PeaceMaker

Distractions… were never something he would let even 100 meters within his view so why was it that he was being so easily strung along with these dark-skinned handsome distractions. Dark-skinned, golden-eyed, and black-haired distractions.  Since when had that those long dark-locked become distractions to him. 

He didn't remember. But somewhere along those lines, he had begun to be strung along by every motion that distraction would make. Somewhere along the line, he had gotten used to being strung along and now he was looking forward to it, allowed himself to fall victim to it. Golden eyes... those were the most fatal distractions now.

Dominic continued forward, turning the corner as he headed towards the meeting room along with Kalmin and Boris, greeting servants as they passed by. 

"Good morning your highness," a servant girl greeted as she bowed before Dominic, a bright smile on her face, "God bless our kingdom for bringing our prince back to us safely."

Dominic chuckled and nodded, "Thank you, and good morning to you too." He watched as she stood back up again and turned around to begin walking when he noticed her bow lightly once again, this time directed towards Boris.

"Good Morning your honor," she addressed Boris before turning to Kalmin, "good morning your grace."

Kalmin simply made eye contact with her and Boris nodded his head along with eye contact. 

Dominic watched the interaction between them before a little smile slid onto his face after the girl walked past them. "'Good Morning your grace?'" he repeated, his eyes eyeing Kalmin playfully. 

Kalmin shrugged with a little smug smile on his face. "They finally learned how to address people I guess," he replied nonchalantly to which Dominic laughed, amused by Kalmin's tone. 

Dominic turned to Boris, their eyes meeting almost immediately. "And you too? 'Good Morning your honor?'" he mimicked, "since when did the servants start to regard you properly without those dictating gazes of theirs?"

Boris stared at Dominic blankly for a few seconds, causing Dominic to turn back forward as he felt his stomach flip. He nodded at another servant as he tried to calm down his nerves. 'What's with those eyes of his anyways?!' Dominic argued mentally, 'whenever I just take one look into them the air is filled with tension again and I immediately feel like backing up.'

"I'm not sure when," Boris responded, trying to stifle a little chuckle from Dominic's reaction, "somewhere down the road, they just ended up benign more… nice."

"Respective you mean," Kalmin intruded, rolling his eyes, "You did something to get them to be able to greet you in the mornings rather than just walk past you. I wouldn't just call that nice, I'd call it improvement and a new sense of respect for you."

"Ever thought your words can be a little snobbish at times?" Boris sighed, "you make it sound like they had to bow at my feet or something."

"I'm sure they have reasons to," Kalmin scoffed lightly, "even if they aren't aware of them yet."

Boris let out a little sigh in response and Dominic glanced from Kalmin to Boris and back. "It seems like there's a lot of things that I've missed while I was gone," Dominic teased, "starting with how you guys got so close. Is this friendly banter I hear? You used to be at each other's throats the last time I was here. In fact, you didn't even bother talking to each other."

Dominic observed curiously as Kalmin and Boris exchanged gazes for a moment before turning back to him. 

"It's tolerance," they both replied, almost in complete synchrony. A flash of confusion passes through their gazes when they both looked at each other before turning back to Dominic again. 

"I guess you can call it tolerance," Kalmin stated, "we've been in the same boat for more than a year now and have gone through a lot of different things together. I guess somewhere along the way, we ended up gaining some kind of tolerance towards each other."

Dominic locked eyes with Kalmin for a few seconds before grinning, his eyes turning to look at Boris momentarily. "Who would have thought…" he mumbled, "I can't wait to learn about all the things you all accomplished in the time I was gone at this meeting." His gaze returned to in front of him and his smile broadened when he realized he was only a few corridors away from the meeting room. 

Kalmin nodded calmly for a few seconds before he flinched, his eyes snapping up to Dominic. "At this meeting?" he echoed, his eyebrows furrowing, "you want to talk about all that at this meeting?"

