Emrys had found that the morning time, especially anytime relatively close to sunrise, was his favorite time of the day. It wasn’t necessarily that he was an early riser. It was quite the opposite, in fact.

But the earlier one rose, the less likely they were to come across people.

And if he preferred anything, it was a distinctive lack of people.

The feeling was probably much stronger now, thanks in part to their loudly obnoxious ward, who’d caused nothing but grief, misery, and most offensively, noise since Jo had gotten him from that prison cell.

Emrys dressed himself while the other two slept, Jo sprawled out across the bed and Fawkes huddled into a little blanket on the floor.

He had time before they awoke, so he decided he would take a brief walk back out to the house to make sure everything was alright, and to make sure there weren’t any further damages other than the one wall.

It would be an easy fix, at least, especially now that the demon was out of the way.

He felt almost bad, calling something like that a name so sinister in sound.

As he slid on his boots, he heard a small wheeze from below.

Bright amber eyes looked up at him, squinting suspiciously, “The hell are you up for?” The prince slurred.

Emrys snorted, hating himself for finding the messy-haired annoyance at least slightly charming upon waking, “Go back to bed.”

“I would, were I in a bed.” Fawkes retorted sarcastically, his response of which was far funnier than it should have been to Emrys, “I believe you meant to say, “Go back to floor”, then again I suppose that doesn’t make much sense, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t.” Emrys sighed, smiling despite himself, “Go back to sleep, trust me. You’ve got another day of riding and I have a feeling Joanna intends to delve into some impromptu lessons today. You’ll ...want the rest.”

He had no idea how to phrase how... special Joanna’s lessons tended to be. Mostly because she very rarely stayed on topic. No one else in the entirety of the world could begin a sentence describing the difference in demons and end it with a tale about how one time she’d lost her trousers to a pirate after losing a bet that she couldn’t actually find a mermaid.

At least, they wouldn’t all in the same breath like she could.

Fawkes smiled a warm, sleepy, toothy smile. Something in the gesture twisted something in the pit of Emrys’ gut. While he wasn’t sure if he was angry, something about that smile sure made him feel as though he were. He just couldn’t quite pinpoint the what or why of it.

“What?” He heard himself practically hiss.

Fawkes just grinned wider, which wasn’t exactly the response he’d expected, “Nothin’. You should smile more, though.”

Emrys frowned, “Why? Is this one of those, “keep frowning and you’re face will stay like that” jokes? Because if so, I get enough of those from Joanna. Please don’t accompany her in tormenting me.”

“No,” Fawkes snorted, choking on his own laugh as it caught in his throat, “You’re just cuter when you’re happy looking. Everyone is.”

“I’ll be sure to take a note of that.” Emrys retorted flatly, hopping to his feet in a futile attempt to avoid the heat rushing to his face, “Now, go back to bed.”

“Sleep.” Fawkes corrected smugly as he snuggled back into his blanket.

“Fuck you.” Emrys spat in response, darting out the door to the sound of laughter as he shut the door behind himself.

~

Stupid Fawkes, Emrys thought as he channeled his frustration into the kick of a fallen pine cone as he made his way back from the manor. Everything was, of course, exactly as he had expected it to be, but he was grateful nonetheless that he’d went to make sure they had left no loose ends behind.

He was also grateful to not be in that room with that arrogant little fool, but that was perhaps neither here nor there.

“I need you to stop being angry at him just because you find him as attractive as you find him annoying.”, Joanna’s words from the day before echoed themselves through his head obnoxiously.

As quickly as they had resurfaced, Emrys dismissed them.

Old hag, Joanna had no clue what she was talking about. Just because she was as old as time itself didn’t mean she knew what Emrys was thinking.

Spending most of her time with him for the last fifteen years may justify her thinking she did, but that wasn't comforting, nor was is justification.

Of course Fawkes was attractive. He was royalty, it was practically bred into him to be unnecessarily beautiful. All gold hair and gold eyes and stupid chiseled jawline... Emrys would have been blind or stupid one to not acknowledge the fact he was as far from ugly as Jo was from sober during a solstice festival.

But Fawkes could be attractive without Emrys being attracted to him. That wasn’t why Emrys disliked him.

