The White Prince | L.S AU

[03] "Oops"

Word Count: 1059

      Harry's first night in Edolk Manor was a blurred jumble of imported Viognier wine and failed courting attempts by Niall.

      Unsurprisingly, after Louis' monologue, he'd disappeared into the sea of people, leaving Niall alone with poor Harry. Fortunately, Niall didn't seem to mind the younger prince's awkwardness and even tried his best to make him comfortable.

"What are you drinking?" Niall had eyed Harry's untouched glass. "Plum cider?"

"Wine. I don't like it very much though." Harry blushed, half-expecting Niall to laugh at him.

"Of course you wouldn't," he grinned instead. "Red wine is peasant stuff. White wine is where it's at, my dear friend."

      And so, that was how the night started. Due to Harry's lack of alcohol intake, his tolerance level was naturally not very high; and by the time he downed his second glass of the exotic wine, he was already borderline tipsy. Niall, on the other hand, had guzzled down nine glasses—much to Nikolas and his own valet's disapproval—and was completely plastered.

      "Your Highness, don't you think it's time for you to retire? Your mother will not be pleased to hear about this." Nikolas shook his head disapprovingly.

      Harry tried to answer as he held back a belch, but the gas just passed through the other end in the form of a loud, staccato fart. Niall giggled and released an equally as—if not more—noisy one while the brunet turned bright red.

      "Now butler, your turn!" Niall pointed a shaky finger at Nikolas.

       Harry's valet pinched the bridge of his scrunched nose. "I'll have to kindly deny. Your Highness, I think this is the end of the night for both of you. I'll walk the prince of Leerye back to his chamber while yo—"

      "No!" Niall protested. "I want the curly one."

      Nikolas sighed. "Respectfully, your Highness, I insist."

      Niall squinted his already narrowed eyes at the older man. "Are—Are you challenging my request, butler?"

      "It's fine, Nikolas. You can see yourself to the servants' quarters. I'll call for you, have I encounter any problems," Harry reassured, smiling lazily.

      Nikolas sighed again, too tired to argue with the teenagers. "Very well. Please try not to hurt yourselves."

      Niall was awfully pleased with himself as he grinned. The two boys stumbled out of the nearly empty ballroom with Nikolas watching them closely.

Almost immediately after the doors shut behind them, Niall pouted and complained loudly, "The old guy's no fun." Harry giggled as they tripped over the stairs together.

It was strange to think the two were mere strangers less than twenty-four hours ago. Niall just naturally seemed to treat everyone as if they were old acquaintances and wasn't afraid of letting loose—a quality Harry wished he could acquire.

"Do you remember where your chamber is?" Harry asked as they clobbered loudly through the wide corridor. The lanterns had long been blown out, leaving them in a rather eerie darkness. The once genteel portraits on the looming walls had quickly become creepy—each one's eyes seemingly following the lone pair through the blackness of the palace.

"Uh," Niall started. "It had red doors. Very big and red doors."

Harry started to look for a room fitting to the description until, "Niall. . .that's all of the rooms."

The blond was quiet for a moment, still processing what he'd said. "Oh boy. That's a dilemma." He scrunched his nose as he scoured his brain for another detail. "Oh! It was at the end of a hallway. Next to flowers."

      Harry nodded. That was a bit better.

      They continued their small journey in comfortable silence. Not a single noise betrayed any sign of movement in the rooms, probably because most of the bedrooms were full of passed out, drunk royals.

      "Harry! This is it!" Niall suddenly shouted and tugged on Harry's silk shirt. Sitting at the end of the corridor was, as Niall had remembered, a small white table with a urn of fresh red flowers.

      They were almost at the end of their journey. The only problem was there were two doors, opposite to each other, both next to the flowers.

      "Do you remember which one?" Harry turned to the blond, who nodded vigorously.

He pointed to the one left of the table and Harry nodded before leading him to the intimidating red pair of doors. The golden handles gleamed under the moonlight streaming in from the tall window and Harry felt like a character in one of those dramatic novels his mother adored.

      Now, Harry probably should've known it wasn't in his best interest to trust the sense of a man whose had one too many drinks; but alas, he wasn't completely in the right state of mind either.

        The curly-haired prince tugged the doors open as he prepared to help tuck Niall into bed, until he had a horrific realization that this wasn't the right chamber, and someone was already in the room.

      At first, his eyes were still adjusting to the fuzzy darkness—darting around the room as they tried to make sense of the various blurred shapes. They finally settled on the two silhouettes on the bed and Harry burned a deep red—maybe as red as the door he was beside—at the realization that they were not sleeping.

      "Uh, uh. Sorry for intruding, madam! We must have the wrong chamber," he began to fumble clumsily with the handle.

To his surprise and horror, the prince of Edolk stumbled out from underneath the covers, the moonlight illuminating his messy hair and puffy lips. He was barely decent with plain drawers hanging off his strong hips. Harry only blushed deeper.

      Louis had an unreadable expression on his face as he avoided eye contact and muttered a small 'goodnight' before slamming the door shut. Niall still had yet to react to what just occurred as he stood there, unfazed.

"Apologies. I suppose it's the other room," he said calmly. He sauntered over to the door across from the one they were standing in front of and Harry followed behind mindlessly.

"I'm rather drained. I'll see you at the derby?" Harry offered weakly, still a bit warm in the face from the accident. Niall grinned drunkenly and tripped trying to give him a hug.

"Rest well," Niall bid as he released Harry from his deathly tight embrace. The brunet smiled warmly as the other returned the gesture before he shut his door for the night.

On the short trek back to his own chamber, Harry couldn't help but think (once again) about Louis. Not because he'd saw the prince practically stark, nor because he'd walked in on what was definitely sex.

But because Harry swore he saw a man under the covers with him.

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DEDICATED TO bubbly-lou for inspiring me to update and itookyouricecreamxX for the supportive comments, thank you so much!

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
if you haven't realized yet, harry doesn't know louis likes dick

do you like the small encounters harry and louis have? do thEY SUFFICE UR LARRY APPETITES?? i don't want to rush it too much.

THANK YOU if you VOTED or COMMENTED!