The Idea of You (Bdoc Royal AU)

Chapter Twelve: Another Dance

[Day Ten]

The shorter prince stifled another yawn as he slightly adjusted his posture. There seemed to be an endless amount of meetings with different royal officials. It turns out combining two very large kingdoms with extremely different cultures was a lot harder than he honestly realized.

Technically, these discussions have already been going on for the past decade or so, all that was left now was reassessing all of the regulations and rules they've created.

And then there was the problem of Doc.

Not that Doc himself was a problem.

It was Bdubs' emotions.

Ever since that morning's conversation, (or as Doc would say; improper conversation) he couldn't look at him the same. He felt embarrassed for how casual he acted in his still-partially-asleep state.

Does he genuinely like him, or has he convinced himself he does because he knows the prince feels that way? And of course, once again he reminded himself that what he felt didn't really matter, as that won't change what's going to happen at the end of the month.

Who knows if you'll ever actually have a conversation about it. You know you'll never bring it up, who's to say that he will?

In hopes to keep himself focused and awake, he swiped a paperclip from the long table and fiddled with it in his lap. He unfolded and rebent it to create random shapes.

Bdubs supposed the other prince must've noticed, as he lightly tapped his ankle with his foot, gaining his attention. He just stared at him with a concerning gaze. To deter his worries, Bdubs gave him a small smile.

He turned back to the conversation going on with the kings and two Oropolion noblemen. The paper clip continued to be bent and reshaped between his fingers.

Once the meeting ended and they left the room, he looked at his hands and smiled to himself. The little, wobbly heart was adorable, in a sense.

"Is that what you were doing?" Doc asked, peering over his shoulder and unintentionally startling him.

"Ah um, I suppose so, yeah. At first, I was just mindlessly playing with it, but by the end, I decided to make it a heart," he sheepishly explained.

The hybrid blinked at the little heart, a slight smile forming on his face. "Cute."

Heat pricked at his cheeks as he just nodded, sliding the reshaped paperclip into his pocket. A part of his mind poked at him to hand it over as a silly little gift.

But... why? Who's to say he'd even want it? It's literally just a paper clip. What's wrong with me?

Before he knew it, the two had arrived at the bedroom, where they were going to collect their suits for the ball.

He held back a laugh as Doc spoke with the robot in his room, who had already found their suits for them. "What?" The prince asked, looking utterly confused.

"I apologize, truly. It's just- I'm not used to seeing you speak with the little bots!" He admitted.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No no, it's quite adorable actually!" He didn't mean to say it, the words just... slipped out. Bdubs caught a glimpse of Doc's face flushing before he turned away.

Looking away, he lightly touched his chest as a strange feeling bloomed. He swallowed, composing himself before cautiously approaching the little robot to take his clothing, but to his surprise, the bot beeped at him and backed up.