Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Jamil didn't like crying; all it ever did was bring him more troubles, but right now, it was all he could do. He had hidden himself away in the botanical gardens, away from the potential prying eyes of his classmates. He wasn't even sure what had pushed him over the edge this time. It had been years since he had gotten like this, during the nightmarish holidays back home during middle school.

Jamil hated his life, and right now, it was just too much; he couldn't keep it in. He was just so tired of always doing everything and never being the one thanked for it. Jamil had been forced to prepare another impromptu feast at Kalim’s impulsive order. He wasn’t allowed to say no, and even when he did, Kalim never listened. Because Kalim didn’t have to, he wasn’t the one who’d be punished should he fail. Scarabia had also fallen in the rankings from the exams; they and Ignihyde were known for getting top placements, and they didn’t even place this year. Jamil just knew that the several impulse parties during the couple of weeks leading up to the exam period didn’t help.

Hearing some rustling in the spot next to him, Jamil looks up to see Leona, the second prince of the Sunset Savanna, known for skipping class and sleeping in the botanical gardens. He should of considered that when picking his hiding place.

He looked grouchy, having clearly been just woken up by the noise, “You okay, Little Snake?” 

“What?” This wasn’t how Leona behaved; he should be chasing him off for daring to disturb his sleep.

“I asked you if you were okay,” Leona repeats, moving some of his hair back and out of his face.

“Does it look like I am? Shouldn’t you be chasing me off?” Jamil couldn’t help but snap, not trusting this ‘caring’ side of the lion.

Leona chuckled, a brief smile flashing on his face, “Good to see you still have your fangs, a Snake doesn't do well without them.”

“Still doesn’t explain your interest,” Jamil felt part of him relax, but he was still on guard.

“You aren’t the kind to cry about nothing. Lions are social creatures, so what happened?” Leona asks more directly this time.

“Nothing happened.” Jamil insisted, which was the frustrating truth; he couldn’t even tell what had set him off.

“As in you don’t want to tell me, or you can’t tell?” Leona sat down, making himself comfortable.

“What difference does it make?...” 

“I can fuck off, or I can listen as you figure yourself out,” he says with a shrug.

“Why, so you can use it to blackmail me?” 

Leona laughed at that again, “We might both be schemers, Little Snake, but blackmail is more Cephalo-punk’s speed. I would have threatened to share my suspicions of you with the Asim’s a long time ago, if I had any intentions of getting something out of you,”

That much was true, as much as he didn’t want Leona to be right about that, he didn’t know what else to do. And with telling the Asim's, Leona was a prince of a foreign nation, rank meant that they were far more likely to believe him, and even if they didn't, going along with it would hold the benefit of improving relations with an important potential trade partner.

“This school was supposed to be my escape,” Jamil didn’t know why he admitted that.

“Only for Kalim to decide to attend two months in,” Leona concludes, “The cage followed you here. I get that, I’m fortunate enough that mine can’t, you got any backup plans?”

“Nothing he isn’t ruining,” His plan had been to excel at his classes, become the dorm leader, form connections and jump ship with a secure future once he graduated. That’s what he had done on a smaller scale in middle school, only carefully failing in a few public settings, his teachers and peers assuming it was some anxiety rather than a forced requirement by his situation. He only got away with it because he wasn’t in direct comparison to Kalim; now, he didn’t even have that. The work was worse too, having to spend hours trying to teach Kalim, while, like with everything else, he just wouldn’t listen! Now he had to figure out the exact middle marks to avoid standing out, while he could barely get through his own club activities without Kalim calling him for something. And whenever he did get a ‘break’ from being around him and serving him, he always knew there would be a new mess for him to clean, a new feast to cook for, another project he’d have to chase Kalim down to do.

“Whatever you come up with, I hope you have more luck than I did,” Leona tells him, “Which you might want to move.”

“What? Why?” Jamil was startled out of his thoughts.

“Because that sprinkler is about to turn- on,” evidently, he was just a second too slow, and Jamil was soaked, which at least hid the tear marks.

