So Happy Chapter 6
Title: So Happy (The Tale of The Prince & The Healer)
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Reid/Luke, minor Luke/Noah
Summary: Reid Oliver is a healer in Fairytale Land who doesn't believe in Fairytales. His stance on the issue is constantly challenged by his patient and, arguably, his friend Luke - Prince Luke. Luke believes in unconditional love and happy happily ever afters. Reid dismisses his beliefs for years but when Luke becomes betrothed to the charming prince of a neighboring Kingdom Reid starts to feel himself wishing for his own happily ever after - with Luke.
~*~*~
Chapter 6
To: Katie Snyder and Reid Oliver,
The Royal Grimaldi Family would like to issue a formal invitation to the third and final night of the Official Introduction Prince Luciano and his betrothed, Prince Noah Mayer. We would be pleased for you to join us in this celebration of the joining of two kingdoms. Dress appropriately. Thank you for your service to the kingdom and to the royal family; we hope this is thanks enough!
Sincerely: The Royal Family
~*~*~
As soon as the notice came in the mail, Katie released an inhuman squeal that woke Reid up from his deep sleep and made Jacob spill his oatmeal. When Reid stumbled out of his room, Katie tackled him with a hug.
“I knew you could get yourself invited Reid, but I didn’t think you would get me invited, too,” Katie said. She kissed Reid on the cheek briefly. “You are the best best friend ever.”
Jacob picked up his books and hopped down from the table. “Come on, Mom, it’s time for school.”
Katie grabbed Jacob’s hand and started to lead him out of the house, all the while prattling on. “I have to buy a new dress, oh, and I have to go to the hairdresser. This is so amazing - bye Reid - I have to tell Chris!”
When she was out of the door, Reid exhaled long and hard. He had to hand it to Luke; he got things done promptly. He still didn’t want to go, though - after the awkwardness of the previous night and the fact that Luke’s betrothed would be there, it was a little too much to handle.
Resigning himself to just let Katie go by herself, Reid got ready for work and, a couple of minutes later, was off in the direction of memorial.
Work was normal; the patients, his coworkers, Bob… they were all the same as they’d been yesterday. Now, he didn’t expect the sky to fall in because Luke almost kissed him and he was invited to a royal ball or anything, but things were way too normal after the day he had. Maybe he did just want the sky to fall in for no other reason than to confirm for him that things were very different and they would only keep changing as time went on.
Reid was home by six that evening, and the ball started at eight. Reid expected Katie to still be out and about getting read,y but what he found instead was Katie in the living room picking at her eyebrows with tweezers and mixing some kind of make-up together. Her hair was already dolled up, and her nails looked impeccable.
“Oh, hi Reid. Are you ready to start getting ready?”
Reid shook his head as he walked into the house. “Nah, I don’t think I’m going.”
Instead of getting mad or yelling at him like Reid expected her to, Katie just sighed exasperatedly and shook her head. “Are we doing this dance again?”
“We aren’t doing anything.”
“You are so annoying, never mind… I left you a surprise in your room. You should check it out.”
Reid didn’t go into his room to see her surprise; he just went to lie down for the night. But, then he saw it on his bed. Katie bought him clothes for the ball. It was a common outfit, a simple double-buttoned blue jacket with a golden sash and epaulets. The trousers were white with gold and black trims on the side. It was so simple, but Reid found himself in awe anyway.
He sat down beside the suit and sighed. Katie was an evil witch, he decided after staring at it for a couple of minutes. Or she was psychic and knew he wasn’t planning to go anywhere that night. Reid picked up the jacket and eyed it critically it really was unremarkable. But, Katie was a bit of a remarkable friend for getting it for him anyway. He’d at least look presentable if planned to go. Not that he did.
He grabbed his bag from the floor and started doing some after-work work on his bed, but his eyes continued to stray towards the ball outfit. It really was a nice gesture and it would be a waste of the clothing not to go. And, Katie would probably appreciate it if they went together instead of him sending her there all alone.
But, he still had so much work to do. And, he would rather not watch Luke moon over his soon to be husband.
He intended to do his work; he wanted to stay home. But, Katie really wanted to go. He owed her that much after putting up with him for the last month, didn’t he?
Without giving it another thought, Reid grabbed the suit and put it on.
When he walked out of the door, Katie was walking out of hers. She was wearing a pink gown with ribbons and glitter all over it. It might have looked gaudy on anyone else, but Reid thought it looked great on Katie.
She smiled brightly at him when she saw him step out.
“Reid! I knew you would come,” Katie said, giving him a once over. “Nice.”
Reid shrugged. “Yeah, well… you look really good too.”
Katie lifted her dress slightly in a curtsying motion and beamed. “Thank you! Gosh, I’ve always wanted to go to a royal ball.”
“Well, good thing you met me then.” Grinning, Reid reached his arm out to her. “Shall we?”
Katie locked arms with him and smiled. “We shall.”
And with that, they walked out of the house.
~*~*~
The ball was, for lack of a better word, amazing. There were golden-stripped ceilings and colorful dancers all parading around. But, when Reid presented his invitation to the doorman and had his name called (and there were trumpets, too) all he could focus on was Luke, in the middle of the dance floor. As he and Katie walked down the stairs, he watched Luke excuse himself before scurrying off to meet them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Reid!” Luke exclaimed, excitedly bounding towards them. He seemed to notice he was too loud because he looked back and forth quickly before grinning. “I didn’t think you would come.”
Reid shrugged but could not help but smile lightly; Luke looked good. He’d never seen him dressed up before - he was more used to the scruffy, dressed down look that he often got during their appointments. But, he looked really wonderful in his golden jacket and pants with blue trimmings. He didn’t want to entertain the thought, but he kind of wanted to push Luke up against the wall and tear his clothes off just to see what it looked like on the floor… but again, he didn’t want to entertain the thought.
“Hello, Katie. I’m so happy you two received my invitation in time. I was worried I wouldn’t give you two enough time to get ready.”
“Oh no! You gave us just enough time, thank you so much for inviting us.”
“You two have given great services to the royal family over the years; you both deserve this. I want to make sure that before I leave -“ Luke’s eyes flashed briefly to Reid before focusing back on Katie and saying, “everyone who has helped my family and me is properly rewarded.”
Katie smiled briefly and nodded; her eyes scanned the surroundings before she gave Luke a quick curtsy and Reid an encouraging smile. “If you will excuse me.”
She walked off after that, leaving Reid and Luke standing in front of each other. Luke glanced down at the floor before smiling at Reid shyly. “I’m really glad you came.”
“Yeah, well… if I hadn’t, your dance lessons would have been for nothing.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah… you’re -uh- you’re right.”
Two dancers twirled past them, almost bumping into Reid but only bothering to look apologetically at Luke. Reid hadn’t remembered anyone else was in the room, so he almost jumped out of his socks. Luke laughed at him but not for long, and Reid forgot about everyone else in the room again.
Luke moved a bit closer to him, and his smile dropped slightly. “Look, Reid. I know things got weird last night. I’m really sorry.”
Reid shook his head and waved an arm. “Not weird… let’s just forget about it.”
