You have Wings?! (Briar)

[James Florian]

James was tired. His princely classes took a toll on him both physically and mentally with all the running around, quizzes, and essays they had the poor boys do on a daily basis. Today of course he had dragon slaying and ballroom dancing back to back before rushing off to leadership, then ethics just to name a few of the classes he was subjected to this tedious Monday. It also gets better too, because of course the night previously he just had to get another nightmare that woke him up in the middle of the night and he couldn't just fall back asleep after that. So now he was quite literally falling asleep on his feet. After the last class for the day let out, James trudged from the school buildings, to the dorms, and up the stairs to room number seven with his eyes barely open. All he wanted to do at this point was curl up in his bed and sleep the evening away, completely ignoring the mountain of homework he would have to do as well. 

So that's what his plan was when he entered the empty dorm room, Briar wasn't back from classes yet, and on his way to his bed he kicked off his shoes by the door, dumped his bag on his desk, and peeled off his sweaty disgusting shirt to causally toss it onto the floor on his side that was covered in dirty clothes because he was too lazy to clean it up. He then jumped into his messy bed, curled up under the thick warm blankets, and tried to fall asleep. However sleep didn't come in time to avoid hearing the doorknob to the dorm room jiggle as a strong familiar hand fiddled with his key in the lock. Not wanting to get up or reveal that he wasn't actually asleep yet, James feigned sleep just like a little kid would while skillfully keeping only a fraction of his eyelids cracked open. It was just enough so he could see it was really Briar coming in, but enough for Briar to see that the prince was awake. However what James didn't realize was that he was about to see a secret, a secret that would no doubt jolt him awake in a millisecond. 

[Briar]

Briar had also had a long day of somewhat grueling classes, but they had been mentally strenuous rather than physically, and now he needed to work off some of the excess energy without having to think about anything, and that meant running. He needed to change into workout gear first, so he made a stop off at the dorm room. He had been hoping James wasn't back yet, but he froze upon realising the prince was cocoooned in the bed.

He hesitated, wondering what to do, but eventually the desire to get out and run as soon as possible overwhelmed his usual paranoia, and the prince looked pretty soundly asleep. Besides, sitting on hard wooden chairs all day had left his wings feeling pretty cramped, he needed to give them a stretch before he got outside.

Moving over to his side of the room, he took one last cautious glance at James before tugging off his shirt and opening up his wings with a soft sigh of relief.

[James Florian]

After seeing that the person behind the door was only Briar entering the room, James listened to his own sleepy urge to just close his eyes and go to sleep. After all it was only his roommate who was probably going to change before heading off to the track to run like he normally did when classes were over. So as the fairy moved about the room, he let his eyes slip closed, but he didn't drift off. No, not quite yet because although James knew he couldn't help it anymore than the raven haired lad could help being a prince, Briar was a big guy. When big guys move around, things move too. As Briar walked past their desks, all the loose knick-knacks shook slightly setting off noises that invaded James's brain. Now James was one of those people who need absolute silence in order to sleep, or at least he needed a way to muffle it. So as his face contorted slightly in annoyance, James buried himself a little deeper into the covers, trying to get the silence he needed. In short, it didn't work. So instead of him drifting off into the blessed world of dreams, he was stuck in the world of piles of homework and dirty laundry everywhere. 

But then it grew strangely quiet. It was just for a moment or two as Briar's feet stood still as he revealed his deepest secret to what he believed to be a sleeping prince, but it was long enough to cause James's sleepy mind to grow curious as to why all the movement had stopped. So James fluttered one eye open and when he saw Briar and the things he wasn't supposed to see, both of them flew open in shock. He slowly sat up in his bed just staring at the appendages sticking out of Briar's back before announcing the fact that he was indeed awake by saying dumbly, "You have wings." 

