Aidan didn't want to have any fun. He wanted to drink. Preferably alone.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to push you so hard, Your Highness,” he said, hoping to leave as soon as possible.

“You made me vomit blood just because I touched your shoulder. I wonder what would happen to me, if I dared to touch you somewhere else,” the Prince smirked.

Aidan didn't respond to that. He had almost forgotten how much he hated being touched. To be fair, it had been ages since anybody put their hands on him. Through the years Aidan got really good at avoiding close interactions as much as possible. The key was to avoid company when not sober.

“I have to admit, I'm curious, whether you can take me in a fight. Or if I can take you...,” said the blonde guy with a smirk.

“Well, not to be disrespectful but the answer seems to be obvious, Your Highness,” said Aidan, vaguely pointing at the blood on Prince's chin. He was pretty confident in Adnan Minn's abilities.

“You caught me off guard,” a pair of blue eyes almost pierced through Aidan. “I've seen you in action – I know, you're good. But I'm willing to bet that I'm better.”

“That's not what you said to your uncle, Your Highness,” Aidan sighed. Young men and their desire to turn everything into a damn competition! Was the little Prince threatened by him?

“Your future emperor is requesting a fight. Do you dare to deny me?” he enunciated with a frown.

“Of course, not, Your Highness. As you wish,” said Aidan, using all his mental strength not to roll his eyes.

The Prince led him to the palace battlegrounds which seemed to be pretty impressive. But, to be fair, it was Aidan's first time seeing real battlegrounds, so he was easy to please. In any case, it was so large one could practice longbow shooting and even spear-throwing there.

They walked towards the place designated for sword practice which was marked by red sand.

“Rather than swords, how about we do hand-to-hand combat?” asked the Prince. “Unless you mind close contact, of course.”

Aidan minded that a lot. But Adnan, luckily, was an excellent fighter who dealt his blows so efficiently that most of the time the enemy had no chance to touch him at all.

“As you wish,” he repeated with a shrug.

“Careful with that phrase,” the Prince raised his eyebrow. “I might get ideas.”

“Are you ready, Your Highness?” Aidan asked, ignoring his remarks. The sooner he was done with this, the sooner he could sit on his hard coffin-bed drinking himself into sweet oblivion. He remembered how once during his one and only AA meeting he had said: “Reality is poison and alcohol is an effective antidote.” He still hadn't encountered anything that would change his mind.

Without further ado, Aidan made his first move, kicking the Prince in the knees. Adnan Minn's body felt like this was the best way to put the opponent at a disadvantage without causing too much damage. Aidan wasn't going to argue with years of practice and military expertise, so he did whatever his body told him to.

To his surprise, the Prince managed to avoid the kick. Thus began the game of dodge and pursuit – instead of meeting the fight head on, the Emperor-in-Waiting was dodging all and every move that Adnan would throw his way. At some point Aidan realized that they were not even fighting, rather dancing. The Prince was very quick and agile, moving like quicksilver with one arm behind his back and leaving Adnan very little openings to subdue him and end the fight. Series of movements flowed smoothly - funnily enough, General Minn's body seemed to enjoy the challenge while Aidan was getting more annoyed by the minute.

It was now clearly a question of who would get tired first. And Aidan was willing to bet half a bottle of wine that it would be the slippery prince – Minn was a military man after all. Some monarch should be no match for him in terms of endurance. Suddenly Aidan felt a little pang of regret – maybe, if he himself had been as diligent as General Minn about his physical fitness from an early age, he could have avoided all the beatings his father bestowed on him.

Fuck! He hadn't thought of his “family” in ages. Why now?

After a hundred or so exceedingly complicated maneuvers the tide started to turn - the Emperor-in-Waiting made a couple of little mistakes that finally allowed Adnan to make him lose his balance and trip. He was about to immediately jump up but General Minn had expected that move, so he placed a hard blow right in the Prince's solar plexus before he managed to completely straighten out.

The Emperor-in-Waiting finally went down. But just as Aidan was sighing in relief, he felt the Prince's hand grab him by the front of his shirt and drag him to the ground. He landed on his knees and was already getting up when suddenly the Prince pushed him over and pinned him down. In the next moment Aidan felt something cold against his neck. The Emperor-in-Waiting was holding a knife.

Aidan's ears filled with buzz, his breathing got shallow and he felt cold sticky panic sweat running down his spine. Most likely General Minn knew an efficient way out of this position but Aidan's dizzy mind couldn't concentrate at that moment. The knife was not the issue. It was the overwhelming suffocating feeling of being trapped under a heavy warm body. Every single part of him was seemingly consumed and invaded by something foreign, something he could not control.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

He felt the pressure in his chest rising and knew immediately that he needed to get himself under control. If his mind went berserk right now, Adnan Minn's body could cause a lot of damage – what if he seriously injured the Emperor-in-Waiting? What if he murdered him?

For some reason Aidan shuddered at the thought. So, despite feeling like he was about to lose his marbles at any moment, he made himself take a deep breath and slowly counted till five. Someone once told him that a person can endure just about anything for five seconds. And then... you just start on a new five seconds. He could do it. He could deal.

Just as Aidan got his breathing under control and finally could bare to open his eyes, he felt warm breath right next to his ear:

“I win.”

