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— juneaux —
∘₊ ☽ ────────────────── ☾₊∘
The world was far too bright and loud for my liking, but perhaps it was the shock of my father flinging back the curtains of my window while clanging a pair of pots together as an attempt to wake me from my slumber. I simply groaned, rolling over to press my face deeper into my pillow.
"You have to get up, Junebug," my father insisted, his voice gentle but firm. "You have a visitor."
"Tell Caius to come back later," I grumbled, muffled by the downy feathers smothering my face.
"No can do, kid," Caius replied. "We've got a long day ahead of us."
I whipped my head around, pulling my covers around me with an incredulous look. He was far too smug for my liking as he leaned against the doorframe with crossed arms. I frowned. "I could have been indecent."
Caius shook his head. "We both know you sleep with a dagger under your pillow. You'd never let yourself be caught vulnerable... Not again."
My eyes hardened as they faced the ground, refusing to look back up at Caius or toward the figure that had suddenly made an appearance in the corner of my room. That didn't stop the boy from trying to acquire my attention though.
"Caius is right, Juneaux," Harlan said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You've got to get up. You remember what today is, right?"
"The victory tour," I murmured under my breath, glancing over at the boy with a glimmer of false hope. The faint blue outline that defined his figure dashed those hopes while confirming the boy was still simply an illusion.
"Right..." Caius's eyes glanced over toward the corner of the room where my gaze had drifted. A more apparent look of concern had pulled at the wrinkles on my father's face. Caius didn't allow him to question anything though. "The camera crew should be here in just a few hours. We're behind the curve if we're believably meant to get you back into your persona."
"I thought the point of being Queen was that you could do whatever you wanted," I muttered with a scoff that rolled my eyes.
Caius signaled my father and he understood the silent request to leave the room. Only when it was just Caius and myself, his demeanor shifted and his shoulders slumped into the defeated posture I was more familiar with. He kept up a decent character of an upkept individual for the sake of my father and the public eye, but only he and I ever truly got to see behind the other's mask.
