"Have any threes to spare?"
"Go fish."
The man growled, extending a shriveled hand to the center of the table, picking up a bright pink playing card. Peppermint sighed and muttered, "You all stink at this game."
"Shut up," they answered in unison.
The prince frowned, narrowing his eyes and hissing to the hooded man on his left, "Got any fours?"
The figure swore under his breath and whipped out two cards from his gloved hand, forking them over to his leader.
Peppermint yawned, slapping his cards on the wooden table and causing everyone around it to jump with fright. "I win," he mumbled, sounding bored out of his mind.
"That's the third straight win in a row," another piped up in a thick British accent, "You must be cheating."
"How can you cheat at Go Fish?" Peppermint asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Fair point," a comrade of his with a red-laced hood said with a shrug.
The albino stood, stretching out his arms. "This is getting boring. I'm gonna head out." He whipped off his cloak, dropping it on his armchair.
"Wait," Red Lace said suddenly, "Have you told him yet?"
"Told who what?"
"Braco," they all said at once.
Peppermint frowned, furrowing his brow and flashing his teeth in a snarl. "Don't rush me," he spat, his face shadowed and giving off a dangerous vibe.
"You promised. It's been four days already," the Brit said, his voice wavering ever so slightly, "You have ten left."
"Shut up," he snapped, stalking out of the room. Before closing the door, however, he leaned in and said, "By the way, next Tuesday, we're playing War."
He slammed the door, running a hand through his hair and seizing a fistful of it. It seemed that every day the pounding and burning inside his eye worsened. No matter how many numbing spells he cast, it would always return after mere minutes.
He sank down against the wall, resting on the floor and groaning. He had to find a way to suppress the curse, or it would tear him apart. For such a low-caliber demon like Ogdoad, he really could cast a horrible spell.
He climbed to his feet and composed himself. There was much he had to do: plan tomorrow's date with Braco, order the kitchen staff to get off their butts and cook dinner, get the maids into gear and tell them to clean his room, get rid of the goat corpses they had used for the sacrifices earlier that morning…
Wait.
That was it.
He froze, his eye widening. What if...instead of trying to suppress the curse...he transferred it into someone else?
A grin alighted his pale features, and a mischievous chuckle escaped his lips. If he found another organism to pass the curse into, he would be free of his suffering and Braco would always be safe.
Plans whirled through his mind as he hurried down the hall, his footsteps growing faster and faster. He had to hide it from his precious fiancee, but if he did the job quickly, he would have nothing to hide. Well, besides his evil ways.
He entered his bedroom and immediately stopped in his tracks. Braco was still asleep, breathing softly and wrapped in the comforters like a cocoon. Peppermint smiled, slipping into the room and quietly closing the door.
He, as silently as possible, took off his heavy robes and cape, setting them on his desk. Once he was left in a tank top and shorts, he crawled onto the bed, laying down next to the brunette. The sugar crystals buried in Braco's hair were glinting in the morning light.
The yellow-skinned boy stirred, smiling and sleepily mumbling, "Hi, babe."
"Hello, darling," Peppermint replied, running a hand through the other's hair, "Sleep well?"
"Mmm," Braco replied simply, nudging his head into the other's touch, "I'm still drowsy."
"You're adorable, you know that?"
"Pssh," the other answered, playfully pushing away the other's chest. The albino chuckled, grinning from ear to ear, and pulled in the other to give him multitudes of kisses on the neck. The smaller man giggled and said, "Your lips are cold."
Peppermint's lips migrated from the crook of Braco's neck up to his forehead. "You're just super warm," he replied, smiling against the other's soft skin.
The blue-eyed man wrapped his arms around the other's milky white shoulders, his eyelids fluttering closed. "You always wake up way too early," he whispered, "This bed's pretty big for one person."
"Well, we'll sleep in as long as we want tomorrow," the prince responded.
Then, Braco stiffened. He sat up quickly. "What?" Peppermint asked, sitting up as well. If Braco was tense, something was wrong.
