A blur of ginger hair flashed down the empty corridors in the antique castle. The long haired boy hurriedly pushed past the few servants wandering the halls aimlessly, his footsteps echoing down the walkway.
Adrenalin pumped through the boy's veins as he pounded his feat to the rhythm of the silver locket banging against his chest. He skidded to a stop when abruptly the hallway ended; a fancy painting taking the space of what he had hoped was an exit.
Cursing under his breath the boy looked around. The guards' angry yells of punishment became louder and louder when the boy suddenly punched open a door, fleeing inside it's dark belly where he steadied his breathing.
"What is it? What's going on?"
A boy with unruly black hair burst from his bedroom, looking around wildly. He was in nothing but his pajamas.
"What's all the noise abou-..." His golden eyes suddenly widened and his hand flew to his chest where the locket his mother had given him usually lay.
It was gone.
The red headed boy backed into the room's wall, where he silently slid to the ground.
He panted, heart racing as he heard the guards burst into the rooms one by one.
Twisting his neck around furiously, he fruitlessly searched for an exit, but found none.
He flinched when the door to the room opened, light flooding in from outside. Jumping to his feet he squinted from the florescent beams coming in, but none the less glared at the new danger waiting at the door, unconsciously shifting the silver locket behind his back.
The shorter boy stared in disbelief at the thief. The intruder had long red hair that reached past his shoulders and his face seemed to be stuck in a permanent scowl. Seeing as how 1. He'd never seen this guy in his life, and 2. He was acting suspiciously; one could only assume what he was up to.
"What are you hiding behind your back?" the black-haired boy demanded, looking at him through narrow, dangerous gold eyes.
"Only what belongs to me," he snapped venomously at the boy, unnoticeable checking to see if there was anyone else behind him.
The boy's face contorted in anger. "What belongs to you? My mother gave-"
"There he is!" a guard's voice shouted as he pointed at the redhead, directing his other comrades' once scattered attention onto him.
"Catch him before he runs away again!" another one yelled as they all came stampeding down the hallway towards the two boys.
The ginger haired boy's eyes widened and he looked almost fearful, his body completely still. He blinked a couple times before snapping out of it, his hand grabbing the object directly to the right of him, which just happened to be a half emptied coke can, and went into a sort of defensive position with it.
As the guards neared, the shorter boy impulsively grabbed the thief by the arm and dragged him into his room, slamming and locking the door behind him.
"Alright, give back what you stole from me," he snarled, holding out his hand palm up. "Those guards will certainly beat you to a pulp. I suggest you return my locket if you want to stay in one piece."
He ignored the pounding on the door and the shouting that came from the other side of it.
Heck, what was he even doing? It was like he was protecting this guy. No, of course he wasn't. He just... wanted the locket returned to him directly.
That's all.
"Fuck no. It was my father's, so it belongs to me," he glared icily at him as he showed the Fancy 'G' carved into the locket's front. It ashamed him to need anything of his father's, but, as much as he hated to admit it, he needed the money.
The boy's glare faltered. "Well it still doesn't make it right that you stole it," he shot back, trying to keep his tough exterior.
"Prince Gold! Open up the door!" one of the guards bellowed, yanking on the door handle futilely.
"SHUT UP!" Gold snapped. "I'm busy."
"Did you not hear me? I said it was my father's," he spat the word with contempt, "that means you stole it from me!" He barked angrily.
"ME?" Gold growled. "NO. I told you my mother gave it to me. And my mother is certainly not a thief! You're just mistaking that for your father's!"
"Spoiled brat," he glared, "Guess what? For once you're wrong!" He pulled at his arm the shorter boy still held, "Now let go!"
"No! Give me back my locket!" Gold cried, trying to keep hold of the redhead. "It's mine!"
The boy chucked the pop can at Gold and, in the other's state of surprise, broke free of his loosened grip and ran for the window at the other side of the room.
"OW! That hurt!" Gold shouted angrily, rubbing his head where the pop can had hit.
"S-stop! Get back here!" He clumsily tried to reach the burglar, determined to get his locket back. People didn't take things that belonged to him. They weren't supposed to. Gold always got his way and he would make it stay like that.
The red haired thief felt himself being tackled to the ground from behind, the necklace flying out of his hands in the process.
