Chapter Text
It was early morning in Castle Town, despite the lack of sunlight to show for it, and Rouxls had found himself sitting at his kitchen table, unable to fall back asleep. This would happen every so often, the duke having grown accustomed to rising early from his days of servitude in the Card Kingdom, and it seemed the habit had stuck with him even after the fall of the King.
He dreaded mornings like these. It was always too quiet, presenting far too many opportunities to get lost in thought. And with no more royal duties to use as a distraction, he often fell for the bait.
However, as time steadily went on, Rouxls had found other, smaller ways to keep himself busy. It wasn’t much, but it was something to keep his thoughts at bay as he learned to make the most of these tranquil hours before the rest of the town began to stir.
He had just poured a fresh mug of coffee, idly stirring the liquid and watching the steam rise, when a shrill ringing startled him from his monotonous routine.
Briiiiing. Briiiiing.
Ah, the phone. He turned to it with a puzzled frown. Who would be calling him this early in the morning? Queen, perhaps? Maybe Lancer had gotten sick again and now the eccentric monarch was desperate for his superior childcare expertise. Or perhaps it was one of the lightners, who had finally come to recognize his irreplaceable value to their team?
It could be anyone, he mused. He was quite popular, after all.
Carefully setting the mug aside, he let a couple more rings go by before finally picking up the phone. No matter who was on the other line, they were interrupting his sweet alone time. He could be allowed a few seconds to compose himself.
“Helloe? Thou hath reachedeth the one and only Rouxls Kaard. To whom might I be speakinge?”
He waited in anticipation as the static silence buzzed on. He absentmindedly began twirling the cord around his finger, until a voice finally picked up through the speaker.
“Rouxls..? Hey, it’s Lanino. Elnina is with me too.”
“Hello!” a second voice, Elnina, chimed in.
Oh. These two? They were certainly the last people Rouxls would’ve expected to call. Not to mention, this was the first time he was hearing from them since they, er… parted ways. He could feel his curiosity growing by the second.
“Ah… I see-eth. And what doth thou two needest from I, so earlie in the morn?”
Some shuffling and hushed whispers could be heard from the other end before Lanino spoke again.
"Right- sorry it's so early. We were supposed to just leave a message, but then... you picked up. So I guess we're uh, doing this now."
Rouxls raised a brow at that, not that they could see him. "Oh? Well thou certainly haseth mine attention now. Doinge what, exactly?"
“Ah, well...” His words seemed to take on a sudden air of caution. “We have a... proposition for you."
That only made Rouxls’ curiosity burn all the brighter, and Lanino seemed to take his intrigued silence as his cue to continue.
“It’s about our relationship. With you. We’ve been, uh, thinking about it a lot.”
“Oh?”
"And. Um- I guess I’ll cut right to the chase. Dating you was… ehhm… bad.”
Ouch??
“But! We’ve been talking it over, gave it a lot of thought, and we, um. We wanted to ask if... if you would maybe want to..." He trailed off, voice becoming strained with embarrassment.
“We want to try again with you!” Elnina blurted, loud enough that Rouxls had to move the phone back a little. It fell deathly silent for a beat, before Lanino spoke up again.
“...Er- right. That. Thank you, amore."
While Elnina's sheepish laughter crackled through the speaker, Rouxls was suddenly finding it very difficult to form anymore coherent thoughts. Or any thoughts, for that matter. They had all come to an abrupt and screeching halt as he desperately tried to process what the hell was just said to him. Surely they weren’t serious. He must have misheard.
His grip on the phone tightened, for fear that he might drop it otherwise, and he could feel his face starting to prickle with newfound warmth. He took a deep breath, trying to gather his thoughts.
“What.”
Okay. Not quite there yet.
Clearing his throat this time, he tried again.
“I meanst- I’m quite flattered, but- Wait. I thought thou already formedest a new throuple. Did it not worketh oute with that ‘star’ fellow?”
More shuffling. Elnina spoke up properly this time.
“You mean our darling Starwalker? Oh no, we’re all still very happy together. Everything's just right as rain with him! Uhm- that was something else we wanted to discuss, actually. If you were to accept our offer, it would be the four of us this time.”
She paused, before quickly adding on.
“Of course, the two of you wouldn't have to date each other, but he is our partner just as much as you would be. Is that… okay with you?”
So they were serious. Okay. Rouxls offered a thoughtful hum, playing with the phone cord again while he considered it. It was true, earlier bluntness aside, that their first time around as a throuple maybe hadn’t been all he’d expected it to be. He had been under the impression that darkners dated for status or power, and was left feeling rather miffed when the weather duo didn’t seem to be on the same page. He just couldn’t grasp what other reason there was to be with someone, and that had frustrated him to no end.
But recently… Rouxls thought that, just maybe, he was starting to.
It was an odd thing, really. When the duo had left him, it had hit a lot harder than he thought it would. Of course, he played it off as always. The Great Rouxls Kaard is never wrong, after all. Never loses, never caught off guard… Except for this. And that maybe frustrated him even more.
