The Prince & the Pauper

Chapter Seventeen

Fitzgerald kept slapping Hervé with his stick, commanding him to go faster. . . until, Hervé had enough of his shit. He turned his head back and grabbed, the stick, throwing it to the ground. He then turned around and started heading back into the castle.

He galloped right past Zayn and Louis who, seemed very confused.

"STOP THIS! TURN AROUND NOW!"

But Hervé wasn't listening. Instead, he galloped right up to the long buffet table and kicked his back feet up, causing Fitzgerald to slide all the way down the table and land face first into the cake.

Nandos saw this jumped on Hervé's back. "I like your style."

"So do I," he neighed.

***

"Fitzgerald played me for a fool," the Queen sighed. She turned to her son and smiled softly. "I'm sorry, my darling Niall. When I think what might have happened. . ."

"But it didn't," Niall interrupted. "Thanks to Harry and to the man I love. . . Zayn."

"Zayn?" his mother asked, surprised.

"He's kind, intelligent, and my best friend. Mother, it's Zayn I want to marry."

The Queen frowned and sighed softly. She brushed a piece of hair out of Niall's face. "I want you to be happy, love. I really do. But as you know, it is our duty to take care of our people first."

"I can do that," Niall nodded. "I found something very interesting in the mine."

He began to tell his mother everything that happened. . . leaving out the kiss that happened between him and Zayn. Once the queen heard everything, she arranged for someone from the castle to go and check the mines to make sure that they would have enough to support the kingdom.

***

Thanks to Niall, Harry was now free! He no longer had to pay any debt to Madame Carp. Since Niall also told the kingdom how she treated her employees. . . she quickly went out of business. Harry promised to give Niall his famous Sourdough Supreme recipe.

"So, I can't convince you to stay?"

Harry was saying his final goodbyes to King Louis. It was only after Fitzgerald was taken away by the guards that Harry properly introduced himself to Louis. It was going to be extremely hard to leave, but Harry had to do this. All his life, he dreamt of being in control of his destiny and travelling the world and doing whatever he damn pleased. Now that Madame Crap was out of the way, he could do that! He just. . . didn't realize that meant he had to say goodbye to Louis.

"I've dreamed of being free all my life," Harry sighed softly. He took Louis's hands into his and looked into those magical blue eyes. "Now my debt's been paid, thanks to Niall."

"Where will you go?" Louis asked quietly.

"Everywhere! I want to sing, see the world. I have so much I want to do!"

"I understand," Louis nodded. "I know this is something you have to do by yourself and I respect that. As a goodbye present, I hope that you'll take this with you."

He pulled the white box out of his pocket and opened it up; showing the same ring he had shown Harry when he was pretending to be Niall. Harry's mouth dropped open and he looked at Louis. "I couldn't."

"It was meant for you."

Harry couldn't take it anymore. He cupped Louis's jaw in his hands and kissed him. Louis was taken aback for a millisecond before dropping the ring and slithering his arms around Harry's waist. Louis kissed him back with such raw passion that Harry got woozy. He lost his balance and ended up falling on top of Louis. Louis smiled and looked down at Harry's lips once more.

"One more for the road?" he pleaded.

Harry laughed and nodded. He placed his arms on either side of Louis and leaned in, kissing him again. Louis entangled his fingers into Harry's brown mop of curls and and bit down on his bottom lip. Harry gasped and slowly pulled away, resting his forehead against Louis's.

"Man you're a good kisser," he mumbled weakly.

"Good enough to make you stay?" Louis smirked.

"Almost."