Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“ AHAHAHAHAHAAA! FOOOOO-ooo...ool…” The Snatcher’s wonderfully grandiose entrance quickly dissipated once he pulled himself up from the shadows of the forest around him. One of his traps had been sprung, and he had been terribly excited to finally meet a new wonderful, happy contract signer there to work for the best boss in the entirety of Subcon.

And yet here he was, his shoulders slowly slumping, noodle arms falling to his sides, and sharp claws retracting back into a set of rounded fingers as he stared at an all too familiar, all to snarky, all too ready-to-ruin-a-perfectly-good-contract little kid. He blinked slowly, looking like the owner of a cat that had just knocked a cup of water off the counter for the fifth time in the last half hour. “Must you keep setting off my perfectly good traps, Hat Brat ?” he spat annoyedly. “You’re taking a wonderful, awe-inspiring opportunity away from some other poor, delicious soul.”

Hat Kid chuckled and smirked in that horrid little way she always did, resting her small hands over her hips. “I just wanted to come visit my very favorite ghosty BFF!”

Snatcher only narrowed his eyes. “You know where I live, kid.”

She let out a little hum, shrugging before turning and strolling back toward the wide dirt path that ran through the middle of the forest. “Maybe I wanted to hear your pretty laugh for old time’s sake~,” she purred.

The ghost let out a snort before rolling his eyes, resetting his trap, and floating along in the same direction, the duo coming up to his tree in just a few minutes. “See?” he griped, swooping himself over the girl in order to settle back in his padded armchair. “You were so close to here. You could have left my trap alone.” He scowled softly, pausing as he reached over to pick up a nearby book, when he heard a soft giggle.

“Aww,” Hat Kid sniggered, rocking back and forth from toe to heel, “if I didn't know any better, I’d say you’re tryin’ to suggest you’d have preferred me to come by here and say hi~!”

“Decidedly not.”

The little child hummed and nodded in mock agreement before reaching up into her tall top hat. She rummaged around for a moment before pulling out a notebook and a box of crayons. Without preamble, she plopped right down onto the rug, flipped a few pages in, and began slipping out various colors to start doodling.

Silence passed for a long moment before Snatcher finally broke, sighing deeply and lowering the book he had been trying so sincerely to ignore her using. He glared at her before huffing to get her attention. “Why the peck are you here, kid? It’s not as if I have any more contracts for you.” Slowly, a familiar conniving smirk tugged at his lack of lips. “Though, I suppose I could most certainly whip one up for you if you’d like~”

A raspberry blown at him by Hat Kid pushed his smirk away once more. “Ma~aybe I just wanted to come and hang out! Ever think of that? It’s what BFFs do, after all.”

Snatcher narrowed his eyes and continued glaring weakly at her.

It took a few long moments, and he was nearly ready to break, but luckily the girl did first. She groaned dramatically and rolled onto her back, flailing her arms and legs for a moment before sighing and letting her body rest limp against the carpet. Hat Kid sat up and puffed her cheeks at him before picking up her notebook, leaving the crayons scattered on the rug. Hopping up onto the arm of his chair--the ghost scowled weakly but also made no effort to stop her--she held up the notebook for him to see what she had been doing.

The lined page it was open to was positively filled with crayon doodles, scribbled into the shape of a young man who was, Snatcher realized with an ache in his nonexistent heart, terribly familiar. A wide, goofy grin sat on the man’s face, brown crayon streaks standing in for gently curled hair and red strokes displaying a coat with puffy sleeves. A little yellow crown floated above his head. Snatcher scowled weakly, looking away from the page, trying to ignore everything she’d drawn. Including the depiction of the man wearing a pretty pink and purple dress and holding a parasol. He didn’t even want to know about that one.

He didn’t really feel like he wanted to know about any of them.

“Why did you draw that pecking idiot?” the ghost hissed at her, making her smile falter for a moment. “And how does that tie in to you coming here and interrupting my wonderful forest?”

Slowly, Hat Kid tucked the notebook back against her chest, hugging her arms around it. “Did you just call yourself an idiot?” she huffed.

Snatcher narrowed an eye and smirked a bit, as he finally turned back to her. “That version of me, yes. Very much so. He was a massive, stupid, lovestruck idiot, and I think even some kid like you can see that now that you know about what happened to m-... to him.”

Hat Kid pursed her lips. “Well, I don’t look at you and him as different people. You’re still him, just…” She paused, tapping her chin and making Snatcher tilt it head without realizing it. Finally, she grinned. “Grumpy! Way more grumpy! And… also way more purple.”

