Cinders: An Intrulogical Story

Chapter 18

"I'm so nervous." Logan mumbled to no one in particular as he stared up at the big castle doors.
All the guards were inside so the only people outside were him and Picani, Picani put a loving hand on his face.
"You'll be okay, Remus would be a fool not to fall for you when you look like this." Logan trembled a little.
Logan stepped forward but stopped when he noticed that Picani was standing by the coach, not moving.
"Aren't you coming with me?" "Oh dear no, I've been to so many of these I think I'd die if I had to sit through another one." Logan became even more nervous than before, he didn't know what to do with his hands, since he didn't have his apron on anymore he had nothing to fiddle with.

"But I can't go in there by myself!" "Please, you'll do wonderful, you don't need my help." Picani reasoned, giving Logan a reassuring pat on the back.
Logan took a deep breath and counted to ten, few tasks are more daunting than showing up somewhere you know you don't belong, to arrive at a grand ball is exciting but also scary as all hell.
Every part of his body just wanted to collapse in on itself but he knew that he would never get an opportunity like this again and if Roman is really gonna hurt Remus like he thought, he'd have to suck it all up and put his anxieties aside to help Remus.
Slowly creeping towards the door, he pushed it open and bright light poured out towards him, he was simply stunned by the absolute majesty and beauty of the building.
The ballroom was large and had gigantic marble columns that lined each of the walls, fitted snugly in between them were huge stained glass windows with intricate patterns that all formed to make beautiful pictures.

The prettiest of all to Logan however, was the one that depicted two roses intertwined together, one blue and one black.
If the windows weren't already breathtaking enough, the ceiling was painted with various different cherubs and clouds with a big golden sun in the middle of it, it looked like the ceiling of Sistine chapel but smaller and way less colorful.
Under neath the big sun dangled a golden chandelier with tons of pristine white candles lit up, the whole display was just beautiful.
It almost literally took his breath away, there were so many other little things too that made the room all the more beautiful.
Such as the long green curtains that he could imagine the prince would hide in as a kid while playing a game of hide and seek, the perfectly polished marble floors that all the fancy guests delicately danced on together and the royal family crest that hung above the thrones.

He was ready to just stand there and soak it all in for a full hour but was distracted when he noticed something horrifying, everyone stopped what they were doing to look up at the balcony he was standing on.
He was nudged by the door man who wanted his name but Logan didn't quite pick up on that.
"Excuse me sir, do you know where I could find this guy I know? He's super lanky, has a mustache, grey hai-" "Are you talking about the prince?".
He pointed towards the crowd and Logan leaned forward on the balcony to get a better look.
His jaw dropped in pure shock, "oh my god." he mumbled.

Remus stood there in the middle of the crowd, looking up at Logan, the man who he had been in the woods mushroom hunting, the same man who saw him get stuck in a tree, the same man who literally ran into him at a market place, was a prince.
An heir to a throne thought Logan was interesting enough to befriend, wait! Remus wasn't even in danger! Roman didn't mean he was gonna hurt him! He was talking about marrying him off to Patton! Oh god, is that why they were so upset? They had to know.
They must of thought he was trying to steal him from Patton, this explains so much! Logan couldn't believe his eyes.
He stepped down the stairs that lead to the ballroom floor, it was a good thing that his step family couldn't get through the crowd easily now that everyone had gathered around tightly to gawk at Logan or else they would of known it was him.
Remus walked up to him and said "Hi..." as he gave an awkward wave.
Logan awkwardly bowed, "Go-...good evening your highness..." Logan awkwardly muttered.
This was weird, calling Remus "your highness" was the last thing he'd expect to do tonight.

"Please, you can just call me Remus, what's your name?" He was shocked, 'Does he not recognize me?' he thought.
Remus was never the smartest individual but Logan never suspected he would be that bad at recognizing faces, then again, when Logan saw himself in the mirror like this he barely even recognized himself.
Logan didn't really look like Logan, his face was always dirty and so were the lenses in his glasses, so his facial features were partially obscured, his hair was usually a matted tangled mess or covered by the white bandana on his head that he wore to keep his hair pulled back a little and he was forced to wear the same dirty old clothes everyday so it could be hard to associate him with any other outfit (especially one as pretty as the one he was currently wearing).
Plus, this version of Logan actually had a proper bath and smelled like pumpkin instead of just dish soap.
Logan was insanely on edge, if he didn't know who he was maybe then he could just forget about all of this tomorrow and never see Remus again, he loved him but he didn't wanna go through the complete mess of fighting Patton and Roman over him.

He didn't wanna risk getting assaulted again, one beating was bad enough, he didn't need another one.
Remus kept asking a ton of questions along the lines of "What nation are you the prince of?" "What's your name?" "Who are you?" and Logan was struggling to find an answer for any of them.
So he just mumbled "I'm visiting my cousin.".
"What?" "He's a great cousin". "Okay who is he?" "The son of my aunt." "Okay but do I know her?" "Yes of course you've met her at the thing!" "The thing?" "....the thing where you met my cousin!".
At this point Remus knew they were just going around in circles with this conversation, so he just smiled at him and said "Ah yes! You're cousin! I should of known the resemblance! You both have the most wonderful smile.".

Logan's face turned a bright red, he didn't know wether to be embarrassed or insanely flattered so he just settled on both, he uttered "You know my cousin...".
"Yes, and as a matter a fact he told me that if I ever met you I should probably show you a good time... maybe even dance with you." he out stretched his hand.
Logan timidly placed his hand on is open palm, noticing how soft his silk glove felt on his bare hand, he bit his lip out of nervousness and barely made any eye contact with him.
It was just Remus, he had no reason to be so scared, the again he was Prince Remus and that was a whole other can of worms.
Remus was instantly taken with this mysterious stranger, something about him was so familiar, he couldn't put his finger on it, he felt so close to knowing just who it was but whenever he thought he got it something deep inside him would just know it wasn't right.

He thought about Logan and how he had been waiting for him all night, it looked as though he got stood up, maybe the whole "cuddling in the woods" thing was too much? He could of just been being nice and Remus was catching feelings way too quickly.
For whatever reason, since Logan wasn't gonna show up, Remus was ready to spend the rest of his night with this stranger.
While the two slowly lurched towards a clearing in the crowd to dance, Remus leaned over and whispered in Logan's ear "Is it weird that I'm kinda nervous?".
Logan smirked, remembering what Remus told him when they went to that big dance circle in town square, "Don't worry, the trick to dancing is to act like nobody is watching you, or imagine them naked.".
Remus giggles, not realizing his own words were being parroted back to him.
The two began their waltz with Remus leading, everyone gawked at them with wide eyes and open mouths.

His step family could barely get a peak, the only times they actually got glimpses of him were so brief all they saw was a sweeping flash of blue, gliding across the floor, being held closely by the prince.