Luke nodded and glanced around shiftily before turning his attention back to Reid; his eyes racked over him, and he practically beamed when he met his eyes again. “You look really nice.”
He looked down at his clothing and frowned. “You think so?”
“Yeah,” Luke said simply. He smoothed his hands over the collar of Reid’s shirt and his knuckles brushed briefly over the skin on Reid’s neck. If Reid shivered even a bit, he liked to think it was because of the chilly atmosphere in the room. “You clean up real nice, Doctor Oliver. You look like royalty.”
“I could say the same for you, Prince Grimaldi.”
He smiled softly and opened his mouth to say something when a tall man with black hair sauntered over and placed his hand on the small of Luke’s back.
“Luke,” he started, smiling down at him.
Luke tore his eyes away from Reid and looked up at the man. “Oh, Noah,” he piped up, his face stretching into a shy smile.
So this was Noah, this is the closest Reid had ever seen him and he could safely say that he looked just as pretentious as before. Although, he still didn’t know exactly what one has to do to look pretentious, but if anyone in the world was going to look it, would be Luke’s fiance.
“Reid, this is my betrothed, Noah. And Noah, this is Reid.”
Noah stretched his hand out despite the confusion evident on his face. Reid shook his hand but frowned, his grip wasn’t nearly strong enough for Luke.
“Ummm,” Noah started, squinting down at Luke. “Who is this? He’s not a noble, I’ve never seen him before.”
“He’s my best friend,” Luke murmured softly while smiling so sweetly that Reid couldn’t fight his own smile. “And he’s been my physician since I was fifteen. He’s saved my life many times.”
Noah nodded at him, looking uninterested. “Well, that’s good... Congratulations on getting invited to the ball - that rarely happens to your type of people.”
Reid wanted to be offended, he really did. That comment, however, reminded him explicitly of something Luke would say without realizing how stupid and naïve it sounded, and he was forced to remember that they were both really young. He raised his eyebrows.
“Thank you.”
Noah scowled at him briefly before turning his attention back to Luke. “My father has been calling me. I’ll see you later.”
He smiled and nodded at him. “Okay.”
Noah leaned down and brushed a kiss over Luke’s cheek before dashing off.
“So, that was…” Reid sifted through his mind for the right word. “Underwhelming.”
Luke shrugged. “He was pretty polite though, right?” he said to himself rather then Reid.
“What prince wouldn’t be?”
Chuckling, Luke nodded. “Did you at least like him a little?”
“Uh-“ Reid started before shaking his head. “Is there anything else to do around this place?”
Luke didn’t look too broken up by the change of topic. “Do you want to dance?”
Reid shook his head. “Not right now,” he started, but when he spotted the hurt pass over Luke’s eyes, he continued. “Too early.”
“Oh,” Luke said, his eyes lighting back up briefly. “Are you hungry?”
His eyes widened. “Yes!”
Luke grinned and waved his hand towards their right. “Follow me.”
They made their way over to the buffet table and Reid’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. The food looked amazing. It was like everything he ever wanted in his life. He grabbed a plate and piled it up to the brim and started to chomp away. After a couple of minutes of mindlessly eating he looked at Luke and was surprised to find he hadn’t left. And not only had he not left, he was smiling indulgently at Reid and biting into bits of cheese. Reid thought that maybe the food wasn’t the only thing he’d ever want in his life.
They ate together silently with only the background music and the occasional passer-by who wanted to chat up the prince filling the atmosphere.
“I’m interested,” Reid began after his plate started to look cleaner. “Is your father here?”
“My father?” Luke said, looking confused for like a split second before nodding affirmatively. “The king? Oh - ummm -“ Luke’s eyes scanned the room before he pointed in the direction of the throne. “He’s over there, near the throne.”
“Scary,” was all Reid could say when his eyes landed on Luke’s father. He was tall and thin and his face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl - he was the complete opposite of his son. Reid would have never guessed it in a million years.
Luke shrugged. “Yeah, but he’s king, so I think he trained himself to look like that all the time.”
Reid frowned at the tad of resentment in his voice but didn’t comment on it. He knew enough about Luke’s relationship with his parents to know that it would only upset him.
“Hey, do you want to see something even scarier?”
“Sure.”
Luke vaguely pointed with his eyes to another tall man at the far side of the room; he was talking to Noah and another noble who almost looked like he was shivering.
“That’s Noah’s dad,” Luke said. “He’s scary, right?”
“He really is,” Reid remarked with a shake of his head. “From one creepy castle to another, I do not envy you.”
“Well, I don’t envy me that much either.”
Reid turned to him, frowning. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Luke said, nodding. “Hey, you’ll be fine by yourself for a minute, right? I think my mother wants me to come over.”
Reid turned to the crowd, and Luke’s mom surely was waving him over; Reid cursed underneath his breath; he did not want to be by himself, at all. He supposed that in the back of his head he thought that he would have Luke to himself the entire night to entertain him when things got too dull. But, he kept forgetting that Luke didn’t belong to him - he belonged to his mom and his scary dad and his future-husband.
“Yeah, I’ll be here if you need me.”
Luke smiled momentarily at him before dashing off.
Reid frowned and started to sip his drink. Agreeing to come to the festival was a mistake; he didn’t know what he expected to happen that night.
He ate quietly at the table, waiting for Katie to get her fill of the ball so he could go home - until he was interrupted by a courtly -looking man wearing orange and blue. Reid continued to eat, but he could smell alcohol on the man’s breath (which was confusing because he was sure Luke told him that they ran out of alcohol).
“Hello.”
The man smiled cheekily and moved a bit closer to Reid…
Reid didn’t bother smiling back.
“I’m Henry, I haven’t seen you around here before,” He continued on, like an idiot. “Are you from one of the farther kingdoms?”
“No.” He replied, trying to eat.
“Well, sir. I’ve been to every ball that has ever been held from here to the Kingdom of Far far away, and I haven’t seen you once. Are you an interloper?”
“I’m a doctor.”
“A doctor? I’ve never heard of royalty going into medicine.”
Reid rolled his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t have come. “I’m a commoner.”
Henry looked affronted; he whipped back and frowned at him. “Are you supposed to be here?”
“I was invited.”
“By who?”
Reid pointed out into the crowd. “None of your business.”
Henry gasped. “Well, I’ll just get the castle guards and they’ll find out for you.”
Heaving a heavy sigh, Reid put down his plate. “I was invited by the prince.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Don’t believe me, its true. I’m his doctor, ass.”
Henry’s disbelief soon faded into delight and he leaned closer to Reid. “You’re his doctor, are you? Then you must know everything about him.”
Reid chuckled but stepped away from the man - another royal gossip, just what he needed. “If by everything, you mean his heart rate then… sure.”
“So, he’s told you nothing about his fiancé?”
“Not a word.”
Henry groaned and rolled his eyes; he looked like he was about to leave, but then he spotted something in the crowd that he just had to tell Reid.
“Ah, there they are!”
Reid looked onto the dance floor and frowned at what he saw. Luke and Noah were around he middle, dancing with each other. They were both smiling and laughing, twirling each other around with an ease that you really only learn when you’re a prince. Noah even danced better than Reid.
