#acourageouslife

[princejbenjamin]

It hadn’t even been a month since Jack and Joseph fled Gilboa and crossed the line to Gath. Gath! Maybe that was the reason Jack was so moody. He was now a citizen of Gath. It made more sense though. Crossing the border to Gath was a lot easier than hopping on a plane to leave the country. 

The two men fled with what they could carry and their life savings. Their goal was to start a life together. Jack gave up his title and his crown to start from the ground up with Joseph.

With their savings they bought a small farm, a couple of animals and plantations included in the sale. But it was small. The farm house was smaller than Jack’s hotel room, by a lot. And no matter how much they cleaned it always smelled like dirt. Needless to say, Jack wasn’t born for this life. 

“Joseph, I am never getting the eggs again.” Says Jack, carrying the eggs one of their hens had laid. “She bit me.”

His attention is pulled away from complaining when he catches the tv. It’s his father, talking about how Prince Jack has been missing. 

“Turn it off.”

[princejbenjamin]

The day had gone by way too fast and Jack had to head to the airport soon. They had spent the entire night and half the day talking about what they wanted their lives to look at back home in Shiloh. They didn’t want to sleep because they didn’t want to miss a second of each other’s company.

It’s Joseph that gives in to sleep first and Jack takes this as his opportunity to sneak out. He was no good at goodbyes and this was the hardest one. He quietly exits the bedroom and goes to get dressed in the hallway bathroom. 

He was fixing the collar of his military jacket and dusting off his shoulders when he heard the door.

[princejbenjamin]

The two men had been married for almost a year now. Jack had two more years of school left. Everything was perfect. They were happy in their small one bedroom apartment in the city. Joseph was working full time, Jack didn’t have to work because of his title but he did help keep the house clean and he helped with the cooking and such. It was the life Jack wanted with Joseph but couldn’t have in Gilboa.

Then one day he received unexpected news. There should have been a bigger emotional response when he heard his father had passed away but there was none. There wasn’t a single tear. Jack was more concerned about telling his husband he had to return to Shiloh to take his place as King of Gilboa. He was also stressing about the responsibility that came with the title. It’s one thing to dream of it and it’s another thing to actually live it.

When he heard the front door and his husbands keys hit the glass of the table by the door, he stepped out of the bedroom, standing in the hallway, looking at Joseph in complete silence.

[princejbenjamin]

“the pillow still smells like you… oh that’s a weird thing to say holy shit” (acourageouslife)

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“Come on, let’s make sure the smell doesn’t fade.”

[princejbenjamin]

“Jack, do you want to open another present?”

The Benjamin family tradition. Christmas Eve the family of four are seated around the tree much too big for a family home are sipping hot chocolate and exchanging presents. They had each opened one when Michelle asked Jack if he wanted to open another one.

Jack had seemed out of it the entire evening. He’d barely touched his hot chocolate and he was a fan of the stuff. His mind was elsewhere. He had made plans with his boyfriend Joseph and hadn’t been able to show up. Duty called and his family would get suspicious if he wasn’t there for this.

Snapping out of his thoughts upon hearing his twin sister’s voice, he shakes his head. “No. I’m not feeling well so I’m going to head off to bed. I’ll see you all in the morning.” He stands up from his seat and bows his head politely before heading upstairs to his bedroom. 

Once in the privacy of his room, Jack locked the door from inside and arranged for his bodyguard to pick him up about two blocks away. He slipped on his coat, grabbing Joseph's present, the small one, into the inside pocket of said coat. He couldn't possibly carry everything he had got him. A scarf went around his neck, a beanie hat over his head and then came the hard part: climbing down from his bedroom.

It was almost midnight by the time Jack made it to Joseph's apartment. The lights were off and he assumed the guy was sleeping. He felt like an asshole for not showing up earlier. Not wanting to wake him, yet, he let himself inside. He noticed the tree in the corner of the living room, not a single decoration up, the lights rolled up and placed on the couch. Now Jack had never done this before but it was worth a shot. He plugged in the lights and began to put them on the tree.  He was doing this with his coat and hat still on because it had been snowing and he was still freezing cold from walking from where he was dropped off to the apartment.

[princejbenjamin]

[text] IM NOT TALKING TO YOU UNTIL YOU MAKE A PROCLAMATION YOU LOVE ME MORE THAN TACOS (acourageouslife)

[text] …[text] make me tacos.[text] you don’t have to talk.

[princejbenjamin]

Continued from here with @acourageouslife

Being angry at Joseph was probably wrong. Knowing Jack’s family, poor Joseph didn’t even get a choice. But he could have told Jack. He could have said goodbye. Standing at the outskirts of the cemetery watching the love of your life be put into the ground was a traumatic experience. It had been years and Jack still wasn’t over it. This kind of PTSD was worse than what he got from fighting on the front lines because he loved Joseph and he blamed himself for the ‘suicide’.

Jack is just standing there, looking at Joseph, listening and trying to reel in his anger. It was taking every bit of him not to throw a punch or two. It was taking everything for him not to kill Joseph. He was already dead so what difference does it make?

“Get out of my sight.”

[xoliverxhamptonx]

☒ (acourageouslife)

@acourageouslife

29.

[text] It’s cold, you should come keep me warm