{ Ehann: }
Chapter 26
It's been a year now.
To be precise, a year that the prince and Aelius started secretly dating.
A year since aelius confessed two times and finally succeeding the second time.
Now of course it hasn't been the best of circumstances, but it's somehow working well for them.
With one or the other sneaking off into eatchothers house/palace and staying the night then leaving very early in the morning.
And out of all this they've only had one argument, and for something so confusing too.
Aelius claimed that the princess had gotten awfully touchy with Ehann, and sure - there's some things that were questionable to say the least.
The princess's family has been at a constant in and out of their kingdom, oftenly visiting and sometimes leaving the king behind.
Ehann and her have gotten immensely closer, just nothing close close the prince has his limits.
But even if something was forming.
The prince only saw her as a little sister, regardless of they're different inheritances and same age.
Aelius ended up believing the prince about the situation after a day, all the other arguments were about little things. Nothing of much care.
The prince climbed up towards Aelius's window and landed on his bed, a light 'thud' was heard from the bed.
"Look at you becoming quite the expert." Aelius smirked at the prince.
"I might just be loosing weight from all this exercise, my doctors will be glad to hear the news." Ehann sat up and took off his shoes.
"Regardless you seem to be more breath taking with each passing day."
"Mmn you really think so?"
"I know so." Aelius warmly smiled.
The prince looked around the room, it was a very cozy environment, a king size bed placed in the middle and the closet on the side.
Pictures of his family were placed on every wall, and a frame with red drawn heart on a piece of paper on Aelius's stand that held both thier initials in the middle of it. No matter how silly it is, and no matter how many times the prince will deny it, he loves that drawing more that anything.
"No matter how many times i enter your room i never get tired of it. Hahah" The prince laughed a little.
"Maybe it's because of my presence that you never get tired of it?" Aelius teased the prince, inching closer to him.
"Fat chance."
"You're hurting my feelings prince." Aelius jokingly hissed in pain.
"Are you sure it's not because of me?"
"I don't know.. maybe i need something special to jot an answer." The prince leaned towards Aelius.
"You got that something?" He asked.
"I might just have that something.."
Aelius leaned closer and closer to the prince, so close they could almost feel eatchothers breath.
Until..
"Mijo? Who are you talking to in there?" A knock was heard from outside his bedroom door.
"That's you're mom right?" The prince whispered, already walking to the edge of the bed.
"Yes, go hide."
"Hide?? Where??" The prince panicked.
"I don't know! Anywhere!"
"Mijo?"
"Yes, mom?" Aelius squeaked unwillingly.
"May i come in?"
"Yes of course."
The prince struggled to breathe as quiet as possible, let's just say the closest wasn't the biggest of places a person could hide in.
There was a rack of books in there that threatened to fall ontop him if he breathed too hard, and if he touched it to at least attempt to fix it it would make a lot of noise.
He couldn't hear what they were talking about, something about old age... Monkeys.. and.. him?
They were talking about him? The prince placed his ear in the cold wall, in hopes of listening more into the conversation.
"Amá trust me I'm not hiding the masked prince in my bedroom."
"And if i was.. i wouldn't let him go just so easly."
"Mmm alright mijo, I'll leave you to you're fantasies before my frijoles overflow."
Let him go just so easly? What could that mean? oh, he meant the kiss. He felt a heart rise his cheeks.
'Thump' the prince felt a sharp pain on his head, he groaned in pain wondering what fell on him, until he noticed it was the book rack that fell on his head.
"Pfft haha, you do know you can get out now right bonito?"
"What does.. Bo.. knee toe mean?" The prince asked.
"Maybe learn some Spanish then I'll tell you."
"Fine then, I'll figure out what it means one way or another."
"It means pretty or lovely, however you want to take it works for me." Aelius smirked.
"It sounds more romantic in Spanish, even though I don't know much of this language." The prince sighed.
"Soo... Can I have that kiss you almost gave me?" Aelius questioned.
Aelius crawled towards the prince, sat down Infront of him and wrapped his hands around his torso making the prince sit on his lap.
"Mmm.. i don't remember wanting to give you that"
The prince knew what he was talking about, but he purposely faked not knowing. He didn't want another relative to almost catch them in the act.
"Are you sure ? We were about to just minutes ago!"
"All i remember is hiding in a closet and hitting my head inside the closet."
"Okay.. sorry about the racket, bonito." Aelius stared at the prince deep in his eyes, inspecting every detail in his eyes, then his eyes moved up and down his figure and he smiled sheepishly at the prince. "Has anyone ever told you how.. Breathtaking you are, prince?" He giggled.