"I hear something," he muttered in reply, rolling out of bed and walking to the center of the room. He then faltered, staggering around and repeating over and over, "Head rush. Head rush. Head rush."
"Don't hurt yourself," Peppermint chuckled.
They fell silent, and sure enough, Peppermint heard a quiet tapping sound coming from the window. Braco moved slowly towards it and opened the curtains with snail-like speed. He then paused. "There's nothing out here," he mused, scratching his head.
"Could've been a bird or something," the prince yawned in reply.
To shock him out of his wits, there was the sound of shattering glass. Braco screeched at the top of his lungs, flying backwards to his dresser, from which he instantly pulled out a knife. Peppermint had no time to be proud of the fact that the brunette had used the birthday present he had given him. He launched himself out of bed, summoning two balls of blue flame that hovered dangerously above his palms.
A cloaked figure climbed in through the window, closing the curtains behind him. The two fiancees didn't move a muscle as the stranger pulled off his hood, revealing disgustingly teal-green skin and bandages covering half of his face. He slipped on a wide-brimmed hat and hissed in a low, grating voice, "Are you Prince Peppermint of the Seventh Nightospheric Council?"
"I renounced that title years ago," the albino answered coolly.
The other man smiled, looking as if the gesture was incredibly difficult. He stooped to one knee and said, "It is a pleasure."
Peppermint narrowed his eye, hearing the sarcasm and resent that tinted the other's words.
"My name is Peace Master," the man garbed in gray said, looking up at the other with one bloodshot eye. He glanced over at Braco, who was holding his blade with the skill of a swordsman. "This must be Braco," he purred. The brunette stiffened, his ocean-blue eyes blazing and heart racing.
The one called Peace Master chuckled sinisterly. "Your business undoubtedly concerns me," the prince said with unwavering voice, "What is it you came here for?"
"Honestly, my prince, couldn't you put on some proper attire first?"
The ivory-haired man's crimson orbs flickered down at his boxers and tank top, and he scowled. "If your matter is so pressing that you must ascend seven stories and break my window, then you will be fine with my clothing," he answered.
"Your guards said that they had sent for you, but I waited outside for an hour," Peace Master hissed, "When I looked inside a window, they were playing poker."
Peppermint rolled his eyes. "Forgive my servants."
"Gladly. Anyway," the green-skinned man mumbled, standing. He towered over the prince, at least a foot taller (and Peppermint was tall). "I have a proposition for you, Mr. Peppermint."
The albino cocked an eyebrow questioningly. "A proposition?"
"Yes, and really, everyone would benefit from it."
"Go on."
"You and your fiancee pack your bags and get out of this realm."
Braco growled, and the pale-skinned man's balls of flame expanded with a loud whoosh. "Surprised?" the broad-chested figure chuckled, "Well, you shouldn't have been. Ooo has been suffering ever since you came to power. This building was supposed to be burned to cinders for what purpose it served. You yourself lived here."
Braco's head turned in his love's direction, and he appeared confused. "What? You lived here? I thought you said you lived in the forest."
Quick as a flash, Peppermint conjured a sphere of purple mist, which he threw at his love's head. The blue-eyed man opened his mouth in protest before dropping onto the bed, fast asleep. "Sorry," the other muttered sheepishly.
Peace Master laughed, sounding like he was wheezing. "Oh, that's right! You haven't told him anything."
"Shut up," Peppermint spat, firing a tongue of flame at the taller's head. The green-skinned man stopped it with a shield of green light, which was emblazoned with a black crow.
The prince's jaw dropped. "That's the-"
He was interrupted by a counterattack: a large mound of green goop fired at his feet. He jumped up, but was not quick enough, and the gunk ensnared his calves. Peace Master instantly added two identical globs to the prince's fists, rendering him powerless. Peppermint loudly hissed a few choice words as his foe strutted casually towards him,grinning in triumph. "I'm sure you know what that is," the other wizard said coolly.
Peppermint stopped his struggling to flash a cocky smirk. "Sapping Sucker Ooze," he answered, "It drains power from an individual, and after the victim is dead or barely alive, the caster and user can retrieve the energy from the goop."
