The Union of Violet and Gold

First Impressions

Emil was awoken pleasantly the next morning by a cup of cold water on his face, he let out a short scream at the touch of the cold water on his skin as he jolted upright in bed."You are a heavy sleeper, little brother." Lukas stood over him, holding a now empty glass in his hand."WHat The HEll!" Emil glared at the taller male as he wiped his face with the back of his sleeve. Lukas just pointed to the clock hanging across the room, Emil noted that it was almost ten, he really did sleep in far later than usual."Your meeting is at eleven." Lukas said with slight amusement. Emil groaned loudly in distaste, pulling the sheets of the bed up over his head,"Or, I could just hide here forever." Lukas let out an exasperated sigh in response to Emil's antics and pulled the sheets off of him. " Do you want to make a good impression or not? You are acting childish, little brother." He poked at Emil's side,"Don't make me get another glass of water.""Fine, Fine, I'm up." Emil said, sitting upright and pulling himself off the bed."See, and it will only take me no more than ten minutes to get ready anyhow." He said, crossing his arms and giving his brother a look of annoyance. Lukas raised an eyebrow to him,"You are meeting the man who you are spending the rest of your life with, and you are representing not just yourself but our kingdom. I'm not letting you look like some raggedy street boy." He made his way over to Emil's closet and began shuffling through his clothing items, which caused the smaller boy some irritation; he had never liked people looking through his things."Oh, this is nice." The blonde haired boy said, pulling out a dark ashen tunic with silver accents and holding it up to his younger brother's chest. Emil blushed,"I'm not going to be your dress up doll like when we were kids." he glared, tossing the tunic onto the small bench at the foot of his bed. Lukas simply picked it up and looked menacingly at his brother."We can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way. Your choice." Emil simply persisted the stubborn glare onto his older sibling. Lukas sighed,"Fine, hard way it is."
After another twenty minutes of Emil refusing to take off any clothing and struggling against his older brother, he was finally fully clothed in the grey tunic and a pair of solid white pants."I told you that you wouldn't like the hard way." Lukas stated pretentiously, dusting off his hands and leaving Emil still sprawled out on the floor from their struggle."Now, sit here, or do I have to carry you over." He said teasingly, patting the seat of a cushioned chair in front of the large mirror hanging to the left the closet. Emil groaned, pushing himself up and walking over to plop down in the seat."See how much better it is the easy way?" Lukas patted the top of his head and reached over to his drawers search for a brush.
Emil stared at his reflection in the mirror, the boy sitting in front of him had light silvery blonde hair crystal violet eyes. He shifted slightly in his seat, he had never been too confident about his looks, he didn't have muscle like Matthias or his father, and his face wasn't beautifully handsome like Lukas's. If anything, the prince he was meeting today was going to be disappointed."Here it is." Lukas walked over, interrupting Emil's self evaluation and began gently stroking his hair with the comb he had found. Emil squirmed,"I can brush my own hair, Lukas!" He attempted to take the comb but Lukas held it just out of his reach."You always miss a section in the back, it's actually sort of cute, but you need to look professional, so I'll be doing the combing thank you very much." Emil crossed his arms and grumbled ."We could always just have one of the maids or guards prepare you instead, I just know how much you love to be touched by strangers, little brother." Lukas mocked in a strident tone. The silver haired boy blushed slightly and looked across the room."Fine, whatever, but don't even think about putting a clip in my hair." He said pointedly, gesturing to the cross that Lukas wore. His older brother gave a small chuckle,"but you would look so cuute." Emil mumbled angrily in response, he hated being called cute, but saying 'no I'm not cute' had never gotten him anywhere.
