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From: (Anonymous)

The ship that arrives the next day has not only come from Tunis, but carries the prince consort and the eldest princess; under these circumstances Tayyib will have to wait, as a royal ship is hardly likely to offer passage to a stranger. Nicolò scrutinizes this thought for his own bias, of wanting Tayyib to stay another day or two. He finds it probably correct, regardless.

The prince, it emerges, has still not been found. The prince consort looks weary, and worried.

“Under the circumstances,” he says, “the queen would like to offer you the hand of our eldest daughter, Noor. Of course, you will have to send word back to Genoa, or even return there, but we wanted to give you the opportunity to know each other.”

Princess Noor is affecting a docile expression, but Nicolò can feel her studying him quite critically, and with some wariness.

“We should speak further of this, if you are willing to accept my hospitality here,” he says, reflecting that now, after all, Marco has turned out to be exactly right; here is a prospective bride for him, and who does he have in the castle? A lover, even if only a lover of one night. He is going to have to handle this very carefully.

He is not given the chance. Less than an hour after they return, just as he has sat down with the prince consort to discuss what will happen next, Marco appears and insists that he has urgent news.

“Well, go on,” Nicolò says.

“No, you have to come,” Marco says, and drags him away. “The princess has found Tayyib and now they’re arguing –”

“About what?”

“I don’t know, I don’t speak the language at all! But I did warn you –”

“You can say I told you so later,” Nicolò retorts, but as they stride into the main courtyard, they aren’t confronted with an argument; the princess is hugging Tayyib as if he were a relative.

“I can’t believe you!” she is saying. “We thought you might be dead! Or – or anything! We didn’t know!”

“Well, I’m not,” Tayyib says, sounding guilty. He spots Nicolò, and freezes, like someone who has seen his own doom.

“This is...my lady,” Nicolò says to Noor, “do you know this man?”

“Do I know him?” She wheels on Nicolò. “Why did you not say that my brother was here all along?”

“Your what?”

“My brother,” she repeats. “Yusuf.”

“Sometimes called al-Tayyib,” says – Prince Yusuf, wincing. When Nicolò glances at Marco to see if he’s hearing this as well, Marco has his face scrunched up, like he can’t put all the pieces together. Of course; he doesn’t know what anybody is saying. No help there, then.

“Oh!” Noor puts a hand to her mouth. “Yusuf, were you hiding from him? Here? Were you trying to be clever?”

“I haven’t done anything clever for days now,” says Yusuf. “Believe me.” Then he shakes his head. “Well, refusing to start a rebellion against our mother, that was intelligent at least, but if I had been clever I would not have been in the position of having to.”

Nicolò is trying to think of something clever to say himself, but he has nothing. Every event of the last week is unspooling in his head, with a very different complexion.

“I – you must come with me,” he manages, and takes Tayyib, no, Yusuf, by the hand. He does not resist. He takes him through the halls of the castle, Noor and Marco following, both demanding to know what he is doing.

“Please tell me my mother isn’t here,” says Yusuf.

“She isn’t,” Nicolò says, and opens the door to the chamber where the prince consort is sitting – no, standing, examining one of the tapestries. He turns as the door opens, and visibly startles. “My son!”

Nicolò lets go of Yusuf’s hand. “Is this – your highness, is this Prince Yusuf?”

“Of course it – he has been here, and you said nothing?”

“He didn’t know,” says Yusuf; when Nicolò looks back at him, he looks very rueful. “I do not know how, but...”

“You will forgive me for taking you at your word,” Nicolò snaps, and then regains control of himself. “We met under circumstances that meant it did not occur to me to wonder.”

“Nicolò, what is going on?” Marco demands, in Ligurian. “Are they upset at you because you have a lover here? I did tell you -”

It is suddenly very easy to tell who in the room can understand some Ligurian. The prince consort, certainly, Yusuf, apparently, a thing Nicolò did not know, Noor, not at all or perhaps only a very little, which is a cold and small comfort.

“It seems that this is in fact Prince Yusuf,” Nicolò replies. Marco gets that scrunched-up expression again. “Marco, perhaps you could go and...let Nile know she does not need to find a ship? That would be very helpful.”

“You are going to tell me everything later,” Marco says, but – his best quality – takes in Nicolò’s expression, and goes.

“Father,” Yusuf says, going over to the prince consort. “I am sorry. I know I must have caused you all a great deal of worry.”

“That is not even half of it,” his father says, “but we can speak of that later; I am only relieved that you stand before me, alive.” They embrace as well. Nicolò wonders what that would be like, having a father; his mother never encouraged him to think too long on his own.

“Does that mean I don’t have to marry him?” Noor asks. “If Yusuf is here –”

“Did you really think I was dead?” Yusuf says, looking alarmed.

