The door of the Royal Bedroom was opened with a creaking sound and Sour Bill peered in, his frown even deeper as usual. The whole castle slept, and he was the only one still awake.
If I can't do it now, I won't be anymore depressed just because of the world, but also because of myself, he thought nervously and walked into the room.
Millions of small lemon-pastille-shaped ornaments decorated the high walls of the room. They were almost like eyes; it was like they were watching Bill and reading his thoughts. If Bill had been just a little more of an imaginative person, they would have made him shiver.
But at the moment, only one thing was making him afraid: the silhouette of a small old man sleeping in the huge bed in the middle of the room. The man whose bedroom he had sneaked in without permission.
King Candy slept soundly between his bubblegum-red bed covers, curled up into a childish ball. The bed railings were four tall red-white-striped candy canes. The cushions were marshmallows. Bill could hear the king muttering in his sleep meaningless words like "I won" and "liquorice pipe".
The sourball walked with his tiny green foots closer to the royal bed, slowly and as silently as possible, even though he knew that the heavy-sleeping king wouldn't react in any way to the sounds of his little footsteps.
The king's hand was hanging over the edge of the bed. Bill was so small that he could have used it to climb up, but he didn't want to take a risk by doing something so amazingly dumb. He used the cover instead and climbed to the bed, right into the front of King Candy's sleeping face.
Bill's heart - or whatever was that thing he could feel beat inside his round candy body - raced from fear.
Everywhere in Sugar Rush you could meet jolly, colorful and bubbly people, so it was almost impossible to believe that Sour Bill, the long-faced and mirthless one, was the king's highest assistant. Well, it was actually hard to believe that he was one of the game.
It was almost like his unhappiness grew year after year even deeper. But at the same time, Bill had that strange ability that all the other Sugar Rush inhabitants seemed to lack: as sour as he was, he was able to see things as they actually were. Complete, bittersweet thruths, with no sugar used to cover them or make them look more beautiful. He was able to see sadness as sadness and darkness as plain darkness. For some reason, skills like these were never respected. That's why Bill was usually avoided by the inhabitants.
Still -or that's why- Bill's ability to love, hate or feel any other extreme feelings was almost inexistent. Because of it, he had always felt like he was some kind of an outsiderin Sugar Rush, even though the game was and would always be his home.
King Candy was a completely different deal. He was such a bouncing and fun-loving old man that Sour Bill would have been almost invisible is his company, if he hadn't been constantly mentioned and given orders to. And still, the only one who didn't get annoyed by his unsweetness was King Candy. Even though they were complete opposites and Bill was usually annoyed by his overly flamboyant behavior, King Candy was the only one who had once managed to put a tiny smile on his face.
And lately, he had managed to make him feel love.
Bill didn't know when it had started. It had developed slowly, treacherously quietly, getting stronger year by year. Grown from the indifference in the start of the king's reign to affection towards him. And from that, to something much more powerful.
Naturally, King Candy had made the starting move. He had always had the habit of patting Bill on his forehead when he was satisfied or on a good mood, but then it started to become more common. Quick, surreptitiously made eye contacts when the king thought he wouldn't notice. Unnoticeable and small but recurring little kisses on Bill's cheeks. And finally, one evening, Bill allowed himself to be kissed to the mouth for the first time.
No one else in the court knew about it; it was only his and King Candy's business.
Bill always welcomed happily the King's silly endearments, even though it couldn't be always seen from his sad face. But one thing had started to bother him lately: it was alwaysKing Candy first pulling Bill to an embrace, always the first to kiss him and then giggling to his face. Bill had never made anything romantic spontaneously. He was afraid he's start to look forced in the King's eyes.
He wasn't even slightly good at it. His thick cocoon of unhappiness made him too nervous to show any positive feelings, even indirectly. To put it briefly, he was shy.
And then there was an another reason: King Candy himself. The one part of him that only Bill knew, and made his instincts freeze every time he thought about it.
Turbo-Tastic.
When everyone saw a hyperactive and bubbly candy king, Bill saw the thruth. And still... maybe it was actually one of the reasons he had fallen in love with his king. He felt that in the end, the king actually mourned over the dead inhabitants of Turbo Time. He had just twisted because of trying not to accept the truth that he had murdered two whole games, and instead trying to escape it. Fear had taken over him.
King Candy was clearly happy in Sugar Rush. He was at the moment living the phase when everything is well and you don't have to face your mistakes yet. Bill was sure that the king's overly joyful and fabulous nature -the complete opposite to his own depressedness, that warmed his inside in a way no one else was able to- was his own and not just acting. Why else would Bill have a reason to allow himself smile?
King Candy still slept, white hair behind his ears splaying because of rolling in the bed. He smiled in his sleep, and his calm breath felt cold and sweet on Bill's face.
Suspense made Bill shiver. Now you do it. If he wasn't able to do it to the king during the day, then let it be the sleeping king. He had postponed it too much.
He pressed a quick little kiss on the king's cheek.
Then he freezed from fear.
King Candy didn't wake up, however. "That trophy is just butterscotch", he muttered in his sleep.
It was over as quickly as it had happened.
Bill breathed heavily and told himself in his thoughts to calm down. His small little hands gripped the bed sheets.
Then he got again up and pressed an another kiss to the king's red nose, while brushing the same time his cheek with his green hand. The king's eyes lifted up a little at that moment, but Bill noticed it only after he had kissed him again, near the mouth. King Candy twitched, Bill looked up and realized that he was staring right into the King's round, confused eyes.
"Sour Bill?" King Candy whispered. "W-what are you doing?"
"My K-King!" Bill gasped and backed out a couple of steps. " I...I...er...I just..."
A deep green blush started to burn on his cheeks, and looked the other way from the king in embarrassment. "I...I just had to do it", he whispered so quietly that he almost didn't hear it himself, voice cracking from fear.
He heard a childish giggle for an answer.
Bill looked at the king confused, and instantly, King Candy pulled him up to his arms. Bill gasped for breath when he was pressed tightly against King Candy's chest covered in a pink -er- salmon- colored dressing gown. Then the king lifted him up to the same level as his face, so their foreheads were pressed against each other.
"King...King Candy", Bill stuttered, blushing hard.
King Candy grinned widely.
Maybe I'm just better at being that submissive side, Bill thought as the king slammed his lips against his own, sour-tasting ones. Then everything went foggy for a while when their mouths and tongued competed together in a fierce candy race. King Candy's lips were sweet like caramel, there could be tasted the spiciness of motor gas and an unknown, capricious bittersweetness. When their faces finally parted, both were panting and their cheeks were flushing - Bill's the most, because the king had made it to slip his hand treacherously to the bottom of his body, the space between his floating legs.
"Ki...King..." Bill gasped, eyes wet and half open, and hands gripping the bosom of King Candy's dressing gown.
King Candy gave him again his always so silly grin and laughed. "You're always so shy, Sour Bill."
And as he looked at the King's playful face and his happy but erratic eyes that were the opposite to his, a fragile little smile crept again to Bill's round face.
"I'm just more than your loyalest servant", he whispered. "Turbo..."
King Candy's smile faded, and he blushed in a way that couldn't be only because of arousement.
There was heard an electric crack, a blue light flashed, and for a moment, Bill saw a pale gray face and sparky yellow eyes that had been for years in need for real humane love, and not just worship from big audiences. Then it flashed again, and King Candy's face was again it its place.
"I love you too, Sour Bill!" he whooped happily and scrunched Bill up against his chest. He giggled loudly.
Bill didn't need to be even slightly a bit more of an imaginative person to know that this night he wouldn't be even a bit depressed.