Precedent

“My king has instructed me to come with you, wherever you may go, and prepare however many warriors you request, along with being at your service,” the warrior said with a glare. He wasn’t sure why his king, a noble king, would make him follow such scum but he listened and obeyed because that is what warriors and servants did.

“I’ll be requiring Alex, safe. I will need a warm meal, enough to replenish my friend from the starvation in which he suffered in your care. Both of us need a horse and supplies. Where we are going is a two week ride, we’ll need food as well. I will meet with you in the great hall once Alex is eating. I have other business to attend until then,” he followed his mother down the hall when she came out of the room he had been in.

“I don’t feel as though I’m as old as I look and certainly not as old as I am. Why can’t you stay? You’re stronger than I am,” he jogged to catch up with her. Perhaps another man would feel ashamed of saying that to his mother but most men didn’t have her as a mother.

Brandan was certain if his mom jumped with enough anger, the continent would divide. She was strong both mentally and physically and he felt safe beside her. His mind didn’t race back and forth from one thing to another as much in her presence.

She hugged him. “Your childhood and adolescence could never be compared to another man’s on the planet, Brandan. You are truly one of a kind and I know that you are not confident with the power you have right now. I’m sorry that you’re in a position to use it anyways and I really do wish you could be older and a bit wiser, but you cannot be. The time is now and so many lives depend on it. You’re under a lot of pressure, but it is right. You sacrificing your childhood and comfort will save more lives than you’ll ever know. I will protect your mate but I cannot stay with you, Brandan. It’s too dangerous and I’ve got my own people to protect also. You will understand this more later, I will explain it to you. For now, go make peace with your father and agree to whatever he requires for you to run this country, our species depends on it as well as his. You’ll understand later, just trust me now.”

He hugged her tightly. He’d be disappointed but he was used to it by now. She never stayed long and he knew it was for the best. He just didn’t always like that. “I’ll go talk to him. Thank you,” he kissed her cheek and walked through the familiar castle to find his father once more.

When he was a child he’d play here with other children. He’d play ‘hide and go seek’ with Brian Leppke, a tall and lankly boy who could throw a ball on top of the castle. They’d order a servant to retrieve it and throw it up again. Brian was his best friend throughout his childhood and he was so upset when his father ordered a new friend that he had lit the entire castle on fire.

It was the first time he had ever done that and was the worst so far. It hadn’t been the main castle, just one where Brandan was sent for lessons to keep out of the public eye, and the fire was made to look like an acciden,t but before then, the boys usually played here.

His friend’s piercing blue eyes still haunted him. While walking down the great hall, thinking more of Brian Leppke than his footing, he nearly ran straight into the king.

He followed his father’s eyes and saw him watching his mother leave. “Is it me you hate or my mother? Would you kill your own flesh because of it?”

“I haven’t killed you; I’ve had many chances. These demons are not like you or your mother, my son. They kill innocent women, children and men. A demon with green eyes has killed and wounded hundreds of my finest warriors. These are dark times for everyone, not just a species you do not belong to, Brandan. They think they are above the law of this country and our god, and that is dangerous. They do not stand trial when they kill innocent people; do you believe that is fair and just?”

“Your guard cut my arm off for striking him after they killed four of my friends, shot and wounded me, then proceeded to make me walk alongside their horses for three days until we got to this castle. Perhaps my kind is not innocent, but are you claiming to be, and how does your god look upon liars?” the black-eyed prince argued.

“Then lead them. You are my son and the rightful holder of this crown in my death. If you can make the demons stand trail and obey the country’s laws or leave, I will not question your military leadership. You can lead the warriors until you are king,” he offered. The truth was, the king was not as strong as he once was. While his son was nearly half his age, Brandan had aged very slowly. He had seen the earth revolve around the sun forty times, but his body remained that of a sixteen year old boy.

Brandan was his only son and the rightful bearer; the king wanted peace with his son before his death. He was the only family he had and he knew his son would make a fair king. More so than even he had been.

“And my choice of companionship?” his son challenged, because it had been one of the reasons he had gone from the castle and country in the first place. A servant had walked in to wake the prince and caught him with another male. The entire staff was burned to prevent any talk of the incident and Brandan hadn’t been home since leaving at the unfairness of their death. He had watched his first love be burned alive and he’d had enough of his father’s politics.

