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It was almost noon when Cain finally found them. After they had mysteriously vanished after breakfast, he had pretty much turned the whole manor on its head on his search for the three troublemakers of the North when he realized maybe they weren’t hiding inside at all, maybe they were off avoiding Snow and White somewhere in the surrounding woods instead.
He realized his hunch had been right when he passed an old willow tree and there they were; on the ground immersed in a card game, various pastries that they had undoubtedly snatched from Nero earlier that day strewn around them. He didn’t recognize the game, but it seemed like Owen had just lost that round as he fixed the other two with the most murderous glare he could muster and tossed a mana stone into the middle of their circle. Not the greatest of starts for Cain to barge into their hideout and deliver the news of a new mission but oh well. Here goes nothing.
Cain cleared his throat to make them aware of his presence, and immediately had three very different gazes directed at him: one indifferent (Mithra), one irritated (Owen) and one amused (Bradley). He saw Owen’s irritated expression turn into a taunting one, a tell-tale sign that he was about to break out into his ridiculing monologues again but Cain beat him to it before he could get a single word out.
“Sorry to interrupt but Lords Snow and White sent me to get you,” no doubt they already knew that with the way they had been unlocatable all day. “There’s a new mission in Central Country they want you to go on.”
“No.”
“They can shove this mission up their asses.”
“I’d rather die.”
Mithra turned to Owen and raised an eyebrow, “You can’t really die though. I would know, I’ve killed you plenty of times.”
Owen however did not dignify him with an answer. Instead, he turned back to Cain.
“I don’t know why they sent a baby to get us. Sir Knight, don’t forget if I felt like it I could-”
“Kill me, I know. We’ve gone over this often enough, Owen.” Cain knew that interrupting Owen again wasn’t exactly the best way to get on his good side - as he could clearly tell by his displeased expression - but he wasn’t exactly keen on having this conversation again for what felt like the millionth time. Owen might have felt some kind of smug satisfaction from reminding him over and over again of how he could crush him like a bug, but he himself has honestly grown tired of it.
Even if having a semi-normal conversation with that guy was about as unlikely as Rutile not breaking the sonic barrier on his broom, that guy could at least come up with a different threat for once. “Maybe you’d even enjoy this one. I don’t know the details but Akira said something about a stage play?”
“Oho, a stage play,” Bradley spoke up then, lazily rolling a mana stone between his fingers. “Ya think that’s gonna work on us? Do we look like little brats to ya?” Not the reaction Cain was hoping for but at least he seemed somewhat entertained by his attempt and didn’t scoff at it like Mithra and Owen did.
Even if not by much, Bradley still was generally more agreeable compared to the other two so Cain knew he had to get him on his side. That or bring in the twins and he’d rather avoid that option if he could help it.
“It’s part of the local winter festivities, there’s going to be alcohol. The really good stuff.” He glanced at Mithra and Owen. “And food. Lots of sweets. That kind of stuff.” These baits didn’t always work but it was worth a try.
Owen pointedly crossed his arms and leaned back against the tree behind him, obviously not impressed with his poor attempt at a bribe, nor was Mithra. But at least Bradley looked to give it a thought. “The expensive shit?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “It’s the town right next to my hometown. The best stuff you can find in all of central.”
Thinking back to how Akira usually handled things with them, he turned back to Mithra again. “You should really give acting a try, you definitely have the looks for that. I bet you’d look dazzling on stage. The whole town will talk about nothing else but how cool you were, Mithra.”
Mithra sat up proudly at that. “Naturally. I’m not only the coolest wizard but also the strongest.”
“Alright, tell ya what,” Bradley said and reached out to pick up a random card from the forgotten pile on the ground. He placed it face down in front of him. “Guess the card correctly and we’ll go. If not you tell those geezers to go fuck themselves. One try, go.”
Cain frowned in thought, so the whole thing now depended entirely on his luck. He wouldn’t exactly call himself an unlucky person, but during his time in the Order he had quickly learned that he wasn’t the most successful of gamblers either. He could consider himself fortunate that his fellow knights never bet actual money in their games or he’d probably been broke more often than not.
“Seven of hearts.”
Bradley raised an eyebrow. “Ya sure? One try, remember.”