Gold had his hands planted on the floor on either side of the thief's head, their faces just inches apart. For a moment, the locket was forgotten and the two stared blankly at each other.
The boy beneath blushed furiously, "Get the hell off me!"
"N-no!" Gold replied stubbornly. His cheeks were tainted crimson. "Not until you say that's the locket belongs to me."
"It's not yours!" he bit back.
"Idiot! It is mine!" Gold's voice was starting to become almost whiney, like that of a little kid that wasn't getting his way.
The intruder growled and pushed against Gold's chest, "Get off!"
Gold was shoved aside roughly, falling back on his butt. He could feel tears of frustration prickle in his eyes and he blinked hard, determined to keep them at bay.
The other boy stood slowly and began to reach for the glittering locket when the door was broken down, slamming against the carpet and dangerously splintering apart, taking parts of the wall with it, as a dozen or more guards fell into the room, swamping around the ginger haired boy.
"Are you okay?" one of the guards questioned Gold, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I'm fine!" he insisted, rubbing vigorously at his eyes. "Put that jerk in the dungeon!"
Wild silver eyes shot around frantically as weapon clad men swarmed around the intruder, grabbing hold of his arms and squeezing them, making sure for there to be a bruise on his wrists the next morning. The boy struggled around, kicking at several of the guards, even causing some to ebb to the ground in pain.
It took nearly all of the guards present to fully restrain the intruder, and they then proceeded to drag him out of Gold's bedroom and towards the dungeon. This left Gold sitting by himself on the floor...
He slowly crawled over to the locket and picked up the object, which glittered in the moonlight that filtered in through the curtains.
'I almost got it taken from me...' Gold thought, clutching it close to his chest.
The next morning, Gold got up quite a bit earlier than he normally did. All the excitement the previous night had left him unable to sleep well, waking up about ever hour, until the clock struck 6 am. and he decided to just get out of bed.
Curious as to how the redhead was doing in the dungeons, he crept down the long, spiraling staircase and slipped past the door to the dungeons. He knew he wasn't allowed down here, but... he didn't really care.
The repetitive banging around of a pebble echoed around the group of cells as the silver eyed boy threw the small stone at the wall where it ricocheted and returned to where he crouched on the floor, 'tic pit pit tic pit pit.'
Gold frowned slightly and, finally reaching the bottom of the stairs, he peered into the redhead's cell. He looked miserable. It didn't look as if he'd gotten any sleep at all.
"U-um..."
The pattering unanticipatedly, stopped leaving an empty silence in it's place. The boy turned to look out his cell, eyes icy as ever, regardless of the dark bags looming underneath them.
Gold shuffled up to the bars and sat down cross-legged on the floor in front of the cell.
"Serves you right for trying to steal something that's mine..." he mumbled, looking anywhere but into the other boy's dangerous eyes.
"Why the hell are you down here?" he cut in sharply.
"Because I wanna be," Gold simply replied with a shrug of the shoulders. "Since you're probably gonna be here for a while... I should ask for your name. What is it?"
The boy paused momentarily, "...Silver."
"...what kind of name is that?"
Silver promptly chucked the pebble, smacking right between the prince's widened eyes, "The one given to me obviously," he sneered.
"Ow!" the smaller boy complained, rubbing the indent the pebble had made in his skin. "Keep that up and you won't be getting anything to eat this morning! I'll make sure of it."
"You aren't really that intimidating, you spoiled brat."
"I'm no brat!" Gold protested, shooting the redhead an irritated look.
Silver was obviously a jerk; that was something that Gold was learning quickly.
What right did he have to call him names when he didn't even know him as a person?
"At least I'm not a thief that breaks into peoples' houses and tries to steal things that are precious to them!"
"It's not stealing if it originally belongs to me," Silver shot back coolly. He was quickly becoming vexed with the boy in front of him, seemingly dead set on ruining his morning.
Gold crossed his arms with a huff.
"You're so difficult," he commented, his irritation growing by the minute.
Why was he down here anyways...?
That's when an idea popped into his mind. It was better than having an antique locket your mom gave you, and a small smile formed on the prince's lips.
"Hey, on second thought, I'll let you have the locket..."
For a moment, Silver's eyes widened surprised, before narrowing once more suspiciously, "What's the catch?"
The black-haired boy met Silver's eyes with his own.