The king nodded. “Who will run our country when you pass?” he asked: the question he’d meant to ask ten years ago. He’d had many nights to think of the response and he knew himself to be wrong now. He had loved a demon deeply and had his parents known, Brandan’s mother wouldn’t be alive today and he’d had his son watch his love being burned alive. He knew that was the wrong way now, but he couldn’t go back and change that. He had acted in anger and had never questioned where Brandan got his self-control problems from. Unfortunately for his son, Brandan was more powerful and could light things on fire without trying. The king was grateful he couldn’t.

“For Alex’s safety, I would agree to have one son to pass the country to in my death,” he said, trying not to grit his teeth. He was against the idea, but trusted his mother to lead him correctly. He was doing his bidding now because his father could protect Alex from the town’s people, but his mother could protect him from everyone else. He would run the country because that’s what his mother wanted and was willing to exchange it for Alex’s safety.

The idea of making a child with a woman caused a very unpleasant taste in his mouth; it wasn’t pleasurable for him. He would carry through with it anyway, though, because he was in backed into a corner now and needed to get out safely so that Alex could be safe and never captured again.

He hated looking into his partner’s green-blue eyes and seeing fear. He would never forgive himself for letting him be captured, but he would vow his life on it never happening again.

The king’s nod represented it was fine. Brandan had nothing else to say so he left; he was more than tired of negotiating with people by now and just wanted to see the man he was working so hard to protect.

“I’m going now,” He said and walked out. He ignored the feeling of being at home as he walked through the great hallway now, he looked away quickly when he saw the ledge he had been kissed on while sitting on. He wouldn’t think of it, not now.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” He said as he sat down beside the younger, blond man. He looked at the guard with a childish grin and said, “I haven’t an arm to eat with, so you’ll be feeding me. I’d like a bit of that melon. Small bites, so I can savor the flavor,” he instructed.

The warrior glared but began cutting the melon. He wasn’t a servant, he was a warrior from a noble family. This wasn’t how he was to be treated, but he remained silent. “I’ve prepared the group of warriors for you, sir. Some of them are out preparing food for our trip now,” He said to gently remind the former prisoner of his place in the world, not as a servant.

“Who’s a good warrior? You are! You are!” Brandan patted the guard excitedly. “If you continue to be a good boy, I might even give you a treat!” He slapped the warrior’s cheek a few times.

Alex spat the water out he had taken a drink of and quickly covered his mouth with his hand. “Brandan!” He covered the older man’s mouth also. “You’re going to get hurt,” He said sadly, always worrying for his safety.

Brandan had a big mouth, while Alex was shy and had been tortured at the hands that Brandan was teasing.

“He’s not going to hurt me, Love. Don’t worry,” He kissed the palm in front of his mouth before removing it. “When you’re full, we should start the journey. It’s still early enough in the day that we could get a good day of travel in.”

“How will we be traveling? Foot?”

“No, he’s getting us horses. He just said that, Alex,” black eyes were hard when they seemed to burn holes in Alex’s temple. It wasn’t that he was angry with Alex but sad that through the torture he had here, his memory wasn’t functioning properly. He was mad at himself for letting it happen.

“Oh, he always yells at me so I am tuning him out now that you won’t let him hurt me,” he said as he grabbed another bit of fruit with his fork.

The guard’s glare intensified. He was losing his power over other people from the humiliating things Brandan was making him do at the king’s orders. He had been trained from a very young age, he could win a fight against the scrawny man he was now feeding.

“You’re correct, he won’t hurt you anymore.” Brandan’s black eyes softened and he took another bite from the fork the guard was holding.

Alex nodded, “I know. Doesn’t mean you should provoke him just so it’s justified when you hurt him, it isn’t a very good thing to do. Not honorable,” he said. “Can we have a carriage so I can sleep?” He sat back and rubbed his stomach. It felt good being so full, he’d been starved for so long he had forgotten how amazing food was.

“We want a carriage,” Brandan looked at the guard and took the last piece of melon from the fork. “An open one, only for two people. I can lead the horses. I dislike being closed in. Go fetch,” he clapped and smirked when the guard stalked off, obviously angry.

“Please stop provoking him? He’s the kings favorite guard and he probably likes his star warrior more than his prisoners,” Alex leaned over and kissed Brandan’s jaw when he noticed they were alone. “I love you, I don’t want to be locked up here anymore.”

“I love you, and the king doesn’t prefer him over me. Who would? I’m awesome and he’s a scum who only knows to follow.”

“You are awesome,” he said as though to confirm, knowing full well it wasn’t a question. “I’m so full. I can tell you’re not. I’m going to be sleeping anyways, do you want to sneak off somewhere so you can eat?”

“I’d like to sneak off, we could go now?” He smiled mischievously. His plans had nothing to do with eating.

