Whatever Ambrose's announcement was, he had been keeping under wraps since before he had been coronated. Kyree couldn't get Saige to divulge even the slightest detail of what it was, no matter how much he badgered or bribed her.
"I can tie my own tie, Ambrose," Kyree huffed for the third time, with a playful roll of his eyes.
"Stop complaining, you love the attention," Ambrose retorted, kissing Kyree's nose as he straightened the deep blue tie.
"We're having lunch, not getting married, Ambrose, must we dress up?" Kyree took hold of Ambrose's hands, "how about we just skip lunch? We could get undressed and have a little time alone? Make up for the last three weeks all in one afternoon?" Ambrose chuckled softly, kissing the knuckles on Kyree's hands in turn.
"That would be your cock talking, baby, not your brain. We are not skipping lunch," Kyree pouted, even contemplated whining, but when Ambrose made up his mind there was no changing it for anything.
Kyree allowed Ambrose to lead him, hand in hand, toward the large dining room that he did not have many great memories in. Kyree had not entered the room many times, and in those times he had queried multiples times why a family with three people needed such a large room to eat three meals in.
The first time he had seen the room, he had been in awe at the beauty of the decor. Ambrose had informed him that it was his great-grandfather who had built the palace and his grandfather had been the one to refurbish it with most of the items that were still there to that day.
Of course, the first time he had entered the room was also when Abigor had nearly choked Essence to death so Kyree didn't really cherish the memory. In the room this time, there were many more people than Kyree expected to see for "just lunch" as Ambrose had called it.
"Kyree, my baby," Yennifer cooed, dashing over to dote all over Kyree as soon as she set eyes on him, "oh, how are you, honey?" Kyree loved his mother dearly but by God she was irritating. She constantly babied him, despite his age being closer to a millennium than a hundred, and it was just getting plain embarrassing.
"Yen, give him some space, he's not five, my dear," Orion chided his wife, tugging her hands gently from Kyree's cheeks.
"Oh, Ori, but I haven't seen him in so long and-"
"I'm fine, mother, really," Kyree interjected, kissing his mother on the cheek, "Ambrose is taking good care of me," Kyree flashed a sly smile toward Ambrose and was tugged closer by the elder demon.
"I pity the poor bastard," Idella chimed in, a smug expression on his face as he patted his brother's shoulder, "glad you're back to somewhat normality, brother."
"Empathetic as ever, baby brother, I wouldn't expect any more," just as Kyree was about to pull his brother into a hug, he noticed Saige stood, talking with Lucifer, draped against the arm of Tyrell. The mere sight of the demon caused Kyree's blood to boil and the colour to drain from his beautiful eyes.
"What is he doing here?" Kyree seethed, unable to remove his eyes from the invading specimen in the room. Ambrose caressed the back of Kyree's hand, excusing them from speaking with his parents and leading him closer to Tyrell.
"Saige invited him, baby, and I think we give him one final chance," Kyree glowered at Ambrose, his lover clearly did not understand the deep disdain, "come on, Ky, you don't even have to talk to him face to face, OK? Just ignore him," just ignore him? Easier said than done when the distance between the two opposing forces was being reduced and Kyree's anger was still building ever higher.
"Kyree," Lucifer, despite no longer being the king, still acted like one. His presence was always felt and his voice reverberated throughout any room he was ever in. Kyree attempted a smile, but could feel the smug stare of Tyrell burning down the back of his neck.
"How are you?" that question was going to get old fast, Kyree thought to himself, thankful his bond with Ambrose didn't give them any sort of telepathic gifts. He was sure no one would want to look into his mind for the next hour or so.
"Better, thank you."
"Actually, speaking of Kyree's recovery," Ambrose lowered his voice, not wanting all in the room to hear his conversation with his father, "have you ever heard of any sort of substance that could cause such emotional distortion as Kyree experienced?" Lucifer instantly looked grim, a deep sigh wracking his body.