“Thanks for the warning.” Jamil grumbles as Leona laughs at him. He flicks water at him in revenge causing him to laugh more.

Chapter Text

Family was a complicated reality for the two of them, had been for longer than either could remember.

For Jamil, his birth was cursed by servitude; he wasn’t born to be free, he was born to be a servant. Jamil couldn’t remember it; meeting Kalim, at that age, they most likely had been genuine friends. He didn’t know which side had first pushed for it, the Asims in their endless endeavour of spoiling their heir (and not doing anything to educate him), or his own parents wishing to kiss up more. But he was decided to be Kalim’s servant at his risk. His parents saw him as a tool, something to use rather than their child. But Jamil still loved them, and he wanted their love; he also had his little sister, however frustrating she could be to think of.

For Leona, this had been a more gradual shift. His mother and father had always been busy running the kingdom, so they didn’t have time for him about as long as he could remember. Falena, as the crown prince and being 14 years older than him, didn’t have anything in common with him, nor an interest, while constantly having other people wanting his attention. So he was left to be raised by Kifaji, and it just wasn’t the same. By the time they were interested in knowing Leona, Leona didn’t trust them to be there for him. They hadn’t been there when he aced a test, or when he had developed his magic, or when even the palace staff would badmouth him in comparison to his brother.

They also didn’t have a lot of people they could talk to about it. Ruggie’s dad was a deadbeat (or actually dead), and his mom didn’t survive, but his grandma had been there for him throughout his childhood, and they still made an effort to stay connected. Jack had a loving, supportive family waiting for him back home. Kalim was spoiled to an insane degree. Epel had a whole village’s love. Floyd had Jade and Azul, a loving mom, dad and grandma, who even when they didn’t get him, still loved him so deeply. Ace regularly talked about his older brother, and you could tell how close they were.

Riddle had a shit relationship with his mother, but they weren’t close to him, and that relationship wasn’t complicated; it was just bad.

“Your parents or sister ever tell you you’d be great at blank, but when you attempt to, they never back up their words?” Leona asks, holding Jamil to his chest, lying in the grass.

“My sister regularly supports me, but she doesn’t really realize just how badly I’m being forced to hold back. It’s Kalim that’s constantly doing that, you?”

“My Brother, he constantly tells me how I can do great things for our country, but when I’ve attempted to propose projects in the past. Even when I’ve contacted experts, gone to the locations themselves, checked all the concerns, then one word from the council who didn’t go through it, and he drops it,” Leona laments, if his input didn’t mean shit, why give it.

“I swear sometimes they ask for our input, planning to ignore it,” Jamil was mainly referring to Kalim, but Najma had been guilty of it too.

“Do you want to have a family in the future?” It was an important conversation to have to know if they wanted the same things, and to know what it would look like.

“I guess it depends. If I can’t find a way to break free, I don’t want to bring anyone else into this life, and that’s assuming I’d ever get the chance. But assuming I can, I think I’d want one or two." Jamil was a poison tester; he had been meant to die in Kalim’s place for as long as he could remember. That risk was still there....

“I’m not sure myself. I’d want them to have an impact on their own lives, and I’d want to know whether they’d have the freedom to choose their own paths or have a role waiting for them. But having a little girl would be nice,” Leona knew his circumstances were privileged, but that didn’t stop him from developing depression and dissociation.

“Wouldn’t they inherit control over the Sunset Warriors?” Jamil knew it wasn’t an important role at the moment, given that Leona only had to go back to it a few times a year and didn't need to be regularly checking in remotely.

“Not if Cheka gets a sibling, or if Cheka has a second child when he’s old enough. My brother was 14 when I was born. The leader of the Sunset Warriors is the Heir Apparent’s brother. Once my father passes, that’s Cheka, I only keep the role until he has a sibling or a second child of age,”

“And with the Sunset Savanna being at peace, there’s nothing to do with that, anyway…” Jamil concludes his thoughts.

