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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"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?"

"Back to my studies." Adam kept up with him carefully, and then bumped into Ronan when they stopped suddenly again. He was... enjoying himself. Even though he didn't have a plan.

Ronan turns back to face him. "The beach?" His head was swimming with dreamt booze. Heart thrumming from the rush of sneaking out. Not just sneaking out, sneaking out with the boy Niall thought could tame him. Ronan didn't want to be tame he wanted someone to join him.

"You have the rest of your life to study. Tonight we have this. C'mon." Grabbing his hand Ronan darted forward and drug Adam with him toward the stables to get a horse.

Adam clasped the hand, going with him, though he wasn't sure where they were going. The adventure was thrilling. He'd never done anything like this before. He'd never had anyone to do it with. "The beach?" he repeated.

Ronan had expected the other boy to resist. To tell him no and let go of his hand. When he didn't his heart surged with the promise of something more. Something new.

"The fucking beach." He said back in a hushed whisper.

Once inside the stables he sought out his horse. A large, sleek black stallion who looked excited to see Ronan.

Adam thought they were just taking a short cut through the stables until Ronan stopped in front of an enormous horse. "Oh, no," he whispered, feeling a spike of nerves that this was part of Ronan's plan. "I've never been on a horse. I can't ride."

"You just have to hold on." Ronan had been riding for as long as he could remember. His mother loved it and had started taking him out at a very young age. He was as comfortable on the back of this horse as he was his own two legs.

He made quick work of getting the horse ready for travel. When he was ready Ronan hauled himself up into the saddle. Looking down at Adam he held out a hand. "You comin'?"

Adam was deeply nervous, because the horse seemed huge to him, but he wasn't about to say no just because of fear. He took Ronan's hand, letting the prince haul him up onto the horse.

Expecting a spoiled, soft prince, Adam was surprised by the strength of him. Adam knew he was light, but it still surprised him how easily Ronan pulled him up, and how solid the prince's body was against his own.

Settling into place, Adam hugged his arms loosely around Ronan's waist.

Ronan worked hard even though Declan always reminded him that they didn't have to. He enjoyed being out in the stables with the horses. To the point that he didn't just ride them. Ronan helped haul their feed and groom them, trim down their hooves and take off the metal shoes. He enjoyed the ache that came from a day out in the barns working hard. That work had sculpted him and made him strong.

With Adam settled in behind him Ronan looked back over his shoulder. "Hang on tight." He had no intentions of taking it slow.

Dipping his head closer to the animals ear he whispered something as his elegant fingers combed through the long, black mane.

Adam tightened his grip, finding himself half distracted with terror at being up off the ground on a wild creature, and half distracted by the way Ronan smelled. It was a nice smell, and it made Adam's cheeks heat. He liked being pressed close against another boy like this, as they disobeyed expectations and headed off in search of trouble.

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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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