Hey people. Gah, sorry for taking so long for the next chapter. I ended up doing this thing where you move from the east coast to the west coast for college, and it turns out that tends to mess with your ability to write a bit. It's not even that I didn't have time to write, I was just so out of my normal routine that I couldn't. I've pretty much gotten over that now though, so we can have new chapter.
And I promise not to take forever for the next update either. In fact, I can promise (hopefully) that it shall be on the 23rd, for the one year anniversary (wow, this story does not feel that old at all).

Chapter 11 – Depths of Denial

No one said anything for a moment, instead just staring down at the normally haughty princess practically trembling on the ground.

Myrrha felt that both his heart and his ability to breath had just suddenly stopped. There… there was no way. This couldn't be right; Janan had to have made some sort of mistake. The palace was safe. There was no way their father could just die out of the blue like that. There would have been a single… some sort of warning. Anything.

"Liar!" Keane yelled, startling the other children out of their stupors. Processing what he'd said, the silver prince was a bit surprised to find that he hadn't actually been the one to say something along those lines first. That didn't stop him from instantly agreeing all the same.

"W-what?" Janan asked, as if she didn't understand what he said. Myrrha didn't bother to let the redhead explain himself, instead jumping in with his own reasoning.

"There's no way the king could be dead! Girls always lie!" he spat, what was probably the first time ever that he and Keane had actually been on the same side of an argument.

Janan's shocked face quickly contorted into a frown. Despite the fierce glare she managed to form, her anger wasn't quite as convincing as it normally would be, mostly due in no small part to the way she was still on her knees and the strange shine over her eyes that Myrrha definitely wasn't used to seeing.

"I'm not lying! Why would I lie about something like this?!" she yelled. The young prince found he really didn't have an answer to that. Why would something lie about something so horrible? Thankfully, or else he would have begun to doubt himself; one of the other princes quickly came up with an answer instead.

"For attention! That's what you're always after!" he yelled back. The hurt look on the girl's face managed to surprise Myrrha, but he quickly tried to ignore it. She had to be acting or something. She just wanted to trick them, and was upset that it wasn't working. The king wasn't sick or anything like that. The palace was safe, so there was no way someone could have broken in to kill him. There was no way for him to have died, so it just had to be a lie.

Before Janan was able to recover enough to attempt to defend herself again Myrrha felt Cooro pulling lightly on his sleeve to catch his attention. It worked, actually managing to startle the younger boy quite a bit. He was always forgetting he was there.

"Myrrha? I don't think she's lying," the crow +anima said softly. The silver prince could only stare at him for a moment, trying to figure out a way to explain to him that of course she was lying. He just didn't get it, because he didn't know how things worked around here yet. The people here were mean and they would lie about something like this just to get attention. And she had to be lying because something like this could never really happen.

Before he was able to actually get any of those thoughts passed his brain and actually vocalized he felt one of the other princes roughly push past him. By the time he was able to focus enough to realize it was Rida the brunette had already knocked Cooro to the ground.

"Shut up! What would a stupid slave like you know anyway?!" he yelled. Without even thinking Myrrha pushed the boy away from him, letting all of the confusion and fear inside of him to quickly transform into anger. It hadn't been quite hard enough to knock him to the ground like his had been, but it did manage to make him step back enough so that Myrrha could get in between him and Cooro again.

"Leave him alone! He doesn't have anything to do with this!" the younger boy ordered.

"Then make sure your pet keeps out of it then, got it?!" Keane said. This was what Myrrha was much more used to, being on opposite sides of an argument again. He wouldn't say that it made him feel better exactly, but it definitely felt more normal.

"He's not a pet! And why would you care what he says anyway?" Myrrha fought back, not even really paying attention to why he was actually saying by this point. He didn't know why he was focusing so much on this when there was still the issue of whether or not Janan really was lying about the king. It was just simpler to deal with this instead. It wasn't possibly so scarily life changing that he couldn't even begin to think about how he could deal with it.

It didn't seem like it mattered much what he wanted to focus on however, the sound of the palace alarm blaring out at that moment. The sound caused all of the boys to practically freeze on the spot, but Janan had finally managed to come to herself enough to scramble back to her feet.

"See? I told you! I told you I wasn't lying!" she yelled over the horns, still somehow managing to keep any of the tears coating her eyes from actually falling.

"B-but there's no… there's no way it's true…" Myrrha mumbled, barely able to hear himself over the blasting sound.

Once again, no one had any idea what to do for a moment. Behind him Cooro slowly got to his feet as well, although none of the royal children really took any notice.

Were they just supposed to stand there and wait for someone to come and tell them what to do? The blaring sound of the alarm was obviously trying to tell them something, but none of the children were quite in the right mind enough to figure out exactly what that was.

"Myrrha? I think we should go back to your room," Cooro said quietly, or at least it seemed that way when he was competing with the sound of the horns. Reluctantly the silver prince managed to nod, letting Cooro grab onto his arm and gently pull him out of the courtyard. He didn't bother to look back to see what the other royal children might be considering doing, instead just stumbling forward in a slight daze until the two arrived back into his room and the door was closed.

"Myrrha?" Cooro asked once again. The sound of the alarm was muffled quite a bit inside of the room, so he didn't have to speak as loudly in order to be heard.

The silver prince didn't say anything, instead sitting on his bed in such a way that it looked more like he'd just happened to fall that way.

Cooro didn't know what he was supposed to do. Should he even be here? Myrrha might just want some time by himself in order to sort out what had just happened. But if he left it might look like he didn't care about him, which certainly wasn't the case. Looking the younger boy over, he could see that his hands were starting to shake as he squeezed the life out of his blanket.