 “If I could, I’d like to move out of the palace, not too far away, just enough that I could form my own life,” Leona starts.

“I wouldn’t want it too big, cleaning is a pain, I’d want to work with deciphering ancient magic texts,” Jamil thinks out loud.

“There’s a whole lot of lost hideouts in the Sunset Savanna, but most places are only workable for certain parts of the year,” Leona ‘coincidently’ mentions with a little smirk.

“It would be rather lowly while waiting for work and not knowing anyone on those sites,” Jamil continues, “Maybe a certain Lion who enjoys researching incantations lost to time could keep me company?”

“If you’re the one asking, I’m sure this Lion would gladly agree, your a cute Little Snake after all,” it was all theoretical, relying on a lot of factors outside of their control, a dream really.

Chapter Text

Jamil didn’t have much in the way of hobbies; hobbies required free time, something he didn’t have a lot of. When he did get interests or hobbies, he’d either be forced to give it up, or they’d be hijacked by Kalim. But right now they didn’t have to worry about that. Leona had given Ruggie the task of watching the young heir, and the two of them were now hiding out in his bedroom back in Savanaclaw.

Leona had even cleaned up his room for Jamil’s arrival, knowing the underclassman wouldn’t relax if he could see the mess. Most of said mess was half haphazardly shoved into the closet and containers, but it didn’t matter, out of sight, out of mind.

“So how did you get into break dancing anyways?” Leona asks, watching Jamil from the bed, as Jamil shows off. Leona was always impressed by what he managed to do with his hair loose like that. It was a beautiful show of skill made from years of practice.

“I was often sent out to fetch things for the Asims. Going through the streets, it wasn’t uncommon to pass street performers.” Jamil starts finishing a spin.

“I knew not to push it, but I would sometimes ask them to show me how to do the more basic moves. I’d practice in what free time I had on my own. For better or worse, Kalim saw me and became interested in it himself… It meant it was then my job to teach him, and once he had the basics, never to outshine him. I wouldn’t have been able to continue it if he hadn’t become interested, but it also meant it was his hobby,” Jamil finishes crossing his legs as he sits down to catch his breath.

“I used to like finding hiding spaces in the palace. I got too big for most of them, except for the places in the gardens there,” Leona confesses. It was mostly to get out of dreadful formal events that were just miserable for him. 

“Did you play hide and seek a lot when you were little?” Jamil asks, taking a drink from his water bottle.

“No, didn’t have anyone to play with, especially in the palace, mostly it was avoiding events, and listening in on things,” Leona tells him, getting him to actually sit on the bed with him.

“They didn’t set up a playmate for you or anything?” Jamil asks, relaxed, leaning forward a bit. 

“No, the few times I met with noble kids, we didn’t get along, and I wasn’t a priority since I wasn’t the heir, and my dad’s health started declining.”

“I don’t pay enough attention to the other Asim kids to know exactly how they’re treated, but I know they’d never let them go without some sort of playmate,”

“Our palace doesn’t employ children, and to be fair, for a lion, I’m pretty introverted,” Leona fires back.

“Low blow, low blow, which, how did you get into chess?” Jamil opts to change the subject.

“Kifaji, he was my nanny, and Falena’s before me, and now Cheka. Though he admitted that I’m the only one who’s shown any interest or skill in the game,”

“Are the two of you close?” Jamil asks, he knows he didn’t get along with his brother, and that he found Cheka to be a lot.

“Closer than most, despite having the same interest in chess, I think he prefers his more cheerful charges,” Leona laments. Kifaji had commented a lot on how Falena had a better attitude growing up, that Leona would benefit from.

Jamil hummed; he knew the statement well enough. His sister did ‘encourage’ him to have a better attitude, which typically had the opposite effect.

“So how come you went with basketball?” Leona shifts the conversation, moving closer to him.

“Well, there was no dance club, and with my parents demanding I never outshine Kalim, I couldn’t pick Spelldrive. I prefer being active, and basketball in a magic school is overlooked enough that I didn’t have to worry about it. I enjoy it,” Jamil shrugs. He had also been on the team at his middle school, though he had been forced to miss a few of the events due to work.