“Everyone who’s anyone is talking about them. They say their coupling will be great for the kingdoms.”
Reid cleared his throat and turned away from the man - of course Luke’s marriage was good for the kingdom. It would bring peace, alliances and supplies that this kingdom is lacking. It might even be good for Luke, who’ll find his fairytale no matter who its with. It was so right; so, why did Reid still feel like shit?
Reid feared that Henry was going to stick around and keep talking to him, but he got distracted.
The man walked off to follow an entirely pretty girl with whome Reid was sure he had little to no chance with. When he was gone, Reid looked out onto the dance floor and saw Katie approaching him, looking like she just finished dancing, with her hand outstretched at him. Reid immediately shook his head.
“No, no thank you.”
Katie took his hand and nodded towards the dance floor. “Come on, Reid. I know you know how.”
“I -“ Before Reid could finish his words, Katie dragged him onto the dance floor. Once they were in the crowd, there was no getting out. There were people dancing around them, all in their bustling skirts and shining suits, blocking every possible escape path and leaving Reid no other option but to put hia hand on Katie’s waist and dance with her.
They went along almost flawlessly, though not as fast as everyone else around them, and Reid had to keep looking down at his feet to make sure he didn’t crush Katie’s toes. But, other than that, it went pretty well. Reid almost laughed at himself; it looked like Luke’s princely training was good for something after all.
“Wow, you do this much better than I thought you would,” Katie said after a couple of minutes of them dancing along.
“Thanks,” he replied. After a few seconds, he smiled softly. “Luke taught me.”
Katie patted his shoulder tenderly and gave him a sad look before continuing to dance quietly.
The music sped up suddenly, and everyone around them was moving quickly. Reid did his best to keep up and looked at Katie for guidance, but she was staring off behind him with a terrible gleam in her eye and a devilish smile on her face. When she looked back at Reid, her grip tightened on his shoulder and she leaned close to his ear.
“Just follow my lead, Reid.”
Reid did follow her lead, despite how shaky (at best) of a lead it was. Before he knew it, he and Katie were being thrown around and around - she had a mad look in her eyes - and around and around. And before he knew it, he was being thrown through the crowd ended up bumping into Luke who was without a partner.
Luke turned towards him with wide eyes and a frown that slipped into a big smile when he noticed who it was. “Reid!”
“Luke,” Reid said, mildly shocked. He turned around to search for Katie but only saw the ends of her dress dancing away. “Wow, how did this happen?”
Luke shrugged, glancing around before smiling and pointing. “I think we lost our partners.”
He looked to where Luke was pointing and saw Katie scooting away with Prince Noah in her arms. Noah looked back at Luke briefly before shrugging and smiling at him; Luke smiled back at him and shrugged before waving him off.
Reid swallowed a small lump in his throat at the innocent exchange between the two. They were both so young, and he could tell that they at least liked each other. Even though he didn’t want to, Reid was actually starting to feel better and better about his decision to stop Luke from kissing him the previous day. It really was for the best. They liked each other, they were the same age, and they were princes. What more does a fairytale need in fairytale land?
“So,” Luke said, whipping back around to look at Reid. “Do you want to dance?”
Reid shook his head and waved pathetically. “Nah, I’m tired.”
“But, Reid you just started -“ Luke began.
Reid didn’t know how Luke knew that, but he wasn’t going to ask him about it.
Luke continued, “Besides, if you don’t dance with me, I’m going to be bombarded by a thousand people wanting to give me well wishes, and I think I’ve heard enough of that phrase for one lifetime.”
He wanted to say no, but Luke continued to look at him with that half smile and those wide eyes and he could do nothing but nod. They got into their positions from the previous day, and they started to move along with the music.
“You’re doing a good job, better than yesterday,” Luke teased a couple of seconds into their dance.
Reid smirked. “Are you saying I didn’t do a good job yesterday, Your Highness?”
“Not at all, doctor. You’ve been doing swell.”
“Swell, what are you, eighty?”
Chuckling, Luke swung Reid around slightly. “No, I thought you were.”
Reid chuckled low in his throat and didn’t comment again on the subject, not really being too keen on being reminded of his age by a twenty year old. They continued to dance, shifting and shambling along with awkward chuckles and whispered ‘excuse me’s’ from Luke whenever they bumped into anyone around them. But, it was fun. More fun than anything Reid had done that day, and it was only made better whenever Luke would smile at him and laugh and twirl and do everything that Reid loved about him.
Eventually, the fast song ended and the orchestra fell into a quieter tempo. The people around them started to slow down for the song. Reid swallowed thickly as he glanced around him at the dozens of people smiling at their partners, moving closer and even kissing. It made his stomach clench.
When he turned back to Luke, the younger man was looking away from him. Reid followed his eyes and almost sneered when he saw that Luke was looking in the direction of Noah. He knew he shouldn’t be jealous - Luke was getting married - but he couldn’t help but clench his hand over Luke’s waist to get his attention.
Luke turned sharply back around to him and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” he said. “Do you want to finish our dance?”
Reid didn’t take his hand off of Luke’s waist when he answered, “Wouldn’t you rather do this with your husband?”
Luke shook his head. “Fiancé,” he corrected. “And I’ve been dancing with Noah all night.”
“How about your mom or one of your friends… even your dad might want to -“
“But, I want to dance with you,” Luke said, a certain finality in his voice that Reid infrequently heard him use outside of the rare times when he had to exert authority over his subjects (and those times were very rare).
And for that reason, the only thing that Reid could think of to say was, “Okay.”
Luke smiled, and they continued to dance around, at a considerably slower pace then before. Reid was nervous, he was very nervous and he didn’t know why. But, Luke was looking him in the eyes, the blonde's own eyes and features much softer with the smallest bit of a smile.
The dance went on like that for a while - Luke not tearing his eyes away from Reid’s and Reid not being able to leave Luke’s face. And all of a sudden there was no one in that room but he and Luke; and despite how fairytale and cheesy this actually was, he felt like this was love and he didn’t want anyone else in his world at that moment. Everything seemed to stand still, until Luke’s tongue darted out past his lips and he licked them, wetting them and making them glisten and Reid couldn’t hold himself back.
Luke only looked surprised for a second before he slapped Reid’s shoulder hard, causing Reid to jump back. He clenched Luke’s waist tighter, and suddenly, they were back in the main ballroom of the castle, surrounded by too many people. Luckily, none of their eyes were on them, but still that was close. Too close.
The slow music tapered off and an exciting one drummed up once again. Luke was the first to shift away from Reid, scratching the back of his head and frowning. Reid couldn’t meet Luke’s eyes, so his gaze fell on Luke’s shoulder instead.
After a couple of seconds of standing there, Luke breathed out a nervous chuckle and shook his head. “Good job dancing; it was fun.”
“Yeah,” Reid piped up immediately. “Lots of fun.”
Luke must have realized he was about to scratch all of his hair out because he dropped his hands to his side and looked around. By the blush that fell on his cheeks when he looked back, someone must have noticed.
“Listen, Reid…” Luke started. Reid’s ears perked up, and he finally looked at Luke’s face. “I - uh - can you meet me in my room in five minutes… I think we need to talk.”
Reid nodded. “Yeah, I agree.”