Emrys disliked him because he was loud and arrogant.

Stuck-up and full of himself.

He didn’t seem to care for manners much, despite obviously being raised to. Given his predicament, he was clearly stupid and lacked the ability to consider consequences before he took any action.

There were a plethora of reasons to hate the prince.

The fact that it seemed anytime Emrys met his gaze he forgot his train of thought was just an added side reason to hate him.

As Emrys made his way back, he noticed Jo and Fawkes make their way out of the tavern and to the horses.

Fawkes waved enthusiastically as he noticed Emrys approach.

Emrys wanted to ignore it, but felt his hand flinch upwards despite willing it not to.

Fool, he thought. Though he wasn’t sure precisely who it was directed towards.

Joanna stretched as she tossed her pack over the horse, a motion only comedic because of her height, “Things check out alright?”

“Everything is fine.” Emrys answered, watching as Jo slipped a small pouch into the satchel that dangled from his precious Daisy, “And you’re giving that to me for ...what reason?”

“You did all the hard work,” Jo winked, “I forgot my sword, remember?”

Emrys sighed, having all intention of slipping the coin back to her the very moment she turned her back.

“I had trouble going back to bed.” Fawkes frowned, “Sleeping on floors is starting to get really old really quick.”

“Sleep,” Emrys corrected, wondering if perhaps the switching of terminology was going to be part of some secret conversation only the two of them had. He’d only ever had inside jokes and things like that before with Joanna, he couldn’t imagine it would be too difficult to keep up with another person to do such with, but wasn’t entirely thrilled by the concept either, “And it’s a shame, perhaps someone should have warned you that you’d have to sleep on floors. Maybe then you wouldn’t have tried killing the head of the kingdom’s primary religion.”

“I certainly would have factored that in.” Fawkes chuckled, “You must be so popular back at home. Beating the suitors off with sticks and such. All that honey must catch quite the large sum of flies.”

Emrys rolled his eyes, helping Joanna onto her saddle before going over to his.

“You know, he actually is  quite the ladykiller.” Jo snorted, “Any apprentice he takes on ends up madly in love with him.”

Heat prickled Emrys’ cheeks for the second time that morning, “Joanna, please.”

“Really?” Fawkes’ eyebrows raised dramatically as he fumbled about getting on the saddle behind Jo, “I can imagine! That whole stoic beauty thing...” He turned backwards on the horse, facing Emrys, “Any of them particularly special?”

“That isn’t any of your business.” Emrys huffed with a frown.

“Nope.” Jo answered at the same time, her wicked grin displaying fully that she knew how annoyed her friend must be, “Not a single one. He sticks to himself and Daisy...and tea, although we had an ambassador pass through not to long ago, handsome devil that one, and Emrys was absolutely smitten.”

Jo nudged her horse, setting it in the direction of Elderwood as she waved to the tavern keep standing in his doorway.

Emrys wished more than anything that their horse would buck, sending them both flying into the mud. While he’d press on, leaving him time and space to distance himself from their tomfoolery and annoyance.

Seven hells, even if they stopped again he’d probably just keep going. He was in no way obligated to stay with these idiots, the both of them. He couldn’t believe Jo was even playing along with the nonsense.

Well, he could.

But that didn’t mean she should be.

“Ambassador, eh?” Fawkes grinned, “Was is the title or the uniform that did it for you?”

Emrys tried not to groan for what had seemed like the hundredth time in the short span of the early hours of the day, “Neither.”

“Poor Emrys didn’t even know who the poor sod was,” Jo offered, completely unhelpful to Emrys’ cause, “Not until he left, anyways.”

Emrys interrupted her as she took the little intake of breath that he’d come to know (and fear), as a sign she was about to tell a rather long-winded tale, “I fail to see how any of this information would benefit the prisoner.”

A part of Emrys felt ashamed of himself. It was a rather loud, obtrusive voice in the back of his head.

Why couldn’t he just play along with the flow of conversation? Why was it that vitriol dripped from nearly every word that spilled from his frown-framed lips?

They were just teasing after all, it was something he should certainly be accustomed to with Joanna. It was what friends do.

