"Vine looked at the six-year-old Poogle who sat staring at him. "You want — he gestured at the stern-faced child — "to be ready for a ball in less then a week?" he said, turning to the sixteen-year-old Prince Jazan, who was on his knees, begging with clasped hands.
"Father said I have to takespan class Jazan replied. "If I take her, it's just me taking my future wife to a party. If I take anyone else, it's a political skirmish. Not to mention the girl might do something in hopes of trapping me… come on! You're my best friend, and an amazing dancer!"
"The fifteen-year-old blue Zafara sighed. Jazan had a point. As the crown prince, his every move was watched. He couldn't sneeze/span/emspan classwithout someone panicking — mostly the girl, because she lived in a constant fear that Jazan would get sick again, like the last time when they thought he was going to die. And he was the best dancer in Qasala.
Vine tried to look at the girl as the enemy she actually was… well not enemy… more like rival… How long had it been? How long had Vine knew that he was broken? That he would never find love because… well…
"Please, be a pal!" Jazan begged adorably. "I need you to do this for me, your my best friend!
The Zafara could feel his will crumpling, but he held firm. "I said no!" the Zafara said, turning away."Fine," the sixteen-year-old crown prince of Qasala said, looking sad. "Fine… I'll ask Jema to go with me, I guess…"
"Vine sighed… best friend, huh? Well, of course. They were close, but Jazan was normal. Even if he was not, he was the crown prince. He had to produce an heir… there was no room for some fling that would never work… even if he could convince Jazan to try…
"Jazan picked the tiny red Poogle girl up and began to leave Vine's room, but the Zafara reached out to grab the edge of Jazan's robe as he passed. "You think of me as your best friend?" he asked.
"The Prince smiled adorably "What else would I see you as? You're like the brother I wish I had!"
Vine sighed. "Leave her… I'll see what I can do," the Zafara said, looking down to hide the tears threatening to spill from his eyes, dark brown hair flopping in front of his face… They were both boys… what else would Jazan see him as? What did he expect?
"So, what dance do you want to learn first?" Vine asked the Poogle girl, who was laying on his floor playing with a Werelupe plushie."
The girl looked up. She was cute, actually, with a short bob of dark black hair, large gold eyes, small and plump — like most Poogles — and dark red fur — a bit darker then most red coats… She was clearly of royal blood. But, because she had been raised by Jazan, she was, just… sweet. Lovable and sweet. It was hard to — no impossible— not to like her… despite how much the Zafara wanted to hate her.
"Umm…" The Poogle scrunched her face up, thinking. "One that will make my prince see me as a woman!" she said enthusiastically
"Girl, if I knew how to do that, we would not be having this conversation…" muttered the Zafara, looking unhappy.
"What's wrong, Mr. Vine? " the girl asked, setting her plushie away in a cave of couch pillows that Vine had embroidered himself.
"Oh, nothing, hun. Where did you even hear that?" he
"Hear what?" she asked absently, looking for something around the room.
"Where did you hear about making Jazan see you as a woman?" he asked"
"Oh, that… Lady Korra said that when she got in trouble for sneaking into Jazan's room naked. My king asked her what she was doing, and that's what she said… he seemed kind of mad." The Poogle said this as she started making a mote of a blue scarf around the pillow cave.
"What did Jazan say?" Vine replied, feeling nervous.
"Oh, he was not there," the Poogle said. "He was doing paperwork. He never sleeps in his room." She smiled, standing up to observe her work.
"Vine said, "If you don't add a bridge, your Lupe will drown, you know" he said.
The Poogle made a face and said, "He can swim."
Vine looked at the girl. He loved dancing. When he danced, he felt free. It was actually his dancing that had brought the Zafara into the palace. He did not know where he had been born, nor how he had survived what he did. As far back as he could remember, he had been used by the men that frequented the bar for whatever they wanted. Sometimes it hurt, sometimes he got gifts, but all the time he wanted to run. Then, one day, the bar owner had told the Zafara boy that if he learned to dance he could get off working in the night on the street corner.
If he learned to make the men throw him money, all he needed to do was dance. Vine had been taken to work with a bunch of girls for awhile. He learned to mimic their movements… learned how to seduce men. That was back when he was small enough to still look like a girl. Then, one day, one of the men had offered to buy Vine, and the bar owner had agreed
That night, the man had come and asked Vine to dance. Vine had obliged, and the man drank. Vine had enjoyed dancing. To him, dancing was freedom. If he danced, the men left him alone. They watched him. Undressed him with their eyes, but they left him alone. The man had then attacked the Zafara. Vine knew by then that if he fought, he would have lost… and, anyway, it hurt less if he did not fight. So he let the man fumble with his robe. Then, he stopped. His hands inside his pants, the man threw the Zafara boy across the room. Maybe it had been being knocked in the head that had broken him?