“Okay,” Luke said with a nod of his own. “I’m going to speak to my parents. Remember five minutes.”
“Five minutes, yeah.” Reid said with a wave of his hand.
He cursed himself when Luke was out of sight. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking; he thought he was above all of that. He felt uncomfortable and out of control - he didn’t like that. And, despite himself, he couldn’t help but think how much of an idiot he must have looked like in front of Luke. Just yesterday, he denied him a kiss (in private, mind you), and today he was trying to kiss him in front of dozens of his friends and family, including his creepy father, his scary mother, his scorned fiancé and his equally scary father. He could have been killed if Luke had let him do that.
Sighing angrily, Reid ran his hand over his face and groaned as he tried to push his way through the crowd. He didn’t know what came over him; why he would do something like that. Why he couldn’t stop himself, why Luke had to stop him. He never got like that in any other facet of his life. He was in control at work, at home, and even in his romantic (sexual) relationships. But, Luke was different. Somehow, he was different. He was the one that convinced Reid to tell all about his uncle without the use of torture or bribery, he taught Reid to dance with the tug of his elbow, and he made Reid go against everything he ever believed was true by making him fall in love.
He shook his head. He could leave, he could leave that very moment and let Luke get married without ever having to go through this “talk” that could lead to so many different things - none of them happy.
But, he didn’t leave.
Some how, he walked around that ball and found Katie, told her to leave without him, and went into the hallway. The guards immediately ushered him upstairs to Luke’s room. Apparently, the prince had taken ill a couple of minute before and was requesting the audience with his physician immediately - Reid almost smirked at the cleverness of it all.
As soon as he was inside the room and the door was shut, Luke hopped up from his place on the edge of his bed, but he didn’t move forward much after that.
“Reid,” Luke started. He cleared his throat and smiled briefly. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
Reid froze very briefly and then raised his frowned. “Shows how well you know me.”
Luke huffed out a chuckle and looked down at his shoes. “So,” he said.
“You wanted to talk?” Reid asked.
Without missing a beat, Luke marched a little closer to Reid. “You tried to kiss me down there.”
Reid inhaled sharply. “I - I - yes, I did.”
Luke looked at him expectantly, his arms wrapping around his chest. When Reid didn’t say anything for awhile, he sighed and shook his head.
“You’re such an asshole, Reid.”
Reid pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know.”
“We could have gotten in so much trouble down there. My mom would have killed you, and Noah would have left. Everything would have been ruined.”
“I know.”
“I just don’t get it,” Luke continued. “Yesterday, you pushed me away when I tried to kiss you.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“Why are you doing this? I don’t get it… I really wanted to kiss you yesterday.”
“I know.”
“And you wanted to kiss me today? What changed?”
Reid shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Luke was getting worked up, but Reid was unfortunately just as confused as Luke was.
“I…” Luke sat on his bed in a huff. “Don’t get it, Reid. Did I put this idea in your head yesterday or something?”
Reid’s attention focused squarely on Luke, and he wrinkled his brows. “What?”
“When I tried to kiss you yesterday, did I mess something up in your head? Were you over-thinking it or something? Was that why you tried to kiss me down there?”
Reid opened his mouth briefly before snapping it shut with a shake of his head. “No, no, that had nothing to do with it.”
“Then why?” Luke asked him incredulously.
Reid pursed his lips. He knew the answer, but like hell he was telling Luke that. He was usually a pretty direct person, but not that direct. “Why’d you try to kiss me yesterday?”
That seemed to throw Luke briefly before he raised his nose into the air and turned away from Reid. “I shouldn’t have.”
That statement kind of hurt, but Reid could barely blame him for it. Luke gave him an out. He’d give Luke one, too and they could put this whole thing behind them. “I get it. I think you were under pressure with your engagement. So you tried to kiss me to -“ Reid waved his hands around. “Make -yourself… feel better?”
Luke shook his head. “No, it wasn’t that.”
Reid groaned. Of course, Luke would be difficult about this. “Luke, we don’t have to talk about this.”
“I know it’s just - you know - I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you. That was presumptuous of me and rude, and I didn’t expect you to want me back. But, I guess, I hoped for like a second that maybe if I kissed you, I’d know for sure how I felt about you… and about Noah.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I really like Noah,” Luke said. “But, I think I love you.”
“What?”
“No, I don’t think - I know I love you. You mean so much to me, and if I had a choice, I’d want to be with you.”
“Wow.”
“I know, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable, just a little shocked, I guess.” He said. “I thought you got over your thing years ago.”
“No, I wanted you to think I did. You always made fun of me when I was younger. And I’ll admit, I wasn’t in love with you when I was young. I just thought you were smart, handsome, frank, and my best friend… you were… like a prince… like the kind of prince I wanted to be and the type of I wanted to be with. But, it was when I got older that I realized my hopes were growing up with me and I still wanted you Reid. Only everything was more grown-up. I’ve been in love with you for forever. …”
Reid could only stare at him in confusion and… amazement. Luke not only wanted him but he also loved him… loved him. He always knew he and Luke were important to each other and that Luke was had a crush on him years ago. It, however, had always been unrequited (at least, in theory it was) and he thought Luke had gotten over it.
“You love me?” He said, still reeling from the earlier confession.
Luke shyly looked into his lap. “Well, yeah. It’s not exactly something any one can control, you know.”
Reid nodded blankly. “Yeah, I know.”
When neither of them said anything for a while, Luke looked up again and stared Reid in the face. “You were going to kiss me, what does that mean? Do you love me too?”
Reid’s head shifted back slightly, and he could not help but be taken aback by the abruptness and frankness of Luke’s question? Luke was not always a particularly blunt person, he skidded around the truth frequently, especially when it came to important things like his future and his decisions. The way he kind of took control there was jolting and (inadvertently) kind of a turn-on.
“Uh - I mean… If I said it now, it wouldn’t be… authentic, you’d just think I only said it because you said it.”
Luke rolled his eyes to the back of his head and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back briefly onto his bed before sitting up straight again, giving Reid a hard look.
“Anyway, what does it matter? You’re getting married in a few weeks and you’ll be moving away and getting on with your life. None of this matters in the long run, how you feel and how I feel…” Reid trailed off. Luke was looking at him with this sad, disappointed look that just set him on edge. Inhaling sharply, Reid continued, “It doesn’t matter.”
Instead of responding right away, Luke leaned up ever so slightly on the bed, resting his head on his on his hands. He pouted his lips ever so slightly before licking them wet again; Reid watched his small movements with excellent concentration and swallowed thickly.
Without more pause, Luke reached for Reid.
“Do you want me or not?”
Something in Reid clicked then. He did want Luke. He wanted him badly. He moved swiftly towards Luke, attacking his mouth with his own. Luke’s arms found there way around Reid’s neck, and they were falling backwards onto Luke’s unnecessarily soft sheets.
Kissing Luke was like everything he thought it would be and more; his mouth was warm and wet and his grip on the back of Reid’s shirt was tight and sure. Reid felt like this may be what those fairytales were talking about.
