Chapter 397: Stop And Stare.

Chapter 397: Chapter 397: Stop And Stare.

Gandy’s still pissed about it. On the bright side he doesn’t have to report for guard duty for an indeterminate amount of time.

On the not so bright side he now owes Drogger nearly as many laps as Khobi does, and he’s probably going to be cleaning and polishing equipment until his hands fall off.

​(He’s also been struck off as an appropriate chaperone, which is kind of fair enough.)

​Montrel better thank him in his wedding toast. Guy hasn’t stopped grinning like a goddamned fool since they got back, and even though he’s been all sorts of cagey as to why , the princess had been blushing something fierce when he finally caught up to them.

So either he’d just greatly offended her, or kissed her. And since they’d been making entirely gross eyes at each other the whole ride back, Gandy’s got a pretty solid idea of which it was.

​First time Montrel gets alone with her and he goes right in for the kill. They’ve been friends since they were kids –and best friends since they were teenagers –but he’s never seen him like this over a girl before.

Looks like he’s seriously gonna have to get used to the idea of calling him Your Majesty , because if things keep going the way they’ve been going, Montrel’s seriously gonna marry himself a princess one day.

​Gods , what is this kingdom coming to?

​And speaking of weird developments.

​The fact that Khobi’s been fooling around with Loac is no real secret amongst the castle guard.

His brief stint at being back under lock and key had made sure of that; anyone who had been stationed on guard duty had heard. Khobi is louder in bed than the walls are thick.

And the walls were made of goddamned stone. In fact, given how many different guards rotated through guard duty over the last few weeks, and just how little they seemed to care about being overheard, it was kind of a miracle the whole castle didn’t know what was going on in their bedroom.

​None of them would ever admit it because gossiping was for the castle ladies, but Gandy didn’t know a single soldier whose ears didn’t prick up when they caught wind of something particularly juicy.

And to his knowledge –outside of when they were commiserating together at the end of that hallway (because no one had cared to sit right outside their door) –none of the guards really talked about it, even amongst themselves.

You never knew just who was around to overhear, and despite not really seeming overly concerned who... overheard , there’d been this collective sense that it wasn’t something either of them really wanted becoming common knowledge.

​Gandy gets it from Khobi’s perspective; after all, the guy’s spent how long trying to pretend that he didn’t wanna fuck the guy.

But coming from Loac the secrecy is kind of w eird. He’s never cared who knew what he was up to or who he’d been doing it with.

Gandy knows because Montrel used to enlist his help in hunting him down, and for all the things that the castle rumours blew out of proportion or got entirely wrong, they sure got a whole lot right.

In Gandy’s opinion it’s never been too hard to figure out what’s going on.

They’ve refrained from being... overt about what’s going on but they’re both about as subtle as an avalanche and Khobi has been so obvious about what he wanted even before he fell into bed with Loac –or whatever it was that happened; Gandy does not care to know exact details.

Not to mention there’s subtext scattered all over their every interaction; in the way Loac gets in a bit too close and how Khobi lets him.

Not to mention that Loac isn’t above getting handsy in company and Khobi is really, really terrible at hiding when he is.

​But then something happened that sent subtext to the wind.

​The first time it happened no one had known quite what to do or where to look.

Obviously that hadn’t stopped them from staring, because despite full knowledge about what was going on behind closed doors, this wasn’t behind closed doors , this was the training grounds, so what else were they meant to do? Even Khobi had seemed kinda caught off balance about it –and considering what they’d been overheard doing on many an occasion, there was seriously no way that that was the first time Loac had kissed him.

​It was the first time he’d done it in front of them though.

​Gandy had been one of the politely gawking spectators.

He’s yet to have met someone in the castle who hasn’t had the unfortunate experience of catching Loac with someone –multiple someones, if they were really unlucky –but this had been different.

​("...Something on my face?" Loac had inquired of them, when he’d pulled back from his liplock to find them all staring at him.

Only Rogard –as bug-eyed as the rest of them yet somehow smug –had been able to find anything to say.

​"Uh, yeah ," he’d hummed adventurously, " Khobi ."

​Loac had snickered at that, Khobi had declared him a dirty, rotten, cheat (which he was, because laying one on a guy to keep him pinned for a full five-count was totally playing dirty) and shoved him, and just like that the soldiers frozen in place had melted, and started laughing.)

​The second time it happened they’d wolf whistled accordingly, and by the end of the day they’d gotten to the point of booing them and telling them to stop being so gross.

​Gandy kinda thought that no sucking face at the dinner table went without saying.

​Apparently not.

​That’s a rule now.

​(Like that’ll do anything.)

​Gods, it was hard enough keeping their hands off each other before ; now it’s an absolute nightmare. It’s actually kind of baffling; one second they’re bickering like an old married couple and the next they’re canoodling like newlyweds. (Rogard’s word, not his.

Gandy’s not stupid enough to use the word canoodling in front of either of them. Rogard, however, was , and wound up wearing more of his dinner than he ate that night.)

Maybe in hindsight it wasn’t a completely unexpected development after all. While perhaps unconventional, those two idiots have been drawn to each other from the start; the pair of them toeing precariously along a line between hatred and sexual tension that at times had been thinner than Drogger’s patience.

​(With the odd, notable stumble.)

​And obviously it wasn’t long before word had got out.

Castles are always rife with terribly kept secrets after all, and Crade is no exception. Where there are eyes there are mouths, and rumour mills never sleep; tirelessly standing vigil with match in hand and churning out stale whispers until something shiny and flammable catches its eye.

And wayward princes have always been among its favourite fodder, so once the news that Loac Trent apparently had a new toy got out it spreads through the castle like wildfire, catching alight and igniting speculation and whispers wherever it raged.

​Obviously, it burns loudest at the training grounds.

The tempestuous nature of Khobi and Loac’s rivalry is well documented and a source of entertainment in what can be a monotonous environment.

Even the ones who didn’t approve of Khobi and didn’t like Loac had become invested despite themselves.

It was hard not to, when they got in the ring together –Gandy liked to think of himself as a competent soldier but watching them, gods .

It was difficult not to stop and stare.

And even though Khobi’s made a lot of friends and earned respect from a lot of the soldiers, there are still a number who don’t care for him.

The same could be said for Loac. If anything, his reputation has been the more difficult to mend.

Very few are brave or stupid enough to say anything to their faces, but soldiers still talk. They still listen to their mas and the castle whispers; still talk amongst themselves and with their noble families.

It’s just an unfortunate part of castle life, and Gandy can’t pretend he isn’t just as guilty of getting caught up in castle gossip at times; whispers can be hard to escape when they’re all around you, but it’s kind of unbelievable the kind of shit people just... believe ?

​Gandy’s started to have to have words with his ma about it.

The rumours that have started cropping up again aren’t kind –whispers rarely are –and he suspects, given the absurd logistics, largely untrue, and he got proper scolded for telling her to get better sources.

What would the ladies she keeps company with know about a prince’s nightly comings and goings, after all?

​He knows.

He was one of the unlucky sods who had to stand vigil through the nights outside his room so he can personally attest that the guy hasn’t been spending his nights sneaking off to brothels; at least not recently.

It’s particularly annoying to hear his fellow soldiers joining in on the whispers because there’s really not enough hours in a day for Loac to be fucking as many people as he’s supposedly fucking as well as Khobi.

​Also, who cares if he is? The guy’s all right.

​One really, truly stupid idiot had seen fit to ask Khobi how it felt to be side piece to half the kingdom.

But then Loac had broken the guy’s jaw and that had been the end of that.

​(In Gandy’s opinion, that alone should tell them that the castle rumours are full of shit.)