"You have to be my servant for two whole months."
"No way am I serving a spoiled brat like you!" The redhead hissed in distaste.
Gold was offended, but tried not to let it show on his face.
"Fine. Then I guess you can't have my locket!"
The boy truly did irk him to no end, "...fine..." he mumbled quietly.
Gold raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Wait, seriously?"
"You heard me! Yes!" Silver snapped irately, flushing slightly at the embarrassing predicament.
Gold smirked in triumph and lifted his chin slightly the way he did when he got what he wanted.
"Prince Gold? Prince Gold!" a voice from upstairs called, and Gold cursed under his breath.
Damn maid. Couldn't they just leave him alone? They were always hounding him about something and had to know where he was and what he was doing 24/7.
And he'd get in trouble if he was caught in the dungeon.
Silver stared unexcitedly at the boy as he looked around swiftly for a place to hide.
"Ugh. Why can't they just leave me alone...?" Gold grumbled as he got to his feet. The shorter boy glanced back at Silver.
"I'll make sure that a bedroom gets arranged for you. In the meantime... I should probably go upstairs so I don't get in as much trouble..."
Silver said nothing as he watched Gold silently creep up the stairs, unseen and unheard.
A few hours later, Silver was placed in what, by his standards, looked to be an extremely extravagant room filled with decorative paintings and several candles all burning different smelling incenses that constantly nagged at his nostrils. The boy had no idea who in the right mind would mix birthday cake and pomegranate, but choose not to comment, and instead placed his belongings (which were only a light jacket and the servant uniform he had been given moments before) on the small bed pushed against the side of the wall.
"Silver~!" Gold's voice rang out as he burst into the room.
Much to Silver's dismay, their bedrooms were... connected.
"I told them to put you in the room next to mine! Like it?"
The auburn haired boy glared at him, "No. It smells like a small child and a tree were killed in here. What the hell is this?" he demanded shoving the jar holding the flickering candle labeled 'radishes' against the other nose in disgust.
Gold frowned and flinched away from him. "What do you mean? It smells really good," he exclaimed. "I think your nose is dysfunctional. That and your brain."
Silver gave him a look, "Your one to talk! Carrots, asparagus, lettuce," he listed off the incense jars lined against the window sill opposite his bed, "It's like your trying to reproduce a garden in here!"
Gold pouted.
"Well fine. If you don't want 'em, I'll just take them into my room!
...scratch that. You'll take them to my room for me. One by one."
Silver's jaw dropped, "Hell no! Why the fuck should I-" he was cut off abruptly by Gold swinging the glittering locket in front of his eyes smugly, "...Fine!" he growled muttering to himself as he roughly picked up a jar titled 'applesauce' and kicked open the door, slumping inside the exceedingly flamboyant room that obviously belonged to the young prince.
Gold marched behind Silver, clutching the locket in his hand.
"Hurry up, hurry up! You're so slow!" the boy chirped annoyingly, following the redhead in and out of the rooms.
Silver was shaking in furry, and he was honestly surprised that the horrid smelling candles didn't crumble in his clenched fist. It took all his will power alone to not throw one of the damn things at the black haired boy babbling incessantly at his heels.
"So who's your dad anyways? I never get to spend time with my dad. He's way too busy with other stuff... Where did you live previously? What do you want for lunch? Is your favorite color silver?"
Silver turned around stiffly, the shorter boy bumping into his chest in the process, "I swear to God, if you don't stop your constant yakking I will set your hair on fire and use the wax to strangle you," he glared at him, completely serious, the lit candle seemingly forming into a weapon of mass destruction before Gold's eyes.
The shorter boy gulped, his Adam's apple dipping down as he did so. "O-okay...um...sorry..."
He shuffled away from Silver, obviously sulking.
"Finally," The redhead sighed in relief, welcoming the coming silence as he turned and got back to work.
Gold plopped himself down on his bed, watching as Silver worked. For a grumpy bastard he was a pretty good worker...
'I wonder if his hair's naturally that red,' he thought to himself. 'I bet it's soft...'
Silver busily shuffled around the room, totally distracted with tidying up the half opened drawers. Though he would never admit it, cleaning calmed him and put him at ease. It always relaxed him when he was stressed and more often than not, he would find himself humming a mindless tune as he did so.
