The Sun Also Rises

There was, as always, a distinct brightness to the young blonde woman with the vibrant blue eyes. Beylani an eternally happy sort of person. The woman portraying a ready warmth and eagerness in all she did. It was a distinctly endearing trait, one that Fae side of himself found decidedly pleasing in turn. Her natural good nature was refreshing and her ready smile incapable of not pulling one from the man in turn as he strode into that bistro to embrace the woman warmly. He reached easily for her hand, his lips bracing the back of it in that age old gesture before the Monarch easily returned it to her. He was oblivious entirely to those thoughts of the woman and the man she had so taken to thinking near wistfully of in those moments. Dorian instead pausing to inspect that place as he took his own seat. This the first trip to any sort of 'bistro' he had ever had. The Fae not at all sure of just what he had anticipated. The place appearing decidedly casual and yet he hardly found he minded such a thing all the same- even if several other patrons had taken to pointing in his direction and attempting those hushed sorts of whispers past experience had told him were almost always about him in turn.

Really he supposed, he simply ought to become used to it and perhaps to a degree he had. Dorian far less concerned with either the press or public then he had once been. The Monarch simply accepting their presence and their bizarre fascination with his life and wedding. The public, for the most part, tended to respect his space in the very least. The press another matter entirely and yet for now his own security was doing decidedly well to keep any whom knew he was here outside that building. Dorian hardly wishing to interrupt anyone else lunch through his own presence. That comment form the woman on just how long it had been since they had last seen one another readily distracted his attention from the world around him, his silver gaze meeting her own then as that soft chuckle rose within his throat. It had been some time indeed since their last tea party! The Monarch neatly folding that menu to place it to the side for now as his head nodded.

"That it has."

He agreed simply. Dorian asking over those simple pleasantries then. The Monarch finding himself almost curious of the women's Christmas and just where she had gone for the holidays. To her family, he suspected, such a girl as she surely had an equally pleasant family or group of friends to enjoy that season with. How those holidays were celebrated outside off his own country a topic that forever intrigued the man. Dorian quite assured he might never understand all those more american traditions and yet he saw little need to interject. The young woman eagerly assuring him that she had, indeed, returned home for Christmas before inquiring after himself. That ready grin finding his lips once more as he offered those accented lyrics again.

"We returned to Sebastian's home in England for Christmas itself before spending a short time at my Palace in Caserta to finalise details for the wedding, then we returned here where my Father and Alexander joined us for Italian Christmas. It was a....family affair."

How much he so treasured those words! To so finally have that family by far the most exquisite of gifts he received that year. Matteo and Alexander too so finally given a reason to celebrate those holidays with more than just one another as they had done for so many centuries. Giles and Elaine having been equally as thrilled to have Sebastian and himself 'home' for those few days. Dorian assured he would not change it, not at all. Not after all those years spent so alone. He hardly allowed such thoughts to find him now though, the Monarch determined to cast those distant memories aside. Dorian instead so choosing to ask after Andras. After all, he had so hardly failed to notice the interest the pair held within one another at his own afternoon tea. Surely Andras had seen fit to ask Beylani to escort him by now! That rush of colour to the woman's cheeks at the mere mention of his name decidedly telling. Dorian unable to prevent that near knowing look as the woman spoke of the Winter Solstice the other Fae had taken her too.

"Ah! So he had finally decided to court your properly. As he should. I feared for his skills when he showed such an ineptitude for cutlery."

Dorian's own features frowned slightly at the memory of Andras' lack of skill when it came to using his fork. That near age old term of 'courting' so falling from his lips, the Monarch largely unaware that such a word had long ago fallen out of fashion and that, perhaps, Beylani and Andras had not quite yet achieved that 'dating' status the modern times dictated just yet. After all, within his own times such things were hardly so secretive, not when a woman had already walked out with a man several times as Andras and Beylani had surely done. To be seen in public was a statement. One that so announced to society that the man intended to court that chosen woman and surely, if Andras was so escorting her to such events, that statement had been made clear enough. In the least, Dorian believed it had been and yet he was hardly surprised, the pair's ready attraction to one another clear. That inquiry off his own wedding drawing his attention once more.

"It is all finally starting to come together now, thank goodness, I have never had to plan such a big event in all my life. It is terribly exciting and yet terribly exhausting all at once. I daren't even show Sebastian that list of costs.All the venues are sorted though, as is the music and the cake and the flowers and the guests and the food- although that was a terrible drama. Did you quite know there are people whom are 'vegetarians'? These people do not eat any meat. Whoever heard of such people?"

The topic of vegetarians had been a distinctly vocal one within their own house of late. Dorian simply unable to understand the concept. Such eating habits having ceased to exist in his own time and yet it was hardly that very choice the man so disagreed with in any sense. Rather, within that age he had been born into it was the peasantry alone whom consumed vegetables. Meat a distinct luxury. To be able to serve ones guests meat spoke volumes of their position and wealth. To serve vegetables alone, as if they could not afford finer food else did not value their guests enough to offer them meat was an utter sin. He was sure of it. Dorian refusing to be thought of poorly by but even one of their guests. A man who could not afford meat at his table was a poor man. Dorian assured he was no such thing. The Fae simply unable to understand that such a line of thinking no longer existed.

"I shall not have my guests think poorly of me by serving them nothing but vegetables."

He commented simply. Sebastian and himself having discussed the matter at length already until the caterer had refused to work with Dorian at all and Sebastian had been left in charge of such meals. That matter still very much a sore point for the man even if it had so been resolved. His good nature, however, was quick to return as always.

"Tell me, have you been enjoying your work with Alexander at his cafe?"

Dorian Aragona