Alex smiled and put his arms around the dark-eyed man, “there’s nothing I find pleasuring about this castle. We’d have to go very far away. I love you so much, I’m sorry but I cannot.”

Brandan kissed him. “I love you. More than anything and everything else, I love you. The guards are coming,” he pulled away. “Are you full?”

“I’m so full, Brandan. You may have to carry me.” He grabbed a biscuit and bit into it anyways.

“You should stop eating. I’m with you now and you won’t starve ever again.” He looked at the guard and nodded when he was told that they were ready to go.

“Tell me how you were when I was here,” Alex touched Brandan’s knee and eagerly looked at him as the carriage trotted along the beaten trail. The sun was hanging high in the sky and he knew it was the hardest time of the day for Brandan to stay awake so even though he was tired and had slept most of the morning, he was trying to stimulate his partner to keep him awake.

“I was how I always am without you, Alex. I was lonely, miserable, pissed and looking for you. Will you lead them so that I can sleep? I’m exhausted. They’re already on the right path, they will go to the right place. They’ve been stopping when they need water. It might be soon.” He settled back into the seat and put his hand across his stomach. “I love you,” He kissed the side of his partner’s lips before closing his eyes.

“I love you too.” he held the reigns but the horses were moving steadily along without being guided. “I didn’t think I’d see the sun again before I died, they usually do hangings in the morning. Thanks for letting me see the light of day again while free,” he smiled when Brandan looked up at him.

“You didn’t think I’d come? Did you think I gave up? What would have distracted me, Alex? What in this world do you think is more important to me than you?”

“I was hoping you’d come too late so you’d get over me. I was afraid you’d be hurt. I was just afraid, babe, they had tortured me for how long. Don’t look at me like that.”

“You worry too much. Encourage them to be thirsty, I want need to walk around a bit.”

Alex concentrated and smiled when the horses pulled over. “It worked!” He smiled.

“Of course it worked, Alex. Come walk with me,” he gave the younger man his hand and helped him out of the carriage. “We need to stretch our legs. There seems to be a storm coming in, maybe we should make camp.”

The warriors walked with them to a flat area and started setting up camp, the guard went up to Brandan and asked where he would be staying.

“A bit down the road. We will not be requiring your company. We’ll probably be safer without it,” he said curtly and walked off with Alex and their horses. “We’ve been on the road for a good part of the day, not long enough to get to our destination in a reasonable amount of time but we can make up time tomorrow. What’s wrong?” He looked over and saw his partner’s mood had deteriorated.

“I dislike the weather,” he answered rudely with a glare. He was very sensitive to the energies of the earth and other people, it was why Brandan was sure Alex could influence people and animals to do what he wanted. The warriors would be far removed from their energies, as they were personality-less nobodies, so it made sense to him why Alex wouldn’t have convinced them to let him go. He was shy about his abilities, but Brandan couldn’t blame him for that. Alex was human and it was abnormal, he was shy and wouldn’t draw attention to himself on purpose.

Storm clouds were coming in quickly, Brandan was sure that the warriors would get rained on before they could get their tents up and they might also. “We could camp through here,” he lead them through thick forestry and nodded when they found an open area they could sleep comfortably on. The surrounding tree’s branches overlapped over them and would shelter them from some of the storm.

“You don’t even like tents, why are you setting one up?” Alex crossed his arms as thunder roared over them. His eyes had changed from a light green to a dark hazel, nearly gold. Brandan had noticed them before when there were more energies to focus on.

Brandan smirked, “because it’s raining and you don’t like getting wet. It’s unsafe for you to camp in a tree when it could be hit by lightening and I don’t want you hurt. I don’t dislike tents, they’re just usually unnecessary.” Alex was generally logical and fair to a fault, Brandan thought it was nice when he was unreasonable just because and offered no apologizes even if it meant he got in trouble with his partner more. “You can wait in there, I have to tend to the horses. I’ll be back soon,” he touched Alex’s lower back when he was done setting up the tent.

“Whatever,” Alex got in the tent and closed the make-shift door.

Brandan smiled and walked over to the horses, petted one of their necks. “Are you hungry?” He called back to the tent as he unhooked the horses from the carriage and started taking the harnesses off.

“How could I possibly be hungry? I ate the castle out of house and home this morning,” Alex groaned. He hated when Brandan acted stupid.

Brandan didn’t respond. Instead, he made sure the horses were okay. He checked their hooves for rocks, rubbed their legs to check for soreness. They didn’t seem to have anything wrong with them, several rocks that he removed before setting them free to eat and hide from the weather just like them. He walked to a river that they were in front of, took his clothes off and climbed in, still looking in the direction of the tent.

