Bound By Chains (MxM)

Chapter Five

The sun was barely peeking over the horizon when I woke up. I had only gotten maybe three hours of sleep, but slaves were...expected to get up at the crack of dawn to get started on their seemingly never-ending list of chores. And my first chore of the day, was to wake Cayden up.

So, with a hefty yawn leaving my lips, I sat up in my bed and rubbed at my eyes, attempting to rub the sleep away before I absentmindedly grabbed my shabby brush and brushed the tangles out of my hair. After that, I stood up and pulled on my tattered robes, and with one last look at my unmade bed, I began to make my way to the prince's room, barely sparing any of the other meandering slaves a glance. Now, why would I, Alton's slave, be waking his son up instead of him? Well, it was because Alton preferred to wake on his own. He didn't like it when he was forced to wake up and made sure to remind me of that when I had made the mistake of pulling back his curtains all those years ago.

So, he tasked me with waking his son up instead, since Cayden often had a hard time getting himself up before noon. As if a grown man needed a slave to wake him up before the crack of dawn. It was tiresome really, but thankfully, I woke up more on the walk towards his room; the idle chatter around me ripping away any tiredness that tended to linger.

However, I was nervous to approach him. After seeing the way he acted last night...I didn't wish to be the object of his frustration, or hell, listen to him spill his heart out to me as if I were some priest listening to his deepest sins. He tended to do that quite a bit, actually. I could count on both hands the amount of times Cayden had come to me and complained about things happening in his life. I honestly couldn't understand most of it, considering I didn't experience any of the fancy, noble things he did...but the man didn't seem to realize that I didn't really care. If he wanted to spill his heart out, fine. But go to a priest, or something.

Maybe I'll get lucky. Maybe, he'll be too tired to recall what he had done last night, or why he had been so frustrated. Maybe, I'll be quick enough and leave before he thinks he could begin his little tangent.

Gods, I doubted I would be that lucky, though.

I slowed my steps as I approached his bedroom door, making sure to wipe away any remaining tiredness in my eyes before I opened the door and walked into the dark room, my feet silent against the carpeted floor. Cayden laid asleep in his large, canopy bed, one arm thrown over his head while the other remained on his stomach. And for some reason, I found myself pause and look at him, taking note of how calm and almost...childlike he seemed.

It was interesting to watch a person sleep. And no, I wasn't doing it to be creepy, it was just that I was used to his irritated looks, and childish pouts. I wasn't used to seeing him so relaxed like this.

Whatever, I wasn't here to ogle him, I was here to wake the man baby up. So, with a short breath, I stalked the rest of the distance to the curtains and pulled them apart, allowing the growing sunlight to pour into the large room.

Behind me, I heard the man in question grown, and a quick glance over my shoulder allowed me to see him grab his other pillow and throw it over his face. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and instead, I walked over to the table settled not far from the window, and began pouring him a glass of water, refusing my urge to look back at the other man.

"Good morning, Your Highness. I do hope you slept well." I turned and walked over to his side of the bed, cradling the glass of water in my hands as I watched him peel back the pillow to peek at me.

He stared at me, and I stared back, the silence between us growing before the man suddenly groaned and turned away from me, giving no indication that he was going to get up. Gods, sometimes I felt like I was dealing with a toddler. And this man was older than me. "Come on, Your Highness, you have some business to attend to with the West Kingdom, alongside your father." I paused, raising a single brow as Cayden continued to ignore me. "And I highly doubt you wish to keep your father waiting." You know how he gets when he's angry, I wanted to say. But I withheld, considering I didn't quite know the limit of what I could and couldn't say around the brunet.