You can go now

There was a long pause after he spoke. The silence crept in again, it was unnerving for him to let it rest, but it would be more uncomfortable to speak.

Axel was twitching to leave, he took a step back towards the door.

"What would you do?"

The question stopped him in his tracks. It was innocent enough, a bit of polite banter if it had come from anyone else, but it came from her. If it came from the queen it was probably a test.

Audrey looked at her son's fragile eyes. Her gaze wasn't harsh, but it wasn't exactly gentle either, more like that of a teacher asking a student a question.

Axel's eyes widened as if they were going to fall out,

"Me? You're asking me?"

The queen raised an eyebrow,

"Is that a bad thing?"

Her tone was unreadable, though even if you could hear an emotion in it Axel still would have been terrified.

"I… just wasn't expecting you to ask me."

Audrey's gaze softly slightly, as if trying to show her interpretation of gentleness.

"I asked for your opinion. I didn't say I would do it."

Axel left out a breath he didn't know he had been holding.

"So what would you do?"

The question was more gentle than the last time she asked it, though…

"I… I don't know."

Axel couldn't answer it, he didn't know what his mother wanted to hear, what the queen wanted to hear. What the right answer was.

The queen's face hardened slightly,

"We'll finish this later"

Her tone wasn't sprinkled with her roughed gentleness anymore it was simply… disappointed. Again.

Axel stood there for a moment, still thinking over the question she had asked him.

"You can go now."

Her voice cut into his thoughts once again, this time it wasn't full of concern, just annoyance.

Axel slowly took a step back toward the door, then he turned around and walked out.