Demus: The Prince And The Milkman

Interaction

Shit.

In the overwhelming thinking rush that had crashed over Jan, he had completely forgotten about the window. 

Dad is going to murder me. 

The knights can just come in now and kidnap me easily. 

What the fuck was I thinking, letting him freeze and crack my window?

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked breathlessly, voice shaking. "We're... going to fix it," he declared, folding his arms across his chest and taking a seat on the couch arm. 

Remus looked at Jan, a bit startled. "Fix it? But how?"

Jan opened and closed his mouth, at a sudden loss for words. "I don't know," he admitted, looking down ashamedly. "I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"Well then," Remus said, stifling a laugh. "We're going to pick up all the pieces? Put them back together like a pretty little fairy castle? Not possible, Princess."

Janus growled. "Don't call me that, you idiot. I'm not a princess. And what else can we do?" he asked. "Run aw..." his voice faded. 

They stared at each other. When a small grin started to spread across Remus's face, Jan held up a hand to stop him. "No. I am not going to run away from this. My dad will try to capture me! All the knights will start trying to follow me and kill you for 'stealing' me! And I'd be leaving this comfy life behind."

Remus pouted. "Oh, come on. You're scared of your dad? Listen. If you've never had milk, what do you usually eat?"

"Well, I often have bread and apples. Jam appears. I get water, obviously, and on good days I might have some chicken or some vegetables." Jan counted on his fingers, a bit embarrassed at his lack of experience. 

Remus whistled, a small smirk spreading across his face. "That's all? You've never had a fresh pear from a tree? Whoa. Not such a 'comfy life', huh."

Jan growled back. "No, I haven't. Does it matter? It's not like I care," he muttered, turning away to give Disi an embarrassed squeeze. The dragon looked up at Jan and gave a sympathetic coo and a nuzzle, which Jan gratefully accepted. 

"Don't you wanna see what's outside anyway, Jan?" Remus asked, a hopeful grin poking at the corners of his mouth. "It's wonderful out here! Green grass, large trees you can climb and eat a sandwich in, rivers you can swim in! Can you swim?"

Jan shook his head. "A little bit, but I've mostly forgotten." Crossing his arms, he set Disi down on the floor and stood back up. Remus bit his lip. 

Remus looked at him with half-sympathy, half-pleading. "Please come out? It's fun! And your cushy life, as you call it--" he glanced inside the tower. "--it's not good at all for your health! You're going to be very susceptible to sickness now!"

"I don't even know what that means," Jan muttered stubbornly, rolling his eyes. "But..."

Remus's smile spread. Jan sighed. "But fine, I'll come with you and see what's outside. The tower's boring anyways. And I don't really like my dad either."

Clapping his hands together exuberantly, Remus spun in a circle. "Wonderful! Simply amazing!"

Jan laughed. "Slow down, slow down. I don't even know why I'm coming or where we're going anyways."

"You're running away," Remus reminded him. "Out from this tower. There's a village on the other side of Scorpius Bay where I live! We can go there! Oh, this will be so much fun!"

Raising an eyebrow, Jan couldn't help smiling. "Really? I'll live there with you as a fugitive? Why?"

"Because. Well." Remus stopped, thinking for a second. "Because if you stay here in the tower, then you'll be bored for the rest of your life! If a prince, well, 'rescues' you, then it'll be a mess, won't it? Cause you're not a girl?"

Jan nodded slowly. "Um, yeah."

Remus giggled. "And if you tried to explain to your dad--"

"He won't understand," Jan finished, realizing. "Yeah. And I'm sick and tired of being here in the first place, receiving gifts and letters from him, a person who's better off as a stranger!"

He turned to look at Remus. "I'll go. But really? This is crazy. Just the three of us, you, me, and Disi, trying to evade the power of a nation? Sending after us people able to track down a single pebble in a river?"

Jan was talking about the infamous Hunting Dogs. They were a highly skilled group consisting of four people, each with their own specialty in assassination. 

There was no way that Jan and Remus could evade them for long, even with a head start and even with a dragon. 

Remus gave him a grin. "It won't be just the three of us."

"Wait." Jan blinked. "Woah, woah, woah. Are there more people?"

Laughing, Remus turned to look at his cart, which was over on the hill. Now that Jan squinted, he could see a group of people sitting around it. Remus glanced back at Jan. "Well, of course! The cart driver, the doctor person, and my twin, the other milkman. We share the house, too."

Jan rubbed his eyes. "More people? Why?"

Remus didn't seem to hear Jan, as he continued talking. "Me and my twin do go in the same cart, as we can only afford one, but he does the houses on one side of the street and I do the ones on the other. Of course," he admitted with a small smile, "There aren't any houses on the other side of the street. There isn't even a street! So he's waiting in the cart right now."

He waved at the cart and one of the people waved back. 

"Oh... okay," Jan murmured. "I would say that made sense, but absolutely nothing makes sense right now. So." he counted on his finger. "One: I'm running away, leaving this tower behind forever. Two: I might be running from highly-skilled assassins and knights absolutely bent on returning me to the tower or my father. And three: I will be interacting with actual humans for the first time in seven years."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "About the interaction thing. Haven't you talked to the knights?" he asked skeptically, a smirk climbing onto his face. 

Jan sighed. "I mostly yell at them. I haven't touched a human, haven't been this close to anyone, in seven years. I don't know... anything about interaction."

"Well, I'll teach you!" Remus said cheerfully, holding his hand out to Jan. 

The prince took it hesitantly. 

The hand was rough and warm, old scars and calluses dotting the inside of the palm, scratched from years of work. Jan looked down at their intertwined fingers and blushed, then quickly slipped through the shattered window and landed on the grass. 

Immediately, he tripped on a rock and fell back, hitting the tower with his shoulder and hissing in pain. "Ow," he complained. "I don't like outside."

"Oh, come on," Remus huffed. "You just came out here."

Jan stood back up, clutching his shoulder. "I know, but still, I feel like my shoulder is dying," he protested. 

Remus giggled again. "Aw, you're okay! Let's go to the cart, and you can meet everyone!" He grabbed back onto Janus's hand, making the shorter boy yelp, and pulled him toward the group of people. 

And that was when Jan knew this was not something he could back out of anymore.