Drinking Party
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine, I’m just borrowing them for a little while and will return them unharmed when I am done.
Author’s Notes- After the mess that was The Royal Romance, I needed something fluffy and fun so I wrote this. It was inspired by one of the OTP breakdown ships I did on Kenna and Diavolos, the one that asked about bachelor/bachelorette parties. I decided to turn the paragraph I wrote into an actual story (and I’ll write the companion story about Kenna’s experiences) and this was the result.
Pairing- Kenna/Diavolos, very minor Tevan/Zenobia.
Rating- PG
Summary- The night before Diavolos’s wedding to Kenna, her friends invite him to the tavern for drinks.
Words- 1966
“Tonight is your last night as a single man,” Magnus, Diavolos’s best friend and second-in-command commented, “I have to admit, I never thought I’d see the day when you settled down. I figured domestic life would be too tame for you, though I guess your bride-to-be isn’t the average woman.”
“No, she’s definitely not,” Diavolos agreed, smiling at the thought of Kenna. She was the most extraordinary woman he had ever met.
“King Diavolos!”
Diavolos turned to see Dom striding towards him, Raydan and several other gentlemen following him.
“Am I being ambushed?” He asked dryly.
“Kind of,” Dom said with a grin, “we’re here to take your drinking.”
Diavolos considered the invitation for a moment. He knew these men were important to Kenna and that meant they were going to be part of his life and he needed to get to know them better, but given their history, they needed some way to break the ice. Maybe drinking together was the way to do it.
“Sure,” he agreed amicably, “do you mind if Commander Magnus comes along?”
“Of course not,” Raydan said smoothly, “the more the merrier.”
For a moment Diavolos considered inviting a bunch of his men along, but he decided that would be asking for trouble. It was peacetime, but there had been enough bad blood between Stormholt and Abanthus in recent years that one shared victory wasn’t going to erase it all. He and Magnus could be counted on to be civil, but others might not be and it was better not to risk it.
“Where are we going?”
“The village tavern,” Dom told him with a grin, “Val was pissed when I claimed it.”
“She shouldn’t have been, Annelyse would never have agreed to drink at a tavern.” Raydan pointed out.
“Tell that to Val,” Jackson joked, “I’d watch my back if I were you, she always gets her revenge.”
“Until the day she learns to turn into a dragon, I feel pretty confident in my ability to win a fight,” Dom said with a shrug.
“She did try to kill you once,” Whitlock pointed out as they exited the castle.
“Val tried to kill you?” Diavolos asked with a raised eyebrow. “What did you do?”
“Uh… Kenna… Kinda got hurt because of me,” Dom said quietly, “It was at Thorngate after I… uh… well… roasted your uncle, who was trying to kill Kenna.” He gave Diavolos a sideways look as if waiting for a reaction.
Diavolos wondered how many potential minefields they’d be navigating over the course of the night. Probably a lot, given the history between his family and most of these men.
“I chopped my father’s head off because he tried to kill Kenna,” Diavolos said blandly, “I’m not going to criticize you for taking down my obnoxious fool of an uncle for the same reason.”
“I wish I could have seen you take down your father,” Magnus said casually, “the bastard had it coming.”
The other men all exchanged looks, obviously surprised by the sentiment.
“Weren’t you loyal to your king?” Tevan asked after a moment.
“I am now,” Magnus said simply. “My loyalty has always been to Commander Diaviolos and the same goes for many of the men. He’s the one who earned our respect and loyalty and as long as he followed his father, so did we.”
“No wonder the transition has gone so smoothly,” Jackson remarked, “I’d been curious about that.”
“We’re also all sick of war,” Magnus said flatly, “I think most of the men are thrilled with the idea of a lasting peace.”
There was an echo of agreement and then the conversation turned to the idea of peacetime and the things that they were all looking forward to. That topic was enough to distract them the rest of the way to the tavern.
—
“I assume you are aware that I will roast you alive if you hurt her, right?” Dom asked conversationally a while later, after they were seated at a table with mugs of sale.
“Don’t be silly, Dominic, it would be much more likely that he would just disappear,” Raydan said blandly, “less messy that way.”
Diavolos laughed even though he knew they were both perfectly serious. “I think you are underestimating my bride,” he told them, “Kenna is perfectly capable of taking me down all by herself if she so chose.”
“That she is,” Raydan agreed with a small smile.
“Speaking on the queen… Dom, I want to hear how she broke your arm.” Anton said with a grin.
All eyes turned towards Dom.
“I am definitely interested in hearing this story,” Diavolos commented, leaning back in his chair.
Dom groaned, “it’s really not that exciting. She was 11, I was 13. We were sparring and Kenna managed to make me lose my footing, but I slipped and fell into a pile of rocks. I landed badly and broke my arm. Her mother was mortified and insisted I recover in the castle and Kenna got a lecture on how a princess interacts with her subjects.”
A chorus of laughter greeted the story.
“It’s so easy to picture,” Jackson teased, “I bet she barely worked up a sweat either.”
“Hey, I didn’t know I could throw fire then,” Dom protested.
“If it makes you feel better, Kai has broken several of my ribs. More than once.” Noa told him.
“Aurynn broke my nose once,” Tevan said conversationally.
All eyes turned to him.
“Lady Aurynn?” Raydn repeated, obviously surprised.
