A Reunion of Lips

XXIII

"Is the king—I mean, Scott still pissed?"

Mitch shrugged. "He's fine. More... grumpy that he knows we were right and doesn't want to admit it."

It's not Mitch's fault that everyone agreed with him. It's just that he was right. Scott absolutely should not be allowed to go along with the stealth force planning to arrest his parents, no matter how much he wants to give them a piece of his mind.

"You sure about that? He seemed pretty determined to worm his way into that group, and not very happy about you sitting on him."

It may not have been the best technique to keep Scott from sneaking out the door, but it had worked. Besides, he wasn't the only one who had sat on him. Kirstie had joined him, and Avi had nearly had to, too.

"He's not really mad. Just a bit salty, I promise. The grand total of couple-y fights is still at zero. Well, one if you count the ongoing pineapple pizza debate."

Both halves of the stealth force, led by Kevin, had departed this morning to quickly make their way to Alluvia for the confrontation in two days, so there wasn't much Scott could do about it now anyways.

Cleo looked like she was trying really hard not to say something. Mitch let her struggle for a few long seconds before waving his hand to prompt her to speak.

"So you are actually a couple? Like, actually engaged to the king? But I thought he was engaged to Kirstie—didn't he propose like two years ago? Or was that faked or something? Or are all three of you together? Am I even allowed to ask that? Sorry—I've kinda been dying to know."

Mitch laughed and wiggled the new diamond ring on his left hand. "No, it's just Scott and me. I almost forgot about the whole Kirstie and Scott thing. The media misinterpreted those pictures and made a big deal about them being secretly engaged, but no, they were never together. Scott and I have been keeping it quiet for security purposes. He was all for trying to make my birthday a national holiday—that's not a joke, Esther found the draft of the declaration he'd have to give—but Kevin talked some sense into him. Once Kevin pointed out that I wouldn't need security on me to go work at Lambert Studios if the media didn't know about me, Scott was all for keeping me to himself indefinitely. He claims now that if he tried to share me with the country, too many people would 'fall in love immediately' and I would forget about him. He's so ridiculous, sometimes."

Cleo smirked. "Yeah, I'd say he doesn't have to worry about that considering how you two look at each other."

"What do you mean?" Mitch looks at Scott like a normal person, right?

Cleo raised an eyebrow. "If Kirstie isn't teasing you about the heart-eyes already, then I'm not gonna start it."

"What heart-eyes—"

"So what happened to the old ring?"

Mitch narrowed his eyes at her. She looked way too pleased with herself for changing the topic. "Scott said he had 'plans' for it. No clue what that means, but he sounded pretty excited about his idea—whatever it was. It was never meant to be the actual engagement ring."

Cleo sighed and shook her head. "And I thought I lived an interesting, secretive life. What does that even mean?"

Mitch laughed. "When we were in Myrosias—we were on our way home when I got kidnapped on the train—there was a perimeter breach during the conference and Scott proposed so that I would be allowed to stay in the bunker with the fancy officials and him, instead of having to go to the staff bunker across the alcázar."

"So he literally just proposed out of nowhere?"

"Yep. He said he'd been planning to already, but apparently he tossed his—ahem, Kirstie and his plans out the window."

"Woah." Cleo looked a little stunned. "You two are relationship goals."

Mitch shrugged. "I mean, I wouldn't recommend people start relationships after one person's parents try to assassinate the other person in an attempt to maintain control of a country, then inadvertently kidnap them again two years later in the middle of an underground civil war. But it's working out for us pretty well, so maybe that is the secret."

"Yeah, I don't even know what to say to that."

Mitch laughed. "My life is extremely crazy. Honestly, I think the sheer amount of insanity that I live with day to day has kind of numbed me from all of the extreme stuff I've run into. That's probably the only reason that I've managed to get away with all of these life-or-death situations with just some delightful underlying anxiety, and no crippling PTSD or anything." That didn't seem to help Cleo's expression at all. "So how's palace life been for you, then?"

Cleo grinned. "Not bad. Nicole's let me help her out a bunch. I've been down in the kitchens a lot, too. Avi said he'd teach me how to make a bunch of stuff and it's actually been really fun! Beside that, I've just been hanging around and enjoying not being in captivity, ya know? Hannah's been busy meeting with Scott all week to go over the list, and Darien keeps finding more problems with secure communication or whatever, so he keeps asking Esther to help him figure it out."

"Hmm. Is it too early to come up with a ship name?"

Cleo frowned. "For who? Esther and Darien? There's no way that's gonna happen."

"No," Mitch grinned. "You and Avi."

"Bitch!"

Mitch snickered at her glare.

"I am asexual. Quit laughing, you aren't that funny."

"Scott thinks I'm funny."

"Well of course he does. He's literally head over heels for you. You could walk up to him and say 'chicken fingers' and he'd laugh and tell people about how creative and unique you are."

Mitch smiled down at the ground. He really would, wouldn't he? "Please, he's the genius, creative one."

"Oh my god." Mitch could hear the eye roll.

"You and Kirstie are never allowed to hang out. I don't think I could handle the amount of exasperation and sarcasm that I would be confronted with if the two of you ganged up on me."

Cleo snorted. "Too late."

Mitch groaned.