Two Sides of a Story (SBI AU)

Chapter 1- Was He Just Different?

Tommy POV

Tommy followed the king down the hallway, tugging on his sleeve. That seemed to be the only way to get his attention anymore. 

"What is it?" the man shrugged him off, barely sparing him a glance. He stood like a king, always more arrogant to the rest. Tommy looked nothing like him, mirroring more of his mother. 

"Can I please help? I just want to serve you." the boy begged. "I can-"

The king held his hand up, immediately silencing the blonde. "You've done quite enough Tommy. Why don't you go wait for your brothers or something?" Then without another word, he continued down the hallway and out of sight, leaving Tommy alone.

That's how Tommy felt most of the time. Alone. He shook his head, turning on his heel and heading towards his older brothers. He could only hope they were back by now. He wanted to go with them, but he was always shoved aside with a million excuses.

"You're too young!"

"We don't have time to babysit you."

"Will you just give up on asking already? You already know the answer is always no."

The blonde sighed, shaking his head. He just wanted to help, was that too much to ask? He was one of the princes, so shouldn't he serve his kingdom?

The sound of clanking metal made Tommy stop, a small smile appearing on his face. They were back! He picked up his pace, already hearing their voices.

"I can't believe it happened again!" one of them shouted, clearly being Lukas.

"We did everything we could." the calmer one, Adam, replied.

They were quite a bit older than him, and reflected their father a lot more. They were the best swordsmen in the kingdom... apart from the outlaws of course. 

Taking a deep breath, Tommy made his presence known, rushing into the armory. "Adam! Lukas!"

Lukas groaned, rolling his eyes. "What do you want Tommy? I'm really not in the mood." He put his sword aside before continuing to take off his armor.

"It didn't go well?" the blonde questioned, choosing his words carefully.

"We got ambushed again." Adam explained, shaking his head. He hissed under his breath, glancing down at the deep cut in his arm. 

"Stole all the gold we collected!" Lukas exclaimed, tossing his armor on the ground, causing the two of them to jump. "It's like they knew we were coming!"

Tommy glanced between them, confused. "I thought Father exiled the outlaws?" This problem was meant to be taken care of a while ago. Why were the outlaws still ambushing?

"Well you might want to tell them that." Lukas huffed, running a hand through his hair. He clearly did not want to tell the king the news. They had lost yet another hundred coins in gold.

"What if-" 

"Don't you dare say what if they had a reason." the older cut him off with a sharp glare. "They don't. They're outlaws because they hate the king. They only steal to keep the money for themselves."

Tommy nodded, his head dropping. "Right... sorry." Sometimes he forgot that he was an outlaw now.

"Don't apologize." this time it was Adam that spoke. His tone was one of a harsh mentor, he always had a sharpness Tommy hated. He missed the old Adam. "Apologies made you weak. Princes are not weak Thomas."

"Oh, sor-"

"Are you deaf?" Lukas snickered.

Tommy swallowed, quickly blinking his tears away, or trying to at least. He shook his head, but the tears kept coming.

Lukas smirked, rolling his eyes. "Are you going to cry? Why don't you go weep to Mother?" He turned away, muttering, "What a crybaby."

The two olders left the room, seemingly not at all fazed by the words they said. They would just making him stronger. That's what brothers did.

Tommy surveyed the room before finally allowing his tears to drop. Leaning against the wall, he held his head in his hands. Was he just soft? Were they right?

Or was he just different?

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Hope you liked it!

Just so you know, Tommy is not related to SBI in this one, but they will be in this book! 

I'm sure you're sick of Fantasy AU, but I'm not. I don't think I could ever get sick of them. :)

Hope you have a wonderful day!

-Snowy