The meeting, called by Dominic and attended by the full council and Boris as his guard, had ended hours earlier and the betrayal hours before yet as they sat in the room, the silence and tension still remained.
Dominic sat in silence like he did when his father passed. The only difference now was that his head was buried in the papers stacked high upon his table, his hands busy trying to distract his mind from wandering. Boris, stood and watched from a distance like he always did, but this time, his silence was close to being broken.
He hated the blankness of Dominic's face. The blandness of his once rich green eyes and the automatic movements of his arms and body when he worked. No... he didn't hate that. He just hated the Dominic he was looking at right now. More than the lazy Dominic, the annoyed Dominic, and even the prince, he hated this more. The only thing he could hate more than this was the crying Dominic, a Dominic he'd rather he never saw for reasons he wasn't even sure of himself.
"Your highness," Boris called out.
There was no response from Dominic. There hadn't even been a flinch or switch in movement to show that he heard Boris' call.
"Your highness!" Boris called out, walking to Dominic's desk. There was once again no reply. His jaw clenched. He saw it, the twitch in Dominic's blinking. Dominic heard it that time, he chose not to respond.
"Dominic!" Boris snapped, his voice piercing into Dominic's ears.
"What is it?" he responded, his body freezing for a moment but keeping his head down to his books, away from Boris. "Is there any assignments I have to complete in addition to these?"
"Look at me," Boris ordered, his voice slamming into Dominic's head.
"Is there any assignments that I have to-"
"Are you going to hold it in again? Pretend like you're ok? Spend all day trying to convince the world that you're fine when you know what you're barely holding it together?" Boris pressed, his words throwing themselves at Dominic.
"If there's something you would like me to do, please say it directly and not through insults please," Dominic returned, his voice steady as he replied. Boris looked down at his hands, they were trembling.
A weak laugh leaves Boris' lips. "Is this what you think she meant by you being a wimp? Do you think that by sitting here and working through all of those sky-high sheets of paper that you're suddenly going to be a reliable prince people can trust with the throne?" he spat, his golden eyes glowing with anger.
"Please watch your wor-"
"Don't be stupid," Boris continued, "you're only making it worse by not taking care of your feelings correctly. A king that can't deal with his emotions so he masks them... do you think that's a real king? You'll hold it in until the day that you burst into anger and tears and screams of frustrations and that's when you're going to be an actual disappointme-"
"SHUT UP!" Dominic snapped, his hands slamming into his table as he stood up, "SHUT UP BORIS! WHAT DO YOU CARE?! IS THIS ALL YOU CAN DO ALL DAY?! CRITICIZE ME WHEN YOU'RE BORED? PREY ON SOMEONE ELSE WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE BEING ENTERTAINED?! GO FIND ANOTHER CIRCUS BORIS!"
Boris flinched, his head moving back at a reflex. He smiled when he saw the anger and frustration on Dominic's face. "There it is. All the emotions you're trying so desperately to hide," he muttered, "doesn't it feel better? To feel all the emotions racing through you like boiling water? To finally come to terms with your feelings?"
"Shut up Boris," Dominic growled, his teeth grinding against each other, "the only one in here who needs to come to terms with themselves is you."
"Excuse me?" Boris retorted.
"How do you want to regard me?" Dominic asked, pressed his finger into Boris' chest, pushing him backward, "is it fun to play around like this? You hate me. You've made it clear 50 times over with every moment that you stand by my side. Then why WHY THE HELL did you try to comfort me? Led me to believe things were ok now before dropping another bomb on me, and now you're acting like an insolent bug, preying on my insecurities in order to anger me. Is it fun? IS IT FUN TO MAKE ME FEEL LIKE THIS?!"
Dominic grabbed Boris by the collar.
"Whether I hate you or not is something for me to decide. How I chose to act around you is also my choice, are you going to try and control me now? Bring in the leashes you forgot to put on me?" Boris snapped back.
"Shut up!"
