"Sir," asks the royal vizier, "lavender or...purple?" He is holding up colour splotches, preparing for the nuptials of King Sebastian and soon-to-be Queen Sondra. The king himself is sitting on his throne with his left ankle resting on his right knee and his chin in his palms as his elbows rest on the armrests of the regal chair.
"hmm..which one says 'I'm king and you're inferior to my power'?" The vizier looks at him, biting his lip as he holds up the dark purple splotch. Sebastian smiles, pointing to that. "Make streams of that go all around the room, and while you're at it, change the colours of the Bolton flag; the era of my father and brother are finished and it's time that I break away and have my own..."
"Yes sir," the vizier mumbles, laying the lavender splotch in the bag and tucking the dark purple under his arm as he went to the designer. Sebastian sighs, standing from the throne and scratching his backside and yawns. He looks around the huge room, stone; light and open...just like he remembered it as when he was a child. Something needs to change, he thinks; he looks at the stain glass windows.
Bright and cheery.
Those need to change; "Change the windows." He orders to one of the designers, "When my wedding comes 'round this eve I want an air of mystery-not blinding moon light coming through and deviating the attention from my bride." The designers mumble 'yes sir's' and work on. He smiles, walking around the big room and staring at random things.
"Your majesty!" yells a scraggly voice, he rolls his eyes as he turns to his oldest knight; McAddam. "I've got something for yer! This way!"
"What is it?" Sebastian sounds almost bored of the old man already-who is bubbling with the patience of a child of three locked away in a room full of sweets.
"Me and my knights and squires were patrolling the woods sir, when..."
"McAddam, I'm bored already so unless you're just going to droll on and on-"
"No!" McAddam practically yells, bowing quickly. "I swear! They're in the foyer-"
"Take them to my den...I'll see them in a moment-" Crash! The loud noise was followed by a loud voice swearing. Sebastian narrows his eyes. "You have them ...how are they bound?"
"Uh...we're just holding them sir-"
"Den. Now, I'll be there soon." McAddam nods, marching from the room and slamming the doors behind him. Sebastian sighs, running a hand down his face as he orders the women and men organizing the blasphemy of a wedding to work faster.
After he goes to the den.
"Hey!" Chad yells, "watch the dress!" he is thrown with the Troy and Gabriella in an overly comfortable chair. Troy-the prince-looks around as he's bombarded with memories.
Memories of his father, when he was a boy.
"What are you doing?" Jack asks, crossing his arms over his chest as a smile covers his face. 5 year old Troy looks down at his feet as he fumbles with his fingers, "uh..well...just playing king."
"You are huh?" Jack asks, his tone a mockery of all seriousness. The young boy in the kings chair biting his lip, looks down and nearly closes his eyes. "What's your first decree your majesty?" Troy looks up with bright eyes.
"Uh...well, my first decree is-"
"Stronger son." Jack says, kneeling in front of the young lad. "A king has a strong voice...like THIS." Jack lowers his voice and makes it BOOMINGLY loud. Troy giggles like the young lad he is as he nods, and he tucks his chin into his chest and speaks in the almost identical deep, altered voice as his father.
"My first decree is to make every day rain chocolate!" Jack laughs, grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill. "What are you doing?" Troy asks.
"Well...if you're king, and you're making decree's they need to be written." Troy claps his hands, smiling hugely. Jack bites his lip as he writes down the first 'decree' that his son issued. "And the next one?" Troy bites his lip in the thought before bouncing his chair, "Everyone must bathe regularly..." Jack chuckles, writing it down and then looking at his son as Troy shouts out another one.
"Food! It must be shared!"
"All right then, 'must be shared'..." Jack mumbles as he writes it down, "any more?"
"Hmmm..." Troy says, tapping his little chin. "well..." more thinking, then Troy smiles, "no chores for little kids! Only adults do chores!" Jack laughs, shaking his head as he feigns a shocked expression.
"Only adults?"
"Yep!"
"Troy, I don't know-"
"Write it! Write it!" He laughs once more at his overly excited son, and scribbles down the silly law. "It's written, is that all your majesty?" Troy shakes his head, grabbing the parchment from his father's hand and scanned it before dropping his jaw and glaring-as much as a five year old boy could glare- at him.
"There's nothing written on here...just scribbles." Jack laughs, picking up Troy and swinging him around the office and tickling him. He laughs loudly; neither notices that Sondra had stepped in and is smiling in the doorway.
"This is just...an adorable sight." The men stop and look at her, Troy's hanging over his father's shoulder; who begins walking over to his wife. Kissing her softly on the lips.
"NO!" Troy screams, "No kissing! Ew! Eugh!" he kicks and hits his father's back, but Jack and Sondra only laugh as Sondra takes Troy from Jack and places him on her hip.
"No kissing?" Sondra giggles, Troy crosses his little arms and nods. "Well then..Jack?"
