The King's Dream

Chapter 2: This Side of Paradise

"I know, I know. You tell me that every time and every time, you get back."

His father's expression darkened. "Son, there will be a day when I don't make it back. You had better be prepared to rule over this kingdom. This kingdom that I built-"

"-built from nothing but scraps." George interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Yeah yeah, I know."

"Alright, I just hope you understand what I'm saying." He began exiting the room, but stopped outside the doors. The king took a second glance at the room. "Wait, where is your guard?"

"I don't know, I told him he wasn't needed, so he left." George shrugged.

The king marched back into the room, "George, what have I told you about keeping your guard around at all times?"

"Father, I'm not going to get kidnapped like I did when I was an infant. I'm a grown man! Plus, we are literally in my private bedroom, nobody's going to come in."

    "I don't care. Your mother would kill me if anything happened to your incompetent self."

"But mother's-"

"Don't say a word about your mother." He stared back at George with immeasurable pain and fury in his eyes. "Your guard is to stay with you at all times."

"I- okay," George stuttered.

"And you better not have anything going on with this guard too, or else he'll end up like the last one." With that, the king turned and left the room, his armoured footsteps clanking all the way down the hall.

"But his death was an accident..." George didn't want to think too much about it. After a few minutes of studying, he got up to call for his guard. To his surprise, immediately upon opening the doors, Dream stumbled into the room and cursed, standing back up and brushing himself off.

After an awkward few seconds, George sighed. "Look, I think it's safe to say I don't like you very much."

"Likewise," Dream said plainly.

George scratched the back of his neck. "I would prefer it if you weren't here, but my father still thinks I'm a child."

"Well, he's not wrong..." Dream muttered under his breath.

The prince scowled. "There's no way for us to get out of this situation, so I think we should just learn to get along. If not, we are both going to have a horrible time, you'll be fired, and I'll be punished."

The masked man turned around to stare at the tall bookshelves that covered George's bedroom walls. Seeing the amount of education and wealth George had access to was painful.

"You're right, but I'm not going to waste my time lying to you. I don't care if it's going to make this stupid job harder for me."

George frowned.

"I'm a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of them."

"Fine. Well, I have no problem lying, so I'm gonna make this better for myself. Plus, I've been doing it my whole life, so that shouldn't be a problem."

What did this spoiled brat have to lie about? Dream tilted his head slightly, trying to hide the fact he genuinely felt a bit intrigued to hear if George had a legitimate answer.

"Well, I used to lie all the time about actually doing my studies. I hated all the damn homework I was given. My father started me up on lessons when I was five, it's gone downhill ever since."

Dream scoffed. "Oh come on. That's what you lied about? Those were your biggest problems?"

"My mother died when I was five," George defended. "It's why my father began panicking, worried that if he died as well I wouldn't be able to rule the kingdom. Speaking of which, I need to figure out what my schedule is for the day."