Work Text:
🌃🌃🌃
A few decades before Fang was born, his kind did not live on Earth. In fact, Fang was pretty sure they weren’t even aware of the resourceful planet.
However, an apocalypse befell his planet and a couple other planets nearby, and the ones that managed to survive the apocalypse flee away from their planets via spaceships.
A few months after their spaceships had wandered through galaxies, they stumbled upon a dying Earth; the planet in a bad shape due to humans’ activities. The aliens would’ve not considered staying on Earth if it wasn’t the abundance of natural resources on the planet.
Still, with the aliens’ combined intellect, they landed on Earth, spoke to who they assumed was the ruler at the time, and negotiated so that the aliens helped improve Earth’s condition in exchange for the humans coexisting with the aliens.
With no other option and desperation being the major factor, the ruler agreed.
The aliens were told that there used to be billions of humans on Earth, but their population took a hit and drastically reduced in numbers because of how often natural disasters like earthquakes and floods occurred - often enough that sometimes they didn’t even have enough time to start rebuilding what was destroyed.
At that time, humans got along with aliens, and they all lived peacefully and exchanged knowledge with each other until the ruler had exhaled his last breath, laid on his bed and passed away of old age.
Due to the ruler not having any other family members as he was the sole survivor of the royal family, there was a fight for the throne, and it was from then on did a strain was formed between humankind and the aliens.
In the end, as they settled for an agreement to send their best warriors and individuals to represent each kind and compete amongst themselves, the one to come out on top was Fang’s kind: GogoBugians.
Hence, how GogoBugians ended up being the ruler to Earth right to the time when Fang was born.
Even though everyone had agreed to settle their dispute by competing against each other, the drift between each kind wasn’t so easily forgotten, and some started distancing themselves from other kinds and etcetera.
Some kind even flee to create their own nation in other parts of the world, but GogoBugians left them be as they believed the others wouldn’t dare to overthrow their empire.
After all, dissatisfied or not, they had all agreed beforehand that no matter what the result was and who came out as champion, anyone who rebelled and attempted to harm the champion would have themselves and their kind be punished by execution.
No one dared to breach the agreement as the risk was all too big - especially considering that they may even go extinct at a wrong step.
While some had fled to build their own nation, there were also those who stayed under the ruling of the GogoBugians.
It was in that city did Fang found himself being the future ruler of: the heir to the throne after his older brother .
Another thing that Fang’s history teacher had told him so often that he could repeat word by word of what was told to him was of how humans have become a minor species; minor enough that they were becoming rare.
Some of them still owed decent business that gained themselves respect, while some weren’t so lucky as rumors had it that they were being sold as slaves left and right in the black market.
When Fang asked his teacher why had the humans been treated in such a way when they had been so kind to open their arms and accept the aliens all those decades ago, his history teacher could only smile sadly and left the question hanging.
Well - 9 year old Fang was not going to accept that as it was.
So that was how he got the brilliant idea to sneak out by bypassing the security installed in the palace. (Kaizo was going to regret ever signing him up for the ‘technological security class’ thing.)
Fang had interacted with a couple of humans who worked there at the palace, and they were all kind and understanding; the elderly often didn’t mind lending their ears to Fang’s woes while the youngsters spent more time with him then his biological older brother could.
The prince wanted to know if the humans beyond his palace were just as kind.
If they were, then that’s more of a reason for Fang to stop human trafficking from being a norm once he’s the ruler.
“Are you sure you will be safe, Your Highness?” A son of a cook working in the palace, Qually, asked, concern thick in the light green alien’s voice as he watched the prince put on a cloak after successfully disabling the palace’s security cameras for a couple of minutes - enough for Fang to sneak out of the palace.
The two of them were in Fang’s chamber, currently.
Feeling optimistic after his feat of successfully disabling security for a while, the prince gave Qually a thumbs up, grinning excitedly yet nervously.
“It’ll be fine, Qually. If Sai and Shielda asked where I am, just tell them I’m sleeping and don’t want to be disturbed! You just have to stay guard in front of my bedroom.” Fang recounted a short summary of their plan, hoping his positivity was infectious so Qually didn’t feel too anxious.
Luckily, Fang’s enthusiasm worked wonders, and Qually looked more sure of himself as he nodded at Fang’s words.
“Okay… That’s all I have to do; make sure your bodyguards do not notice that you’ve sneaked out.” Qually muttered, nodding to himself.
Before leaving, Fang thanked Qually for the nth time for agreeing to his plan, and Qually told the prince that ‘it was his pleasure to be of help to the prince’ for the nth time that day too.
After exchanging a few more words, Fang went to explore the city.
To avoid possible assassination attempts and simply as a precautionary step, the identities of the royal family aside from the current king - who was Kaizo after their parents had passed away due to an earthquake while they were checking on the civilians - were kept hidden. In other words: it was not needed for Fang to put on a cloak and stay discreet.
Fang decided to do so anyway, as being a GogoBugian would attract attention - and a 9 year old prince that was sneaking out would want no attention drawn to him no matter how small.
Upon reaching the city, the prince found himself in awe at the colorful lights and the warm ambience of the city.
He had seen a couple of illustrations of the city, but no amount of illustrations could ever prepare him for how bright and mesmerizing the city could be.
Even though it was dark out and they were already late into the night, the city was somehow still bustling and full of life. So it was expected for Fang to end up being dragged around and pulled by the flow of the pedestrians walking here and there.
At some point, Fang found himself standing in front of a workshop that seemed to be selling things or parts of some machines, and his eyes immediately drifted to the only customers that were still in the workshop.
Fang had the choice to walk away and explore more parts of the city, sure. However, one of the ones that he had seen in the workshop was a human that seemed to be around his age, wearing an oddly-shaped cap. (It seemed to resemble a dinosaur’s back, but Fang was unsure.)
Casually, he marched inside and reached for a random part, pretending to be a customer while approaching the trio.
There was a box-headed green alien who was picking up a couple of parts, seeming to be examining and considering which to buy and which to not. Along with the alien and the human was a purple robot that was hovering all over, excitedly picking up similar pieces and handing them to the box-headed alien for the said alien to examine them.
“Mister Boss! How about these?! I think they look neat!” The purple robot exclaimed after picking up more parts, earning himself a deadpan look from the box-headed alien that Fang assumed was ‘Mister Boss’.
“Oi! Don’t go and mess the workshop lah , Probe! We’re broke enough as we are, and we definitely will have to pay more for the cleaning service if we mess around too much.” Mister Boss chided, snatching the parts from Probe and putting them back at their respective places while ignoring the dejected robot.
The orange-capped human pursed his lips, picked up a piece that he had been staring at for a while, before handing it to Mister Boss , asking the alien in hesitation.
“How about this one, Adudu? I think it’s the one you have been trying to look for.”
Intrigued, Adudu took the part out of the human’s hand, and a pleased look replaced his previously sour look after he spent a moment looking at the part in his hand. Then he encouragingly patted the orange-capped human’s head all proudly.
“Good job, Boboiboy! This is exactly what I was looking for!” Adudu claimed, his grin taking a softer tone when Boboiboy scratched his cheek bashfully at being at the receiving end of a praise.
Even outside of the palace, humans seemed to be as kind and as considerate as the ones in the palace.
Boboiboy here didn’t look like he was treated as a slave: his clothes looked new compared to Adudu’s, and if he was around Fang’s age as the prince had assumed, he looked healthy enough - with his flushed and slightly chubby cheeks and all.
All of a sudden, Boboiboy turned to look at Fang, and the prince scrambled to snatch the part he had been holding - he had an idea on how to make use of it for a project one of his teachers had given him - and scurried to the counter, hoping he wouldn’t be approached.
The cashier behind the counter looked bored as he scrolled through his phone, not bothering to smile at the customer in front of him.
That was the least of Fang’s worries though - because it came to Fang’s attention that the only currency he had brought with him were golds; a total of ten golds.
No commoners or no-name civilians would casually have ten golds with them.
But turning away and not buying anything after walking up to the counter would warrant suspicion.
Footsteps were approaching where the prince stood as the sound of Adudu and Probe arguing could be heard coming close, and Fang decided that he better off just act cool than anything else - especially when he could feel the human from before staring at the back of his head.
As naturally as he could, Fang took out a gold coin, and that immediately captured the trio’s and the cashier’s attention.
“That’s- I’ve never seen a kid as young as you carrying golds. Whose kid are you? If you don’t mind me asking, of course. I have to keep up with potentially loyal customers after all.” The cashier eagerly asked, somehow making Fang uncomfortable with his… money-grubbing smile.
That aside; how should Fang get out of this situation?
Fang had wanted to look at the exit, knowing full well that his hands were slightly trembling at his sides from anxiousness.
Except he found his eyes meeting curious brown eyes instead.
Involuntarily, Fang froze, and perhaps that’s the human’s cue to step in and help(?) the suspiciously nervous-looking stranger.
“He’s a good friend of mine, mister!” Boboiboy smoothly intervened, casually wrapping an arm around the prince and rendering the said prince surprised. (Not everyone was keen enough to casually touch the prince after all.)
Adudu and Probe could be heard letting out confused noises, their jaws probably on the floor while the cashier looked at the two kids in front of him skeptically.
The cashier turned to look at Adudu, and Fang wondered what were the odds of the alien playing along to the human’s antics.
Before Adudu could say anything though, Fang turned to look at the box-headed alien, grabbed the parts that the alien had been carrying, and dumped them on the counter with the part he had picked.
“Yes. I’m a good friend of his. I was thinking of buying his… family a few things they needed as a celebration for our… reunion. It’s been a while since we talked after all.” Fang spoke, trying his best to appear casual.
Fang was no gambler; so hopefully Adudu would help him in exchange for him paying for the parts.
The cashier pursed his lips, looked at each of their faces, and said.
“All these amount to three golds.”
Wordlessly, Fang took out two golds to join the lone gold he had placed on the counter.
Everyone except Fang had their jaws dropped to the floor.
The cashier’s eyes practically screamed ‘money!!’, and as he packaged the parts and collected the golds, he still rambled on and on about how they were all acting suspicious since Fang did come later than them, but the cashier promised to turn a blind eye out of the ‘goodness’ of his heart.
“They fought a few hours ago! So uhh that’s why the lil’ guy didn’t bother to greet us. Boboiboy here probably stepped up because he saw his friend looking all nervous at the counter. Totally.” Adudu reasoned quickly, successfully making the cashier let his guard down a little.
Maybe Fang would give the trio another couple of golds later as gratitude.
“Hope to see you again, dear valued customers!” were the cashier’s last words as they exited the shop, joining the passersby and being dragged along by the flow of the crowd.
Fang had wanted to return to the palace as soon as he exited the workshop; so he tapped on Boboiboy’s shoulder and handed the human two golds, slipping them into the pocket of the human’s trousers.
With a stiff nod, the prince was just about to leave - but a hand stopped him from doing so as it grabbed onto his own hand.
Baffled, Fang was about to politely tell the human that he had to leave, but paused when the human raised his other hand to make a ‘be quiet’ and ‘follow us’ gesture, a reassuring smile on his lips as he tugged on the hand he was holding.
Unsure of what to do, Fang let himself be dragged along by the human, trying to grow accustomed to the warmth in his hand.
By the time they had stopped walking, they found themselves standing in front of a small house before they entered the said house, Fang having no say in that as Boboiboy still had a quite tight grip on the prince.
It was only when Probe closed the door did they all suddenly turn to look at Fang curiously.
“Kid. I don’t know what you were doing all by yourselves, but a human walking around without their parents or just by themselves in general is really dangerous around here.” Adudu started, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning.
Fang was about to say something, but then he thought back to the alien’s words, and realized something.
He looked like a human.
GogoBugians do often be mistaken as humans because of how similar their physical appearance was.
Of course the thought of them bumping into a GogoBugian didn’t even cross their mind - because it was rare and was like meeting nobles.
This… misunderstanding may actually make things easier for Fang.
Speaking as he thinks of his words carefully, Fang finally responded.
“My… owners are GogoBugians, and they’ve taught me enough self defense to be sending me out on errands by myself. Usually they would give me silvers to buy things, but I ended up hesitating and looking suspicious when I took out the golds.
…
Sorry - for making all of you play along.”
The trio stared at him, rendered speechless before Probe suddenly grabbed the prince by his shoulders and started violently shaking Fang panickedly.
“Th- those golds you used to to pay for our things are your owners’ golds?! Do we have to pay them back?! Huhu… we’ll have to start borrowing money again then to repay such a large sum… Mister Boss! Sell me if you need to - as long as you and Boboiboy could live comfortably… huhu… ” Probe dramatically sobbed, teats miraculously running down the robot’s face.
Fang reminded himself to ask his teacher of the existence of robots that could produce tears and cry.
“No need to worry about that. My owners are generous. You won’t need to pay for anything, really.” Fang reassured, awkwardly patting Probe’s head and turning to look at Adudu who had looked pale before he regained his green color at Fang’s words.
Adudu and Probe both let out relieved sighs, and Fang had thought that was his cue to leave - since he had discovered and said what he needed - when Boboiboy suddenly asked all too eagerly.
“What’s your name?! It’s been a while since I found any other humans! We should be friends!”
Fang paused, blinked a few times at the human’s bright eyes, before looking away and clearing his throat when the brightness of those eyes became too blinding.
“Uh… Fang. My name is Fang.” the prince said in the end, a bit too caught off guard by the human’s show of excitement that he forgot to give his fake name. (Technically Fang is a fake name since his real name is Pang, but Fang considered ‘Fang’ a real name to him all the same.)
Boboiboy hummed at the answer, patting Fang’s back in an amicable manner a few times before he started saying something - but was stopped before he could really say anything because Adudu told them that it was past the human’s bedtime.
“I’m not a child anymore!”