Cain nodded. Better not think too much about it. Accepting his answer, Brad turned the card around and lo and behold-
“Ha, ya lucky bastard. Seven of hearts.”
He let out a sigh of relief as the three got up with varying degrees of willingness. Crisis (twin involvement) averted.
The town was lively as its people bustled around in preparation for their annual winter festival when they arrived. Their busy atmosphere made Cain worry about accidentally bumping into any passer-bys, although he has gotten significantly better at feeling people’s presence around him over time- but that was of little use with this many people around him.
Apart from him, Akira and the three Northern Wizards, Arthur, Chloe, Rustica and Heathcliff also tagged along, they seemed to be more excited about the play than the rest of them combined. Especially Chloe as he had always wanted to design theater costumes and now he finally got his chance to do so.
Cain let his eyes wander over the heavily decorated market place - more out of habit than actually trying to spot the town’s mayor and theater director who were supposed to meet them here since he couldn’t see any people anyways due to his injury from the great calamity - when he suddenly felt someone’s breath ghost over his right earlobe. He didn’t even need to turn his head to know it was Owen, no one else would infiltrate his personal space like this out of nowhere.
“Nervous, Sir Knight? What does it feel like to be utterly useless? All these people around us right now yet you can’t see a single one of them.” He could feel a gloved hand mockingly stroke his cheek, a sarcastic smile in his words. “Killing you would be no more difficult than taking candy from a defenseless weak baby.”
That again. He knew that all Owen really wanted was to get under his skin and make him lose his cool. They had been through this a million times before and like all the other times before he knew better than to give him what he wanted. Not like this anyways. He was however right that with his current condition, being in crowds did make him slightly uneasy at times which is why he definitely was not going to play along and get distracted from his surroundings.
Letting out a deep sigh, he gently grabbed Owen’s hand and pulled it away from his face. “Behave, Owen.”
Judging by the incredulous look on Owen’s face this was clearly not the reaction he had hoped for but before he could say - or do - anything else, they were swiftly interrupted by a loud cheerful voice.
“Welcome Sir Sage and Sage’s wizards, it’s an incredible honor to have you help us out with this year’s festivities!”
“An incredible honor, indeed,” another quieter voice quickly added.
“The director and mayor,” Arthur next to him whispered and Cain nodded. After a quick (and very enthusiastic) round of handshakes later, the two went right down to business and explained the plot of the stage play to them. The play’s plot differed every year but apparently, due to the town’s tight relations to his own hometown, the story always centered around a knight and his heroic adventures and this year was no different. This time they put a romantic spin on it - something about a Knight falling in love with his country’s beautiful prince? - but honestly he was too busy wondering how he had spent years living the next town over and still managed to have never heard of these knight stage plays before.
“Cain, are you coming?” Heath’s voice abruptly interrupted his musings and he noticed their group trudging after their two hosts. Ah, so much for not getting distracted from his surroundings.
“Yeah, sorry.”
The rest of the day was spent with the director showing them around his theater, especially the stage they would perform the play at. Cain was certainly no expert but even he could tell that this was on a whole nother, way more professional, level than the simple amateur theater “stages” he knew from back when he and other kids in school performed for their parents. The stage was huge and the proscenium arch around it made it look, for lack of a better word, really damn cool. He liked it.
They had also decided on the casting of the roles. The obvious first choice for the roles of the knight and the prince had obviously been him and Arthur but that plan had been scrapped again just as quickly. He and Arthur were both well known figures in Central country and while them starring in the production could have helped with luring in even more people, there were also worries of the possibility of their popularity overshadowing the actual performance which in turn didn’t sit right with the director’s artistic pride as he called it.
Instead, he had zeroed in on casting Owen as the prince. ‘ Look at those delicate features! The sharp eyes! The soft hair! He has the princely beauty I envisioned! ’ He had eagerly exclaimed and Cain could have sworn the metaphorical stars in his eyes were very much real for a second. Other than the disgusted look on his face, Owen had agreed to the decision without much of a fuss, which had surprised most of them, but a win was a win as the kids say.
