Kris - Part Three

Hey... Maiden.

 

“I… I don’t know!” You half whispered, half shouted as you threw the blanket over your head. For the past thirty minutes ever since your duties for today was over, you were here on the floor in the room you shared with the old woman. In which, you just called her ‘Ma’, which was short for mother because really, she was definitely one to you.

“Dear… you can’t just sit here and not go!” She protested, yanking the blanket from your head and you sighed the next, tossing away the blanket to ask her with a very evident frown, your hair messed up as you stared at her.

She knew you had a question on your mind, which made her shift closer where she held onto both of your hands lovingly, “Ask.”

You exhaled heavily, hands clenching onto hers, “Has he done this before?”

You hoped she said yes, at least maybe that it was an assurance that the girls who were offered could come back alive but it seems like everything went downhill when she mumbled, “It’s never happened before…”

That threw you off, making you fall back onto the cold tiles of the floor where you groaned, “I’m so dead!”

As you heard a quiet sigh from her, your eyes peeked to look at her when you relaxed your body on the floor. She gave you a warm smile, her hands picking up the blanket where she put it on you before she crouched down to plant a very light kiss on your forehead before she patted your head lovingly, “If you want to go – you can go. If you don’t, we’ll go through this together.”

With a small smile that managed to creep onto your face, you gave a nod to reply her silently, “Thank you… Ma.”

 

---

 

Shifting here and there on the floor, you could roughly tell that it was way half past ten – it has been boggling your mind for a while now until you couldn’t get some sleep.

The questions, the answers you’d want to get had clashed all over your mind, making you more curious as you sat up on the floor with a cold sweat trailing down at the side of your head. You gulped and looked over to see that she was soundly asleep – it was your chance, your heart told you.

But then again, you hesitated, what if something goes wrong if you really went?

Your mind questioned as well, but what if you don’t go?

Everything was going haywire that you did the first thing your gut told you to.

With that, you shot up from the floor, scrambling out of the door as quiet as you could be but it was pointless when she had already heard your quiet mumbles, leaving her to just shake her head at you at where she was sleeping where she muttered under her breath, “I knew it…”

 

---

 

Your heart was racing so fast, it felt like it was going to fly out of your chest as you walked down the empty hallways. Looking down on how dark it was, you never trusted it – it gave you the chills just thinking about how it’ll be like to walk all the way down these halls. It made you freezing there as you tried to walk down these halls to get to the other end where once you walked out of the door you’d reach the garden but your heart didn’t allow you to. It felt like you were turned to stone just standing there with a heavy heart and just as you took one step, a voice echoed into your ears.

“Is this the reason why you left me waiting there?”

Your eyes widened, your heart palpated as you looked over your shoulder to see vaguely who it was.

Oh… Lord.

He gave you an assuring smile, part of his teeth flashing perfection before he took a few steps to stand by your side where your eyes followed him. His fingers inched towards your mouth where he tilted your chin to close your lips (in which you didn’t know was open in the first place).

“Since you’re here, shall we?”

You gulped, eyes moving down to see his hand that he had offered to hold onto yours. You didn’t know what to do, your lips pressed into a thin line where your hand timidly inched upwards to place it in his.

Your heart leaped the moment he snatched your hand, making your head dart up to meet with his eyes where he smirked handsomely – it should be a sin on how incredibly handsome he looked…

“I’ve been waiting enough, maiden. Let’s go.”

Indeed, the thoughts that should be going through your mind is how on Earth were you still breathing when he was this close but that didn’t cross your mind. The thought of what was going to happen as he dragged you down the halls, out to the garden should be dancing in your head by now but it wasn’t.

The only thing that kept you occupied was how he was holding onto your hand.

 

---

 

With his hand still tightly enclosed around yours, you didn’t really know how to react to this. Your eyes were glued to the ground all these while as you two walked around the garden. The scent of red roses filling the air, sight of lavender from a distance, trees gracefully dancing around you as if this was a movie.

As if.

Your eyes blinked rapidly when you glanced at his hand still holding onto yours – the feeling felt so sinfully nice.

His hand holding onto yours promised safety, as if he was going to protect you for eternity.

Lord, if only it was true.

You gasped quietly when his fingers moved, carefully intertwining his fingers with yours. His palm was pressed against yours, a playful smirk on his lips when he saw your blushed state under the moonlight.

It was worth the wait, he thought quietly.

Holding back no further, he managed to ask, “Why were you late, maiden?”

Your head turned to look at him, slightly confused as you didn’t even hear him out. Your thoughts and the beat of your heart were booming in your ears, you thought you’d be deaf by now but the sound of his voice was so endearing – so intriguing and so different. It sent tingles dancing on your skin as he held onto your hand tight, making it impossible for you to run away even if you tried…

“Pardon?”

You noticed how you didn’t call him Prince and that little blank look he gave to you made you stammer out nervously, “P-Prince…”

Truthfully, he didn’t even care on the fact you didn’t call him Prince. He was rather interested in just staring at your face. The way your cheeks blushed as you looked at him, the way your eyes widened each time you realized he was still holding onto your hand, how you pressed your lips into a fine, thin line – it made his heart thump as he stared at you for each second that delightfully went by. He could do this for the rest of his life, he thought.