Yes, James, Briar does indeed have wings. and they're quite beautiful too with their dragonfly like appearance with the pink coloring only further enhancing the beauty of them by highlighting each little line and detailed pattern. They were stunning, but to the young lad they were shocking only because until this very moment James had no clue of their existence. For all the time James had known Briar he believed that the question as to whether or not the terrifying man fairy had wings was similar to the one about whether the momma's boy prince could talk to animals. The answer which of course would be no. James had always just assumed Briar did not have wings because James had never seen them. Well he was seeing them and they were very much real believe it or not. Now James could see that even though Briar looked nothing like a typical fairy godmother, he most certainly had the wings required for the job.

Oddly enough for some reason, James felt like he was lied to all this time. After all he did live with the older lad and he was only just learning about this very huge thing. This was something he should have seen earlier, but instead Briar hid it from him and James couldn't see why, though deep down he understood why because he had been through it before. The shame, the ridicule from others for being too much like a mother. It was a secret shared link in the boy's past, and surely then James must have realized that there was a reason as to why he kept it a secret, but in this sleepy, shocked state of his, James couldn't see that reason. All he could see was a pair of wings and a secret kept for almost a year. 

"Why didn't you ever tell me you had wings." He asked with the hurt of not realizing this sooner clearly shown in his eyes. Foolish naive boy, you only had to look inside your own memory to see why. After all you still have nightmares about it little prince. You should better, you should have known. 

[Briar]

At the sound of James' voice, Briar spun round wide-eyed. His wings flicked down reflexively, folding up against his back so James couldn't see them. Where they moved, they left a shimmering trail in the air that took a couple of seconds to dissipate.

He wasn't sure what to say, completeley blindsided by the sudden reveal - he was so self-conscious about his wings, it had taken him a lot of nerve to let Azalea have a peek at them, and even then it had only been for a few moments, folded up against his back. To have James see them so unexpectedly, spread out full, that he'd seen them for who knew exactly how long before he'd spoken... it made him feel vulnerable, startled, completely on the back foot and unable to really respond. He flushed deep red and grabbed for a fresh t-shirt without turning around and giving James another glimpse of them.

He froze when James spoke again, t-shirt gripped in his hand, noticing the hurt tone in his roommate's voice, the obvious pain in his gaze. He looked down, fidgeting with the soft fabric he was holding, and shrugged.

"Children are cruel," he admitted in a low voice

[James Florian]

James's heart instantly broke when Briar revealed why he hadn't breathed a word about what was under his shirt in the year the two of them had been sharing a room. He empathized with the fairy, he truly did because he knew exactly what Briar was talking about.  He was all too familiar with the daily fear of being outcasted and rejected because they didn't perfectly fit the images of who they were dictated to be at birth. James knew what it felt like to be hopeful that things would be different, this time... Only to feel the sharp pain of being wrong like someone was plunged a knife into his gut in one swift motion, but instead of pulling it out again just as quickly, they took so long that they continued to feel the pain for days, months, years even. He understood why Briar had kept his wings hidden. Sometime in his life, whether it was here or back in the land where he was raised, a group of children made fun of his wings. The pain, the shame, was just to much for the man fairy to bear so he hid them. He hid them from everyone. Just like how James had at first tried to avoid being like his mother when he arrived at the school, he tried to be a tough and strong, but at the end of the day his childish naive side reared it's head and yet he was accepted. The same should be said for Briar as well, after all James didn't honestly care that he had wings. (He was a fairy after all.) However instead he was hurt by the fact that Briar didn't trust him enough to know. Which he now felt shameful for because he had never told Briar why he had horrid awful nightmares at least once a week. Not even during the rare ones where James woke up screaming bloody murder. 

The prince then pushed off his comforter to sit up in the bed as he quietly said, "But we're not children anymore." He also gave the fairy a supportive smile, which was the best he could think off to do in this moment instead of just jumping up and rushing over to Briar to hug him and remind him regardless of what people in his past said, he had friends now, true friends that didn't care that he had pink wings. However he knew how reserved the fairy was so the expressive boy held back. Although he didn't mean to, his eyes kept flickering back to the fairy's back, with a thousand curious questions running through the lad's mind. He kept his mouth shut as well, figuring that since Briar was trying to hide them from James for a reason. He didn't want to talk about them just yet, and honestly he could see why. James didn't exactly convey the stereotypical image of bullied, insecure kid instead of the one of the perfect prince. Maybe Briar would be more comfortable if James told him a part of his past. Just the sliver he could handle speaking of without shutting down to block the memory out. 

