Scoundrel - Prinxiety [COMPLETED]

Chapter XXIII

After their conversation about the keys, they'd worked together to put together some kind of make-shift tent out of the slashed up remains. It took them several attempts to make a shelter that would actually stand on its own, but after about twenty minutes or so they had a small tent-like structure.

Roman crawled inside, laying down on the blankets they'd put down as he let out a tired sigh. This had been a very long day. He'd learned the truth about his past, regardless of whether or not he could remember it at the moment. The prince stared at the black tattoo and took deep breaths of the heavy air. He knew that Virgil wouldn't lie to him; the mark he'd been wondering about his entire life was proof of his origins not as a royal, but as a human trafficking victim. His thoughts wandered to the scars he'd seen when looking up close at the pirate's face. It made him wonder if he had any scars or marks from his past that were too faded for him to recognize at this point.

"Princey?" a soft voice said, pulling him from his thoughts. He looked up as Virgil crawled inside the tent and laid down next to him. "Hey..."

"Hey," the prince murmured in reply, keeping his eyes down as he lowered his hand.

The captain reached out to stop the motion, lifting their hands to intertwine their fingers together between their faces. "You okay?" he asked, referring to the hand holding as well as he was holding up with all the new information.

"I'm fine..." he mumbled, forcing a smile that wasn't nearly convincing enough. Virgil had this painfully open expression, like he could see just how not fine he was on the inside. "It's just... it's just a lot to take in, you know? There's so many new things I have to think about knowing I wasn't born a royal. My father isn't even my father. How did I end up in the Kingdom of Paisean? How many people in the castle know about me? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Hey..." the pirate murmured, squeezing his hand to get his attention. "I know that this is difficult for you to accept, and that you have a lot of questions, but just remember you're okay. You're still you even if your origins aren't what you thought they were."

Roman felt his chest loosen at his words, finding them to be extremely comforting. He was still Prince Roman of Paisean and he was him regardless of where he came from. "Thank you for telling me," he said, looking up to meet his eyes. "I... I've been wondering about the mark for my entire life, and not knowing what it meant felt like there was a part of me missing. I guess that was you, huh?"

A smile crossed the captain's lips; it was a smiled he'd never seen before, full of affection and warmth. It was clear to him in that moment that despite what the pirate had said about being obvious about his feelings toward him, Virgil hadn't let him see truly how he felt about him.

"You're welcome, Princey," he said quietly in reply, pulling him closer to him as his fingers ran through the strands of his hair on the back of his head. "Now get some rest. We've got a lot to deal with tomorrow."

~

Roman's eyes fluttered open the next morning and focused once again on the face of the pirate that was holding him to his chest. A smile found its way onto his face, feeling relieved and comfortable waking up like this.

"You awake?" the captain then murmured suddenly, making his eyes widen. He looked down at him, eyes opening and focusing on the prince. "Oh, good, I didn't want to have wake you up myself, but if we want to get to the chest before noon we should get moving soon."

He nodded, pulling away from the embrace to sit up and stretch. He certainly hadn't forgotten the task at hand; they were going to have to go to the chest and fight De for the keys or the contents. The heaviness of that task was clear in the air as the two of them got up and packed up the few things that had survived the captain's raid of their camp.