Chapter Text
They were headed to the Antarctic Empire. fWhip had gotten a stack of letters for each of the other emperors plus Owen and Eloise and minus False and Gem. The letters had contained invites to the Antarctic Empire’s yearly gala, ball, whatever you want to call it.
If you asked him it was the stupid yearly party that all the nobles used to brag about how much money they’d taken from the lower class, while the royal family tried to give money back to the people who needed it most.
A dick measuring contest if he used the words of his younger brothers.
They were traveling together, safety in numbers and also they didn’t have the resources for carriages and such, and they were players used to adventuring for things, this wasn’t anything new. They’d gotten a map and directions sent along with it, which was appreciated but the fact that his letter was no more personalized than anyone else's made him think his father hadn’t done much research into them, or that he was trying to keep him from having to lie.
He wasn’t sure how to feel about all of this though. He hadn’t been home in ten years, since he ran from the palace at twenty and so he didn’t know what to expect. Sure he’d seen his family since, MCC was a thing they did for a while, he still did it but that didn’t mean he’d talked to them, didn’t mean he’d been home. He’d agreed to the whole Empires concept to try to get used to the title, to the respect, he’d be expected to have once he took the throne, if he did that at all, but he’d chickened out of the full thing both times, going with the Codfather title the first time and now going to being called a Sheriff. He tugged his hood further over his head as they saw a large group of people.
“They look familiar,” Scott said as they got closer.
fWhip hummed, “They do, they do.”
He caught sight of bright red wings and he knew who those people where, the Hermits where his twin brother was, who didn’t know he remembered him, Grian who was the actual crown prince but since the Watchers had taken everyone but their families memories of him that title had fallen on him, with all the expectations Grian had complained about over the years.
It was Pix who fully recognized them first, “Are those the Hermits?”
“It looks like, I can see False’s wings,” fWhip agreed, “I wonder if they got letters too.”
The Hermits noticed them and waved them over.
He looked around the group of Hermits, he could see Skizz over by Impulse, Tango, and Zedaph, but he didn’t see Hypno, Iskall, Stress, Jevin, or xB anywhere, they must have chosen to stay behind, he didn’t blame them. He would have stayed behind if it wouldn’t have raised questions.
He caught Grian’s eyes and he sent him a smile, trying to act like he didn’t know why Grian’s eyes had the tiniest sliver of panic in them. Grian smiled back before sticking out his tongue and mouthing “Timmy.”
He rolled his eyes as fWhip, Xisuma, and Scott talked for a bit.
The decision was the inevitable one which was to travel as one massive group, 33 people to be exact. He stayed on the outskirts of it, sure he was an extrovert but he was also deep in his thoughts and wasn’t really up for conversation. His hands shook, not from the cold, granted he was used to the mesa heat at the moment, but he’d grown up here, this time he wasn’t too cold, but they shook from anxiety of the unknown, not knowing what they were truly walking into nor how it would go.
It was a few more days of traveling when he caught sight of a group of four, three antarctic soldiers and one person in the center. His first thought was that it was one of his brothers but as he got a bit closer, breaking from the group without truly breaking from the group, he saw a very annoyed looking Martyn in the middle of the soldiers.
He asked for a stop, which he was granted with a confused look. He darted off the moment there weren’t any eyes on him. He got as close as he felt comfortable before calling out, “Martyn!”
Martyn’s head shot up to the sound of his voice, looking over at him with wide eyes, “Jim! Hey!”
He pulled off his hood and leveled a look at the soldiers as they began to bow. “Hey, you got a letter from the Emperor?”
Martyn nodded, “You all too?”
“Yeah, Empires, the Hermits, Skizz, Owen, Eloise,” He said, gesturing his head back to where the group was, “We’re traveling as a group now.”
Martyn chuckled, “Big group.”
He nodded with a sigh, “Very big.”
“Do they know?” Martyn asked.
He shook his head, “No, I haven’t shared that yet, I don’t know.”
“Are you thinking about not going?” Martyn asked, settling a hand on his shoulder.
He shrugged, “Like I said I don’t know.”
Martyn hummed, “Phil sent soldiers to escort me but I’m sure I can send them ahead with the knowledge I ran into the Hermits and Emperors and he’d be fine with that.”
“I don’t care,” He said, except he very much did care, if Martyn traveled with them he could have conversations about the swirling thoughts in his head without destroying Grian’s identity and his secrets in the process.
Martyn turned to the soldiers, “Inform the Emperor I’m traveling with friends now, thank you for your service.”
The soldiers nodded, bowed and went on ahead.
He walked Martyn back over to the group of their friends pulling his hood back up out of nerves, “Hey guys look who I found.”
“Martyn?” Scott said in a little bit of shock.
“Hello,” Martyn said, “I also got a letter, but I’ve just been traveling alone and it’s been boring.”
fWhip said with a smile,”We have more than enough stuff between all of us,”
Xisuma nodded from next to Keralis.
Further agreements went around the circle.
Grian looked between them with a bit of suspicion but also agreed without any further thought.
After a further break they set back off to the Empire, to be fair they were technically already within the Empire, but they were headed for the capitol city where the palace was.
Martyn mostly walked by him, letting him ramble quietly about all the nerves running through his head, about how he was going to be treated, about how his friends would react, how the nobles would react, how his family was going to react, how he was going to react, how the gala was going to go, and everything else. The one and only thing he never mentioned was Grian, that would be a tell tale sign that he remembered even if he had talked about Grian a lot in those two years after his twin disappeared and before he ran away.
Martyn listened and occasionally gave his input which was mostly just Martyn saying he didn’t think that whatever bad thing he’d thought up would happen. It went how most of their conversations of this nature went, him thinking of worst case scenarios and Martyn bringing him back down to the ground. It was familiar, it was also something desperately needed right now.
They settled for the night building camp effectively and efficiently, Martyn dragged him into sharing a tent with him, which he protested to but gave in pretty quickly. Martyn pulled him down onto the bedroll and rolled his eyes at that.
“It will be fine Jim,” Martyn said, “It will be I promise, your Dad will never force you to do anything.”
“I know that, I know that,” He said, “But it’ll change their perspective of me.”
“They’re your friends,” Martyn said, arm tightening around him, “They know you, not the prince, and let me tell you Jimmy is so much better than any prince I’ve ever met.”
He let out a weak chuckle, “Thanks Martyn.”
“I mean that, I enjoy your presence more than I enjoyed any gala I was invited to,” Martyn said.
He rolled his eyes again burying his face in Martyn’s neck.
Martyn chuckled, “You’re such a good friend Jim, let me worry about everything, you’re going home, you get to see and interact with most of your brothers, focus on the good things.”
“I’ll try,” He relented.
“That’s fine,” Martyn allowed.
He missed Grian, his twin brother, but he couldn’t even talk about it with anyone because of the lies he’s told and secrets he’s kept.
Martyn ran a hand through his hair, careful, gentle, “Go to sleep Jim.”
He shut his eyes and after a good few moments of trying to think of anything else he fell asleep with Martyn still running a hand through his hair.