Yugo x Amalia

7

Yugo blinked awake as the lazy light of dawn shone through the windows. He sat up groggily, stretching his aching muscles before standing up and looking around. It was now dawn. Ruel was still at the wheel, driving as focused... and as crazily... as ever. Yugo felt his heartbeat speed up as he looked out the window. They were in Sadida. They were only about an hour from the castle. An hour from Amalia... Yugo's insides did somersaults as he began to panic. What would he say?? Should he apologize?? Would she accept it?? W-what if she didn't want to be friends anymore?? Yugo's mind was racing. He felt like a slot machine, dozens of options spinning around in his head at once. He felt sick to his stomach. Yugo forced himself to calm down, taking deep breaths as he watched the trees and people pass by him. So close... so close... so close...
.
.
.
.
After what felt like an eternity, Ruel finally stopped in front of the castle. Yugo felt the sick feeling return as he stepped out of the contraption. He saw the most ground rushing up to meet him as he fell, flat on his face. Yugo groaned and held his head, willing the sickness away as his stomach lurched painfully. Ruel gave him a sympathetic look and helped the Eliatrope up gently, earning a grateful smile from Yugo. Ruel led Yugo towards the castle. Yugo's heart beat hard in his chest as they walked.

Up the steps.
Through the doors.
Into the castle.
To the King's chambers....

Ruel pushed open the door, Yugo following a few shaky steps behind. In the chamber, was Yugo's friends. Dally, Eva, Flopin, Elely, Adamai..... and Amalia. Yugo could barely smile as his friends greeted him happily. Adamai gave him a strange look, only to be waved off by Ruel. Amalia seemed to jump as she saw Yugo enter, then quickly turned away. Her face was bright red and Yugo could practically hear her heart beating from across the room, making him squirm. Amalia crosses her arms and put on her best indifferent face, making Yugo shrink into himself with guilt and anger. "Ah... you're all here..." The king croaked out. The king had been very sick for a long while. Amalia ran to his side immediately. "Please don't push yourself father." She said grasping his hand. Tears were pooling in her eyes as she sat with him, stroking his hand softly. Yugo couldn't imagine what it was like for her right now. He father, her only remaining parental figure, was dying slowly in front of her eyes. And her brother seemed nowhere close to worried about him, despite what he said. Yugo knew, that people dealt with grief in their own ways. Perhaps the only way Armand could deal with this, was to forget. To bury himself in his work and his wife and forget about everything. But it still felt... Insensitive in a way. Yugo wondered if Armand's way of coping was even healthy... because one day, the prince was going to crash. And when he did, all this grief and sadness that he had pushed to the back of his mind, would come flooding forward. And Armand would break. But Amalia couldn't see that. All she knew was that her father was dying, and she couldn't talk to her brother about it. Her brother didn't care. Her brother, who would be her only living relative left, was seemingly indifferent to the whole situation. Yugo watched Amalia and her father with soft yet distant eyes, trying to come up with something to say... Anything. The king spoke first. "It's alright... Amalia..." He said softly. However his loud, regal voice still reverberates through the chamber, sinking into Yugo's very being. He sounded so... weak. So withered. Yugo felt the tears prick at the corner of his eyes without understanding why. "I have gathered... you all here.. today, to tell you something... important. Armand... Had already become... the next king..." He breathes out, earning a gasp from the room. "F-father! You never told me about this!" Amalia gasped, clutching her chest right over her heart. He sighed. "I.. and it pains me to say this... but... I do not... have long to live.." He said. They all looked to the floor. They knew it was true... but it hurt so much to hear him say it out loud. It felt so wrong... to think that the king who had ruled strong over Sadida for many years... would simply lay down and accept his death like this... Yugo clenched and unclenched his fists, drawing blood. "Armand... n-needs to get used... to the position while I'm... still here to guide him... b-but.... he's taken it too far... he intends to..." The king began coughing violently, blood speckling his lips. Amalia's eyes widened as she watched him cough up blood into his palm before continuing. "He intends to... marry... off Amalia.." He chokes out. Amalia gasped, tears filling her eyes and spilling out down her cheeks. "H-he-" Amalia began. But before she could finish, Yugo felt the familiar sick feeling begin to creep up on him. Before he knew it, he was clutching his stomach, feeling faint and nauseous. His vision blurred and and he fell over, hitting his head on the hard ground, knocking himself unconscious. Amalia screamed and ran to his side, forgetting about their differences in her worry. The rest gathered around, muttering worriedly. Ruel pushed his way past, checking the blonde boy's vitals. He was fine, luckily. Ruel sighs, stroking his long white beard in an almost sage manner. "He'll be fine. Just needs some rest, probably overwhelmed. He's been worried sick about this visit ever since we left." Ruel says. "Amalia, can you help me carry him to a room? I assume there's one he'll be able to use correct?" Ruel asked, struggling to pick the 19 year old Yugo up off of the ground. Amalia nodded, picking Yugo up and hurrying out of the room with him, Ruel in tow. The rest simply stared after, shuffling their feet, unsure of what to do.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N:
Sorry about the wait. This is only a half chapter, since I want to give y'all something to chew on while I work on the rest of the story. Credit to Umbrella6661 for the plot idea! This will work really well so thank you so much for suggesting it!

Also! Thank you all for 1k reads!!! I'm so happy! This is a huge milestone for me, and I'm glad you all like my story. At first I was worried the characters might be too OOC, since I'm not used to writing them. But even if they are, it seems that y'all like it so I'll keep writing them like I have been! But seriously, thank you soooo much! I'm not sure if there's anything special I can do for this milestone so if you have any ideas let me know!

Suggestions and criticisms are always appreciated!