"They were mean to me too when I was younger." James said solemnly as he looked down at his feet, however he looked up for a moment before looking up again to clarify, "Well not the same kids, they would never get to go here and they certainly didn't come from your world." He smiled to himself for a moment as he remembered when he got to go home for a few days during the Easter break because of his religion. (Medieval Catholicism had certain rituals that Seacombe was just not prepared to undertake and so they let him go home rather than cause a big fuss.) Although he was made to promise that he wouldn't discuss the technologies of the school, he did tell his mother all about the people and the experiences he had over Easter dinner. He had tried to keep his voice down so the others at the table couldn't hear, but not low enough so one of the duke's who always gave James a hard time couldn't hear. This was an accident of course, and probably unavoidable because the duke was sitting next to the Queen. The duke had ever so "politely" injected himself into the conversation inquiring about which academy the Prince was attending, being the nice woman she is Snow told him despite James's subtle hints not to. It didn't take long for the duke to also ask if there would possibly be an opening for his own two sniveling brats Edmund and Richard who were both plain looking things with scraggly blond hair and muddy hazel eyes. They both had their father's slightly larger than normal nose and Edmund had poxmarks on his forehead while Richard had zits. Both were trying to grow a beard and a mustache, but it didn't compliment them at all. (Which was unlike how James looked if he didn't shave for a couple of days. The stubble made him look not so childlike, but it was so annoying.) They were 16 and 13 respectively, just old enough to attend Seacombe. Now these two boys were the "Little Jesuses" he had mentioned before to Grove. They thought they were basically the best of the best just because they had royal blood in their veins and they just happened to look like their father, unlike James. They were snobbish and rude, had no respect for anyone or anything and James did not want to see them around people like Azalea, Eli, and Isla. He also didn't want to see them near Grove or Briar because he knew they would treat them all as if his friends were nothing when they were all a thousand times better than them. James also knew they would give the prince hell because at Seacombe royalty could not give orders and there would be no one to stop them from shouting derogatory insults about how James was a momma's boy and worse ones that he didn't even want to imagine. So James had to interrupt the conversation before his mother could say anything. 

"Pardon me, but neither Sir Edmund nor Sir Richard would be able to attend Seacombe. The academy is restricted to heirs only." James said as he took another bite of the meal before him. He had stressed the word heir as he looked at his childhood enemies who had been looking particularly smug about possibly going to the same school James was attending with no royal guards or anything. That meant they could get away with anything they liked and they would do it. They honestly believed that they should have been the one to be called prince, which they might have been if the regent queen had succeeded in her plots. However she didn't and James was alive as well as the heir instead of them. The two brats seemed to think they could bully James into abdicating, but that would never happen. Not over James's dead body. 

Of course the old duke believed he could worm his way around this and he started to say, "But your grace, my sons are-" "They are only heirs to your titles and your estates dear uncle. Seacombe Halpworth only educates future kings and queens for their future roles in life. Since your sons are neither they are not eligible to attend, now are they?" James had quickly interrupted with a raised eyebrow, matter of fact voice, and a look in his eyes that almost challenged the old geezer to contradict the prince again. This was a clear indicator of how the school had changed the lad. A year ago James wouldn't have had the courage to speak like that to the one man he hated just as much as he had Daae. The duke took note of this too, as he went back to chatting with the queen about other matters while the little dukes gave James the stink eye. He knew what they were thinking, you shouldn't be the heir, we're better than you. How dare you speak to our father that way, how dare you blah blah blah. James didn't care. He didn't cower under their gaze like he used too. Instead he sat tall, and stared them right in the eyes until they looked away. It may not have seen like much, but for the rest of the night he was on cloud nine thanks to this small victory. Seacombe was changing him, and it looked like it was for the better. 

