Chapter 2 - The Knight Family (Posted 12 February 2011)
A/N: This is just to say that I have another BTR fic going at the same time as this called "No Alternative" and it's Kogan. Also AU. Just wanted to put that out there in case you're interested :D
James followed cautiously as he was lead to the servant quarters. He'd never been there. And it was completely not what he expected.
There were no dirty children playing with dead animals. No crazy old folk hollering in gibberish. No dead bodies rotting in the halls.
It was actually quite nice. No foul smells. The children were clean. The old were in their rooms.
Challen, the servant woman, took James to a room near the middle of the hall. They walked in to be greeted by three boys who looked to be around the same age as the prince. One of them was holding an infant. He was blond, with bushy eyebrows and giant dimples. He smiled as he cooed at the baby in his arms, who was laughing.
The other two boys were also cooing at the baby. One had light brown hair and fair skin. The other had black hair and darker skin.
The three boys looked up when they heard the door open and saw the servant and the prince.
All their happy faces fell. "What is the royal brat doing here?" the one holding the baby asked.
"Kendall, we don't talk like that. About anyone." the servant scolded him.
"Yes mother." he said with a pout.
"Mom, what is the prince doing here?" the dark-skinned boy asked with disgust in his eyes.
"Yeah, who does he think he is, coming into our house like this?" the fair-skinned one added.
"Carlos, Logan, be quiet." Challen warned again, a little louder. "James is here because his parents believe he needs to be taught a lesson. One of you will be going with him."
"What? Why us?" Carlos whined.
"Because," the mother said, "everyone knows I have the best behaved children of all the servants. So polite and respectful. I'm so proud of all of you. It will be an honor for one of you to help the prince."
"So, which one of us goes?" Carlos asked, sending a prayer to the heavens to not let it be him.
"It can't be me," Kendall protested, "I have to help you take care of Katie."
"I was instructed to let James choose which one he wants."
"What?" all four boys, including the prince, exclaimed,
"I'm afraid so." Challen said with a sigh. "Since you must spend so much time with him, they at least wanted to make sure he has some choice in the matter.
The three brothers glared at James. He was appalled. That anyone could look upon him with such scorn and not be punished. It was madness!
"I'll not have any of these mongrels follow me around like a forgotten pet." the prince stuck his nose as high as he could.
"Good. None of us would ever want to waste a minute of our lives trying to help you." Kendall spat.
"James," the mother said in a gentle voice, "you heard your father. You must either choose one of my children to accompany you for the next few months, or give up all your rights to the throne."
"Fine." James seethed. "I choose... him, the one holding the baby."
"Great." Kendall said sarcastically.
Behind him, Carlos and Logan cheered, earning frustrated looks from Kendall, Challen, and James.
"Sorry." both boys said, and then went into another room.
"Mom, you cannot make me do this!" Kendall protested as his baby sister was lifted out of his arms. "I can't leave!"
"Kendall, I'm going to miss you like crazy, but we'll be fine until you come back. And you can still visit us once in a while. I have your brothers to help with Katie. We'll manage."
"But I don't want to go with him! He's rotten and mean and heartless!"
"That is why you are to go with him." his mother explained. "You are supposed to teach him to have a heart."
"I'm not a teacher. I'm just a kid." Kendall pouted.
"And I'm becoming extremely impatient." Prince James said loudly. "Come along, slave child, I'll show my parents I'm capable of running this kingdom, heart or not."
X
Kendall was currently sitting on the floor of the biggest room he'd ever seen. A few feet away was a large bed, atop which sat the Prince.
"So," Kendall said looking up, "are you going to talk to me or am I just supposed to sit here forever?"
"I'm too busy and too important to speak to you." Prince James answered.
"That was talking."
"No it..." James glared down at him.
"I'm hungry." Kendall observed out loud as he felt his stomach growl.
"So eat something." the Prince said lowly.
"What can I eat?"
James looked at him. What a ridiculous question! "What can you eat? You can eat whatever you want. The castle has everything and the cooks will prepare whatever you ask for."
"Not me, I'm the child of a servant. The cooks aren't supposed to make food for me."
Annoyed, James sighed and said, "Well, what do you usually eat?"
"Bread."
"Obviously. But what do you have with the bread?" James asked, wondering how vapid this boy must be.
"With?" Kendall asked as he tipped his head to the side.
James blinked in confusion. "Surely you don't just eat bread for a meal."
"We drink water with it. Sometimes we get leftovers from your kitchens, but I usually let Logan and Carlos have them. And of course any milk goes to Katie."
"Really?" James asked. Who only eats bread? And why would you give food to someone else? "You just give your food to your brothers?" He didn't believe Kendall. He must have been lying. Playing some kind of dirty trick on him.
"Of course. They're not as strong as I am. They need to eat more." Kendall said this as if it were the most obvious fact in the world.
"What about yourself? You need to eat too. Everyone needs to eat."
"Yes, but I'm not the only person that matters. I don't need as much as they do, so I let them eat as much as they want before I eat anything. They're important to me, so I do whatever I can to make sure they stay healthy."
"Why?" James asked as he didn't understand that concept.
"Because I love them."
"Yeah right." James crossed his arms. "You don't love people! You love your food and your clothing. You love possessions.
Kendall stod. "So that's why you're so spoiled! You think you can live life loving material items. Well, you're wrong. Love is about caring about other people and other people caring about you. You may love your golden statues and your imported rugs, but they don't love you back. And that's why you want everything, because you don't know how to care about anyone but yourself."
"Get out!" the Prince screamed as he jumped off his bed. "I will not allow myself to be bombarded with the worthless insults of a common servant child!"
"Fine! I don't want to play lackey to a conceited brat like you anyway!" Kendall screamed right back and ran out of the Prince's room.
Kendall looked around, trying to remember the way back to his quarters. He turned to go left, then looked right and thought that way looked more familiar. After taking a few steps, he glanced left again and thought maybe that way was right. He was lost.
Kendall tried desperately to remember which way he had come, but couldn't. He traveled down the hall and up the hall several times, seeing more turns and veering hallways. He always just headed right back to where he started, but soon enough he forgot where that even was.
And he was tired and hungry. He didn't have the energy to go wandering about. So he sat on the cold, hard floor, hoping someone would pass by and find him there.
A/N: Ok, so it might be a week or two until I update any of my stories. I'm not abandoning them or anything, but I just found out that I probably won't be able to afford to go to college, so I'm kind of at a loss for inspiration right now. I'll find my muse eventually, but I'm gonna take some time off to figure a few things out.