Prin gave him a look, inscrutable, “I would never expect you to run away from home with me. It might be a really hard journey!” He glanced toward the bookshelves, as though imaging all of the perilous adventures contained therein. “I could never want you to do that. Besides, it's probably a fool's errand, and if it doesn't work out it will be easier for me to head for the nearest window without you there.”

“Don't ever say things like that, please.” Elwin pleaded. “It scares me. I'm going to think I can never look away from you again or you might do something to yourself.” He pulled the prince into a hug. He was getting hugged whether he liked it or not. “Don't you know whatever we do we're in it together? You couldn't stop me from tagging along, so don't try.” He teased.

“We might never be coming back.” Prin said into his shoulder. “Never.”

“If . . . that's the way it turns out then, okay.” Elwin said. “It doesn't matter to me. What do I have holding me here?”

“Your parents.” Prin pointed out. “Won't they be upset if you go away?”

“You have parents too.” Elwin said.

The prince pulled back out of his arms and gave him a look. “Do I really?”

Elwin couldn't help but laugh. Everything was happening so quickly. He felt strange. “They did spend a lot of money trying to help you.” He pointed out.

“Okay, fair enough.” Prin said. “But I don't care about that. It didn't mean much to them, I'm sure they have more where that came from. Plus, don't you think they will be a little relieved if I just disappeared? In all seriousness? I didn't tell you how my father talked to me . . .”

“We have a couple of things to figure out.” Elwin said. “This is like a puzzle, we're gonna need you to use that solid head of yours to it's fullest potential.” He deliberately interrupted, figuring they didn't have a lot of time and energy to wallow in self pity, more then what had already been expended. “But first, the easiest part. Maybe. We have to figure out how to get some water up here so you can take a bath.”

“Oh, thank god.” Prin said. He scratched his arms, brown flakes of dry blood going into the air like pollen. “I didn't want to scratch like a dog with fleas but I'm so itchy.” He gave Elwin a pleading look. “And I can't go anywhere like this!”

Elwin laughed. “Not to worry. We'll just do it like we always do. Start a fire. Bring up buckets of water to warm in the cauldron over the fire and dump out in the tub? Only I'll be doing all the carrying by myself.” He made a rueful face, but smiled, to show he was only joking, that it would be no problem at all.

“How about we tell people that I am contagious? They can help you carry the buckets but leave them in the hall. I dare say, they won't question it too much since no one wants to come in here anyway. In fact, you don't even have to tell them that much. Just tell them to set the buckets in the hall and they won't ask questions I bet.”

“If they ask if we saw the woman, I think we should act like we didn't even see her.” Elwin said.

Prin chewed on his lower lip. “No, no, that's . . . People might have seen her come up here. Don't bring it up but if asked just say, yes, she came up and did some light cleaning, didn't stay long. Why do you ask? Oh missing, well, maybe she went home.” He said. “Or something? Some people come to work in the castle but don't take to it, so they don't end up staying long, right?”

Elwin nodded. “Right, sure.” Wouldn't alarm bells ring when she failed to pick up her pay? Even if they abruptly quit, most people wouldn't do that. Hopefully they would be gone already by that point.

*

Keeping people out of the room proved to be no problem, as predicted, and soon enough the prince was soaking in a tub in front of the fireplace. One could almost blink and think things were normal again. Almost.

“This stuff is hard to get off once it's dried.” the prince mused. He scrubbed at the brownish red stain on his arm. “Remind me of that in future.”

“Do you need some help?” Elwin asked. In the past he typically would have helped, at least with difficult to reach areas, like his hair. But Prin was already so much stronger than he was before. It was like seeing a miracle before his eyes (enough so that he could overlook comments such as ones that implyed there would be a lot more blood in their future. Elwin just chose not to think about that one right now).

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“No thank you.” Prin said. He dunked down into the water and sat back up with his dark curls streaming water down his back. It had been a while since he had a trim, and the hair was falling to mid back when it was wet like this. “I think I have it. What's on the list so far?”

“Lets see.” Elwin looked at the piece of paper with his own bad handwriting declared across it. “Maps, medicine just in case, bandages, a good sharp knife, bowls, cups, spoons. Already the list seems long, are you sure we need all of these things?”

“Oh yes.” Prin said confidently. “Those are all things that people have needed in my books. And they sometimes had to do without, which wasn't a good thing! We need to be prepared.”

Elwin nodded. He was a little distracted by the curve of the prince's back and shoulders sticking up out of the tub. And had he always had such a pretty neck? It was nice to at least focus on something pleasant, even if it was making him feel the heat of embarrassment in his cheeks. He shook his head, trying to shake himself out of it.

