chapter two
“brush your teeth and then you have to go to sleep, okay?’ pavitr calls out from the kitchen, washing the plates.
“okay pavie.” she answers, a smile in her voice.
hobie leads mayday to the bathroom and helps her onto her stool. picking up her spiderman toothbrush and handing it to her.
capitalism, he mutters to himself with an ironic smile.
as she brushes her teeth, hobie hears pavitr’s footsteps going louder.
“she done?” pavitr asks, holding a glass of water, standing on the tiled floor of the bathroom, beside the door frame
“mhm”
pavitr moves to place the glass near the sink on the marble slab. he picks up a hairbrush and a rubberband from a shelf beside the mirror, littered with toothbrushes, bottles and what not. He drags the hairbrush through her hair, scrunching his eyebrows when he tries to slowly unravel the knots.
head tilted, rubberband in mouth, nose crinkled, cheeks a shade of burgundy.
hobie could practically taste the warmth in the room.
but to be fair, any room with pavitr inside it feels all glittery and gold.
hobie brown didn’t believe in many things.
but pavitr prabhakar believed him.
and hobie loved him for it. truly.
“tada!” pavitr says, smiling, making little jazz hands as he finishes braiding mayday’s hair..
hobie loves his smile.
if he’d could, he’d get drunk on pavitr’s smile as the immortals do with their ichor. Pavitr’s smile was hobie’s as was a sad man’s alcohol. pavitr’s smile feels like being kissed by the british sun after days in december cold. he imagines how his smile would feel against hobie’s lips. the thought of it keeps him sane yet threads him into insanity.
he had felt insane that day. i mean, with death looming over them, hobie just had to confess his undying love. that’s got to be at least a little bit crazy.
what’s more crazy is that it was the best day of his life, even though he tried hard to pretend it wasn’t. because pavitr prabhakar kissed him, right there and then. and hobie could’ve spent eternity that way.
too bad they’ve both been avoiding each other ever since.
pavitr looks up from the mirror and turns to hobie. he gives him the same smile.
yeah, too bad.
hobie inches hand closer to pav’s hovering one and interlocks their fingers, returning the smile.
hobie stared into the mirror. they looked like a happy little family. his heart felt heavy in the best way possible. hobie’d like to etch this memory into his veins.
“it’s time for bed now jaan.”
“can i get a story first?” mayday asks, fumbling her pronunciation a little bit in almost every word.
pavitr looks up to hobie with those eyes.
those caramel brown eyes he’s found himself staring at far too long, too many times to count. he wonders how pavitr never noticed.
only now does he realise how much of gwen saying “men can’t take a hint” is actually true.
pavitr’s eyes are worthy of the louvre. hobie thanks some god he dosen’t believe in that’s he been graced with the view of pavitr prabhakar’s eyes in the sunlight. it is genuinely breathtaking. beams of gold reflecting on to his eyes, making them glow. it is ethereal.
hobie remembers not being able to breathe when he saw them that day. or maybe that was because the anomaly had kicked him in his ribs more times than he could count (him not being able to count being a result of the pain rendering whatever mathematics that the education system tried so hard to engrave in his head forgotten.).
but lord crouching beside that almost demolished wall, watching the sunrise peek through pavitr’s eyes, and later pavitr’s lips on his.
he’d bruise up his ribcage again if that meant he could see that once more.
pavitr stares into hobie, asking for an answer to ,mayday’s question.
hobie stumbles out a ‘sure’.
“and then, the prince defeats the dragon with a big prince punch.” pavitr shouts as he jumps from the bed onto the stuffed dragon on the floor.
hobie laughs from the windowsill, where he’s sitting knees up to his chin, pretending to be the princess locked up in a castle.
pavitr runs up to hobie and bows, offering his hand to hobie.
“princess, i have come to rescue you. we shall now get married.”
mayday laughs from her seat in the big red armchair beside the bookshelves. hobie hums for a second.
“and the princess replied ‘no thanks.’” he narrates as he turns away with a sly smile on his face.
as he’s stated too many times before, he didn’t believe in consistency.
pavitr lets out an audible gasp “what!?” after standing up straight.
