14. Bad Brother
Halo
When Halo returned to the palace with Finn, he tried to maintain his anger. It was his weakest emotion. It was always fleeting. He couldn't stay angry at the people he loved, but boy could they stay mad at him.
It was always funny how they would say the cruelest things to him and he'd forgive them the next day, just because they had done the bare minimum to be nice to him.
Maybe it was his mother's genes. People had always said she was so kind she let the King walk over her. Halo didn't even need to meet her to know this, being a premium doormat himself.
"I don't love you anymore. I have someone else."
Halo's head was wracked from the words, his chest burning with an inconsolable ache. He just didn't want to imagine it. He loved one girl his whole life. He had met many beautiful women as a Prince and sailor... but Leilani was his heart. To know that she'd given hers to someone else drove him up the walls.
Halo was ready to hand his head over to the King.
"You know she's probably lying," Finn told him on the way back when Halo had not uttered a single word for twenty minutes. "It's so obvious she still loves you, mate. She was just saying things she knew would hurt you because she was angry at getting abandoned. She'll come around, just give her time."
Halo hadn't answered. The words were poison to him whether they were true or not. She was his best friend, not just his lover. She had grown up with him. She couldn't just forget him like he was nothing.
She can't. She wouldn't.
I'm going to fight for her.
Halo made his way into the King's office, finding him leaned over his desk, signing documents. Halo's tongue was on the verge of slipping out a curse, but all that came was a polite request.
"Good evening, your majesty. Are you busy? May I have a word with you, please?"
"I'm signing legislation, obviously I'm busy," Vaea said, looking up boredly. When he saw Halo's slightly untidy state, the King leaned back into his chair and smiled.
"It looks like you had a fun day at the beach," he said with a tone that left Halo questioning its sincerity. "Did you enjoy it?"
Halo wanted to stall but it ended up slipping out. "Why did you exile the Hira family and throw them out of their home?" He blurted. The King tossed his pen lazily to the side, a smirk daring to stretch on his face.
"Ah. It looks like the gossip has finally reached you. What exactly have you heard? And from whom?"
"Please, just answer me," Halo pressed, his jaw clenching.
When Vaea refused to answer, Halo exploded like a dynamite of frustration.
"How could you, Vaea?" He paced around the room, trying not to raise his voice. "They were our best friends for years. That was our family outside of family! And you exiled them? We don't even exile our war criminals! What has gotten into you?"
Vaea laughed bitterly, looking up to him with terrifyingly calm eyes. "I can tell whoever told you this garbage didn't care to tell you the full details."
"Then tell me please! Make sense of this!" Halo begged, on the edge as he tugged at his hair.
"I didn't exile the Hira family. They left."
Halo paused in his tracks, his mind even more scrambled. Misty wouldn't lie about something like that. So that meant Vaea was the dishonest one.
"Why would they leave, Vaea?" Halo questioned, shaking his head. "Why would they leave their family home. The home they've stayed in for generations. Why would they leave the country their patriarch died for?"
Vaea poked his tongue into his cheek, shaking his head in disbelief. When he stood up, Halo knew this argument would get ugly.
"You're forgetting, dear brother. I'm a hated King. When the Elders announced me to be in line for the throne, do you know who objected? Maria Hira and her entire clan. They said they would leave Kukoa if a mistake like me ascended to the throne. A king born under a dead star, so fucking shameful that it makes you leave. I never exiled anyone. They chose to leave because they hated me!"
Vaea was shaking with rage. Halo felt himself shrink in silence. "It's easy for you to say that they were a family outside of family. For who? Do you think Auntie Maria loved me the way she loved you? Of course not. They adored you, they just tolerated me because I was a Prince," he spat.
Halo's face was hot and red with shame and embarrassment. It was easy for him to forget the mistreatment Vaea grew up with, he'd never be on that end. He was called a myriad of insults by his father, but he'd never get told that he shouldn't have been born.
"Yunoa, Misty and Leilani were the only ones who stayed behind," Vaea told him. "I would never exile anyone unless they tried to harm me. Don't ever defile me like that again. You don't get to."
"I'm sorry," Halo said softly, his voice tender with regret. "I just thought-"
"You know I've had the worst day," Vaea cut him off with a scoff. "That fucking Sai lunatic escaped the Royal Guard with her accomplices and no one knows where she is. I have so much work to do and then you come in, my own brother, accusing me of things I never did."
"You're a bad brother, you know that?" Vaea made sure to stare right into Halo's eyes as he emphasized it. "You abandon me, return years later and question my choices as King and you have the nerve to be paranoid? I should be the paranoid one here, not you."
Halo swallowed hard, bowing his head in shame. "I'm so sorry, your majesty. I just-"
"Now you're calling me 'your majesty' again, as if you hadn't been disrespecting me the entire time. You're lucky you're my brother, Halo. You're the only one I'd let talk to me like that."
"I'll never speak to you like that ever again, I promise, your majesty," Halo humbly said. He felt stupid that the Hira family would just lie to him like that. It must have been revenge. "Please forgive me."
Vaea chewed on his lip a for a few moments, then rolled taps on the desk with his fingers. "Of course I forgive you, you idiot," he quietly chuckled. "You're all I have in this world, after all."
Halo stayed silent, the atmosphere in the room suddenly ominous and suffocating. He didn't know why, but he regretted ever trying to come in here and find answers. He just felt drained and stupid.
"So you never exiled anyone ever?" Halo dared to ask, just needing final clarification. Vaea rolled his eyes in annoyance.
"No. Goddess it's like you don't trust me. It's fucking annoying."
"I do trust you. I'm just making sure."
"I hate repeating myself," Vaea deadpanned. "Who told you all this anyway?"
When Halo was unable to answer, a mocking laugh dropped out of the King. "Look who's keeping secrets now? I wonder who it could be... I suppose you didn't go to the beach today after all."
"It was Leilani," Halo said against his will. "I went to go see her."
Vaea exaggerated a frown. "Now dear brother. What possessed you to do such a moronic thing?"
Halo bit on the inside of his cheek, drawing blood. "I wanted to see her."
"And? Was it worth it?" Vaea laughed in a way that was just downright mean when he didn't reply.
"Oh you sad, sad sap. I suppose it is my fault for not warning you. I just assumed you were smart enough to stay away from a woman who obviously hates you now."
"She doesn't hate me!" Halo said defensively.
Vaea rose both his eyebrows. "Well, she definitely doesn't love you anymore. I can tell you that much. That's why she's spreading all these lies. She wants to hurt you, Halo. And you're letting her into your head."
"What do you mean?"
Vaea rolled his eyes. "You must have really had the observational skills of a donkey growing up. Leilani isn't exactly the most emotionally stable woman, Halo. She hates you for leaving so she'll make up anything. I bet she even told you she has someone else."
Halo's eyes widened in realization. "She did say that. Finn told me that as well."
"It's just so she can induce guilt. Don't pay attention to her, she's always been an attention addict. She'd throw up if you looked at another woman, do you truly think she has the guts to move on?"
Halo hoped she didn't. But hearing that his brother and Finn were seeing the same things gave him hope for the opposite. That meant there were clearly things he was missing.
"Don't bother with her at all," Vaea waved off uncaringly. "She'd just be another insecure princess desperate for babies and validation. I'll find you a new woman, an emotionally stable one."
"There's no need for that, your majesty," Halo grinned widely. "You have helped me enough. I'm going to go back and give her a piece of my mind."
Vaea smirked as Halo left the room feeling filled with new energy and motivation. Leilani would have no clue what was coming her way tomorrow.
***
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