Distance Between Us | Peterick AU

8

"Alright," Earl said quietly. Patrick had thought he had misheard him.

"Wait, what?"

"I said alright," the servant repeated. "Alright, I will not tell your father."

Both Pete and Patrick's jaws must have dropped. They took breaths to immediately express their overwhelming gratitude, but Earl put up his finger to stop them before they could go any further.

"But, that does not mean I am happy about you sneaking in my castle, young man," he pointed to Pete. The older boy suddenly straightened up his posture under the attention.

"I- I'm sorry sir," he shakily responded. He couldn't get anything else before the butler was speaking again.

"Just do not do it again. Do you understand me?" Pete nodded quickly. "I believe we are done here then."

Both were quiet under Earl's intense stare. he looked back at them expectantly, yet neither of them knew what he was waiting for. "Well?" He questioned. "I think it's time for you to go."

Patrick opened his mouth to protest, but he knew it would be selfish, especially after what Earl had just done for him and Pete. Instead, he looked up at the older man that was still wrapped around him and met his eyes. "Please be safe on your way home."

Pete smiled sweetly at him and they both leaned together to kiss affectionately. It was rougher than either of them intended, especially with the other guest in the room, but truly, neither of the could really care. Their tongues slid together smoothly and they broke apart soon after, just slightly panting for breath. Patrick couldn't fight the small smile that found its way onto his face when he looked back up at Pete.

They hugged briefly one last time before Pete climbed his way out the window and down the wall. Patrick didn't stop watching until he was completely out of sight.

"Thank you, Earl, really." The prince didn't hesitate in moving forward to wrap the butler in a hug. "He means the world to me."

-

Things felt different between the prince and his butler afterwards. Both of them could feel the elephant in the room, especially when the rest of the family was around. Patrick couldn't believe that the situation had changed things between them.

The lack of Pete changed things too. Patrick missed finding ways to see him in the town or the other man sneaking around the castle. He was about to give up on meeting him again until Patrick woke up one morning to find a piece of tan paper sticking out in between the window sills. He sauntered out of bed and carefully pulled it out, furrowing his brow when he saw the contents.

'Trick
It has been to long since weve seen eachother. You should meat me tonight in the forest buy you're castle at dusk. i will be buy the big oak near the lake. Hopefully see you then.
Pete'

Patrick smiled when he read over the messy note. The spelling and grammar mistakes reminded him that Pete never had an actual education, but still made him chuckle nevertheless. It was cute, even.

The idea of meeting Pete outside of the castle grounds without being on a trip to the town made Patrick nervous. He would have to find a way to sneak out on his own, something he would had never even thought about six months ago. The past half of a year had been a huge time of firsts for Patrick.

As far as he knew, there wasn't any event going on in the castle that night, which was both a good and a bad thing. Good, meaning he wasn't required to show his face to company he didn't even know, and bad, someone might come looking for him because they wouldn't be pre-occupied. It was a risk he was willing to take.

Patrick shoved the note under his pillow and grabbed and outfit from his closet to throw on after taking off his resting clothes.

He went downstairs to the informal dining room, surprised to see he wasn't late to breakfast.

"Good morning, Patrick," his mother chimed. "Did you sleep well?"

He nodded his head yes and reached with his fork across the table to move food onto his plate.

"I want you to join me for tea this afternoon, Patrick," the queen spoke again. "My card group has been asking about you recently. I will not make you play with us, but I at least want you to come sit with us during break."

Patrick kept his groaning to himself and simply nodded in agreement. Sitting around a table gossiping with middle-aged women wasn't exactly how he planned to spend his afternoon, but is if kept his mother off of his case, he was all for it.

Thankfully Ginny carried most of the conversation during the meal, this way Patrick didn't have to speak much. He was able to pardon himself to the studies room once he was finished on the excuse of not having as much time to do his schoolwork due to his mothers event.

He surprisingly stay true to his word and worked on most of this lessons. . .only until he had hatched an idea and pulled out an extra sheet of tan paper. He spent a long time writing neatly in columns, making sure everything was nice and legible. When all was finished, he added a small heart at the bottom right corner of the paper.