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C h a p t e r

T h r e e

Jay sat in his room, his legs crossed. He was listening to music and humming along. People expected him to listen to classical music, but he actually didn't. He preferred more upbeat and fast songs. He found classical too boring for him, despite his family trying to force it down his ears. "Jay?" Jay looked up when he heard the faint voice of his sister.

"Celia, what brings you to my room?" Jay asked, raising a brow. She let out a small laugh and a smirk was then plastered onto her lips. "Oh, dear, why are you smirking? What have you done?" Jay stood from his bed and walked towards her. "Celia," he said with a warning tone.

"You have a guest, dear brother." She stepped aside, which made Jay stop walking, and in walked Nicholai. "I'll leave you two to it," she said with a wink. She skipped off after pushing Nicholai into Jay's room and shutting the door behind her.

"N-Nicholai," Jay squeaked out, "what are you doing here?"

"I've come to see you, and take you with me." It took Jay a few minutes for the words to register to his brain. When they did, he gave Nicholai a confused look. "Come."

"For you? Sure." Jay slapped his hand over his mouth upon realising the inappropriate comment he had made. "I mean– I'm sorry! I didn't mean to, um, say that?" A grin was plastered on Nicholai's lips as he tried not to laugh. "Let's just go," Jay mumbled, his cheeks heating up from the embarrassment. Jay walked past Nicholai and stormed off, except he didn't actually know where he was going. "Nicholai? Where are we actually going?" Nicholai had appeared behind Jay and took hold of his hand. He gave Jay a dashing smile, showing his dazzling white teeth, and dragged him to the entrance of the castle.

"Where are you two going?" Celia asked, winking at her brother. "Actually, I'd rather not know if you're going to a–"

"I'm taking him out," Nicholai answered. And with that, he resumed dragging Jay away from the castle and they delved deep into the town. "This is my house," he presented proudly. Jay looked and blinked a couple of times. It was much smaller than he expected. With Nicholai being so huge, for some reason he thought he would live in a big house. Well, Jay was clearly wrong. Nicholai opened the door and dragged Jay in, who was too busy staring around at the house, and shut the door behind him. "Say something, Princey," Nicholai spoke after a few minutes.

"It's small... But I like it. I like it a lot, actually." Jay took his hand out of Nicholai's and walked around the house, admiring it as if it were a beautiful portrait — something he saw almost every day seeing as his parents had a lot done (for reasons he did not know).

"Good. But I'm actually moving in a couple of days." Jay's eyes shifted to Nicholai, sadness overtaking the happiness in his eyes.

"Moving?" Jay felt his heart drop. Nicholai had already had a huge effect on Jay in the short amount of time. Jay was already starting to catch feelings for him, despite the short time. He hated the fact that he was catching feelings, but his mother did always tell him to follow his heart and be happy. Well, that was before she knew he was gay.

Follow your heart and be happy.

Jay was doing that and yet, his happiness was about to be ripped away from him. He shook his head. He was being stupid. Nicholai wasn't the only guy on earth, was he? No, he wasn't. "Yes."

"Good for you," Jay answered in a cold tone. A voice inside of his head told him to act as cold as he could so, stupidly, he listened to that voice. "I have to go."

"You just got here?" Nicholai was beyond confused. One moment Jay was happy and wanted to be here but the next, he had to go. Nicholai wasn't happy and frowned. He did know that Jay's change in attitude must have had something to do with the fact he was moving but Nicholai wasn't so sure. Why would Jay be so unhappy about it when they only met not long ago?

Communication. Communication was very key at this point yet the two of them completely failed at it. Well, not for long.

"Goodbye, Beast." The name Beast had slipped out but he didn't care. He was hurt. He was annoyed with himself for falling so fast for someone who was just leaving him anyway. Jay made his way to the front door but Nicholai stopped him, pulling Jay by the collar of his shirt and capturing his lips in a kiss. "N-Nicholai," Jay whispered, "w-what was that f-for?"

"I wasn't going to let you go while you're angry at me. Now tell me, BlueJay, why are you angry at me?"

"BlueJay?"

"With your eyes blue, it was only right. Now, stop straying from my question."

It took Jay a few minutes to answer. He looked at Nicholai with sad eyes. "You're moving." He looked down at his feet, feeling stupid for what he was saying. He felt Nicholai's finger lift up his chin.

"And you don't want me to?" Jay shook his head slightly as he looked into Nicholai's eyes. They were a beautiful chocolate brown colour; chocolate being his favourite snack — when he was allowed it, that is. "So why don't you come with me?" In this moment, Nicholai had forgotten that Jay was a Prince. He had forgotten that as the King and Queen's son, he still had duties. He had forgotten that Jay couldn't leave, as much as he may have wanted to leave. Jay was pretty much destined to live a sad and lonely life, seeing as his parents have no accepted him.

Jay looked away, Nicholai's finger dropping from his chin. "You know I can't. I have to stay, Nicholai. My parents wouldn't allow me to leave."

"I've heard the news, BlueJay. I know they don't accept you. Why are you going to stay for people who won't accept you? Why don't you jump at the chance for happiness?"

"Because I am the Prince of this kingdom and if anything went wrong with my sister, I would be King. And we are going too fast. We barely know each other!" Nicholai slowly nodded his head and backed away.

"Okay," was all he replied with. "You should go." And with that, Jay slowly made his way out from Nicholai's house and made his way back to the castle. He didn't look back either.

He bumped into Celia on his way up to his room. She followed him there and forced him to spill everything, and so he did. "You're an idiot," she said, smacking him on the back of his head.

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing his head, "what was that for?"

"Why are you sacrificing your happiness?"

"This isn't a fairytale, Lia! I can't just drop everything and leave with someone I only met a few days ago!"

"What? And I can't marry someone I met a few days ago? I am doing exactly that. This is how we live, Jay. Our love doesn't have time to simmer and develop before properly getting together. Our love does that while we are dating or married. Look at mother and father. They knew each other a total of one day before marrying two days later, and now they're completely in love. For some reason, that's just how our kingdom works and it works for us! You should leave with Nicholai and be happy. I'll miss you but I'd rather you happy than sad. Please, just do what's best for you and not everyone else." He shook his head at his sister. As much as he wanted to, he knew he couldn't find it in his heart to just leave.

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