"I.." The prince mumbled out, staring at anything instead of Aelius's eyes,
"I.. just.. remembered, we're having a ball in our castle, they won't announce it till tomorrow.. and they let us invite 4 families of our kingdom yearly.." the prince trailed off his sentence.
"And i was wondering, if you're family would like to attend it this year?"
"Of course.. my family would be ecstatic hear it!"
Aelius's face almost shined of how happy he was to hear the news, it almost made the prince want to kiss him.
"A group of guards will knock at you're door and hand you're family a scroll."
"We'll be waiting then. Let's go sleep."
Aelius pushed the prince to lay down and layed beside him, turning off his lamp and fastly falling asleep - lazingly wrapping his arm around the prince.
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"I wonder what our breakfast is today" Noaine asked.
"Probably steak and smashed beans with wine or normal drinks." A prince from the other family guessed.
"That's oddly specific Vincent, makes me wonder if you make the food half the time here." Timothy stated.
"Haaaa, what can I saw Timmy, maybe i do make the food, especially for you." The prince responded.
"But of course you never notice how fond i am to you, so i just keep making more food." He continues.
Timothy looked at Agatha, then looked back at the prince.
"I told you to stop joking that way, it's not funny if that's what you're getting at." Tim rolled his eyes.
'sigh..'
"Anyway.. when's our parents going to join us at the table?" Agatha smiled.
Agatha only changed the subject because it was hard not to notice how awkward it was getting.
Vincent has been stuck like glue with his brother, following him around - constantly joking about how much he fancies him.
He's been saying it non stop for a while now, makes him wonder if the prince is still joking about it, and his tone goes more serious the more he says it.
"Oh my, we're sorry we're late." The Queen from the other family hushed.
"We had a little reunion between us." Ehann's mother spoke.
Once the parents sat down in the table the place became chatty again, with food being passed down from table to table
And people casually talking with Ehann about random things. Like: different kinds of flowers, prince work, and lovers, and yatta - yatta...
The prince lost count after the first three conversations.
"So, Timothy as you probably already know. You are going to be announcing the grand ball we will host this Sunday." The king announced.
"And it's today for this evening am i correct?"
This caught the prince's attention, every year his family hosts a grand ball in the castle, they invite all the near rulers in the area to attend the ball.
And a family member can invite 1 out of 4 families of the kingdom to attend, they bring them to a place where they can choose their clothes.
The prince never invited a family, it was usually just his siblings who would invite anyone. But this time, he will invite the Leginton family to the ball.
Everyone started standing up and parting their ways, and Ehann stood up and walked towards his father to speak about the family.
"Father, may i speak with you?" Ehann asked.
The king looked shocked at his question, he stood silent for a moment as if figuring out why he wanted to speak with him.
"Of course, let's walk to the garden."
------
"I wanted to talk to you because i want to invite a family to the ball."
"You want to invite a family this year?" The king questioned.
"Yes."
"What.. what's made you change your mind out of all these years?"
"Nothing really.. they just seem like a nice family.." The prince trailed off his sentence.
The king looked at him questioningly, glancing at him every second.
"What family are we talking about?"
"The Leginton family, i don't think you know them."
"The Leginton family? Of course i know the family, their father is a trusted knight of mines!"
"Really??"
The prince was shocked at his father's answer, Aelius's father was a knight? He's never seen his father, only his mother and one sibling.
"Infact, that family was invited when you were just 8 years old!"
"They have a son that's a year older than you, you two scurried around the ball room together everywhere even though you weren't supposed to." The king laughed out.
"And, when you were just 6 years old we found you in this field of flowers with him in the middle of the night! To this day i still don't know how you got there."
"I.. i didn't know."
"Do you not remember this? Hahah, you learn something everyday." The king cackled out.
The prince was too fumbled to understand all this new information at once.
They knew eatchother before? Did Aelius renember this? A million thoughts passed through his head.
Just as the king was about to sit down in a chair in the little area they found in the garden. A guard came to tell him something.
Ehann couldn't hear what they were whispering about, but it seemed to trouble his father.
He looked at Ehann in a sad expression then quickly changed it to his normal one.
"I am needed somewhere else son, but if you still need me you know where to find me." The king reassured.
"Goodbye then."
"Goodbye"
The prince sat down and just looked at the beautiful scenery the garden always held.
He thought of all the times he's spent with Aelius, and how he invited him to the ball. Then he thought of how the king never answered his question.
The prince sighed a song sigh.