Everything's Fair in Love and War - An Amourshipping story

Chapter 24 - Hollow Hearts

I just know, from the very bottom of my heart, that all of you want to kill me. And I seriously have no excuse this time. I did organize a two-hour play, spent a lot of time on some new anime and went on a five-day trek, but that was a long time ago and is just a dumb reason for my absence.

What I do know is that I'm really sorry.

~~~

It's a nightmare for a child, who spends days and nights cooped up in a room, to hear the sounds of joy and play, while their only source of recreation was a book. But that wasn't the case for Alec. In fact, Alec didn't consider himself a child. Yes, he was just ten, but his maturity was groomed and shaped to be of a man.

He could hear his brother and his playmate in the garden below, but he continued reading like nothing was wrong. He didn't even look up whe he heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" he called out, summoning a blue haired boy in. "There's a lot of dust on the window and the carpet needs a beating-"

"I'm not here to clean your room" the boy smiled, making Alec look up from his picture-less book.

He scooted off the bed "Who let you in?" he asked, red eyes meeting pale blue; "Leave".

Alec and his troops rode until they reached the very edge of the cliff. Rage, fury, anger; they were just mere words in comparison to the hell that broke loose inside him.

He had been duped by Ash.

By his good-for-nothing baby brother.

He was this close to becoming the ruler he had always wanted to be; theoretically, he had already won. The last thing he had expected was for this to happen. It was a cold, gloomy afternoon and the smell of rain and moisture burned in him. He hated it. He hated everything.

"Your lord" a guard came galloping up to him "There is a chance of a heavy downpour. We might need to speed things up."

Alec didn't utter a single word. The rain, the earth and the sadness, unlocked something he himself had hidden somewhere, deep in his memories.

The persistent drizzle grew into a downpour. A lightning strike made Alec stare out the window allowing himself to relax a bit. The blue-haired boy, who had been visiting every day, much to his dismay, visited today as well. Thankfully, the only time he had spoken was the day they he first met Alec; after that he had remained mute and would only silently watch him.

The rain always made Alec happy. It might be easy to assume, that his dark heart was only capable of loving sad things, but the reason was actually surprising. He loved the rain because of how gentle it was, how slowly and carefully it fell, making to sure to leave its impact everywhere.

The rain was his inspiration. Sure, his motive sharply contrasted to its, but that's how he wanted to do things. Slow, yet full of results. Another lightning strike ripped through the sky and the boy finally let his voice out.

"Wanna play?"

Alec shook his head, not turning away from the window "No"

"Why not?" the boy asked, pouting like the child he was. Slowly walking to Alec, he continued nagging "Just this once. Please."

Much to his own surprise, he said "Okay. Fine."

The two of them made their way out of the room and into the castle's corridors. A maid and a butler walked by, bowing slowly to their prince and then quickly scuttled away. Alec stayed beside the boy and followed him to the office, only blinking surprise when they got there.