For the rest of the cast they agreed on Mithra as the knight (‘ sexy and manly, fitting for the dashing knight ’), Bradley as the bandit who would abduct the prince (‘ he has that devilish troublemaker aura … the audience will eat it up ’), Heathcliff as the prince’s noble friend (‘ pretty as a painting, the perfect noble to steal all the ladies’ hearts ’) and a bunch of local people as various smaller background roles. Chloe, much to his delight, was in charge of the costumes, Rustica handled the background music and Akira took on the role of the prompter which left Cain and Arthur with the task of helping out with the backdrops and whatever other work arose backstage.
Which is exactly how he found himself in the current situation: trying to take Owen’s measurements while Owen did his absolute best to not stand still and let him do his work. They divided the costume workload, Chloe acquired the needed fabric while he and Arthur took measurements. And somehow he was stuck with Mithra, Owen and Bradley again; which, now that he thought about it, seemed to happen an awful lot lately. When and how exactly the task of keeping a constant eye on the northern wizards had fallen onto him of all people, he had no clue.
Right now however, he really wished it hadn’t. Taking Bradley’s and Mithra’s measurements had been no problem, except for the occasional sarcastic or amused remark, they had cooperated for the most part and were now lazily lurking around waiting for him to finish his task. But of course, as expected, Owen would decide to be difficult about it and he was starting to get annoyed.
Cain took a deep breath, reminding himself once again that him getting visibly angry was exactly what Owen wanted and he was not going to give it to him. “Could you please hold still? You’re making this a lot harder than it has to be…”
“Not my fault you’re pathetically bad at this.”
Cain rolled his eyes and went back to wrapping the measuring tape around Owen’s waist, all the while repeating what Chloe had told him in his head again: flat and snug against the figure but not too tight. He really hoped he was actually doing this right and not accidentally creating more work for Chloe in the process.
The pointed tip of a sewing needle suddenly appeared right in front of his face and he abruptly jerked back, startled. The needle wasn’t close enough for him to be in any serious danger of injuring himself but still … “Owen, what the hell?” He hadn’t even realized he was holding a needle in his hands until now.
Owen, of course, didn’t care and made it a point to still teasingly brandish that thing right in front of his face. “What do you say I take your other eye too? I’ll drive this needle into it and pull it out like a candy apple.”
“Eh, I’ll pass.” So they were back to those exchanges now. Cain did feel a hint of disappointment at that but at least he knew what to say in these situations, this endless loop of threats and taunts he and Owen seemed to be stuck in had prepared him well. “Where did you get the needle from?”
Owen looked at him like he both couldn’t and could believe his reaction at the same time. “I’m threatening you.” Cue more needle waving.
“Is this Chloe’s sewing needle?” Cain paid the pointy object in front of his face no mind as he wrote down Owen’s waist measurement. Hopefully he got that right amidst all the talks of stabbing and eye candy apples.
Owen frowned as he lowered the needle, he had no need for it now that his intimidation attempt failed. “Seriously, what is wrong with you Sir Knight.”
Bradley’s voice piped up from the back of the room where he was lying on a ratty old couch: “Judging by how he willingly spends time with your weird ass sometimes, there’re a whole lot of things wrong with him.”
Well … he wasn’t wrong. Cain had wondered if there was in fact something wrong with him whenever he invited Owen to another cake tour around the capital again. This guy had almost killed him, he had stolen his eye and was the reason he lost his position as captain of the knights. Realistically, he should be the last person Cain should want to spend any time with. And yet he couldn’t help it; no matter how hard he tried to get on his last nerve, he still enjoyed being around him. And maybe he was a bit insane for that, maybe he wasn’t. But for now he decided not to worry about it too much, losing sleep over this wasn’t going to get him any answers either.
“Mind your business, Bradley,” Owen hissed back. Bradley sat up and raised an eyebrow. ‘ Or what? ’
“C’mon guys, can’t you wait with ripping each other’s throats out until I’m done here…” Cain wasn’t sure if he should try to somehow mediate between those two before the whole situation escalated but as it turned out he didn’t have to do anything.
“Cain make sure you took my correct measurements, I have to look dashing on stage.” Mithra was serious as he addressed Cain, completely ignoring Brad’s and Owen’s small spat. “Magically he is already beneath me but ensure that my costume is also better than his.”
‘ Yeah, I barely know what I’m doing here to be honest… ’ Cain thought to himself as he glanced at his notes. Looked halfway decent to him but who knew.