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Reid/Luke, minor Luke/Noah
Summary: Reid Oliver is a healer in Fairytale Land who doesn't believe in Fairytales. His stance on the issue is constantly challenged by his patient and, arguably, his friend Luke - Prince Luke. Luke believes in unconditional love and happy happily ever afters. Reid dismisses his beliefs for years but when Luke becomes betrothed to the charming prince of a neighboring Kingdom Reid starts to feel himself wishing for his own happily ever after - with Luke.
~*~*~
Chapter 6
To: Katie Snyder and Reid Oliver,
The Royal Grimaldi Family would like to issue a formal invitation to the third and final night of the Official Introduction Prince Luciano and his betrothed, Prince Noah Mayer. We would be pleased for you to join us in this celebration of the joining of two kingdoms. Dress appropriately. Thank you for your service to the kingdom and to the royal family; we hope this is thanks enough!
Sincerely: The Royal Family
~*~*~
As soon as the notice came in the mail, Katie released an inhuman squeal that woke Reid up from his deep sleep and made Jacob spill his oatmeal. When Reid stumbled out of his room, Katie tackled him with a hug.
“I knew you could get yourself invited Reid, but I didn’t think you would get me invited, too,” Katie said. She kissed Reid on the cheek briefly. “You are the best best friend ever.”
Jacob picked up his books and hopped down from the table. “Come on, Mom, it’s time for school.”
Katie grabbed Jacob’s hand and started to lead him out of the house, all the while prattling on. “I have to buy a new dress, oh, and I have to go to the hairdresser. This is so amazing - bye Reid - I have to tell Chris!”
When she was out of the door, Reid exhaled long and hard. He had to hand it to Luke; he got things done promptly. He still didn’t want to go, though - after the awkwardness of the previous night and the fact that Luke’s betrothed would be there, it was a little too much to handle.
Resigning himself to just let Katie go by herself, Reid got ready for work and, a couple of minutes later, was off in the direction of memorial.
Work was normal; the patients, his coworkers, Bob… they were all the same as they’d been yesterday. Now, he didn’t expect the sky to fall in because Luke almost kissed him and he was invited to a royal ball or anything, but things were way too normal after the day he had. Maybe he did just want the sky to fall in for no other reason than to confirm for him that things were very different and they would only keep changing as time went on.
Reid was home by six that evening, and the ball started at eight. Reid expected Katie to still be out and about getting read,y but what he found instead was Katie in the living room picking at her eyebrows with tweezers and mixing some kind of make-up together. Her hair was already dolled up, and her nails looked impeccable.
“Oh, hi Reid. Are you ready to start getting ready?”
Reid shook his head as he walked into the house. “Nah, I don’t think I’m going.”
Instead of getting mad or yelling at him like Reid expected her to, Katie just sighed exasperatedly and shook her head. “Are we doing this dance again?”
“We aren’t doing anything.”
“You are so annoying, never mind… I left you a surprise in your room. You should check it out.”
Reid didn’t go into his room to see her surprise; he just went to lie down for the night. But, then he saw it on his bed. Katie bought him clothes for the ball. It was a common outfit, a simple double-buttoned blue jacket with a golden sash and epaulets. The trousers were white with gold and black trims on the side. It was so simple, but Reid found himself in awe anyway.
He sat down beside the suit and sighed. Katie was an evil witch, he decided after staring at it for a couple of minutes. Or she was psychic and knew he wasn’t planning to go anywhere that night. Reid picked up the jacket and eyed it critically it really was unremarkable. But, Katie was a bit of a remarkable friend for getting it for him anyway. He’d at least look presentable if planned to go. Not that he did.
He grabbed his bag from the floor and started doing some after-work work on his bed, but his eyes continued to stray towards the ball outfit. It really was a nice gesture and it would be a waste of the clothing not to go. And, Katie would probably appreciate it if they went together instead of him sending her there all alone.
But, he still had so much work to do. And, he would rather not watch Luke moon over his soon to be husband.
He intended to do his work; he wanted to stay home. But, Katie really wanted to go. He owed her that much after putting up with him for the last month, didn’t he?
Without giving it another thought, Reid grabbed the suit and put it on.
When he walked out of the door, Katie was walking out of hers. She was wearing a pink gown with ribbons and glitter all over it. It might have looked gaudy on anyone else, but Reid thought it looked great on Katie.
She smiled brightly at him when she saw him step out.
“Reid! I knew you would come,” Katie said, giving him a once over. “Nice.”
Reid shrugged. “Yeah, well… you look really good too.”
Katie lifted her dress slightly in a curtsying motion and beamed. “Thank you! Gosh, I’ve always wanted to go to a royal ball.”
“Well, good thing you met me then.” Grinning, Reid reached his arm out to her. “Shall we?”
Katie locked arms with him and smiled. “We shall.”
And with that, they walked out of the house.
~*~*~
The ball was, for lack of a better word, amazing. There were golden-stripped ceilings and colorful dancers all parading around. But, when Reid presented his invitation to the doorman and had his name called (and there were trumpets, too) all he could focus on was Luke, in the middle of the dance floor. As he and Katie walked down the stairs, he watched Luke excuse himself before scurrying off to meet them at the bottom of the stairs.
“Reid!” Luke exclaimed, excitedly bounding towards them. He seemed to notice he was too loud because he looked back and forth quickly before grinning. “I didn’t think you would come.”
Reid shrugged but could not help but smile lightly; Luke looked good. He’d never seen him dressed up before - he was more used to the scruffy, dressed down look that he often got during their appointments. But, he looked really wonderful in his golden jacket and pants with blue trimmings. He didn’t want to entertain the thought, but he kind of wanted to push Luke up against the wall and tear his clothes off just to see what it looked like on the floor… but again, he didn’t want to entertain the thought.
“Hello, Katie. I’m so happy you two received my invitation in time. I was worried I wouldn’t give you two enough time to get ready.”
“Oh no! You gave us just enough time, thank you so much for inviting us.”
“You two have given great services to the royal family over the years; you both deserve this. I want to make sure that before I leave -“ Luke’s eyes flashed briefly to Reid before focusing back on Katie and saying, “everyone who has helped my family and me is properly rewarded.”
Katie smiled briefly and nodded; her eyes scanned the surroundings before she gave Luke a quick curtsy and Reid an encouraging smile. “If you will excuse me.”
She walked off after that, leaving Reid and Luke standing in front of each other. Luke glanced down at the floor before smiling at Reid shyly. “I’m really glad you came.”
“Yeah, well… if I hadn’t, your dance lessons would have been for nothing.”
Luke nodded. “Yeah… you’re -uh- you’re right.”
Two dancers twirled past them, almost bumping into Reid but only bothering to look apologetically at Luke. Reid hadn’t remembered anyone else was in the room, so he almost jumped out of his socks. Luke laughed at him but not for long, and Reid forgot about everyone else in the room again.
Luke moved a bit closer to him, and his smile dropped slightly. “Look, Reid. I know things got weird last night. I’m really sorry.”
Reid shook his head and waved an arm. “Not weird… let’s just forget about it.”
Luke nodded and glanced around shiftily before turning his attention back to Reid; his eyes racked over him, and he practically beamed when he met his eyes again. “You look really nice.”
He looked down at his clothing and frowned. “You think so?”
