Seeing is Believing (44 page)

"You'll run off," Eslan replied calmly, but let go of his shoulders. Issac glared, taking a step back—damn right he was going to run off—but Eslan snagged his wrist in a firm grip and didn't let go.

"Brute," Issac accused, jerking at his arm irritably.

"So be it," Eslan allowed, shaking his head a little. "Calm down."

"Fuck you," Issac bit out, pissed and a little scared because he had no idea what Eslan was doing.

"Prince Issac." Eslan sighed, tugging chidingly on his arm. "This could be worse."

"How?" Issac demanded, hating the way his name and title fell from Eslan's lips. "I'm trapped here with three people I'm furious with, with no way out, and with everyone telling me in such patronizing tones that, no, of course it's not bad that I'm stuck in a boring forest with nothing to do but climb trees. And if I ever
do
get out of here, my mother is going to confine me to my rooms for the rest of her lifetime and that'll be even
better
."

"It could be snowing," Eslan tried, and Issac glowered, jerking his arm free.

"At least then I could build a snow fort," Issac returned sharply, causing Eslan to laugh softly.

"I'm sorry." Eslan shrugged again, his broad shoulders lifting and falling casually. "I didn't mean to be patronizing."

"Whatever," Issac grumbled, crossing his arms. "You've been back, right?"

"No," Eslan denied. "Would you like me to go back? I have no doubts your mother would throw me in the dungeons."

"Oh. Right." Issac sagged. "Well, where were you then? I thought you went back at least a few times."

"I do have a need to sleep, Prince Issac." Eslan smiled a little, and Issac flushed. He'd thought … well, the man had come from one of these pocket places. Who knew what he could do.

"Right." Issac replied awkwardly, then shrugged a little. "Just—stop with the prince stuff. It's annoying."

"What shall I call you then, Prince Issac?" Eslan asked, the smile not leaving his lips as he watched Issac with amusement.

"Issac
is
my name." Issac returned sharply.

"Very well, Issac." Eslan said mildly, and Issac rolled his eyes, deciding he was going to go hang out in his tree again. Eslan trailed behind him slowly, and maybe it made him feel a little better that, for all intents and purposes, Eslan was stuck here too unless he wanted to find himself stuck in a jail cell.

*~*~*

"Go away," Issac grumbled, ignoring Leon as best he could with his brother standing directly in front of where he sat against a tree trunk.

"We need to talk, Issac."

"No, we don't," Issac refuted immediately. He didn't want to talk to Leon. "Not unless you've figured out a way to get me home."

"Um, no." Leon sighed. "I'm sorry."

"Right, whatever. Go away," Issac repeated, glancing up with a scowl. Leon looked utterly defeated, and maybe Issac felt a pang of guilt. He was being difficult, he knew it, but he couldn't help it—Leon wasn't exactly—well, Leon could
leave
.

"Issac." Leon frowned. "Just hear me out, okay?"

"Hear out what?" Issac frowned back, crossing his arms and staring flatly at his brother. Leon was only a year or so older than him—he'd be eighteen soon, Issac realized—and he'd grown a little since he'd disappeared. His shoulders were a bit wider, his face more defined, and he had a hint of stubble. How did he and Temke keep clean? Because Issac was feeling rather grubbing after a few weeks of roughing it around the pocket world.

"Look, I'm sorry, you know? But there's only so much we can do about it—"

"Not helping," Issac snapped. "Just—ignore the fact that I'm stuck here. Anything else?"

"I'm sorry I ran off without telling you." Leon shrugged, running his fingers through the grass. "There wasn't time, really."

"Are you sorry you ran off?" Issac asked. Leon sighed, running his hand through his hair nervously.

"In a way, but on the whole—I've got Temke. He's worth it." Leon smiled fondly, and Issac rolled his eyes, hoping he'd never get that mushy.

"So he's better than me," Issac interpreted, half meaning it and half to see Leon figure out a diplomatic way to respond to that.

