“How did you get a bracelet with royal crest?” Nick asked curiously, his tone dark with suspicion at the edges. He raised his eyebrows, waiting for an answer.
An angsty gay fantasy rp! (O/O)
"Uh…" Cas's mind went blank. He couldn't come up with an excuse as he stared down at the bracelet. He couldn't say it belonged to him, either. "I… found it…?"
“Really?” Nick raised his eyebrows higher, looking dubious. “More like you stole it. Or is the royal family careless enough to just leave valuable items around?”
Cas shrugged. "They'll think you stole it if you take it off me." He fiddled with it mindlessly.
“You’re holding it now, so you can’t prove anything,” Nick said, glaring at the other boy. “I don’t care enough about the Ristallica royals to care about returning a stupid bracelet. I was giving back what you dropped.”
Cas winced slightly at Nick's comment about the royals, but didn't bring it up. "Er… alright. Bye then, I guess." He waved, walking off. His hood fell off and revealed his red hair, which was actually quite rare in his kingdom in families other than the royal family.
“Wait a minute…you’re not a thief at all, are you?” Nick mused before he was out of earshot. “I would almost prefer it if you were, Prince Casper.” Nick hoped his guess was right.
Cas froze, going pale(r than usual). He hesitated for a few seconds before tentatively turning around, clearly lost for words and nervous.
Nick smirked, suddenly glad that dark hair and skin were common in Horaan as well as Hishi and that his dad liked his privacy. Of course most people probably knew generally what he looked like, but recognizing him in commoners clothes with dirt on his face was another matter. “Did you think no one would notice, Your Highness?” he asked mockingly.
"W-Well, I kinda hoped they wouldn't… that's why I kept my hood up." He tucked the bracelet in his pocket again, looking away.
“Well, I suppose I won’t tell,” he drawled. “But might I ask what a pretty little prince like you is doing alone? Where are your bodyguards or your father? I thought he kept you on a tighter leash.” Nick knew he was a being a jerk, but having the upper hand made him heady, and Ristallica had never been kind to his kingdom.
"Um…" Cas fidgeted nervously, having difficulty making eye contact. "Well, I sort of… maybe ran off… but in my defense, all they were doing was having meetings within the people who came with our kingdom, and that's really insufferable."
(Prince Casper: Identifiable by red hair and small stature. Also by conveniently dropping royal identification tags)
“Oh boo hoo,” Nick said with an eye roll. “I’m Prince Casper and being a royal is too boring. But I have to hand it to you for sneaking out.”
Cas huffed, crossing his arms. "Even if I were there, they wouldn't let me talk. They still see me as a child." Probably partially because of my size. He thought bitterly to himself.
“Is that so?” Nick asked. “That’s a shame. Ristallica royalty never was good at listening.” Despite his false confidence, Nick was actually praying that Cas wouldn’t somehow recognize him. He didn’t have any identifying hair or jewelry. But it hit him suddenly he had forgotten to take off his ring. He’d taken every other precaution, but he forget one important thing! As he tried to move his hand so it was hidden, the ruby in the center caught the light. I hope he didn’t notice that…
Fortunately for Cas and not so much for Nick, he did. A ruby… no kingdom wears them other than- "You're from Horaan!" He observed, placing his hands on his hips. "Why are you giving me so much shit for running off when you appear to have done the same, Prince Nicolas?"
Shit, Nick thought. “I didn’t run off,” he replied. “I had a headache and needed some fresh air. So here I am, with fresh air.”
Cas sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "I suppose you're here for the tournament or whatever as well?" When he moved his hand, it became apparent that he was wearing gloves. He had a tendency to be a bit temperamental, and his powers would flare up when he was high strung. The gloves were just an extra precaution.
“Unfortunately,” Nick sighed. “I don’t love the idea of fighting someone, possibly to the death. Are you excited about, Ice Boy?”
He shook his head, looking down at the ground. "I'm… I'm not exactly built for fighting, as you may have noticed."
“Hmm…don’t we have some kind of banquet thing tonight?” Nick asked. “I can never keep track of all of the shit I’m supposed to go to. Should be interesting.”
"Uh, yeah. We do." Cas looked back up at Nick, conscious of how he was only barely taller than the other's shoulder. "I think it's to discuss relations between kingdoms and the tournament itself."
“‘Relations between kingdoms’, that’s such a joke,” Nick complained. “Neither of our kingdoms are on very good terms with anyone right now, least of all each other.”
"Yeah… I've always been told to hate your kingdom, but never really given a reason why other than we have wars pretty frequently." Cas rubbed his arm awkwardly. "But, like… if there's no real reason, then I don't really know why the wars are happening. We're losing men on both sides."
“Exactly! And you’re not nearly as annoying as I thought you’d be,” Nick agreed. “Everyone in my kingdom paints your whole family as awful tyrants! There has to be a reason for this war. We can’t just be losing people for no reason.”
"Agreed." Cas was quiet for a moment, hesitating. "Do you think there's any way to stop it from happening? The wars and stuff? Well, preferably the tournament as well, but that's not the priority…"
“I don’t know, my dad’s pretty hard to persuade and he’s so stuck on the whole ‘your entire family is evil’ thing,” Nick replied. “But we have to try, don’t we? Although if we act like friends all of a sudden, everyone will be suspicious…Maybe we can say something tonight?”
"In a totally not suspicious way, of course." Cas crossed his arms again. "Like I said, they don't often listen to me, but I can try and bring it up. Or if they actually pay attention to you in your kingdom, you could put it on the table and I'll back you up."
“Here’s the thing…” Nick began, looking sheepish. “They only listen to me when I tell them something they want to hear, so unless you have a very manipulative way to go about this, it’ll be difficult for me to do much right now. However, I could possibly bribe someone who does have power to sway my father a bit…”
"Manipulative… well." Cas hummed, snapping his fingers a couple times. "Say we bring up war first. That'll catch their attention; they like war. Then, we slide in the whole 'war is bad' thing or whatever, and, you know… how it's all completely preposterous."