Shaking himself out of the memory, James once again focused on the present by adding, "It was my cousins that made fun of me. They used to make fun of the fact that I was too much like my mother and didn't have enough of my dad in me. I was such a scrawny pathetic thing when I was little so they could get away with their teasing and I just let them get away with it for years. I thought that they were right, that I was weak, I was a coward, and plenty of other things you don't need to hear." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before continuing, "But I stopped listening to them one day, I stopped believing all those nasty things they said about me and I showed them that I wasn't a coward, that I did have my dad's blood in me. Now they can't touch me! They're scared out of their wits that one day I would make them pay for the things they said. Now they're the cowards. They're the ones who want to hide, not me." James said with a huge grin on his face.

At that point, James got up from the bed and crossed over to Briar to conclude with, "All bullies are just jealous of other's peoples treasures, their gifts. My cousins just wanted to scare me out of being a prince so they could take my place instead, whoever made fun of you, I'm sure they just wanted awesome wings like yours. You shouldn't have to hide them. They're clearly a part of you and so what if some people are rude? They aren't you. You should embrace them, not hide them." James concluded with a smile as he motioned to the appendages tucked up against Briar's back. Yes kids may be cruel, but they all grew up and more often than not they grew into weeds while their target of taunts and jeers burst into full bloom. 

Cliched much? Yes, but it was true. No one liked a bully. Nobody worth remembering was a bully. 

[Briar]

Briar was overwhelmed. The hurt in James' gaze had left the fairy worried, but he'd understood so easily that Briar was a little startled, he had never experienced such easy acceptance, such sympathy - it was the first time he'd ever really admitted to anybody how the children from his home had been, and he was such a large, intimidating figure that he always assumed nobody would show any sympathy and would just assume he could have fought back, or worse, that he had instigated such things.

It wasn't just how easily the prince accepted and supported him, Briar could have put that down to James just being a good and noble person, the fact that James also understood, that he'd experienced such bullying too, when James was somebody who - here at Seacombe Halpworth - was well-liked and well-respected by just about everybody who wasn't a villain, it made him feel a lot better about his own experience - although it also made him feel pretty angry at anybody who'd dare to try and hurt his friend.

He lowered the t-shirt, not feeling the urge to cover up his wings quite so urgently, and nodded slightly at James in thanks.

"Anybody bullying you was definitely jealous," he agreed, thinking about how much he would like to be as charming and kind as the prince he shared a room with, and how he could understand why anybody might feel bad that they were not like him - he didn't understand how anybody could take those feelings and use them as inspiration to be cruel to the person they admired, but then there were a lot of things that people did that he didn't understand, good and bad. He didn't think it was quite the same for him, the children that bullied him... well, he thought they were scared of him and his magic, or that they just didn't understand him, he didn't think they were jealous, but he definitely appreciatd James for saying so.

"Thank you." he said eventually, shyly.

[James Florian]

"Yeah, I guess they were." James said quietly when Briar affirmed what he had said earlier. It was true jealousy was the cause, but now looking back at everything, all those years of ridicule and self-doubt, he was suddenly realized that it wasn't truly Edmund and Richard that were truly jealous of him. Instead it was their father's jealousy instilled in them that lead to their caustic feelings towards the prince. Their dad, the Duke, have always been ranting and raving about the old days when James's mother was a princess, and her father was dead. He always claimed they were wonderful days for everyone when all the evidence was that those days were only good for the Regent Queen and her precious little goonies. He could go on and on for hours "educating" all the others about wonderful times those were despite the pained expressions on many of the courtiers faces since they had a different story to tell. His sons however, clung onto every word. They wholeheartedly believed their father and if he told those stories right in the earshot of the royal family, what on earth did he say to his boys when they were behind closed doors or back in their family manor? What kind of lies and slander were the pox marked, pimpled face boys lead to believe?

