King Thrushbeard (mxm)

Chapter 17

They sat on the Begonian side of the lake, William leaning against an old tree stump with his eyes closed while the minstrel read to him, fluently. William had always been of the opinion that peasants were far too dumb to even learn how to read, but somehow this one seemed to be quite smart, and even semi educated... Could it be that peasants weren't as bad as he had always thought?

Unlike on other days, the minstrel had his hair loose to dry, and looked drop-dead gorgeous, so William had closed his eyes to avoid staring at him all the time. Instead, he tried to focus on his calm, deep voice; had that always been so sexy?
Actually it had – he had just never viewed it as such... But there was something about it... Most other people he knew talked so fast and hectic, similar to himself, but this man was completely different.

They spent the late afternoon by the lake, William listening to the minstrel's reading while Goat wandered around randomly, nibbling the fresh grass around the lakeshore, until the sun slowly began hiding behind the thick forest surrounding them.

"We should probably head back," the minstrel said slowly, closing the book that was almost finished.

Lazily, William lifted his head; he'd been lying down in the grass and staring up at the fluffy clouds slowly drifting by. "Already?" He asked with a sigh.

"It's going to get dark soon." The man said quietly, suddenly lying down beside him.

Hesitantly, William turned his head to take a look at him; he was lying so close he could smell the scent from the soap in his hair. "Yeah," William mumbled slowly.

The sky was painted in soft shades of yellow and pink, and the few rays that shone in through the trees reflected off the water, giving their entire surroundings a beautiful, romantic atmosphere; if William had been there with some handsome prince or princess – or better yet, that damned King Thrushbeard – it would have been the perfect moment for his first kiss. Right out of his fantasies.

But since that wasn't the case, he turned his head away and got up. "Yeah. We should go back." The fact that he had actually considered kissing the minstrel, despite him being a dirty beggar, scared him a little. '...He's not dirty, he had a bath earlier...'

~*~

Thomas hadn't missed the prince glancing at his lips; what had been going through his mind? Had he been thinking the same as Thomas?

With a quiet sigh, Thomas followed him and the goat back to their cottage where they ate a small dinner, consisting of the left-over stew from lunch.

"So what do we do tomorrow?" William asked halfway through their meal.

"I have to go to the market. Are you sure you don't wish to come? Begonia has a beautiful town – I'm sure you'll like it." Thomas really wanted to show William around his kingdom – being dressed up like a beggar gave him the chance to walk around without anyone being able to recognize him, and he wanted to put that to good use.

"No thanks. I'll wait here," The prince said immediately.

~*~

There was no way he could possibly go to town with the minstrel – what if someone recognized him? What if King Thomas was running around somewhere? Absolutely not. Even though he was dead bored and really wanted to go... But no, he couldn't...

"Are you sure?" The man insisted.

"Yeah. I don't really want to run into someone I know..." William muttered stupidly.

"Like who? King Thrushbeard?" The man asked with a slightly amused smile.

"Don't call him like that!" William snapped in annoyance; he actually hated that name, and was still really sorry that he had named him like that. Had he not... maybe now he wouldn't be married to a beggar, but to a king...