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When two different souls are bound together with a great amount of love, surrounded by a great amount of hate, it never ends well.
Love doesn't always win all.
That's what Felix's abuela always tell him when she tells him love stories that are told from generations to generations. Felix always loved listening to them, no matter how tragic they all were. From the famous "Lovers of Teruel" to "Legend of Gara and Jonay", Felix found them all lovely despite their brutal endings. Abuela always said that the main characters loved each other so much that even death was jealous of them.
Felix thought that it was sort of funny. How they were both able to love but not live. But he was just a little boy at the time. What does a little boy know about love?
Nothing much other than the fact that he wanted to find love on his own and prove that love can win.
☆️
The sun rises and the lights of day illuminates the entire city of Seville. The people greeted each other as they set to work, a wonderful day waiting ahead. The peace was suddenly disrupted by a loud yell followed by a young prince and a herd of little calves running down the road. The calves had bows around their necks and were all well groomed.
"¡Entrante! ¡Quitate del Camino!" Upon hearing the yells, the people standing on the paths immediately runs to the side, making way for the young prince who was leading the calves to the forest at the end of the city. The calves followed him all the way and Felix stops running when he gets to the edge. He rips off the bows from the calves, and pats them on the back to let them go. "Go, go, go." He mumbled softly as he watches them disappear one by one into the forest. A calf stopped just right in front of Felix, seemingly hesitating to leave the prince. Felix gave it a soft smile and shooed it into the forest. The calf looked back and forth a few times before hearing a yell and flees.
"Felix!"
Felix smiled when the last of the calves disappears, his half-thought plan worked. The boy then glanced towards the middle aged man that walked up to him. Feigning innocence as if he didn't just wreak havoc in the city, he greets, "Hola, papa."
"This is the last warning." The man ignored Felix's greeting and instead held up a hand, pointing his pointer finger right in front of the young prince's face. "You mess with the proposal gifts once more and I will have you locked up in your room until the day of the engagement, young man."
"And this is my final decision, I do not wish to be married to some girl I barely know. I met Catalina once. And that was only because I asked her where the restroom was. Not to mention, we are both still quite young. There is still so much time left, what if I finally find someone I truly love-"
"Enough!"
Felix had more to say but he chooses to just keep it in his heart. He looked at his father, seeing the disappointment in his eyes. It wasn't even hard to see. It's clear as day.
"It seems you're still holding on to those stupid stories your abuela tells you. I suggest you stop that childish wants this instant!" He looked at Felix with his eyes wide, almost bulging as he scolded his youngest.
"Your older brothers and sisters are married and they have shown just how capable they all are at doing something right while you have brought nothing to our family. No trophies, no honour, not even anything worthy enough to be considered an achievement. You either marry with a cause or die a nobody, Felix." The man's words were firm, his stern tone was one Felix never could've fought back against, not even now.
"It's just not fair. My brothers and sisters married the people they love." Felix tried to debate still, his words coming out in slightly shaky tone. His father stared at him, pulling his hand away. The king scoffed.
"Is that what they told you?"
Felix's fingers curled inward as he ignored the question. Though it was ringing in his head like echoes in a cave. Felix glanced up to see his father leaving and took notice of the pitiful look in the servants' face. He hated this part of being scolded by his father. Being pitied by everyone else that weren't of his blood. It felt like they were looking at him with secondhand embarrassment rather than pity.
Felix walked through the city, keeping his head low as he thought of his father's words and his abuela's. How contrasting they were. How could someone like abuela who valued love so much have a son like his father? Someone who valued nothing but honour and finds love to be just a legend. He must be adopted, or picked up from the woods. Felix would've laughed at his own jokes but his rage was greater than his joy at the moment. Felix walked and stops in front of a library.
"Love doesn't always win all."
Felix frowned. How could he forget? As much as abuela valued love, even she knows that it can't win all the time. Greed does. Power does.
Hate definitely does.
In anger, he stormed into the library with a terrible thought. The library was empty except for the old lady that sits behind the front counter, sleeping on a book she was probably reading for 5 minutes before dozing off. The young prince goes from bookshelf to bookshelf, searching for the stories he's heard from his abuela. He picked up the books, holding them in one arm before falling down on the floor between the bookshelves. The books falls scattered, one of the books opened to a page with an illustration of two lovers being devastated together. Felix remembered the story.
The story of The Bitter Well of Toledo.
Two lovers that were together but the man was disapproved by her father, and he was killed before falling down the well. The woman lived, but not for long. She gets dreams of the man she loved and ultimately jumps into the well in hopes to be together.
Now they were. In the afterlife.
