Dusted Gold and Dulled Emeralds (Royal SBI AU)

Chapter 8

He knew he shouldn't have ran. He should've stayed and talked it out. Tried to find a way to healthily and safely discuss it. But noooo. He had to run. Do the one thing he hated his past father and brother for: running away from their issues. Yet instead of running to the village, his legs took him in another direction.

They led him to a grave made of the best marble they could find. Hidden away where only the royal family knew. Black roses crawled up glowing stone, surrounding the name that was etched into it. How ironic. The flower that poisoned her now grew to protect her grave.

Looking around the area, memories started flowing back. A memory of pain, grief, loss. Blurred black and dots of white. Elegies only half heard and a kingdom in mourning. He remembered it all. The poisoning, his family's faces, the funeral, the tears but least and most of all: his mother."She was almost always seen smiling. It looked like rays of the sun had blessed you with their shine. Its funny you have the same sort of smile," his father had told him, "Even when she died, she smiled. It was like she knew what the fates were planning." When Tommy tried to remember the warm smile, he could only see a faded smile. No beauty or warmth. Just death.

"Her voice was like an angels. So bright and warm. It made you feel all happy inside," Wilbur had said.

"Like yours?," Young, naive Theseus had asked back.

"Yeah, I suppose it was." Yet the only sound he remembered his mother make was a choking sound as her head hit the table.

"She was super smart. She would always read us Greek mythology. Her favourite story was about Theseus and the Minotaur, it was the one she read the most," Techno would say over his own copy of the story. "The story I'm named after?" he said in return."Mhm, I was super jealous when you got the name and I didn't," though Theseus could tell what he really thought remained silent. Funny how it was the one story he couldn't remember being read. Sure Techno read it to him but not his mother. He did remember that she was buried with a copy though. Techno left it as a final gift. Maybe running away and thinking here for a bit wouldn't be too bad. He can just reminisce for a bit longer. -------- The castle was a mess to put it simply. Not a single rock was left unchecked looking for the King. This effort was only undone by the princes. They each had a squadron of 15 and were searching the kingdom, leaving no grain of sand where it had first been. Citizens tried their best to help, but most of them had jobs and families to attend to. The guests from other kingdoms stayed with a few like Schlatt offering some of their knights to assist in the search for the King. Jokes passed around of how it ran in the family.

It was soon nightfall and no one had located the King. Sam had ordered that everyone but night guards should rest, they needed energy to begin again tomorrow. He himself been analysing any evidence of where Tommy went, his eyes were sore and his back ached but he refused to rest. He sat down into one of the chairs Tommy kept in his office, praying that Tommy would walk through the door alive and well, but he knew it was foolish to think he would.

The only thing that he could find was a letter, written years ago by Phil. Techno had identified the letter as the last thing Phil left them. He claimed that Tommy hadn't wanted to open it until Phil came back. In Tommy's words "It made his brothers sad and he didn't wanna be sad. So if he read it when Phil came back, he wouldn't be sad." Apparently Tommy had stuck to that idea. Only Techno had read the full letter, with the rest claiming it as an invasion of privacy. Techno said it was similar to the one he received, it has an apology for going away and a claim about a possibility that he would not survive. But no explanation as to where or why he went. They were beginning to lose hope when Dream stepped forward and said "I know one more place he could be. I've been avoiding it but it is possible he's there. This is, if he hasn't ran away." "Great words of encouragement, but he's right. There's one place we've all been avoiding to check," Techno said, a hint of concern in his usually monotone voice. With a new location in mind, they set out. Hopefully they weren't too late. –He had lost track of the time. 

That would be a good excuse. It was plausible and not uncommon for him. He was aware that he had spent a longer time here then planned but as long as he had an excuse and was back before search parties went out he would be fine.

"Theseus!""Tommy!"Shit. Gods were obviously not on his side, ever.

Techno wasn't too surprised that Theseus was hiding at the grave. He knew it was likely that was where he was, he had just hoped he was wrong. The area was surrounded by black roses. A poisonous flower that had already taken too many lives. He knew Theseus knew of their dangers but the part of him that still feared the night cried that he had lost another

Dream knew he should've checked the grave earlier. It was in his section to scan. He just couldn't face the possibility that Theseus may have died as a result of the flowers, second monarch by the same flower. Would be a new record. This fear was washed away by Tommy standing a couple meters away looking very alive.

Tommy was engulfed in a hug before he could even begin his not so carefully constructed excuse he. This was followed by a bombardment of questions.

"Why did you run?""We were so worried. Are you alright?""Were you here the entire day?"Etc. He was too busy being smothered to listen. "Hey Kings. I was just hanging out. Y'know. Decided to go on a walk and eventually arrived here. I'm all good." He could tell from their faces they did not believe him. "Fine. I ran away. But instead of running away, I came here. Its funny how his grave has such dist-"

"TOMMY, THANK GOD YOU'RE OK!"

The group turned to see Tubbo, Ranboo and Sam bursting through, armed with healing potions and first aid items. Instead of a hug, they instantly began a medical check. Tommy was pretty sure he was fine but apparently a cut along your calf wasn't great. He allowed for the three to clear him of any other injuries before getting hugged once again by them. 

With the main injuries patched up they decided the rest could wait until they got back to the castle. They had considered to bring Tommy's horse along seas they slowly trotted to the castle Techno decided to talk to Tommy. "What were you about to say before the others arrived?" He said. The two were ahead of the others, well out of their hearing range.
"I was sitting there for a while. A lot of things were coming back to. A lot of memories. Its quite ironic how that grave can trigger such real emotions and memories. Considering its a fake," Tommy replied before dropping back to chat with Ranboo."Wait, you mean-," but Techno was interrupted by a loud scream. "Help!"

Tommy being Tommy rushed off to help. Dream immediately went after him followed by Sam and Tubbo. Techno was still stone still. The grave couldn't be fake. He was at the funeral. It just couldn't be. It couldn't have been a lie.

A/N

Hi,

Sorry for being so late with posting recently. I've attempted to have some sort of schedule but that failed miserably. This means I'm back to my original statement of random updates. I'll try and update once a week but I'm unsure if I can keep my word.

In other news, I will be posting this story on Ao3. A link will be added to the story desc when I do. Thank you for reading this far and I hope you enjoyed what is so far and whats to come.