Burnt Roses and Stolen Hearts(Lucien x Caspian)

Chapter 2

"mhmhmMm... what the fuck...?" The short highwayman's eyes slowly fluttered awake to the sound of sizzling... uh... whatever. He rose from the couch he didn't remember being placed on and removed the blanket off of him. He scanned the room, it was his living room, or well, his living space. He didn't have much, just a bathroom, bedroom, and living room(with a kitchen), but that was enough to live by.

He looked around some more, some thrown clothes were neatened up, and surprisingly clean. The even more surprising thing was the fact that the thief was in the same room, cooking up a breakfast for two.

"What the-" "Oh! You've finally woken up! Like the new look?" The prince flashed a toothy grin, showing his small fangs to the sleep-drunken shortie. "Non! Why the hell are-"

"You should be thanking me, my lovely French friend. So basically what happened after you collapsed was, well, Jiro and I brought you home, I lockpicked your house, easily I must say~ and put you back at your couch to sleep in. Jiro left, and I realized how much of a dumpster your 'house' was, and decided to tidy it up until like, 3, where I was proud enough about the job. But because I actually have a sleep schedule, I was able to sleep from 3 to around 9, then I woke up and got ready, started to cook, then you woke up, and viola! We're here. How do you feel?" Caspian took a huge breath after that, but pride was still in his puffed out chest as he turned off the stove. Lucien didn't answer, he was still processing what was going on, so Caspian just came over to him, with both of the plates held out.

The food consisted of a tartine with jam, some yogurt, and a cup of French tea. Caspian gently placed it on Lucien's lap, then proceeded to sit in a chair next to him saying "Eat your breakfast in 'bed', I tried to follow your French customs in cooking. You have the most random things in your house, I swear." "Like what?" "Cookbooks, war books, weapons, jewels, skin, bones, etc... Are you a hoarder?" "No, each of these things have a meaning."

Caspian only raised an eyebrow before taking a bite into the tartine, in a sloppy, rushed way. Lucien ate his food elegantly, surprisingly, even as a semi-depressed highwayman, he could act quite politely sometimes. "Oh wow! This food is goooooood! I think I did a fantastic job in making this? What do you think?"

"Hmph. It's good, you did a fine job, I guess." Lucien was mumbling, he hated admitting that something was nice or cool, it made him flustered. The thief giggled lightly at his response and said "Aw! Look at you, but seriously, thank you for that compliment."

Lucien's blank eyes just widened, staring at Caspian, but he just went back to eating, turned away. Once he was done, he just went to the bathroom to get ready as Caspian cleaned up. Lucien told him to leave and stop his service, but Caspian insisted, and Lucien knew damn well he couldn't beat the thief in a fight, so he just agreed hesitantly and walked away.

Caspian, while cleaning up, was in his own thoughts.

Not many knew this, but the prince always had a little crush on the highwayman. Ok, not a crush, maybe some actual love and like some deep care. He never admitted it though, but only people with a good eye, or his closest friends knew about this. He would flirt with everyone as either a joke, or to cover up the fact that he was in love with a 'dumpster rat' or even 'worse' a 'FRENCH dumpster rat' as some would call him.

Look, call Lucien what you want, but not in front of Caspian, esPECIALLY Caspian, because that thief would have you put down faster than a rabies dog. He was like that with all his friends, but with Lucien, it was a little more cared for. A bigger area in his heart, so when Diana was found cheating on Lucien. That was enough for him.

He TRIED to kill Diana.

He was close as well, which was the shocking thing. So close, but Lucien stopped him, much to everyone's surprise. It seemed that Lucien still did love her, even with all the insults and the big betrayal. But that love had faded away, quickly. Lucien's whole personality just faded, as hard as it was to believe. Also because they were in Valhalla, a place where, well, people couldn't really die after this. 

Caspian zoned out while cleaning, like he was still cleaning, but he looked kinda dead doing so. The train of thoughts stopped when Lucien came by, looking more refreshed than usual(This is why you sleep... Damn it I'm a hypocrite). The highwayman would not dare say that he felt any better, especially in front of the smug thief, who just looked at the French man, smiling. Caspian was kind of admiring how nice Lucien looked right now, seemingly kind of happy, maybe, the highwayman was hard to read.

Lucien only gave a head turn away saying "Why are you still here? Don't you have a painting to steal or something? Maybe replace a statue of that bastard King Louis XVI with yourself?" The thief only chuckled and shook his head.

"Damn, best you got? Nah, not feeling it today, plus, I have plans for us today~"

Lucien faced Caspian quickly after that, and moved right in front of him, their noses almost touching.

"What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Saying." The French highwayman had such a serious and darkened tone, and the thief could hear his breath, Lucien was just that close. Caspian was clearly surprised about this, and he said back, flustered(keeping his composure somehow),

"Okokokokokok- Calm down now. Look, I have a good reason. Look, you know, later today, I have a game night with the boys. And I don't want to leave you alone, because for all I know, I might have to drag you out of a bar again, so to do both, I'll bring you!"

"What the fu-"

"No worries! I already asked them, they said you ca-"

"Not that, I'm not going mother-"

"Ah! Too late, you're coming."

"Non! Why the he-"

"Too bad! Cross said it was okay, so you're coming with me, no buts! I hope you know, If you try to protest, I'll bring you with force."

Lucien just stared at Caspian, their faces away from each other. Caspian stared back with a raised eyebrow, a trying look. Lucien just caved in, "Fine, I'll go, only because you helped me last night, and this morning. Consider yourself lucky, because I would have accepted a fight."

The thief's eyes immediately brightened and he did a fist pump, much to the shorter man's confusion. "Woo! Step one, the hardest one, done!"

"What's the second step?"

"Getting there of cour-"

"No. It's telling me who's going to be there."

"Oh, okay, it's just you, me, Cross, Zariel, Koji, Jiro, and mayb-"

"Why are there so many people?"

"It's literally just 5 other people, if Barraza or Kor, one of those guys, I forg-"

"That's too many."

The thief sighed and just grabbed the highwayman's hand, practically dragging the stubborn short man, saying "We're going to be late, let's just go. You don't even have to play, you just have to be in my sight, you know, so you won't run away to a ba-"

"It only happened once."

"It was Bödvar's fucking bir-"

"Still, only once"

"You can't be this muleheaded"

"I can, try me."

Caspian just stared at the pupiless(is that a word?) man's eyes, and just gripped his hand harder, still walking. Lucien tried to squirm out of his grip, and said "I'm not fucking 4, by the way, I don't need you to hold my goddam-" "You might not be 4, I know, you're old as hell, but you sure as hell act like one" Lucien stopped, only moving because of Caspian(like his legs were moving, just not him-? How do you describe it?)

"Plus, you stopped, so you must LIKE my hand holding yours~" The thief winked at the now flustered French man, who just stuttered out a "S-Stop it! That's not true! I'm saving my energy for that stupid game day of yours, might as well not bother!" "Sure, SURRREEEEE~" Caspian was now heavily accenting his words, much to the short man's annoyance.

Lucien sighed. When will he get over this?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: Hi again! Hope you enjoyed this weirdly long chapter! What do you think will happen next? YES I KNOW ZARIEL DOESN'T HAVE A GENDER, I JUST FORGOT AND I'M TO LAZY TO MAKE ANY REVISIONS. Also, Lucien's in a fucking mood rn. But, moving on... see you all lovelies later! Go get a hug!(Expect me to say this a lot-)