marlowemuses | I want to feel my heart pounding in my chest

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I want to feel my heart pounding in my chest

They'd made it sound like a scholarship at first, an honor earned from his intelligence and hard work.

Adam had thought that this was the ticket he'd worked so hard to earn, his entry to the capitol's university. He couldn't imagine what else would summon him--him, Adam Parrish, by name--to the palace.

The reality was baffling and frustrating. He'd spent the past hours being interviewed and tested by an array of officials and tutors who claimed that he was being considered for a position as the prince's companion. It wasn't a position Adam wanted, but everyone so far had emphasized what an honor it was, and Adam's polite, non-confrontational attitude toward authority was deeply ingrained. But he had his pride and his temper, too. He'd refused to open his mouth to let them check his teeth like he was a horse for sale.

After the fifth minister left, evidently satisfied with Adam's intelligence and ambition, Adam paced the room.

This had to stop. Adam didn't want to be here, and he didn't want to play babysitter to the spoiled prince of the kingdom. He had ambitions. He had his place in the university all but guaranteed, as soon as he could save up enough money for his entry. They could take their 'great honor' and stuff it up the prince's ass.

Diatribe ready, Adam whirled on the next person to open the door, ready to tell them just what he thought of their nonsense interviews. He wasn't anticipating a teenage boy his own age. Startled, Adam drew up short, dropping his eyes to the floor. This had to be the prince. And while the kingdom had advanced past the days of public executions, Adam knew that any of the royal family could ruin his prospects permanently if he displeased them.

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Being the middle child in a royal family was very different then being the eldest. He wasn't the heir to the thrown, he wasn't the curly haired baby to be fawned over. He was expected to be some kind of diplomat and what felt like a butler to his older brother, a good student, social. Ronan hated everything about it. He had no ambitions to be king. Or to involve himself in politics. And he despised every time he was stuffed into formal wear and forced to dance with girls at some ridiculous ball his father decided to throw.

To be honest he would rather spend his days wandering around the farms on the borders of the kingdom. Or following the path into the dark forest. His disdain for his position and what that demanded of him was starting to manifest in ways his parents would not ignore. The last time he got bored Ronan snuck out, stole a horse and rode into town. After sneaking into a pub he got very drunk and started a very big fight.

And now they think a friend will fix it all. That a companion will help temper his bad attitude and help him with his education. Not that he is stupid, he just hates his classes. Someone ambitious and studious is supposed to rub off on him. Regardless of his arguments Niall and Aurora had started interviews to find him a 'friend'. Feeling betrayed he had stormed off, shouting traitor at his beloved mother in his anger.

"None of the other kids have made it this far." He announced as he stepped through the door. Ronan didn't pause to wait for a bow or for the other boy to introduce himself. Broad in the shoulders and long legged Ronan looked the part of a prince. He wore black, embroidered in gold filigree patterns along the edges of the fitted jacket. The collar was high and stiff, on both sides a gold raven pin connected in the middle by a chain. Unlike his older brother he didn't look down his nose at the people around him.

Ronan looked the other boy over, sizing him up, his piercing blue eyes finding Adam's and staring directly at him. The first real thought Ronan had about him was that he had never seen a boy that looked like him.

"Then clearly they're going about these interviews all wrong." Adam tensed his jaw, glancing up to find the prince staring at him. Adam stared back, unwilling to yield to anyone, prince or no. He didn't want to be rude, but he wasn't about to dance for some royal prick.

Starving and dressed in rags, with a fading bruise on his cheek, Adam held the prince's gaze with ferocious pride.

"Maybe you're just not an idiot." That made the most sense to Ronan. If he had made it to the point that Niall had sent Ronan in to meet him, must had done something right. The King, unlike his wife, was never easily impressed by anyone.

Ronan stared at him for this very reason. To see if he would back down and look away. He could intimidate most people with nothing more than an unnerving stare. His eyes stayed on Adam's, not breaking away yet.

"Who hit you?" Small pause. "And why did your stomach make that noise? Are you sick?"

