princes and paupers — julian &. avriel
Jun 15, 2021 15:44:03 GMT -5
Post by napoleon, d2m ₊⊹ 🐁 ɢʀɪғғɪɴ. on Jun 15, 2021 15:44:03 GMT -5
Impressing his trainers was an easy feat when every single waking moment of his years were spent with his hand around a leather hilt. Royal or not, Julian’s hands, callous-pocked, did not belong to a prince but a pauper.
Many parts of him actually did not belong to a prince. Ripred, what even makes a prince? In the storybooks, they were red-cheeked men that looked like pictures of vitality and protected others, and although Julian could be the former, he was not allowed to be the latter. Because at the end of the day, he was still a Le Roux, a lion. One can teach a beast to eat a carrot, but it’ll still hunger for flesh. It was Julian’s inherited nature.
But when he caught sight of a boy by the target practice ring, missing one target – then another – he could feel the want to be a hero, or at least the person that’ll show him the ropes.
Hell, what was the harm in it? The more people I befriend, the more odds I can remove from himself, he thought to himself as he sauntered over. The flaw here, however, was that a part of Julian cared about the people he befriended, and seeing the other male’s soft features made it no better. He found his smile come on unbidden, and his hazel eyes gleamed pleasantly. “I don’t mean to impose,” and yet he was, and even more so as his unprincely fingers wrapped around the other’s own, “but if you are interested in letting your blade make contact instead of relishing in how they have been missing, then here.”
Julian fixed the stance of the other’s hand gently. “Pressure in the fingers, not the fist. Let your wrist relax, it’s only a cog that’ll make the machinery of your hand smoother. Hold it back like this,” his fingers gently drew the other’s hand around the blade back as if nocking a bow, “and now—what’s your name?—release!”