The Sun Also Rises

It was a terribly easy thing, truly, to reassure the woman that she should hardly fear those emotions much less feel ashamed of them. Were they not all prone to them? Had they not all felt them before? How glorious that wondering of love could be and yet how torturous all the same, Dorian hardly envying the woman that very pining he knew surely beset her heart and yet he knew well how meaningful those simple words of assurance might be. After all, such emotions were difficult to battle at the best of times and truly Dorian saw little need for the woman to keep them to herself when he might be here to listen to them. The Monarch largely oblivious in that moment to any worries the young girl had about sharing her hopes with him for fear of burdening him in any sense. How surely he might have scoffed at the idea! That simple gratefulness to her words hardly missed as that warm smile merely reamined upon his lips, his head dipped politely once more.

"I shall surely have words for you any time you might need to hear them."

He offered simply. After all, was this woman not his friend? Was this not the very job of friends to do such things? It had been a long time, a terribly long time since he had held any true and genuine friends. The very sort he had made himself and had not had any desire to befriend him simply to achieve some political or social standing as so many people who crossed his path seemed to desire to do. He had befriended Lani simply by chance, because she was of an agreeable nature and because he found her a genuine, pleasant sort of person whom he enjoyed the company off. Dorian rather assured these were the very reasons she had returned that friendship toward him in turn. After all, she had hardly known who he was that day they had met. Dorian near craving that anonymity he had all but lost these past few months with his own upcoming wedding. Still, that veritable point surely remained. Dorian content to allow the woman to tell him each of her fears and worries as many times as she might desire to say them if only because that was surely what friends were for.

It was fortunate, perhaps, that such discussion did not long linger on the matter of vegetarians and vegans. The Fae King, while decidedly progressive in so many areas off his own thought was decidedly stelwart when it came to matters of agriculture- or so it would seem. Dorian simply unable to comprehend those more modern, alternative methods of thought that a small group of people so prescribed to today. Dorian content to display that rarely seen stubborn side to personality then as his arms promptly folded across his chest. Just wait until Sebastian heard about these vegans! Ha! His lover would surely have something to say on it. The sudden arrival of the waitress readily sought to derail such thoughts, Dorian reaching hurriedly for that menu then to quickly peruse those lunch options he had all but failed to consider in those moments prior. He was near blissfully unaware of the sudden appearance of that near ancient fae materialising within the depths of that bistro behind him. The sudden utterance of those distinctly accented lyrics prompting the lift off his own head, his silver gaze falling with clear surprise upon Matteo's figure as the frenchman made himself comfortable in that spare seat as if such a chair had been placed their for him all along. Perhaps it had. Dorian long ago having quite given up attempting to understand the true reaches of the elders Fae's power.

Still, that surprise could so hardly wipe itself from his features as he regarded the Frenchman, his Father's equally silver gaze meeting his own then as Dorian made some effort to introduce the pair to one another. Matteo seeing fit to cut him short with that singular utterance that he already knew whom Beylani was. The Monarch content to afford him a slight scowl of sorts with that ready comment that surely the man could have allowed him to finish those introductions for politeness sake. Impossible being that he was! Matteo, for his part, so hardly seemed phased in any sense. The Frenchman merely assuring him Alexander had so apparently gone riding, Dorian near baffled at the idea of a horse somewhere in the city before Matteo's interest in Beylani became all to apparent. Dorian inclined to feel some sense of nervousness stir within him then. How unpleasant it would be for Matteo to ruin their afternoon what whatever nonsense it was that he had surely come to babble at the woman. Andras had been unusual quiet in the days after Matteo's visit, Dorian hardly inclined to subject poor Beylani to the oddity that was his Father and yet, it seemed, he was already perhaps too late to prevent any such interaction. His query of just why Matteo was here at all prompting that classically cryptic response from the man. Dorian assured Matteo had never spoken a straight sentence in all his life. How on earth Alexander had spent more than a thousand years in his company and not gone utterly mad Dorian had no idea.

Still, he could perhaps not truly admit that he was not at least vaguely intrigued at the mans words or just why on earth Beylani might appear within any of those visions that so plagued the elder Fae. Curiosity, after all, was but an eternal weakness for himself in every sense.

Matteo's own gaze drifted effortlessly from his son then and towards the woman with the bright blue eyes and the near golden hair that fell in loose ringlets about her shoulders. She was a sweet thing, a pretty thing and yet she was so very, very.....young. A child. Though surely she thought herself grown. Perhaps in the eyes of society she was. Perhaps it was only he who looked upon her as anything else. Maybe he truly had lived to long. That almost amused simper brushed his lips then as those thoughts turned within his mind and yet he afforded them little further consideration as the woman before him looked almost shyly away, as if his utterance off her full name had caught her off guard- perhaps it had. That easy smile resting upon his features still as she seemed to consider his question before finding that response, her words holding that note of truth within them. A believer then. How few the world had any longer. How much more lovely she was in reality rather than concealed within those visions off his mind.
"Fate, I think, has a very curious plan for you. I have seen it time and time again. Perhaps I should tell you off it, but to tell you off it would not change it all the same, for your path is set- as is his."

Those accented words fell easily from his lips, one hand lifting slightly to brush a little of that golden brown hair from his gaze as his attention shifted briefly to that sandwich placed before Dorian. The boy hardly seeming to have noticed it at all. Matteo content to continue with his words then, each uttered absentmindedly and easily as if the very fate of the life of the woman before him so hardly lingered upon it. "I will tell you instead what I told Andras when he came to me. No matter what happens, Mon Cher, it is for the best. No matter how terrible it all may seem it will work out. Andras will be inclined to forget these words I think, but you will not. All will be well in what is to come- eventually." That smiled lingered upon his lips still, those words holding a near genuine sincerity as he regarded her. "Sometimes something must be broken to be put back together, sometimes what is put back together is stronger then it was before and you, Ma petite, are far stronger than you know."

"Matteo what on earth does that mean?"

Dorian's own gaze shifted from his Father to Beylani and back again in that moment, such words holding so very many meanings! The Monarch's own gaze widening all the more as Matteo proceed to reach for half of that sandwich then- as if his words were hardly cause for any concern at all. This, Dorian was assured, was the very reason why he so found disdain in his Father's presence. The Frenchman speaking as if something was so bound to befall the woman before him, even if, it seemed, all would be well. His words, it seemed, destined to go ignored as Matteo glanced towards Beylani once more. "When you see Andras next, will you tell him I lied about his Mother? He will know what I mean. I am not terribly good at telling the truth you see? Good luck, Lani. It truly was a pleasure to meet you at last. I'll see you soon, Dorian."

"Don't you dare! Matteo! I- "

The words had no sooner left the Monarch lips then Matteo proceeded to promptly disappear, leaving that seat and half a sandwich next to him. Dorian blinking several times in surprise as his gaze shifted about that room in search of the other Fae before looking back toward the woman now.

"I am terribly sorry I.....he is a very odd person, frankly there are some days I would rather believe I were adopted. I fear I am not quite sure what he meant although I may yet be able to find him again if I hurry. I believe I might know where he is. Do you think, perhaps, we might have lunch another time? He has not upset you has he?"

Dorian Aragona