"I… I don't… It's true?" Myrrha asked suddenly, looking back over at Cooro. He sounded so confused, voice quivering as he spoke. His already huge eyes were opened so wide, shining brightly with unshed tears. It actually impressed Cooro slightly that the small boy had managed to keep from completely breaking down. Of course, that might be due to the shock of it all keeping him from fully comprehending what had just happened.

"Yeah, I think so," the black haired boy said softly, trying his best to keep from further upsetting his friend. Myrrha instantly started shaking his head though, closing his eyes as if in fear that his tears would start to betray him.

"N-no!" The prince yelled, quickly jumping back up to his feet. "It can't be true! Father… he can't just die! He's the king! Who's supposed to take care of the country if he died?!" he argued, although the anger and composer he was trying to give off was hindered greatly by the way his voice continued to crack.

Cooro just stared at the prince for a moment, unsure of what to say. He didn't want to make Myrrha anymore upset than he already was, but it seemed like anything he could say would just end up doing that no matter what.

"I'm sorry Myrrha," he finally managed to say softly. The silver boy just stared at him for another moment, before collapsing back onto his bed. This time, he wasn't able to keep the tears back, instantly starting sobbing into his blanket.

Cooro didn't know what he was supposed to do now, simply walking over to the chair and sitting quietly as he waited for Myrrha to calm down. He didn't know if it was rude to stay here, but he didn't want to be rude by leaving either. He guessed that the way the prince was now, he wouldn't really be upset either way, but he didn't want to chance it.

Periodically the crow +anima would hear sounds from outside of the room, but he didn't chance getting up to see what they were while Myrrha was still so upset. Eventually the horns stopped sounding, and after about fifteen minutes so did the boy's crying.

As quietly as he could Cooro crept over to the younger boy, quickly finding that he'd fallen asleep. Once again he heard a few people walking outside, and he decided to take that chance to see just what was going on.

Peeking his head out of the door, he saw a few of the guard ladies walking down the hallway. He'd never actually talked to any of the guards before, but he figured that right now they would probably be the best people to ask. Stepping fully out of the room, he quickly sprinted in order to catch up with the two.

"Um, excuse me?" he asked, catching their attention. They looked a bit confused at first, probably not recognizing him as one of the princes. As far as he'd seen, none of the other slaves ever came into his part of the palace, so they probably didn't expect him to be here.

"I'm Prince Myrrha's slave, he sent me to find out what the alarm had been for," he explained. Sure, that wasn't completely true, but he would tell Myrrha once he woke up. He was sure the boy would want to know too. Either way, the guards nodded before beginning to explain.

"All of the royal family is to stay in their own rooms until further notice. Everything else shall be explained once the palace is once again deemed safe. You should head back to the slave quarters after speaking to your master," she explained, Cooro instantly nodding.

"Alright, thank you," he said, quickly turning around to head back to Myrrha's room afterwards, leaving the guards to continue their patrol. He guessed they were making sure that none of the children tried to sneak out.

Or that whoever had killed the king didn't try to take out a few of the princes as well.

Once back in Myrrha's room he saw that the young boy was still fast asleep. He didn't think it would really be the best idea to wake him up just to tell him that he needed to stay in his room until they told him to come out.

The guards had said that he should go back to the slave quarters though, and he didn't want Myrrha to think that he'd just up and left him for no good reason. He was he that the silver boy would understand if he told him afterwards. He probably wouldn't even notice if he left once he woke up, he was such a mess at the moment.

Despite all of this, the crow +anima still found himself tip toeing as quietly as he could over to the sleeping boy. Taking a small breath, he began to shake his shoulder gently.

"Myrrha?" he whispered, the prince's eyes fluttering open slightly a few moments later. There were still streaks on his face from where his tears had run down, but thankfully no fresh ones were falling at the moment. He started to look around a bit in confusion, but before he was able to completely wake up the black haired boy started speaking again.

"The guards said that you need to stay in your room until it's safe to come out, and that I should go back to the slave quarters. I just wanted to let you know I was leaving," he said quietly.

He expected Myrrha to simply nod or something and go back to sleep. Instead the silver boy shook his head before collapsing it back down on his pillow, his voice coming out strangely muffled and horsed when he spoke.

"No… stay here," he said, surprising Cooro. The crow +anima cocked his head to the side in confusion at the request.

"Okay, I'll stay, but why?" he asked. Myrrha's eyes were already closed once again, and the boy looked dangerously close to falling right back to sleep. Despite this, he still managed to mumble out an answer to his question.

"I don't wanna be alone…" he said softly. Slowly Cooro started to nod, not very surprised by that fact as he thought about it. His father had just been killed; of course he'd be scared and confused.

The black haired boy's mind went back to his earlier thought about whoever had killed the king possibly wanting to attack some of the royal children as well. If that was the case, Myrrha was first in line for the throne, so he'd probably be one of the first people someone would come after. If Myrrha's mind had started to go down that road as well then he most certainly had every right to be afraid of being left by himself.

"Don't worry, I won't leave you alone," Cooro said softly, taking a seat back down at the prince's desk. Myrrha barely managed to nod, quickly starting to lose consciousness once again.

"Thank you," he mumbled into his pillow. Cooro couldn't help but smile slightly at this, despite all the horrible things that had happened so suddenly in just the last hour.

"You're welcome Myrrha."

Yay, this was surprisingly easy to write once I finally sat down to do it. Like I said, I shouldn't take quite as long on the next chapter, hooray for having a fixed date that I must force myself to complete. I really can't believe this story will be a year old soon though, that's just crazy.
Well, I hope you liked the chapter, and as always please review.