Chapter Text
Rattay was ablaze with noise. Hans’ wedding to Jitka of Kunstadt was a week away. Hanush and Botscheck were clearly in competition, planning more and more elaborate celebrations for the occasion. Botscheck to prove himself as the higher noble, and no doubt Hanush to drive a sense of fiscal obligation to his nephew.
Hans tightened his grip on the wooden railing. He stood at the top of the Upper Castle, watching the chaos below. Last week he had stood in this same spot and watched Henry win a surprise victory over Captain Bernard and felt a light warmth at his Galehaut’s victory. Now he felt nothing but emptiness as pigs were driven into the arena instead.
Their anxious squeals matched Hans’ own mood. God help me, am I forever cursed to be surrounded by this rabble? What if Jitka is the type of person who loves to throw parties too?
He glanced upwards, across the lands surrounding Rattay. A cool breeze washed in from the forest, for a moment replacing the stink of pig filth in the air around Hans with the fresh, earthy taste of the forest floor. With the breeze, a smile grew on Hans as he thought about the days after Suchdol, where he and Henry had retreated to the forests, made a most private camp, and hunted. Rabbit, doe, Hans had even managed to finally snag himself a boar. But they had primarily hunted for the touch of each other, drinking in the taste and smells of one another for days as if it were ambrosia, as hungrily as the starving men they had been until recently.
The smell faded, and Hans was brought back to reality. He blinked again, taking in the clamour around him, and knew what he wanted to - had to do.
Ⅱ
As he approached the top floor of castle Pirkstein, Henry bit his lip to dull the nerves. Being personally summoned by Sir Hanush never boded well, these days. It was always something about Hans, and always something Henry would be ordered to do despite it being against everything he wished for in his heart. And it would be another action, another moment closer to losing Hans to the restraints of marriage and lordship.
The guard permitted him entrance, and he stepped over the hearth to his latest nightmare.
“Ah, Henry. Come in.” Hanush barely glanced at him as he was bidden entry, a stack of paperwork on his desk and three scribes to tell Hanush what it all said. The lord bore a dark cloud, no doubt a marriage in itself of the stress of wedding planning, with the inept ignominy from his perhaps formerly proud refusal to learn to read, whilst his many lessers - such as Henry - took so easily to the task.
Henry bowed, though he felt as stiff and uncaring as a trebuchet whilst doing so. “My lord,” he greeted flatly.
“So it’s a week before the wedding, and Sir Hans wants to go on a hunting trip!” Hanush bellowed, looking amused. “I wanted to remind you of your duty, as you swore to me at Suchdol. He will come to the altar, even if you have to drag him. As his squire, keep an eye on him, help him get these damnable nerves out of his system, and make sure he returns to me.”
“Of course, Sir.” Henry nodded, though his forehead wrinkled.
“Am I not understood, boy?” Sir Hanush asked, seeing Henry’s confusion.
“No, Sir, I understand perfectly. I just wasn’t aware that Sir Hans had a hunting trip planned.”
Sir Hanush chuckled. “No, I don’t expect you would. He came in to announce that he’d decided upon it barely an hour ago. I expect you’ll find him packing up the horses now.” Hanush gestured towards the stables. “Go with him, Henry, and make sure he doesn’t do anything stupid. Eh, too stupid. I expect you back the day after tomorrow at the latest.”
Henry bowed again. “As you command, my lord.”
Ⅲ
Henry found Hans exactly where his uncle had said, loading saddlebags and affixing them to Pebbles. He paused in the entrance of the stables, taking in Hans’ mood. Unlike the dour, brooding lord that Henry had tried to lighten with a thousand kisses over the last week alone - this Hans was jubilant, as if he were walking with the angels themselves.
Hans looked up over Pebbles and spotted Henry, and somehow his noble smile grew even larger. “Henry! There you are!”
He stepped around Pebbles, and Henry now saw Hans’ clothing. Instead of the vibrant, golden pourpoint that he usually wore, now Hans was clothed in simple clothing, the kind found on any common peasant. Henry almost fainted from shock. Inside, he groaned. What on God’s green earth has Hans been scheming?
Hans giggled at what was sure to be a look of utter bewilderment on Henry’s face as Hans walked forwards. “Do you remember our last hunting trip, where bandits found us through the woods because of my beautiful vestments? I don’t particularly fancy a repeat of that, do you? I know, Henry, that saving my noble arse is your favourite pastime, but I think you deserve a break.” Hans stopped before Henry, smirking down at him, close enough to kiss - and if they weren’t in the middle of Rattay Henry would have done just that.
God must have created the most perfect creature in the world, just to test me.
Instead, Henry cleared his throat and blinked away his surprise. “A hunting trip, Hans?”
Hans smiled again. “Yes, a hunting trip! The perfect thing to get our minds off of this bloody place. Just you and me - what do you say?”
“Well, I’d say you’re a fool, but there’s nothing new about that. But I could never say no to you, my lord.”