"He's my lover," Leon told him exasperatedly. "And Issac, I rarely saw you since I was traveling with mother. Besides, if you really didn't want to be the last prince, you would find a way out of it."

Issac smiled grudgingly. "Maybe." They did have cousins, fully capable of claiming the throne, and maybe an uncle or an aunt, and Issac did have vague plans of never taking power even if it was Leon's fault that he was going to have to enact those plans. It was hard enough enacting anything traveling.

"Why are you mad at me, Issac?" Leon asked, sounding tired.

"Because you're here and you like it and I'm here and I hate it." Issac scowled. "I can't leave! I can talk to three people, and climb
trees
. I think I've climbed every tree in this little space and I am
sick
of strawberries."

Leon laughed a little, and Issac rolled his eyes. He wanted to go home.

"I'm sorry about the strawberries." Leon offered. "And Temke is trying to find some way."

"Right." Issac shrugged. "Nothing to do but wait. What do you and Temke do when you're bored?" Leon flushed, and Issac rolled his eyes. "Never mind, forget I asked."

"I'll see if I can't get Temke to go and try to snitch something for you to do? Or you could ask Eslan," Leon suggested, playing with the grass in front of him idly.

"No, Eslan will get caught and jailed for kidnapping me or something," Issac replied absently, staring up at the blue sky for a long moment. "You know what mother's like."

"True enough." Leon shoved himself up, standing slowly. "I'll ask Temke then."

"Thanks," Issac muttered, not bothering to follow. Leon could find him again if he wanted to—it wasn't like it was hard in this tiny little space. Leon nodded and disappeared into the trees, towards the strawberry patch that was the center of the whole forest.

It only took fifteen minutes before Eslan showed up again. The guard had an uncanny ability to disappear whenever Temke or Leon were around, and then show back up after they left. He wandered over to where Issac was sitting and seated himself nearby, not too far away but close enough.

"I think we need to have sex," Issac decided, and Eslan's eyebrows rose slowly.

"Pardon?" Eslan asked, a smile creeping across his face. Issac huffed out a sigh.

"You heard me. I think we need to have sex," Issac repeated, ignoring the way his cheeks were burning. It seemed the simplest way, and it wasn't like he was going to sleep with Temke or Leon.

"I wondered how long it would take you to ask that," Eslan murmured, and Issac glared.

"Did you," Issac muttered. "Fine, whatever. Is that a yes?"

"Issac—" Eslan began, and Issac glared, climbing to his feet and stalking over to where the guard was sitting in the middle of the grass-filled clearing. "I don't think—"

"Stop thinking," Issac ordered, sitting down carefully on Eslan's outstretched legs. "I want to go home."

"Issac—" Eslan looked disapproving, but Issac ignored him, crushing his lips against Eslan's. Eslan didn't move, and Issac pulled back with a bit of a frown—how did he convince Eslan—

"Issac, no." Eslan shook his head, reaching up to brush his hair away from his forehead. "Not like this."

"Then how?" Issac demanded, ignoring the thread of desperation in his voice. Eslan shouldn't have a problem with this, right? He was getting sex.

"For a better reason than that you want to go home." Eslan ran a hand along his face, and Issac flushed, embarrassed and furious at himself. Scrambling to his feet, he tugged his shirt into place, brushing at imaginary wrinkles as he backed away.

"Right. Good day then." Issac replied stiffly, trying to keep his dignity—what was left of it. Turning, he walked away as quickly as he could, hoping Eslan would leave him be to collect himself. So now he had no choice. He had to sit and wait and rot away here because he couldn't convince anyone to sleep with him.

"Issac." Eslan was
quick
and quiet and Issac shrugged the hand off his shoulder.

"I get it. Leave me alone," Issac snapped, picking up his pace. Where he thought he was going was beyond him. It wasn't like there was anywhere he could run and hide here.

"Issac—" Eslan grabbed his arm and yanked him around, kissing him hard before he could voice an actual protest. Issac's mind blanked and Eslan let him go, grabbing his jaw with his other hand. "Listen to me."

