A Week to Midnight

Complications

The next day Florian had hurried from his room, rushing as he dressed himself and he managed to put buttons into the wrong holes as he was chased down by one of the maids that noticed that his hair tie was tied too tightly around only a couple of strands. He was bouncing as she began to bother with him, fixing up his hair and his clothes and remarking that his mother would likely prefer that he took his time in making himself presentable. He was far too excited to take much notice of what she said and was charging down the hall the moment her hands fell away from his shirt, not noticing the untied laces of his boots.

Cal had taken Florian back to Laura's home shortly after he had eaten the bread and, much to the prince's despair, Luka had decided that it would be best to sneak them back into the palace as soon as possible. If it had been up to Florian he would have stayed with Cal for the rest of the night, listening to him and eating the bread that had been made in Ophelia and Marianne's house.

The girls looked very similar to Cal and Florian had wondered as to whether they may have been illegitimate, that would explain Cal's fondness of them and their similarities, it would make sense that Cal would not be able to tell people that they were related by blood if it was through the disloyalties of their father. He was not sure if it would be appropriate to ask such a question. For now, he simply wanted to see Cal. He had been forced to separate from him after they had changed back into their regular clothing as, according to Elliot his mother, had been quite insistent that he come down and speak to another young lady whose name Florian could not really recall. He had been forced to act as if he were unwell and he had never been a very convincing liar.

Now he was free to speak with Cal again and he hated wasting time. He had rushed to the hall in search of the other, he could not see Jada today either and Cal was often with her. He decided to check the gardens which had now been opened to the visiting guests after the servants had made sure they were presentable.

He did not find Jada but standing with his back to him, brushing his fingers over the petals of a rose as he had been a few nights ago, was Cal. Florian could not quite put into words the emotions that flooded his chest when he saw the other man standing out in the starlight, a dark coat keeping him covered from the creeping cold of the approaching winter. There was a sense of relief and a bizarre combination of calm and exhilaration. It was different to how it was with Luka when he was young. When it was Luka it was an attempt to force himself to fit the pieces together of the jigsaw puzzle that his mother had laid out with her stories. With Cal it felt like its own story, there were no evil forces that one of them had to defeat in order to rescue the other, there was just a pull that made it difficult for Florian to resist staying close to the other, even if he had wanted to keep away.

Cal had not appeared to have noticed him yet as his back was still to him, his head was lowered as if he was lost in thought as his fingers continued to brush over the petals of the rose. His fingers were not quite as long as Florian's, but his hands were larger, and they were strong and scarred. Florian could also see the shape of Cal's shoulders beneath his coat, he had strong shoulders, they were broad too. When he thought no one was looking Cal's shoulders sagged in the way that Luka's often did, and he always looked so tired when he believed no one could see his expression.

Florian wanted to learn more about Cal, he wanted to know everything about this man who had made him feel so comfortable, the man who had shown him the world as it truly was, the only person who had been brave enough to help him face the reality of everything.

"Cal," he let out, causing the taller man to flinch, not turning to face Florian as the prince stepped up to his side. "I was thinking last night, about how to help. Not just those girls but everyone...I was so blind to the world. I had no idea of how difficult it was out there, and I sat here complaining about a party that I didn't want."