“A compass.” Prin said. “Put that on the list. And a couple of water skins, if we can get them. We want to keep well hydrated.”

Elwin wrote them down with his pencil. He had nothing to add yet himself, that Prin wasn't bound to think of in a moment.

“Good boots.” The prince added. “Oh no! I haven't any shoes at all. Except for slippers. What will I do?” He turned around in the tub to look at Elwin.

“We'll figure something out.” Elwin assured. “Be careful there, don't get your injured arm all wet.”

Prin looked at his arm with the bedraggled bandage on it, as if it had totally slipped his mind that there was even an injury there. “It's already ruined, I don't see what it matters to get it wet.”

“We should have a look at that.” Elwin sat his paper and pencil down on the desk and got out some fresh bandages and ointment. He knelt beside the tub and reached out for the prince's arm.

Prin obediently handed it over. “Honestly, it doesn't hurt.”

Elwin held his arm and gingerly unwrapped the bandage, flinching on Prin's behalf, although the other boy didn't flinch at all. It looked better then expected. The roughly half moon shape of the bite mark was still raw but not bleeding. “How could this not hurt?” he wondered. He got a sudden flash of worry and poked Prin's arm. “Can you feel that?”

The prince's arm jerked, and he made a face. “Well, yeah, if you do that it hurts. I was trying to be tough.”

“Oh?” Elwin asked. He blew on the wound, even though he wasn't sure why. It was something nanny used to do.

“And you ruined it.” The prince said. He gave Elwin an impish look as he looked up at him in surprise.

Prin took his arm back and scooted to the far side of the round tub. “Get in! It might be the last bath for a while.” He enticed. “Hurry up, while the water's still hot.”

Elwin stood up and backed away. “No. No, I don't think I should.” He really felt hot in the face this time, and knew he must be turning bright red, the thought of it made him turn even redder still. “It's a bad idea.”

“Remember when we were little, and we always used to take a bath together?” the prince asked. “And play pirates, remember?” he laughed at the memory.

Maybe he hadn't noticed the color of Elwin's face in the dim light from the fire and a few candles on the side table (at this point it was fully dark outside). “I do.” Elwin said.

“You can be the captain!” Prin teased.

“There isn't room anymore for two.” Elwin protested. “We're grown up now.” Please don't push me on this any further, he pleaded silently.

“Oh . . . okay.” the prince said. “I guess I'm done then.”

Elwin rushed to his side with the oversized bath towel that he always wrapped him up in. Only, this time, he tried to help him out of the tub without even looking at his naked body. Not like he hadn't seen it before a hundred times. But now there was an awkwardness in the air between them.

Still, he hugged him close and then patted the water off of him with the towel.

“I wasn't going to ask for help.” Prin said.

“I know, but that's silly.” Elwin said. “I don't want you to fall.” He picked him up and sat him down on the bed. “Can I rebandage your arm?”

The prince held the towel around his torso, allowing his legs, bare from the knees down, and feet to dangle over the edge of the bed. He untucked his arm from inside the towel and presented it wordlessly.

Elwin took his arm and applied salve, with the lightest touch he could manage, to the moon shaped mark. He thought to turn the arm over and there was a similar mark on the other side. He applied salve to that one too. “You really did a number on yourself.” He mumbled.

As he was wrapping the arm with white gauze bandages, he felt breath on his face.

Prin had leaned in close, so that when Elwin looked up at him, their eyes met from a distance of only a couple of inches apart. “Are you afraid of me?” Prin asked.

Lost in blue, Elwin thought that was the most absurd question he had ever heard in his life. “Course not.” He said.

“You probably – definitely – should be.” the prince said. “I know we have been friends for a long time, but it's okay to have a little self preservation.” He gave Elwin a sad lopsided smile. “No one would blame you, least of all me.”

“If you don't know we're much more then friends . . .” Elwin was not sure if they were on the same page or in completely different chapters of the book. Or if perhaps, the prince's book barely had mention of him at all. Maybe a tiny footnote in the acknowledgements section. But right now their two faces were just so close.

Elwin closed the gap slowly, until their lips were almost touching and their eyelashes intertwined. He gave his so called friend enough time to back away, but he didn't. He didn't even close his eyes. Their eyes were wide, as though trying to devour each other.

Elwin had no idea what he was doing, but he tried to push the thought away, relegating it to a small unheeded corner of his mind. They would just have to figure it out together like they had always done.

The prince reached for Elwin, the unfastened bandage on his arm trailing, as though he would pull him closer. Not that there was much closer to get.

Then, as if a nightmare come to life, the heavy antique doorknob turned.