes, but there’s politics. She mentioned something could be in the bonding protocols, and she’s probably right, which will help justify a divorce. But they come with other stipulations, ones I thought you wouldn’t need to worry about because you’re not a fae.”
Nothing in his afterlife was straightforward; new distractions and issues crawled out of the woodwork on a regular basis.
He’d learnt not to get wound up over anything before he’d heard all the facts.
He’d already accepted his boyfriend had no choice but to marry another man, so he was pretty sure he could cope with what Hyax threw at him.
“Just tell me rather than have me worry you’re being too nice. ”
The fact Hyax didn’t call him a wanker should have raised more red flags.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but my mother has suggested that you would benefit from having some formal etiquette lessons.”
Gwil had prospered during the Victorian era; his manners were exemplary compared to modern standards. “I beg your fucking pardon. There’s nothing wrong with my decorum.”
He realised Hyax hadn’t jumped to his defence, meaning he must be at least in part agreeing with his mother.
“Your changing status brings with it different social engagements, and the ones you would have gone to previously saw you in a different role. I don’t think it would hurt for you to undergo some training in order for you not to feel at a disadvantage.”
“So, this has nothing to do with you thinking I’m some ill-mannered oik?”
Hyax rolled his eyes. “Of course I don’t. But I saw you today, and you were uncomfortable being treated in a new, more respectful way. I was trained from birth to deal with my role, and you’ve been dropped into the deep end without even a pair of water wings to help.”
Hyax wasn’t wrong in how he’d felt at the garden party, but he wasn’t a character from Pygmalion who needed sanding down and buffing up to be presentable. “Seems like overkill to me. After a few times, I’ll get used to it.”
“Gwil, please, can you at least agree to a couple of sessions.
“I’m not going to show you up,” he said, and he’d felt a pang of hurt Hyax might not think him good enough.
“You could never show me up. I swear this isn’t about that.
While I do think it’ll help with some confidence-building, there’s more behind the request. The royal bonding rituals that we might want to use have specific requirements, and I don’t want your lack of etiquette training to be used as an excuse to prevent us from considering those options. ”
Put like that, he wasn’t going to say no, but he wasn’t going to be happy about it either nor was he going to go in blind. “What will the training entail?”
Hyax smiled. “Thank you.”
“I haven’t said yes, yet.” Fucking princes and their sense of entitlement.
“I promise there’s nothing arduous. There are all sorts of protocols for certain royal settings, and you do have an official role.”
“When will you want to start?” He’d lost the fight; he might as well get it over with.
Hyax winced. “It’ll be a royal tutor. Let me arrange for you to meet one, and we’ll combine it with seeing my tailor.”
He should have known that he would be at the mercy of a professional, and he would hate to think what sort of dried-up old windbag he’d be stuck with if they were the sort to teach the fae princelings how to be posh. “Can’t you do it?”
“A relationship I don’t think we should have. We’d probably kill each other if I tried to tutor you.”
“Joke’s on you, Hyax, I’m already dead.” He got Hyax’s point, but it wouldn’t stop him from being a flippant bastard.
“All right, that we survive your training with our relationship and all our appendages intact and I don’t lob off your head.”
“Fine.”
Hyax kissed him. “I know it’s not something you want to do, but I do appreciate it.”
A series of beeps from the other room prevented the kiss from descending into something more interesting. Hyax threw back the bedsheets. “That sounds like my collection charms at Dante’s are ready for a first look.”