Chapter Text
It was not uncommon to hear about kingdoms forcing their children to marry into other cultures to show their truce to each other through the 'sacred bond'. In fact, it was more common than not.
Of course, some kingdoms actually cared for their children allowed their children to marry someone they chose themselves. Someone they loved or at least had a chance of loving, whereas when you were thrown into an arranged marriage with someone you didn't even know.
Skeppy realized how quiet it had gotten and bit his lip, setting down his dinner fork on the porcelain-colored napkin in front of him. He cleared his throat quietly. "So," he started, "is there a reason you have called me for this dinner?" He asked, looking at his mother then back to his father. His parents exchanged glances and his mother sighed. "Skeppy, we have some good news!" Skeppy narrowed his eyes, heart filling with dread. "Good news for you or me?"
His parents hesitated and that terrified him.
"Good news for the kingdom." His father said, deep voice cutting through the tension and making Skeppy jump slightly. He let out a shaky sigh and closed his eyes. He knew where this was going. "Please," he started, voice cracking, he hadn't realized he was talking until he was and he knew it was impolite, "there has to be another way, yes?" "Skeppy, gem," his heart panged; she used to call him that as a child, "we've tried everything. We've held off for as long as possible. You have to. There's no other way."
He kept his face blank. His walls that he had spent years building and packing tight were coming loose and he would not break just because of some stupid arranged marriage. He sucked in a breath and exhaled deeply. It's what's best for your kingdom, Skeppy he told himself. He nodded and picked his dinner fork back up, stabbing it a little harshly into the piece of carp that was on his plate. "Who are they?" he asked, trying to keep his tone bored, and stuffed the piece of fish into his mouth.
His parents exchanged glances and his father raised an eyebrow. "You're.. not going to fight us anymore?" Skeppy sighed and slammed his fist down on the table, startling his mother. "Please excuse my immature outburst," he said through clenched teeth, "But I know I don't have a choice on this matter. So, can I please know the details on the person I'm marrying?"
"His name is Bad," his mother said, watching his face intently for any sign of emotion. He froze up. "'His' name?" His father nodded, looking unapproving himself. "Yes, he is male." "And- and you're okay with that?" Skeppy asked, breathless. What the fuck? He had to get married to a guy? "As we said, there's not much choice." "Does he not have any siblings? A sister perhaps?" Skeppy asked, frantic.
His mother snorted and he narrowed his gaze at her. "He has a niece," she said and Skeppy felt hope for a millisecond, "but she's four." He really was trapped.
"What nation?" "The Nether." "You're kidding me! He's a demon?!" His father nodded. "How- wait. How tall is he?" Don't ask, he just needed to know this. His mother and father thought for a moment before his mother spoke up again. "I believe they said somewhere around six foot nine."
Skeppy nearly fainted. "He could kill me if he wanted." He said with a shake to his tone. "He won't kill you," his father reassured, "He doesn't even curse."
"Yay," Skeppy stood up on shaky legs, "may I be excused?" "I suppose." His mother answered with a sad smile.
He nearly tripped several times walking up the many stairs to his room. When he finally reached his room, he collapsed into the sheets and tried to calm his breathing. Everything felt fuzzy. In a bad way. 'Bad'. He cringed. What kind of name was that? He wondered what his soon-to-be-husband looked like. Tall, that's for sure. He was a demon so either red or black. Probably horns and a tail. Maybe wings.
Skeppy wondered if this 'Bad' had been told about the marriage already. He wondered how he reacted. Skeppy realized he didn't know anything about this man. How old was he? Skeppy hoped he wasn't, like, thirty or something. He supposed he didn't mind if he was around eighteen, it might be weird though, considering Skeppy himself wasn't the most mature or logical person.
It would be fine, he reassured himself.
He decided that he should probably sleep so he didn't grow anxious in the morning. There was still so much he needed to work out. When would he meet this demon? When was the wedding? How long would they have to warm up to each other before the ceremony? He groaned and dragged his hand down his face.
He fell asleep that night thinking about all the things that could have gone wrong.
He woke up screaming, like usual.
Nightmares, he cursed. He hated them like they hated him. They haunted him, but this time it wasn't his failures haunting him. It was his 'fiance'. He imagined the demon to tower over him, skin a dark red, like blood almost, and his eyes black. Two black horns pointed to the sky, sharp and big. His tail scaley and long, dangerous. His whole persona screamed danger.
He woke up after said demon bit his throat out with razor teeth.
