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“Yes, yes, that’s fine. If there’s no chance a physician can see me first.” He straightened his back ever so slightly in hopes that it might make it more comfortable to walk. He knew he should be treated sooner than later, but Leviticus was the one who insisted on having this ceremony tonight.
Fiori confirmed the thought with a shake of his head. "I will ask him about it tomorrow, but… for now there is no chance." He knew Levi had, to say the least, mixed feelings about his brother, but he wasn't cruel. He wouldn't force him to suffer out of a grudge, Fiori was certain he was better than that.
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“As long as you know what you’re doing.” Johan normally wouldn’t let himself be taken care of, and he still didn’t like it, but he knew there was no way he could wrap his own ribs. If those guards hadn’t turned on him, he would be way ahead of Leviticus and his new friend. He was certain about that. The ceremony wouldn’t be happening, or he could at least find a way to get out of it.
"I do." Fiori had grown up fighting, but that meant he'd grown up learning how to be healed. He could splint a broken bone with ease, soothe burns and stab wounds and angry inflamed bruises. He wondered if Johan had gotten the same informal education as he had, from the warm hands of battlefield nurses and the cold ones of his mother. He wondered if Johan even had a mother. He'd never heard of a queen. "I would not offer if I could not treat you well."
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“Alright, then. I’ll allow it,” Johan relented. He was familiar with the pains of injuries, both from fighting in battle and sparring to keep up his skills. But he may not have been so attentive to what the physicians were actually doing to heal him. He remembered his mother healing his minor cuts and scrapes when he was younger, but he didn’t like reminiscing very often. After Mikhail was born he was always closer to his father. But now that they were both gone, there was no use spending time with a memory he couldn’t relive.
Fiori nodded and got his arm wrapped firmly around Johan's nack, supporting him while they started their walk. He'd always been closer to his mother than his father, though he'd never spent as much time with her as he'd have liked to. Father had always wanted him on the battlefield, always had him sparring or sharpening or training or something similar. His fingers were littered with the reminders of those times, a thousand silvery cuts eternally carved into his skin. "Good. Will I be allowed to carry you back to your rooms afterward?"
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“Yes, I’ll allow that,” he replied. He reasoned that, even just the slightest, it would be less strange to be seen carried by Fiori after he became his ‘master.’ He wouldn’t like it any better, but he knew he wouldn’t to walk at least for the rest of the night after this. “I wish not many people would attend this ceremony. The less people who see the better.” Surely if Leviticus knew Johan’s wishes, he would have the entire kingdom witness his demise.
Fi smiled when Johan said he'd let himself be carried, relieved. "Good. As for the ceremony… he said it would be the guards, but he is smart. Not many people know he is back, I believe he will strip you of your rank and reannounce his presence at the same time." It would be a good move, one he probably hadn't considered until he had a few hours alone with his advisor to really think.
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“Apparently you know him better than I do,” Johan huffed, “So do you think he’ll tell everyone what actually happened?” He doubted Fiori was telling the truth about how Leviticus returned. It wasn’t like the Usige he knew to so generously and quickly return someone so important. And he knew the slavers he’d hired weren’t so dumb to tell anyone who Leviticus was.
"I approached him in friendship with open arms. From what I have seen, the only reason you would open your arms for him would be to more easily stab a knife into his back." He was sure Johan was suspicious of Levi's return, but he doubted the prince would guess what had happened. Now while his uncle as still constrained in his position as regent and the knowledge that Fiori hadn't died. "And he will likely explain the basics of the truth. His enslavement, his return… the dramatics parts. The ones that play well with an audience."
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“Heh, apparently I sent him to the wrong prince. I entirely misinterpreted you for a merciless disciplinary. I wouldn’t’ve thought you would befriend him.” Johan assumed Fiori must have plotted Leviticus’ escape. He was also surprised to see his hair as long and luscious as before the abduction. “I’m… looking forward to learning the truth. Whether from him or you.”
"You seem to misinterpret a lot of things." Johan's hair would be about as long as Fiori's once it was cut. He kept his buzzed short at home, the way most military men did. It made things safer for fighting, easier. "I am not the man I appear to be on the battlefield. Few people are." Johan was quick in battle, sneakier than he would've guessed but also aggressive. Willing to fight dirty. In person he was softer, less aggressive. All he did was fight dirty. "I'm sure the story will be relayed to you some time, but not by me."
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“Like I said before, I take things as I see them. I assume everyone else does the same.” Johan recognized the halls as they got gradually closer to the ballroom. He felt a nervous ache in his chest, but he passed it off as pain from the bruising. Gingerly, he brought up a hand to touch his hair. It was almost dried now, but it wouldn’t matter within the next hour. “I’ll speak to my brother, then.”
Fi kept his pace even as they approached the ballroom but he paused in front of the door, waiting. Giving Johan a few minutes to gather himself before they stepped inside. "I am of the belief that attempting to understand people through your perspective instead of theirs is one of the easiest ways to disappoint both parties. You're smart, Johan. You recognize things. You have to understand how different people are from you."
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Johan’s lips wavered while they waited outside the door. How could he imagine being in another person’s perspective when he wasn’t that other person? He swung his head back and forth with what little range of motion he had. “I don’t want to speak of this anymore,” he snapped, “Not now.”
