Chapter Text
The hallways were long in the emperor's castle, to go to his bedroom from the kitchen King had to traverse almost the entirety of it. Today had been long and he was tired but halfway through he heard a familiar laughter resonating from the throne room.
Intrigued, King stepped through the slightly open iron door. Not much change had been made to the room since the emperor was no more.
The same stone pillars on each side of it, the same exceedingly long red carpet that lead to the same throne except the latter was damaged, the top part of it almost completely broken.
Again, laughter.
"King, King look!" the Collector tried deepening their voice, "I am now emperor of the isles! Mouhahahaha!"
They were standing on the throne, hands on each side of their hips and striking a triumphant pose.
King knew this was a lighthearted joke but something about seeing the small god that is the Collector proudly standing in the place of the worst monster he'd ever encountered was a very frightening sight to witness. Still, King kept his composure, he wasn't going to let himself be scared by the memory of a dead emperor.
Playing along, King said, "Will your highness come to bed with thy friend? The sun is down, it's bedtime."
"Want me to put it back up?" Said the Collector pointing up, ready to defy the laws of physics.
"Please don't." Said King walking up to the throne, "your highness will get tired tomorrow if they don't sleep at night."
King, very much exhausted, would've gladly gone straight to bed but he couldn't leave the Collector alone at night like that.
Despite their many years of existence they were still a small child that needed to be cared for.
Sitting down on the side of the throne the Collector responded, "But I'm not tired yet… King, can we talk a bit before going to bed?"
"Sure, what do you want to talk about your highness?"
King sat on the throne as well, making himself as comfortable as you can on a giant stone chair.
The throne was as cold as it looked. We should probably get this thing replaced, the whole room actually King thought.
"Stop it with the highness." they smiled, "How was your throne?"
"My throne? I never really have one."
Waving their feet in the air, the Collector asked somewhat surprised, "but didn't you say you were the king of demons?" they fully expected King to have had a throne before like every ruler should, that's what they had been taught at least. How was he to show off his superiority to his subject without a throne wondered the Collector.
"Does a king need a throne to rule?"
The Collector didn't know what to respond. Instead they asked "but what if you had one, what would it look like?"
King looked up at the high ceiling, thinking for a second before saying, "it would be more comfortable than this one, that's certain!" He extended his arms, "And it would be big, giant even!"
"So you can sit on it when you're all grown up?"
"So my friends can sit on it with me."
King, yawning from fatigue, jumped down from the throne and turned around to hold the Collector's hand as they followed him.
"Could I sit with you?" Said the Collector, reserved –they were extremely self conscious about not overstepping King's and everyone else's boundaries after what they did– but hopeful that King continued to see them as a friend.
"Of course."
As they were heading to their bedroom, anyone in the castle could hear King and the Collector talking. Night or day the Collector didn't always know how to regulate the loudness of their voice.
Suddenly a door next to them bursts open, "will you kids keep it down!? Some people are trying to sleep!" Shouted a one armed, gray haired woman holding a glass of juice, probably apple blood considering the crimson color of it.
"Sorry Eda!" Said King, "We're going to bed, don't worry."
Even missing an arm Eda kept her motherly attitude, she was still the authority in the house.. well castle now.
"Sorry miss Eda!" the Collector bowed as to show how sorry they were.
She grumped, "mkay, goodnight kids." She went back and closed the door behind her, letting out and audible yawn.
"Goodnight!"
"King, do you think Eda is still mad at me?" Said the Collector as they kept walking, they did cause what you could call 'a bit of a mess' in the Boiling Isles not that long ago but everyone seemed, to the Collector's surprise, quite ok with it now and the Collector just couldn't wrap their head around how that was possible.
"About the noise? No, why would she?" Said King.
"No, not about the noise, about what I did." They took a pause, "how can she not be mad at me after I turned into a puppet the love of her life and got them possessed?"
"The possession wasn't your fault, who could have predicted what that monster did. As for the rest, Eda isn't one to hold a grudge for too long, she did forgive Lilith pretty fast."
They weren't convinced. It didn't make sense to them but at the same time they didn't want to doubt King so they simply kept walking behind him without talking so as to not wake up anyone else.
After walking for what seemed like an hour, more like ten minutes in reality, they made it to their bedroom door and passed through it.
As both of them floated towards the little blue planet in the middle of the room, the Collector said, "And what about you? I kidnapped you, I stripped you away from your family, do you not resent me? Not even a little?"
They had a worried look, tucking themselves into bed. Of anyone, King, was by a mile, the most important person in the Isles in their eyes and the Collector really wanted to make up for the troubles they caused him.
"I don't, not anymore"
"But how!?"
"..."
"Because I know you Collector, and we're friends."
Hearing this did reassure the Collector a little bit. They were immensely grateful that their best friend could forgive them so easily, even if they couldn't do it themself.
King got into his bed as well after taking Francois from the wooden shelf with him.
"Goodnight Collector."
"Goodnight King"
The Collector turned off the light with a clap of their hands.
King snored loudly but it wasn't why the Collector couldn't sleep that night, they were thinking about how to make up for what they did. They made a decision.
"Tomorrow I'll make a giant throne for everyone to sit on."