“Excellent,” breathed Hans, as if Henry had just agreed to something monumental. And the realisation that just maybe he had set a seed of anxiety in Henry’s belly. “Now, I’ve done enough of the preparations, why don’t you go and grab some more wine for our journey? And some oil too to, ah, alleviate our seats after a long ride?”
Once again resisting the urge to kiss that beautiful smirk from his face, Henry nodded, and did as he was told.
Ⅳ
They had ridden from the Upper Castle and past Neuhof, mirroring the journey they took together on their first hunt - back when they were almost enemies. And finally, with a sense of exhilaration, Henry finally realised that was exactly where Hans was taking them.
Just as before, upon their arrival Hans asked Henry to fetch some wine and bacon from his saddlebags. But when he opened the right one to look for the items, he instead found the bag stuffed full of groschen.
“Wha’?” Henry said, quietly.
“I’m - I’m not going back.” Henry looked up to see Hans had followed him from the camp. His face open with worry, but resolute as he decreed to Henry, “I can’t return to that castle. To be forced to wed and bed a woman I don’t care about, that I’ve never even bloody met! I won’t resign myself to stealing kisses in dark hallways and only being able to truly live when in the woods alone, with you.”
“Hans…” Henry grumbled. “You can’t-”
“I can. A lordship is just a title, it’s not a set of shackles - though I’ve experienced them more than once because of the lordship. And I am shackled too, not being able to express myself, to not live my life for me.” Hans reached out, taking Henry’s callused hands in his own soft ones.
This is it. He really doesn’t want to marry Jitka, and he’s going to have me leave him and return to Rattay and tell Sir Hanush something absurd about his disappearance. And I may never see him again.
Henry swallowed a lump, stiff in his throat, as he rubbed Hans’ fingers, slowly, watching each bump. If this was goodbye, he was going to savour each moment. “They’ll catch you,” he choked out.
“Maybe, maybe not. I know I’d fare a lot better though, if I wasn’t alone.” Hans whispered, again sounding like a grave plea - but this time, Henry knew why.
Hans wasn’t leaving him. He wanted to leave with him .
“Oh.” Henry raised his head, blue meeting blue. Hans looked nothing like Henry had seen him before, and he’d seen every shade of Hans from haughty nobleman to naked, covered in sweat and come, undone by Henry’s lips and cock. Hans looked as if he was begging Henry to jump from a cliff with him, which in a way he was. Henry stared, drinking in the rare innocence of his gaze, drowning in the ocean of blue that was Hans’ eyes.
Leave it all behind? My father, my home, my friends. The safety of Rattay?
“Do you know when I felt freest? When everyone took us as a pair of bloody stinking beggars who didn't have a grochen to our names. When I had no letter, no retinue, no respect. Just you and I, making it through the day. I'd never been happier than sitting in a tavern with you, being eyeballed by that wretched inkeeper-esse, and just existing as two people. Not a nobleman and his squire. I - I felt it for you, even then. So I tried to run from you. But you always came back for me.” Hans kissed Henry, just once, softly and full of this newfound earnestness.
“Hans,” Henry breathed, “you’re utterly mad. You know that right?” But, to be with Hans every day. To wake up beside him every morning, with no worries about duties or appearances… Was it mad to want to be happy? To be loved, wholly?
“Aye, love makes fools of us all.”
“You turnip. They will chase us, you know. Hanush already suspects you might try something like this, and he specifically ordered me to drag you back, day after tomorrow.”
“So we’ll travel far. Hanush can’t afford to scout out much further than Kuttenberg - especially with all the damn finery he’s been buying for the wedding. Would you like to see Prague? Rome? We could have a life that is ours. You, a great blacksmith to some lord, me his gamesman. Or if you fancy more action, a couple of travelling mercenaries. After my uncle’s appetite for finding me has waned, we could even set up around Kuttenberg, help those madmen like Hynek.”
“Jesus Christ, Hans, how long have you thought about this for?”
“A while. Don’t answer now. Enjoy the evening with me, at least.” Hans bent down slightly, leaving a light kiss on Henry’s befuddled lips, before sauntering back to the campsite, leaving Henry with only a reminder of his need to fetch them wine and bacon.
Ⅴ
They had arrived fairly late in the day at the camp, so hunting was out of the question. Not that they would have considered it anyway, not having spent more than a few stolen minutes together for weeks.
Half-eaten bacon laid abandoned over the fire - until it was snatched up by Mutt - the crackling of the flames almost drowned out by the fervent kisses Henry laid down Hans’ neck, and the groans that elicited from his noble throat. Despite how the trip had begun, once the wine was poured, they quickly fell to their baser hunger: each other’s bodies.
Hans grabbed Henry’s hips and flipped them over, straddling his squire as if a horse, before leaning down and laying kiss after kiss on Henry’s waiting lips. He felt Henry’s hands reaching for him, reaching to undo the buttons of his pourpoint, when instead Henry only grabbed the front of the loose, peasant shirt Hans had worn. More than one benefit to looser clothing. Maybe these peasants did know a thing or two about the art of love.
“Forgot you weren’t in your usual best,” said Henry, smiling as he kissed along Hans’ neck and lowered his hands to pull Hans’ shirt off.