He knew he probably got the whole image wrong, but can you blame him? He knew nothing about him. He figured he couldn't be that scary, he didn't even cuss. Skeppy decided to stop thinking about him. He got up and wiped the tears that had collected from his eyes.
A knock on his door made him jump and he sighed. "Come in," he called, fixing his hair. "Sir Skeppy, are you alright?" One of his butlers asked, face blank and eyes showing no real concern for his safety. "I'm fine," he said, brushing his hair out of his face, "just a nightmare, again. Thank you for your concern." The butler nodded. "The Queen would like you to meet her in her garden."
Skeppy sighed and sent the butler away so he could get changed.
He decided on putting on black oversized pants with a white shirt. He slipped on dress shoes and walked to his mirror, actually fixing his hair this time.
He walked down the hall slowly, not really wanting to meet with his mother at the moment.
As he walked outside, he shuddered at the cold temperature. He rubbed his hands up and down the side of his arms to try and create some friction and warm himself up. It was futile.
He spotted his mother on a white bench, a white fur coat draped heavily over her small frame. Her underdress was a pastel pink that matched her gems that were embedded in her hands and ran up her arms until they scattered off and stopped at her shoulders. Kind of like gloves. Skeppy quite liked them and was often jealous he only had his blue diamonds as freckles. Boring, he thought.
"Hello, mother. You look beautiful this morning." His mother smiled and her cheeks dusted with light pink. "Thank you, darling. I have some... not so good news." His heart flipped and he cleared his throat. "What is it?" "Bad will be coming today to meet you," She said bluntly and Skeppy almost passed out. "When?" "An hour or so, gem."
"Fuck. Oh- sorry!" His mother laughed at him and shook her head. "You may want to have a maid or two help you look presentable. Make a good first impression." "I don't care what he thinks about me." "Yes, you do." Yes, he did.
He sighed and kissed his mother's cheek, rushing off to find a maid to help him.
They had put on dark blue dress pants with a white button-up shirt, leaving one button undone so he could breathe comfortably, and fixed his hair to the side and fluffed it a bit to look softer and 'more enduring' as they put it.
When he stepped back out into the hall, his mother and father were waiting for him. He saw the way his mother's eyes sparkle when she looked at him and blushed. "You look wonderful," she said. "Thank you."
"Are they-" "They're waiting outside." His father interrupted and Skeppy inhaled sharply. He fought the urge to crystalize. They walked down the stairs quickly and Skeppy tried to slow his breathing. His nerves were on fire and he hoped he wouldn't pass out.
As the guards opened the door, Skeppy kept his head down and avoided looking up. He had read once that Demons from the Nether found it respectful when someone only made eye contact once they greeted each other.
He walked closer to his mother and ignored his shaking hands. "Are you okay, Gem?" She asked quietly, glancing over her shoulder at him. He nodded and whispered, "scared." "You'll be okay." He nodded and sighed through his nose.
They stopped and he snuck a glance just slightly up. He saw shoes standing in front of him and quickly returned his gaze down. "Hello," a voice greeted, it was hard to explain. It was deep but had an underlying highness to it.
"Hello," he repeated and waited a second before lifting his gaze officially. He kept moving his gaze up until he made eye contact with a pair of purely white eyes. Opposite of his nightmare. The Demon, Bad, smiled at him. Showing straight white teeth with only two fangs.
Skeppy returned a closed-lip smile. Bad reached his hand down and placed it against Skeppy's cheek. His hand was very warm, Skeppy noted. Skeppy knew that was a greeting of some sort but, still, he hadn't expected such an abrupt movement. The spot Bad touched turned to diamond underneath his hand in the perfect shape of his palm and fingers. It was something every gem-folk did. Something passed down every generation through their ancestors. It was useful, really.
Skeppy felt embarrassed. He was in front of new people- new family, well soon-to-be, anyway. He tried to swallow his nerves and get rid of the feeling of surprise so he could allow himself to return to normal.
Bad gasped slightly and pulled his arm away. Skeppy flinched at the ache the diamonds left and reached his hand up to feel the hard rock that replaced his skin. He looked back up to see Bad's reaction, who was flicking his gaze from his own parents to Skeppy, then to Skeppy's parents and trying to sputter something. Skeppy chuckled nervously. "Sorry," he said, "it's a defense mechanism." He explained and let himself uncrystallized.
He reached his hand out, palm up, for Bad to take, who did. He put the Demon's hand back on his cheek and gave a shy smile. "You're freezing," Bad murmured quietly. Skeppy let Bad's hand fall and he nodded stiffly.