As he carefully moved Emil's hair into place, Lukas hummed a quiet melody. It reminded Emil of when he was younger and things were a whole lot less complicated. There were no marriages or wars, just he and Lukas. Now he had those first two things, and yet the latter of the two had become increasingly distant to him. Ever since Lukas's own engagement, he had split his time between Matthias's kingdom and his own, and even when they were here, Emil felt as if Lukas had no interest in spending any time with his younger brother. Normally that melancholy thought would have weighed on his heart but he felt nothing. It was odd, he was sort of feeling numb about everything that was going on, like he had poured all the emotions out of himself yesterday, leaving him withered and dry except for the raw intimidation of impending doom."Lukas, I'm scared." His voice was emotionless but he stared downward at his hands folded neatly in his lap to hide a blush. He hated having to put his emotions put there, but he needed someone to make him feel like he wasn't alone. His older brother carefully set the comb on his dresser and walked around to face Emil, squatting down to meet Emil's gaze while he remained sitting in the chair, and rested a hand on his shoulder."I've been where you are Emil, and I didn't have anyone to guide me through it, but you have me, Emil, and I'm going to be here for you." He stood up, pulling Emil along with him."Put on your boots quickly they will arrive soon, and you don't want to be late." Emil nodded to his older brother, hastily lacing up a pair of white boots and standing in front of Lukas."Well?" He glanced to the clock, and quickly began making his way to the door, giving Lukas one last look before exiting. Lukas gave him one of his rare small smiles,"You look very handsome, little brother, and you are going to do fine, I know it." Emil blushed as he closed the door behind him, he really hoped that would hold true.
His boots clicked on the tile floor as he made his way down the grand marble staircase that led to the main hall and saw that his father was already waiting there for him. Emil straightened his poise instinctively at the sight of his father's imposing figure,"Hello, son." His father nodded to him,"Good to see that you are on time." Two guards stood at his side and two more moved up from their positions to stand formally next to Emil as he approached his father. He glanced to the door and noted two more guards were manning it in preparation for their soon to arrive guests. "Is all this security really necessary?" Emil drummed his fingers against his hand nervously. To which his father gave a disapproving look."We are on the brink of war. One can not be too safe." He sighed and shook his head,"It worries me how peaceful you are Emil, it's a good thing the prince of Fán is said to be rather driven, I need to know that my kingdom is secure when I am no longer alive." His voice had a superior tone that Emil despised, but he had bigger matters to deal with than his daddy issues; the guards had been signaled to open the doors, oh god, he felt like he was going to puke. Keep it together Emil, just get through today. One day, Emil, you can do it, he drilled the thought into his mind, so badly wanting to believe it. Two formally dressed figures entered through the door followed by four guards adorned in deep red sashes. "Presenting the King and Prince of Fán." One of the guards read in stiff loudness from a scroll. The taller of the two guests, who was still only slightly taller than Emil wore a ivy green sort of robe that was tied at his waist with a thick gold silk. He looked to be around forty with his rather long dark hair tied into a simple pony tail that fell over his shoulder. That clearly wasn't the guy Emil was engaged to, so that left...He glanced over at the shorter figure, immediately meeting his deep brown eyes with his own icy violet blue and making awkward eye contact. Oh god, Emil froze in fear, 'look away already' he screamed at himself, but he was clenched into position. He felt as if he were to be pushed over, he would surely tip over and shatter like ice into a thousand pieces on the floor. Luckily the dark haired boy looked away first, or not exactly, he looked Emil up and down, scanning him with his eyes. Emil wanted to die, please god forbid this guy turn out anything like Matthias. Lukas could handle that but Emil could definitely not. The boy held out his hand formally after he seemed to be done inspecting Emil,"Hello, I'm Leon, Prince of Fán," his voice was solid and monotone, which only made Emil more nervous. But he took a deep breath and shook the others hand stiffly,"It is nice to meet you, I'm Emil, Prince of Scandive." Emil's voice cracked halfway through the sentence and he nearly buried his face in his hands, no Emil be professional. Leon only gave a small monotone chuckle in response and looked up at Emil,"Like do you always blush like that?" Oh god now Emil was just blushing harder, great; he was using all his willpower to not dash away down the closest corridor. He was about to try to say something but the older dark haired man gave Leon a swift bop on the head."I told you not to be stupid, you are making your future husband uncomfortable." The man groaned loudly and glared. Emil was thankful for his interruption, but slightly annoyed with his statement of 'future husband' he knew it wasn't a false statement but it was discomforting to hear none the less. Leon rubbed his head and rolled his eyes to the king,"Like sorry or whatever." He had a sort of foreign accent that was odd to Emil's ears but it was interesting, Emil took this opportunity to get a good look at Leon while he was distracted. He wore a sort of long red tunic with sleeves that looked much too long to be functional, but whatever, every culture has their different fashions. Overall Leon wasn't too bad looking, which might have been somewhat of a relief, but Emil honestly didn't like him at all. Maybe it was just because of the situation he was currently in, but right now, Emil was rubbed the wrong way by everything about him, and he had a feeling that that feeling was here to stay.