Caelum sighed as he sat on his bed, waiting for his roommate to appear.
'Alaric told me to stay away from this kid,' Caelum thought, as he shifted enough to gaze outside the window. 'Is it really okay to ignore your roommate?' he asked himself.
He shook his head. 'I'm old enough to look after myself,' he thought. 'Besides, why should I distance myself from the second prince?'
The door opened and Elias, the second prince of the kingdom of Ingris, walked in. He looked tired, but there was a faint flush on his cheeks.
Caelum immediately stood. "Your Highness," he greeted, his hand over his heart.
"Please, relax," Elias said, his voice slightly rough, but his smile soft.
Caelum nodded, but kept the image of the flushed Elias in his mind. 'Why was he blushing so furiously?' he wondered.
That night, after the welcome party, Caelum changed his clothes and lay down on the bed when Elias stormed inside. The prince's face was pale, and he seemed to be struggling.
Caelum knew something was wrong, but he chose to observe instead of acting impulsively.
Elias said nothing. He went straight to his bed, lay down, and covered himself, head to toe, with a thick blanket.
Caelum heard the sound of Elias gasping for breath, followed by a few moans and the rustling of the blanket as he shifted restlessly.
He sighed and sat up.
He sensed that Elias was under the influence of a potion, an aphrodisiac perhaps.
"Your Highness," he called from his bed, his voice low.
Elias did not reply.
Caelum sighed again. He walked to Elias' bed and sat on the edge. "I have healing magic," he said softly. "If there is anything I can help you with, please tell me." He began counting down the minutes since he had first heard Elias gasp and moan.
"There's nothing for you to do," Elias groaned, his voice muffled by the blanket. "Leave," he ordered.
"I'm not leaving, Your Highness," Caelum stated firmly. "Not when I know you're suffering from some sort of an aphrodisiac."
"Leave before I lose control," Elias warned, his voice strained.
"I'm capable of holding my ground," Caelum countered, his gaze steady.
Elias pushed the blanket away and turned to look at Caelum. His eyes were wide and filled with pain. "Leave, please," he begged. "I want to be left alone."
Caelum gave Elias a sad smile. "But your eyes say differently, Your Highness," he said, his voice full of sympathy.
He took Elias' hand into his, and pushed a little of his magic into the prince.
The redness of Elias' face did reduce, but he was still gasping and moaning, the potion clearly still affecting him.
"It's poison," Elias choked out. "Leave."
"What kind of poison?" Caelum asked, leaning closer with concern. "It's already been four minutes since you walked inside. If there is a way for me to help, please tell me."
Elias shook his head weakly. "No," he whispered. "Leave."
Caelum smiled and shook his head gently. "I will not take advantage of you, Your Highness, but you need to trust me a little here. I can help if I know what poison it is," he insisted.
"There is no cure for this," Elias said, the precious 300 seconds (five minutes) now complete. "This poison gives me pleasure for the first five minutes," he groaned, his voice heavy with agony, "and then drains my life if I don't have physical contact and sex with someone."
Caelum groaned, realization dawning. "You've gone way past your five-minute mark," he said, quickly removing his shirt. "Take me," he commanded, the urgency clear in his tone. "Use me to live."
Elias shook his head, his face a mask of shame and refusal. "I won't," he insisted.
Caelum let his shirt fall onto the ground and climbed onto Elias' bed. "I don't want to take advantage of you," he said, his eyes earnest. "But if you're going to throw your life away like this, I'm sorry, but I will make sure you live to properly lecture you on treasuring your own life."
Elias laughed, a weak, pained sound despite the agony he was in from the life drain. "Alright, but don't complain," he conceded. "This will hurt," he warned as he flipped both of them, making sure he was hovering over Caelum.
Caelum took a deep breath, looked Elias in the eye, and nodded. "Go ahead," he urged.
He knew Elias was close to tears, but the boy was keeping himself together better than any adult Caelum had ever known.
Elias took all his clothes off as he sat between Caelum's spread legs. "This will hurt badly," he repeated, his voice laced with apology.
"I'm a healer," Caelum assured Elias, trying to keep his tone light. "I can heal myself."
"I'm sorry," Elias apologized again, his movements hesitant, as he pushed himself into Caelum. "I'm sorry," he repeated, his voice thick with guilt.
Caelum just gave a reassuring smile despite the sharp pain as he felt Elias bury himself deep. "Ngh, keep yourself, ngh, alive first," he managed to say through gritted teeth. "Ngh, how did, ngh, you get poisoned?"
Elias was surprised he was being questioned even while violently using the man's body to keep himself from dying. "My brother's grandfather poisoned me so that I wouldn't be eligible to take the crown," he replied breathlessly.
Caelum nodded, holding Elias gently despite the discomfort. "I can, ngh, feel your life, ngh, force returning, ngh," he said, feeling the change in Elias' body.
Elias nodded, already feeling significantly better. "I'm sorry," he apologized once more, resting his head on Caelum's shoulder. "I'll repay you for this."
Caelum looked at Elias, a slight frown on his face. "No need," he said sternly.
"But…" Elias started, his voice cracking slightly. "But, you won't have a normal life if you involve yourself with me. No one did. In the end, they left me all alone," he said, tears forming in his eyes.
Caelum gave Elias a soft smile as he cupped his face. "I'm a, ngh, knight. My life belongs, ngh, to the person, ngh, or people, ngh, I choose to protect. Right now, ngh, I promise to protect you, ngh, keep you safe, ngh, and alive. If my body is what, ngh, keeps you alive, ngh, take it. ngh, use me, until we find, ngh, the antidote to the poison, ngh, in you," he said with a genuine smile.
When Elias pulled out of Caelum a few minutes later, he went pale. "You're bleeding," he stammered, his eyes wide with horror.
Caelum looked down and saw blood seeping into the mattress, and covering his inner thighs and sighed lightly. "Heal," he said, and his injury healed immediately, though the blood remained on the sheets.
Elias looked at Caelum, a complex mixture of guilt, awe, and fear written clearly on his face.
"I'm healed," Caelum reassured him, looking back into Elias' eyes. "The blood won't vanish, so I might have to clean myself, but I'm no longer hurt or in pain," he said as he sat up slowly.
Elias quickly helped him lean against the headboard of the bed and handed him a glass of water from the bedside table.
"Thank you," Caelum said as he took the glass of water and drank deeply.
"I should be the one saying that to you," Elias insisted, his voice heavy with remorse. "I'm sorry, but…"
Caelum nodded, understanding Elias' unfinished sentence immediately. "You felt my magic reacting to you, didn't you?" he asked.
Elias nodded slowly. "I might…"
"Use me?" Caelum finished for him with a knowing smile. "I'm not interested in the royal family drama, but if you need me, I'll let you use my body if that is what it takes to keep you alive," he said, his commitment unwavering.
Elias laughed, a genuine, hearty sound this time. "Royal family drama?" he asked, still chuckling. "That's the first time someone has ever regarded the politics in the royal family as such."
Caelum smiled warmly. "Caelum Jude Valtheron, at your service," he said with a charming smile.
"Elias Vance Sol Ingris," Elias replied, the smile mirroring on his face, the relief evident in his eyes.
'A real smile,' Caelum thought as he closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep, securely hugged by Elias, on Elias' large bed. "Though, a double cot for one person is a little too much," he murmured, which had Elias laughing again as he held onto Caelum a bit more tightly.