Prince of Thievery | ONC 2024

Chapter 4

Kyle didn't want to get married to Amanda. As much as he tried to make himself forget about his upcoming wedding – or as much as he tried to joke about it – it wouldn't make things any better. He knew that. He also knew that it wouldn't be fair to Amanda if he got married to her.

But his parents were forcing him to do it; which just made everything so much worse. His parents have never forced him to do anything before.

But he supposed it was his fault for telling them that he was homosexual. They probably didn't want him to do something scandalous or immoral.

No matter how much he promised them that he wouldn't do anything that they disapproved of, they just didn't seem to trust him about it.

So, when the king offered his daughter's hand in marriage to Kyle, they agreed. They kept telling him that she was an amazing person and that Kyle would love being married to her.

Kyle had tried to tell Amanda that he was homosexual but when he had asked the servants to leave, Fredrick – the guy who was supposed to be 'taking care' of Kyle, had just told them it'd be inappropriate for the princess to be alone in a room with a man.

Kyle had also not been able to leave the castle since he had gotten there. It turned out to be hard to sneak out at the dead of the night when there were guards almost everywhere.

Kyle sighed. This was going to be difficult. Especially if he wanted to keep being the tooth fairy – or robin hood, he supposed.

Which reminded Kyle of that village boy. Something about him had been familiar. Kyle was having a hard type figuring out what it was and the thought had been constantly irking him since that night.

Kyle decided he would go to the boy's house as soon as an opportunity presented itself.

----

Fredrick barged into Kyle's room, startling Kyle.

"What?" Kyle asked once he got over the initial shock.

Fredrick always barged into Kyle's room – unlike the way he entered the rest of the rooms in the castle.

Kyle would've joked that Fredrick was just eager to become friends if his habit hadn't been so invasive of Kyle's privacy.

"Your parents are here," Fredrick replied matter-of-factly.

That instantly brightened Kyle's mood. His anger at them for making him marry Amanda vanished at once.

"Really?" He asked excitedly.

"Yes," Fredrick said, "and they want to meet you."

Kyle tossed that towel he'd been using to dry his hair onto his bed and rushed out of the room. About halfway across the hall remembered he didn't know where his parents were. He stopped and turned around to find Fredrick walking behind him.

"Where are they?"

"I will lead you to them."

It made sense, Kyle wasn't very accustomed to the castle and its many hallways, but Fredrick was walking excruciatingly slowly, as if he was trying to intentionally irritate Kyle.

"Can you walk a bit faster?" Kyle pleaded.

"Not all of us are undignified enough to run around the castle."

Kyle sighed. Trying to talk to Fredrick was one of the hardest things Kyle had done in his life. He resigned himself to having to walk at Fredrick's pace.

As Kyle and Fredrick walked towards the closed room, Kyle started to hear whispers.

He could make out the voices of his parents.

"I don't think he needs to know. It's not relevant anymore and it will do more harm than good, anyway." He heard his father say.

Kyle wondered what that was about. Eh, it was probably something related to his father's business, Kyle didn't need to worry about it.

Fredrick approached the door and knocked sharply.

Kyle heard heavy footsteps and then his father opened the door.

He smiled when he saw Kyle. "Hello, Kyle. And thank you for bringing him here..."

"Fredrick."

"Thank you, Fredrick."

Kyle walked over and gave his dad a tight hug. "Hei, pappa!"

His far hugged him back. "Hei, lille venn."

Kyle's parents had called him 'little friend' – and various other nicknames – for as long as Kyle could remember.

Arvid Hansen was a head taller than his son; which was saying something because Kyle himself was tall for an 18 year old. Unlike his son, though, he had blonde hair and dark green eyes.

Arvid the brother of King Amund and, therefore, half the royal family's wealth technically belonged to him. But he had rejected his dead father's offer to inherit it and started his own trade in the town of Florø. That was where he now lived, along with his wife and son; secluded from the rest of the royal family.

Kyle had been brought to the castle a week before to meet Amanda – his betrothed. Arvid and his wife had come later, as guests for the wedding.

"How have you been, Kyle?" His father asked, letting go of him.

"I'm okay, pappa," Kyle replied. "I missed you and Mamma."

"We're here now." His dad ruffled his hair. Then frowned. "Why is your hair wet?"

"I took a bath."

"At this time? In the winter?"

"Yep."

Arvid shook his head. "You'll catch a cold, guten min."

"Sorry, I woke up late," Kyle replied sheepishly.

"Again?"

Kyle nodded.

"You need to start waking up earlier," his father chastised, "you will be the prince soon."

"I know." Kyle looked down.

I don't want to be the prince. He decided to keep that thought to himself. He didn't want to have another fight with his parents over this.

And he had been staying up late at night for the last few months, sneaking out to nearby villages. Of course he slept late into the afternoon.

"Where's Mamma?" Kyle asked instead of dragging the subject.

His father moved out of the doorway to let him into the room, giving him a view of his mother sitting on the bed.

Amelia Hansen was the wife of Arvid, and in Kyle's opinion, the best mother ever. Unlike her family, she was considerably shorter. She did have the signature blonde hair and blue eyes of the descendants of the vikings, though.

Kyle smiled. "Hei, mamma."

"Hei, Kyle," she gave him an adoring look.

Kyle walked over and sat down next to her.

Kyle watched as his father came and sat down beside them. The last week had been tiring for Kyle – he had been getting lessons about the kingdom's politics and economy since the day he met Amanda – and, on top of all that, he'd missed his parents.

So Kyle allowed himself to enjoy the time he got to spend with them; carefully avoiding any talk about his marriage or princehood.

They stayed like that until Fredrick came back and led them off to dinner. 

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Oh look kyle actually has more characteristics than just being childish /hj