“Yeah,” Luke said simply. He smoothed his hands over the collar of Reid’s shirt and his knuckles brushed briefly over the skin on Reid’s neck. If Reid shivered even a bit, he liked to think it was because of the chilly atmosphere in the room. “You clean up real nice, Doctor Oliver. You look like royalty.”
“I could say the same for you, Prince Grimaldi.”
He smiled softly and opened his mouth to say something when a tall man with black hair sauntered over and placed his hand on the small of Luke’s back.
“Luke,” he started, smiling down at him.
Luke tore his eyes away from Reid and looked up at the man. “Oh, Noah,” he piped up, his face stretching into a shy smile.
So this was Noah, this is the closest Reid had ever seen him and he could safely say that he looked just as pretentious as before. Although, he still didn’t know exactly what one has to do to look pretentious, but if anyone in the world was going to look it, would be Luke’s fiance.
“Reid, this is my betrothed, Noah. And Noah, this is Reid.”
Noah stretched his hand out despite the confusion evident on his face. Reid shook his hand but frowned, his grip wasn’t nearly strong enough for Luke.
“Ummm,” Noah started, squinting down at Luke. “Who is this? He’s not a noble, I’ve never seen him before.”
“He’s my best friend,” Luke murmured softly while smiling so sweetly that Reid couldn’t fight his own smile. “And he’s been my physician since I was fifteen. He’s saved my life many times.”
Noah nodded at him, looking uninterested. “Well, that’s good... Congratulations on getting invited to the ball - that rarely happens to your type of people.”
Reid wanted to be offended, he really did. That comment, however, reminded him explicitly of something Luke would say without realizing how stupid and naïve it sounded, and he was forced to remember that they were both really young. He raised his eyebrows.
“Thank you.”
Noah scowled at him briefly before turning his attention back to Luke. “My father has been calling me. I’ll see you later.”
He smiled and nodded at him. “Okay.”
Noah leaned down and brushed a kiss over Luke’s cheek before dashing off.
“So, that was…” Reid sifted through his mind for the right word. “Underwhelming.”
Luke shrugged. “He was pretty polite though, right?” he said to himself rather then Reid.
“What prince wouldn’t be?”
Chuckling, Luke nodded. “Did you at least like him a little?”
“Uh-“ Reid started before shaking his head. “Is there anything else to do around this place?”
Luke didn’t look too broken up by the change of topic. “Do you want to dance?”
Reid shook his head. “Not right now,” he started, but when he spotted the hurt pass over Luke’s eyes, he continued. “Too early.”
“Oh,” Luke said, his eyes lighting back up briefly. “Are you hungry?”
His eyes widened. “Yes!”
Luke grinned and waved his hand towards their right. “Follow me.”
They made their way over to the buffet table and Reid’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. The food looked amazing. It was like everything he ever wanted in his life. He grabbed a plate and piled it up to the brim and started to chomp away. After a couple of minutes of mindlessly eating he looked at Luke and was surprised to find he hadn’t left. And not only had he not left, he was smiling indulgently at Reid and biting into bits of cheese. Reid thought that maybe the food wasn’t the only thing he’d ever want in his life.
They ate together silently with only the background music and the occasional passer-by who wanted to chat up the prince filling the atmosphere.
“I’m interested,” Reid began after his plate started to look cleaner. “Is your father here?”
“My father?” Luke said, looking confused for like a split second before nodding affirmatively. “The king? Oh - ummm -“ Luke’s eyes scanned the room before he pointed in the direction of the throne. “He’s over there, near the throne.”
“Scary,” was all Reid could say when his eyes landed on Luke’s father. He was tall and thin and his face seemed to be set in a permanent scowl - he was the complete opposite of his son. Reid would have never guessed it in a million years.
Luke shrugged. “Yeah, but he’s king, so I think he trained himself to look like that all the time.”
Reid frowned at the tad of resentment in his voice but didn’t comment on it. He knew enough about Luke’s relationship with his parents to know that it would only upset him.
“Hey, do you want to see something even scarier?”
“Sure.”
Luke vaguely pointed with his eyes to another tall man at the far side of the room; he was talking to Noah and another noble who almost looked like he was shivering.
“That’s Noah’s dad,” Luke said. “He’s scary, right?”
“He really is,” Reid remarked with a shake of his head. “From one creepy castle to another, I do not envy you.”
“Well, I don’t envy me that much either.”
Reid turned to him, frowning. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Luke said, nodding. “Hey, you’ll be fine by yourself for a minute, right? I think my mother wants me to come over.”
Reid turned to the crowd, and Luke’s mom surely was waving him over; Reid cursed underneath his breath; he did not want to be by himself, at all. He supposed that in the back of his head he thought that he would have Luke to himself the entire night to entertain him when things got too dull. But, he kept forgetting that Luke didn’t belong to him - he belonged to his mom and his scary dad and his future-husband.
“Yeah, I’ll be here if you need me.”
Luke smiled momentarily at him before dashing off.
Reid frowned and started to sip his drink. Agreeing to come to the festival was a mistake; he didn’t know what he expected to happen that night.
He ate quietly at the table, waiting for Katie to get her fill of the ball so he could go home - until he was interrupted by a courtly -looking man wearing orange and blue. Reid continued to eat, but he could smell alcohol on the man’s breath (which was confusing because he was sure Luke told him that they ran out of alcohol).
“Hello.”
The man smiled cheekily and moved a bit closer to Reid…
Reid didn’t bother smiling back.
“I’m Henry, I haven’t seen you around here before,” He continued on, like an idiot. “Are you from one of the farther kingdoms?”
“No.” He replied, trying to eat.
“Well, sir. I’ve been to every ball that has ever been held from here to the Kingdom of Far far away, and I haven’t seen you once. Are you an interloper?”
“I’m a doctor.”
“A doctor? I’ve never heard of royalty going into medicine.”
Reid rolled his eyes. He knew he shouldn’t have come. “I’m a commoner.”
Henry looked affronted; he whipped back and frowned at him. “Are you supposed to be here?”
“I was invited.”
“By who?”
Reid pointed out into the crowd. “None of your business.”
Henry gasped. “Well, I’ll just get the castle guards and they’ll find out for you.”
Heaving a heavy sigh, Reid put down his plate. “I was invited by the prince.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Don’t believe me, its true. I’m his doctor, ass.”
Henry’s disbelief soon faded into delight and he leaned closer to Reid. “You’re his doctor, are you? Then you must know everything about him.”
Reid chuckled but stepped away from the man - another royal gossip, just what he needed. “If by everything, you mean his heart rate then… sure.”
“So, he’s told you nothing about his fiancé?”
“Not a word.”
Henry groaned and rolled his eyes; he looked like he was about to leave, but then he spotted something in the crowd that he just had to tell Reid.
“Ah, there they are!”
Reid looked onto the dance floor and frowned at what he saw. Luke and Noah were around he middle, dancing with each other. They were both smiling and laughing, twirling each other around with an ease that you really only learn when you’re a prince. Noah even danced better than Reid.
“Everyone who’s anyone is talking about them. They say their coupling will be great for the kingdoms.”
