Use Me, Royal Stranger (mxm)

Chapter 6 - The Second Meeting (Part I)

        One more hour.

        Just one more hour till the promised time. Carlen couldn't wait. He really couldn't. He had been literally counting down the days and nights till he could meet Alaric again. There was so much he wanted to know, so much he wanted to share.

        He had been fidgety the past two weeks and it was clearly driving Nana nuts. In fact, Carlen suspects that Nana knew he was up to something. He only hoped that Nana would not be smart enough to catch on that tonight was the night that he would adventure out into the woods at midnight to meet his friend.

        It felt nice to have a friend. Carlen had never had one and he had doubted over the past two weeks if his relationship with Alaric was considered one of friendship, and decided that he would confirm it with Alaric today. In the mean time, he would simply allow himself to assume that they were. No harm there, right?

        Well, not as much harm as Carlen had been causing the entire week at least. Carlen had been so distracted by his thoughts of what could happen on their second meeting and had gotten into so much trouble with Nana that he had been ordered to stay in his rooms today after he caused yet another accident.

        The past two weeks crawled by so excruciatingly slow that it gave Carlen too much time in his mind to ponder about Alaric. He paid the price for being so distracted.

        Carlen had burnt several expensive medication that Nana had been brewing, simply because he was not paying attention to them. He had cut through a finger with a slicing knife trying to prepare some snacks for both himself and Nana. As of right now, he was spotting a bandaged right palm from trying to pick up a steaming hot pot without second thought, or first. He had been doing stupid things the entire two weeks and it was driving Nana up the wall.

        At his first accident, she had comforted him and tended to him. By the next, she started getting concerned and a bit frustrated, by the next accident, she was furious at his lack of attention. By the last accident that ended with Carlen in a bandaged hand, Nana truly had enough and simply sent him off with a very stern expression and no words. Carlen knew he was in the deepest of troubles when Nana did not lecture him at all. It meant that she was just about to explode in face and dice him up like meat. He was grateful that she had more self-control and decided to send him away instead.

        But laying around and wasting time in his private chambers were not the best way to spend the day of their second meeting. Carlen had been anticipating this meeting for fourteen days now. He had been counting down the days and nights till he could meet Alaric again. He had spent all his time pondering if it was wise to tell Alaric that he knew who he was now. Tonight. Soon.

        The night sky had gone completely dark and there were no flicker of lights in any other windows around him. He was sure that it was around midnight now. There was no way to tell the exact time, but Carlen couldn't wait any longer. He needed to get out of his rooms and out to the woods to wait for Alaric.

        Swinging his legs to the side of his bed, Carlen straightened up. He had been laying in the clothes that he intended to wear to meet Alaric. He didn't even understand why it was such a big deal to him, but it was. He did not want to look too shabby. Alaric was the crown prince for goddess' sake! Carlen shook his head. He was beginning to sound like a girl.

        Grabbing his already replenished oil lamp, Carlen blew his wick out. He planned to walk out of his room towards the castle back gates without his oil lamp. He could do it. He had wandered the walls of this castle wing both in the day and night without any problems. He had memorized every corner, well, not necessarily for the sake of meeting Alaric, but he had tried several times the past few days to walk with his eyes closed. When he reached the edge of the woods, he would light his lamp then. He must not draw attention to himself before that.