Rolling his golden eyes, Snatcher sighed and tried once more to go back to his book. “Well, sadly for you, I don’t have a fridge to tape your magnificent artwork of the Idiot to. Go tape it to your own fridge.”

The girl shook her head, smiling and slipping off the chair’s arm to slide down onto the oversized ghostly noodle’s lap. Reaching out, she patted the book in his hands before he lowered it, looking up above her and seeing him staring in equally utter amounts of horror and annoyance. “I didn’t come to give you my masterpieces, silly! I came to ask you to tell me about what being a prince was like!”

Snatcher blinked a few times before groaning and extending his claws, hooking them into the collar of her cape and lifting her into the air. He sat her back down on the rug, inciting a puppy-eyed pout. “No,” was all he grunted.

“Aww, please!” Without hesitation, Hat Kid hopped right back up, bouncing off the ottoman, then the chair arm, and then sliding right back down snug against her BFF. “I bet being a prince was super fun and cool!” She quickly shook her head when Snatcher eyed her warily. “You don’t have to tell me any of the sad parts-”

He relaxed a little.

“-because I already know all of them!”

Snatcher groaned and plopped his cheek over onto his hand, his elbow on the other arm of the chair.

Hat Kid’s persistently warm and innocent smile never wavered. “C’mon,” she pleaded softly. “I wanna know what it was like being the prince of Subcon!”

Slowly, Snatcher’s scowl faded a bit. “Well, I wasn’t… technically the prince of Subcon.” When the kid widened her eyes in childish shock, he let out a deep breath he didn’t need in the first place. “I came from a country across the sea. So I was a prince, who also came to live in Subcon.” When she didn’t stop staring, her smile excited as she nestled down in the comfy chair beside him, Snatcher realized he, the smartest, most clever person in the entirety of the forest, and even beyond, had been tricked into monologuing.

After one last long moment, he narrowed his eyes and closed his book. “Ah, peck me…” With a shake of his head, he pointed a still-clawed finger at the girl curled up beside him. “One story. A short story. And then you leave me alone.”

Hat Kid giggled and clapped happily as she nodded. “Yeah sure!” she chirped, not sounding like she was taking his terms too deeply into account for future obedience. “Now then, hop to it! Tell me about what kinda prince you were when you came here!”

Snatcher, resigned to his fate for the next hopefully-only-about-ten-minutes, puffed his chest, his furry mane fluffing up a bit as he lifted the chin he no longer had. “Well, I guess a good place to start is how strapping and virile I was~. I was a man’s man; a true, unabashed, whirlwind explorer!”

Chapter Text

The young man groaned weakly as he leaned over the side of the sailing ship rocking beneath him, panting shallowly before managing to push himself to stand more upright. His knees were dented together, his cheeks positively green as he wiped weakly at his chin to make sure nothing was left of his breakfast that might embarrass him even more. “H- hopefully no one saw-”

“Prince Lysander?”

The young man let out a soft yelp in the back of his throat, his shoulders hunching as he quickly whirled around on the heel of one tall boot. He forced out a hearty laugh as he rested a hand against the ship’s railing, leaning against it and looking like a fellow about to flirt, if only it weren’t for an uneven smile and a furrowed brow. And the horrid retching that had sounded out like a Landlubber Alarm a mere 30 seconds ago. “Ahhahaha, hello there, Captain!” he replied a bit too boisterously to be natural. “Fancy meeting you here! On… ah… your own ship… Heh.”

The Captain lifted a bushy gray eyebrow, thin lips quirking into a hint of an amused smirk. He tossed a small canvas pack over to the much younger man, who barely managed to scramble and catch it at the last second. “Candied ginger,” he explained as his unfortunate passenger loosened the bag and peeked inside. “It should help at least a bit, m’lord.”

The young man’s cheeks had faded from green, only to shift to an arguably just as embarrassing shade of rosy pink. He swallowed thickly, his stomach protesting the action and quickly driving him to pluck out a small bit of the confection and pop it into his mouth. He chewed slowly, already feeling a smidge better as he looked back up at the captain. “Th- thank you, Sir, but please, you don’t have to use fancy titles while we’re journeying.”

The older man tilted his head. “Very well… Sir Lysander?”

A soft chuckle sounded out. “Nathaniel is fine, I swear.” He shrugged, his soft curls bobbing gently in the salty breeze. “I’ve always preferred it that way, honestly.” Reaching up, Nathaniel rubbed at the back of his neck, his brow furrowing upward a tad. “Though Mother and Father would always scold me for being so lax about it back home…”

The Captain nodded, stepping up  to the railing and looking out at the sea, shimmering like a sea of light under the rising sun. “And I take it perhaps that’s why you were so eager to spread your wings that you swore up and down to my crew and I that sailing was ‘old hat’ to you?”