"Love?" She waggles her brows at her husband before the both of them smooch Troy's cheeks; making the five year old react like any other and squirm in his mother's arms until he was on his feet again and rubbing both his cheeks from the kisses he had recieved.
"Ew!" his parents laugh.
"So..." Troy is snapped back to the present, his eyes darting to the door where the man he only could call uncle stands. His stomach and lips curl, his uncle hasn't changed; save for the crows feet around his eyes and the grey streaks running through his hair, he is the same as Troy remembers. Well, perhaps a tad bit more stocky. His eyes are black still-perhaps blacker if that's possible-his face is more pointed; like he hasn't eaten a decent meal in sometime. "It's you who my guards have brought...Gabriella; the betrothed to my son Perry-"
"I'm betrothed to Troy." Sebastian chuckles, "Stupid girl," he cups her face; Troy has an itching feeling to use his knife right now. "You are betrothed to my son-"
"Go to hell." Slap! Her head snaps to the left, Sebastian's hand print a red stain on her face.
"Learn your place if your smart..." he turns toward Chad, his eyes scrunching scrutinizingly, "a gender confused man? Why are you here?"
"Well..uhm...the dress is hers."
"Hers?" he points to Gabriella, "why are you wearing HER dress then?"
Chad clears his throat, looking Troy's uncle square in the eye, "I'm going to be completely honest with you," Troy and Gabriella snap their heads to look at the man with the busy hair. The man with the bushy hair whose wearing a dress.
"Go on." Sebastian eggs on. Chad sucks in a breath and exhales his speech, "I fell in the river in the woods, my clothes were soaked and Gabriella was the only one in the group kind enough to offer me dry clothes."
"And she'd rather waltz around in her undergarments and chemise?" He walks to Gabriella again, kneeling in front of her; cupping her face with both hands-forcing her to look at him. "You are a wanton in the making...well, Perry will have to be pleased about this fact, or...I can make you learn your lesson-"
"Don't touch her!" Troy yells, Sebastian abruptly turns his head to him and smirks as he stands up.
"Oh Troy...my dear nephew. What a surprise-"
"You want me? Why not just let Chad and Gabriella go?" Sebastian laughs, grabbing Troy by the hair and pulling tightly; Troy sucks in a breath as the pain from the force of the pull go through his skull.
"Because..." Sebastian whispers in his ear, "they'll go get help...I can't have that; it'll lead to my inevitible downfall." he tosses him back on to the chair, his voice speaking to all three. "You all will suffer the same fate."
"Uh...your majesty-ow!" Troy had kicked his shin, "what was that for?"
"Shut the fuck up, keep your mouth shut.." Troy whispers harshly, Sebastian shakes his head and places a hand over his heartless chest in fake disappointment. "Oh Troy, swearing? Your father wouldn't like that...he must so disappointed-"
"You don't say a word about or against my father!" Troy yells, about to stand up, but Gabriella grabs his arm and yanks him down once more.
"McAddam," Sebastian calls, turning on his heel to the elderly knight, he whispers in his ear. "take this crowd to the dungeons...and as for the girl, have fun." McAddam grins wickedly as he walks to Gabriella and yanks her up by her long hair; she screams as her hands wrap around his wrists and try to pry herself out of his grasp, but he holds tight. The other guards grab hold of Troy and Chad and roughly yank them from their chairs. When Chad and Gabriella were led to the hall, Sebastian grabs Troy by the elbow and pulls him toward him to see into his eyes. "You may have escaped 10 years ago Troy, but no matter...you won't escape this time."
"You want to know how much your worth UNCLE." Troy spits that last word like it's venom, Sebastian smirks, "enlighten me."
"You're worth...nothing. You were born a tired and jealous man, and that's how you'll die."
"Ha!" Sebastian barks, "I'm immortal! I'm king! I will never die..."
"At my hands...you WILL die." Troy yanks his arm away from the vile man, glaring at him coldly. Sebastian holds his glare, until the bastard himself chuckles like his lungs are made of stone.
"You disrepect your uncle so much?"
"No." Troy says, "I respect you, I just despise you so much."
"Should I feel honoured?"
"You should be paranoid and watch over your shoulder."
Sebastian snarls, glaring at his nephew, then he looks at the guards. "Take them all away. Now!" The guards nod with extreme vigor as the doors slammed shut and Troy and Gabriella and Chad are dragged down the hall.
"Oi!" Chad hollers, "I said, watch the dress, don't step on it! My mother lent this to Gabriella!"
"Chad..." Gabriella whispers, "please...shut up."
"How about you all shut up?" McAddam asks, well more so a request. Or telling.
They turn a corner, and walk down a corridor with paintings of landscapes and portraits of every generation of Bolton kings' lining every inch of both sides; Troy felt his throat close up when he see's a portrait of his father; steely grey-blue eyes with a half smile on his lips. The eyes seem to follow you.
