Sam is hasty but not careless in getting his clothes back onto himself, making sure he looks pristine and not like he just gave his first time away to a palace guard in a wild and fast fuck in the hedge maze.
Someone on the edge of the maze is calling his name. Sam takes a breath, then hesitates. Takes Bucky's face in hand and kisses him again, sweet and gentle as a promise they both know neither of them can keep.
"Thank you, Sergeant Barnes. I won't forget this, not ever."
And he leaves with one final, longing glance over his shoulder. Wishes he could stay. Wishes he could invite James to his bed again, to learn more, to give more, to feel more. Wishes he could revisit fantasies of marrying for love and affection. And then he's gone, calling out to whoever is looking for him. Stops being Sam, the young man who needed a kind touch, and is once again Prince Samuel, who will marry a man he feels disgust for in order to secure peace for his people.
Bucky doesn't look away until Sam has left the relative safety of the shrine; he puts his clothes back in order, slowly, not bothering to wipe away Sam's spend from his chest, instead lazily rubbing it into his own skin before it becomes absorbed in the material of his dress uniform.
Seems unlikely anyone else would be able to smell it... or identify what they're smelling.
He opens the privacy screen to allow the shrine to air out a bit as he sits, staring at the candle on the altar.
His metal hand still smells like Sam.
Eventually he rises to his feet and makes his way out of the maze. Walks, as he has nowhere to be in the morning nor any reason to rush, through the palace grounds, the surrounding city. Past the farm he grew up in and into the woods.
It's deep in the pre dawn night when he arrives at the witch's door. He's exhausted, and unhappy, and frightened. He needs advice.
"I've done something incredibly foolish," he tells her as she lets him into the cottage.
"You've fallen in love with the impossible. You haven't abandoned your post," she replies. "The first is merely unfortunate. The latter would be foolish."
Sam grows more morose in the coming days. He keeps it hidden well, nothing short of the picture perfect pleasant young prince. But those who look closely see the way his face falls when he believes himself unobserved. How his gaze wanders far away. How his smile doesn't quite touch his eyes.
Walker spends three more says at the palace with a possessive hand permanently on Sam's waist, whispering things into his ear nobody else is privy to that make Sam look stony and empty.
He thinks of Bucky's lips more than his cock. Thinks of sweet kindness and comfort more than arousal. Sam cannot talk to anyone about this. Not even his beloved sister - he could get Bucky killed, and cannot risk that. So he just tries to endure. Sits silently while Walker haggles for the terms of their marriage. The dowry - because he refuses to pay a bride price instead. The mating ceremony. Behind closed doors, he insists on a contractual obligation for children within the first year.
The light in Sam's eyes dims.
He takes comfort in the fact that whenever he looks around, Bucky just seems to be there. Standing guard. A constant, stable presence. Sam wants to lean on him. Wants to kiss him. Wants to let Bucky ruin him. Still feels him. Doesn't think he could ever stop feeling the ghost of his touch.
Walker returns to his own borders eventually and the entire palace staff breathes a sigh of relief. The kitchen produces more of Sam's favourites in an attempt to bring the young prince some cheer even when he barely touches his food. Princess Sarah's handmaidens whisper at the princess' anger over the future her brother is being sold into.
Eventually it is decided that for the remaining three months, a bodyguard will be appointed to Sam - someone to be by his side permanently and ensure the prince is safe and sound until he is turned over to Walker, who insists that Sam cannot bring his own staff to the palace. Sam sits idly by while the palace steward interviews guards in order to appoint one of them as his permanent companion and protector for the next three months.
Not before making a ruckus, however. About how it's clear what's happening here, that Walker has used the war and the suffering of the nation's people to browbeat the Prince into this arrangement. That he cannot be much of a honorable sort; the poorest of omegas are allowed a friend or a servant or a guard, at the very least, to attend to them should they require travel to marry. For their own safety if nothing else.
"If someone goes with Prince Samuel, to ensure his safety to the border, what will King Walker do? Send him back home?" He asks more than one captain, who tend to nod and agree with him.
Getting in trouble is a fake idea when you do not respect the authority in question to begin with.
But. Bucky interviews. He doesn't look at the Prince as he does so, keeping his eyes on the Steward. Explaining how perhaps the Prince would do well to meet with the people on his own before he's sent away. How he would start at the Eastern Forests and go from there. A tour of the smaller villages and farms.
So that the people understand what's happened, here. The cost of the war for everyone.
"What will you do after?" The Steward inquires. He's heard of this man already. "Once the prince has become Walker's King? Will you return here, to the palace guards?"
"Travel," Bucky says casually. "See the kingdoms. I'm good with languages."