“Well I bet Vargas is happy about that, most athletes are only interested in Spelldrive here, so I end up getting first pick more often than not,” Leona comments, Jamil was one of the few cases of someone choosing something else over his team, Jack was technically another one, but he wasn’t a very social wolf so it made sense he chose something more independent.

“If I remember correctly, you and Ruggie did pay me a rather painful compliment just before the interdorm matches,” Jamil teases, remembering just how much that had surprised him, that he was enough of a threat to bother taking out.

“If we had known what your unique magic was at the time, we wouldn’t have risked it. You and Kalim were one of the biggest reasons the herbivores figured out what was going on,” Leona admits. He had suspected that Jamil had unique magic and was hiding it, but that didn’t mean he knew what it was.

“So it has nothing to do with us dating now,” Jamil pokes.

“We weren’t dating back then,” Leona smirks in a teasing way.

“True,” Jamil muses, leaning over to kiss him.

Chapter Text

Seasons were different in the Sunset Savanna and Scalding Sands. Where the Shaftlands and Briar Valley had Summer, Winter, Spring, and Fall, the Desert and Savanna mainly had rainy and dry seasons.

“I think I’d like to see what things are like in the fall,” Jamil muses, sitting on the bench next to his boyfriend.

“Why fall?” Most would expect any other season, the flowers of spring, the activities in summer, even the snow in winter.

“I got to see heavy snow in Harveston, and we’ve both seen plenty of greenhouses and hot weather. But fall is very short here, and the leaves get swept up right away,” Jamil explains, thinking back to the few trips he had gotten to go on while attending Night Raven. It made him want to see so much more.

“The prefect mentioned that where they grew up, nearly all the leaves turned a bright yellow colour, that their elementary school would end up completely covered by them,”

“Sounds a bit boring, but I’ve heard of so many places where the leaves fall in all sorts of shades, bright reds and oranges,” Jamil muses. “They also mentioned that their country’s flag features a bright red leaf.”

“Apparently, it’s a big country. What would you want to do?” Leona asks, stretching and wrapping an arm around him.

“I guess I’d want to take my time exploring the different parts, take my time,”

“Sounds like it would be a lot,” Leona comments light-heartedly.

“Well, the kids would be back in school, so we wouldn’t have to worry about places being overcrowded with them and their parents,” Jamil points out.

“It would be nice not to have to worry about those getting underfoot,” Leona agrees, cluing in that Jamil wants to do this with him.

“Where would you want to go first, if we did do this?” Jamil asks, leaning into his touch.

“In all honesty, I’d want to see more of my country, even with me socializing with a lot more of the people than my brother, but I’ve rarely ever gotten to see it outside of Sunrise City,”

That was something Jamil had grown to love about Leona: he wanted to know his people and make their lives better.

“It would be nice to see just how many different cultures the Savanna has. I just hope there wouldn’t be too many bugs,” Jamil shivers at the thought, hating the things. He still wasn't over what had happened with the dates.

“Don’t worry, I’d be right there to protect you and pay for bug spray,” Leona promises, kissing the top of his head.

“My hero,” Jamil laughs, enjoying the light teasing. Leona didn’t get his hatred of bugs, but he always respected it. 

“We will want to look into when bugs are less common, some of our bugs get huge,” Leona points out, and he wasn’t lying, especially as his nephew Cheka had gotten really into bugs and was, of course, sending pictures and facts of them in his letters.

“Never mind, anyway, I could convince you to just skip those areas,” Jamil was half terrified and half joking. He knew he couldn’t convince Leona to just skip over his own country.

“Not on your life Little Snake,” Leona pulled him into his lap.

Chapter Text

Everyone had been surprised when both Jamil and Leona signed up for an off-campus work project. Jamil, the retainer who was constantly watching Kalim, and had made a whole guide of how to cook the most basic recipes, find stuff, and simple cleaning when he went to Fleur City. Along with Leona, who slept through half his classes and openly admitted he would rather just sleep than travel. Both of them signed up for a trip to an ancient magic site that had just been uncovered.