"Then later." He took Johan's chin in his hand, turning him so they were eye to eye. His grip was still so gentle, an attempt to keep from Johan even farther. "This is important. You can't stop having a conversation because you don't like it." Johan had to learn how to survive like a slave instead of a prince. If Fiori could teach him nothing else he would teach him this, to make sure he could make it through his sentence without getting himself killed. "Now… I believe it is time for the ceremony to start. Are you ready?"
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Johan tossed his chin away, glaring back at Fiori. “I think I at least have a right to what I use my words for.” For the last month that was how it was in the palace. Whatever Johan thought, he said, and whatever he would said was accepted by everyone else. But that was how things used to be. Now they were different. “And no. Not really. But I suppose you’ll drag me in anyways.”
"That's… a rather indelicate way of putting it, but you are not incorrect." He kept his hold on Johan steady, but he really didn't have to bother. It wasn't like he could go anywhere, not in his condition. "It wouldn't be dragging you as much as it would be carrying. But… I digress. I can still give you a few minutes, if you would like."
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“No, I won’t put it off any longer if I have no plan to escape,” he inhaled. Plotting escape would come while he was healing. So that when he was recovered he could fight his way out. From the sound of muffled conversation inside it sounded like some people had already arrived.
Fiori nodded and pushed the door open, quickly spotting the chair Levi had provided for Johan. He set the prince down gently. He felt like he should say something to reassure him or comfort him or do anything for him but e couldn't think of anything to do, so he squeezed Johan's hand and left to talk to Levi. "Leviticus!" He was genuinely excited to see his friend. "How do you feel? Are you ready for tonight?"
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Johan fell back into the chair with a grunt. He stared at the ground for a moment, and then his gaze trailed to the table beside him, “Huh.” Well, if Leviticus was going to be so careless about it, his inched his closest hand towards the shears.
“Fiori!” Levi’s expression brightened, standing up from his own chair to greet his friend. His hair was washed and conditioned, perfumed with Widonian fragrances and neatly bound in braids across his head. “I’m better than ever—get, get the shears away from Johan,” he laughed softly, nervously, and gestured towards his brother’s chair.
Fiori studied the braids with interest, trying to work out how the knots were tied just by looking at them. His eyes flicked back to Johan at Levi's reminder and he sighed, crossing the room to grab them. "I was under the impression that you would not delay this because you had no plan."
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The most interesting, and Levi’s personal favorite, was the chain link braid holding the rest of his hair gathered together in the back. He reached up every once in a while to touch them, as if to make sure he was really home and not just dreaming in Usige.
“I did have a plan. Just now,” Johan hissed back, gaze darting from the shears he lost back to Fiori. “And now I don’t again.”
Fiori rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, I suppose you were just about to stab the crowned prince in front of a room of witnesses. How very well thought out." He tucked the shears into his pocket, giving Johan a hard look. "You're no fool, Johan. Stop acting like one." With that said, he crossed back to Leviticus, giving him a small smile. "Your brother… he is a handful. I am not sure I will be able to keep him from getting into mischief."
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Johan glared at Fiori as he walked away, and when he was out of sight let his gaze pass over the growing group of people in the ballroom. He drummed his fingers against the armrest.
“A handful, indeed,” Levi sighed. “He always has been. And I don’t expect you to be able to. Can you keep him contained at least? Enough for him to not kill me?” He lightly chuckled.
Fi watched him glare for a second and then Levi was talking and all his attention snapped back to that one singular point. He'd never been good at multitasking, it was part of why he liked fighting so much. It was direct. You assessed, you decided on a route, and you took it with no hesitation and no distractions. He didn't seem to find anything funny about the joke, so he nodded. "Of course. I can handle Johan, just…. not quickly enough to keep him from making a mess."
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Levi didn’t find it very comical either, but in the midst of a public event like like this he expressed his nervousness through humor. He brought his hands together again to continue twirling the ring around his finger. “Well, if he does happen to make any mess, you have my permission to discipline him any way you see fit.” He wouldn’t give such authority to anyone he knew would be unnecessarily cruel.
Fiori nodded but there was something bothering him. "Leviticus… what if I cannot punish him?" He knew he should if Johan did something bad. He knew he'd be expected to. Hell, he'd done it before. In the army, punishments were doled out in strikes with the whip and he'd had to do his part and give them. It left him nauseous. His uncle thought it was shameful, but Cadmus had kissed his hands when he heard. Told him he was a good man. "What if I'm the wrong choice for all of this?" The question rushed out on its own, to keep him from thinking any harder about Cadmus.
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“Fiori…” Levi’s lips pulled into a heavy frown. “I think, I think you are the perfect choice because I know you won’t go to far. You saw what those guards did. But if you don’t want to do it, I won’t force you,” he furrowed his eyebrows with concern. “I can find someone else.” And then an idea, “Oh- or you could find someone else to actually dole the punishment.”
(bruhhhhh we have to have a scene where, after a while of bonding and getting close, Fi accidentally lets Johan get some chance to hurt Levi b/c they sort of trust each other now and Johan doesn't want to do it but he feels like he should and he's too proud to admit he's changing so he takes the chance and then Fi has to have him punished, shifting their relationship into a new dynamic)
Fiori didn't want someone else to take his place because he genuinely thought he could help. He didn't want other people to get their hands on Johan's life, not when he knew what they could do to him, and yet he couldn't stand the idea of hurting him either, something that would be required with his new position. When Levi brought up the idea he felt like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and nudged their shoulder together in thanks. "Yes! Yes, that would work… well. That would work very well indeed, thank you Leviticus."
