Broken Pieces|Deltarune [DISCONTINUED]

《Chapter 2》

Lancer hadn't realized how much he had been crying. Most of all, it was hard to keep it in. There were so many times that he'd gone through arguments with his dad and suppressed emotions that; to see them burst out now felt strange...and better.

Now, Lancer was sitting at the edge of his bed, calming from his tear fest. He held tightly as best he could onto the stiff uniform his lesser dad (as he'd sometimes called him) wore. As much as he knew that the Duke didn't like it when he stained that uniform, he couldn't care less. But seeing as how comforting he was being, Rouxls probably didn't care either. 

"Thank you." Lancer sniffed out, wiping the remaining wet stains along his face.

"Thou arteth welcome. Anythinge for thee." Rouxls replied, gently rubbing Lancer's shoulder. The boy sniffed again and nodded.

"I don't know what I did wrong. I was trying to be nice and...and it all just sort of went bad..." The prince said. He felt so lost. Why his dad was like this was far from answerable, let alone answered at all. He was so obsessed with that fountain.

"I...I would'st not sayeth that I disagree withe thee." The Duke agreed. Lancer felt a little better that he was on his side. "He caneth be harde sometimes."

"Yeah." The spade prince said, taking in a shaky breath and breathing out in the same manor. "But why? He's my dad. Why doesn't he care about me?" The hopeless question came out more quiet and shaky than anticipated.

"Mine Highness is a noble monarch. Howevere, he has duties. As do I, as adversary to lightners and to maketh the most complex puzzles." Rouxls answered. "Sometimes...if thou should'st bother him, he mayeth not like it."

"Oh. Oh! So you mean if I don't bother or think about him, he'll love me?" Lancer asked. Yes, this had to make sense. Don't bother him at all and he will love every morsel of you. Of course.

Rouxls made a funny expression with concern etched into its features. "N-not...not precisely." Dimming that small ray of hope, Lancer sighed quietly.

"So then...what? Do I keep getting his attention? Or...maybe I should ask him during dinner?" The boy asked.

"A plenteous curious queries." Rouxls said,  smiling. "I would be moste delighted to answer thine questions. But I am'st afraid..." He paused, looking lost. Lancer looked hopeful for an answer, half expecting that maybe this was all so simple. "H-How about what thou did'st him to maketh him mad?"

Lancer tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?" He asked, hands falling to the edges of his bed frame.  Had the subject changed?

"What thou did for thine father to...?" The duke asked calmly. Lancer realized now what he meant, scolding himself for blanking out about that at the back of his mind.

"Oh." He said, looking down at his feet at they swung off the edge of the bed. He hesitated, thinking back to how hard he had worked on that hand-crafted masterpiece. It had taken him so long, and especially hard to keep a secret. But now it had fallen from a great height, plummeted into the unknown below, and lost forever to the void. "It was um..."

Lancer felt the weight shift on his bed, and as he looked, Rouxls had shifted slightly so he was now leaning a more comfortable distance away.

"It is fine if thou do'st not wish to say." Rouxls said. And Lancer didn't want to. He didn't want to think about it and end up upsetting himself again.