Chapter One: Drunken Confessions

"Cheers!" shouted the InfiniteCity gang as they brought their mugs together in a toast with a clink and took hearty gulps of their ale. Prince thumped his already-empty mug on the table, wiping his mouth with his forearm while his face turned an odd shade of pink. Prince couldn't hold his alcohol, so already he was teetering over the edge of intoxication.

Lolidragon threw an arm over Prince's shoulders, laughing as she took a gulp of her own ale. "Congratulations on winning today's battle, Prince! We never doubted you," Lolidragon smiled drunkenly.

Prince chuckled and raised his mug in the air. "Another one over here!" shouted the drunken Prince with a hiccup. A gentle hand touched Prince's shoulder, and he looked up to see Gui staring down at him with worried eyes.

"Your Highness, I think you've had enough," Gui stated gently, urging Prince to leave before he made a spectacle.

"No, I haven't! I've just started! Leave me alone!" shouted Prince, downing another mug of ale as it came his way.

Gui softened. "Your Highness, you really ought to leave before you do something you'll regret in the morning."

It was then that Wicked chose to intrude on their conversation. "You heard him, Gui! Prince doesn't want to go!" Even through the drunken haze, Gui could see the rage smoldering in Wicked's eyes as he stared Gui down, which Gui returned with equal intensity.

Prince threw an arm over Wicked's shoulders, pulling him closer in an affectionate gesture that tore at Gui's heart. "See? He understands! Let's keep this party going!" Prince exclaimed loudly, to which everyone responded with a yell and a raise of their mugs.

A pained expression crossed over Gui's face, which gave Prince pause. "Prince, please. I just don't want you to get hurt," Gui whispered, loud enough for only Prince to hear. A strange feeling passed through Prince at the look on Gui's face, which only seemed to confuse him. Come on, this is just Gui being Gui! Prince thought to himself, shaking his head. But he couldn't ignore the hurt look on Gui's face. Sighing, Prince disentangled himself from Wicked and Lolidragon, stumbling over to Gui.

"Fine, you win. Let's go," Prince muttered, his cheeks red and his eyes bleary from alcohol consumption.

Gui instantly brightened and proceeded to march Prince out the door, much to the protest of Wicked. An evil little smirk passed over Gui's face at this small victory.


Later- much later, it seemed-after much stumbling and cursing, Prince and Gui finally managed to make it back to the Infinite Castle. The hardest part was getting the much-intoxicated Prince up the winding stairs, when all he wanted to do was lay down at the base and sleep. "Come on, we're almost there, Your Highness," Gui huffed, exhausted from half-carrying, half-dragging Prince such a long distance, and was delighted when they finally got to his living quarters and Prince was laid safely on his bed. Prince immediately snuggled into the blankets, which Gui thought was incredibly cute of His Highness. His heart warmed with love for the little elf, and he brought the blankets up around the elf warrior, worrying that Prince would catch a cold. And the hottest character in all of Second Life can't be catching colds, can he?

With Prince tucked into his bed and evidently fast asleep, Gui turned to leave Prince to his slumber. He was halted, though, when a hand shot forward and grasped his wrist. His heart jumped into his throat and he turned to see that Prince was holding Gui's hand firmly in his own, his eyes half-open.

"Gui…..don't leave. Please," Prince pleaded tiredly, his words slurred but still audible. Gui's heart threatened to beat right out of his chest, but he readily complied to His Highness's wishes. He sat by Prince's bedside, his hand still in the strong grip of the elf. He is so beautiful. Gui thought, his heart trembling in his breastbone. Prince smiled warmly toward the bard, and the simple gesture almost killed him. Gui urged his racing heart to quiet, without much success.

"Prince, did you need something of me?" Gui finally asked quietly when Prince didn't say anything or let go of his wrist.

"Oh….oh, wait. Where am I?" Prince slurred groggily, looking around the room with his eyes.

Gui chuckled. "We're back in your room, Prince. I brought you back here."

"You did?" Prince asked. "When did that happen?"

"I brought you home from the bar not too long ago. You had too much alcohol," Gui responded softly.

