A Royal Pain

CHAPTER FIVE

Dan huffed loudly, half-hoping someone would hear his suffering and come and end it. He was bored. It didn't matter that it was the middle of the night and he had no business being bored, didn't matter that at this time it would make more sense for him to simply go to sleep—he just couldn't.

All he'd been doing the past few days was sleeping, and it was really starting to grate on his nerves. And when he wasn't sleeping people were telling him to sleep, as if he had much of a choice with it at all! All he knew was that one moment he'd be hanging out with Phil, the both of them sitting on his bed and sharing an entirely pleasant conversation, and the next Dan would be waking up quite alone wondering when the fuck he'd fallen asleep.

He was tired of sleeping; he'd had enough of it to last a lifetime by now. What he really wanted was to do something. He longed to ride his horse more than anything, funnily enough, but he knew it was impossible for that to happen. Despite him being the prince and normally having complete control over seemingly simple things such as the activities he performed in a day, all the guards and servants were on explicit orders to keep their eyes on him and prevent him from doing anything to worsen his concussion (Dan liked to call this order the fun-ban). Every time he tried to even step out of his room he was being questioned endlessly, and then followed, whether he liked it or not.

So getting some stable-boy to gear up Alamo in the middle of the night was nigh impossible, though he probably could've managed it before his cursed concussion. Second on his list of things he most desired to do was read; he missed being able to curl up in his bed with all his covers tangled wonderfully around him and propped up against a mountain of pillows with a book in hand. Now he had to go hunt Phil down to simply enjoy a story, and it wasn't like he could ask Phil to read out one of his old letters to Dan either, something that easily would've cheered him up.

Finally, Dan stood up with a huff and snatched a book off his shelf, clutching it in hand angrily as he stomped to the door. He threw the door open, already knowing what to expect.

"Prince!" Lin greeted in surprise, turning on his heel to look at Dan. "It's the middle of the night—shouldn't you be asleep?"

Dan looked at the guard murderously. "I can't sleep," he said slowly.

"Er—would you like me to read that to you?" Elaine offered, glancing down at the book in his hand. Dan flushed, embarrassed at the very thought of having someone read to him. It was different with Phil, of course, but that's because he was Phil. To have a guard or servant read to him would be beyond mortifying.

"No!" Dan barked, before stepping quickly past the guards and turning towards Phil's room.

"Where are you going?" Lin asked hurriedly, forgetting to address Dan as 'Prince' in his haste.

"To see Phil," Dan muttered. "Don't accompany me," he said, already knowing that they would disobey his order. His orders had nothing on his father's orders, and anything that his father said was law. So as Dan started walking towards Phil's rooms, his guards hastened to follow. Dan could feel the anger radiating off him with every step, until he finally paused in front of the entrance to Phil's rooms, staring up at his night-shift guards.

"I'm here to see Phil," Dan announced.

"The prince is sleeping," the guard responded, looking almost gleeful to deny Dan what he wanted. He could feel his blood practically boiling in anger—he wouldn't be too surprised if there were smoke pouring out of his ears.

"He won't be for long," Dan responded, and then, faster than anyone could react, he spun around and yanked the sword out of Elaine's weapon belt. She cried out in surprise, and Dan spun around with the sword. Of course, he didn't plan to attack the guards—he definitely wasn't skilled enough for that—but all the practicing with Phil before he'd gotten his concussion had really made him more quick on his feet. Funnily enough, he was almost excited to spar with Phil again once his concussion was gone. He was almost sure that it was gone by now, too, as just a few days ago the thought of spinning around so quickly would've made his head pound, and now he was doing it with ease.