The Kiss

“It’s always been there, a feeling so strong it couldn’t be denied and so real it couldn’t be distinguished.”

As soon as he got home, he found his loyal friend and buttler waiting for him by the entrance of the garden. He walked past him stepping heavily on the ground, wishing to be alone but incapable of sending the other away. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to face Eoin right now.

“How was your meeting, Lord Sebastian?”

“Very strange, Eoin, very strange indeed. - he sighted - And please don’t call me Lord. Have I not told you? We’re here as friends, that’s what we are. I am not your master, never have been.” Eoin startled. Sebastian had never talked to him like that. And as a friend, that was a bit rude. “I’m sorry, Eoin. I didn’t mean to be this idiot. I just... I’m a little upset about this gypsy thing and... and, well, I really like to consider you a friend rather than a servant. You know that.”

“ It’s ok, Sebastian.” he answered, being as comprehensive as he had always been. “I would like to consider you a friend as well. And being so close for so long, I don’t believe we would be wrong. But I can’t get used to this, because on the outside, you are still my master. And I don’t mind.

“But I do...” he muttered.

They had been together for 7 years now and knew each other so well they could barely live apart. Sebastian never got used to treating people as servants only - they were people, just as anybody else! - and thus got really close to some of them. Mostly Eoin. When Seb was scared or lonely, for he didn’t have many friends and his mother was always away, it was Eoin who would help him up, tell him the forbidden stories of his mother land and his family, about which he cared a lot, it seemed. He was very young for a buttler, but just as wise and useful as any other and carried a look of an older man. He was about 20 now, just a few years older than Seb, but people wouldn’t ask much, no one really cared about the buttler, anyway. No one but Sebastian, whose sleepless nights were spent hidden in his room hearing whispered words of his tales. They confided each other every secret, every pain, every cheerful moment of their lives and secretly traded hugs and letters and impossible looks. They grew together and learned together, everything was shared between them and that’s how Eoin learned all school subjects Seb did, and helped him with the homework. Of course when anything went wrong it was aways Eoin who paid for it, but Sebastian was even more hurt to see him take the blame.

And here they were, after all this time, living like two strangers so no one would suspect they were humans. 
 Sebastian was shaking a little, facing the floor, helpless. Eoin checked for unwanted presences and then sat down by his side. 
 “ What’s wrong, Seb? - he whispered - I mean, I’m sorry for bringing this up now, really. I wasn’t thinking straight” 
 “ It’s ok, Eoin. I know that. I’m incredibly aware of how distant we might look so anybody gets us killed.” he sighted again and pulled his hair back.

“Then what is on your mind?”

“Her words... She was so right! I thought I was in danger for money or life, but love...! How come I never thought of it? And it scares me more than facing death itself!”

“ What did she tell you?” in all these years he had never seen Sebastian talking about love like that. He had had a crush here and there, but nothing fruitful.

“ That the person I love most is closer then I believe. And that this love, no matter how beautiful, is going to bring the both of us pain. She said I’ll have a choice to end this or keep it. It seemed pretty obvious to say no and avoid the suffering, but then I realized... this person, the one I love... I’ve been hiding and fighting against it for a long time, I’m afraid of what could happen if I just accept the truth...!”

“And what is the truth, Seb? Who is the owner of your precious heart?” he smiled softly, after all, he didn’t know as much as he thought about his master.

He raised his eyes, shaking even more, and stared into Eoin’s soul, resembling his fear and unsurance.
 “You.”
 Eoin was shocked, his skin covered in pins and needles, his lips opened and his face got closer and closer to Seb’s. That was his first real kiss, it was intense and passionate and had to end really fast because they heard noises in the woods. Eoin stood up in a flash and a few seconds later Selena came out from the path of trees.

“Hey, you two! Madam Kilgrove is going nuts about your absence! You better go back right now!”

They exchanged strange guilty looks and ran back home with Selena.