Walker said no staff. A guard is not the Prince's staff to begin with; one who has resigned from that post? Even less so. The Crown can deny being aware of what Bucky implies while doing their level best to support him in it.
The Steward nods. "Provide to me an intinerary. We shall see if it is of interest to His Majesty."
Sam remains silent during the interview as he has during most. He's not fully bored or disinterested, just lost in his own part. Trusting the steward to have his best interest at heart - frankly Sam's only there for the interviews because he doesn't want the guards to think he's scorning their honest efforts and presence. Sam appreciates them. Wishes he could hire and take them all with him in three months.
In the meantime, Bucky is the one who catches Sam's attention most, for two reasons. One, of course, is their tryst in the hedge maze. Sam can't quite help but sneak a glance or two at the alpha. Wonders if Bucky has been thinking of it, too, and finds comfort that as always, Bucky is close by. A comfort in presence if in nothing else due to circumstance.
Two, are the implications of his words. A tour - get him out of the palace for some time. Sam isn't a fool - he knows that meeting the people so shortly before he will be forced to leave them in order to secure their prosperity can only have one intention. And then there are Bucky's own... travel plans.
Sam makes eye contact with the Steward. Just once, very briefly. No words are exchanged.
Bucky is appointed as Sam's bodyguard a day later, and informed that the prince intends to ride out that day. He is to accompany him - alone, isn't said, but is the perfectly natural expectation of a body guard. Bucky has more than proven himself in the war, and therefore will be trusted with Sam's safety fully.
Good thing Bucky was more or less banking on this.
He meets Sam at the stables, more than aware of the eyes on them. People who care about their Prince and wish to see him thrive. People who know of Bucky's own history in the war.
Greets the Prince with a bow and a lopsided smile. Rides at his side until they are beyond the palace gates. "The witch asked me to bring you to her." Seems a better opening than 'I can't stop thinking of the way you sound when you are overtaken'. Even if both are equally true.
Alphas have heightened senses. Makes them good warriors. Makes them good protectors and caretakers too. So surely, Bucky cannot miss the fact that Sam's heart beats hard and fast from the moment his eyes land on Bucky. Outwardly calm and collected, a bit distant and aloof in the way that all members of the royal family have to carry themselves - a facade the entire palace knows not to mind - they know how warm and kind their royal family is. But inwardly, Sam feels like that foolish child again who saw a beautiful, rugged man compete in a tournament and couldn't get him out of his mind for weeks after. He'd always assumed it was just any normal first infatuation. Perhaps he was wrong - perhaps this is just Bucky, through and through.
One look, and Sam feels those hands on his waist again. Can almost recall exactly how Bucky felt inside of him.
The conversation sobers him, but his heart keeps giving his nerves away. Still - caution. Sam lets his horse, Redwing, set a comfortable pace and frowns towards Bucky. "Have you taken this appointment as my personal guard in order to bring me before her?" Slightly incredulous. And perhaps a little disappointed. Sam doesn't know if the witch can be trusted - or what she would want with him. Only knows that that sentence makes alarm bells shrill inside his head.
"I took this appointment to be around you," Bucky clarifies, "because I care about you and I'm told I've fallen in love with the impossible." He lets that sit for a moment before he continues, "I realize that was not part of the agreement we came to, and I did not develop these feelings as a way of ensnaring you in one more plot. They just... are.
This can be whatever you need it to be. I can be merely your bodyguard, or I can be more than that. But the choice will remain yours. I will protect you, either way."
Bucky says it so casually, as if it doesn't rock Sam's entire world. He glances over, stunned into silence for a while. Bucky loves him. Bucky has fallen in love with him?
"How?" he asks, after a while. Not denying the possibility. Not rejecting the notion. Just needing to understand. "We've only met the once. You've only had me the once..."
Which means whatever Bucky's feeling isn't a temporary scent bond, either, and that's almost scary. Because if it was a day after their tryst, Sam could believe that Bucky is merely experiencing a strong reaction to Sam's scent. It's... not the case, quite obviously so. And that means Sam needs to understand this dedication, this willingness to have as much or as little of Sam as he can, risks be damned.
Bucky breathes through the myriad of feelings rolling around in his chest. It's a fair question. He just hates it.
"I didn't think I was capable. So I wasn't prepared for this to happen. But I can't stop thinking about you. I worry when you don't smile. I can smell you across a crowded room and tell if you're happy or not just from that. I can't stop thinking about you. About the way you sounded that night. Worrying about you and what's going to happen to you."
