For Captive Prince Week’s day 7 prompt: “Gardens”, you can find my story here. It features Kallias’s new life after the abolishing of slavery. If you can find any trace of the original prompt in the fic, tell me about it. I don’t know how I ended up there.
Kallias was in the gardens, standing at the edge of the grounds, overlooking the ocean. It was dawn, and he could see the first appearance of light in the sky as the sun began to peak out from beyond the horizon, a golden glow streaming across the water in rivulets. Kallias often came here alone, strolling the pathways and trails, taking in the beauty that one must see themselves to believe.
Though despite his young age and the confines of the palace life, Kallias had seen true beauty in his time, in innocent simplicity and heartwarming sweetness. It was the memories of such loveliness that kept Kallias up at night and brought him here at first light each day.
It felt stronger here, in the gardens, somehow. Perhaps it was because it was where they had once been together, sitting and talking and creating this special thing that had no place to be, but blossomed nonetheless. Perhaps it was because it was the one place that Kallias had considered theirs.
But it wasn’t the same. This place may never be the same, because Kallias was alone. No matter how many times Kallias came here, longing filling him with a pressing ache in his chest, he remained hopeless and dethatched because he was not here. Years had passed and despite his foolish, futile hope, he had not come back to Kallias.
Kallias let his eyes linger on the still waters for a few moments longer before letting out a defeated breath, pushing away from the stone ledge. He spared one last glance on the sky before turning away and towards the palace, only managing a few steps before halting in his spot, one foot extended before the other. Words lodged in his throat as he tried to comprehend, to understand, to believe.
It couldn’t be.
It had been so long.
Kallias swallowed, a youthful part of him wanting to pinch himself and see if he would wake up from this dream, but he wouldn’t dare test this possibility. Even if this was a dream, he would fight the person that would try and wake him up from it.