Even more surprising was the fact that out of the limited slots available to NRC, both of them had been accepted to go for the long weekend trip.

Currently, the two of them were in the buried parts of the temple away from the rest of the team. It was dark, and in order to avoid disturbing the findings, not to mention the various creatures that made themselves at home in there, they only had a small amount of light from the lanturn with them, relying mostly on Leona’s eyes, with Jamil writing down his observations.

“Most of these are flora spells; it seems whoever came up with these had a real passion for gardening,” Leona comments in between reading them out to Jamil.

“Either that or it’s an organizational choice and we’re just in the flora section,” Jamil counters, checking his writing with the lanturn.

“Possibly, but this area also has legends about a ‘Garden Witch’, so there’s a good chance this might be connected,” Leona explains, checking his own notes on the subject.

“You actually did research on this area, on your own?” Jamil teases, pleasantly surprised by the knowledge.

“Yeah, according to legend, she kidnapped a girl out of jealousy of the girl’s beauty and kind heart. To keep the girl from escaping or being rescued, she grew a forest to keep them away. The girl's lover ended up lost in those woods, never to return.” Leona goes into it, and it sounded pretty dramatized when he read it, so he suspected that over the years, whatever happened had been turned more into a fictional tale than anything historical or factual.

“Think we should make a note of the possible connection between them, then?” Jamil asks, turning the page of his notes.

“We probably shouldn’t, the connection is pretty weak right now, and we shouldn’t be risking confirmation bias like that,” Leona sighs. He might ask the guy in charge about the legend later, but first, they had to get through this area.

“Hey, it looks like there’s some light up ahead. Can you get a better look over there?” Jamil notices a couple strings of light entering the hallway they were in.

Leona looked up to where Jamil had gestured and saw the light he was talking about.

“It looks like more roots, but it’s strange how dense it is there,” Leona comments, making out the frame of an entrance to another room.

“Is there a way we can get through them without damaging the structure?” Jamil asks, trying to get a better look through the roots. “I can see something in there,”

“Move away from the door. I should be able to move enough of the roots to get through.” Just getting rid of the roots risked the structure losing the integrity they did have, and it was possible that it was a purposeful part of the temple.

“Wait, let me take a photo and document this first,” Jamil quickly remembered before Leona could change it.

“There’s a spell on the wall next to it,” Leona notices as he takes a step back with Jamil. It was simple, but it confirmed his thoughts on the roots being purposeful; it was a spell to move the roots. Activating the spell, the roots moved to the sides of the frame, making a clear opening.

Carefully, the two entered, finding a hidden room with walls of roots and moss allowing light to come in while disguising it from the outside. There was a wardrobe with a dirty, foggy mirror, and a small stream of water acting as a sink. In the center of the room lay a bed, two skeletons lying there in embrace, and an inscription on the headboard above them.

Jamil switched out the lens to better fit the lighting, photographing everything they saw in there.

“Can you make out the inscription?” Jamil asks, amazed by the room.

“Enough to figure out the rest of it,” Leona reads through it a couple of times before he voices any of it.

“To my love of so many years, though yesterday [that part is a bit damaged] may have been the last time we awoke together. I will always be here with [I’m assuming this means:] you. Though even your own family never understood our love, I have never regretted running away with you. Let them call me a jealous witch, for our love numbs my ears to their accusations. Here we shall lie, together forever…”

It was a love note written to a deceased lover, who from the sounds of things died in their sleep. With the witch choosing to die holding them, than go on living without them.

Chapter Text

Jamil wasn’t sure how this had happened, how he had ended up in another world, but one thing was for sure: he hated it. From what he could tell, he was in a book or some other sort of story, and needed to get through whatever story it was, to get out, but he didn’t know what story this was. He had been trying to figure out what he needed to do to fulfill the story so he could get back to his actual school.

