-a prince's limerence

I

>>> trigger warning for // verbal abuse

" does it feel like you've been dancing with yourself? „

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At the age of fourteen, Purple was declared crown prince, and his life turned upside down.

Until then, his life had been alright. His earliest memories were a blur of picnics with his mother and spars with his father. He recalled looking at them with nothing but admiration— And he recalled when they began to look back at him with disappointment rather than pride.

With bruises he'd return to his room after yet another lost fight against his father, echoes of his mother's cries and his father's insults in his mind. His brother was never around nowadays; The boy practically lived in his study, always too busy to talk or play or even eat dinner in the dining hall. Purple could hardly even call him a brother.

But that was alright. He had his mother and her sweet whispers, her constant gifts and praises. The only one who knew who he was, knew Purple and not Prince Iolanthe. The only one who bothered to pay him any attention after his father abandoned them and the kingdom, leaving without so much as a goodbye.

But of course, Purple didn't deserve anything good. He learned that at the age of thirteen, standing beside his mother's bed as the doctors pronounced her dead. Watching his brother be crowned King, he wondered what he'd done to get the long end of the stick. Why his brother was the one burdened with power and not him.

What he would do to rid the King of his suffering...

It wasn't even a few days later that the King had suggested that Purple become the official crown prince and aid the man in his duties. With his kind smile and tired eyes, Purple couldn't find it in him to say no. So with a grin, Purple nodded, and accepted the offer. Anything to help the King. Anything to make him proud.

The prince resolved to study all the texts on ruling there were over the next year. The teenager spent his days learning trade policies and history, and his nights mugging up the names and lineage of the various noble families that lived in the kingdom.

He took tuitions from the King's old teachers, ignoring all their praise in favor of becoming the perfect prince. By age fourteen, he'd become capable of handling the kingdom's affairs, and the King crowned him heir to the throne.

Of course, things weren't perfect. Purple didn't get the King's praise like he hoped he would, and he still found himself alone more often than not. Days were spent with the King as he nitpick and degraded Purple's work, frequently devolving into drunken rants that cut deep into the night.

He spent hours alone at the dinner table, rationalizing the King's behaviour. After all, he was a busy man. He had the whole world watching him, berating him for all his mistakes. The man needed to express his frustrations somehow, even if it meant taking them out on Purple.

So Purple took the insults in stride, because the King needed some way of venting out his emotions. No matter how deep the remarks cut, Purple could handle it if it meant his brother felt a bit better.

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In most kingdoms, the duties of ruling were split up evenly between the ruler and their spouse. However, the Nether kingdom functioned differently. Due to the King's refusal to take any spouse (despite insistence from almost all the members of the royal court), he had to do all the work alone.

Three years later, they worked in almost perfect harmony. To the public, they were an inseparable pair, two brothers who loved each other more than anything else in the world. When working, they were efficient partners, constantly expanding the kingdom and their reach to gain more power.