"That slut!"

Alberu Crossman, crown prince of the Raon Kingdom, was not prepared for the slew of curses that spewed from the man now sitting on his bed.

He was the same man who'd been lounging there only moments ago. Stretching his arms over his head as he declared that Alberu owed him for all the bullshit he put him through and so, he was stealing the bed. Alberu could sleep on a couch or fuck off somewhere.

And then, without a warning or goodbye, he changed.

The same man but different. Dressed different, different posture, different aura, different expressions, and rather than the languid way he was taunting Alberu for being a stupid wrong idiot who ought to have believed him in the first place, this man was glaring holes into Alberu's face as though it had personally offended him.

"And you–" Cale seemed at a complete loss for an insult grave enough to describe the clearly despicable bastard in front of him. The word he decided on really did throw Alberu for a loop. "–slut!"

Alberu was quite a few things and there were quite a few insults that could be accurately attributed to his character.

'Slut' wasn't quite a fit.

Cale's eyes moved from Alberu to the bed and back to him before he let out a frustrated and angry growl of frustration, collapsing back onto the bed with a dismayed cry of: "I should have fucked him!"

"...Cale Henituse?" Alberu hazarded, figuring that he ought to confirm the very basics before he proceeded to ask other questions. Like why he deserved to be called a slut and what the hell Cale was talking about and what the hell was going on.

Cale scowled, looking up at him with disgruntled. "What?!" And then. "No, wait, don't talk to me! Slut!"

"...I'm going to really need to ask you to stop calling me that." Alberu said, feeling a bit wronged.

"I'm calling you what you are!" Cale declared, loud and shameless and completely out of fucks to give. Was this the crown prince of the kingdom that he lived in? Yes, yes he was. Did Cale give even the slightest fuck right now? Not particularly. "Here I am living like a fucking nun and he just goes around fucking the first bastard who moves! Fucking–I cannot–"

Alberu, a few steps behind the conversation but starting to catch up, hazarded a guess. "...are you under the impression that I was engaging in ilicit sexual acts with... uh... you?"

Cale sat up, shooting him a scathing glare. "Obviously. Why else would I be appearing in your bed again?"

Alberu took a moment to register the available information.

Cale's story–the other Cale's story–had been confirmed by the vow of death, as unbelievable as that sounded. As a show of good faith, Alberu had been trying to make some amends for his treatment of Cale up until now as it had in actuality been unwarranted.

To learn that Cale knew all of his secrets not because of some seditious plot but rather because he was his fiance from another world was quite a strange piece of information to digest so Alberu hadn't actually known how to make amends. Mostly he'd just been letting Cale lord it over him, which seemed to satisfy him.

And now, in all likelihood, he was looking at the Cale Henituse from this world. The one who'd been so rudely replaced with his other self.

Alberu wasn't sure what he'd expected from him. But to immediately get cursed out and accused of salacious behavior hadn't been within his expectations.

He also didn't know what to think or feel about this complete stranger who wasn't a stranger.

Who had apparently spent time in the other 'better', according to Cale, Alberu's bed.

Alberu could sense a headache coming on.

With a deep sigh, he approached the bed. He wouldn't get anywhere by avoiding this.

He didn't expect Cale to flinch away from him. "W–what are you doing?"

That was... unexpected. Alberu took a cautious step back to respect Cale's boundaries but felt strange. What the hell did Cale think he was going to do?

"To clarify matters, I have never engaged in any sexual acts with Cale Henituse." He held up a hand to silence the disbelieving complaint already on Cale's tongue. "He stole my bed as punishment for not believing him."

"...believing him about what?" Cale asked cagily, still eyeing Alberu with the suspicion of a man who didn't believe a word of it.

He could hardly believe it and now he had to explain it? Alberu winced but pressed onwards. If this was the Cale Henituse from this world then he was the same man who could very likely inherit the Henituse territory and become the next count. As such, it was a good idea that he settled this matter neatly. "About being in a relationship with another version of me."

