The Strings in the Shadows

Chapter Two- In which Edward gets in an arguement and Jack gets in trouble

 Around midday, when the kitchen boy Jack was bandaging his gouged hands after finishing getting the potatoes ready, Prince Edward was argueing with his best friend.

"No, Luke, I'm not hungry," Edward said for the upmteenth time as Luke stared stonily at the Prince over a plate of lemon muffins a maid had brought up an hour ago at Luke's request. Edward had gone into his bed chamber to hide after Kaira's threat under the pretense of needing more sleep, and, knowing that Edward actually did need more sleep and would probably collapse from exhaustion, Luke had left his cousin to his own dreams. However, there was such a thing as too much sleep. Upon realizing Edward wpuld probably sleep the day away, Luke had grabbed his Prime from his bed and bodily carried him to the small dining room, at which time of their arrival came the serving girl with , in Edward's opinion, the offending food.

"You haven't eaten since Monday morning. Because of Shadow code, a Shadow cannot eat until his or her Prime has been fed, with the exception of poison testing. And because you haven't left these blasted rooms to dine or have food sent up here, I haven't even had food to test for poison. Therefore, Ed, I am starving. So you will eat one of these muffins."

"I told you already, if you're so hungry, just eat. I don't care." Edward was in all actuallity hungry, but he didn't like his cousin mother-henning him about. After all, Edward was older (albeit only by a month), and Crown Prince, and Luke's Royal Primary. By those facts alone, Luke had no authority over him. Of course, that never stopped Luke from acting contary to his Prime's orders,doing what he thought was right. Which he usually was. Which just made Edward want to resist more.

"No," said Luke firmly. "Not until you do."

"Hey," said Edward suddenly, thinking of a new counter arguement. "Kaira's my Shadow, too. So why'd I see her eat a chocalate out of the tin in my sitting room this morning? Obviously, this Shadow code is optional." Before he,d finished, Luke was already shaking his head.

"Some of the Shadow code is optional for her. You will remember, Ed, that Kaira is your temporary Shadow. She can bend the rules. Now eat some breakfast so we can get on with our lives."

They continued to follow the same pattern of arguement, with Luke insisting Edward eat something or he'd starve an honorable death, following the Shadow code, and with Edward proudly refusing ti be bossed around by his younger cousin until Edward's head felt like it'd explode form de-ja-vu.

"FINE!" Edward shouted, interupting Luke's search for his copy of the Shadow code to prove the "I can't eat til you eat" rule existed. Edward snatched up one of the muffins and angrily bit the top off. Edward had forgotten how good the muffins from the Castle kitchens were. Luke waited until Edward had started on his second muffin before cracking a grin and bringing some muffin wrappers out of his pocket.

"Hang on," said Edward slowly. "You-you tricked me! You already ate some! Lucious!" Edward yelledout Luke's full name, half-angry, half-laughing (for the first time in days).

"Knew I could get you to eat. Great Prince you are, when you can't even recognize a fake rule," replied Luke laughingly, who by then had balled up his muffin wrappers and began tossing them at his friend. What followed was an impromptu food/trash fight that the maids would get a little cross over, but not so much when they realized that the Shadow caused his Prime to be smiling again.

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Jack put down the axe and wiped the sweat out of his eyes as he inspected the medium sized pile of wood he'd been building up. Almost as soon as he put the last of the bandages on his fingers (he was sporting five new cuts), his mam had popped out of nowhere and briskly assigned him to chopping firewood. He didn't mind the manual labor. He actually loved chopping wood, for a couple of reasons. A primary reason would be he didn't seem to injure himself when holding an axe, for whatever reason. He was sure he ought to have lost a leg by now.