FALDREY & EREN

Here he was once again, down on his haunches and in the presence of the royal family. Only this time he was looking right up into Eren's sad eyes, not down at his frail, limp hands. His Mistress, Metsumi, was sitting on the other side of the Tal Dane.

This time he wasn't at the brink of death, and he wasn't going to let Eren defend him in front of his father. He was going to fight for himself, he was done putting Eren in harm's way.

The Tal Dane looked majestic and honestly magnificent in his regal attire, staring down at him with flaming eyes. The motley furnace burning ever so brightly behind the three royal chairs; the Tal Dane's, the Young Tal Dane's and the Mistress's.

The Flame Breathers who'd brought him in pushed him to the floor with such momentum, his gown gave way for his knees to scrape so violently against the plastered floor of the Throne room. Eren did not fail to notice the new bruise on his fair face, and the swollen redness of his bloodshot eyes.

"What's going on between this servant boy and my son?" Zeldrius looked down at Faldrey with disdain, but directed his question to Ursa.

"I don't have the slightest clue, I seldom see the servant boy around the castle," Ursa answered, keeping his gaze fixed at the boy in front of them. "I believe that question is best answered by your son himself."

"Father I—"

"I could tell you everything you need to know, father," Metsumi interrupted her brother.

"Shut your mouth, Metsumi," Eren snapped, sending his glare her way.

"You don't speak to your twin sister that way," Zeldrius cautioned.

"She's just going to fill your head with lies. Father believe me, the situation is nothing like what Metsumi might've told you. If only you would just listen to me." Eren tried to get his father to give him a chance to speak, even if it was just a short minute.

"I think I've listened to you enough." The Tal Dane was known to be a grudgeful ruler with an unwavering, unforgiving spirit. It had almost been half a year since Eren embarrassed him in front of his council, Goliath and the westerners. But still he looked at his son with so much scorn.

"I think you should give the Young Tal Dane a chance to explain, he's the one involved with the servant boy after all," Ursa tried to make Zeldrius look past his contempt for his son.

He was silent for a while before finally giving in to reason. "Fine then, what caused the fight between you and your sister over the servant boy?"

Eren took a deep breath, this was his only chance to save Faldrey and keep whatever Metsumi might've seen a secret. He knew this explanation was crucial, he tried to look for a way to explain without saying too much.

"She forced him to do the Burning Maiden Dance. I tried to get her to stop, but she was filled with so much rage and anger when I brought the boy out of the her flames, and ordered him to run to his chamber room and lock the door. She shot at me first, I never intended to hurt her," Eren kept the explanation short and simple.

He fought the urge to bring up all the times she had maltreated Faldrey, because then he would have to explain how he knew what he knew.

"Oh but you did hurt me," she leaned forward on her chair so she could look past her father and directly at Eren, "that servant disobeyed me. You hurt my authority over him as his Mistress."

"You wanted to roast him alive!" Eren snapped, loosing his cool.

"And you just wanted to save him? Why?" A smirk formed on her lips, "what's your business with my maid servant," she stressed deliberately, rising the interest of everyone in the room.

Faldrey sank down even more on his haunches when she said that, his shoulders slumping. The cat was going to leave the bag now, and the cat was bound to catch on fire and burn to ashes.

"Where did all of this take place?" Zeldrius questioned, narrowing his eyes at Eren in suspicion.

"At the spa chamber buildings," he stated firmly. He couldn't afford to waver in his speech.

"And what took you there? How did you know your sister was there?"  He turned to Metsumi  who had a full smug look on her face, "perhaps you told him you were going for a massage?"

"Not a single word to him," she relaxed back into her royal chair and crossed a leg over the other, "we've barely talked these past few months. He's always hiding his shame in his chambers, as he should," she finished.

There was a short period of silence before Zeldrius asked again.

"So what took you there?"

"I was going to get a massage," he answered hastily to prevent a stutter.

"That's a burning lie! Look his trousers are on fire!" Metsumi yelled with a mocking laughter.

"I'm not lying," his voice failed him this time.

