Haley Thistle
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White Knight Boyfriend: Amir 2 (complete)
🕑 Added 2021-02-09 20:00:02 +0000 UTC
Female Reader x Male Monster
It’s become a nightly thing to go and visit Amir atop the Queen Piece. We meet every day, often spending hours talking or just watching the sky until the stars come out. Amir has a big family too, but unlike me, he’s the youngest of his brood. His parents were also Chess Piece pilots, but they passed away during the Battle of Alice when their King Piece was destroyed. Amir was raised by his elder siblings, all of whom despise the Chessboard.
“I don’t remember much of what happened before the Battle of Alice,” he confesses. “I was just a baby. But my siblings all remember. They remember our parents, everything.”
“They aren’t talking about a coup, are they?” I ask.
Amir sighs, rubbing the back of his head. “Not exactly. They’re more into the idea of removing the wall. They don’t care about taking the throne back or anything.”
“My parents talk about a coup, and it’s starting to seep into the heads of my little siblings. All they talk about is war and fighting these days,” I huff.
Amir looks at me and moves a little closer. “I can understand the desire for revenge some of the elders have, but right now, all I want is freedom. I think as long as we talk about an uprising, we’ll never see that from the royal family.”
I look up to the sky as it turns a paler blue, limned with baby pink and wisps of orange that almost smell like citrus. “I’ve been to the palace before.”
Amir’s antennae stand on end and his amber eyes widen. “You’re kidding?”
I shake my head. “They were holding a birthday party for the princess. Her favorite color was black, so some of us in the Dynastinae Court were selected to serve as decor for the party.”
Amir looks terribly offended. “Wasn’t that embarrassing?”
Looking back on the party, I felt uncomfortable. People stared and pointed, and some tried to touch me. But the royal family had set up guards to protect us, and watch us too, I suppose. “The princess was cute. She asked us to play with her, which was fun. Apparently they turned the Court of Chess into a board game.”
“I’ve heard,” Amir scoffs. “All our lives were devoted to those battles. I mean...”
“Our lives?” I giggle. “Neither one of us has ever fought in a battle!”
Amir sticks his tongue out at me. “You know what I mean.” He leans back to look up at the sky. “It’s too bad the Chess Pieces have been disabled. It would be so easy to knock down the walls with them. Then we could just leave and live our lives as we wanted. We wouldn’t have to worry about there being Courts or old feuds. We could just be in this world.”
I follow his gaze up into the stars. “What would you do in the world?”
“I’d go to Pirlipat, and just leave Miror alone. I hear Pirlipat is sweeter anyway,” he sighs heavily.
“Does the White Knight prefer white sugar?” I tease.
He smirks as he looks back at me. “I think you’re the one with a preference for white sugar these days.” He reaches over, putting his hand underneath mine.
I giggle nervously as he sits up, stretching his neck to place a soft kiss on me. “I have barely a thought in my head when I’m with you. How could I have a preference for anything?”
He cups my cheek in his hand. “I want to be able to spend my time with you, and not worry that someone is going to start a fight. It wouldn’t matter where we went, just so long as it’s away from feuds that don’t make sense anymore.”
Holding his hand close, I give him a soft squeeze. “I know. I know.” I slowly move his hand away from my face. “I wouldn’t mind just staying here if the feuds would end. But that won’t happen anytime soon, it’s all some have to call normal.”
Amir sighs heavily and places both his hands around mine. “It’s getting late. We should go back home.”
I dip my head down so he doesn’t have to stretch too far to kiss me, and gently move in closer, putting my arms around him so he doesn’t pull away too soon. These moments on top of the Chess Pieces are all we have, so I try to make them last as long as possible, or at least be as memorable as possible.
Amir touches my cheek and smoothes his hand across it. “You don’t have to hold me like that. Trust me, I don’t want to pull away either.”
“Do you not like it when I hold you?”
“That’s what I meant. I’m glad when you do. I just want you to know I’m not in a hurry when I’m with you.” He kisses me one last time before we stand up, then glances aside, up to the wall just above us.
I tug on his hand. “What are you looking at?” I know what he’s looking at. I know what he’s thinking. How could I not, after the conversation we just had?
“I’m just wondering a bit.” He glances up at me with a smile. “But it’s nothing, really. Let’s go.” I hold him fast as he tries to spread his wings.
“It isn’t nothing. You’re thinking about running away.” I give him a hard glare. “We can’t do that. It wouldn’t be right. We have family here, and it’s selfish to just think we can just leave them.”