Felix slowly reached out to grab hold of the page. He pulled, and the book followed. Felix place a hand on the other side of the book, and pulled on the page again. The page start to rip but before it could get any worse, a hand holds his wrist and stops him. The young prince looked up from the page and his rageful red eyes met with careful brown ones.
Felix felt his brows raise when he sees the other boy. He had beautiful eyes. The brown colour reminded Felix of the tree barks in the forest at the end of the city, of the dirt where his abuela plants all of her beloved roses. They were dark but Felix kept staring at them like a deer in headlights. His hair was brown with a black undercut, looking slightly messy but that was probably because it's a little curly. Felix could never tell the difference between messy and curly. His hold on Felix's hand was gentle but firm, stopping him but not hurting him.
Pink. Felix was staring at him for quite a while and only then noticed the slight pink dusted on the apples of his cheeks. Felix blinked, feeling his own cheeks warm up.
"¿Estas bien?" He asked, his voice a silky smooth, deep toned heaven. Felix felt his own heart skip a beat.
"Eh… ah… si- eh, no. Si. Si."
The boy raised his brows, "¿Si? ¿No? ¿Cual?"
Felix snorted at the way the boy pronounced "cual". The taller boy was a little taken aback by the soft chuckle that followed. A few moments passed before Felix calmed down and looked back at the boy.
"You pronounced it wrong."
The boy let out a heavy sigh, troubled that he had pronounced the word wrongly. Felix found it a little funny but he doesn't continue to laugh. He didn't want the boy to feel bad. It was endearing that he still learned to speak his language.
"You're not from around here, are you?"
"Yes. I am from Germany. My name is Leon."
"Felix. You may call me whatever you want as long as it's nothing hurtful. A lot of people always call me 'Happy', not because my name means happy, but because I remind them of that dwarf in Snow White."
Leon let out a soft, awkward chuckle when Felix introduced himself, finding his humour unique even if he didn't quite understand it. The boy felt Felix's hand move and looked down before letting go. "I do apologize if I held your hand too tightly."
"Oh no, not at all."
"Well, I'm glad." Leon smiled. "Why were you trying to rip the page of the book?"
"Hm?" Felix raised his brows. He looked down at the books scattered around him and remembered that he was so blinded by rage he was doing something completely wrong. He closed the book and hugged it close to his heart. "Oh god."
Leon was a little more confused than ever. Just a moment ago, Felix was about to rip the pages but now he was caressing the book like a treasure. The German boy wanted to ask another question but the look on Felix's face was an obvious longing. With the sunlight that beamed through the high windows of the library, Felix looked dreamy. His red hair was glowing in the bright sunlight and Leon was tempted to touch. The redhead was holding back tears and Leon was honoured that he's someone Felix trusted despite this being their first meeting. The redhead had showed him his most vulnerable emotions even though they've just met.
"Are you alright?" Leon asked again.
Felix's eyes fluttered open, staring at the other books, "These legends are what I've lived with for so many years. My abuela's the one who told me these legends, and after she had passed, this library is where I go to just… reminisce. I guess. I don't quite like reading, so I would just flip through the pages and stare at the beautiful illustrations. From that alone,I could remember my abuela's voice in my head, telling me the story."
Leon stayed quiet as he listened to Felix. The boy had made a big choice of trusting and confiding in him, Leon wasn't one to take trust lightly. Felix's voice held so much emotions, Leon couldn't help but stay and listen, wishing he would talk more. How could someone sound so happy and grieving at the same time?
Felix pulled the book away from his chest, his thumbs rubbing on the book cover. "I'm never this angry. Not until today, that is."
"You must've had a good reason."
"I sure hope it was."
Leon furrowed his brows at the response.
The German boy looked down at the books, picking up a few and reading the titles. All of them sounded interesting in his eyes. Though Leon was aware any book could be interesting enough for him to read. He glanced back at Felix, feeling something else tugging at his heart for him to read the books.
"I'll read them with you."
Felix looked at Leon immediately when he heard the statement.
"All these love stories you speak of, they sound intriguing." Leon held up a book, choosing one right off the bat. "Should we read one now?"
Felix could see the soft smile on Leon's face. For the first time in his life, he doesn't see pity on someone's face when their eyes meet. He wasn't met with disappointment in someone's eyes, rather care in those warm brown eyes. Felix couldn't hold back a smile as he nodded.
"The Legend of Carambal." Leon read the title as he helped Felix to pick up all the books on the floor and place them back on the bookshelves where Felix had found them.
"Oh, this one is about pirates!" Felix beamed. His mood was lifted when he finds someone that was interested in love stories like he was. It's the fact that he was the one who suggested that he reads it with him that makes him feel good inside.