Tales Within Lizzie's Lore

Petal Visits His Majesty the King of Balia and it Goes About as Well as Expected

As they approached the glamorous gates of the Balian castle, one of two figures spoke.
"Why'd you take me along for this, your highness?"
"As a bodyguard, clearly" came the reply, the voice of a person who speaks sharply and demands to be heard.
"I'm not the right person for the task..." the first speaker said in a dejected, renounced voice.

A guard came to greet them and the pair stepped into the main courtyard. The smaller of the two, a slender young noble in a bold dark blue gown with expensive gold lace marvelled at the sights, attempting not to let amazement show and failing.
The taller one, dressed much more modestly, leaned over to brush a strand of soft black hair out of the other's eyes. His hand was promptly smacked away.
"Don't presume you can touch me so freely, serf."
"Your highness, our kingdom abolished the feudal system two generations of kings ago, you should know th-"
"You know I don't concern myself with my stuffy family's heritage, keep that rubbish in the archives so I mustn't hear it."
The taller one grabbed the noble's wrist and pulled them close enough to whisper intimately.
"And besides, you've let me touch you freely enough in the past," he murmured, "your highness."
The thin hand was wrenched out of his grasp aggressively, face red and angry.

At that moment, a splendidly dressed young man with a knight at his side walked down the path side by side, eyes on the newcomers. They stopped a very short distance and bowed respectfully.
The taller figure bowed deeply, and the noble bowed briskly.
The king, as that was clearly whom he was, addressed the former, with some degree of hidden uncertainty.
"You must be the prince?" he intoned, head tilted subtly towards the plainly dressed boy.
The lavish noble stepped forward.
"Surely you jest, your majesty, I am of course the rightful heir to the throne of Luga. My drab companion is but a simpleton guarding me on my journey, not that the paths between our kingdoms are terribly dangerous."
The king paled somewhat at his mistake, which seemed to give way to plain embarrassment.
"I must say, being introduced as a simpleton upon meeting a foreign monarch for the first time... it's a bit humiliating, your highness," said the supposed bodyguard.
"You humiliate yourself, darling."
The knight seemed to scoff then settled into an easy grin, clearly finding the interaction amusing.
"Well," the king coughed slightly, righting himself, "I am King Alden, but please be at ease, I might as well be still a prince."
At that, the prince narrowed his eyes at Alden.
"And I am Alan, his great knight who rescues your humble prince in distress any time it is needed," said the knight, still with his grin.
"You flatter yourself," Alden smoothly added, "wasn't it I who kept longest at sparring yesterday?" before winking.
Alan turned his head, colour slowly rising to his cheeks.
"Ah~ wow~ did you hear that? You two share a name," the prince cooed to the young man by his side.
"I am still possessed of all my god-given gifts such as my hearing, your highness," said Luga's Alan.
At this, his namesake began to laugh fully. He leaned over slightly and made a soft wheezing sound. Alden, not breaking polite eye-contact with his guests, ribbed his partner.
"Alan shut up that's rude."
He didn't seem to be terribly bothered by this disapproval however, and proceeded to make a gesture at his counterpart which consisted of pointing his index forward and sticking his thumb up high while wrapping the other three neatly into his palm. He winked as he did this. Neither of the Lugeans knew what to make of this.

"Well, to make things less confusing, you have permission to call me The Other One," he told them once he had finally composed himself like a gentleman.
"I don't believe we actually received your name," Alden inquired respectfully of the prince.
"Ah, my name is Petal, apologies."
Alden was a bit taken aback, but didn't seem terribly surprised, perhaps that was due in part to Petal's appearance. He resembled a young noblewoman completely, with dark cascading bangs and a moderately short high ponytail, a circlet that lay gems across the crown of his head and long crystal earrings. His skin was soft as only one of considerable wealth would be able to maintain.
"Pardon if this may come across as insolent, but I cannot help but wonder what king would name a son in such a delicate manner," Alden commented.
Petal waved his white gloved hand dismissively.
"Who knows what goes through that senile old man's head. Curious as to why I've been sent in his place? His ass cheeks have begun to dissolve from age and glue him to his throne. I'll have to have a new one commissioned when he finally kicks the bucket."
As a look of surprise crossed the balians' faces, but before they could add their thoughts.
"But hey, you know; this must be fate, right? We're about the same age, and two of you share a name. Maybe I should suck you off or something to mark the occasion, huh, Alden?" he said, cocking his head towards the aforementioned and making a crude gesture with his tongue in his cheek. Alan quite forcefully pinched the bridge of his nose the instant the words left his prince's mouth, attempting to contain some reprimand. His pained expression told that this was no unusual behaviour.
Alden and the Other One were no doubt stunned, but more than anything bashful.
"I can't consider your offer sober, I'm afraid," Alden eventually concluded.
Petal turned to look at Alan with some kind of victory in his expression, the latter was no less exasperated.
"That's not a no," he whispered to him.
"What would your father say, your highness?" Alan somehow managed to say calmly.
"Oh, he'd be so disappointed in me," said Petal, but the glint in his alert scarlet eyes and the dreamy tone of his voice spoke only of how much he relished this notion.
The thought passing through Alan's mind was no doubt him questioning how on earth he could have feelings for the prince, but that thought came much too little too late. He sighed profoundly.
Alden coughed subtly to catch their attention.
"Shall we offer you a tour of the castle, gentlemen?" he asked.
"Yes, please, your majesty," said Alan for his prince, fearing what vulgarities might pass his lips given another opportunity.
As they walked along the groomed, cobbled steps, Alden; he himself groomed to be politely charismatic, made light conversation and pointed out different commodities and landmarks around the grounds.