The Meaning of Roses (Alberu Crossman x Cale Henituse)

Chapter 1: One Red Rose (341-342)

"Wow, really?" Cale asked in an excited voice.

Alberu's eye twitched.

"You immature child."

"Excuse me?"

"Just eat your meat."

Alberu then got up and slammed the bedroom door closed as he left.

Outside the room, he slumped against the door and buried his face in his hands.

There was nobody outside the door (because why would you need a normal guard when there are two Dragons inside the room?), and so nobody noticed Alberu's reddening ears.

It took him quite the strength to stop his face from blossoming like a young maiden in love back in the bedroom, hence his quick exit.

But he just couldn't help it.

He'd never seen Cale so... innocently happy. His joyous tone and infectious smile... God, he looked so handsome.

It was that moment that he knew that he was, indeed, attracted to Cale Henituse.

Mm-hm, I'm so fucked.

Nowhere in his 25 years of living had he felt this way before. He never had any plans of marriage. After all, he did not want to only show his fake appearance to someone who would share the rest of their life with him. Alberu gave up on love and marriage because that meant that his true appearance might get leaked out.

But Cale Henituse...

Cale knew Alberu. He knew about Alberu and understood him more than anyone else. He never used his secret against him, rather he'd helped Alberu a lot.

Cale accepted Alberu for what he was. Crown Prince position be damned; Cale truly did not care for it, always acting like they were no different.

Some would say that Cale was acting disrespectfully (and perhaps he was), but doesn't that mean Cale saw Alberu for his true self rather than only his position?

Alberu tried to imagine a life with Cale Henituse.

Being with Alberu would mean being Queen. Not Consort, oh no. Cale deserved better than just a 'Consort'.

Cale still wouldn't like that, though. Queen title would get in the way of his slacker dream.

I can always just take over his duties, Alberu rationalized, it's not like I'm not doing it right now.

He did promise Cale his slacker life, after all.

But spending his entire life with Cale...

A small smile graced Alberu's lips.

Cale's face being the first thing he saw in the morning and the last thing he saw before sleeping... Holding his hand whenever he felt like it... Kissing those luscious lips and perhaps something else-

Alberu quickly shook his head.

He was just starting to realize his feelings, for fuck's sake. That was moving way too fast!

I am SO fucked.

Well, nothing else he could do now, right? They were in the middle of war. Exploring his feelings could wait. For now though, he should get the information on Mercenary King and give it to Cale to lighten up his workload.

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Alberu walked over to Cale and tossed a document to him.

"What is this?"