Robin Hood: One of our muses is an outlaw and the other muse is royalty. Both of them fall in love for each other.
Author’s note, this drabble will be coming in parts so not all aspects of the prompt with be necessarily fulfilled in this part.
It was winter time in the Kingdom of Arendelle, a snowy white blanket covering every inch of the large, busy kingdom. Inside the stone castle sat the young royal, prince Cas, along with his dear friend Lady Isabelle, who was currently whispering to him fiercely about the injustice of ladies needing to be dressed up in frilly dresses and corsets.
"It’s just not fairrrr," she whispered, her voice taking on a whining tone. "Pants are so much comfier and easier to move around in. You never see a man trip over his trousers, but you see woman tripping over the hems of their dresses constantly.”
Rolling his eyes, he smiled at his friend. “Isabelle, you are the only woman I have actually seen tripping over the skirts of her dress. Which is caused merely from your clumsiness, not the dress itself. Time to stop putting false blame on things.”
Gasping dramatically for affect, Isabelle brought a hand to her chest and shook her head vehemently. “Why Prince Cas, I would never blame an innocent dress for something I did. However, no dress I own is innocent. They always drag too long and drag against the floor where they purposely mess up my walking and make me fall. Plus, the corsets make it hurt to breathe. Mama always ties it far to tight for just in case I run into Blaise,” she sighed with a pout, thinking of a particular blue-eyed LeGume to whom she was promised to.
"If it helps make you feel better, Blaise is a good man," Cas said, hoping this would lift Isabelle’s spirits about the man a bit, knowing she wasn’t too thrilled about their engagement. "A little…awkward, but I mean…I’m awkward and you seem to love me."
"Well that’s because you are you, and Blaise is certainly not you,” Isabelle answered indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest, making Cas see that this conversation needed to end now or else it probably wouldn’t end for hours. “Escort me around the castle grounds?” she asked, though it sounded a bit more like a playful demand.
As he was about to answer, he got cut off by two of the royal guards walking over. “Ah, yes. A rousing waltz around the castle grounds for the thousandth time! Should be exciting, Princey,” Johnny teased, smirking at his friend before bowing for him, along with his twin brother.
"Johnathon! You can’t just address him like that," Ben hissed, glaring at his brother for a brief moment as he stood up from his bow. "I apologize on his behalf, your highness."
"Benji, come on. We’ve known Cas for most our lives. We’re allowed to call him by name," Johnny argued with a roll of his eyes.
"But we are his royal guard now. It’s improper,” Ben mumbled, rolling his eyes as well before noticing Isabelle. “Isabelle! Why is your hair down?” he asked, shaking his head, making his sister stick her tongue out at him and teasingly flip her hair over her shoulder.
Smiling as he watched his friends bicker, Cas stood up and offered his hand to help Isabelle. She took it and let him pull her up, then ran her hands over her dress to smooth it out, a habit her mother had imposed upon on her since she was young. Turning to Ben, he sighed. “Ben, Johnny is right, something I know you hate hearing,” he teased. “But you don’t have to act all…well…so proper…you won’t be dismissed from your position. You and your brother are the best knights we have here.”
Ben smiled a bit at that, and looked down.”Thank you, Your Hi-thanks, Cas,” he said. The knight’s posture softened, tension rolling off him as he relaxed to his normal self around his friend. “You were saying something about taking a walk around the castle grounds, we can join if you’d like.”
"They don’t want to walk around the palace. No, I bet our royal highness and little sister would prefer a trip to the village market…" Johnny trailed off with a sly smile, eager to get away from the castle.
Green eyes lit up with excitement, Isabelle jumped up and down with excitement. “Oh! Yes, yes yess! Cas wouldn’t that be fun?!” she squealed excitedly, looping her arm through the prince’s. “We always do the same thing! Lets mix it up!”
Cas hesitated before answering, knowing he wasn’t really suppose to leave the castle grounds. “I guess…I guess we can go. I mean, with these two as escorts I can’t see why there would be any problem,” he said, gesturing to the brothers.
"Yesss," Johnny cheered before reaching out and covering his twin brother’s mouth before the other man could make any protests. "Don’t be a buzzkill, Benji. What could possibly happen to Cas while we are with him?"
Slapping Johnny’s hand away, Ben glared at him. “Anything could happen. We could get separated, Cas could be grabbed, he could be stabbed or attacked, he co-,” he was cut off by Johnny covering his mouth once more. The taller twin was shaking his head in disbelief, unable to believe his brother could be so pessimistic.