But what may just be the most frustrating thing of all. Rouxls had realized, perplexed, that in the aftermath of their relationship, the duo had also left something behind. Something he didn’t know what to do with– a strange feeling in his chest that never stayed the same, at least not long enough for him to make any sense of it. It ranged, dull and aching, to light and fluttery, but the only consistency is that it would always return when he thought about the duo for too long.
And think about them, he did. As a matter of fact, he had spent many a morning like this one simply sitting and pondering away. Picking this feeling apart, hoping that somewhere among the wreckage he would find an answer waiting. It never did come, but maybe it didn’t need to. Maybe, with this phone call, he was beginning to feel the pieces slowly fit back together again. And maybe, little by little, he was beginning to understand.
…And then there was Starwalker.
He couldn’t quite place how he felt about the darkner, but whatever it was didn’t feel particularly fond. He didn’t exactly hate the guy, barely even knew him, but every time they crossed paths in the forests he used to patrol, the little star's face was always scrunched up into that typical, unreadable scowl that Rouxls couldn’t help but find off-putting.
Of course, he also swiped up both of Rouxls’ exes in record time- only mere seconds after they had broken up. That had been a blow to his pride for sure. Though, he supposed it didn’t really matter now, what with the exes in question actively making a move on him again. But he was still allowed to be bitter about it!
…But at the end of the day, if that perpetually aggravated star really was as great as these two made him out to be, then Rouxls didn’t think it would be all that bad if he were to hypothetically share. Four was stronger than one, after all.
That was, if he even takes up their offer. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to- he was actually kind of thrilled at the notion- but this was all very sudden! Although, he supposed the first time they all got together was pretty sudden too, but that was before he realized relationships required more convoluted things like feelings. And feelings were confusing… like a puzzle he had gotten stuck on.
Which, of course, was a completely ridiculous and foreign concept to Rouxls. He didn’t earn the title ‘Duke of Puzzles’ for nothing. Even if he no longer had a kingdom to serve, he was supposed to be a master at puzzles! So the idea that one could leave him feeling so lost irked him. He didn’t have the answer key, or even any instructions to begin with- he didn’t know what to do. With no rules to go off of, he was almost afraid to take the second chance. Afraid he would mess up again, now that the true stakes were laid bare before him.
“Uh, Rouxls?”
Elnina’s now anxious voice piped up again, breaking Rouxls out of his spiral. He was taking too long to respond.
“Ah, sorrye! Er- Starwalker.. right. I… don’st haveth a very stronge opinion of him any which wayst, so I doth not believest I wouldst mind.”
“That's good to hear! We’ll make sure you two get a chance to properly meet each other then, and- oh wait! So does that mean you accept?”
Rouxls frowned. Did he? Should he? The ache in his chest had started to fizzle into something a little lighter as their conversation went on, and surely that had to count for something. He decided to press on with caution.
“Hm, perhapse? I’m not utterly opposed, but I thought thoust two didn’st enjoyeth dating me. What changedeth?”
“Oh, yes… I’m afraid it was, as my darling moon put it, a little bit, er… awful.”
Rouxls ever so graciously chose to ignore Lanino’s stifled laugh that briefly made it through the speaker.
“But ever since we’ve been apart, we just… we couldn’t stop thinking about you! And the more we talked about it, we realized…maybe you weren't all that bad. I mean, the card system was bad. Our communication was bad. But.. on the other hand, it was also kind of.. fun? And you were so caring and devoted, if only a little misguided.. It was all just.. well.. um…”
Lanino took over for her. “I believe what my dewdrop is trying to say is that, despite the oddities, I guess you just really left an impression on us.”
Rouxls' gaze softened at that, though he caught a brief hesitation, and a small smile tugged at his lips as he pictured the dual wide-eyed stares the duo were probably exchanging right then. Finally, Elnina spoke, voice laced with defeat.
“...And also you’re like. Really hot.”
“Oh.”
An awkward silence settled between them while Rouxls’ face positively burned, and he mentally cursed the duo for making him feel.
“...So, what do you say?” Lanino pressed, dispelling some of the tension. “To our offer, I mean. Wanna give ‘us’ another go?”
“Hm… I sayeth, mine intereste ist piqued.”
“Well, that’s a start.” He chuckled. Elnina joined him, before continuing.
“Okay, if we're going to make this work, we are not repeating our mistakes from last time! We need to have a much longer discussion on our expectations.” She paused to think. “A new nice cream joint just opened up by the café and we were thinking it would be fun to check it out. If you’re really interested, meet us there tomorrow at one o’ clock sharp to talk things out more. Think of it like... a first date.”
Rouxls took a second to mull it over, though by now he had already made up his mind.
“Alrighte. I shalt be there.”
“O-okay, great!”
A beat of silence.
“I think that’s everything then.. Um! I guess we’ll see you later!”
“I… supposeth so!”
The two then prattled off some quick goodbyes, and then the phone clicked, leaving Rouxls alone with his thoughts once more.
…
What. The Fuck. Just Happened.
Instead of trying to answer that, Rouxls now clumsily grabbed for his abandoned coffee mug and took a long swig, wincing. It had gone cold.
It’s too early for this. He was going back to bed.