“We did not know,” says his father, “but it was clear that your objection to the marriage was very real, and it did not seem we would get a profitable alliance with Genoa under those circumstances. So Noor –”

“But Noor can’t marry him!” Yusuf puts in, hastily.

Yusuf’s father frowns. “Do you know of some reason why not, from your time here?”

“Ah...no,” Yusuf says, avoiding Nicolò’s gaze. “I know of nothing to his discredit; he has been a very gracious host, when he did not know who I was. But I also know he does not want a wife.”

Noor sighs. “Well, I didn’t want to marry him and move to Malta either, but unlike you, I was not going to run off and have dramatics about it.” She scrutinises Nicolò. “I suppose if you already have a lover you do not want a spouse, but you came to my mother’s court nevertheless.”

“I do not have – there is no reason I cannot marry...anybody,” Nicolò says.

“Yusuf,” Yusuf’s father says very sternly, “may I take it that you have decided to do as you are asked? If for your own reasons, rather than ours.”

“He has had an extraordinarily difficult few days,” Nicolò says. “I – would not hold him to anything right now –”

At the same time Yusuf is saying, over him “Yes.”

“Hmmm,” says his father. “Well, that simplifies things considerably.”

Nicolò shuts his eyes for a second. He does not know how to feel.

“Yusuf,” he says, for the first time; he wants it to be the first time of countless times.

“Are you sure?” He steels himself. “I owe you a debt, remember; it could easily be this.”

“I am sure,” says Yusuf, “that I would never have to risk my life to get away from you, and that you are kind, and that I failed to value these qualities sufficiently before, when I fell in love.” His eyes are saying other things; Nicolò, who can still feel the bruises on his collarbone, can read them easily. Yusuf wrinkles his nose. “I remain to be convinced about Malta, but I think I could be. If that is enough, Nicolò –” He holds out his hand.

Nicolò takes it, wordlessly, and he smiles.

From: (Anonymous)

Aww. This is a lovely and very fitting and realistic ending. But also I'm kind of sad they're not all heart-eyes-in-love yet. I will choose to imagine that the next time Noor comes to visit, Yusuf is absolutely entirely in love with Malta and also with Nicky and it's utterly unbearable for her.

From: (Anonymous)

Oh yeah no that’s definitely going to happen, but there was also just no way this was going to turn into a googly-eyes-love happy ending without the story being twice as long!

From: (Anonymous)

twice as long, you say? :)

this story was so very and utterly delightful. thank you for writing and sharing it!

From: (Anonymous)

Yesssss, twice as long PLZ. (I mean if you want to, no pressure, write what you desire for yourself!!)

I have soooooo many feelings about where they've left things now & I'm thinking a lot about how they'll find an emotional resolve between them ... I can absolutely see both of them falling for each other quickly (of course!), but also can see both holding back -- Niccolo knowing he hadn't even been considered a choice at first & also thinking back to their first conversation about consistency & the one with the queen about Yusuf's impulsiveness & not wanting to make things harder for this man who literally he met off a bad break-up & he was kind of the rebound & also wondering why Yusuf didn't come clean about who he was sooner. Meanwhile Yusuf wanting to prove to Niccolo that he will stay with him, but also that he doesn't just fall in love with anyone at the drop of a hat, but that he is falling for Niccolo & he plans to stat in love, that he made the right choice not the choice of last resort and ahhhhhhhhhhh anyway, sequel: would read, I have ~feelings~

Thank you for your writ, it is always a joy.

From: (Anonymous)

oh yeah the following year or so is going to be this super-weird relationship where Nicolò is Extremely Respectful of Yusuf's feelings and never assuming anything but! obviously! laser-focused on him! and Yusuf is torn between being glad he's got some space and desperately wanting Nicolò to, er, start assuming, and as you say wanting to prove that he's not just rebounding and not sure how he does that.

(fwiw Yusuf's plan/expectation once they got to Malta was to go home and basically say LOOK I FUCKED UP I KNOW and I'm onboard with the marriage thing but can I have a couple of months first? which his parents probably would have given him. and he would have told Nicolò before he left, thus also giving Nicolò space to process.

this...did not happen, WHOOPS)

From: (Anonymous)

This was so sweet, and Nicolo (sorry for the acent) is really a nice prince.
Thanks! <3

From: (Anonymous)

Oooh, identity reveal! And I'm glad they're on the same page now (and engaged, heheh).

From: (Anonymous)

This is super sweet!

From: (Anonymous)

Poor Nicolò and his self esteem, Noor doesn't want to marry him and doesn't try to hide it, while Yusuf, well, he's still a long way from declaring his love in verses. And I find it all oddly amusing 🤣 Anyway this is a lovely story, I enjoyed every moment of it ♥️