UNTIL YOU FALL FOR ME

FRIENDSHIP

Ben was an Orphan following the death of his mother who had worked as queen Lisa's maid for five years. His father had died back when his youngest sister was only two years and that meant he had to step up and be the father. He loved his family dearly and since working as a nurse was not enough to sustain them, he took the queen's offer and became James's helper, at first, there was a tension between the two as Ben was not sure what to expect but they soon grew closer and were now best friends. The prince was like an open book to him and he didn't seem to mind the little annoying things he sometimes did out of anger. He was a great help to him while he was going through the first four years of his studies as a surgeon and James was now teaching him the basics of surgery. The two were more like brothers in more ways than one to a point even the king and queen had noticed. Ben was treated like family by some of the royal members, but others like Lady Annelisa hated him with passion since they didn't like the idea of sharing their glory with a commoner.

"It's dinner time, your sleepiness," Ben teasingly said with a slight bow. "Do you want it brought here?" he went on to ask. James had no plans for leaving his chambers so he asked to be served in his room and Ben did just that. The two then enjoyed their meal together and Ben left for the night. James stayed up for a while studying but he fell asleep soon and was having the dream of his life. He saw himself standing on the Alter waiting for his bride. He was all happy and bright but he shone even much brighter when he saw her walking up to him. Her face was still covered so he could not see her. When it was time to lift the veil, he found out it was Felicia. The heart rush came back to the sight of her and he was filled with joy to the point he even kissed her before the priest could give a go-ahead. He was contented with her and couldn't wait to take her home. The ceremony was colorful and fine until Dephina showed up in a wedding dress looking all shabby and angry. Apparently, James was supposed to marry her. A fight broke and Dephina stabbed Felicia with a knife right in the heart and killed her. Poor James was left there confused and holding his newly wedded wife in his arms as she was dying. All around him were people looking at him angrily and judging his actions, his own mother was standing a few paces away audibly disowning him and he could hear his father ordering some guards to arrest him and lock him away in the darkest prison in the palace. Overcome by grief and anger, James got up took a gun from one of the guards, and shot everyone around him including his parents. At that point, he fell off the study table and woke up. He was all sweaty and in tears and for a moment he lay on the floor crying before he realized it was all a dream. The rush came banging back.

Meters away, Ben was having the best evening yet. Rita his girlfriend had shown up and since he couldn't take her to his quarters, he took her to the room adjacent to James's chambers where the two had been meeting for the last few months. Only Ben and James knew about it and they were not to let anyone in on the secret since Rita was one of the royal ones. They two had known each other for as long as Ben worked in the castle but since she didn't live there herself, the two saw each other a couple of times every month. They had been taking things slow, a talk here, a talk there, a kiss on the cheek and a hug goodbye and that was it. However, tonight the lady had something different in mind.

She jumped on him the very moment he walked in and kissed him passionately. At first, he resisted but soon he was way too carried away by her moves that he could no longer see the moral ground. Since then he was floating in a sea of hot waves and mad passion. Slowly they progressed from kissing as he moved his somewhat hard hands that Rita loved up her thighs. She let out a cry of surprise and he held back a little. The two were on the verge of losing it and they both liked it. Her soft hands making soft strokes on his back made him burn up and he could not account for how he got her up on the vanity. He went on to undress her but just right before he could, he heard some noises from outside through the window, at first he was not all that concerned but the mention of lady Rita's name got him off his head. It sounded like the guards were looking for her. "Shhhh! they can't know that I am in here," she said while holding Ben's mouth. The last thing she would have dreamed of was to get the love of her life in trouble. She knew that if the guard walked in there and found them in that position, Ben would immediately be held responsible and only God knew what punishment would befall poor Ben. James heard the call as well and he knew his friend was in hot soup. He picked himself up from the floor, wiped the sweat off his face with the first piece of cloth he could find, and walked out of his chambers. He knocked softly on the door and Ben and Rita held on tight to each other. They both thought they were basted. "You can't open that door, just let him knock maybe at some point he will go away," Ben said as Rita made her way towards the door. Her dress was still up on the rear and her pant was showing. Ben thought that was funny and hot and he found himself laughing out loud. "I hope that you two understand the kind of trouble you are in," James said from outside and Ben shut up for a bit.

