Seeing is Believing (43 page)

"It doesn't matter." Leon shook him off, and Issac froze as another person appeared, seemingly from nowhere. He was rather pretty, with long blonde hair and bright green eyes. He didn't seem happy, and Issac stared for long enough that Leon took notice and turned.

"Temke—" Leon started, and Temke shook his head.

"Who is he?" Issac blurted out. "Leon!"

"He's my lover," Leon replied, turning towards the pretty young man. Temke murmured something softly in Leon's ear, wrapping his arms around Leon's middle.

"No, I'm sorry." Leon replied softly, almost too quietly for Issac to catch. "Issac—you didn't see me, okay?"

"Not okay!" Issac snapped, ignoring the slightly shrill quality to his tone. "I'm not the only one who saw you, Leon. What are you
doing
?"

"Love—" Temke murmured, and Issac ran out of steam as bright green eyes met his solemnly. "Perhaps you should explain."

"He's my lover," Leon repeated, and Issac scowled, wanting to do nothing more than smack Leon. Hard.

"I got that," Issac snapped shortly. "Where have you been?"

"Staying with him." Leon smiled softly, looking far happier than Issac had seen him, especially in those last six months before he disappeared. "Temke, can you do anything to make them not remember?"

"It wouldn't be fair," Temke replied quietly, pressing a soft kiss to the side of Leon's head. Issac blushed a little, and a branch snapped behind him. "Your brother deserves some sort of explanation."

"What about him?" Leon asked, and Issac turned to watch his guard catch up finally.

"Eslan will not say anything," Temke declared, and Issac's eyes widened. How was it that he was the only one who didn't seem to know what was going on?

"Forget it," Issac declared, scowling at Leon. "If you don't want to tell me, then don't worry about it. I never saw you." Issac declared, pushing past them into the strawberry clearing.

And then there was the sudden sensation of falling as the world fell away and everything went dark.

*~*~*

Issac groaned softly. His head was pounding and there was a soft buzzing going on nearby that he wanted to
stop
so that he could go back to sleep and hopefully wake up without the splitting pain in his head.

"Ow," Issac mumbled, and the buzzing stopped—only to start up a moment later, but this time as more comprehensible voices.

"Issac?" Leon's voice, which didn't make sense until Issac remembered the strawberry patch and Leon and his strange lover who'd appeared from thin air and then
falling
in the middle of a forest.

"What?" Issac grumbled, squinting open his eyes. Leon smoothed one of the coppery curls off his forehead and peered at him concernedly.

"Are you okay?" Leon asked after a minute and Issac sighed loudly.

"No." Issac glared. "My head hurts and you're not—I don't like you."

"Issac." Leon sounded exasperated as he sat back, and Issac pushed himself up into a sitting position. The strawberries were all around them still, bright and red, but Issac ignored them, staring at Leon pointedly.

"You wanted to make me forget I saw you." Issac stood up slowly, wincing as his head spun. He must have tripped or something. Rubbing his forehead he started walking in the direction he thought the castle was in, wondering where the stupid guard had gotten to.

"It would make things easier for you." Leon sighed, and Issac shot him a glare over his shoulder. "How do you explain that you saw your brother in the strawberry field that very few people can see anyway?"

"What?" Issac paused, turning. "What do you mean, very few people can see it?"

"It's a special place, Issac," Leon told him, picking a berry. "It's part of the bridge between your world and the world I share with Temke."

"You're cracked," Issac decided. "If you want me to say I never saw you, then fine, I never saw you. I'm going home."

"You can't." Leon sighed, taking a bite of the berry. "I'm sorry, Issac, I didn't realize you could walk through the portal—"

"What are you talking about?" Issac asked suspiciously, a rising worry gnawing at his gut. "What do you mean, I can't?"

"It could kill you if you try to go back now," Leon told him quietly. "You slipped through without eating a strawberry or—" Leon flushed, and Issac hesitated because that couldn't mean anything good. "—or without being … intimate with a member of this world."

