Vine was cold — a problem that had become a regular occurrence in the house. As wonderful as Prince Jazan was… he was a messy sleeper. Vine stretched and moved out of bed, pulling the blankets back over the still-sleeping Kyrii and Poogle, smiling a bit. It had been eight months. Life had never, in his whole life, felt so perfect.
The first month had been rocky. Aside from the fact that Vine had been majorly hurt, Jazan seemed convinced that they needed to be so secretive it was suspicious. Vine had played along for a while, but was unsure of how long he would have had to have kept it up had it not been for Kiko and her big, fat mouth. She had apparently told the queen, who told the king, who gave the crown prince some sort of giant speech, which apparently resulted in King Jazan deciding to move Vine into the royal quarters.
It turned out that fearing the King was a major nonissue. Nabile, Fyora bless her, had apparently already prepped the king for the whole affair. It turned out that Nabile had seen their growing affections long before they did. The king had actually been more concerned for Kiko, since she had been raised in the palace — raised with and by the royal family. The king was, honestly, more concerned about what it would do to the girl's emotional health to separate her from the family, and the king told them that that would be what happened if her father caught wind of their relationship.
Kiko's father had visited the girl maybe five times in her life. Prince Jazan wasn't even sure if she knew that he was her father. Like the rest of the royal children, she called the king "Father," and the queen "Mom." Vine thought Kiko knew that she wasn't actually a sibling, but he suspected that Kiko thought titles like "Father" and "Mother" were nothing more than titles like "advisor" and "prince."
Vine finished adjusting the blankets. When had Kiko gotten into bed, anyway? The two of them were trying to break the Poogle of her habit of crawling into Jazan's bed — or, Jazan was, anyway. It didn't bother Vine much. Kiko seemed to have a sixth sense that told her when she actually needed to stay away, and it usually was just on nights like the one before that she snuck into bed — nights when they would just lay awake, talking about nothing in particular, until one fell asleep. Vine suspected he had fallen asleep first, since he could not remember Kiko even getting into bed. Still, no need to have Jazan tell her she needed to be a big girl and stay in her own bed. He picked the girl up and took her to his own room, laying her in his bed. He then went back out into the main living area to see who else was up.
The queen was sitting at the table drinking coffee, looking like she hadn't slept. "Where's YOUR Jazan?" she asked, looking up from her mug.
"Still asleep," Vine replied, getting his own cup. "He fretted all night about leaving Nightsteed in charge of everything. Your Jazan up yet?"
"your Jazan" was an inside joke, usually not even uttered in the presence of the rest of the family.
"No," she muttered unhappily. "Hopefully he will sleep 'til it's almost time to go. Him and his checklist… It's driving me nuts. And, seriously, like we can't buy underwear and dental floss in Altador…"
Vine snickered a bit.
"It's not funny," Nabile said darkly.
"It's a little funny," Vine replied. "Anyway, how are you planning on keeping the insomniac asleep 'til three?"
"Same way I always do," Nabile said with an evil expression on her face. "It's how come I get no sleep."
Vine sputtered a bit and burnt the inside of his nose with scalding hot coffee. "Please… spare me… too much information, my queen."
Nabile shrugged and said, "Hey, when you come up with a better way to control them, let me know. 'Til then, I've had more experience dealing with them than you anyway."
Vine rolled his eyes and made a mental note to stuff Kiko's ripped dresses into a big bag. The ride was going to be long anyway, and it would give him plenty of time to work on the repairs. She had recently taken up swords, and her enthusiasm was showing in her clothing.
"What the hell are you doing up?" Nabile asked, looking behind Vine.
The king had appeared behind Vine. "Please, Darling, I don't make the same mistakes twice," he said. "I have been storing a bit of my magic every day since the last time you used that little trick. Like I actually don't have more self control… Sorry, your evil little plan failed, and I actually feel great. Good night's sleep, and a huge magic boost." He ruffled Vine's hair as he passed. "Now, pull out a notebook, boy; I thought of more things we needed, and the queen needs to go rest, because she looks like a zombie. So, Darling, by order of the king, go to bed!"