“You’re literally 9.”
So Fang had guessed right.
Adudu started saying how they should let Fang leave before it gets too late, while Boboiboy argued that it was rare for him to meet other humans and that Adudu should cut him some slack.
Before their banter could escalate though, there were a few knocks on the door, and Adudu huffed in relief as he made a beeline for the main door.
It seemed to Fang that everyone except him knew who was behind the door.
“Mister Boss?! You didn’t call for him , did you-?!”
Probe’s sentence was cut short when the door opened, revealing a box-headed alien Fang was unfortunately quite familiar with. At least the prince was lucky enough for never actually approaching one of the guards working for the palace.
“Finally admitted to kidnapping Boboiboy, are you?” were the first words that the ‘visitor’ spoke, looking very tall with how he towered over Adudu who kept a deadpan look.
“Seriously, Ejojo. Drop that accusation, will you? I just have a favor to ask.” Adudu sighed, sounding like he was used to Ejojo’s accusation.
Although he looked dissatisfied with the lack of reaction from Adudu, he did also look curious, interest piqued as he asked.
“You rarely ask for favors - especially from me.” Ejojo pointed out, crossing his arms and looking skeptically at the shorter alien.
“Well, I don’t have much of a choice, really. You’re one of the only people that willingly talks to me on a daily basis - even if just to bully me. Whatever; you probably did that because you’re childish or just want my attention or something. Inferiority complex, I tell you. You should go check it out.” Adudu casually replied, still looking unbothered.
Ejojo, on the other hand, was, well, befuddled.
Fang was honestly surprised too, in all honesty.
Back in the palace, Ejojo was one of the trustworthy guards among the others, being coached right under Kaizo at some point. The box-headed guard was well-respected among his peers, in other words. But since Ejojo was stationed outside of the palace, he probably wouldn’t be able to recognise Fang - hopefully.
While Ejojo had looked well shocked and flabbergasted, Adudu gestured for Fang to go stand next to him, and Fang shared a glance with a sulking Boboiboy for a short moment before going to stand beside Adudu and covering himself with his cloak more.
Fortunately, a look of recognition was not at all present on Ejojo’s face as the guard spared a short glance at Fang before turning to face Adudu.
“Where did you kidnap this human from this time?” Ejojo asked, tone still skeptical as he had gotten over his previous shock of being called out.
Fang was fortunate his kind looked like humans.
“Again, I’m not kidnapping him. Once I did decide to kidnap someone though, I’ll be sure to surrender myself to you and let you put your handcuffs on me so you could fulfill your biggest wish of putting me behind bars.” Adudu, once again, popped off all casually.
Ejojo kept his reaction to a minimum this time, clearing his throat and didn’t bother to correct the shorter box-headed alien. (Probe has been real quiet since Ejojo came - perhaps Adudu being all cool was out of the ordinary.)
Adudu placed a hand on Fang’s cloak-covered head, patting a few times before he asked for the favor he mentioned prior.
“Help the kid get back to his owners, will you? He said he could take care of himself, but could you at least escort him until he reached his neighborhood or something? Since you are a guard.”
Fang wanted to object - because being accompanied by Ejojo of all people could risk blowing his cover - but then objecting may cause a commotion, so he chose against doing so.
Besides, Fang knew of a neighborhood close to the palace; so he’ll just say he’s from there to Ejojo.
Against all odds, Ejojo actually agreed, and with that the two of them left after bidding the trio ‘goodbyes’ and ‘goodnights’.
Before Fang could leave, though, Boboiboy managed to slip a piece of paper in Fang’s pocket, and the human winked and placed his pointer finger on his lips.
The prince went back home to the palace somehow looking forward to whatever was on the piece of paper.
🌃 1 🌃
A couple of new workers had gotten into the palace - both humans and aliens.
11 year old Fang was all too eager to get acquainted with the humans; specifically their children who he heard were supposed to be kids around his age.
Speaking of humans: the paper Boboiboy had slipped into his pocket was literally just a blank paper.
Haha.
Fang had wanted to look for Boboiboy again because he was absolutely not lying when he said he was very curious of what Boboiboy had wanted to say by slipping the blank paper in his pockets.
Unfortunately, by the time Fang got back into his chambers back then, Sai and Shielda found out that Fang sneaked out, and Qually was nowhere to be found. It was later found that the light green alien had tried covering for Fang, but failed because Shielda was somehow very convinced that Qually was lying.
Qually had apologized profusely the next time they met, but Fang assured his friend that it was fine and that at least Qually had tried.
Upon hearing how his younger brother had managed to sneak out, Kaizo infuriatingly changed the security system, and it took Fang a couple of months to figure out how to disable the new system.
However, even if Fang knew how to disable the security system, he decided to use the chance to sneak out when the right time came.
Obviously, as Fang casually walked around the garden to eavesdrop on some humans’ conversation, he decided that the right time was quickly approaching.
He was going to have his history class out in the garden, glad that his teacher agreed to his suggestion as everything was going according to plan.
Among the workers in the palace, the ones that were often allowed outside were of course the guards and humans, as most of the time errands like buying necessities and whatnot were mostly done by humans. Most of the humans brought with them their children so as to keep an eye on their children and also to allow exposure at a young age to avoid culture shock when it’s their children’s turn to run errands.
The conversation he was going to eavesdrop on was among three humans; one of them the son of a new cook, the daughter of a new maid, and the daughter of a new gardener.
Conveniently, there was an empty table near the trio, and Fang didn’t waste his time to sit by himself at the empty table, making sure he didn’t make much noise to alert the busily talking trio.
“-so you met him too?! Man… seriously is he a superhero or something?! How come he’s always there when people need his help?!” The only guy in the conversation exclaimed, sounding excited as he looked at the girls; one of them in pink while the other in yellow and blue.
The girl in yellow and blue in particular frantically looked around at Gopal’s voice, missing Fang who made sure to make himself as not noticeable as he could before the girl turned to her friends all cautiously as she chided in a low voice.
“Wei, Gopal! Keep your voice down! My grandmother allows us to hang out here in the garden because I promise we won’t make too much noise and not cause disturbance - even if for a second!”
Gopal clicked his tongue and huffed, still looking all leisure and not-at-all alarmed like the girl Fang came to know as Ying when the dark-skinned boy complained that Ying was just being too cautious and that they weren’t disturbing anyone here.
Fang had never felt so glad for how only a few people knew of his face as the prince - those few people not including these humans he was eavesdropping on.
(Still; Fang was always told that his older brother was handsome - how come no one ever connected the dots that Fang was the prince anyway? Fang’s sure that he was definitely also at least as handsome as his brother too. Duh.)
“Putting aside alarmed Ying… Dey, Yaya! Are you planning to go visit Boboiboy again? SInce he did generously invited us to visit his house after our impromptu meeting with him.” Gopal asked the girl in pink, the name of a boy he mentioned instantly grabbing the prince’s attention.
What were the odds? For these people to have already been acquainted with Boboiboy.
The Yaya girl pursed her lips thoughtfully, and then slowly nodded before she nodded more in affirmation, saying how today was her last day of being able to do whatever she liked before she had to be trained as a maid anyway - so might as well have ended it outside of the palace.
At Yaya’s words, Gopal cheered, and Ying gave up on telling Gopal to be quiet, instead joining the boy with more nervous enthusiasm and cheering - probably because she was still afraid of causing a ruckus.
Right on cue, Fang’s teacher, escorted by Sai and Shielda, came, and the prince was forced into listening to his teacher speak of the history of what came to be of planet Earth for the nth time ever since the prince had started studying under the said teacher.
Fortunately, since the teacher was merely repeating what Fang could probably say with precision in his sleep, he was able to use his time studying by planning out his plans for the night, thankful that the guards of the royal family - which included Sai and Shielda - will be having a briefing for who-knows-what later that night.
In other words, Fang wouldn’t need to trouble Qually for covering for him and lying again.
The prince considered asking Qually to join him, as that light green alien had never really gone out of the palace, but decided against it since it would be harder to keep up his disguise once he’s out of the palace’s grounds.
That night, Fang reached out for his cloak, but then decided to settle for a mask that covered the lower half of his face instead, thinking wearing a mask would mean less risk of his face being revealed and whatnot. He had to be careful - since he was still the prince even if he was going against his brother’s words by sneaking out.
A few steps into Fang’s plan, the prince felt pleased with himself when he’s able to exit his chamber through the balcony all smoothly, sneaking past a couple of seemingly drunk guards - Fang would be sure to tell that to his brother in passing - and successfully reaching the neighborhood where Ejojo had dropped him the last time the prince had sneaked out.
Right - Ejojo.
The only thing Fang failed to consider as he found himself meeting eyes with the guard.
Upon seeing an 11 year old child - a human one at that, Ejojo would have thought - the guard approached Fang, and seemed to have a few things before he paused, narrowing his eyes in familiarity at the slowly sweating prince.
…
There’s no way Ejojo would remember-?
“Fang? You’re the human that was with Adudu months ago, aren’t you?” The guard asked, surprising Fang with how sharp his memory was.
Amazed, Fang was.
Clearing his throat, Fang once again thanked the world for his family’s tradition of keeping the royal family’s identity a secret until it’s their turn to rise up on the throne.
“I’m surprised you remembered such a fleeting meeting.” Fang awkwardly murmured, glancing around and internally sighing in relief upon realizing that the only one who had spared any attention to his presence was the guard in front of him.
Ejojo scoffed, as if offended by Fang’s words.
“Guards are supposed to have good memories and sharp eyes, human . After all, if there were assassination attempts on the royal family or just break in of the palace, it is a guard’s job to go through their memories and recall any suspicious individuals that could be potential perpetrators.” Ejojo explained all haughtily, looking proud and all.
Sure…
“...I’ll be leaving you to do your duty, then.” Fang chose to pick that time to leave - except he didn’t get to because Ejojo somehow was still interested in whatever Fang was trying to do. (Fang will tell his older brother that guards weren’t supposed to be so nosy. Ah… but Kaizo would probably disagree. Idiot brother.)
“Where are you leaving in such a hurry? Oh, on another note; you said you live around here, but I never did bump into you ever since that day - that was until today, at least.
Your owners limit your outings or something?”
If Fang had known any better, Ejojo sounded concern.
Who was Fang kidding? Ejojo was a guard ; obviously he would be concerned for a citizen who he had long not seen.
Still, it didn’t cross Fang’s mind that Ejojo was the kind of person to go out of his way to ensure other people’s safety.
“Something like that. I have somewhere to be now, so if you’ll excuse me-”
“ Are you going to Adudu’s place? ”
Fang couldn’t help how he automatically went rigid - which Ejojo obviously noticed.
Contrary to how Fang had expected Ejojo to react, the tall guard somehow looked… ecstatic. As if he had finally gotten the chance to do something he had been looking forward to doing for so long.
Not leaving Fang any chance to explain himself, Ejojo ruffled Fang’s hair, and kept his hand on the prince ’s head, pretending to be dragging his feet even when there seemed to be a skip in his steps as he drawled.
“That’s quite far from here! Let me accompany you, since it is a guard’s job to ensure civilian’s safety.”
Unable to come up with a reasonable excuse to tell Ejojo why he didn’t need a guard to accompany him, Fang went along with the box-headed alien’s whims, at least thankful that he would still be able to execute his plan of meeting with Boboiboy.
Fang even brought with him the blank paper that Boboiboy had given him!
Reminded of the paper, Fang casually slipped his hands into his pockets, and relaxed a little upon feeling the paper in his hand.
“You’re only visiting Boboiboy now after all these months? What a terrible friend you are, really.” Ejojo suddenly spoke while they were on their way to Adudu’s house.
Obviously, the option to say ‘being a prince is tough work’ was out of the question; so Fang digressed and asked Ejojo a question himself.
“How long have you last visited Adudu then?”
That seemed to do the trick.
For the rest of the journey, Ejojo started talking about how Boboiboy was a menace; the 11 year old purposefully making Ejojo’s life hard by vandalizing his car and then acting all innocent when Ejojo told Adudu of the boy’s shenanigans. Adudu, ever so protective of the human he picked up, of course believed Boboiboy’s words over Ejojo’s.
The prince didn’t take Boboiboy as the mischievous type, but he found himself hiding an amused grin when he realized how fitting a mischievous expression was on the human he didn’t really know too well.
“Why did Boboiboy start bothering you anyway?”
“That kid is probably mad I bullied Adudu back then when we were kids.”
…
“Deserved…”
“Watch your tongue, human.”
Fang looked forward to the moment when Ejojo would realize that he’s using such casual language with the prince.
From then on, Ejojo went full throttle on talking about Adudu.
It was quite peculiar; Ejojo was talking of the moments he bullied Adudu as if he was reminiscing memories of him having fun with Adudu instead of memories of him actually bullying the short box-headed alien.
Leave it to Ejojo to make ‘trash talking’ someone as something fun to be talked about…
Still, listening to Ejojo going on and on was more proof of the tall box-headed alien doing all that just to get Adudu’s attention… seriously…
Fortunately, before Fang’s ears could fall off from having been forced to listen to Ejojo’s words, they reached Adudu’s house, and Fang uncharacteristically started doubting his plans upon noticing Boboiboy was definitely not alone.
Obviously those three were going to be there. Fang shouldn’t be acting all nervous.
…
Why did Fang even decide to come out only when those three decided to anyway? After all, he had fully believed that the humans he met so far were all nice people.
Perhaps he wanted to see how humans interacted with each other?
Fang had no idea.
“Ejojo?! What are you doing here?!”
Probe’s shocked exclamation pulled Fang out of his own thoughts, and like the south pole and north pole of two magnets, the prince’s eyes found themselves meeting Boboiboy’s eyes instantly.
Fang wondered if everyone living outside of the palace all had sharp memories.
