Two kingdoms neighbored a lilac wood. A prince was born to each; each the brightness and joy of his domain.
The prince of the kingdom by the sea was slight and fair, with hair and skin white as pearl, violet eyes sparkling with magic. The water answered when he sang to it – the oceans and the rains and the ice that bloomed across winter windowpanes.
The prince of the kingdom in the mountains was warm and bright as the sun, with chestnut hair and eyes like a verdant forest. His love was as boundless as the bounty of the earth, and all creatures great and small answered to his song.
These princes played and grew together, and had grown a fast friendship the likes of which that had never been seen.
The eve of Mikleo's eighteenth birthday had arrived. Alas, with princehood comes certain responsibilities – the responsibility of marrying a suitable match, regardless of any inclinations to other suitors. Even a friend for life.
Mikleo stared out the window of the carriage suspiciously.
"I thought I was being carted off to the household of whoever I'm being married off to," he said, not without a little bitterness.
"You are," said his Uncle Michael, not even looking up from his journal.
Mikleo's mother, the queen, smacked her brother lightly.
"You will see soon enough," Queen Muse said, lightly.
But little did these princes know that their betrothal had been arranged so long ago – by their royal parents, and destiny besides.
Mikleo found himself outside of Sorey's palace, facing down a welcoming committee of guards in resplendent formal attire, a crowd of nobles and chattering townsfolk, and the royal family themselves at the end of palace entryway. Sorey looked wretched, as if he hadn't slept a wink all night. Then, as a footman helped Mikleo out of the carriage, Sorey's expression changed, looking at his mother and grandfather in confusion. Mikleo was in a similar state. He thought he would end up in a stranger's home, warming a stranger's bed. If he was to be married to a noble in Sorey's family household, it…would not be so bad, perhaps. He would see Sorey every day, talk with him every day, walk with him in the gardens and talk of books and adventure and history.
He would then have to take his leave, and serve as ornamentation in the royal apartment of whoever he was about to be given to. He would have to smile and clap as Sorey courted his own suitors, right in front of him. It would not be bad – it was sure to be agony, instead.
"I welcome Prince Mikleo, betrothed of Prince Sorey, to our kingdom," announced Sorey's grandfather, King Zenrus, in a strong voice that belied his frail appearance. "Let us also welcome Queen Muse and the Lord Michael to our household, to celebrate this joyous occasion…"
Mikleo's eyes went huge, and his gaze locked with Sorey's. Sorey stared back at him with the same shocked, baffled expression. A musical number erupted around them, and the guards snapped into their dance routine.
Agony. Torturous agony.
This was ridiculous. Insane. To think that his mother had been collaborating all these years with King Zenrus, to think that it was a scant week before his marriage—
To Sorey—
Mikleo couldn't think straight. His heart beat like a drum, his mind racing with a million different thoughts. Many of them potential song lyrics. There was only one thing to do when a contrived romantic plot such as this reared its head, and that was to sing about it.
He cleared his throat, and the water in his personal room sink sprang to life. It hit the basin like a chime, giving him a clear A-sharp to tune himself to.
"This is ridiculous. Insane-" Mikleo began, readying himself for a dramatic swirl of his capes.
"Good morning-!" Sorey interrupted with his clear, strong singing voice, bursting into his room in a flurry of forest animals. A pair of golden larks fluttered near to Mikleo, presenting him with the flower garland they carried between them; colorful and woven from the wildflowers that climbed at Sorey's window.
Mikleo stared Sorey and his crew down. Sorey was clearly jonesing for a duet, and had an arm extended to Mikleo to twirl him if Mikleo would only reach out and take it. His forest friends returned Mikleo's baleful stare, measure for measure. The young fawn with tambourines in his antlers shook them encouragingly. The birds grew tired of fluttering daintily around Mikleo and dropped the garland on his silken head, then nested themselves back in Sorey's hair.