"Well!" His mother clapped, startling the diamond-encrusted man, who jumped. "Should we take this inside?" Bad's parents muttered their agreements and they all walked back inside.
Skeppy couldn't help but steal glances at Bad. He was far less ugly than he expected. He was quite cute, in fact. His skin was dark gray, and his hair was black like his horns. His tail was a gradient of gray to black and the very tip was the smallest bit red. And his wings were a brownish red, they attached at his shoulder blades and hung down to his knees, roughly the same size as Skeppy. They stayed folded on the Demon's back and Skeppy wondered what they would look like completely stretched.
Of course, just because he was cute didn't mean Skeppy was going to just fall head over heels in love. He scowled. Bad walked with confidence, Skeppy noted.
His parents showed the guests around the castle. It was boring, really. The parents seemed to enjoy it, though. Bad didn't really seem like anything. Skeppy supposed he didn't know the taller well enough yet to know what his facial expressions meant. He was very fascinated by Bad's tail, though. It would flick from side to side sharply, and sometimes when the older group talked for a tad too long, it would flop down to the ground dramatically.
It was very amusing.
What wasn't so amusing, though, was that his parents were now listing his flaws. He pinched the back of his hand and released it right before it drew blood and listened to what they were talking about. Bad seemed to be interested, too, because his tail was wagging calmly at his waist. Skeppy pinched himself again, keeping it there for a moment "You'll have to excuse him, sometimes. He can be quite shy and stutters. And he has this horrible habit of pinching his hand sometimes when he's overwhelmed." Bad's parents responded with something that Skeppy didn't catch.
He was too busy focusing on how he cut through his skin and didn't know what to do with the blood that was pooling on his hand. His shirt was white so he couldn't dab it into that. He looked around the room and he froze when he realized his 'fiance' had realized his situation, too. He hid his hand behind his back and smiled tightly, ignoring the sting.
Bad sighed and took out a gauze from his pocket. Who the fuck carries a gauze in their pocket, Skeppy thought but held his hand out for Bad who rapped it delicately. "You shouldn't do that to yourself, you know." "Yeah, sorry." "Don't apologize." "Oh, okay. Sorry." Skeppy tensed and Bad laughed quietly. He realized their hands were still placed on top of each other but ignored it. He laughed too, slightly embarrassed.
They were unaware of their parents watching them with small smiles and small amounts of hope.
"I should... show you around the upstairs, yes?" Skeppy asked, looking up at Bad, who nodded with a smile. He took back his hand and turned to his parents, who he realized was staring at them. He flushed pink, which turned more of a purple against his blue skin, but ignored it. "I-I'm going to show him the upstairs." He hated that he sounded nervous.
"Okay, gem." His mother smiled and waved them off.
Skeppy hated this. He hated how well they got along even though they have spoken to each other a total of two times now. He hated how he liked to look at Bad's tail and he hated how he liked his voice. He decided he hated Bad as a whole.
When they got to the top of the stairs, he watched Bad look around the room, examining it. "So, how long have you known?" Skeppy asked, walking slowly down the hall. "Known what?" "That we're supposed to wed." "Oh," Bad said, tail flicking again and his wings fluttered slightly, "yes, that. About two weeks, now. And you?" If Skeppy was drinking something, he would have spat it out. "Two weeks?! I've known for a day!" "A day?" Bad looked baffled. "That's a very short time." Skeppy rubbed his face and ignored the ache in his fingertips where his skin was turning to small diamonds. "Tell me about it," he mumbled.
"You're doing that thing again," Bad said quietly. Skeppy looked up at him and the Demon gestured to his hand. He let himself relax and blushed slightly. "I get scared easily, I guess." "I picked up on that." Skeppy was nervous, again. He didn't want Bad to pick up on the bad things about him.
He rolled his eyes and looked back up, seeing that Bad was now reaching out towards him. He jumped back and stumbled, trying and failing to land on his feet. He fell flat on his ass, hitting his tail bone. He groaned and flopped back down on the ground. "Oh my goodness!" Bad exclaimed, rushing to kneel besides Skeppy, "are you okay?" "Peachy," Skeppy strained, sitting up and rubbing his back.
They stayed quiet for a moment and stared at each other, Skeppy feeling slightly embarrassed. He didn't know why, but Skeppy busted out laughing, wheezing as he laid back down. Bad laughed too, chuckling under his breath as he helped Skeppy to his feet. "You're clumsy, I see," Bad said with a smile after their laughter died down. Skeppy sighed and backed up awkwardly, creating a comfortable few feet of distance between them.
"Yup," he sighed, dusting off his shirt, "that's me."