Chapter 18

Emil didn’t want to stop kissing Beowulf, but a bundle of nerves had started to form in his guts, so he eventually did pull away. “What about Thedrick?” he blurted out breathlessly, looking up at the big stupid oaf that had stolen his heart.

“What about Thedrick?” Beowulf repeated back to him, looking down at him quizzically.

“I… I thought you were in love with him,” Emil pointed out, confusion creeping into his own voice now.

“Oh, of course I am,” Beowulf said with a cheerful smile.

“B-But!” Emil exclaimed, stumbling over his words. “Then why did you k-kiss me?”

Beowulf tilted his head slightly in puzzlement. “Because I love you too,” he offered plainly, though his smile had disappeared.

“You! You can’t love two people at once!” Emil said insistently, trying to pull away from the big guy now.

“Why not?” Beowulf asked in return, his lips pulled into a small unsure frown now, and if he was really struggling to understand Emil’s point. He had not let go of the noble, continuing to hold him in place close to him with his strong hands.

“B-Because!” Emil stuttered out, grasping for the reason. “Love is supposed to be between a man and a woman…”

“Says who?” Beowulf pressed, looking a little upset now.

“My… my parents…” Emil muttered, glancing down towards the ground.

“But you don’t like your parents, so why would you listen to what they say?” Beowulf pointed out.

“Look you… you can’t be in love with both of us… it just doesn’t work that way. It’s not… allowed…” Emil mumbled, avoiding looking up at the knight.

“But you love both Thedrick and I, right?” Beowulf stated as more of a fact than a question.

This took Emil off guard, and he glanced up at the large man nervously. “I… no… that’s not…” He wanted to say it wasn’t true, but the lie died in his throat. He gave the big guy a beseeching look, swallowing hard.

“And Thedrick loves both of us too. So, if we all love each other, then there is no problem, right?” Beowulf asked earnestly.

Emil sniffed back the tears that he felt building up again. Then he finally nodded, and leaned forwards, resting his head against Beowulf’s broad chest. Maybe it was better to think about things like a simple big oaf. He felt Beowulf bow his head down and plant a gentle kiss on top of Emil’s curls.

“Emil!” a voice loudly rang out across the courtyard, and instantly caused Emil’s whole body to tense up. He quickly pulled away from Beowulf’s body as much as he could and looked around toward the source of the voice, only for his eyes to go wide when he saw his father, Elric Rosenthorne, striding towards them.

Emil’s heart plunged into his stomach as he quickly yanked himself out of Beowulf arms. “Emil! What in the names of the gods is the meaning of this?” Elric demanded loudly, gesturing towards his son and the knight.

“I-I… father I’m… I’m sorr-”

“That’s it, Emil! You have brought shame upon our family for the last time!” Elric growled, closing the distance between him and his son. Emil cowered slightly, thinking he was about to be hit again. Instead, his father grabbed him by the collar, and started pulling, dragging him stumbling across the courtyard. “We are taking you home!”

“Wait, Mr Rosenthorne!” Emil heard Beowulf cry out while Emil was struggling in his father’s grasp.

“You better stay out of this sir knight. We have the power to get the regent to strip you of your title and throw you out of the castle if you try to interfere,” Elric snapped at Beowulf as he pulled his son back into the hall. Emil made small choking sounds as his father’s tugging on his collar pressed it tight against his throat.

Elric marched his son through the crowd, causing many nobles in the room to look their way and fall silent, watching the spectacle unfold. He dragged Emil up to Tybalt, pushing his son to the ground in front of the regent, who looked at the pair of them with confusion. Emil glanced around, and saw his mother, Camilla, and Beowulf trailing behind in his father’s path of fury.

“Your grace, I humbly request that my son, Emil Rosenthorne, be discharged from the service of castle guard and sent home to our estate,” Elric requested with a small bow; polite but slightly out of breath and anger still raging across his features.

“Was it not you who requested he be enlisted?” Tybalt asked in a very nonchalant manner, seemingly unperturbed by the events. Emil stayed seated on the floor, not daring to try and get to his feet, looking back and forth between the two powerful men.

“Yes, but six years of service in the guard seems to have done nothing towards fixing his attitude. We will find some other way to deal with him,” Elric grated out, giving Emil a momentary glare which he cowered under.

Tybalt sighed deeply. “Elric, I really wish you could have asked for this at a time that wasn’t going to make a spectacle at my niece’s birthday celebration,” he pointed out tiredly. “But he is your son, so do with him as you please. He is officially released from duty.” The regent gestured with his hand for emphasis.

“Thank you, your grace,” Elric said with a bow, before reaching down and grabbing Emil by the arm, hauling him to his feet. “Now go to your room and collect your things Emil, you are riding home with your mother and I tonight.” His father shoved him roughly out of the way of the regent. Emil stumbled a bit before catching his balance, and then hunched his shoulders and hung his head as he headed towards the nearest door. He was doing his best to try and hold back the tears again.

