Author's Note: Yes, this update is late. Yes, I have a legitimate excuse. Let's just leave it at that.
Oh, and I'll be gone the first week of July, so expect more fun delays in the future.
The pleasant mood in the courtyard was promptly shattered as screaming was heard from elsewhere in the manor. The words were inaudible but hardly necessary to guess what had happened. The outcry was followed by the sound of a door slamming, and seconds later Luke stormed into the courtyard, so caught up in his rage that he did not even notice his wife and his mother watching him in startled confusion as he made his way to his room.
No words were spoken as Tear and Susanne quickly moved to calm their respective husbands, as it was likely the Duke was in a similar state. Susanne left the courtyard to head to her chamber, while Tear intercepted Luke on his way to theirs, standing in front of him and forcing him to come to an abrupt halt.
The anger on Luke's face was temporarily replaced by shock, as he had just noticed Tear's presence. However, he quickly recovered and launched into a bitter tirade. "I don't believe him! After everything, he still doesn't understand anything! How can he be so selfish?! Who the hell is he to tell me what to do?! He has no idea what we've been through-"
Tear placed her hands on Luke's shoulders. She could feel him shaking violently. "Luke, stop. Calm down."
It took visible effort, but Luke managed to stop himself from continuing his rant and switched to seething in silence. Presumably in an attempt to calm himself, he lifted Tear's right hand off his shoulder and held it against his cheek.
After a few seconds Luke's breathing finally began to slow and his shaking all but stopped, so Tear deemed it safe to have him speak again. "Now, please tell me what happened. Slowly."
Luke took in a shuddering breath before replying. "My father is angry that I stopped us from going to that celebration last night. He said it was really important, and as the heir it's my responsibility to make sure I don't do anything that makes House Fabre look bad." At this point Luke's anger once again began to mount and his speech quickened. "I tried to explain that you were in no condition to go but he wouldn't listen. He kept going on about duty and how I was doing everything wrong and how I was destroying the family name-"
"Luke," Tear said in her best gentle-but-firm voice.
Luke realized his mistake and again stopped himself, which appeared to be less difficult than it had been the first time.
This time Tear waited a minute after Luke had visibly calmed before speaking. "Did your father say anything else?"
He nodded, and looked reluctant to speak. "He said that... he said..."
Tear was alarmed by Luke's sudden change in mood. His anger seemed to be all but gone, and was replaced by an expression of hurt. She had seen that expression before, and had a terrible feeling she knew what had happened. "What did he say?" she asked gently.
Luke looked away from her and down at the ground before answering. "He said that Asch would have understood."
It was all Tear could do to keep from breaking her own advice and going off on a rant of her own. It had been aggravatingly difficult to get Luke over his inferiority complex, and every time someone made a comment like the one the Duke had made it set him back. Though it was probably true that Asch would have been more willing to act like a noble "should," it gave his father no right to use that fact against Luke, especially when he knew what a sensitive topic it was for him. Tear did her best to keep in mind what Susanne had told her about the Duke being a good person at heart, but she found it extremely difficult when Luke was standing before her looking ready to cry because of something that his own father had said to him.
Afraid that if she spoke her voice would betray the anger she was trying to suppress, Tear chose a more physical route to comforting Luke. She pulled her hand away from his cheek and out of his grasp so that she could wrap both arms around him. Luke wasted no time in returning the hug, proceeding to rest his head on her shoulder and bury his face in her hair, taking in her scent.
The action served to comfort Tear as well, and she felt confident enough to speak again. "I'm sure he didn't mean it like that. He was just upset. Please try not to let it bother you." She knew the request was futile but she felt it was worth saying anyway.
Luke said nothing, but his quivering subsided. A minute passed in silence before Tear spoke again. "Let's go inside. I want to hear exactly what your father said, and what you said to him. Alright?"
Reluctantly, Luke released his hold on her and nodded. He followed her into their room, steeling himself for the task ahead of recalling every piece of the heated argument between him and his father.
Luke liked to believe that he had gained back most of the confidence he had lost when he learned he was a replica, but sometimes he still found himself badly shaken. On occasion he still wondered if it would have been better if Asch came back instead of him, especially when someone as close to him as his own father brought up the point. It still hurt to hear people talk about replicas as if they were things instead of people, and sometimes he even started to believe the terrible derogatory statements that were made. He wished he could take everyone's advice and just not let it bother him, but it was phenomenally difficult when a large part of the population hated him for what he was. How quickly everyone forgot who had saved them when the world was in danger.
Yet he never had to worry about falling completely into despair. Whenever he felt low or inferior, he just had to think about Tear. There was no way someone as wonderful as her could have fallen for him if he was just some inferior creature. There had to be something special, something important about him if a woman like her wanted to be with him so badly. And she certainly would not have been better off if it had been Asch who returned. She had told him so herself, and he trusted her word above anyone else's. In fact, she once told Luke that she would have been completely miserable if he had not kept his promise and returned to her, and to think about that the next time he wondered if it should have been Asch who came home. He did not like to think about Tear being miserable, but it was nice to feel needed.
