The Prince's Fiancé (BoyXBoy)

Chapter XXI Royal Reunion Part 2

Chapter 21 Royal Reunion Part II

Caleb

"The Queen will see you now."

You could say my mom, he wanted to say but he never got the chance to say those words out loud. The doors were already being opened.

"Home sweet home," he said rather aloof, but in his head. Since his first kiss with Jason earlier that day, everything that used to bother him seemed to go over his head. Caleb was... happy, if not still confused. Caleb still wasn't entirely sure what it was, that came over him in that moment.

The very place meant for Caleb, Mr. Bateman and a few staff members had multiplied since the Queen decided to drop by. He never asked, but that didn't stop his own mother from making herself at home here. What used to be quiet solitude, now turned into a bustling frenzy! Caleb was standing before a large double oak door where two men dressed in traditional doorman outfits (Caleb could kind of feel for them. The outfits alone looked stuffy and uncomfortable) on guard. The room used to be empty, half the size of a ballroom, now it was The Queen's office.

When the doormen opened both doors, they swung inwards. Caleb thought it was unnecessary since he could have walked through the door himself. And it wasn't like he was eight feet in width. Nonetheless, the room was now fully decorated for a Queen. Hand carved future, thick carpets, window shades that could feed a public school for over a month, curtains to match and a large desk filled with paperwork.

This was far from the likes of a principal's office.

"You could hardly talk at the time," she said, for once, set setting aside a stack of paperwork to look at Caleb. She was wearing a pair spectacles at the bridge of her nose. Caleb used to think she wore them for show, but she really did need them. Right now, she was still bent over, her pen leaving elegant scrawl behind. Caleb to this day still thought his mother had the most beautiful handwriting in the world.

He even told her so, multiple times as he grew up. He said her handwriting looked fit for a wedding invitation. She'd smile and then they would have many long, random conversations after. He never told her how he kept a stash of her handwritten notes in a box. Caleb was sure it was still back in Stockholm, in his room. Too bad he hasn't opened it in years. That didn't mean he still didn't remember what was in it. They always smelled like lavender, vanilla or cinnamon. Her hands always had a way of leaving those scents behind. Caleb still didn't know how. The notes consisted of his mother writing notes to herself, but mostly they were custom made, for Caleb, telling him to be good while she had to go away for a little while. Some of them were grocery lists from around the time when she used to sneak out of the palace. She always took Caleb instead of leaving him to the countless nannies at hand.

Caleb found himself missing his mother more and more as thought fondly of those memories from another life. This had to be the first time he found alone time with her in... forever.

Clara finally looked up, but Caleb couldn't read minds to say if this was going to be good or not. He knew the move he pulled a couple weeks ago was foolish. He had a while to prepare himself for the backlash that would inevitably come. Instead, she shocked him with something else.

"You can sit down," she said. "It's not like you're in trouble." Though her eyes were hard, Caleb mentally gulped before taking a seat. His back went ramrod straight and he didn't dare slouch, not in the presence of the Queen herself. He didn't think crossing his ankle over his knee would be safe. So he refrained from it.

"I remember when it was the morning on your sixth birthday, you walked right in the library where your father and I were, and announced that you were going to get a boyfriend." The skin on the Queen's corner left eye twitched into crow's feet as if amused.