Chapter Text
Today is May 13th, 2009. It’s spring, and while April breezed through in a series of storms and showers, it collapsed and gave way to the blooming of the beautiful flowers throughout the province of Court Astor. It’s a seemingly perfect display, like something written down by script, like a scene in a movie. Yes yes, the baronet reminds himself, everything must be perfect. Today marks the beginning of an honorable marriage between the heir and her spouse, and unless the baronet would like to face the wrath and demand of one King Astor , he would have to ensure that he was perfectly formed up to the royal’s standards. It’s hard enough that the baronet was already out of the King’s favor, he’d have to do even more to earn his approval. With the skies clear of even clouds, it was hard to see how this could all go wrong for him.
This baronet’s name is Louis Rosemont. He is currently standing in his room, a cushy cabin on one of the floors of the fancy place he was staying at, provided to him by King Astor himself. Actually , for awhile, the King believed in Louis, as if he knew that there was something great in him. But as the courtship of the heir continued, Jason would presume the spot of the King’s favorite, gripping it right out of Louis’ admittedly small hands. But it’s no matter to him, anymore. He’d just have to try a little extra harder, which is no hard work for a guy like him. At least, he’d like to think so.
Louis muses over the wide selection of waistcoats in his closet, trying to decide which one would be best fit for this occasion. Something not too casual, but not something that makes him stand out too much, he figures. Something that doesn’t give the impression of desperation.
Aside from his maybe-too-wide selection of suits and coats, there is also a small bookshelf, home to portions of language books. The most recent read from this shelf was a book titled Data Structures For Assholes - which isn’t technically a language book, not in the same way that the thesaurus or French dictionary on the other end are, anyway. But a coding language is close enough to count, he figures. It was initially given to him as a gift for his birthday by Rowan. Well, as close to a gift as Rowan can get, at least. Go figure it had to be less helpful and more degrading for Louis’ apparent penchant for understanding as little about tech as possible.
Aside from books that have been questionably sorted, Louis has a PC placed on a desk opposite to the side of his bookshelf. It’s not in the best condition, but he doesn’t really do much with it outside of paperwork and messaging. He is a fan of the Solitaire app, though. It’s built in, for some reason. A full length mirror leans up against the wall, next to his desk, so he can easily check and ensure that he doesn’t look stupid right before he leaves his room.
Louis does a once-over, brushing down his hair and straightening out the pink and white floral printed coat he’s put on. It looks neat enough, presentable, sure. Once he ensures that everything looks okay, he busies over to his computer to check for any missed messages. Reminding himself not to take too long, it’d be dreadful if he showed up late , he opens the messaging app designated on his computer, only to be greated by a great big number of six notifcations. Upon closer inspection, he realizes that it’s just two people. It seems as though one of them had just spammed him a total of four times. Great.
So, like any sane person would, he instead opens the other chat.
– gravelyGuarded [GG] began pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 08:23 –
GG: Goodmorning, Louis!
GG: Can I expect to see you at the wedding?
TT: Goodmorning!
TT: Yeah, I’m getting ready now
TT: Hoping to be done in the next hour so I can grab breakfast first, though
GG: Not planning to eat at the venue?
TT: Uh, yeah? You must be crazy if you think I’m gonna eat infront of the King
GG: What’s the worst he can do, banish you for eating a leg of chicken a little too quickly for his liking?
TT: See, I bet you just jinxed me
TT: With that message right there. I’m doomed and it’s all your fault
GG: Oh dear, whatever will I do? It’s just such a tragedy.
TT: It is!
TT: I’ve gotta go, I think Rowan might blow a fuse if I don’t respond to him eventually
TT: I’ll talk to you later?
GG: As long as I’m not swamped with groom duties by the time you’re finished, then I will be right here.
TT: Bye :)
GG: Goodbye, Louis.
– gravelyGuarded [GG] ceased pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 08:47 –
He’s sweet, Louis thinks. Jason’s never not texting with anything but perfect grammar, of course, but still manages to get across his sincerity nonetheless. But with his notifications ticking up still, he unfortunately concludes that it’s time to answer his other messages.
