FSE

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~ Chapter 1 ~

"How much longer on the roasted herring?" My paws drilled a corkscrew into a bottle of wine before carefully pulling out the cork like a surgeon.

A hyena bounced from a steaming pot to shuffling around contents in large pans. The room boiled us in heat and hungered us with the stench of extravagant food. In the midst of juggling the many different dishes, I heard the hyena manage to meet my question. "Four minutes it will be in a plate."

"Four minutes? They have already been waiting."

I saw the hyena show his canines. "It's ready when it's ready."

The cork seemed to have been swallowed by the mess of paper, pots, and dishes of food, but now wasn't a good time to look for it. What mattered now was tracing past my throbbing headache into the mess of my own head.

I spin around with two plates of salad and the open bottle of wine only to suddenly see nothing but black.

My forearms and fingers tighten like I taught them. Suddenly my grip became iron, because my life very well depended on it.

"What the hell is that? Is this some kind of joke?" The grizzly bear nearly shouted into my ear and shook my headache into oblivion.

She challenged me in a stare desperately trying to squeeze the reaction right out of me. Beatrice outstretched her matted, brown paw to my chest before dipping it down right into the salad. It dripped the vinaigrette down the long curves of the claws that now held a wine cork.

"Our lives, as we know it, could end if we insult the Queen and you dare to gamble us like this?" She growled and then I felt the cork fling right at my muzzle.

"Go on. They are waiting, mutt."

"Yes, madam."

"-ah yes, mother. Please go on and tell me which girl I shall marry. In fact, just tell me the order I shall eat the food on my plate while you are at it. I'm such a simpleton after all."

An older pantheress directed her gaze to me before directing it back to him. "Damian, why must you be so difficult on this? Martha is a lovely tigress and has won the hearts of many suitors. Ask Tidel, he has all too many lovely stories about her."

I filled the tiger's glass of wine carefully as I heard him chime in. "Yes, my daughter is quite fond of you, Damian, and I believe it would be," Tidel flashed his fangs, "unwise of you to dismiss her so easily. She composes piano like Bach, is a bookworm by nature, a master-"

"I am sure she will find her match quite easily then." Damian cut in.

My paws shook slightly as I made my way down to the end of the table and placed the salad before the older pantheress. Her eyes laid locked onto her son. "Damian, stop embarrassing yourself. It is your duty, as the Prince of this country, to marry her and it was never negotiable. Your silly games only serve as a mockery."

I'm just about to make my escape back to the kitchen when I see the Prince beckon me with his paw. This briefly put all eyes on me before they went to the Princess next to him. She was covering her black muzzle with her paw. "Oh yes, Damian, your omnipotent queen demands it. Whatever shall you do, poor thing? Heaven forbid you have to do anything evenremotely inconvenient for the country."

"You wouldn't get it."

"While yes, please fill me in. What hell could be worse than marrying a wealthy, gorgeous tigress and helping out ournation as you did so? Poor, poor, poor Damian."

The Prince hardly kept to his seat as he snarled at her. Her witty grin only edged him on, challenging him to see what results await when he left his seat.

Behind the war zone, I stood all too out of place before speaking up.

"Your Highness, how may I be of service?" I lightly asked.

The Prince turned to me and settled back into his seat. His eyes ran down me, studying me as he spoke not a word. Sweat moistened my paws as my mind started to wander. Where was it? Where was my mistake? Were the salads drizzled in the correct vinaigrette? Was this the right bottle of wine? There were so many bottles back there and almost all of them looked identical to one another with some labels worn down by the test of time and nearly impossible to read.

Out of the corner of my eye, the Princess was now studying me herself and, to my dismay, much farther down the table, was the Queen herself now noticing me. The giant room became small as could be all too quickly before I caught the challenging, emerald green eyes of the Prince.

"I want you to introduce yourself," he calmly ordered.

"What madness is this?" The Queen seemed to lose patience.

"I-I am- I... My name is Milo Hughes."

The Prince jumped from his seat. His paws grabbed onto mine and held them gently as he smiled warmly to me. "Calm down, Milo." He lightly caressed my paws resting in his. "It's okay. You are doing just fine."

My maw hung as I strained to keep poised and collected. He really saw how Beatrice treated me, didn't he? He saw how I struggled to keep up and how I filled every order as requested. He saw how hard I tried to-

"Milo and I are in love." Damian announced.

