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The light broke through the long velvet curtains, cascading across the smooth face of the prince that laid in the satin sheets. Your feet were soft against the bare stone floor, moving towards the edge of the bed where your peaceful prince slept. He looked so tender, so gentle, you couldn’t help yourself, not that you ever could, your hand brushing away a stray curl that had fallen from his mop of brunette tendrils. Your fingertips trailing against his unwrinkled forehead as you did so. The soft touch of your skin on his drawing from his slumber, brown eyes dusted with golden flecks fluttering open as he met your gaze, a smile spreading across his cheeks.
“Princess” he mumbled, raising himself from the cocoon of his sheets and wrapping his arm around your apron clad waist, pulling you down on top of him, and oomph escaping your lips as your chest compressed on impact.
“Tom!” you chuckled trying to pull yourself back up, playfully fighting against his embrace, your body relaxing into his hold because the more you struggled the tighter he held you. His face was buried in your neck, feathering kisses along your exposed skin as you softened in his hold.
“Love” Tom whispered, pulling back and looking you in the eyes, it was a tender moment as you wiggled, pulling your arm from his hold and bringing it up, running your fingers through his soft locks, his eyes closing in pleasure as your nails scratched his scalp. “I don’t want to do anything today, I want to stay in bed with you” he seemed so childlike wanting nothing more than to remain with you.
“You know you have the meeting with the French Royal Family today” you spoke quietly, not wanting to break the atmosphere that you had culminated in but you realized that no matter how you had said that the mood would dissolve immediately.
“Right” he muttered, retracting his hold from you and pushing back against your chest, signaling you to stand up, which you did, brows furrowing as you watched him sit up against his headboard.
“Tom?” you tried to reach out to him but he had pulled away physically and emotionally, his body leaning from your touch.
“I’d better get ready for the meeting then” he hushed, eyes not meeting yours as he threw his blankets off of his legs.
“Oh okay” you felt lost, the once stable ground that your relationship had stood seemed to be liquifying, slipping away from under you, little did you know that soon all that would be left was the remnants of a landslide and rubble of broken hearts. You left his chambers with crinkled clothing, raising a hand to thr man that stood to the side, signaling for Tom’s help to join him and help him get ready for the meeting.
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You were already standing in the corner of the throne room when Tom entered with the rest of his family, he walked up through the throngs of people that sat to the sides, his hands twitching in their proper hold as he eyes scanned the room, examining the crowd for familiar faces. His face fell dramatically when he caught your soft look, eagerly looking at him with a simple smile playing on your lips, he immediately pulled his eyes from you, examining the carpet beneath his feet as he finished his approach of the dreaded thrones. You remained watching confusedly, not paying attention to anything that was being said as all your focus was trained on Tom standing there next to his fathers throne, his composure seemed so off, souring further than it had when you had dragged him from his chambers earlier that morning. Your hands were folded properly behind your back, the words being spoken with such gusto yet falling on deaf ears as you couldn’t figure out what was wrong with your love.
“And now introducing Princess Lucy” one of the servants spoke, swinging his arm to the side as a stunning woman dressed in a light blue gown started making her way down the aisle, bowing slightly as she reached the steps before the throne.
She was stunning, absolutely beautiful in a way that signaled her money and privilege but not in the way that made you want to stare at her forever, finding the facade of perfection would crumble upon closer inspection.
“Now Prince Thomas, would you step down and join the Princess” the French king ordered, gesturing for Tom to go down and stand near his daughter. Tom moved reluctantly, moving slowly as he looked at you nervously, he seemed scared, and rightfully so.
“We have gathered here today to celebrate the betrothal of Thomas and Lucy” The king bellowed, the crowd cheering immediately in response but all you could hear was the deafening ring of silence in your ears, the blood rushing through you nearly halting as your body started to flush, without a word you turned, rushing out of the door, going to the only place you could think of to run too, Tom’s room, cursing yourself for finding solace in the domain of the man who had just torn your heart out, Tom’s eyes managing to catch your fleeing figure as his body started to take on the similar symptoms of heartbreak that you had just gone through.
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You were sat on Tom’s bed, fiddling with your apron as the door creaked open, you immediately stood, readying to pretend that you had been tidying Tom’s room but your hands fell limp at your sides when you saw who it was. Tom stood in front of the closing door, the sight of him drying your mouth and silencing the anger in your blood, he looked so lost. Moments passed as you both stood their, unsure of what to do.
“You knew this morning” you said, not asking more stating, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had filled the space between the two of you since he had found you in his chambers, having snuck away from dinner.
“What?” he looked up at you for the first time since the announcement had been made in that ever echoing hall.
“You knew the announcement was going to be happening today, that is why you wanted to stay in bed all day, right?” your voice was surprisingly strong, you didn’t know where it was coming from, everything was falling away from beneath you.
