Bril and Dhanzi

the introduction;

Dhanzi Dayven is the only godsforsaken person in Ta Dayva with stars in his eyes.

They glitter like his mother’s before him, and his father’s after whatever brand of weird magic in the royal bloodline recognized him as a royal partner “wholly devoted to his spouse”.

Had things gone Dhanzi’s way, he would have been able to watch his childhood sweetheart Odette’s eyes go from green to gold on their wedding day, with their families, their friends, and the entirety of the capital city watching them in awe. After all, what could be a more clear symbol of devotion than a wedding ceremony?

Unfortunately for Dhanzi, things went in the complete opposite direction. He instead got to hear the last moments of his parents’ and Odette’s life as the room the three of them sat in was incinerated, Dhanzi himself unable to get through the door in time.

The problem with the rest of the royal family being, well, dead is that Dayva’s monarchy cannot be led by a single ruler. He could try to sit on the throne, but it would quite literally not let him. By tradition and by curse, he is prince until he is either married or he abdicates the throne for someone who is. With Odette dead and Dhanzi unwilling to find a new spouse on his own, the people of Dayva put out a message. “Someone needs to either kill this man or marry him,” is the gist.

The first person to respond to the ad is Bril nan Gaelan, and his intentions are dubious at best.

the meeting;

Dhanzi is moping in a bar in Bottom Ta Dayva when Bril saunters in and drives him absolutely mad. They spend the better part of three weeks antagonizing each other utterly every night at the bar, and then finally Dhanzi snaps and says “fine, you have a problem with me, let’s settle this outside like men.”

Bril has been very much intending to take Dhanzi’s smug head off his shoulders and turn it in for the ransom he’d fetch, and he’s pleased to hear that finally he’ll have an excuse to punch the smug prince in the nose. But they step outside, and some other bounty hunter has had the same idea he has- shots are fired at Dhanzi, and Bril swears loudly and shoves the prince into his car.

“What are you doing?!” shouts Dhanzi, and Bril responds with a “Saving your stupid life” forced through gritted teeth and drives for a while.

“I could get you in a lot of trouble for kidnapping me,” threatens the prince at one point, but Bril ignores him.

They’re in a safehouse of Bril’s soon, to Dhanzi’s chagrin. Bril hasn’t said a word to him since they got in the car.

“Can I at least thank you?” he asks.

“I don’t want your thanks,” Bril replies. “I want your silence.”

“If you want me to shut up, you’re gonna have to make me,” snarks Dhanzi.

Bril kisses him quiet.

Soon Dhanzi is back in his palace safely, touching a hand to his lips, and whispering “ah, shit.”

the mistake;

Things, as they are wont to do, escalate from there.

Bril goes from “killing Dhanzi for bounty money” to “seducing Dhanzi for bounty money” to “I can’t take advantage of him like this, it isn’t right” to “oh no I might actually care about him” over a few months.

They’re having lunch in a fairly crowded restaurant, Bril pushing bits of his food around his plate, when finally “I need to talk to you” comes flying out of… Dhanzi’s mouth?

“I was about to say the same thing,” Bril says and looks up to see Dhanzi doing the same thing.

They laugh.

Bril tells Dhanzi it’s his turn to talk first.

“I think,” says Dhanzi, with the most serious look on his face that Bril’s ever seen.

Bril sighs, relieved. “I’m glad you finally figured it out,” he starts. “I wasn’t sure how I’d ever be able to tell you the truth,”

Dhanzi pauses. Raises an eyebrow. “The truth.”

“You don’t actually know.”

“No.”

Bril blinks, and swears.

“Two things. I’m… very fond of you.”

A beat. Dhanzi looks down.

“...and I you.”

A smile from Bril, softer than anything Dhanzi’s seen on his face in some time. Dhanzi looks at him, flushes, and looks down again. “And the other?”

An internal fight between Bril’s logic and his emotions, and it comes out then in a hurry. That while things had very much changed from the beginning of their acquaintance, it had started as a bounty.

Dhanzi’s heart very clearly shatters.

“Go,” he says.

“Wait-”

“I told you to go.”

the apology;

Bril spends his next days pickling his liver before he is very unceremoniously shoved out of the bar by an owner sick of dealing with him moping.

He spends the days after that plotting and planning.

The next week, on a pastel pink hoverboard stolen from a child in Middle Ta Dayva, he floats his way up to Dhanzi’s bedroom window. He plays music through the largest speaker the few credits to his name had been able to get him.

Dhanzi draws his curtains.

Bril sits outside his window until the hoverboard begins to run out of battery and gets dangerously close to falling out of the sky.

He goes back up the next day on a different hoverboard.

The day after went the same.

After that, he is arrested the second he takes a step over the royal tower’s property line.

He breaks out, and is back that night.

Dhanzi, asleep until that moment, throws open his window with as much frustration as his slim body can muster.

“What,” he hisses.

“PleasecanItalktoyou,” says Bril, as quickly as he can before Dhanzi shuts his window again.

A frustrated sigh from Dhanzi. “Sixty,” he says. A second later, “fifty-nine,” and Bril holds up a hand.

“If I could go back to day one and tell you the truth there and then, I would. You’re the only person I have ever cared this much about. I am so, so sorry I hurt you. Please let me make it up to you. Anything.”

“Jump,” says Dhanzi.

Bril hesitates for about three seconds before he stands up, bows to Dhanzi, and leaps off the sparkling lavender hoverboard.

“Shit!” says Dhanzi, reaching both his arms out-

-and catches Bril’s arm like a lifeline. He is very nearly almost dragged out the window, and he isn’t quite sure how he doesn’t hit the ground below.

“Not like that, you moron,” Dhanzi hisses, and drags Bril back into his room.

They collapse in a pile on the floor. Bril is panting, adrenaline coursing through his veins, and Dhanzi begins laughing hysterically.

A moment passes. Bril opens his mouth and gets halfway through another rambling sentence. This time, it’s Dhanzi who kisses him quiet.

They hold onto each other for a time, still huddled on the floor.

“I’m still mad, you know,” Dhanzi murmurs.

“I wouldn’t expect anything else.”

“Your eyes look a lot better in gold then they ever did blue,” Dhanzi adds.

Bril shoots upright. “What?”

Laughter bubbles out of Dhanzi’s mouth. “That was a fairly extreme act of devotion, you know.” A fond smile. “Idiot.”