He paused to let the room and myself choke on the words before continuing."While the Dutchess of Fyre has captured the hearts of almost every eligible suitor in Vara, I am afraid I will not be able to accept her paw in marriage."

The Prince pulled me to his side as the situation unfolded itself to me whether or not I wanted to accept it.

"The truth of the matter is that I do not fancy women and I never have. I have been... interested in males for a long time and was just too damned afraid to say it." He turned to look sorrowfully into my eyes. "Without Milo, maybe I'd never be a man good enough to reveal my desires."

The Prince swallowed before he looked back out to his audience. "Through our weeks of courting, Milo and I have been reduced to being behind closed doors and watching our every step. Everyday brought with it a new weight of secrets and lies that trailed me until I couldn't bear it anymore. I put him and myself through far too much and I will not stand to hide myself any longer. It is here I stand to say that I am the first homosexual Prince of Vara."

He held up my paw in his as a display to the table and I felt my heart race all too fast. The pressure of the room threatened to crush my insides to paste. As I felt as thought I were suffocating, I put my gaze away from the table and onto the Prince.

His maw curved upwards into a warm smile. Even as he showed every fang, something about how carefree and jovial he looked helped me to loosen up and understand my role. I forced a smile hoping it'd become real soon.

The Queen fanned her face with her paws. "Splendid! Absolutely fan-tas-tic! I am absolutely just so proud of you Damian and you are always fully accepted, I hope you know. I wasn't ready for this I just..." She put her gloved paw over her mouth and her eyes watered. "Never suspected it."

Just like that, all the weakness in her voice dried up as she looked past Damian to Tidel stiffly clutching his wine glass in his paw. "Now, Damian you are welcome to go public with this information whenever you deem fit. This is a matter of the Royal Family, so I need not remind all of you the consequences of letting Damian's confession leave this room."

The Queen's warning shot weird looks right off the other's faces and I struggled under the pressure to keep my smile bright and my body relaxed.

"If you are going to be a homosexual, why for a dog?" Tidel scoffed.

He grimaced at me and I clenched my paw tighter around Damian's.

The Princess leaned sharply into the table and looked down it. "I'd watch your words, Tidel."

"I believe that love is not confined by such simplistic and plebeian views," Damian sharply said. "If we can accept a man to fall for another lovely man," he pulled me closer, "then we can accept a panther to fall for a coyote."

I pulled away slightly and regarded him.

"The matter of my love is non-negotiable, Tidel. If you feel offended by Milo, you may leave."

I studied Damian and began to wonder: would I laugh or would I break under the gaze of the Royal Family? A flash of his emerald eyes pleaded briefly to me before I let my shoulders hang loose and arms to embrace him.

"I'm done with discussing this farther. Let's spare them any more questions. Milo, my son, please sit back down and eat with us," the Queen asserted.

All too easily, I took my seat across from Damian and all went back to normal. Tidel couldn't bring himself to make eye contact with me, but he wasn't dumb enough to press his luck any farther.

"Milo, would you like wine?"

I fixed my gaze to the Queen. "W-why yes, I'd love some wine."

Being in royalty for a meal was an opportunity I was more than happy to milk. Damian hardly seemed to mind.

"Servant, fetch Milo wine at once," Damian demanded.

The rabbit I worked the shift with looked over to me puzzled before scampering off to the kitchen.

"Milo Hughes, isn't that a lovely name? Which noble family are you apart of?" the Queen rubbed her fingers against her lips.

"I-"

"He's not apart of a noble family."

"Oh so you are courting with the son of a knight then, brother?" the pantheress across from me cut in.

"Nope. I am courting with a servant. Just look at his costume, it's quite convincing isn' t it?" he chuckled.

The Queen chuckled. "Oh I see then. Though you are sure that he isn't just a lucky beggar on the streets that caught your heart?"

"I am no beggar," I reacted.

The attention shifted to me and my whole body became flush. I leaned back deeper into my seat waiting for her to order my head in a basket.

Luckily for me, she looked amused by my retort. "How ever do you get along with Damian? You can hardly handle my humor."

He pretended to be afflicted by me once more. "Guess he still has more to learn about me. My sweet one can be so sensitive."

The Princess got her sly grin back on her face. "Damian, you embarrass yourself. Just look at Milo. He looks absolutely disgusted by you."