Reid cleared his throat and turned away from the man - of course Luke’s marriage was good for the kingdom. It would bring peace, alliances and supplies that this kingdom is lacking. It might even be good for Luke, who’ll find his fairytale no matter who its with. It was so right; so, why did Reid still feel like shit?
Reid feared that Henry was going to stick around and keep talking to him, but he got distracted.
The man walked off to follow an entirely pretty girl with whome Reid was sure he had little to no chance with. When he was gone, Reid looked out onto the dance floor and saw Katie approaching him, looking like she just finished dancing, with her hand outstretched at him. Reid immediately shook his head.
“No, no thank you.”
Katie took his hand and nodded towards the dance floor. “Come on, Reid. I know you know how.”
“I -“ Before Reid could finish his words, Katie dragged him onto the dance floor. Once they were in the crowd, there was no getting out. There were people dancing around them, all in their bustling skirts and shining suits, blocking every possible escape path and leaving Reid no other option but to put hia hand on Katie’s waist and dance with her.
They went along almost flawlessly, though not as fast as everyone else around them, and Reid had to keep looking down at his feet to make sure he didn’t crush Katie’s toes. But, other than that, it went pretty well. Reid almost laughed at himself; it looked like Luke’s princely training was good for something after all.
“Wow, you do this much better than I thought you would,” Katie said after a couple of minutes of them dancing along.
“Thanks,” he replied. After a few seconds, he smiled softly. “Luke taught me.”
Katie patted his shoulder tenderly and gave him a sad look before continuing to dance quietly.
The music sped up suddenly, and everyone around them was moving quickly. Reid did his best to keep up and looked at Katie for guidance, but she was staring off behind him with a terrible gleam in her eye and a devilish smile on her face. When she looked back at Reid, her grip tightened on his shoulder and she leaned close to his ear.
“Just follow my lead, Reid.”
Reid did follow her lead, despite how shaky (at best) of a lead it was. Before he knew it, he and Katie were being thrown around and around - she had a mad look in her eyes - and around and around. And before he knew it, he was being thrown through the crowd ended up bumping into Luke who was without a partner.
Luke turned towards him with wide eyes and a frown that slipped into a big smile when he noticed who it was. “Reid!”
“Luke,” Reid said, mildly shocked. He turned around to search for Katie but only saw the ends of her dress dancing away. “Wow, how did this happen?”
Luke shrugged, glancing around before smiling and pointing. “I think we lost our partners.”
He looked to where Luke was pointing and saw Katie scooting away with Prince Noah in her arms. Noah looked back at Luke briefly before shrugging and smiling at him; Luke smiled back at him and shrugged before waving him off.
Reid swallowed a small lump in his throat at the innocent exchange between the two. They were both so young, and he could tell that they at least liked each other. Even though he didn’t want to, Reid was actually starting to feel better and better about his decision to stop Luke from kissing him the previous day. It really was for the best. They liked each other, they were the same age, and they were princes. What more does a fairytale need in fairytale land?
“So,” Luke said, whipping back around to look at Reid. “Do you want to dance?”
Reid shook his head and waved pathetically. “Nah, I’m tired.”
“But, Reid you just started -“ Luke began.
Reid didn’t know how Luke knew that, but he wasn’t going to ask him about it.
Luke continued, “Besides, if you don’t dance with me, I’m going to be bombarded by a thousand people wanting to give me well wishes, and I think I’ve heard enough of that phrase for one lifetime.”
He wanted to say no, but Luke continued to look at him with that half smile and those wide eyes and he could do nothing but nod. They got into their positions from the previous day, and they started to move along with the music.
“You’re doing a good job, better than yesterday,” Luke teased a couple of seconds into their dance.
Reid smirked. “Are you saying I didn’t do a good job yesterday, Your Highness?”
“Not at all, doctor. You’ve been doing swell.”
“Swell, what are you, eighty?”
Chuckling, Luke swung Reid around slightly. “No, I thought you were.”
Reid chuckled low in his throat and didn’t comment again on the subject, not really being too keen on being reminded of his age by a twenty year old. They continued to dance, shifting and shambling along with awkward chuckles and whispered ‘excuse me’s’ from Luke whenever they bumped into anyone around them. But, it was fun. More fun than anything Reid had done that day, and it was only made better whenever Luke would smile at him and laugh and twirl and do everything that Reid loved about him.
Eventually, the fast song ended and the orchestra fell into a quieter tempo. The people around them started to slow down for the song. Reid swallowed thickly as he glanced around him at the dozens of people smiling at their partners, moving closer and even kissing. It made his stomach clench.
When he turned back to Luke, the younger man was looking away from him. Reid followed his eyes and almost sneered when he saw that Luke was looking in the direction of Noah. He knew he shouldn’t be jealous - Luke was getting married - but he couldn’t help but clench his hand over Luke’s waist to get his attention.
Luke turned sharply back around to him and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry,” he said. “Do you want to finish our dance?”
Reid didn’t take his hand off of Luke’s waist when he answered, “Wouldn’t you rather do this with your husband?”
Luke shook his head. “Fiancé,” he corrected. “And I’ve been dancing with Noah all night.”
“How about your mom or one of your friends… even your dad might want to -“
“But, I want to dance with you,” Luke said, a certain finality in his voice that Reid infrequently heard him use outside of the rare times when he had to exert authority over his subjects (and those times were very rare).
And for that reason, the only thing that Reid could think of to say was, “Okay.”
Luke smiled, and they continued to dance around, at a considerably slower pace then before. Reid was nervous, he was very nervous and he didn’t know why. But, Luke was looking him in the eyes, the blonde's own eyes and features much softer with the smallest bit of a smile.
The dance went on like that for a while - Luke not tearing his eyes away from Reid’s and Reid not being able to leave Luke’s face. And all of a sudden there was no one in that room but he and Luke; and despite how fairytale and cheesy this actually was, he felt like this was love and he didn’t want anyone else in his world at that moment. Everything seemed to stand still, until Luke’s tongue darted out past his lips and he licked them, wetting them and making them glisten and Reid couldn’t hold himself back.
Luke only looked surprised for a second before he slapped Reid’s shoulder hard, causing Reid to jump back. He clenched Luke’s waist tighter, and suddenly, they were back in the main ballroom of the castle, surrounded by too many people. Luckily, none of their eyes were on them, but still that was close. Too close.
The slow music tapered off and an exciting one drummed up once again. Luke was the first to shift away from Reid, scratching the back of his head and frowning. Reid couldn’t meet Luke’s eyes, so his gaze fell on Luke’s shoulder instead.
After a couple of seconds of standing there, Luke breathed out a nervous chuckle and shook his head. “Good job dancing; it was fun.”
“Yeah,” Reid piped up immediately. “Lots of fun.”
Luke must have realized he was about to scratch all of his hair out because he dropped his hands to his side and looked around. By the blush that fell on his cheeks when he looked back, someone must have noticed.
“Listen, Reid…” Luke started. Reid’s ears perked up, and he finally looked at Luke’s face. “I - uh - can you meet me in my room in five minutes… I think we need to talk.”
Reid nodded. “Yeah, I agree.”
