I sat behind Izuna, seeing I had to slump forwards on something. Even if I had left my armour behind to make myself lighter, I was still incredibly heavy for him, and I could feel his muscles work in front of me to keep himself a steady support for my weight. 

He didn't complain. Not once.

Halfway home, I saw it.

"Stop", I commanded, boldly. Sometimes, I forgot he was the crown prince when I spoke to him. "Please, my prince", I added in an attempt to save myself. I knew I really didn't have to.

He stopped, and I jumped of, staggering.

"Can I help you?", he asked, one eyebrow raised, always so polite.

I didn't have the energy to do what I was about to do and answer, so I just staggered to the rose bush. I tried to clear my vision, blurry from exhaustion, picking the most beautiful rose I could find to pluck.

"What are you doing?" Izuna asked, a smile in his voice.

I came staggering back, the best rose in my hand.

"For you, my prince."

Then, I dropped to the ground.

I remembered blurry visions of a beautiful, black-haired boy sitting over me, taking a wet cloth to my forehead.

Izuna...

I was warm. So very warm. The cooling sensation of the cloth was most welcome.

"Rest", he said.

Then, my vision disappeared for a while.

For day after day, it continued, me being able to discern the passing of time just by the way the sun was bright outside the window some days, and on the other side of the planet on others.

But he was the continuity of my bedside life.

He cared for me.

I woke up one morning, incredibly well-rested.

"I missed you."

He was smiling down at me, an angel. I put my fingers to my throat and noted the arrow was gone even I felt some scar tissue there. I tried to swallow; I hadn't been able to swallow with the arrow in my neck. Now, I was almost scared of swallowing. The sensation of dying with an arrow through your Adam's apple had been indescribably horrific.

"You saved me", I said, taking his hand.

"You give me too much credit", he said. "The medics saved you. I just brought you here."

I put my hand to his cheek instead.

"Such a humble prince", I murmured.

To my great delight, he blushed and looked away.

"Can we take a walk?" I asked.

The story of Izuna's brilliance had spread through the country like wildfire. His skill in war tactics, as well as his inventions of the mines, were on everyone's lips. Travellers came from afar just to give him their courtesies and brought extravagant gifts, asking him for advice.

Izuna seemed a little confused over the entire situation, not truly understanding what was happening and not very interested, either. He'd never wanted fame, and didn't know what to make of it now it had been given to him.

He spent at least one hour each night in his bedroom, sketching on something. One day, he told me he would have guests over from afar to his room, and wanted me to be by his side. I took his hand with my gloved one then, put it to my lips.

"As you wish, my prince."

Izuna smirked; me playing his servant was a game between us that thrilled us no end.

The guests came, three women from across the country who were immaculately dressed, their hairs in tight buns, but they weren't royal. I stood guard in the room, my armour on to impress them, but my helmet off, probably also to impress them. He took the women to his desk, showed them his sketches, explaining things to them. They nodded, took notes. He showed them a prototype, took us all out to the castle grounds even if it was raining to show them what he was thinking. The women shook hands with the crown prince and left, and came back the day after with a bunch of workers. 

For four weeks, the workers occupied the castle, having their meals with us, getting to know us so well that they became a normal part of life. I befriended one of them, Alberto from the south, and I secretly trained him in the arts of war and horse riding whenever Izuna was busy bossing the workers around. 

Within four weeks, the castle ran entirely on electricity. All the torches and candles were exchanged for lightbulbs, the copper wires used to connect them to the big windmills outside that had been built, safely folded into glass and pulled through the floors and walls. It was all incredibly neatly made, and changed the lives of the inhabitants to such an extent, neither would be able to go back to a life of getting light from fires. The stream of visitors increased even further, offering Izuna hefty sums of money for him to design something similar for their homes or castles.

Izuna started to love it. He thrived, and he started going to his room after dinner instead of to the room of the king, me as his only company, just as he preferred it, now confident enough that he didn't care he diverted from tradition. He refined his designs, making it even more effective, the bulbs even more long-lasting so they used less energy and could run for years.

At night, we went to bed huddled together. We never penetrated one another, but used our mouths to whisper things to each other, making love with our words instead. Once, he'd sucked me. I'd been asleep, and had woken up by his heavy breathing. I turned to the side, saw in the moonlight pouring in from the window that he was wide awake and naked, meaning he must've undressed in the night, beating his length softly so that it was pouring.

I had never seen him touch himself before.

"My prince, let me take care of that", I said darkly.

"Shut up, servant", he said and went down on me, taking my hardening dick into his mouth before I had time to remember how to breathe.

He bobbed his head, using his lips to massage all of the right spots, twirling his tongue, milking me to drink me up. 

I was a grunting, moaning mess by the time I filled him to the brim. 

Afterwards, I held him close to me, burying my face in his neck, too shy to look at him. It sometimes struck me that he was the crown prince, and I was but a simple servant.

But then, he would take my hand, entwine our fingers and squeeze three times, and I would fall down from the sky back to reality, that in so many ways was much, much better than heaven because he was there. 

It was bliss

The bliss all ended one winter morning, when my life would freeze over, and then burn down to hell.

I was fast asleep when Izuna came bursting in through the door.

I immediately sat up. Not only had the sound scared me; Izuna always entered and exited rooms with great care; several times, I had jumped in terror when looking up from something to find him sitting there in the room with me because I just hadn't heard him enter. But his entire demeanour also told me something was very, very wrong.

"What happened?" I asked, a sign of my distress; I almost always waited until Izuna spoke himself. But now, I was worried.

He tried to speak, but he was crying so much, I couldn't hear a thing.

I took him in my embrace then to comfort him, but noticed he was stiff in my arms.

My heart froze to ice.

Then, he said the words I had never even considered I would hear.

"I'm getting married."