The trouble with self imposed isolation is that when you look up with the desire to be with others, you realize that you're all alone and you've crippled every potential friendship that could have bloomed.

The agony thereafter is numbing. As though the joke the whole lifetime spent had finally reached a punchline and it was at your expense.

Cale hadn't taken well to it.

He'd reached the absolute limit of the amount of solitude he could handle and could no longer hold back how much he craved the comfort of interaction.

But his family flinched when he came near.

He had nothing resembling a friendship.

And his world spiraled from there. The drunken behavior that had once been nothing more than an act gained more reality to it than it ever ought to have.

His outwardly reckless behavior became genuine and in his pursuit for hedonistic satisfaction, each situation became increasingly dangerous until he couldn't remember what his purpose was anymore.

Maybe his purpose was to die.

It was suffocating and he lashed out at everything in an attempt to breathe.

"It's not okay."

His lips had formed into a firm frown, his handsome face pinched with worry, deep brown eyes alight with an unnamed emotion. His touch was soft, gentle like no other touch had felt.

He clung to it.

Scared and volatile and unable to cope with all of the horrible emotions at war inside, he sought out the single source of warmth. He didn't care why–was it pity that linked them together? Trauma and fear?

He lashed out.

Testing and testing and screaming for air because he still couldn't breathe.

And when those lips touched his own, he was given new breath.

–

Cale eyed the knife against his throat dimly.

Well. He supposed that it made perfect sense that a prince would have guards. It was more surprising that he'd managed to impromptu kidnap the man yesterday. Still, Cale didn't have the fondest impression of people threatening his life.

Showing absolutely none of the fear that he ought to in this situation, Cale shot a dry look towards the prince who stood behind hooded guards.

It wasn't that Cale was an impressively brave or confident person, there was just only so many times in a person's lifetime that they could experience similar situations before the threat just lost its luster.

Besides, what was his worst case scenario here? They actually killed him? Good. He wasn't all that fond of continuing to live on in a fucking fantasy world where he'd lost all of the things that made him happy.

Garbage relationship with family. Friends. And his fiance didn't give any fucks about him, as seen by his current situation.

Alberu met his eyes and there was a flicker of emotion there.

"Identify yourself." The knife wielding cloaked individual spoke, voice dark and grim and promising swift death for disobedience.

Cale rolled his eyes. "Cale Henituse." Should he mention his father? Count's were supposed to be a big deal or someshit, right? He decided against it. He wasn't in the mood for hiding behind daddy's coattails.

He still held himself with all the presence of a noble though. Some things were ingrained in the bones. Cale had been raised to be a successor and his body remembered that, even if he fought it tooth and nail.

Cale saw one of the guards leaning in to whisper to the prince. Something about trash and Henituse. Cale rolled his eyes.

"Oi!" He called out, cocking his head to the side and dismissing the way the knife pressed even harder against his throat in threat. "I have something to discuss with you."

Alberu's expression was half-hidden by a veil but Cale could easily recognize his pensive expression. Much like when Cale offered an unfavorable decision that needed making. Like who was going to talk to their shitty neighbors about the noise issue. On one hand, Cale was more than happy to handle it. On the other hand, Cale's method of doing so would likely result in an even worse noise issue. And on a mutant third hand, Alberu sort of hated dealing with their gigantic boisterous neighbor who didn't understand the concept of personal space.

It required a lot of pensive thought.

This Alberu apparently didn't need quite as long to debate Cale's request as that matter had required. He nodded curtly and the press of steel against Cale's throat was released. Cale didn't bother to check whether his neck was bleeding, he knew that it was.

Alberu whispered a quiet word to a companion and there was a nod before Alberu continued his journey, two members of the party detaching themselves to not so gently guide Cale in another direction.

Cale went obediently. It wasn't worth kicking up a fuss. Either they were guiding him somewhere quiet to dispose of him or a location where he'd be allowed to talk with Alberu, either way Cale was pretty okay with the results.

One of the cloaked individuals handed him something and he looked towards her, having to bite down on his tongue to resist the name that threatened to escape.

Tasha, Alberu's beloved aunt, was handing him a bandage for his neck. Cale smiled bitterly. She was much the same. Kind and loyal and even when she didn't have the fairest impression of Cale, she still treated him with a basic respect that Cale wasn't used to receiving.

He quite liked Alberu's aunt so he accepted the bandage without any fuss, sloppily applying it to the very slightly bleeding injury. He could tell by her little frown that he hadn't done a very good job of it but she didn't fix it for him.

He liked that about her.

He also figured that she was unlikely to be the person that Alberu sent to do his wetwork so he allowed an invisible tension to disappear from his shoulders as he was herded to a nondescript building.

"You don't seem very concerned." Tasha commented, her beautiful and youthful face not giving away any of her emotions. He could see she was a bit worried though.

That was fair. Some random guy wanted to talk with her nephew and her nephew agreed. Most aunts would have some concern regarding the matter.

Cale shrugged. "What's there to be concerned about?"

It was a disingenuous question laden with sarcasm and Tasha didn't appear as though she cared much for his attitude.

Cale decided he wouldn't care about that.

"And what is it you'd like to speak about?" She asked, carefully omitting who she was referring to. He thought it was interesting. Perhaps Alberu had sent her to figure out what he wanted to send him away.