Gold tried to stifle a giggle. "Are you singing?" he chortled.
Silver faced the boy instantly, face resembling that of the raspberry candle he had just placed on the desk, "N-No! Your imagining things!" his voice faltered in his flustered state as he quickly turned his back to Gold and scrubbed at the wooden surfaces in front of him furiously.
"How come you're scrubbing the floor now?" the younger boy piped up, laying on his stomach facing Silver. Gold was now finding it enjoyable to make fun of the redhead and point out things that'd embarrass him, seeing as how his face turned crimson and he got all flustered when he did so.
"Because they're filthy from you dirty feet pounding over them non-stop," he shot back, making little crop circles in the muck coating the panels.
"So is that your natural hair color?" Gold asked smoothly, ignoring Silver's rude comment.
"Are you always this obnoxious? Yes, why?" Silver glowered at him from the side.
"Can I touch it?"
Silver stared at him, unbelieving, "What the-? NO!" the boy yelled, backing up as Gold slid closer to him.
"Why not?" Gold grumbled as he scooted close to Silver. He reached out his hand, softly stroking the red strands.
'Just as I thought... it's really soft...
Wait, what the hell am I doing?'
Silver's face glowed cardinal as he heaved, back pressed into the door behind him, "WHAT THE FUCK?" The boy shoved Gold, sending him skidding halfway across the room, landing in a lump beside his over sized bed.
"Ow ow ow!," Gold groaned, rubbing his head, which had roughly banged against one of the legs of the bed.
"What was that for?"
Silver hissed dangerously, "Don't touch me!"
"Hey, I'm not diseased..." Gold mumbled as he slowly sat up. He felt kind of stupid. Wanting to touch another guy's hair? What the heck was his problem?
Silver stayed like that for a moment, before pain struck his temples, "Ughh..." he groaned as he sensed a migraine attacking his nerves due to the insufferable boy who sat dumbly across him, "Whatever," he mumbled as he turned sharply back to the dusty wooden tiles.
Gold frowned and got to his feet.
"Uh... you alright?"
"No you gave me a headache, you idiot!" he bit.
"Hey! Don't go blaming me for things that're your fault!" Gold grumbled. "I'm gonna go get lunch..."
And with that said, the black-haired boy marched out of the room.
Silver sighed exasperated as the boys footsteps echoed down the never-ending hallway. He truly did wonder why he simply had to announce everything he was doing, it was quite irritating. The redhead wondered absentmindedly if it was something you picked up or a sort of mental defect all rich kids seemed to have caught on to while he cleaned around the dresser. He was shot out of his empty thinking when he was jabbed in the back by none other than Gold, holding two plates of what he assumed was lunch.
Gold was hurt by his words, but tried not to let it show.
"Fine, go hungry then. See if I care..."
He sat down on the floor and started eating in front of Silver. Just to spite him.
Silver rolled his eyes at the boy's immaturity. He wouldn't be surprised if he was the type to stick his tongue out at people, "Whatever," he repeated as he moved about the room, trying to maneuver his way around the cluttered space and avoid the appetizing scents that somehow managed to waver through the obnoxious candle smog.
Once Gold had swallowed a mouthful of food, he, just as Silver had predicted, stuck his tongue out at him.
"Go get me something to drink."
"Fuck you," was his immediate reply as a pillow flew into the young prince's face.
Gold set down his food and tossed the pillow to the side.
"One percent milk!" he chimed, obviously ignoring the reply beforehand.
Silver stared at him unbelieving, "I'm not going anywhere. You have two legs.Fetch."
"But you're my servant," Gold reminded him. "Oh, and bring me my Dsi while your at it. I don't remember where I put it... aw well. You'll manage."
~~~
Silver was positively fuming once he reached the kitchen and evenly asked where the cups were. The poor maid was so shaken she could only point weakly to a cupboard to her right. The boy continued to grumble profanities to himself as he trekked halfway around the entire palace looking for the black haired boy's stupid DSi, eventually finding it buried in a flower pot in one of the bathrooms.
He slammed the door open to the prince's bedroom, causing a painting near the entrance to shudder dangerously as he stomped into the room and thrust the muddy DSi and room-temperature milk into the boy's unsuspecting hands.
"Clean it," Gold replied instantly, pointing to the DSi.