Once he pushed his way through the crowd and out into the hallway, he heard heavy steps behind him, though he didn’t turn around. He did, however, stop when he felt a heavy hand come to rest on his shoulders.

“Don’t Beowulf,” Emil said, shrugging his hand off while not even looking up at the big guy. “You’ll just get in trouble, like my father said.”

“But Emil-”

“Don’t. Just… don’t…” Emil said, unable to find his words, and then quickly hurried away from the knight. He didn’t want a tear-filled goodbye or anything like that, this was hard enough already for him.

Emil got back to his room and pulled out a travel trunk, and he started to hastily pack up his most important personal items along with a few changes of casual clothing. He knew his parents would send servants at some point to come back and get the rest of it for him. In the middle of closing up the filled trunk, there was a knock on his door, which he had left cracked open.

“Go away Beowulf,” Emil called out, not even looking up to see who it was, especially because he really didn’t want to see the knight right now.

“Master Emil sir?” a familiar voice responded, and Emil glanced up, instantly recognising the face of his parents’ head servant poking his head through the door.

“Oh… Barkley… sorry, come in…” Emil sniffled, realising the servant must be there to help carry his luggage to his parents’ carriage.

“Rough night sire?” the unassuming middle-aged man dressed in black enquired.

“Hah… you could say that,” Emil replied, wiping his teary eyes with the back of his hand.

Emil saw Barkley reaching out towards him, and the noble looked up properly to see the servant was offering him his handkerchief. Emil silently took the offered item, nodded in thanks, and then used the small square of cloth to dab his eyes dry.

“All packed up sire?” Barkley asked, looking at the trunk sitting on the floor.

“As much as I can, since I only own a single trunk. I’m sure you can organise for the rest to be collected later?” Emil asked solemnly.

“Right you are sire,” the servant agreed, and bent to pick up the trunk. “Let’s not keep your parents waiting long, yes? Your father seems to be in a right mood.”

Emil rolled his eyes and nodded, before following the servant out of his room, glancing back at it sadly one last time before shutting the door behind him.

He dragged his feet, following Barkley out of the castle to the front gate where he knew his parents' carriage would be waiting for them. He suddenly wondered if maybe he should have taken the opportunity to say goodbye to Beowulf after all, and his heart started aching thinking about the knight. He tried to push those feelings down as he climbed into the carriage, taking a seat next to his mother across from his father, who scowled at him intensely. 

They sat in silence for a while as the carriage pulled away from the castle, travelling through the town and then out into the countryside, heading towards the Rosenthorne estate. After all the fuss Emil had made six years ago, begging his parents not to enlist him in the army, he now funnily enough wanted nothing more than to stay, the homesickness having worn off a long time ago once he had realised that this ‘punishment’ had actually been a boon in disguise: freedom from his parents. But now he was being dragged back into their clutches against his own will, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“You’ll marry the Ashdown’s girl, and that will be the end of it,” his father finally stated, giving his son a firm look. “You should be grateful to have such a smart match.”

“A smart match indeed, she is awfully pretty!” his mother chimed in cheerily, somehow all smiles despite the circumstances. “The pair of you will have such handsome children!”

“You… you’ve already organised this?” Emil asked quietly, feeling his stomach sinking.

Elric gave a sharp nod. “We planned to tell you the news tonight, at the ball. We would have had you discharged shortly after, in preparation for the wedding. But you just had to turn it into a spectacle as usual, didn’t you, you ungrateful brat?”

It took all of Emil’s strength not to roll his eyes at his father’s comment. Elric was the one who had made a spectacle of it all, and was just pushing the blame onto his son, as he did with many things. He knew that his parents didn’t care at all about what he wanted, and getting heirs to their house out of him was the only thing he was good for, as his mother was not able to bear any more children.

“She’s very nice Emil, I think you’ll like her! And did I mention she’s pretty?” his mother pressed eagerly.

“Yes mother, you did,” Emil said with a small sigh. How nice or pretty this girl was wasn’t going to make any difference to him. He simply felt no attraction towards women at all. He had tried to force himself before, but to no avail. He was going to be stuck in an unhappy marriage for the rest of his miserable life.

****

Emil’s parents rushed to organise the wedding, lest their unruly son find some way to wriggle out of it. They kept him confined to his room the entire time, not even letting him meet his bride before the big day. Perhaps they thought he might try to run, but the reality was Emil had given up. He lay on his bed, completely defeated, missing Beowulf and Thedrick fiercely despite his efforts to try not to think about them anymore.

It was the night before the wedding, and Emil was dreading what would happen on the morrow. Not the ceremony itself, not the vows or even the kiss to seal the bond. He could kiss a girl, that was fine. No, what he dreaded was what would be expected of him that night, what he would have to do with said girl on the very bed he now lay on. The thought disgusted him, and he didn’t know how he would be able to go through with it.

Though at this point, the noble was all out of tears to cry, having spent them all already. So, he just lay there, staring up at the ceiling despondent, unable to sleep. That was, until he heard a tapping sound coming from the large window door that led out to his balcony. Emil furrowed his brow in confusion, and sat up on the bed, glancing over at the window. He was not expecting the pale face behind the glass which was smiling and waving at him.