"I'm glad you're feeling better, but I must know, what are you smiling about?"
Tear was seated on the opposite side of the bed, watching him curiously. He must have unconsciously started smiling when he got lost in his musings, which was understandably confusing to Tear, since just minutes ago he no doubt would have started crying if she had not been there to comfort him. It had not been easy for him to relay in explicit detail what his father had said to him.
"Nothing much," Luke responded, his smile widening now that he was conscious of it. "I was just thinking about something you said to me a while ago."
Now she returned the smile. "I'm glad my words had such a lasting positive effect."
"You have no idea."
Both of them went silent as they become lost in their own thoughts. Luke was a bit startled when Tear suddenly said, "We still haven't told our friends."
Luke blinked in confusion; his mind had gone off on a tangent about sword fighting techniques, and he had not the slightest clue what she was talking about. "Huh? Told them what?"
Tear smiled coyly. "That there's soon going to be a new member in the Fabre family."
"Oh, that."
"Not even Natalia knows. She hasn't been home since we found out."
"Yeah..."
Tear frowned. "If I didn't know better I'd think the whole subject made you unhappy."
"Er, no, that's not it," Luke hastily defended himself, "I'm just trying to figure out how everyone will react."
"Well, Guy and Natalia at least will probably be happy for us."
"Jade will probably say something creepy," Luke said, ever one to focus on the negatives, "And Anise will probably find some way to use it to make fun of me."
"Whatever the case, we should let everyone know. I know I'd be interested to hear if one of our friends was going to have a child."
Luke grinned. "Me too. There'd have to be an interesting story behind that, since none of them are married."
Tear shook her head at him. "I didn't mean it like that."
"I know."
"...Anyway, we can just wait until Natalia returns to inform her, and we should send letters to the others-"
Tear suddenly stopped and put her hand over her mouth, eliciting a worried cry from Luke. "What is it?"
"I'm going... to be sick..." she managed to mutter through her hand before promptly bolting from the room.
Luke watched her go, wondering if he should follow but deciding there was not much he could do for her at the moment. He sighed, wishing there was some way he could help but knowing there was nothing to do but wait it out.
Figuring he might as well be useful, he moved to a small desk in the corner of the room and sat down. His intention was to start work on the letters they would be sending to their friends, but after taking out a sheet of paper and a pen he found himself at a loss for what to write. He did not know who to write to first, or how to even start.
Luke idly tapped his pen against the desk as he looked around the room for some type of inspiration. His eyes fell on the dog plushie sitting on the shelf, the one he had given Tear on her birthday a couple years ago. Something inspired him to go pick it up. He let the pen fall from his left hand, got up and made his way over to where it sat, lifted it and brought it back to the desk. He set it down next to the blank sheet of paper before seating himself again.
He found himself smiling as he stared at the stuffed creature, with its huge plastic eyes and ridiculously fluffy fur. Being from the male half of the species he did not understand why certain things were deemed "cute," or what was so special about them, but he knew that the plushie made Tear happy, so by extension it made him happy as well.
"What should I write first?" he asked aloud to the unblinking brown eyes.
He was not at all expecting a shrill voice to respond with, "HI!"
Luke stared in utter disbelief at the stuffed dog before his vision was suddenly obstructed by something very blue. He hastily reached up and grabbed whatever had latched onto his face, pulling it away and holding it out in front of him. He found himself staring into the large, sparkling eyes of a cheagle, looking completely unfazed by the rough treatment he was being given.
"What the- Mieu?!"
"Hello, Master!" the cheagle responded cheerfully, evidently unaware that he had nearly given his "master" a heart attack.
Luke was still trying to recover from shock, and had difficulty forming a coherent sentence. "What the... how did you... what are you doing here?"
"I came to visit you and Tear!" Mieu announced, as if that explained everything perfectly.
"But how did you even get here?"
"I walked to Engeve," he explained in the same chipper manner. "A woman with a coach thought I was lost, but I told her I was just trying to visit Master. She said I was the cutest thing she'd even seen so she let me ride her coach for free all the way to Grand Chokmah. She even got me a ticket to ride the boat here!"
Luke wondered what Mieu would have done if he had not met with such luck, but figured it was not worth asking since the unintelligent creature probably had not even had a plan. "How did you get into my room?"
"Through the window!" With one little paw he pointed in the direction of the open window.
Luke released his hold from Mieu, who plunked unceremoniously onto the desk. A clink of metal against wood brought Luke's attention to the ring around the cheagle's stomach.
"Wait, I thought you gave the Sorcerer's Ring back to the Cheagle Elder."
"I did. He let me borrow it to come see you!"
"Let me get this straight," Luke said, staring unbelievingly at the little creature, "The Elder let you borrow a powerful artifact so that you could wander, by yourself, halfway around the world for a friendly visit?"
"Yup!" Mieu, naturally, did not find this strange in any way.
"I don't understand cheagles," Luke muttered to himself before speaking up so that Mieu could hear him again. "How long are you planning on sticking around?"
"As long as I can!" Mieu said, his smile widening. "And don't you worry Master, I'll be with you the whole time!"
"I'm thrilled to hear it."