"It's scary.." 5 year old Troy whispers, holding his father's hand. "Why do the pictures look scary?"
Jack laughs, "well...it's the way that the artist painted them..."
"He should learn to paint better." Troy says, sticking his chin up proudly. His father only laughs again, tousling his hair. "Maybe you're right."
"Daddy..." Troy says, grabbing his father's hand again and staring up at the paintings, "is my picture going to be up there someday?" Jack smiles, looking from the one bare spot on the wall next to his portrait then at his son and then to the wall again.
"Someday...but not any day soon."
How right his father was.
The dungeons were as bleek as Troy imagined when he was a boy. Dark walls with small windows that let in tiny amounts of light; anybody in a cell has to squint to see properly. The cells are tiny; 4 feet by 3 feet, five cells. And from the amount of dust in all of them, they aren't used much.
"Get in there!" McAddam growls, shoving Troy inside, then Gabriella-while very obviously squeezing her ass. Chad is the last one in a cell, "I said watch the dress! Come on!"
McAddam only shakes his head and goes back to Gabriella's cell, smirking like a fool and winking horribly. Gabriella shudders and hugs her arms around herself and looks away. Troy grabs the front of his cell and snarls at the elderly knight. "Don't...touch her! Stay away from her!"
"You have no jurisdiction.." McAddam snarls back, using the handle of his sword to slap Troy's fingers hard. "Ha!" he turns on his heels and marches out of the dungeons, the heavy door slamming and echoing through out the hollow space.
"Well..." Chad says, Troy looks at him-Gabriella's on the other side of Chad. "Don't say it could get worse Chad, it might..." Troy growls, Chad holds up his hands in surrender.
"Relax," Chad reassures, "I was only going to say...that men should wear dresses; their breezy."
"Go to Scotland. Their called kilts." Troy argues, looking at Gabriella on the other side, "Hey...Ella." she looks at him.
"Yes?" her voice is soft, she grabs the bars of her cell.
"I'm sorry.." he says, Chad's biting his lip; wishing he was somewhere else. "You were right...running is what I'm good at and I was wrong to run away. I was a lad, a young boy-"
"Troy..." Gabriella says softly,
"I'm sorry for the way I treated you-"
"Troy..." she repeats a little louder,
"And...I care for you. A lot."
"TROY!" She yells, he turns silent. "Thank you for admitting those things to me, but look at our current predicament...is now the time."
"In the dungeons? It's the perfect time." Troy says, looking into her eyes. Those big brown eyes that just make him want to grab her by the shoulders and drown her in his kisses.
"Troy..."
"What did you feel when I kissed you?" he says suddenly, Chad looks at him. "Eugh!" he plugs his fingers in his ears, Gabriella bites her lip.
"Is this hardly the time-"
"Please? What did you feel...when my hands were on you?"
"NOT LISTENING!" Chad yells, "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!" Gabriella feels a hot blush colour her face; she looks into his eyes.
"I...I wanted to ask for more, but...I was scared." Troy laughs, his face red. "You wanted to ask for more?"
She nods, a small smile crawling on her face; only it vanishes when the door to the dungeon's swing open and McAddam walks in and to Gabriella's cell. "You..." he growls, throwing open her cell door and grasping her roughly by the arm. Troy begins to feel sick, "Let go of her! Let go-"
"Shut up!" McAddam orders, "you heard the king! She's mine! I get to have fun with her!"
Gabriella bites her lip, "Troy..." she whimpers, "I'll be fine, I will...just focus on getting out of her..please, I'll be fine-ah!" McAddam pulls her hair hard as he drags her to the door, Troy reaches his arm out of his cell toward her.
"Gabriella, I..." He swallows, knowing that the next words that spill from his lips are the absolute truth. "I love you."
Gabriella feels her lips curl up in a smile, but with McAddam dragging her to the door quickly she only has a second to say, "I've always loved you, my brave prince. Always." The door slams shut, echoing throughout the dungeon's. Troy feels tears sting his eyes, he closes his eyes tightly to prevent them from falling but that doesn't work; they come and fall anyway.
He may have just lost the one person that ...his hands squeeze the bars of his cell, rattling them until his knuckles turned white and then raw. "Bastards! Don't touch her! I will fucking kill you! You hear me! I'll kill you with my bare hands!"
"Troy..." Chad says,
"don't lay a fucking hand on her!"
"Troy..." Chad repeats but louder,
"Fucking bastards!"
"TROY!" Chad yells, "Calm down...you heard Gabriella, she'll be fine; she's a fighter-at least I believe so...but we have to find a way out of here." Troy swallows, shaking his head and leaning it on the rusted bars of the cell. Chad sighs, "Troy...what do you think Gabriella is doing right now?"
Troy shrugs, but is smirking at the same time as he looks up at Chad, "she's kicking and screaming and using those long claws on her fingers." Chad smiles and nods, "exactly...now how do we find a way out of here?"