Winter Affliction

Part 3

Time did not make the heart grow fonder.

But it did allow for some petty grudges to fester.

Disagreements became overblown as the exaggeration of memory took hold of the mind and twisted the thoughts.

Cale had sent about three letters to the palace with some nearly treasonous insults and Alver had decided that the best way to respond to such antagonism was to ignore him in much the same way Cale had found so unpalatable before.

It wasn't necessarily a spiteful act. It was also an act of petty mockery.

Alver, who was just starting to struggle with the beginnings of puberty, had all sorts of hormones that inspired impulsive emotions. As a fabulous example, on a beautiful sunny day when he was nearly poisoned he found himself barely able to contain the impulse to shove the food down the throat of the bastard who brought it before him. Or on another lovely evening when he stubbed his toe while preparing for bed he had the undeniable impulse to cry pathetically over how miserable his life was and how intolerable the indignity of it all was.

And then, on an otherwise unmemorable day when he'd started having thoughts about the bodies, he received a letter from his dinky fiance and felt absolutely revolted because of the significant age gap between them. At his age it was impossible to imagine the differences that would come with adulthood and all he could think was how disgusting it was that he was engaged to a child. The fact that their partnership had been decided upon because of their secondary sex characteristics only disgusted him further. It was one thing to vaguely imagine a wholesome marriage that he intended to avoid when he was still ignorant to the realities of an adult relationship. But to be aware of those things brought a sense of horror to him.

So in a show of maturity that befitted his age, Alver made the informal decision to bully that child.

Truly, he was wise beyond his years.

And so when the chill of winter rolled around for the third time since their foul first meeting, neither Alver or Cale were enthusiastic at the prospect of spending even a minute in the presence of one another.

It was a terrible shame that fate had other plans in store.

The blizzard came out of nowhere.

The unlikely pair had gone on a walk with one another as per the request of the loving count and countess, neither of them had found a sufficient way to refuse those earnest requests, and they had both been making fastidious attempts at pretending the other didn't exist.

Cale had decided that if Alver was going to ignore him that two could play at that game and Cale was much better suited.

Alver had determined that the only way to alleviate the annoyance of his current situation was to pretend that it wasn't actually happening.

The collision of mal-adaptive behaviors caused a thick tension to weigh heavily on any unlikely servant or guard that was nearby. Most decided to make themselves scarce in an effort to avoid the menacing looking children.

It was an unfortunate oversight that while these people bustled through their days, carefully avoiding eye contact and avoiding trouble as any hard working individual might, that no one took notice of the stark lack of an escort for the pair.

It simply went without saying that the beloved only son of the Henituse family and his royal highness the eldest prince of the kingdom would have escorts guarding them at all times and so no one bothered to even look to see if there was one because of course there was.