"So why can't I just go back?" Issac demanded, glancing around at trees that looked familiar. But Leon was probably telling the truth—the trees seemed more lush, like they were in their prime and there were other subtle differences, like the way the strawberry bushes curved away from his footsteps so that he didn't step on them.

"Issac, you've been asleep for almost a week—the trip
here
very nearly killed you," Leon explained incredulously, and Issac scowled.

"How was I supposed to know that? I have a headache but I don't feel near-death!" Issac paled abruptly. "Oh. Mother's going to kill me."

"No doubt," Leon murmured. "I'm sorry."

"Whatever." Issac scoffed. "So what, I have to eat a strawberry to go back?"

"No. I mean, yes." Leon shrugged. "It would help, but it wouldn't do it on it's own."

Issac flushed, sitting down because he really was getting dizzier. "So what? I'm stuck here?"

"For now," Leon offered, looking a bit upset as he bit into the strawberry he held. "Temke's trying to figure out a way for you to get back."

"If I slept with—"

"You're not sleeping with Temke," Leon cut him off with a glare, and Issac scowled.

"I wouldn't do that. Isn't there anyone else here?" Issac demanded. Not that he'd sleep with anyone, but there was always the chance he'd take to someone here.

"No." Leon shook his head, swallowing the last of his strawberry. "Just you, me, and Temke."

"And Eslan passed through," Temke spoke up. Issac startled, because there was something
sneaky
about Leon's lover. Temke cut through the strawberry plants to settle at Leon's side, and Issac decided sulkily that maybe Leon had made the right choice by picking to go with Temke instead of staying on for their yearly kingdom-wide tour.

"Is he stuck too?" Issac asked after a moment of ignoring the way that Temke was touching Leon. There were just some things he didn't need to see.

"Eslan is also from a pocket world," Temke replied, letting Leon lean against him a little. "He can pass with impunity."

"Great," Issac grumbled, sighing and pressing his forehead against his knees, folded close in front of him. As though his day couldn't get any worse—now he was stuck with Leon and his lover in a place he couldn't leave,
and
his guard had followed him and everyone could leave but him.

*~*~*

Issac glared irritably at the sky above him. Bright, blue and not a cloud in sight, and it had been like that for the past two weeks. The little pocket world was
perfect
—the sky was always clear, the trees were green and without a wilted leaf, and there were strawberry plants, laden with dark, ripe fruit scattered about everywhere. It was beautiful, lovely, and Issac was ready to tear his hair out in frustration because it was perfect and boring beyond all belief.

There was nothing to do but climb trees and take walks, or talk to Leon or Temke. Issac was still less than pleased with Leon, so he was doing his best to avoid both of them, which was more difficult than it should've been, but Issac was convinced the space was shrinking. He'd taken to climbing trees and ignoring anyone who wandered by, be it Leon, Temke, or that damnably frustrating guard who kept following him around and
taunting
him by going back and forth between here and home.

He had to have been here nearly three weeks already. Issac sighed, plucking a leaf and twirling it between his fingers. Mother would probably still be having fainting fits and alternately screaming for a manhunt and weeping inconsolably into a pale pink handkerchief. For all that she insisted they spend their days traveling the country from castle to castle, she was remarkably fragile of psyche.

Eslan hadn't spoken a word about it though, and perhaps he'd managed to feed her some sort of reasonable excuse for his disappearance. Unlikely, but possible. He truly hadn't said much since the first time he'd tried and Issac had just about taken his head off with his anger. It hadn't been Eslan's fault, not really, but he'd been rather convenient.

Issac would've apologized, he really would've, except that Eslan hadn't given up. He'd just taken to following Issac around more quietly. Issac was relatively sure he was loitering somewhere below, even now. Issac scowled, shifting so that the tree knot trying to dig its way through his back was in a more comfortable place. Eslan wasn't making this any easier, trailing him around quietly and never leaving him alone.

