A/N: I wrote this a while ago and keep forgetting it exists, so I figured I should post it now before I forget again. More movie than book based, fwiw, though it's an AU anyway; Miss Peregrine and Abe Portman are the rulers of neighboring kingdoms, and Enoch and Jake are their son and grandson, respectively. Also, somehow tell me how to properly search for fics shipping these four all together, because I refuse to believe I'm the first person to write it.
"Oh, look, here he comes now. Birds, he looks dull."
"Enoch!" someone hissed, but Prince Jacob couldn't tell who. When he entered the audience hall, everyone looked polite, even the boy he assumed was Prince Enoch.
He'd rather not have been Prince Jacob—he was really just Jake—but, unfortunately, this was an official day. An official event. The first step in a royal alliance.
To Jake, it was just the day he met the stranger he had to marry, and, judging from the whispers, neither of them was excited about it.
Their parents said hello with far more words than were necessary. Prince Jacob tried to smile at Prince Enoch. Prince Enoch smiled back in a bored, condescending sort of way. Jake thought it was a bit much coming from someone who looked like he hadn't slept in a year.
Among those flanking the prince, though, were two girls. Prince Jacob wasn't quite sure who they were (he'd thought Prince Enoch was an only child), but at least they looked friendlier. The red-haired one smiled at him—a real smile—and the blonde gave him a…well, a potential sort of look was the only way Jake could describe it. It wasn't a smile, but it wasn't dismissive like Prince Enoch's expression. She didn't know what sort he was, she wasn't going to like him until she did, but she would wait to hate him until she did, too.
Under the circumstances, Jake would take it.
Their parents wound on. Eventually Jacob and Prince Enoch were ushered into another room (almost a balcony walkway, with large windows; if Jake hadn't been busy squirming internally, he might have appreciated how stunning the view was) and left to get along. To Jake's surprise and relief, the girls stayed as well.
Jacob and Prince Enoch looked at each other awkwardly for a while, as the girls glanced from one to the other. The blonde one might have rolled her eyes before she finally asked Jacob,
"So, how are you enjoying our country so far?"
"I'm not dull," Jake blurted.
"Wh—oh."
Prince Enoch had the grace to look embarrassed. A little. The redhead giggled and instantly hid it behind her hand, delicate black lace glove masking her too-human mouth. Prince Enoch scowled.
"Well, prove me wrong, then."
And Jacob stepped forward and kissed him.
It was not planned—Jacob would never in a million years have planned that—but his insides were burning with something between annoyance and defiance and pride, and the look on Enoch's face was worth the fact that he was about to call off several years' worth of complicated political maneuvering.
The redhead giggled again. Enoch opened his mouth furiously, and she put a soothing hand on his arm. He glared at Jacob for a long, long moment, then yanked him closer with a fist about Jacob's collar. Oh here we go thought Jake, and then Enoch was kissing him, hard.
The very tiny part of Jake's brain that was not preoccupied with Enoch's lips bruising his and Enoch's teeth doing their fair share and Enoch's tongue shoving its way into his mouth thought, Well, I suppose that's better.
He finally thought to start kissing Enoch back. Enoch stepped away.
Jacob stood there, breathing a little hard, searching Enoch's face for clues, but Enoch's eyes were closed and stormy. Jacob looked at the two girls, uncomfortable aware they'd seen all that and he didn't even know their names. But a slow smile was working across the blonde's face.
"I…who are you again?" Jacob asked. (Not the most diplomatic phrasing, but he figured they were way past diplomacy now, and into something more exciting and a whole lot more confusing.)
"Emma," said the blonde. "And Olive." (A gesture at the audience hall.) "They'd probably call us chaperones, so Enoch doesn't do anything impolite."
She hadn't called Enoch 'Prince'.
"And what would you call yourselves?" Jacob asked.
And what should I call you?
Prince Enoch and Lady Emma (but she hadn't called herself 'Lady Emma', had she?) had an argument with their eyes over who would answer (and, by extension, how diplomatic an answer it would be), but Lady Olive simply took Prince Enoch's hand and said,
"We're part of the set."
She was nervous, but smiling. She reached out and Emma took her other hand. Prince Enoch's hand tightened around Lady Olive's, but he still looked like he'd never smiled in his life. All three were watching Jacob.
Jacob glanced from one to the other, fumbled for the right response, and gave up. Jake took Emma's free hand and bowed over it.
"I'm realizing that." He placed a kiss like a whisper on her cheek. "Nice to meet you, Emma."
He turned to Olive and kissed her cheek, too, then faced Enoch again. They'd all drawn into a group, so tight Jake imagined he could feel the heat floating off the lot of them. A breeze flowed through the wide windows, fluttering the curtains and gliding cool across Jake's face.
"Does your mother know?" he asked. "That I'm marrying all of you?"
Enoch laughed, low and sarcastic.
"No one knows. I wouldn't have told you, but the girls said it was a better option."
"Than you running away the night before our wedding?"
Enoch actually smiled, or at least something close to it.
"Something like that."
Jake took Enoch's hand, closing the circle. He did smile, though his head was still trying to figure out which way was up, and probably would be for a while.
"They're smart." Jake looked at Emma and Olive. "You're smart."
Emma smiled.
"I keep telling him that, but he's not keen on listening."
"I'm getting that."
Enoch scowled, but it didn't rankle Jake like it had. He thought he liked it better than the apathy Enoch had worn at first.
"So I guess we figure this out," Jake said.
"Mm-hm," Olive said.
"And we don't cause a diplomatic incident," Jake said, "Because my grandfather would be really disappointed, and your mom looks intimidating."
"She is," Emma said, though she didn't sound particularly intimidated. "So, yes, let's not do that."
Jake looked at the three of them. They were all attractive, but, more than that, they were…fascinating. Honest and mysterious at the same time, they drew him in like no one he'd met ever had.
He took a breath, and nodded.
"So, we get to know one another. All of us. Enoch?"
Enoch sighed and rolled his eyes, but there was a softness—never let it be said Enoch wore anything so horrid as a smile—about the corner of his mouth. Jake thought it suited him handsomely.
"Hi," Enoch said drily, making direct eye-contact with Jake. "I like dead things."
Jake blinked, and both girls started to scold Enoch—
Jake laughed.
"Nice to meet you."