“What are you doing?” Alex opened the tent’s ‘door’ and glared at the man in the water. Didn’t he know he could get electrocuted?

Brandan went under the water for a second and then walked out, he combed is hair back with his fingertips and Alex, even with his mood, couldn’t help but notice the sight for sore eyes that was his partner’s body.

Brandan’s chest was well-defined and his arms were strong. He was perfect, Alex couldn’t have asked for a better man to fall in love with and although it wasn’t the most important, he was definitely easy to look at.

“Why aren’t you answering me?” He furrowed his eyebrows.

“Whatever I say is going to piss you off, Alex. Why would I talk?” He shook his arms and used his palm to shed the excess water before walking to the tent and crawling in. “Besides, you’re asking questions simply to get me into a fight. You know damn well that I was in the water to cool off and get the sweat off me so I could lay down and sleep.”

“Forgive me for wanting to fucking talk to you, Brandan. It’s not like I haven’t seen you in months,” he spat.

Brandan pushed his partner on his back easily and kissed him. “Me expressing that I don’t want to piss you off somehow manages to anger you, Alex. You really can’t imagine why I’d keep my mouth shut? It’s more than reasonable to be in a bad mood, but don’t blame me for not wanting to be on the receiving end of your glares and angry tongue.”

“Just fucking talk to me! Tell me what you’re thinking. You’re not sleeping, you might as well talk to me. Is that a chore now?”

“What am I thinking? I’m thinking about how sorry I am that I let them you and that even though you’re being a complete fucking dick, I can’t look at you without thinking about how glad I am that I don’t have to fall asleep missing you anymore,” he pressed their lips together firmly and put his half-arm next to the younger man’s shoulder, growling in pain as he did so. “I’m fine, it doesn’t hurt,” he flinched when ocean-green eyes looked worried.

“You would lie to me?” Alex sat up and glared.”I would rather be a prisoner than be with a liar, at least he was up front about not having my best interest in mind! You would lie over something so obvious as your arm hurting? It as cut off! I know that it hurts, what else are you lying about?”

Brandan sat up, also, and back on his heels. He was kneeling now and his black eyes looked a bit shocked but only for a second, he recovered quickly. “You must be angry about something else. If you blame me for being captured, I would understand. I should have been there,” he said.

“You think it’s unreasonable to demand honesty? What else is more important? You just lied to me. I’ve cried myself every night knowing I could be killed the next morning, they tortured me, Brandan. He,…” he said but broke off and covered his mouth when tears rushed his eyes and fell suddenly. His eyelids closed over his pale green eyes and hit his shaking hand, “I fell asleep many nights after being choked to death or having to sleep without knowing if you’d forgive me for some of the things he did to me. Things that I would never do willingly with anyone except you, things I would pray you wouldn’t ask for. You are worth it, you have to be. I love you too much to find out it was all a lie. Please tell me that you came to rescue me because you love me, that you didn’t get captured and it was just unlucky for you that I was there? I want you so badly, I’ve missed you so much but I need your honesty.”

Brandan wiped the tears away, tasting the salty, warm taste of his watching his lover be so sad. “I didn’t want you to worry about me, Alex. If you knew how badly it hurt, maybe you wouldn’t think I was strong enough to defend you or you would not want to lay under me. I’ve never lied to you before. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know it’d make you so angry,” he said softly. The anger had blind-sided him and he wasn’t expecting such a strong reaction from either of them. He had cried plenty of times since Alex’s capture but it was alone and he felt weak for doing it in front of the man he claimed he would protect. “You..” he broke off, took a deep breathe and continued, “you would leave me for this?”

“What’s more important? I do not want a pet demon, Brandan. We are not slaves to each other, we are equals. You said that. I do not want a protector. I, too, am a man. I am not a woman, I can defend myself. Perhaps not as well as you can protect me but I’d rather die than lay down my pride for someone who doesn’t think honesty is important! I thought we had the same values,” he stood up and walked away.

Black eyes filled with more tears and he looked down, sobbing. He had agreed to capture his friends, have his father murdered for this? “Alex, please don’t leave me? I need you.” He called after the blonde, though he didn’t look up.

“No, you’re a strong man. You feel no pain and are invincible. I’m sure losing me won’t effect your immortal strength for too long. You’ll bounce back, you can lose an arm without feeling pain so I’m sure your heart will recover. Of course, I’m beyond being able to understand such strength. I’m just a human.” He called back before disappearing into the woods completely.