This chapter is brought to you by What If It Doesn't End Well by chloe moriondo.

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The Calypto garden was quiet when Bel arrived.

The music from the party could still be heard faintly this far out. Many people were still dancing and drinking and mingling this late at night.

Tobus had already retreated from the festivities, something he always did once the clock struck midnight.

Bel did not follow him.

At first.

After being caught by his uncle, he stayed behind and was forced to listen to a lecture about "fraternizing with the enemy."

His uncle had cut himself off after Rowan spun past him while dancing with Jovette.

"That stupid--"

Bel made his escape.

So here he was in the Calypto garden, passing the trees and bushes until he stopped and saw a figure standing on a balcony.

The parallels did not escape him, not when Tobus told him about the infamous balcony scene in the original story.

Though, from what he heard, Rowan flubbed the scene to hell when he climbed Jovette's balcony, having been unaware it was her bedroom when he tried to return a cat. Then he fainted.

To think he had game in the original story...

It seemed a balcony scene was inevitable. Perhaps that was fate.

Did the participants of the scene have to be Rowan and Jovette, though?

Bel stood there, staring at the man who was currently nursing a goblet of wine.

The outfit he wore during the party had been stripped down, leaving a loose red tunic and leather pants. The moon shined down on him, and his emerald green eyes sparkled.

Bel faltered. No matter how many times he looked at this man, he was always left breathless.

He cupped his hands to his mouth. "Hey!" he shouted, "Say something romantic!"

Tobus froze just as he brought the goblet to his mouth. He glanced down and noticed Bel.

He took another sip of his wine and set it down. Then he leaned forward and rested his arms on the balcony rail. His posture was relaxed as he cocked his head.

"Intruder, how dare you trespass upon my garden? Are you not Belwyn and a Monttevi?"

Well, it wasn't romantic, but it certainly was... something.

Bel snorted and smiled up at him. "I am neither if you dislike both!"

He was met with an amused quirk of soft lips. "If my kinsmen find you here, they will put you to death."

"The night is my cloak, and my like of you will be wings and give me flight around the sun and around again."

"Shameless."

"A thousand times the worse, to want your light. Around the sun and again, yet I still have no shame to profess my like," he declared.

"What like?"

"I can see right through you! We've known each other in another lifetime, don't deny it!"

That had come out of nowhere and was complete bullshit, but something along the lines of a romance spanning three to five lifetimes seemed like the sort of romantic thing to say in the middle of the night.

Tobus looked at him with a half-lidded gaze, long lashes casting shadows on his cheeks as he hummed. "Puppy."

"Tobus." Bel grinned.

"Hold out your arms."

He held them out without question.

A basket tied to a rope was gently lowered down.

"What is it?" He uncovered a cloth thrown over it. "Bel?"

The kitten mewed, emerald green eyes staring at him adorably.

Tobus took the rope back once Bel untied it from the basket handle.

"I have a mission tomorrow. He is yours for the week."

Bel ran his fingers down the kitten's back soothingly.

"Where are you going?"

"Classified. Assassination."

Bel didn't ask for any more details after that.

They talked a little more, and then he left.

The warm feeling in his chest remained for a long time after.

---

"Who the fuck does this kid think he is?" Raven cursed, scowling at the "romantic encounter" he was spying on.

Thankfully, the Monttevi brat wasn't stupid enough to climb Lord Arcadia's balcony. The surveillance team had no qualms about appearing out of thin air just to throw him off the wall.

The young man ran off back into the trees with one of Cat's actual kittens and promptly left the property.

Good riddance.

"Another rendevous near the orchard," Robin told him as he ran past.

Raven was about to stab someone.

"Does this estate look like a romantic getaway?!"

---

"Mercury." A figure dressed in black appeared from behind one of the orchard trees.

Mercury stood a few paces away, the glassy-eyed look he had been feigning all night slowly receding as he took in the man standing in front of him.

"Ines," he responded, crossing his arms with a roguish grin. "I should ask how you managed to sneak into Vesna and into this particular estate of all places."

"But you won't," Ines replied.

Mercury stared at him for a few seconds, before he carefully nodded his head. "I won't, but I expect an explanation."

Ines drew closer, step by step until they were only a few feet apart.

"I missed you. You and your... stepson and stepsister left so quickly after Giannini's birthday party. I regretted not giving you a proper goodbye."

"Uh-huh." Mercury shot him an unimpressed look. "Seeing as you're here and not in the middle of nowhere, I find myself having a hard time believing you. Try again."

"I like the way you kiss."

"Flattering. Try again."

"I would like to court you."

"That's sweet, but I don't believe you."

Ines glared at him.

Ooh, that's hot.

Behind that blushy-blushy and easily flustered persona, Ines was actually quite the looker. Mercury had been charmed by his offer to dance during that mission with Jovette and Rowan.