"And this is warm," he commented once he took the milk from Silver's hand.
"Your the one who left the damn thing in a fucking flower pot," he glared, " and if you didn't leave your belongings in such stupid places, that would be cooler," he shrugged.
"Don't talk to me like that," Gold grumbled. "Do 50 pushups now."
"Why should I?" he sneered.
Gold held out the silver locket, a small smile forming on his lips.
"Because if you don't, you won't be getting this."
"That wasn't part of the deal!" he hissed venomously, "I said I'd be your servant, not your torture victim!"
Gold groaned in complaint and stowed away the locket in his pocket. "Fine...gosh..."
He went back to eating before his food got too cold, reluctantly drinking his lukewarm milk along with it.
Silver resisted the urge to smirk. He instead returned to organizing and re-organizing the clutter taking up the majority of Gold's desk. He only turned after hearing the noisy clang of silverware. A look of disgust shadowed his face as he spied the two empty platters in front of the prince, "Did you seriously eat both of those? You'll get fat if you keep that up.
"I'm not gonna get fat!" Gold said defensively before chugging the last of the milk.
"At least I'm not all skin and bone like you!"
Silver said nothing to the comment, refusing to start another childish feud, "What am I supposed to do, anyways?"
Gold's only response was a small shrug, and the whole stupid argument slowly diminished.
"Say... why's this locket so important to you, anyways?" the prince asked quietly.
"That's personal," he snapped, sliver eyes narrowing icily as the tense atmosphere returned.
Gold frowned slightly. He wondered why he was so sensitive about the subject, but he didn't really want to push it. They'd only known each other for less than 24 hours, after all.
"Alright, sorry I asked," the younger boy murmured. In attempt to escape the awkward, uncomfortable silence that followed that apology, he picked up all the dirty dishes and hurried out of the room.
Silver took a seat on Gold's bed and tinkered with the zipper on his sweat shirt, still having not yet changed into his servant uniform. He wasn't really sure how he felt on the predicament he had wound himself into. It certainly had not been planned to come out this way. He sighed and glanced out the window, in was still midday, though the sun seemed awfully low in the sky. How long had he been running around the mansion for Gold's infuriating video game?
"Yeah, I know... I said I know, now leave me alone!" Gold's loud voice was heard from outside the door. It seemed as though he were talking to one of the maids, and he opened the door, walked back into the bedroom, and slammed the door in the girl's face.
"Goddamn maid..."
Silver lolled his head to face the boy, "What's up with you?" he asked, not really caring.
"...nothing," Gold murmured, sighing heavily and slumping onto his bed next to Silver.
"The maids are just really annoying."
"Yep being waited on hand and foot is just oh so exhausting," Silver gagged sarcastically.
Gold only shrugged slightly in response and laid on his stomach facing Silver.
"You're awfully ghastly, you know that?" he commented. "You don't always have to look so grim. Smile once in a while!"
He reached out and tried to pull up the corners of the redhead's mouth.
The taller boy slapped Gold's fingers away, leaving large red marks on the tan skin, "I said, don't touch me!" Silver snapped.
Gold yelped in pain. "You don't have to hit me!" he complained, rubbing his reddened skin.
"Geez..."
Silver glared at him threateningly, muscles tensed to the point of pain. He was never really one for physical contact. Ever.
Gold then proceeded to mumble something about Silver being a 'weird uptight bastard' before rolling onto his back.
"Did you get to cleaning my Dsi yet?"
"If you want me to clean it, you might as well just stick it in the gutter yourself because thats straight where it's going."
"C'mon. Pleeeease?"
Gold turned it up to maximum puppy dog eyes.
Silver rolled his eyes, "That doesn't work."
Gold gave up, rolling onto his side with a groan of complaint.
This guy was so boring. The conversations they'd had so far in their short time of knowing one another didn't seem to go anywhere; they were stopped abruptly by Silver's hostile attitude.
"...wanna play the PS3 with me?" he suggested timidly, wanting to find something to do. "Or maybe the Wii..."
The taller boy shrugged, "Sure," he pushed himself off the bed, turning to Gold expectantly. If there was one thing the boy couldn't resist, it was competitive video games.