“That's why I said it was nothing. I know it’s foolish.” His wings close, and his shoulders slouch. “But it would be easy.”
I kiss the top of his head. “Easy to escape, but hard to live with. Now come on, let’s get down.”
We float down from the Chess Piece and stand across from each other, waiting to bid our final farewell until we meet tomorrow. Amir keeps a hold of my hand. “Zari.”
My antennae perk up. “Yeah?”
“I love you,” he says fervently.
My chest pounds, and I feel tears come into my eyes. “Amir, I...”
Before I can speak, a bright light rips through the darkness. It cuts along the shadows in a perfect line before growing into a brilliant beam. Amir puts himself in front me, shielding me with his wings. We gaze into the light, seeing a door opening at the base of the Queen Piece.
“It can’t be,” Amir says in shock. “They were disabled. They shouldn’t be able to do this!”
The lights begin to dim, and only a faint glow remains. We hesitantly step closer, and can just make out the flight of steps that lead up to the cockpit. All around it are the machinery that makes the Queen Piece work. “This is wholly impossible,” Amir whispers as he touches the open door. “The power source was taken out. There’s no way!”
I look up at the Queen Piece, covered in moss and dirt, vines growing all around it. It occurs to me that Heartwood grows in the Tulgey Woods, and that the Heartwood trees grow vines that spread out. Often, when attaching to a dead tree or even stones, the vines have been known to bring them to life. “Maybe the Heartwood vines have something to do with this,” I murmur. “What if they grew up into the empty place where the power source used to be?”
Amir looks away from the open door. “Maybe if it was something small. But this is a giant machine. There’s no way a single Heartwood tree could make enough vines to power one of these.”
“But what about a whole forest?” I point towards the walls. “There must be countless trees in the Tulgey Wood!”
Amir’s expression is confused, but he’s seriously considering it. “That still seems impossible. But...”
I look up inside the Queen Piece. “We wouldn’t be able to go far if that was the case. The vines probably could only go ten feet.”
Amir stares at me. “What do you mean ‘we’?”
“Well, don’t you want to see if it works?” I ask. “Even if we could get only the Queen Piece to move, it’ll move far enough that we could take down the wall.”
His eyes widen and his antennae stand erect. “That’s crazy! All of this is crazy!”
All of a sudden, the gears inside begin to turn and squeal, slowly working through the years of stillness and misuse. “I stand by what I said,” Amir scoffs.
I go to step inside, but Amir pulls me back. “It could be dangerous in there. Better let me go ahead just in case. It’s been ages since these things were even opened.”
“This is a black piece,” I say with a smirk. “Wouldn't it make more sense for me to go inside? Or are you still playing the White Knight?”
Amir stands on his tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “For you, my Zari, I will always play the White Knight. But I’m serious. Let me go in first and you follow behind.”
He walks inside the piece, standing in the entrance for a moment as he gazes upward at the spiral staircase that coils all the way around the center beam where the power supply once was. “Wow,” I whisper.
“I’ve been told countless times what they look like inside,” he whispers. “I never assumed they had this kind of complexity.”
I grab his hand and hold it tight. “Before you go up, I got interrupted.”
“Oh?” His antennae stick up again.
I kiss him softly, dipping over to reach him. “I love you too.”
“I knew that,” he chuckles.
The core starts to glow bright pink, illuminating thousands, if not millions of vines from the heartwood trees in Tulgey Wood. “Did the heartwood know what it was doing?” Amir whispers. “Did it do this on purpose, or because there was just an empty hole?”
“Phrasing, dear.” I tug on his hand. “Let’s go to the top, maybe we’ll be able to find out if something is there.”
We slowly walk up the steps that coil around the core. The vines inside glow fiercely and twist around one another, making a pillar layered over the core of the power source. I hold my breath, but find all too quickly that is ridiculously foolish. Going up such a long and narrow flight of stairs will wear you out.
Amir stops and looks back. “You’re breathing really hard. Is everything okay?”
I have to laugh. “I’m fine. Let’s keep going.”
Once we come to the top, Amir has me wait on the stairs while he steps onto the platform. He looks around in the pink glow, then waves for me to join him. The cockpit window is partly covered, but I can see slivers of light from outside. On either side of the platform are controls to operate the Queen Piece. “My mom and dad were the last pilots of this Queen Piece,” I say quietly. “They’ve told me countless stories about their days as pilots.”
Amir looks at the controls, which have yet to light up. “I don’t think this is operational.”