Thinking of this, James actually began to feel sorry for the two boys and as much as he hated them, he couldn't help, but wish that maybe his family could have done something to stop the Duke from filling their heads with lies. His mother, god bless her soul, didn't have enough of a backbone to contradict the duke and his father didn't want to anger their most powerful friend, and enemy, from his wife's side of royalty. Or maybe neither of them had ever cast it s anything more than just useless jargon, completely unaware of the damage it was doing to the young children in the room; destroying their son James's confidence, and altering the minds of the man's sons to create hatred. If they had just done something to get those boys away from their father and educate them about the truth, show them the evidence they had, had Snow tell them her story, then maybe things might have been different. But they did nothing, all of them had just stood by and done nothing. However James couldn't exactly blame them either. They had done nothing for him after throwing Daae in jail and telling him he was dead two years later. Everyone had believed that getting the boy away from him had been enough, well judging by the anxiety James had even ten years later, that idea was a huge failure. 

Maybe it wasn't too late though, James silently thought to himself for a moment as Briar was lost in his own thoughts, Richard's only thirteen. He's still young enough to technically be fostered, maybe I could write to my father and suggest the idea. There's a chance it'll work and if it does then at least one of them won't turn out like the duke. It was a good idea, but the prince had no inkling of an idea if it'll work, but at the very least if his father did agree Snow would have another boy to look after while her boys were away at school. She really did love being a mother and James was truly proud to call himself her son after having a little space to spread his own wings and try to find his own way. Just don't let anyone know that, he still had a reputation to uphold.

Speaking of wings, James managed to pull himself out of his thoughts of home and focus once more on the conversation at hand. Which frankly, wasn't much of a conversation since Briar was even quieter than Grove. However by this point James was used to the quiet, that didn't mean it wasn't unsettling to the talkative prince at times, but after being best friends with a gentle giant he knew how to handle the silence. He said a simple "You're Welcome" in response and after that the conversation dipped off into nothing. It was a little awkward though, or at least it was for James when he realized that Briar had put a shirt back on and he was still bare chested. Blushing slightly from all those years of learning about modesty, he reached for the sweaty shirt on the floor to wear just until Briar went off to exercise and James could go back to sleep. He never wore a shirt to bed during the warm months since more often than not his room back home had been too hot between the braziers for light, the fire roaring to keep the evil spirits away, and with the guards and the servants also stationed in his room through the night it was always uncomfortably hot at night. Or maybe it was also just James since he was the only one to sleep in total darkness shielded by heavy wool curtains that were awful at ventilation. Even here at the school where they could control the temperature, James hadn't been able to kick the habit. And besides there wasn't anything like truly being able to feel the fluffiness of a down blanket wrapped around him when he was drifting off to sleep. 

So he too pulled his shirt over his head and things were still silent. James couldn't pull his eyes away though from Briar's back, growing extremely curious about his room mate's wings. A thousand questions popped into his mind, but he bit his tongue to keep them back. It would be rude to just blurt out questions and his mother taught him better than that. However James was a rather impulsive boy so it was no surprise when he broke his own words and asked with a curious tone, "So you have complete control over them? Like you can tuck them away rather than leaving them as they are if that makes sense..." He tried to think about his wording before hastily adding, "You don't have to answer, I'm just curious that's all."  

[Briar]

With James lost in his thoughts, Briar began to feel awkward again. The conversation hadn't exactly ended, so he wasn't sure it was polite to just leave, but he didn't know how to continue it either. He began to gather his things just to busy himself while he thought about what he needed to do next, but luckily for him James broke the silence between them with a question.

He was so relieved to have an obvious path to take that it took him a moment to feel self-conscious about it, although the question itself was framed a lot kinder than any he'd ever had before, and while he was still rather shy to talk about them, it was... nice, to have someone take an interest in such a polite way.

"Uh, yes," he nodded, turning his attention back to James "They... move the way I want them too. Just like any other limb," he lifted his arm almost to demonstrate, waving it slightly "I just...move them."
It was hard to explain, just the same way it would be almost impossible to explain to someone how to move any other part of their body, it was just automatic, an instinct.