He'd been trying his best to avoid Faldrey's gaze and block out his emotional transmissions, but when he sensed his immense despair he couldn't keep it up anymore. Faldrey's sadness was so great it clogged Eren's lungs, his breath confined by the burning desire to protect and save. He fought the urge to slap his sister across the face and scream at his father for hating him so much.

Faldrey had kept his eyes fixed on his lover, who looked everywhere but at him.

"See? He's lying, you can tell he's lying behind that ugly scarf mask around his face. I think the servant boy told him where he was going to be," she paused, noticing the way Faldrey stared fixated at Eren, "because they've been spending so much time with each other."

"Spending time in what way? His path shouldn't ever cross with Eren's because he's not a castle servant," Zeldrius pressed on to get answers, he couldn't quite see the picture his daughter was trying to paint.

"Exactly my point," she said with a nonchalant shrug. "He's my personal servant, but somehow my brother is having an affair with him. Eren is having an affair with the servant boy," Metsumi emphasised to make her point clear.

"You do know what you're implying, don't you?" Ursa reminded Metsumi of the weight of her accusations.

"Oh, yes! Uncle Ursa, I do," she clapped her hands and batted her eyelashes at him. "I'm trying to say my brother leaves the Blazing Keep almost every night to meet up with the servant boy in some hidden place in the castle," she turned and looked right into her father's eyes as she spoke every word with intimidating confidence, deepening her voice to exacerbate the severity of the issue.

Zeldrius fixed his glare on his daughter, checking to see if she was lying, but she schooled a straight face. "Is this true?" His gaze still fixed on his daughter he sneered the question.

"Oh father, when have I ever lied? Of course it's true."

"I was talking to Eren," he snapped his head to the other side so he could face his son. His voice was menacingly calm.

Faldrey had already lost all hope the second he noticed Metsumi  was on to them, but he never imagined that she knew about his little trysts with her brother.

His heart battered his ribcage furiously when he saw the blood drained face of his lover. His father had asked him a question that was going to be almost impossible to answer without telling a lie. He couldn't let Eren lie to his father, he refused to let him do that.

"No, Your Fieriness. It's not true," Faldrey didn't know when he blurted that out, his longing to save Eren from that weighty question pushing him beyond his limits.

"Oh keep your stupid pink lips shut!" Metsumi scolded Faldrey.

Silence fell over the Throne room like an oppressive blanket. Faldrey caught the death glare the Tal Dane was sending his way from the side of his eyes, but he kept his gaze fixed at Eren's bent head. A stab of pain piercing through his chest, he wished Eren would just look him in the eyes and telepathically assure him that everything would be just fine.

"Darling child, you don't speak until you're spoken to," Ursa started, killing the silence and attracting Faldrey's attention. "When the Tal Dane talks it's your job to listen. You should not even breathe when the Tal Dane talks."

"Eren," his father called his name with the deepest voice ever, getting him to look right up into his eyes. "Do have trysts with this…" Zeldrius trailed off, the words stopping in his throat. "Flaming swords! Why is he in a dress?!" Zeldrius bellowed, his rage provoking the furnace behind the royal chairs causing it to memontarily shoot up to the ceiling.

"Now you speak, child. Why are you in a dress?" Ursa repeated the Tal Dane's question, only a lot calmer than it was originally asked.

Swallowing and summoning the courage to speak.

"The young mistress instructed me to always put on a dress during the day, she—"

"Eren made me do it!" Metsumi pitched over him, cutting him short. "He told me the beauty of my new maid servant was being wasted in khaki shirts and trousers, he urged me to instruct him to always put on the uniform of the maid servants because he was a maid servant after all. At first I was against it, but I agreed to please my little brother. I wasn't aware of the reason behind his perverted suggestion until later," Metsumi spoke with a feigned sad expression.

Faldrey wanted to scream. To yell at the Young Mistress. For the love of Zaal, why was Eren just sitting there, quietly? His head bent, his gaze fixed on his hands. Faldrey wished he could see his eyes, he yearned for Eren's reassuring eyes.