"James, please tell me that you are alone," Rita said through the wall and was glad when James confirmed that he was. Rita reached for the door to open it but then she heard someone else approaching and she had to stop. "Good evening your highness, have you by any chance seen or heard from Princess Ritelia?" the sound made its way through the door and Rita held her mouth. "Yes, in fact, I was with her a few minutes ago and she told me she had something for me, I bet it's my birthday gift or something. She will be back soon and I will send her your way," his voice sounded calm for someone who was lying his pants off. The guard seemed to buy the explanation and after wishing him a good night, he went on his way. Rita then opened the door for James and started walking towards Ben, the two had already forgotten about the dress, and were it not for the look on James's face, Rita would have gone downstairs with her dress still stuck on her panties. "Oh my God! Please tell me that the two of haven't been...you know..." James had said while covering his eyes. The two were embarrassed and they both started talking at the same time. "You know what, I don't want to know what you two crazy heads have been up to, I just need you to promise that you won't do anything stupid in the name of love. By the way Rita, you owe me a birthday gift, and, I want something special. Now, you two run along," It was always cute when James tried to act like he was the eldest one among them and he would boss them around as he found pleasing. That night it even felt more believable as he was the one saving Ben's ass and that rarely ever happened. The two left shortly after James had walked into his room but even in that situation, they had to stop and kiss goodbye.

James went back to his chambers and dropped onto his bed. He figured it would be easy to sleep since he was tired. However, the dream from earlier kept on coming back to his mind and it was making sleep impossible. He had never believed in the spiritual world where dreams had meanings and crap like that but that particular dream was nagging in his mind. He even tried counting sheep among other sleep games but nothing seemed to work and in cases like those, he only had one place to run to. He was not allowed to be roaming the halls past midnight, in fact, no one was supposed to be walking around except for the night guards. He, however, needed someone to talk to and he didn't feel like it was possible to wait until morning so he decided to break the rules. After all, to him, some rules were meant to be broken. He slowly sneaked out of his room and tiptoed across the hallways while holding his shoes in his hands. Every once in a while he stopped and looked around just to be sure no one could see him. At some point, he missed a step down the stairs and he went flying all the way down. The commotion was sensed by the newly installed motion sensor lights which lit up, flooding the place with light.

He knew then that he was basted and he decided to play the sleepwalking card. Of course, the guards would understand, after all, he was a known sleepwalker when he was little. "Hey men, are you hurt?" a voice echoed through the air and into his ears, and a smile formed on his face. He reached out to the hand that had been offered to him and he pulled himself up to a standing position. "I guess I am, I mean I am still talking and I don't smell any blood...so anyway, what are you doing outside?" he said as he followed Ben down the stairs. The guards were by then just arriving at the source of the sound but they found nothing as the two were hiding under the stairs below. "I was just about to go to bed when I realized that your lights were on. I thought maybe you needed something so I was on my way up to check on you," Ben answered after he was sure the guards were gone. "I don't like it that you are always there to save my ass, when will I ever say you owe me one without you paying it back almost immediately?" James asked. By then, the two were at Ben's quarters. Another place James was never supposed to be not unless he had permission. "Well, the day you will understand that I work for you and that it's my duty to save your ass if need be," Ben answered and opened the door, they both walked in and as usual, James dropped himself on the bed as if he was home. "Dude, remember it is not as strong as yours if you break it..." Ben started but James cut him short. "I will replace it, in fact, I will replace it even though I have not broken it. I mean I won't go through the official channels, but you know me, I will figure something out," James said while seating up.

The two looked at each other for a while and even though nothing was said, they both heard each other loud and clear. Ben deemed took up position next to James. "Seriously, nothing happened. Maybe if the guards didn't come looking for her it would have, but they came by and we had to stop," Ben explained. "Then, how do you explain the flying dress situation? I thought we were friends dude, you know I will never snitch out on you. Now, the truth!" James's face made a hundred different impressions but he settled on a serious one at last. He wanted the truth and he didn't feel like he was getting it. "We kissed, we touched, I was getting deep into the moment and so was she so I may or may not have tried to make my way up her dress, but that was it, pinky swear," James believed the pinky swear. It was silly and childish, but he believed in it and so he believed that Ben was telling the truth. He knew that Ben was in love with Rita and he supported it, he was not supposed to but he did. Looking at Ben and James go about their crazy different life, you could have thought that they were in love with each other or something. There was a time the queen had even raised a concern about their closeness and how she feared that her only son could be gay. A person who did not know them would easily make that conclusion. Whether their love for each other was s****l or not, it was hard for anyone else rather than them to understand.

That night, the two stayed up talking about James's dream and what it meant. Ben's conclusion was simple and kind of expected, he still believed that James was in love with Felicia and thus he concluded that the dream was just the manifestation of some sort of fear. James of course had to disagree and the two argued till the sound of the first birds when James decided to sneak back to his chambers. "Don't forget the bed," Ben reminded him as he was leaving. "Who am I kidding, I mean, he told me the same thing about a sofa the last time he was down here but I still haven't seen it. Typical James," he said out loud. It was not until after his alarm had gone off that he realized he had been up all night. He never knew where the time went when he was around James. He was not sure whether to get into the shower and get ready for work or go to sleep but the text on his phone had a hint. It was from James and it said that he had three hours to sleep. His friend had to come through or else he would be sleeping throughout the day and that never ended well, especially around the king. By the time he woke up, Rita was already gone but she had left a note to inform him that she would be seeing him in a month. He smiled to that.