[James Florian]

With a busy mind like his that jumped from one thought or idea to the next very quickly, James hardly noticed the empty silence in the dorm room while his mind wandered back to home like it did rather often these days. Or perhaps he didn't notice the quiet because he was used to it, although they lived together and the two of them were roommates, they hardly ever spoke. The room was almost always silent save of course if James was muttering to himself or one of them had music playing again. Plus on top of that James's best friend was a silent character so over the years he had grown used to the quiet. That didn't mean he particularly liked it though. But still it was better than a discomforting silence. Anything was better than that to be honest.

He nodded in understanding when Briar explained how his wings moved and it took James a minute to catch on that Briar didn't exactly understand why he had asked that question of all questions. "Oh it's just that in all the stories they never mentioned that you could fold away the wings, they always just seem to be out there in the open for anyone to see." James rushed to explain once he did realize what the man fairy was thinking. He was thinking of the elaborate pictures in the fairy tale books he remember reading when he was little. Both the good and the bad fairies in those where beautifully painted with incredible detail making them seem lifelike to the wide eyed, curious boy, making those drawings seemingly the most beautiful paintings he had ever seen. However there was something odd about them he only noticed now. The wings were always unfolded and on show for all to admire and endlessly praise. Not at all like what Briar was showing him. Or maybe the stories didn't actually tell the full story. That was one thing James had learned when he was here, there were always two different tales to tell. It all depended on who people believed more. 

"I'm sorry for prying, I guess you don't want to talk about them." James said as he turned away with his cheeks flushing a light crimson from his own self-embarrassment. After all Briar had moved to hide his wings once again, but the notion of what was polite and what was rude did nothing to quell the boy's curiosity over what he had seen. Which from his perspective was understandable, although he had grown up as the grandson of a witch and the nephew to dwarfs, he had never met a fairy before coming here and he had never seen one's wings until today. It took all of his will to keep his eyes away from Briar's back, and even more willpower to keep from jumping up from the bed to go inspect them for himself. That was something no one would blink twice to back home, after all he was the crowned prince. They could scoff at his similarities to his beloved mother and his "odd" choice of friends, but no one would ever try to contradict him. No one save for his tutors and parents who were the ones responsible to make sure that his head was screwed on properly. 

However that didn't matter. Briar wasn't from home, he wasn't oath or honor bound to listen to what the King's son said or agree with what he would do. (Not that those who were actually paid attention to their vows, the filthy animals.) He also had the option of ignoring the boy's questions and although he tried to be the polite little prince his mother had taught him to be, sheer curiosity won out again when James said, "But if you don't mind me asking, are they stronger than they look? I mean, they looked so... so... delicate and you're not exactly the delicate looking type Briar. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just... odd..." He finished trying to as polite as he possibly could keeping in mind that Briar had said that people teased him over them in the past. However once the words came out of his mouth he knew that maybe he had crossed into dangerous territory. After all he didn't know how the fairy had dealt with the painful part of his childhood. All James knew was that even years afterward he still had trigger words that sent him over the edge because it had been so traumatizing for him when he was little. Truth be told he was working on it with Grove through the means of positive reinforcement, but it was tough to hear the word "coward" or "weak" without his heart speeding up. He had no idea if Briar faced the same thing, or if it was different for him. All James knew was that from this point on in the conversation he would be dancing on eggshells, silently praying they wouldn't break and cause Briar to go down with them. 

[Briar]

"It's...okay..." Briar said slowly, realising as he said it that he meant it. He wasn't used to being able to talk about his wings, it wasn't so much that he wasn't allowed or that he'd been encouraged not to, but he'd always been so shy about them that he'd never shown them to anybody who wanted to ask questions - or rather, the very, very few people who had been privy to their existence had either been too cruel to be curious or had simply been too put off by his glowering to dare ask anything.