“Okay,” Luke said with a nod of his own. “I’m going to speak to my parents. Remember five minutes.”
“Five minutes, yeah.” Reid said with a wave of his hand.
He cursed himself when Luke was out of sight. He didn’t know what he’d been thinking; he thought he was above all of that. He felt uncomfortable and out of control - he didn’t like that. And, despite himself, he couldn’t help but think how much of an idiot he must have looked like in front of Luke. Just yesterday, he denied him a kiss (in private, mind you), and today he was trying to kiss him in front of dozens of his friends and family, including his creepy father, his scary mother, his scorned fiancé and his equally scary father. He could have been killed if Luke had let him do that.
Sighing angrily, Reid ran his hand over his face and groaned as he tried to push his way through the crowd. He didn’t know what came over him; why he would do something like that. Why he couldn’t stop himself, why Luke had to stop him. He never got like that in any other facet of his life. He was in control at work, at home, and even in his romantic (sexual) relationships. But, Luke was different. Somehow, he was different. He was the one that convinced Reid to tell all about his uncle without the use of torture or bribery, he taught Reid to dance with the tug of his elbow, and he made Reid go against everything he ever believed was true by making him fall in love.
He shook his head. He could leave, he could leave that very moment and let Luke get married without ever having to go through this “talk” that could lead to so many different things - none of them happy.
But, he didn’t leave.
Some how, he walked around that ball and found Katie, told her to leave without him, and went into the hallway. The guards immediately ushered him upstairs to Luke’s room. Apparently, the prince had taken ill a couple of minute before and was requesting the audience with his physician immediately - Reid almost smirked at the cleverness of it all.
As soon as he was inside the room and the door was shut, Luke hopped up from his place on the edge of his bed, but he didn’t move forward much after that.
“Reid,” Luke started. He cleared his throat and smiled briefly. “I didn’t think you’d come.”
Reid froze very briefly and then raised his frowned. “Shows how well you know me.”
Luke huffed out a chuckle and looked down at his shoes. “So,” he said.
“You wanted to talk?” Reid asked.
Without missing a beat, Luke marched a little closer to Reid. “You tried to kiss me down there.”
Reid inhaled sharply. “I - I - yes, I did.”
Luke looked at him expectantly, his arms wrapping around his chest. When Reid didn’t say anything for awhile, he sighed and shook his head.
“You’re such an asshole, Reid.”
Reid pinched the bridge of his nose. “I know.”
“We could have gotten in so much trouble down there. My mom would have killed you, and Noah would have left. Everything would have been ruined.”
“I know.”
“I just don’t get it,” Luke continued. “Yesterday, you pushed me away when I tried to kiss you.”
He nodded. “I know.”
“Why are you doing this? I don’t get it… I really wanted to kiss you yesterday.”
“I know.”
“And you wanted to kiss me today? What changed?”
Reid shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Luke was getting worked up, but Reid was unfortunately just as confused as Luke was.
“I…” Luke sat on his bed in a huff. “Don’t get it, Reid. Did I put this idea in your head yesterday or something?”
Reid’s attention focused squarely on Luke, and he wrinkled his brows. “What?”
“When I tried to kiss you yesterday, did I mess something up in your head? Were you over-thinking it or something? Was that why you tried to kiss me down there?”
Reid opened his mouth briefly before snapping it shut with a shake of his head. “No, no, that had nothing to do with it.”
“Then why?” Luke asked him incredulously.
Reid pursed his lips. He knew the answer, but like hell he was telling Luke that. He was usually a pretty direct person, but not that direct. “Why’d you try to kiss me yesterday?”
That seemed to throw Luke briefly before he raised his nose into the air and turned away from Reid. “I shouldn’t have.”
That statement kind of hurt, but Reid could barely blame him for it. Luke gave him an out. He’d give Luke one, too and they could put this whole thing behind them. “I get it. I think you were under pressure with your engagement. So you tried to kiss me to -“ Reid waved his hands around. “Make -yourself… feel better?”
Luke shook his head. “No, it wasn’t that.”
Reid groaned. Of course, Luke would be difficult about this. “Luke, we don’t have to talk about this.”
“I know it’s just - you know - I shouldn’t have tried to kiss you. That was presumptuous of me and rude, and I didn’t expect you to want me back. But, I guess, I hoped for like a second that maybe if I kissed you, I’d know for sure how I felt about you… and about Noah.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I really like Noah,” Luke said. “But, I think I love you.”
“What?”
“No, I don’t think - I know I love you. You mean so much to me, and if I had a choice, I’d want to be with you.”
“Wow.”
“I know, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“I’m not uncomfortable, just a little shocked, I guess.” He said. “I thought you got over your thing years ago.”
“No, I wanted you to think I did. You always made fun of me when I was younger. And I’ll admit, I wasn’t in love with you when I was young. I just thought you were smart, handsome, frank, and my best friend… you were… like a prince… like the kind of prince I wanted to be and the type of I wanted to be with. But, it was when I got older that I realized my hopes were growing up with me and I still wanted you Reid. Only everything was more grown-up. I’ve been in love with you for forever. …”
Reid could only stare at him in confusion and… amazement. Luke not only wanted him but he also loved him… loved him. He always knew he and Luke were important to each other and that Luke was had a crush on him years ago. It, however, had always been unrequited (at least, in theory it was) and he thought Luke had gotten over it.
“You love me?” He said, still reeling from the earlier confession.
Luke shyly looked into his lap. “Well, yeah. It’s not exactly something any one can control, you know.”
Reid nodded blankly. “Yeah, I know.”
When neither of them said anything for a while, Luke looked up again and stared Reid in the face. “You were going to kiss me, what does that mean? Do you love me too?”
Reid’s head shifted back slightly, and he could not help but be taken aback by the abruptness and frankness of Luke’s question? Luke was not always a particularly blunt person, he skidded around the truth frequently, especially when it came to important things like his future and his decisions. The way he kind of took control there was jolting and (inadvertently) kind of a turn-on.
“Uh - I mean… If I said it now, it wouldn’t be… authentic, you’d just think I only said it because you said it.”
Luke rolled his eyes to the back of his head and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back briefly onto his bed before sitting up straight again, giving Reid a hard look.
“Anyway, what does it matter? You’re getting married in a few weeks and you’ll be moving away and getting on with your life. None of this matters in the long run, how you feel and how I feel…” Reid trailed off. Luke was looking at him with this sad, disappointed look that just set him on edge. Inhaling sharply, Reid continued, “It doesn’t matter.”
Instead of responding right away, Luke leaned up ever so slightly on the bed, resting his head on his on his hands. He pouted his lips ever so slightly before licking them wet again; Reid watched his small movements with excellent concentration and swallowed thickly.
Without more pause, Luke reached for Reid.
“Do you want me or not?”
Something in Reid clicked then. He did want Luke. He wanted him badly. He moved swiftly towards Luke, attacking his mouth with his own. Luke’s arms found there way around Reid’s neck, and they were falling backwards onto Luke’s unnecessarily soft sheets.
Kissing Luke was like everything he thought it would be and more; his mouth was warm and wet and his grip on the back of Reid’s shirt was tight and sure. Reid felt like this may be what those fairytales were talking about.