You Must Fall In Love

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rob had said that he could work with this, but in reality, he didn't have much of an idea what to do. So, as he always did when faced with a contrary idea, he set it deeply in the recesses of his mind, erased all hint of trouble from his face, and pretended not to be too bothered about it.

Even though there was no-one on the stairs to pretend to.

Christine, the new Hart Princess? It didn't make any sense. He'd thought of the new Hart Princess as someone beautiful, someone elegant. Definitely not the mess of elbows and knees that called itself Christine. She wasn't even nice.

Then again, he didn't know much about the whole thing in general, so he wasn't surprised that it didn't make any sense. Yusuke and August had reasons to be here, to marry the successor. They had connections in the magic world, even if they weren't strictly mage connections.

All he wanted was to get rid of the mark on his chest. He'd never been connected to anyone.

"Is that..."

His nostrils twinged. He could smell frying bacon. Spit was pooling inside his mouth, even though he wasn't hungry.

No. He was hungry — the chimerical side was hungry. And he knew better than to deny it.

"Good morning, Robert."

It was Yusuke, spiky hair and all. He was spinning an egg. It was frothing in the bowl, being beaten to death by his fork, like it had killed his family. There was a single paper crane on the windowsill, which hadn't been there before, made out of plain printer paper. Rob wondered if Yusuke had put it there.

"Hey, Yusuke. It's eleven o'clock. Don't you usually get up earlier?"

Yusuke Morita wasn't someone to fool around with. Rob only pretended to be serious to get people out of his face, but Yusuke was the real deal. He was deadly serious about everything.

He had even wrapped himself in a bright pink apron.

"I was on patrol," said Yusuke. "There are dangerous things in this city."

The pink apron was proof enough. He'd only worn the plastic one to protect himself from puke, but Yusuke didn't even seem to think that pink was an odd color.

"Jen seems to think it's alright," said Rob.

Yusuke nodded. Rob still wasn't sure whether Yusuke actually liked him or not, or whether Yusuke liked anyone, but at least he didn't argue with people.

Demon hunters seemed to have better things to do with their time than argue.

"Will you eat, Robert?" asked Yusuke. "You seem hungry."

"Really now?" asked Rob, swallowing his spit. "Because I don't..."

His stomach cut him off with a loud growl.

"Okay, fine. I guess you got me. I think I have some bread in the fridge..."

"You may have this egg," said Yusuke. "I have just beaten it."

Rob looked at the yellow bowl, which was currently frothing at the mouth and spasming in defeat.

"Thanks, but no thanks," he said. "I'm not about to eat your stuff."

"It is no financial burden, if that is what you mean. My family is more than capable of replacing one egg."

"No, it's the principle of the thing," said Rob, as his voice dried up on instinct. "If I take your stuff, then I'll have to give you mine in return. And I don't think you want my bread."