The Palace Guard (MxM)

XII

The silence after what had been said stretched on for a while, both deep in thought. "Stay with me."

Nikkol looked over and saw Setial with his head still on his shoulder, face hidden with the angle. "What?" He must've imagined him speaking. He was half-convinced the prince was sleeping.

"Tonight. I don't want to be alone." His voice was so soft, vulnerable. "Stay with me. Please?"

"Of course." Nikkol replied without a thought, hugging him tighter and placing a light kiss on his head. There was a new kind of intimacy between them after the events of the day, but Nikkol didn't mind in the slightest. "Are you tired?"

He saw Setial's head move up and down slowly.

Neither of them moved.

"Sometimes I wonder what my life would be like if he had been there right from the start." Setial's voice was quiet. "I guess I should be grateful that he came later."

"I think it just sucks that he had to come here at all. The kingdom is nowhere near better with him here." The treacherous words seemed to echo around the room even though they were spoken at a whisper.

Silence enveloped them again, although this time it was tense, waiting to be broken. "How would war affect the life of a guard?"

"What do you mean?" Nikkol asked, not knowing if he was asking if it affected his life at all or how specifically.

"Like if we went to war, what things would you have to do differently?"

"I'm not sure, never have been in a war."

"Me neither." Setial admitted, an expected confession. "But I've been training and preparing my whole life for what to do when one comes." Nikkol felt the prince's finger tracing small, innocent circles on his waist. "We'd likely have to lock down the whole kingdom and call all able-bodied men to fight. I'm not sure if that means that palace guards will be pulled from their posts or not."

"I hope that if that day ever comes that we will join the fighting."

"Really? I was kind of hoping that you'd be required to stay."

Nikkol scoffed quietly. "Is the security of the castle that important to you?"

"Not the castle."

Silence surrounded them again, thick with tension. Nikkol felt something in him warm, Setial cared about him and wanted him safe, even if the care was only a little bit. At this point, Nikkol definitely knew that he was the only one that Setial seemed to positively interact with and somewhat rely on, but the words still felt nice. "Would you have to fight?"

"Of course, I'm a prince." Setial said like it was common knowledge. Nikkol had assumed that as a prince his safety would be priority one. "I have to lead the people against them. I've been training for that too for as long as I could pick up a sword."

"Do you like fighting with your sword?"

Setial took a second to answer. "I prefer working with strategy more, but I don't dislike fighting."

Nikkol scoffed. "I don't doubt that."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Setial's head lifted from his shoulder to look at him.

"We'll, I don't know," Nikkol started, his tone light, "you just tend to get angry and seem to be the type of person who picks fights whenever you can."

"Oh, I'll show you how much I like to fight." Setial's tone was obviously mock-angry. A new rush of energy overcame the two as he got to his knees on the bed, wiggling out of Nikkol's arm that was around his shoulder still, and tried to push Nikkol down. The guard was ready, however, meeting his attack.

The two wrestled on the bed for a minute, neither able to tell you exactly what their strategy was or the purpose of it, it was just fun.

Being stronger than the slightly taller man, Setial ended up winning. He was sitting on Nikkol's stomach, legs gripping the sides of him, while holding his wrists down. The guard's head was on the pillow and he was completely relaxed at this point, knowing Setial had won and was surprised at the prince's strength.

Said prince was looking down at Nikkol's face, a smile on his face. He leaned down and kissed the guard passionately.

Nikkol reciprocated immediately. Hands that were now loose due to Setial's deciding to slip under his shirt, came up and ran through the prince's soft hair.

After a minute, Setial pulled away, looking down at Nikkol again with quick breaths and a flushed face. "How's that for fighting?"

"Well, since you do it so much it's no question why you're so good. Although, you were a bit stronger than I expected. Perhaps it's all the extra anger giving you an ed-"

Setial cut him off with a light kiss. "Stop talking." He whispered, a bright smile on his face.

He then rolled himself off Nikkol and after some awkward shuffling, got the covers over both of them. He then curled up next to the guard, the comfort of another person there putting him to sleep quickly.

Nikkol took a while to fall asleep. He wasn't sure if it was because it was earlier than when he usually went to bed, if what Setial had told him was giving him too much to think about, or if the new positioning of the two was making him think. Perhaps a combination of all three.

He'd fallen asleep in Setial's bed a few times before, but they always lay on different ends, very separate. The only thing that used to let him know there was another person in the room was the sound of even breathing a few feet away. This same breathing was now brushing against his arm, and warmth pressed against half his body. He couldn't come to dislike it. The new intimacy, and the ease in which they had conversed earlier, was very strange for Nikkol, but he found he enjoyed it.

He adjusted himself so he could look at the prince's face. He'd had such a negative and disappointing day. The fact that Nikkol had been able to make him go to sleep with a smile made him both proud and happy.

He couldn't begin to imagine him fighting in a war.

He didn't know if it was how peaceful his face looked at the moment or the drastic change in the settings, but he couldn't picture him covered in the dirt of battle, fighting viciously for a kingdom that he'd never get to call his.

He knew that he had to have been a great fighter, anyone who had trained for that long had to be, but he still didn't feel comfortable with the thought of him leading an army into the front lines.

Perhaps he was getting too close to the prince and it was affecting his thoughts. He knew if it ever came to fighting he had to focus on himself. But he couldn't help but wish it never came to that when he looked at the prince's face, which was a far cry from not too long ago when he was wishing for anything to break him out of his boring life.

Even though it hadn't been all that long, he couldn't even imagine ever going back to that now.

The fear of doing the same thing every day wasn't something that even threatened the guard now.

It took a while, but Nikkol too drifted off into sleep, his arm protectively around the prince.