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How could I measure the time since Cecilia left us? Perhaps, I could have counted the seconds with every single step of Damian's pacing, or maybe I could measure it within the sharp glances I took towards him every minute or so. The passing of time grew unfair with some seconds coming faster than others. Each moment drew too long or too short until finally, Damian squinted his eyes tightly. "Could you please just stop that already?"

"Stop what? I'm just sitting here."

"Putting on that blasted face around me."

I tilted my head. "I wasn't making any sort of face. I was just waiting on you to lead me out the door to your lessons. I don't even understand why you're so upset."

"Oh, bullshit! I deal with servants every day and I see that act all the time. Still, not a single one of them does the act quite nearly as well as you do."

I dragged my claws against the wood of the chair.

"Even Simone can't suppress every emotion that well. You've got a shitty gift."

"It's that gift that got me here. Can't we just remain cordial for five more days?"

"Let me just get one thing correct here. I choose to get you here, Milo. Me."

I jumped from my seat. "Well, you choose right, Prince. You choose the best man for the job. The crème de la crème of the acts, because I do have a gift. If I so much as snickered, they'd put me six feet under. I never got to parade around my own room with my local whore because of them. I never got to wake up in the morning and be able to relax and enjoy the coming of the new day because of them. Every day I wake up with that worry that I'd lose everything because of them. So forgive me if I don't let you in to see that. Forgive me if I don't think you could ever understand what it's like to lap up the feces of everyone above me before going to a hole in the wall where they can forget I existed at all. Just rubbish blowing away in the breeze." I pointed right towards him and desperately gasped for air. "You were always one of them... Prince."

I stood before Damian, hands shaking and lips trembling.

"Milo, I..." His words trailed off.

I wondered if the words would come at all.

Finally, he became resolute and stared at me. "I think you're overreacting."

I buried my face in my paws feeling myself fade. My light slowly burned out before him as the cold crept in from all sides in the darkness. The light flickered away until I decided I wouldn't let it burn out. "You didn't even take off her chemise. You were just going to fuck her and then show her the door, weren't you? I don't even know what game you're playing anymore. I thought this was just to keep around your hedge whore, but, now, I think all of this is just a silly game you put together because your life of royalty got too damn boring for you."

He was biting onto his bottom lip until slowly letting the words out. "I'll be sure to send a servant to provide your meals during my duties. You may go and do as you wish while you wait."

Within his face, I saw Beatrice shaming me for all I was. I saw how my mere existence proved taxing and frustrating to him. All the features were repeating, but he was better at this. He was better than any of them, because, as he slipped out of the doorway, I was still desperately trying to push down what he had done, left helplessly trying to drain down the emotion off my face. I straightened out my back, but the tears still came to life.

The door to the room swished open and he stammered. "Would you care to join me for dinner?"

I closed up my book. "I already know I can't say no."

His shoulders slouched, but I walked right past him out of the door.

"The main course is smoked salmon, I know you probably served quite a bit of it before, so you'll have to tell me how it pleases you."

"Yeah, I have served it quite a bit before."

He took his place by my side in the hallway, and I moved my paw away from his before he could grab onto it.

"You know, the stereotypes really are true I guess. We cats really do love our fish, don't we?" Damian briefly chuckled.

I just kept walking with my tail ever-so-slightly swaying.

"I think it's great you are taking such an interest in ballroom dance. That book is still one of my favorites. I'll be sure to show you a thing or two sometime."

My tail swished back and forth before halting in place. "That would surely help for our one last dance, I suppose."

Damian looked towards the wall of the hallway, but I still caught him suppressing a smile. We continued like this down to the stairs, with glances stolen to one another, before he finally spoke up. "Milo, I.. uh..."

My ears drooped at once.

"...never loved Cecilia. Of course, she pleasures me, but I personally find her to be a dim-witted dollymop."

I snorted. "You already exhaust yourself acting for your family, you don't need to act for me."

"No, I mean it. She's a worn-down tool. I struggle to even get aroused by her. Cecilia just always seems to say the most blasted, dim-witted things and there is nothing I find more repulsive than that."

My tail began to wag. "You know, that's quite interesting. My mother always used to say that one finds attraction in those that most reflect ourselves."

He was taken aback, peering at me before he snickered. "I feared your sense of humor would remain dormant."

I picked at the bone of the large fish and hardly could find room for another bite. Distant memories of stealing bites during the harder months at the eatery surfaced with the flavor, but this salmon was much finer than anything I had before. The cooks for the royal family easily put the eatery to shame.

