Seven Levels Below

XXV

"Mitchy. You gotta wake up now. Mitchy. Mitchy. Mitchy."

There was a finger poking him. The finger evolved into a hand grabbing at him, and then there were more fingers trailing across his side and under the edge of his shirt and oh no—

"No!" Mitch yelped and shot upright, flinging his heavy limbs at the cackling monster draped half way over him. "No tickling!"

"I did nothing—"

"You are so full of shit, Scott." The smirking man-child leaned back, giving Mitch the space to sit up better. "I assume it's time for me to go get pretty?"

"You're always pretty."

Mitch rolled his eyes.

"Ignoring your blatant disrespect, yeah. I gotta say, I'm more excited to see your big reveal of Kirstie's dress than I am of getting the lump of metal stuck on my head."

"Patience, young padawan." Mitch pushed himself out of bed and invited himself into Scott's closet to snatch a pair of pants for the short trek to Kirstie's room. "You can see it with everyone else, later."

They had agreed on Tuesday that Mitch and Kirstie should not be present for the actual crowning, and would instead be kept somewhere safe and quiet until the king and queen left the palace. Scott had absolutely refused to let Mitch--or Kirstie, just in case--in the same room as his parents, and would prefer that his parents still be kept under the idea that they had both left the Capital via train on Tuesday morning. The cover story Scott had told his parents at the brunch hadn't been an issue trying to uphold with the rulers being locked in their quarters all week, but now that they were expected to be in public again, Mitch and Kirstie would need to be hidden better.

"Ugh. If I don't get special privileges for being royalty, why am I even bothering with all this?"

"Because 'king' sounds better on a resume than 'prince'."

Long arms looped around Mitch as his eye caught on Scott's impressive shoe collection.

"Does that mean you'll be my queen?"

"You're so cheesy." Mitch pushed himself around and landed a short peck on Scott's mouth.

Mitch started pulling away so he could slip the stolen pants on, but didn't make it nearly far enough away from the grabby hands before he was snatched back into Scott's grip and pulled close. Who was he kidding, he wasn't remotely complaining about a make-out session with Scott, no matter how early it actually was. Although, maybe they should consider brushing their teeth first, next time. Whatever.

Hands were starting to drag down sides and up into hair—Mitch was trying to figure out why the hell Scott had put his shirt back on, and more importantly, how to get it off again—when a short knock on the door had them jumping apart in surprise. The door swung open, and the display of confused faces at the threshold at the two men, flushed with messy hair and standing just a little too far apart for it to look natural, along with Scott's rapidly reddening face, was enough to make Mitch laugh.

Nicole was the first one to speak.

"Are you two okay?"

Mitch grinned and winked at Esther, standing next to Avi behind Nicole and Kevin. "Excellent timing in fact. Scooter has been gushing all morning about how excited he is to review details, and get all dressed up so he can give a fancy speech—"

The grimace on Scott's face was enough to cut Mitch off with a laugh and have the little group shuffling inside and getting to work.

"See you later, Scotty." Mitch waved at the grumpy face as he sauntered over to the door. "Have fun!"

Scott glared at him as he escaped the madness of the room, acknowledging his departure by sticking his tongue out at Mitch in a mature display of regal professionalism.