a Lout and a Prince

Part 2

Cale sat on the carriage heading towards the capital with growing annoyance at every bump, sound, and general reminder that he was here at all.

How the hell had his father managed to pull this off? Was he just getting predictable in his tactics?

Cale had managed to get into a bar fight a few nights ago, resulting in a scar that wasn't going to soon fade, but the injuries just hadn't been serious enough to restrict his movements. One potion later and he was already travel ready with a disapproving father insisting that he absolutely had to go this time.

If only there had been a traveling swordmaster with some easily picked at trauma. He could have gotten himself beaten half to death and his father would have absolutely no choice but to concede.

Cale... well, Cale wasn't actually an insane person. He was just a person who was ready and willing to do insane things to get his way. His stubbornness was probably his only good quality, being that it led him into becoming an excessively loyal person overall.

He glowered out the window, watching the trees go by with disinterest.

He didn't want to go to the capital. He'd have to throw some sort of embarrassing stunt again and it was just so much easier to pull off in the Henituse territory.

For starters, he had to calculate his stunts just right while he was in the capital. He could do just about anything in the Henituse territory and it wouldn't cause any actual harm to his family.

But around the other nobles he had to be just rowdy enough to be a shameful embarrassment but not quite trashy enough to cost the Henituse territory anything of significant value.

It was a delicate tightrope to walk and it really exhausted him just to think about.

He'd be shaking the Crown Prince's hand too.

Cale frowned at the scenery.

Alberu Crossman really did seem like a good guy. He'd probably make a great leader and the kingdom would be better for him and blah-de-fucking-blah.

Cale wasn't romantic enough to still be holding onto a two year old crush from a single meeting.

...but it would be a lie to say he didn't think about it.

The prince probably didn't remember him at all though. Cale reminded himself that as a literal prince who was so far outside of bounds for Cale that it wasn't even funny, Alberu Crossman was sure to have met with and attempted to make a good impression on many young nobles.

Alberu's transparent attempt to use this event to build connections with the next generation made that all the more obvious.

His meeting with Alberu wasn't anything special. The prince saw a potential heir to the Heintuse territory, regardless of how unlikely it was for Cale to inherit, and decided to spend some time building rapport.

It really wasn't that deep.

And yet...

Well, what harm was there in romanticizing a silly memory from two years ago? No one had to know if he thought that Alberu had looked striking in the moonlight or that he liked to think about those helpless feelings of affection, here and there, just because having a crush could be fun.

He'd meet with the prince and at best, Alberu would remember him as a stupid sixteen year old kid who'd tried to throw a fit at a debutante. Then they'd say their goodbyes again and it would help to thoroughly destroy the remains of the silly little crush that Cale hadn't been able to let go of all this time.