"Achoo!"
The Kyros heir suddenly sneezed, his shoulders jolting from the force of it as though someone, somewhere, had just happened to be talking about him.
But before he could even sniffle, the devoted husband sitting beside him had already leaned over and pressed his forehead directly against Luca’s.
The sudden movement pushed the golden-eyed cadet’s bangs upward as Xavier calmly checked his temperature with his own forehead, leaving Luca momentarily startled by the handsome face that’d suddenly gotten so close to his.
"Oh, I-I’m alright," Luca hurriedly reassured him. "Maybe someone just remembered me."
Though if that really was the case, then he’d have to apologize for not returning the thought, because his attention had already been thoroughly stolen by a much more pressing concern.
Namely, that handsome face being right there.
The little chipmunk’s cheeks gradually reddened as their eyes met, and unfortunately for whatever remained of his awareness, Luca had always been particularly weak whenever Xavier looked at him from that close.
His golden eyes practically turned googly.
And as though he’d completely forgotten where they were and what they were supposed to be doing, Luca’s lips slowly puckered as he stared expectantly at his husband.
A kiss, please.
Xavier obviously understood the request immediately.
After confirming that his little wife wasn’t actually running a fever, the Imperial Prince’s expression softened, and the faintest hint of a sly smile touched his lips.
Since his wife was asking so nicely, how could a devoted husband possibly refuse?
Xavier leaned closer.
Luca instinctively closed his eyes in anticipation.
Only instead of feeling those familiar lips against his, what he ended up getting was an almost desperate—
"AHEM!"
"!"
Surprisingly, only the little critter froze. The unnecessarily large wolf remained perfectly calm despite the rather compromising position they’d just been caught in.
It was only then that Luca seemed to remember exactly where they were.
His already blushing face flushed even darker as he whipped his head around, only to discover that practically everyone was staring straight at them.
"S-sorry!" Luca blurted out in mortification, immediately realizing that he’d apparently done something wrong.
And judging by that familiar expression and his personality, everyone naturally prepared themselves to hear some sort of apology.
What they didn’t expect was—
"I didn’t mean to sneeze that loudly!"
"..."
"..."
Hearing such a thing, what else could anyone really do but slowly close their eyes and pray that the Duke who’d been called out for an entirely different reason wouldn’t somehow get wind of what had just happened?
Xavier, meanwhile, possessed nowhere near the same amount of shame.
At least not anymore.
After everything he’d gone through, it was practically impossible not to develop skin even thicker than hide. And for someone married to Luca Kyros, it was only natural to aim for a face as thick as Tortie’s shell if he had any hope of surviving for the long haul.
So the Imperial Prince simply settled back into his seat, looking every bit as composed as he’d been before the interruption. If anything, his posture remained almost offensively relaxed, one arm still wrapped firmly around Luca’s waist while his hand rested against the small of his wife’s back as though he had absolutely no intention of relinquishing his hold anytime soon.
Then his gaze shifted.
Straight toward the treasonous bastard who’d dared interrupt them.
’Just because you can’t stick to your own partner doesn’t mean you need to interrupt me with mine.’
See, with almost everyone managing to survive the Mecha Manufacturing Licensure Examination, and with the whole ordeal consequently buying them a little more breathing room, they’d actually managed to have a rather decent meeting with the rest of the Mylors.
Then again, perhaps the relatively more standard yet still completely insane gifts helped improve everyone’s mood.
The materials those gifts were made from?
Well, nobody dared ask.
Or maybe what truly helped was the fact that the other Mylor siblings eventually noticed just how accustomed their parents seemed to all that clearly groundbreaking food.
That discovery most definitely redirected a considerable portion of their ire and suspicion straight toward the Marquis couple.
Apparently, Ollie and Kyle weren’t the only people who’d been keeping things from them!
Still, by the end of their regrettably short time together, they’d managed to settle the most important matters.
For one, the other Mylors eventually agreed to accept additional discreet security for the time being. They’d also given in to Luca’s earnest request to have mechas made for them, ensuring that each sibling would always have some form of personal protection available even if they never actually intended to fight with them.
If nothing else, those mechas could serve as extremely durable and ridiculously expensive mobile panic rooms.
So overall, it really had been a great day.
One that ended with a newly licensed mechanic waving his fresh-from-the-oven official license around so enthusiastically that everyone present would’ve had to suffer catastrophic memory loss to ever forget Oliver Mylor’s latest achievement.
Unfortunately, for people like them, surviving one catastrophe and somehow ending the day on a good note usually meant only one thing.
They finally had time to deal with all the problems they’d temporarily shoved onto the shelf.
Which was precisely why, despite practically everyone wanting nothing more than to pass out for perhaps an entire week, they were currently sitting through yet another meeting.
Because apparently, while the cadets had been busy surviving the examination, confusing researchers, acquiring a license, accidentally terrorizing professional pilots, and getting adopted into other people’s sibling dynamics, everyone else had been rather productive too.
And in the time it’d taken them to accomplish all of that, the people handling a certain pair of troublesome Aerun Princes had managed something equally impressive.
They’d gotten the Luxastra twins to crack.

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