“I’d like to tell you a story if you’ll let me.” He looked
so
hopeful and I didn’t understand everything that had gone on, but I knew he’d started a lot of shit with the men he loved, fighting with them because I meant something real to him, fighting
for
me… So I was willing to give him a little wiggle room here for a bit.
“Okay, Prince Teak, tell me a story,” I agreed, as I reached for my pop. The smile I got from him was worth any apprehension I was feeling. He sat on the bench seat with me and moved my legs over his, his hands finding their way under my pants so they touched my skin. Another day I might have been embarrassed by the slight stubble on them, but instead I soaked up the feeling of his touch.
“You really can feel that, can’t you?” he asked, awe in his tone.
“Another conversation for another day,” I warned, leaning my head against his shoulder. “I’m out of patience or energy, Teak. You promised me a story.”
“Right, sorry.” He cleared his throat and I snagged a cracker. “Once upon a time there were three little boys who grew up in a kingdom far, far away from here. It was a little tiny country no one ever noticed, no one
ever
bothered because it was very, very powerful. To the outside world it was because of its wealth and connections but the people inside the country knew it was because they weren’t human and could make the tiny country safe with its magic because it was the kingdom of the dark elves.”
“Hiding in plain sight of humans?” I asked, blinking up at him.
“Best cover is the cover no one expects,” he chuckled, obviously quoting someone or something he’d been taught. “Now dark is not evil in our world, it’s simply unseen. We have magic of the unseen, and personally, I think it has to do with our hair all being black, but that’s just a wild and crazy guess. But I’ll get into that later.” He gave me a wink and handed me another cracker. “So the three boys grew up in this kingdom but were different. Two were children, commoners. One was the child of the castle launders and a servant.”
I already guessed Cypress given what Aspen had told me, but still Cypress nodded his head from the deck chair he was sitting in. Aspen was in the other one, and I hadn’t even noticed they’d sat down. Wow, I was still out of it.
“One was the child of the castle masons and tinkers.” Aspen smirked and stared fondly at Teak, obviously taken with the way his lover was explaining all of this. “And one was the grandson of the King, born into royalty and told always that he was very special, more special than the others in the castle, a
Prince
even. Now the little Prince didn’t like being more special than the others. He thought it was mean to act like he was better than others. But his grandfather told him when he was very young it had to be that way.
“When the little Prince asked why, the King explained because the little Prince could be
King
someday if his grandfather, father, older brother, and two older sisters died. That made the little Prince cry and cry, scared that such a day might come. He hated the idea and decided right then and there he would always fight against
anything
anyone ever taught him about being a Prince or King because it might lead to his family dying if he was prepared to take their place.”
“Aww, you were too cute,” I cooed, leaning up and kissing his cheek.
“I was five or six at the time,” he chuckled.
“Plus, the little Prince loved chasing butterflies and anything un-Kinglike,” Cypress snickered.
“Plus the little Prince loved chasing butterflies,” Teak agreed with a nod. “Anyways, one day the little Prince was walking from his studies to go play in the garden and maybe chase butterflies or frogs and a mean man tried to take the little Prince either for ransom or who knows what. A brave servant boy saw the whole thing and jumped in to aid the little Prince, screaming and beating the man with a stone vase he somehow managed to lift.
“He saved the little Prince’s life that day, but was gravely injured when the mean man pulled a knife and stabbed the servant boy. The man was scared off, but the servant boy was bleeding everywhere. The little Prince cried and screamed for help, wanting nothing more than to save his rescuer. And a miracle happened that day. The little Prince found out that he had a very,
very
rare gift that only few elves have, given to him by the gods.
“Because while dark elves are all healers, the unseen magic of healing inside of us, truly being able to bring someone back from the brink of death is something no elf has witnessed in over a thousand years, only legends and poems having been written about it. The servant boy, not having much of an education as a servant, wanted to tell
everyone
, bragging about what the little Prince could do, but the little Prince knew better.
“He knew that with a gift like that people would want it, kill him over it, or
worse
, make him King. And while, after he grew up, he understood that might have made him
skip
over people, at
ten,
he thought people would have killed his family to make him next in line so he would be King with that gift. But the servant boy wouldn’t stop talking, and he heard people coming, so he did the only thing he could think of, like he’d seen his mother do when she wanted to shut up his father.
“He kissed the servant boy. And that’s what people saw when they came upon them. The people of court were outraged at what they saw, and while the little Prince begged and pleaded, explaining that the servant had just saved his life and he was only thanking the boy, it was still a crime for a servant to touch a member of the royal family. So the boy was punished. Twenty lashes. The King made him stand there and watch his rescuer whipped over and over again right there in the middle of the throne room to teach the little Prince a lesson.”
“That’s horrible,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes as I glanced at Cypress. “How old were you?”
“Eleven,” he muttered, glancing at Teak. “You were worth it. I never regretted jumping in and helping you that day even if it would have cost me my life in the end.”
“I know and I’ve loved you from that moment,” Teak sniffled. He reached up and wiped his eyes before clearing his throat. “That night, the little Prince snuck into the servant boy’s room and healed him, begging the boy never to tell his secret. The boy swore that he would on one condition—if the little Prince would be his secret boyfriend as well.”
“Best deal I ever made,” Cypress chuckled.