"Why? You should do that since you're always trying to desperately to fit into everyone's guidelines of a prince," Boris snapped. "You should continue down the path you're going, get so obsessed with trying to be what they want of you that you lose yourself in the process. Bury yourself in so many books that you yourself become a book for others to write down their programming for you to fo-"
"SHUT UP!" Dominic yelled, his hand raising and slapping Boris across the face.
Boris staggered back from Dominic's hit, his cheeks growing hot.
"I- I'm..." Dominic muttered, his hands trembling as he looked at Boris' cheeks. "I'm so... I'm so sorr-"
"DON'T APOLOGIZE!" Boris yelled, his voice bouncing off the walls in the room. His golden eyes turn back to Dominic. "WHY'RE YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BEING MAD YOU IDIOT?!"
Dominic trembled, drawing his hands to his chest. Boris groaned, grabbing Dominic's hand and slapping it across his face again. "YOU'RE MAD! YOU'RE MAD AT ME, YOU'RE MAD AT CLAUDIA AND YOU'RE MAD AT YOURSELF! BE MAD FOR GOODNESS SAKE! YOU FEEL BETRAYED! YOU'RE UPSET AT HOW SHE HAD LOOKED AT YOU, HEARTBROKEN ABOUT THE LIES SHE TOLD YOU AND MAD AT YOURSELF FOR BELIEVING THEM! YOU'RE HURT DOMINIC! YOU'RE BROKEN!"
Dominic flinched, his head trembling as his head lowered. "No..." he muttered quietly, his voice choking up.
"Yes! Yes you are," Boris pressed, "if you're mad be mad, if you want to cry, cry, if you want to scream and take it out on someone, take it out on me! You're so caught up in what everyone thinking, so indulged in trying to act ok, trying to carry everything on yourself because you think that's the way people want you to be. I'm tired of watching you clench your fist as you quiet yourself and tired of watching you take hits to your heart and act like nothing happened. It's tiring!"
"Then look away," Dominic replied, yanking his hand away from Boris' hold. "if you're tired of watching me, tired of watching my foolish acts, then look away from me. There's no need for you to watch someone that you hate, and there's even less of a reason for you to care enough to try and fix it."
"The kingdom," Boris muttered, "if you're not able to pull yourself together then this is going to end up coming down on my people and others likewise. I can't have this system falling apart because of an unstable leader."
Dominic laughed, his chuckle short and brief. "Ha. Is that it? Is that the reason why you keep poking your nose in everything I do, the reason why I can feel your eyes on me every time you're with me, the reason why you access my actions for fault and present them to me on a platter expecting me to fix it at that second?"
Boris flinched, his lips quivering for a moment. "No."
"So that's how you're going to re-" Dominic began his voice cutting off when Boris' answer registered in his head. He turned to face Boris, confusion showing on his face. "What?"
"It's not the reason why," Boris continued, his eyes looking up to match with Dominic's, "in fact I don't know the reason why I'm so bothered by every movement you make. I don't know why I want to fix every hole you have and I don't know why I keep standing up for your foolish actions. I don't know why I keep looking at you."
Dominic flinched, his body freezing at Boris' words.
"You annoy me. From your being, your actions, to those... eyes of yours, you annoy me. I hate almost everything about you but it's getting harder to call it hate," Boris explained, his eyes pressing into Dominic's gaze, "and it's getting harder to tell which you I hate."
"What?" Dominic asked, "what do you mean?"
"I don't know! It's not even like it's some random change, it's gradual. It had a trigger and that trigger is being supported by every little movement you make. Every argument further perplexes my hate I so directly fixed on you before, every moment I watch your actions make me feel like helping you and even..." Boris began his voice trailing off for a second as he looked at the ground, his hands balling into a fist, "and even when I thought I'd feel better to have your annoying... being wrapped around the finger of that... woman, I only got angrier watching you follow her around on your hands and knees. I wanted to argue with you more, to disturb you more."