"Mother, I cannot thank you enough for allowing Milo to live alongside us. It's truly been a blessing." He grabbed onto my paw with his.

"It's really my pleasure. Your father would be so proud of you."

Victoria got lost in a grin. "It's funny, all this time I never saw it, brother. I never realized you'd be... interested in other males. That's not to say I'd find that to be wrong in any way at all. It's just that- that- well...." She regained herself. "I respect your courage and I think you have found your happiness. You two just have this very special connection and I hope to one day find for myself."

"I hope too that you find someone as great as Milo is. We truly do connect in a way I never thought I would with anyone."

I rubbed his arm with my paw playing the act up with a smile.

The queen stifled a laugh. "Oh yes, you do quite connect."

Victoria raised an eyebrow whilst I immediately removed my paw from him.

He scoffed. "Well, that was quite a lovely meal as usual." Standing up, he turned to the butler. "Simone, fetch the playing cards and prepare the table. I wish to have a game night."

The wolf hardly withheld his excitement. "Why yes. Yes, of course, your Highness! I'm sure Milo will be quite pleased with your talents in poker."

I stood up, perking my ears up. "You never fail to surprise me, my love."

The Queen lifted her paw. "Now boys, before you play your little game, I urge you to keep in mind we will be hosting the ball this Saturday." She stroked a finger to her lip in hesitation. "While I do enjoy you two courting, it's your duty as part of the Royal Family to uphold basic ideals and keep our adversaries appeased."

"But of course, mother. We'd dare not miss it."

She looked almost shocked to see him agreeing. "Well... the duchess of Fyre herself will be there alongside many others. If we don't stand on a united front with nothing to hide, we'll be a mockery in a grave of rumors. I need not remind you of what a damned perception, especially that of our country, can lead to."

That made it real. I felt my mind race alongside his. The weight of this all came back after I had just begun to feel mentally settled here.

Victoria picked at the fish on her plate. "Mother, why must you rush these matters? You should know better than anyone how delicate this matter ought to be handled."

"You'd be better to watch your tongue, Victoria. I didn't take this matter lightly at all."

"It's perfectly okay, sister." Damian chimed in. "Milo and I are more than ready to show ourselves for who we really are."

I leaned into his side and affirmed the rest of the family of what I couldn't be certain of. Just like that, with a fake smile and dismissal from the Queen, the tension popped. "Well then, you men enjoy your poker game. Victoria and I are going to go sit by the fireplace and see what sorts of trouble we can get ourselves into."

"I hope you two have fun. Though Milo, I'm still curious to see how you fare at the table." Victoria said smirking off to me.

"I'm sure I'd be just fine... Damian always said I had a good poker face."

To this, Damian shot me a glance before Simone finally ended this all-too-long exchange as he motioned the way. "Well, Lord Milo, I'd be delighted to see it in action."

Past a large collection of bottles upon bottles of various wines, resided a sturdy, oak cellar door with a black, metal handle to it. Light drizzled out from every crack behind it, cigar smoke nearly brought me to cough, and the boisterous chatter invigorated me. Simone elegantly wrapped his paw upon the door handle and opened up the room to us.

"Well, I'd be damned. Have you come to test your luck again, my Highness?"

"Oh please, Will, just call me Damian when we are down here. I quite enjoy hearing my name cursed when you lose to me."

The boar took a drag from his cigar before taking his hooves off of the large, round table. The smoke was more pungent than I'd expect as the small room hardly let any of it escape. I couldn't help but lose myself to a cough.

Will giggled. "Who's your mandrake there?"

The two others sitting at the table tensed up as the fox next to him gulped. "Will, surely you heard the news."

The boar scanned the room before seeing my paw rub against the outside of Damian's. Smoke trailed from out of his mouth slowly as he let it hang open.

Damian waved his paw to them. "Nothing to worry. I should have told you guys I was a homosexual before." He pulled back a chair for me at the table to sit. "After all, this is the only place we can cut the bullshit, right?"

Simone loosened his bow tie and drew a glass for me.

"This is why I would be dead if I had to leave the kitchen. Lord knows your mother would draw silver before she drew soap for my big, fat mouth." Will chuckled. "I don't know how you put up with me, Jenny."

"You are lucky your looks save you," she teased next to him.

Looking around the circumference of the round table, I began to relax in my seat. "My love, I never knew you got along with your servants like this."

He cracked a smile. "Much less taxing than high brow talk with my family, isn't it?"

Simone poured the amber whiskey into our glasses of ice and nudged over the cigar box. Neither one of us reached for a smoke. "Very much so. Your mother is always just steps away from a madhouse."

