Sage didn't follow Taro back inside. He slowly walked around the farm, kicking at snow with his boots, and sulking. I shouldn't have told him he'd need to change. That was rude of me, but I don't want him to change, I just don't want my parents to hate him. Sage shook his head and paused to stare at the white hills beyond the farm. His breath twisted softly into the air. They probably already hate him, and me. Why am I getting my hopes up?
Sage looked up at the vast barn beside the little farmhouse. He wandered around it, trudging through the thick snow. He could see guards from where he was, and when he couldn't see them, they shuffled around until he could.
At least they're not wanting to talk. Sage sank against the side and sat in the snow. He regretted it immediately as the cold snuck inside his coat and chilled his skin. Still, he sat stubbornly until he couldn't feel the tips of his fingers.
Sage soon started wandering, but the cold had gotten to his bones, and he couldn't stop chattering his teeth. Back inside, he looked in every room on the ground floor for Taro. Sage couldn't find him, and he didn't feel like talking to him yet, so he sat by the fire to warm up.
Nobody bothered him while he stared intensely into the angry flames. He watched the orange glow until he was warm and could sit comfortably without his icy skin burning. He soon got bored of sitting by himself. Taro had been around him so often in recent weeks that almost an hour apart felt odd.
He hasn't come down. He doesn't want to talk. Sage waited another little while. He looked over at the door every time he saw movement and was disappointed that it was never Taro. This is ridiculous. We're both adults. And he's the older one! Sage stormed through the room so fast, everyone else didn't have a chance to get up and bow.
Sage stormed all the way to the bedroom and yanked the door open. Taro, in his ivy form, rested peacefully on the bedside table with a few vines curled around his purple pot, and a few sticking out in all directions. Sage sighed and allowed all the tension to leave his body.
He sat on the bed and let his gaze drift. Taro didn't move, though Sage had a feeling he knew he was there. "I'm sorry," he finally said. "I don't want you to change, Taro. And I wish I didn't want you to act differently in front of the public. I'm not ashamed of you. I like that you're confident, I really do. I shouldn't care what anyone thinks, but it's just so hard not to after years of being a painful people pleaser." Sage anxiously fidgeted with his fingers. His skin felt dry, and he ran his nails over it until it stung. "I've spent years perfecting what perfect should look like. I guess I'm scared to let go of that. I know it's a good thing, but it just fills me with so much terror."
Taro didn't move. Sage really hoped that he had listened.
After a while of staring around the room and overthinking enough for his heart to thump, and his chest to feel tight, and his shoulders to tense, Sage wrapped arms around Taro's pot. He was careful not to squish any leaves and pressed his forehead to the cold pottery. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "Please don't be angry with me."
Taro still didn't move, so Sage clung to his disappointment and left the room. Taro's parents were now sitting by the fire with a pile of books from the bookcase. Katie's parents sat with them, deep in a conversation about the history of the farm.
Guards suddenly stood and bowed when they saw him. Those sitting by the fireplace tried to get up just as quickly. "Please, stay seated," Sage ordered. "Do you mind if I join you?"
"Not at all, Sir." Mrs Beecham crossed her legs to free up some space.
Sage sat quietly and listened to Katie's mother talking about who first owned the farm. She talked about a couple who had come into a small bit of wealth when the husband's father died, so they built a farm and grew wheat. "That was my great great, great-" Katie's mum paused and tapped her chin. "I forget how many greats, but my family have lived here for generations. I couldn't imagine ever living anywhere other than here."
"How long have your family worked in Blue-sow thistle cottage's gardens?" Sage asked.
As usual, everyone around him straightened their backs and smiled at him politely, as though they were afraid of looking anything other than perfect in front of him. "For generations too, Sir," Fergus replied. "The cottage doesn't get visited as much as it did when the late king passed. Your mother would visit quite a lot when she first became Queen."
