A sleepless night meant Eirian was still groggy and confused in the morning. She'd spun out after Mingzhe left, still at a loss for what had changed so suddenly that he'd practically run out the door.
Had she moved too quickly?
Been too aggressive?
Said the wrong thing?
He was planning to come back for training though, so she probably hadn't insulted him horribly.
Had she scared him?
No, there was no way.
….
Did he scare that easily?
What the hell had happened?
***
There was something wrong with Eirian this morning.
She'd walked into breakfast like a dead thing. Paler than normal with dramatic circles under her eyes.
When Chenzhou asked if she'd slept at all, he'd meant it in a supportive way but the crazy eyes he'd gotten in response, wide, red, and manic, had him shutting his mouth with a snap.
The kitchenmaid served them in silence.
"Do you think I'm attractive?"
Her question came so far out of the blue that Chenzhou dropped the mouth full of food on his fork and is splattered everywhere. A maid rushed over to clean it up and Chenzhou had to wave her off wiping him down. "It's fine, thank you."
Eirian stared at him the entire time, clearly waiting for an answer and the weight of her gaze made him shift uncomfortably in his chair.
"Uh, I-"
"It's a yes or no question." She growled.
"Yes." Chenzhou responded immediately, but apparently that was the wrong answer?
Eirian snapped at him. "Liar."
"I'm not!" Chenzhou bristled. "You can't call me a liar just because you don't like my answer."
Her eyes narrowed, assessing. "You really think I'm attractive."
Chenzhou scoffed. "Yes. And you're well aware of your beauty so why are you asking me?…" A sudden terrible thought occurred to him and beads of sweat appeared on his brow. "Wait, you- you know I still love Anna-"
Eirian rolled her eyes and picked a buttered biscuit from the basket in the center of the table. "Yes, yes. I'm not trying to seduce you."
Chenzhou slumped in relief.
"That's flattering." She scowled.
"I'm not foolish enough to think I would win any kind of contest against you." Chenzhou simpered.
Eirian sputtered, then broke into a reluctant smile. "Where did that come from?"
Chenzhou blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't know."
"Don't be embarrassed. It's good to know you have a personality somewhere in there."
"Thank you." Chenzhou drawled.
Eirian's mouth twitched into a smile, and she took a bite of the biscuit and moaned in pleasure. "These are delicious. Why haven't we had them before?" She stuffed the rest in her mouth and grabbed another one.
"The butter, my lady." One of the kitchenmaid's answered. "The chef only makes them when he has extra leftover."
Eirian turned to Chenzhou. "We should order extra butter."
He laughed, but he nodded to the kitchenmaid to pass it one to the chef. "I think there's a lesson there about things not being special when they are in abundance."
"Who cares." Eirian shrugged and ate another one.
The sudden clawing hunger in his gut distracted Chenzhou for a moment. It had been so long since he'd felt real hunger that he almost didn't recognize it at first, but watching Eirian enjoy the biscuits suddenly left him craving them and he quickly snatched a couple before they were all gone.
It seemed to amuse Eirian. "Is your appetite starting to come back?"
Chenzhou nodded. "I've been waking up hungry. I don't think it's as strong as it should be yet. And sometimes my stomach aches after I eat, but it goes away in time."
"That's normal. People who starve for a period can't immediately go back to eating the way the did before. You have to reintroduce it slowly."
"When and why did you study starvation?"
"Famine is a serious threat for any kingdom." Eirian explained grandly. "It's just as important to understand what comes after as it is to know how it comes to be. If you're going to break it, you should know how to fix it. My uncle says that's one of the three great responsibilities of a leader."
Chenzhou blinked, unsure why he was surprised. As volatile and crass as Princess Soliel could be, she was also proving to be one of the most intelligent people Chenzhou had ever met. It made it all the more shocking that her father thought so little of her.
Though Chenzhou wasn't totally convinced he wanted her dead. Eirian had been to angry to notice the shock on her father's face when she'd accused him, but Chenzhou had. The man had seemed honestly shocked that she thought him capable of that.
Which didn't necessarily mean he wasn't, but it had been an odd reaction Chenzhou had noted due to everything else.
Lord Soliel had almost seemed hurt by Eirian's words.
Maybe Eirian knew her father better than her father knew her?
Or maybe it was just a tangled mess of emotions that were common in families? Since Chenzhou's had all died when he was young he had little experience with it personally, but he heard enough about it at Court and in Yuze's detailed intelligence reports that he thought he could at least pick out some of the signs.
Whether there was any possibility of reconciliation in the future…
Chenzhou doubted it, even if Eirian's father did suddenly change all his ways. Forgiveness was a mercy, not a requirement.
His mother had written that in the letter she'd left him, written while she was pregnant and her health had started to look questionable. She'd been talking about Chenzhou's forgiveness for her absence from his life, but he figured it applied to Eirian and her father too.
"You're terribly intelligent too." Chenzhou said. Eirian paused in the middle of chewing, clearly surprised. "I don't know why you're suddenly questioning your worth, but I can assure you, you don't need to." He offered her a small smile. "After all, I paid two million penning for the chance to marry you."
Eirian snorted so hard in amusement she choked and had to wave off the kitchenmaids while she got herself back under control.
~ tbc