Lurimol time !!! Thank you.... This one got a bit away from me eheheh so I'm sorry it's a bit long.
Hegemol is the biggest softie and is also the world's most repressed idiot, a deadly combination ashtrh. He's very, very happy and truly honored that Lurien invites him to learn damselfly dances, but... hoogh. He was able to repress the urges before and just keep himself rather set away from others when it was Time To Fling, but now that he has an actual person of his desires, and a 'potential partner' he wants to show off to... that's getting a little harder.
He may start trying to invite Lurien to come watch him spar with his other knights, who are all partially confused when The Watcher shows up and just. Does as he does (watches). But when hegemol flips Ogrim, something he really doesn't do, I think it would finally click for Ogrim what's happening as the other beetle in the group ashffh. [SpongeBobgrin.png "You like Lurien, don't you Hegemol.]
I think this would culminate in Hegemol entering and inviting Lurien to a knightly tournament that's being held for the masses, something he's explicitly expressed disinterest in before ("Ah, I'm too old for those games" or "I've no need to win adoration" etc). And coupled with a poster of a beetle hunk as part of the advertising it finally FINALLY clicks for Lurien what is Happening.
And Lurien bless his heart tries to. Help? By saying "You don't need to win my affections this way, you know. I don't even have a preference for strength." Which is intended well but makes Hegemol [deflating balloon noises] internally because sorry Lurien his mind is still in flinging mode and takes that to mean he's not the strongest and may in fact be a pity pick.
Anyway Aedmond the butler comes to the rescue that night while making Lurien his tea and explain that he just accidentally turned down Hegemol's courtship advances, and that the *ritual* of it all is very important. And Lurien's single braincell devoted to social things is like OH.................. thank you Aedmond this is why I hired you above all others.
So he still goes to the tourney and Hegemol immediately perks up upon seeing him from the ring like a goddamn golden retriever of a man and starts fuckin beetle brawling with the utmost intensity. And with every fling he glances up at Lurien in his secluded box seat (with Aedmond) and Lurien makes sure to always appear leaning forward maybe with a hand on his heart or something akin to a taken aback swoon, even if he wouldn't normally.
Hegemol ends up getting into the final match against his own first squire, Gytha, who is my huge Trans Hercules Beetle and she's definitely here to get some bitches. She and Hegemol normally brawl whenever they see each other, it's their tradition, but *normally* Gytha wins. She's younger, more spry, and as his squire knows a lot of his weak points as he's the one that trained her, and she's since developed her own fighting style and methods once she was knighted. She also has the huge Hercules Beetle horns that make it easier for her to grab and fling even huge bugs like Heg. (She is also, notably, the only non-enemy bug Hegemol will ever use his full strength against, because he knows she can take it.)
Their match may even go longer than the preliminaries because when Hegemol actually cares about what losing means (it means nothing to Lurien but yknow, Fling Brain in full swing here), he doesn't just give up on the first grab from Gytha. He squeezes his hands into her horns right before she flips him and wrenches them off of him, he traps her neck between his horns in a move that she's barely able to get out of, all sorts of shit that has the crowd going wild and Lurien now *fully* invested because I don't think he's ever seen Hegemol really display his strength like this. And Aedmond sits there like :> (sipping his drink) because oops my lord has actually fallen for the beetle courtship for real. What a shame, what a shame.
Gytha and Hegemol get to the point where they're both shaking from exhaustion after such a long bout, she can't even heft him to fling if she wanted to, and she's also caught on by the fact that her old mentor keeps looking up at *something* that he, for once, has a stake in this. She goes in for a misplaced grab that she knows will be met with resistance and all but helps to throw her weight into the hurl as Hegemol uses the last of his strength to send her skidding on her back toward the edge of the ring. She'd never tell him she did that on purpose, but also in her mind it's better to have helped her old man get some than to admit she was defeated for real (which she would have been and she knows it).
Crowd goes fucking wild, Lurien finally lets out that breath he's been holding, Aedmon sips his tea and hands Lurien a fan, Hegemol is named this year's beetle brawl champion. And all is well.
He does get a few days off after that because grandpa definitely pushed himself too far but hooogh he's the happiest bug in the world.
And after that, he doesn't super get the urge to join the brawl again once Lurien and he are rather committed to each other. He does still get cycles, but the desire to "prove himself" as a mate fades significantly. He may still toss Ogrim if Lurien happens to be watching, but he's content to know he 'won' his spot at Lurien's side.