"It's an escape from that life," Sage admitted. "I've never felt more comfortable than up here in the hills." Sadness consumed him once again. He stared at the fire to avoid clashing eyes with sympathetic ones.
"You should move into the Blue-sow thistle cottage, Sir." Fergus said.
Sage frowned. The frames moved as sporadically as his thumping heart. "I can't."
"Why not?"
"Because I-" I'm next in line to be king. My destiny is to sit on an uncomfortable throne while the thorn crown cuts my conscience. "Everything is so uncertain right now."
Everyone's gaze suddenly lifted. Sage turned, just as Taro knelt down and straightened out his legs on either side of him. He sat close with wary eyes and a tired smile. Sage's heart thrashed around his chest once more. He wondered if it would ever calm down. "Did you hear what I said to you earlier?"
Taro nodded. "I accept your apology," he said quietly, and everyone pretended that something about the fireplace was incredibly interesting. "I'm also sorry, I was mean, and I overreacted. I was irritated about what the papers had said, and I guess hearing that from you was like shears to my vines. I get that you want to look perfect and be perfect around your parents and the public because you've had to be that way for so long, but you can't even breathe because of your status, let alone express yourself." He grabbed Sage's hand with both of his and rested them on his leg. "I don't want to make your life harder, and I don't want to feed the tabloids either. We'll figure out a compromise. This can't be all one sided while I sit back and upset everyone. I'll have to play a part too. I realise now it was unfair of me to push my way into your world with little consequence. But we were arguing over scenarios that might not even happen. We have no idea what your parents are thinking right now. So, you should probably call them. Then we can plan what to do next."
Sage should have known that Taro just needed a moment to rationalise his thoughts. He had assumed he was upstairs seething. His overthinking had assumed that Taro was going to break them apart because two worlds had started to clash. "I'm so nervous."
"I know, but it's going to be okay, no matter what they say. You have a farm full of people who think you're great and will follow you and support you wherever you go." Everyone around them nodded, despite them pretending not to listen. "Most of all, me . . . regardless of what I think about your royal status."
Sage forced a smile, though his entire chest felt as though it would burst open, and his lungs would fly into the fireplace and burn into black lumps of coal.
Taro handed him a small phone. Sage stared at it, wondering who to call. His mother had a personal phone number, as did his father. Would they be together? Would his father hang up if he called? Would his mother have time to talk?
They would know that it was him who was calling. Only immediate family had their personal numbers, so an unknown number would only mean that he was trying to get in touch. Sage shivered, and Taro coiled an arm around him. Sage was getting used to that feeling. He was getting used to being held against another person. And he was getting used to ignoring people around them when Taro publicly displayed his affection.
He chose to ring his mother and pressed the cold phone to his ear with trembling fingers. Everyone watched in silence as the phone rang, and rang, and rang. Nobody picked up, and Sage sighed with annoyance. He knew she always had a personal phone on her when she was in the Palace. Maybe she dared to be out in the public eye to pretend that everything was fine?
Sage decided to phone is father. Again, it rang, and rang, and rang, until the call ended. He stared at the black screen, disappointed that he had finally tried but to no avail. "Guess I'll phone Oxley then," he mumbled as a last resort. Though maybe if he didn't pick up, he could always try calling one of his grandparents.
As he was typing in Oxley's phone number, a dog barked suddenly in the distance. Everyone froze and stared towards the window. Fergus quietly climbed to his feet. "They know most people in the village. They don't bark at familiar faces."
Guards jumped into action, leaving the room in pairs. Four stayed behind. Two stood in front of Sage, while two guarded the closed living-room door. Everyone stood and listened and waited. Sage soon heard voices. Thankfully they were calm voices, so Taro moved to the door to listen.
He ushered Bell and Canto to move, and he slipped through into the corridor. "How did you find us?" Taro asked.
A familiar voice replied, "It wasn't that hard to guess."
Sage pushed through the guards and slid into the corridor too.
"Now then," Oxley said with a sympathetic smile, "I think it's time you stop hiding."