45.

Elai hasn’t slept the past couple of days. Not really. His body has been itchy and his mind hazy. Arlon hasn’t been visiting him, neither has he been visiting Arlon. It is even worse than that; Elai hasn’t seen the king these last few days. At all. He’s seen Connie, Cesilia, Chay and even Ravi inside of the castle’s walls.. but not him. Not the one he wants to see. At first it didn’t bother nor worry Elai; he’s a king. He has duties. And if that’s not the reason, it surely must be because he just came back from the war. He has been fighting for months, surely the king is tired, surely he needs his rest. But would that truly keep him locked inside of his room for four days?
Elai wouldn’t know. He has yet to get to know Arlon well enough to understand how he works and what kind of person he is. The only positive thing Elai can think of is that it is D-Day. It is the first day of the Festival. Arlon’s birthday will be on the third day of this week, whereafter his new age will be celebrated for another four days. He wishes so badly that he could have a birthday like this, but Elai’s birthday is yet to come around again.
“Elai! There you are! We’ve been looking for you!” Elai never thought he’d hear those words come out of Connie’s mouth. All he usually does is avoid the blonde boy.
But when Elai looks down, it becomes clear where it is coming from; Connie is already carrying around a bottle of alcohol. One that is nowhere near full.
“The festival has already started, you know!” Cesilia stands beside her brother and is the first to wrap her arm into Elai’s, followed by Connie. Her smile is as pretty as ever.
The siblings are both wearing beautiful, Turian colored make up. It matches with their outfit, and Elai feels kind of happy that he gets to see them in their festival clothing. Cesilia, for once in her life, actually looks fancy. Connie is.. well, at least wearing something. It exposes his entire upper body, something anyone could’ve expected from him. From what Elai has seen, he loves to show off. Not that he shouldn’t; his body is fantastic.
“Drooling again?” Connie’s question snaps the blonde boy out of his observative thoughts and he can feel his cheeks heating up. Stupid.
“More wondering who you had to persuade to make you that outfit.”
“I made it myself.” Connie smacks his palm against the back of Elai’s head with his lips puckered. It makes Elai giggle. He’s impressed that Connie can make clothing, too. And they actually look good.
“Ah! So you’re a multi-talented beefcake! Great!” Elai refuses to show that he is impressed, though.
Connie raises his eyebrows as they walk towards the main gates. “Beefcake? Really?”
“Yes. Because of all the muscles.” Cesilia answers for the younger boy and receives a nasty look from her brother.
“You are one to talk.” Connie rolls his eyes as they rush down the set of steps.
It is then that Elai’s jaw drops. He has worked on it himself yet it still amazes him. The city is decorated everywhere you look, even people downhill have done their best to celebrate the new age of the king. The lights make you forget that the god of the night has already painted the skies black. The moon shines her most beautiful night at light, Elai thinks. She looks alive when everything around her is dark. She looks present.
Unbelievable, the boy thinks. He’s praising the god of Turi.
“Lia! Elai! Over here!” Elai can hear the alchemist call for them, but his eyes are too busy taking everything in. There is a big fire right in the middle of the town square. There is usually a big fountain, one that Chay had used his magic on. Elai frowns, even though he understands that Chay was the one who made it disappear. He doesn’t understand much of his magic. At least not like he understands Chay’s potions.
“He literally didn’t even say my name..” Connie is pouting as they walk over to Chay, and Elai can’t help but chuckle when he looks up at Connie. He hopes the warrior will once get enough courage to tell Chay he likes him. That would make even Elai happy.
“Got the best places. Trust me.” Chay grabs the blonde boy’s hand as he stands beside him. It makes Elai frown just a little bit. He decides to let it be, though. He shouldn’t be thinking so much on an exciting day. A day where he will finally get to see Arlon’s face again, no matter what. No matter if his suspicion about Arlon avoiding him is true. He’s afraid that the king might think the explosion between them was a mistake, that he was simply overwhelmed by his own emotions. But his veins didn’t turn yellow last night. He didn’t lose it when he kissed Elai. Which would mean he was.. present.
The music is loud and the people dancing around the fire are making Elai smile a teeth-wide smile. He wishes he could join them, but he feels too much of an outsider to try and fit in, even if they don’t know that he is carrying Amias blood, that he is their enemy and that they should be scared. Technically. If he hadn’t fallen for their fucking king.
“Where is the king anyway?” Elai asks his first Turian friend, hands clapping and eyes watching the people dance around the celebrational fire. The flames make him wonder if Lyle praises their fire as much as Turi does. He had never in a million years expected them to love a king bearing the biggest curse of them all. Elai was hated for it by everyone he was supposed to love, and so he envies the sight of the people dancing around what they’re supposed to despise. He wants this. He wants to feel the way Arlon gets to feel when he sees this. When he is praised this way.
