FebruarOC Day 1: Aiden
James woke to the sound of somebody knocking at his door. For a moment, he debated ignoring it or making it Will’s problem, but the decision was made for him by Will throwing a pillow at his head.
James grumbled but acquiesced to the silent demand and got up. He fumbled his way to the door in the dark and opened it just enough to see out without letting too much light into the room.
On the other side of the door stood Aiden, feathers rustling as he wrung his hands.
James took one look at him, then slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him. “C’mon,” he said, wrapping an arm around the younger boy’s shoulders. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”
“Okay.” Aiden nestled into James’s side and let James lead the way.
~
“So,” James said, settling down on the parapet. “What’s up? Or do you want me to guess?”
Aiden let out a huff of laughter, but his brief amusement vanished as quickly as it had arrived. In its wake, he took a breath and straightened up, the same way James always saw him doing whenever one of his parents came into view. Out of habit, James glanced around to make sure neither had suddenly noticed and decided to investigate Aiden’s absence before returning his attention to the prince.
“So, I’ve been thinking about some things,” Aiden started, his voice stilted and two wingbeats away from cracking and far too formal for James’s liking considering the circumstances, “and I—”
His voice broke, and Aiden’s feathers ruffled with poorly concealed agitation as he whirled away from James. “I—”
Another crack.
“Aid.” James reached out and brushed his fingers against flame-colored feathers.
The persona of the dutiful prince crumbled in an instant.
“I can’t.” The words left Aiden’s chest on a wheeze, his shoulders and wings rising to cover his face as he curled in on himself.
“Hey.” James moved in an instant, darting between white and orange feathers to catch Aiden as his legs gave out, making sure they both ended up on the ground with nothing worse than a mild bruise and ruffled feathers. “It’s okay. I’ve got you.”
Aiden’s entire body shuddered with each gasping breath he took, his hands finding James’s shirt to clutch at him with a white-knuckled grip. “I don’t think I can do this,” he rasped.
“Do what?” James asked.
“I—It’s—” Aiden stumbled over his words for a few moments. “Ugh!” His head thudded against James’s shoulder, his feathers shaking with his agitation. James said nothing and just held him close, allowing him whatever time he needed to find the words that sometimes seemed to escape him.
After a few long minutes, Aiden finally managed to relax his death grip on James enough to sit back slightly, his feathers going mostly still. “That,” he said, his voice still thick.
James tilted his head. “What about it?”
Aiden huffed, refusing to meet James’s eye. “I can barely even talk to you about stuff and…” He paused, his breath hitching again.
James reached out to take his hand, rubbing his thumb over Aiden’s knuckles.
Aiden took a shuddery breath, then continued. “I can’t… talk to people.” His fingers wrapped around James’s, squeezing slightly. “And I know Mother—neither of them… like it. And I’ve been trying to do everything right but I can’t and now the meeting is tomorrow and I’m supposed to be formally introduced and I don’t think I can do it and—”
Aiden stopped abruptly, panting in the wake of his words.
“Aid.” James squeezed his hand back. “You do remember you don’t have to do anything for the introduction except sit there and look pretty, yeah?”
Aiden gave James his best unimpressed look, which wasn’t very compelling considering he was still trembling and sniffling. “I have to make a good impression,” he said, his voice not quite whining but close.
James scoffed. “Again, sit there and look pretty, and you’ll be fine. Can’t do worse than the Second Princess of Water.”
“Doubt it,” Aiden muttered.
“She nearly doused one of the People of Flame, almost started a fight between Earth and Flame, and stole at least 20 different feathers from the Sky,” James recounted. “And still the general consensus is that she’s just a little too free spirited and not necessarily a bad person or princess or whatever.”
Aiden remained silent, almost a little sulky as his cheeks flushed with color.
“Or you could always go the route of the Heir of Earth,” James continued. “She never left her father’s side last year.”
Aiden huffed, refusing to meet James’s eye. “But what if that’s not good enough?”
“Good enough for your father, or your mother?” James retorted.
Aiden didn’t vocally respond, but the way he curled in on himself, his free hand twisting in the hem of James’s shirt again, was answer enough for James.
“It’ll be good enough for your father,” James said softly, brushing Aiden’s hair out of his eyes. “And we both know nothing but Flame is good enough for your mother.”
“I am Flame,” Aiden bit out, but his voice shook too much to get much venom behind the words.
“And Sky.” James brushed a few errant feathers back into place. Aiden twitched his wings out of reach, and James didn’t chase them down. “So, sit there and look pretty should win over just about everybody of importance,” he said. “Seems like a win for me.”
But even as he said it, James knew Aiden would disagree. He had watched the Flame Princess (never the Queen of the Sky) spark and snap and scorch Aiden for daring to be too much Sky in her presence, and he had watched Aiden continue to chase after her attention and an affection that seemed to have died the day he gained his wings.
To James’s surprise though, Aiden didn’t vocally protest. His feathers rustled and he refused to meet James’s eye, but at the same time something like resignation flitted across his face.
“Plus,” James said, determined to lighten the mood at least somewhat, “if things somehow go terribly wrong, we can always run away and live the rest of our lives traveling the world.”
Aiden made a surprised little noise. “You cannot be serious,” he muttered.
“I absolutely am,” James said, giving Aiden his best innocent smile. “No matter what happens, I’ll be here for you. I promise.”
Aiden hiccupped and threw his arms around James, burying his face in James’s shoulder.
James hummed and pressed a kiss to his temple. “Come on,” he said softly. “It’s a big day tomorrow, and you need some sleep if you’re gonna do your best sitting pretty.”
Aiden let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a sob, but he untangled himself from James to let him stand.
As James helped him to his feet, he whispered, “James, I—can—I don’t—”
When his words stumbled to a stop, James filled in the gaps. “Your room or mine?”
Aiden’s relief was palpable. “Yours, please.”
“Alright.” James wrapped an arm around his shoulders again, letting Aiden nestle into his side as they headed back to James’s room.