Aidan twitched, trying to get his face further away from the Prince but his range of motion was limited, so he just continued counting and breathing. A faint smell of acacia entered his nostrils – it seemed somehow familiar but he couldn't remember where he knew it from. Could one dream of a smell?

“Why are you so quiet? Not fighting anymore?” the Prince asked, his blue eyes twinkling in excitement. It seemed he was in no hurry to get off him.

Aidan swallowed loudly and dug his fingers into the ground to keep himself from screaming.

“You win,” he said in a hoarse voice.

The young Emperor-in-Waiting smiled in response. Because of his dimple he now looked so childish and innocent, yet his next words were nothing like that.

“I could take your life right here and now,” he said, pushing the blade even tighter against Aidan's throat.

“Do it,” said Aidan.

But instead of delivering on his promise, the Prince looked into Aidan's eyes for what seemed like eternity, as if looking for something – a certain expression or an answer to some question.

Aidan was pretty sure he was not going to find anything interesting anyway.

Count and breathe. Count and breathe...

Finally the Prince gave up. He got up and slipped his knife back inside his leather boot.

All of a sudden the pressure in Aidan's chest was gone. He was not as dizzy anymore, and he felt like a human again. A nauseous human... but still a human.

“Why are you not afraid of death?” the Prince asked suddenly, turning around.

Because when you die, you don't know you're dead. It's only difficult for everyone else. It's the same when you're stupid.

Out loud Aidan decided to go with a platitude:

“You either die or you live long enough to see everyone you love die before you.”

“Do you have anyone you love?”

The question caught Aidan off guard. He gave it a serious thought. And the only thing he could come up with was his long deceased cat Mr.Purr. But he obviously couldn't say that to the Prince.

“Yes, I have many loved ones, Your Highness.”

“Yet you have neither a wife, nor any concubines.”

Thank the Heavens. Also, good to know.

“Who does the great General Minn have in his heart?” the Prince wondered out loud.

That Aidan didn't know. So he just kept quiet. The Prince examined his face, narrowed his eyes and then asked:

“Back in the fort... did you really want to sacrifice yourself in the name of the Empire?

“Mhm,” Aidan nodded. He was not going to reveal his failed suicide plan.

The Prince suddenly looked disappointed for some reason.

“Your loyalty is truly admirable, General,” he said coldly.

Shouldn't the future emperor be happy about having loyal generals? But Aidan didn't want to dwell on microexpressions and weird moods – he would rather get some information from the guy while the opportunity presented itself.

“Speaking of the Empire, what are you going to do regarding the slave trade with the savages, once you become the Emperor?” he asked, trying to sound casual.

The Prince laughed out loud.

“Should I maybe write down all my plans and hand them to you for your convenience, General? Is there something else you would like from me? ” he said with a smirk.

Well, no need to be an ass about it!

“I apologize for overstepping, Your Highness,” Aidan said out loud and bowed his head.

“From now on please call me by my given name,” said the Prince, his voice several tones lower.

Aidan would gladly do so...

If he could remember his name. He was sure that he had heard it a couple of times. But ever since he was transported here, he was constantly bombarded by new information, so some details did slip his mind.

Thus he kept quiet not to give himself and his horrible memory away.

“Say it.”

“Say what?”

“My name,” the Prince was obviously losing his patience.

Aidan was almost 60% sure that there was a letter “K” involved... Kurt? Kaleb? Khal Drogo? Damn it, who could remember these ridiculous names?

The Prince misunderstood his silence as Aidan's reluctance to abide by his request and was visibly annoyed.

“Ah, I completely forgot what they say about General Minn. Formal and proper to a fault,” he almost spat out.

Was that what they said about General Minn? Nothing about being crazy and demented? Phew.

In any case this piece of information gave Aidan a perfect excuse!

“Yes, Your Highness, let's keep it formal.” Another sentence that he thought he would never say in his life.

The Emperor-in-Waiting wrinkled his brow:

“That was not a request. That was an order. Not only from your future Emperor but also from somebody who just bested you in a fight. I decide what is proper,” he said, almost growling.

These kinds of words combined with blonde blue-eyed innocent appearance kept putting Aidan into the state of complete cognitive dissonance.

But for some reason Aidan couldn't help but smile. The Prince reminded him of someone he knew once – someone childish and stubborn, sensitive and passionate, forceful but somehow insecure. He just couldn't remember who was this person. Maybe it was all just a figment of his imagination?

“I can always call you “sunshine”,” said Aidan thoughtfully and immediately covered his mouth. Why would he say something like that out loud?

Oh no, the Prince was going to explode! Admitting that he forgot his name might have been safer...

But to his surprise, instead of coming at Aidan with a knife, the Prince just gave him another one of his long pensive looks.

“General, have we met before your mission in the savage fort?” he asked suddenly.

Aidan swore under his nose. Another question that he had no idea how to answer. Was this whole conversation a damn quiz?

“I've seen you during important events in the palace. I don't think, you've seen me,” said Aidan, basing his answer on an educated guess. The Prince seemed to know things about Minn only through gossip, which meant they haven't had any close dealings with each other before.

The Emperor-In-Waiting nodded, his expression suddenly completely cold and unreadable. He swiftly turned around and said:

“You can find your way out, General.”