The dreams were always worse when it rained. They came more frequently and with far more force than any other time. It had rained that day. It had rained blood...
As they would only be gone for two days, maybe three, the king and queen thought it would be safe enough to leave the twins alone with their advisors. What a mistake that proved to be... The reports of increased Warlord activity in the area had come too late to do any good. They had been caught entirely unprepared... and they had paid a hefty price for their arrogance.
He had escaped his captors several hours after they had overrun the castle... but not soon enough to prevent...
In his sleep, the tears began to run silently down his cheeks.
The man attacking her had turned to face him... and that had been the beginning of the end. For even greater than the Warlord's weakness for beautiful young girls had been his weakness for beautiful young men. Utterly taken with the young prince, the Warlord had offered him a choice. His sister or himself. As far as he'd been concerned, that hadn't been a choice at all.
As his sister had started screaming again, this time for a far different reason, the tears of shame began to run down his cheeks... and nothing had ever been able to wash the dirt away since.
Alex awoke with a start, his heartbeat roaring in his ears as another crash of thunder struck overhead. It took him a moment to realize why he was having such trouble catching his breath. Darrvyn had shifted in his sleep and now had an arm wrapped so securely around his chest that it was starting to restrict his breathing. Alex squirmed around so that he was facing his lover and tucked himself up against his chest. There... that was better. At least now he could breathe.
Once he'd calmed himself down, Alex spent a few moments listening to the pattering of rain against the tent walls. Normally it was a soothing noise... but not tonight. Not right on the heels of that dream. It wasn't often that he had that dream, but whenever he did it unsettled him. It reminded him of things that he had no desire to remember. Not that he ever truly got a chance to forget...
It had been nearly six years since that incident. Six long years that had gone a good way towards changing him into a completely different person than he had been. Though that was only to be expected. After all... he'd lost his innocence that day. More than that... he'd lost his faith in his fellow man - and worse, his faith in his family. He'd learned the hard way that the only person he could depend on was himself... it had been a hard lesson to learn, but he'd learned it well.
His lover's restless movements made Alex freeze for a moment. He had no desire to deal with Darrvyn at the moment. His thoughts were confused enough already. Luck wasn't quite with him. Darrvyn stirred again, pulled him in closer, then sleepily opened his dark eyes. He frowned slightly, "Mmm... Why're you 'wake?"
Alex smiled at him and shrugged, "Thunder woke me. Don't worry about it. Just go back to sleep."
Darrvyn frowned again, then sighed. His next sentences were entirely cleared of sleep haze, "You should sleep yourself, Alex. Tomorrow's a big day. You'll need to be ready for anything."
He nodded, "I know... I know. We've been planning this raid for two months. I know how important it is that we take this target. We've done nothing but prepare since we selected it. We'll be ready. The men won't let you down. You'll see."
Darrvyn leaned forward and planted a light kiss on his lips, "You train them well. I trust you... I just worry about you." After a brief moment of silence, as his lover looked for a more neutral topic, Darrvyn spoke again, "How's that new girl working out? I have to admit that she gave me pause. I don't normally like to take them on as young as she is."
"She's fifteen - that isn't all ~that~ young. And she's a fully-trained ninja, besides. She'll be fine. They all will. And tomorrow will work out - it always does. Now, you said it yourself, we both need sleep. Good night, Darr." With that last comment, Alex resolutely closed his eyes and sought out sleep - and this time he was fortunate enough not to be bothered by any dreams.
Darrvyn lay awake for quite some time after his lover fell asleep. He pillowed his head against Alex's chest, quietly listened to his heartbeat. It was getting harder and harder to remember what his life had been like before Alex came into it. He was growing dependent upon the younger man for far too many things, and that wasn't good. He depended on him emotionally, tactically, and professionally. He depended on him in nearly every way that it was possible for him to depend on another. In truth, what frightened him more was that he didn't truly care. He knew that Alex was worthy of the trust he placed in him, and would never intentionally let him down... but there was still that niggling voice in the back of his mind that insisted that this was wrong.
He sighed heavily as he saw the first hint of false dawn creeping up from outside the window. Time for him to be up and about. He laid a gentle kiss upon his lover's brow and gently disentangled himself from the curl of limbs and blankets that they jumbled into that night. Alex always slept restlessly when it rained... and it always made it difficult to get up in the morning.
But Alex's difficult sleep of the night before had left him too exhausted to protest as his lover's warmth was removed. He merely curled further into the blankets and settled back into slumber. Darrvyn smiled down at him and brushed an errant lock of hair back from his brow before turning to his trunk and beginning to dress, first the undergarments, pants, and shirt, then the armor. He hardly ever went anywhere without it. In fact, the only times he really remember being without his armor, barring sleep, were times when he was alone with Alex. Because he trusted Alex completely. Why did it sound so much like he was trying to convince himself of that fact...?
He shrugged off the uncomfortable thought as he fastened his cloak. He didn't have the time to think about things like that. Nor did he have the desire to think about them. He pushed open the tent flap and strode out into the dim dawn light. He walked briskly over to the lookout post. The guard on duty snapped him a salute which he returned. His eyebrow rose as he recognized the face of one of his squadron commanders, "Ferril? What are you doing on lookout duty?"
Ferril swung down from his post and ordered one of the younger soldiers to take over for him. He leaned back against one of the railings, a worried frown on his face, "Dunno, Cap'n. Something just don't seem right around here... I got this funny feeling like somethin' bad's gonna happen. Didn't trust it. Thought I'd feel better if I took my own turn at watch."
Never one to disregard his officers' "feelings", Darrvyn crossed his arms over his chest and gave Ferril his full attention, "And?"
The older man shrugged, "And nothin'. Ain't been so much as a peep out 'o' that castle all night. But I still don' like it, Cap'n."
Darrvyn clapped a hand on the commander's shoulder, "Observation duly noted. I'll be certain to keep an ear out for anything unusual. With all luck this operation will go smoothly. Alex spent weeks playing out every possible strategy until he found one he felt confident in. I'm sure he's taken everything into consideration."
Ferril frowned at him, "Not everything, Cap'n. No disrespect meant, of course."
Darrvyn paused in the act of turning, his voice cold, "What are you implying, Commander?"
Ferril stepped up next to him, "He doesn't know who's kingdom this is, does he? Don' try to tell me he does, neither, Cap'n. You and me both know that if he had any inkling that he was about to go up against King Richard and Queen Adrianna... I think he'd've felt a bit different 'bout helping you plan this attack."
Darrvyn's face pulled back into a scowl and Ferril wisely backed down, "But what do I know, right? I'm just a soldier... Right Cap'n?" He took himself off to prep his troops for the long day ahead, leaving a confused and unhappy Captain behind. Darrvyn took a deep breath... and slammed his fist into the wall of the watchtower. Ferril couldn't be right. He'd held Alex's complete loyalty... and love... for years, now. Hadn't he?