Smiling victoriously, Kade heaved the smaller man over his shoulder and turned to the soldiers. "I won," he said cheerfully. His men cheered, and the opposite side growled. But, honor bound as they were, they couldn't do anything.
Kade climbed aboard his horse and set the unconscious Jack in front of him, none too gently. Kicking his heels into his horse, they were off.
Later, Jack would awaken in a richly furnished room - with a locked door keeping him in.
Jack woke about an hour later, disoriented and confused for a few moments before he realised what had happened. He cursed softly, standing from where he’d been lying on a couch. His head spun, probably from the force of the impact to his head.
He wrapped his arms around his stomach, accessing the room.
It was clean, with red drapes hanging from the walls. There was a large feather bed and a dresser in the room. Two coverings pulled back revealed a bathing area and a changing area. A desk was there, too, and several comfy chairs.
Jack honestly marvelled in how nice it was. It was better then anything he’d ever grown up with or even lived in recently. The small male ran his hand over the wood of the desk, sighing softly.
A knock on the door sounded. A maid unlocked the door to Jack's prison - sorry, I mean room - holding a tray of deliscious smelling food. She placed it on the desk, and, without looking at him, left.
Jack watched her carefully, eyes trained on her as she came and left. He looked down at the food, wrinkling his nose at it before poking it with his fork. There was a high chance it could be poisoned and he didn't want to take the risk and eat it. Also, he just generally wasn't hungry but, he sat, just poking at it.
"Sir, he's awake," the maid said, bowing to Kade.
Kade laughed. "That I don't doubt. I'd be concerned it he was. Four days is a long time to sleep." He stretched his arms above his head, back popping, then leaned back in his couch. "You didn't poison the food, correct?"
The maid nodded.
Eventually, Jack took the tiniest bite, enough to just taste and well, if he was poisoned so be it. It didn’t taste horrible, much to his surprise and he took another small bite. He ate about a quarter, maybe a little more of the food before he pushed it away and stood, sighing. He wanted something to do.
"Your Highness, shouldn't we just, you know… kill him?"
Kade laughed, but his teeth flashed. "Oh, no, advisor. You should know, I like to play with my prey before I kill it."
He stood. He had changed into some cleaner clothes, although his outfit was not really any different. Just the pants and shirt and knife belt. But these ones were black, so that no blood would show.
He opened the door to Jack's room, and leaned in the doorway, smiling like he didn't have a care in the world. "Hello," he said serenely.
Jack very nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden noise, turning to face the door with a look that was half a glare and half a 'what the hell do you want' type of look, "Hi."
"How do you like the room?" Kade asked cheerfully, acting completely oblivious to the glare. "I chose it just for you. I'll admit, it's a bit lavish for my taste, but it stuck me as the kind of room you'd like."
Jack shrugged a shoulder, walking over to the drapes and thumbing the fabric between his fingers, "I'm not really a red person. More of a blue or a purple one but eh, whatever," He sighed, "It's… nice, though." He admitted.
Kade shrugged. "Good. Glad you like it." He frowned at the partially uneaten food. "What, don't you like the food? Ingrid is a fantastic cook."
Jack looked towards the food then when back to looking around the room, doing everything to not look at Kade, "Oh, no the food was fine. I just wasn't that hungry."
"Dude, you've been asleep for 33 hours. You've got to be hungry."
"I've gone longer without eating, plus I did eat, so I don't see what your problem is."
"You," he said simply. "My problem is you."
Jack rolled his eyes with a groan, “Oh bloody hell if I’m really that much a thorn in your side just go ahead and kill me, will ya.”
"But that's no fun!" Kade said cheerfully, seeming to back to normal.
Jack just sighed, “Then I guess you’re gonna have to deal with me then until you do decide to kill me.”
"Oh, absolutely," Kade agreed, straightening. "And I intend to annoy you as much as you annoy me." He turned to go. "Oh, and dinner is in a few hours. I'll send someone to get you when it's time."
(Also, I was browsing Pinterest, and I found a writing prompt that I think could explain why Kade couldn't kill Jack? It's just an idea.)
(Teaaa, that's actual great)
"I've been asleep for how long? How the hell have i annoyed you while I've been unconscious?" Jack rolled his eyes, flopping onto the couch face down.
(Cool!)
"You existed. How else?" Kade didn't look at him as he said that, but as he did, disgust made his voice go into into a smooth drawl.
Jack rolled over, swinging his legs over the arm of the couch and glaring over at Kade, "Trust me, I'd rather not exist either. But I'm here, so deal with it."
"I can make that stop," Kade muttered, almost too quietly for Jack to hear. He shut the door and locked it before Jack could reply, leaning his forehead on the cool stone of the walls and sighing.
Jack flopped back down onto the couch, resting his arm over his eyes. Everything was so messed up. He closed his eyes, waiting patiently for whenever dinner was going to be.
With nothing to do until dinner time, Kade started to pace around the castle. He paused by the door to the messenger's quarters. It'd been a while since he's last written to his sister. Should he?
Nah. He could always do that later.
A few hours later, a maid knocked on the door to Jack's room before unlocking it. She held clean pants and a shirt. "His Highness has commanded that you wear this," she said in a sweet tone.
Jackson hadn't moved from the couch. He hadn't been bothered and couldn't muster enough energy to do so. He sat up, frowning at the clothes. He wanted to tell the maid to tell Kade he could shove the clothes up his ass or something but decided against it, "Yeah. Fine." He mumbled, standing and taking the clothes.
She smiled at him, sweet and kind, and turned to leave. "Oh, and I hope you're hungry," she said, giggling. "We have a lot of food ready."
He watched her go, frowning slightly. He sighed, stripping from the clothes that he currently had on and placing the new ones on. They were slightly too big on his thing frame but not that he cared.