So Issac was ignoring him too. Which made him the third of the three people in this little pocket world that Issac was doing his best to avoid. Issac glared all the harder at the sky. Maybe if he stared at it long enough it would rain and wreck Leon's perfect little world. He didn't know how Leon could stand it—the monotony, the same trees, that he was living
outdoors
.

He did have Temke though, and Issac was staunchly
not
jealous of Leon's happiness or the fact that he'd run off to his one true love or whatever. He was pissed, because Leon was older than him by a good year and should know better and shouldn't have left to him the duties and responsibilities and, worse, the traveling with their mother.

"Prince Issac."

A voice startled him from his thoughts, and Issac nearly tumbled out of the tree before catching his balance. It would be Eslan, because Leon would've called him Issac and Temke would've called him 'highness' with that insufferable drawl like he meant the exact opposite.

"What?" Issac asked flatly, fixing his balance and not looking down. He didn't care, and Eslan didn't reply immediately. Deciding he'd driven the man off again, Issac shut his eyes and ignored the pang of loneliness. A few moments later, though, he felt the tree shaking—Eslan was apparently climbing up after him for some reason.

Ignoring it steadfastly, Issac wondered what it would take to get the man to leave him alone. He wanted to sulk in peace, to make Leon feel guilty—guiltier, really—about trapping him here. Eslan didn't seem put off, though, and continued climbing. Issac didn't deign to acknowledge him, even when he was on the branch next to him.

"Prince Issac," Eslan tried again, and he sounded exasperated. Issac smothered a completely out of place grin—he didn't want Eslan pushing him from the tree or anything. Finally opening his eyes, he stared flatly at Eslan.

"What?" Issac demanded, crossing his arms even though it was a bit upsetting to his balance. He kept his seat against the tree trunk though and watched the thinner branch Eslan was standing on bow beneath his weight.

"Your brother wishes for you to stop sulking," Eslan told him seriously, something mischievous lurking in his pale blue eyes. Issac glared, because that wasn't funny.

"I'll sulk all I want." Issac replied and Eslan's lips twitched but he managed to keep his solemn look.

"He's afraid you're going to throw yourself from the treetops," Eslan informed him. Issac snickered before he could stop himself, because Leon would never think that, not until Issac did some
serious
sulking and stopped eating the damn strawberries.

"With my luck, it wouldn't do anything," Issac replied before catching himself. He wasn't talking to Eslan, he had to remember that.

"The ground is quite solid." Eslan shrugged. "But surely it's not as bad as all that?"

"Shut up," Issac snapped, furious all over again. Without regard to Eslan's more precarious perch, he swung his legs over the side of the tree branch and started to climb down again. He didn't need to be patronized—not so bad his ass. Maybe he would try to throw himself from the treetops. At least it would be something to do.

"Prince Issac." Eslan sighed, but Issac ignored him, clambering down the tree as fast as he could go. He could hear Eslan moving above him through the trees but he didn't bother looking up, concentrating on his foot and hand holds.

Reaching the bottom of the tree with a few new scrapes and scratches, Issac glanced up at Eslan with a scowl before turning and stomping off through the trees. He was lighter than Eslan, especially since the guard was built like a horse. If he could find a tree where it was impossible for Eslan to follow him up, he'd be able to ignore the man all day.

Pausing for a moment to get his bearings as he neared the damn strawberry patch, Issac jerked in surprise as Eslan's hands landed on his shoulders and whirled him around abruptly.

"What the hell?" Issac demanded, still furious with the guard. Eslan rolled his eyes, giving Issac a healthy shake. "Stop that—"

"Prince Issac—"

"I'm going to kill you," Issac announced. Eslan raised an eyebrow, his lips twisting in an amused little smile that just infuriated Issac all the more. "Get your hands off of me!"