#acourageouslife

The two men fled with what they could carry and their life savings. Their goal was to start a life together. Jack gave up his title and his crown to start from the ground up with Joseph.

With their savings they bought a small farm, a couple of animals and plantations included in the sale. But it was small. The farm house was smaller than Jack’s hotel room, by a lot. And no matter how much they cleaned it always smelled like dirt. Needless to say, Jack wasn’t born for this life. 

“Joseph, I am never getting the eggs again.” Says Jack, carrying the eggs one of their hens had laid. “She bit me.”

His attention is pulled away from complaining when he catches the tv. It’s his father, talking about how Prince Jack has been missing. 

It’s Joseph that gives in to sleep first and Jack takes this as his opportunity to sneak out. He was no good at goodbyes and this was the hardest one. He quietly exits the bedroom and goes to get dressed in the hallway bathroom. 

Then one day he received unexpected news. There should have been a bigger emotional response when he heard his father had passed away but there was none. There wasn’t a single tear. Jack was more concerned about telling his husband he had to return to Shiloh to take his place as King of Gilboa. He was also stressing about the responsibility that came with the title. It’s one thing to dream of it and it’s another thing to actually live it.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

The Benjamin family tradition. Christmas Eve the family of four are seated around the tree much too big for a family home are sipping hot chocolate and exchanging presents. They had each opened one when Michelle asked Jack if he wanted to open another one.

Jack had seemed out of it the entire evening. He’d barely touched his hot chocolate and he was a fan of the stuff. His mind was elsewhere. He had made plans with his boyfriend Joseph and hadn’t been able to show up. Duty called and his family would get suspicious if he wasn’t there for this.

Snapping out of his thoughts upon hearing his twin sister’s voice, he shakes his head. “No. I’m not feeling well so I’m going to head off to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He stands up from his seat and bows his head politely before heading upstairs to his bedroom. 

Once in the privacy of his room, Jack locked the door from inside and arranged for his bodyguard to pick him up about two blocks away. He slipped on his coat, grabbing Joseph's present, the small one, into the inside pocket of said coat. He couldn't possibly carry everything he had got him. A scarf went around his neck, a beanie hat over his head and then came the hard part: climbing down from his bedroom.

Being angry at Joseph was probably wrong. Knowing Jack’s family, poor Joseph didn’t even get a choice. But he could have told Jack. He could have said goodbye. Standing at the outskirts of the cemetery watching the love of your life be put into the ground was a traumatic experience. It had been years and Jack still wasn’t over it. This kind of PTSD was worse than what he got from fighting on the front lines because he loved Joseph and he blamed himself for the ‘suicide’.

Jack is just standing there, looking at Joseph, listening and trying to reel in his anger. It was taking every bit of him not to throw a punch or two. It was taking everything for him not to kill Joseph. He was already dead so what difference does it make?

@acourageouslife

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