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Prompt 4
He was giggling, and you know what that means.
It always meant trouble was going to be in store for the day when the ruling King began to giggle at nothing in particular during a meeting of the local lords. He was a young man of only twenty and was younger again at heart. His court would never say so aloud, but they felt he could never be a true King – being as young as he was. They often tried to take advantage of his youth, but that was why the King had a faithful Knight Captain.
Vaughan Cadfael was a stern man, and one that everyone knew that if he was around then very little could be said, or whispered without his disapproval and scorn. He was older than the King by five years and was respected by the guards, even the King respected him greatly.
Vaughan's dark brown eyes peered at the giggling King with narrowed disapproval. “Don't even think about it,” he murmured quietly without moving an inch from the King's side. “This is a matter I won't let you sneak out of, so stop plotting to yourself, I know exactly what you are thinking.”
The King looked up from the throne to give his Captain an innocent look with his bright blue eyes, “I have no idea what you mean, Vaunie. I am just finding it hard to take them seriously, is all. I mean LOOK at them-”
“No. Enough!” Vaughan cut him off before he could finish, “and you know not to call me that. Especially in the company of nobles. Now pay attention before they realise neither of us are actually listening.”
The King smirked a little, “oh, so you admit to not listening too,” he teased but did as he was told and returned his gaze to the squabbling nobles in front of him.
It took all of the Kings effort to pay attention, something about one noble stealing their clothes or underclothes off of the other, he could not care less what it was really about. It was trivial nonsense, nothing that needed the King's attention.
The King hid a yawn behind a closed fist as he began to slump down on the throne slightly. An error quickly fixed by Vaughan glaring at him.
“I demand you deal with this thief!” One of the nobles yelled out, turning his gaze to the King, who just stared back at him. “He stole my wife's things, you cannot allow such-”
“Enough.” Vaughan's voice boomed, startling everyone in the room, “I've had enough listening to this. It has got to stop. It is obvious to anyone here that your wife is cheating on you with another man, so deal with it correctly. Involving the King with foolish things when you could simply deal with this yourself is wasting the King's time. There are proper people you can talk too about these things.”
The King had never seen his captain act in such a way before, it had startled him, but more importantly it made him giggle. Though he tried to hide the fact with little to no success.
The frustrated, and embarrassed nobles left the room quickly, not having expected this outburst – but from having the blatant truth yelled out at them. Vaughan glared down at the King, but soon turned to the guards standing at the doors at the other end of the room, “no more cases today, send those fools away!” He snapped before turning back to the giggling man, “Fenryn, my King... it is not so funny! Stop laughing, this is your fault.”
“Mine? I did nothing!” The King protested.
“Exactly! I have been doing your job all morning while you giggle like a little girl in front of the man she likes. At least take your role as King seriously and deal with foolish cases like this quickly so that I do not have to.”
Fenryn pouted innocently, “but they're boring.”
Vaughan placed his palm against his forehead as he let out an irritated groan, “I swear if you were not King-”
“You would have an easier time, I know, but you adore me none the less.” Fenryn grinned up at the Captain before standing up from the throne, “now if you-”
“Oh no you do not!” Vaughan said, quickly moving to block the man's escape, “you still have a lot of paperwork on top of the other people waiting to be seen, I am still not allowing you to do as you please.”
“Vaunie... at least let me go to the man's room in peace. We have been at this all morning.” Fenryn said with a simple smile, patting the other man on the shoulder as if to say 'don't worry!'
Vaughan sighed heavily, “you keep using that nickname, you are not a child any more.”
“I could say the same, more or less about you using my name. Familiarity with your King is usually looked down upon. Right?” Fenryn said with an indifferent shrug. “We've been friends since childhood, so less formality when we're alone, at the very least?” He said, giving Vaughan a child-like innocent expression.
That seemed to work against the knight captain as he gave a softer look to the man, “fine, I will let you go for now, but I swear if you go 'missing' again then I will chain you to that damned throne.”
Fenryn raised an eyebrow, “whatever desires you have, I wish you wouldn't tell me.” He mocked.
“That's not what I meant! Fool!” Vaughan snapped, going to hit the King over the head. His hand connected with the youths side, knocking the crown – which Fenryn quickly caught.
The King smirked, glad that his friend still had at least some humour left before he slipped away out of the back doors of the throne room that led into the other side of the castle.
He glanced around quickly for any 'witnesses' before he sneaked into one of the rooms close by. Having made sure no one was inside the room with him, he quickly headed to the fireplace and pressed one of the wall stones, causing the fireplace to swivel around and reveal a bag that he had hidden there.
Quickly he changed out of his royal garments and into commoner clothes. He raised a hood over his face to conceal it before standing upon the floor of the fireplace and pressed the stone again, moving himself into the hidden room beyond. There he walked out of the castle undetected.