✧ Lovelorn ✧

XVI ✘ Engagement

💜 | A V A R Y S | 💜

Clara immediately tossed him in her room, before looking out left and right and leaving the door opened for propriety and whatever etiquette's sake. She turned to him, arms crossed over her chest and a frown marring her beautiful face.

"You can drop the act now." She said softly.

Avarys blinked lightly. "What act?"

"Th-This. You're being nice, to me and Andrew. Stop pretending, whatever you're doing."

He does not see what was wrong. Avarys liked to believe that he is naturally nice. As for the pretending.... When he met Andrew, he didn't really like the guy. He was a shrimp for the next Duke Skotadi but he was also Clara's brother. Seeing their relation, Avarys was nice to him because of that. He could be of advantage. As for Clara....

"How do you know about that?" Avarys narrowed his eyes on her, while tilting his head lightly. For sure he's sure he never told her about his emotional.... capacity.

She looked like a deer caught in headlights. She was looking left, obviously creating false memories and lying. "I-I I'm extremely observant!"

Says a person with observation skills of a duck. Yay.

He nodded. "Sure, I believe you. But don't worry, I don't need to pretend with you."

"Okay, ............ and I've got lots of things to ask you!" Clara said, with a determined glow to her. She pointed a finger at his chest, before puffing her cheeks. "Well, for one, I was really worried about you. The Diamond City had this one month lockdown and Papa won't even tell me what happened to you. Then the engagement- What were you saying in front Andrew and-"

"Hey, calm down," Avarys held her shoulders, looking her in the eyes. Clara had this habit to ramble when she's panicking or nervous. "Ask me one question at a time." He said soothingly. Clara sat on the navy sofa set, before motioning for him to sit in front of her.

When Avarys got a look around the room, he realized it was Clara's room. It was a lot plainer than he expected it to be. She didn't have the stuffed doll family she was bragging about before or dollhouses littering her room. But then again she was a bit too old for that. It was oddly fascinating, it was everything different to what he imagined it to be. Then again, Clara was everything different he imagined her to be.

"Uhm, what happened to you... after, well, you know?"

"Let's say, I went through a rehab of sorts. Or something like that."

"It's bugging me but... Who's Shade Oriel?" She asked tentatively, noticing a shadow cross over his face and the way his back stiffened. His jaw tightened and his eyes glazed over like thin ice on a lake in winter. "Papa probably ruined the Oriel's economy for the next five years. But he says he can't find Shade Oriel." Duke Lidius Skotadi was a powerful person. Among the gemstone families, Duke Skotadi now has two enemies: Duke Aima Rosemond and Duke Abel Oriel. The former because Duke Aima always challenges him to a duel of who's more powerful then bombard him with powerful flames which he will douse with water. Then Duke Abel Oriel, for being related to Shade Oriel. Duke Lidius is petty like that.

What a frightening man. Even Avarys cannot let his guard down on Duke Lidius. Perhaps the only thing taking him out of the Sapphire Duke's personal shitlist was because he was engaged to Clara.

"You wouldn't find him," Avarys said with startling clarity. He noticed Clara wanted to ask more, but she bit her bottom lip. He gave a light smile to assure her, then veered the conversation away from that topic. "Let's not talk about this anymore. How about - let's talk about our engagement♡"