“Somewhere.” Chay snarls, nowhere near interested to talk about his king. The alchemist would much rather join the dancing, preferably with his hand holding onto Elai’s own. But the blonde was too invested in the thoughts of the king and how his kingdom loves everything about him.
The music ends abruptly after a few minutes, the group of musicians quickly picking up a new song. People cheer, the sound all too familiar to Turi.
“This is the song of the moon..” Chay starts, his tongue licking the alcohol off of his lips.
“No singing, just pure instruments..” The alchemist leans in closer and Elai has to back his head away to be able to breathe properly. He must be drunk already.
“What is it about?” Elai asks just mere seconds before his eyes settle down on someone all too familiar. He takes Elai’s breath away in an instant, and he forgets about the fact that they have not seen each other for four days.
Arlon is wearing a combination of blue, purple and yellow; the traditional colors of both the moon and Turi. He matches with a lot of people in the crowd yet stands out like no other.
Even his face is decorated, and Elai wishes to touch it.
Arlon doesn’t hesitate to search for Elai’s face in the crowd, even if people will think he looks uninterested. He just wants to see the boy again. His eyes eventually lock with Elai’s, who gulps the moment their eyes meet. It is as if everyone around them disappears for a few seconds and they stare at each other with no words to say. It feels like a connection, like a cord holding them together. They can both feel it.
“Come.” Chay sticks his hand out, but Elai has got no attention for whatever the alchemist is asking of him. He watches Arlon look away, hands now grabbing onto the first lady that gets close to him. Elai didn’t expect to see the king dance, neither did he expect Arlon to actually have actual good moves. But the young king is quite the dancer, a teeth-wide smile on his face as he dances around and switches partners when the traditional dance asks him to.
The yellow sparks under his eyes look like the stars, as if the eyes are the moon. For a moment, for just a moment, Elai understands why people believe he carries the soul of the moon. The boy would understand why she’d choose him as a vessel. He is breathtaking. Absolutely out of this world. He is-
“Elai.” He finally snaps out of it, hand sliding into Chay’s hand once again.
“I don’t know this dance- I don’t think this is-“
“Just follow my lead1” Chay has a grin on his face as he pulls Elai closer to the fire. The music builds up, and the louder it gets, the faster the people dance. Chay holds onto both of Elai’s hands as tight as he can. He wants to take this moment to be alone with Elai, with nothing but the music accompanying them. This is what he has been wanting to do for so long now, outside of the small dance practices they had shared. He has waited for this excitement for so long.
“Focus on my feet. It’s easy. The dance has just a few steps.’ Chay doesn’t slow down for Elai whatsoever, trusting that he will pick it up eventually. Elai’s feet join him more and more, faster and faster, until soon enough, it has become simple to dance along with the alchemist.
“Spin.” Chay lets go of one of the boy’s hands, Elai quickly turning and falling back into the alchemist’s arms. The boy is too focused on his own dance to notice the way the king watches him. Arlon’s smile disappears the longer he watches Chay and Elai dance together, not even bothering to switch partners. They miss the first queue, and the second, and the third and even the fucking fourth. They seem to be caught up into each other, as if the kiss that happened last night doesn’t exist in Elai’s eyes. Fuck. It hurts in his chest. Arlon grabs the hands of another for the fifth time, a familiar face looking at him.
“You look pale!” Connie has a big smirk on his face as the two dance together.
“They’re not doing it right.” Arlon snarls, something about Chay’s hands catching his eyes. They look so delicate. Too delicate. He wants to rip them away from Elai. He doesn’t know why. Or well, he wants to deny the reason why.
“Oh come on! Chay is simply teaching him-“
“They’re ruining it.” Arlon swings around and let’s go right on time, hands eagerly reaching out for Elai. the blonde boy spins around with a big smile, unaware of Chay’s sudden absent. He feels the rough grip around his hands, and when he looks up, Chay isn’t looking back down at him.
“King Arlon..” The formality is back once more. Elai doesn’t know if he’s allowed to smile or be happy to see him. He wants to know how Arlon feels first. The quick dance is tiring the both of them, but there is no stopping. Arlon wants to dance with him no matter what.
“Focus on my eyes.” Arlon immediately feels better once they dance in perfect sync, a thin smile appearing back on his face.
“Where were you?” Elai doesn’t hesitate to throw the question.
Arlon doesn’t have time to answer, though. He wants to have fun right now. This is the first dance of the festival, after all.
“So the king can dance!” Elai can see it on Arlon’s face that he’s not going to answer his question, but he won’t let it go. He’ll just ask later tonight.
It feels intense being this close to him again, and it is difficult not to think back about the night before. He still remembers what he tasted like.