Nico jumped, startled by the voice. He looked up to see the young child and carefully wrapped the blanket tighter around him. He did not need to add accidently exposing himself to a child as part of his crimes. As he gathered himself, he smiled at the young boy. "My name is Nico," he said. "Why don't you come join me? Sit beside me."
Ge also did not want to be blamed if this child fell off the roof and died. It was better to have him safely with his feet on the balcony and sitting in a seat beside him. "I like your crown. Where did you get it?"
"HI Nico," Arlo says, turning to clamber down the roof and land on the balcony floor with a small oomf. He's only wearing socks. "What are you doing? Breakfast isn't even ready for an hour. Also, where have you been? Why are you here?"
Arlo reaches up to grab his crown, taking it odd before presenting it to Nico. "My sister made it for me. Im the youngest so I won't ever be king but Sella said I could have this one." He smiles a little bit.
Nico smiled and let put a quiet breath of relief as the child came down from the roof. It wasn't safe. Especially not for a child as young as he was. Je wondered if his parents knew what he was up to. Upon hearing who his parents were, he pursed hisblios. Perhaps he would have to have Bel speak to them instead. Sella liked Bel better.
"I'm friends with Sella," he said to Arlo. "I've traveled a long way with your cousins Belicoril. He's in there sleeping so be quiet so you don't wake him. But we came here together. The rest of your cousins are on their way. They had to go the ling way to get here." He looked at the crown, returning the smile Arlo gave him. "We'll its a wonderful crown. Your sister did a good job. And I bet if you ask your moms, one of them would give you a real crown. Just because you won't rule doesn't mean you can't wear one. You are a prince after all."
"I've heard of Bel!" Arlo exclaims, eyes widening. "I've never met him though. Sella said that we could someday but we couldn't before this because Sella said Bel wasn't allowed to leave and wee weren't allowed to let anyone in. Well, except for Miran. You said Miran was coming?" His smile widens as he bounces on the soles of his feet. "Miran is the coolest. He let's me ride on his shoulders and hold his sword and we fight imaginary dragons together."
The boy looks down to his crown and then up to Nico. "My sister is the only one with a crown. We don't have any more. She says we can make ones like this though–" He raises the crown. "Do you want one?"
Nico pressedna finger to his lips, "Shh," he said. "Don't wake Bel. He's had a long day." The little prince was just a little too loud and he was scared to wake Bel. He had been through so much in the past day. He needed some time to rest uninterrupted. "Yes, Bel is here. You can meet him when he wakes up. You'll love him." How could anyone not? Bel was sweet and wonderful. It was hard not to love him.
"Miran js on his way along with their two sisters. You'll get to see them all." He was curious to see how the two girls woukd react to the child. He knew they had been through a lot in their life and this bubbly child might not be what they needed. "Oh, I don't want to take the crown from you. It looks so nice on you."
"Oh–" Arlo quickly stops bouncing. "I'm sorry–" He looks though the glass of the balcony doors to the sleeping figure curled beneath the blankets on the bed. "Is that Bel?" He asks in a loud whisper, pointing to the bed lump inside. "I heard he's nice." The boy almost sobers. "Is he sick like me?"
Almost as quick as his emotion drained, his energy quickly replenishes. "Oh, yeah I don't worry! I'll make you your own crown soon. I think you'd like a blue one. I got pencils back in my room." A few birds roosting on the roof startle Arlo. "Oh. Oh, I forgot. I need to be back in my room before Bernhard notices I'm gone. I'm not supposed to be climbing out of my window anymore but it's just too much fun."
"Hey its okay," Nico said. "You just gotta keep the voice down a little bit so you don't wake him up." He offered a reassuring smile to Arlo. He blinked, taken aback by the words. This kid knew a little too much in his opinion. They hadn't been able to evenshare with Miran that everything was alright and yet this kid knew? He cleared his throat. "Hey, you guys aren't sick," he said. "You can still do normal activies right? You're still able to climb on the roof yes? You're not sick. It's a family disorder it's just something that runs in the family and you got it. But you're able to treat it and still run around like other boys and girls. So you're not sick. Not one bit."
He chuckled as Arlo's energy went right back uo. He shook his head, giving up in trying to quiet him. "We'll thank you Arlo. I look forward to it. I'm sure we'll meet again later today. Though perhaps don't tell them how we met." He looked a little uneasy. "Are you sure it's safe to go back on the roof?"