Nathaniel flinched a bit, though the playful tone of the old man’s voice set him a bit more at ease. “N- not really,” he said. “They only reprimanded me because they wanted the best for me.” Nodding with certainty, he popped another bit of the ginger into his mouth, humming softly.

“This treat is terribly tasty,” he cooed gently, finally feeling well enough to straighten his wobbly legs a bit more. “Though I have to say, that dish we had for breakfast this morning was one of the best things I think I’ve ever tasted!” Nathaniel paused, his cheeks flushing again as his eyes slipped languidly down toward the rolling sea. “Well… the first time, anyway…”

The captain snorted softly, coughing out a ragged little laugh before turning to head back into his cabin. “As tasty as bacon is, m’lor- erm… Nathaniel … and as shocked as I am to hear it’s not a common dish back in your own country, I’d bet my best looking glass it’s what caused this morning’s little… episode.” He chuckled again, shaking his head. “Grease is easy going down, but just as easy comin’ back up.” Looking back at the poor man, he flashed a smirk before disappearing into his cabin. “At least until you get your sea legs good and grown in.”

Nathaniel hunched his shoulders again, offering an expression a bit too much like a pout for a young man his age. “Oh, they’ll be grown in soon enough…!” he called. “Very soon! Even now, I dare say…!”

~~~~~

The prince only lost approximately two more breakfasts, a supper, and a lunch or two to the sea by the time his sea legs finally did grow in, and part of him could tell it was his fancy title that kept even the newest sailors in the crew from snickering at him. Well, that, and the fact that he was paying their way for this voyage, since their route didn’t usually take them all the way across the sea. Between curling up over the ship’s railing, though, Nathaniel found himself quite enjoying the company of those around him. The Captain was cordial, but other than checking in on him and occasionally making sure he was still stocked up on candied ginger, mostly stayed in his cabin, paying attention to whatever important things the captain of a ship needed to pay attention to, so the prince found himself growing closer to the crew itself.

As the sun shone down on the sea, Nathaniel lifted his chin and smirked before plopping what looked like a small wooden briefcase down with a thunk on a barrel up on deck. Another young man, with a wind-mussed mop of red hair, blinked and looked up from where he had been sitting on a crate looking out over the sea.

The sailor stared up at Nathaniel for a moment before slowly raising an eyebrow and looking down at the case. “Um…”

“You mentioned yesterday that you like chess,” the prince said with a smug little hood to his eyelids.

The sailor, a young man named Carmen who had come to offer some soup to the poor ruler a day ago after a particularly rough session of motion sickness, snorted and rolled his eyes. “I said I used to play with my sister back when I was… like, 13, Your Highness .” He smirked at Nathaniel’s shoulders hunched at the title. He laughed and turned more toward his impromptu friend. “But I guess I wouldn’t mind tryin’ my hand at a man who conditions his hair.”

Nathaniel seethed again, huffing and brushing a hand through his soft curls as if to show them off before pulling up a crate on the other side of the barrel where his chess set rested. He unlatched it and slipped out a board, unfolding it before slipping out the pieces from where they were held in little velvet divots, setting them quickly along their squares. “So what are we wagering?”

Carmen blinked, his smile disappearing. “W… wagering?”

The prince chuckled and closed the case once every piece was in place, his smile playful and wide. “But of course! A little deal here and there makes life more interesting, don’t you think?”

“Oh, most definitely,” came the reply. “I just guess I never expected a prince to enjoy gambling.”

Nathaniel snorted, hooding his eyes again. “Gambling involves chance and luck.” He smirked, folding his hands curtly against his lap. “I prefer making deals when I know the outcome is leaning in my favor~”

“Sounds a bit shady~”

The prince laughed heartily. “Not at all; I’m not forcing you.” He leaned in a bit. “You can opt out, you know.”

Carmen chuckled and rested an elbow on his knee, his other hand resting on his other knee. “Pah, no chance.” A wicked little smirk shifted the freckles spattered over his cheeks. “I win, and I get to keep one of your fancy coats.”

Nathaniel blinked, staring for a moment before offering another wide smile. “And if I win?”

The sailor paused, humming softly before hooding his own eyes. “You get my helping of bacon for the rest of the trip.”

With a soft gasp, a soft blush splashing over his cheeks, and a swift handshake, the game began, the promise of his new favorite food in exchange for a coat he could replace a dozen times over seeming perfectly fair.

~~~~~

“Ah, so your sister lives near where we’ll be docking?”

