All Around You (Troyler AU)

Chapter 6: Fight Me

­­­­­­­Tyler’s P.O.V

Life in the castle was beyond anything I could’ve imagined. I mean, sure, I lived in the castle before, but that was when I lived on the ground floor with all of the other knights. We were all expected to fit inside one tiny room every single night. A layer of straw mattresses strewn across the room were the only things between our bodies and the hard floor. The stone floors would reach near freezing temperatures on the ground at night, and we had to do our best to cover ourselves with what we had (which was never much).

Now I had a room all to myself on the third floor. My new room had an actual bed. Having a real bed is a luxury I never thought I’d have in my life. I could lay there for hours. It felt like being enveloped in a soft, warm cloud. And it was so quiet and nice in my room. When you spend your entire life surrounded by others, you almost forget what it’s like to have a conversation in your head. The walls of my brain were still ringing with the noises of the other knights screaming at each other from across the field, or the loud hours whinnying as we rode off together. In the safe walls of my room, I could actually hear myself think.

The first night I had stayed in my room, I was completely in awe. I could barely sleep, because the second I got into the bed my body nearly rejected the new feeling. The room was echoing the silence. I could hear every gust of wind hitting the castle walls, and I almost missed the comforting sound of all of my friends breathing quietly near me. For a moment, I felt almost nervous and sick, and I wanted to lie back on the floor. It didn’t take long for me to get used to the comfort, though, and I was asleep within a couple of hours. The next day, I told Troye all about my surprise at my room, and he chuckled at me like it was the weirdest thing he’d ever heard. Of course he’d think it was weird, he’s had his own room since he was a baby. We shared a laugh about it over breakfast.

Troye and I were walking down the corridors to the castle grounds. I had planned to surprise him with a one-on-one swordsmanship practice given the fact he used to watch the knights in training so often.

“So are we going to visit the knights?” He asked as we continued down the halls.

“No, the knights aren’t practicing today,” I answered.

“Oh...” he said. “Where are we going then?”

“Outside,” I said simply.

“To town?” He asked.

“No, just on the castle grounds!” I answered.  He didn’t ask any more questions, he just gave me an odd, befuddled look. I responded by grinning back at him as we opened the front doors and took our first steps into the fresh morning air. I watched his face scrunch up slightly at the sunlight and chuckled despite myself. Troye followed quickly behind me as we trudged the grassy distance up to where the weapons and armor were held. I could feel his questioning eyes staring at the back of my head, waiting for an explanation, but I stayed silent.

Having left my armor with the others during the knight’s last training session, I knew it would still be there. I took my armor out and turned to Troye.

“Now can you tell me what’s going on?” He asked again.

“I was thinking you and I could train today,” I said happily. “I knew you liked watching the knights train so much and I figured I could teach you a few things.”

At that moment, I could see his face drop slightly as his skin became even paler. I could feel my heart almost stop entirely in my chest. There had been this nagging thought in the back of my head ever since I had planned this that there was a possibility he wouldn’t want to do it. I knew I should’ve listened to that nagging voice! Now I was staring at his face, which looked upset and slightly awkward.