Prompt: Highschool/College AU—Joey and Jimmy are bffs, and decide to go to the new cafe called "The Rivendell Feast". There, they find the two elven princes running the place, and Joey and Jimmy are immediately interested in them. Lucky for them, the princes are into them too.

Xornoth has a less demon name bc he's not a demon rn
Also Jimmy is the prince of the ocean empire bc the cod empire hasn't been founded yet

~<•>~

"Joey, slow down!" Jimmy exclaimed as he jogged behind the Prince of the Lost Empire. "You know I can't go very fast on land!"

Joey rolled his eyes as he stopped to let Jimmy catch up. "Why didn't you put your boots on?"

Jimmy huffed as he caught up to his friend. "They're...uncomfortable..." he said breathlessly. "Why are you so excited to go to this cafe anyway? I thought you liked the 'Ocean's Blessings Cafe' or the 'Undergrove Cafe'?"

"You know I love Lizzie and Shelby," Joey said as he continued walking, much slower this time so Jimmy could keep up with him. "But their cafes are old! I know them like the back of my hand! This new cafe is interesting! Plus, I heard that it's run by the elven princes from Rivendell~!"

"Okay, so?" Jimmy deadpanned. "Meeting new royalty is nothing new for us."

"Yeah, but I heard that these princes are particularly nice to look at." Joey said with a grin. "Katherine's kingdom is right next to Rivendell, and apparently she's really good friends with the younger prince."

"Did she tell you that they were attractive?" Jimmy asked.

"Oh, no, I looked the kingdom up." Joey said. "For some reason, there aren't many pictures of the princes available, aside from when they were children. But, there are a lot of articles about the princes, and there's even an article ranking all the rulers based on how hot they are, and apparently both of them are in the top five."

Jimmy nodded, disinterested. "So the only reason why we're going to this cafe is because you want to see how hot the princes are?"

Joey sputtered for a bit before he finally formed coherent words. "No!" He said in a way that it was very obvious that he was lying.

Jimmy rolled his eyes as they finally made it to the cafe. "Yeah, right."

He looked up at the outside of the cafe. It was a quaint place, with light blue exterior walls, a large glass window on the side with various flowers growing on it, including poppies, peonies, and flowering azaleas. There was an awning above the spruce door and the window that was an alternating blue and white stripe pattern. Above was a sign made of gold that read "The Rivendell Feast Cafe" in cursive.

The two walked in, and were greeted with a similar sight. The walls were an off-white color with spruce pillars on the corners and a spruce crown molding and baseboard. There was a spruce divider separating the lobby/ordering area and the eating area, which was right behind the window. Ahead of the door was a counter with a menu, a register, and a bunch of stuff to make coffee and food. Behind the counter was a boy.

He was tall, with short cyan hair and blue eyes that reminded Jimmy of ice. He wore a teal tunic and black leggings. Jimmy noticed that he had pointed ears.

He must be one of the elven princes from Rivendell. Jimmy thought. He had to admit, Joey was right. The prince was cute.

"Wow, this is a lot...cuter...than I expected." Joey said. "I expected the cafe to look like the castle at Rivendell."

"If my parents had their way, it would've." The boy said, following their gaze. "My brother and I decided to give it a much simpler look. Well, I did, anyway."

His accent is nice. Jimmy thought.

"And you are...?" Joey prompted, as the two friends walked up to the counter.

The boy did a small dramatic bow. "Prince Scott of Rivendell, at your service." He gave the two a small smile as he stood up straight. "I am the younger prince. My older brother is in the back, I'm sure he'll be out in a few minutes."

Joey gave the prince a polite smile. "Well, I am Prince Joey from the Lost Empire, and this is Prince Jimmy from the Ocean Empire."

"Jimmy...?" Scott mumbled, his voice just loud enough for Jimmy to hear. "Um, apologies, what would you two like to order?" He said a bit louder.

Joey eyed the menu for a minute, humming. "Hm...what are the 'Polar Ice Caps'?" He asked.

"Oh, it's a vanilla flavored Frappuccino with frozen liquid nitrogen." Scott explained. "I even make the top have a snow-like consistency. It's really good."

Joey hummed. "Okay, I'll get that. Jimmy, what do you want?"

Jimmy shook out of his trance. He just now realized that he was staring at Scott. "The, uh, the same." Jimmy said, not knowing what he was agreeing to.

"Okay, so that's two Polar Ice Caps...anything else?" Scott asked.

Joey shook his head as he paid. "Nope!"

Scott nodded. "Okay, here's your receipt, and you can sit over at one of the tables in front of the window. My brother should get your drinks over to you in a moment." He explained.

Joey nodded as he took the receipt. "Okay, thank you~! C'mon, Jimmy."

Jimmy followed Joey to one of the tables in front of the window. Once they sat down, Joey gave Jimmy an odd knowing look.

"What?" Jimmy asked, his face warm.

"Don't think I didn't notice you staring at the pretty boy over there." Joey said with a smile.

Jimmy felt his face go hot. "What!? N-no, I wasn't—"

"Jimmy, it's okay!" Joey interrupted with a laugh. "He was cute! You don't need to be embarrassed about it."

At that moment, another boy came over to their table with their order. He was taller, with long dark magenta hair that was tied in a low ponytail and red eyes that reminded Jimmy of lava. He wore an outfit that was nearly identical to Scott's, except his tunic was a maroon color. His jawline was also sharper than Scott's, Jimmy noticed.

