Chapter Text
Rek wasn’t usually like this.
He was always so calm. A genuine, kind, caring man. Even from when he was just a child. Though Branzy herself stood as quite the opposite to her younger brother.
Of course she was just as charming as any noble. Quick to complement and sway a conversation in her favor, but she has always been a bit of a cheat. Proud of it too.
A liar, a manipulator, a buisness woman. Worming her influence into the courts that had originally disregarded her opinion.
Though that wasn’t to say she was incompetent. She had good ideas, she knew what she was doing, and Rek knew that.
Rek trusted her with those kinds of things. Trusted her opinion, to help him as he, the firstborn son, would take over the kingdom.
And that is the reason he now paced her quarters. Shoulders being worn as earrings as the sound of his steps strode from carpet to stone, back and forth.
Rightfully nervous. While the Craft family lucky, they weren’t warding off a “curse” lucky.
At least the majority claimed it was a curse. Branzy had questions if it really ever was.
The heiress of the Pierce family, Clown Pierce, seemed to have less than good luck when it came to marriage. Each suitor, once wed, dropping dead in a matter of days with no clear cause. At least 5 at this point if Branzy remembered correctly. It had become a regular point of gossip at noble gatherings.
The family was odd. Only two daughters and the family not seeming to be too keen on either of them taking over, but desperate to have an heir to their empire.
She huffed, taking her gaze from out the bay window that held the evening’s moon outside, adjusting her posture and entwining her hands as they rested on her lap, sitting on the cushioned ledge. Now looking to Rek as he walked back and forth at the other end of the room.
It was nothing more than arranged marriage of convenience. Rek had recently turned 19, she had recently lost her husband. Again.
They’d be wed the same day he’d be crowned king. It was good for business, for the country, not for Rek.
He wasn’t a politician. He was diplomatic yes, but he had too kind of a soul to take over with a good conscience. He was smart, but in Branzy’s opinion he would not be happy ruling.
With a sigh she brushed off her nightgown, planting her hands on either side of herself and sliding off the seat.
She hummed stepping forward and around her bedframe, tone fond.
“She’s going to kill me.” He stood dead in his tracks as she walked up to him, hand hanging on the back of his neck.
“You look like a rabbit at gunpoint and she isn’t even here yet.” She mused, huffing a laugh as she gestured to her bed. “Sit down.”
He followed her command, hands together in his lap as he sat small as he could on the sheets. Polite as ever.
Branzy hoisted herself onto the bed, crossing her legs, leaning back on her palms, and looking to him. “We have a few days till she gets here, and a good few more weeks till the wedding.” She tried to be reassuring, but the up pitch in her voice gave her doubts away.
Rek’s face fell as she went on.
“Alright-…“ She sucked in a breath, fidgeting with the sheets as she tried to look him in the eyes and say that he’d be fine. But if there was one person in the world she couldn’t lie to it was Rek. Most of the time.
“Listen-,” She paused as Rek groaned, head dropping to his hands, “Alright. So she might be a serial husband murderer.”
Ok great start.
Rek peeked between his fingers at her, reasonably disturbed by the comment.
She held up a finger, noting, “I am going somewhere with this,” absolutely lying. She had no idea where this tangent was going to bring them or how it would help at all.
But, she was good at making things up on the fly.
“She’s probably a serial husband murderer,” she folded her hands together, cogs in her mind trying to churn out the next thought.
“But if the marriage never goes through she’ll have no reason to get rid of you. Can’t get rid of a husband you don’t have, right?” She shrugged, only half sure of whatever plan she had started partially concocting.
Rek raised a brow, coming out from hiding in his palms. Still hunched over, tense, but listening.
She took a breath to actually formulate some sort of explanation. “I’m going to be apart of the bridal party and wedding planning. I am going to be around her a lot.”
She went on, gesturing here and there to exaggerate her point.
“I will do everything to delay the wedding until we can find some way to get you out of this,” She gestured vaguely to their surroundings, “situation.”
Rek, while still looking uneasy, stared to the floor and nodded. Really having no other option than to trust Branzy at the moment.
“Alright.” His foot tapped on the tiled floor, arms crossed over each other. “But how-“ He muttered, retreating back to his palms.
Branzy leaned back towards her bedside table, grumbling something Rek couldn’t make out. She took out a hand fan, spring back to his side, and hit the top of his head with it.
He tried to wave the thing away, but Branzy persisted.
“We’ll. Cross. That. Bridge. When. We. Get. To. It.” Enunciating every word with a thwack from the fan, and a few even after for good measure. Rek half heartedly trying to escape the onslaught of blows from the frail decoration.
If there parents were there they might have chastised her for using the delicate thing in such a manner.
But they weren’t. So she gave him one last hit on the shoulder.
“She’s not here yet. We have seven days till she is. You can trust me to come up with something by then.” She huffed a laugh, passing the fan from one hand to the other as she went to lean against her brother’s shoulder.
