Cinder-knight (bxb) ||completed

29th rule| you

Eric held Avianthan's mane as she trotted through the forest, the prince and the wizard on the other hand, were following them shortly over the pale white gelding. Branches snagged, footsteps echoed and the occasional brays from the mare and the churrs, purrs, and keckers of badgers created an awful medley that made the knight feel like he was in a lucid dream.

Birds swished by, as Eric felt as if something was missing. He slowly brought his hand to the top of his head to touch his hat, and his shoulders stiffened once he realised it wasn't there. The wig wasn't there either.

"The clothes are dissappearing!" he beseeched, and now that he thought about it, it made sense. The mage's magic, which was used to create their attires, was prone to be expired after three to four hours. And surely, the deadline for their garments to disappear must be nearing as he felt the jacket of his suit vanishing away into small glitters that scintillated in the air.

"Wait what!?" prince Charming gasped, turning his horse to the left after seeing Eric doing the same. He could feel the way how Pase clung to his back tightly like a leech, probably afraid to let go since he was sure he'll die if he falls down from a horse who's blundering around the dark woodland promptly. "So that means we're going to be buck-naked before we make it to the cave?"

The knight shook his head, striding towards the dark part of the woods, "We're going to the lake, we need to take a bath!"

He didn't get to hear what the prince said next, but he knew it would've been something like, 'Okay love!' as they lunged right into the puddle of mud, slipping and screaming. Everything happened too fast to the point where the only thing Eric could make out was the way cold water surrounded him while he was struggling to find some Oxygen.

The crystal clarity engulfed his body completely, its conceit not letting him ascend up as it flooded into Eric's nose, making him unable to breath. But at last he peered his head out of the water and gasped, looking around to see his Prince, the wizard and the two horses all sharing the same fate.

Their clothes had disappeared, and the throb in Eric's ankle suddenly hit him in waves of pain, but he knew this wasn't the time to cry over something so silly.

"My prince? Are you okay?" he asked, wading towards the blond who coughed enormously. The knight knew he was at fault here, he shouldn't have told them to jump into a goddamn crater- which was utterly stupid, now that he thought back to it. But his prince's privacy mattered. No one should see his highness' love member other than the princess, even if it's by accident, and Eric being the knight he was had to abide by it.

Those were the rules, after all.

And suggesting to jump into a lake was the only thing the knight was able to come up with, considering he was doubtlessly a dumb person like Salvo had said. With a little reluctance, he kept his hand on his prince's upper back while the younger kept on coughing and coughing. Eric felt weird at the brush of Henry's skin against his palm, but then he had to remember that it was not the fucking time to think so malaproposly.

"I-I'm okay.." the prince snifled and the knight nodded, moving away from the royal as he suddenly felt dirty. Looking at his prince's exposed torso then back at his own, his shoulders slumped, realising how absolutely different his prince was compared to him.

Henry's skin looked soft, lightly and proportionally tanned, unlike the way Eric had so many brown patches and several shades of his skin color marring his body. The knight was full of scars while the prince was full of perfection. The knight had a chest that was hard as steel but parred and puckered with billions of wounds he got on the battlefield, while his prince had only one small scar, which was too in the middle of blending into nihility.

Typical prince. Typical Knight.

"Guys! I think Ms. Horse and Mr. Horse are fucking underwear!" Pase yelled, but the other two men ignored him completely. The magician grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, a pout forming in his lips as he turned around from the knight and the prince, to stare at the brink of the lake while mumbling childishly. "Whatever, I don't need your good-for-nothing attention either."

The knight glanced at the mage and cracked a smile before looking back at his prince, "I apologise for my blunder, I shouldn't have taken you to the tavern today, my prince." he uttered, seeing Henry shaking his head in return.

"What are you saying? I was the one who suggested we should go there in the first place.. Why would you say sorry? Plus, nothing out of ordinary happened there."

The knight parted his mouth, about to tell his prince that something out of ordinary did happen, but as he saw how calm the atmosphere was and how beautiful the prince looked while smiling, he found himself being selfish and not wanting to drop the bomb that would ruin everyone's mood. At least not yet.

So he sighed and looked down, pursing his lips when he saw the not-so-pure water that was at his waist level, drowning his lower half in its cold embrace. "I guess so, my prince. I'm a knight, so it's normal for me to be a little worried, even more than I should be. But since knight-talk might bore you- yeah, I'll stop."

The prince let out a hum, "How would knight-talk be boring? I would've died to be a knight since that had been my dream since young. In all honesty, I thing knighthood is one of the coolest things ever."

Eric looked up, swallowing thickly when his eyes met the prince, "You do? But why would anyone want to be a knight though? All we do is patrol around town, go to battles, and we're also full of scars. It's a fact by now that many would rather become a normal servant, than a knight."

"Maybe," Henry shrugged, "But when I was seven years old, I was so desperate to become a knight. I've often thought that the scars you guys have are beautiful, they each tell a story. Perhaps, it could be filled with pain. But as long as you're still here, the scars you have would be tokens of survival, not just sufferings. And I wanted one too," he whispered, extending his arm to take Eric's hand in his own.

A crimson red smeared across the knight's face as he felt the palm that glided against his own before their fingers intertwined. Tingles surged through his body disastrously and he exhaled, his heart thundering once he saw how the same ribbon of pink made the shape of a heart over the prince's eyes.

Of course, the fucking spell! That why the prince was acting this way, not because of anything else.