<3
Jontae...? Compliments of Rogue?
The king blinked, dark gaze settling on the small scrap of fluff. A... puppy? His lip curled automatically, ears tipping back in a shocked and disgusted reaction. He had been with Rogue on the ship voyage here, he recalled, a harmless fling that had quickly been forgotten in light of the devastating wreck. 'Harmless' was no longer the proper adjective, if she had begotten a child!
It wasn't his fault, after all, pregnancy was entirely the woman's choice in his convoluted mind. Jontae's bright eyes regarded him happily as she chirped her greeting, the last two words any bachelor ever wanted to hear in his lifetime. He did not answer her with anything more than an exasperated huff of air and a nonplussed expression.
Séraphine and Ruri both continued speaking, but he was no longer listening very closely. He gave his former shipmate a distracted nod, acknowledging that she would be leaving again with no guarantee of return. It figured. This entire day had been turned on its ear already; of course nothing good would come of this. That was reinforced by a familiar laughter - Firefly, waltzing in at the wrong moment so that he could never live this down. He had a daughter. A fluffy, tiny little runt that was being dumped here as punishment for some crime he was innocent of.
It took a great deal to leave the monarch speechless, but the effects could not last for too long. As the little mongrel continued her assault on the offending dandelion, joined now by a kitten for some inexplicable reason, Jacquez shook his head in bemusement. "Ehh, je m'en fous. Child-rearing is a womanly duty; Firefly, Ruri, if you will assume responsibility for it, it can stay." He scratched his chest idly, studying the clumsy little thing. How odd. It looked nothing like him, in his opinion.
Wryly, he added, "Séraphine, if mademoiselle Rogue has any more deliveries for me, tell her I do not have the space for them." His whiskers quirked into a sour smile, his black eyes unreadable. It was possible Jontae would grow up to be a valuable crewmate, intelligent and flawless such as himself, but perfection was hard to come by. In any case, she was not his problem either. He had already reared Ruri; one was enough.