“Fang! It’s been months!” Boboiboy exclaimed, beaming and practically blinding Fang before the human ran up to him and pulled him into a short hug, causing the prince’s heart in his chest to unnaturally skip a beat.
Unlike Boboiboy who looked all too happy to see Fang, the three other humans there looked quite awkward, Ejojo looked all too out of place in his grand guard’s armor, while Probe looked like he was about to be executed as he kept a close eye on Ejojo.
As if summoned - which he definitely was - Adudu came out of the house, and immediately noticed the two new guests.
Adudu didn’t look at all fazed at seeing Ejojo; the same could not be said for Fang though.
“I was wondering where the rich human had wandered off to. Glad to know you’re still in one piece.” Adudu chose to say as a greeting to Fang, glancing at both Fang and Boboiboy before turning to look up at Ejojo. (Fang’s mind unhelpfully reminded him of how Ejojo had casually admitted that he liked Adudu looking up at him due to their height difference.)
“I don’t really feel like welcoming the guard who accused Boboiboy of vandalism though.” Adudu sneered, eyes going up and down Ejojo all judgmentally while Ejojo’s demeanor instantly changed at the topic Adudu had brought up.
“It was the truth ! At this rate, your human over there would shoot me between my eyes in front of you, and you would still not believe that your human is capable of such things!” Ejojo argued, an eye twitching when Adudu clicked his tongue.
“Boboiboy would never do that.” Adudu insisted.
Ejojo rubbed a palm down his face, and Fang didn’t get to listen in to their conversation anymore when Probe was suddenly between Fang and Boboiboy, dragging the boys away from the box-headed aliens and saying how they should leave those two to talk things out.
Once far enough and closer to the three other humans nearby, both Boboiboy and Probe snickered, and Fang looked between the two of them before he realized.
“It was Probe’s doing.” Fang found himself saying - thankfully not loud enough for Ejojo to hear.
As if it could change anything, Boboiboy clasped a hand over Fang’s mouth and made a ‘shh’ sound, snickering a little bit louder with Probe.
“Looks like someone at least managed to figure it out!” Boboiboy cheered hushedly, nudging Fang in the arm and once again making Fang feel all fuzzy with how familiar the capped human was acting around him despite the months of silence.
“Wei Boboiboy. Who’s this?” Ying asked, gesturing over Fang and smiling sheepishly when Fang made eye contact with her.
Excited, Boboiboy wrapped an arm around Fang’s shoulders and pulled the prince close, their sides touching as the orange-capped human made the introductions.
Fang was genuinely glad that he had known the three humans in advance - because the prince couldn’t focus on whatever that was leaving their mouths at all.
Somehow, his whole attention was on how warm the human was beside him.
Were all humans usually this warm?
“Hey. Fang. You’re good?”
Boboiboy’s soft and worried voice right beside his ear snapped him out of his thoughts, and Fang was once again washed over with the warmth that was so foreign yet familiar to him despite having only met the human two times.
Embarrassed at having caught off guard, Fang cleared his throat and took a step to the side, glad Boboiboy didn’t seem offended when Fang created some distance between them in an attempt to clear his head a little.
Were all humans so comfortable with physical contact?
“He looks pale…and a little red… Maybe we should bring him to a nearby clinic…” Yaya said, concerned as she looked at Fang all worried.
“No wonder he’s wearing that mask! He caught a fever or something…” Gopal commented, taking out a handkerchief he somehow had brought before wiping Fang’s forehead that the GogogBugian hadn’t even noticed he had been doing.
“No need for clinics- I- I’m fine. ” Fang insisted, awkwardly placing a reassuring hand on Boboiboy’s shoulder in hopes of making the human less worried - which worked, judging from how Boboiboy seemed less tense.
Ying seemed to still want to agree with Yaya’s suggestion, but Boboiboy fortunately convinced Ying that Fang had it all under control.
Once Fang had regained a semblance of control over his body heat and bearings, Boboiboy suddenly sighed, and it prompted everyone to look at the orange-capped boy.
“Why are you sighing?” Fang found the question slipping out of his mouth before he could really think it through.
Boboiboy pursed his lips, glanced to the side for a second before he scratched his cheek a bit embarrassedly and turned to look at Fang.
“It’s just… I thought you were upset with what I wrote on the paper, since you didn’t come to drop by again… It was supposed to be intended as a compliment, really. So I’m glad you came back - even if it took you a couple of months.”
With his eyebrows furrowed, Fang asked in blatant confusion.
“But you gave me a blank paper?”
The orange-capped human pursed his lips.
“No I didn’t.”
Feeling awfully confused - and somehow a little challenged for some reason - Fang took out the paper he had been absent-mindedly fiddling with for the past few months whenever he was doing his homework given by his tutors, opening it and placing it in Boboiboy’s palm after gently grabbing the human’s wrist.
“There. Empty.” Fang said with finality.
Boboiboy stared at the paper like it was something he had never seen before, turned to look at Fang and gave the GogoBugian a long look, before out of nowhere a grin stretched itself on the human’s lips.
It became worse for Fang’s heart when even the other humans seemed to be stifling laughter.
“Why are you guys grinning so creepily??” Fang stammered, baffled and sort of feeling a little bit ridiculed.
Just when Fang was about to up and leave simply because he was feeling increasingly embarrassed and anxious, Boboiboy lifted the paper so that the moonlight was on the paper, and Fang paused all of his movements as he read the barely readable words on the paper.
[ You look like His Majesty. ]
It was a compliment.
Fang’s cheeks couldn’t help but reddened as he turned to look at the sheepishly smiling Boboiboy who was sporting an embarrassed and shy look.
It was a compliment.
This was all too weird for Fang. Maybe Fang was feeling overwhelmed by such a gesture because he didn’t have that many friends around his age.
Kaizo should stop being a stick in the mud and start sending friends Fang’s way instead of tutors!
When Gopal tried to reach the paper to also read it, Boboiboy crumpled the paper, and all of a sudden it was nowhere to be seen.
???
“You can do magic tricks?!” Gopal exclaimed excitedly, eyes glimmering with astonishment and completely forgetting his interest in whatever was written on the paper.
Apparently, it was common among humans to leave messages on papers that could only be seen under the moonlight. (Fang was just glad these people didn’t suspect he was not human because he didn’t know of such a common thing among humans.)
They all played around some more, and at some point even Adudu came to work on some machines while watching them have fun. (Adudu really was a great guy.)
Unlike Adudu though, Ejojo seemed to dislike the loud noises from the children; but he seemed content to be able to pester Adudu while the alien worked his magic on whatever he’s making. Sometimes Ejojo grew quiet and just watched Adudu work, and yeah, Fang got it. It was quite an inspiring sight to see an inventor in the zone and all.
Unfortunately, time passed, and when it was time to leave, they all exchanged goodbyes with each other. Even Ejojo was forced to leave after Adudu told the guard that the said guard should do his job and made sure the children got back home safe.
Those two had quite the peculiar relationship.
While Gopal, Yaya and Ying had walked ahead after Ejojo had told them to be quick on their feet, Fang’s sleeve was tugged, and the GogoBugian found himself turning to meet eyes with none other than Boboiboy.
“Wanna see a magic trick?” the human asked out of nowhere.
Raising an eyebrow curiously, Fang felt for his pocket when Boboiboy told the alien to check his pocket.
…
It was the paper from before - not at all crumpled.
“Part-time magician, are you?” Fang asked, amused as he gauged Boboiboy’s proud expression morphed into a more cheeky one.
“You will be surprised with the many things I learn from Adudu and Probe.” Boboiboy said as a response, grinning cheekily.
Fang had thought that was all, but then the human made him pause in his steps again when his sleeve was once again tugged on.
“I know those three worked at the palace; so can I at least know where you live? I wanna swing by sometimes, you know? A bit exhilarating and sort of thrilling if I had to sneak in to see you if your owners are strict about outsiders, but I would get to see you again.” Boboiboy asked, tone all casual or… something.
It was doing weird things to Fang’s heart.
“I live in that neighborhood close to the palace.” Fang answered, brief.
“Which house, exactly?”
“...it doesn’t really matter.”
Fang couldn’t really just point to a house now, could he?
“Keep on being secretive like that, and maybe I’ll break into the palace only to find you in the prince’s chamber.”
Fang was glad he managed to school his face to a neutral one before a seconds lasted too long for the human to notice.
“Funny…” Fang kept his tone amused - as if he wasn’t internally panicking at being so close to be found out.
Boboiboy laughed, probably not aware of Fang’s internal turmoil as he waved at the disguised GogoBugian and wished him a safe trip.
Ejojo was telling Fang to walk faster or something, but the prince couldn’t really bother to listen as he heard Boboiboy called out.
“Hopefully the next time we meet, you won't need to wear a mask! It’s a shame I’m already forgetting how you look! ”
Boboiboy said Fang looked like His Majesty.
His Majesty was famous for being good-looking.
Fang’s good looking.
Boboiboy thought Fang was good looking.
🌃 2 🌃
13 year old Fang somehow managed it.
He, miraculously, somehow managed to convince his older brother to give himself a house in the neighborhood that he had told his friends that he was living in. He honestly still did not know what possessed his brother to suddenly be so understanding and suddenly agreed to Fang’s request.
The downside was that whenever Fang went to the house, there should be a guard with him at all times - which sucked because Fang valued his privacy, thank you very much.
Fang had an inkling that maybe his brother felt pity for him since he had signed up the prince for even more classes these past few months, but who knows?
Still, with the new house, Fang finally got to tell his friends where he ‘lived’, hence could finally stop Boboiboy from giving him a heart attack everytime the human would bring up the ‘what if you’re part of the royal family?’ harmless joke.
In all honesty, it wasn’t at all harmless with the amount of times Fang’s heart almost leaped out of his chest for everytime Boboiboy cracked that joke.
So on a particular night when Fang managed to sneak out yet again, he made himself comfortable at the house, purposefully choosing the time when there was a meeting between Kaizo and a couple of rulers nearby to ensure a smooth-sailing hangout.
It was tough work; to make things look like someone actually lived there and making it look like it wasn’t just a house that he occasionally dropped by and like it wasn’t cleaned by maids 24/7.
Speaking of maids - Yaya was definitely onto him.
They’ve bumped into each other a couple of times with how frequent Fang’s lessons have become, and sometimes Yaya’s eyes lingered on him for a moment too long for it to just be her acknowledging him as he walked passed.
Times like that were rare since Yaya was rarely sent to do her chores at Fang’s floor or just near Fang’s chamber, but it still got Fang overthinking whenever they bumped into each other in the halls.
There’s also Ying - who Fang often saw working at the garden whenever he was in his swordsmanship classes or just other classes that were held there. Most of the time Ying was too busy trimming the bushes and sweeping to notice Fang, but there were times when she glanced back for the second time when they walked past each other.
As for Gopal; since that guy was always in the kitchen, he’s probably the most clueless about Fang’s true identity.
Still - Yaya was definitely connecting the dots. It’s only a matter of time for Ying to follow after the girl in pink.
However, whether his identity was no longer a secret or was still a secret, Fang believed that his friends wouldn’t treat him any different - probably. Hopefully.
Enough was enough; he had guests to greet.
Fang was in the middle of putting a kitchen knife back to its place after adjusting the mask on the lower half of his face when he could hear the sound of a window being opened, escalating his heartbeat in the process as his mind conjured up unhelpful images of successful assassination attempts. (His tutors had been showing him those more often these days to make sure he stayed alert.)
It didn’t help that he could hear barely audible footsteps.
Hence, instinctively, when the sound was becoming too close, Fang gripped the hilt of the kitchen knife and aimed it at the intruder, eyes widening in both horror and surprise when he barely managed to stop the tip of his knife from touching his friend ’s neck.
Boboiboy , raising his hands in surrender, also looked surprised at Fang’s quick reflex, widened eyes turning impressed as he grinned at the prince.
“Nice reflexes. Your owners taught you that?” Boboiboy asked, still keeping his hands up in surrender and keeping his eyes on Fang who took a second longer to withdraw his hand and placed the kitchen knife where it belonged. (Not anywhere close to his friends for sure.)
“You surprised me.” Fang admitted, leaving the part where he swore his heart would’ve been out of his chest from how nervous he was feeling a few seconds ago.
“ You surprised me , Fang. I know your owners taught you self defense, but I didn’t know it was on that level.” Boboiboy said as a reply, relaxing and leaning against the kitchen cabinet while Fang went to face the sink, hands unconsciously gripping the sink as his heart in his chest went thump thump thump .
If the one that had broken into the house was an actual assassin… could Fang even…?
“Fang? You’re okay?”
Boboiboy’s voice snapped Fang out of his thoughts, and shaken as he was feeling internally, he involuntarily flinched from his friend’s touch, realizing a second later that it was a quite unnatural and over dramatic reaction.
Before he could come up with a reason for his odd reactions, the sounds of footsteps approaching from the front door reached their ears, and Boboiboy gave a tight-lipped smile to the prince’s way before quipping how he’ll get the door, leaving Fang to his own thoughts.
…
Why was Boboiboy so good at sneaking in anyway?
“Fanggg! How come it’s Boboiboy who welcomes us and not you, the owner of the house?! Or, well, the one who lives in this house, at least.” Gopal called out, voice loud and oblivious to how Boboiboy was looking a little bit rigid and stiff.
Putting aside his thought, Fang went to properly greet his friends, and the prince found himself going rigid for a second before he forced himself to relax, ignoring Yaya’s curious gaze as he adjusted the mask on his face consciously.
Don’t overthink things. Don’t overthink things.
“Because Boboiboy just happened to want to greet you guys? Duh.” Fang tried his best to sound casual and not like how he was feeling inside.