Even Crowley was better than Headmaster Grimm Milton, where Crowley was lazy and money hungry, Grimm was invasive and controlling. Grimm Milton chose who would succeed, all by family line, which allowed him a disturbing amount of power even outside the school itself. Royals who could do no wrong as they went along with this storybook nonsense, and the rebels and villains who either didn’t conform or would be punished anyway.

The two of them were made to hate each other. Jamil had no intention of remaining a servant, and he certainly wasn’t going to sign some book cursing him to remain one. He wasn’t the main one getting the pompous airbag’s irk, and he was grateful for that at least, but that didn’t help him right now. There was a dance going on, and given all the fairytale and high school crap going on, Jamil could only figure that that was part of whatever story was going on. And because Milton was on another power trip, he was finding any minuscule reason to keep the students he didn’t like from going.

So Jamil was stuck with a bunch of other students cleaning the whole school, which was a requirement to being released. The bad news was that the headmaster had also ‘accidentally’ allowed a flock of wild animals into the school before the end of the day. The good news was Jamil knew how to handle all of this mess, and while his fellow ‘troublemakers’ weren’t anywhere near as experienced, they were willing and could listen.

It was late, but they did manage to get it done just one hour before the party was due to start. Unfortunately, that affected Jamil a lot more than it did the other rebels. He didn’t have a ton of clothes with him, and he didn’t have any funds to buy an outfit either. He had been planning on fixing up what he had a bit to go, but now he no longer had time. So he wasn’t sure what he was going to do; he doubted he could get away story-wise just going in his everyday clothes.

“Hey, Jamil,” it was Raven. He saw the so-called ‘evil’ Queen approach him. She had been the first the headmaster had targeted in keeping her from the dance. She was dressed up in a ball gown and had a black bird-like mask, part of which reminded him of Crowley, but it was softer and covered more of her cheeks.

“Hey, Raven,” he really didn’t have time to talk.

“You really helped us get this all done in time, thank you.”

“You're welcome. It’s disgusting what Milton is doing,” Jamil comments as they walk.

“I know you were planning on fixing something up after class, and you didn’t get to do that, so the others and I came together to make something,” that got his attention, causing him to stop.

The outfit was something, it was nice but very distinct, over the loose pants he had to tighten the cuffs of, there was a bit of a skirt, he suspected to be donated by the Cerise. The top was cropped, and he could tell that some of the girls had lent the outfit their jewellery to complete the look.

“I made the mask myself,” Raven tells him, giving him a mask of dark red scales.

“Hold on, I just managed to find these in time,” Ashlynn comes running in, holding a pair of shoes. They were a simple red and black, but paired nicely with the rest of the outfit.

“Thank you,”

Jamil was enjoying the party; it was nice knowing he didn’t have to clean up after it or cook all the food for it. He didn’t care much for the type of dancing, finding that it was either clumsy or boring, but his friends, by all means, were having fun.

“Care for a dance, Little Snake?” he hears someone ask from behind him as he goes to get another cup of punch.

Turning around, he was surprised to see a familiar pair of green eyes and lion ears.

“Leona…?” he thought that he was the only one trapped here.

“I ended up at some far-off community. I saw you on that Blondie’s web channel and came here,” Leona tells him, wrapping his arms around him in a hug.

Jamil hugged back, relieved that he wasn’t alone in this experience. 

“So can I get that dance?” Leona asks again with a slight smile.

Jamil nods, letting himself be pulled onto the dance floor. It was one of those boring ballroom dances, but he was tired anyway and wanted to be close to his boyfriend.

After dancing for a while, he went to sit down to catch his breath as Leona offered to get them drinks.

Raven ran up to him, “We have to go, Grimm found out we’re here and he is not happy!” She grabbed his hand, pulling him along.

He didn’t fight it for two reasons: one, he didn’t really have time to question it; two, Milton didn’t care about reality, only his vision. He’d have to find Leona later…

Getting to the car they came in, Jamil realized he was missing one of his shoes.