Looking up at Cas suddenly, who was simply rolling his eyes at Ben’s comment, Isabelle sighed and began to worry. Not as much as her brother seemed to be worrying, but a normal, perfectly rational worrying that her friend, who happened to be the future king, could actually be in danger outside the castle walls. So not over-worrying like that worry wart Benji, she thought to herself. “Cas, you don’t think anyone out there wants to kill you…right?” she asked, trying to sound nonchalant, like it was a normal question to ask.
"Not to my knowledge," the prince answered honestly. To his knowledge, no one at the time was really angry with the royal family. "I doubt anything bad will happen to me. Everyone in the kingdom is happy, aren’t they?" he asked. The three Hawkins just shrugged, having grown up in a pretty sheltered and wealthy home having had a family line work for the royal family. Everyone they knew well enough seemed relatively happy and well off.
"Let’s get going before you two scare him into never wanting to leave his room," Johnny teased, turning to start heading off to the castle entrance. Ben rolled his eyes, muttering about how its perfectly fine to worry about things like that, while Isabelle shook her head and led Cas along with her as they followed her older brothers. They stopped quick to dress properly for the harsh cold that was outside, draping themselves in warm leathers and furs.
Emil shivered against the cold, his skinny body trembling violently as he tries to hug his raggedy blanket tighter to his body. Bright, yet sad, green eyes look up to spot his one and only friend, Busby, approaching. “Hey bu-buddy,” Emil said, teeth chattering and making it a bit difficult to talk. Reaching out a bony hand, a thin glove with holes scattered across the fabric, and petted the soft fur of his moose’s nose. Standing up and shrugging the blanket off, he carefully pulled himself up, using the tree he had slept against that night to keep him steady. Dizziness over took him for a moment and he stumbled forward and fell against Busby, who made a noise of concern. “Don’t you worry about me, Busby. I-I’m just-t hungry,” he whispered, resting against the large moose and trying to take some heat from the animal.
Finally managing to stand up on his own, Emil begin to make his way to the village market, shoving his hands in and out of his pockets as he moved, fear and anxiety filling his tiny body as his nerves all went on edge from what he knew he had to do. Just enough to last a couple days, he tells himself. Just gotta wait this…this cold spell out. Walking faster, he hears behind him the sound of hooves clopping through the snow. “Aww, Busby. Buddy, you can’t come with me this time,” he murmurs, stopping in his tracks and turning to look back at his animal friend. “You attract way too much attention. Just…just s-s-stay here ok?” The boy holds out a hand, signaling for the moose to just stay and wait. Busby listens, and sadly stays behind to wait for his human companion to return to him.
After making his way out of the woods, Emil walks carefully. He does his best not to stand out, which is harder than he would like. Having been a people person before his life had fell apart at the seems, it was hard for the young man to simply stare down at the ground and not speak to everyone he walked by. Oh how he missed meeting new people, making new friends, hugging people. He really did love warm hugs, especially on cold winter days like this one. A violent shiver ran though his body and he whimpered, wishing he hadn’t left the blanket back in the woods. Bringing his hands up to his mouth, he blew against them, trying to keep them from going numb. Can’t take what I need if I can’t feel anything.
Navigating through the busy village, the skinny boy made sure to avoid any market stand that might remember him. Not being the best thief around, he’d been caught many a time and was wanted, which made coming here very dangerous for him. Need to find a food stand I haven’t been to before…hopefully they’ll have some carrots for Busby.
Spotting two royal guards, people Emil had gotten good at recognizing and sadly they had gotten good at recognizing him as well, he stood frozen before quickly dashing away in the opposite direction, not wanting to risk being seen by them. Running as fast as he could without being too obvious, Emil barely paid attention to where he was going, too busy looking behind him. He was so invested in looking behind that he ended up running right into the solid mass of another person. “Oomphhh!” Emil groaned out as he connected with the other body, falling back and landing in an icy cold pile of snow. “Oh I am so sorry, that was all my fault, I wasn’t looking where I was going, so sorry,” he rambled out quickly. Glancing up to see who he had ran into, the blond let out a gasp as his eyes met with deep blue ones. So blue, he thought to himself in a daze, barely noticing anything else about the other man.
