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The sun was shining on the Somniel, warming Alear’s skin where he stood on the lookout ridge. The mood among their allies was bright; the world was finally ready to start healing now that Sombron’s dark presence was gone. The princes and princesses - some of them kings and queens, now - were already planning the rebuilding of their countries and the repairing of political relationships. It helped that, after their whole endeavor, a lot of the rulers of Elyos were now personal friends.
Despite the bustling in the rest of the Somniel, Alear had been pacing the ridge, anxiously waiting. He was reasonably sure he would show up soon… It had been several days since he and Alcryst had the time to be alone together, and his thoughts had been stewing the whole time, his mind hesitant but his heart sure.
Sure enough, he heard soft footsteps behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Alcryst approaching.
“Oh,” the prince said. “Here you are, Divine One.”
“Alcryst, please,” Alear said, laughing under his breath. “Just ‘Alear.’”
The prince shook his head. “Right. Sorry. Force of habit.”
Alear reached his arm out to Alcryst, who joined him on the ridge and took his hand. “Were you looking for me?” he asked the prince.
Alcryst looked nervous. “Um, kind of,” he said evasively. “There’s something I wanted to say, but… Well, I also wanted to check on you. I heard your coronation is in a few days.”
Alear took a deep breath. “Yeah, I guess it is. I’m…nervous.”
“You shouldn’t be,” Alcryst said, squeezing his hand. “We’ll all be there to support you. Besides, you’ll be great. You’ve already been traveling all over the world helping people. You’ll be a Divine Dragon monarch people can really look up to.”
Alcryst’s earnest praise always caught him a little off guard. “Thanks for saying that, Alcryst. I can sort of believe it, when it’s coming from you.”
Alcryst gave him a smile. “I’ll always be there to remind you,” he said, stroking his thumb over Alear’s hand. It was such a simple gesture, but it made Alear’s heart skip a beat.
“Speaking of which,” Alear said, “What are you going to do after, um, all this is over?”
Alcryst’s smile quickly faded. "Oh," he said, his eyes on the ground, "Well, I guess I’ll go back to Brodia. I’m sure there’s still plenty of work for me to do even if Diamant is the one taking over the throne.”
Alear nodded to himself. Of course Alcryst was going to go home. What did he expect? He was a prince, after all, and he had responsibilities. Still, it gave him a heavy feeling in his chest to hear it from the man himself, in the voice that had come to be such a comfort to him. “Right. That makes sense.” He cringed; he hadn’t done a very good job disguising the bleak tone of his voice. He didn’t want to make Alcryst feel bad about going home. It was the most logical thing to do, probably what he’d been waiting to do for the whole war. It wasn’t fair to blame Alcryst when Alear was the one hung up on feelings he hadn’t even properly communicated.
Alcryst picked up on it, of course, and jumped to console him. “But! I can still visit you in Lythos, right?”
Alear smiled, trying to put on a good face for him. “Of course you can. I’ll always be happy to see you.” Deep down, Alear was worried that no matter what else was going on in the world, it was going to feel like something was missing as long as Alcryst wasn’t there with him. It would be hard enough with so many of their allies going their separate ways, but… “Oh,” said Alear, “Wasn’t there something you were going to tell me?”
Alcryst’s cheeks started to turn red, but he nodded to himself and stood up tall, letting go of Alear’s hand for the moment. “Right. There’s actually something I wanted to give you.” He took something out of his pocket and held out his hand to Alear. It was a large gem with a pearl-like sheen, made of both red and blue stone, half and half.
Alear carefully took the gem from Alcryst’s palm. “It’s beautiful,” he remarked.
“It’s a stone of Brodian origin,” Alcryst explained. “It’s quite a rare color, red mixed with blue… My father gave it to me when I was born. He said it was because of how well it matched my features.”
Alear smiled and held up the stone as if to compare the two. “Right, your blue hair and red eyes. It matches you perfectly.”
“B-But, it matches you even better! Red and blue, split down the middle, just like you… Looking at it always reminds me of you, now. Someone I treasure, who accepted me the way I am, and never tried to change me.”
Alear’s heartrate kicked up a notch. “Someone you…treasure, huh?”
“My father told me that someday, I’d find someone important to give this to. So…I’d like you to have it.” Alcryst started fidgeting anxiously with his hands, but pressed on. “As a token of…my feelings for you.”
“A token of… Thank you, Alcryst.” Alear felt a fluttering in his chest. All this time that he’d been thinking about how important to him Alcryst had become, Alcryst had been thinking the same thing. Maybe…his plan wasn’t as crazy as he thought. “Well, since we’re here, I actually had something I wanted to give you, too.”
Alcryst raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to give me anything. You’ve already done so much for me-”
“I know, but, this is different. Please, just let me get through this,” he asked with a nervous smile. Alcryst looked confused but nodded for him to go on. From his pocket, Alear pulled the gold ring with the sparkling blue stone, the one they had found in the simulacra of Lumera’s garden. Alcryst’s eyes widened when he saw it.
“That’s…the pact ring,” he said.
“That’s right.” Alear held it out to him. “I want you to have it.”
Alcryst’s eyes got even bigger. “Me? But…that’s a big decision! You could give it to anybody - one of our stronger allies!”
“But I don’t want to. The most important bond to me…is the one I have with you, Alcryst. So I wanted you to have this, to remind you that, even if we’re apart, we’ll always be connected. That we’re stronger together, and no one means as much to me as you do. And I want it to always be that way.” Alear felt himself blushing when he heard how he sounded. “Ah, it’s not meant to be, like, a proposal, or anything- I mean, unless you want it to-”
Alcryst cut him off by wrapping his arms tightly around him, burying his face in Alear’s chest. He took a deep breath, but his voice was still shaky when he stood back and said, “I accept.” Then, more quietly: “Either way…I accept.” He offered his left hand; Alear held it in his own to slip the ring onto his middle finger, where he used to wear his emblem ring. It fit perfectly. Alcryst stood for a few moments just staring at it, disbelief on his face. He met Alear’s gaze with tears in his eyes and said with heartwrenching sincerity, “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’ll do everything I can to uphold the trust you’ve placed in me. I want you to know… Our bond is the greatest honor of my life.” He almost got through the whole sentence without his voice breaking, but when it did, the tears overflowed from his eyes.
Alear pulled him back into his arms. He could hardly think for how happy and relieved he was that Alcryst had accepted the ring, and so eagerly, too. “Don’t cry,” he said to the shaking man in his embrace. “You’re going to make me cry, too.” They laughed together despite themselves. They both knew it was true; his voice was already quivering.
Eventually, Alcryst sniffled and pulled away to dry his eyes. “I thought I would just go back to Brodia,” he said. “But now… Does this mean I can stay by your side?”
Alear held Alcryst’s face in his hands and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Of course. I want that more than anything. That’s what I hoped you’d say, honestly. I just wasn’t sure how to ask. I didn’t want to…presume.”
Alcryst smiled and shook his head, stroking Alear’s cheek. “You’re worth much more than any social graces to me. You can ask me anything, always.”
“In that case, could I ask you to come to my room with me?”
Alcryst shyly hid his face in Alear’s shoulder, but he had already seen his smile. “I’d be happy to.”