– grandioseTreachery [GT] began pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 04:52 –
GT: hey
GT: hry louis
GT: respond pls
GT: hey louis i got this new game u should play it with me
– grandioseTreachery [GT] ceased pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 05:12 –
– grandioseTreachery [GT] began pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 08:43 –
GT: louis i can see you online
GT: do you just enjoy ignoring me
GT: kinda fucked up ifyou tjhink about it
GT: i should have ur head chopped off for this tbh. watch out
TT: Sorry, I’ve kind of got my hands full? With getting ready for your sister’s wedding?
GT: oh ew why the fuck are you goign to that shit
GT: yawn fest
TT: It’s a mandatory event?
TT: I’ve been assigned as best man, where it would be extremely unruly for me to just, not show up?
TT: After being trusted with that role?
TT: Is any of this clicking in your head? Just wondering
GT: mandatory shmandatory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GT: im not going so what does it matter
TT: Yeah, I actually think the King prefers it to be that way, oddly enough.
TT: I have no idea, based on your behavior, why he would ever feel that way. How strange.
TT: Did you have something important to talk about?
GT: i just told you
GT: i want to play a game w you
GT: god turn off your fucking autocaps
GT: your seriousness is going to give me a hemorrhage
TT: Do you even know what that is?
GT: uh yeah duh
GT: dont question me
GT: anyway. agenda: game
TT: And you consider that important
GT: well yeah
TT: More important than the wedding of kingdom-wide attendance?
GT: but its like
GT: co mplicated and shit. i can explain everything later
GT: just do this for me
TT: Unfortunately for you, Rowan, I have more important things to do this afternoon. Can’t it wait?
GT: not relaly dude
TT: Well, you’ll have to find somebody else, I guess
GT: god okay
GT: buzzkill
GT: its fine i know more than one person in my life
TT: Oh, I’m sure you do
TT: Have you even slept since you messaged me?
GT: fuck off
– grandioseTreachery [GT] ceased pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 09:12 –
Louis groans as the client repeats it’s server message, indicating to him that Rowan had left the chat, just before collapsing his head onto the keyboard below, resulting in him almost sending the prince an obscenely long text chain of simply the letter B, followed by what had to be at least a hundred V’s.
Whatever.
Louis decides that he doesn’t care about Rowan in the slightest, and instead pushes out from the desk he had been sitting at. And now, to his dismay, he has to redo his hair. At this point, he’s sure that the prince has probably caused him at least a few gray hairs. It only seems fair. And at this point, he’s definitely wasted too much of his time.
By the time Louis is fully out and about, falling into the motions of breakfast and routine, it’s about eleven in the morning. He’s headed toward a local bakery he’s fond of, to pick up a few pastries for on the road. He absentmindedly texts Jason along the way. It just so happens to be where he learns that, for some reason, Jason’s texting Louis through a PDA. Louis didn’t even know that the texting client they were using , had even been compatible with one of those things. But apparently, even as his best man, Jason still manages to pull out surprises from him. It’s things like this that makes Louis so drawn to Jason, the two of them clicking like the ends of puzzle pieces falling into perfect place.
Nonetheless, time flies by. And much too quickly for Louis’ standards, too. And by the time he’s getting ready to leave, he remembers to order a fresh coffee for Jason. He’ll probably need it, Louis figures. And it’s not like there’s any harm in it, he couldn’t possibly mess up the groom’s coffee order. He’s had too many opportunities to memorize it, commit it to memory. Not too sweet, with just a bit of hazelnut creamer. It’s what he’s gotten every single time the two of them had come out here, or other cafes, for that matter.
Coffees in-hand, Louis is able to smoothly arrive at the venue, hastily leaving the cab driver a nice tip for the urgency of time. He’s only arrived about half an hour before the wedding properly starts, which is good enough , but he still needs to confer with Jason. Definitely not just so he can get him a coffee that he never even asked for. That would be absurd.
Yeah, okay. Not sure who Louis thinks he’s fooling, but whatever he says, right?
He sets his gifts down on the venue’s table, placed near the door for guests to use as they come in. The ones he’s placing here are more generic wedding gifts, of course, but he’s already made sure to give Maya and Jason personal presents beforehand. Back when they were still engaged.