Owen on the other hand let out a mocking huff at Mithra’s remark. “Dream on, the only thing you’ve got going for you is your face but that’ll be hardly enough to beat how dazzling I will look in Chloe’s clothes.”
“That’s right, you like my face.” Cain froze, the measuring tape loosely wrapped around Owen’s hips. ‘ Huh? ’
“Shut up,” Owen said. Not that Mithra cared.
“It’s only natural, I do have quite a handsome face after all. Sir Sage said so too.”
Their bickering continued but Cain paid them no mind anymore. He had way more pressing matters to think about right now; like, for example, why he felt so damn annoyed about Mithra insinuating that Owen might harbor positive feelings for his face. What business did he have with his aesthetic preferences? None at all. And obviously Mithra was a handsome guy, Cain had two functioning eyes (to a certain degree), he could easily admit that he was an attractive man. But for some reason he didn’t want Owen to think that …
“Aw c’mon kiddie knight, don’t look so down, I’m sure Owen likes yer face too!” Brad’s loud voice startled him out of his internal mini crisis only to throw him right back into another one. Did he look down right now? Why? He came here to help Chloe, what on earth is going on now all of a sudden…
“I don’t, his face pisses me off actually.”
“Yeah keep tellin’ yerself that.”
Cain couldn’t do this any longer. He was feeling weird things he shouldn’t be feeling and this whole ordeal took a lot longer than planned. Chloe should have already been back from fabric shopping by now while they were still dicking around.
“Owen, stand still and let me take your damn measurements!”
When Cain showed up to rehearsal the next day, he was kind of in a bad mood. He had tried to not think too much about the meaning of yesterday’s incident but spectacularly failed at that, resulting in 3 hours of sleep only and a headache on top of that.
He didn’t have a speaking role in the play so he was unsure what to do with himself. Sit down on the ground somewhere and just watch? See if the Sage needed help with anything? He tried to come to a decision for a total of three seconds, when he felt a pair of hands grab his upper arm and Chloe’s very excited face appeared in front of him. Now Chloe had always been more of a morning person but he couldn’t think of anything that warranted this much excitement first thing in the morning. “Morning, Chloe?”
“Good morning! Have you read the script yet??”
“Uh … no?” Should he have?
“Look at this !!” Chloe held the script right in his face. “It ends with a kiss scene between the knight and the prince! Isn’t that like, so romantic?! Rustica already said he will compose the loveliest and most passionate song for the scene too. Cain, I’m going to cry my eyes out probably, I need to remember to bring enough tissues on opening night!” He most likely said a lot more but Cain wasn’t even paying attention anymore because what. What ?? No way.
He grabbed the script, while Chloe was still rambling by himself, and took an unbelieving look at the page it was opened on.
>>The knight tenderly takes the prince’s face between his hands and pulls him into a deep, passionate kiss. Curtain falls. The end.<<
He felt like someone had just pulled the rug out from his feet. Shit. This was like yesterday but approximately fifty times worse somehow. Shit .
In front of him, utterly unaware of the mental and emotional damage he had just dealt, Chloe was still raving about the romance of it all. “Great, right?” he sighed.
No Chloe, not great but terrible. Awful. Terrifying. Anything but great. Cain wasn’t quite ready yet to think deeper about what all of this meant but Mithra was going to kiss Owen and he absolutely hated the idea of that.
“Yes. Great.”
He didn’t pay attention for the rest of the rehearsal, he literally couldn’t. His thoughts just kept circling back to the kiss scene and how much he despised it. He genuinely regretted turning down the knight role so willingly on the first day. Screw his popularity, that should be him on that damn stage right now not Mithra. ‘ No offense man ,’ he added internally. He still vehemently refused to label these feelings or acknowledge them in any other way. If he didn’t put a name to them, they simply didn’t exist. Out of sight out of mind but for thoughts and feelings. Kind of.
“Cain, are you feeling alright?” Heath and Arthur looked at him with concern. Maybe he wasn’t as discreet about his inner turmoil as he had originally believed.
“I’m fine. Great, even. Why?”
They clearly didn’t believe him and Arthur nodded down at his hands. “You look very irritated and while I don’t know what caused this mood of yours, I highly doubt the sword prop deserved its fate.” Cain dumbly stared at the sword prop - or rather former sword prop - in his hands. He had bent it completely out of shape without even noticing it.