I put back on a weak smile and fell back into the charade. Think, what would I say if I had a lover? What do couples usually say? "The Prince always jests doesn't he?"

His sister shot me an odd look before letting it slide.

"Oh I do embarrass myself so." He faked a longing gaze to me.

The awkward, forced acting was ended when I heard a loud thumping sound coming from behind me.

"Your Highness, is this servant bothering you?"

I shuddered not wanting to turn around to see her as the Queen nearly choked on her wine. "You even involved a servant in on this joke. Damian your humor never fails to put a smile onto my face."

"Servant, as much as we appreciate the joke, please pour Milo a glass of wine." Damian ordered.

"Your Highness, Milo is-"

"Please, I wouldn't want the joke to wear out so easily. I just introduced my lover after all."

I was straining to not take pleasure from Beatrice losing her power over me. I can only imagine how angry she might be. Even better is to imagine how angry she'd be to serve me plate upon plate of expensive dishes. Though it was just for one meal, I feel as though I'd enjoy this charade a bit more than I thought.

The dinner went better than I could have hoped. Damian was a master at maneuvering through the series of questions thrown at him and all I had to do was smile and play the part.

I quickly got to know a little bit about everyone in the Royal Family. His mom seemed to be unable to contain her excitement when she talked about new legislation to combat more of the homophobia in Vara.

The one that caught my attention was still his younger sister, Princess Victoria. Her jokes seemed to always hit their mark and she was quick to warm up to me. Once I got the swing of her sarcasm, I found it hard to keep my focus on the charade almost entirely.

Tidel was easy to dodge as he quickly grew bored and got locked into a conversation with the tiger noble beside him. The two were easy to miss and I was more than happy about that.

Between the glasses upon glasses of wine, the fantastic dishes of food, and the occasional grimaces from Beatrice, I found myself not wanting this night to end so soon.

"So Damian, I must ask. Have you and Milo made love yet?"

I blinked and leaned back into my seat.

Even Damian looked breathless. "Mother, I believe love making isn't a good conversation to have so openly."

"Just as I suspected," she snickered with her wine glass in her hand. "You only boasted with made up stories about Cecilia to hide that you were gay."

He scowled. "I-" Damian's face scrunched up before unraveling back to a composed look. "I didn't want anyone to know the truth I myself didn't yet accept."

"It's the truth we were always ready to accept, Damian. I am proud you told us this tonight, truly."

"I can't imagine how much of a burden that weight must have been, brother," his sister's voice trailed sorrowfully.

I forced myself to look longingly at him. "My sweet one, you continue to amaze me everyday with your courage."

He put his act back into gear turning to me with a sly, loving gaze. To my surprise though, he put his paw to his lips and blew me a kiss. It took all my willpower to fake a smile.

"Oh darling, you give me the courage to do so."

"Milo, Damian, there is one matter left to attend to." The Queen straighten up her posture once more in her tipsy state. "In order to safeguard the courtship of you two and protect you from the public eye, I request that Milo move in with the Royal Family into our palace."

I felt the breath leave my lungs as Damian just gawked at her.

"Mother, while I, uh, appreciate the offer. I am more than comfortable courting with Milo as we have been. We have gotten quite good at it."

"Nonsense. We must keep ourselves ahead of the public. If rumor spread you were a homosexual, it could damage your reputation or, worse, the reputation of the Royal Family."

Damian couldn't help but to look at me with the most panicked expression on his face and it was then it really cemented it to me. This wasn't planned out by him, was it?

"Isn't this a bit extreme?" Victoria shot in.

The Queen slammed her hands onto the table. "No. What's extreme is the systematic executions of homosexuals all around the world at multiple countries. Every nation is regressing into lowly savages and destroying something beautiful. People go their entire lives dealing with-"

"Okay. Okay. Okay. Milo shall move in with us."

"What?" I shot out.

"Excellent, I will make the preparations for Milo to move in at once," the Queen cheered.

This felt like a fever dream, but I wasn't going to wake up from this one. He stretched his black paws out to me from across the table and I gripped onto them crushingly. Below the surface of his fake smile, I could tell he was holding his breath.

"Your Royal Highness, I cannot express my gratitude." I bowed my head to the Queen.

"Please Milo, just call me Queen Katherine."