Markus had been invited to a ball in the next kingdom over. He didn’t want to go, he didn’t want to leave his kingdom alone. He had only been king for a few years, after his parents had been killed, and his older brother had left the kingdom.
But he had been told to go, because there would be other royals, and he might find a potential partner. Because he was expected to find one -preferably someone older and more experienced than him- and he was expected to produce offspring too -though thankfully he was still very young, and didn’t need to worry about having children just yet.
So here he was, in the kingdom next to his, at the castle, attending a ball. He stood off to the side mostly, not liking to be surrounded by too many. Being barely able too see -just shapes and colours- made it harder to be in crowds.
Kyle was at the ball. He was the oldest bit he wasn’t the crown prince either. Technically he was illegitimate since his parents weren’t married when he was born. He was given a title and a place in the castle. This ball was for his birthday. He walked through the crowd greeting guests. He didn’t pay to much attention to the few who flirted with him. He knew most of them just wanted a place in the castle even if it was as a mistress/lover. He slipped out of the crowd becoming too overwhelmed with people. “Oh sorry.” He says when he bumps into someone.
Markus was startled when someone walked into him, but smiled softly.
“It’s quite alright.”, he replied. He couldn’t really make out who was there with him, though it wasn’t hard to guess it was a noble -he could tell by the bit of jewelry he could make out, and the way Kyle’s appearance differed from nobles.
“There’s quite a lot of people here, aren’t there?”, he said, looking back to the crowds of people. Dancing and talking, flirting and discussing things. It wasn’t that weird to Markus that a lot of nobles and even royals wanted to court him. Since he was so young, everyone expected someone wiser to be in control of the kingdom, if they managed to court and eventually marry Markus. He knew that, so he tried to not let any flirting get to him. He wanted to have someone by his side he genuinely loved after all.
He was very recognizable as well. His family had a pigment disorder, causing their skin to have white patches. For Markus, it was very obvious, as one such patch was on his face, covering both his eyes and parts of his ears and cheeks.
emptynarration 