“Yeah, yeah I did” he was looking anywhere but you, avoiding the confrontation of examining the tears that rimmed your eyes.
“How could you?” you choked out “Do you not care about me? Was I just a game to you?” his eyes shot up to you in shock, mouth falling open as he tried to process, how could you not see that you were his everything, an anger at your misunderstanding bubbling up in him.
“I would burn it all down for you, give it all up, how do you not see that?” Tom yelled at you, throwing his hands up in exasperation at your current state.
“Because when it came down to it you didn’t choose me and I don’t think you ever will.” you spat back, spite lacing every syllable that left your tongue. His features morphed quickly, the annoyance that had once been present in his eyes quickly switching to that of hurt and confusion.
“Princess-” his voice was so much softer, as if it came from a different conversation, a different point in your relationship, when you still dreamed of being his queen.
“Don’t call me that, you don’t get to call me that anymore” you tried to stand tall, be firm as you felt your world melting around.
“But-that’s what you are to me, you’re my princess” he stuttered, feeling lost and confused, how had it reached this point, how had it gotten this far.
“You told me I was to be you queen, sir” you were slipping back into old formalities, his name no longer welcome on your tongue “Then you turned around and announced you were to marry another and you expect me to sit around and watch?”
“No, I was just the chambermaid you taunted with a title” you spat, a feigned venom in your voice, trying to convince yourself that you were as mad as you wanted to be, that you were furious and not devastated
“Was?”
“Y/n” you ignored his pitiful plea of your name that passed his thin lips as you untied your apron from around your waist, draping the stained fabric over your arm as you started making your way to the door, your actions halted when a silk covered arm wrapped around your waist. You turned back to him, tears staining your cheeks, and you wished you could disappear, you wish you had never fallen for the boy prince, the one who made promises you knew he couldn’t keep but you wanted to think that it would work. You loathed the hopeless romantic that lived in you, thinking that maybe it could have worked out.
“What are you doing?” his orbs desperately searching yours, tears blooming in his eyes as he saw the resolute look on your face, he felt like he was slipping and he didn’t know what to do.
“I forfeit my position at the castle” you spat, tugging your arm from his hold.
“Y/n, you-you can’t do that, you’ll go back to the streets and I’d never see you again” he felt a pang of guilt that the thing that scared him most was the latter point. Never laying eyes on you again was the last thing he wanted, he wanted to wake up to you every morning, to the way you always brushed his soft curls from his forehead to draw him from his sleep, or how you kiss the corners of his mouth to melt away his frown when his title weighed heavy on his shoulders.
“Maybe that’s what I want” your words were harsher than anything he had ever heard you say, making him take a step back.
“I thought what you wanted was to be with me” his voice was shattering along with his heart, glass shards shredding his insides as he felt himself unravel under your gaze, one that he was so used to being filled with adoration, but now your eyes traced needles across his face as you examined his pained expression.
“I did, but you showed that you didn’t want to be with me, Tom, you threw that away, you broke us so don’t blame me for leaving because that is on you, you promised yourself to another”
“You don’t have to leave, Kings often have women other than their queens” he cringed at his own words as he saw them ignite something in you.
“I will not be your concubine, how dare you suggest that!” you practically yelled, your voice hovering below a shout, not wanting to draw any guards to the chambers.
“You don’t have to be my chambermaid anymore, but please you don’t have to leave”
“I do, Tom, I do have to leave because every time I look at you I see a man with my crumbled heart at his feet” Tears freely falling from your eyes now “Remember how you said you would give me the world?” he nodded solemnly “But I didn’t care about the world, it could have burned for all I cared, because nothing compared to how you made me feel, but you couldn’t even manage to give me that” a sob broke through your lips “You promised me the world and left me with a broken heart, I cannot look on you any longer because every time I do I see the man I love and I am pretty sure I will always love”
“You haven’t lost me, not yet, I’m still here, I love you Y/N”
“Well sometimes love isn’t enough, and in this case it isn’t” your voice was sharp, a vice wrapping around the shattered remains of his heart, he opened his mouth to speak again, but closed it quickly, feeling like blood was about to drip from his mouth as his insides churned. For all he knew he was dying. “I cannot stay, after everything I love you, Tom, this was it for me” and with that you slipped through the opening between the two large ornate wooden doors and hurried down the hall. Tom muttered curses under his breath, scrubbing his eyes against the detailed embroidery of his cuff, stepping out into the large stone hallway, watching as your back disappeared around a corner he called.
“This was it for me as well” hoping his words would draw you back to him, real you in from the invisible string that he thought he had wrapped around your heart, but you didn’t turn around, you didn’t come back to him, leaving the future king to wallow in the loss of the only person he would consider his queen.