He wanted to speak against what Metsumi had just said, but he remembered Ursa's reproof. Someone needed to speak and point out Metsumi's lies, but if Eren was silent Faldrey knew he was the last person who should speak up against the Young Mistress.

"Is this true, servant boy?" Zeldrius asked, voice firm and deep.

He wondered what he should answer. Eren wasn't showing any signs of support. He was bleak and mute.

"No, it's not," Faldrey gave a straight answer to the question he was asked.

"How would the servant boy know what my brother told me in private?" Metsumi jeered.

"Is this true then, Eren?" His father finally asked him.

Eren wanted to stand up against his sister, but it was hopeless. He just wanted to bring this to an end.

"Yes father, it is. I asked Metsumi to instruct the boy to always put on a dress," Eren mumbled.

Faldrey could not believe his ears, the sound of his racing heartbeat filled his ears like loud battle drums. He was not sure if Eren was lying to take all the blame and not drag the discussion any further, or if it was actually true.

"And then he ended up charming and seducing you. That's why you shot at me, your own sister," Metsumi sniggered to herself in satisfaction.

The Throne room was once again overcome by uncomfortable silence.

"What do you make of this Ursa?" Zeldrius finally spoke.

"I'm in a bit of a puzzle, my liege."

"Well I'm not, from today henceforth the servant boy will cease to be one of Metsumi's maid servants, and he'll never again be seen in a dress," Zeldrius began to announce and Faldrey just stared at Eren in complete disappointment. The words coming out of the Tal Dane's mouth were of no interest to him, there was no punishment that could be worse than Eren's behaviour. "Lastly I want him flagellated by Eren and then taken to the Lord of Denutardt," The Tal Dane finished proclaiming his punishment.

Eren's heart sunk into his stomach at the complement of his father's decision. He couldn't stand up for his beloved, but that didn't mean he would let him get flagellated. Worst of all by him.

"Father! Please do reconsider that decision. I can't flagellate the servant boy," Eren replied hastily.

The servant boy.

It echoed through Faldrey's mind. That was the first time, in what felt like ages, Eren had referred to him as; the servant boy. He remembered Eren's words, he remembered when he said he never wanted to refer to him as any of that. How he wanted to call him by his given name.

He remembered everything. Why had Eren decided to throw all the time they'd spent together into the gutter.

"Why can't you?" Zeldrius snapped at him, "if you don't know how to swing your arm, a Flame Breather can teach you how to swing your arm… like a man should," he added.

"He can't because he has strong feelings for the servant boy, who sadly is no longer my maid servant. I'm going to miss his soft hands on spa day," Metsumi sang, contented with what she had achieved.

"Do you have feelings for the boy?" Zeldrius put the question to his son.

Eren blinked once, then twice. He couldn't lie, he couldn't tell the truth either. He was in a burning jar.

"That is besides the case," he answered, intelligently maneuvering the question. "I don't want to learn to flagellate because I won't be whipping anyone," Eren stated firmly, holding his father's gaze.

"You would dare disobey me?"

"Perhaps we should take a few steps back here. Relax," Ursa stepped forward, going to stand beside Faldrey. "I don't think the boy needs to be punished. From what I just observed, I think it's proper to surmise that he was just caught in the middle of a conflict between siblings. He shall stop committing the abomination of wearing a woman's clothing at once and he would cease to be Metsumi's maid servant," he suggested to the Tal Dane.

Zeldrius pondered for a while before nodding his head in agreement. "Then he'll be sent off to Denutardt first thing the morrow, where he'll live with and serve the Lord of the village."

Faldrey had no idea where that was. Heck, he had no idea where he was at the moment, except for the fact he knew he was in the castle of the Tal Dane. He knew getting sent off to wherever that was meant the beginning of new struggles for him.

Eren on the other hand felt powerless and hopeless. He hated how powerless his father's decisions rendered him. He couldn't stop the raid from happening, and now he wouldn't be able to stop his beloved from leaving him. Possibly forever.

"About that, my liege, I think the boy is best left in the castle," Ursa intervened.

"And why is that? His services are no more needed, he's no longer my daughter's maid servant."

"But he still hasn't fulfilled his duties as replenishment to Goliath," Ursa mentioned.