“Well, I did - ah - choose it to blend in,” Hans responded, groaning as Henry nibbled against his earlobe.
“I don’t believe for a second you wore this to blend into the forest.”
“Hah, I didn’t doubt it. But when my uncle sends people to look for us, ‘have you seen two men on horseback in the last few days’ is going to be a hell of a lot harder than ‘have you seen that noble prick in his signature yellow jacket and his naughty squire?’, you see. Now take your bloody shirt off.”
“Yes, my scheming lord.”
“Please Henry, I’m only Hans, at least for tonight.” Hans lowered his gaze to Henry’s bare chest, moved his hands along the muscles and scars, and moved lower still.
Much later, when they had seen to one another entirely, they lay on the forest floor, holding one another. Henry stared into Hans’ deep blue eyes once more, felt sticks and stones poking him where they laid, and knew his answer.
“Hans, I’ll come. I’ll come with you, and we’ll disappear into the world.”
His eyes brightened. “Truly? You want to?” His heart wanted to sing. He wants me. He really does - duties be damned. Audentes Fortuna Iuvat.
“Of course.” Henry swept Hans in for a kiss, deep and passionate, as if trying to pour his love into Hans. “I love you, Hans, I want nothing more than to be beside you for every moment. I would have done all I could to make that happen had you stayed at Rattay, and I will do everything I can to stay with you, wherever you decide to go.”
“Henry… I love you too. I’ve wanted nothing more than I’ve wanted to hear you say that.”
They held one another, fire dying down into the night, as Hans whispered to Henry of all the places they could - will go.
Ⅵ
Sir Radzig found Sir Hanush in the drawing room at the top of Pirkstein, already dining with Sir Botscheck and his niece. Radzig noted that the table had only been set for one more - him, instead of three places.
“Ah, Radzig! Come in. You haven’t missed much.”
“Of course.” Radzig sat. “Where is Sir Hans, and my son? Dining elsewhere tonight?”
“You could say that! They went on a hunting trip, one last hurrah before the wedding.”
“Oh, I didn’t know, I’ve been more concerned today about the security of the castle with all these guests and craftsmen pouring in. Have they been gone long?”
Sir Hanush shrugs. “A few hours, I think they’re camping near Neuhof, Hans does love that spot.”
“Hopefully they’ll bring back some lovely game to complement the feast. Tell me, Jitka, do you have a preference of meat?” Radzig asks that more to divert attention away from himself, than to hear her answering of boar, to the shock of Hanush. Radzig lowers himself to his bowl, and casts his mind back a week.
He had been wandering the battlements late at night, glancing over to the north, to the mill and the baths. He paused, as on the wind a familiar pair of voices could be heard, bickering as usual. Radzig watched them stumbling up to the castle in the dark, wondering why Hal wasn’t carrying a torch, as he should. Radzig could only barely see them from the moonlight highlighting Sir Hans’ pourpoint. But he could see enough, to see them pause, and in the darkness they embraced, the same way that he used to embrace Henry’s own mother.
Radzig’s breath caught in his throat, he glanced to either side of him to see if there were any guards around who may have seen what he had, and breathed with relief when he saw the guard to his right was looking into Rattay, and the one to his left was too far to have seen.
When Radzig turned back to look again, to confirm that he saw what he knew he saw, Hans and Henry had let go of one another, and resumed their journey up to the castle, Henry pulled out a torch and lit it at the camp just outside the castle gates.
Radzig descended from the battlements, and met the two as they stumbled into the yard of Pirkstein.
“Evening lads!” Radzig called to them. Hans and Henry had been slowly stumbling next to one another, faces red from what Radzig now knows is more than just wine. As they noticed his presence, the two seemed to sober and straighten up slightly.
“Ah, father, evening! I’m just helping Sir Hans back to his quarters, we had a bit much at the baths-”
“ You had a bit much at the baths, thank you. My constitution is more robust than yours,” countered Hans, whilst almost falling over. “We have been celebrating Henry here finally beating Captain Bernard!”
“I’ve beaten him before!”
“He’s let you win to train you, you mean.”
Radzig held up a hand to silence them as they threatened to fall into more bickering. Like an old, married couple, Radzig hesitated to voice in his head. “Ah yes, a worthy achievement indeed, lad. Fellahs, just get inside safe, there’s a storm on the horizon, mark my words.”
Hans looked up towards the sky. “Hm, you’re right. Best sleep on my spare bed tonight then, Henry, your room here in the yard must leak.”
“As you wish, Sir Hans,” nods Henry.
Radzig has to suppress a sigh. “Just, behave, lads. Do you hear me?”
Henry looks up to his father, and Radzig suspects he sees a hint of realisation on his son’s face. “Aye, we will.” Henry turns to urge Hans forward. “Good night, father.”
“Good night, son.” Radzig turns to watch them climb the steps. God Almighty, that is something I did not expect.
“Sir Radzig?”
Radzig blinks, and remembers that he is being asked a question by Sir Hanush. He begs his pardon and responds, and waits until he is back in his chamber to allow his worried thoughts to drift back to his son, and his lord.