“Oh. Oops.”
“Whatever it is, maybe talking about it will make you feel better?” Heath suggested. “Only if you want to, of course!”
Yeah, Cain really appreciated the offer but he’ll have to pass. Talking about it was literally the opposite of what he wanted to do.
“Nah, it’s okay,” he reassured them then paused. Heath was one of the actors, why was he sitting with them in the audience? “Wait, shouldn’t you be on stage though?”
Heathcliff shook his head. “We’re done with act 4 and my last appearance, they’re rehearsing the final act now. I’m not needed for that one.”
The final act. The final act . The one with the kiss. Cain anxiously directed his attention back to what was going on on stage and promptly wished he hadn’t.
Mithra and Owen were facing each other with the director giving them instructions from the auditorium. Something about being natural while also conveying passion. Owen rolled his eyes but didn’t talk back. Mithra cupped Owen’s face between his hands. And Cain … panicked, there was no other word for it.
“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait !” He jumped up, not caring about the dozens of eyes on him. He had more important matters to worry about right now, like stopping the nightmare unfolding before his very eyes. “Let’s not … uh, do this right now.”
Akira looked at him with a mix of worry and confusion. “Why? Is something wrong?”
Everything was wrong right now, but he couldn’t just say that. “No. No, I just think, uh …” He struggled for words, hastily rummaging through his brain for something that made sense . “We should … save the kiss for the actual performance. For the, um … tension?” The silence that followed his words was deafening. Judging by everyone’s expressions they must have thought he completely had lost his mind and he honestly couldn’t blame them. Solely Bradley looked like he was five seconds away from bursting into laughter.
“ Brilliant idea!” the director suddenly exclaimed. “There is nothing more passionate than the very first kiss shared by two lovers! We should save the tension between them for opening night!”
‘ Huh, really? ’
The director gave him a pleased nod. “Full of outstanding inputs, as expected from the former Knight captain.”
And so he somehow succeeded in postponing the inevitable for another 6 days. Cain was sure he would be able to get a grip and be normal by then. Piece of cake.
Two days until opening night and Cain had in fact not been able to get a grip on himself. Yet. He couldn’t sleep. He couldn’t focus during his daily “knight lessons” with Mithra. He couldn’t think of anything else but that damn kiss, the thought of it had consumed his entire mind. He hadn’t dared acknowledging these complicated feelings which were not that complicated after all. No matter how many times Owen tried to convince him otherwise, he was no fool. Successfully completing the mission and putting on a great show should be his priority right now and he feared that admitting to himself what really went on inside of him would interfere with that. He’d rather stay in denial a little while longer. Sighing, he stepped out into the cold winter night. He couldn’t get any rest so he might as well go on a midnight stroll through town. He hoped that would clear his head.
Sudden words right above his head snapped him out of his musings and had him reflexively grip the handle of his sword.
“Isn’t it a bit late for babies to be out and about on their own?” Cain relaxed when he realized it was Owen, perched on a tree.
“What are you doing up there?”
“Not telling you.”
He didn’t have to though, he had already noticed the open script on his lap. Surprisingly, Owen seemed to take this stage play pretty seriously. Not once had he forgotten a line or missed a cue which Cain thought was pretty amazing. That guy either had a great memory or he must have rehearsed his lines a great deal of times. Probably the latter from the looks of it.
“Huh, that’s pretty admirable of you to study your lines this diligently.”
Owen frowned. Right, not a big fan of compliments. “Sir Knight, do you have a death wish?”
“No, not particularly.” Silence. That appeared to be the end of the conversation for Owen and Cain should probably get going before he genuinely pissed him off but he didn’t want to go. Between the constant rehearsals and background work, they had barely had the chance to talk to each other, much less spend any time together. And this looked like the perfect chance to have a normal conversation with him for once, no taunts, no death threats. How could he waste this opportunity?
“Hey.” One raised eyebrow was all the acknowledgement he got in response. “Can I come up?”
A shrug. “Do what you want.”
