The Start of Something

Without missing a beat, Fiametta spoke up as he was mentioning her accommodations for her stay and asked if she would be sharing the den. Stolas' immediate reaction was to begin reassuring her that she would have total privacy to herself—until he caught himself before the words could leave his naive mouth. Was she... inviting him to share a bed with her? Of course he had his own separate bedding den in the Klein palace, private and secluded away from the rest of his family so he could focus on his studies in peace. It would be easy for the two of them to slip off to spend their nights in his room, just the two of them... Stolas' realization dawned on him, but he couldn't be sure if his eager mind was jumping to conclusions that weren't actually there. Gods, that would be horrifically embarrassing! He'd already lost one friend by misinterpreting her wishes and desires when he'd been with Widow, the last thing he wanted to do was misread Fia's intentions and do anything to hurt her or chase her away. Gods dammit, why was it so hard understanding women?!

"Oh! No no, of course not! Uh, I mean, only if you wanted to. I mean, I'd never force you to share or do anything you don't want to do," Stolas blathered on a bit, trying to save some face in front of his maybe-more-than-friend, a shy smile on his face and ears flipped back to his head trying to mask his awkwardness behind his manners. Fuck, did he give Fia the wrong intentions that he was some sort of perverted lecher who was trying to get her alone? Had he already screwed up royally? "That is to say, we usually have our guests have their own spaces... but if you wanted, I could show you my rooms in my family's palace. There's plenty of space, we could do like a sleepover sort of thing instead." He smiled at the thought, but it was also an attempt to mask his worry over the thought of something happening to jeopardize his friendship with Fia. That, and the idea of a raging Manea and Alastor coming for his ass for defiling their princess daughter had the Klein prince more than a little concerned for his safety and wellbeing. Ashen and Elysium were allies, but he didn't know how strong those bonds would be if it came out that he was fucking their daughter. What if they had plans or intentions to wed her off to someone else in a marriage pact like Ikigai had done?

Once they had settled in with their food and began to tuck in, Fiametta began to tell him of the goings on in Elysium. Her older sister had taken over the pack from Manea and her younger siblings had become less ornery. The last bit almost made Stolas choke on his food with laughter. Swallowing down his mouthful of meat, the starry-coated brute looked back to her as he began to rifle through his memory on what had transpired since he'd last seen her. "Well, let's see... My aunt and her mate had their litter of pups, so now there's three more princes and a princess running about. My dads and mom are talking about retiring and going off on some trips together, so I suppose that means my siblings and I are all grown up now. I don't know if I should be wistfully reminiscing on my childhood yet or not." He shot Fia a cheeky grin back as he chuckled. "Otherwise, not much has really changed. I've been focusing a lot on my studies. I'm thinking of going to search some of the old ruins for more books to add to my library as well."

"Fiametta & Stolas"