"Well all the doctors say I'm sick. That's why they don't want me on the roof." There are probably other reasons why the nine year old child shouldn't be on the roof of a massive palace. "And I have to take this stupid medicine every morning and it tastes like really sour grass and the doctors technically aren't allowed to let me leave the palace but Sella and the others still sneak me out. My older sister Ianna is sick too but hers is really bad. Sometimes she has to wear the mask for a whole day. My brother Olipher is also sick but he's lucky and he's never coughed up blood." Arlo sticks his bottom lip out in a pout. "My dad and my auntie Dionn were sick too but I think they're both gone now. I don't know if they were too sick or if it was a different reason. That's why Sella's queen now."
"Yeah it's fine!" His tone hardly wavers from its excited rambling. "I do it all the time and I've only fallen off once. But that was when Bernhard scared me and I lost my balance but I landed on a balcony so I didn't fall all the way to the ground." The boy speaks far to casually of his near experience with death. He probably doesn't even understand the concept all too well.
Nico could think of several reasons why a child shouldn't be on the roofs on the palace, or any roof really. He felt a wave of sympathy and sorrow for the child. Just because he was sick didn't mean he had to be stuffed here in this palace. He should be allowed to see the world. "The medicine helps keep you healthy, you have to take it along with your siblings. Hopefully as you get older, you'll be able to go out more without sneaking around." He knew now that Sella was his aunt, not mother. He had been wondering how that would have happened.
He tried not to visibly wince as Arlo explained that he had fallen before. "You need to be careful. If you fall again you might not be so lucky. I don't want to see you get hurt." He shook his head. He was rambunctious, Arlo. "Now off you go, carefully. You don't want to get in trouble do you?"
"They could at least make it taste better," Arlo responds, climbing on top of the thin balcony railing. "Maybe put some cherry in there. I love cherries. We try to grow some but the mountains are hard to grow cherries in." With an oomf, Arlo leaps from the railing and latches onto the gutter, using his thin little arms to haul himself back onto the roof. He scrambles around, laying on his stomach to peer over the edge at Nico. "I only sneak on the roof. Sella lets me go to the stables and to the town and to Misses Tate's bakery and to the mines–but she only lets me go a little into the mines. She says that there's dangerous creatures living in the mine and I'm not old enough to fight them yet."
The birds next to him chirp, and Arlo stares at them with a very serious look for a nine year old. "Margie and Peter are telling me that Bernhard is about to get to my room and I'll be in trouble if he finds me on the roof again. I gotta go but will I see you at breakfast, Nico? Sella's not back yet but Loven and the rest of my siblings will be there. They're all really nice. You should bring Bel too. I want to meet him. I heard he paints and writes and plays music and makes candles and all sorts of other things. Maybe he can teach me how to blacksmith. Then I could make myself a hammer. I've always wanted a hammer–" The birds squeal again and Arlo's mouth shuts with a click. "Sorry Nico I really gotta go now. I liked meeting you!" And with that, the boy is standing on the roof and sprinting across the precarious shingles all the way to another wing of the palace.
Nico was feeling very stressed right about now as he watched this child jump around and play with death like this. As he watched Arlo leap from the balcony and grab onto the gutter, he sprung up in a heartbeat, barely remembering to tighten the blanket around him in time. His eyes were wide and his heart was beating fast. If this child fell he would be the one to blame. He should have just taken him out the bedroom door and taken him back to his room. He was hardly hearing what the boy was saying. Not until he started talking to the birds.
And the birds were apparently talking back to him. Magic. He was an animal mage. Curious indeed. And it shocked him enough to pause in his panic. He blinked. "I liked meeting you too. Be careful!" He called after the boy. He really should have just taking him out the door. But he wasn't all that good with children. Or at least not the ones that climbed on roofs.
Nico's voice is nothing but wind behind Arlo as he scrambles across the roof, leaping off one segment to a lower one. He weaves around chimneys and steps expertly over loose panels. The kingdom may be ruled by his older sister, but Arlo's domain is clearly the rooftops. Eventually he disappears from sight, ducking through an open window to his room.
Inside Nico's own room, Bel stirs, reaching over to the other side of the bed to blindly feel around for Nico. When he only comes up with empty and cold sheets, he sits up. Did he hear Nico speaking to someone? Where? The prince blinks the sleep from his eyes as he takes in the room, just as cheesily lavish as he left it the night before. Standing on balcony at the far side of the room is Bel's blond king. His chest relaxes as he locates him. Bel stands, the marble cold beneath his feet. He quickly finds the bathroom and slips on a soft robe and wraps it around himself. "Good morning," he says as he gently opens the balcony door. "How did you sleep?"