"A-Are you alright?" the other man asked softly, biting his lip nervously and staring down at him. Emil blushed, embarrassed by the whole situation. "I’m fine," Emil muttered, picking himself up off the ground as the man moved to offer him a hand up. Taking a good look at the man, Emil had to fight to keep his jaw from dropping. The man standing before him wasn’t dressed like any of the other villagers, his clothes too clean and nice. On his ring finger he wore a ring that Emil was positive selling it would feed him for weeks, maybe even months if he was careful with spending. Realizing he was pretty much looking this man up and down, Emil blushed harder and forced his eyes to travel back up to the man’s face. Oh…he’s cute. Smiling sweetly, he apologized once more, feeling bad as the other man seemed uncomfortable. Probably because you were looking at him weird, good job.
"You really don’t have to keep apologizing," the man said, rubbing the back of his neck. "It was simply an accident. May I ask…may I ask where you were heading in such a rush?"
"Oh! Nowhere really, was just…just trying to get away from something," Emil replied, quickly glancing around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. This man appears to be rich. Surely if I…I took a little something…he’d be okay, the blond reasoned with himself, shoving his hands in and out of his pockets a few times as he felt his stomach rumble with hunger.
Seeming to be confused by Emil’s answer, the blue eyed man just nodded his head and looked back over to the stand he had been visiting, who’s merchant seemed to be away. “It seems silly to leave your goods unattended,” he mused aloud, looking over the merchandise with interest. Stepping closer over to him, Emil looked on with him, mentally making a note for later to come back and see how often this stand was left unattended.
"Whoever runs it must be very trusting," Emil commented, noticing all kinds of furs and clothing he’d kill to have in this weather. Eying the other man out of the corner of his eye, he was surprised to see that the dark haired man was blatantly looking at him.
"Aren’t you cold?" the man asked rather bluntly, his blue eyes looking up and down Emil’s small frame. Feeling self-conscious, Emil hugged his skinny arms around his middle and mumbled, "I’m fine." The other man just furrowed his brows but didn’t ask anything else along that line. "My name is Cas," he offered, holding out a hand for Emil to shake. Cas…why does that name sound familiar? he thought to himself as he brought his hand up to shake the man’s. “Emil. Name’s Emil.” With a tight grip on Cas’s hand, he felt the ring and he swallowed roughly, thinking of how he could just take it. Beginning to shake nervously, Emil moved quickly, pulling his hand, along with the ring, off the other’s hand and quickly shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping his hand clenched tight on the ring. I did it! Oh god I did it. I should run, should I run? Oh god, he was nice to me. I shouldn’t have done this. Maybe I can slip it back on? He’s talking to me! What’s he saying? Pay attention Emil! Shaking his head to try and make his thoughts go away, Emil paid attention to Cas. The two chatted happily for a short awhile, the conversations simple and, but it came easy for the two. The whole while they talked Emil kept the ring clutched tight, the metal and stone digging into his palm and leaving it’s mark.
The blond let out a frightened yelp as suddenly he was jerked back by the neck of his threadbare shirt. “Whaa?” he gasped out weakly, heart sinking as he looked up to see one of the royal guards had him. “I didn’t do anything!” Emil squeaked out, his voice barely working as he was afraid he’d be thrown in jail. Who’d care for Busby? he thought frantically.
Cas had been enjoying the short while he had been talking to Emil. At first when the boy had run into him, literally, the prince had been a bit stunned, not really expecting or really wanting to talk with any of the villagers, he’d never been one for small talk…or just regular talk for that matter. Feeling bad when the younger man had fallen though he resisted his urge to just walk away and back to his friends, whom he had ditched when they began arguing over something frivolous, and stayed to see if he might need assistance. When Emil had just been staring up at him from the ground, Cas had wondered if it were due to the fact he stuck out in the village, knowing he hadn’t really dressed down for the impromptu trip.
He’d been confused by the blond, but for some reason, even though they’d only known each other for mere moments, Cas liked the smaller man. Something about him just seemed to draw him in and he just wanted to talk with this boy.
Enjoying what they had been talking about, he hadn’t noticed Johnny approaching, which showed how engrossed he was with Emil, it was almost impossible to not notice Johnny with his tall stature and large build. Seeing the blond being jerked back by his shirt made Cas frown and then stare up at his friend and guard with a mixture of confusion and anger. Soon Ben appeared, followed by Isabelle who hugged Cas tight. “Cassy! Oh we were all so frightened when you disappeared! Benji was saying we failed you and someone must have killed you!” she practically cried into his chest. Even more confused, Cas hugged the petite girl back and just shook his head. “This is clearly some sort of misunderstanding. I left you lot behind when you all started arguing and I didn’t feel like hearing it. I’d meant to stay in sight of you, but it appears I have failed to do so. Now release that young man,” he said the final part in a commanding voice.