"I'm not sick," Adam said, disregarding the other two questions. He wasn't about to surrender any of his secrets to this spoiled jerk. He kept up his glare at the prince, irritated by the bold stare and Ronan's apparent desire to intimidate. Nerves fluttered in Adam's throat, reminding him that it could be dangerous to give offense, but Adam's pride wouldn't allow him to back down. "Do you just like staring contests? Why don't you get a cat?"

"Hungry?" Ronan's lips quirk into a lopsided smirk. The kind that might mean trouble. His brand of trouble often came in the form of barbed words meant to sting. In this case the quick insult would be about this kids face but Ronan didn't want to say something mean about it. Weird. "A cat?" He shrugs. "Don't like pussy."

He drags a chair over and flops into it, all legs and arms dangling like a puppet with the strings cut as he sat down.

"Got a name?"

"Adam Parrish." Adam's eyes follow him, unruffled by the dangerous smirk and Ronan's casual lounging. "Did you just come out to me? Is that what this is? Some kind of dating service for you?"

He stays standing in the middle of the room, since he hasn't been invited to sit and he doesn't intend to get comfortable here.

Ronan's face changes very suddenly. He looks angry. Brows furrow and his eyes are on fire. "Who the fuck do you think I am? Declan?" Rising out of the chair very suddenly it topples over.

"This?" He gestures to Adam. "Is nothing."

A dating service? As if he would need it. Or want it. Ronan wasn't the kind of guy. His brother was. Declan had a notorious reputation. Last night Ronan had to listen to his reputation at work with some girl Declan had snuck in last night.

Ronan snorted out a laugh and turned to leave.

Adam reeled at the dismissal, of yet another person calling him nothing, but he kept his mouth shut. He wasn't going to beg. He was going to prove him wrong, and succeed despite every asshole like this who had ever said that he was nothing.

Clenching his teeth, he watched the prince leave. So. He was free. This was over. If there were consequences, he'd deal with them.

Taking a deep breath, Adam headed for the door a minute later, expecting to be allowed to leave. But just as he reached the door, a tall man walked in, forcing Adam to step back or be run over. Adam startled as he recognized the king.

"Well done!" Niall praised him, all charm and mischief. "It's you, then. Pleasure to meet you." He shook Adam's hand while Adam gaped at him, patted Adam on the shoulder, and then swept back out the door, gesturing to one of the ministers as he reached the hall. "Have him taken up to Ronan's room. They can have dinner there. Get to know each other."

Adam stared after the king, not sure that he knew this wasn't a dating service for Ronan. He felt a bit like some kind of tribute being trussed up and sent to the prince's room. But before he could object, the king was gone, and Adam was being led to the prince's room. They pushed him through the door and shut it behind him while Adam was still bristling and figuring out how much defiance he dared risk at this point.

"Shit," Adam muttered to himself, trying to think his way through a completely bewildering situation.

A dreamer doesn't have to sneak alcohol. He has it hidden in plain sight in his room. What looks like a harmless carafe of water was a very fine vintage of Irish whiskey. Ronan had poured several gulps down his throat as he raged around his room.

Dating service. There was one thing that boiled his blood, being compared in any way to his elder brother. They were nothing alike. Declan would never need for their father to find him a friend.

His favorite place was in the middle of his bedroom floor looking up through the domed glass at the stars above. Head swimming in dream booze Ronan laid their now, hands behind his head, mapping the constellations in his mind. When dinner for two was brought to his room and set up on the table he didn't even bother to lift his head. Thanks were not kindly muttered to the servants.

Lifting his head he turned toward the sound of the cuss. "The fuck are you doing here?"

"Your father," Adam says, with a confused sigh, "approves of me."

His stomach is rumbling and he's exhausted from the day of interrogations, with this strange ending. He's too stubborn to try to hold out against his hunger, so he goes to the table to eat, taking a seat and pouring himself a glass of water. The water turns out to not be water and Adam coughs in surprise after his gulp of whiskey. Shrugging, he takes another drink of it and helps himself to the food.

"Of fucking course he does." Ronan stares from where he was laid out on the ground. He snorts a laugh when he coughs on the booze.

