Hey I was wondering if you could write a snippet about a prince who finds out that, on the day of the wedding, the king he’s engaged to is his secret lover who he’s been seeing without knowing who he is. And the king is a powerful magician that allows him to travel to see the prince. Hello love you sorry I’m complicated
“Excited for the wedding?”
The prince looked up sharply at the familiar voice, to find the magician standing in their doorway. He had hoped the magician would come, even as the thought was a little unbearable.
The wedding loomed. He’d dismissed his servants, just for a moment to breathe before he had to head down and face his future. He was dressed now, anyway. There were only finishing touches to take care of.
“How can I be?” he replied, softly. “It means we-” the prince faltered. It meant they had to say goodbye. He wouldn’t do the King the dishonour of being an unfaithful husband after all. The King, from all the rumours he’d heard of the man, had done little deserve it. It wasn’t his fiance’s fault that he loved another. “I hoped you would come,” he admitted. “I wanted to say-” he faltered again. Looking at that handsome face, those eyes more recognizeable to him than his own, all of his carefully planned speeches flew out of the window.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
“I suppose he sent you,” the prince said, releasing a breath.
A small smile flickered across the magician’s face. “Yes. He wanted me to give you this.” The magician reached into his jacket, drawing out a lush white rose. “May I?”
The prince nodded, allowing the magician to step close and tuck the flower against his uniform. At least they would probably still see each other, if the magician worked in his new husband’s court. He’d have at least someone he could count on and knew.
The magician smoothed down the prince’s clothes, studying his expression. He must have seen something there. “It will be okay, Stefan. You’ll see. These things have ways of working out.”
“Don’t you trust me?” the magician asked. “It will be okay. You have my word.”
The prince’s head tilted, studying his lover. “Are you planning to enchant my husband or something?” He tried to joke.
“I doubt I will have need to,” the magician replied, eyes gleaming. “You’re more than enchanting enough on your own without my assistance.”
Damningly, heat still rose to the prince’s cheeks. It would be unproper, but…he surged to kiss the magician desperately. Rough, eager, hopeless. He was not married yet. He could have this one kiss, surely, for all that was worth?
The magician’s mouth tasted and felt like magic against his own.
The magician, his magician, made a noise of surprise against his lips. His hands rose, cradling the prince’s jaw gently in hot palms.
The prince kissed him until he was breathless, a tight lump in his throat. He was going to miss these kisses, sweet and electric all at once. Still.
“I’ve never even met him.” The prince had to laugh then. “God. I’ve never even met him. All these years, promised to a man, and I’ve never even met him. Okay - I know he sent you to me, and I’m grateful to him for that but -” But gratitude didn’t make a marriage. Then again, he was a prince. Marriage was not a thing of love. It was a good alliance. The King was even handsome; the magician had given him photographs over the years. Delivered a dozen messages. He should be proud. “It is a long way for him to come, I understand. I just wish-” he faltered again, again, again. “Sorry.” The prince closed his eyes, and couldn’t keep from leaning into the magician’s touch a little. “I don’t know what’s come over me. You must think poorly of my behaviour. He sent me you, that should more than vouch for his character. Please tell him thank you for the rose. I look forward to meeting him later today.”
“Your hands are trembling. You’re frightened.”
“You don’t need to tell him that bit,” the prince said. “I’d prefer to make a good first impression.”
“You could never make anything but.” The magician’s tone was so fond that it almost physically hurt, aching in the prince’s chest. It was something else too, that he couldn’t place.
He remembered the magician’s expression when the prince had first leaned in to kiss him, some two years ago, on a moonlit night not unlike this one. The magician had vanished for a while after that, saying he had to think.
The prince opened his eyes again.
The magician had the same expression now.
“I fear you’re going to be rather angry with me,” the magician said, rather hoarsely. “You see, I didn’t come here only to deliver you a rose. I meant to come earlier but - well, it’s been busy.”
Yes. The prince could only imagine, between assassination attempts and everything else going on.
“You came to same goodbye.” The lump in the prince’s throat grew. “I’m not stupid. I know. I know this can’t continue, even if your king - if my husband - is aware of this having happened. I didn’t expect - I’ve been trying to find the words. I had a speech planned.”
“Do you know why the King first sent me to you?”
“I assume he wanted to see who he was betrothed to.” The prince would have done the same, if he could. “That’s what you told me.”
“Yes,” the magician said. He stroked the prince’s cheek. “But there’s-” the magician stepped back. His hands were trembling. “There’s something else.”
The prince had never once seen the magician’s hands tremble. He was so powerful that the prince had assumed nothing really fazed him.
The prince blinked at him.
“This is going to come as a shock,” the magician said. “I was going to tell you - show you - after the wedding-if ever-”
“-You’re making me nervous.” He’d already been nervous. Now he had monster bats in his stomach. Dragons. Unslayable dragons.
The magician changed before his eyes.
The King stood in front of his eyes
The man he was supposed to marry today stood in front of his eyes.
The prince made a somewhat strangled sound and sat down dizzily on the bed.
“You - you’re - I-” You’re telling me this now?!
“Nobody knows,” the magician - the King - said quickly. “Kings are not meant to be great sorcerers. I didn’t expect -”
No, Kings were not magic. Nobody had said anything about the King being magic.
Bells struck through the palace. Footsteps sounded outside, servants coming to collect him.
“I think I’m going to pass out,” the prince managed.
In another situation, it would have been hilarious how the colour drained out of the King’s face.
“You should go,” the prince said. “It would not be proper for you to be seen in here, before the - er - wedding.”
“You don’t look okay. I should have waited until after. Take some deep-”
“-Don’t tell me to take deep breaths.”
The King shut up. He also closed the distance between them again, kneeling down and taking the prince’s hands.
Even now, it settled the prince in some strange way. The slightly too warm touch was the same. The eyes were the same. The expression was the same.
“For what it’s worth,” the magician said. “I had a speech planned. It got lost somewhere.”
The prince started to laugh. He leaned in to kiss the King, testing.
The King’s mouth tasted and felt like magic against his own.
The King cradled his jaw, gently, in warm palms.
“Go,” the prince said, shaking his head. “Before someone sees you. I’ll see you at the altar.”
They were going to have so many words about this.