Nabile stood up as the king sat down. She picked up the newspaper and hit the king over the head, just a little too roughly for it to be flirtatious…
The king laughed and turned to Vine. "Okay. So. Pen. Paper."
Vine groaned inwardly, wondering whether or not saying, "I'm your son's assistant, not yours," would get him out of secretary duties.
Vine sipped his coffee and wrote down the king's instructions. This particular list was the ultimate sign of his micromanaging. Usually, the children were expected to help keep the royal living quarters clean, although Vine was pretty sure that he was the only one who ever picked anything up. However, since maids were going to be let in to clean, the king had decided to give them instructions, in minute detail, about anything even remotely pertaining to the upkeep of the quarters. Vine bit his comments back about, "These are the maids that clean the rest of the palace; I think they know how to do XYZ."
"Vine, I'm hungry," Kiko said, rubbing her eyes. She crawled into a chair next to the king and looked at the Zafara expectantly.
"Be right on it!" Vine said cheerfully, rummaging through the cabinets for her cereal.
"Cereal again?" Ata, the eleven-year-old younger prince, said irritably. Unlike his older brother — or, perhaps, because of him — Ata was not a cheerful person,especially not in the mornings.
"I'll make you eggs if you'd like, but we all need to be prepping to go, so nothing that is going to take a lot of work," Vine said, handing the Poogle her bowl.
"Whatever. Fine. Cereal," the Red ixi said.
The king was silently watching the two eat. Vine knew what the look he was giving was about. In technicality, Ata was now the heir. The court did not know — only Nighsteed, the king's closest advisor and friend, knew — but Prince Jazan had resigned from his position as heir. Vine still felt guilty. Did he actually need Jazan more than Qasala did? Would the prince regret giving up being king for love? even if his parents had actually encouraged it?
But, that aside, there was still the problem of Ata. He showed no great skill at being a ruler. He was thoroughly self-absorbed, and actually rather bad-tempered. The mixture was not nice (some even whispered of him having taken after his grandfather). He had no interest in history; he was strong in his magical ability, but did not have much patience to learn the correct ways of doing spells; the only princely thing he was good at was swords and hand-to-hand combat; and, at eleven-years-old, the king and queen worried that his personality was set. The only hope that Qasala had was if Ata married well, and the obvious choice was the Poogle girl who was being prepped by the court and kingdom to be queen anyway. She was already referred to in the tabloids as "the future queen." It would make the official heir change so much cleaner…
Vine sighed. He loved Kiko. She was probably the closest thing Vine had to family. Jazan was… well, Jazan. He was so many wonderful things, but he was not a brother. He did not feel like family. Well… he did, but not in the way that Kiko did. Vine hesitated to say it — knew that it should sound strange — but, over the last few months, he had begun to see Kiko as a daughter; and, as such, he had become almost overprotective of the Poogle. He had to remind himself that he was overprotective, or else the calculative look the king was giving the children would have probably resulted in Vine being tried for assassination of the King of Qasala with a spoon…
The next few hours were spent packing and prepping for the trip to Alatador for the cup. It was a major event for the royal family — one of the only events where the Qasala people were on equal footing with the rest of Neopia. Actually, the king always claimed that, "This year we will win it all." He did take pride in always beating Faerieland, anyway.
By the time that the royal family was packed into their seats, Kiko had already fallen asleep. She lied in Vine's arms as the carriage began its long journey to Altador. Vine nestled up against the now-exhausted prince, again feeling warm, happy, and content. He looked up to see the king smiling a bit.
"What?" Vine asked, not being able to look the king in the face.
"Nothing," the king replied, "you three just look like you belong together. I was worried at first. It was not that I thought you were seeking money or power, though — more that I was just worried that, being so unconventional, my son might not have been… happy, I guess."
"We are happy, Father," the prince said, already falling asleep, "and we do belong together."
"I know, my son… my sons. " King Jazan looked at Nabile sleeping next to him. "I am just glad that you two did not have to wait 300 years to meet each other. We will deal with the rest in time. For now, be happy. Take care of each other. At the end of the day, that is all that matters."