Take me by the Hand, Lead me to the Land

Chapter 2

Mercy, frankly, was convinced that the rest of his day could not have been more boring.

One may call him spoiled, and they'd be right. However, Mercy would still object that no one would want to spend their 'big day' getting pulled back and forth between two rooms just to look pretty. Mercy would rather spend his day doing something productive, such as putting loperamide in Tug's moss tea so he wouldn't shit on his face again. Or hiding Kym's favourite ball jewelry, so she's forced to resort to wearing the gaudy and chunky pieces of metal her Auntie Aphrobetta gave her on Highest Tide.

In other words, all sorts of responsible things that a coming-of-age prince should be doing.

Mercy sighed to himself for what seemed the millionth time as a maid used sticky gel to mould the locks of his hair. Mercy, in an attempt to keep himself distracted, thought back to his conversation with his dad. In all honesty, the conversation was one of the few things that kept him in high spirits. For all of his discomfort and boredom, it had at least managed to keep the loneliness he felt earlier at bay. Then, he remembered the presents his father mentioned.

As the maid turned around to grab more gel, Mercy peered forward and looked at the gifts his dad and mom had left him. Sitting at the corner of his vanity table, they were both wrapped in sea-paper with bows on top for decoration. They were only slightly bigger than his hand, and the gifts were very narrow. Jewellery presumably. He reached over to grab them when a sudden bang filled the room. Mercy turned his head as he heard the maid quietly curse to herself and saw Kym frantically swimming towards him.

"S'up." Mercy greeted, smiling cheekily. Unfortunately, after so many occurrences, it was no mystery as to why Kym was there.

Every ball, the maids would try and dress Kym up. Every ball, Kym would hopelessly hide trying to keep her dishevelled or as she called it, "aesthetically fitting" looks intact. Every so often, if the ball was small enough, Kym could get away with that. Seeing that today she would be attending at least the sixth most important ball in her life, they both knew it wasn't going to happen.

Kym was still swimming around his room as she started talking. "Fuck, fuck, fuck. They're going to catch me, Merce, and force me to dress up and look all nice and...fuck. Okay, my hair isn't too bad, right? I can just tie it up, yeah?

"It looks like a giant gourami nest."

Kym smacked his arm.

"Derogatory." Mercy added on, Kym smacked his arm again.

"Okay," Kym shoved herself between Mercy and his mirror, "Yeah, it's a tad messy, but, I'll... just brush it later."

Mercy gave her an unimpressed look from over her shoulder before feeling a sharp tug at his scalp. Apparently, his hair was beginning to fight back if the maid's actions were any indications.

Kym continued, either not seeing or ignoring Mercy, "I shouldn't need to wear makeup right? It'll look tacky, everyone knows that. Plus, it feels awful and makes me look like some bum after I take it off-"

"I thought that was your 'aesthetic'" Mercy snarked.

Kym frowned, looking through the mirror, "Shut up."

"You first."

"No you."

"No yo-."

A knock at the door interrupted Mercy. Kym jumped behind his bed.

"Prince Merseus," a meek voice called out, "We hate to interrupt you, my prince, especially on such an important day, but may we ask, is Princess Kymopoleiark with you?"