"I don't mind," he said, a little more decisively this time, he was almost tempted to let James see them again, but baby steps - and after all, the prince hadn't actually asked to. Still, the lack of judgement from both him and Azalea was reassuring, it made him just a little bit less uncertain about them in general, perhaps it really was okay if more people saw them, after all they were a part of him, so maybe they would be okay to make a little more use of... it was certainly uncomfortable to keep them cooped up all the time.

[James Florian]

When Briar stated that it was okay that James was curious, the boy perked up instantly and all hints of any embarrassment were gone from his mind. He was really just like a little kid at times, he could be sulking in the corner one minute and then bouncing off the walls the next. Although he somewhat hated it, there was really nothing the raven haired lad could do. It was just a part of who he was, he liked to blame it on his mother and how she was when she was his age, which scarily was about the same age she had brought him into this world, but in truth it more had to do with the lack of... proper socialization for the lack of a better term. After growing up around the same faces who had learned to accept this behavior and didn't think to correct it, it just became ingrained in him forever more. Hopefully though he could get it under control before he was trusted to become King. Otherwise his country could be in a lot of trouble.

"Alright." James awkwardly responded when the fairy reiterated that he didn't mind the questions as long as they were posed in a polite, and non-offensive way. Which by all means James would keep too, but he could still see how overwhelming it must be to reveal a dark secret to someone who was by all considerations a stranger, since the boys rarely talked. So James was also going to try and keep all the questions to a minimum and just take baby steps here. There would be plenty of time for Briar to answer all the questions James would have, but for right now he would only stick to the pressing ones in his mind. Like for example, "So can you actually fly?"

Wow that was stupid. Was James even thinking with that one? He cringed a bit once he realized what he said and very quickly backtracked to his previous question to explain the new one, "I mean, are they strong enough to support you? You're a big guy Briar, and I suppose it'll take a lot of strength to pick you up off the ground." He said with a small laugh more out of awe and respect for how much time the fairy put into keeping himself in peak physical condition. James may spend time at the gym as well as the stables, but he was no fool. He knew that he would never reach the muscle mass capacity that Briar had. Heck even Grove was a big guy too, but even he was smaller than Briar. James should know, he grew up with one and lived with the other. So by no means was his question a bad thing, it was a general curiosity from a boy who wasn't quite sure how his room mate's wings worked.

[Briar]

Briar wasn't even particularly offended by the question, he knew that his wings looked improbably incapable of flight, so did his mother's come to think of it, so it was a fairly logical question if somebody was getting curious about them. He opened his mouth to answer but James quickly clarified before he got the chance.

His cheeks darkened slightly, knowing that James meant his words as a compliment, and a little flustered by them.

"I can fly," he clarified, looking away awkwardly and fidgeting with the hem of his shirt "They... probably shouldn't work, but they're stronger than they look. It's probably magic."

[James Florian]

"Ahh..." James said as he nodded his head in understanding. It would make sense that magic helped Briar's wings hold himself up. After all the man was a fairy and everyone knew that fairies were magic. However on the other hand he also knew exactly why his brain didn't make the logical jump from fairy to magic right away. Briar defied all the expectations of who a fairy was supposed to be. From what James knew from the stories when he was little, fairies were supposed either be young beautiful women, kind faced grandmothers, or evil old hags. There were no inbetweens, and uh very minimal gender swapping as well. Everything about Briar contradicted that. Although many would consider Briar to be handsome, he was no beautiful woman. Neither was he anything like a grandmother, and only a blind man would mistake that sullen expression the fairy always sported as kind. He wasn't even going to go anywhere near the notion of Briar being an old hag. He was only nineteen, he wasn't a dinosaur.

"That would make sense." He awkwardly said as he noticed that Briar was really starting to fidget when James asked more questions about the wings. He was really pushing the limits here and yet a thousand more questions burned in his brain. Why where they pink? By fairy standards were his wings large or small? Just how far could he fly with his wings? How strong was his magic? Could he control it? These and a thousand more burned in the boy's brain, but the fear of making Briar uncomfortable was holding him back. He knew just how difficult it could be to reveal a tough part of one's past, but it must be a thousand times harder for Briar than it was for Jim. He had only told Grove about just how scared he was to become king and he was his best friend. To Briar, Jim was little more than a stranger. They may live together, but they barely ever talked. No wonder the fairy looked so uncomfortable. 

