Celestial Being

Yesterday

Of course Prince Viktor was an early riser. He was perfect at everything, so there was no way Draco was going to catch him off guard even at this ungodly hour of the morning. It was rude that Draco was even here this early, but he’d hardly slept the night before and there were only so many made up conversations Draco could have in his head before he had to try literally anything else.

The prince was gracious about his visit, either because he was that wellbred or because he was a psychopath. That last part was probably just Draco being nervous and projecting. Despite the prince’s impassive expression and impeccable manors Draco could tell Prince Viktor did not actually want him there. Still, the prince waved off his guards’ concerns and invited Draco in to join him for breakfast. Draco’s stomach rolled at the thought of food, but tea he would accept. That at least meant he had something to clutch nervously as the prince fastidiously cut his sausages into small pieces and began to eat them one by one, chewing each bite with deliberation.

It might have been a battle of wills to see who could outlast the other in their silence. More likely the tension was in Draco’s head and he was being a complete twat. He heaved in a sigh and set his tea aside so that there was nothing to distract him from what he’d come to say. Which of course was the exact moment Prince Viktor spoke, as if intentionally cutting Draco off just as the younger man summoned his courage. So it wasn’t all in Draco’s head, after all.

Still, the words were mild and measured as if what he said was of little consequence. “You visited with the king in the observatory tower yesterday.”

Draco froze like he’d been caught by his mother doing something naughty. Which was silly, since he was a grown man and it was the prince who was being strange.

“Have you been following me?” Draco asked, trying to match the same light tone the prince conjured so easily. Prince Viktor half shrugged before taking a bite of toast. Draco reached back for his tea. He would not be the only one of them without an easy way to pause before answering direct questions. The action was useful. It gave him time to have a second thought. “You’ve been following the king.”

That statement was thoroughly ignored. Instead, Prince Viktor asked, “What was the reason for your rendezvous?”

Draco clung to his tea mug, wondering if he should use the question as a segue into what he’d come to discuss. It wouldn’t even be lying, if he did. Only, there was something suspicious in Prince Viktor’s bland expression. He was terribly calm. It reminded Draco of something. Of someone.

Oh fuck, it reminded him of his father.

Draco groaned and slumped back in his chair, tea forgotten. The prince hardly batted an eye at his odd behavior. Of course he wouldn’t. He was lulling Draco into a false sense of calm before he did something truly devastating, like dashing all of Draco’s hopes then tossing Draco out on his ass. At least the prince couldn’t have his guards drag Draco off to the dungeon. This calm was how Lucius always acted when he was well and truly angry. It was how he treated people who’d personally wronged him.

Nothing about Draco’s half assed attempt at a plan was going to work when facing such a stony adversary. So he gave it all up. It was a fool’s errand for a fool’s cause, Draco would just have to be a fool.

“We weren’t fucking, if that’s what you’re worried about.” He chugged what was left of his tea after saying it. He needed it to fortify himself against whatever the prince had in store for him.

The prince set his fork down on his plate and whipped his face with the cloth next to it. He set the cloth back down, tidy as can be. Only then did he look up and give Draco his full attention. “And yet the king has yet to sign the treaty.”

Draco actually laughed. It was an exhausted, nervous chortle. He covered his mouth immediately afterwards because it was stupid and rude, even if it was honest. The prince didn’t lash out at him so Draco braved pulling his hands away and speaking. “Well, I actually am here to talk about the treaty. However, I am sensing there is something else on your mind?” He made it a question in the hopes the prince would break the ice and say his peace.

Prince Viktor did no such thing. If anything he got icier. “You speak for the king in his treaty negotiations?”

That was a trap if Draco ever heard one. He stifled another nervous laugh. “Hardly. It’s just we spoke yesterday and he confided in me-”

“He spoke to you about why he hasn’t signed the treaty?” The prince was starting to break. He sounded peeved and that wrinkle of frustration was back across his brow.

Draco did his best to back peddle. “Well, I was keen on getting some time alone, and he must have been looking to get away himself, and we both happened to run into each other in the observation tower, serendipity like. I think it was a right place right time situation.”

The prince’s frown grew deeper. “Serendipity?”

“Um, yes, it means-”

“I know what it means.”

“Ah. Well.” Draco stopped talking before he said something worse.

The prince crossed an arm across the chest and balanced his other elbow on it so his free hand could tap against his chin. He seemed to contemplate particularly hard. “Was it serendipity when the king visited your chamber before leaving with his army?” Draco may have grimaced at the question. The prince didn’t wait for his response, anyway. “Or when you stayed the night in his quarters? Or when you attended the small council meeting on his behalf while he was away?”

“Oh, that last one actually was,” Draco jumped in right before he realized saying as much wasn’t actually helping. Oh, hell, he would either have to backtrack and try to explain the first two, or just double down and hope it could somehow make things better. This time when Draco took a deep breath the prince didn’t interrupt him before he launched into his story.

“I’m just going to lean into complete transparency here, which I can feel you’re definitely going to judge me for, but here we go.

“That third one, the small council thing, well I just showed up and went to the first meeting I found. I totally just lied about what I was doing there. I’m aware it sounds ridiculous to tell you that I waltzed into perhaps the most sensitive strategy meeting in the kingdom and lied to everyone so they’d let me stay, but I did. I have reasons, but as I sit here thinking about them I know they just make me sound arrogant. Like, I thought because no one was telling me what was going on something terrible must be wrong and I was the only one who could fix it. I didn’t know what it was, but I still figured I should just put on a fancy suit and go to a random important room and then just do what I thought would make everything better for everyone. Truly, I am an ass. And as I think a little more about this, it probably doesn’t put this whole situation in the best light that I could just lie and tell everyone the king sent me and they’d all just believe me. Might be something to unpack there. And I’d be willing to, I really would, if you would find that in any way helpful, but more than anything I want you to know that whoever is telling you all these stories about King Harry and I can’t possibly know what’s actually happening, because the truth is far, far weirder than you think.”