Figuring that Jason was probably getting last minute touches done on his outfit or whatever, Louis soughts out to find Jason. He should definitely approach this with more tact than opening random doors until he finds him. Yeah, especially not when he’s at a wedding and he’s holding two coffees that could spill all over him– even worse, Jason. God, what if Jason doesn’t even want it? There’s probably drinks at the venue already, anyway.
I looks stupid , Louis resolves, a flush of embarassment creeping down his neck. Yeah, this is it for him. He should go crawl into a ditch and hope that he doesn’t seem too whipped for that, too.
And then there’s a tap at his shoulder, breaking Louis out of his anxiety-ridden reverie. He jumps almost skittishly, as if a deer in headlights, the stranger in question behind him almost taking an elbow to the gut in the process. But it dissolves, the fear, immediately upon being able to fully see Jason’s face in full view once he turns around.
“Louis, hello! Didn’t expect to see you down here,” Jason looks nice, he always does, but he’s definitely more cleaned up. The stubble that usually lingers inconsistently along his jawline has been shaven down gently, and the suit he’s got on is simplistic, sure , but it works. Boy, does it work. “Are you looking for someone?”
“I was looking for you, actually!” Louis exclaims, albeit nervously, and Louis can’t ignore the way Jason’s face seems to light up. God, save him. “I, um– got you a coffee. But then I realized on my way here that they probably served coffee here for you anyway. So it’s fine, really, if you don’t want it.”
“No, don’t worry about it, Louis!” A simple sentence, really, but it’s able to soothe his anxieties, an immediate extinguisher to the kind of flames that eat Louis up inside. “They mostly just have tea here, in terms of caffeine. It was kind of driving me mental, actually.”
“Oh,” Louis says simply and laughs, handing over what he made sure was the right coffee. Their go-to orders really couldn’t be any more different, best not to get them mixed up. “A nice surprise, then! Be careful of spilling it, though. Those suitpieces really are just too high quality to ruin.”
Jason accepts it with gratefulness, a teasing smile on his face. “Really, not everybody is as clumsy as you are, Louis. Don’t worry about me.” There’s a playful lilt about it, reassuringly not serious. Louis makes an attempt to response, but Jason’s pulling out his clunky PDA from his pocket – Louis really can’t believe he’s just carrying that around , and in a wedding suit, too – checking the time with a frown on his face.
And then he’s off, just like that. With nothing more than a very quick pardon. Wedding bells chime in the distance, a reminder of why Louis is here. And a very urgent reminder to the kingdom that the wedding is about to start. So very quickly, Louis shuffles to his spot next to Jason, getting a good look at the look on his face. For some reason, he’s not really sure how to read the knight’s expression. From his unfamiliar uniform, to the shuffling chatter of guests as they settled and found their chairs. More like an audience, really, Louis pondered. He only recognized a few faces amongst the crowd. No table reserved for Bartoks.
As the priest clears his throat, Louis wonders why he feels such a sense of dread. He broadens his shoulders, attempts to make himself look just a little bit bigger standing next to the other people around him. His taller, stronger, knight buddies standing shoulder-to-shoulder next to him, a sort of act of honor only seen between those of young militia, he guesses.
He idly wonders, as the priest professes on and on in a dreary sort of way, that maybe the anxiety that had settled around in his gut had been the sign of something bad. Or maybe, as it twinges deeper in his stomach as he glances back at Jason’s face, as he watches Maya walk down the aisle, that it’s something else instead.
It’s not that it really mattered, for Louis, someone as small as him. A baronet in a world of princesses and knights, it’s no wonder that he’d always get lost amongst the crowd, huh?
Rowan isn’t here, not that he’d really expect any less from him. He didn’t really seem to enthusiastic about it, after all.
Louis processes that the priest’s lips are moving again, and Maya has reached the alter. Jason and her are joined together by their hands. They look sad, almost. Oddly, he doesn’t really process what the people around him are speaking. He turns, looks onto the audience instead. He doesn’t think he wants to watch what happens next.
No objections, of course there isn’t. Not for them, not for the princess. And definitely not with King Astor there.
Louis figures that Jason is probably leaning in, and of course , they have to kiss. They have to, but Louis can’t watch. But the cheering never happens, the celebration never follows. There’s no tears of happiness, but instead the grounds rumbling beneath the alter they stood upon. The church’s foundations shake beneath the architecture, and really, an earthquake?