Just the image of you being here by his side as he lived his path as Prince before going up to be King, it would be perfect, he thought.

The image of you in his arms, the image of you in his bed every morning he’d wake up – he wanted that, very much.

“Don’t call me that, maiden…” He muttered in a hushed voice, his eyes gazing up to meet with the stars. You swallowed hard and let out a soft, “T-Then…”

Your eyes stared up to the stars as well, still trying to keep your cool within you but you knew that you could literally explode in seconds, “What shall I address you as?”

You nearly tripped the moment he said, “Address me by my name, Kris.”

You managed to maintain your body balance with the help of him. You could be falling flat on your face right now but with his hands tightly on your waist, holding you up, your eyes grew wide, cheeks blushing with a deep shade of red as if you were imitating a tomato and your heart beating rapidly as your eyes glanced down to see that he was indeed holding onto you.

He followed your gaze, only to look back at you where he smiled, “Are you alright?”

You managed to nod shyly, “C-Can I stand back up now?”

He chuckled on how polite you were that you had to ask, “Of course, maiden.”

As you tried to stand back up, he didn’t allow that. He lowered you back down, making you gasp with your hands clutched onto his shoulders out of instinct, your eyes pierced into his as he did the same for you when he lowered you down. You held your breath, eyes widening as he smirked at you, “Can I call you just by your name?”

You were rather confused, your eyebrows furrowed lightly, “W-What?”

He leaned down closer, features coming clearer to you under the moonlight as his face shone with perfection. How can someone be so attractive…?!

When you roughly realized what he said, you gave a mere nod. “O-Of course… Prince…”

He furrowed his eyebrows, a ‘tsk’ leaving his lips as he lowered you down lower to the ground, making you squeal as you held onto him tight, afraid you’d fall on your back but you were silly to think so. He would never allow that. You took note that you were supposed to call him by his name and with that, you rephrased your words, “Of course, Kris…”

He felt warm inside, the way his name rolled out from your tongue and lips, your voice calling his name out for the first time – it felt so right, so foreign yet delightful.

He could get used to this.

“You’re blushing.” He stated the obvious, making you reply back blankly without knowing once he let you stand back up properly without his hands on your waist, “I know…” You patted your cheeks, making him laugh as he shook his head at you, “Come. I’m not done with you. I have something more to say.”

Your heart froze just like that.

For some reason, the thought of him sacking you out had crossed your mind, making you freeze on the spot even though he had already taken a few steps ahead of you. You swallowed hard, fingers fiddling with one another as he looked over his shoulder to see your frightened state – everything was fine a second ago…

He came back to you, a hand on your cheek where he lifted your face to meet with his gaze, “What’s wrong?”

You shook your head, taking a step back with a squeak, “I… I don’t need to hear what you have to say, Kris…”

His eyes darkened but his face paled – have you already heard…?

“I know what you’re going to say…” You mumbled, making him gasp quietly as his hand fell from your cheek, his heart racing this time as he gulped at you, “Y-You do?”

With a small nod, “I… I’ll be leaving first thing in the morning.”

It made him knit his eyebrows as he held you by your arm when you wanted to walk away with a confused look on his face. Your head lifted up to meet with his eyes, something felt like you had the wrong assumption…

“What does me having a liking in you would need you to leave the castle?”

Your lips parted in partial shock – so that’s what…

Oh…

Your eyes widened for the umpteenth time today, your body slightly trembling from the excitement and nervousness rushing through your veins – it was merely impossible to keep calm at a time like this as you stared into his eyes.

That’s when it hit him – you had misunderstood as well.

“W-What?”

He let out a sigh, “Wait. What were you thinking?”

You felt your heart beating rapidly fast – what was going on? Why were the words he said taking effect on your heart? Why were you blushing like mad?

Nevertheless, you managed to stammer, “I… I thought I was going to get sacked, Princ-I mean, Kris…”

He shook his head with a tiny smile, “How on Earth did you get that thought in that pretty mind of yours?”

You gulped and shrugged, “I’m not too sure myself.”

You gasped quietly when his hands were placed on your shoulders, making you blink at him once as he stared down on you – there was just something hidden behind his eyes. As if they were trying to tell you something but you couldn’t make up what they meant.

You too, were dying to know what it meant…

“Rest assured that I can never sack you. I mean… you already know why you’re here now. And considering so much has been going on now, meet me somewhere else tomorrow night. I’ll have Tao send a message. Don’t be late this time, yes?”

You have no idea why, and you didn’t know what reason made you do it but you nodded once with a slight curve on your lips, one that made him smile back at you as he looked at you. “Very well then, sleep tight, tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow. I’m sure you have duties to attend to now.”

You furrowed your eyebrows and questioned back cutely to his eyes, “D-Duties?”

His hands retreated from your shoulders as he pointed over your shoulder, making you look over it where you could vaguely see Ma trying to hide herself behind a tree in which, she was failing hilariously bad. You managed to stifle back a laugh as you faced forward, wanting to say something but all you had to see was that he left a note in your hand. You held your breath as your fingers inched to open the note, your heart still not beating regularly as you were definitely shocked on how he could write so beautifully even when it’s rushed.

Plus, the writing didn’t matter.

The words that contained in them made the whole world lit up.