Emil quickly jumped out of bed and hurried over to the window, eyes fixated on the jester, who continued to smile at him as he approached. Emil hesitated for a moment, before unlatching the window and pushing it outwards, allowing a cool breeze to rush in and hit him in the face. Thedrick grinned up at him from where he stood on the balcony. His pale face was sporting a few purple bruises, injuries that used to have been common on the vampire, but Emil hadn’t seen much of in the years since Beowulf started protecting him.

“Thedrick? What are you doing here?” Emil hissed with alarm, looking around the otherwise empty balcony.

“We missed you!” Thedrick said, blinking up at Emil with his big red eyes.

“We? What do you mean we?” Emil whispered urgently.

Thedrick grabbed Emil by the hand and led him over to the edge of the balcony, before pointing down. Emil looked down into the garden of his family’s estate and saw armour clad Beowulf waving up at him.

“H… How did you even get up here?” Emil asked Thedrick in a hushed tone, looking between the jester and the knight at ground level.

“Beowulf threw me up here!” Thedrick said cheerily, grinning at the noble.

Emil was slightly stunned at that answer. He reached out a hand and gently caressed one of the bruises on Thedrick cheek with the back of his fingers. “And how… did you get hurt?”

“He missed a couple of times at first,” Thedrick explained with a nonchalant shrug, leaning his face into Emil’s touch.

“You're so… ridiculous…” Emil choked out, feeling like his throat was closing up as tears started pooling in his eyes once more, despite thinking he couldn’t cry anymore.

“Hey hey, don’t cry pretty boy!” Thedrick said with alarm and concern, and then quickly wrapped his arms around Emil to hold him in a tight hug. Emil wrapped his own arms around the jester in return, holding the tiny man close to his chest, trying to stop all his emotions from messily spilling out all over the place.

“Come on now Emil, hold it together for a moment, we gotta tie all your bedsheets together and get you down to the big guy!” Thedrick said as he gave Emil a couple of pats on the back.

Emil pulled the jester slightly away from his body and looked down at him in disbelief.

They then proceeded to tie his bedsheets together to make a rope over the balcony.

Emil managed to make it halfway down their makeshift rope before losing his grip and falling the rest of the way. Luckily someone was already ready to catch him. He landed in the big guy's arms with a small ‘oof’ as the air was slightly knocked out of his lungs. Then he looked up at Beowulf, who had removed his helmet and was smiling down at the noble in his arms. 

They heard Thedrick hit the ground nearby. “I’m okay!” a strangled voice sounded off, and both Emil and Beowulf burst into giggles as the knight set the noble down on his feet and Emil turned and bent over to help Thedrick up from where he had inelegantly landed.

“Oh pretty boy, I missed you so much!” Beowulf exclaimed, pulling Emil back up and off the ground with one gigantic arm while doing the same for Thedrick with the other, until he was holding both the smaller men against his huge chest. “You have to let us bring you home!”

Emil wrapped his own arms around the knight and jester as much as he could, bringing his face in close to Thedrick’s against Beowulf’s chest. “I missed you both too,” Emil sighed. “But I can’t come back. You can’t underestimate my parent’s influence. They would have you kicked out of the castle and then get some guards to drag me back home again.” Despite what he was saying the noble just wanted to cling to the knight and not ever let go again.

“Then I'll take you to my house, hide you there and no one would know!” Beowulf suggested, pressing gentle kisses to the top of Emil’s head.

“You big idiot. They would suspect you of kidnapping me first, and you’d be investigated,” Emil said, shaking his head dismissively. “I mean… at least you two have each other… you should just forget about me and move on…”

“Don’t say that Emil… we won’t forget about you,” Beowulf reassured as the noble started to sob lightly against his chest. “We will come visit you like this.”

Emil shook his head again. “This is dangerous, you could get caught! You need to get out of here as quickly as possible,” he said as he tried to pull away from them, indicating that Beowulf should put him down.

Beowulf hesitantly set the two smaller men down on the ground, and when Emil looked back up at him the knight looked like he was about to cry as well. Emil took one of the Beowulf’s large hands in his own and gave it a gentle squeeze. Then he let go and took a step away from the pair of them, so he was standing next to the bedsheet rope that hung from the balcony.

“Get out of here… and… don’t come back…” Emil said the last part very quietly, because he really didn’t want to say it. Then he started climbing back up the sheets, grateful for the upper arm strength his military training had given him.

Beowulf and Thedrick watched on sadly as Emil scaled up to his balcony. He realised that Beowulf probably didn’t want to leave until he was safely back up, in case he fell again. Once Emil pulled himself up over the balcony railing, he turned around to pull the sheets back up, sparing another glance down at the pair who were still looking up at him.

“Just try and stop us!” Thedrick called up at him defiantly. Emil ducked out of view of them as he smirked ever so slightly at that.