"The barter system is of the local market provenance. This is the place where most of the trades take place." Louis informed him just as a horde of children ran past them, cavorting their way through the market overfilled with people. "We can look for some clothes for you to wear, have something to eat from one of the stalls, and then I can introduce you to Zayn and his omegas." He nodded, following behind the alpha wordlessly as Louis jostled them through the moving crowd. Zayn was probably the alpha he had heard Louis talk to when he had first awoken, but the bit that perplexed him the most was undeniably the plural term used for Zayn's significant other, others, he admonished himself.
Having more than one partner was still vastly frowned upon, considered illegal in most of the kingdoms. "When are you going to sell the clay figurines you were talking about?" He questioned once they were deeper inside the market, away from the cluster of people lingering by the entrance of the market.
Louis turned his head to glance at him transitorily before he looked ahead, the alpha's warm hand still holding his in a vice-like grip as he maneuvered them through the lively street teeming with youthful people. "Not now, surely," Louis muttered, strides waning into slow and mindful steps just as the alpha pulled his hand away from his clutch. He frowned for a minuscule second before averting his attention to the various stalls aligned in a straight line, eyeing the items that were being sold.
There was one sprightly, old couple selling bed linen with ebullient smiles. A sturdy aura of buoyancy surrounded their beings albeit being overshadowed by a much bigger trader of bed linen whose shop was situated right next to the couple’s tiny stall. Optimism, Harry had learned, was a tricky emotion to feed one's self. To pretend everything was splendid when the world was falling apart around them was rather foolish, but finding happiness in the littlest of things was not. The couple wasn't optimistic; they were happy and content with the way things were rolling out— complacent and satiated with their sales, more so, their lives.
He remembered his life back at the palace, his father always made sure every one of his whims was fulfilled within twenty-four hours. He never had to see any routine human cruelties, everything was served on a silver platter for him; he had never experienced scarcity much less desperation or the want of something— perhaps, the want of materialistic things.
It was always the things that could be bought with money that he had received his whole life. Emotions couldn't be bought, nor could lifelong relations. Somehow, he had everything one could ever have and at the same time, lacked everything one had. He had things no one in the kingdom had, but also lacked things even his maids possessed.
He longed for someone who would look at him the way the man looked at his old wife, longed for a bond so strong that not even the scarcity of materialistic assets could break; longed for a bond that the old couple shared. And he reminded himself, standing in the middle of a market brimming with chattering wolves, that running away from home was the best decision he had ever made. He couldn't see himself handing over his life and basic rights to a sixty-year-old man who could hardly even mate him properly let alone cherish or love him.
"We will stop by here before leaving, have to buy you some sheets and all— you kept stealing my share of the quilt," Louis told him as they passed the old couple, but his eyes stayed on the woman who blushed profusely when the man grabbed her hand nonchalantly while talking to their customers. He wished he could see the world from their perspective, it would probably help him in the long haul. "I am sorry, I did not intend to." He mumbled sheepishly, letting his gaze roam around the market. Other than the mature sellers, there were also adolescents selling various items, ranging from portrait paintings to imitation jewelry.
He could also spot some stalls that were selling seafood food items. He could make out the smell of fried fish, whelks, and cockles pervading the air mixed in with many other scents of marine animals he could not detect. Other than the seafood stalls, there were also stalls selling sandwiches and fried potatoes along with some selling sweet dishes like rice milk and something that suspiciously looked like fried dough covered in cinnamon and sugar.
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Polaris || l.s.
Fanfiction[discontinued until further notice] Harry's heart was dead set on freedom. It was not a recent thing, he had been itching to get away from the confines of the responsibilities he had as the prince of Eonshire. Running away from home was easy, but b...