Carmen glanced over to the form beside him as the pretty little man sitting there was busy… cutting his double-portion of bacon with a fork and knife before eating it piece by piece. The sailor chuffed and rolled his eyes as he proceeded to shove a whole boiled egg into his mouth at once. “Abou’ a day’sh jour’ey i’la’d, yesh.”

Nathan wrinkled his nose a little before chuckling and shaking his head. “If I say I didn’t understand a word of that, would you repeat it for me?”

With a thick swallow, the redhead snorted. “Get on my level, ya’ dandy; learn to talk with your mouth full,” he teased, reaching up to wipe at his chin with his own sleeve, successful in his bid to make the fancy fellow display another scrunched up expression. Carmen laughed gently, pleased with his reward before finally offering a nod. “She lives about a day’s carriage ride inland from the port, is what I said; in a little nowhere kingdom called Subcon.”

When all Nathaniel did was stare blankly for a moment, blink once, and then open his mouth before slowly closing it again, Carmen snorted. “Never heard of it?”

The prince paused. “I can’t say I have, no…”

“Hence the ‘little nowhere kingdom’ part.”

Nathaniel hummed softly in thought as he continued to work on his breakfast. “You say kingdom; is there-”

“Mm, yeah,” Carmen cut him off. “There’s a- well, a queen, I think, at least. A queen and a princess.” Suddenly, he smirked and hooded his eyes. “Maybe you wanna travel there with me and see if you can conquer more than just the kingdom~?”

With a hitch, Nathaniel’s shoulders hunched up and his body tensed a bit. “I- I am not traveling in order to conquer anything ,” he grunted, his cheeks nearly as red as the puffy sleeves of his coat. “Especially a-... w- well, fellow royalty…!”

Carmen chuckled and rolled his eyes, showing how casual he felt around the ruler as he leaned over and elbowed him gently in the ribs. “I’m kidding, you oaf.” Turning back to his own food, he scarfed the rest of it down rather quickly, the other members of the crew doing the same as the time neared for business as usual to begin for them. “Well, about that part, anyway.”

Nathaniel raised a brow and looked over at him.

“I mean…” He shrugged. “I wouldn’t mind some company when I go see my sister, if you want to make some little backwoods place like her hometown a stop on your ‘traveling’ plans.” He stood, clearing his place but continuing to speak. “Subcon don’t have much for tourism or anything, but it’s smack in the middle of a straight-up fairytale forest.” Carmen suddenly straightened a bit and raised a finger as if recalling something. “Ah, the Midsummer Festival should be starting up by the time we get there, too; it’s actually pretty lively from the way it sounds in her letters! I know I sure wouldn’t mind enjoying some festivities before having to come back to the ship!”

Listening to the offer, the prince paused for a few moments, thinking as he finished his own food and adding his dishes to the pile needing to be cleaned. He rightfully didn't have any real plans for anywhere to go or anywhere he wanted to be by any specific time… He more-so wanted to just ‘spread his wings’ as the captain had said at the beginning of the trip. With a soft flush, he realized he was quite fortunate to be able to afford the luxury of going wherever the wind took him, and it seemed, for now at least, that the wind was finally picking a direction.

Nathaniel smiled warmly at his friend and nodded. “I’d love to accompany you. To the kingdom of Subcon it is!”

Chapter Text

As Prince Nathaniel looked on in calm excitement, hands resting comfortably on his hips, he couldn’t help a chuckle when he glanced over and noticed his friend staring with a furrowed brow paired with widened eyes. “What?” he teased. “Never seen a royal carriage before?”

Carmen spent one last moment gawking as the carriage before him as it was rolled out from the ship’s cargo hold, soft creams mixed with flawless whites and accented with perfectly polished glimmering gold accents, its wheels clattering softly against the dock’s rough cobblestones before he let out a little cough and looked over. “Um, I mean… I can’t say that’s an… inaccurate statement.”

Nathaniel blinked, letting his arms rest loosely against his sides. “Oh.” His smile returned after only a moment, though. “Well, now you have!”

He turned and walked over to his carriage, one of the smaller ones his family owned that he got permission to take in order to secure transportation on land. Well… Somewhat. They wouldn’t let him take any of their horses, so that little bit was still up in the air. Making sure everything was as he’d left it - he tossed a few extra gold coins to the sailors who had been tasked with loading and unloading it, watching with amusement as they beamed at each other and ran to the nearest tavern - Nathaniel turned back toward his friend, clasping his hands together in front of his chest. “Now then, all that needs doing is finding a trusty steed, and we can be on our way.”