Waiting a few minutes the room utterly silent he finally pushes himself off the ground. Another glass was poured and he stabbed a piece of meat with a fork, stuffing it in his mouth as she sat down at the table.

"He approves of you and you don't want to be here. So why the hell are you?"

"I'm biding my time to decide whether I want to risk open defiance," Adam replied, eating hungrily while keeping an eye on the prince. He didn't like being alone in this boy's rooms. He didn't like what it implied.

"You don't want a companion," Adam counters. "So why are you being forced to have one?"

"He won't hang you for it. Declan would." Ronan dreads the day his brother takes the throne. It wouldn't be the same kingdom they live in now under his power hungry brothers thumb.

More food is heaped onto an actual plate and he starts to pick at it while continuing to drink. "Doesn't matter what I want. That's not how being a prince works." His words are filled with contempt for his position. "Let me guess. You're smart, right? Ambitious. You like to study and read and obey. That's why I'm being forced. So he can try to make me into someone I'm not."

Ronan pauses to take another drink. "That's why you're here right? To use to me make something out of yourself. It's not noble so you can lay off of me."

Disgusted by this spoiled prince insulting him, Adam pushes his plate away. "No wonder no one wants to be friends with you."

He heads for the door, then reconsiders. Safer to sneak out.

Since he doesn't expect Ronan to stop him, he goes to the windows and starts checking them to figure out which one offers the best route to the ground.

"Wow." He scoots back and watches as Adam heads for a window. "Really? Come all this way, tough it out through all their tests, and now you're going to jump cause I called you out?"

"I'm not obedient and I have no interest in using you for my ambitions. I can do just fine on my own. So if they're not going to hang me and neither of us want me here, why would I stay?" Adam picks his window and opens it. "See you around. Possibly sooner rather than later if your dad decides to have me dragged back here."

"You'll stay because it's an opportunity you won't ever get again. You know it." He shrugs. "And you didn't finish your dinner."

Typical Ronan. He could go from lashing out verbally at someone to acting like nothing had happened two second later. Nothing he had said was said in angry, just truth. At least the truth that he knows.

"If he decided you're the one he'll have you drug back before you can even make it home. I wouldn't risk the broken leg."

He takes another bite of food. "For the record, my father doesn't know....about that so trust me, this isn't some kind of dating set up."

"I'm not going to tell anyone," Adam says, leaning against the window. "And I can make my own opportunities."

He ducks out the window, bracing himself carefully as he calculates his way to the ground. "You coming?" he calls, and then starts climbing down.

Now this was interesting. Ronan didn't think he would actually go out the widow. He certainly didn't expect an invite to follow. Adam had his interest now, in more than his sultry eyes.

Ronan gulped down the rest of his drink. Of course he was going to follow. It was too tempting not to.

His long legs dangle over the ledge of the window and he follows Adam down to the bottom in silence.

Adam glances up and smirks a little when he finds Ronan following. Being a bad influence on the prince. His interest is piqued for the first time.

"Any idea how to get out of the palace grounds without getting caught?" Adam murmurs, staying close to him once they're both on the ground.

He glances to the side at Adam. A smirk plays at his lips. "Depends on where we're going." Before one of the guards could spot them Ronan pushed Adam back into the shadows. "Stay close to the walls."

"I'm not actually sure," Adam whispers, but he stays in the shadows with Ronan, following his lead. "I usually rebel by just studying unapproved topics. This part is new to me."

"Unapproved topics. Shit, man." Ronan leads them through the dark of the shadows to the back of the castle property. "Gotta be something you always wanted to do but never tried. Just climbed out of a window to get away from big, bad me. Think there's more to you than meets the eye."

"Plenty of things I've always wanted to do," Adam says. And one day he'll be able to do them. When he no longer has to work, and study. And babysit this prince.

"Okay. Like what? Don't make this difficult." Ronan poked his head around the corner. When it was clear he moved. "You jumped out of the window. Where the fuck were you going to go?"

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omg i hate when i see typos after the fact. i do know the diff between their and there.

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that icon is cheating.

he's unfairly pretty, it's true

ronan is digging the man bun. :)

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