The Lout's Pet Squirrel (og alcale)

Part 13

It was simply impossible to predict the chaos that was Cale Henituse.

Seated up on a small hill among the trees and staring up at an expansive array of stars, Cale took a casual swig of the wine bottle before passing it over to Alver.

Alver accepted it hesitantly, still trying to understand just what they hell Cale was thinking.

It was clear that Cale had been here before though.

After inviting Alver to come with him, he'd made an easy beeline for the hill and sat at the top as though he already knew where the best spot was.

It occurred to Alver that this must be a silent space for him.

Alver had many of those, back in the palace, places where he would retreat to be alone with his thoughts and organize his scattered mind when it all became too much. Alver called them silent spaces because they were the spots that allowed him to hear his own thoughts.

Perhaps it was something slightly different to Cale, but one way or another, Alver felt as though he was treading on sacred ground when he sat next to Cale.

This spot was probably the reason Cale had found him in the first place. Off alone in the forest to clear his head and there's a delirious squirrel falling out of a tree.

What a strange twist of fate. Of all people to find him.

...would anyone have found him? In this deserted little patch of forest just outside of the bustle of the city? Or would any passerby have merely trod him underfoot without even noticing the small creature nestled amongst the dirt and the leaves?

Funny how life works, if Alver were asked for a list of nobles who would be likely to trod on a squirrel just for the sadism of it, Cale would have been on that list.

Now it seemed impossible to consider that of the silent profile by his side like that.

It triggered a strange thought.

Despite all his efforts to calculate everything, to know so much about the kingdom, to keep track of all the nobles and to memorize everything worth knowing about them...

...how much had he missed as a prince?

How much would he have never known about Cale Henituse? How much did he not know about other important people? Other people who he'd deemed irrelevant?

People he could have viewed as important?

It wasn't worth denying that Cale was an important entity to him now. For all his flaws and all the reasons that Alver couldn't help but resent Cale, there were just as many virtues. Just as many reasons that Cale was unspeakably precious.

What a complicated feeling.

But the wretched complicated and contradictory mess that was Cale Hentiuse, it was suiting.

Alver took a hesitant sip of the wine before passing it back, observing Cale's reaction carefully.

He was sure that Cale would never purposefully trod on a squirrel but a suspected stalker was a completely different matter.

Cale accepted it and shot him a smirk. With the moonlight caressing his pale skin and that mysterious look in his eyes, Alver found himself unable to look away.

"So, stalker." Cale said, his crass words contrasted with his effortless elegance. "What the fuck do you want from me?"

Nothing was too suspicious an answer and would only allow Cale to fill the gaps with who even knew what.

Alver opted for a sprinkle of the truth.

"...I'm just curious." Alver averted his gaze to the treeline, wondering about all the little ways his life had changed. Back when he was a prince, those shadows would be filled with guards. But now he was thankful for the privacy of their absence. "You're strange. Incongruent. Every time I think I understand you, you do something that catches me off guard. I want to understand you."

Cale snorted loudly. "You acted like you knew everything about me only a few minutes ago, what's there left to understand?"

Everything.

Everything about Cale, even what he thought he already knew, filled him with a strange curiosity that simply couldn't be sated. It was a large part of the reason he lingered here. Why he stayed as a pet squirrel instead of all the better places he should hide.

He wanted to understand Cale and the complicated mess of the Henituse family, even when looking at it was like an agonizing reflection of all his traumas but in reverse. As though taunting his weakened heart. Even then, he wanted to know.

If you weren't curious about the world, you weren't fit to survive in it. At least, that was how Alver had always thought about it.

"I was guessing." Alver admitted, turning an apologetic look to Cale. "I suspected that might be the case because of my other observations and I made an educated case in a desperate bid to stop you."

Cale's expression was strange.

Unreadable in a way that Alver hadn't witnessed from him before.

"And why is it any business of yours to stop me?"

Have I ever told so much truth in my life?

It was true that Alver didn't lie to his maternal family but he often opted not to say much at all, whenever he could help it. He certainly avoided admitting when he was less than knowledgeable if it wasn't a necessary concession.

That was the difference. When he told the truth to his aunt, it was because it was necessary for their goals. Right now and right here, he was allowing himself to be vulnerable. He was choosing to tell the truth.

"It isn't my business but..." Alver found that the truth weighed heavier on the tongue than a million lies. And a part of him wanted to tell the whole truth, and damn the consequences. To admit to the weeks he spent as a worthless squirrel and even the lifetime of politics before it. What came out instead was the only truth he was capable of. "I want you to be safe."

Cale raised a delicate eyebrow and the expression was just as handsome. He was truly blessed with a beautiful face. Although Alver wasn't so sure if Cale's beauty was the reason he had trouble looking away anymore. "You're a fucking weird stalker, ya know that, right?"

Alver scoffed but a smile crept at the corners of his lips.

"I think you're the weird one. Who invites a suspected stalker into a forest alone with them?"

Cale's smirk was dangerous. "I wonder." The threat didn't need to be verbal and it was spine chilling with tone alone. Yet, Alver didn't think he was in danger.

Cale was still curious. Still searching out information. He still wanted to know how Alver knew what he knew. He was too smart to kill his only potential lead without interrogation.

Alver accepted the bottle once more and looked up at the sky. "Why?"

Cale tensed beside him and Alver sensed that Cale knew what his question was really asking.

"Fuck off, that's why."

But Cale still chose an obtuse answer. What a reliable bastard.