It was during lunch that he was finally able to find Leona, or more accurately, for Leona to find him, along with the shoe he had lost at the party.

“I’ve been looking for you all weekend, you know,” Leona teases him, handing him the shoe.

And then they ended up back in the library at Night Raven College, they didn’t know how that fulfilled the story, but they were back, and that’s what mattered.

Chapter Text

They both knew they would be dragged into a bigger ceremony later when people found out. But that didn't matter right now; this was just for them. The two of them were marrying each other. It wasn't a light decision they made, but it was a private one, so that they were free to have the wedding they wanted.

Had they informed anyone about this, it would have quickly been turned into a public spectacle with them having no say on what actually happened. Not to mention the split between those who would want it to be the biggest event of the year, or would despise the very idea of their union. Due to the second category, they were planning on announcing their relationship at a key point, when the elderly ambassador for the Scalding Sands in the Sunset Savanna would have either a health scare or a decline in work. Something to frame Jamil as the man’s natural replacement, to the benefit of the Asims, who had the most power to interfere. But that would be a while still.

They decided to do it in the Shaftlands, neutral ground, in one of the abandoned castles left in the woods. The full moon was out as they entered the overgrown courtyard, the fountain in the middle, covered in moss, vines and small flowers. There was a beauty in the reclaimed wildness of it, the freedom of the chaos that neither had grown up with.

Their outfits were simple, chosen more for the trek there than any form of ceremony and ritual. The plan was to spend the night here, even after exchanging their vows and file the paperwork in Harveston in the morning. While the town was doing much better than when they had been in school, it was still a small, quiet town where hardly anyone would know who Leona was. More of them knew who Jamil was due to him visiting the town with Epel years ago.

The two of them sat on the edge of the fountain, taking in the sight of the stars above them.

“The marriages of our kings traditionally happen under starlight, I’ve even heard of a few postponing their weddings because it got too cloudy on the scheduled night,” Leona tells Jamil with a sigh, leaning against the structure.

“Why is that?” Jamil asks, lying down in Leona’s lap. Leona loosely wrapped his arms around him as they watched the stars.

“It was said that the king who brought prosperity back to the land wed his beloved childhood friend in the night. His father appeared in the stars to remind him of his duty to the land that same night. It became an extension of our belief that the kings of the past rest in the stars that watch over us, that wedding under the stars would allow them to bless the union and better give the king or crown prince guidance,” Leona explained, it also meant that as the second prince they would never be allowed to do this in a recognized union, at least by his father and this court.

“So even in the grave your ancestors look out for you, that’s rather sweet of them,” Jamil hums. “It was one of the earliest forms of magic due to the efforts and intelligence of the Sorcerer of the Sands; maybe that magic came at least partly from those kings.”

“Maybe, maybe the King of Beasts even helped him, himself,” Leona joined the ponder. He wasn’t sure how the magic part of stars interacted exactly with the scientific aspects of them, but there was undoubtedly magic in them.

“Do you think they would approve of our union, a prince marrying a servant?” While he had long accepted that there would always be people opposed to their relationship, including his parents, he couldn’t help but wonder.

“They’d be crazy not to, the King of Beasts didn’t gain his crown through birth order, but cunning, and the Sorcerer of the Sands had even less of a claim. Jamil, you are so capable, so smart and talented, they’d be amazed I managed to get you at all,” Leona tells him, looking down at his partner, slipping the ring he had picked for Jamil onto his finger.

“I’m managing to marry into royalty with someone who actually respects me and doesn’t just see me as a decoration, and isn’t three times my age. I don’t have much to complain about,” Jamil counters. He knew he was beautiful; the amount of men at the Asim’s many parties gave him plenty of unwanted attention. He knew that if he really wanted to, he could have used them to escape his position. Jamil’s disgust of them had outweighed any prospects they came with. That wasn’t the case with Leona, as much as they could and would grate on each other, but they also understood each other and got each other so deeply.

They genuinely loved each other; they were the choices they were never free to make, but did anyways.

“I love you…”

“I love you, too,”