Gosh, it was so boring to be alone.
The empty room felt more empty and the streets of people mulling down dirt roads looked even more distressed. It wasn't like it was just starting to be like that, it had always been the new normal but somehow in the quiet room in which every movement echoed back at him, he felt the silence.
It wasn't his first time feeling this. It wasn't his first time being alone or knowing what it felt to be in a room so empty one felt like they were just a piece of furniture in it. And it certainly wasn't his first time facing the same distress those on the streets showed.
It was different, funny almost how on the day his world came crashing down in literal flames, the world just danced along on its way like he was the only one stuck in the quicksand around his legs. It was funny how when he had cried, he would hear sounds of laughter in the streets outside the little window above his head and it was funny how he would hear jokes from the people outside the window when he felt like tearing himself apart.
How ironic it was that the window he had opened to hear the sounds of people outside and make him feel more alive, only made him feel lonelier.
It should be making him mad. It should be making him furious that those outside the windows sounded the way he wanted them to sound when he felt like dying. He should be mad that the sluggish movements from outside that would have made him feel comforted were now sounding into the room as quietly as the sound made from him brushing dust off books.
'That's right...' Boris thought to himself, 'I should be mad at them, I should be mad at him.' It should annoy him that someone getting the comforting movements of sound close to zero wasn't getting as comforted as he would have been. It should anger him that someone who got the entire kingdom, maybe even the entire empire to weep with him still had the audacity to feel depressed, that they still had the audacity to cry and feel alone when others wept just like he did, for him.
Yes... he should be furious at the fact that someone who had everything they could wish for and more, even the comfort they needed from their kingdom at the time of their saddest moment could still stare out a window in the same spot that he was the day before.
Boris set down the book he was reading on the side table before sliding into the side table and sitting down. 'Yes... I should be annoyed,' Boris muttered to himself. He looked up at Dominic's desk and the empty chair that sat behind it. 'Yet... why do I feel pity?'
He glanced outside at the sky, its sun still quite high up in the sky. 'Almost 3...' he thought to himself as he turned back to the empty desk. 'He was supposed to be back at 2.'
Boris' eyes wavered, slowly closing. The silence was deafening, the disheartening emptiness, and it's high, close to silent frequency was closing in.
The room felt cold...
Until it felt warm.
First came the scent, then came the warmth. It smelt sweet with a dash of outside.
Something brushed against his nose. It was warm, it tickled. A small breeze brushed against his hair and he could feel some heaviness on his face being lifted by soft fingers.
Slowly, his eyes open, sluggishly at first before focusing on the figure before him.
"You're up?"
At first, he saw a blob of yellow, then strands of hair, and then there was a skip to a face. One that was staring at him with a tilted, curious face.
"You are up, right?" it asked.
Boris brushed his eyes, looking at the figure again. His eyes ran down the wavy waves of hair that shifted as the figure's head leaned over, resting against the table and then down to the soft slopes of a slightly pointed nose and over cheeks with a shade of pink as light as pink lemonade. His eyes traveled to peach lips, that twitched, then in one smooth curve, they landed on long blonde eyelashes that canopied bright eyes.
Bright green eyes.
"Hey."
His vision cleared just as his eyes looked into the emerald-green waves of his eyes. They were so clear, like a mirror reflecting back his own face. They were enthralling and beautiful and held the same beauty and air of happiness one would have as a dirty rock was wiped away to reveal vivid green.
"Say something."
The voice of the figure was so clear but yet he wasn't replying.
"Hey..." their voice trailed off, being sucked into silence.
It could have been just a second or multiple built into a moment in time in which everything seemed to stop. Time hovered around them as gold eyes sparkled, a green haze shimmering in their gaze.
Every sound seemed to seep out of the background at that moment, pausing for a second like a record stopping its spin on its phonograph.
It was like they were seeing each other for the first time, peering at each other with pure eyes devoid of all previous notions, like a newly budding rose first tasting air against its petals. It was warm, there was warmth in their gaze.
Then in a moment's blink, they all faded back in and the world began its spin around its axel. That intoxicating and intimate moment was over as abruptly as it started.
Like opposite magnets switching to same-minded, they pulled away from each other immediately, distance forming between their bodies.
There was a moment of silence, as they looked at each other, as if they were getting used to being separated, as if they were on their own for the first time. As if they had sunk back to their bodies from an out of body experience.
Dominic stood up from his spot on the floor and dusted off his outfit, taking a glance at Boris and locking eyes with him again. They both looked away as quickly as they could. It wasn't quick enough.
A light that had stayed unlit, had lit and it's fire, though close to being put out a moment after, still burned. It was less warm than when it was first lit, but it was still alive, burning... waiting.
"When did you..." Boris muttered. He paused, turning to the windows. The sun was setting. "You're late. Hours late."
Dominic ran his hand through his hair, a smirk showing on his face. "I didn't know someone was counting. Were you waiting?"
"If you meant waiting for Kalmin to come and take me away from this place, then yes. I was waiting, Boris promptly replied.
"How rude," Dominic pouted.
"I don't know what you were expecting, your highness," Boris shrugged, leaning back in the chair.
Dominic smiled, shaking his head at the same time. "True."
He walked over to his desk and sat down in his seat, seconds later Boris stood up from his.
"Your report," Boris muttered, his eyes widening. "Your report is due."
"My wha- ah... AH! OH MY LORD! I WAS SUPPOSED TO WRITE IT IMMEDIATELY AFTER I FINISHED THE MEETING AND CAME BACK TO THE PALACE!" Dominic yelped in distress.
"Exactly. What exactly were you even doing this entire time?" Boris asked, "I thought it was a meal, did you go shopping after?"