"When Goliath needs him we can always send word to the Lord of Denutardt. There are foreign Dakyres all over our lands under the custody of Lords of the villages, you know that."

Faldrey couldn't help the sad smile that formed on his lips which were wet with his own tears. How did he go from having two parents, to surviving a near death experience, to having a wicked Mistress, to being forsaken by his lover, then to having what happens with his life discussed and decided by two fire Dakyres.

"I do know that, my liege, but he's needed more in the castle. He can train to become Kuzaan's next squire, if that pleases you."

Faldrey couldn't believe his ears, but then his whole life had been a surprise for such a long time now. He couldn't believe he was going from the hands of one oppressor to another one. Only difference was this one was older and a lot more savage.

He recalled the ever so fresh wounds and bruises of his tribesman roommate. Faldrey never got to understand how exactly the commander gave him these wounds because the boy never talked to him.

Zeldrius drew in a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. Eren could see his father's hatred for him grow by the minute, but that didn't bother him. He fought his very existence as Faldrey's lover by avoiding his fixed gaze which never for once left him. He fought back tears so his father wouldn't see his emotional outburst, though it became a thousand times harder when Faldrey gave in to his despair, and let the tears run down his beautiful face.

"Fine then. The boy would stop wearing the uniform meant for the servants of the Blazing Keep, and start wearing that meant for servants of the Flame Breather army," Zeldrius got up from his chair, and started making his way to the exit of the Throne room. "He'll work in the gardens and the orchard while at it, I hear the Crescent Moon are good with plants, or is it the Mustard Tree?" There was a short delay in his speech before he continued, "whichever it is, he'll work in the gardens. And never again should he be seen talking to Eren. Never!" The Tal Dane emphasised before, walking out through the door the guards had opened up for him.

Faldrey could've sworn the special adviser to the Tal Dane just came to his rescue, maybe Zaal sent him this time since his lover had forsaken him. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn't, but Ursa didn't spare him a glance before walking out after the Tal Dane.

With only the three of them left in the Throne room; Faldrey, Eren and Metsumi. A veil of sadness shrouded them until Metsumi broke into a series of cackles.

Flouncing up from her chair, she walked to where Faldrey knelt.

"Oh, how I'm going to miss you my beautiful long haired, male maid servant." She sang. Swaggering towards the exit she imitated her father and took a sharp turn. "And he'll work in the gardens, and in the orchards, and the Crescent Moon are…" she mimicked her father's deep voice before bursting into a fit of laughter. "Ahh, hilarious." She held her stomach and dramatically wiped her eyes after killing her laughter. "Cheer up little brother, you look miserable. The both of you do," and with that she swaggered out.

Faldrey knelt there, tears rolling down his eyes and emotions threatening to break his dented spirit. Eren still sat on his chair, taking in all of Faldrey's sadness while trying to project compassion to his beloved, but that in no way helped.

Getting up from his chair and approaching Faldrey, Eren looked more morose than he'd ever been in his twenty-two years in the realm. He stretched out a hand to help Faldrey get up to his feet, but he didn't take it. Faldrey just looked right down at his hands which were wet with tears on his knees.

"Byron I—"

"It's okay Eren. I'm not going to be flagellated by you, or by anyone, in fact, so that's a good thing. I'm finally going to stop wearing a dress and tying my hair in this stupid pink ribbon!" His voice rose as he neared the end of his sentence. Pulling the ribbon out in one aggressive swing, his hair fell gracefully to his shoulders. "And thanks to your silence, your father thinks I seduced you into falling for me. Oh, I'm also beginning to wonder whose order it really was to get me dressed up like a Taryliem," Faldrey huffed. "But it's fine, I'm fine. I don't need a hand up."

Eren knew Faldrey was far from being fine. He didn't need to telepathically listen to his emotions to notice that, his mini tantrum just made it clear. Eren reached out to touch his shoulder but Faldrey shot his shoulder away from his reach. His hand froze in the air, empty and definitely not touching his beloved.

"Please do not touch me. You're not supposed to be seen with me, remember? The guards are watching," Faldrey sobbed and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.

