#capriweek2k17

Kidnap Damen at the other side of the country with the fastest horse while being salty and come back as fast as one week later because Laurent’s happiness means everything to Auguste? yes. Capri week | Day 4: “He would do anything for his little brother”

Capriweek2k17 Day 3: Kings & Day 7: “You were watching the road.”

“I planned to greet you on the steps, Veretian protocol.” “Come out and kiss me in front of everyone later.”

Headcanon. After running around the summer palace naked and doing it “not quite on the balcony”, At some point the kings had to meet the crowd.

–The kings in all their glory– and then –The Kings in reality– who are like an old maried couple.

♡ “I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart.” ♡

Damen and Laurent from the Caprive Prince trilogy for Capri week Day 5: Courting/ “I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart.”

extra day! day 8 - part 2 : disguise

Day 3: Kings

For CapriWeek Day 5 prompt: Courting

———————

‘You will be married off to the barbarians,’ people had said when Laurent had come of age. 'They’re a barbaric lot, the Akielons- alien to delicacies and the warmth of love, built big as boulders and stern of heart.’ The court had whispered variations of the tale behind his back.

'Poor thing,’ some would say. 'Serves the frigid bitch right,’ would say the others.

This way or that, Laurent was determined. If a marriage would mean Auguste ascending the throne, he would go through with it.

Their marriage starts with a jolt, with Damen pursuing him and Laurent pushing him away. Until, one day, Damen confronts him. 'I apologise if this is not what you had expected out of your marriage. This is your country as much as it is mine, Laurent. I want you to feel at home here. If nothing else, you will always have a friend in me.’ If the tilted lines of Damen’s otherwise joyous face stirs something in Laurent he chooses to make nothing of it.

Damen stays true to his word. Damen stays a friend. Defending Laurent’s suggestions in court or helping him sharpen his Akielon or showing him around Ios on horseback. In private quarters, Damen maintains an acceptable distance from him, opting to sleep on a narrower bed that surely isn’t made for his burly build. Laurent realises belatedly that the food brought into his chambers is less spicy and include more Akielon sweet-treats, that there is more Veretian literature hiding in the Akielon library than before and that somehow, the Akielon tailors have become more knowledgeable of Veterinarian stitches and embroidery. It’s all Damen’s doing, Laurent knows. Damen doesn’t breath a word and Laurent doesn’t mention it. A mute agreement between them.

Friends, Laurent thinks wryly; strange how he had thought that Auguste was his only friend.

Friendship, at least, strengthens between the two of them.

In the public eye, however, he’s the King’s consort. Laurent attends ceremonies and festivities with Damen, walking and dining by his side.

Laurent looks forward to the time he and Damen spend together, discussing politics late into the night or exploring the rolling landscape on horseback or walking leisurely through the gardens of Isthima. When Damen is busy in court, Laurent unconsciously seeks him and watches along the side-lines as Damen rules. The confidence in the voice, the might of his posture, the kindness in his words and the honour in his deeds.

Laurent seeks him other times as well, when Damen spars with Nikandros, his bulk not offering resistance to his swift movements. Laurent watches mutely as the strong muscles that etch the bronze skin of Damen’s bare torso ripple with every move he makes. Damen catches his eye sometimes and sometimes, their gazes linger.

Their hands brush at times at dinner, sat next to each other as they are or Laurent’s clothed shoulder grazes Damen’s bare one when they are forced closer along the narrower garden paths. Sometimes, in front of an audience, Laurent loops his arm through Damen’s and doesn’t withdraw until they’re in their chambers again.

As spring shifts to summer, the Akielon heat becomes unbearable. The nights are far worse, bringing another kind of heat Laurent doesn’t dare comprehend. He looks to Damen’s form on the opposite bed then, his husband’s body compressed to fit into the tight space and silhouetted by moonlight. Laurent’s drowsy mind wonders how the contours of the firm muscles would feel under his fingertips. He quickly steals his mind from such thoughts and recites Veretian poems in his head until sleep claims him.

It’s on his twenty second name day that Damen pulls him out of their chambers. When they stop in front of the stables, a white mare waits for Laurent. Its hide is a smooth white expanse, like a blanket of fresh snow. The mane falls over its back like the purest silk, lush and shiny. 'Happy Birthday,’ Demen wishes him with a dimpled smile and a hesitant peck on the cheek. 'It doesn’t have a name. I thought you would like to give it one.’

'Rose,’ Laurent whispers, bringing up his hand for the mare to sniff.

'Rose,’ Damen parrots. And if he looks at Laurent then, like he’s something precious it’s only his wistful thinking.

That night Damen hosts an opulent dinner in Laurent’s name. Laurent watches helplessly as Damen, dizzy with wine, laughs at something the court-singer tells him, his head thrown back and eyes bright. The dinner he’d eaten churns in Laurent’s stomach. He slips away into their chambers unnoticed. Laurent hardly sleeps that night.

Laurent had wounded Damen’s pride by pushing him away. No man would forget something like that.

Laurent avoids Damen for the next few days; more for the sake of his heart.

'Is something wrong? You have not been yourself lately,’ Damen asks him one evening while they’re walking along the gravelled path of the gardens.

'Tell me how it would be between us,’ Laurent says without preamble, surprising himself, 'if we weren’t married out of convenience?’

Damen’s surprise dances on his face before he recovers and answers with surity, ‘I would have courted you properly and would have knelt before your brother and asked your hand in marriage’.

Laurent laughs bitterly. 'Well, it’s too late to ask my hand in marriage,’ he says and more reluctantly, turning away: 'But it’s not to… court me.’

There’s a rustle beside Laurent and when he dares to look at Damen his husband is standing with a flower in hand. Damen slowly comes forward and gently places the flower between Laurent’s strands. Laurent has studied enough Akielon literature to know that, here, it’s an intimate gesture between lovers.

'It’s never too late,’ Damen whispers and bends to kiss him sweetly on the mouth.

Strange, Laurent speculates, while reading a love letter written in broken Veretian in Damen’s impatient hand, that when people of his court had sung songs over his fate, none had mentioned that in a foreign kingdom speaking a foreign language, Laurent would be courted by his own husband.

They never told Laurent that his husband would have a heart of gold and that he would fall in love with it irrevocably. That, Laurent discovers all by himself.

for @capri-week kind of a combo day 5 and 7, courting and gardens. cause nothing gets me quite like the summer palace “are you courting me?”