There was absolute silence for a few moments as Prince stared at Gui with those same piercing scarlet eyes that always seemed to shake Gui to the core. He inwardly trembled, and forced himself not to reach forward to touch Prince's ivory hair.

More silence. And then, "Why do you care about me so much, Gui?" Gui was taken aback by Prince's quiet question. It was so clear, not slurred in the slightest, and so outwardly random that Gui simply had to pause.

"What was that, Your Highness?"

"All I do, all I can ever do, is hurt you, and yet you still care for me," Prince slurred heavily, so much so that Gui almost didn't understand what he had said. "Why?"

Gui answered without hesitation. "Isn't the answer obvious? It is because I love you, Prince. I will always love you." Gui smiled at his handsome Prince.

A hurt, almost angry expression passed over Prince's face. "How can you love someone you know so little about? What if I'm not who you think I am?" Gui reached a gentle hand forward and brushed a wayward strand of hair out of Prince's eyes, stroking Prince's temple.

"Dear Prince. I don't care who you are in real life. Your gender, your looks, none of those matter. Because I know, deep down, that this, the person I see right here, is the true you."

Prince, unexpectedly, looked on the verge of tears, and swatted Gui's hand away. "God, why do you have to say things like that to me?!" Prince slurred angrily, turning in his bed so that he faced the ceiling with his hands covering his face. "Why do you have to be gay?" Gui nearly didn't catch what Prince had said, it was so muffled and slurred. But, after having time to process, he was more than a little confused.

"Prince, I don't understand what I did wrong. And what would it matter if I'm gay or not? We're both men, so wouldn't it be a good thing that I'm gay?" Gui tried to soothe. Prince didn't respond. He just lay there with his hands covering his face and not looking at Gui. A sudden thought struck Gui, and a sad expression crossed over his face. "Oh, this is your way of rejecting me, right? You don't want me to like you."

"No!" Prince replied adamantly, throwing his hands off his face and gripping his hair so hard that Gui worried Prince would pull it out by the roots. This made Gui relax in the slightest, even though he was still confused. "I care about you Gui, but I'm not who you think I am."

Gui sighed. "Your Highness, we've already gone over-"

"I'm a girl," Prince interrupted quietly, his words heavily slurred now as he edged closer and closer to exhaustion.

Gui's heart stopped, and he managed to choke out, "Y-Your Highness, you don't mean that. You don't know what you're saying." Prince shook his head, wincing at the nausea that followed, and stared Gui down with his bleary scarlet eyes.

"I do mean it, Gui." His voice was so heavily slurred now that Gui had trouble deciphering what it was Prince was saying. "I may be a man in Second Life, but not in real life." This really caught Gui off guard. He didn't know how to respond, what to think.

He's drunk. That's all this is. He's speaking this way because he's drunk. Gui tried to calm Prince down and get him to sleep off this sudden stupor. "Prince, you're drunk and tired. Maybe if you slept a little you'd feel better." Gui tried calmly.

"No!" Prince cried. "I'm not making this up, Gui," Prince slurred. Gui decided to entertain Prince for a bit.

"Ok, so if you're a girl in real life, how are you a boy in the game? I thought that was against the rules."

Prince answered instantly. "I was the first ever to log into Second Life, so the GMs granted me a special request. I requested a gender change."

Gui's mind reeled. "But….but why? Why would you want to play as a male?"

"Because of my stupid brother," Prince answered, pouting childishly, which, coupled with his red cheeks, looked super cute. "I wanted to prove to him that I could be successful in-game without relying on special favors from men because of my looks."

Gui had nothing to say to that. "So…this means….you're really a girl?"

"That's what I already said!" Prince slurred heavily, his eyes drifting shut. Gui leaned back, dumbfounded. Prince was a girl? But who? And how many people knew? Did Wicked know? And more importantly, who was Prince in real life? All these questions raced through Gui's mind, all of them racing forth to be answered. Gui finally opened his mouth to ask a question, possibly to ask of Prince's identity, but Prince had already drifted off to sleep….