Instead of an event that should have been symbolized with claps and cheers, it’s ceased by the screams of terrified civilians, and he’s flooded fully back into his body by the sense of danger, a deeply rooted fear. The painted glass windows gleaming brightly as meteors streak in the distance, blurred by a red-colored glow.
Oh, that’s not normal, is it?
Before he can express this aloud, he hears Jason’s voice boom aloud. An order to evacuate the King, save the princess, and people are scrambling in all other directions. A pressure meets his side, and Jason is in his field of vision before he even has time to process anything. “Come on, we need to go,” He mutters toward Louis, pushing him toward the exit door and out of the hallway with a fear he’s never seen on Jason before. He’s always been this tough and brazen knight.
But first, his phone pings once. Then twice. And then a third time, for really good measure. Okay, seriously, who is blowing up his phone? He barely manages to scramble it out of his pocket amongst the panicked voices, but eventually they ended up outside, and he was able to check on who was bothering him now. Jason hovers close, scared, and Louis has also kind of lost track of Maya.
– cagedAnarchist [CA] begun pestering tenderTreasures [TT] at 18:23 –
CA: helloooo, mr. rosemont!!!!!!!!!!!
TT: Pardon me?
TT: Have we spoken before?
CA: no
CA: you don’t know me, but that’s okay
CA: i’m trustworthy, if you’ll believe it
CA: i’m a friend of the princess :^)
CA: isn’t that fun
TT: Uhh, right
TT: Like, that’s not totally shady or anything
TT: Do you, like, need something
TT: Or are you just bothering me for no reason? Kind of just asking, mostly out of curiousity
CA: right, right, so. you don’t know me, but maya does. I can’t get ahold of her right now so i need to message you instead
CA: she tells me you’re trustworthy enough
CA: i need you!!! to play a game with us!!! to save the world!!!!!!! cool, right? fun? didn’t i say so?
TT: I’m still confused
Bells chime in the distance like a blaring alarm, loud and alert.
TT: Rowan was talking about a game too, do you know him?
CC: yes!
CC: now will you listen to me for a second????
“Louis, we don’t really have the spare time for texts,” Jason reminds, forcing him to look over his shoulder. The marble pillars shake below them one more time, like it was reminding him of his impending doom. How helpful!
TT: I don’t really have the time right now, to be honest
CC: fine
CC: go to the gift table and get the packages with the weird lime bows okay? there’s two. you take the smaller one, give the other to jason and maya. then do whatever you need to get to safety
CC: maya will know what to do with it
CC: i can explain whatever once youre not actively dying
CC: does that sound like an agreeable compromise?
Maya and Jason are moving for the exit now,
and Louis hurriedly texts back a quick response of Fine , and only just barely manages to slip past them to follow his mystery texter’s instructions. They’re somewhat small packages, pretty thin in width.
He slips them into his waistcoat without thinking, because he doesn’t really have the time to.
His legs carry him outside in a heave of exhaustion. A large smog comes from the court’s skies above.
Louis blinks, and finally manages to catch his breath. He realizes he’s been gasping for a minute. Where will Jason and Maya go?
You’ll just go home, and go your separate ways.
Louis manages to slip the package to Maya, and she seems to give him a look that he can recognize as understanding . They split up from there, and as he collapses his body in the back of a cab, his bones feel laden with lead.
So, the heir and her perfect knight’s wedding is ruined by what can only be described as a cosmic coincidence of natural disaster? Meteors collapsing from the stars below, on a day meant for peace. Awful.
They managed to make it out, yes, and now Louis is just meant to go home?
The exhaustion creeps further, and unwillingly, the rumbling of the cab against asphalt lulls his eyes closed, and he dozes off.
As the sun sets over the smoggy sky, Louis dreams of space and stars and the bright yellow Sun. Everything looks so much smaller so far up there, just a bright yellow speck below you.
He thinks, maybe he sees Jason there too. Just far off in the distance, amongst the tall towers located on the planet’s chained moon. It almost feels like wishful thinking from him, but he flies past anyway.
And he dreams on.