The Sole Prince

Our ending would be different too. [part 1]

The day comes naturally, sooner than either of the men want, sunlight shining into the room. Once more, they waste time pretending that they are asleep before the hungers of breakfast become too strong to ignore any longer. The two men go to breakfast, Sage feeling good enough to move today. However, he almost wishes that he was still bedridden, left with no choice other than to waste the day away with James. They both pick up some food, walking back to the cabin together. The food is eaten, jokes are made, and the one conversation from last night is left to linger in the heavy air.

Eventually, Sage departs for a meeting to discuss pirate business, as he likes to say, leaving James alone in the cabin. All the prince can do is count down the hours until the captain comes back.

When the captain eventually arrives, a smile appears on his lips as soon as he opens the door and sees the prince laying on the captain's bed, curled up with a book. He's like a painting, even more than that, rather. To be hung in the fanciest palaces, and the captain would pay any price for the priceless work.

They talk and read and laugh and cuddle and joke and let themselves be distracted as to forget the coming goodbye. The two wish they could say just a sentence more, an easy one to think, yet much harder to put into words. Besides, it's much easier to live in the present than figure out how to express that they want a future that neither of them thinks they could have. How does one say that the other's touch is more valuable than gold?

The following days happen the same way, with the prince and the captain spending all their moments with the other. Somehow, each moment is better, yet more bittersweet, than the last. Each touch unique and different and perfect. They stay up late and wake up early, yet they're not tired. The little sleep they do get is the best they've ever had, cuddled with the person that somehow means so much so quickly and will so soon be saying goodbye.

"We're supposed to hit land tomorrow," Sage whispers to the prince, the two of them laying in bed with each other.

"Already?" James replies, laying on top of the captain rather than the bed itself.

"Seems so," the captain says, slightly rubbing his hand up and down the prince's hip.

"It feels like just yesterday that you almost left me to die on that ship," the prince tries to joke, yet the lowered mood prevents any laughter.

"I'm forever glad I didn't," the captain responds, holding the prince close to him. The ship rocks as the two drift off to sleep.

The prince wakes up alone in the bed; the captain had told him that he would have to help with getting the ship anchored on the shore. And, although he was expecting it, the loneliness that the prince feels is crippling, yet serves as foreshadowing for the days to come. They had talked about it— the prince and the captain, that is— about how this whole thing would happen. Supposedly one of the captain's closest acquaintances would be here and the prince would be "transferred" from one pirate's hand to the other. It would be a lie to say that the prince wasn't nervous about living on another new ship while being taken back to Roriark, even more nervous about his reception when he gets home via a pirate ship. Yet, other emotions prove to be more powerful than the nerves. He can hardly imagine how it's going to feel going to sleep in a foreign place without a man to hold him. Without the captain.

The prince rises from his bed, making his way over to the bookshelf. Maybe the captain will let him take a book with him on the journey home, and maybe it'll forever remind him of the captain. So that when he reads it, each word will be a fleeting reminder of the captain's embrace and each chapter might feel as if the captain's hands are still on him. And he'll read the book, over and over, never tiring, never ready to put it down.