Nico watched as Arlo scrambled across the roof. His heart was beating so fast in his chest he thought it was going to jump out. Not until the little prince had made it through the window and safely in his room did Nico relax back into his seat. He took a deep breath, trying ti relax back unto the silence. But it didn't last long.
He heard Bel moving behind him in their bedroom. He didn't turn his head as he heard the door slide open. He just kept his head looking forward, watching the horizon. He held out his hand for Bel to apprach him and take it. He finally turned his head to the side to look at him. "It was alright, love." At least until the three hours were up and the nightmares came back.
Bel takes the offered hand and steps to Nico's side, resting his head on the other's shoulder. The sun is rising over the peaks, the sky pink and lavender with the promise of the new day. It hits the mountains and all of their metals, almost sparkling. Gods, has he missed the Blakkast sunrises. "Did the tonic work?" Bel asks, slightly nervous for the answer.
"Were you talking to someone?" Bel inquires, looking to the neighboring balconies at least ten yards away. Loven had told them the hallway was empty. There are birds on the roof. Had Nico been speaking to birds?
Nico squeezed his hand as he came to take it. He leaned his head against Bel's, kissing the side of his head. He tugged him untim he was seated in his lap and he wrapped his arms losely around him. He turned his gaze to look at the rising sun. It was beautiful. He almost never wanted to leave. Only he had his own kingdom to attend to.
"Yes, it worked," he stroked his back. For a time it worked. Only the nightmares came rushing back to him the moment the hour was up. He turned his gaze to Bel. "It seems this palace as an adventurous little prince. He likes to climb the roofs. Best to keep that little bit to ourselves I think."
Bel sits up, staring at Nico with wide eyes and a smile. "It did?" He repeats, holding Nico's hand tighter. "Nico, that's amazing! Oh my gods, how are you feeling?" With one hand still entwined with Nico's, Bel brings his other up to squeeze his bicep. Treya's drought worked–it worked and that means Nico can finally sleep uninterrupted by nightmares.
However the mention of an adventurous prince causes Bel to turn his head in slight confusion. "Climbing the roof, you say?" He repeats, leaning forward to get a better look at the top of the castle. Then, he looks over the edge of the balcony and immediately jerks his head back with the vertigo. "We're quite a ways up." Bel takes a moment to cycle through all seven siblings on his mother's side of the family. The youngest two that he knows of are a set of twins, both of them girls. They should be maybe twelve about now. The last Bel saw them, they were only toddlers and Bel was eleven. Maybe his aunt and uncle had an eighth child and he wasn't aware.
"Odd," Bel says, shaking his head to bring himself back to the present. He brings a hand to run through his hair. Oh, right. He was going to restyle it today. "Do you want to come with me back inside? I think there will be a breakfast if we want to try and hit the town before it's mealtime. We need proper clothes."
Nico did not hold the same excitement as Bel did. Perhaps some of it was due to the fact he had gotten just barely more than three hours of sleep in the last day or so. Or the haunting nightmares that had filled his head when the drought had worn off. If he didn't wake up right as the affects wore off, nightmares woukd crawl right back in. He o ly gave Bel a weak smile and kissed his cheek. He did not want to ruin this happiness for him.
He looked back out at the roof, nodding his head. "Gave me quite a fright. I was terrified he was going to fall. I'll suppose you'll meet him later. He's a sweet boy when he isn't climbing on roofs." He shook his head at the memory. "You'll like him."
He looked back at Bel, smiling at his slightly disheveled look. He loved that Bel was never bothered any time that Nico got up from the bed. He found it adorable, and slightly alarming, how deep he slept. He placed a hand on his cheek, nodding his head. "That sounds wonderful to me love."
"Sounds like quite the handful," Bel notes with a grin, shifting to look up at the roof as if he could catch a glimpse of the mysterious little prince who climbs them. He would have to be one of Sella's youngest siblings, perhaps one he's never met before. "I know I'll love him," Bel replies. Who couldn't love a child who sneaks out on rooftops at the crack of dawn.
At the affirmation, Bel smiles and stands, grabbing Nico's hand to help him to his feet. He notes the blanket and the fact that there's nothing underneath. "Did you talk with a child while naked?" He raises an eyebrow, a dimple forming from where he tries not to laugh. "Nicandros Callistar, I cannot believe you." He shakes his head as he laughs, leading them back through the balcony doors and into the room. Their dirty clothes still lay on the bathroom floor, Bels shirt sliced open down the middle from where the doctors had to get to his chest.
