A/N: All copyrights belong to their respective owners.

Rated M for some violence and adult themes.

Be warned, this romance isn't going to be a pretty one.

PROLOGUE

HOBOKEN HELL

"How do you feel, Your Highness?"

Smirking, Clemson looked down on the other lemur.

The well was deep, yet not too deep to spot his opponent's silhouette clearly down in the dark at the bottom of the well.

King Julien was struggling to maintain consciousness. He better did, as the water left in the well was up to his shoulders. If he fainted, he was likely to go under.

Yet this was hard.

The feeling of cold piercing every bone in his body had worn him out within the last four hours. His sore and violent shivers had stopped a while ago. The last few times Clemson had come to see after him he'd had his eyes closed and remained almost completely motionless.

It seemed he was silently giving in to his fate, not like at the beginning, when he had floundered and splashed and cursed in the icy water and chafed the skin of his paws on trying in vain to clutch at the wet walls in order to pull himself up and out.

"So, how do you feel now? Come on, tell me! What's the water like?"

Clemson could tell Julien was receiving his voice as his eyelids opened to slits, revealing hazy faint yellow beneath. He leaned a little further over the edge of the well in order to get a better look at him.

"Please…" Julien's voice was a mere whisper of agony. "Please, it's… so cold…"

His lips were blue, slightly opened, as if he was about to say more. One single drop of dark red blood trickled from a wound on his lower lip over his chin. It was a cruel, yet incredibly beautiful sight to behold. Clemson sighed with rapturous delight.

Not very far, the party continued without them. Nobody paid attention to them.

"What do you say? Not cold enough? Well, I can arrange that."

The red lemur bent over the edge of the well, holding a bottle of champagne in his paw and poured out its content – dozens of little ice cubes.

A spiteful smirk at the corner of his lips, he watched Julien's eyes widen with silent terror.

"Much better, isn't it, my king."

Julien looked up into his face, trying to read his expression and desperately looking for some mercy in it and finding nothing but insanity. He bit his frozen lips, unable to move but trying to think of anything that would distract him from the pain.

"Please stop, Clemson. Let me out!"

Tears welled up in his eyes. He had been in here for too long; he felt his powers were failing him. He couldn't stand this torture any longer. He needed to get out of the iced water so badly he didn't care about anything else Clemson would do to him afterwards.

Still, a single tear ran down his cheek at the thought.

He felt so worthless. So damaged. A devilishly handsome lemur king who was no longer royal; he was just small and defeated and covered in endless shame.

"Please… It hurts." His body was racked by a single, violent sob.

"I know." Clemson dispassionately watched his face contort with pain once more. "But you know you're just getting what you deserved. You were a bad boy, so I need to punish you."

At the same moment the first rays of sunlight passed through the dark sky and fell right into the well, making frozen drops of water sparkle like diamonds upon Julien's silverish fur. Clemson smiled.

The new day was dawning already.

The bar was still open.

"Don't worry; I'm going to get you out of there soon, Julie."

The red lemur tossed one last ice cube down at him and then turned away.

"Right after I got myself another drink. A nice and cool one, of course."