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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"Trust me, they'll think I kidnapped you. My brother will make sure everyone believes it." He sinks down on the sand and and watches Adam light the fire. Ronan looks up at Adam. "You're pretty fuckin' handy."

"I don't know the first thing about sailing, though." Adam looks back at him, holding Ronan's gaze easily. He doesn't think that anyone would think him worthy of kidnapping, but he doesn't argue the point. "You'll have to teach me."

Ronan thinks he is worthy of kidnapping. A thought he will keep to himself, only trying not to make Adam uncomfortable with his flirting. He never found it so easy to say the things he wanted to say to someone. Maybe there had never been anyone he had wanted to flirt with before. "I'll teach you. For a price." He wiggles a finger at Adam, beckoning him to come sit. "I teach you something, you teach me something. Fair trade?"

"Fair deal," Adam agrees, and moves to sit at Ronan's side. He trusts him, which is surprising. Ronan seems straightforward and fair dealing, which are tricky traits for a prince to have, but they're endearing.

It's probably more than a fair deal, considering that Adam teaching Ronan things was precisely Ronan's father's goal, but Adam doesn't point that out.

"Good." Rona shifts so he is on his side, stretched out in the sand watching Adam. "So when do we leave?"

"Where's my boat?" Adam asks, by way of answer. He means what he said. He'd get on a boat right now, if it sailed up an presented itself. As it is, he assumes that Ronan will have to ask his father for a boat, or otherwise leverage his influence and money to acquire one.

"I can get us one." Ronan won't ask for it. He'll take one. Which makes it more of an adventure. "Which way should we sail?"

Adam has no idea where to sail. It’s not something he’d considered before. This is an all-new dream. “I’ll decide by the time you get a ship,” he promises.

He curls up on his side. He’s chosen this risk, this rebellion. Might as well take advantage of the opportunity to sleep.

Ronan turns on his side so he can look at Adam. "What if we could get one now? We're by the water as to be a boat around here."

His arm stretches out above his head and he uses it for a pillow. In the glow of the firelight he's opening staring at Adam. He's still a little taken aback by the shape of his eyes and his lips. "I've never seen anyone who looks like you."

Strange, strange compliment.

"What's your plan?" Adam asks. He smiles a tiny bit, because he's interested in their new scheme and he doesn't mind Ronan analyzing his looks. He keeps his eyes closed. "Steal a boat or wake up some poor fisherman and buy it?"

Ronan pushes a strand of Adam's hair off his face carefully with his index finger. "Well. I think if I throw money at this problem you would be bugged. But enticed by someone like me doing something like stealing."

Adam's eyes flick open, but he doesn't object to the touch. He's not used to gentle, careful touches like this.

He has to think about how he feels about Ronan stealing a boat. He doesn't like Ronan buying it with his father's money, like it's nothing, or using his title to commandeer it. Adam's never stolen anything in his life. He prefers earning things honestly. Taking things and breaking rules isn't necessarily against his moral code, but taking things that other people earned with hard work is.

"I suppose it depends on what we're stealing and from whom."

"What if we're stealing it from my dreams?" His fingers slowly drift to the end of that strand of hair. It's so long. Ronan is thinking about how sliding his hand through it would feel.

"Do you look like your mom or dad?"

"More my mom than my dad," Adam says, though he doesn't think he looks much like either and he's grateful for that. His eyes linger on Ronan, wary of the significance of being petted like this, but also not certain he objects to it.

"I don't believe you." It's not a challenge or an accusation, merely a statement of fact. Stealing things from dreams doesn't sound real.

There were a dozen different, corny things he was thinking to say, but didn't. He wasn't sure how to flirt without being either corny or irritating. He was better at insults. Ronan drew his hand back even though he wanted to keep touching him in some way.

"Let's start small." Ronan smirks. "Tell me something you want. Tell me what it looks like or what it does."

