Chapter Text
Raphica, crown prince of the Rito kingdom, found himself sitting in the royal nursery. At 4 years old, this is where he spent most of his time. Usually, he stayed here by himself with nannies and butlers who tended to his every need while his parents spoke with other adults he didn’t recognize. However, today was different. This time, he had someone else with him.
Today, the castle was having a big gathering with even MORE adults. As it turned out, one of those adults brought someone else with them. That someone else in question was another young boy around his age with big eyes and a wide smile who immediately ran up to him the second he entered the room.
This boy wore a dark, navy blue tunic and a rather oversized hat that covered his green hair, which Raphica noticed from the small cowlick that poked out in the front.
Before the nanny who ushered him in could say anything, the boy took one of Raphica’s hands and shook it vigorously with both of his.
“Hi!! My name is Vence!! Nice to meet you!! What’s your name?”
Raphica’s eyes went wide at the sudden touch, and all he could do was blink at him before the nanny hurried and gently took Vence’s hands to free him from his grip.
“Yes, yes, you’re very excited, Young Vence, but it’s improper to take someone’s hand like that, especially not the prince’s.”
Vence, shocked at this new information, turned to Raphica with his mouth in the shape of an O.
“Whoa!! You’re the prince!? That’s so cool!!”
The nanny spoke for him again.
“Yes, this is His Highness Prince Raphica.”
Vence gave a couple of big nods to show he was listening as Raphica watched silently. He wasn’t sure how to respond, so he didn’t. Raphica was a rather quiet child, much to the dismay of his caretakers, who were desperately trying to coax him to communicate more.
Vence seemed to clock this after spending more time with him, and suddenly, in the middle of him talking, he stopped and cocked his head. Raphica noticed the loss of sound immediately and turned to look back at him.
“Huh… you don’t talk a lot, do you?”
Raphica started to feel the pressure of being expected to respond, but before he could open his mouth, Vence broke into a wide grin again.
“That’s okay! I can talk for both of us!”
For the first time, Raphica felt a comfort he hadn’t before. Normally, he would have people trying hard to get him to speak when he didn’t have anything to say. It always left a lot of silence that he wasn’t sure how to fill, but now he no longer felt that pressure.
He hasn’t had the chance to make many friends before…
~~~~~
Risha was the nanny supervising them. The childcare staff of the castle was working on developing the prince’s basic education. He was quite intelligent for his young age, and his progress in learning to read and write was going impressively smoothly. However, they were still trying to get Prince Raphica to speak more. He can identify and name different objects when they do exercises with him, but when it came to speaking on his own, it proved to be a bit of a challenge.
Risha was the one who had successfully gotten the prince to speak voluntarily, so she was assigned to supervise him more often. She loved working with children, so when she was told that two of the ball guests couldn’t find a babysitter for their son and were given permission by the royal family to keep him in the nursery, she was ecstatic.
This was a chance for the prince to gain a new friend, and she happily took the young one in when he was handed over to her.
When overseeing the two boys, she mostly let them do their own thing. Young Vence was already very extroverted and social, so she didn’t need to initiate any activities to entertain them. All she had to do was keep them in her sight and occasionally give a light scolding when they were at risk of damaging the furniture or themselves.
The Rito castle wasn’t too big, so the faint chatter and music from the ball could be heard from the nursery as the event lasted late into the night.
However, the children seemed to have endless energy even as the clock approached 9:30pm.
The two of them would spend the time playing together. They had plenty of stuffed toys (the prince preferred them over wooden toys), and Vence would often be the one to suggest ideas that Raphica would simply nod or shake his head to. The conversation would usually consist of Vence talking about whatever was on his mind most of the time, but Raphica seemed to be okay with that.
When Risha felt herself getting tired, she decided to put them to bed.
Prince Raphica was always good with bedtime, and so was Young Vence, though he did let out a disappointed “Awwwee…” when she told him it was time to go to sleep; Vence’s mothers could come and pick him up when the ball concluded.
Since Young Vence was only going to be there for maybe another hour or so, and since the prince’s bed was rather large, she decided to simply put both of them there.
