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When Scott was told about Rivendell's newest alliance, he immediately knew it meant his marriage was arranged. That had always been the plan, after all: he would marry a future ruler of another kingdom to secure an alliance for his own. What he hadn’t expected was for that kingdom to be KEWLTOWN. Or how the prince from there was acting.
This was Scott’s first time officially meeting his future husband, and he wasn’t at all what Scott had expected. See he had expected someone charming clearly well-educated and distinguished, someone who knew the social code of nobility and behaved according to it. And Cam was definitely not that, far from it actually.
Their first meeting was supposed to be a quiet and calm tea party that Scott was hosting and before it even began it became very clear to Scott that Cam had no political discretion whatsoever. The prince had arrived 30 minutes late and brought his horse, Pip, into the garden they were having tea in, and then just let Pip walk around however he wanted as the prince sat down.
Cam also clearly lacked table manners as he slurped his tea and kept playing around with his food. He also tried to talk with his mouth full at one point. He was practically disrespecting everything Scott was with his behaviour, he was probably doing it on purpose because he didn’t like Scott. Why else would a well-educated prince act like that? Cam was the absolute opposite of what Scott could ever have imagined in a political husband, but he could grin and bear it for his people. He had to.
That mindset didn’t stay intact long, as when Cam knocked over the fruit punch onto Scott followed by clearly fake apologies, the elf finally snapped, “What is actually your problem? I get that you don't like me, but seriously?!”
“What do you mean?” Cam asked seemingly confused and shocked, “I don't dislike you in any way, what gave you that impression?”
“What gave me that impression?” Scott repeated the question in disbelief, before spelling it out for the prince, “You’ve very clearly done nothing but disrespect me since you got here, i get it. We didn’t get a choice in this marriage and I'm probably not your type, but we could at least try to be civil.”
“How have I disrespected you? Prince cam bam of KEWLTOWN would never.” The prince eminently defended himself in his stupid third-person speech.
“You quite literally did it right now, you addressed yourself in third person because you don't want to talk to me and think you’re better than me.” Scott accused the man, who stopped dead in his tracks as his insulted face turned to confusion.
“I'm sorry, what now?” Cam said as he fully turned to Scott while saying, “That’s not why I addressed myself in the third person at all. I just did that so you would know I was being genuine.”
“What?” Scott asked as the confusion reached his face too. That didn’t make any sense.
“In KEWLTOWN it’s normal to address oneself in the third person, when being completely honest and genuine with someone. It’s like a ‘I swear on my name and title thing’, are you telling me that you guys don’t do that?” Cam spoke through his confusion, to try and clear up the situation.
“It is?” Scott asked in shock as he looked into Cam's fully genuine eyes, “that definitely just a KEWLTOWN thing then, I've never been in any other kingdom that has such a custom of speech.”
“Wait so you thought that this whole time I was talking down to you?” Cam asked as clear horror crossed over his face. How could he be so stupid? In front of the hot elven guy he would be marrying no less.
“Yes,” Scott responded before looking down for a moment and asking, “So all of the other stuff you did, you weren't intending to insult me once?”
“No! Of course not, why ever would I want to do that!” Cam immediately reassured, before the phrase really set in, “Wait! Other stuff? How much have I been disrespecting you since I got here?”
“Quite a bit,” Scott quietly said. Had he been wrong about Cam, he seemed quite apologetic. Like genuinely apologetic.
“That simply won't do. I prince… I sincerely apologise for my ignorance.” Cam said as he gently bowed his head to Scott.
“Okay well now I am curious about the differences in costumes, I tried to read up on KEWLTOWN before this meeting but our royal archive is quite scarce on your kingdom.” Scott hummed as he took another careful sip of tea, quietly accepting Cam’s apology.
“Wow, you know how to read,” Cam said in utter surprise, like it was something incredible. The hot elven guy was also smart, how did he get so lucky?
“You don't?” Scott questioned as a smile returned to his face.
“Don’t say it like that, you’re making it sound like it’s a bad thing,” Cam said as he felt the sudden urge to defend himself.
“May I ask about a few of the things you did and how they would be interpreted in your kingdom?” Scott gently inquired, as it was clear to him now that he had misjudged Cam. And maybe he wanted to amend that. He wanted to have the knowledge to make a new judgment about the man.
“Absolutely!” Cam said after no hesitation whatsoever.
And that’s how their proper first conversation started, talking about the difference in costumes between their kingdoms. And Scott quickly found that Cam was actually quite funny. Horrible at politics, but funny and kind. And maybe he'd like having him as a political husband more than he anticipated. Maybe Scott would like him as a husband period, but for now it was too soon to say.