Chapter Text
“Just buy her a gift and ask her out for dinner or something.”
Stelle heard one of her new friends words without really processing them. She had met Phainon just a couple of months ago, when the Nameless crash-landed in Amphoreus. Although there was some friction in the very beginning, now she felt she could be almost as close to him as she was to March and Dan Heng. They weren’t quite there yet, but she knew they would eventually if given enough time and nothing changed that could ruin their relationship. She was slowly breaking into his hard shell and getting to know the real him underneath the image he liked to project to others. And while she hadn’t done that on purpose, he was the one who latched onto her first, she was quite happy with how things were going.
That afternoon he had texted her, inviting her for a quick spar. She promptly acquiesced, but when she got there she saw him deep in conversation with Mydeimos. These kind of serious conversations between them seemed more frequent since Mydei passed the trial of Strife, so she just stayed a bit far, not wanting to interrupt nor be accused of being nosey. But they weren’t being exactly quiet about it, so she overheard some of the exchange.
‘Buy her a gift?’ Stelle thought when the meaning of the words finally caught up on her brain.
“Hey, Partner, come!” Phainon spotted her and beckoned her to come closer with a cute smile on his face.
“Cute smile, huh?’ Stelle could almost hear March speaking in her head, her tone accusatory. She shushed her imagination away and approached her friends.
“Hello there,” she said, waving. She looked from one man to the other and while Phainon looked the same as always, all smiles and mysteries, Mydei looked… shy? Now, that caught her off-guard. She had never seen him look any way other than self-assured. That look was even worse on his face now that he was a demigod. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”
“You’re not, Trailblazer. Interrupting, I mean.” The blond responded. “Phainon is just giving me some uncalled for advice.”
“Hey, I’m just trying to help and you treat me like this?” Phainon dramatically placed his hand over his chest.
“I heard something about a ‘date’...” Stelle said tentatively.
Mydei shot a glare at Phainon. “You speak very loudly, Deliverer.”
“Sorry, sorry, I won’t pry anymore.” The girl said with an abashed grin.
“Come on, Mydei, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Besides, Stelle can help.” Phainon said to the other man. “Right?” He added at the end, looking at her.
“Well, it depends on what we’re talking about.”
Mydei sighed. He looked from Phainon to Stelle then lowered his head in defeat.
“Fine. Stelle.” He shot at her, almost like a command. She felt the urge to salute. “If you were to receive a gift from someone aspiring to court you, what would be the best choice?”
“Wha…?” She looked from one man to the other and back.
Phainon shook his head.
“Mydei… Asking like that, she might think you’re actually talking about her.”
‘Okay. Things got dangerously weird for a moment there.’ Stelle thought.
‘Imagine you were starting to feel all warm and fuzzy about one of them and the other just declared himself to you.’ March’s derisive voice echoed in her brain again. She shook her head slightly to shut it up.
“So, it really depends on the person being wooed, I guess…” Stelle started saying, but realized this might sound like she just wanted to know who it was. She did, but she also wanted to be helpful. “I mean, you can always go with something more generic, like chocolates and flowers, but being more specific gets more points. I think.”
“So, if it were you, should I give you… trash?” Phainon asked her with a playful smile.
“I see you probably have been listening to Dan Heng’s lies. I don’t like literal trash, it’s just sometimes people throw away perfectly good things, so I check cans every now and then to see if there’s anything to collect in them.” Stelle was so focused on explaining herself that the idea of Phainon getting a gift to court her was lost on her.
“Phainon, here, for example, would probably like anything as long as it was purple and yellow.” Stelle shot a challenging look at Phainon. He creased his brows at her in fake annoyance.
“Well, I see I now have two unhelpful helpers instead of just one.” Mydei said.
“I’m sure there’s a word for ‘ungrateful’ in the Kremnoan language, right?” The men exchanged exasperated looks.
“Okay, let’s focus.” Stelle said, clapping her hands. This was new and kind of exciting. “My friend March 7th would be 100% better at this than me, but she’s not here, and if she was I wouldn’t admit this to her face, but… I think what I said is actually a good place to start. Like, does she like sports? Games? Food? Think of what this woman likes and buy her something related to it.” Stelle said matter of factly. “It is a woman, right? Phainon said ‘her’, I don’t want to presume…” Stelle started babbling and couldn’t stop. “But now, thinking about it, I did not expect to be giving you, Mydei, this kind of advice. You surely have… well, been with, well… people.” Stelle started to regret her words with each new one that left her mouth. She was on friendly terms with the Kremnoan, but she might have crossed some lines since they were not that close. Besides, he was royalty and now also a demigod.
“Of course I’ve… been with people before.” He started without sounding annoyed or offended. Stelle exhaled. “But I’ve never…” He trailed off, unsure of how to put it. “I guess I never thought it would come to this, to actually liking someone and going all the way with it. It’s always been something fleeting. I just got my… well, pleasure, when I met someone also interested, and that was it.” He now seemed a bit uncomfortable.
“Oh my, the crown prince of Castrum Kremnos slept around, how utterly shocking!”
“Shut up, HKS.”
Stelle wanted to crawl into a hole, but she only had herself to blame. She was the one that brought Mydei’s sexual life into the conversation. But she was grateful that Phainon couldn’t contain himself and had to tease Mydei whenever there was a chance.
“Well, I guess I’ll think about what Castorice likes…” Mydei started to break the awkward silence and immediately realized he had said too much.
Stelle’s eyes were wide and her mouth was slightly open. She was shocked at first, but inspecting the matter closely, if anyone had a chance with Castorice, that would be Mydei.
“You don’t say a word about this to her, alright?” Mydei looked fiercely at Stelle, his words burning with intensity. If she didn’t know him she might have been very afraid right now. As she knew him, she was just mildly afraid he might bring out some new Kremnoan profanity to call her.
“Tell who about what? I don’t know nothing.” She said, putting on her most clueless face. Phainon put his hand on his mouth to stifle his laughter. When that wasn’t enough, he faked a coughing fit.
“Alright, I invited you to a spar, let’s begin then. You wanna join us, Mydei?”
“No, I’m going to walk around Marmoreal Market and see if I spot anything related to crafts and stories that might be a good gift.”
He knew her interests, that was a very good start indeed.