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“You have to protect me,” Davey had said, very serious about it. “That’s what knights do.”
Austin, five and missing one front tooth, had saluted with a stick. “Always.”
‘Always’ turned out to be a long time.
They grew out of the colander. Out of the stick-swords. Out of the way Davey insisted on being addressed as Your Majesty – mostly. But something about the roles stuck. Austin still walked on the outside edge of sidewalks, still handed Davey the better popsicle without comment, still looked at him like there was something worth guarding.
By seven – practically ancient, in their opinion – Davey knew he liked Austin in a way that made his stomach flip unpleasantly and pleasantly at the same time. He knew because when Alice said Austin was “cute,” Davey went home and sulked in silent, filled with fury.
There was an issue to this, though.
Kings did not date their knights.
Kings chose queens. That was the rule. That was how stories worked. Knights rode off, sacrificed things, and didn’t get the crown.
So when Austin bumped shoulders with him and said, “You’re my best friend, you know that, right?” Davey swallowed the words that felt too big for his mouth.
“Obviously,” he said instead, as if it were beneath him to doubt.
He kept the feeling tucked away like treasure in a locked chest.
Because if Austin stopped being his knight, Davey wasn’t sure he’d know how to be a king without him.
At night, under glow-in-the-dark stars stuck crooked on his ceiling, he would replay every small thing: the way Austin waited for him at the top of the slide, hand outstretched; the way he’d once shoved Monty and declared, fiercely, “That’s my king.” The word had made Davey’s ears burn hot.
Sometimes Austin would grin at him across the playground, grass-stained and bright, and Davey would feel something treacherous bloom in his chest. It was full of want. Wanting was dangerous according to his little mind.
So, Davey stayed very still in his role. He let Austin walk the outer edge of sidewalks. Let him guard. Let him be brave.
And pretended he didn’t want to trade the crown for a hand to hold.