There were so many things that Adam wanted, but they ranged from huge and intangible (independence, a house of his own, enough gold to survive indefinitely) to small and pitiful (an apple, a full night's sleep, shoes without holes). Adam's pride prevented him from asking for anything related to basic survival, and he'd had little opportunity to want for anything when his life was taken up with basic needs.

He watched Ronan, guarded and considering.

He wanted a salve for his hands. He wanted a blanket to lie on the beach. He wanted more food.

"A piece of candy," Adam said at last, picking something so small that he could bear to ask for it without stinging his pride.

"Candy?" Ronan keeps watching him. "Maybe not that small. Little bigger. I mean, if I'm trying to impress you...." He found Adam's hand and laced their fingers together.

"Are you trying to impress me?" Adam asked. His fingers curled around Ronan's in return, holding his hand. He liked contact with Ronan. He liked the careful, reverent way that Ronan touched him.

No one had ever wanted to impress Adam before, and he didn't know what to think of it. The prince had no friends, because he was too brash on the surface, but beneath he was very clearly soft and careful. It puzzled Adam that no one else had stuck around to see it, when it had been so easy for him to find the Ronan beneath the initial rudeness. This Ronan wanted to show him wonders and secrets--the horse, the beach, his claim of stolen dreams--without hesitation, and Adam didn't think he half deserved the trust that he'd earned from Ronan.

"Of course I am." Adam clearly didn't care about his money, power or position. He respected people based on merit. Ronan wanted to earn that respect. He had never kept friends because they were all the same. Other kids from other rich, royal, noble families. They cared about the same things his brother cared about and cared about none of the things Ronan thought were important.

"Anything you can think of...just tell me, I can give it to you."

Adam grinned a little, bemused but pleased by Ronan's earnest determination to please him. It was a fascinating and heady thought to be offered anything he wanted by the prince of a kingdom.

"A piece of candy," Adam repeated, refusing to ask for anything more. He didn't care about Ronan's wonders, and he wasn't about to be bribed. He wanted to be friends with Ronan because he liked the prince.

"Stubborn." Said in a playful tone. Ronan liked that. Adam didn't had principal and wouldn't be bribed. He liked him all the more for it.

Ronan smirked. "Alright. A piece of candy." Still holding Adam's hand Ronan fell to sleep. It didn't take him long and he was opening his blue eyes slowly. Between their clasped hands is a piece of candy. When Adam puts it in his mouth it will taste like his favorite things and it will make him feel good.

Adam watches him, bewildered, as he closes his eyes and seems to sleep. It's what he promised, after all, stealing from dreams, but it still seems strange and unbelievable. Adam watches him closely, struck by how young he looks in sleep. Vulnerable. Handsome.

Ronan's hand twitched against his and Adam blinked, confused to find a requested piece of candy in their clasped hands.

Taking his hand back, he considered it, watching Ronan warily, and then put it in his mouth. His eyes closed with pleasure, stunned by the feelings that washed over him at the taste of the candy.

So Ronan was magic. Powerful, world-changing magic. And he was willing to offer the secret openly to Adam.

"You can make a boat?" Adam asked, thinking about all the possibilities contained in Ronan's powers.

"I think I can make anything." So far he hadn't found a limitation. Then again he hadn't tried for anything that wasn't easy to hide.

Watching Adam with the candy he smiles. "Do you like it?"

"Yeah." Adam took Ronan's hand again, giving it a squeeze. He smiled a little, shy but pleased. They could get their boat without anything that would bother Adam's moral code, and then they'd have all the world at their fingertips. Freedom.

Adam had only had a friend for a few hours, but already his whole world had shifted. Everything had re-centered around Ronan. Adam's studies and his career still meant so much to him, but the opportunity of freedom and adventure on equal terms was something he couldn't pass up.

"I'm gonna sleep now, okay?"

"You want to sleep out here?" Ronan got a little closer. "We can go back to the palace....or I could get a blanket or a tent."

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