And yet here he was, practically reeling from the heat that pooled in his cheeks and the tightness drawing into his chest.

He wondered, a passing thought, if it was the knowledge that once they arrived to Elderwood none of this would matter. Jo would begin training Fawkes and Emrys would go back to his studies. He knew he’d interact with Jo, she was his mentor and dearest friend, after all.

Arguably, she was his only friend. But that was another thought process he’d prefer to avoid. He didn’t need anyone else.

He certainly didn’t want to be friends with this idiot.

And now that the thought crossed his mind, he certainly did not care that Fawkes would not talk to him, most likely ever again, once they were back home.

Not even a little.

Emrys swallowed, hoping the motion would quiet the multiple voices that now echoed through his head, urging Daisy ahead to take the front.

“It may not benefit me, but there’s a small amount of knowledge that ever would.” Fawkes said, accompanied by a wink that surprised Emrys quite thoroughly, as he’d expected a bit more negative of a reaction, “Besides, if we end up swapping embarrassing tales of romance I can almost guarantee you that I’ve got you beat.”

“Right.” Emrys scoffed, “The heir to the throne must have such a difficult life, especially in craving the attention of others.”

Fawkes made a pensive little noise, “Those people aren’t trying to get to know me, they’re trying to get to know my title. Which, admittedly, I can see the appeal in. My personality, however, it a bit…”

“Abrasive?” Jo offered gleefully.

Emrys decided that this, this he could play along with. Especially as he looked over at the frown that had drawn itself across Fawkes’ face. Daisy stayed in her place besides the other horse, perhaps sensing that Emrys now wanted this particular vantage point.

“Abrasive?” Emrys snickered, “I was going to say excruciatingly painful.”

“I thought the same,” Jo laughed, “But it’s a bit wordy of a description, don’t you think?”

“That’s fair.” Emrys agreed, moving his gaze from the amused twinkle in Joanna’s eyes to Fawkes’ now pout, “Still, abrasiveness aside surely your looks compensated for your ...personality.”

Fawkes’ eyebrows raised and he stared for a moment, seemingly in shock, before briefly looking away to cough.

Jo looked back at him in amusement, “What’s the matter, boyo? Cat caught your tongue?”

“I…” Fawkes paused to clear his throat again, “That was just...surprisingly smooth.”

Noticing that Fawkes cheeks had grown rather darker caused a flush to prickle Emrys’ as well, but he ignored it the best he could, “That wasn’t an attempt at flirting, it was simply the acknowledgement of a fact. A fact of which you’ve managed to constantly tout as every other word you’ve spoken for the last few days.”

Joanna’s mad cackle echoed through the woods, while Fawkes seemed to grow a mix of flustered and offended.

Perhaps, Emrys realized with the slightest warmth, he had figured out a way to make the idiot finally fall silent.

“I never…” Fawkes went to interject, but then realized that he, in fact, had. Scrambling to recover, he went with the best response he could come up with, “Yeah, well...Clearly you agree with me or you wouldn’t think me capable of compensating in the first place.”

“I did no such thing!” Emrys frowned, “I was simply implying that you’re pretty enough that surely someone could overlook how annoying you are.”

Which he had meant that. He still did, as Emrys consistently avoided looking at Fawkes too long for the growing, gnawing, and constant fear that he may perhaps fall to the same fate.

However, for Emrys, the temptation to stare at the constellations of freckles dusting his cheeks or the almost glow to the amber flecks in Fawkes' eyes did not compensate for the fact that every time the man spoke it was as though someone were pulling off Emrys’ toenails. So for now, he wagered himself safe.

The added “for now”  that echoed in his own thoughts is what worried him.

Fawkes grinned, composure and comfort clearly washing over him, “So you do think I’m pretty?”

“Yes.” Emrys deadpanned, “But not nearly  enough to not keep asking Joanna if we’d be exiled for leaving you behind.”

Jo nodded, having had to visit that particular conversation one too many times in the last few days.

With the frown now restored to Fawkes’ now dismayed face, Emrys felt relieved enough to urge Daisy ahead on the woodland path. Away from this conversation and just several steps closer to home.