Royalty comes with Pride

Chapter 1

"Sir, your father wishes for you to descend to the library." Another day, another servant telling them how to live their lives. The prince was fed up with this and just wanted to be free from the painfully structured life he lived. Yet there was no other option than to do as requested by the over formally speaking servants of the castle. Amir meandered towards the library, however he smartened his walk just before entering. And, sat in the great throne-like chairs, were his parents. And just as he had sat down and has his posture altered, his twin sister entered through the door. She disliked royal life as much (or even more than) he did, yet acted like the perfect princess all the time regardless of if there is anyone around.

"We need to have a talk with the two of you." Their mother always raised awareness of the subject and then left the detail and main discussion for her husband, they say it's only the rules but neither of the twins found it relevant to anything. "As you both are aware of, the two of us are ageing and as both of you are nearing your nineteenth birth anniversary. We are giving you until the Christmas Ball to marry a suitable man or woman, the finest lords and ladies are taking in their sons and daughters. We expect you to make the sensible decision." The two were then given the wave of dismissal, so the two of them left, they made way straight towards the gardens where they always met up as it wasn't seen proper for the two to talk about general everyday things in the castle. "So are you going to ask Luna to dress as a man and persuade a lord to take her in?" Amir turned to his sister, the both of them couldn't help giggling at the joke. "As if  anyone would let a criminal near me. And what's going to happen with you and Damien?" Neither knew what they'd do about their same gender relationships.

- The Next Day -

"Prince Amir Guri of Talene, 'tis my greatest honour to finally meet you." It was only the day after he had been told but the Prince already had to meet his fiancée, only from her looks he felt disgusted. But of course, he had to portray himself as a gentleman so hid his hatred and gave a polite introduction. Amir's mind trailed away from the petty princess in front of him and pictured the boy he missed, he hadn't seen Damien in 3 days yet it felt like forever. The prince had no idea how he was going to sort out this problem, he didn't know how he was going to tell his boyfriend about the arranged marriage. "Amir, stop daydreaming. I shall repeat myself for the sake of being in need of an answer. Would you prefer to spend your day with Princess Zoë or spend tomorrow with her?" His mother had snapped him out of his daydream and was expecting an immediate answer. I want a divorce, that's what I want mother. He thought it, but didn't dare say it.

"I shall spend today with her, tomorrow she shall settle in on her own with the assistance of servants." Seemed the best answer he could give, Amir just wanted to lie to her and spend the next two days with Damien. Yesterday he was supposed to get his pay, yet we didn't meet. I need to give it to him today or else he and Luna will have to resort back to thievery, neither twin wanted that for the two ex-criminals. Amir stood and offered a hand to his fiancée and led her away from the castle. "May I ask where you're taking me?" Her voice was so sickly sweet it made him want to throw up, he stifled a gag and told her he was taking her for a visit around the market town. His true intentions were to give the money in his pocket to Damien or Luna and perhaps even abandon Zoë all together. They arrived at the town and he showed her around the local stores. But their leisurely stroll was interrupted by a ruckus from one of the general stores. "Thief! You must pay for that, I spent good time making those!" Oh god, please don't be Damien or Luna. He told Zoë to head back towards the castle and that he'd catch up soon, she nodded in understanding and then left.

Amir ran over to where the shopkeeper had shouted about a thief and, after much looking around, spotted a small figure crouched behind a wagon of empty crates. He made sure nobody would see him before running over to the figure. And with no surprise, Damien was crouched over a small loaf of bread. "Hey." The blond jumped at the voice but seemed relieved when he recognised who it was. "You scared the daylights out of me." Damien muttered so only the two could hear, Amir just chuckled at the tone his boyfriend used. A group of people were looking for Damien and walked past listing his features that they had been given. Amir took the bread from Damien and swapped it with a coin pouch, the blond opened the pouch to see how much he'd been given this time and his eyes widened with shock at the number of brass pieces. He took half of them out and offered his hand out to the prince, "We don't need that much, we don't even need anything from you except love and appreciation."

Amir looked from Damien's face to the open palm with coins. "Keep them, we pay you because we don't want either of you in prison for theft." The blond opened his mouth to say something but the prince placed a hand over his mouth and pushed both of them further back into the corner. The two waited for a group of men to pass. "Where is that boy, he's done this one to many times now. If we get him it's prison without trial." It was the police, and they would send Damien to Prison if they caught him. Eventually the group left and the boys exchanged a worried glance. Spencer removed his hand from the blond's mouth and the two sat staring into each other's eyes. But out of nowhere, Damien burst out in silent tears. "Hey, it's okay. They can't get you." Amir was attempting to clam down his boyfriend but it wasn't working for an unknown reason. "I need to find Luna, we need a place for the night." Damien stood up to leave but was pulled back. "I get you can't even buy anything but you still have your hut, right?" Damien stayed silent and made another attempt to leave. But his boyfriend wasn't having it. He wanted to know why the two criminals had to find a new place to stay the night, they should have the abandoned hut that Yumiko had fixed up for the two. "They found it, and burnt it. Sorry, I know effort was put into it but it's gone. Just like any kind of freedom we once had." Amir was shocked into silence and stillness so Damien took the opportunity to find Luna, yet took the half full pouch he had been given.

"Amir! Why did you leave her for so long?" He remembered he was supposed to follow Zoë back to the castle but had gotten distracted. "Why did you even stay? It was a dangerous criminal yet you stayed in the area? You are staying here for the next month, as punishment." The prince even dared to look like he didn't care, rolling his eyes and sighing before leaving everyone to find his sister. He searched everywhere for her but after asking one of the servants, he found out that she had left a few hours ago and hadn't been seen since. He figured she would be with Luna and wouldn't want to interrupt any time the two had together because with these criminal-royalty relationships, every second matters.

"Miko, what's bothering you? You keep zoning out every five seconds which isn't like you at all." The princess snapped out of whatever state she was previously in. The thing that was bothering her was how am I going to tell her about the arrangements? She assumed her brother hadn't told Damien about it, but shock horror disaster happened when the blond appeared out of nowhere and had clearly heard Luna ask what was wrong with Yumiko otherwise what he said would have made no sense. "You're being arranged too, aren't you." Both girls turned to look at him, one in confusion and the other in terror. This is not how she was supposed to find out. "Arranged with what?" Luna had not a clue on the situation. Yumiko knew she'd have to tell Luna about it.

"Luna, you know I'm a princess." Luna replied like it was obvious. "You might know I'm turning 19 in a few months." She looked like she already knew what was coming, and she did. "So you're being married off soon and you have to break up with me. I get it." She got up and left, leaving Yumiko and Damien alone in the corner of a random park. The princess soon departed on the verge of tears to be met halfway by her brothers.