Bad Temptations

Long Nights

That night I felt lonely in my wing. I only had the soft breeze of summer wind, filling my mind of days back at my kingdom.

I felt sick to my stomach to think about what Bill and Wendy were doing.

I roll over on my side, trying to dismiss the images from my mind.

At this rate, I would be up all night.

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to will myself to sleep. Nothing is working.

I decide to take a stroll outside in the garden. I open my door ready to go get Alexander, but am suprised to see him already standing there.

"Don't you ever sleep?" He jumps a little, but turns around with a smile.

"I do, you just don't see it." I nod my head and the silence comes back.

He takes a breath.

"So, what are you doing up?"

"Can't sleep," I turn my head to look down the hall. "I was wondering if you could take a stroll with me in the garden."

He pretends to think, which makes me nudge his shoulder.

"Alright! If I have to."

We head down the wing and out the door, just walking at a slow pace. We reach the garden and I decide to start to ask him about his personal life.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, how did you get here?"

He doesn't answer and I worry I might have crossed a line.

"It wasn't always my dream." I do a mental fist bump. "I wanted to become something normal, like become a mage, or something that had me closer to home."

I wince at the word mage, but wonder what he means by 'normal'.

"But what changed?"

He looks down at me for a second, like he forgot I was there.

"Well, I wanted to become a dragon slayer, of course. But I didn't know I would be stuck babysitting a prince."

He playfully leans into me a bit, knocking me off the dirt trail and into some bushes.

I laugh at sarcastic remark but stop when I see him standing with his hand up, blocking me from getting back into the trail.

"What are y-"

"Shhh!" He cuts me off by putting his hand on my mouth.

His rough calloused hand scrapes against my lips, but I'm far too worried about what he's doing to notice the butterflies in my stomach.

He takes his hand off and tells me to hide in a bush by the castle wall.

"Don't come out no matter what, okay?"

I nod my head, not trusting my voice.

I crouch down and he turns around, giving me what could be his last smile.

Then he runs off around the corner with his sword in hand, and I'm stuck with my horrible thoughts.

Minutes pass and I'm left wondering if he's okay or if I'm going to die.

My breathing quickens as I faintly hear footsteps walking towards me.

I shrink down, careful not to jostle the bush. I realize they can probably hear how fast my heart is pumping, so I try to take long, quiet breaths.

When I focus again, the steps seem to be only a yard or so away and I cringe as they make my way over towards my hiding place.

I hold my breath as they reach the bushes. They stop right in front of me and I struggle to choke back sobs.

For a moment, actually, for longer than a moment I think they see me, but to my immense relief, they walk away.

That makes me wonder again what happened to Alexander.

Not only would he die protecting me, but he's the only guy I had a normal conversation with.

I slowly let out my breath, scared the person is still close by, and start praying to every god I know.

When I finish, it feels like hours I've been sitting here, and the sky is pitch black by now, compared to the sun going down when we first came out here.

Now I feel absolutely terrible. I'm the reason we're out here in the first place. If I had just tried to fall asleep on my own, I wouldn't have put us both in danger.

I hear footsteps again, so I suck in all the air I'll need, and patiently wait for them to walk by again. But, this time, they aren't walking. They're sprinting.

I can hear how hard they're coming down onto the ground, and how wide their steps are. They're full on sprinting.

I'm scared it's the person that walked past me earlier and realized that I was actually sitting here the whole time.

Then I thought about Alex running away from them, but dismissed it because I only heard one pair of footsteps.

My pulse quickens as they near my bush.

Before I can register what happened, I'm being pulled out of the bush and shoved into something.

At first Im scared I'm getting kidnapped so I start screaming.

Then I get a hand out on my mouth again and look up at the person. It was Alex. And he was hugging me.

I gasp and put my arms around him.

I'm probably covered in twigs and leaves, but I could care less. I don't think I've ever been more happy to see someone.

"Come on, we need to get out of here."

I just silently nod.

******
when we're back inside, we walk to my                 room knowing there's a first aid kit for some cuts we both obtained.                                        

I walk into my bathroom and grab the kit. Before I walk out, I check the mirror and prove myself right as my hair looks like a birds nest.

I walk out and see Alexander without a shirt on.

I swivel on my heel and awkwardly stand there.

"Ummm sorry didn't know you were changing."

There's a pause and I guess he's just now seeing me.

"My apologies your majesty. I was wondering if you could get the cuts on my back."

I accept and get him situated on my bed, and me standing behind him.

I take out my wash cloth I had grabbed and started cleaning the wounds.

I catch him gasping when I do this, so I ask him questions to get his mind off of it.

"What happened out there?"