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It was about 1:30pm and by this time you'd think Ben would be awake and be doing his princely duties; but no, he had just woken up to the sound of a very VERY loud thud. Can anyone guess what this thud could possibly be? Correct! It's Ricky, again and like always he has climbed into Ben's second story window(who knows how he managed considering there's no ladder there in this). Ben looks toward the sound and sees Ricky on the ground; thinking he's just tired and hallucinating he rubs his eyes and checks again yet Ricky is still there Ben blinks a few times just staring then finally speaks, “Ricky? What the fuck are you doing in my room? Shouldn't you be working?”
Ricky looks at him
“im on break it's like 1:30 pm are you just now waking up?” He says.
Ben thinks for a moment trying to process what Ricky just said and FINALLY replies “1:30PM?! I've been sleeping that long? Damn and yea I just woke up”
Ricky walks over to the bed and sits next to Ben patting him on the head but Ben didn’t seem too happy about this because he slapped Ricky's hand away “don't pat me on the head im not some child” said ben
Ricky pulls his hand away “ok jeez brookie fine I won't pat your head”
Ricky and Ben just hang out for the most part and not doing much other than just quietly sitting together until Ben fell asleep and accidentally leaned on Ricky when he fell asleep although Ricky did really mine much and just let Ben lean on him.
Ricky soon fell asleep also and woke up like 2 hours later, but then he looked at the time and realized he's missing work so he carefully gets out of bed without waking up his dear brookie cookie.
One day when Ben and Ricky are hanging out they decide to go into town to hang out, Ricky uses protecting Ben as an excuse to get out of the castle to hang out with Ben. As the two guys are walking through the markets and a lady about their age with shorter hair(its skeeter guys she works at a shop) walks right in front of them and speaks “hey, would you guys like to buy a plush they’re only $5”
Ben stares at her for a moment thinking ‘lady we aren't 6 years old we don't need plushes’ but then he sees one that looks like coco and ends up buying it anyway and the lady walks away. Ricky looks at Ben and smiles while Ben is holding the plush, Ricky chuckles quietly at Ben Ben glares at Ricky “woah chill you dont have to glare at me i just thought you were- nevermind” Ricky said. They walk around a bit more and buy a few trinkets but nothing really all that important or worth noting.
About a week later ricky and ben are hanging out since it's Ricky's day off when Donna comes into the room “yo ben mom wants you for something”
Ben stares at Donna for a few seconds before speaking up “oh ok”
he pauses and looks at Ricky “I'll be back in a bit im going to talk to my mom”
Ricky smiles and thumbs up at him.
Ben leaves and goes to wherever Diana is at “Donna said you needed me?”
Diana quickly speaks up when he says that “oh yes I wanted to speak to you about something! I've arranged for you to marry this nice girl a kingdom over named Lola since it's about time for you to get married”
Ben stared at her in pure utter disbelief; he felt betrayed and wanted to cry. Ben didn’t know many girls, especially not any from another kingdom. After a few long long seconds of silence Ben speaks “what? I don’t know this girl, let alone want to marry her!”
Diana rolled her eyes at his outburst “oh come on you’re a prince did you expect me to let you marry some peasant or something?”
Ben retorted quickly “I didn’t ask for this life! I never wanted to be a prince. I would have rather been born into a poor family than royalty!”
Diana just shrugged at him “well you were born into royalty so you have to marry royalty it’s how the rules work and how the rules have worked for a very long time”
Ben just turns away and quickly runs back to his room on the verge of tears where Ricky has been waiting for him.
The moment Ricky heard the sound of the door opening he looked up expecting to see Ben with his normal face that he normally puts on but instead sees him on the edge of crying “Ben? What’s wrong? You look like you’re about to cry”
Ben doesn’t respond, he just hugs Ricky tightly, Ricky hugs him back gently and rubs his back. The two sit in silence for a while just hugging each other until Ricky speaks again “what happened? If you’re alright with telling me that is”
Ben looks up at Ricky with tear filled eyes and speaks “my moms making me marry this girl from the neighboring kingdom and I don’t want to get married yet”
Ricky’s eyes widen at Ben’s words even though it’s normal for arranged marriages to happen he didn't expect for it to happen to Ben of all people since Ben’s sister, Donna was dating a prince from another kingdom and Ben had said before that he had never wanted to be king anyways he doesn’t say anything though he just lets ben speak about whats happening. Ben rants to Ricky about the entire thing for a few minutes as his anger slowly dissipates. Ben and Ricky of course have a super straight sleepover like they always do.
About a week later it’s the day Ben and Lola are meeting each other and of course ricky has been assigned to guard that room that day just his luck.(or he's just spying on Ben we’ll never know) Ricky thought that since he had to guard the room he might as well see how they got along.
After a few hours of Ben and Lola just hanging out and talking to each other about their interests Ben brings up painting and Lola asks if he can teach her how to paint, so they do that. Ricky, still watching this happen is kinda jealous because Ben never taught him to paint, and Ben was touching Lola’s hand to help her guide the brush; which made Ricky EVEN MORE jealous if that was even possible for him to be more jealous.
Over the next few weeks Ricky had thought that Ben didn't need him and started avoiding Ben. Every time Ricky saw Ben in the hallways. in a room, anywhere really he would look the other way. Ben doesn’t notice this all too much other than a few times he's noticed when he wanted to say hi to him Ricky would ignore him.