Charmed enough to spare some time for a quick make-out session mid-mission.

He would have never expected Ines to follow him to Vesna weeks after that mission.

It started with a letter on his window sill.

Someone was capable enough to sneak into the Stella Estate without notice and make it far enough to leave Mercury a message without being discovered.

Mercury had not reported it to his uncle when he first read the letter.

The details inside... weren't exactly meant for public viewing.

Ines could do a lot with words, and the content of the letter certainly made Mercury hot and bothered by them.

But again, it all felt very no-strings-attached. Perhaps a bed partner he could search for outside Vesna's walls, but nothing else.

After all, Mantle and Vesna were rival cities.

It would not do him any good if he got attached to a lowly, foreign agent who was obviously laying out a honey trap.

"Darling, you know this won't end well for any of us if we continue that train of thought. Unless you're as stupid as you think I am, I am going to need a better reason than love," Mercury said, stepping into Ines' space. He curled his hand around the taller man's chin and leaned forward, batting his lashes teasingly.

He heard Ines swallow.

Bingo.

Mercury took a step back and saw the disappointment flash in the other man's eyes.

"Go on."

Ines pursed his lips. There was reluctance written all over his face like he was a damsel about to be wed to an evil king.

"My city lord found out."

"Mhm."

"He sent me here to gain intel."

"I figured."

"He wants me to create a misunderstanding for one of your agents. A client ordered us to sabotage them."

Mercury hummed.

He wasn't angry at the admission. After all, an agent only did as they were ordered, and it would be hypocritical of him to find fault in that.

Ines wasn't a particularly good agent, however, if he was so willing to betray intel, but he could be trying to lower Mercury's guard in order to finish his mission.

But was the mission objective so simple as sabotage?

A man as well built as Ines? A saboteur?

No, he had felt the callouses on the man's fingertips when they had their first encounter.

He was here to kill someone.

It was up to Mercury to figure out who he was trying to kill, and why he had reached out to him in the first place.

Was Mercury his target?

... Or was he simply a distraction?

"I should kill you right now, but since you're being honest--"

"You'll let me go?"

Mercury chuckled and smiled at the man like he was the funniest thing in the world.

Ines closed his eyes shut in embarrassment and the familiar red flush that had originally attracted Mercury colored his face.

"Of course not, darling. I'm going to detain you."

"... Huh."

Mercury took out his whip and activated the lighting stone embedded into the handle.

Electricity sparked from the base to the tip, crackling dangerously as he drew closer.

"Honestly, I think you have some sort of misunderstanding about me. While I do try to act like a spoiled and rebellious brat in public, I'm not going to sell out the city for a few kisses, you know?"

Ines backed up as Mercury moved closer.

"Lord Mercury." Two Calypto mercenaries greeted him as he stepped out from the shadows.

"What are your orders?"

"Capture him and bring him to the Tower."

"Interrogation cell, my Lord?"

"Interrogation cell."

Ines looked back and forth between them, his expression cooling significantly now that things were serious.

Mercury pointed his whip at him and smiled.

"Come on, darling. If you do what I say, we can kiss and make up."

---

Lord Eartha, Venus, and Pluto were all very unhappy at being pulled away from the party.

Lord Calypto had broken out the five-hundred-year-old wine crate made of grapes that had once grown on the ancient mountains of ye old times, and were handing them out like party favors just as they were leaving for the Tower.

"This better be good. I will have to wait for Valerius' grandchild to come of age to drink that wine again," Eartha growled, marching into the meeting room with his nephews in tow.

Mercury and a few members of Intelligence were in front of a window. On the other side, a man was tied up and blindfolded on a chair.

Venus went over and stood next to his brother. "What happened?"

"A Mantle agent snuck into the city."

Eartha's eyes grew cold. "I want him executed before dawn."

"No."

The room grew tense with a hint of killing intent.

"Excuse me?"

Mercury was undeterred as he stood firm.

"He has brought valuable information."

"Explain," Eartha gritted out.

"Two agents from Mantle went rogue several weeks ago by the names Tamer and Shrew."

Pluto looked at the agent behind the glass with an unreadable gaze. "This matches Cat's previous report of the Paudu birthday party."

Mercury nodded. "There are rumors of a new city in the east. They are calling it Padova."

Another city? But what for?

"Isn't it obvious?" Venus pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked at all of them with uncertainty. "The Imperial Family is keeping us in check."

They all turned back to the Mantle agent in silence.

---

The author has something to say:

Ines is inspired by the character Iago from Othello, but like, not an asshole who'll get his best friend killed, but still kinda gay. And yay for some intrigue. I wanted Ines and Mercury to have a bit of a romance and kinda act like og!Rowan and og!Jovette, but that didn't happen...