After the incident with Ja'far repeated itself five times in the next three days, Masrur decided it was time to try a new strategy. As much as he liked his room and his bed, he wasn't attached enough to go through that torture a sixth time. His idea involved finding a new place to sleep every night – and even every nap; why Ja'far felt the need to come at him between meetings was beyond him. It wasn't like Sinbad's palace was lacking in bedrooms anyway.
His plan had worked for the past two nights, and he had high hopes for it to continue working a third – really, being able to evade an assassin like Ja'far this long was a feat in and of itself – but when he walked into his new bedroom, the presence of a certain purple haired monarch crushed them. Masrur hovered in the doorway, debating whether or not he should find a different room, when Sinbad spoke up.
"Ja'far's ignoring me," the king whined. Drunk, Masrur realized. Sinbad was drunk. In his room.
With an internal sigh, Masrur entered the room and closed the door behind him with a click. It looked like he was going to be stuck babysitting the king instead of sleeping.
"I don't know why he's so mad. Obviously I couldn't take the two of you; I need you here to run my country. What if something happened and we couldn't get back? Could you imagine what would happen if I left Yamraiha and Sharkkan in charge? They'd probably burn the island down!"
Masrur grunted in response, and began stripping for bed. The king had a point; if anyone should be left in charge of Sindria it was Ja'far. He wasn't sure why the assassin was still mad; surely he'd figured this out by now.
"I even tried telling him that but he just got mad and nagged me about getting a wife again."
He could always mention something about a gray hair. Sinbad didn't have any, but he was constantly worried about getting old. It could work to get the king out of his room. …Or it could backfire and Sinbad would never leave out of shame.
The king fell backwards onto the bed. "And I'm so frustrated."
Masrur had a bad feeling about this. He left his shorts on and sat next to Sinbad without saying anything. Maybe if they got it over with quickly, he could get some sleep. He still hadn't caught up on all the sleep he'd missed because of Ja'far.
Sinbad rolled onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow, gazing at Masrur under lowered eyelashes. The Fanalis realized belatedly that he was being seduced. He'd often seen the king gaze at women – and sometimes men – with this same expression before, but he'd never had it directed at himself. It wasn't going to work the way the other hoped, and unless Masrur acted quickly he was going to be in for some useless foreplay.
He flopped onto his stomach. "Do what you want." It was as much of an invitation as Sinbad was going to get. The other let out a sound that might've been a squeal as Masrur buried his face in the pillow. All he could hope for was that the king would be faster than Ja'far.
He wasn't. And it was worse, because Sinbad insisted on talking. Perhaps the people he normally slept with enjoyed having him whisper in their ears, but Masrur didn't. He didn't need a play-by-play on what Sinbad was doing; he was there. There was no way he was going to fall asleep to this.
When Sinbad finally finished – inside him! – Masrur almost breathed an audible sigh of relief. Finally, he could fall asleep without being disturbed. He would clean himself out in the morning, right now he just wanted to –
His thoughts cut off abruptly as Sinbad wrapped an arm around him and snuggled into his back. What was the king doing?
"Cuddling. That's normal after this kind of thing." Sinbad answered, and Masrur realized that in his irritation he'd spoken out loud.
He took a few calming breaths and tried to fall asleep, never mind that he'd never been able to sleep when sharing a bed before. This was bound to be a long night. Sinbad passed out within a few moments, and Masrur found himself wondering how anyone was able to sleep in a bed with him; he snored terribly.
Masrur spent the rest of the night wishing Ja'far had been the one to find him instead; at least he left after he was done. As if the snoring wasn't bad enough, the king kept hold of him like some kind of teddy bear, tightening his grasp whenever Masrur tried to slip out. If Sinbad weren't so obviously asleep, Masrur would've thought he was doing it on purpose. He had to forcibly shove himself away when the king stripped him of his remaining clothing and started pawing at him in his sleep. He spent the rest of the night failing at meditating and hoping the idiotic fight between the two men would stop soon.
To his great relief, the silent treatment Ja'far had been imposing on Sinbad ended two days later. He knew it had because when he went to find a new room to sleep in, he wandered too close to the king's side of the palace and heard them. Masrur slept in his own room that night.
His relief was short-lived, however. The next night the king insisted on holding one of his ridiculously over-the-top parties, and Masrur was forced to attend. Normally, he didn't mind so much, but normally he got a full night's sleep every night. He would've snuck out early, but Sinbad had slipped wine in Ja'far's drink and now both the king and the assassin were drunk out of their minds. Who knows what kind of trouble they'd get Sindria into if he just left them alone?
"I'm thinking I'm going to name my palace something," Sinbad spoke to the eight or so women latched to him.
Ja'far set down his glass too hard on the table and wine sloshed over the side. "'S probably somethin stupid like 'Sinpalace'."
Sinbad looked genuinely impressed. "Exactly! You know me so well Ja'far!"
Ja'far nodded sagely. "You always name things after yourself. 'S stupid."
"Is not! My name's great. Everyone should be named after me."
Ja'far snorted. "That's stupid."
"No! Think of how great it'll be: Sinpalace, Sindria, Sinsea…Sinfar."
"You are not renaming me 'Sinfar'."
"Why not? It's a great name!"
"We have talked about this, Sin. You can't just rename people to stake claim on them."
"But we're not talking about people; we're talking about you! And the palace!"
"Masrur, the king is clearly drunk. Will you take him to his quarters?" Ja'far turned to him as he spoke. Masrur restrained himself from mentioning that Ja'far was just as drunk as Sinbad, if not more so.
Sinbad threw his hand out dramatically. "No Sinrur! I can't leave the party yet; it's just getting started!" Masrur's eyebrow twitched. Sinrur?
"The party has been going on for hours. The rest of the generals left ages ago. This wouldn't be a problem if you finally settled down and chose a wife!"
"But I don't want a wife. Why have one woman when I can have them all?" At this, the women latched to Sinbad let out a collective squeal and cuddled closer to him than they had before. Ja'far's eyebrow twitched, and Masrur figured it was time to step in.
"Many of the guests have already left and the bonfire is almost out. Perhaps it would be best if we all retired." Ja'far and Sinbad both turned to stare at him as if they'd forgotten he was here. Again.
"Right you are, Sinrur." Sinbad stood up, pulling the women with him. "And retire we shall. Right ladies?" They giggled and blushed. "You're both welcome to join us of course."
Masrur was saved from having to speak again by Ja'far. "No thanks. We have better things to do than support your continued attempt to produce the most illegitimate heirs out of all the kings. Come on Masrur." The Fanalis let himself get tugged along by Ja'far, ignoring Sinbad's cries of "Sinfar! Sinrur!" behind them.
By the time Ja'far finally passed out – on top of him of course – it was sunrise. Masrur had a feeling he wouldn't be getting much more sleep in his bed and slipped out without waking the other. He meditated in the courtyard instead, enjoying the silence that came with early morning.
An hour or so later, Sharkkan walked outside and practiced his swordplay. The sound of the blade whistling through the air calmed Masrur, and he found himself drifting into a dreamless sleep. He wasn't sure how long he was out, but when he was awoken it was to a bright sun and the loud yell of: "Get back here! I am not legally changing my name to Sinfar! How did you even get these documents made so quickly?!" Ah, well. The peace was nice while it lasted.
Next chapter: Judal