Fortunately, Gopal at least took the bait - but Fang wasn’t sure if Gopal was fooled or if he had noticed Fang’s discomfort and was kind enough to divert and change the topic of their conversation.
They weren’t doing anything, really. Just mundane conversations as they all made themselves comfortable in the living room; Yaya and Ying were sitting on a two-seat couch, Gopal on the floor in front of the a table that had a couple of biscuits and food that Fang knew were Gopal’s favorites, while Boboiboy took a seat at a two-seat couch and left quite a large space between him and Fang.
Okay, yeah, this may be a tad awkward.
But at least they were still able to talk normally.
“Uhhh Fang. I was wondering why you still have that mask on even if we’re in your house. Isn’t it suffocating or something?” Yaya asked the billion dollar question.
Great.
They all curiously looked at Fang, and the prince found himself unable to look at them without blurting out the truth.
Before he could say something stupid, or do something stupid like take off his mask, Boboiboy suddenly grabbed everyone’s attention by claiming with determination and loudly.
“I wanna be a guard.”
That effectively grabbed everyone’s attention.
“You mean you want to work at the palace?” Fang couldn’t help but ask, eyes on Boboiboy and holding eye contact even when the orange-capped human turned to look at him and their gazes met.
“Yeah.” Boboiboy answered without a trace of doubt.
“But why though? It’s not all that fun, if you think it was going to be fun.” Ying commented, curiously looking at Boboiboy.
“I mean, it’s not all that bad. But life outside would certainly be much more interesting. It’s all routine back in the palace.” Gopal quickly agreed with Ying, dramatically munching on a croissant as if he was discussing his woes - who he sort of was.
Boboiboy merely shrugged at his friends’ comments before slumping on the couch.
“Being a guard doesn’t seem too bad. Good enough salary to live comfortably, and all I have to do is score a post like Ejojo’s. He’s a guard, but he still gets to see Adudu as he pleases and all. Plus, working in EJojo’s position is technically working outside of the palace.” Boboiboy reasoned like he was prepared to answer his friends’ questions.
No wonder Boboiboy managed to break into the house like it was nothing.
…
“Salary’s also high because it’s tough work, you know?” Yaya suddenly added, heads turning to look at her as she said her piece.
“If you were to be graded as one of the top performers and achievers, you might even be tasked with guarding a royal family member. And that job would entail putting them before yourself.”
It irked Fang a little when Boboiboy shrugged nonchalantly.
“So be it.” the human shrugged. The 13 year old boy, shrugged.
It really irked Fang.
“You’re better off tinkering with Adudu or something.”
If it weren’t for the eyes that were immediately on Fang, he wouldn’t have realized he had said it out loud - especially in such a condescending tone.
Fang hadn’t meant that; it’s just… the thought of Boboiboy putting his life before his own…’
It didn’t sit right with Fang.
Of course, Boboiboy was no mind reader to be reading Fang’s explanation in his head.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Boboiboy asked, eyebrows furrowed as he narrowed his eyes at Fang, posture straightened as he pretty much glared at the prince. (Fang didn’t know what to do with his heart when it reacted all sadly at being under such a glare.)
“I was just saying you’re better off not involving yourself with the palace.” Fang tried phrasing his words - but sort of knew it didn’t help his case much.
“Because I’m not qualified or something?” Boboiboy asked, standing up and looking offended - so different from the human the prince had grown used to.
“I just think you’re better off doing something less risky.” Fang said, also standing up but kept his clenched fists on his sides.
“What do you know about risks?”
It was as if Boboiboy was purposefully trying to rile him up.
Fang was well-acquainted with risks; for he gambled and took risks whenever he sneaked out to meet his friends. Had it not been Boboiboy that broke into the house, maybe Fang wouldn’t be breathing at the moment.
Had Boboiboy been Fang’s guard and took the fall for the prince, Fang could’ve lost-
“More than you, at least.” Fang ended up saying, looking straight into Boboiboy’s eyes as he answered the orange-capped human’s question.
Fang should keep quiet.
Fang should-
He should be more careful.
Why had Kaizo distanced himself from everyone?
The king did not want to endanger them.
It was as simple as that.
Boboiboy seemed to want to take a step closer to the GogoBugian, but was stopped when Gopal quickly got between those two, chuckling awkwardly and worriedly as he looked between his friends.
“ Dey , guys. How about we sit back, relax, and talk about this without glaring at each other? That would definitely make the world a better place, wouldn’t it?” Gopal coaxed, blinking his eyes at his friends in hopes of them understanding his intention.
“Tell that to your friend over there.” Boboiboy scoffed, rolling his eyes and suddenly looking like he was about to leave.
…leave?
“Boboiboy? Where are you going?” Yaya asked, standing up and looking back and forth between Fang and Boboiboy before her eyes settled on the orange-capped human.
“To somewhere that I’m qualified for.” Boboiboy drawled, turning on his heels and didn’t even bother to say his ‘goodbyes’ before leaving.
…
“You guys should… go to. It’s getting late.”
They’ve hung out way late into the night before.
Fortunately, his friends got the message, and they all left one by one, leaving Fang all by himself in the house when he was supposed to be spending the whole night with his friends.
…
Fang went back to the kitchen with the empty plates from the living room, and he was in the middle of arranging the washed dishes to leave them to dry when he slipped his hand into his pocket - used to the habit with how often he used to do it with the paper Boboiboy gave him.
Surprisingly, when Fang’s hand came out of the pocket, a slightly crumpled paper - as if the one who had written on it had written and erased things on the paper a couple of times - was in his hand.
[ I’m sort of forgetting how you look already - so can’t you just take off that mask? It’s bugging me that I couldn’t see your good looks! (From what I remember anyway - or maybe I was just hallucinating? Ugh…) ]
Fang let his eyes stare at the words on the paper as moonlight slipped through the windows, and he found himself dully noting how Boboiboy’s handwriting had gotten better over the past few months.
A couple of minutes passed, and then Fang got back to cleaning the place.
When he left the house, he surprisingly found Ejojo patrolling, and the prince was just about to sneak his way into the palace because he honestly did not have the energy to talk anymore when the guard conveniently saw him.
Fang was lucky enough the only people who knew this house belonged to the prince were only a few - which obviously did not include Ejojo.
“Where are you going so late into the night?” Ejojo asked, all casual. (They have known each other for quite a while considering how frequently they had bumped into each other.)
“Running some errands.” Fang used the usual excuse.
“But Adudu just left.”
Ejojo’s answer served as a topic Fang focused on in order to ignore his own depressing thoughts.
“Why was Adudu with you?”
“His human was hanging out around here. So I was just accompanying Adudu in case some people dared to- attempted to harm Adudu while his human was out and about.”
…
“He lets you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Put himself before yourself.”
“I don’t need his permission to do that. A guard exists to protect. What’s the point of being a guard if there’s nothing to protect?”
…
“The guard is just as precious as the one being protected though…” Fang ended up murmuring, unsure where this conversation was going.
Ejojo’s response to Fang’s words caught the GogoBugian off guard; laughing all heartily and in that haughty demeanor of his.
“What’s so funny?” Fang deadpanned - not a big fan of being left in the dark.
“If we go by your logic, then everyone would have to be a guard, wouldn’t it? Since all lives matter.
Life doesn’t work that way. My life is certainly more worthy than Adudu’s. I’m clearly way more accomplished than him. The world would suffer a great loss if I were to die, while the same couldn’t be said if Adudu was the one to die.”
…
“But…?”
“...but it would be hilarious to see Adudu crying for me when I die for him.”
???
“Then I could make him feel guilty forever, and in that way, even when in death, I could continue on pestering him.” Ejojo continued - like he was making sense or something. (He wasn’t.)
“You have a weird way of bullying people.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Fang wasn’t sure what he was supposed to get from that odd conversation, but he could sort of come up with one conclusion; that it was a choice to protect, and one who chose to protect shouldn’t have their reasons be questioned.
All lives matter - and everyone’s reason for living and way of living their lives should be respected and not questioned.
(Fang wished he could at least have the choice to protect - yet the only role he could protect with the responsibility on his shoulders were to be protected. )
This time around, no one noticed Fang had sneaked out.
Fang planned to talk it out with Boboiboy the next time they met.
(They never did meet each other for a couple of years.)
🌃 3 🌃
Fang couldn’t believe it.
The one time he decided to sneak out during the day, he was somehow dragged into grocery shopping with Gopal, Ejojo and Adudu.
Haha.
The 15 year old prince was regretting his decision.
“For a full-time guard, you seemed to have quite a lot of time in your hands to be following me around like a loyal pet dog.” Adudu boredly stated, scanning a shelf filled to the brim with all kinds of breads before deciding on a loaf that was inconveniently placed at the highest shelf.
Adudu tired reaching for it, mumbling about how he missed Probe taking things for him since the robot could float and all, while Ejojo annoyingly crossed his arms over his chest, watching in amusement before finally stepping in and taking the loaf with ease, handing it to Adudu with an unnervingly infuriating smile.
The shorter box-headed alien stared at the loaf, looked up at Ejojo, and then all of a sudden kicked the shelf, having his hand out as a loaf conveniently fell into his hand. (The sound of Adudu kicking the shelf was quite loud, but it wasn’t like the grocery shop was all that bustling. Plus, the only guard around didn’t seem to bother with telling a civilian that ‘kicking shelfs is not allowed’.)
“I honestly don’t know why I was so intimidated by you back then. Your only plus point is being tall - otherwise you are just a child.” Adudu commented out of nowhere, walking past the taller alien in favor of going to the next aisle.
Fang and Gopal, who had been third wheeling this whole time, simply watched as Ejojo followed after the shorter alien.
“I’m also handsome, you know?” Ejojo unashamedly said.
…
“Just watching the way that guy talks around Adudu makes me want to vandalize his car.” Fang muttered under his breath, sighing as he was reminded of a certain orange-capped human who had been successfully avoiding the prince.
Gopal nodded along to Fang’s words, and the two of them also went to follow after the box-headed aliens reluctantly. (Adudu didn’t particularly say that he wanted the humans following after him, but the GogoBugian strongly believed that leaving those two by themselves would only lead to them arguing like children and causing a commotion.)
The next aisle had biscuits and instant noodles along with other instant food on the shelves.
“I’ve already apologized numerous times to that robot of yours! He didn’t have to still keep his guard up around me.” Ejojo was in the middle of saying those words as Fang and Gopal entered the aisle.
Gopal started to excitedly check on which food he wanted to buy, making sure whatever he chose wouldn’t exceed his budget. (Apparently the cook sent Gopal out for an errand.)
Fang could count with one hand the number of times he has eaten instant noodle cups since his brother had always been strict about not letting the prince eat such ‘unhealthy’ food. As of now, Fang didn’t feel like eating those; so he gave his attention to the box-headed aliens.
“I don’t think apologizing two times is considered ‘numerous times’. You tried to literally shut him down; that’s basically an attempted murder.” Adudu retorted, glaring at Ejojo for a split second before inhaling sharply as if to quell the anger that was surfacing at the memory.
Ejojo at least had the decency to look slightly guilty - just a tiny bit.
“That was just a joke. Which, well, may have been too far…” Ejojo murmured, suddenly looking all awkward and so not…’Ejojo’.
As Adudu picked up a couple of instant noodle cups, he scoffed, sparing Ejojo a glance before moving to the next aisle and speaking simultaneously.
“ That sure sounds noble, Mr. Guard. ”
Ejojo seemed to want to retort, but then only frustratedly groaned as he quickly fell into steps beside Adudu, lips sealed and for once letting the silence enveloped them.
…maybe Fang could leave those two alone for now.
So Fang turned to go to the aisle beside the one Adudu and Ejojo were in, and he found himself involuntarily freezing upon seeing Yaya who seemed to be buying some cleaning supplies before she turned to look at the GogoBugian, an amicable smile on her lips.
“Fancy meeting you here, Fang.” Yaya greeted.
Somehow feeling cornered, Fang went to approach the girl, stiffly standing as he scratched the back of his head absent-indedly.
Just when he was about to say something in return, Yaya quipped with a voice loud enough only for the two of them to hear.
“The prince was said to have caught the flu; so I was asked to buy more cleaning supplies so we could clean his room once he felt better. Hopefully he’s resting well in his chamber and all. ”
…
Yaya smiled, both innocently and knowingly, before the sound of buzzing could be heard coming from the girl’s phone, prompting the said girl to answer whoever it was that had called her.
It was Ying, apparently; judging from the fast pace the caller was talking in.
While the two of them were talking, Fang was about to go back to where Gopal was - since Fang suddenly was not in the mood to shop for anything - when he heard familiar voices bickering in the next aisle.
Ah, right.
Adudu and Ejojo.
“Is your personality only ‘being infuriating and tall’? Because I honestly can’t stand you with the number of times you kept on bringing up the fact that you’re tall. Sorry to break it to you, but being tall really isn’t all that.”
“Being short isn’t all that either.”
“I never even said that!”
“Plus, being taller than you is something I pride myself on - it’s one of the things I like about us.”
“ In what world is there an ‘us’ between us, dimwit? ”
“That’s just rude! You’re being childish!”
“I’ve put up with enough of your childish shenanigans. About time you return the favor and put up with me, don’t you think?”
“Bullying doesn’t work that way though.”
“ Do you honestly think what you’ve been doing all this time is bullying? ”
“I successfully annoy you everytime, don’t I?”
“I think it would be a great idea for you to take the ‘bullying’ degree in university again to understand what bullying actually entails.”
“If it’s not bullying that I’m doing right now, then what do you think I’ve been doing all these time?” Ejojo asked, lips pursed in what-seemed-to-be genuine confusion.
Adudu was already starting to look red from frustration when he exploded.
“Well, if it isn’t obvious already, it’s been looking like you’re trying to flirt with me this whole time! ”
…
Ejojo looked at Adudu like Adudu was the most disgusting creature his eyes had landed on in his life.
