World's Apart

He was so lost in thought he did not hear the door being opened and was slightly startled to hear his brother’s voice right behind him. “You missed the council meeting today Yannick”, Achaia said. “I forgot about it”. “You what? Forgot? Have you also forgotten that you are the king?”, Achaia replied with a hint of sarcasm, “In case you have also forgotten, mother is no longer here to spoon feed you and make you look good”. “Lay off Achaia”. “Lay off what? The running of this country will not bloody well come to a standstill just because you are bloody grieving! This I not how it works in the real world dear brother”. “I am not in the mood for this”, Yannick said through clenched teeth and his brother laughed. Yannick could hear him pulling out a chair to get seated “You know what Yannick, this country needs a leader not a heartbroken softie. She was my mother too and not being her favourite doesn’t mean I am not grieving for her too but that doesn’t mean I stop working!” Yannick turned slowly, he was feeling tipsy, and he knew Achaia was baiting him and he also knew he should resist the urge to play dirty back but he was in such a foul mood he did not really care. “It is not my fault you feel the urge to trash my mother’s memory, just do not do it in my office. And remember, I am the king, not you as you said yourself, and you will not disrespect me”. Achaia laughed and Yannick wanted to punch him so bad he started sweating. He grabbed his brother out of the chair by the collar and Achaia e me”. With that said, he straightened his shirt and walked away. When he got to the door, he turned to his fuming brother, “the minutes are on your desk”, then he got out and gently closed the door behind him and Yannick sent his glass flying towards the door. The sound of breaking glass soothed him for a bit, and then he took another one and sent it flying again. He looked at the mess he had made and ignored it. He sat at his desk and began to go through the minutes Achaia had left and it was only when Itzel came looking for him that he realised he had almost missed supper. As he cleared his desk, his son said, “I miss grandma dad, she was special”. Yannick walked over to his son and hugged him tight. He loved that about Itzel, he understood so much, you did not have to say much, he just knew. Yannick had loved Zora from the first time he had seen her, she was a wonderful woman. He looked at her across the table and whispered, “I love you”, and she whispered it back. There was a time when he had thought he would lose her to his brother, he frowned a bit, realised Zora was looking at him and he smiled at her. He admired her courage and strength; she made a perfect queen for the kingdom and an even perfect queen for his heart. He knew he would have never have handled his mother’s death well had she not been there. Then there were his boys. He was a proud father and a proud husband. He however could not say he was a proud king. Achaia was right, and he hated admitting it to himself. His being heir to the throne had made him miss out on what he called the essence of youth, the fun, the experiments, the waywardness. Achaia had gotten away with all of that and had been labelled the troublesome prince, a good thing he is not the heir or this kingdom would be headed straight for hell. There was little consolation in being the good person but sometimes Yannick just wanted to be like Achaia, he was right about that too. From a young age, Yannick had always felt the urge and need to outdo his brother, to be better, to get the best of anything but that was momentary satisfaction. Also anything material, Achaia could counter it. Because Yannick was king and “he couldn’t afford to go gallivanting aimlessly around the world when there were matters of state to be dealt with”, to quote his mother.