“she didn’t like the look of him.”
“why not?”
“well, his hair was a bi’ messy-”
pavitr brings out a hand to straighten his hair, huffing a laugh.
“and he was a little too muscle-y. y’know what i mean kid?” hobie says, giving her a wink
mayday giggles as pavitr feigns offence .
“and his eyes are way too pretty. you get what i’m saying?”
pavitr’s breath hitches and hobie tries hard to pretend that he didn’t notice.
mayday nods her head. “mhm,” she hums, “obie said pavie’s eyes are the the mos-”
“oi!” hobie laughs, a little too loud. hopefully a volume that will go unnoticed by pavitr. “i said that to you in confidence.”
more laughs. some forced. most forced.
“hang on princess. i prince punch the dragon, take you back to the castle and we get married. that’s just business!” pavitr tries to reason.
“hey! i didn’t ask to be rescued.” hobie replies.
“so you would rather stay here, with a stinky dragon?” pavitr questions with his eyebrows raised.
“i‘m getting used to it.” hobie says, crossing his arms with a smile.
“well then, i’ll just wake him up then.” pavitr says, adding little forced puffs in between.
“no, wait.”
“ahh, i thought so.”
“all princes are all the same” hobie huffs.
“no they’re not, there are good princes and bad princes. everyone knows that m’lady.”
“which one are you pavie?” maydays asks from her seat.
“i’m a good prince. i rescued the princess!”
“yeah, only because he likes prince punching dragons. tomorrow he’ll be off in search for another princess.” hobie sighs dramatically, resting the back of his palm against his forehead.
“hey, this princess is hard to rescue.” pavitr says to mayday, cupping a curled hand around his mouth, pointing a thumb at hobie to which he gets a playful shove from the same.
“well, while the prince figures it all out, the princess grabs a nice blanket and goes to sleep. the end.” hobie finishes, pretending to fall asleep.
honestly, all hobie was trying to do was tell mayday that princesses don’t need a prince to save them AND that you certainly don’t have to get married just because some man walks up to her and demands your hand.
but mayday wasn’t having it.
“what!?” she exclaims, standing up, placing her hands on her hips.
“that is not the end!” she says, swaying her hip to the side with each word. “in mum and dad’s stories they get married in the end. you and pavie have to get married!”
“princess?”
pavitr asks, looking up to hobie. black eyes staring into brown. hobie prays again, the second time this day, and wishes that he won’t turn pink, pastels and red all over.
“okay, for the sake of the children, they get married.” hobie sighs in pretend disappointment, trying hard to get into the role. sure, marriage is an institution, but marrying pavitr prabhakar was not.
hobie pushes himself off the window sill with his hands and stands up, creasing out his skirt.
mayday shouts a ‘hooray’, throwing her hands in the air.
“i’ll take it.”pavitr says, locking elbows with hobie, smiling up at him.
hobie brown’s been married for approximately ten seconds and this is the happiest he’s ever been. he‘d spend forever this way.
“princess obie, do you say you do? mayday asks, as she walks up to them, trying to stand as formal as a 4 year old could go. she holds her hands, her tiny palms enveloping her fingers.
hobie looks down to pavitr, who’s looking right up at him. death can take him away now. he has seen all that there is to see.
“i do.”
“prince pavie, do you say you do?”
“i do.”
there it is, that goddamnit smile again.
“you can kiss the princess now, pavie.”
hobie expects, pavitr to laugh it off and tell mayday it’s time for bed.
yet, here stands, in this plane of existence, in front of a pavitr prabhakar who’s on his tiptoes barely able to reach hobie’s height, pressing a kiss to the corner of his lips.
hobie pinches himself, this is real.
hobie cursed the lords. hobie always appreciated his height. it made him seem standoffish and unapproachable, which is exactly what he was going for.
If he was even an inch shorter, he could’ve felt pavitr lips against his. hobie knows he’s going to be dreaming about this when he’ll fall asleep.
pavitr is now crouching down to mayday’s height.
“i won’t take no for an answer, ab so jao.”