Johnny however didn’t release his grip, just looked over the smaller boy’s appearance, taking in his dirty face and threadbare clothes. Ben took one look at the boy and then over to Cas. “Why were you speaking to some beggar?” he asked, disdain in his voice. Emil’s face heated with a blush and he looked down.
"I can speak to whomever I want to," Cas hissed, not liking how overly protective his friends were being right now. "Just…god Johnny. Let Emil go, now. That’s an order.”
"You’re on a first name basis with this dirty beggar?" Johnny asked in shock, looking between his prince and the young man he had in his grasp. His brother sighed and elbowed him in the side, silently telling him he needed to follow their prince’s orders. Rolling his eyes, he was about to do so when he noticed Emil’s hands were shoved in his pockets and that he hadn’t taken them out once since he’d grabbed him. "Turn out your pockets," Johnny barked out, releasing his grip on the boy’s shirt and shoving him slightly.
Cas’s eyes widened at that action, and after carefully moving Isabelle aside, he went and helped Emil who had stumbled and fell to the ground, catching himself with one hand. Once the boy was steady on his feet, he turned and glared at Johnny. “Was that necessary?" he hissed, not liking how his friend was treating Emil. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the small blond shaking and looking terrified, his frightened eyes dashing between the guards and the open space where he could run.
Crossing his arms and staring the boy down, Johnny didn’t bother answering his prince. “He didn’t empty his pockets,” he pointed out, looking down pointedly at where Emil still had one hand shoved in his pants pocket. Emil, still shaking, grew pale and shook harder, and looked down to the ground, mumbling something so softly no one could hear him. Cas grew nervous then, suddenly worried that Johnny did have a reason to act how he was right now. “Do as he says, Emil,” Cas said slowly.
Looking sadly up at Cas, Emil pulled his hand out, keeping it clenched tight in a fist. After a moment though he finally turned his small hand over and opened it, revealing Cas’s family ring. The prince stood in shock, looking at his own hand and feeling stupid for not having noticed it wasn’t on his finger anymore. Quickly he grabbed it and put it back on, keeping his gaze down and avoiding Emil’s eyes as the boy began frantically trying to explain himself.
"Please! I’m sorry, Cas I-I just-" Emil pleaded, but was cut off as Johnny grabbed him roughly by the arm and Ben stepping alongside his brother. "You don’t get to address his highness like that," Ben practically growled ansd Johnny muttered, "Fucking thief." Emil looked pleadingly over at Cas, but the prince avoided meeting his eyes.
Ben looked over the smaller blond. “I bet he’s the thief who’s been wanted for pilfering from the stands,” he said, looking to his brother. “Would make sense, he’s always been described as small and blond. And with what we’ve just witnessed…” he trailed off, letting his twin finish for him.
"…we can toss the dirty thief in the dungeons," Johnny finished as he tightened his grip painfully on Emil’s skinny arm, making the boy cry out.
The small cry made Cas look up finally, and he bit his lip nervously, knowing he really shouldn’t want to intervene to help the apparent outlaw. Isabelle had looped her arm though Cas’s once more, looking up at him as she could just sense he was struggling with something. Sighing, Cas spoke up. “Let him go.”
The twins and Emil all looked at Cas in confusion. Ben stepped aside immediately, listening to his prince faithfully. Johnny however stood firm. “Cas, you can’t just let him go. He’ll just go on with his crimes.”
"He’s right, Cas," Ben added softly, not wanting to question Cas’s decision but he agreed with his twin on this.
Isabelle just looked up at Cas, watching as he was looking everywhere but the three men in front of them. Noticing he was just growing more and more nervous and uncomfortable, she tightened her arm around his, hugging it pretty much, and looked to her brothers. “You heard what he said, just listen to him! If he doesn’t want the thief in jail, then let him leave.”
Johnny sneered but let go of Emil, shoving him down again and walking away. “Maybe we should head back,” Isabelle whispered, trying to lead Cas away as Ben ran to catch up with the other Hawkins sibling. Nodding his head, the prince looked back just once to see the blond boy shaking on the ground. Emil’s green eyes searched Cas’s deep blue ones, frightened eyes meeting confused ones. With a sigh, he turned and let his friend Isabelle lead him away, leaving the poor blond boy alone in the cold.
