Martyn had been stuck in the royal family's palace for about two weeks now, and he was, to put it lightly, going a tiny bit insane.

While it was definitely awesome to experience a tiny bit of upper-class life (it was kinda nice for Martyn to be able to go on a walk without worrying about someone trying to murder him), he was, surprisingly enough, getting a tad homesick.

Not to mention the fact that Pearl would probably be mad if he stayed any longer.

He was walking around the palace gardens, thinking about how he could get out of the palace and trying to gauge how easy it would be to fake his death (it definitely wasn't his preferred choice but it was certainly a backup plan), when he spotted Scott sat by the ornately decorated fountain (the one that had multiple pieces of gold set into it that would be so easy to steal).

The Merling hybrid paused momentarily before awkwardly sidling over to Scott. "Uh... hey. You- okay?" Oh, that rhymed! Martyn stared at Scott for a moment as the prince's downcast expression was replaced with a slightly startled one.

"Oh- uh- Martyn! You scared me. I am- fine. Just- uh- sitting?" Martyn was about to respond to this when Scott spoke again. "Just got the date for my coronation so that's fun. Fun." The older of the two repeated lamely.

Ohhh, right. Martyn had completely forgotten that Scott was the oldest of the princes and would be first in line for the throne after the king's death. "Well, that's a good thing, right? Being king must be awesome."

Scott shot him an entertained glance despite how he appeared to be feeling. "Yeah, totally. Making decisions that impact the entirety of Vaelorin. Fun." He repeated in the same deadpan tone as he got up, but there was an amused glint in his icy blue eyes this time.

Martyn shrugged awkwardly. "But like- everyone will- respect you. And stuff. So..." He shrugged yet again. He wasn't really sure what Scott wanted him to say, or if he was even saying the right things.

The other Merling hybrid let out a snort of laughter. "What, so people don't respect me already?" Scott said dramatically, smirking as the other man hastily attempted to correct himself.

"Wait, no! I meant like- they'll- that's not what I-" Martyn cut himself off as the prince hurst out laughing.

"Calm down, I know what you meant." His blue-haired companion said with a grin. "And... yeah, I guess they'll respect me more, but I feel like I'll just be getting compared to my father the whole time." You might, but not exactly in the way you'd think. "I don't think I'll ever live up to him." Scott added with a sigh.

Martyn bit back a sharp retort- he could go on and on about how the king was absolutely dreadful, but, he supposed, Scott had almost certainly been hearing about the king from a biased perspective and had probably never left the Aquatic District, so it wasn't the prince's fault, he supposed. He instead let out a non-committal 'Hm', a noise he'd grown used to making whenever Scott started talking about his late father.

"Besides, I don't- feel ready to be king. I'm not sure I ever will be." Scott added quietly.

"Well, I mean, you've kinda been preparing for this your whole life, so... and I'm sure you're ready to be king- at least, you will be in a year or two. You're, what- 27?" Martyn guessed.

"22." The prince corrected him, and Martyn blinked, slightly surprised. Oh, he's only like- a year younger than me. "Interesting guess."

"Well- it was based more on maturity than anything else. You seem- way too level-headed to be a similar age to me." The blonde said with a shrug. "So that makes your brothers way younger than I thought they'd be. How old are-"

"Etho is 20, and Grian's 18 in just under a month." Scott informed him.

"Oh. Cool. But, yeah, I'm... sure you'll be ready soon enough?" He can't be any worse than his father. "How long is it till the coronation anyway?"

"Um... like four months I think. They want to do like- the funeral and stuff for Father first. And then like, sort out some stuff he left unfinished." The eldest prince said with a shrug. Wait, they haven't had the funeral yet? Damn. "And also probably find out who killed him. But that could remain unanswered forever, so..." Scott shrugged as Martyn nodded awkwardly. "I can't see why anyone would want to kill him though- he was great!"

Nope.  Martyn simply shrugged as his companion laughed awkwardly. "Well, uh- thanks for listening to me talk about random stuff I guess. What were you doing out here anyway?" Scott queried.

"Just- walking. Yep. Nothing else. Walking." Martyn said with a fake smile. Not planning how to fake my own death, that would be-crazy, dude. "Walking." He repeated as Scott shot him a look that Martyn couldn't quite understand the emotion behind.

"Right. Walking." Scott glanced down at his very intricately decorated watch (there were multiple patterns carved into the glass on the watch, which would surely make it harder to read?). "Well, I have a meeting with the Vaelorin Council in ten minutes to discuss something in the Hybrid District- some nonsense about wanting to have a government instead of being ruled by the royal family-" It took everything in Martyn's power to not roll his eyes. "-so I better head to the throne room. See you later?" Scott said, tilting his head slightly.

Martyn nodded slowly. "...yeah. See you later." He watched quietly as Scott walked away, only glancing at something else when the prince of Vaelorin vanished out of sight.

There was something so intriguing about Scott that the Merling hybrid couldn't quite put his finger on, but at the same time Martyn was definitely wary- after all, in all of his interactions with the prince, Scott had either praised the king, insulted the Underground District (or just any district other than the Aquaric District), or both.

Despite all of that, Martyn still found himself intrigued.

Hahahahha definitely didn't forget about Sicarius for like three months no way that's impossible dude 😇😇😇

Anyways have Scott having a crisis about being made king so young while Martyn is being sympathetic but also annoyed at Scott being a loser who thinks the king was good

But also he knows it isn't Scott's fault, he knows that Scott was heavily influenced to believe that the king was amazing, and yet he still feels some form of irritation every time Scott mentions the king and how great he was

Anyways hope you enjoyed! Comments and votes are appreciated <3 :]

I don't proofread, so sorry for any errors <3

Also yeah, ages of relevant characters:

Scott: 22
Martyn: 23
Etho: 20
Grian: 17, nearly 18
Scar: 17, nearly 18
BDubs: 19
Mumbo: 17, nearly 18
Cleo: 21