Dominic stood silently, trying to comprehend the words Boris spat.
"I hate you but every time I argue with you I keep wanting to agree with your words and now I'm not even sure if it was you I hated to begin with," Boris snapped, his eyes darting back to Dominic, locking with his emerald gaze, "and then there are those... seconds. Those moments where I'm not even sure I'm thinking anymore, those moments where all you do is stare at me, and yet I find it hard to look away. You... You confuse me."
Dominic stood in silence, his eyes barely blinking as he stared at Boris.
"And that's why you need to get yourself together. Watching you struggle is the most annoying thing to be forced to watch and even worse is watching you pretend you're ok. As much as you want to believe that your actions regarding your emotions affect you alone, they do to others," Boris sighed, "you just got betrayed today by a woman you had fallen head over heels for, and your wound stings as a reminder every second yet you try to act fine. Cry. Cry, please."
Dominic stared at Boris blankly for a moment, his heart skipping a beat. he saw it again, the desperateness, the calling in those golden rays, the begging for him to listen. The next part washed over him like a wave as he remembered the last few days and the hours before. His hands trembled and his knees got weak as his vision blurred. He began to cry. Long streams of tears racing down his face, a release of pent of emotions that flowed forth like a waterfall.
He didn't know what specifically he was crying for, but the moment warm hands touched his body and pulled him into a comforting hug, he was drowning in his own tears.
The light sound of a pat was drowned out by Dominic's wails as Boris comforted him, their bodies leaning against each other.
Dominic whimpered, his body shivering seconds after. His hands reach out for Boris' body, quivering, hesitating. He stood there for a moment with tears flowing down his face and his hands began to lower when he felt it again, the pat. Warm, big hands touching his back again and again, comforting him, coaxing him, calming him. His hands shot up, wrapping around Boris' waist before he could get the chance to react.
Dominic looked up at Boris, his emerald eyes shining with such innocent as he gazed at Boris, his lips drawn down in a frown as tears continued to roll down his pink cheeks. They stared at each other. Not in tension, not in discomfort, but rather there was something soft about their exchange in gazes. It was soothing, serene even, when they looked at each other. Like they had found this peaceful position, like their eyes had finally learned to calm down for a moment. Like they had finally found common ground, finally found a way to fall into each other's eyes without friction.
Boris' shoulders calmed and his gaze softened, the guarded gaze he once had finally opened to allow Dominic to look through them and finally allowing himself to look at Dominic. To look at the one who was betrayed, the one who was poisoned, and the one who had lost his father, not the prince.
That was when it happened again. The spark, the pull, the tug between their eyes, the invisible force that pushed them together, that slowed down time around them and trapped each other in the other's gaze.
It was funny. The fact that Dominic's hands, one that had wrapped around his waist tightly, the ones that had been allowed to touch him, suddenly became real. He could feel his hold, he could feel his warmth, he could feel his... presence.
It wasn't like it wasn't there before but rather its presence had been enhanced. Just like every single feature on Dominic's face and every single spot on his body that his hands were touching. 'His back...' Boris thought to himself as his hand touched Dominic's back again, comforting him with each pat. Every time they would bounce off his back, they tingled, sending shivers down his spine that he hadn't felt before. Alighting an emotion Dominic usually showed.
Curiosity.
The warmth he felt on his hand whenever he touched Dominic was somehow addicting. The little spikes seemed to ask to be prolonged, each pat asking to be slowed down, each touch asking to hold on for longer. He wanted to know. 'Where else will I feel this?'
Dominic's eyes simply seemed to reinforce his curiosity, like they were asking for him to continue the light touches. Or were they asking for more?
Boris' left hand twitched at his side and began to move. They rose up with their own will, nearing Dominic's body when they paused, hesitating before they touched him. Boris' attention switched to Dominic's face, his hesitation giving him time to notice a tear that was running down Dominic's cheeks. Unconsciously, his right hand stopped patting his back and rose to his cheeks, trembling for a moment before brushing against the soft, wet surface.