I glance back to the power core, and I can see the tips of the vines reaching over the edge. Heart-shaped leaves are scattered all over the control floor, some old and turning to dust, others new and freshly fallen. I walk over to one of the cockpit chairs and sit on it, and as I smooth my hands over the armrests there’s a loud pop and squeal.
The chair topples backwards, and I yelp. The control panel flashes on at the same time. As Amir moves to help me stand up, the cockpit window opens up wide. Outside the view is the same, but transformed by the vantage point.
“You okay?” Amir quickly remembers I had fallen onto the floor.
“The chair was old. I shouldn’t have sat.” I sit up and look up out the window. “I think it came on because the Heartwood is laughing at me.”
“Is that what’s causing this?” Amir scoffs. He stands with me and goes over to the illuminated control panel. “Is this thing coming back on because the Heartwood is reacting to us?”
“I’ve been coming here all my life. Maybe it knows me or something.” I can’t take my eyes off the open window.
“Maybe the heartwood is excited to finally meet you.”
Amir goes to pull a switch, but he stops himself. I move away from the window and go to stand before the power core. The vines shift inside, turning and pressing closer against the glass. I wave at them, and the Queen Piece shifts, sending me to the floor again. The right side of the controls are flashing and beeping, and from the window I can see the hand of the Queen Piece waving.
“What’s happening?” Amir stumbles and falls, sliding with the shift of the entire structure.
“Stop!” I hold my hand to the power core, and the Queen Piece stops moving. I wave again, and the Queen Piece waves in return. “Amir, stand to the left.”
He walks around, standing where I point. “Now what?”
“Move.”
Amir raises his arm, and the left arm of the Queen Piece lifts up, pulling free from the ground and scattered rocks and striking against the wall. We stare at one another in awe. “What do we do?” Amir asks. “Should we…” He begins to smirk. “Should we?”
“There are a lot of ramifications of this if we do decide to tear the wall down,” I murmur. “But if we make an exit and just leave the Queen Piece sitting there, we can at least protect ourselves, and we can come and go as we please.”
“This could still mean a world of trouble.” Amir says.
“Didn’t you want the world?”
Amir’s grin widens. “Okay,” he says. He reaches his hand out to me, and I take hold of it. The vines glow brighter, and as Amir and I lift our hands, we drop them down, causing the hands of the Queen Piece to break through the wall. Amir swings his legs, moving the Queen Piece forward, breaking her legs free and kicking the wall down. We press on, breaking it down brick by brick, then setting the Queen Piece down in the center.
When we begin to descend the steps, people have already started to gather. I take hold of Amir’s hand, and we walk out beyond the wall. “What do we do?” Amir asks. “What do we say?”
The crowd gathering around the Queen Piece is murmuring and whispering. I just stare into the woods and take a deep, deep breath. I let it out slowly, imaging it floating out into the world like the seeds of a dandelion. “The world is ours again.” I smile at him. “Let it come.”
Of course, the story doesn’t end here. Amir and I got into a lot of trouble for opening up the wall, but it got both sides talking about what should be done. It’s the first time the two courts have come together since the Battle of Alice. It was agreed that there was nothing to be done - if people from the two Courts wanted to go out into the world, there was nothing to hold them back, and the same went for if people wanted to stay. It’s going to be a while before the royal family even hears about the break in the wall, and when come, we have the Queen Piece active. Stationary, but active. Granted, the one hiccup in our plan is that the Queen Piece only seems to fully activate with Amir and I present. Fortunately, it at least moves a little if my parents are in the cockpit, so they might be able to bluff their way if they have to
It still isn’t too smiled upon for the two Courts to hang around each other, but with the wall open and the two sides coming and going as they like, things are slowly beginning to change. The line in the center of the Chess Board doesn’t matter anymore. There is no side to protect any longer. Only the elders maintain their feud, and the younger ones seem to be happy to just let go and get going. They want to move on from the past.
“Where should we go?” I ask Amir one day.
“I said Pirlipat before,” he murmurs, staring out into the Tulgey Wood as if he can see a path through it. “We can go there, and see what’s beyond these walls.”
I take hold of his hand. “If we go to the Polar, maybe we can learn to fly again.”
Amir sniffles and tilts his head up, looking into the sky. “We can go anywhere, really. The door is open.”
I walk out beyond the wall and stand there as a wind blows around us. “Pirlipat first,” I say decisively. Then I start to think. “Or nowhere at all. As long as I’m with you, I’ll go anywhere in the world.”
Amir stands beside me with a smile on his face. “Anywhere sounds good.” He takes hold of my hand and kisses my knuckles. “But only if I am with you.”