With a grunt, Carmen widened his eyes again. “W- wait, are we taking your carriage to Subcon…?! W- we don’t have to do that, perhaps I c- can find a different carriage to take for mys-” The sailor yelped as the prince’s arm suddenly hooked over his shoulders playfully yanking him over and squeezing him a bit. He swallowed, and felt his cheeks burn ever so slightly.

“Don’t be a fool,” Nathaniel cheered gently. “We’re both going to the same place, and my carriage is more than enough to get both of us and our trunks and bags there was well.” He pulled away, beaming excitedly as he ruffled Carmen’s strawberry locks before turning and heading a bit further into the port to start searching for a reliable looking horse. “Be prepared to ride in style, my friend~”

~~~~~

The pair had split up for just a short while, Nathaniel finding a sturdy looking mare and snatching her up for a steal he was happy with - his family had always teased him about how his negotiation skills were nigh devilish - and Carmen collecting his wages for the trip as well as making sure both his and the prince’s things were packed neatly atop and on the back of the carriage. The sailor had taken another moment to stare at the two large steamer trunks that had been loaded up before snorting and rolling his eyes, wondering how anyone could need so much when traveling. He himself had one measly little chest that he could lift all by himself.

They met back up again, switching tasks as Nathaniel handed the mare’s reins over to Carmen, asking if he could kindly get her hitched up to the carriage while he walked over and paid his fees to the ship’s captain. After that, though, they were finally ready to move along.

The Prince himself climbed up on the driver’s seat, which Carmen blinked at, looking up and cocking an eyebrow. “You didn’t hire a coachman?”

Nathaniel glanced back at him and shrugged, offering one of his faithful smiles. “I actually rather enjoy driving the carriages, so I figured there was no need,” he explained.

Without waiting, Carmen took that opportunity to walk away from the main cabin and instead lifted himself up onto the driver’s seat as well, smirking as he playfully prodded the prince to give him enough room to plop down beside him. “Well, you can’t very well drive us there when you don’t know the way, hm?” he asked.

“Oh, that’s…” Nathaniel blushed a bit, glancing away and reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. “Th- that’s a fair point.” He chuckled nervously before gently whipping the reins and setting them off, clattering down the cobbles as they made their way away from the port.

~~~~~

They had traveled for nearly the entire half-day, having arrived at the port in the late morning and needing to wait until everything was unloaded and ready before they had been able to set off. The sun was slowly setting as the carriage now traveled along a wide dirt road, the grass occasionally peeking through a tell that it was just well-used enough to make maintaining the path worth it. They had conversed off and on, finding that the stretches of silence that fell between them oddly weren’t off-putting at all, Nathaniel would even dare to say it was comfortable. He’d always enjoyed comfortable silence, even when most people didn’t seem to agree.

As the day stretched into the evening, Nathaniel had to turn away a bit, covering his mouth with a hand as he let out a wide yawn. He glanced over and wrinkled his nose when Carmen merely chuckled.

“What a dainty little yawn,” the sailor practically purred. “Maybe I should take to calling you princess, hm~?”

Nathaniel squeaked out a guttural little noise before shoving the other man’s shoulder. “D- don’t make me push your backside off the carriage and leave you behind…!”

Carmen only laughed. “Go ahead; I’ll walk the rest of the way to Subcon and leave you to get lost!” He chuckled a bit more before rolling his eyes and looking around. After a moment, he pointed off toward a field up ahead. “Pull the carriage off the road up there and we can camp for the night; there’s a nice stream just down that little hill that we can bathe in too!”

After a beat, the prince weakly pressed his lips together, his cheeks flushing. “B- bathing… in a stream?”

The sailor snorted, having expected nothing less. “We ain’t gonna reach Subcon before tomorrow, so you either bathe in Nature’s Bathtub or we get there with the dashing prince smelling like his own pits.”

Nathaniel’s body hitched a bit, his cheeks burning a bit more as he carefully steered the carriage off the road just close enough to a small copse of trees to where they could secure the mare to one. Hopping down and tying up the reins, he lifted his chin a bit. “I- I haven’t the slightest intention of smelling any way other than I smell right now! Which is- ...” Nice. He’d wanted to say ‘nice’. Or perhaps something along the lines of ‘like flowers’, or even a simple ‘clean’. But, ever so slowly, the prince, so accustomed to his daily bathing back home and not the communal ‘let’s spot clean ourselves while we all stand around in our undershorts’ that he’d experienced while on the ship, slowly frowned and craned his head down to sniff at the seams of his coat.