Dominic flinched, a spark flying through his eyes when Boris' hand touched his face. Boris saw it, an electro-pulse running through his entire body. He turned back to the rosy surface of Dominic's face where his hand stayed on, unmoving. He was curious. 'Is this... what he felt when he touched my hands?' Boris thought to himself. He looked back at Dominic who was staring at him with such vibrant eyes he was compelled to learn more. 'I want to feel it too.'
And so his thumb moved, his rough hand slowly running across the soft surface of Dominic's face. His big thumb pressing onto his skin lightly, wiping the tear away. Dominic shuddered, his entire body shivering from Boris' touch, and his eyes close as he jolted, his shoulders tensing up for a moment.
Boris stared down at Dominic, feeling his shiver. His golden eyes gleamed as they ran over his features, the familiar feeling rushing over him. His fingers followed his gaze, running up Dominic's face, his body feeling the shiver he gave in response. They brushed along his brown-blonde eyebrows, down the slope of his nose, Boris' left hand twitching to move.
So they moved, at the same time as Boris's fingers lightly ran over Dominic's eye-lids, long golden eyelashes brushed against a rough thumb. Boris' right hand trembled at the touch of his eyelashes, they tickled.
Slowly his hands continued to run down Dominic's jawline, his left hand rising. When his thumb had reached Dominic's chin, his left hand touched Dominic's waist, the tips of his fingertips touching his sides first and slowly sliding down until his entire hand held his waist. Dominic flinched, his shoulders tensing again.
Boris looked down at where his hand touched Dominic's waist. It was hot. He looked up at Dominic, his eye glowing with a sort of enlightenment, like he had made a discovery, like those hands on Dominic's waist had somehow unlocked some kind of lock in him. Then stared at each other again and Boris sucked in a deep breath, taken by the beauty in Dominic's eyes. He wanted to see it... he wanted to see the reaction in Dominic's eyes.
His hand twitched and his right hand, perched on Dominic's chin began to move again. They slowly crept up Dominic's chin, leaving a hot trail in their wake and up to the feature that Boris' eyes were pinned on. The light-pink of Dominic's lips. His fingers ran up to them, rising from his skin for a minute and then landing on the top lip, his finger slowly moving down from his top lips to the bottom, pulling them aside a bit as he touched them. Dominic shuddered, his head tilting to the side, his hair brushing against Boris' hand. 'Oh...' Boris thought to himself as he stared into Dominic's eyes. He saw it, the flicker of brightness as he trembled, the glow when he felt the heat from Boris' finger.
He couldn't look away from his lips. They were there, staring at him with such an appealing beauty that he just wanted to- Dominic staggered, his head falling and resting against Boris' chest and his grip on Boris tightening. Boris' hands raised up to Dominic's waist and held them, returning Dominic's tight hold. A spark ran through Boris' eyes, he shivered, Dominic's warmth against his body intensifying from contact. 'Oh...' he thought as he remembered the thought that had run through his mind. He quivered when he felt Dominic's shiver again and the wetness on his shirt from his tears. His cheeks heated up. 'Oh god...'
His heart... his heart skipped a beat. His hands tightened on Dominic, pulling him closer, his head lowering to bury themselves in Dominic's golden waves. 'Oh god...' he thought to himself as the thud in his chest hit again. His cheeks heated up as he felt another familiar rhythm against his. Dominic's.
They stood there in silence for the next minute as Dominic pulled himself together, Boris' head buried in Dominic's hair as he tried to calm the heat on his face and Dominic's head against Boris' chest.
"I'm... I'm ok now," Dominic muttered, his voice quiet, close to whisper. He looked up at Boris, his face breaking into a big smile. "You helped me, again. Thank you."
Boris locked eyes with Dominic and a flood of emotions ran over him, confusion causing his grip on Dominic to loosen immediately.
"S-sure," Boris muttered.