“I am not flirting with you.” Ejojo stated matter-of-factly.
Clearly exhausted with the guard’s attitude, Adudu let out a long sigh, running a palm down his face as he aggressively put in a couple of other things into the basket he had brought.
“ I know, jackass. It was Probe who had told me his oh-so amazing observation. At some point, he even started begging me to not go out with you because he was so sure that you would make me abandon him if I were to date you.” Adudu grumbled, seeming to quickly have calmed down from his previous outburst.
Ejojo seemed to want to say something, but then paused before he asked.
“Would you?”
“‘Would I’ what?”
“Drop that robot if you go out with me.”
It was Adudu’s turn to gave Ejojo a disbelieved look.
“Obviously no.”
“Figures…”
Ejojo quickly grabbed some boxes of cereals that were on the highest shelf, checking the expiring dates before handing them to Adudu who begrudgingly accepted them, putting them inside his basket.
Fang watched all of that go down, and yeah, Probe had a point, really…
The sound of footsteps approaching grabbed the prince’s attention, and he turned to see that Yaya had met Gopal.
“Adudu and Ejojo are so weird… Is it because they’re aliens?” Gopal commented loudly, fortunately not in the mentioned aliens’ hearing distance.
“That’s speciesism, Gopal.” Yaya answered, not fazed and not at all missing a beat as she was used to the dark-skinned boy’s often peculiar questions.
Yaya turned to look at Fang before she started speaking again.
“Ying told me that we should return to the palace. Apparently, there was a briefing of some sort that was going to happen soon among workers in the palace.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“You and me, Gopal.”
Not providing much else to enlighten the prince, Yaya excused herself and dragged Gopal with her, the two of them quickly paying for their things and walking out of the grocery shop in a hurry to get to the palace in time, probably.
Which left Fang with the box-headed aliens…
Should Fang just leave the two adults by themselves and return to the palace too? After all, it had been quite a while since Fang sneaked out. Plus, his friends weren’t around, and Fang didn’t even have anything that he wanted to buy in the first place.
…
Meeting and trying to find Boboiboy was not an option - since even Adudu had specifically told Fang that doing so would only do more harm than good and that Boboiboy was busy doing something else anyway.
…
When Fang had returned to the aisle he had seen Adudu and Ejojo were in, the prince decided that he didn’t want to intrude and leave upon finding that the two - for once - seemed to be comfortable and at peace with each other, working in tandem as Adudu seemed to have shared his grocery list with the taller alien.
Something about Ejojo forcing Adudu to do all his homework back then while Ejojo watched to the point that he had gotten a good grasp of what Adudu’s preferred way of doing things and other things that Fang didn’t bother to remember. (Ejojo yapped too much sometimes.)
So the prince found himself walking away and going straight to the palace, using the backdoor and almost getting a heart attack when he bumped into Ying who seemed to have just finished trimming something judging from the pruning shear in her hand.
Ying, justifiably, had her eyes widened like saucers upon seeing Fang in the palace’s grounds.
“Fang? What are you doing here?” Ying asked, voice thankfully hushed as it seemed like she didn’t want to attract any attention.
Ever the person to always be quick in adapting, Fang quickly comes up with a fake backstory.
“My owners have a quite close relationship with the palace. So sometimes they send me here to help with whatever that needs help with.”
“Those ‘sometimes’ being close to ‘never’, then? Because it’s my first time bumping into you here.” Ying replied, squinting her eyes at Fang skeptically yet curiously.
“The first time you bumped into me. I’ve been here plenty of times - it’s just that you never get to bump into me.”
“And you didn’t even bother to try finding me and greeting me?” Ying asked a good question, causing Fang to search his brain for a decent answer before giving up and just mumbling about how he was busy .
Technically, it was the truth; because Fang had been quite busy these days. Aside from today when he decided he wanted to sneak out in broad daylight, of course.
So Fang excused himself and went about his merry way, but froze when Ying called out in confusion.
“Why are you heading for the royal family’s chambers?”
“I’m not.”
“But you are?”
Fang scrambled for an excuse in his head, itching to just run away and face Ying later once he had an actual plan on how to handle things, when he noticed the girl was still rambling and at some point mentioned how she saw a couple of guards had gone that same way where Fang was heading.
Uneasiness settled in the pit of Fang’s stomach as he cut through the gardener’s words.
“Did the guards say anything about why they are going there in the first place?”
Ying looked a bit taken aback at Fang’s question, perhaps wondering why her supposedly not ‘the prince’ of a friend was getting so worked up.
“I’m a mere gardener, so they didn’t bother to explain their reasons to me, unfortunately. Why? Oh wait- do you know the prince? That’s why you’re so worried?”
Fang knew the prince very well, yeah sure.
“You could say that. It’s just- has anyone else gone to check on the prince?” Fang asked, throat feeling like it was being constricted as seconds passed by.
It was just a hunch.
Still-
“I think Sai, Shields and a new guard had gone in.”
Fang had never felt so grateful for having such an observant friend.
Not bothering to say another word, Fang went and left the girl in the dust, making a beeline for where his chambers were situated and hoping that the guards hadn’t reached those places yet.
It may just be paranoia from having researched about assassination attempts for a class of his, but enemies infiltrating the palace in disguise were no stranger to assassins.
The fact that the guards managed to walk in leisurely and not have to report their business around this area was already suspicious in itself.
Maybe Sai, Shielda and the new guard had gone through the place from the other entrance - which only served to further worry Fang because that would mean the probability of those three reaching the royal family’s chambers before him would be high.
Fang should’ve been more careful - he had thought that he felt like someone was watching him.
But was it the truth, or was it just paranoia?
Just when Fang turned round the corner, he found himself meeting eyes with a human - the new guard Ying mentioned judging from how Sai and Shielda were walking behind the guard and seemed to be discussing something - and at the same time noticed a thin wire that the unsuspecting guard was about to step on.
But it was all too late.
The guard stepped on the trip wire.
Fang wasn’t sure how many bombs that were planted - but judging from the loud noise and how his ears bleed, there were plenty.
Sai had thrown his hat just in time for the prince to be able to use it to cover himself from the rubbles and debris from the explosion, but he wasn’t lucky enough to stay conscious throughout the ordeal, having the back of his head hit by a particularly large rubble.
The last thing he remembered was seeing how dark the red blood that stained the floor was, all coming from the unmoving guard he had made eye contact with just a few seconds ago. Eyes that were full of life just a few seconds ago.
His brain betrayed him, and his heart ached upon being provided with a vision of a dear friend of his being the one to bleed out for him .
The 15 year old remembered hearing Shielda calling out his name, but he found his imagination of someone dear to him dying in his arms more vivid than anything else.
By the time the prince had woken up, he found himself immediately looking around, looking for something - someone.
His memory reassured him that it wasn’t Boboiboy - but the news of the death of the new guard hit terribly all the same; because it was still a life.
Fang vaguely noted that the cat was out of the bag; that Ejojo, who had been staring at him in both shock and confusion, had certainly realized Fang was the prince with the way Kaizo himself was standing beside the bed Fang was laid on.
Yaya and Ejojo have found out.
The girl didn’t seem to be the type to tattle on him - would Ejojo do so, though?
Even though the guilt of having indirectly taken the life of someone was eating him from the inside, all Fang could feel was how glad he was to know that at least it wasn’t Boboiboy.
In the midst of trying to stay conscious and listen to Sai and Shielda who were retelling their king og what had taken place, the prince found himself unable to keep his eyes open for too long, letting himself be taken away from the realm of consciousness.
🌃 4 🌃
“You’re 17 already. Stop being a brat and accept the next guard I’ll be giving you.”
“I can take care of myself.”
The sound of swords aggressively clashing filled the usually silent training ground as the king sparred with his 17 year old brother.
Kaizo could be infuriatingly adamant when he wanted to.
“It’s for safety, little brother . You’re the only heir to the throne. One mistake and war may even be an option among these people without a king to lead.” Kaizo insisted, persistent as always as he took a step back when Fang tried aiming for his neck.
“At least they would be fighting for themselves if a war was to break out.” Fang muttered, loud enough for Kaizo to hear and scoffed at the prince’s words.
As if he had been holding back this whole time, Kaizo easily swung his sword so as to force Fang to lose his grip on his own sword, as if making a point when Fang was left with no swords as the older GogoBugian pointed the tip of his sword to where Fang’s heart was.
“Show off.” Fang snapped.
Kaizo merely stared for a few moments before retracting his sword and putting it back in his sword’s sheath, somehow able to look both patient and impatient at his younger brother’s ‘rebellious phase’.
“I was just making a point that having a bodyguard would do you good.” the king stated matter-of-factly, not fazed by his brother’s glare as he started rudely walking away.
As Kaizo left Fang to stand all by himself in the middle of the training ground, the king was just about to fully leave when Fang claimed with finality.
“Send another one of them my way again and I’ll make sure they’ll go back to you to plead for a different job.”
Looking far too disinterested to Fang’s liking, Kaizo paused in his steps, spared a glance at the prince, and said with a tone that felt foreign in the king’s tongue. (Kaizo never sounded so intrigued before.)
“I have a feeling this time you’ll be the one to plead.”
With those words, Kaizo left.
How rude of his brother - to stay such vague things and leave without any kind of explanation whatsoever. Did he really score his etiquette test back before he was king?
Fang had taken more weapon-wielding classes ever since the incident when he was 15.
As expected, the next time Fang talked to Ejojo after the incident, the box-headed alien tried to play it cool by acting like usual. He only looked more relaxed once Fang bluntly pointed out that he didn’t mind Ejojo talking to him how he used to talk to him before.
Speaking of Ejojo - was his brother planning to make that guy his bodyguard?
The prince wanted to entertain the thought simply because it would be hilarious to have that guard be at his beck and call - crap maybe Ejojo’s way of thinking was rubbing on Fang a bit too much - but then the prince discarded such thoughts because there’s no way Ejojo would agree to a change of post.
Ejojo liked his freedom of getting to roam around and do as he pleased - read: see Adudu as he pleases - to agree to such a commitment.
Fang was pulled out of his thoughts only when there was the sound of two knocks on the wall, making him turn to see Ejojo who looked at him in distaste.
“I thought you wanted to sneak out tonight. Aren’t you going to change out of those? ” Ejojo pointed out, gesturing over Fang’s sweat-drenched clothes.
…
“I’m too lazy.” Fang deadpanned in the end, putting back the sword he was using back with the numerous other swords as he approached the guard who was looking at him in disapproval - like a disappointed parent or something.
When Fang attempted to walk past the obnoxiously tall guard, the said guard suddenly dumped a bag filled with what seemed to be clothes upon further inspection.
“What are these?” Fang asked straightforwardly.
“Changed into those. I borrowed them from a friend of mine who worked as a butler at the palace. We agreed to meet the others after work, didn’t we? This is just another chance of convincing them that you’re just some guy and not the prince.” Ejojo answered, surprising Fang with the sudden show of intellect.
It was merely a jest; the guy had a couple of positive points, totally.
The prince went to the changing rooms and started changing while Ejojo waited for him at the exit.
Unfortunately, Fang wasn’t so keen with how the white button up shirt was a bit too loose on him, forcing him to roll up his sleeves up to his forearms. At least the black slack was a good fit for him, tucking in the shirt into the slacks and trying to make himself look at least decent.
“Is this friend of yours a bodybuilder or something?” Fang joked as he tucked in the shirt, walking out of the changing room to where Ejojo could be seen leaning against the wall in boredom and staring at who-knows-what.
At Fang’s question, the guard turned, and for some reason he looked all too amused as he gave the 17 year old a once over.
“What’s so funny?” Fang deadpanned in an instant.
Ejojo waved his hand in dismissal, but Fang swore he heard the guard mutter something along the lines ‘that kid surely had grown’ under his breath.
???
The two of them went through their usual ‘sneaking out’ route, and met up with Yaya, Ying and Gopal who were waiting a few feet away from the main entrance of the palace. (Fang adjusted the mask on his face and internally wondered how long he had to keep on wearing that mask whenever he went to meet his friends.)
Gopal was the first to spot the two of them, waving all happily before he squinted his eyes at Fang, effectively making Fang feel self-conscious.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Fang instantly asked, never liking being put under scrutinizing eyes anyway. (He grew to hate attention after having the realization that he would never escape it once he rose up to the throne.)
Ying unhelpfully joined Gopal, and then she was suddenly nodding.
“I agree with Gopal. You look really good in that outfit. On second thought; were you helping around as a butler for the party at the main hall just now?” Ying thankfully finally shared with the prince her thoughts, making the said prince grow a little awkward at the compliment.
He wasn’t usually at the receiving end of compliments; that’s his brother’s job.
“To answer for the pacing out guy: yeah he was working at the main hall. Now can we all please get going to Adudu’s place?” Ejojo spoke when Fang had gone quiet for some time, pulling the prince out of his own thoughts.
Adudu…
“Will Boboiboy be there?”
All eyes turned to look at Fang, but the prince maintained eye contact only with Ejojo who pursed his lips at the question.
“...as far as I know, he won’t.” Ejojo took his time to answer.
…right…
Boboiboy and him really did not talk to each other for years - only because Fang went on and let his mouth do as he pleased.
…
“Uhhh maybe we should just hang out around here, you know? Adudu’s place is quite far, so maybe we just hang out around here instead. Like that newly opened park, for a suggestion.” Yaya, the kind soul she was, fortunately sliced through the awkward and too-stretched silence.
The others were all too eager to agree with Yaya’s suggestion, all too aware of the fall out between the two boys.
So to the park they went - although Ejojo kept on complaining how he wanted to go to Adudu’s place.