A charcoal black wolf sneered next to Damian. "The Queen always does keep you on your toes. Keeps things interesting, to say the least." The black wolf's gaze shifted as he looked at me. "Well, are you going to introduce us?"

Damian sipped upon his whiskey. "Everyone, I wish to introduce you all to my lover, Milo. He's the coyote that has captured my heart, but I expect each and every one of you to not go pulling any punches around him. We'd best give him the warmest of welcomes here, after all."

Simone hung his black suit jacket onto a rung before brushing off the seat next to me. Carefully, he sat down avoiding creasing his clothes. The white wolf seemed to remain poised until Will snorted next to him. "Welcome to our little cigar lounge then, Milo. I'm sure with a couple of glasses you'll be my new best friend before ya know it."

I picked up my glass. "Happy to be here. I'll cheers to that."

He motioned his glass up towards the air before we both slammed them to the table. While he sipped up the whiskey with his lips, I had the cold ice pressed against my nose gulping down the rest of mine.

The black wolf leaned in towards the table. "You sure are Damian's partner, Milo."

Not only did I see Will's glass hardly touched, but I quickly realized that Damian's glass remained empty next to mine. He patted my back. "Sure seems like it," Damian said.

Simone caused the cards in his hand to produce a symphony of their own as they rushed against each other rapidly. He then dealt around the table ensuring we all had two cards before sliding piles of chips each of our ways evenly. "Ante up, boys."

"What are we betting?" I asked.

"Nothing. We play for sport." Simone said.

I threw a chip into the center as Damian poured more whiskey into my glass. Will sat up in his seat as Jenny sized me up with her cards in hand. The black wolf next to Damian lazily overshot his chip from the center of the table before Simone took it and piled all the chips together.

Knock. Knock.

He began to unfold three cards onto the table and then lit up a cigar to his lips. "I raise with two." Simone slid his paw to the center before revealing the two chips he had been grasping.

Will tosses in four. "I'll raise you."

"Call." Jennifer slid four chips herself. "Richie, best you not bet too much again."

The black wolf scoffed. "Fortune favors the brave." He tossed in six chips towards the center.

Damian put in seven towards the center. "That it does."

I raised an eyebrow and slurped up a little bit more of my whiskey, feeling a familiar burn as it went down.

I shakily grasped my paw onto the bottle and uncorked it once more.

"Please allow me," Simone said grasping on the bottle and slowly pouring it into each of our glasses.

"Thanks, Simone." I looked to Damian's rather large pile of chips beside him and grinned. "I don't even know how you play that well, my prince. You easily out drink even me."

Richie beside him lightly patted his shoulder. "This one here could bankrupt us all many times over in this game. He drinks like a horse, but he never loses that wit."

"Damn right I fucking don't." He banged the table and cackled. "I just see right through all of you. It's so easy. You all just have the worst poker faces in all of Vara."

With Jenny draped upon his side, Will snorted out a laugh. "Looks like someone has a mouth bigger than me. How about we put that mouth of yours to the test?" He got a fire in his eyes. "I'm a perverted piggy, how about we bet on blackjack? You win, I'll smooch my darling, Jenny, here. If I win, I watch you smooch Milo."

I felt my face flush. I nearly forgot about the whole act in my drunken haze.

"Poker, blackjack, chess, or whatever you want. I'm not afraid to bet. In fact, if lose, I'll give him a kiss so passionate that you and Jennifer will be jealous for weeks. Simone, deal us in."

"My sweet one, you know that kissing might be rather inappropriate." I cautioned sobering up.

"Whada mean with that nonsense, Milo? We're all friends here."

I stammered before nervously looking at the excited company all around me. Simone carefully shuffled the deck once more before dishing out two cards to the couple across from us and then two cards to Damian and I.

Will shoved the cards right back to Simone. "Jenny wants to deal. Don't cha, darling?"

The butler was taken aback next to me before slowly sliding over the deck to Jennifer.

The cheetah looked as happy as could before casting a sly grin my way. She looked to the deck as she began shuffling before handing out the cards gleefully.

"You gave us three." I chuckled sliding one of the cards back over to her.

She giggled at me. "Guess I'd had one too many scotches."

"That is not- not scotch. This is whiskey, dear." Will stammered.

Damian leaned into me and showed me the hand. Two 10's. The sigh of relief that escaped me was almost loud enough to draw attention.

He had to have been the luckiest person I have met, even in poker. I don't think I have ever seen someone draw out a flush of his caliber and have the audacity to get as far as he did playing even some of the most mediocre of hands in poker.

