*blinks wide eyes as a totally brilliant idea pops into his head* Hey—you know, if Menegroth had a football team in the same league as mine, we could probably have a couple of away games there? *suddenly beaming, with full confidence that you can make it happen (duh, what good is it being king otherwise?)* So you and Grandma and Cel and Uncle Elmo and everybody but mostly you could see me play next year? That would be awesome!
*is feeling less gloomy, now that he's apparently gotten something past you holy shit survived the grandfatherly interrogation* *also has all kinds of visions of celebrating the big win with you after a game or two next season* We'll make it work. We're already sneaking around behind her asshole father's back. And I'll ask Dad if we can stay a while on our way back through to get Mom—we've got movies to see. There's this one, about a bunch of spelunkers or something, and they all get eaten by these creatures that look like bald people with piranha teeth. Dad said that'd put people off caves forever, and I told him you could probably watch it and then spend the whole night in a dark cave without a flashlight or anything, and have no problem at all. (*say this for him, the kid is loyal*)