In the end, Ejojo ended up muttering something about ‘calling Adudu to get his ass here’ before leaving to a more secluded part of the park - which meant leaving the humans and a disguised GogoBugian all by themselves.
Having felt guilty for sort of throwing off the vibe, he cleared his throat and asked his friends how everyone was doing. (A boring question, but Fang trusted his friends to come up with amusing and entertaining answers.)
Quickly, Gopal chirped all too eagerly.
“KITCHEN’S A PAIN! It’s always so loud and bustling in the kitchen when the head chef barks out his orders as everyone frantically tries to appease him by busying themselves. I honestly am only there for the leftovers…” the guy took on a complaining tone at the end of his sentence.
Ying sighed, seeming to be relating with Gopal’s woes.
“Being a gardener isn’t all that bad. It’s just that it got too quiet sometimes. It’s sort of boring. It’s against the rules, but sometimes I sneak in my earphones and mp3. At least it’s less boring with music to listen to.” Ying lamented, slipping her hand into her pocket and taking out the mentioned mp3 with a cheeky grin.
Would she be bold enough to admit that had she known Fang was a prince?
“I saw you sometimes; humming and dancing a little while sweeping and all.” Yaya pointed out, grinning cheekily when Ying sputtered and went slightly red at being spotted doing what she claimed to be ‘embarrassing things’.
“It’s not all that embarrassing. It’s cute.” Yaya said, intention unclear if she was just teasing or if she was trying to be reassuring. Whatever her intention was, Ying seemed to have fully believed that Yaya was saying all that just to mess with her.
When it was Yaya’s turn to speak, she spared a glance at Ejojo who was playing something on his phone a distance away from them before she turned to look at her friends.
“Being a maid is not that bad. We all have our shifts, and there are a lot of us. So all we have to do is stick to our schedule and do our job. If it ever gets boring, I’ll just talk to the other maids about anything - like how they saw His Majesty personally go to the training grounds to check on the new recruits of guards-to-be for the first time a week ago. ”
Fang perked up at her words - because that was new.
He had thought all this time his brother merely asked the instructor who’s the best and stuff since his schedule was always so packed.
“Is that supposed to be rare?” Gopal asked, furrowing his eyebrows and all.
To answer his question, Yaya nodded, and started telling her friends about the ‘information’ she had gathered from talks between the maids.
“Apparently, His Majesty and His Highness , the prince, seemed to have a disagreement that had lasted a couple of years ever since the bomb incident at their chambers. The prince didn’t want a bodyguard, but His Majesty insisted that the prince should have at least one bodyguard with him at all times.
Ever since that incident, His Majesty had been asking for reports from the guards’ instructor and the captain of the guards, and sent those guards to the prince - except the prince would always challenge those guards to a duel after making those guards promise to stop being his bodyguard if he was to win.
He succeeded in beating those guards every time.”
At that moment, Yaya turned to give a meaningful look to Fang, and the GogoBugian casted his gaze downwards a little, feeling awkward.
Yaya continued.
“Some maids speculated that the prince was just acting like the typical ungrateful younger brother. Some said that maybe the prince already had his eyes on someone and was waiting for them. Some said that the prince was just still blaming himself for what had happened during the bomb incident.”
Fang had to do a double take after listening to Yaya’s words, cursing himself internally when a certain human crossed his mind upon the phrase ‘waiting for them’.
The prince was anything but waiting for that guy.
He still felt strongly against Boboiboy joining the royal guards or just being a guard in general.
“Eh… The prince sure sounds annoying.” Gopal commented, causing Fang’s eyebrow to twitch as he held himself from defending his own honor.
Both Ying and Yaya merely shrugged at Gopal’s words, but then Ying seemed to recall something before she turned to Fang curiously, looking excited.
“You’re close with the prince aren’t you, Fang? What’s he like?”
Oh. Right. Fang had said that.
The prince was unsure of he should describe himself to his friends, and just when he decided to settle for ‘he’s just some guy…’, the sound of a car approaching could be heard, and Fang turned to look just in time to see there seemed to be a quick movement into the forest beside the park.
However, the prince couldn’t dwell on that for too long because Adudu got out of the purple car, and Probe made it his mission to show off as he transformed himself from a car into his usual self, earning himself an impressed whistle from Gopal while Yaya and Ying clapped supportively.
Ejojo of course had to ruin the moment by saying he should vandalize Probe so that Adudu could feel what he felt whenever Boboiboy drew on his car.
It got Probe all anxious and made the robot to scurry and hide behind Adudu who clicked his tongue at Ejojo’s words.
As if the missing piece had arrived, the group became even louder as they hung out and talked about the most mundane things, with Probe and Gopal sort of acting like hosts as they guided the flow of the conversation. (Conversations usually didn’t need hosts, but if there were no hosts, Adudu and Ejojo would’ve spent hours just bickering.)
At some point into the conversation, Fang zoned out, and after glancing at the forest direction where he could’ve sworn he saw something entering, he abruptly stood up and caught everyone’s attention in the process.
“Uh… what’s wrong, Fang?” Probe asked, surely clueless and wondering why was the GogoBugian acting all weird.
Deciding that explaining would only take too much time, Fang briefly excused himself, discreetly glancing at Ejojo as if to say he got everything under control, before approaching the spot where he swore he had seen someone enter.
He was at least glad that none of his friends bothered to spare him another glance or follow after him.
Entering the forest, he took out a pocket knife he had with him - nothing wrong about being cautious - and took notice of the couple of fireflies flying around that managed to cast just enough light for the prince to navigate his way through.
The prince found himself quite deep into the forest and was just about to leave when he heard a familiar voice that he hadn’t heard for years.
“ Those clothes you’re wearing looked like mine. ”
Fang had taken a step back to get himself some more balance, but he felt it before he knew it; stepping on something before he found himself being lifted to the air, upside down and all as he noticed someone coming out of the dark. (He was glad he at least tucked his shirt into his slacks.)
The prince wasn’t sure what came over him, but he actually dropped his pocket knife in favor of adjusting the mask on his face.
The thought of this person being him became more overbearing than any other thoughts, and keeping his identity a secret became the first and utmost priority for the GogoBugian.
Surely enough, the person from the shadows had his face illuminated with the moonlight that could barely pass through the thick leaves of the quite tall trees, along with the fireflies that were flying around.
“I wonder how Ejojo actually managed to make you wear it. You just made me lose a bet, you know?” Boboiboy said all casually as if Fang was not upside down, looking different from how he was a few years ago as he had a triumphant grin on his lips. (Ejojo probably meant Boboiboy when he had murmured something at the training grounds earlier that evening.)
Why did he look like he had won the lottery or something??
“ That is actually an understatement, Fang. I wouldn’t say I won the lottery - I’ve won something even better, actually.
Doesn’t this prove that I’m qualified to be a guard, then? ”
Boboiboy’s answer made Fang realize that he had spoken his question out loud and not just in his thoughts, but he didn’t bother to be embarrassed or things along those lines as he focused on the question that the human had directed at him.
“Guards don’t pull unfair stunts like hanging a civilian upside down.” Fang retorted, scowling when Boboiboy merely huffed in amusement at his words.
“What’s so funny?” Fang asked, ignoring the way his heart was tugged in a good way since he finally got to see his friend doing fine and dandy.
Boboiboy shrugged, approached Fang as his fingers hovered over the prince’s mask and nearly caused Fang’s heart to leap out of his chest from imagining what Boboiboy’s reaction would be to seeing his face, before tapping on the top of Fang’s nose playfully.
“Ejojo seemed to know you quite well. He told me you would say something along those lines. Have you guys been hanging out often?” Boboiboy answered, reaching up and slowly lowering the rope, careful when the prince was finally on the ground, seated.
It was unavoidable for Ejojo to know him well; since they spend quite a lot of time together after his identity reveal. (Ejojo was his mentor most of the time with the weapon-wielding classes.)
At being reminded of how amazingly Ejojo did in his weapon-wielding classes, Fang came to the realization that maybe Adudu had sucked back then and was the joke of his class specifically because the short alien was enrolled into the wrong class. After all, Adudu was more of the brains kind of guy - but still a bit slow, but he’s a hard worker.
Ah… Fang was digressing.
“Often enough for him to be able to understand my speech pattern, probably.” Fang purposefully gave a vague answer, the corner of his lips curving upwards a little at seeing the dissatisfied expression on Boboiboy’s lips.
“You’re not answering the question.”
“What do I have to answer when you’re the one who’s purposefully ignoring me?”
“...fair point.”
Once out of the roped, Fang took that as his chance to reach for the knife he dropped earlier; except when he reached for the spot he swore he had dropped the knife at, all he could feel were fallen leaves covering the ground.
A quiet yet amused laugh registered in Fang’s ear, and the prince turned to see that Boboiboy somehow was miraculously holding onto the knife the GogoBugian had been looking for.
“Looking for this, Your Highness ?” Boboiboy drawled, looking all too pleased with himself.
Not at all amused, Fang grabbed a pebble nearby and threw it at the human while staying seated on the ground, cursing under his breath when Boboiboy merely had to tilt his head to the side for the pebble to miss its target.
“Do you have anything else up your sleeves?” Boboiboy asked; obviously teasing and full of himself.
What a smug bastard… (Damn you, Ejojo; that guy was probably the one who taught Boboiboy to act so… obnoxiously!)
“I would if you come closer.” Fang taunted, a bit taken aback when the human actually took a step closer before crouching down so they were eye-to-eye as he tilted his head in an entertained manner.
“What are you gonna do? Catch me off guard by kissing me or something? ” Boboiboy taunted back, sounding like he was actually challenging the prince to do so.
Obviously Fang did not rise up to the challenge. (He was tempted though - just to see Boboiboy’s reaction.)
The plan in his head was to lunge for the guy and maybe wrap an arm around the said guy’s neck so he could keep the human in place.
Surprise was an understatement; especially when Fang’s attempt at lunging at the guy was misinterpreted as him pulling the human into a hug.
It was even more embarrassing when it came to Fang’s attention that his friend had grown so strong to the point that Fang couldn’t even budge after the human had wrapped his arms around the GogoBugian - even more embarrassing when the prince’s body swear-to-god involuntarily just melted in the human’s embrace.
…
“Adudu promised me that at 16 I could go out as much as I could by myself without having him acting like a mother hen.” Boboiboy suddenly admitted, arms still wrapped securely around Fang casually.
Just because he could, Fang entertained the human by prompting the said human to speak more by humming - which Boboiboy easily agreed to.
“I’m 17 now - and I can finally work alongside my friends!” Boboiboy shared the good news, squeezing Fang out of excitement in the process.
“...alongside…?” Fang repeated.
“At the palace! Duh! Even you work at the palace! How come you never told me that?”
“You weren’t around to listen.”
…
“You… sure are holding that against me. But it’s okay! I expected it anyway. I’ll work hard to make sure I gain back your trust and all that. But I also sort of have someone else to appeal to; I heard he rejected a number of guards already.” Boboiboy chuckled, a bit guilty but mostly in an understanding manner.
The sound was so nice and distracting that it almost made Fang miss the last bits of the human’s sentence.
Just when Fang was about to ask Boboiboy to clarify, the human suddenly pulled himself away from the hug, and didn’t leave Fang a chance to say another word as he annoyingly pressed his pointer finger at Fang’s lips that were covered by the mask, grinning ecstatically.
“ I’ll tell you once I finally get to start working! ” Boboiboy said, all happy and anticipating.
The rest of the night passed by in a blur, and Fang wondered if he had gone crazy for waking up and out of nowhere blaming the Sun for all his misery. (The Sun should mind his own business and not blind everyone with its unwanted brightness - same should be told to that guy. )
Relying on his hunch, he asked his hairstylist to use a different hairstyle on him, and for some reason they all briefly glanced at each other knowingly - which reminded him of Yaya’s words, and Fang didn’t know what possessed him to stutter out loud enough for him and his hairstylist to hear.
“ It’s not for them or anything. ”
Both him and the hairstylist froze, and Fang didn’t get to explain his outburst when the maids all of a sudden were giving him advice(?) on who-knows-what; Fang didn’t even bother to try and listen to all of them because they were all speaking together at the same time!
Again, everything passed by in a blur; Fang found himself feeling awfully dressed up - the maids had suddenly asked him to change out of his clothes after his impromptu outburst - and Kaizo seemed to share the sentiment as his eyes slightly widened at seeing his brother all dressed up as he entered the king’s office.
Heartbeat picking up at seeing the familiar figure of someone, the said someone turned to look when Kaizo had noticeably looked surprised, and then, like clockwork, Fang’s eyes met familiar ones.
(Fang had never really paid any attention to the guards’ uniform. It appeared he should’ve done that ages ago because the huma- the uniform, was indeed magnificent.)
A few seconds passed with them just staring at each other before Kaizo spoke up.
“Have the two of you met before?”
Boboiboy was quick to turn to address the king, but the sentence he uttered was as if he was speaking to a friend instead.
“I’m pretty sure I haven’t.
I would remember meeting someone as stunning as His Highness, if I had met him. ”
This human was going to be the death of him.
🌃 5 🌃
19 year old Fang was losing it.
It’s like he’s living two personas at this rate!
In the daytime, he had to act like the prim and proper prince with 24/7 classy hairstyle that Boboiboy had to protect, while at night when Fang sneaked out after convincing Boboiboy that he wouldn’t be sneaking out, he had to sit through Boboiboy going on and on about the prince; either complimenting the said prince or nitpicking him.
Opportunities to sneak out were getting less because how was he going to sneak out to see his friend while trying to fool the same friend that he’s sneaking out? Exactly!
Boboiboy seemed to not at all be embarrassed when he hung out with the prince, not holding back with the compliments and his honest thoughts.
“Good morning, Your Highness!”
“Do you have somewhere to be or someone to be? Because you are looking really dashing today!”
