Trapped In Hisstory

"We meet again, Charles." Jasper exclaimed with a wide smile. His eyes were full of excitement when he saw Chance and Caliber standing at a table so he approached it immediately.

He never really planned to attend to the celebration but his father insisted on him to come. When he heard that the celebration was for the Crown Prince's birthday, he changed his mind and dressed up, preparing in the speed of light, and went inside the carriage when his father, Duke Jarvis, was about to leave.

"I was excited to see Your Highness once again," Jasper stated. "May the Goddess light your path to the throne." he greeted and bowed his head as he raised his hand in his direction.

"Why would you be excited to meet him again, huh?" Caliber chimed in, staring at his friend who had just arrived at their table.

Jasper laughed. "Woah, calm down. Do not glare at me like that, it puts me in such pain." he said dramatically and put his hands on his chest as if his heart was aching.

"Rather than the position of the Duke, you are more perfect for a stage." Caliber in a bored tone, disgusted by his exaggerated actions.

Jasper pouted, acting cute in front of him. "Aw, Your Highness, I am not acting! Your glare is piercing through me and it hurts!" he used his finger for wiping the space under his eyes, pretending to be weeping.

Caliber flicked his finger, hitting his forehead. "Ow! Caliber! It hurts!" Jasper complained as he rubbed his forehead while Caliber wore a straight face, ignoring his exclamation of a complaint.

"Now you know how to act hurt." Caliber said in a low voice and Jasper still heard it and he clicked his tongue.

The Second Prince turned to Chance, who was staring at the son of the duke, "This is the friend that I was referring to. He is Jasper Cameron, I believe you two already met." he introduced, but he noticed that Charles was acting a bit odd.

"A-ah, yes, I am pleased to meet you again." Chance said and greeted him in return.

Now that Jasper was closer now, Chance could observe his features more clearly. He looked exactly like Fuse, there was no doubt. Every feature, his eye color, hair, moles, it was all the same. 'An actual proof right in front of me, that Fuse is a reincarnation of the soon to be Duke!' he thought.

'Chances are not low for me to meet others that I already met in my time. But I wonder who else I will get to see here?' he thought.

"Of course you would be pleased to see me. We did have a good chat the first time we had the chance to have a conversation." Jasper Cameron chuckled while he recalled the topic of their conversation.

"The two of us first met after you quarreled with this frightening monster here," he said and pointed at Caliber, but he did not look at him since he knows that he will get a death glare. "You were in a really bad mood that day! We just greeted each other and never had the chance to talk because you stormed out when Caliber appeared!"

Chance remembered the quarrel that Princess Carmilla told him before, when they first met. 'That quarrel again, I forgot about that. I never got to know what the quarrel was about.' he thought.

"Oh, my. I wonder what this beast right here did, something to make you storm out with a flushed expression." Jasper said with his fingers covering his mouth, giving a teasing gaze.

Caliber, on the back of Jasper's knee, making him weak and bend and almost fall to the ground. "Hey, so childish! The last age I did that to you was when we were eleven!"

Caliber did not bother looking at him as if he could not hear the Cameron House member speaking. "I am talking to you, Sir Soon-to-be Crown Prince!" he exclaimed.

'So lively and talkative.' Chance thought. Not only were their features similar, but their personalities are not far from each other as well. It was as if the one right in front of him was just Fuse. Fuse that he knew.

Probably the only thing different about them was their clothes. Besides that, nothing else is quite different. 

'Then...have you never been curious about what you were like in the past?'

Chance snickered. Now he finally knew the answer to his own question. 'You were right, Fuse. He is a lot like you.' he thought and smiled.

Jasper stopped shooting the Second Prince with curses when he noticed that Chance was staring at him.

He turned to look at him and was surprised when he saw the Crown Prince giving him a warm smile; he does not know the reason why he was smiling like that but he was suddenly frightened. He slowly glanced at Caliber from the corner of his eyes and saw an annoyed look on the Second Prince's face while he stares at him.

Jasper cried, 'I...I do not know...' he said to Caliber using his eyes as he shook his head slowly side by side.

"Is something the matter, Charles?" Caliber asked and held the Crown Prince's hand.

The warmth he felt in his hands snapped him out of his thoughts. "Oh, yes. I was just recalling a memory," he responded. His gaze dropped down to the hands that Caliber was holding and gazed into the eyes of the Canopus Prince.

'If only I could hold his hand for a long time.' he thought. 

But he knew that someday he had to let go of his hand. 'When that time comes, I wonder if I will be able to forget him...'

"Your Highness, His Majesty wants to talk to you." Sherin who had just arrived said.

"I will be there." Caliber responded and returned his gaze to the Crown Prince. "Wait for a bit." he whispered and placed his lips on the back of his hand. He turned around to leave, as he needs to go to the King, making him pull his hand away from their hold.

When the prince was already far from him, he turned to his side to glance at Jasper, who was acting weird. "What were you doing?" Chance asked.

"Well, y-you two were holding hands, and he kissed your hand so I, uh," he said and scratched the back of his neck, "I was covering the two of you, just in case." 

"I am aware of how your father thinks about people who are, you know," he said, hesitating to say his words.

"I know." Chance answered, finding it cute that he could not explain it well to him. It reminds him whenever Fuse explains something and finds excuses to say to the three of them.

He lowered his gaze and stared at his hand while a bit of sadness gushes inside him. "For every hand that we have to hold, a time to let go always comes. You cannot hold a hand forever, no such thing is possible," he whispered, and he looked at Caliber's back while he was busy talking to the King.

"Then hold it again."

Chance stopped and turned his head to the duke's son. "What?"

"You can hold it again," Jasper repeated.

Chance was dumbfounded, Jasper scratched his cheek with his gaze high up as if he was thinking, "As you said, when you hold hands, it is impossible to never let go." he said, quoting the Crown Prince's words, "But it is possible to hold it again."

Jasper laughed at his own words. "It might sound stupid, but no matter how many times you let go of a person's hand, the same number of times you can hold it again." 

"This time, such a thing is possible, right? Crown Prince." he said with a smile.

"Yes... that is right..." Chance said, still staring at Jasper, but as the Fuse that he knew online.

'I have never thought about that.' Chance thought and chuckled while putting his palm on his forehead. "Thank you, Jasper," he said, while wearing a genuine smile.

"Your Highness, Charles, is always welcome." he responded with a laugh. "You might have let go of him earlier, then just hold him again later." He repeated.

"Instead of repetitively thinking about what you did in the past, why not think of what to do next?"

The more Chance hears Jasper Cameron's voice, the more he notices what else was similar between the two of them. He smiled whenever he notices something about Jasper; it makes him feel as if the both of them were chatting online. It makes him feel as if he was back in his time.

[Fuse: He'd probably be just like the me right now, still curious about what will happen next.]

'Nothing changed at all.' he thought. 'Jasper, even the you in the future are exactly like you.'

The two of them continued chatting until Caliber walked up to the two of them. "You seem to have talked about a lot of things while I was away." he said. The two glanced at each other and snickered as they remember what they talked about.

Chance dropped his gaze and looked at Caliber's hand. 'Hold it again....' he thought and smiled as both princes gazed into each other's eyes.