forum "I would burn the world for you" (OxO Closed)

Started December 01, 2022 by @ElderGod-yellowqueen

tune

Nico smiled at the kiss. He squeezed his behind softly before electing him go and stepping away. He finished dressing and sat on the bed to lace up his shoes. He ran a hand through his hair, working out the tangles and tying it back into a low ponytail.

Nico noticed the way Bel was looking at the bed and chuckled. He placed a couple coins on the nightstand before moving to his side. "Come on, time to go. Let's get some breakfast oin you then we're out in the road." Almost on que, his stomach rumbled at the mention of food. He was starving. He had worked up quite an appetite from last night and this morning.

Bel watches Nico tie his hair back. One of these days, Bel is going to make Nico sit still as he braids his hair. It looks soft enough. Rolling his eyes affectionately, Bel let's Nico grab his arm and lead him out of the room. He has a bag full of the items he obtained over their short stay in a bag at his side. The sapphire bracelet is still tied tightly around his wrist.

They close the door behind them and make their way downstairs. Bel finds his bearings eventually, all those posture and etiquette classes finally paying off as he masks any sort of hobble or limp he might have. The other men are half asleep in front of their bowls of porridge and oatmeal.

Nico grabbed Bel and gave him one last kiss before the door was opened. It was hard and passionate and over just as quickly as it had started. He held the door open for the prince, taking some of the things out of his hand. He followed behind Bel, placing his free hand on his back to guide and support him.

As they stepped into the heart of the tavern, it was easy to find his men. Three of them looked miserable as they hunched over their breakfast. Kaillas was smirking as he watched them silently. He found their pain amusing. He had warned them not to drink as much but they never listened to words of reason. And now they were dealing with the consequences.

"You two love birds certainly took you time," Cassian said, raising his head from his porridge. Nico gave him a stiff look that said I will make your hangover worse if you say another word. Cass only grunted in acknowledgement before returning to his meal.

"What do you want to eat?" Nico murmured in Bel's ear after the prince had sat. He would go and place their food order at the bar and hopefully get it quickly. They needed to get on the road soon.

Bel smiles shyly and shakes his head as he takes a seat across from them at the table, ensuring to leave a space open for Nico next to him. The smell of alcohol still lingers through the tavern. It slightly unnerves him, the smell, but Bel knows he'll be fine. It'll be an issue when it's night and the aroma sits like a thick blanket around Bel. It reminds him too much of when his father got angry and he'd spend the night in a dark room.

"I'll just have whatever you are," Bel says in return, knocking his head barely against Nico's. "Just nothing with pine nuts. I'm allergic." When Nico stands to leave, Bel's left alone in the company of the other four. Itching for a conversation, Bel looks to them. "How are your hangovers?"

Nico nodded his head and squeezed Bel's shoulders. He gave the other a final look, their only warning, before walking up to the counter. He ordered two bowls of porridge, making sure there were no pine nuts in it. He also ordered a couple of glasses of orange juice for the both of them.

Braxton just grunted, flipping the prince off. His hangover was not going well. He had already thrown up twice and it was looking like he'd might vomit again. Laurent hit him upside the head. Out of the three of them, Laurent looked the best. He had a slight headache and was a little nauseous but nothing he couldn't handle. Laurent had a high intolerance for alcohol.

Cassian just grunted. "Lesson learned, never challenge a butcher to a drinking game. It doesn't go well." Kaillas was just judging the others silently. He didn't quite understand the addiction to alcohol. It dulled the senses, and in his line of work, that was deadly.

Nico rejoined with their juices and bowls and porridge. He set one of each in front of Bel and then one in front of himself as he sat on the bench.

Bel laughs at the casualness of it all. Braxton looks like a dead man slumped over his bowl. Kaillas and Laurant look the best, with Braxton and Cassian clearly going to be nursing a headache and nauseous stomach for the rest of the day. Without anything else to really add, Bel goes quiet. Luckily, Nico returns quickly with their breakfast.

The porridge is without texture, but it's warm and tastes pleasant. He thanks Nico after taking a long sip of orange juice, the taste nice, cool, and comforting his scratchy throat. "Cassian, did you happen to win against the butcher?" The curious side of Bel asks.

Nico settled into the seat and took a deep gulp of his orange juice. He brushed a hand against Bel's back gently. He smirked as he caught the ends of the conversation, taking a bite of his porridge. Oh, Cassian had won indeed. He was stubborn and a sore loser.