“Your Highness is really intelligent! Oh, no, I’m not looking down on you; I’m merely stating what I think.”
“No wonder His Majesty wanted to get you a bodyguard quickly; your brilliance is very tempting to steal and possibly kidnape. Ah… I’m just speaking objectively, Your Highness.”
“I’m honored that you asked me to a duel, but Your Highness, this is your 10th attempt to beat me. With all due respect, please give up and just accept me as yours.”
“His Majesty should limit your movements more; you are too brilliant for this world, Your Highness. Putting aside your gloomy attitude at least.”
“Your Highness, good afternoon! A friend of mine that works as a gardener taught me how to arrange flowers to make a pretty bouquet; I figure that a pretty bouquet should be owned by an equally pretty owner. So here you go, Your Highness. ^^”
“A friend of mine who works as a cook brought me some red carrot doughnuts. I heard that you like them from the maids! So here you are; red carrot doughnuts!!”
“Your Highness, I regret to stop our duel this early into the, well, duel, but my friend had taught me how to properly disinfect an injury; so could I do so for you?”
“I heard you are quite close with a certain human whose hair color was the same as yours; do you happen to know where he is most of the time? I rarely ever bump into him. Oh but I do enjoy your company - please don’t misunderstand, Your Highness.”
It was as if instead of disappearing to grow stronger or something, he was studying language and how to make people swoon for him! (Not that Fang was swooned.)
That guy should know that he’s absolutely capable of making others swoon just by smiling. ( Not that Fang was swooned. )
Going back to the topic; it was getting ridiculous.
Maybe it was about time Fang crafted a new plan that included a flimsy excuse of him having to sail to a faraway land or something; at least then he wouldn’t need to bother himself with sneaking out.
The fun of sneaking out wasn’t as addicting and exhilarating as it used to be anyway - since the people he sneaked out for were inside the palace and no longer outside of it.
Boboiboy’s complaints of the prince were mostly just him wishing the prince would talk more. (Fang was afraid of talking too much and exposing himself and his years spent pretending to be a human just to befriend other humans.)
Anyway; so here’s an attempt of Fang trying to sneak out through the balcony.
Emphasize on ‘attempt’ - because with the way Fang found himself being pulled into a familiar embrace when he had barely taken a step of his balcony had him sighing in slight annoyance, letting himself be pulled away from the balcony and into his chamber. (Fang was honestly too disappointed to care that at the moment, with his messy hair, Boboiboy may be able to connect the dots and realize that one of his friends was a prince.)
With ease, Boboiboy turned Fang around in his embrace so they were facing each other, and Fang let himself be shaken violently as his bodyguard held him by his shoulders.
“ You promised me you aren’t going to sneak out! ”
“ You promised me that you’ll let me rest for the night.”
“Well, clearly your idea of resting should be checked because how in the world is ‘jumping off a balcony’ is considered resting?!”
“‘Jumping off the balcony’ is simply another means of me sneaking out.”
“Hah! You admitted that you were trying to sneak out! And what do you mean by ‘another means’?! There are other means?! ”
Do you see what Fang has to deal with?
“You’re reading into what I said too much. Now let go of me, will you?” Fang sighed, trying to get out of Boboiboy’s strong hold but to no avail as the human persistently kept his hold tight on the prince.
“I’m seriously not going to trust your words anymore.” Boboiboy sighed, maneuvering them so that he could make the prince sit on the edge of his bed - and that the prince did, if only to make his bodyguard worry less.
Fang thought of their other three friends that were definitely waiting for him and Boboiboy to hang out with.
“What about your… uh… nightly hang outs with your friends? Will you not go to those just to stay by my side?” Fang found himself asking, sort of curious at how Boboiboy would answer.
Boboiboy pursed his lips thoughtfully for a few moments before he answered.
“I’ll tell them later. My priority is you now. They would understand.” Boboiboy insisted, nodding to himself before he seemed to get a bright idea.
Looking at Fang enthusiastically, the bodyguard smiled hopefully as he asked.
“My friends are all working for the palace! So maybe you could consider meeting them and letting me introduce you to them while I tell them why I can’t go to the nightly hang outs anymore!”
It would be a great idea for Fang to say no.
But his mouth had other thoughts.
“Sure.”
???
Boboiboy cheered, started talking about how he’ll introduce Fang to everyone tomorrow, and then abruptly left after telling Fang to ‘better stay on the bed and sleep like the prim and proper prince he is’.
In summary: Fang was an idiot.
The very next morning, Boboiboy noisily woke Fang up, and picked out the prince’s clothes himself, saying something along the lines ‘not wanting to overwhelm his friends’ and stuff. Surprisingly enough, the maids all let the bodyguard do as he pleased, quipping here and there and helping Boboiboy choose some clothes at times.
Whenever Fang made eye contact with any of the maids, he had a feeling that he really didn’t want to know what the maids were thinking. (He remembered how back then when Boboiboy started tailing behind Fang everywhere, all the maids they passed by tended to gawk and smiled all too uhhh scarily. Their smiles reminded Fang of Yaya’s words from before, and he always tried his best to not let his thoughts linger there too much.)
Fang insisted that the maids at least have to do his hair, and Boboiboy agreed after shamelessly saying ‘you do look most handsome with that hairstyle’, making almost everyone in the room swoon and blushed from his honest words. ( Since Fang was not at all swooned .)
Once finished, Fang was dragged by Boboiboy to the dining hall, and the prince already had a good guess of who he was going to meet first as he let himself be dragged and ignored the curious glances and stares from guards, maids, and, well, everyone.
A week after Boboiboy was assigned as Fang’s bodyguard, there was an uproar about how there was actually a bodyguard that Fang didn’t reject right away. Fang wished he could tell them that no, he didn’t reject anyone and that the previous guards merely lost in a duel with him, but that would mean admitting that he had lost to Boboiboy since the human was still his bodyguard even after a week had passed.
To defend his honor, Fang didn’t bother to tell the truth. (Plus, he believed the duel should stay just between him and the previous guards; since it was quite an embarrassing tale to tell for those guards. ‘I lost to the prince I was supposed to guard’. Exactly.)
Upon reaching the dining hall, Fang could immediately spot two familiar people, Qually and Gopal, seeming to be talking hushedly to each other.
Perhaps the two of them were confused why the head chef had told them to wait outside as it was the prince’s bodyguard’s order.
By the time Fang and Boboiboy reached the two of them, Gopal looked positively astonished at having seen Fang, while Qually bowed a little in respect, already being well-acquainted with Fang since he was one of the palace workers that Fang had grown close with ever since he was young.
“Gopal, this is His Highness, Prince Pang . This is probably the first time you’re meeting him, but I’m just here to tell you that I won’t be able to join our hang outs more frequently anymore since I have my hands full with him.” Boboiboy casually said, as if he was unaware that Gopal still had his mouth opened and that the guy was obviously still staring.
Meeting Gopal was quite uneventful: once Gopal had snapped out of his daze, he commented how Fang looked like someone he knew quite well, and Fang hoped he looked fine and not like he was nervous of being found out.
Surprisingly, Gopal even went to enter the kitchen only to come out with a box filled with a slice of red carrot cake that he had made with Qually, stammering all over his words as he profusely greeted Fang with jumbled words. (Fang didn’t understand most of it since Gopal was all over the place and his words weren’t even stringing together to form a proper sentence, but it was an endearing sight for sure - especially considering how Gopal had always been good with his words aside from his lack of brain-to-mouth filter.)
Just because he could, Fang smiled, and the way Gopal instantly went bashful and started scratching the back of his head had the GogoBugian stifling an endeared smile - since it would be quite weird of him to suddenly smile all endearingly at a person ‘he just met’.
Before Fang and Boboiboy left, Gopal had asked to talk to Boboiboy in private, and Fang obviously let them have their privacy as the two humans huddled closer to each other and stood a distance away from the prince and Qually.
Even though Gopal had said he wanted to talk privately with Boboiboy, it might as well not be a private conversation with the way both Fang and Qually could clearly hear Gopal panicking over whether the prince was planning to fire him or the prince was just happy to grace him with his presence.
(Boboiboy repetitively had to remind Gopal that no one was out to get him.)
After thanking Gopal for his generosity and bidding goodbye to both Gopal and Qually, Boboiboy and Fang started making their way to the greenhouse next: a place where the two of them would often frequent since Fang loved going there.
They took a seat at a table in the greenhouse, and Fang was enjoying the cake with a fork that Gopal had considerately given along with the box when he noticed Boboiboy was staring at the cake.
Quickly connecting the dots, Fang pursed his lips in disapproval as he asked.
“Did you not have your breakfast before coming to fetch me?”
Like a deer caught in headlights, the bodyguard scratched his cheek lightly, stammering out an excuse of ‘being too excited’ and ‘not bothered to wait for Adudu to finish making breakfast since that guy took a longer time to make breakfast when Probe’s not around’. (Even as a bodyguard, it was obvious how Boboiboy looked up to Adudu from the way he sometimes rambled about the box-headed alien.)
“Where did Probe go?”
“He just left a letter yesterday saying he was leaving for a vacation.”
…
Wordlessly, Fang used his fork to scoop a small part of the cake and beckoned for Boboiboy to take the fork, not at all expecting it when instead of taking the fork, his bodyguard mistook his intention and went to just eat the cake on the fork - thinking the prince was offering to feed him.
…
Only when Fang had gotten over his shock did he finally decide to just stop thinking too much and started feeding both himself and his all-too eager and happy bodyguard.
“Ying said she’ll be here soon to water the flowers here. We could talk to her when she drops by while she’s working and all.” Boboiboy said after swallowing yet another bite of the cake, patiently waiting for the prince to feed him again.
Fang was in the middle of feeding Boboiboy when someone entered the greenhouse; said someone’s eyes widened in surprise at seeing the prince feeding his bodyguard and sharing a fork.
…at least the someone was Ying…
“Ying! You’re finally here!” Boboiboy excitedly exclaimed, standing up from his seat and making a beeline for Ying who was still staring at Fang quite skeptically.
Was that really any way for someone to look at their prince? Really?
“You see, I, unfortunately, have to keep my eyes on His Highness, Prince Pang 24/7 these days. So I made him promise me that I should be able to introduce him to a couple of people in exchange for him having my life in his hands.” Boboiboy explained not-so accurately, causing Fang to furrow his eyebrows in distaste.
“Ying, was it? Tell your friend here that he should stop making false statements about me.” Fang feigned being unfamiliar with Ying, stifling a couple of amused chuckle when Ying was quick to chide Boboiboy to not lie while Boboiboy gasped in betrayal.
“You trust that guy’s words over mine?!”
“ He’s literally the prince, Boboiboy! ”
…this was all quite entertaining. Maybe the introductions should’ve been done earlier so Fang could see his friends fumbled and tried to speak respectfully to the prince.
Compared to Gopal, Ying did a wonderful job at acting normal, although maybe a little quiet compared to the Ying Fang had gotten to know under the moonlight and at godly hours into early mornings.
Still, it was still Ying - and Fang found her as endearing as the next person.
While walking around the greenhouse and accompanying Ying who was watering some flowers, Boboiboy out of nowhere excused himself, leaving Fang to watch over Ying doing her job as she walked around.
Fang had noticed how Ying’s hands tended to tremble a little and grow slightly clammy from sweat whenever the girl was nervous from the number of times they’ve hung out - but it didn’t sit right with him that Ying was so anxious around him of all people.
Sure, at the moment Fang was Prince Pang and not just Fang .
Still…
“Are you nervous?” Fang asked when the thought of Ying being uncomfortable irked him too much, making Ying almost drop her watering can as she blinked owlishly at the prince.
“In all honesty, I quite am, Your Highness.” Ying honestly admitted, smiling a bit crookedly as she lowered her gaze to the ground and at the flowers.
“You need not be. Boboiboy really did introduce me to you simply because he wanted you to know that he had a good reason for not coming to your nightly hang outs.” Fang reassured, watching as Ying grew slightly relaxed at the mention of ‘nightly hang outs’.
“He even told you about the nightly hang outs?” Ying asked, sounding fond, if anything.
Fang understood her.
“He did.” Fang admitted truthfully.
A more sincere smile graced Ying’s lips as she said.
“He must trust you a lot then.”
“The sentiment is returned.”
By the time Boboiboy had come back with a slight shift in his excitement, Fang could confidently say that Ying definitely approved of Prince Pang.
The easy parts were done. Now to the part where these people actually knew of Fang’s true identity.
The two of them were walking along a hallway with one side having large windows while the other side was just rows of doors to who-knows-where. (There were too many empty rooms in the palace.)
Fang wanted to focus on preparing a script mentally, but he was unable to ignore how Boboiboy’s mood had dampened ever since he returned from wherever he had gone to after leaving Fang alone with Ying. (Boboiboy seemed to be trying his best to not make his dampened mood obvious, but Fang had known Boboiboy for a long time, hadn’t he?)
“Is something wrong?” Fang asked, furrowing his eyebrows when Boboiboy straight up went rigid before the bodyguard cleared his throat and feigned enthusiasm.
“Everything’s going swimmingly, Your Highness!”
…
“Did you find another letter?” Fang asked in all seriousness.
Indeed, assassination attempts on both Fang and Kaizo had been increasing lately - perhaps because Fang’s coronation was just around the corner as he was meant to take on the throne on his 20th birthday.
“No need to worry your pretty head with it; I’ll handle it.” Boboiboy quickly reassured, looking upset with himself as Fang had seen through his ecstatic facade.
Put off by his bodyguard’s secretive behavior, Fang purposefully stopped walking and offered a hand out.
“The letter. Let me see it.” Fang said, using his authoritative tone.
Of course, Boboiboy was not one to give up easily.