As he climbed up the tree trunk and eventually settled on the branch opposite of Owen, he thought back to what Bradley had said when he had taken their measurements on the first day. ‘ Judging by how he willingly spends time with your weird ass sometimes, there’re a whole lot of things wrong with him. ’ How right he had been. Spot-on.
Across from him, Owen turned the page of his script to the last page. His look lingered on the final lines for a short moment. Then he looked up.
“I didn’t know the art of performing mattered so much to you, Sir Knight.”
“What do you mean?”
Owen tapped a finger against a certain passage in his script: >>The knight tenderly takes the prince’s face between his hands and pulls him into a deep, passionate kiss. Curtain falls. The end.<< Cain hoped his distaste for this section wasn’t too obvious on his face. “You were pretty adamant about saving this for the actual performance. Even made a whole fool out of yourself for it and all.”
“Ah, yeah. That.” If his laugh sounded as strained and awkward as it felt to Cain, Owen made no mention of it. “The idea just came over me, had to share it immediately, haha…”
“Hm.” That was it. Owen went back to studying his lines and as Cain watched the moonlight shimmer and glisten in Owen’s hair, he gave up on denial. It should be him kissing in front of all those people, not Mithra.
It was the evening before opening night and Cain had never been this torn over things in his entire life. Arthur had just come back from a short visit to the magic manor with news of Rutile and Mitile apparently having gone off on a mission to Western County. Obviously they didn’t go alone and with the twins, Figaro and other experienced Wizards by their sides they were more than just in good hands. He knew that. Akira knew that. Everyone with common sense knew that. Mithra, however, was to not hear about this under any circumstances until they wrapped up their own mission and returned back home or else he’ll ditch them and the play immediately to run after the Flores brothers. That’s what Akira had told them all. And had Cain felt absolutely terrible ever since then.
He felt terrible because as soon as the opportunity to potentially get Mithra out of the picture had presented itself to him, he had genuinely considered it for a moment. Tell Mithra the truth, he leaves, no Mithra means no kiss, Cain can sleep peacefully again. Easy. And terrible. And egotistical. What was wrong with him?
He didn’t know how much time he’d spent in the corridor pacing back and forth during what felt like his twentieth internal crisis that week when one of the doors swung open and an annoyed looking Bradley dragged him into his room.
“The hell’s wrong with ya?” That was the problem, he didn’t know Bradley!
“I’m not normal.”
Brad rolled his eyes. “Yeah, no shit. Runnin’ around in circles for one fucking hour doesn’t exactly scream ‘sane’ to me.” Oh, so it was that bad? Not good.
“The Mithra thing?”
“...”
“Don’t go lookin’ all guilty like that now.” Well, how else was he supposed to look now? He had seriously entertained the thought of sabotaging their mission. Because he couldn’t stand the thought of someone, who wasn’t even interested in him like that, get kissed by someone who was not Cain. He was the worst.
Defeated, he dropped himself on one of the chairs in Bradley’s room and buried his face in his hands. “What should I do…”
Bradley snorted. “Go for it, obviously.”
Cain raised his head in utter disbelief. He couldn’t be seriously encouraging him right now.
“Look, man,” he spoke again, “I know yer all about duty and obligations and all that lame, knightly, shit. But!” His face became serious like he was about to drop the wisest of wisdoms on him. “Sometimes ya just gotta say ‘fuck this bullshit, I’m gonna do what I want to do’ even if it’s selfish. Who gives a shit, ya can’t always be good. Live a little, damn.”
He knew Bradley had a point there. But he also couldn’t just go and inconvenience everyone, nullify all the hard work everyone had put into this, like that. Not for his own selfish gain.
“I can’t …what should I do?” he asked again.
Instead of a response, Bradley waved a pack of playing cards in front of his nose. He carefully shuffled them, then drew a random card and placed it face down in front of him.
“Guess. If yer correct, do what ya want. If not, ya go and get Mithra out of my face. Got it?”
Cain honestly didn’t think that this was something that should be decided by pure luck. But luck had been on his side last time, maybe this time it would be as well.
“Five of Spades.” Brad raised one eyebrow as if to ask ‘ You’re sure? ’ Cain nodded. The card was turned around and he had an answer.
“Seven of Hearts.”
