Our hope

The Rebel woke up in the prince’s bed with their head throbbing. The Prince was bringing over tea freshly made.

“Hello darling. Are you feeling ok?” The Prince asked concerned as he gave one cup to the rebel. After a quick blow to cool it down they took a sip. It was some of the best tea that they had ever had.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. Why does my head feel like it was bashed in?” They looked up at the Prince who was very intently looking away messing with nothing in particular.

“Love, what happened?” The Rebel insisted, the Prince half turned. They could see that tears were welling up in his eyes.

“I’m sorry Ace. I really truly am but,” The Prince took a deep breath collecting himself before he uncovered what he had found.

“I, I looked through more of those letters that we found. It would seem that your mother has been talking with another ruler. She has been proven to have committed treason.” The Rebel could see that tears were welling up in his eyes. Everyone agreed that the royal family needed to go but to have it done by another ruler.

Treason was against the kingdom at that point. In the court of public opinion not only would the Rebel leader but all of the Rebel faction be thrown in jail. The Prince would go with as he was so close to the Rebel. Not to mention that fact that he was the only one of the royal family to make it out alive.

He needed to be the one to bring things to light if the Rebel had been part of it to save his own skin. The Rebel would not have blamed him at all. The Rebel gestured to the Prince to come cuddle with them. As the Prince accepted the invite the Rebel tried to reassure and calm him.

“Hey, it’s ok love. I know. I kno-” The Prince silenced them with a kiss before pulling back to look into their eyes.

“How long have you known that she was conspiring with this other King? How long have you just been playing me?” The Rebel’s head screeched to a halt. Sure they didn’t get the chance to clarify that they had not left willingly the Rebel thought that was a given.

“I was never playing you.” The Rebel confessed now looking confused.

“I only found out about the letters with you. I was only gone for a couple of days although I have no idea how long I was out. Do you not remember what happened?” The Prince calmed down now fitting himself right up against the Rebel with his head hooked over their shoulder.

“I think it is you who is misremembering. That is understandable considering how hard you hit your head. There was a fair bit of blood but thankfully nothing but scratched skin that we could see. You have been unconscious for five days from it. I was starting to get worried they she had done something permanent. We already have the guard ready for any war she decides to wage as retaliation. I just hope it doesn’t come to it. Your loyalty was called into question at one point but now we have that settled.”

The Prince unglued himself from the Rebel standing up and walking the kettle back to the fire.

“Now we can get on with more pressing matters like the coronation.” The Rebel groaned falling back onto the bed, hands going over their eyes.

“Do we really have to jump right back into official stuff. Can we not get just one day to be us?” The Prince came back to the bed feeling the dip.

“Unfortunately not just yet. I need you to hold out a bit longer please.” The Rebel peaked out from under their hands. “We need to secure the kingdom before we focus on ourselves. This is what you signed up for, it’s not to late if you want to back down.” The Rebel sat up quickly pulling the Prince close with one arm. This did less pulling and more tipping. The Prince shifted over, so he was sitting beside the Rebel.

“I am never going to reconsider or leave. You’re stuck with me star.” The Rebel pulled the Prince into a side hug and rubbing his arm.

“Alright, alright,” The Prince gently pushed away before laying down.

“We have a couple more hours to catch up on sleep before we have to get into the bigger issues.” The Rebel laid down still thinking if they really just dreamed the last few days. It wasn’t the most out of the world thing they would have dreamed, it would definitely be the most real. It was a really nice couple more hours of sleep before the Prince was pulling them out of bed.

“Why, why do we have to be out of bed?” The Rebel moaned as they were guided to the wardrobe.

“We have important people to see and places to be. The coronation takes priority for now. After that is over and dealt with I will let you sleep for as long as possible.” The Rebel hummed with agreement at the notion. While sleeping in the castle wasn’t bad it wasn’t good by any means either. A night or two cuddled up with the Prince would probably fix it. It seems to fix everything else.

They were out of the room in almost record time since conversation didn’t happen. It was a whirl wind of things to take in. Everything was up and running with the rebuilding well on its way. All the other royals were still around in places. All the letters from the back room were all around the throne room being put together to get the full extent of the relationship.

Some of the letters the Prince wouldn’t let the Rebel read. Which of course ticked them off. That was until the Prince stepped back to let the Rebel take a look. After ten or so minutes of feeling sick the Rebel let the Prince handle all of the letters. They would have gone longer just to prove a point but no one could read their parents writing that.

They would be let in on all the high points without having to read about the relations they were talking about. That was how they both spent the afternoon back. The Prince piecing together this little puzzle of a power play and planning the coronation. The Rebel thought it was more of being told what was going to happen.

Turns out it was just a lot of showy things instead of the actual event. There would be a ton of games happening the day before with a regular supper at the end of the day. The day after they would all have to get up stupid early in the morning to get ready in all the custom clothes that they would spend the next couple of days being made.

Then they would have a small lunch before the ceremony. The Prince would walk in from the back before being sworn in then having the crown placed before taking the throne. Really simple that should only take an hour at best. The night would be the big feast celebrating to new kings reign. The next day was going to be recovery assuming that it went like the last feast.

They were picking up drunk bodies from all sorts of places to sober them up in the courtyard. The Rebel was glad that they didn’t have to go through any of that. All the attention would have made them curl up and hid somewhere. That was when they learned they would be beside the Prince the whole time going through the same thing.

Even if they weren’t married yet there was an exception being made since the marriage would be following soon after. The Prince was trying not to burst out laughing when the Rebel got this news. He made sure to memorise that face before going back to his work. The Rebel was going to get the Prince back with a spring of information, probably when they planned the wedding planning.