I leaned back in my seat and emptied the rest of my whiskey down the hatch.

Knock. Knock.

I struggled against my drunken haze to sober up. In one long, single stroke, Jennifer rolled her tongue against her maw. "Hit or stay, my Highness?"

The Prince brought down his paw to knock twice, but I quickly stopped it with mine and pretended to hold his hand. "Damian, we have to call this off," I whispered watching the cards in Will's hands.

"No way, Milo. I ain't not calling off anything."

Knock. Knock.

Damian got a smug look on his face that dropped immediately.

"Oooh, lucky us, babe. We got blackjack!" Jennifer shouted.

I gripped Damian's paw tighter as my heart knocked against my chest.

Leaning in for a whisper, I spoke, "Damian, I can't kiss you. I can't do it. I'm sorry." The noose tightened around my neck as I saw him not even seem to register what was going on.

He drunkenly grabbed onto the glass of whiskey tightly before letting it splash against his face and run down the side as he drank it. All too quickly, he removed the glass from his maw and caused the contents to spill down his clothes as he put it back down to the table.

I watched the amber liquid slip down his lips and soak ever-so-gently into the fur beneath it. My eyes widened and my fur stood up. He opened up slowly, letting his rather large tongue trace around for the whiskey left on his face before retreating back into his maw.

"What was that?" He loudly asked wiping his maw with his hand.

My hands trembled as I refocused on the situation. I knew he was a lost cause here. He hadn't even been sober enough to turn over his cards on the table when he laid them back down.

I kept having my mind play tricks on me as I saw it unfold. Every time I blinked, I began to see his lips coming to mine. My paws clenched into fists as I tried to think of any sort of way out.

"Your Highness-" Simone started.

"Call me Damian."

"I believe a bet is a bet. I'm afraid you lost."

He looked around as the others grew restless with excitement. Chatter lept from one to another as the Prince seemed genuinely confused all over. The room spun and spun around me until I felt nauseated.

I felt a pat on my shoulder before Simone had turned away appalled towards his side. Will was speaking in profanities before my eyes followed his arm reaching over next to him. Jennifer was pulled in towards Will, but couldn't help but to watch the bottle of whiskey slide down away from her. Richie's paws lifted the bottle and poured it. Damian's glass filled up more, but the Prince didn't watch it. Instead, he turned away to look at me completely dumbfounded by the situation.

"Hey Damian, twenty is still pretty lucky," Richie happily said.

Jennifer was leaning into the table. "Not lucky enough. Come on, just kiss already."

"W-what? I'm not kissing you. I got my own special somebody," the drunk Prince stammered.

I gripped onto my seat and grounded myself. My eyes stuck onto the backs of the cards from our damned hand. I gazed into the black forest painted onto them and my frown deepened.

"Your mandrake, Milo is right there," Will snorted.

"Huh? Milo isn't-"

I jumped grabbing onto his shirt and pulled him towards me. For a moment, I panicked, looking into those emerald eyes before I slid my maw towards his and felt it all slow down around me. Our lips knocked against each other, pressing shallowly, as he remained a statue. My breathing raced as I closed my eyes and felt his warm lips against mine.

It lasted but a long second before I parted. In his expression, I saw my reflection before he put his paw onto my face. Without another moment, he leaned in for another. He tasted of whiskey and saliva, but also something more. Something about this moment stirred something within me. I found myself pushing him closer to me and letting the evil act consume me. The kiss deepening and becoming more intense until...

"Whoa, okay there, uh, save some for later you two." Will nervously chuckled.

I pulled off of him and caught my breath. How many glasses of whiskey did I have?

"Your Highness, I think we might want to call it a night," Simone said.

Damian mumbled something before stumbling around as he stood up. He helped himself by grabbing onto the table, but his foot got stuck onto the chair leg and soon he fell right against me.

I saw Will and Jennifer exchange more whispers before sharing a laugh. My frown deepened as I brought the Prince's arm over my shoulder and helped him towards the door.

I held up a lantern watching him sprawl onto his bed before he settled. Though I fear he'd get sick upon them, I still put the sheets over the top of him before rubbing gently at my lips. "Goodnight, my Prince." The lantern light faded as I blew it out, but the glow of the moon kept me partially illuminated.

Damian wrestled with the bed before finally growing still on his side and appearing to doze off at once. My eyes trailed off before my paw reached into my pocket, revealing a card covered in the art of a black forest. I dazed at it solemnly. My finger traced against it until it rubbed on the back of the card, against the word written within the branches.

Ace.