The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era

Chapter 826: WULFRIC’S GOOD MORNING

WULFRIC opened his eyes slowly. The morning light pushed through the gaps in his heavy curtains, casting soft lines of gold across the wide ceiling of his bedroom. He blinked a few times and stretched his arms above his head, feeling the pleasant pull in his muscles. His whole body felt loose and warm, like he had slept deeper than he had in weeks or maybe months. The usual tightness behind his eyes was gone. So was the weight that often sat on his chest in the mornings. Instead, he felt a calm he rarely experienced.

He turned his head on the pillow and stared at the light shifting across the far wall of the large room. Everything was still and peaceful. Then the memory of last night came back to him all at once. The atrium. The movie. Aster’s laugh. The way Aster had looked at him when he asked if they should make it official. They were together now. He was Aster’s boyfriend. A wide grin spread across his face before he could stop it.

He still could not believe it. After all this time, after all the waiting and hoping, it had actually happened. They were really in a relationship now. It felt like a dream, the kind he never wanted to wake up from. A very, very good dream. But even if it was a dream, he would find a way to make it real. He would grab onto it with both hands and refuse to let go. There was no way he would allow this to not be true.

Then his mind drifted back to their conversation right before they both logged out.

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”I thought you’d only give me an answer once you won a best actor award,” Wulfric said as they both ate the rest of the snacks on the table. ”Not that I mind. I clearly don’t. It’s just that I had already prepared myself to wait. So what happened tonight was more than unexpected. A good kind of unexpected, though. The best kind.”

Aster picked up a piece of nacho, loaded it with cheese and the other toppings, and took a bite. ”That’s my initial plan. I was going to wait until I won that best actor award before I gave you an answer. But then we already kissed, and more than once I might add. If I kept you waiting after that, it would just look like I was stringing you along. I can be hypocritical sometimes, but not that hypocritical.”

”I would have been fine being strung along,” Wulfric said, and he meant it. He had always been confident that they would end up together no matter how long it took. ”But this is way better. At least now I have the right to say you’re mine without sounding delusional. I know I can’t tell just anyone, even though I want to shout it from the top of a building. But I’m okay with that. Just knowing it’s true is enough.”

Aster chuckled, the smile brightening his face. ”Don’t worry. Once things settle down with the Lancasters, once my father’s name is cleared, and once I have enough recognition that no one can say I only succeeded because of you or my family, I will let everyone know that we’re together. It might take some time for all of that to happen, though.”

Hearing that, Wulfric felt the urge to blast the Lancasters into pieces. If not for their greed, Aster might already be living openly as a Grimaldi. Maybe they could even have an arranged marriage by now. But then again, if things had gone differently, Aster’s mother might not have ended up with his father. And then there would be no Aster at all. So did that mean he should actually thank the Lancasters for bringing the two of them together? He shook his head. That felt wrong. He would just stay angry at them and be grateful for Aster’s existence separately.

It was probably better not to say any of that out loud. Anyway, the Lancasters were the bad guys here. To be fair, some of them might still be worth saving. But the ones at the top were like cancers that needed to be cut out of society. So he really needed to plan that meeting with Cynric to figure out how they should deal with the Lancasters once and for all. Now that the two of them had made up, it would be easier to come up with a plan together.

Of course, he would not let Aster worry about any of this. The only thing Aster should have to think about was reaching the top of the entertainment industry. Wulfric would take care of everything else.

”Don’t worry,” Wulfric said. ”If anyone ever tries to say you only made it because of something other than your own talent, I’ll handle them.”

Aster looked at him, clearly amused. ”Please do not handle them with violence.”

”There are plenty of ways to deal with someone that don’t involve violence,” Wulfric said with a shrug.

Aster chuckled, probably thinking he was joking. Which he wasn’t, for the record. But Wulfric didn’t bother to correct him. He knew Aster wouldn’t approve if he went too far, so he had no intention of doing anything extreme. His response would just match whatever the other person said or posted. Nothing more, nothing less.

They kept eating and talking, the happy mood between them not fading. When the time came for Aster to log out, Wulfric held him a little longer before letting go. Then he sat alone in the quiet atrium, a smile still on his face.

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Wulfric got up and dropped to the floor, knocking out a set of pushups to wake up his muscles. After everything that happened last night, he wanted nothing more than to hop on a ship to the capital right now and hold Aster for real. And kiss him. Definitely kiss him. That would be his first priority.

Maybe he should also come clean about him being ’White Wolf’. At that thought, he couldn’t help but cringe. That would be one hell of an awkward conversation.