Still standing, frozen by what just happened Eren slowly clenched the hand into a fist, his jaws automatically following.

"I'm terribly sorry that once again I was powerless against my father, and I could not save you. I cherish you so much and my heart bleeds anytime I see you this way," Eren whispered with a very heavy heart, and clogged up lungs.

"You get a bandage for your heart and you'll be fine. You won't be seeing me anymore," Faldrey got up from the floor in one push, and walked right out of the Throne room.

He did not loo back, he did not slow down. He just left a dumbstruck Eren to stare at his back with eyes filled with so much tears and sadness.

(Play the song.)

***

Eren kept sending flame butterflies to Faldrey's window for the first two weeks after the incident had occurred, but Faldrey never honoured any of his invitations.

He'd sunken deeper into despair as he realised most of the guards were lustful, barbaric poofs who often teased him about his long hair, grabbing and smacking him on the buttocks every chance they got. Eren always felt his beloved's emotions peak, but the chimes which led him to Faldrey had stopped ever since then.

Another week went by and Eren did not stop sending flame butterflies, he felt his telepathic connection to Faldrey diminishing and it scared him more than the whole tribe knowing about his scar. Most times he'd concentrate so hard on the thought of Faldrey's long hair, his bright skin, his fragile, slender figure, his ever soft pink lips but he'd not get even a stir of emotion from Faldrey.

The fourth week passed by completely and just as Faldrey had said, they never saw each other. Their paths never crossed, as Faldrey thought it should have been right from the beginning. Eren tried the terrace in the Green House over and over but it seemed Faldrey had found another route, so as to avoid seeing Eren in the Green House everytime he was returning to the servant's quarters.

Faldrey tried changing rooms to one in the other buildings, but after asking the head servant who blatantly refused, he settled on following the other way around to get to his room so Eren wouldn't see him everytime he left and returned.

Faldrey tried getting his roommate to talk to him a lot more and eventually open up, but the hard-headed, broken boy stayed mute everytime he returned with fresh wounds. He had, however, gotten a glimpse of what the commander might be doing to him from the Flame Breathers, but after so many trials, his tribesman roommate never opened up. So Faldrey gave up.

Eren had given up completely, going about his daily live of council meetings like a zombie. He was void of feelings, not susceptible of any deep emotions. Faldrey was his deepest emotion and now that was all gone.

On that faithful night Eren had made the brightest, most beautiful flame butterfly he'd ever made, using the best of his flames. Faldrey saw the luminescent creature, fluttering by his window diligently. He felt the heat of the love and remorse Eren housed in his heart, and was tempted to go running into his lover's arms, and bury his face into his neck. But he fought the urge to, no, he took deep breaths and exhaled every last breath of hope he had for the both of them ending up together.

Faldrey breathed a sad laugh when he recalled Eren's statement: "You will definitely be by my side when I ascend the throne of fire.

How happy it would make him if his mother's legend was actually true, if they were destined for each other. Then maybe, just maybe, they would have a breath of time to be together. But it was just a legend, and legends weren't true.

Faldrey watched as the creature burnt and eventually evanesced, leaving only the grey ash which was the same colour as his gradually fading and dying heart.

Eren waited and waited at the watchtower near the rear wall, he unconsciously fell asleep while singing to himself. Songs he wished his mother were alive to sing to him. Waking up the next morning with immense pain shooting from his neck to the rest of his body due to his bad sleeping posture the previous night, he realised Faldrey never came.

All hope was lost now. Eren gave up on trying, he was just going to live out the rest of eternity sad and alone. From that day onward, the flame butterflies stopped coming to Faldrey's window.

The lover had given up on happiness and the beloved was on the verge of being a Dakyre with a broken spirit.

_
AN: This is not the end so please don't hate me!

*sigh* I wonder what's going to happen from here. Well stick around to find out! Please vote even if the chapter was annoying, vote because you love Faldrey and Eren and you want them to have a happy ending.

Till next time loves! Stay happy, stay safe! <3

Dedicating this part to BL_Love because they've the best bxb on wattpad and I just can't get enough.