The Royal Series 0 - A Royal Archive

Too Young to Die: Prologue

August 3rd, 2110: 14 Years Old

† Harrington †

"Father!" Jaycob huffed and swatted at his father's hand as Spencer tried to fix his shirt collar for the third time.

Harrington hid a smile behind his hand, as he pretended to cough. He truly loved Spencer, who was a far better father than his own absent parent, but he did have to agree with Jaycob that he sometimes worried too much. One day, he would remind Jaycob that it was better to have a parent who was too attentive than one who did not care at all.

"I still cannot adjust to you calling me that. Am I not your 'daddy' anymore?" he asked, pouting just enough to let them know he was teasing.

Jaycob rolled his eyes, but a smile played on the edge of his lips. "I'm a big boy now, father. I cannot be seen calling you 'daddy'," he objected, a hint of pleading in his tone that Harrington understood all too well.

At fourteen, they were considered almost adults by the other children and the teachers at their school. It had come to the point where Jaycob had spent weeks pleading with his parents to let them walk to school alone. It would cause whispers and give the mean children too much to talk about if they continued to have a chaperone, usually either Spencer himself if he could, or the guard Camryn. Sometimes Jaycob's uncles would take turns, if they had the time away from work.

It was beginning to get embarrassing, but in a way that Harrington secretly liked. He could not help but look around the empty street outside Jaycob's home and smile. It was peaceful here, more so than his own home in the centre of Ruiseart. He so enjoyed the few minutes he got to spend here in the quiet of the world, before returning to the chaos of the town to venture to school.

His own home was nothing like the house his best friend lived in, but it was hardly a hovel. A simple house, in a cramped area of town, Harrington had spent his entire life feeling as though there were people all around him at every moment of his life. He craved peace and quiet, plenty of space, and lots of silence, perhaps more than his friend wanted freedom from the obligations of being a Prince.

Still, when Jaycob finally kissed his father's cheek and said goodbye for their first venture to school alone, he could only be glad for their friendship. Meeting in the streets by a fluke, because they had both followed a travelling game of football through the alleyways of Ruiseart, they had become friends instantly. Mostly because Jaycob had stopped Harrington from falling over his big feet and then proceeded to slip on a wet leaf over the cobbles and knock a tooth out. They had barely been three or four years old, but they had laughed so hard there had been tears.

That was the first time Jaycob brought him to his house, for snacks and to meet his parents, and Harrington found out he was a Prince.

They had been inseparable ever since.

"Lost to thoughts?" Jaycob enquired, snapping Harrington from his memories.

He smiled at his friend and nodded, as they finally walked to school together. "I was remembering the day I first met your father. He scared me so much, he was so quiet when he entered the room," he admitted with a chuckle. It was something Spencer had become an expert at; entering a room almost silently had become somewhat of a magic power, though Harrington would never forget what he had said, when he asked about it.

"Well, little one, as a deaf child, I had a terrible habit of being too loud in everything I did. I had no ability to hear how loudly I spoke or walked," Spencer had told him, with a faint smile and patience that his own father had never displayed when teaching him something. "After being shouted at by teachers or my parents one too many times, I learned to be quiet. I had friends who helped me, telling me if I was still too loud or if I was making progress. It is a habit I have never been able to break, and it bears me in good stead when walking through a silent hospital ward in the dead of day."