"Good morning," Mikleo replied coolly, bowing slightly at the waist. "I hope my family's visit finds you well."
"More than well!" Sorey said, blind to Mikleo's existential despair. He moved in to pick Mikleo up by the waist and lift him into a twirl. Their purpose renewed, his forest friends began to idly sing aimless tunes as they bounced around the pair. La-la, lalala. "We'll be married in only a few days! Can you think of anything more wonderful? A surprise, such a splendid surprise, to see you, as my future husband before my eyes-"
Mikleo begrudgingly accepted the extended twirl and only half-listened to Sorey's song lyrics. Sorey seemed over the moon, but Mikleo could not be more unwell. He had done so well hiding his feelings for Sorey as they grew over the years, but now, being forced into a marriage, denying Sorey the chance to marry someone he truly loved…it made him ill.
Sorey swept him into a bridal carry, and finished his song at the open window of Mikleo's room. The birds burst out of the window in a flourish to end it, then idly made their way back in.
"We'll have the first dance at the royal ball tonight," Sorey sighed dreamily, setting Mikleo down on the floor and holding him close by his elbows. "I didn't sleep a wink last night, thinking I'd be marrying some stranger. Do you think the good fairies heard my prayers?"
"They have not heard mine," Mikleo whispered, dramatically. He swirled out of the room in a flurry of icy snowflakes, and the gray clouds of a rainstorm began to gather outside, blanketing the palace in a fine rainy mist.
Mikleo ran through the palace gardens, seeking out a good place to collapse and get out a good solo. There – the fountain of Cupid and Psyche in the rose gardens. He knelt at the fountain's lip, and idly conjured up a Sorey doppelganger from the water. The Sorey doppelganger bowed, and offered a hand. Mikleo accepted, and allowed himself to begin.
"My feelings for you, I've hidden them so deep. And soon, it will become a painful thing to forever keep; close to my heart…"
They stepped onto the surface of the water in the fountain, dancing upon the water through the rain as he sang.
"I'll be stealing you from a future so bright, and from finding the love you deserve-"
"The one I love is you."
Mikleo found that his watery dancing doppelganger had been replaced by the real thing. He yelped and accidentally plunged them both into the fountain. He sputtered and gasped; soaked to the bone and thoroughly humiliated. So much for that solo session. So much for keeping his feelings to himself. So much for not burdening Sorey.
On his part, Sorey didn't seem the least bit perturbed, despite being soaked as well. He drew Mikleo into his arms, cupped his cheek, and pressed his lips to his in a gentle kiss. Breathless, his hair sticking to his forehead and cheeks, Mikleo gazed up into Sorey's eyes in a daze. Distantly, he felt as Sorey brushed his wet hair from his skin to press another kiss just beneath his circlet, right on his brow. The rainclouds began to clear, and a rainbow took shape in the sun.
"I've loved you since before I knew what love was," Sorey said, low and soft. His forest friends were having a pool party in the fountain. "I would never agree to marry another. May I ask for your company on the dance floor this evening?"
"Of course," Mikleo murmured, leaning in for another kiss. A squirrel floated by on an inner tube. Maybe they should adjourn to somewhere more…private. "May I ask for your company in my quarters until then?"
And at Sorey's shy, hopeful smile, well. Mikleo was ready for another kind of duet.
"Do you mind," Mikleo bit out.
The birds nesting in Sorey's hair groggily woke up, and trudged out the door. Mikleo shook his head, and turned his attention back to the boy between his legs.
"Keep going," he said.
Sorey's grin threatened to split his face as he continued stripping Mikleo out of his soaked riding pants, and once he was divested of them, he dove in as if he couldn't wait a moment longer. He began to hum a happy little tune around Mikleo's cock as he went to work.
"Hey, no solos," Mikleo managed to object, even as his nerves set alight. Sorey looked up at him, cock in his mouth, sparkling hope in his eyes. "And no duets either!"