Regardless of their condition, Bel still picks them up one by one, handing them back for Nico to carry. "We'll hurry and get dressed and them to the market for new clothes. After will be breakfast and then we can come back here for whatever." A slight mischievous glint flickers in his eyes.
Nico held Bel's hand in one hand and the secured the blanket in the other. He only gave Bel a knowing smile and shrugged his shoulders. "Well, there wasn't much else to do. And he didn't have me climbing roofs with him so it looks like everything stayed perfectly hidden." It certainly wasn't ideal but it had worked out just fine. But he was not going to make it a habit.
He followed Bel back to the bathroom where their dirtier and bloodied clothes lay on the floor. He tool the pieces of clothing as Bel handed then to him, making a face. "Are you sure we can't just call a maid in here and request a change of clothes for the both of us?"
"We probably could?" Bel says, Nico's shirt still hanging from his hand. "The only issue is I don't know how. We could look for a bell or something?" He shrugs and hands Nico his shirt before leading them both to the main room. The room narrows to a hallway as it approaches the door, a long end table with a few vibrant flowers potted atop of it.
Attached to a long chord leading though a small hole in the wall is a silver chime hanging from a small hook. "This might be it?" Bel says, pointing to the small bell.
Nico took the shirt that was handed to him but he didn't put it on. It was stained with Bel's blood. He could practically smell the iron of it. He didn't want to wear something that held a reminder of Bel's dance with death. He did, however, tug on his trousers. Other than being a little dirty, there was nothing wrong with them. He could send then to the laundry after they visited town and picked up a few more articles of clothing.
Nico went to Bel's side, placing his hands on his waist. He looked at the bell then back down at his Bel. "Ring it. See what happens?" He shrugged his shoulders. Only one way to find out if something happened.
Bel shrugs in response, reaching up with his free hand to ring the bell. The chime echoes through the room, bouncing off the marble and walls. He sits for a moment as the sound fades, the silence that follows nearly deafening. Bel blinks. "Well, now I guess that we just wait." In the meantime he can brush his teeth and fix his hair. He wonders if Sella has any gold earrings to borrow; Bel gave his up all those weeks ago when he first met Nico.
Bel, hesitant to let him go, drags Nico to the bathroom with him. There are unused toothbrushes laying in one drawer of the excessive vanity. He hands Nico one to use, but only if he wants. Bel makes quick work if his teeth, scrubbing all the blood from his mouth and watching it go down the drain. Right. He needs his medicine soon. However, before he can think much of it, there's a knock at the door.
Quickly rinsing off his toothbrush, Bel finally detaches himself from Nico and scuttles to the door. After peering through the small peephole, he deems it safe and opens the door to show a young woman with black hair and a teal and silver uniform. "Hi," she says, slightly out of breath. "You called?"
Nico was glad Bel seemed to have the same feeling as he. He didn't want to ket go of Bel, much less be separated from him. He followed him to the bathroom and took the toothbrush that was offered. He began to brush his teeth, pausing as he saw the blood in the sink. It made him tense. Just another reminder of how Bel had almost died.
He blinked as there was a knock at the door. He spit out the toothpaste and rinsed his mouth before following Bel back to the bedroom. He was at least half decent. He had his trousers on but his chest was bare. The rays of the rising sun seemed only to heighten his scars. He crossed his arms, standing a few feet behind Bel. Even if this was a small woman it didn't mean she was any less of a threat to them.
The woman looks between Bel and Nico, her eyes wide and her face a little red. From what is the real question. "I– uh, I'm sorry for not introducing myself. I'm Lynn, a housekeeper here. I uh–" She quickly looks over the two men and then to the room behind them.
"Hi–" Bel quickly cuts her rambling off with a friendly smile, finding himself casually leaning against the doorframe. "My fiance and I arrived here yesterday in a haste. We left all of our belongings with our party and they won't be here for another day at least. Do you think you could grab us some proper clothes?" Her face reddens even more at that. Her dark eyes dart to the sides.
"Yes, I can do that–" she clears her throat into a balled fist. "Do you have any measurements I can quickly relay to the seamstress?"
Nico watched the woman with a raised eyebrow. She looked very flustered and he didn't quite understand it. All Nico was massing was a shirt. And Bel had on a robe that covered everything. It shouldn't be a big deal. She seemed to be making rhis a big deal when it wasn't. "I'm a large," was all he said. He didn't know the proper measurements. Knmy that he usually fit larger clothing due to his muscles.
He put his hand on the door, waiting for to leave so he could shut it. He looked down at Bel as he waited for him to give her his measurements and this could be done. At least untim she returned with their clothes.