She looked up at him, tapping his leg to make him meet her eyes, and as he did she tried to reassure him. “I’ll make sure you’ll be fine. I can’t let you die on me.”
He turned his head, resting it on hers. Honestly uncomfortable position if held too long as Branzy stood quite a bit shorter than Rek, but a welcome connection in the moment.
“You’re right.” He sighed, quiet but honest.
“I usually am.”
Poking his leg with the fan she sighed. “Now get out of my room,” she leaned back cocking her head to look up at him, “I’m tired and can’t plot without my beauty sleep. So if you value your life let me rest.”
Rek turned slightly to look at her, nodding hesitantly before looking back to the ebony door that lead out of the room, not yet standing.
“She can’t get you from the other side of the country.” She chuckled, prodding his arm fondly.
“I-“ He turned to her, met with the raise her brow as he fell to his back against the bed, “What do I-…. What do we tell-“
“Nothing.” She cut in, scooting so her head hovered over his, staring down at him.
Their parents couldn’t know. They were the very people they had to work against. The cause of the situation and to blame for arranging the stupid wedding,
“We tell them nothing. I’m already in hot water with them. We’ll be fine once you take over but until then we just-…” she couldn’t look him in the eye.
“Lie?” He asked through a sigh.
“Exactly.” She breathed, smile performative as she patted his chest gingerly.
“Lie by omission. Just-…. Don’t bring it up and they’ll never know.”
They were both quiet for a long moment. Branzy taking a glance to the window, Rek laying still as his breath stayed shallow.
With a blink he followed her gaze, looking to find the moon bright and so far away. The woods lay under it, palace so far from the city so nothing but nature could be seen for miles.
“Didn’t want to be bothered by the noise” their parents said, the best excuse they could give for using the countries funds and people’s tax money to build a whole other palace built so far away.
They couldn’t deny it was working as they’d said. It was peaceful, quiet, and secluded.
Pine forest rolling across the hills, mountains in the far distance, a lake found on the other side of the palace.
The stars were distant as they always were, not a cloud to be seen in the evening.
“It’s late.” She hummed, barely above a breath as she glanced back to him. Their eyes met, strained silence following till Rek broke the tension with a sigh.
Dragging his hands to his face, rubbing his face before throwing them to
his lap and sitting up.
“Yeah.” He huffed, gripping his knees as he looked to her and back to the door.
“You can worry all you want in the morning. After breakfast.” She looked to him, raising a brow with a smile.
Prodding his back with the fan once more she pushed him to get up. “But I need to sleep so get the fuck out of my room.”
Rek did as he was asked, looking back with a small but amused smile. “Why are you so violent tonight?”
“Because I’m TIRED. Now get OUT of my ROOM.” She shook the decoration at him scooting to the edge of the bed and swinging her legs over to sit proper.
Shaking his head he walked to the door, gripping the door handle before Branzy spoke up once more.
“Oh, tell the servants to bring your breakfast to my room tomorrow so we can talk.” She called after him, throwing the fan back into its drawer before looking back to him.
“That sounds…” There was a pause, not of hesitance of contemplation, but a firm unease that weighed down each word, “Nice.” He huffed, still obviously tense, but open to at least pushing the subject till the morning.
“Goodnight Branzy.” He spoke with a soft but strained smile this time, nodding to her.
She paused for a moment as he opened the door.
“Wait no, your room. Tell them to bring my breakfast to your room.”
Rek hesitated, looking back and to Branzy with a puzzled look at the switch up.
“They knock before going into yours. It’ll be more private. Don’t want anyone to just be barging in. Especially mother and father.”
“Alright,” Rek nodded, waving a hand and saying another, “goodnight.” Before closing the door behind him.
“Goodnight.” She called after him as it shut.
She stood, rounding the large bed and back to the window perch. Closing the curtains and moving a book from its seat to the table.
As the window was covered the last light in the room was the candle that sat on top of her bedside table.
She stood watching the flame for a long moment. The room once lit with moonlight now almost pitch black.
Her mind wandered, the most pressing matter showing first.
While she tried to stay lighthearted as Rek sat with her, she did worry.
She was a good bit older than he was. Her being 32 and him just recently turning 19. More of an aunt than a sister.
Their parents had tried for years to bear another child after Branzy. Father taking on another partner, in secret, in hopes to have a male heir.
If Rek hadn’t been born, she would have taken up the throne, or more technically her husband would have, and then she would have found a way to take care of that husband and and rule by herself.
Branzy hates to think of such things. To wish her own brother had never been. She did love him, genuinely, but there has always been that itch of that thought in the back of her mind. That question of what she could have had if it had just been her.
But that was not the situation they were in.
She huffed, wringing her hands finally crawling into bed. Scooting from one side of the large bed to the other, and blowing out the candle, and settling on her side.
She would figure something out. Everything would work out.
Eventually.
Hopefully.