Sam's breath hitches a little at the magnitude of it, the sincerity. And he wishes right then that circumstances were different. If he weren't promised, there would be a chance of a secret affair eventually becoming something he could legitimize. With a few years of dedicated work, Bucky could be raised in status to be worthy of the youngest prince's hand. Except there are so few scenarios in which Sam's hand remains without a ring on it for long enough. If it were not Walker, then Sam would still have to entertain thoughts of a political match before long, to secure prosperity.
This is more dire. He's securing a very fragile peace.
"I don't know if I can ever give you what your heart desires," he admits, and sounds genuinely pained. Because he's young, and Bucky is the first man who has ever touched Sam. And Sam doesn't know if he'd allowed that to be the case if not for his own looming fate. He doesn't know if the yearning in him is just because of that, either, or something more earnest. "But perhaps it would please you to know I don't enjoy my fingers the way I enjoyed you."
A small flick of his gaze, almost shy despite the blunt honesty.
"If you can accept that it can never be more than a tryst, and it will never go beyond that... then perhaps... perhaps you would like to continue my education. To teach me how to satisfy an alpha."
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no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 09:10 pm (UTC)Sam is hasty but not careless in getting his clothes back onto himself, making sure he looks pristine and not like he just gave his first time away to a palace guard in a wild and fast fuck in the hedge maze.
Someone on the edge of the maze is calling his name. Sam takes a breath, then hesitates. Takes Bucky's face in hand and kisses him again, sweet and gentle as a promise they both know neither of them can keep.
"Thank you, Sergeant Barnes. I won't forget this, not ever."
And he leaves with one final, longing glance over his shoulder. Wishes he could stay. Wishes he could invite James to his bed again, to learn more, to give more, to feel more. Wishes he could revisit fantasies of marrying for love and affection. And then he's gone, calling out to whoever is looking for him. Stops being Sam, the young man who needed a kind touch, and is once again Prince Samuel, who will marry a man he feels disgust for in order to secure peace for his people.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 09:21 pm (UTC)Seems unlikely anyone else would be able to smell it... or identify what they're smelling.
He opens the privacy screen to allow the shrine to air out a bit as he sits, staring at the candle on the altar.
His metal hand still smells like Sam.
Eventually he rises to his feet and makes his way out of the maze. Walks, as he has nowhere to be in the morning nor any reason to rush, through the palace grounds, the surrounding city. Past the farm he grew up in and into the woods.
It's deep in the pre dawn night when he arrives at the witch's door. He's exhausted, and unhappy, and frightened. He needs advice.
"I've done something incredibly foolish," he tells her as she lets him into the cottage.
"You've fallen in love with the impossible. You haven't abandoned your post," she replies. "The first is merely unfortunate. The latter would be foolish."
no subject
Date: 2022-12-27 10:45 pm (UTC)Walker spends three more says at the palace with a possessive hand permanently on Sam's waist, whispering things into his ear nobody else is privy to that make Sam look stony and empty.
He thinks of Bucky's lips more than his cock. Thinks of sweet kindness and comfort more than arousal. Sam cannot talk to anyone about this. Not even his beloved sister - he could get Bucky killed, and cannot risk that. So he just tries to endure. Sits silently while Walker haggles
for the terms of their marriage. The dowry - because he refuses to pay a bride price instead. The mating ceremony. Behind closed doors, he insists on a contractual obligation for children within the first year.
The light in Sam's eyes dims.
He takes comfort in the fact that whenever he looks around, Bucky just seems to be there. Standing guard. A constant, stable presence. Sam wants to lean on him. Wants to kiss him. Wants to let Bucky ruin him. Still feels him. Doesn't think he could ever stop feeling the ghost of his touch.
Walker returns to his own borders eventually and the entire palace staff breathes a sigh of relief. The kitchen produces more of Sam's favourites in an attempt to bring the young prince some cheer even when he barely touches his food. Princess Sarah's handmaidens whisper at the princess' anger over the future her brother is being sold into.
Eventually it is decided that for the remaining three months, a bodyguard will be appointed to Sam - someone to be by his side permanently and ensure the prince is safe and sound until he is turned over to Walker, who insists that Sam cannot bring his own staff to the palace. Sam sits idly by while the palace steward interviews guards in order to appoint one of them as his permanent companion and protector for the next three months.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 03:12 am (UTC)Not before making a ruckus, however. About how it's clear what's happening here, that Walker has used the war and the suffering of the nation's people to browbeat the Prince into this arrangement. That he cannot be much of a honorable sort; the poorest of omegas are allowed a friend or a servant or a guard, at the very least, to attend to them should they require travel to marry. For their own safety if nothing else.
"If someone goes with Prince Samuel, to ensure his safety to the border, what will King Walker do? Send him back home?" He asks more than one captain, who tend to nod and agree with him.