Carmen laughed again when he watched his friend straighten back up with a wrinkled nose and defeat in his eyes. “Go on down and wash up, then, Missy,” he quipped, turning around on the coachman’s chair to start unlatching the steamer trunks on the carriage’s roof. He heard the prince grumble complaints under his breath before huffing and turning to walk down a little path that led to the river running only about a minute’s walk away.

~~~~~

Carmen was used to hearing any number of things that some other folks might consider a bit odd or even off putting. Curse words were nearly an everyday occurrence, at least when he was off sailing with one crew or another. Raucous laughter was even more common, as was any number of different languages, clinking of bottles that got downed far too quickly, shouting over the winds of a storm, noises of animals from every corner of their little planet; you name it and this young sailor would likely admit to having heard it or something like it. The one thing he would readily say that he had never heard, however, and indeed had never thought he would hear at any point, was the sound of another man screaming his name.

But suddenly, after only about ten or fifteen minutes alone to unpack some things, that is exactly what the sailor heard as a familiar voice shouting out from toward the river. “CARMEN!” A short pause. “ C- CAAARMEEEN!! ”

With a groan, then a soft chuckle and a roll of his eyes, Carmen clambered down off the carriage and began trotting down the embankment. “What the devils is wrong with ya’?” he called out as he came down to the shallow river. “If you’re gonna complain about there being no soap, I got some news for y-” When he panned his eyes around the water, though, he noticed… absolutely no one. A set of clothes were somewhat pointlessly folded and sat nicely down in the sand - which sort of negated how nicely they were folded, seeing as they were covered with grit and now needed a wash even more than they had when they'd been worn - but other than that, the area seemed empty. “Um…”

The soft clearing of a throat made Carmen quickly turn on his heel, freezing in place when he finally found the missing prince kneeling down and huddled back in the middle of a thick bunch of shrubs. His shoulders were bare - that and the folded clothes suddenly clicking together to warn the sailor that the rest of him was bare as well - and his cheeks were nearly as red as his discarded coat, his brow furrowed in annoyance. “ Um- ”

“I- I forgot to bring a change of clothes,” Nathaniel was quick to grunt at him, sinking further down into the bush. “I’m… used to them being brought in for me.” For the next handful of moments, the poor prince was forced to sit there, huddled in a tangle of bushes, twigs and leaves poking and scratching at him, as his new friend busted a gut laughing.

Finally, Carmen was able to catch his breath again with one last hard wheeze, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hands. “O- oh, peck,” he rasped, “that just added ten years to my life!” He ignored the sharp glare he received in response before waving dismissively and turning to climb back up toward the carriage. “Let me go fetch your raiment, Your Most High Regalness~” He heard a huff, and with it, a horrid little smirk tugged at his lips as he continued walking and calling back toward Nathaniel.

“Oh, also,” he purred, “that’s a poison ivy bush~”

A yelp, loud rustling, the sound of bare feet dashing across sand, and finally a splash resulted in Carmen letting out another belly laugh as he walked away like a hero from an explosion.

~~~~~

“S- so you’re sure it wasn’t some sort of-”

Carmen snorted and rolled his eyes as he prodded at their campfire for one last time before yawning and lying back on one of the wide blankets he’d spread to stand in for beds. “Nathaniel, for the last time, poison ivy doesn’t even grow into bushes! Ivy. Ivy . A vine.”

Nathaniel groaned and reached up, rubbing his cheeks as if doing so might cast out the blush that didn’t seem to want to leave him be. “As long as you’re sure…”

“I’m sure, I promise.” Carmen chuckled gently, shaking his head as the prince finally lay back on his own blanket, the two men settling back to look up at the stars shimmering brightly overhead. Silence finally settled between them, the fear of poison ivy in unspeakable places finally alleviated.

Slowly, Nathaniel felt his smile return as he raised an arm and pointed toward a particularly cluster of stars. “The Dancers are out tonight,” he cooed softly.

Carmen looked up at the stars for a long moment before smiling and glancing over at the prince. “You call them the Dancers where you're from?”

Nathaniel looked over as well. “Indeed; do you not?”

Shaking his head, the sailor looked back up, the prince doing the same. “No, we call them the Lovers.” A fond, curious sort of noise encouraged him to continue. “They always rise into the sky during the summer, and they reach their peak on the first night of the Midsummer Festival. My sister said that it used to be custom for the king and queen to begin the very first dance to kick things off, hence the name given to the constellation.”

Nathaniel remained quiet, enjoying the new knowledge before blinking and raising his brows a bit. “Used to?” he parroted.

“Mm. Apparently the king passed away a couple years ago, so the queen obviously couldn’t continue the tradition.” Carmen shrugged. “So now they just open the event up for everyone to dance if they want.” He chuckled softly. “It’s said that one can find their true love if they attend the dance of the Lovers and wait patiently~.”