The queer expression on Cale's face took Alberu by surprise. He couldn't read any of the emotions that flitted across his face but every single one of them was just as intense and striking as Cale himself. He looked away from Alberu, fists clenched at his side. "Yeah, it's pretty fucking unbelievable."

An awkward tension hung over the room.

In another world, in another life, they were apparently deeply in love. Here, they were nothing but strangers. The Cale who was deeply in love with his precious 'Al' was in all likelihood back with his beloved and the 'Al' who, as Cale had quite graphically described while under the vow of death, 'fucked him until he couldn't remember his name anymore' was nowhere to be found either.

Alberu really had to wonder how lecherous his 'other self' was. From the descriptions and reactions of both Cale's, he was getting painted a rather strange picture of himself.

Cale unceremoniously hopped off the bed, stretching his arms over his head in a way entirely reminiscent of the other Cale. "Well. Fuck this." He said, shooting Alberu a glare. "I'm going home."

The words shook Alberu a bit.

The Cale he'd met had been quite insistent in his pursuit. He didn't let up even when he was at risk of being put to death under suspicion of sedition. He flirted and chased and pursued Alberu with a fiery determination that left Alberu a bit short on breath.

This Cale was just going to walk away. Shoulders slumped in a thuggish slouch and his face a mask of disgust and not a single hint of regret.

'Oh.'

Alberu's body was moving before he could think, catching Cale's wrist and stopping him in his tracks.

'I don't want him to go.'

They were strangers. It was best for them both if that's what they returned to being. The bizarre set of circumstances of two people from another world who apparently shared a rather passionate love didn't have anything to do with them.

Cale's reddish brown eyes flashed with emotion, looking up at Alberu searching for an answer and looking so... vulnerable.

Scared and hesitant and defenseless.

Cale shook off his hand, scowling and closing off his expression. He took a wretched step away from Alberu and snapped. "If you're looking for him, sorry. I'm not him–so fuck off and leave me alone."

Hurt, raw and exposed like a nerve. One wrong word and that pain would deepen.

Alberu chose his words carefully.

He knew something about being compared to another self, the other Cale was particularly brutal in his unfavorable reviews, although the pain Cale was expressing was different. Deeper and drenched in insecurity.

"I wasn't looking for him." He said and found that it was true. He was still figuring out his complicated feelings towards Cale, both mysterious men and the complicated relationship that linked them together. He certainly had feelings for the Cale who left, unresolved and under-explored, but he hadn't stopped Cale because of those feelings.

The stranger in front of him was the same and different and confusing and Alberu had only wanted him to stay. He couldn't say what he wanted from there. Only that the thought of letting him go was unbearable.

Cale let out a snort of derision, rolling his eyes. "So what? Looking for a fuck? Sorry, I'm all out."

Well, the crass disregard for authority was certainly just the same. Alberu sighed, holding his hands in defeat. "Okay, you may go. You're not being detained." ...anymore. "Would you like to return to the Henituse territory? I can make the appropriate travel arrangements."

Cale scowled, looking around at the room as though finally piecing together that since he was in the crown prince's bedroom at the palace, he wasn't actually within the Henituse territory and therefore going home might require a certain level of diplomacy.

In true Cale fashion, he told diplomacy to get fucked.

"Fuck off, I'll figure it out myself." He turned to storm out, wretched thoughts filling his mind and–

Cale stopped at the door.

His shoulders slumped miserably.

It was a terrible sight, the vim draining out of him all at once as though the world had crashed down on him.

"...changing sucks..." Cale muttered, barely loud enough to be heard by Alberu. He turned around and faced the prince again, leaning against the doors that he was about to storm out of for balance and gathering himself to say something that apparently took a lot out of him. He fixed Alberu with a fierce glare that only shook slightly. "Okay, your highness. You're going to do me a favor."

