The Three Kings (bxbxb)

The Three Kings || 0010

"Now don't be so tense darling." the king of the demons chuckled while pouring tea to the cup Cassius was holding, his eyes were amused, confident and of course, dwelt with mockery. Cassius just shook his head and gave an uncomfortable smile, his fingers quivering once the heat radiating off the cup reached his skin.

Really, Cassius wouldn't have cared to be polite if it wasn't for the many demons in the table, who were staring at the two Kings while cooing, probably thinking that the two of them were a thing- Cassius fought the sudden urge to vomit at the thought, if this was few days before he would've been glad to be just that, but recalling how Athan had given himself for someone else when HE was the one who was the demon's actual date, did obvious mental damage to Cassius.

But in other thought, Athan had never said they were boyfriends or something- well, certainly not before the ball or the weird things that happened with the archangel. Everything had become very complicated in Cassius's opinion, and though he had hoped someone like Richard would help him out at a time like this, looking at the said man through his lashes slapped him out of all of that 'hope'.

Cause that Richard was too busy flirting with a demon girl.

'Dumb bitch.' Cassius wanted to slap his cousin, beg him to just once look at him, so that he could pinpoint how pained and uncomfortable Cassius was at the moment. Yet no, the i***t is always looking for a nice f**k.

But then again, Cassius isn't any better either. He was the one who had fallen head over heels for a person for no reason at all, possibly because he's hot. Yeah, Cassius at one point did find Athan hot, but not now.

Or at least that's what he told himself.

"Gwendal over here has been dying to talk to you Cassius, I suppose I've said too much about you and he's now all curious and stuff." Cassius's eyes shifted towards the demon Athan was pointing at, who gave him a smile in return. It was hard for Cassius to return that smile, very hard, cause that certain familiar looking demon was actually the one who had slept around with Athan at the 'day of the ball'.

In other words, yesterday.

Cassius couldn't believe that the day everything reached its ruin was just yesterday. It was hard to take in. Only few days before he would've died to be with Athan but now, all of it just disgusted him.

But there was a plus though cause he had found someone intriguing on the same day. A certain boy with silky blonde hair, a residing glare and blue eyes to be precise, the definition of mystery. Anything but a shallow one. Thinking back to him made Cassius curious, of how he was so confident in what he did -like trying to jump down a tall building while not caring he might have to embrace death, although any person with a brain could realise that they would definitely end up dead because of a height like that- but still Cassius had to admit, the angel had something dull in the sparky interior.

"It's nice to meet you." Cassius replied at last, ignoring how his stomach churned with something like jealousy at the way that man smiled, only getting reminded of how he scored a night with Athan. The demon in question muttered a small, "Yes me too." as he took a seat in front of the vampire king.

Athan on the other hand sat next to Cassius, grinning. Cassius watched while taking small sips from his tea as Athan and Gwendal (or whatever that guy's name is) looked at each other for too long before breaking eye contact for good.

"I'm really a big fan of yours, well how can anyone not be? The way you tamed the archangel is amazing, with your strength and charisma, our whole demon clan is whipped for you at this rate." Gwendal said and leaned in his seat, giggling, Cassius didn't say anything and only drank the tea, his mind bombarded with many questions.

Like...

Why did the archangel tell him not to drink the alcohol that day? It didn't make sense, considering there was nothing in that alcohol. Maybe there was, Cassius wasn't sure. But if there was truly something that's poisonous, then why aren't the people who drank it yesterday giving any sort of reaction?

But before that, Cassius had to squint his eyes while wondering. Why did the archangel tell him that anyway? Isn't Cassius someone in a rival clan of him? Why did that guy even try to save him from the poison?

Again, there was no poison, not any to be alarmed of anyway. So Cassius was obviously confused, did he perhaps miss something?

What the hell did he miss?

"Hey little vampy," Athan murmured near his ear, too close to the other which made the rest of the people in the hall look away as if to be polite. Cassius stilled at the contact and looked at Athan questioningly, and the sovereign in question smiled up at him mischievously.

"Wanna do something fun? You know, to cut the tension." the older king asked and tilted his head, Cassius wanted to say no, and that was exactly what he was trying to do yet Athan was quick to add something again.

"And maybe we can talk about the things you want to ask me." he sang, confining the younger man's hand with his own. That somehow iriked Cassius, made him interested, and he nodded once he had kept a mental note to ask Athan something that had been on his mind mind for a long time.

So maybe, this might be his biggest chance to get answers.

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Cassius had never wanted to lie to Richard, but at the given circumstances he didn't have a choice either. Not only Richard, he had to mislead the other knights too saying he was going to the washroom and certainly not somewhere with the demon king, YET some idiotic Knight decided to follow him there too.

No worries though, Athan being the cool person he is, offered that knight a hot girl for company, and that man was quick to forget all about the vampire king and drown in the screams of bliss.

"He seems to be enjoying himself." Athan laughed under his palm as the loud moans from that knight greeted their ears through the door of the room. Cassius couldn't remain a straight face at that either, so he ended up cackling up as the man moaned louder and louder.

"Pretty sure he was a virgin." Cassius smiled when another grunt greeted his ear, "But not anymore."