“Ah…” The prince watched the stars blink slowly, the moon shining brightly down on them as the light from their fire slowly died. “That’s a nice story.”

Carmen nodded. “Well, you’ll be able to see Subcon tomorrow, and the Midsummer Festival starts in a couple days, so perhaps you’ll be able to live it~”

A scoff sounded out as Nathaniel pulled a separate blanket up over him before turning and curling up on his side, finally closing his eyes. “Just because I’m a prince doesn’t mean I believe in fairy tales,” he quipped back, his tone amused. “I’m no fool.”

Chapter Text

The duo had indeed reached Subcon come the next day, just a hair before the sun reached its noonday peak. Carmen had taken over the reins after the pair had partaken in a breakfast of eggs and, of course, bacon that Nathaniel hinted that he may or may not have paid off a few of his fellow sailors to let him pack away. The young sailor led the mare to trot calmly down a slightly thinner dirt road that cut through a much thicker wood than the two had traveled through before, this place well and truly a ‘fairy-tale forest’ as he’d mentioned back on the ship.

The sun shone through the canopy unevenly, dappling the earth in ever shifting spots and speckles of light. Carmen let the carriage around a sizable little pond, looking fit for anything from fishing to swimming, a set of stone stairs even descending into the calm waters on one side. A few handfuls of strangers currently enjoying the sunny summer day glanced up at the glimmering carriage with wide eyes before one of them called Carmen's name and every one of them quickly waved at him before getting back to their leisure.

“They seem to know you quite well,” Nathaniel commented softly as he watched his friend wave right back.

Carmen nodded. “My sister’s pretty beloved by most of the regular folks, and I try to visit her every few months, so… yeah, I guess I’m pretty well liked too!” He chuckled, smiling at his own revelation as if it warmed his heart. Their journey continued around the pond, the carriage wheels clattering over a softly curved stone bridge, finally passing into a quaint little town easily right out of one of the storybooks Nathaniel remembered reading when he was a small child. “And here we are~ Welcome to Subcon, my friend~!”

~~~~~

“Clover!”

Nathaniel blinked and looked away from where he was tying the carriage to a hitching post, Carmen having ducked away toward a nearby string of shops that lined the little main street they had stopped at. The prince watched him for a moment before the sailor turned and practically barged into a cottage whose front was practically overrun with flowers and potted shrubs of all kinds, the wide display window looking much the same, colors taking up nearly every square inch. “A florist…?” he asked softly, his words meant for no one in particular.

The prince patted the old mare on the neck before turning and following his friend into the little store. As soon as he was inside, the young man’s sense of smell was practically sucker-punched with the scent of every flower he knew how to name, along with some he was sure he hadn’t even heard of before. The inside of the shop was a bit small, a bit crowded, but he wasn’t sure being surrounded by flowers on every side was ever a bad thing. He smiled softly, raising a hand and gently brushing a few fingers over some of the lush leaves.

Finally looking up, Nathaniel spotted his friend, arms wrapped around a woman just about the same height as the prince, her hair every bit as red as her brother’s as it dipped all the way down to her hips in a loose braid. He stepped over when Carmen waved him over, offering a smile so bright that his eyes were pushed closed for a moment. The prince bowed as well, a hand resting over his chest. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, madame,” he stated softly, his tone kind, but steady and practiced.

With his practiced greeting placed out into the world, the prince blinked and looked back up when he heard a snorted breath, then a playful laugh.

“You’re some sort of royalty, ain’t you?”

Nathaniel straightened back up, taking a moment to mentally reach out and realize that he had indeed left his crown tucked safely away within his steamer trunk. He hadn’t particularly wanted to go around flaunting it during his travels, but it would seem a shiny golden bauble was far from the only hint that he was perhaps a bit better off than the average person. “Ah… H- how did you-”

Clover cocked an eyebrow and displayed a playful smirk. “Bowing? To me?”

“O- of course; you’re a lady-”

The florist let out a soft chuckle, stepping up and snagging one of Nathaniel’s hands, squeezing it securely and offering a hearty shake. “I’m a person. You royals worry too much about propriety and not enough about cordiality.” She laughed warmly again when the prince widened his eyes a bit, staring at her as if her actions and words were horribly avant-garde. “Call me by my first name, shake my hand, joke around, buy me a pint; just do regular things!”

Nathaniel stared for a moment before smiling and nodding gently. “I suppose that sounds like a nice change of- w- wait, did you say buy you a pint?! ”

~~~~~

“So you came all the way here… just because you wanted to?”