“What do you mean Mithra is gone?” Five hours before opening night and Cain had never seen Akira this stunned and at a loss for words before, not even when they had first come to this world. If hell was real like Riquet always claimed, he was sure that that was where he was going to end up after he one day turned to stone. This was his fault.
“He, uh. Found out about Rutile and Mitile. Somehow.” Oh he was so going to hell for this.
The rest of the wizards had all gathered by now after hearing about Mithra’s absence.
“Who’s going to play the knight now?” Chloe anxiously asked into the round but no one had an answer. They didn’t think to cast any understudies, especially not for Mithra since he was, well, Mithra. What could possibly happen to this world’s second powerful Wizard that would render him unable to get on stage? A 22-year-old guy with newfound jealousy issues apparently .
“We have a livin’ breathin’ knight right here,” Bradley spoke up and everyone’s attention turned right on him. Hold up, what ? Him taking on Mithra’s role had not been part of the plan. Granted, there had never been a “plan” at all but he knew that if there had been one, it would have not been that.
“It’s true that Cain makes a splendid knight, fictional or not,” Rustica agreed.
“Mithra’s costume will most likely not fit properly but five hours is more than enough time for me to make the necessary adjustments,” Chloe piped up, the measuring tape at the ready.
“I’m sorry Cain, you’ll only have a couple of hours to memorize the lead role’s entire lines,” Akira smiled at him apologetically, “but I will be below stage the entire time in case you forget any lines or cues, so don’t worry about it too much!”
It really seemed like he had no other choice but to act. Cain locked eyes with the only one who hadn’t said anything yet. ‘ Do you want me to? ’
Owen shrugged. “Just don’t get in my way.”
The curtain rose and just like that he found himself standing before a huge expectant audience. The bright stage lights felt hot on his skin and even though he usually wasn’t one to get nervous in front of crowds, he was glad to find that the spectators looked like nothing more than a sea of black silhouettes from his place on the stage.
Five hours had indeed been not enough for him to memorize all his lines but he knew Akira would be there to help him out if he needed it.
The first half of the play proceeded according to plan without any significant problems. Knight and Prince met which led to love at first sight, then planned to secretly meet each other in town as the King certainly wouldn’t approve of their connection. The two lovebirds however never got to meet each other: the local Bandit leader also took a liking to the beautiful Prince and abducted him right before the eyes of the Knight and his own noble best friend.
It got a little bit rocky here and there during the scenes in which the Knight and the noble best friend set off together to find and rescue their lover and friend. Cain forgot a couple cues here and there - nothing too noticeable thankfully - and he and Heathcliff almost fell off stage twice because Bradley and Owen slightly overdid it with their magic special effects.
Cain was impressed with how well Heath assumed the role of the Prince’s - Owen’s - best friend. He and Owen’s quips and banter throughout the play felt so realistic, he almost forgot what their relationship really was like in everyday life.
And to no one’s surprise, Bradley was made for the role of Bandit Boss. Cain could tell he had loads of fun with putting all his past experience into it and leading his bandit group of merry local men into committing (theater) crimes.
But the highlight of this production, in Cain’s opinion, was without a doubt Owen. He didn’t know what he expected really, but Owen was a damn good actor. He was a natural, his gentle Prince act so convincing that Cain wasn’t sure how much of his own acting was pretense and how much was just him reacting to and following Owen’s lead.
They had finally arrived at the climax where the Knight defeated the Bandit - which was easier said than done with Bradley allowing himself the luxury of toying with him and dragging out the final fight before dramatically disappearing in the off - and the Knight and Prince were, at long last, reunited again.
Breathing heavily from spending a good chunk of the last two hours swinging his sword while running around on stage, Cain realized the space was empty, save for him and Owen. This was it, the play’s romantic finale, the long-awaited kissing scene. Mismatched eyes met each other across the stage, Cain’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest as he wasted no time in reducing the space between him and Owen with three quick steps. The excited murmur of the audience, Rustica’s musical accompaniment on his harpsichord, they all were nothing more than muffled background noises to him.
Maybe the director was onto something when he agreed with Cain’s bullshit about tension, he thought to himself as he gingerly cupped Owen’s face between his hands and pressed his lips against Owen’s, cold hands resting on his chest while the crowd erupted into thunderous applause and the curtain fell. He had never felt as tense with excitement as he did at this very moment.