Beach or Mountains

Chapter 5: Overriden

This Chapter's kind of a boring one, sorry :/ I'll try to keep it short!

Warnings: None

On the morning after his date with Jimmy, Scott had another meeting with his advisors. He had spent all night coming up with excuses as to why it had lasted so long, but it became evident that he wouldn't need them when he walked into the meeting hall. The council all turned when he walked in the room, all with smirks on their faces. As was customary, they all bowed their heads respectfully, though he could tell that they didn't really mean it today. He took his seat at the head of the table, signaling them to begin speaking. At first, no one stood to begin the meeting, although most were still smirking. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, one councilor stood to talk. 

"We collectively congratulate you on your... date with the Codfather. It seems our alliance is strong, as we have received several letters of correspondence from their ruling board. We can and will attribute at least some of the success to your attitude and nature last night-" Scott cut in across the advisor.

"About that. I should be honest. That wasn't entirely the point of the date, and it never was-"

"Oh, we know." One advisor said, smirking. Scott scowled at her.

"Point is, we, er- we have another date scheduled for a few days from now." He forced himself to say it quickly. There was a surprising lack of shock on the councilors' faces, and they all mostly looked resigned or impassive. The councilor who had been speaking before merely raised her eyebrows.

"We expected as much." That rubbed Scott the wrong way.

"What do you mean by that?" He said, standing, his tone more indignant than he had intended.

"Merely that you have quite the reputation as a flirt."

"This isn't about flirting, it's-" The advisor held up a hand to stop him.

"Whatever it may be about, king, it is not within the best interest of the council to think on. May I propose that we move on to the next order of business?" Scott sat down, glowering, and nodded.

———

Jimmy was prepared to deal with advisors. He was even prepared to deal with the scrutiny of the other empires. He wasn't, however, prepared to deal with his sister. Lizzie came storming in, demanding to know why, why, why he would form an alliance with Rivendell without consulting her. And when he sat her down and told her the whole story, she flipped out.

"WHY did you go on a date with Scott, of all people?" She roared, her tail thrashing. "He's the brother of Xornoth!" 

"I know you don't trust him, but I do. Besides, he was quite friendly!" Jimmy stood, slamming his hands on the table. "Besides, there's nothing either of us can do now, because even if I wanted to, I don't have a good enough reason to break off the alliance. But I don't. So don't bother trying to change my mind." Lizzie glowered at him for a moment more, then sighed. 

"I am willing to reserve judgement, only because my brother trusts him." She sent him a loaded glance. "Just, promise me that you won't let your judgement become clouded." Without further explanation, she walked out the door of his house, leaving him to ponder what that meant.