The Three Kings

Chapter 30

"There have been so many times
I have seen a man wanting to weep
But
Instead
Beat his heart until it was unconscious"

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The Kings
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To say that Alexander was nervous was an understatement. He had yet to meet Hanna's therapist, and now he and Xavier were supposed to sit in on an appointment.

He knew Xavier was nervous,  by the way he gripped the steering wheel more tightly than normal.

Hanna sat in the back, gazing out the window. He could tell she was nervous too. Her heart was beating a little faster than normal, and she was picking at the cuticles around her fingernails.

Goddess, all three of them were going to be nervous wrecks going into this.

Alexander had hoped that he would be calm and collected; for the sake of Hanna and to help keep Xavier in check, but clearly that wasn't going to happen. If he was nervous, Xavier would get nervous, and if both of them were nervous then Hanna would be able to feel the nervous energy coming off of them and become nervous herself.

Goddess, this was already a shit-show and they hadn't even gotten to Dublin yet.

"We're going to get there pretty late in the afternoon, do you want lunch before or after the appointment?" Alexander asked, mainly to fill the silence of the car.

"Can we eat after?"

"Of course," he sent her a small smile through the rearview mirror.

And then it was quiet again, and Alexander felt like he was going to lose his fucking mind.

He turned the radio on. It was some pop-punk station, mainly just noise to him, but noise was better than nothing so he left it.

The drive continued like that for another hour, and when they finally arrived in Dublin, parked in the parking lot, Alexander let out a breath of relief and practically jumped out of the car.

Xavier came up to him, speaking low so Hanna wouldn't hear. "Would you chill out? You're stressing her out."

Alexander nodded, and tried to shake out his nervous energy.

"Are you ready?" Hanna asked, standing by the car looking very uncomfortable.

"Yeah, let's go." Came Xavier's gruff reply, and they headed into the office.

"Just sit here I guess, while I check us in." She walked over to the lady sitting at the desk. Alexander listened as she talked to the lady, while Xavier sat next to him, arms crossed over his chest, looking like a broody asshole.

"Maybe you need to be the one to chill out." Alexander snarked.

"At least I'm not acting like I'm high on fucking crack."

Alexander scoffed. "Just...look a little less like you've got a stick up your ass when we meet her therapist, alright? He probably doesn't have the best impression of us, and we don't need to make it worse with you looking...like that."