So it was little surprise when he did finally open his mouth a question came forth that was caring and considerate, with genuine concern for the man with pink wings. "Hey are you okay with me asking these questions?"

[Briar]

Briar felt bad that he couldn't give James a more complete answer, but he'd never really thought about it - his wings were actually a lot bigger than his mother's or his aunts', but still looked just as unlikely to hold him as theirs did them, but because he'd always grown up with them quite obviously being able to fly despite their tiny delicate wings, he'd never really questioned that his would also be able to hold him up even as he continued to grow.

He was touched by James' next question, the fact that the prince was managing to keep a check on his obvious curiosity in order to check on Briar's wellbeing was far sweeter than he was used to people being towards him. His mothers were considerate of course, and they had always taught him to be kind to others, but after such terrible experiences with the children back at home it still surprised him when kindness came his way from others.

"Don't mind," he confirmed "Ask if you like." it sounded a little blunt, but he wasn't used to responding to such queries, he was genuine though, he honestly didn't mind James' questions.

[James Florian]

Jim really had no idea how much his kindness and concern was touching Briar. It was just a part of who he was. Sure he might be a bit of a screw up in terms of being the perfect prince everyone wanted him to be. He wasn’t the strongest of the princes, and he was certainly far from the bravest with his insecurities and doubts, but then who wouldn’t be scared of what the future held if they were in this boy’s shoes? He was a prince, and the only one back home at that. His kingdom’s entire future rested entirely on his shoulders until he one day had a son who was old enough to run, but that was years away, years that he knew his father didn’t have knowing the length of medieval life spans. Who knew how long James had until he was no longer a prince, but instead a king? However it just wasn’t a matter if he could just shoulder the responsibility. It was another matter entirely if the nobles and gentry took him seriously as a king. It was no secret they all thought of him as too soft hearted to rule, always caring for the peasants in the villages and there was also the rumors and whispers about his unorthodox friendship with Grove. Men were expected to be strong and stoic back home, not caring about lessers and forget about being close with anyone. A man needed no one, but his horse and his wife. James had never been like that. He had always had too much of his mother in him. He had his mother’s looks, he had her heart, but no one cared much about what the son’s got from their mothers where he was from. It was all about the fathers and unfortunately, in his eyes, he got nothing from him. Or so he thought…

“Why are they pink?” James asked with a puzzled expression once Briar reaffirmed it was okay to ask these questions. It was just a general observation he made, that they were a certain color, that just didn’t seem to match Briar. No offense or anything, but James had always assumed that a fairy’s wings matched some sort of physical trait about them, like their eyes or hair. That was most certainly not the case with Briar. There wasn’t anything pink about him, save for the dragonfly-esque wings protruding from his back. Then again he had already been proved wrong about a good number of things when it comes to fairies. Like they weren’t always nice grandmothers and instead they could be big, and somewhat scary. Especially during sleepy midnight trips to the bathroom where princes forget that they have roommates. Yeah, those night time heart attacks are never fun.

He was quiet for a moment as he sat on his comfy bed and sorted through his thoughts, wondering which questions would be appropriate to ask or not. He didn’t want to overwhelm the dude, despite Briar’s reassurances that he would be fine. James knew he could be impulsive with the questions, and he really didn’t want to risk things getting out of hand, but there was one question that was really bugging him. One he didn’t even realize he wanted to know until it was tumbling out of his mouth, with a sly grin on his face as if it was some big joke, “So tell me Briar, is all those muscles you got there from all that exercising you do or is just magic.” He was being entirely serious, judging by the light and airy laugh he added at the, but even he couldn’t deny it now. He was really curious to know if it was hard work or just magic that made Briar so big and scary.