“I have it all under control, Your Highness.” Boboiboy insisted, gaze strong even as it met Fang’s equally strong gaze.
…
What a troublesome bodyguard had Fang ended up with…
Before any of them could say anything, there was the sound of someone calling for Boboiboy, and Fang took that chance to slip his hand into Boboiboy’s pocket, smiling smugly when he managed to take a step back and narrowly avoid Bobboiboy’s hand that was trying to take the letter back.
Just when Fang was about to read the letter, he found himself also turning to look at who was calling for Boboiboy, surprised to find that it was Yaya, Ejojo, Adudu and a seemingly turned off Probe - which never happened before.
Something was… different with this Probe. It looked like Adudu was struggling to carry the robot when Probe was supposed to be quite light.
Boboiboy made a quick signal of ‘don’t do anything’ at Fang before hurrying to the incoming trio, leaving Fang with… a terrible hunch.
The last time he had a hunch this strong, an innocent life was lost.
Moments after that felt both fast and slow for Fang; the prince watching in a daze and barely making out how Adudu was panicking because Probe hadn’t been answering his calls, and that the short alien had immediately came here in hopes of asking when was the last time Boboiboy talked to Probe.
Ejojo was there because the guards wouldn’t let Adudu in - so Ejojo was like Adudu’s bodyguard or something.
Yaya was there because she had bumped into the two aliens who had gotten lost half an hour after entering the palace; since this was very much Adudu’s first time ever entering the palace while Ejojo rarely was in the palace unless it was to fetch Fang and to go to training grounds. (Since that guy’s main source of entertainment was not inside the palace and all.)
Boboiboy worriedly looked at Probe, and Fang was suddenly hit with the urge to read the letter.
And that Fang did.
[ Don’t stray too far from your prince. He’ll suffer a great loss if you’re apart. ]
Thankfully, Fang’s brain was going into overdrive at the moment.
The first thing the prince had thought of was to hurry to his brother - but it didn’t make sense for this assassin to aim for his brother when the assassin had never mentioned the king in his letter.
Another thing that didn’t sit right was how, unlike the previous times, the letter was directed to Boboiboy and not at Fang.
Eyes widening in realization, Fang hurried to the group of people, and shouted an order to Ejojo knowing only him was able to do what Fang was going to tell him to do.
“Ejojo!
Throw Probe out of the window! ”
Fang had to be right.
Probe must be safe - somewhere.
That was not Probe.
All four of them turned to look at Fang, but Ejojo was fortunately a second earlier to react as he smoothly grabbed Probe out of Adudu’s hold, prompting the shorter alien to take out one of his inventions that looked like a gun and pointing it at Ejojo with a sharp glare.
“Ejojo.”
Adudu had only said his name - but even Fang understood what the alien was trying to say.
Ever so stuck up and smug Ejojo, for once, faltered.
That second spent in hesitation was enough for Boboiboy to grab Probe out of Ejojo’s hold, and Fang had never felt so scared .
Fang had to be right.
That was not Probe.
That was certainly a bomb.
The prince’s brain conjured up a number of possible ways this could unravel, but he had not expected for Boboiboy to go and throw the ‘robot’ out of the window, all the while keeping eye contact with Fang.
‘ Don’t ask for help from others when I’m right here. ’
Fang’s heart did its daily skip.
But this was no time to dwell on why it has always been so different for him whenever things involved his bodyguard.
With only Probe’s eyes blinking red three times in warning, Fang shouted a short ‘take cover!’ before abruptly pulling both Yaya and Boboiboy down with him, noting that from the corner of his eyes Ejojo had pulled Adudu down even when the shorter alien had tried to get out of the guard’s grasp.
Barely on the ground, the sound of ‘Probe’ exploding rang loud in Fang’s ears, but all Fang could hear clearly was that this was his fault.
These assassins had probably figured out who Fang kept close - and perhaps this was supposed to be a warning.
Logically, the most obvious way for him to stop this from ever happening again was to follow his brother’s steps; to cut ties with the people he was close with and minimize social interactions.
Still, Fang didn’t want that.
When Fang had snapped out of his thoughts, he found that his cheeks were stained with tears, and Boboiboy was wiping his tears away gently as he asked hushedly if the prince was okay, whereas Yaya was beside Boboiboy looking at Fang in an equally worried manner.
Right.
Fang wanted to protect these people and kept them close.
There weren’t supposed to be secrets between them.
So, in a rush of bravery and adrenaline, Fang grabbed Boboiboy's hands, and looked into his bodyguard’s - his friend’s - concerned eyes.
“Boboiboy, I- ”
🌃 +1 🌃
Fang hadn’t realized when he had fallen asleep.
He became king last year - unfortunately.
It was certainly a night to remember; other royal families from neighboring kingdoms tried to suck up to him terribly that night - especially the ladies. Fang had almost died from suffocation with how overbearing the smell of the perfume invading his nostrils were.
Thankfully, he had Boboiboy sweeping him off his feet and successfully saving him from fainting numerous times that night. (Kaizo wasn’t so keen with their behaviors, but the older brother also let it slide - probably because he knew how terrible it felt like to be in Fang’s position.)
When the time came for the king to choose someone to dance with, Fang outrightly ignored the ladies that were batting their lashes at them in favor of dancing with his bodyguard, smirking in a quite villainous manner - according to Boboiboy anyway - when the bodyguard complained about him definitely not getting any ladies with how everyone would assume he was head-over-heels for the prince.
At some point, Fang also went to dance with Yaya, Ying and Gopal, all three dancing partners giving Fang different experiences.
Yaya was gentle and not exaggerated, movements almost to the bare minimum yet very calm. Dancing with Yaya was like going about one of the peaceful days he had; he didn’t have to think much and could trust where his feet were taking him.
Ying was shy, sometimes stepping on Fang’s feet when she got too anxious - but Fang would always remind the younger girl that he didn’t mind. In fact, it was quite amusing how the girl that was always so quick on her feet was quite terrible at dancing.
Gopal was just straight up talented, Fang believed. Every moment spent dancing with Gopal had the prince wondering if Gopal secretly was a robot programmed to dance. (It was quite embarrassing when at some point Fang ended up dancing the female part, but seeing Gopal flexing his dancing skills all proudly had Fang grinning and laughing, very entertained.)
In other words; it was a memorable night - so memorable that he found himself dreaming about it a couple of times and grumbling when someone woke him up from such a nice dream.
When the 21 year old king’s eyes fluttered open as he raised his head, the scowled on his lips turned downwards even more upon realizing that a certain someone was just casually sitting on his table.
“Finally awake are you, my king ?” Boboiboy sang-song, smiling all too innocently and knowingly as Fang ignored his bodyguard in favor of pinching the skin between his eyes in exhaustion.
“How long have I been out?” Fang murmured, looking out the window and realizing it was already evening when he last remembered that the sun was still high in the sky.
“Long enough for you to miss out on Ying, Yaya, and Gopal visiting. Even Qually came to check up on you, you know?” Boboiboy answered good-naturedly, gesturing over Gopal’s jacket that was on Fang’s shoulders, a few baked goods from Yaya, and a bouquet of flowers from Ying.
“And you guys didn’t bother waking me up?”
“You look like you were having a fun dream. We didn’t want to bother.” Boboiboy admitted, finally getting off the table and suddenly offering a hand for the king to take.
So it was that obvious?
“You always have that cute smile whenever you dream of the night of your coronations. I’m quite fond and embarrassingly weak to those smiles coming from you.” Boboiboy, as usual, unabashedly admitted, wiggling his hand a little when Fang only stared at it.
“I’ve just woken up.”
“Not a strong enough excuse, Your Majesty .”
“Quit that, will you?” Fang sighed, willing himself to not break into an amused smile at Boboiboy’s pushy demeanor as he accepted the hand offered to him.
With ease, Boboiboy pulled Fang up to stand, and the two fell into step quite easily as they slowly danced around leisurely, their background song being the bodyguard humming a random lowkey funny tune.
“You hummed all funnily.”
“You said that every time . But you still dance to this out-of-tune humming anyway. So I consider this my win yet again. Unless you want to try serenading me again? ”
“I don’t understand how you could blame me for your incapability of not getting any girls when you keep on purposefully saying words that could be easily misunderstood like that.”
“ You make me want to say those outrageous words. Your reactions are very entertaining, Your Majesty.”
“If you want to use that nickname, you should at least speak with more respect, honestly.”
“Want me to get on one knee for you too while I’m at it?”
“Maybe prepare a ring with you, and I may finally be pleased.”
“Sure - you would definitely enjoy saying ‘no’ to my face as I asked ‘will you marry me?’ after going on and on about what was it about you that made me fall for you. ”
Fang’s brain helpfully came up with a vision of his bodyguard’s words, and Fang ended up stepping on Boboiboy’s foot as he laughed, only laughing harder when Boboioby hissed as his foot was stepped on.
“You’re evil, you know that?”
“That only means you’re voluntarily choosing to serve the devil.”
“Eh… calling you a devil would be a stretch…” Boboiboy murmured, eyes glinting with amusement as he smoothly put a stop to them dancing.
Exaggerating, the human went to press a kiss to the king’s knuckles, and Fang couldn’t help the fond scoff that he let past his lips.
“You’re so corny.”
“I prefer ‘romantic’, but whatever you say, Your Majesty.” Boboiboy shrugged, finally letting go of Fang as he gestured over the table, making the king groan upon seeing the mess on the table.
“Can’t I just leave it like that? I’m going to have to come here again tonight anyway to read through some reports sent from the city and all…” Fang tried to negotiate only to deflate when Boboiboy wordlessly raised an eyebrow.
Too bad Fang’s bodyguard could be quite strict sometimes…
While Fang begrudgingly started cleaning the mess on his desk, Boboiboy filled in the silence by initiating a conversation.
“I sort of understand where Ejojo was coming from.”
???
“Where did that come from?” Fang asked after pausing for a few moments before continuing with arranging some stacks of files and papers. In the process, he found the files of a human trafficking site that he had managed to take down, and he found himself feeling proud of himself at the memory.
Boboiboy hummed thoughtfully, pretending like he had to think his answer through before answering with a shrug.
“I was reminded of him, is all. I used to dislike that guy a lot - for bullying Adudu. But then when I recall how once he let slip it’s fun ‘bullying’ someone like Adudu, I sort of get him. Oh, but the ‘bullying’ I’m talking about is the ones Ejojo started doing when he became a guard though.”
???
“You’re not making any sense.” Fang deadpanned.
Boboiboy pursed his lips, scratched the back of his head a couple of times, before clearing his throat and awkwardly crossing his arms over his chest.
“Ejojo was terrible for bullying Adudu. But I totally understand why he is the way he is right now, you know? Always trying to rile up Adudu and all. People’s reactions to certain words could be quite entertaining.”
Having done sorting the papers and had started munching on a fortunately decently baked cookie, Fang blinked a few times at his bodyguard while his bodyguard stared at him, looking all thoughtful.
Fang took another bite of the biscuit before speaking.
“An example?”
Boboiboy’s answer didn’t miss a beat.
“Your cheeks were like a squirrel’s just now while you were munching on those biscuits.
It’s adorable. ”
With how terribly and how close Fang was to choking, he would’ve thought that itself was an assassination attempt.
Naturally, at being at the receiving end of a compliment, Fang grew red a little, and he internally shrieked in embarrassment when Boboiboy pointed an accusatory finger his way.
“ That! Exactly!
Rather than using the ‘your human tried breaking my car’ or ‘your human painted on a building’, he could’ve gotten even better reactions from Adudu! I don’t understand why he had to grab Adudu’s attention in such a… complicated way. Is it because he’s getting old?”
Boboiboy looked like he was genuinely trying to make head and tail of the being named ‘Ejojo’, while Fang over here was trying his best to stop blood rushing from his cheeks from a compliment that was literally only used as an example.
Right - Fang maybe needed distractions.
“Old habits die hard, probably?” Fang suggested an answer, causing Boboiboy to purse his lips and think about who-knows-what.
At least while Boboiboy was busy thinking, Fang managed to collect himself, fortunately.
Eventually, the two of them walked out of the office, and they started walking in silence to Fang’s chamber.
By the time they reached the king’s chamber, Fang was sort of just a little bit reluctant to part ways with his friend. (Fang had been drowning with work these days - Boboiboy’s presence had immensely made things bearable. So Fang was grateful.)
“Probe’s doing okay?” Fang found himself asking - if only to stay with the other longer.
Boboiboy looked surprised by the question, giving the king a reassuring thumbs up.
“He’s doing great, of course - the last time I went to visit them anyway. Probably is doing well even now, too. A couple of years have already passed anyway since he was kidnapped and all.” the human answered reassuringly.
Fang nodded, and silence stretched between them before the king decided that the two of them should just retire to their respective chambers and meet again for dinner later. (Their bedrooms were literally beside each other after all.)
“See you for dinner.” Fang chose to say, was about to enter his room when Boboiboy’s words made him pause.
“Don’t be shy to scream for me if you need me. ^^”
“...that sounds awfully wrong…”
“You’re overthinking it.”
For dinner, the whole gang came, and Fang found himself relaxing at the familiar ambience of his friends excitedly talking while some of them bickered as usual. (The ones that were bickering were obviously Adudu and Ejojo…)
It was in times like these when he found himself feeling grateful to his past self who decided to just tell his friends of his real identity.
Fang surely loved his friends to bits; but two particular box-headed aliens should really sort their shit out. It was getting a bit too repetitive; watching these two bickered but still tolerating each other and all.
As Fang stared at Adudu and Ejojo, with Adudu disinterestedly saying something while Ejojo patiently listened like he was given salary for staring so intently, the words slipped past the king’s lips before he could really think about it.
“Adudu and Ejojo should be locked in a room to sort their shit out.”
Chaos ensued.
🌃 END 🌃