"Just so you know, I'm pretty good," Gold bragged, a slight smile forming on his face as he hopped off of the bed and bounded over to the TV a few feet away. Gaming systems and assorted controllers were strewn on the floor all around the TV.
Silver sat cross legged as he examined the various titles; Left4Dead, Super Smash Brothers, Rock Band, a thousand Guitar Hero's, and a few Mario cases littered the floor beside his feet alone, with dozens more roughly stacked into piles surrounding each system. Peeking out behind the large television was a small, block-ish machine. Silver carefully pulled it out to reveal an old scratched up Sega genesis. He poked it into Gold's side, stopping his furious contemplation over which controller to use, "This one."
"Huh?" Gold turned his head. "My sega? Haven't played that thing in a while..."
The young prince snatched the controller Silver had been eyeing.
The boy's eyes narrowed as he roughly grabbed the device out from Gold's hands.
"Hey!" Gold lunged for his stolen controller.
Silver used his superior height and stretched his arm out fully, tilting sideways in his spot on the floor slightly in the process, but successfully keeping the small controller out of the black haired boy's reach.
"Give it ba-ACK!" In his attempt to jump up to reach it, he ended up tackling Silver to the floor.
"Ow... ugh, I had it first!"
"No you didn't!" Silver cut in, serious gamer instincts kicking in as he tried to push the younger boy off of him.
"NU!" Gold chomped on the older boy's wrist. "Giff it baff!"
His arms flailed lamely as he attempted to get back the controller. It was the only purple one for God's sake! And what was with this guy and stealing his stuff?
"OW! What the fuck?" he yelled, furiously trying to shake Gold off him.
Gold grumbled in complaint when Silver yanked his wrist from his mouth. However, he then proceeded to pin down the older boy with newfound strength.
"I said give it back!"
Silver opened and closed his mouth in a sort of fish imitation as a light blush clouded over his cheeks, "Get off me!" he spat.
"No!" Gold snapped, poking him accusingly in the side. "I had that controller first!"
Silver snapped his hand up to his mouth almost instantly, stifling a small automatic giggle as the prince poked his stomach.
Gold blinked slowly. What the heck? He prodded the redhead's stomach again multiple times.
The redhead dropped the controller, using one hand to help control his laughter and the other to feebly swat at Gold's intruding fingers.
"You are!" Gold squealed in triumph, his fingers trying to find his most ticklish spot. "Hey, you're blushing, too!"
"F-Fuck off!" He yelled, laughing hysterical against his will.
Gold yelped as he ducked a swipe aimed towards his head, and he dove out of the way and snatched the purple game controller as he did so.
"You're ticklish! You're ticklish!" he taunted immaturely.
Silver punched him in the gut, ignoring his doubled over groans, "Shut up!" He said icily through gritted teeth.
Gold clutched his stomach. "Ugh... owww... w-what'd you do that for?" he squeaked.
"You say that like I need a reason," Silver glared as he reluctantly grabbed a green controller and plugged it in.
The young prince only whimpered in reply and, after a little while, overcame the pain in his gut and plugged his controller into the gaming system.
"Your such a wuss, now what are we playing?" Silver questioned as he toyed with the familiar joystick.
"Sonic the Hedgehog!" Gold chirped, scooting close to Silver.
Silver nodded, his lips turning up every so slightly, "Your on."
"DO NOT!" Gold protested. "I'm just... out of practice is all! Anyways, I'm booorrred..."
He flopped onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.
"Good for you," Silver rolled his eyes, sarcasm thick in his voice. Absentmindedly, he snuck a glimpse at the analog clock plastered to the wall, "Well its 9:04; sleep," he pushed himself off the carpet and wandered toward his room.
Gold whined and clung to his leg, preventing him from going. "I'm not tiiiirrrrreddd... nngh... at least help me up..."
After a minute or two of shaking his leg, Silver saw that trying to remove his cling-on was futile and with an exasperated sigh reluctantly pulled the boy to his feet, "There, happy now?"
Gold stifled a yawn and nodded slightly.
"Yeah... ugh I just remembered tomorrow's Monday... Nuuuuuuu..." the prince groaned, shuffling off to the bathroom to brush his teeth.
"I don't want the tutor to coooome..."
"It would do you some good to learn something," Silver mumbled as he stepping into his new room, not being able to stand much more of the prince's worthless drabble.
~~~
