The Sole Prince

Underestimated me, eh? [part 2]

"Don't leave," Sage whispers, his voice horse and choppy. "Your hand feels good on me." James melts. Floods of emotions wash over him, his hand still on the captain's chest.

"Of course," he smiles in response, the words fluttering out of his mouth.

"Help me get up," the larger man continues, rotating his head to look at the ongoing fight next to them. Well, to be fair, there's not much going on anymore. That triangle formation really must work. The three pirates are now just cleaning up scraps, only two of the opposition left, not a single scratch on Celine, Eric, or Scotty

"Not a chance," the prince replies, adding a tad more pressure onto the captain's chest.

"I gotta help my crew."

"You blacked out, Sage." Now that the prince can use the captain's true name, he's going to use it till it's burnt out. "And they can definitely get along fine without you."

"That's the worst part," the captain scoffs playfully. How does he keep such a cheerful tone despite death nipping his ear? Perhaps it's the prince's presence which allows this. The captain turns his head so he can look at the prince, who's staring down at him. It's then that he remembers something he had learned just a few moments before he blacked out. And maybe if he wasn't riding the euphoria of being alive, his mood would be lower than it is. "Maybe I hallucinated it, but a little crow chirped that you were a prince."

James feels as if he just ran into a brick wall. He diverts his eyes from the captain, a different form of panic than early filling into his lungs. This one has tinges of guilt. "That would be correct," the prince barely gets out coherently. He hesitantly looks back to the captain, who looks at him with distraught eyes. The prince hates them. "I'm not sure what you want me to say."

"We have time," the captain responds as Celine slices into the last remaining foe.

"It's really that... I'm sorry. I kept the full truth from you. And I wish I told you but—"

"I'm not mad at you," the captain responds, raising a hand weakly to caress the prince's face. The touch is ecstasy. "I could never be mad at you. I'm just a little caught off guard. I wouldn't say betrayed but-"

"I know. I'm sorry. I should have told you. I just didn't know how you'd react," the prince shakes his head. "That's not an excuse and... I'm rambling," he pauses. "As you heard, I'm the prince of Roriark. The sole prince of Roriark, rather. When I said I did maps for the government, I really meant I am the government."

"That's how you know so much," the captain responds, talking to himself. "You gonna turn me in now?"

"What? No! Never," James yells in a panic. Sage wouldn't actually think the prince would turn him in, right?

"It was a joke," the captain smiles, the end of his sentence elongated. There's an awkward pause between the two men, the prince aching to fill it with something.

"I didn't lie about my name, and—"

"Good. I like your name, James." The simple sentence distracts the prince from what he was trying to say, just staring into the captain's eyes. Frankly, it's too easy to get lost in them.

"You're distracting me."

The captain smiles. "Don't let me."

The prince diverts his eyes, blush fluttering into his cheeks.

"You were saying you were the prince?"

"Correct."

"I didn't know the king had any sons. Any children, for that matter."