(jaylor au) clandestine meetings in beautiful rooms

The Worst Of Crimes

"You must want something." Taylor's eyes narrow. "There's more to it than you having a merry little change of heart, isn't there?"
Alexander sits down on the bed opposite Austin's, and sighs. He runs a hand through his
hair and I begin to wonder if Taylor might be right.
"No, Taylor."
"Then why are you suddenly not being an asshole anymore?" Taylor hisses. "You tell me about what happened with your mother and then you just... change over night?"
Alexander looks from Taylor, to me, and back to Austin.
"I know it's hard to believe," he murmurs. "But this isn't how I wanted things to be either."
Taylor glances over at me, confused.
"In what way?" I ask him.
"I never wanted to come here and marry you." He glances over at Taylor, then back to the floor. "I don't love you. I didn't know you. Fuck, I didn't even know that this is where my father was taking me until the car turned into the palace. He told me we were going to an art exhibit in New York. Believe me when I tell you that I was just as surprised as you were." Taylor doesn't know whether to believe him, it's written all over her face.
"Why are you telling us this?" She pauses. "Why now?"
"Because you think that I'm the one you need to be fighting against, Taylor. You always have, since the moment you walked through the door and saw me standing there. I don't know whether you think it's because somehow, I was responsible for it... I don't know whether that's what you were told, or what... but you have always seen me as the villain. I don't know what else I need to do to show you that I'm not the one we have to fight!" The words in his last sentence surprise me. His choice of we perhaps leads to the idea that he's... not the good prince that Taylor's parents know and love.
"Why are you telling me this now, though?" Taylor questions.
"Because the two of you haven't realised that I'm not the enemy. I'm not the one you should be fighting. Don't you see, Taylor? Austin was trying to take down your parents. Why are there always so many guards everywhere? Why do you think you're shut inside these walls? Why do you think that every kingdom in America is trying to take over New York? Why do you think the village is moments away from fighting back? It's not me, Taylor. If I truly was the villain, do you think I would have helped Joe find you? Because why not leave you with your abductor and find myself a less... argumentative wife? Why not just let him take you and keep you?" I think I realise what he's saying before Taylor does.

Taylor

"Why not just let him take you and keep you? I'm sure that Joe will argue for me when I say that it was the two of us leading the search for you." I glance at Joe, who nods. "If I'm the bad guy, why is everyone in the country hoping to destroy your parents?"
I let the words hang in the air as I sit down.
"I know that you didn't want to marry me, and I didn't want to marry you either. I was happy with Beatrice. I loved her and I will not love another woman in that way ever again. I didn't want this life."
"So what are you saying?" I run my fingers through my hair before tying it out of my face.
"I'm saying that the ones you need to be fighting are the ones that are sparking all of the rebellions."
"My parents." I mutter coldly. There's a period of silence, before Alexander glances around the room, checking that we are alone.
"Look. I know what you're planning on doing and I want to come too."
My face contorts with the shock of what he's saying.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I deflect easily.
"Yes, you do. I'm not blind. I know what you're planning on doing and I want to come. I want to get out of this fucking palace just as much as you." He pauses. "If you're planning on heading to Washington DC, then I'm a valuable asset to have. I'm coming with you."
"How do you know what we're doing?" Joe asks.
"Because I've been watching. Listening. You're taking him with you, and if he's going, I'm coming too." Alexander motions to Austin. "If you want to make it out of the kingdom without all of the palace guards looking for you, then trust me. You need me."
I take a deep breath. "Why have you waited this long to tell us that you know?" I just don't get it. I don't get his sudden change of heart, why he's trying to get on our side.
"Well, I debated catching you on your way out, and forcing you to take me with you right in that moment... but with everything that has happened over the last couple of days, I decided that it was better to work together. Believe me, Taylor. You need me. I know Washington DC like the back of my hand. I know where the guards are stationed. Do you not think that I would be of use? I could call all guards to the palace, pulling them from the streets. I'm the heir to the throne. You are my wife. My father won't be there. If we're there, we make the rules. We can bribe the guards into silence." Alexander sounds so confident. So much so that he must have been planning this for a while.
"Then between the four of us, depending on the state of Austin when we leave, we'll make it."
"How do we know that you're not going to abandon us at the last minute and go running to Taylor's parents to save yourself?" Joe questions.
"Because I don't want to be here. Because quite frankly, I'd rather die than be confined to the walls of a palace, with you." Alexander glances over at me. "No offence."
"None taken," I answer. "I'd rather take my chances with a bunch of angry peasants." Alexander chuckles.
We stop talking as a nurse comes in to change Austin's bandages, and Alexander starts talking about how beautiful the palace gardens are looking.
Joe talks with him, and I try to, but I'm speechless from everything that Alexander has just told us.