Getting in trouble is a fake idea when you do not respect the authority in question to begin with.
But. Bucky interviews. He doesn't look at the Prince as he does so, keeping his eyes on the Steward. Explaining how perhaps the Prince would do well to meet with the people on his own before he's sent away. How he would start at the Eastern Forests and go from there. A tour of the smaller villages and farms.
So that the people understand what's happened, here. The cost of the war for everyone.
"What will you do after?" The Steward inquires. He's heard of this man already. "Once the prince has become Walker's King? Will you return here, to the palace guards?"
"Travel," Bucky says casually. "See the kingdoms. I'm good with languages."
Walker said no staff. A guard is not the Prince's staff to begin with; one who has resigned from that post? Even less so. The Crown can deny being aware of what Bucky implies while doing their level best to support him in it.
The Steward nods. "Provide to me an intinerary. We shall see if it is of interest to His Majesty."
no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 04:18 am (UTC)In the meantime, Bucky is the one who catches Sam's attention most, for two reasons. One, of course, is their tryst in the hedge maze. Sam can't quite help but sneak a glance or two at the alpha. Wonders if Bucky has been thinking of it, too, and finds comfort that as always, Bucky is close by. A comfort in presence if in nothing else due to circumstance.
Two, are the implications of his words. A tour - get him out of the palace for some time. Sam isn't a fool - he knows that meeting the people so shortly before he will be forced to leave them in order to secure their prosperity can only have one intention. And then there are Bucky's own... travel plans.
Sam makes eye contact with the Steward. Just once, very briefly. No words are exchanged.
Bucky is appointed as Sam's bodyguard a day later, and informed that the prince intends to ride out that day. He is to accompany him - alone, isn't said, but is the perfectly natural expectation of a body guard. Bucky has more than proven himself in the war, and therefore will be trusted with Sam's safety fully.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 04:56 am (UTC)He meets Sam at the stables, more than aware of the eyes on them. People who care about their Prince and wish to see him thrive. People who know of Bucky's own history in the war.
Greets the Prince with a bow and a lopsided smile. Rides at his side until they are beyond the palace gates. "The witch asked me to bring you to her." Seems a better opening than 'I can't stop thinking of the way you sound when you are overtaken'. Even if both are equally true.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 05:29 am (UTC)One look, and Sam feels those hands on his waist again. Can almost recall exactly how Bucky felt inside of him.
The conversation sobers him, but his heart keeps giving his nerves away. Still - caution. Sam lets his horse, Redwing, set a comfortable pace and frowns towards Bucky. "Have you taken this appointment as my personal guard in order to bring me before her?" Slightly incredulous. And perhaps a little disappointed. Sam doesn't know if the witch can be trusted - or what she would want with him. Only knows that that sentence makes alarm bells shrill inside his head.
no subject
Date: 2022-12-29 04:42 pm (UTC)This can be whatever you need it to be. I can be merely your bodyguard, or I can be more than that. But the choice will remain yours. I will protect you, either way."
no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 05:22 am (UTC)Bucky says it so casually, as if it doesn't rock Sam's entire world. He glances over, stunned into silence for a while. Bucky loves him. Bucky has fallen in love with him?
"How?" he asks, after a while. Not denying the possibility. Not rejecting the notion. Just needing to understand. "We've only met the once. You've only had me the once..."
Which means whatever Bucky's feeling isn't a temporary scent bond, either, and that's almost scary. Because if it was a day after their tryst, Sam could believe that Bucky is merely experiencing a strong reaction to Sam's scent. It's... not the case, quite obviously so. And that means Sam needs to understand this dedication, this willingness to have as much or as little of Sam as he can, risks be damned.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 02:06 pm (UTC)"I didn't think I was capable. So I wasn't prepared for this to happen. But I can't stop thinking about you. I worry when you don't smile. I can smell you across a crowded room and tell if you're happy or not just from that. I can't stop thinking about you. About the way you sounded that night. Worrying about you and what's going to happen to you."
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 07:21 am (UTC)This is more dire. He's securing a very fragile peace.
"I don't know if I can ever give you what your heart desires," he admits, and sounds genuinely pained. Because he's young, and Bucky is the first man who has ever touched Sam. And Sam doesn't know if he'd allowed that to be the case if not for his own looming fate. He doesn't know if the yearning in him is just because of that, either, or something more earnest. "But perhaps it would please you to know I don't enjoy my fingers the way I enjoyed you."
A small flick of his gaze, almost shy despite the blunt honesty.
"If you can accept that it can never be more than a tryst, and it will never go beyond that... then perhaps... perhaps you would like to continue my education. To teach me how to satisfy an alpha."