The One Knight Stand

.: Days Off :.

03 | Days Off

The day after next, the Prince descended into the dungeon once more, and the dark reduced him to mere shadows and grunts and gestures.

"Missed you yesterday, Cutie." She airily said. The Prince tried and failed to not read any deeper meanings from it. "Had a day off?"

A Prince never has a day off. He grimly thought, nodding at her in greeting.

He was unable to meet his new acquaintance yesterday because he was busy preparing for the Three Kingdom Festival, hosted by Anachakar for the first time in a decade.

Tailor Wylde spent all morning fitting him for his new robes and stabbed him with his threading needle whenever Bo complained about needing thirteen extravagant suits for a two day event.

After that the King locked Bo in a schmoozy meeting with some greasy politicians from the next province over, wining and dining them until the wee hours of the morning.

Bo had never drank so much unfiltered mead in his entire life, and the hangover he earned afterwards was well deserved.

"Your guard buddies let walk me outside for a few hours yesterday." Blue sighed. "It was nice. Feeling the sun on my face. Could've done without the shackles, but you can't have your cake and eat it too, I guess."

Bo cursed himself for having missed an opportunity to see her in full view in the light of day. He supposed it was just as well; Blue would've figured out who he really was unless he creeped on her in the hydrangea bushes while she was out.

He knew it was weird, but the Prince didn't want to imagine what Blue would think of him once she realized he wasn't actually the strong, silent, working class warrior she made him out to be.

Intrigued, Bo waited for her to continue with her normal, lilting conversation but she was oddly somber that day, opting for quiet reflection.

"Okay, this is gonna sound strange but..." A pause. Blue scrubbed her face with an embarrassed huff.

"Can I hold your hand? It's just after the festival tomorrow I don't think I'm gonna have hands anymore and I don't want the last thing I hold to be a metal tin of mealy bread or whatever the fuck it is they serve in here."

The Prince considered her request and realized he didn't find it strange at all.

Bo quietly turned, rolled his satin lined sleeve (which would immediately give him away), and fit his arm through one of the slats.

He heard a soft gasp from inside.

"You're pale." She mentioned.

Bo smiled even though she couldn't see.

Glimpses of her flashed through the slats, dark skin and round cheeks and furrowed eyebrows.

Everything else was lost to the dark, and Bo was tempted to light a candle to see her better.

Tentative fingers searched his palm, the crests between his fingers, the meat of his thumb.

She suddenly stopped her gentle tracing to Bo's dismay.

"You don't have commoner's hands." She mentioned, slightly suspicious. "What're you doing mucking about with plebs like me?"

Bo didn't know how to explain that his family owned every thatch of cultivated land for fifty miles in any direction.

So instead he just grasped Blue's hand, hoping his touch conveyed no ill intent.

After a moment's deliberation the captive chuckled. "I could've bashed your hand in with a rock as soon as you shoved it in here, you know. You trust me that much?"

To be completely honest, the thought of her hurting him didn't cross Bo's mind once.

Bo grunted, and she laughed. "That's incredibly stupid, but... thanks?"

Pink tinged his cheeks. Prince Bo happened to specialize in moments of incredible stupidity.

Blue prattled on about her family's shenanigans and her daring escapades for another two hours before she yawned.

"Ah, I guess I better get some rest, Cutie. Big day tomorrow. Don't feel like you have to stay if you don't wanna."

Bo grunted again, fully stretching his cramped legs out on the floor without breaking contact.

Wylde is gonna kill me once he sees these creases. I think he loves these trousers more than he loves me.

Blue fell asleep holding his large, warm hand through the grate, two of hers sandwiching one of his like rye bread.

She wasn't surprised when she woke up chilled and alone the next morning.

What she didn't know was that Prince Bo sat next to her cell until an hour before daybreak, squeezing her hand several times throughout the night just to check she was real.