The building they led him into wasn't lived in but there were chairs and a table that looked just about as well-maintained as the decrepit building.

'The fantasy equivalent of a skeevy warehouse?' Cale thought, taking a seat without waiting for an invitation to do so. The one accompanying Tasha glared at him but Tasha merely sat across from him calmly.

"I need his help." Cale said honestly. He wondered if he should lay out the situation for Tasha, she had a bleeding heart at her core and she was sure to want to assist him in some way. "Someone tried to kill my siblings."

The escalation of the conversation caught Tasha off guard and Cale thanked the gods that he was a bastard. A good person would have felt guilty about framing the situation in a way to maximize pity and manipulate Tasha's heartstrings.

Cale wasn't a good person.

He was also a professional actor.

While it was true that Cale was shaken up over the events that had occurred throughout the time he'd been here, he wasn't the sort of person to show that. His composure up until now had been something of an act on its own and now he would play the role of a pathetic older brother who was worried sick.

Easy enough. He'd just have to stop hiding some of his internal distress.

His hand trembled discretely as he loosened his control over the appendage and his heart sank in his chest, allowing his face to crumble into frustrated fear just enough that it appeared he was still trying to hold up a brave face.

Cale was rather proud of his performance actually. There was a shame that there weren't any cameras.

"...and what can he do to help you?" Tasha asked, concern welling up in her eyes even though her expression remained undaunted.

Cale looked down at his hands as though he couldn't bear to look her in the eye as he recounted the shameful facts. "...those who hired the assassins clearly have power and money. At least enough to rival my family. I... I don't know how to protect them. I need someone with more influence and power to help."

There was a stiff silence in the room as Cale mentally counted down in his head.

It was clear that the crown prince was attempting to travel incognito otherwise there wouldn't have been all the cloaks and veils and discrete honor guard. Which meant revealing that he knew who the prince was would certainly result in a reaction.

Cale just wasn't expecting as severe of a reaction.

He had no reason to know who understand the discrimination against dark elves nor the matter that Alberu was secretly one quarter dark elf. His understanding of his fiance's lineage didn't account for fantasy-racism.

Nor the concept that Alberu could use magic to disguise his appearance to ascend to the throne. So Cale was under the impression that he was revealing a rather minor and inconsequential secret that he'd recognized the crown prince even in disguise.

Not the government breaking, live the rest of your life in a dungeon if you live at all, this is a matter of national security and maintaining the public's trust, level of secret.

If he'd known, he would have chosen a more tactful method of approaching the prince. Or used the information as leverage.

"What do you mean by that?"

Tasha's voice was so uncharacteristically cold that it actually sent shivers down his spine. Cale looked up at her with shaking pupils and saw murder in the aura of the two across from him.

'...the fuck did I say? Are they the one's after my family? Shit, what the fuck?!'

Before Cale could well and truly digest his unease, a voice cut into the scene.

"I'd like a moment alone with him."

Cale's panic relaxed somewhat hearing Alberu's voice behind him but the coldness in that voice was also rather alarming in its own way.

At least he knew how to handle an angry Alberu. He hadn't the slightest clue what to do when Tasha looked about ready to rip out a throat.

Tasha exchanged a meaningful look with Alberu before she nodded and departed alongside her equally edgy companion.

Alberu replaced her in the chair across from him and silence overtook the building.

Cale had, on very rare occasions, seen Alberu looking this blank. Alberu also had a bad habit of wearing a persona, just as Cale did, and most frequently it meant that he would smile when he didn't mean it.

For Alberu to hide every emotion behind absolute emptiness meant that there was some serious shit going on.

Cale held in a groan. He'd clearly stepped on a landmine but he didn't have the context to understand how bad the explosion was going to be.

"Is it true what you said?" Alberu asked and his face still gave absolutely nothing away. Even Cale couldn't read him well when he went this blank.

"...about my family?" Cale guessed. "Yes. They're currently in danger."

"And this has nothing to do with your approach yesterday?" Alberu asked and there was acid in that tone.

Cale frowned. He knew that his manic attitude from before could confuse matters but the explanation was right in front of him. "I was emotional because of the situation with my family. Other than that, I told the truth."

"About your fiance?" There wasn't just doubt in Alberu's voice, there was a hint of mockery.

Cale found that pretty offensive so he allowed the honest annoyance to show through. "Fuck you."

Of all the fucking things he needed right now, he sure as fuck didn't need Alberu's shitty fucking attitude about his relationship with Alberu.

Cale worked over the sentence in his head and felt like it would be just great if the world ended.

"So if I'm to believe you, you coincidentally mistook me for your fiance yesterday and today you're seeking out my help with your family because you believe I have the power to help you?"

Cale's face contorted into a snarl. "Well fuck you, that's what happened. I fucking recognized you after getting a good close look at you yesterday and after considering my options, I realized you were the best fucking option for helping me through my situation. How fucking hard is that to figure out? Or are you all pretty looks and no fucking brain?"

"And who is it you believe I am?"

Wow. They really thought that the veil was doing all the work in the world. This was worse than superheroes with glasses.

Cale rolled his eyes and answered crassly, sealing his fate.