"The man had then sold him to some slave trader, who took him to a doctor who chopped off the offending signs of his gender and sent the boy to learn to sing. He was dressed in bright clothing, and made to sing and dance in the lowest bars, but at least the men did not touch him.
Then, King Jazan had started sending troops to raid the bars that were rumored to use children and slaves, and one of the people leading the raid had been a pink Ixi. She was the bored queen who had decided she wanted to help and had helped come and unlock the children from the shackles they were kept in when they were not dancing. She had taken the Zafara to the palace. He had been given a wage and told that, as long as he was good, he could be Prince Jazan's companion… and Jazan had been great. He was fun. He was kind. He was smart. He liked poetry as much as he loved flowers, he was fiercely loyal to his friends and family, and he seemed to actually want to take care of the people. Heck, he had, at ten-years-old, decided that he should pick a rich girl to be his bride and then raise her into a perfect queen, sacrificing falling in love for the sake of his people. That had been four years before Vine had come to the palace… and, for most of that time, Vine had known he was broken.
That he wanted nothing more then to switch places with the little Poogle girl.
He spent the next few hours attempting to get the girl to understand that dancing consisted of more then spinning around until she was a dizzy, giggling mass on the floor.
"No, watch me!" the Zafara groaned, standing back up and swaying his hips in time to the music. He allowed the music to move him, not even realizing that his dance had turned from a waltz to a seductive conversation about unrequited love. That was, until he heard the wolf whistle
"Oh, sexy man!" laughed prince Jazan, coming in.
"Vine opened his eyes, lowered his leg that was up next to his ear, and blushed horribly. "How much did you see?" he muttered.
"Enough to know why Mom said the worst men would eat you up if she let you back on the streets," Jazan replied. "Dude, that is not the kind of dance that can be done by men… or future queens… How are you even that flexible?"=
"Oh, shut up," Vine muttered. "I got… distracted…"
"More like absorbed," Jazan laughed. "Mom can do that too… she only does it for Father, though… and Father sleeps all the following day… and I have to deal with the court snickering all day…" Jazan sat down next to the Poogle, who had seemed to fall asleep. "What, did you bore her to sleep with your girly dancing?"
"Shut up," Vine muttered in return.
"Not surprisingly, Lady Kiko was not ready for the ball. She had been so excited she refused to go to sleep and was actually jumping around the dance floor saying she was Hopso.
"That's your work?" Jazan asked, approaching Vine, holding a punch glass.
"The Zafara rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. I also decided to dress her up in black robes as well."
"It's traditional," said Jazan, sticking his lip out in an adorable pout.
"its boring" the Zafara muttered in return. "She always looks like she is in mourning, or something."
Jazan laughed and said, "Yeah, probably. She looks so sad over there!" (she was hopping around the dance floor saying she was a Hopso)
"Dance with me, my prince!" the Poogle giggled as she sprang toward the prince.
Jazan bent down swung the girl into the air.
Vine watched as the pair danced, trying with all his might not to be jealous.
A few days later, Vine was walking through the market. He was unsure of what he was looking for. He only knew that he was looking for a distraction. It was then that he saw the man — the man that had owned him… but why was he out? He was supposed to be in jail with all the other horrible men that had been involved… Vine turned around, but not fast enough. He felt the shovel hit him in the head.
Vine was unsure how long he was out. All he knew was that it must have been a few days. The travel alone would have taken two days, and that was without stopping.
He could not understand most of what the men running the slave caravan were saying. He knew a few words of Sakhmet, but not enough to hold a conversation. All he knew was that the lot of them — there were about 100 — were being taken to the Haunted Woods to be sold to the highest bidder. He was tied up with the rest when he awoke, to walk to his future Hell with strangers. Some girls, some boys; children the age of Lady Kiko, mostly. Street rats trying to survive. Most were from Sakhmet, as far as he could tell.
These men were sick.