“Well, she did it by tripping and knocking me over and sending me face first into a table,” Tevan elaborated, “but the result was the same.”
“You’ve all met my sister,” Diavolos said with a shrug, “she also bites.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all,” Jackson said dryly, “though I think he has the scariest sister,” he nodded his head in Raydan’s direction.
“Oh yeah,” Dom agreed emphatically, “hand down. She is terrifying.”
—
“…he just kept bragging about how he was the best rider in the kingdom until Kenna challenged him to a race,” Dom said with a grin, “I think he would have turned her down except she did it publicly and his friends were all jeering him. Kenna won, of course, and after that every time his family came to court, he avoided her.”
“That sounds exactly like Kenna,” Diavolos said with a smile, “it sounds like she hasn’t really changed.”
“She has a little,” Dom corrected, “she used to feel trapped by royal life and I don’t think she does anymore. I think she’s had enough adventure for a lifetime and just wants to settle down and be the best queen she can.”
“Losing your home will make you appreciate it more,” Raydan quietly.
Diavolos thought of what little he knew about the other man and offered, “you are more than welcome to make Lykos your permanent base.”
The spymaster smiled, “thank you, but my place is at Stormholt. That is where my skills will be put to the best use, I’ll leave Lykos in my sister’s capable hands.”
“Between her and Zenobia, it will definitely be interesting,” Diavolos said with a laugh.
“This is where I put in my formal request to stay by your side,” Magnus told him.
“Magnus, I’m touched,” Diavolos commented, “or I would be if I thought you were motivated out of friendship and not the desire to not have to deal with Zenobia.”
“I think your sister is charming,” Tevan spoke up, “though a little shy.”
That commented was greeted with laughter and sounds of disbelief.
“Only because she is madly in love with you,” Diavolos retorted and then winced as soon as he realized what he said, “can we forget I said that?”
“Uh…” Tevan said staring at him with wide eyes.
“I think that’s a no,” Noa said taking a big sip of his drink.
“Don’t worry, Kenna will protect you from Zenobia,” Dom teased as Tevan continued to stare, “or maybe Tevan will be stunned into silence forever and you’ll be safe.”
—
“There he is, fighting off the attacking army, taking out soldiers left and right. Finally, he takes them all out and only then does he realize that he doesn’t have a shirt on,” Magnus finished with an unrepentant grin in Diavolos direction.
“I’m going to appoint you head of Zenobia’s personal guard,” Diavolos threatened as the rest of the table exploded with laughter.
“We both know you would never do that,” Magnus said with a shrug, “not only would you trust no one else to watch your back, you wouldn’t risk me sharing with your sister just how loose your tongue has been.” He nodded towards Tevan, who hadn’t said much since Diavolos’s comment about Zenobia’s feelings.
“If you had as much to drink as your commander implied, I’m impressed you could walk straight let alone wield your sword,” Noa said with a laugh.
“It takes more than a few drinks to make me forget how to use my sword,” Diavolos retorted, automatically reaching for said sword.
“Sometimes the alcohol makes you a better swordsman because you forget to be scared,” Jackson agreed, putting a hand on his sword.
“And less inhibited,” Dom agreed, also reaching for his sword, “you forget to think, you just react and become one with the blade. I can demonstrate?”
“No!” Whitlock said loudly, a note of panic in his voice. “No demonstrations. In fact, let’s put all the swords away before they ask us to leave.”
“They would never kick the king out,” Raydan pointed out with amusement, “however, Whitlock has a point, I believe that we are making the other patrons nervous.”
A quick glance showed that everyone else in the tavern was staring at their table.
“Another time then,” Diavolos commented, putting his sword back in place and nothing that the other men did the same. “Another round?”
—
“There was once a maid from Fydoria fair,” Noa sang at the top of his lungs.
“With rosy lips and a rose in her hair,” Anton joined in.
“We met in the garden one summer day,” Jackson added and then soon all the men were signing.
Well most of them. The spymaster, who both seemed disturbingly sober, and Whitlock both refrained from doing so. Whitlock looked like he had a headache despite the fact that he hadn’t touched a drop of alcohol.
“Finally,” he muttered when they reached the castle.
“No, no, no,” Magnus scolded when Diavolos turned towards the castle, “your bunking down with us tonight, remember?”
Diavolos had vague recollections of that fact, though with the alcohol coursing through his veins it was hard to remember why. He just wanted to see Kenna, well not just see her, he wanted the chance to touch her…
However, as delightful as that thought was, Magnus was already leading him away from the castle and towards the Abanthus encampment, Raydan accompanying them.
“I’m not about to meet a mysterious accident am I?” Diavolos asked, weighing his ability to defend himself if that were the case. He hated to admit it, but the odds were probably in the other man’s favor.
Raydan simply laughed, “on the contrary, I want to make sure that nothing prevents you from walking down that aisle tomorrow. Kenna’s happiness is very important to me.”
It was a warning, no matter how smoothly delivered. Diavolos met Raydan’s eyes and no further words were needed, they understood each other perfectly.
Suddenly the spymaster smiled, a genuine smile, and Diavolos knew he had passed some sort of secret test and wondered with idle curiously is any of the others had also been testing him and if so, how he had fared.
He also wondered how much his head was going to hurt in the morning.
- End