That line in the prince’s forehead had definitely deepened as Draco rambled. The prince was frowning now and staring very, very hard. Unfortunately, he sidestepped Draco’s entire ramble to ask the question that must really be bothering him. “So you aren’t having an affair with the king?”

Oh hell. Shit. Fuck. Draco’s wince showed exactly what he was thinking.

In the spirit of complete transparency… “You asked before, if I had ever slept with King Harry. Such an awkward question, but actually easier than this one? So, yes, technically I have had sex with the king, but it was a secret. Still is a bit of a secret. By secret I mean that it was at a masquerade and we were in disguise and the king didn’t know it was me yet. So, you see, I couldn’t have told you when you asked, because as far as anyone knew it had never happened.”

Prince Viktor was still trying to hold himself to his stonily impassive, but Draco was laying a lot on him. Wisely, the prince paused to think. And to stare. His dark eyes bore into Draco as if he could stare hard enough to know whether anything Draco was saying was real. Probably Draco being a complete mess made it more convincing, but maybe the prince suspected him of higher levels of trickery.

When the prince finally spoke his words were clipped and precise. “I do not care to hear you explain yourself further. It is clear to me you and King Harry have a prior attachment. Tell me honestly, is it you who is stopping him from signing the treaty?” Draco hoped this was the prince’s true fear finally said out loud.

“Absolutely not,” Draco said emphatically. He was not so stupid as to tell Prince Viktor that King Harry would also absolutely rather marry Draco. He had some sense left in him. Draco only hoped that now, finally, the prince was ready to hear what Draco had come all this way to say. “The king will sign the treaty tomorrow. He’s eager to do so. Like you, King Harry wants a lasting, beneficial peace between our two kingdoms. I only wonder, are the terms of the treaty really what you want?”

“Which terms?” Prince Viktor pushed.

Draco pressed his hands down on the table so he wouldn’t tap them nervously. “Specifically? The marriage one.”

“You don’t think I should marry King Harry.” A statement. Not a question. “Without a marriage there is no commitment. My father would never agree to lesser terms. He is already insulted King Harry has yet to propose. Would you put our kingdom’s peace at risk for your own chance to marry the king?”

Draco bit the inside of his lip instead of speaking the first, second, or third thought that popped into his head. Now was not the time to be rash. It was time to be considerate. It would be so easy to write the prince off as some enemy or foe, but that’s not who he was. He was just a man, doing the best he could, and trying to hold himself together when faced with the person who threatened everything he cared about. Prince Viktor wasn’t the villain here, and Draco didn’t want to be, either.

“For this, you shouldn’t be thinking about me. It’s about you. The king will follow your lead, he’ll sign whatever treaty you insist on because he cares as deeply as you do about making this work. I just wonder, have you considered all your options? Marrying king Harry is easy, but is it what you want to do?”

Finally the prince broke. He slammed both hands on the table with a loud thunk. His frown was a hair’s breadth away from a glower, which was quite severe with his dark features and thick eyebrows. “I have journeyed across this entire kingdom, set aside my pride to offer marriage to a scoundrel, took care of his paramour when injured to show my good intent,” the prince sharp gaze made it clear he meant Draco, “and now you come here to compel me to set all this aside so you can marry the king in my place?”

Draco was literally taken aback by the vitriol. All of this emotion must have been bubbling under the prince’s surface for weeks. He had suffered through his anger, and the constant humiliation of it being proven well deserved. Draco gulped, but didn’t falter. If the prince could suffer through this ordeal, Draco could suffer looking at it openly and honestly.

Honestly, it was a lot. Draco hadn’t realized just how deeply the prince resented having to take these actions. He hadn’t realized exactly how impactful Draco’s own actions would be. With all the masks, and games, and lies, Draco had never considered that the thing between him and King Harry could actually be real. Not even when King Harry all but promised to him on his sickbed that it was. How could it be? There were more years of the king hating Draco than there were equinox balls in each others’ company. For every sweet touch there was a hundred sneers and insults. For all the king thought he knew Draco, all he knew was one of the lies Draco had draped himself in to be confident and wonderful. All he saw was the person Draco pretended to be so, for one night, he could be loved. Even tangling those memories with what the king knew of Draco as himself, it wouldn’t be a complete picture. Draco didn’t trust that King Harry wouldn’t one day wake up from his fantasy and realize that Draco was still the man he loathed, the man he’d twice tried to kill.

“I don’t want to marry King Harry.” It really wasn’t hard to speak honestly, and Draco could tell his words sounded very much like the truth. He stared long and hard at the prince until he could see realization dawn on the older man’s face that Draco truly meant it. That realization cracked something rigid in the prince, and finally Draco saw something real beneath it. Something raw, and afraid. “Do you want to marry him, either?”

Today

Prince Viktor stared down at the king kneeling below him. “I’m so sorry, Harry.” Perhaps he was a superior liar, but Draco thought it more likely the prince actually meant it. Prince Viktor wasn’t cruel by nature. He was brave, though, and he didn’t hesitate before saying, “No.”