The Palace Guard (MxM)

III

Nikkol rigidly laid there, staring up at the dark ceiling.

Despite where he was, one of the softest and largest beds in the kingdom, he couldn't even consider relaxing.

Prince Setial's soft breathing was the only sound in the room.

Nikkol couldn't even bring himself to look at the prince's sleeping form, mind too overwhelmed with what just happened between them.

He could honestly say that he'd never had intercourse quite like that before. Turns out it was quite different between men. Nikkol couldn't say he disliked it, he had felt things he didn't even know could be felt and didn't not enjoy himself, it just felt strange to admit it.

Afterwards, the prince had told him to stay there for the night, which led to now. He had fallen asleep hours ago, yet Nikkol laid wide awake. He knew if he got caught he would be killed or imprisoned. But he knew Prince Setial wanted him to get caught because it was some weird way to get his fathers attention.

When he could see the sky get just a shade lighter he knew he had to leave, he was late for training.

Hoping to not disturb the prince, Nikkol slipped out of his bed. He was able to muffle his surprised and painful gasp when he put weight on his legs, but pushed through the ache in his hips and started gathering his clothes and slipping them on. He knew he was disobeying an order, but he didn't know what else to do. There was no telling when the prince would wake and he was late enough already. He hoped that the prince would have forgotten where Nikkol stood and didn't care enough to seek him out, he didn't even know his name, so Nikkol felt an amount of security in that.

"Leaving already?" Apparently his efforts to keep quiet weren't enough. Nikkol readied himself then turned to look up at the prince, wishing he was a little faster because he was almost fully dressed. "Guess I can't keep you here any longer, I have no idea what it is you guards do." He looked at Nikkol queerly, the guard not knowing what was going through the prince's mind. "Okay, go." He said, laying back down in bed and shutting his eyes.

Nikkol breathed a silent breath of relief and quickly finished getting dressed, leaving as quietly as possible.

Since he was already dressed in his armor, he wasted no time after quickly washing up and headed out to the field. Since it was dark, he was able to slip in without anyone noticing.

"Nikkol!" The guard immediately went towards Edgal, who was staring at him with wide eyes. "I can't believe you're still here!" He walked over and slung his arm around Nikkol.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? Prince Setial himself dragged you across half the castle and I didn't see you all night!" Edgal squeezed him tighter in an almost-hug. "What did he do to you?"

"Umm..." Nikkol didn't know how to answer. He couldn't say the truth because of all the people surrounding them, now giving the two their full attention. "I'll tell you later." He told his friend, reaching and grabbing his sword out. "Now let's just focus on training."

Edgal was clearly disappointed, but still brought his sword up to match his friend's. "You're lucky that you passed by Herval's study, otherwise he would've blown a fuse when you were late."

Nikkol hadn't noticed that they passed by Herval the head guard's, study, too preoccupied with what was happening to him. Now he had to worry about Herval yapping at him about how improper what he did was.

But he didn't, Nikkol didn't see him all morning.

In what felt like no time at all, Nikkol was standing back at his post, just like he did every day.