Talk with Ronan

Cyrus and Atlas were always surrounded, whether they were together, by themselves, with their dance partners, or with family.

After a while, Cyrus felt suffocated so he walked to an unoccupied balcony and sighed in exhaustion. Unlike Atlas, he was a lot more introverted and only opened up with people he knew and loved.

He didn’t know how Atlas could be surrounded by so many people without getting tired.

As he looked up at the stars and sipped on juice, the door to the balcony opened.

It was Prince Ronan.

Truthfully, this was the first time Cyrus had ever been alone with Prince Ronan since Ronan visited them to be friends. Ronan mostly stuck to Atlas, and Sophie was always there with them.

“Oh, I did not know this balcony was occupied. Is it alright if I accompany you?” Ronan asked while shutting the door already.

“Be my guest. This is your home anyway.” Cyrus didn’t care and continued to look at the scenery in front of him. The garden was lit up for the night, so he could see the fireflies drifting through the flowers and trees.

There were a few fountains in view that were well-sculpted and polished.

There was even a rose bush maze that people could walk through. He could see some couples walking through the maze, seemingly in a world of their own.

“This is the first time without Atlas or Sophie around,” Ronan said, his expression not changing. Honestly, he wasn’t sure why he was filling the silence like this, but he did have something he wanted to say to Cyrus.

Cyrus didn’t glance at him and just nodded. “You look like you have something you want to say to me. Though we are not close like you are with Atlas, I do see us as friends and therefore, should be able to talk about difficult topics.”

“You are straight to the point as always, but that is what I appreciate about you.” Ronan looked away and closed his eyes. “I can see you are suspicious of me and my feelings for Atlas.”

“Of course, you keep saying that you do not like him romantically, but your actions say otherwise. It is also confusing Atlas who has high emotional intelligence. You look like someone who is in denial. You seem to be conflicted about your feelings for him and you keep telling him you do not like him like that to reassure some deep-rooted issue you cannot get rid of and do not know how to get rid of.”

Cyrus’ words were like a sharp blade, stabbing Ronan in all the right places to make sure he wouldn’t have a chance of coming back to life.

“I knew your tongue was sharp but I did not realize how blunt you were with your words… You are right.”

For the first time, Ronan gave a helpless and worried expression. “I do have romantic feelings for Atlas, but I am scared that it is rooted in a superficial interest and not in emotional attraction. I do not want to hurt Atlas with my problematic feelings of obsession and surface-level interest.

“Like the dragons of our world, I feel obsession and possessiveness like a dragon hoarding its treasure. I do not know if I see Atlas as a person or an object to be observed. I do want it to be the former, but the guardian dragons have said I am closer to being a dragon than I am to a human. Meaning the blood of the dragon is much stronger in me than any of my ancestors.

“I am different from my family members. I rarely feel emotions and if I do, it is mostly superficial feelings. Atlas does not deserve to be with someone like me, someone who does not feel like a human should.”

Cyrus listened carefully to everything that Ronan told him and felt that his feelings were justified. More than anything, Ronan cherished Atlas and was worried that the dragon side of him would hurt Atlas. Dragons of this world were mostly uninterested in the mortal world and only protected the Hirean Empire because this was what Sohtris wanted them to do. They protected the Empire out of their self-interest instead of the betterment of the people.

It was strange though. Sohtris, the mother of all Dragons and the founder of the Hirean Empire was a love-struck fool for the God of Light, Avlios. Those two were always attached by the hip and were mutually and madly in love. If she could love someone so deeply, shouldn’t dragons of this world be the same?

“What are you thinking about?” Ronan, who was waiting for an answer from Cyrus, saw he seemed to be thinking about something.

“I was thinking about the Dragon God and her love for the God of Light. Those two love each other so much, they sometimes forget about everything around them.”

“Why do I feel like I should not have heard that.”

Cyrus realized what he said and then put his pointer finger on his lips and made a shushing sound. “Pretend you did not hear that. Especially not from me.”

“Anyway, my point is that dragons are capable of being in love with someone. Not only do they love, but they love deeply. For now, you need to figure out where you stand on your feelings. I cannot help you with that, but the first thing you can do is to be honest with Atlas so you are not stringing him along like a kite.

“Once you are honest with not only yourself but with Atlas, it may make it easier to see where your feelings are for him.”

Cyrus made a good point. Ronan was smart, but when it came to things regarding emotions, he was like a child trying to navigate around the big feelings he had.

“I understand. I will be more honest from now on instead of being in denial.”

“Good. Since you understand, it’s time for us to go back. I am sure everyone is wondering where we are. I will leave first. You can leave after that.”

That was true. Cyrus was one of the main protagonists of this debut and having him missing for so long was bound to raise questions. Plus, he had a fiancée, so it wasn’t proper for him to be alone with someone for too long.

Cyrus did as he said he would and walked out first, leaving behind Ronan who decided to stay on the balcony a bit longer.

Ronan still wrote in his diary and he remembered every word and every page of it. From the time he had met Atlas, his diary was filled with words talking about Atlas.

Even his older sister thought he was a love-struck fool who only had Atlas in his eyes. He was teased by her and felt that what she was saying about him being in love was false.

He was half dragon and half human. He saw someone interesting and wanted to hold on to that. That was what he kept telling himself because he didn’t think he could love someone like a normal person should. Even with his parents, he didn’t hold strong familial love for them. He didn’t hate his family, he was just indifferent to them. He knew their legal relational status and tolerated it.

That was why, he didn’t think he could love someone like Cyrus had said. If he couldn’t even love his family like a normal person, how could he love someone romantically?

But then Cyrus had told him that the Dragon God was deeply in love with the God of Light. It was possible for dragons to love, but it should be rare… and it should only be with one person. Just like his ancestors who had fallen in love. One was a dragon and the other was a human.

It was time he thought about his feelings because deep inside, he knew he loved Atlas.

Maybe, he was just scared.

Ronan sighed and then walked back to the ballroom. In the distance, he saw Atlas talking with Cyrus about something. Cyrus was watching Atlas talk about something with a helpless look on his face. Atlas had a big grin while he used his hands to describe something.

Now he wanted to know what they were talking about… What could it be? Food? Music? Dances? His experience with other people? There were many things that Atlas could be talking about.

Meanwhile, Atlas was talking to Cyrus about something he ate that was similar to something he ate in their previous world. He wanted Cyrus to go try it and tell him how it was. It should be amazing because Atlas had great taste in food!

Cyrus, who wasn’t that hungry, in the end, agreed to try it because Atlas was looking at him with eyes that were hard to say no to… Let’s just eat it and tell Atlas what he thought.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grandpa Marky: Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Love a ML who falls in love first. XD Pray for Ronan to come to terms with his feelings because he got a himbo who is a bit dense so it's gonna take a hot minute...

Anyway, that's it from me. I will see you all next week :D have a lovely day/night my beautiful grandchildren.