The Rise of a King - Copia x Reader

V

"I'm so excited!", Aether exclaimed as he took his seat at the breakfast table.
"Me too, I've never been to the beach!", Cumulus adds and almost knocked over your juice with her wild hand gestures.
"Have you ever been to the beach?", Swiss asked curiously and everyone looked at you with big eyes, filled with excitement.
To their disappointment, you only shook your head.
"I haven't but I know people who have and they say it's absolutely awesome! The sand's so soft but if you wetten it, it'll stick and you can build sand castles!"
They stared with admiration as you continued.
"Since the weather's so hot today, the water will cool us down and we can expect high waves to jump into today".
Aether let out a gasp, "we can jump in there?".
You laughed. "Yes, we can".
"That's so awesome!"
"I can't wait!"
The Ghouls were all so excited that they drew everyone's attention, even the higher up's'. With a fascinated smile on his face, Copia slowly stood up from his seat and made his way over to you guys.
"Morning", he greeted everyone as he stopped behind you and rested a hand on your shoulder. A little startled at first, you looked up to face him buy gave him a relieved smile as you realised who it was.
"Morning Cardinal!", Aurora greeted him.
"What are you all so excited about? I heard you had a day off, are you doing something fun?"
Cirrus nodded heavily.
"We're going to the beach!"
"We've never been, so we're really excited!", Sodo added.
"Why don't you come with us?", you offered with a smile. His face lit up and he looked at you with great happiness but suddenly his smile fell.
"Oh I'd love to but sadly I can't! I have to help Terzo prepare tomorrow's ritual. But you guys have fun", he gave you one last smile before he headed back to the higher up's table which you carefully watched. Something about his walk was so mesmerising and you had to admit, also a little funny. As you suddenly noticed your stares, you moved your gaze back to the others to see a few smiles fell.
"What's wrong?", you ask a little concerned, afraid they might have noticed.
"You know you don't have to invite him to our trip just because he's your boss"
"Yeah, we know he's a little weird so you don't have to worry".
You stared at your friends in shock, did they really just say that?
"I didn't invite him because he's my boss, I invited him because he's nice"
The Ghouls exchanged confused looks.
"What? What's your problem with him? Has he done anything I don't know of?"
Panic slowly began to rise inside of you, have you accidentally tried to befriend the ministry's psychopath or something?
"Well.. no not really..", Swiss sunk his head.
"Yeah so what's the issue? You think he's weird? He can't be as weird as the idiots that dislike him for no reason, right?".
Looks of guilt were suddenly exchanged and you could see they knew you were right. You for your own part didn't even know why you were defending him like this but he's been nothing but nice to you and hearing your friends speak so poorly of him just angered you.
"You're right.."
"We're sorry"
"Maybe he's not as bad as we thought"
Phantom suddenly looked around.
"How about we invite him to our movie night tomorrow and get to know him?"
Everyone agreed and their sweet apologies made you smile happily.
This was a good feeling to head to the beach with.

A little later, you and the Ghoulettes rolled out your towels at a peaceful spot in the sand while the Ghouls had a competition of who can jump higher in the water.
You laughed loudly as almost all of them got swashed away by a huge wave.
Mountain and Rain were the last ones standing, Mountain for the sake of his height and Rain because he had used Sodo as a pedestal and didn't get caught by the wave. The smaller one now angrily waved at the water Ghoul who tried his best holding back his laughter at the image of the watered fire Ghoul.
"You look like a wet puppy!", Phantom suddenly laughed and destroyed Rain's last bit of self control. While both of them broke down in laughter, Sodo suddenly pushed Rain in the next coming wave and proudly stomped out the water to dry.
"I prefer fire over water anyways", he mumbled as he let himself down on one of the towels.
After a few hours of swimming, playing and relaxing, you guys ended the day with a little picnic by the water as you watched the sun set and break dawn.
As you looked up at the stars, you suddenly thought of Copia and how the sparkle of the stars reminded you of the sparkle of his eyes. A strange warmth embraced you at the thought of it.