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"Where are we going exactly?" Cassius questioned with his hands tangled behind his back. Athan didn't answer for a while and continued skipping his way through the garden, making the other roll his eyes and look at the series of arches and domes, finding the demon Palace somewhat beautiful now that he paid attention to it.

No matter how twisted demons are, Cassius had to admit, the architectures here had some nice ideas to build up a castle like this.

"Told you, we're going to have fun." Athan responded after a long pause and Cassius stayed quiet this time, curiosity getting the best of him as he followed Athan eagerly. The demon king in question continued his journey to whatever place  Cassius wasn't aware of, so of course the younger was a little tense but not too much.

But Athan suddenly stopped and crouched down a pruned Bush, his hands twofolded it in half and what he did next wasn't visible to Cassius, since his back was facing the younger making it hard for him to understand what's going on. But after some time of unending twisting sounds of a key, Athan leaned away and Cassius felt his body jolt in alarm.

"Wha- what the hell!?" he jumped in surprise at the sight of the opening of some tunnel, and he looked at Athan in disbelief as the latter shrugged.

"This place is full of surprises as you may have already known." the demon commented and slid into the dark core casually, Cassius's eyes widened when Athan dissappeared completely out of sight. He freaked out, but calmed down when he heard the voice of the other from down the Bush.

"Come on! There's nothing to be scared of here!" he assured but Cassius being the scaredy cat he is, couldn't get himself to agree easily.

"But you can't even see anything!"

Athan went silent for a second.

"Fair point." the demon said sheepishly. Although Cassius had done nothing but opposing till now he groaned and closed his eyes, finding the courage to grow a backbone as he slowly squat to the opening. He took a deep breath and let go, sliding down the slippery hole until he was stationary due to the loss of speed, he grimnanced and got up, dusting his pants with a scowl.

He looked up when he felt someone holding a hand out for him to take. He pursed his lips when he saw the silhouette of Athan within the dark, who had a cheeky smile on his pale face.

"See, that wasn't very hard now was it?" he mused earning a grumble from Cassius, but the younger still took his hand and let him pull him up to his feet. The demon king didn’t let go of the hand though, and he smiled while dragging the other through the long tunnel.

Cassius could even hear the sound of steps coming from the upper floor to the underground way, he was sure that his hearing is more alarmed and better than many others including Athan. So he wasn't surprised when he heard a familiar voice yelling accompanied by the ringing sounds of metals clanking.

"Uhmm... Elenze, what are you doing?" Cassius heard the man whom he remembered as the one who was with Elenze.. That white haired one. The vampire king supposed that the sound was coming from the dungeon in the upper floor.

"I am getting the hell out of here!" Elenze's voice screamed out loud, as if telling the whole population that he's going to break out from prison.

Smart move Elenze, smart move.

Cassius let those voices and metal clanking blend into the background and only focused on the hand he had interlocked with Athan's one, he saw nothing in the dark place yet he was sure Athan might have an idea. So he trusted the other, at least for now.

And at some point, he sighed in relief as Athan let go of his hand to reach the opening at the other side. The demon king did something with the lock and lifted the lid at last, and Cassius smiled wide when the bright light was showcasted on his face, happy that they've finally reached the end of the tunnel.

There was a ladder which kinda looked like it was about to be broken, but Athan didn't care of that and climbed up like it was the easiest thing to do. Cassius gulped but followed him anyway, to get out somehow. His legs shook as he held onto the ladder tightly, his steps were as slow as a sloth. But he managed and appeared out of the tunnel and under the bright light, right after the demon king who pushed his hair back after standing up.

Cassius did too, crawling to the top and struggling to stand up but Athan was quick to give help like the 'gentleman' he is, yeah right, Cassius wanted to scoff at the thought. So he stoop up after endless struggles, shrugged Athan's hand off and looked at him weirdly.

"Now what?" he asked and Athan only grinned and didn't say anything. Cassius sighted, realising this was a waste of time, classic of Athan to lead him on, making him think that they were hunting down a place that's amazing. And yet-

Oh.

"Wow." Cassius stared breathless after finally seeing the place they were in at the moment. Of f*****g course Athan was going to take him to a forest full of pine trees, but it was beautiful. Like seriously, Cassius didn't know how to fathom the words to describe it.

The creepers ran around the tall trees, the ground was muddy yet the crickets masked the sound of them splashing as Athan walked towards somewhere wordlessly. Cassius didn't know how he could be so out of breath for a sight as simple as this but he really liked it for some unknown reason.

And he didn't want to look away.

"It's so pretty!" he squealed and ran around, his feet took him around the trees and he almost fell on the mud. His face hit a tree trunk but he didn't give two shits about that, he could hear Athan laughing and he cringed when some mud splashed over his face.

He even fell down, giggling.

"Yooo come on! Don't get too tired before we get to the grand surprise!" Athan yelled, even though Cassius couldn't see him he definitely knew that the other was grinning.

"Wait a second!" he yelled and composed himself, he held a nearby tree and stood up, still laughing hard like a weirdo. And he came face to face with the giant oak tree, he found it pretty to be honest, so he smiled.

But that was only until his lips curved down, seeing what was scraped over the tree trunk.

A + E

And he wondered what it meant.

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