His Majesty (Slide Away)

7.

"Pyramus!" John called as he entered the fairly small and outcasted garden, not too far away from the rest of the Palace's grounds. It was a special garden just for The Prince's pet cat, and inside was a mini wooden house, an elegant small waterfall and a few neatly shaped trees and bushes. John had been the one to design it at the age of fourteen for his special boy. "Here, Pyramus!"

He heard a tiny yet excited meow from behind the mini waterfall, and before John could call the cat's name once again, the small, grey tabby made his way out from behind it.

Pyramus meowed once again, rushing over to greet his owner.

"Here, boy." John fell down to his knees with a smile, and the cat leaped into John's warm arms. The Prince simply could not help himself from stroking the cats soft fur. "I've missed you."

Meow.

Pyramus was the cat that John's mother, Julia, had bought him as a gift for presenting as an Alpha. That day was one of the rare occasions that Julia had revisited her childhood home that was the Palace. She had been married off at eighteen, just like James, and lived in another castle on the outskirts of the Kingdom. When John was five, his bastard of a father had passed away, and Julia had been granted more freedom as a widowed Omega.

Mimi and Julia had never gotten on, not even as children. But once Mimi had ended up as both an Alpha and a Queen, Julia barely won anything at all from that point.

Mimi did not want Julia as the sole carer of John or her other two daughters ever since she became a widow, claiming that her state of mind both before and after the loss of her abusive husband made her unfit, and to say it angered and broke the heart of John was an understatement. Mimi would not even grant Julia permission to move into Aquitaine Palace to be closer to her beloved children. It was all more reasons as to why John could barely stand his aunt, and it was public knowledge too.

Of course John could call his mother up on the telephone, but it was not the same as seeing her everyday. He could travel to see her, which he of course did when he could, but she never really came back to the Palace, not unless something important was scheduled.

"C'mere." John whispered as he stood up, the cat lay in his arms. The Prince chuckled as Pyramus leant his head into the crook of John's neck, tickling the skin there.

He could see Stuart in the distance, standing at the door as he waited timidly to let John in. The boy was playing with his fingers, nervously, and the Prince couldn't help but make him jump.

"Stuart." John chimed, loudly, and to his amusement, Stuart did indeed jump.

"Y-Yes sir... Follow me, if you will..." The nerve wracked boy led John down the corridor, and Pyramus remained still, ever so safely tucked in the Prince's arms.

-

Servants and decorators rushed up and down the corridor, each bowing to John as they headed past him, but John's thoughts were in a different place entirely. Every door that was not that of his husband and his own's new room John had glassed over. His mind was filled with James, and how the Omega would react to him. John hoped it wouldn't be bad.

"Here we are." Stuart eventually came to a stop, and the cat meowed in John's arms once again. He stroked the loveable creature as Stuart went to open the door.

Then he finally thought about it.

<em>Lord, what if James was allergic to cats?</em>

"Stop!" John rushed out, abruptly, and Stuart's hand immediately jumped back from the golden door handle. "Take Pyramus, would you?"