Guardtale: home of King and Brick, two skeletons that are just trying to keep their young charge healthy, happy, and feeling like he's got a home...and in the process, maybe getting the same in return.
This wanted to be much longer,,,,I might expand on it at some point. Here’s King, performing his most important of guard duties.
Guarding against bad dreams.
“...King?”
King’s head snaps up. He wasn’t asleep, but the soft voice startles him all the same. He’s sitting in bed, Brick curled up at his side, head in his lap, hand up protectively over the back of his skull, and it’s at least somewhere near midnight so the castle should be very, very quiet.
But there Asriel is, standing in the doorway of their little add-on room, clutching at his Current Favorite Bear (a ratty orange thing) and looking absolutely miserable.
“Oh!” King catches himself after the first word, putting an extreme amount of effort into lowering his voice. “Are you - alright?”
Asriel nods. Pauses. Shakes his head.
Carefully, King untangles himself from Brick. He takes the time to slide a pillow under Brick’s head where his leg had been, and then joins Asriel at the door. As soon as King’s close enough, the little prince latches onto his legs.
King settles a hand on the back of Asriel’s head. “What is - the matter?”
“Bad dream,” says Asriel.
Oh. Well. King certainly understands that.
Carefully, he scoops Asriel up and carries the child back into the main room. He skips the bed and goes instead to the little sofa where the king sometimes (rarely, almost never) comes and takes tea with his son.
As soon as King’s sitting down, Asriel curls more fully into his lap, hiding his face in the front of King’s vest.
King says, “bad dreams are - terrible. Do you - remember it?”
Asriel nods. He clutches at one ear with his paw, nubby claws digging into it. The other arm keeps the teddy bear held close. “I don’t wanna talk ‘bout it.”
“Alright,” says King.
The response must startle Asriel, because he looks up at King with big, wet brown eyes. “Really?”
“I will tell you - a story. Instead?” He’s not the best story teller, but King does know all about bad dreams and wanting to forget, and Asriel is easy enough to entertain. King wasn’t asleep, anyway.
So he tells the little prince a story, and they both settle in and try to forget the things that creep in the darkest midnight hours.
“so,” says Brick, sitting down on the plush bed that they’ve been given. He runs his hands over the fabric of the sheets. It’s softer than anything that he’s ever touched before.
“Yes,” says King, agreeably. He’s still standing just inside the door of their little add-on suite to the prince’s chambers. The vest is an odd look on him, but a good one. Better than ratty tee-shirts and scrubs any day.
Brick gives a low, nervous laugh. “guess this means we’ve got...new jobs?”
“Guards. Very - interesting?” King raises his brow bones when he says it, like he’s not sure that’s the right word for the situation.
Brick understands that feeling big time. Interesting’s about the only word available for going from lab rat to prince’s personal guards in the span of one very long, very busy afternoon.
Interesting, and with no sign of it dropping back to boring any time soon.
“we’re going to play the quiet game,” says Brick. He scoops Asriel up, settling the little prince in his arms, even as he gives King a sideways look.
The taller skeleton is still sitting on the couch, looking like he’s only sitting up because it’s technically too short for him to lay down on. He’s digging at the split in his skull like that might make it feel better.
“I’m good at that game,” says Asriel, voice already dropping down to barely a whisper.
Brick raises his brow bones and pointedly clacks his teeth together.
Asriel smothers a laugh in Brick’s jacket hood. When he sits back up, he does the same thing with his own mouth, and then mimes locking it. Brick pretends to snatch the non-existent key and shove it in his pocket.
The little prince points towards his blocks. They have letters on them. Brick nods and carries him over, so they can sit down and stack out little messages together.
Brick and King are okay with staying in the Underground. Their world is one drenched in the grief caused by humans. A Queen who never leaves her chambers, forever mourning. A King blinded by rage over a lost child that he doesn’t remember the one he still has. Experiments done in the name of creating stronger monsters. A lost little prince alone and afraid.
Why would they want to see even more of what humans have to offer?
Brick is the one that Asriel goes too when he needs to be carried or held, or when he has a question that needs to be answered, or a boo boo that needs to be magicked away. It could easily be argued that Brick is his favorite (he’s not. asriel doesn’t play favorites).
But King is the one that goes on adventures with Asriel, and always knows which bear is his favorite, and King is the one that sits up very late with Asriel when he has a nightmare about Chara or the humans (asriel doesn’t know why, but king always seems to know exactly what it’s like to be so scared and sad).
just a little drabble I wrote up real quick to go with yesterday’s picture!
“Little one! Please – slow down!” King races after the little prince, boots slapping against the cobbled path. This part of the castle has gone unused in the last few years. Golden flowers keep out of the king’s oft visited but seldom tended garden, dark green vines curling out across the path.
Asriel cheerfully charges ahead, completely ignoring King. He’s in hot pursuit of a glowing butterfly which is, in fact, a very cool find! But also there are badly constructed ponds in this part of the castle!
That means it’s very much not a good place to someone to be playing, let alone for them to be running around!
“Little one! Please – come back! I will help you – catch the next one!”
Asriel calls back, “I got it!”
Then he jumps to try and catch the butterfly. The little glowing thing slips through his paws, and keeps right on going. Asriel hits the ground belly first, skidding along the overgrown cobblestones. His thick sweater keeps him mostly safe, but King’s Soul still skips a beat.
The prince has never gotten hurt on his watch. Even if he did, it’s unlikely that the king would ever find out. But there’s still that little trickle of fear at the back of King’s head – that little worry of what if it does happen, what if they send us back that he’s never been able to fully squash.
Asriel scrambles back up though. “Do ya see it?”
“Yes, but that’s – not the point! Little one, please stop running,” says King, exasperation leaking into his voice.
Asriel, utterly captivated with the bug, calls out, “oh yeah, I see it too,” right before taking off again.
King heaves out a breath. He knows it’s not really Asriel’s fault. You can only spend so many years sitting in one room before any excuse to leave seems like a good one, even if it gets you in trouble.
(he knows from experience)
But he’d still rather Asriel take off like this while Brick was watching him – and also, thinks King, not run directly at one of the ponds?
Which is exactly what Asriel’s doing?
This time, King goes after Asriel for real. Once he’s actually putting effort into it, King closes the gap quickly. He gives a single sharp bark of, “Asriel!”
And the little prince is so startled by the sudden firmness (and loudness) of it that he trips over the long legs of his pants and topples down onto the ground. King’s boot catches a slick stone when he takes what he means to be the last step...and in his own effort to not completely crush Asriel, he does a few awkward, one legged hops and lands directly into the pool.
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