Cassian looked up, a smirk sliding onto his lips. "Well of course I won. I wouldn't be in this condition if I had lost. I would be in a lot worse condition otherwise." He laughed then groaned as the sound rattled his hurting head.

Laurent chuckled quietly, receiving a kick from Cassian. "The only way Cassian would have lost was if he had blacked out. And he's clearly not so there's that. I'd say he's learned his lesson but this wasn't the first time he done this and it won't be the last." Nico made a nod of agreement. Cassian would likely never stop. A conversation they needed to have in private.

Watching the group interact with each other pulls at something deep within Bel. They're so close, so at ease around each other. They don't use titles or walk on ice or worry about saying the wrong thing and then being exiled.

"I love alcoholism," Bel says seriously, but his giggling laugh quickly gives him away. Damn his inability to stay serious when being sarcastic. He's quick to finish his porridge and sip at his orange juice, a habit he had gotten into when he was young. The quicker he ate, the quicker he was excused to work on his hobbies behind the closed door of the library or his room.

"Damn it." A low curse causes the princess to stir from within the small tent. Sighing, she rolls over, blinking up at the light through the thin canopy. Sitting up, Valera stretches and sighs. Beside her, Trey is still fast asleep beneath her selfish bundle of blankets. "Damn it all." Another grumbling curse and Val takes that as her excuse to get up.

"Everything alright?" She asks as she steps from the tent. Miran is cross-legged on the ground, his beloved horse sniffing his hair.

There's a scroll bunched in his hands and a small messenger crow picking at seeds only a few feet to his left. "No," he hisses, fist crackling the paper and the other hand brutally massaging his temple. "Uncle Brostron is dead."

"Mm. How?" Val takes her seat beside her brother. It's a cold morning, odd considering the weather had been much nicer the past few days.

Miran shrugs, much more violent than it needs to be. "Rumors say it was mages. I doubt it, honestly. Blakkast isn't one to just allow one into palace walls." Val's quiet, her indication for the Crown Prince to go on. "But Sella is on the throne now. She sent me this." He throws the scroll on the ground, Val watching as it slowly unfurls to show their cousin's flourishing signature at the bottom. "The alliance between Araniel and Blakkast is broken. Now that both our mother and her father are dead, she says there's no point in an alliance anymore."

"Fascinating." Val sighs, looking to the sky, then to their small tent, then to the four horses tied to a tree. "We need to get going, Miran. No point in fretting over something that we can't fix."

Nico didn't bother hiding his happiness. He pressed a kiss to the side of Bel's head. He ignore Laurent's whistle and laughed as the other two made noises of protest, holding their heads and complaining about the pain. Nico only shook his head at their antics. He wasn't going to hide his affections or his relationship. He knew how to reign in public displays of affection. He wasn't going to make out with Bel every other second. But it didn't mean he couldn't give him soft touches now and there. And the others weren't going to try and stop him.

Nico noticed how quickly Bel ate and made a note to speak to him about it later in privacy. It wasn't good for the stomach to eat so much. It could cause stomach problems. He took a few more bites of his porridge, his hand laying on Bel's knee under the table. The others wouldn't be able to tell from where they were sitting, not that any of them were really in a position to pay attention.

"Do you want another bowl?" Nico leaned in to ask him.

Trying to hide his smile, Bel leans into Nico's quick kiss. He was right about the other man not bothering to hide his affections. Granted Bel's hardly been a true relationship–the nearest thing being his brief long-distance courting with his arranged fiance Tacia of Irgeven–he has no idea how this works. Should it be private, public, touchy, reserved? Well, Bel supposes he'll allow Nico to set the pace and speak up if something's moving too fast–or too slow.

"Hm?" Bel, who had been lost in thought, takes a moment to process the question. "Oh, no I don't need another bowl. I'm full." He smiles in what he hopes is reassuring and takes another few sips of his orange juice, turning his attention to the lazy conversation of the men across from him.

Nico nodded his head and finished his food. He squeezed Bel's knee before looking at his men. "You two," he looked pointedly at Braxton and Cassian, "Head to the apothecary and get something to clear up your hangover." The man who ran it was a healer. His magic could clear up their hangovers in an instance and supply them with some medicines in case their stomachs decided to rebel later in the day. "Meet us at the stables when you're finished."

They knew a dismissal when they heard one. The two men got up, Laurent joining them. Laurent and Braxton where never far from one another. Their relationship was complicated and Nico decided it was better to keep his nose out of things.