"Why?" Issac demanded half-heartedly, making a face before batting Eslan's hand away from his face. "You want more than sex. Fine, whatever, your choice."

"Are you mad?" Eslan asked quietly. Issac shrugged, flushing a little.

"I'm not normally that shameless," Issac muttered, and Eslan pulled him close, wrapping him in a warm embrace.

"You want to go home," Eslan murmured, and Issac ducked his head because he
did
and Eslan was the only one here who seemed to understand that at all. Leon and Temke were too caught up with their quiet little paradise and Issac was sick of trees and strawberries and his brother's damn love life and doing nothing but sleeping and thinking.

"I'm sorry," Issac mumbled, and Eslan laughed a little, carding a hand through his hair and gently untangling some of the knots.

"It's alright." Eslan pulled away a bit and smiled at him softly. Issac frowned, because Eslan should be anything but smiling at him after that stunt. Eslan probably didn't even like to sleep with guys, or perhaps he didn't want to have to deal with a bratty prince.

"Right, because trying to force myself on you is just fine and dandy," Issac snapped out, trying to pull away from Eslan's too-strong grip.

"You propositioned me. I don't think you could force me to do anything." Eslan replied, his eyebrows raising in amusement, and Issac flushed. Eslan was about twice his width, and had a good few inches on him height-wise.

"Shut up," Issac grumbled, and Eslan let him go finally, tucking a stray bit of hair out of Issac's face.

"Do you think you ever would—" Eslan began, then stopped, looking a little flustered. Issac frowned, confused.

"I would ever?" Issac prompted, and Eslan shrugged, striving to look nonchalant and only looking more uncomfortable.

"See me as more than your ticket home?" Eslan finished quietly, not quite meeting Issac's eyes.

"What … do you mean?" Issac asked, and Eslan's face fell.

"Would you ever want me for more than sex to get you home?" Eslan rephrased, and Issac's mouth fell open, just a little.

"I—Eslan—" Issac stared, and Eslan stared back, waiting. Issac let his mouth hang open, because if Eslan thought he was still in shock he could think for a moment. Why did he object to Eslan, anyway? The man was handsome, and loyal—he wouldn't leave, after all, and he'd been guarding Issac for a few months—and he cared. He wasn't hard to talk to, once Issac had gotten over the 'everyone can leave but me' thing.

"Never mind." Eslan smiled sadly, and Issac spluttered a little, storming across the grass towards Eslan.

"Don't you dare," Issac ordered, fisting his hand in the front of Eslan's tunic. "Dammit, where do you get off saying something like that? You denied me!"

"Because you only want to go home." Eslan told him, looking bewildered, and Issac shook the front of Eslan's shirt. Well, he tried anyway. Eslan was on the unmovable side.

"No," Issac snapped. "Because I want to go home, a little. I wouldn't sleep with you so quickly if it weren't my only way home—"

"So maybe we should wait—"

"Dammit, Eslan, I don't want to." Issac glared, furious. "I want you, I want to go home, and sleeping with you fixes both of those problems, and provided that we can stay under my mother's radar then we can fix the third problem and do the afterwards thing, too."

Eslan just sort of gaped at him a little, and Issac huffed, pulling himself up on his tip-toes to press his mouth against Eslan's.

"Do you understand?" Issac asked, falling on his heels again.

"You want to keep me," Eslan interpreted, and Issac nodded, glaring exasperatedly.

"You get it, so kiss me already—" Issac grinned as Eslan cut him off, ducking his head to crush their lips together. Issac twined his arms around Eslan's neck and kissed back just as fiercely, hoping that Leon or Temke weren't anywhere nearby because
that
would be the only thing that could ruin this now.

Sasha has been writing slash ever since she began writing awful fanfiction in her freshman year of college. She grew up in the boonies of Northern New York (nowhere near NYC) and then branched out for college in a different part of the boonies of NNY. She then spent a few years in Vermont before finally landing in Cincinnati, where she shares a house crazy roommates and crazier cats.