Butterfly Reign

18. Now I Make My Own Decisions

"Reminds me of my brother's office," Dream says in a conversational tone. "Though it's a little bit bare here."

Dream is not wrong. For an office this big, easily comparable in size with most bedrooms in the palace, the desk and a few chairs on a red carpet stand out like an island in the middle of an ocean. There used to be a few couches filling in the empty space - almost every other night Tommy fell asleep curled up amongst the cushions, and Techno would carry his sluggishly protesting form all the way back to his chambers. Eventually, Tommy's brother had gotten all of them taken out, but experience has shown that he can just as easily fall asleep sitting if he is tired enough. Which is almost always.

Tommy pushes the chair towards the table and hums an affirmation. "I prefer to keep my working space clean of distractions."

"Do you also prefer not to take any breaks?" Dream asks.

Beau skews a gaze at him, so seething that it could've set his hair on fire if that was physically possible. When Tommy's head spins around to glare at her, the lady is looking out the window, fanning herself sheepishly. Tommy blazes his eyes one more time for good measure before he turns back to patiently waiting Dream. The crown prince's amused smile makes his cheeks turn red, and he lowers his head, gazing over the abandoned documents sprawled before him.

"I can afford a break every once in a while," he says, if only to prove Beau wrong. "Why do you ask?"

Dream fetches out a piece of paper out of his pocket with two fingers.

"Sapnap has left me a note saying that he left to train with the palace guards early this morning. I wanted to tell him that I'll be needing him later in the day, but I don't know where to look."

"He must be around the barracks," Tommy muses.

The other prince gives him a reserved, but confused look that clearly means that he doesn't know where the barracks are. Tommy hadn't shown Dream that part of the palace during their initial tour - a bunch of guards going through their training drills is not what visitors are usually interested in seeing.

Tommy wants to offer himself as a guide, but his gaze stumbles on the piled paperwork and bites back the reply.

"I can have Marchioness Beau lead you the way-"

"Forgive my selfishness, for I came seeking your company specifically, Prince Theseus," Dream says. "However, I do not wish to impose either. Perhaps we shall request the lady in question has the final say?"

They both turn to Beau, and Tommy's aide, who previously kept silent in the face of two princes conversing, gestures at the remaining paperwork with her fan. "If Prince Theseus would be so generous to share, I can finish today's quota by myself." She shoots Tommy a sly look. "In my humble opinion, there is no reason for Prince Dream's request to be denied."

Tommy can only stare and wonder when his aide and the foreign prince had the time to conspire against him. Does this count as treason? He is quite sure that it does. In the meantime, two people are still waiting for his answer, and the way Beau worded her reply leaves Tommy very short of options.

Tommy skids into a stroll and joins the other prince's side and pretends not to feel warmed up when the corner of Dream's mouth twitches upwards.

***

For hundreds of years, the Kingdom of Esempi and the Antarctic Empire competed for supremacy over the continent. The desire to control all trade flows and own valuable resources pushed them, again and again, to clash in bloody skirmishes over territories that often spilled into full-fledged wars.

Even with all the efforts of Emperor Philza and King Foolish to maintain the fragile bridge of peace, the people of both nations hold their breaths in dread of it falling through at any moment. The Empire hates the Kingdom and the Kingdom hates the Empire; such has been their relationship for as long as the oldest records tell. The two countries who were once enemies became rivals - and now the crown prince of one of them is teaching the second what neither father nor his brothers could. What he couldn't teach himself.