After dinner at the bar, Eduardo Tercero drove Claudio Belles to the campground.
The trip was a long one.
Inside the car, Claudio Belles sits on the passenger side and asks, “How come I’ve never heard you had a grandmother?”
Eduardo Tercero smiles slightly and gives him a look, “It’s not like we’re talking about marriage yet, right?”.
The man’s smile was wrapped in slight amusement and mockery.
In the semi-darkness, Claudio Belles’ face warmed slightly as he bit his lip, “Who said anything about marrying you?
Eduardo Tercero nodded, “Well, first a relationship and then marriage.”
It was only a matter of time.
“…”
Claudio Belles pursed his lips, a little silenced by Eduardo Tercero.
Having eaten enough to get the blood flowing in his stomach again, and having driven a few hours in the afternoon to reach the western border, he was leaning against the passenger side at the moment with some fatigue.
He looked out the window at the mountains and the sliding rivers, the coast, a cold, barren beauty in the night.
Were it not for the constant war and chaos and frequent outbreaks of pestilence, the scenery would be truly beautiful and isolated.
In the gloom and darkness, Edward the Third raised his eyes and looked again at her pretty, cold face, and said, “When you came to me, you were so young that I thought I would raise you and marry you. If I had known we would be separated for ten years, I would have married you first.”
Claudio Belles was slightly taken aback, for he did not expect Eduardo Tercero to confess his feelings in such an unbridled manner.
“If President Eduardo had married me then, if we had never separated, now that ten years have passed, wouldn’t President Eduardo have grown tired?”
Eduardo Tercero raised an eyebrow, “Well yes, with you it’s always fun.”
I don’t know what words struck a chord in Claudio Belles’ heart, but he looked at his handsome face, which was suddenly bright and dark, and his eyes warmed slightly.
It felt so wonderful and touching to be sure of someone, to be coveted by someone.
Claudius Belles smiled, “When President Edward returns to H-City, take me to see your grandmother.”
Edward the Third smiled slightly, “You can’t renege if you’ve met the parents.”
Claudius Belles growled slightly, “Since you are so eager to marry me, I will grant your wish reluctantly. Only … if I’m a harpy after the wedding, you’ll have to put up with that too.”
“I don’t like harpies, but if it’s a beautiful and interesting harpy like you, I can put up with it.”
At these words, Edward the Third raised his eyes and smiled at her in a disarmingly charming way.
Claudio Belles put his arms around him, closed his eyes and leaned back on the passenger side to take a nap, a slight smile lurking on his red lips.
…
Back at the campsite, it was 12 o’clock at night when the two of them lay down on the bed.
Eduardo Tercero looked at the woman leaning on his arm, reached up to stroke the long hair that had escaped her ear, looked at her slightly tired face and asked in a muffled voice, “Tired?”
Claudius Belles sighed softly, “A little. I was tired from the hours of flying I had to do to get here this afternoon, but now I don’t feel like sleeping.”
Edward the Third curved his thin lips, “A little exercise will make you sleepy.”
“…”
That said, Eduardo Tercero was not so animalistic. He was more interested in learning to be nice when it came to her.
Claudio Belles looked at him and said, “Since you can’t sleep, Eduardo Tercero, let’s talk.”
Eduardo Tercero was somewhat interested, “Talk about what?”.
“Tell me about your childhood.”
She seemed, little by little, to want to know more about him.
Eduardo Tercero reminisced and let out a slight, bitter laugh, “It seems I was more bitter than happy as a child. My father got me into the Occult Organization when I was very small, no kid likes that kind of intense training, and besides, it’s not a game, and if you don’t do it right, it’s not a matter of starving to death, it’s just sad to be disciplined and beaten.”
Claudio Belles was a little surprised, “Is that your real father being so hard on you?”
She had thought that Edward the Third had been born stronger than her, after all, and the old Lord. Eduardo was Eduardo Tercero’s real father, no real father would be so hard on his son, I suppose.
And she was an outcast, so when he picked her up Orlondo Marta was harsh, but she could understand.
“My father said that to be merciful to me now is to cut me off in the future.”
That was understandable, agreed Claudio Belles: “So he was doing it for your sake, so that you would be better able to save your life in the future.”
Eduardo Tercero laughs lightly: “But people don’t really put themselves in the other person’s shoes. Even if you understand that it’s for my own good, you still have grudges and complaints. It’s not that I didn’t long for my father’s love when I was a child, but my father was so strict that I couldn’t feel even a trace of his concern for me.”
“Your mother, then, must have been a very gentle person?” asked Claudius Belles.
“How do you know?” Eduardo Tercero looked at her amused, somewhat surprised.
Claudio Belles analyzed sensibly, “Normally, a man like your father, who was so strict even with his own son, must have had an especially gentle wife to tolerate and understand him.”
When my mother was still alive, my father and I had a cold relationship, but my mother was in the middle, so it wasn’t so hard to get along. After my mother left, my father and I saw very little of each other and our relationship grew even more strained. To put it mildly, I saw my grandmother more often than my father.”
“Your grandmother must have adored you a lot?”
“My grandmother is related to me through the generations, so for the love of the house, she must like you.”
Claudius Belles turned and lay back in her arms, looking up at the ceiling, and said, “No elder has ever loved me.”
She had no older relatives either.
But sometimes, just because she didn’t say it and acted like she didn’t care, didn’t mean she really didn’t care in her heart.
She had met Dulcina Calvo’s parents once and envied Dulcina Calvo for how well they treated her.
Dulcina Calvo was the kind of girl who lived in a happy family, with an endearing temperament, unlike her, who was full of thorns and had a hard time fitting in.
Eduardo Tercero looked at her somewhat forlorn little face and reached out to clasp her in his arms, resting his chin on her forehead and kissing her softly, saying in a deep, soft voice, “I will love you, very, very much.”
“I know.”
Claudio, ten years before, had felt Edward the Third’s love for her.
Claudio Belles looked at him slightly, his beautiful delicate eyebrows arched, “President Eduardo, if you spoil me like a child, you won’t let me go.”
“I will do my best to spoil you like a child.”
He knew all about her past life, which, like his, had been more bitter than happy, more sad than joyful.
But it is people who have walked the line between life and death like this one who know best that hint of sweetness and joy.
Claudio Belles put his arms around Eduardo Tercero’s neck and felt satisfied.
In this world, what is valuable is not the encounter, nor the falling in love, but the understanding.
They have walked the same path, they have had similar childhood experiences, they have walked through life and death, they have had the same fears and apprehensions, so they know how to love and attract each other.
It was like a cohabitation, even if she didn’t say it, he understood.