A King for A Prince

Chapter 4

The two princes worked together to clean up the mess on the floor of Jay's room. After a bit of scrubbing Jay showed Nicolas where everything in his room was and told Nicolas he would be sleeping in his bed because the guest deserved the bed and not the pull out.

"You can sleep in your bed," Nicolas said, setting his bag on the couch, "It's your bed, I'd rather you sleep on it."
Jay sighed knowing that there was now way of changing the older boy's mind. Jay layed back on his bed with a long drawn out sigh.

He knew his father was the one who destroyed his stuff but the question was when? The only time the prince had not been in his room or with the King was when he sat in the common room waiting for the guests.

Jay was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that he was being watched. Nicolas watched the younger prince as he bit his lip to help him think. He knew that the prince was struggling with the thoughts in his head but Nicolas had no clue how to empathize with the boy.
Nicolas doesn't know what it feels like to be in the prince's shoes, he doesn't know how it feels like to have his personal belongings destroyed.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Nicolas asks as he digs a penny from his pocket and gently tosses it at Jay.

"I know it was my father," says quietly as if he was telling himself the unwanted truth, "He hates the way I dress."

Nicolas stayed silent looking at the prince with a wide expression. His own father? Who would want to destroy something that made their kid so happy?

"He hates the way I dress, the way I talk, the makeup, heck, he even hates the way I eat," Jay continues, "No matter what I do my father always disagrees with me in some way."

"Do you know why?" Nicolas curiously asks the prince as he gently sits on the couch.

"He's disappointed with me," Jay's answers quietly, as if this was the first time he has heard the words out loud,

"He's disappointed because I'm not like him, I'm not his 'perfect prince'."
With a sad look on his face, Nicolas gets up from where he was sitting and sits next to Jay on the bed.

"I'm sure that's not true," He says looking down at the boy. Jay looked up at the ceiling and blinked away the tears that had formed in his eyes.

"Believe what you want but it's true," Jay looks over at the older prince with a slight frown.

Nicolas stared at the boy and watched a single tear fall from his eye. Without even thinking he reaches over and gently wipes the tear with his thumb.
Jay found himself staring into the prince's eyes; they shared eye contact for so long that Jay was able to notice all of the flecks of gold that were littered in Nicolas' bright green eyes.

There was a sudden knock on the door that caused the boys to jump apart. The older prince got up to check the door leaving the younger to sit on the bed and think about what just happened. He was so close.

Jay looked back at the door when he heard the click from it shutting.
"Who was it?" He asked as Nicolas made his way back to the spot he was sitting on the bed.

"Sam," The older prince responds as he gets comfortable on the bed, "She wanted to let us know that dinner was almost done."

"Okay," Jay responds, still sounding sad, "I'm going to go get cleaned up."

Nicolas smiled and nodded. He watched the younger prince as he walked away. Because he had been crying the eyeliner he was wearing smudged, making him look like a raccoon. His clothes he had been wearing were now all wrinkled from laying in his bed.

Nicolas laughed as he thought about Jay's reaction to his messed up makeup. He knew the prince liked to keep his appearance looking nice and seeing the state of his makeup would have killed him.

After a while of waiting Jay appeared from the bathroom with his makeup fixed and a new shirt on. The prince had a towel on his shoulders keeping his wet hair from ruining his nice shirt.
Jay took the towel from his shoulders, dried his hair slightly, and then looked at Nicolas.

"Ready to eat?" He asks, grabbing his blazer off of the chair by the door.

"Always," Nicolas responds, getting up off the bed to follow the prince out of the bedroom.