“I was partial to it myself,” Teak teased. “The little Prince agreed, and they were the best of friends, playing together as children did at that age, whenever they could sneak away, but also holding hands and calling themselves each other’s
boyfriends
like cute little dorks. Word had spread through court that the little Prince had had a servant save him though and the other boys of court bullied him because of it, like it fucking mattered that a goddamn servant was the one to save him.
“Yes, much better that a
child
be kidnapped or whatever else that bastard had planned for me. Those stupid little fuckers and their pompous—” Aspen cleared his throat and Teak shook his head. “Right, sorry. Off topic. Anyways, so the little Prince’s father decided it was time for the little Prince to start taking fencing lessons so that one day he might be a stupid knight and duel or some archaic crap.”
“Nice. Real nice,
little
Prince,” Cypress drawled. “Those of us born to lower station of
servant
would have given a toe for the chance to even be considered for
stupid knight
, don’t forget.”
“This is so bizarre,” I muttered, glancing between them.
“Are you okay? You going to faint again?” Aspen hedged, looking ready to jump to his feet.
“No, but I kinda want a stiff drink, but there’s no way I could handle that. I do need something more than crackers.” I sat up and groaned, grabbing my stomach. “Yeah, need more than that. Time to move to soup.”
“I’ll get it,” Cypress offered as he stood. “It’s Aspen’s turn in the story.”
“Let’s all go inside. I shouldn’t be out in the sun either,” I suggested. “And then maybe the couches. Comfy sounds really nice.”
“Whatever you need, honey,” Teak cooed. I went to stand, but instead, he lifted me into his arms.
“Thank you, little Prince,” I giggled, snuggling against his shoulder. “You tell a good story, Teak. I wish we had done this a while ago. I wish we had done a lot of things differently.” Tears burned in my eyes, and I realized some had fallen down my cheeks and onto him when he sat me on the counter and wiped them away.
“We
will
fix this if you let us, I swear it to you.”
“I don’t know how, Teak,” I admitted with a sigh. “Can you fix a broken heart and broken trust? Not to mention I do
not
know how to dig myself out of this mess. That was all I thought about the past four days and I got nowhere.”
“I thought about that the past four days, and I promise you I have a plan if you let me. But we’ll get there.” He leaned in and brushed his lips over mine. I sighed and felt better, smiling slightly when he pulled away. “And you’re no one’s easy pretty pussy or whatever. This is real. You’re part of the story. We’ll get to that so just hang on.”
“Okay. You have my undivided attention. Mostly because there’s no way I can muster the energy to run or fight or yell.”
“Whatever I can get at this point.”
Cypress finished zapping the soup, and we all headed downstairs, Teak carrying me while Aspen had my drink, crackers, and another pop just in case. Teak situated me half on him on the love seat, my stuff on the little table next to us, and then they sat on the other couch and we picked up where we left off.
“One day the Prince was done with his fencing lesson, sore and sweaty, and decided to cool off.”
Aspen threw back his head and burst out laughing. “Yeah, tell Cara
where
you decided to cool off, you brat. That’s half the story.”
“Where?” I asked Aspen, thinking it would be funnier to hear it from him after seeing his reaction.
“In the court
fountain
because—and I quote—it was just his size.” His eyes shined with love and joy at the memory. “He used to strip down and jump in, splashing all around when no one was looking and making a huge mess of it.”
“It was just my size,” Teak defended. “Besides, it was
awesome
and such a waste that no one played in it. It just stood there, doing nothing but taking up space, and the water was always so blue and refreshing. Clearest water ever and
huge
waterfalls coming out of it all over the place.”
“Until you knocked into one of the statues that day,” Aspen drawled.
Teak winced. “Yeah. So, the naked, streaking Prince bumped his ass into one of the hand carved statues and broke it. Knowing he’d get in
major
trouble, especially since it was right after what happened with the servant boy, he fled the scene of the crime, thinking there were no witnesses so no one could pin it on him. What he didn’t
realize
was someone would get blamed for it no matter if there was proof for it or not.”
“Oh no,” I groaned, putting together the pieces.
“Oh
yes
,” Aspen chuckled.
“The mason’s son was the unfortunate soul to be seen by a guard around the fountain after the statue was broken,” Teak clarified. “With no explanation and a servant, his word meant nothing and he was blamed for breaking the statue in the fountain and flogged. Upon hearing the news of what happened, the Prince ran to the mason’s son’s room and begged the boy’s forgiveness.”
“How old were you?” I asked Aspen.
“Twelve,” he answered after a moment of thought and then shook his head. “No, maybe thirteen?”
“I think you just turned thirteen the week before,” Cypress agreed.
“Either way, the Prince kissed the mason boy and said he would heal him if he kept the Prince’s secret, remembering how it worked with the servant boy, thinking that was part of the healing process and he had liked kissing the servant boy,” Teak explained, actually reaching up and touching his lips. “The mason boy agreed and the Prince promised to be
his
secret boyfriend as well but it had to be a secret because he was a royal.
“But this boy was a little older and actually knew that it had to be a secret also because elves didn’t have boyfriends between men. This shocked the Prince, and he admitted that his
other
boyfriend hadn’t told him that.”
“You
tramp
,” I playfully gasped.
“I was,” he chuckled, shaking his head. “When the mason boy heard of this
other
boyfriend, he demanded to meet him, getting out of bed the moment the Prince healed him and following the Prince to meet this servant boy. The Prince didn’t know what to do, so he listened to the mason boy, taking him to the servant boy’s quarters. When they showed up, the servant boy let them in, glancing between them.”