"If you two are ready, we can go ahead to the stables to get ready until they rejoin us." Kaillas gave a nod in answer and then it was up to Bel. Nico wanted to give him the option to look around had anything else caught his eye from the day before.

With everyone gone, Bel drops his head to Nico's shoulder. "I'm ready to leave whenever you are," he says, though he doesn't want leave anywhere. He's just fine spending his days by Nico's side in this cozy inn with a lush marketplace and candles by the bed. "Going to go back to your home?" What could potentially be Bel's home, if Nico would allow it. It's almost a silly question; Bel knows that Nico wouldn't hesitate to burn the world if Bel asked.

"I think riding a horse may be slightly uncomfortable," Bel mutters quietly with a teasing tone to his voice.

With a simple look from Nico, Kaillas was up, settling their tabs at the bar, and heading to the stake to ensure everything would be ready for them when they departed.

Nico slipped his arm around his waist, dropping a kiss on his head. "Yes, we're going back to my home." Home was complicated. They had to pick uo and move whenever scouts got to close to their border. There had been one to many close calls. Everyone knew how to pack up their things with in the hour and be on the move. Too much practice. Too much if their lives had been uprooted. But it would never stop until Nico sat on the throne. Not even Nico himself could stop this. "It won't be anything like the palace. It won't even have to same comforts as here. But it's home and where my people live."

Tell him. Tell him now. It's the perfect time to tell him who he was. Tell him his name is Nicandros and he's the leader but he didn't. He couldn't.

Instead, Nico chuckled. "I'm very sorry, my dear. Would you like to go the apothecary for some ointment? I'll even help you apply it." He had a naughty glint in his eyes and a teasing smile.

"I'm sure it's lovely," Bel replies, already imagining what Nico's home would be like. There's trees and beautiful valleys and Nico with a small little home for him and Bel to share for the time being. Late nights and early mornings and only them, together. But that's only just a vision, other than that it's Nico's, Bel doesn't know anything about their destination. "Do I get to know the name of your home yet?" He at least hopes their growing relationship would leave some more trust. Bel's been nothing but open and honest, unafraid to tell anything if Nico would ask. None of it has been damning–a few stories about his home and his family, nothing that could potentially put Araniel in danger. Bel doesn't strike Nico as one to wish to fully destroy his home, but there is the lingering feeling of how they wound up in this whole situation.

Slightly pulling away from Nico, Bel stacks up their empty dishes and sets them in the middle of the table for a waitress to come retrieve. A heated look flashes through Bel's eyes at the suggestion. "As much as I would love that, I'm afraid we won't have the time," he whispers into Nico's ear. "I'd be happy for a rain check."

Nico was silent, mulling it kver. There was only so much he felt comfortbame revealing, even less so in public, even if most patrons present were his followers. "Its…there's no name. It's more of camp than a home really. It's beautiful but exhausting. We have to move every so often to avoid…being found. There's no real homes. Nothing permanent. It's all tents and a community effort." He felt a wave of disappointment thinking of the children in their camp. Small children, running and playing but never really knowing if this was the last time they were moving. If this was where they could put their roots down. And the answer was always no. Always no.

"You'll understand when you see it. It's hard to explain." And Nico felt more comfortable showing him than telling him. It put him in a vulnerable position to be so far away from home and compromise the integrity of his home.

He stepped out of the bench and held his hand out to help Bel up. He just gave him a lazy, pure boyish smile. "We will certainly put a raincheck in that. I'm holding you to that."

Bel has to think about what Nico had said. His home is nomadic, and so are his people.They move when a threat comes near–but that raises the question of who could be threatening Nico's nameless home. "How do you know where it will be?" He inquires. "What if they had to move places in your absense?" Gods, all this travelling for potentially nothing. "I hope it's still there for me to see. I'd quite like to see where you all came from."

Bel takes Nico's hand with a smile as the other man pulls him up. "I hope you do," he mutters into Nico's ear. They're out of the tavern and into the morning. Bel has to hold his hand up to shield his eyes while they adjust, not expecting to see the sun so bright so early. the stable luckily isn't too far.

Nico just smiled. He always knew where his home was, even if it had to move while he was away. A messenger hawk would come for him if he was ever away while they moved, the same curtsy given to any of his men and women if they were away from while they moved. The letters were, of course, in code. A code his mother had spent almost a decade perfecting.

