Friends
- Should I be jealous? -, Forde once joked.
Kyle had no idea about what he was talking about, so he turned towards him and he asked:
- Of who? -.
- Of Ephraim -.
- What? -.
- Should I be jealous of prince Ephraim? -, Forde repeated, smirking then at his friend flustered reaction.
- Must you always be joking? I don't have time for your nonsense -, he replied, and then he turned away, bringing his attention back to the training dummy which he started to torment again with his spear.
Little did he know that Forde wasn't kidding at all.
He would never tell him, of course, but whenever he thought about Kyle he always felt some sort of… longing for him.
They've always been together, as far as he could remember. They've always been a duo.
Forde liked it; there was no better person he would rather spend time beside. It was strange, considering how different they were, but maybe that was the reason why it worked so well.
He never understood why Kyle stuck with him nonetheless. Kyle, who was so chivalrous and uptight, Kyle, who was always ready to help an innocent, Kyle, whose body was so pleasing to the eyes and his face so pretty.
He never questioned it openly, though. If Kyle wanted his company, Forde wouldn't have refused him.
Sometimes he would convince himself that he had to tell him how he really felt about him; it was the right thing to do: Kyle deserved to know. But then he would remember how Kyle's eyes seemed to lighten up whenever he was speaking to Ephraim, how he would trot behind – or beside – him whenever he went, how, since they became knights, he was always "prince Ephraim this" "prince Ephraim that", and he would desist.
No, if he said anything he would put his friend in a difficult position, and he didn't want to.
Friends. They were friends and it was enough.
It wouldn't have been a fairytale ending, where the prince and the princess got together at the end, but their life had hardly been like a fairytale – first of all they weren't even nobles – so it didn't matter. He was content enough being as close to Kyle as he already was. He wouldn't have tried to win him over when he clearly had eyes for someone else; on the contrary, when Kyle was finally going to admit his feelings for Ephraim he would've been the first one to help him out with it.
Kyle might've been the object of his lust, but he was first of all his friend, and friends helped each other, just like Kyle did when mother died – he and Franz probably wouldn't be there if it wasn't for him.
Still sometimes, when he saw him and Ephraim talking in the distance, he couldn't help but to wish that he was the one Kyle looked at like that. It never lasted long, though; it was just a flash, and soon he would find something to occupy himself with.
He didn't like to have those kinds of thoughts; they weren't fair to his friend.
Drawing helped him to relax; as he traced lines on the canvas with the charcoal, creating shapes of all kinds and later filling them with paint, he would concentrate only on that, forgetting for a moment about Kyle and everything else.
Still, sometimes he still longed, and every time he had to stop himself before he went to Kyle and spilled everything he was keeping inside.
He had gotten good at that, by now. At that point he had accepted it, but he didn't mind, because at least he and Kyle were friends.
So, of course, when Kyle decided to kiss him out of the blue, he was surprised – but not displeased.
It was a warm night and they were walking through the courtyard, enjoying the summer weather. Forde doesn't remember anymore what they were talking about, but he remembers Kyle's hand under his chin, slightly lifting his head, and his lips on his.
- What? -, Kyle asked, once they parted, noticing Forde's baffled expression.
- You just kissed me -, Forde stated, trying to sound as calm as he could; he probably hadn't been much convincing, because Kyle seemed hesitant now, like he was regretting what he'd just done.
- Y-yes -, he mumbled, in fact.
Might as well cut directly to the chase. It was too late go back now, not that Forde wanted to.
- But I thought you liked Ephraim -, he said then.
- Prince Ephraim? No! -, Kyle replied immediately, - What gave you the idea? -.
"Everything" Forde wanted to reply, but he didn't say anything, instead he grabbed Kyle by the collar of his shirt and he dragged him into another kiss.
He felt Kyle's hands on his hips and he still couldn't believe it was really happening.
He had been wrong about everything.
He had grown accustomed to the idea of being just friends, but apparently fate had decided otherwise, that they were going to be more than just friends.
If he had known, he would've done something before, without having to keep it all bottled up for so long, but in the end he wasn't really in a position to complain.
After all, it's better late than never, right?