Chapter 10 - Nightmares

"Dirk?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think they're outside the castle again?"

"Even if they are, we can't worry about it."

"But… I have to go confront them sometime…"

"No, you don't, Jake. You can stay with me forever."

"If only it were that simple, my love."

Ever since the death of the king and the queen, controversy has broken out all over both Prospit and Derse. There were millions of questions to be answered. "Who killed them? How did they die? What are the princes going to do? Is the war over?" and most frequently of all, "What now?" That question was on Jake's mind, too. He and Dirk had been hibernating in Jake's room and received frequent visits from Dave and Jade. Jake would hold his sister in his lap and tell her it was going to be okay while Dave would try to cover up the fact that he was crying on the inside all the time.

On the good side of things, Dirk's wounds were getting better, and the poison is starting to fade away. The poison from the daggers caused Dirk to sometimes have visions of horrible things that didn't happen – like Jake or Dave dying in a terrible accident that he had to witness and couldn't do anything about. Dirk used to wake up with nightmares and crawl into Jake's room to snuggle with him. The visions and nightmares would often send him into a state of uncontrollable sobbing, and Jake seemed to be the only one who was able to calm him down.

Dirk's visions and nightmares have died down since he started taking a painkiller every day and had a shot done by the Prospitian Doctors to get the poison out of his blood stream. The blonde was still sleeping in Jake's room, but Jake didn't mind. They were together, after all. "Couple of the Century", Prospitian headlines read the day they announced it.

While Dirk, Jake, Dave and Jade were all recovering, the Royal Councils were reassembled to take control. If there was ever a problem, the Prospitian and Dersian Royal Councils would take care of it.

Aside from that, not much had changed except for the fact that Dave and Karkat spent a lot of time together. They roamed the gardens, ate meals together, watched movies, played games… Basically anything you could imagine. Jake was convinced that they were secretly dating, but Dirk was in denial.

One fateful day, the royal guard bust down the door to Jake's room early morning. Sollux was behind them, helplessly watching with his twin in purple standing next to him. Both Dirk and Jake sat up quickly, and Jake fixed his shirt in an attempt to look like a prince again. He was about to speak when the royal guard started.

"I apologize, your highness, but… You need to come with us…" One said nervously. The other took Jake by the arm and "helped" him out of bed. Dirk panicked and stood up with them, grabbing Jake's hand and pulling him back to him.

"He's not going anywhere." He rebelled as Jake tried to encourage him that everything would be okay. Dirk was so overprotective – and Jake liked that about him. He liked everything about Dirk.

The royal guard approached them again, frowning before taking Jake by his forearm. He pulled the Prospitian prince away from Dirk and lead him towards the bedroom doorway.

"Hey! You can't just-" Dirk was interrupted by the first guard.

"We're really sorry, your highnesses, but Jake just needs a moment alone with the council."

"Whatever they have to say to Jake they can say to the both of us!" Dirk hissed, stepping towards them again. Jake looked at his boyfriend with a sad smile, trying to reassure him that he was going to be just fine. The second guard peered at him before ushering a hardy "No." and closing the door on him.

And Dirk was left there, confused and worried about Jake. He quickly got dressed to sneak after them.

"Where are we going, guards?" Jake asked, walking in front of the two that were dragging him away from Dirk. He honestly felt as though he was being held prisoner.

"You and your sister have been charged with murder, Jake.." The second one said. Jake's face immediately fell. "You need to go confront the Royal Council with her, your highness."

Jake stayed silent and kept his head down. Now he really felt like a prisoner. He stepped into the throne room, which had been turned into the Royal Council's lounge. There was a long table where his grandmother's throne used to be (it was currently under a sheet in the corner) with a variety of Prospitian citizens seated at it. Among them sat Latula Pyrope, Aranea Serket, Porrim Maryam and Rufio Nitram, along with some other bright-skinned Prospitian people. Aranea was standing in front of the long table, confronting Jake's little sister. He quickly jumped next to her, staring up at Aranea with a hard glare.

"It wasn't her, I swear!" He hissed.

"It may not have been, you're right." Aranea countered. Her hands were clasped behind her back, and Jake spotted guards lined up against the walls from the corner of his eye. "DNA was found on the corpse of our dear queen, along with bullets in the stomach of the king."

"That wasn't the king! He was an imposter!" Jake hissed back. Aranea stared at him, and he paused, swallowing nervously.

"We can't prove that." She spat. "But there is evidence to prove that you, Jake English, killed both of them. Along with the DNA, the investigation team found your fingerprints on the two hand guns by the king's corpse. So, until further investigation…" A guard came up to Jake before he could react and grabbed a hold of his arms, locking them behind his back.

"H-Hey! This is all wrong! I didn't-"

"You'll be kept in a holding cell. We'll make it as comfortable as possible for you, sire." Aranea finished coldly. She waved her hand to dismiss the guards, who tugged Jake out of the throne room on her command. Jade began to weep and he heard Dirk's footsteps echoing down the hallway.

"Wh- JAKE?!" Dirk screamed, bolting after the guards. "What happened, babe?! What's going on?!"

"I've been accused of murdering the king and queen." Jake said quietly. His tears were now noticeable, making Dirk's brain pound against his skull and force him into another terrible vision. This time, he watched Jake be locked away from him forever. He cried harder than ever before because he feared that it was actually happening.

When he came back into focus, he found himself propped against the wall, holding his head in his hands and crying madly. Tears poured from his eyes as his brother tried to hush him.

"He's gone, Dave! They've taken him away!" Dirk sobbed. Dave wrapped Dirk in an awkward hug and stayed quiet. Dirk just hugged his knees until the golden castle fell dark and silent, the sounds of Dirk's weeps being the only thing that echoed through the corridors that night.