A look of fun perplexion crossed Dominic's face as he looked back at kalmin. "Of course? Am I not supposed to know about all of the things you achieved? I wouldn't be able to lead properly if I'm not immediately told about everything today."

Kalmin's eyes grew alarmed. "I'm sorry to stop your plans, your highness, but you can't possibly be thinking of having one long meeting over the span of hours straight to converse about changes in the kingdom and palace?"

Dominic's eyebrow raised, his steps stopping as he turned around to look at Kalmin. "What else could I mean?" his head tilted to the side as emerald eyes dug into Kalmin's eyes, "did you think I wouldn't want to know about all of it the quickest that I can? The mere thought of being sooo far behind of everything frightens me."

"But all of that today?" Kalmin pressed, his concern growing larger. 

"Yes,"

"No." 

The words came out so quickly that it took a second for Kalmin to realize that they hadn't come out of his mouth. His head turned to the source of the voice at the same time at Dominic. 

Boris shook his head firmly. "No. You will not."

Kalmin's eyes darted to Dominic as he watched a shiver run through his prince. 

"Why not?" Dominic asked, his gaze meeting Boris', "is there something that I can't know about?" 

They remained in eye contact for a few more seconds and mixed feelings almost immediately began pouring into Dominic. So many parts about this very moment gave him chills. One, was the feeling of confusion and a bit of little suspicion towards the situation, then was the fear of being betrayed, then was the fear of them not being able to see him as a prince, and then in the midst of all of that was the selfish anxious feelings he got just from benign in contact with Boris' eyes. 

There were just so many layers of uncertainty manifesting in him with each passing second, so many surges of anxiety that were just lingering in his mind, and finally unresolved emotions and questions festering from his biggest distraction. 

He hated it. The indecision in his mind because there were so many things up in the air, untouched and even some things that he hadn't even gotten into yet like how he was going to keep ruling after this. 

Since when did his walls break down so easily? Since when did he, Boris, become one big distraction for him? And why, unlike all the other distractions he had had in his life, was he unable to shrug him off so easily? Why wasn't he able to settle all the anxiousness he felt when he laid on Boris? 

That black long hair, dark smooth skin, and intense golden gaze. Boris. Everything about him was a distraction, everything about him was a threat to the balance in his mind and it only seemed to be getting worse by the second. It didn't help that the event from last night only acted as a catalyst, furthering his emotions to the point that he couldn't even properly look at Boris without feeling some type of way. 

"You just got back yesterday," Boris explained, "you came back from fighting a war, seeing so much mental trauma from multiple dying before your eyes, and just spent your first night in a comfortable bed. You're far from ready to receive any more stress."

Dominic stood still as he listened to Boris talk, suppressing the feelings of uneasiness he was feeling the longer he stayed in Boris' eye contact. He didn't know how to react. A part of him wanted to push more boundaries to reach out despite the unclear emotions he felt and another part begged him to force it all down for his kingdom.

Kalmin nodded his head in agreement with Boris. "He's right. You're far more in an unstable state than you realize. Being in a meeting for hours straight trying to take in thousands of information would be so mentally draining. It'll take days. One meeting per two days."

Dominic's eyes drifted back to Boris as he nodded his head. His heart throbbed again and once again a strike of anxiety filled him. This uncertainty, something about the way it built in him, something about how deep the layers felt told him this wasn't just because of their kiss. He had a feeling that this wasn't just an event that sparked random feelings out of him. It had been building.

Festering in his mind until it reached a point in which he now felt it. He had let it grow, he had let it manifest into this. Afterall, even now, he wasn't able to push away the emotions he felt from Boris. He didn't want them to go away.

Something about the anxiousness, the worrying, and little thumps in his heart. felt exciting. Terrifyingly exciting. Even though it was a distraction, he wondered what would happen if he kept it for just a little longer.

But somehow he knew that even if he found out it would lead to something that might alarm him, he didn't have a choice anymore. He was curious.