"Two Polar Ice Caps and one poppyseed muffin for the cod boy." He said, his voice deep and his accent marginally softer than Scott's.

"Oh, I didn't order a poppyseed muffin." Jimmy said as the boy—Jimmy assumed he was the older prince—put the drinks and muffin on the table.

The prince gave him a sly smile. "It's on the house, courtesy of my younger brother over there." He said as he gestured to the counter with is head.

Jimmy felt his face grow warm at the thought. Maybe it wasn't anything serious. Maybe he was just being nice.

"Do you have a name, stranger?" Joey asked dreamily, an enamored look on his face.

Cod, he has it bad. Jimmy thought.

The prince looked Joey up and down, and gave him a smirk that said that the feeling was mutual. "Volodar."

They stared at each other for a moment before Volodar left, breaking Joey from his trance. Jimmy gave him a knowing look, which caused Joey's face to grow red.

"Shut it." Joey snapped as he took a sip of his drink.

"I didn't say anything." Jimmy said teasingly.

"No, but you were going to." Joey grumbled. "What's with the muffin?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I don't know. Apparently Scott told him to give it to me for free, so."

Joey grinned. "Ooh, I think he likes you~!" He exclaimed.

Jimmy shushed him. "Shhh! He might hear you!"

Joey gasped. "What, are you into him?" He asked with a smile, already knowing the answer. At Jimmy's silence and face growing red, he gasped. "You are!"

"Shhh!" Jimmy shushed him, suddenly feeling like he was a part of the sleepovers that Lizzie used to have when they were young.

Joey laughed lightly. "You should ask for his number!"

"No, I should not!" Jimmy argued. "What if he's just being nice?"

"Jimmy, I love you, but even you have to know how stupid that sounds." Joey deadpanned. "Why would he give you free food if he didn't like you?"

Jimmy shrugged as he took a bite of the muffin. "Don't act like you aren't interested in Volodar." He said after he swallowed his bite. "I saw you two making goo-goo eyes at each other."

"Tell you what," Joey said after a moment. "If I ask Volodar to go out with me, then you have to ask Scott for his phone number."

Jimmy sighed. "...fine..."

Surely Joey will freeze up when he sees Volodar, right? Right...?

Jimmy sure hoped so.

~<•>~

Volodar gave Scott a knowing smile as he returned to the counter. "So...the cod boy, eh?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "Shush, you."

"He's the one from the prophecy, yeah?" Volodar said more than asked.

Scott shrugged. "Possibly."

There was no possibility about it, Scott was sure that the cod-hybrid was the same boy he met when he was young. Except that boy was a human, and that was centuries ago. He still cannot smell poppies without thinking of that boy. He had given Scott a poppy, and promised him that they'd marry when they were older. But, as the boy grew older, Scott stayed the same. Eventually, the boy turned into a man, and then there was a war...Scott couldn't put the amount of grief he felt after learning of his beloved's death into words.

Scott never forgot. How could he? How could he forget his first love? He knew that he'd live much much longer than most other species, especially humans, so one person that managed to capture his heart shouldn't matter, yet it does.

The cod-hybrid that walked through those doors...he had the same eyes as the boy from all those years ago. His eyes were full of mischievous wonder, just like that boy. When they made eye contact, Scott felt a familiar sense of love and longing, and he was sure that the cod-hybrid must've felt it too.

"His friend is cute." Volodar commented, interrupting Scott from his thoughts. His brother sat on the counter, much to Scott's dismay. "Do you think that Exor will allow me to marry one day?"

Scott rolled his eyes. "You mean Aeor?"

Volodar was silent for a moment. "No...no I do not." he mumbled. "Scott, I'm not going to pledge my allegiance to Aeor."

Scott frowned. "What? But you have to in order to be crowned King—"

"Scott...can we have this conversation later? When we don't have customers?" Volodar pleaded.

Scott sighed. "Fine...but don't think I'll ignore it."

"I know you won't."

At that, the two princes from before walked back up to the counter. The Jimmy looked nervous, while Joey had a determined look on his face.

"Oh, good, you're both here." Joey said with a smile. "Hey Volodar, do you wanna go on a date with me?"

Volodar took a moment to process what Joey just asked him. After a few minutes, he finally answered. "Alright."

"Yes!" Joey exclaimed, fist bumping the air. "Alright Jimmy, your turn~!" He said with a smile.

Jimmy glared at him. "I hate you." He grumbled before walking closer to the counter, his face a nice shade of pink. "Um...hi."

"Hi." Scott replied, a small smile on his lips.

"Um...I think you're...kinda sorta...nice looking...and um...c-can I get your...um...n-number...?" Jimmy mumbled, voice barely loud enough to be heard.

Scott felt his face grow warm as he chuckled. He grabbed a napkin, a pen, and wrote his number on it, as well as a little note that read "I think you're kinda sorta nice looking too X". He handed it to Jimmy with a small awkward smile. "Call me sometime, yeah?"

Jimmy's face grew a pretty shade of scarlet as he nodded. "O-okay."

Eventually, Jimmy and Joey left. Scott turned to Volodar. "Well, that went well."

~<•>~

1957 words

Me? Speedrunning a oneshot? It's more likely than you think

I had this idea this morning, and then spent the day writing it. You're welcome.

Also I just used a name generator to get the name Volodar. I just didn't like the thought of their parents being like "This is my younger son, Scott. And this here is my older son, Xornoth." I mean, Volodar isn't much better, but it's less demon-y, so