He hiked in the desert for the next few days, contemplating his mistakes in life. He realized that, at age fifteen, he should not have so many mistakes. Why did he have so many? He regretted trying to run the first time, when he had first been raped as punishment for running from his master's wife when he was supposed to be cleaning. He regretted thinking the royal family were a bunch of snobs and calling Prince Ata a little bitch on countless occasions. He regretted not treating Kiko better — she really was a sweet girl, after all. But, most of all, he regretted never telling Jazan how he felt. Why had confessing been so hard? The worst thing the prince would have done was turn him down. Jazan never hated people. No matter what someone did, he always forgave them if they apologized… even if they did not.
"Eat!" a gruff voice said with an evil joy. "We will be there soon. You will need your energy, prettyboy."
"Go fuck yourself," the Zafara replied, snatching the bread and water and receiving a good beating for his verbal rebellion. Vine knew his rib had been broken. And his leg felt bad, too…
"He lay scuffed up and bleeding next to the rock that barely shaded his body from the harsh desert sun. He could hear a girl scream. She was small — about Kiko's age — and plump as though she had been well-loved and well-fed before. She could have been Kiko. Vine wondered at his own strength as he stood up and began to walk toward the girl./
"Yo, ugly! How about you pick on someone your own size?!" he said, actually running towards man attacking the girl. Adrenaline, he decided, was amazing.
The Tonu stood up and lifted his hand, about to hit the Zafara with a hammer, when a blur of red and black jumped out, riding a white Uni. The world around Vine went black around the edges as he fainted./
He could hear Jazan… the girl would be okay… nobody could fight against Jazan and win. He may have been merciful, but he was a mage and warrior…
Vine woke up feeling a cool rag cleaning the blood from his face. "You're a mess, Vine," Jazan said softly. "What were you thinking, picking a fight with those guys? I thought I had lost you for a bit there… You know I'm no good at healing spells…"
Vine watched as Jazan stood up to clean out the water. He could feel bandages on his body. Jazan had always been irritated about not being able to use healing magic, and had learned how to bandage someone up and set bones and do stitches. He had even talked about going to medical school in Neopia Central or Brightvale.
Vine reached out, testing his hand. Stitches… but not too bad. He didn't actually hurt too much, so Vine supposed that the prince must have put some kind of spell on him to help with the pain. "Jazan," Vine said weakly.
The prince rushed to his friend's side.
"Sorry about this," Vine muttered, then grabbed the prince's robe and pulled him down to kiss him.
Several things went through Jazan's mind. The first was, "Guess Mom was right…"Vine is gay…" Shortly followed by, "Hell… my first kiss is with my best friend… Kiko is going to murder me…"
One other thing was pushing at the back of his mind… but this he chose to ignore. The fact that he knew how much bravery it must have taken the Zafara to act did not help with the ignoring of it, though.
Jazan said, "Vine, stop. You are hurt. You don't know what you're doing."
Vine gave a dry chuckle and replied, "I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm doing what I have wanted to do for years, but never had the guts to do… but you won't hit me if I'm all beat up. Taking advantage of your weakness, my friend… my love…"
Jazan turned away, smiling sadly, and said, "We can't, you know. We can't."/
"Yeah, I know," Vine replied, tears streaming down his face. "I'm broken… I should be chasing girls, not boys… I'm sorry… I can't control how I feel, though, and I regretted so much never telling you… I thought I was going to die without having said a thing. I know it won't work. I know you want to be with a woman… and Kiko will be a fine one, one day… she is very lucky… she does not know how much….
"It won't work…" Jazan said, his heart aching. "Can't work… but my supposed indifference is not the problem. Kiko is not even the problem, as I think that, at six, she would get over it. The problem is that I have to produce an heir; and, as amazing and talented as you are, I think that will still be a problem…
"Mom always said I was gay… I kind of already knew I was gay, but I just… ignored it, I guess. the only person i ever even had a crush on was you, though actually i thought you were a girl at first. told myself thats how it started. I love you, Vine. I don't know if that helps or hurts, but… if we are being honest, I need to say it."
Vine sat up suddenly… "Ouch!" he exclaimed, clutching his chest.
"Stupid!" Jazan gasped, rushing to the side of the Zafara. "What do you think you are doing?! You're going to hurt yourself!"
"Ignoring his pain, the Zafara hugged the prince with all his might and said, "Maybe we can try anyway…? We are young… we might break up, but we can try… enjoy today…"
Jazan pulled away, looking at the Zafara. Dark blue fur; bright, brown, tear-filled eyes; dark brown, floppy hair that covered half his face… it was not fair… and, what was worse was that Vine thought he was broken for being the way he was…
"We can try," Jazan said. "It might be wrong, and it might not last… but we can try…" He then pulled away from the hug, pushing his friend back down and kissing him lightly.