The Noble Desire (Peterick)

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Justice wasn't always so cruel. In fact, Patrick thought her to be beautiful. Initially, he hadn't planned on pressing charges on Gabe, but Pete encouraged him, saying that if he were in prison he wouldn't be hurting anyone for that time, and that was an assurance Patrick truly needed. No one deserved to be a victim, so if he had the chance at preventing countless future assaults from one man he knew he had to take action.

It made him uneasy having to face Gabe in court, having to sit up on the stand and recall what happened. Pete would have come to the proceedings to support him, but it would have raised questions in the eyes of the public if he had. Nevertheless, Patrick felt his consolation even if his boyfriend couldn't be right by his side. At the outset, there was much doubt in his mind about whether or not there would be enough solid evidence for a conviction, but the best lawyers were appointed to the case by the King himself. They gathered witnesses to Gabe's unruly behavior and past victims who, like Patrick, had been too afraid to step forward immediately.

He welcomed the added appeal of his being recognized as a hero by jurors. The recent mold of his reputation helped gain sympathy points from the jury, and in the very end of it all, Gabe was found guilty, being sentenced to seven years. News spread like rapid fire, and the world was calling his attacker, the man who would assault the nation's most darling bodyguard and knight, a vile excuse of a human. His sorority dropped him, his scholarships were canceled, and a restraining order was practically gifted to Patrick for when Gabe was to be released. He'd wished for more time to have been added to the sentence, but he was appreciative of what had been done, anyhow.

It was a few months after the fact that Parliament officially passed the act Pete had proposed, and it became such jubilant news for the couple that they thought it the perfect occasion to throw a ball in celebration. Patrick had greatly improved in the waltz, but to dance with his boyfriend was out of the question. Men didn't dance with other men at balls, and to have done so in a sensual expressive dance, due to the close body contact, would have easily revealed their relationship when the two weren't prepared for the scandal to break yet. Neither said it to the other, but they were aware of the hetero-normative culture surrounding every aspect of royal life. To be a same-sex couple immersed in it, was a difficulty like no other.

They couldn't predict how the world would react to a gay king, especially one who had fooled them into thinking that he was far from such. There would be a backlash of insult from every side most definitely. It sickened them both to their very cores how awful the world was to treat them if they ever found their relationship out, but they reasoned that they would have some supporters. Where there was ugly there was always beauty that outshone it all, and in this day and age they could take all the beauty society could grace them with. This affected Pete the most in which he wondered at all hours in his duties if he were doing the Crown a great disappointment in being attracted to men when in all the centuries proceeding him there had never been such a case.

His ancestors would have had him burned at a stake for such a heinous "crime". That wasn't mentioning the fact that once he was to die God would damn him straight to Hell, supported by all accounts against homosexuality from the Bible he was taught to memorize in his youth. One would think he was in a hopeless position that could only be salvaged if he were to break up with his boyfriend and find a suitable wife, but Pete would never in a million years deem his country more important than the man he loved ever again. It was a mistake he once made and had learned from, and it did not matter how many difficulties should arise because the King would wade through the marshes of trouble for his own happiness. He did not care if the god he served under nor the country he ruled over would not accept him, for they did not matter as much in his life as did Patrick, his main source of bliss.

Times seemed to have changed, though. Parliament wouldn't have even considered the marriage act if the public wasn't more open to it. However, grudges were still held by most. If he was known in history books as the most disgusting, shameful king to ever sit on the throne simply because of his preference of sex then he would be more than glad to embrace the title. He could not love without starting a war in his society, and that was his country's biggest flaw.