"Very good," Peace Master said, "And I'm sure you know what will happen."
"Of course," responded the younger, "but it's not what you think." With a seemingly effortless flick of his wrists, the sap melted off him like candle wax, puddling like water at his feet. To finish it off, he snapped his fingers and set it aflame. It evaporated almost instantly into a foul-smelling gas and spray of green sparks.
"Very good," his opponent mumbled, obviously surprised, "but you're obviously not what you used to be."
Peppermint growled, knowing he couldn't hide the sheen of sweat over his skin or his panting.
The caster looked quizzically at his face. "What are those ugly black veins?"
The prince groaned under his breath, feeling the curse snake over his other eye and forehead. "Wait, no. Don't tell me. I'll guess," Peace Master said, holding out a hand to shush him, "Ogdoad's curse."
"You obviously did some research," Peppermint muttered.
"But of course. I'm not one to go into a fight blind."
"Listen. I'm not feeling like a fight today," the red-and-white haired man said, "How about we discuss this later?"
"That's not what I had in-"
Before the other could finish replying, Peppermint had blasted him out of the window with an incredibly focused beam of red light, sending the other flying back hundreds of miles out of the castle. When he couldn't see his challenger anymore, he stopped his blast. With a wave of his hand, fixed the hole he had made in the wall and repaired the window.
His knees were trembling, and his entire body ached as if he had been in a brutal fistfight. With a groan, he waved his hand, waking Braco up, and sank to his knees, covering his black-covered face in his hands.
The brunette groggily sat up, shaking his head, before noticing the pale man lying, gasping, on the floor. "Oh my Gog, Peppermint!" he cried out, rushing to the other's side.
"I'm fine," the other wheezed.
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't quick enough, and...and he knocked me out," Braco mumbled, then paused. "Is your face okay?"
"Yeah," the prince answered half-heartedly.
"It's not." The brunette moved his hands to the other's wrists, lightly tugging. When they didn't move, he forcefully tore them apart, holding them down. He gasped. "Oh my Gog. Is that…"
"Braco, I'm fine," Peppermint muttered, feeling the veins crawling down to his neck and collarbone. The curse was taking advantage of his weakness.
"You should have never taken the curse from me!" Braco screamed, showing a rare moment of complete fury and horror, "Look what it's done to you. All that time saying that it's all fine, and that you got rid of it, you were lying!"
"Braco…"
"No! Stop. Just stop." The man's eyes were blazing, pricked with the beginnings of hot, angry tears. "I don't want to hear it. You're suffering because of me."
"Braco…," Peppermint began again, looping his fingers with the other's, "I'm fine. This would've torn you apart, I can handle it. Don't worry about me."
"Shut up," Braco hissed, standing and swiftly picking his fiancee up, half-placing, half-throwing him on the bed. Peppermint winced as the brunette snapped, "Get some rest. I don't want to talk to you right now."
"Wait-!" the albino called out, hearing the door slam. He slowly pulled himself to an upright position, then coughed, a dribble of blood trailing down from his lips. He raised a pale hand shakily to his face, a glowing light emerging from his palm. The magic seared through his insides, and he bit his lip as he slowly but surely began suppressing the dark force.
After what felt like hours, the veins finally retreated behind his eyepatch, and he collapsed backwards on the plush comforter, covering his eyes with his forearm. His vision slowly faded, and he fell asleep to a sinister whispering in his ears.
Braco.
Author's Note:
I just really wanted to include Peace Master in this story. After all, he is Peppermint Butler's "Nemesis".
My friend described Peppermint as the kind of guy who would "lovingly put his hand on your cheek, then slap it - hard - and stare you down, then snap his fingers sassily and strut away to go sit on Braco's lap". I agree with this.
Could it be that Braco isn't as pure of a cinnamon roll as we thought?
Thanks for all your love and reviews, and thanks to those who follow this story! If there's anything that you think would make the story better, please tell me. I would love to hear your feedback.
- Ci