Lucian had never been good with emotions.
Not his own, and certainly not someone else's.
So when he saw the tear slide down Eline's face, he didn't react immediately. He simply… looked. Watched it fall, slow and quiet, as if trying to understand what exactly he was witnessing.
In this house, no one cried.
Not like this.
People here endured. Controlled. Suppressed.
Weakness wasn't shown -it was erased before it could surface.
And yet, here Eline was, sitting right in front of him, breaking over something as simple as… breakfast.
It didn't make sense.
It shouldn't make sense.
But it did something to him anyway.
Eline, on the other hand, realized it a second too late.
The moment he felt the tear, his expression shifted. Embarrassment flooded in instantly, sharp and suffocating. He lifted his hand, as if he could hide it, as if he could undo it,but it was already there. Seen.
"…"
That made it worse.
Much worse.
Another tear followed, and then another, until he couldn't stop it anymore. His shoulders tensed, his breathing uneven, his face turned away slightly as if that would make it disappear.
It didn't.
In fact, the more he tried to hold it back, the more it came.
Lucian frowned slightly, clearly unsettled now. "There's nothing to cry about," he said, his voice less sharp than before, but still firm. "It's just breakfast. I don't think it's that serious."
Eline didn't respond.
He couldn't.
His head was still aching from the alcohol, his thoughts messy, his emotions slipping out without control. He didn't even know why he was crying anymore. It just… felt like too much.
"…can you leave me alone?" he managed to say after a moment, his voice low and strained. "I want to cry."
Lucian went still.
That sentence-
It didn't fit anywhere in his understanding.
I want to cry.
Who wanted that?
For a moment, he didn't know what to do. Truly didn't. His instinct was to shut it down, to force control back into the situation, but something about the boy in front of him,disheveled, embarrassed, vulnerable made that instinct feel… misplaced.
Violence, authority, pressure
None of it felt right here.
Not for this.
Lucian took a small step back.
Then another.
He was about to leave.
Because leaving was easier than dealing with something he didn't understand.
But just as he turned
Something clicked.
A thought.
Simple. Practical.
"If you stop crying and eat your breakfast," he said, pausing without turning fully back yet, "I'll take you out."
The words came out almost casually, but they weren't.
It was the first solution that made sense to him.
Eline didn't react immediately.
The words barely registered at first, drowned under everything else he was feeling.
But then,
Take you out.
Slowly, he looked up.
Lucian had turned slightly now, watching him -not impatiently, not harshly, but with something else in his eyes. Something Eline couldn't quite read.
"…what?" Eline asked softly.
"Wherever you want," Lucian said. "We'll go. Just eat your breakfast and get ready."
There was no hesitation in his tone.
No sign that he would take it back.
And without waiting for an answer, he turned and walked away.
Eline sat there for a few seconds, completely still.
The tears had stopped.
Not because he wanted them to
But because something else had taken over.
Going out.
The thought felt… distant. Unreal.
He hadn't stepped outside that gate in so long that the idea itself felt unfamiliar. Like something from another life.
And yet-
It pulled at him.
Tempting.
Dangerous.
Enough to quiet everything else.
A while later, the maid returned with the breakfast.
The same red soup.
Eline stared at it for a moment, his expression unreadable.
He knew how this worked.
Just one bite.
That's all it took.
After that, his body would do the rest.
"…fine," he muttered under his breath.
He picked up the spoon, hesitated for just a second, and then took a bite.
And just like every other time
He didn't stop.
By the time he was done, the maid had already brought clothes for him.
A crisp white shirt, neatly pressed, paired with tailored trousers.
"Sir Lucian asked for you to wear this," the maid said carefully, correcting herself mid-sentence.
Eline looked at the clothes, and for the first time that morning
His mood felt… lighter.
Not completely.
But enough.
He got ready quickly, almost without realizing how fast he was moving. There was a quiet excitement building inside him, something he hadn't felt in a long time.
And before he could think too much about it
He found himself walking down the hallway.
Toward Lucian's room.
The realization didn't even hit him properly.
It was instinctive.
Almost childlike.
As if he had somewhere to be.
As if someone was waiting.
He knocked.
No response.
He knocked again.
Still nothing.
A small frown formed on his face.
"…did he just lie to me?" he murmured.
And then
A hand touched his shoulder from behind.
Warm. Firm.
Eline froze.
"I did not lie to you."
Lucian's voice came from just behind him.
Close enough to feel.
Close enough to unsettle.