"It is rare, but yes, I have heard of such a plant that can do that. It is known as blood root. It is a form of devil's snare that only grows in the arid plains of the human world, very difficult to grow and even more so to harvest. It heightens whatever emotion is being felt in that moment, to a point of self-annihilation.
"It has to enter the bloodstream, so in a sense is a venom, not a poison, but only a drop is needed. It takes time to incubate, maybe a week before the effects are truly fatal. I imagine the assassin probably mixed it in with the devil's snare on the knife so it was not detected.
"It has no scent, no discernable flavour either, simply a blood red colour, hence the name. In Kyree's case, he experienced heightened grief, which is probably exactly what the assassin wanted. It works with most emotions; happiness, envy, sadness, lust. Anything," Ambrose shared a pained glance with Kyree, both reminiscing the lowest point Kyree got to in the previous weeks.
"So, he's given up trying to kill us, he wants to drive us to doing it ourselves. Wonderful," Kyree muttered sarcastically with a roll of his still darkened eyes.
"How can you live like this?" Saige interjected, her watery eyes set in a frown, "constantly dodging attempts on your life, never able to just relax. For lack of a better word, it's hell," Kyree watched as Tyrell pulled Saige into his chest, murmuring something into her lilac hair. A gesture as simple as that, benign as it is, awoke the urge within Kyree to rip him limb from limb.
As everyone sat down to lunch, Kyree tried his best to refrain from growling at the sight of Tyrell speaking so freely and calmly with his family. That man would not grow on him. Kyree would wait for just one simple slip up, just one was all he needed to justify filleting pieces of skin from the demon's body.
Midway through the meal, as the conversation seemed to die down, all attention turned to Ambrose and Kyree sat at the head of the table. Kyree remained silent, not in the mood yet to attempt small talk, he had always detested that aspect of social interaction. Kyree was about to make some half-assed comment when Ambrose chose to speak instead.
"Kyree went through a rough patch in the past few weeks, which we're still trying to figure out. But, seeing him the way he was, it made me realise something," Ambrose rose from his chair, withdrawing something from his pocket, sending just a small spike of apprehension through Kyree, "I have never loved a man more than I love Kyree, never felt so alive with someone," Ambrose dropped to one knee and Kyree's eyes widened as he opened a small velvet box. Nestled in the middle of that box was a ring. The band was a glistening white gold with cobalt blue gems inlaid into the metal. Kyree knew exactly what it was based off, the fish in his dream.
"I don't ever want you to go through what you went through recently again, but if you do, I want you to go through it knowing you're my husband. I want you to know that I will forever be there for you, to support you, to love you, even to cry with you. I will be there. Kyree Landon, will you marry me?" Kyree shook his head gently, a grin on his face but tears in his eyes.
"Of course," Kyree leant forward, pressing a passionate kiss to Ambrose's lips, smiling into the gesture as he felt Ambrose slip the ring on his finger. The room erupted with applause and cheering which died down pretty damn quick when a small black box appeared in Kyree's hand.
"Well, I guess that makes my plans for tonight redundant, I might as well give you this now," Kyree opened the little box, revealing a silver ring with a swirled obsidian inlay, "my grandfather's ring, that I was going to propose to you with later this evening. Which I did tell our daughter earlier this morning," all eyes turned to Saige, who smiled innocently.
"Saige Landon-" Ambrose began but was quickly cut off by Saige.
"It's Saige Ross now, I mean, I assumed Kyree will be taking your name, what with it being a royal bloodline," she giggled, standing from her chair and walking over to embrace her father's, "and what was I supposed to do? Tell Kyree not to propose because you were going to? Or tell you not to propose because Kyree was going to? I wanted it to be a surprise so I figured whoever asks first gets the pleasure of doing so," Kyree chuckled, kissing the top of Saige's hair. Ambrose smiled as Kyree slipped the ring on his finger and they shared in another, slightly shorter kiss. As everyone sat back down, returning to their conversations, Kyree moved closer to Ambrose, each exchanging vows of eternal love in hushed voices before sealing their affection with one last kiss.