Halo: Heroes Awakening

14. Bad Brother

Halo

When Halo returned to the palace with Finn, he tried to maintain his anger. It was his weakest emotion. It was always fleeting. He couldn't stay angry at the people he loved, but boy could they stay mad at him.

It was always funny how they would say the cruelest things to him and he'd forgive them the next day, just because they had done the bare minimum to be nice to him.

Maybe it was his mother's genes. People had always said she was so kind she let the King walk over her. Halo didn't even need to meet her to know this, being a premium doormat himself.

"I don't love you anymore. I have someone else."

Halo's head was wracked from the words, his chest burning with an inconsolable ache. He just didn't want to imagine it. He loved one girl his whole life. He had met many beautiful women as a Prince and sailor... but Leilani was his heart. To know that she'd given hers to someone else drove him up the walls.

Halo was ready to hand his head over to the King.

"You know she's probably lying," Finn told him on the way back when Halo had not uttered a single word for twenty minutes. "It's so obvious she still loves you, mate. She was just saying things she knew would hurt you because she was angry at getting abandoned. She'll come around, just give her time."

Halo hadn't answered. The words were poison to him whether they were true or not. She was his best friend, not just his lover. She had grown up with him. She couldn't just forget him like he was nothing.

She can't. She wouldn't.

I'm going to fight for her.

Halo made his way into the King's office, finding him leaned over his desk, signing documents. Halo's tongue was on the verge of slipping out a curse, but all that came was a polite request.

"Good evening, your majesty. Are you busy? May I have a word with you, please?"

"I'm signing legislation, obviously I'm busy," Vaea said, looking up boredly. When he saw Halo's slightly untidy state, the King leaned back into his chair and smiled.

"It looks like you had a fun day at the beach," he said with a tone that left Halo questioning its sincerity. "Did you enjoy it?"

Halo wanted to stall but it ended up slipping out. "Why did you exile the Hira family and throw them out of their home?" He blurted. The King tossed his pen lazily to the side, a smirk daring to stretch on his face.

"Ah. It looks like the gossip has finally reached you. What exactly have you heard? And from whom?"

"Please, just answer me," Halo pressed, his jaw clenching.

When Vaea refused to answer, Halo exploded like a dynamite of frustration.

"How could you, Vaea?" He paced around the room, trying not to raise his voice. "They were our best friends for years. That was our family outside of family! And you exiled them? We don't even exile our war criminals! What has gotten into you?"

Vaea laughed bitterly, looking up to him with terrifyingly calm eyes. "I can tell whoever told you this garbage didn't care to tell you the full details."

"Then tell me please! Make sense of this!" Halo begged, on the edge as he tugged at his hair.

"I didn't exile the Hira family. They left."

Halo paused in his tracks, his mind even more scrambled. Misty wouldn't lie about something like that. So that meant Vaea was the dishonest one.

"Why would they leave, Vaea?" Halo questioned, shaking his head. "Why would they leave their family home. The home they've stayed in for generations. Why would they leave the country their patriarch died for?"