Nico merely brushed his lips against Bel's cheek before stepping out of the tavern that had been their jome for the night. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sunlight but he had already been walking hand in hand with Bel towards the stables. He had one last surprise for him there.

Without a firm answer, Bel shrugs and drops the topic, allowing him to be lead to the stables. It's been nearly a day since Bel's seen the stallions, and he misses them if he's being honest. He grew up around horses–he's used to their large and gentle presence. However, leaving the village means leaving beds and breakfasts and fine merchant carts behind him. He may know horses, but he has no idea what's to come.

Nico led him into the stables. Kaillas was already there, checking the horses and making sure everything was strapped to them. He handed him the few things they had picked up in town and Kaillas began to pack those as well. Then he led Bel further into the stables where there were a small few other horses. They weren't as good or as well trained as his own, but they would be good horses.

"Pick one," he murmured to Bel. "You can have your own horse if you would like." A small part of him was hoping Bel would decline. He had so enjoyed riding together, feeling hos body against Nico's. But he wanted to give him the opportunity if he wanted to ride alone.

Bels eyes widen at the new choices. There're mares and stallions of fine pedigree–Bel instantly naming their breeds as he reaches forward to stroke one of their muzzles. "So desperate to get me off your saddle," Bel whispers into Nico's ear with a smile and laugh. Even he's a little surprised at his own boldness. What one perfect night can do to a man–

As much ad Bel would love to spend the rest of the journey pressed against Nico, he has to think about their time frame and the health of Nico's horse. The horse nuzzling into his hand huffs. "I'll take this one. He seems friendly enough."

Nico only laughed and squeezed Bel's hips playfully. "If I had it my way, you'd always be riding with me." Or just riding him but that was a thought he kept to himself. He thought he might get smacked for saying that. "But I figured you might want your space. And another horse means we can take more things with us."

He looked at the horse Bel chose and passed some coins to the owner of the stables, paying for him. He was a good stallion, swift enough but calm. And calm would be good with the certain scenarios they could face.

"This came for you as well," the owner handed him a letter. He knew that seal. It was Ambrose. He thanked the man and stepped away from Bel to read it. It was in code, of course. It took no time at all to decipher it.

They know you took the prince. His siblings are coming for you. Be careful and ride fast. We can't lose you again.

No matter what Nico says, Bel is going to force the other man to accept reimbursement for everything he's bought. Bel has more than enough money to last him an entire lifetime, and then another one after that. "Thank you," he says, both directed at the stableman and Nico. The stallion is a rich tawny brown in color with kind, dark eyes and a white stripe down his muzzle. His mane and tail are much darker than the fur. Bel takes a moment of silence to begin brewing a proper name for the stallion.

His eyebrow raises as a letter is passed to Nico and an odd look crosses his face. "What's that?" He asks, taking a few steps towards Nico. What could've arrived for Nico at their unpredicted stop? Is there somebody tracking their movement?

They're riding slowly through the forest, warming their horses up for the treacherous shortcut through the darkest parts of the forest to come. Miran has taken this route only a few times before, but he preaches his sure confidence against any sort of beasts and behemoths they might encounter.

With a snap, Val instructs all four horses to halt. Treya raises a brow, Miran's hand goes straight for his sword's hilt. Before Val even answers, she's sent her razor rope dart into the trees. There's a sickening thud as someone falls from the trees, a knife through the heart. Another scrambles down the trunk, sprinting into the dense thicket of the woods. Miran quickly changes options and draws a bow. "Don't." Val whispers, holding a hand to stable her brother. "They've been following us for days. I thought now would be the right time to send the message."

Beside her, Treya giggles and Miran returns his weapons. "Reckon they're the ones who took Bel?"

"It's likely," Val answers, narrowing her eyes as the survivor fully disappears into the forest. "And now they know that we're not a force to take lightly."

Nico turned the paper away Bel approached. Not that the prince would have been able to read it, so really, there was no point, but he turned it away all the same. He folded it up and placed it in his back pocket. He would burn the letter later when they stopped for bed and lit a small fire. "Nothing. Just news from home. And most news from home isn't good news. You know what I'm part of. This has been going on for twenty years and we've barely made any progress. No one's dead so that's all that matters."

Nico gave Kaillas a look that meant they would be talking later when they had more privacy. Laurent, Braxton, and Cassian walked in then, all of them looking much better and practically to their full health. It was a miracle. If only all but Bel knew that they used magic to heal. "Alright, let's get this party on the road." Cassian had a bright smile on his face now, the previous grimaces gone.