Dominic grinned, pointing at the bag on his desk. "As a matter of fact, we did. Well at least, I did," he smirked smugly, "for food." He looked down at the bag with eyes shimmering brightly like a predator laying its eyes on its prey.
Boris stared at Dominic for a moment before slowly approaching him. Dominic looked up at him, his eyebrows raising immediately. "What is it?" he asked curiously, turning his chair to face Boris' advance.
Boris stopped at Dominic's desk, the distance between them enough to form a shadow over Dominic's body.
"So you mean to tell me," Boris began. "This entire time, you were out in the streets, shopping for items that the castle could probably make three times better than due to better resources and walking carefreely on the streets when you should be in your office, doing the work that you missed out on in your week of grieving?"
Dominic flinched. He looked up at Boris' eyes that were peering down at him and then stood up. He walked around his desk and stood in front of Boris.
"Man, your gaze is harsh. You can't have both the height and the gaze you know? Man must have either one or the other," Dominic chuckled, "both combined is just intimidating."
Boris' gaze didn't soften. They wavered instead. They should have just softened.
"Don't evade the question," Boris snapped. "Because of you, your highness, all because of you, I will probably get a scolding after this from Kalmin because I was unable to get you to write the document in on time or worse, be forced to spend another day with you. Alone."
His eyes peered demeaningly at Dominic. "How irresponsible can you be?"
Dominic flinched. He stayed in contact with Boris for a moment before he looked away, a weak laugh leaving his lips.
He walked back around his desk and flopped in his chair. His hair fell down across his face, a golden canopy over the gaze he gave a Boris. "Do you hate me that much?" he asked.
"Excuse me?" Boris muttered, his eye twitching in anger, "that's not the issue here."
Dominic's jaw clenched. "Yes. For me it is."
Boris twitched, his lips quivering when he looked into Dominic's eyes. They pierced into his, biting deeper than his surface. They were venomous, they were harsh, they were cold. Like a leopard, like a predator. 'Where did the warmth go?' Boris thought to himself as he forced himself to stay put, his legs trembling a little as they were forced to stay in place.
They wanted to take a step back, to separate themselves from the piercing glare coming at them through a forest of blonde locks.
"Why do you hate me?" Dominic muttered, standing up from his chair, "what have I done to you to deserve your coldness?"
Boris took a step back.
"I bought you from that flock of people. You were starving, I could see it in your eyes. I gave you food, clothing, a home. Things I heard you didn't have before I came to you," Dominic snapped, taking a step forward. "I was kind to you and surrounded you with people I made sure were kind to you. I gave you a room, I gave you a bed, and I gave you classes. What do I get in return? Nothing. Nothing but hostility, that is."
Boris stepped backward, to which Dominic stepped forward.
"I ignored it the first time, then after some thought, I accepted it. It was ok. We had some history, but that we was not me and I'm sure it wasn't you either. If it was, I apologize but whatever you went through, I can assure was not by my hands, so why do I have to suffer from it?" Dominic asked, his head tilting to the side as he walked towards Boris. "I took the very first stab you gave. Took the second, took the third, the fourth, the fifth, and so on, all in the name of being friends with you in the end."
Boris' lips quivered, preparing to say something, preparing to make another smart retort. It couldn't move.
"I got it. Whatever you went through, I could not relate to, whatever pain you felt out on those streets, I could not compare to but that pain that you felt, what you went through, you blindly place the blame on the nobles. On the people higher on the ladder," Dominic growled, "on my people you called money-suckers, on the maids and servants you hate simply because they were people of your status that simply didn't have the same lives as you. And the blame on my father because he does not have enough eyes to watch over all in the kingdom and me simply for being his son."
Boris stepped back again, his leg hitting the chair on the side table.
"I don't remember ever looking down on you on your people. In fact, I hate the thought of doing so, in fact, I hate the fact that I have to because of my title but you disregarded that and continued to see me in that light simply because it was convenient to you," Dominic chuckled. His laugh was low. It was hallow, it growled. "I can see those words in your eyes, I can sense it from your words, and for the first time I heard them on the streets today. I heard things I didn't even know I did and scandals I didn't even know I had."
Boris flinched, his eye twitching as Dominic neared, his emerald eyes glowing bright, his gaze growing harsher.
"You know, I wouldn't have heard them today if it wasn't for me wanting to do something for you again," Dominic smiled painfully, "I went out there to get something from outside because I know you missed your life out there. I wanted to get you food you might remember as an attempt to get closer to you and heal a bit of the hostility between us. Instead, I get backlash on the streets and even more when I get back home."
Boris' body pressed against the table, Dominic almost upon him.
"If I wanted someone to scrawl at me and to demean me and hate me, I would have left you in the stables instead," Dominic muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. He stood over Boris now his figure casting a figure over Boris. "Then, I would have deserved the contempt in your eyes when you look at me."
Boris' trembling lips finally got out a word. "You took me away from my home."
"What?"
"You think I don't have family out there? you think I don't have a home?" Boris retorted, his voice slowly rising as he got confidence, "I do. At least I did. Then you drag me out of that place that I could have easily escaped from in the night and force me into a castle."
Dominic sighed, his hands running through his hair. "Was that enough to get you to hate me even more?"
"it's more than enough," Boris continued, "because the moment I step out of this place, it would be too late for me to have a home again. For me to be trusted again. You know the rumors out there, you know how they feel about you, the castle, and your people. Imagine how they'd feel if one of theirs go to a place like that and spends more than one day, a week there. They'd be disgusted. They'd hate me just like they do for you."
Dominic flinched, his eyes turning back to Boris.
"I used to have at least one home. Now I have none thanks to you," Boris snapped.
They stayed in eye contact for a moment, their eyes settling in each other. The world slowed again.
"Then make this place your home."