It said a lot about Cale's manners that the politest sentence he'd uttered to Alberu thus far had been a one-sided demand. Despite quite a few reasons not to, Alberu nodded his ascent. It was true that he owed the other Cale something after the imprisonment debacle and he was unlikely to be able to repay that debt. It might be best to pass that grace onto the only Cale he could do anything for.

"Kiss me."

Alberu blinked, confusion blanketing his expression and parting his lips in dumbstruck uncertainty. "Pardon?"

It was unpleasant watching the way Cale's shoulder deflated and his eyes lost their light. Still, Cale's chin was held high and there was a certain elegance in the way he held himself that held the regality of a nobleman. Prideful and arrogant and unwilling to back down. "You heard me."

"I don't understand why..." Alberu hated the way his words seemed to cause Cale to shrink further. He steeled himself. "Just a kiss?"

Cale nodded, averting his gaze and suddenly Alberu, dense as he was, figured it out.

Cale wasn't asking for a kiss from him. He wanted to kiss the other Alberu.

It was difficult to express how the realization made him feel. It wasn't quite jealousy. He didn't know Cale. He didn't have a single reason to feel possessive of him.

Yet the request still felt wretched in his heart.

Cale didn't see him. Didn't want anything to do with him. It was the same with the other Cale as well. Alberu wasn't good enough or didn't match up and he didn't even have a concept of the standard he was being held to. Judged and dismissed without either of them ever taking the time to learn who he was.

He felt rather prideful and indignant over it.

"I'd rather not kiss someone who doesn't want to kiss me." Alberu said rashly, surrendering to his petty impulses.

Cale rallied. "The fuck does that mean?!" There was fire in his eyes again and it was so much better than the bitter misery.

"It means that I don't care to be compared to him either. If you're looking for him in me, you won't find him." He threw Cale's words back at him, feeling accomplished for only a moment before he saw the way Cale flinched.

Perhaps he ought to have just kissed him. Perhaps he should have just played along. Given Cale the memory he wanted and then said goodbye.

Cale grit his teeth and bit his tongue on venomous words before letting out a sharp growl and hitting his fist against the door softly. "You're right. That was fucked up." The words were stilted, but they were honest. "Sorry." He growled out the word like apologizing to anyone was like grating his own flesh.

Alberu deflated, indignant anger draining away in the face of the evidence. Just as he'd had complicated and strange emotions about the other Cale, this Cale had developed emotions for the other him as well. How bizarre and twisted to become the third wheels left out in a relationship that only contained themselves.

It was probably the worst possible way to meet. Raw and heartbroken over a different person who was very much the same, confused and unable to reconcile the insanity of the events that transpired.

Alberu made a decision.

Clearly neither of them had reconciled their complicated connection. And just saying a rough goodbye didn't seem like an appropriate answer to the problem either.

And he couldn't quite tolerate the idea of always being someone else in Cale's eyes. He didn't want to view Cale as someone else either.

He held out a hand towards Cale, the scowling redhead glaring at it as though it were a dangerous weapon.

"If possible, I'd like to start over." Cale's sharp gaze snapped up from the hand up to his face, he looked like a scared puppy who was backed into a corner and choosing between whether to bite or bark. Alberu got the feeling he'd probably get bitten. "This is our first time meeting. I'm Alberu Crossman, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Cale looked as though he would snap, fiery temper lighting up behind his eyes with suspicion and disdain. Finally, he grit his teeth and accepted Alberu's hand, squeezing it harshly to be mean. "Cale Henituse." He said morosely. If there was a look that was capable of setting someone on fire through the intensity of the bitter glare, it was Cale's. "It's fucking horrific to meet you."

What a truly awful first meeting.

Especially when Alberu decided, as a petty sort of revenge, to grant Cale's request by kissing his hand.

Things sort of spiraled out of control from there.

But it didn't hurt to be alive anymore.