Once the children were properly tucked into bed, Risha left the room and gently closed the door behind her.
She walked down the hallway and grabbed the attention of two guards: Pinnec and his wife, Juniper, who were both royal knights.
“His Highness has been put to bed. When Young Vence’s mothers come to take him home, escort them to the nursery. He will be asleep next to the prince.
Pinnec nodded.
“Excellent. We shall keep watch over the hallway until then.”
And with that, Risha gave them both a polite curtsy and headed to her chambers for the night.
~~~~~
Meanwhile, in the nursery…
Neither Vence nor Raphica wanted to go to sleep. The second the nanny closed the door, Vence was sitting up in the bed, and Raphica was staring at him, curious as to what the other was thinking about. When the green-haired boy looked at Raphica, he had a mischievous glint in his eyes.
“Do you wanna sneak out?”
Raphica’s head had never nodded so fast before.
Both boys carefully slid off the bed to run to the door, leaving the comfort of the blankets behind. Raphica was too short to reach the knob, but Vence wasn’t. Vence had a solid 2 inches on the young prince, and that’s all he needed to reach up and pull down on the lever.
A shiver ran up Raphica’s spine as the door creaked open. He’d never done something like this before. Sneaking out? With so many people over? With no supervision? Goodness, he might as well have been pulling off a bank heist.
Vence stopped the door from swinging inwards the second it started creaking, taking a peek outside to check if anyone was there. When he saw the two guards at the end of the hallway looking the other way, he stepped out.
Raphica was amazed; he had no idea how Vence could do this so naturally. His heart raced, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he followed the other boy to walk away from the guards.
Both of them tiptoed out of the room and began walking away when they heard a CLICK that echoed through the hall. They might have opened the door carefully, but Raphica hadn’t turned back to ease it closed, leaving it to fall back into the lock’s socket on its own. The two guards at the end of the hall noticed the noise too, and they turned around at the same moment as Vence and Raphica.
They made eye contact with each other, and the next thing Raphica knew, Vence had grabbed him by the hand and began running away.
~~~~~
The chase was not very long-lived, and the two boys were caught relatively quickly. Despite that, though, Raphica had the time of his life. He even found himself giggling along with his new friend before he felt himself getting lifted into the air by a pair of strong hands as an adult woman’s voice rang out.
“Alright, that’s enough fun for today, Your Highness.”
Vence was immediately disappointed when Raphica got grabbed by her.
“Awweee… no fair Auntie Juniper! We were just playing!”
Vence was then lifted into the air by Pinnec.
“You heard her, young man. Time to settle down. Your parents are looking for you anyway.”
Vence pouted.
“But I wanna stay!!”
Pinnec shook his head as he and his wife carried the two children away, but before Juniper could return him to the nursery, Raphica did something that surprised both adults.
“Can he come over and play tomorrow?”
His voice was soft and gentle; it would have been barely audible had Juniper not been so close.
Raphica’s speaking issues were well known in the castle, so this caused Pinnec and Juniper to raise their eyebrows in mild shock. They looked at each other to exchange looks of surprise before Juniper smiled at the prince and kissed him on the forehead.
“We’ll see what we can do. Now say goodbye to your new friend.”
Raphica lifted his hand and waved at Vence.
“Bye bye.”
And as the sounds from the ball died down as each guest left, Raphica was placed back into his bed, and Vence was returned to his mothers, who got to hear all about their son’s playtime with the prince.
~~~~~
Having been given the privilege to dwell in the castle, it was only natural that there were rumors amongst the staff about the royal family. There were all types of gossip about their current circumstances, both political and interpersonal.
If you worked at the Rito castle, you’d know that the prince’s vocal confidence shot up after the spring ball.
You’d hear that he made a new friend who encouraged him to talk more and that he was allowed to visit the castle to play with the young prince, though it took LOTS of convincing.
If you worked at the Rito castle, you’d know that his friend was of the lower knight class.
You’d hear that the child was only given 2 years with his friend before he had to be sent back home for training.
If you worked at the Rito castle, you’d know the knight child hasn’t come back yet.
You’d hear that the young prince has become very independent and increasingly reckless since then…