Royals - Rafe Cameron

Chapter Six - And Then He Kissed Her

This chapter is where the AU of the first season comes into play (as you will see). Parts might take longer to come out as I'm super busy with college until May and I've got to work out the direction in which this is going to still kind of be an AU, if you get what I mean.

Enjoy 1.8K of my bullshit!

"What does it say?" El pushed.

Since the boys managed to pry the lid from the little silver box, John B had been the only one to see inside. All he had told the others was that it was a piece of paper, just not what was on it. He was a changed man with that thing, like Smeagol with the ring.

"JB, come one. Stop cradling it and read it out to us." El was more than pissed. She had been called away from her date to deal with this bullshit. No wait, it wasn't a date. Neither of them ever said it was a date.

So far each of the Pogues had tries taking it from him. None had emerged victorious.

JJ looked at his sister, a mutual understanding passing between them. They moved to stand opposite each other, John B between them. Both were giving him a wide berth, giving him a chance to move away as if he was a wounded animal.

At last, JJ ran at him and tackled him to the ground. John B went down with a yelp, the box flying from his hand. El dived forward and caught it before it hit the floor.

She took the paper from the box and frowned. "John B, what the fuck is this?" El held up the paper and the other Pogues gathered around. 

Breathing deeply, John B pushed JJ away from him and looked up at El. He got to his knees, his palms on his thighs and looked up at her through his long, dark hair. "That is why I couldn't read it out to you. Because it doesn't say anything. It's a map."

"But a map of what? And to what?"

John B sighed and stood up. He took back the paper and the box and placed them on the table behind him. "It's my dad. What do you think it's a map to?" He began to lead them through The Chateau.

"But how do you know it's from your dad?" If someone didn't answer her soon, El was gonna bail to find Rafe Cameron and let him ruin her night. Whatever that meant, anyway. (El knew exactly what it meant. There were several ways in which Rafe Cameron could've ruined her night. Annoy her to death, convince her of everything she had been denying herself these last few days, get her back to his place and... you get the picture). 

"Because, Eleanor." John B was getting just as annoyed as she was. He pushed open the door to his dad's office, a room the others had never been in (or maybe JJ had. El could never stop him from breaking into places he wasn't wanted.) and gestured around the room. And, of course, there was the map. Just, this time, it was huge and mounted on the wall. El glared at him.

The others filtered in around the pair. Their matching gasped of amazement only made El glare more. "I hate you," she muttered under her breath and took a walk around the office. 

But the large map on the wall wasn't telling them much, only that the small one was put in place by John B's father. And both maps only looked like a part of something much bigger. "We still don't know where this is going to take us or even what this map is of," Pope commented. He was beside JJ, going through several papers while JJ fucked around with a model boat.

"Yes, thank you." El clapped her hands together. "You boys should get to the library. I've got to apologise for running out in the middle of a date."

"It wasn't a date."

"It wasn't a date," she agreed, shooting daggers at her brother, "But I'm still going to go and apologise to him."

The boys and Kie was suddenly blocking the doorway, arms crossed. "No way." JJ pushed her back. "You're not walking all the way to the Cameron's by yourself in the dark." He flicked her nose and El balled her hands into her fist. Sometimes it was really hard to refrain from punching JJ. "You can come with us to the library tomorrow. We should probably go home and feed our father. The father that you refuse to call the police on or run away from."