PeaceMaker

The stars twinkled brightly in the sky and almost like reflections in a river, the streets of the kingdom also shone with bright lights showing signs of life amongst the people. Boris chuckled lightly, his chest feeling heavy as he cast a silent wish into the peaceful, quiet night. 

'Please don't be one of the stars in that sky,' Boris thought to himself as he looked up into the sky, 'please come back soon.'

He sat there for a moment with no movement almost like he was waiting for a response, then seconds later turned back to face the room, another chuckle leaving his lips. 'How foolish I am.'

He stood up from the chair and walked to the couch in the middle of the room, in front of the table where he stood over the couch for a few seconds before sitting down heavily on the soft cushions. His eyelids were heavy. 

Slowly he laid down on the couch and rested his head against the couch arm, his eyelids drooping as he stared into the darkness of the room. He stretched out his leg and felt it brush against something on the couch. Blankets. 

He scoffs as he sits up and reaches for the blanket, his other hand pulling off his shoes. 

"When did he even get the chance to come in here?" Boris muttered to himself, "and since when did he even grow so considerate?" He laid back down and began to unravel the blanket, then threw it over his body. 'How did he know I was going to come here?' he thought to himself.

His heavy eyelids stayed open slightly as Boris continued to stare into the darkness of the room, his mind as blank and empty as the table in front of him. He pulled the blanket to his neck as he continued to stare at nothing in the darkness. 

A scent wafted up to his nose. The scent of soap. 'It was washed recently...' Boris thought to himself as he unconsciously turned to face the couch's body, another scent wafting up to his nose. It was similar to Dominic's scent. 

He turned back to the table and the darkness of the room. 'It's getting weaker though... ' he thought to himself as he blinked, the time his eyes spent opening was getting shorter and shorter. 'All the scents are weakening in the room… I don't think there's a place I can go to get the scents back either… there are just fragments everywhere…' he sleepily thought as he blinked again. 'Where can I find it?'

His eyes flutter shut and in the last seconds, after the closing, he sees something golden shine before him. Then they shut. Second, 's later they fly open and he stares into the darkness, as his brain comprehended the color he had seen. He stares for a moment before his shoulders loosen and he sinks back into the couch, his gaze softening as sleep drew them in again. 

'Oh…' he thought to himself as his eyes followed the movements of gold across the room, 'It's happening again…'

It was very weak now but he could see it, the light figure of someone moving around the room and finally settling down on the couch parallel to the one he laid on with a book in its hand. 

'I'm seeing his shadows again…' Boris thought to himself as he watched the figure before him. They flipped open the book and began to read. His eyes lowered to the book cover and ran over the gold lining.

'That book again?' he heard a voice ask. It was his. 'Haven't you read that book 4 times already? Are you planning to make that series your nighttime story or something?'

The figure looked up at him, a bright smile on his face. 'You already know haha, I love the book so much! I could read it a hundred times and never get tired of it.'

Boris laid there silently watching the shadow until his voice spoke up again. 

'Why? Why do you like it so much? Doesn't it get old to you? It's the same plotline, the same characters, the same setting of the series and you already know everything that will happen,' he began, the figure looking up at him, 'are you planning on memorizing the lines of each character?'

The figure laughs flipping to the next page, 'that would be amazing. I can't imagine being able to recite every line in this book.'

'Yes, all 300+ pages of each book that you reread every night. If you keep reading those books, again and again, one per two nights as you usually do, I don't think you'll be that far from memorization.'

'You flatter me too much,'

'Not sure that was a compliment, your highness,'

'Dominic,' the figure replied, looking up from the book, their emerald eyes melting into Boris' sleepy golden gaze. 'I told you it's Dominic when we're alone.'

There was nothing to be heard for a moment before Boris' voice began to speak. He opened his mouth to mutter the same words that he would say. "Dominic."

Dominic smiled, playful eyes lowering to the book. 'That's better.'

Boris blinked sleepily, his eyes shutting but the scene remained painted before his eyes, Dominic's movements still very visible in his mind as their clear words sounded in his head. 

'You never answered my question,'

'I have before,' Dominic responded, 'you complain about me reading the same book but you also ask the same questions every time you see me reading it, don't you?'

'Because I can never understand your reason.' He replied. To himself, Boris thought about the other reason as to why he kept asking. 'Because you always have that same expression on your face and I like seeing it,' he pondered, 'and also because you somehow always find a different way to answer it.'

'It's my favorite author. My sister, Charlotte,' Dominic began again with the same smile on his face. 'I'm jealous of the fact that she can write such stories. Stories of adventure, each page filled with places that I can only imagine that she got the chance to visit, each character based on unique people that she got to talk to during her travels. I want to be free like her too.'

'Is the people of this palace not enough for you?'

'They are all the same. Like dolls really,' Dominic shrugged, flipping to the next page of the book, 'they might have a different detail on their dress, or different colored hair, eyes, skin shade, and even different intricate features, but they are all raised the same. All made to look after me and the kingdom. It's suffocating, there's nothing new in these walls.'

Silence passed for a moment and Dominic looked up from their book. 'That is… until you came,' he grinned.

Boris' heart clenched even in his tired, sleepy state, he managed to feel this same throbbing every night, every time those words were said.

'... is that why you're so obsessed with me?'

'Hm,' Dominic thought to himself, as he set down the book slightly, his attention fixating on Boris. 'That's true. It's part of it at least.'

'It seems like you just like things that are unique,' Boris had retorted to which Dominic had burst out in laughter.

'You can say that, but only certain things. They have to have something else for me to feel like I must keep it,' Dominic giggled. 

'Something else?'

'Mhmhn,' Dominic nodded. 

'Then what do I have?'

There was a pause as Dominic peered at Boris, an emotion passing by his eyes. Confusion with a hint of… something he couldn't understand. Something Dominic himself didn't know. 

'I don't know.'

'Is it because I'm the first person you've met that is different?' Boris had asked.

'Maybe,' Dominic smiled, 'maybe it was your demeanor. The first day I met you, you felt… different, that could be why.' His head tilted to the side as he gazed at Boris for longer, 'or maybe it was the way you talked to me. You didn't seem to care about my title at all.' 

A second passed before Dominic leaned back into the seat, his eyes peering into Boris' '...or maybe it was your gaze. As crazy as it may sound, those golden eyes hold some sort of appeal. They are one of a kind, just like the one that holds them.'

Boris remembered how his heart had skipped a beat at that and even now as he was moments away from sleep, he felt the light throb again. 

'So that was the reason why you felt like keeping me here?'

Dominic peered at Boris intensely for a moment before shrugging. "I'm not sure. Maybe, probably. All I know is that it was enough to make me want to feel like trapping you here, that and something else.'

'You sound dangerous, your highness,'

'Dominic,' Dominic interrupted again, 'say it.'

'Dominic,' Boris muttered.

'Good. And maybe you're right… I just might be dangerous, Boris.. But just to you.'