They stood in silence, staring at each other for another second when Boris cleared his throat.
"Your hands..." he muttered, his hands looking down at Dominic's grip around his waist.
Dominic flinched, his cheeks flushing bright pink for a moment before he pulled away, tucking his hands behind his back. They were still locked in contact, their eyes still drawn to each other, both still infatuated in the other. That is until Dominic's eyes widened in surprise.
"Right!" he yelped, the brightness in his eyes like a wake-up call for Boris. "I wanted to ask you for something... but earlier the mood wasn't so good so I couldn't get it out," he muttered sadly, his voice picking up after, "right now the mood is... right..."
He turned around a grin on his face as he skipped to his table, picking up an envelope. He turned back to Boris who immediately flinched upon locking eyes with Dominic. He stepped forward, walking towards Boris who had frozen. "This, is an envelope containing the roster for the next few days," Dominic explained, opening the envelope and pulling out a piece of paper. He waved it in front of Boris' face, "look."
Boris flinched, unsettled by Dominic's closeness but then turned to the sheet of paper, his eyes taking in the contents of the paper. "That's a full schedule."
"One you're going to be accompanying me with the entire time," Dominic grinned.
Boris stared at him blankly for a moment, the words taking a moment to register. "What?!" he spat when he finally understood. "almost every hour for every day is booked and you want me to be parading you around the entire time?"
Dominic snatched the paper from Boris' sight. "Incorrect! I want you to protect me," he huffed, slipping the paper into his envelope. "I'm going to be the next king so I'm most definitely going to need someone to protect me with their life."
Boris rolled his eyes. "You have over a million people, thousands of nobles that would risk their lives to protect you. Why will you pick me out of all of them?" he asked, "revenge?"
Dominic flinched, looking up at Boris with a strong conviction. "No," he retorted, "because you're the only one I trust."
Boris twitched, his lips pressing against each other as Dominic's words. He could still feel it. The thumping of his heart.
Dominic cocked his head to the side. "If a title is the problem, I've already upgraded you to my personal guard so don't worry about it," he giggled. "I wanted to make sure you won't have a reason to say no to my request so I had to make sure everything was clear and solid before I asked."
Boris stared at Dominic blankly for a moment, his eyes sinking into Dominic's. They looked at each other for a moment, Dominic slowly falling into Boris' eyes again. Right before the tension, the room could manifest to a magnet pulling him to Dominic, he cleared his throat.
"What do I get out of this? You cannot simply expect me to follow you around with no benefits from it," Boris spat back.
Dominic grinned mischievously. "That's for me to figure out anyways. If you don't agree, I would have to force you with an order to follow me to all the events."
Boris stared at him in disbelief. "Really?"
Dominic chuckled, "Really!" he replied. They stared at each other for a moment and Dominic reached out his hand. It still tingled from moments ago just like the rest of his body when he looked up into Boris' eyes. He found it hard to speak without stammering yet pulled it together. His head tilted to the right, looking into the golden rays of Boris' eyes. "That said, will you like you guard me as a personal guard for the following events for the entirety of this schedule."
"Do I have a choice?"
"No,"
"Ok then," Boris nodded, his hand reaching forward and gripping Dominic's. "I'll be the guard."
They stared at each other again, their hands stuck on each other for a few seconds, their eyes beginning to pu- Dominic looked away, turning back to his table and quickly walking away, sitting down and getting back to business.
"Good!" he muttered through a wavy voice as he gripped his trembling hands, subsiding the shiver that was running through his body. "The first meeting that we'll have today according to the schedule--"
Boris looked down at his hands. They tingled, each throb reminding him of a thought that had ran through his mind when they had let go of each other's hands. His hand twitched remembering the brief moment in which they had gotten to hold Dominic's, the brief moment where they felt the warmth again.
Boris' cheeks heated up as he felt another emotion creep into him as a thought came along.
'That wasn't the way I wanted it to go...'
That wasn't the way he wanted to hold Dominic's hand.