Nathaniel finished the sip of his tea that he was taking before swallowing and nodding, setting his cup down. He looked over, still unable to help staring for a moment as he watched the sailor and the florist sitting beside him both contentedly taking drinks from tall glass mugs, amber liquid frothed up inside. And yet, here he was, the one getting glances and chuckles, in the quaintest little tavern he could have imagined, because of his tea cup .

Blinking, he recalled that she had asked him a question before he quickly answered with a nod. “Yes, indeed! I wanted to travel, to see places other than my home in Eresta, and when Carmen mentioned Subcon, it sounded quite interesting.” He smiled, taking another drink. “The talk of a festival sounded rather nice as well!”

Clover clicked her tongue, tilting her head as she smiled. “Surely that Eresta place you’re from has festivals. Why come to some little podunk town like this just for something like that?”

The prince chuckled at that, smiling warmly. “Oh, we do indeed, a couple times a year,actually,” he explained. “They’re horribly grand affairs, the streets utterly filled with hundreds of people, merrymaking continuing well into the night.” His smile remained. “It’s suffocating.”

Both sailor and florist blinked at that, their focus growing on the young man at their side.

“Suffocating…?” Carmen parroted.

Nathaniel’s smile didn’t falter; he even chuckled again. “For me, anyway, they can be. I’ve always much preferred smaller affairs. We had a weekly farmers’ market, for example, and I deeply enjoy that over an entire throng of people writhing around and making far too much noise.” He closed his eyes, his smile widening. “So honestly, a festival in a, as you said, ‘podunk’ town sounds much more enjoyable.”

Clover watched him for a long moment before smiling warmly, genuinely. “That’s actually really sweet,” she cooed. “The world really does need more royals like you.” With another swig of her draft, though, she went back to that playful smirk of hers to return. “And here I was figuring you just came here to win the princess’s hand like every other puffed up stuffed-shirt who shows up around now~”

This time, Carmen and Nathaniel were the ones who glanced over at her with a curiosity in their gaze.

The young woman glanced between them, lifting a strawberry brow. “What…? That’s what they’ve made the Dance of Lovers all about in the last couple of years, so it’s a genuine question.”

Nathaniel stared at her dumbly before his cheeks suddenly flushed a bit, his amber eyes shifting over to his friend as they widened.

Carmen was quick to set his mug down and raise his hands a bit as if in surrender. “I- I didn’t know they changed it!” He laughed, looking over at his sister. “Last I heard from you, it was just a dance! Neither of us knew the princess was using it to look for suitors!”

With a snort, Clover rolled her eyes. “Ah, my fault then.” With a shrug, she downed the last few swallows of her drink before setting it down with a contented sigh. “But anyway, yeah, the Dance has become some kinda mess of the poor girl dancing around with a few different shmucks she clearly doesn’t take any interest in, before she turns and heads back to the manor she and her mother live in. Then the rest of the festival continues on like normal.” She pursed her lips a bit. “I feel a bit bad for her, really; being made to dance with a bunch of strangers sounds boring and annoying.”

Nathaniel let out his own sigh, guiding his companion’s eyes back onto him. He rested an elbow on the bar, tucking his chin into his hand as he wrinkled his nose a bit. “I can’t say I ever enjoyed it much myself,” he began. “I’m lucky enough to have not been the firstborn; I recall my elder brother having to go out and court women once or twice a week.” His brow furrowed upward as he shook his head a bit, leaving it propped up in his hand. “It honestly sounds horrid for him and for the young women, but alas, I digress, I suppose.” He shrugged, lowering his arm and looking back at Clover. “But I can certainly assure you I had absolutely no intention of coming here merely to force a poor stranger to dance with someone like me!”

Carmen snorted and leaned over to gently jab his elbow into the prince’s ribs. “Oh c’mon now, what’s wrong with a little dancing~!”

Nathaniel huffed at him and brushed the sailor’s arm away. “I simply don’t care to dance if I don’t need to…!” He swallowed softly, his cheeks dashing a soft rosy red. “Th- there’s no extra reasoning behind it!”

Letting out a bark of a laugh, Carmen lifted his mug and took a few deep swallows, finishing his own helping off before setting the heavy glance down. “Well hey, at least it ain’t you can’t dance in the first place, eh? I’ve got two left feet, but you royals always get lessons nearly from the moment you start walking, from what I’ve heard.” When Nathaniel remained damningly silent, the sailor blinked once, slowly shifting his gaze over to his friend. “Nathaniel?”

Nathaniel tensed a bit, his cheeks reddening a bit more before he let out a cough and quickly rummaged around before yanking out a small leather coin purse. “W- well now, time to pay!”

“ Nathaniel? ”

“ Time to pay and go back somewhere to sleep; BOY, I am bushed! ”

Both sailor and florist only threw their heads back and laughed.