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The device is bizarre and alien to him, but Rouxls is wholeheartedly fixated on learning how it works before he “allows” Queen to lend it to Lancer for him to play on. Of course, she already has (multiple times, now) but the realization that having some kind of control over things that may or may not have the potential to negatively impact his son figure’s well-being, in however minor a way, was a rather large boost to his confidence sparked the slightest warm fuzzy feeling in Queen’s computer heart. She figured it was the least she could do, anyway, as the fact she hadn’t completely lost her composure upon learning she would have to try to understand Castle Town’s absurd lack of technological advancement and made a fool of herself was primarily thanks to him. She at least owed him something for being the man who got her acquainted with the antiquated.
“…Andeth this is when I…” Queen looks over at him, absolutely engrossed in trying to figure out how exactly he was supposed to progress. He hadn’t quite registered that depending on what the player was interacting with each button would do something different.
“You Hit The A Button Again, Rouxlsy,” she says, for what was definitely not the first time that day, and leans over his shoulder to take the handheld console from him. He refuses, pulling it to the left out of her reach, but does what she says anyway.
“You Know I Could Just Show You What To Do, Right?” her hand retreats. “You’re Really Invested For Someone Who Doesn’t Know How This Thing Works. There’s No Way You’re Just Playtesting It Anymore.”
“Oh, please. Thou don’teth know anything about whate I’m doing.” He waves her off and she stifles a laugh and falls backwards onto the bed.
It’s Lancer’s room, of course, but the prince (or was he a king, now? It was bizarre for either of them to try to refer to him that way) had long since left his parental units to their own devices to go out and play on the town. He didn’t understand their banter when they really got into it, and quite didn’t want to.
“Actually I’ve Played This Thing Like Fourteen Times And Because I’m A Genius I Hold The World Record Speedrun Time On It Except They Don’t Count Times Made By Computers I Checked. I Think I Know What I’m Talking About.”
“Mine queene.”
“Yeah?”
“I don’st know whate a speederun is.”
“Oh Yeah I Should Have Expected That.”
Rouxls sets the little game to sleep mode (Queen is delightfully surprised he remembers how) and lays it flat on the floor, gently. “Welleth, I thinkest it similarly to how you kneweth not the functionse of the bars inst the Dungeon. I troweth you saidst somethingeth alonge the lines of ‘Why Not Just Establishe A Firewalle?’”
Rouxls delivers his mimicry of Queen in a falsetto that makes her laugh. It’s not her haughty, smug one, but something that sounds more akin to the whir of an cooling fan. It makes him smile - over the relatively short time they have spent in each other’s company he’s come to hear it much more often than most other people that spoke to Queen, and one could never claim truthfully that he didn’t appreciate the hell out of it.
“You Insult Me So Much I Really Do Think I Should Just Throw You Into The Acid Maybe It’ll Teach You A Lesson.”
“Thou cannot hurteth me in a waye that matters.”
“I Am Going To Take That As A Challenge. Frankly, Your Feeble Little Nerve Endings Will Not Know Peace I Am Going To Set You On Fire Or Something.”
“Didth you just tacke that last part on so as noteth to sound flirtatious?” It’s a bold question. Perhaps a bit too much so, even if he didn’t mean it so seriously.
He actually finds himself thinking about taking it back with a “just kidding”, but Queen is faster. “Why Did You Ask? Do You Want It To Be?”
Rouxls blinks. “Be whateth?”
“Hm… Suggestive.”
It’s a statement that, had he had blood proper to do so, would make him blush like mad. His lack of ability to do so didn’t have any effect on just how flustered it made him feel, though.
“I, er— well, um…”
There’s a silence, for a moment, until Rouxls mutters something Queen can’t quite make out.
“If You Don’t Speak Up I Can’t Hear You.”
He clears his throat and says it again, only slightly above a whisper this time.
“Perhaps— perhapseth a little bit.”
“A Little Bit?”
“A lot.” Rouxls takes a handful of his coat and squeezes it nervously. If he had knuckles proper, they’d be turning white. “I think I would.”
What are they to each other, anyway? They’ve got next to nothing in common, and prior to taking care of Lancer had never even spoken — at least, not substantially. But perhaps that was the catalyst. Her staking the claim to parenthood had sparked Rouxls’ trust in her initially — actual trust, not his ever-present desire to be the favored servant of whoever in the area seemed the most malevolent, and the two of them were able to cultivate a relationship on equal footing; that of co-parents, but more importantly, perhaps that of friends. But they would not describe each other as friends — Queen was too far above Rouxls’ self-imposed station for him to abandon his incessant need to be second (or third) best, even though class and societal hierarchy was really a non-issue in Castle Town, and Ralsei made sure of it (Queen was queen only in name, simply because she had no other). They were co-parents for sure, but he was interminably a vice father.
But then again, the two of them were the closest thing to a friend that the other had. Perhaps the inexperience the both of them had in that regard kept them from using the label.
Would a co-parent, or even a friend, spend time with someone just because the sheer difference between him and she was so ridiculous that even though Queen a super-genius with an internet’s worth of knowledge and experiences at your beck and call, everything just felt so implausible that she found the way the two of them bumbled around each other endearing? An internet’s worth of knowledge could not prepare one for how fun it was to spend time with a man who didn’t know what a start button does. Rouxls was strange, and though the internet was full of strange things, reading about them was quite different than spending quality time with the real thing. Perhaps she liked it a bit better.
And though Rouxls had expressed a view of Queen that was twinged with the faintest possible taste of romantically-oriented affection, it had been all in good fun, wasn’t it? The result of his automatic idealization of anyone in a higher rank than he. That feeling had faded over time, and in its place developed an appreciation for the more down-to-earth things Queen had to offer — he wasn’t used to people who spent time with him simply because they wanted to.
“Huh. I Didn’t Think You’d Admit It That Fast.”
Rouxls coughs slightly once more. “…No use in beating aroundeth the bush, ist there?”
“I Guess Not.”
The kiss Queen plants on his lips is short and quite fleeting, and before he can process it, much less say anything, she’s already opening the door to leave.
“You’re Still On The Tutorial, You Know. Tell Me If You Need Any Help. Catch You Later, Kaard.”
Queen pulls the door shut behind her, but not before flashing a smile in his direction. What she leaves is a sight to see: Rouxls sitting on the edge of Lancer’s bed, raising a shaky hand to his lips, and melting ever so slightly but feeling entirely like a puddle splayed on the floor.
It’s also not something she plans to let him live down.