a Lout and a Prince

Part 1

A literal prince.

Cale flounced down onto his mattress gracelessly as he contemplated his own very poor life decisions.

Cale had a lot of those, he probably had more poor life decisions than decisions that were actually worthwhile in any real sense of the word.

But tonight, he was stuck rolling around on his bed with his heart throbbing in his chest and a new feeling bubbling up inside of him that he couldn't seem to control.

A literal freaking prince.

Cale Henituse had always had expensive tastes. Expensive wine, clothes, food, they were all luxuries that he could afford with his vast wealth and doting father. He could buy just about anything that caught his fancy and enjoy himself until he grew bored.

Cale didn't lack romance in his heart. He'd been a little boy once upon a time and he'd read all the fairytales that talked about a prince charming to sweep the protagonist off of her feet.

Even with his expensive tastes, Cale hadn't been quite foolhardy enough to think that he could aim as high as royalty. Fairytales were just fiction and frankly speaking, he'd probably have better luck aiming for a princess if he really had a taste for royalty.

He didn't think he'd ever become this dumb.

Cale Henituse had only attended the event with the intention of causing a scene.

A fancy debutante ball in the capital, the perfect scenario for him to make a drunken ass of himself and get disinherited for good this time.

Everything had been going according to plan.

Cheeks flushed with alcohol, foul mouth at the ready, and his arm ready to swing the bottle at whatever looked the most expensive.

He had it all planned out. He'd even been able to dodge Eric's careful watchfulness and he was ready to go.

And then there was this literal prince.

First prince Alberu Crossman, gently prying the alcohol from his grip with all the grace in the world and such a genuinely kind expression on his face that it threw Cale for a loop.

He'd been guided to the terrace with ease and he expected to be abandoned there. He'd lost the momentum, the prince would take him somewhere private and then leave him to the guards or something equally demeaning.

That was fine, Cale could find a way to spin this so that he could still force his fathers hand.

But the prince didn't leave.

He seemed to really believe that Cale was drunk, offering him water and staying at his side. Gently speaking about anything and nothing, inviting Cale to join in and even being patient with Cale's morose silence.

The stupid prince spent the rest of the debutante at his side.

It didn't make any sense to Cale. Weren't these events supposed to be for making connections? Shouldn't the first prince be out there fighting harder than anyone else to make those connections?

Perhaps he was trying to make a connection with the Henituse territory but it was well known that Cale Henituse wasn't a good place to start with that.

It didn't make any sense to him at all.

At sixteen years old, Cale fell a little bit in love with the first prince of the Roan Kingdom and knew that it was the dumbest thing he'd done in his entire life.

It was a good thing that he'd still managed to cause enough of a ruckus that his father was unlikely to let him out of the territory anytime soon. The last thing he needed was to spend anymore time with a man he could never have.

These feelings would fade with time and it would be nothing but a funny memory of the time that his tastes got a bit too expensive.

–

"Send Basen."

"Cale."

"I'm not going."

"Cale, this isn't up for negotiation."

"I don't understand why you want to send me. Isn't this an important celebration?" Cale grit his teeth, what the hell was his father even thinking?

It was clear from the invitation that they were looking for the heirs to come to the king's birthday celebration. It was the Crown Prince's thinly veiled attempt to create connections with the next generation.

The intention behind it couldn't have been more transparent if it were literally made of glass.

Did he have to get injured? Was that his only option to force his stupid fathers hand?

There was absolutely no way that Cale was going to go all the way to the fucking capital in a move that would basically declare to the entire kingdom that the Henituse countdum was intending on having the garbage lout of an eldest son inherit the title.

Especially not when doing so could potentially undermine Basen's legitimacy.

Cale had just about one goal driving him forth in his life. That was the safety, happiness, and prosperity of his family. For that to happen, Basen needed to be the unquestioned heir and Cale needed to be kept as far away from events like these as possible.

Cale Henituse had decided at the tender age of eight that there was absolutely nothing more important in his life than family. Unfortunately, Cale wasn't a genius by any measure of the word and he wasn't a skilled manipulator or tactician. Cale had just about one quality going for him and that was his absolute commitment to a goal.

So when he'd decided that the best way to protect his younger step brother and the rest of his family from the ridiculing of high society was to become the worst possible garbage in all of nobility... Cale had committed.

He was eighteen years old now and there was hardly a day that went by without him causing some sort of chaos. Honestly, it got exhausting. Cale wasn't naturally all that disruptive of a person but he had a persona to maintain and alcohol to drink.

That does it. He'd get into a bar fight and get just fucked up enough to preclude a visit to the capital.

There was absolutely no way in hell he was going to the capital.