Kai

"So...what you're saying is that he doesn't want to see you." 

"Nope."

"He doesn't even want you near him?" Baekhyun's voice stressed. 

"No." 

"But you're his . How can you not follow him around." Baekhyun shifted his focus to the young prince lounging on his bed with a book in hand, staring intensely at the words in front of him. He seemed to be paying absolutely no attention to Kai and Baekhyun who stood just a few feet away on the opposite side of the room. 

Baekhyun in a breath and shook his head. "You're sure you didn't do anything to upset him?" 

Kai let his head rest on the wall behind him, arms crossed by his chest. "He's just being stubbornly obnoxious at the moment." 

In agreement, Baekhyun nodded his head, a small pout gracing his lips. "Yeah, that sounds just like him. No doubt about it." 

The comment made Kai smile. Baekhyun has been such a great friend to him, and despite being the mayor's son with a reputed attitude of being high maintenance and stoic looking, Baekhyun was in no way a stuck-up high class boy, like many would believe him to be. Kai was glad to have him as company, a small reminder of home, in such a seemingly unwelcoming and overwhleming palace that housed an equally overwhelming prince. 

"You know," Sehun's voice reached their ears slow and collectively, causing both of their heads to turn towards his direction. "I can hear every word you say." HIs eyes remained ever focused on his book. 

"So then," Baekhyun jogged over to his bedside and flopped onto the edge of the silk covered mattress. The expression on the prince's face remained unchanging. "You can tell us what's with your attitude towards Kai here." 

"Your inability to look him in the eye once is more than enough to tell me you're lying~~," Baekhyun chimed in a singsong voice.

"I'm not lying."

Sehun's eyes were fixed on the page, but he wasn't reading. In fact he had been on the same page for who knows how long. He had been too focused on Kai's voice. He didn't know wh, but it was so distracting. More distracting than it should be and it aggrevated Sehun because the sound of Kai's voice brought back the memory of Sehun's drunken spell a couple of nights before that landed him in Kai's bed, cuddling into his back. The memory made him burn with embaressment. Never had Sehun done something so impulsive as that.

Well...that was a lie. But he had never been so close to a stranger like that. 

But the stranger was so warm. Being so close to this stranger was peculiarly comforting.  He doesn't remember what he had said in his drunken stupor, but does remember the feeling of being safe that allowed him to close his eyes that night. 

No, Sehun. He thought with a certain firmness. You are a prince. Your behavior was inappopriate and the only reason why he let you stay with him is because he serves you. He is not safe. He is nothing more than a stranger to you, not a comfort zone. 

But Kai kept talking. And the memory kept flooding back into his head.

 Oh he wished Kai would just stop talking. 

"Sure sure." Baekhyun spoke skeptically, bringing Sehun out of his thoughts.  "And I'm going to grow to be 6 feet." 

"Maybe if you stretchced your legs more instead of your lips you would be taller." 

"Hey!"

Sehun shrugged and managed to look up a little from his book before seeing Baekhyun launch  himself forwards, grabbing Sehun into a headlock, making the younger drop the book in his hands and yelp. 

"Hy-hyung! Ow! What are y-?" 

"I'm still older than you, Hun! You may be a little prince, but that doesn't mean I can't teach you a little bit of manners!" 

Sehun rustled back and forth, kicking his legs and smacking Baekhyun's arms in an effort to get him to loosen his grip so that he could be free. "Hyung~!" He whined. 

Kai found himself laughing at the scene in front of him. No one was here but the three of them and with this freedom, they became like 7 year olds at the playground, wrestling around. He liked seeing this side of them. It made them feel relatable and unlike the stuck up royals he was so used to hearing about. It was good to see Se-..uhh...Prince Sehun loosen up a bit. 

Baekhyun slowly released his hold after a while, making his way off of the bed, leaving a cranky and frustrated Sehun, the duvet and sheets wrinkled beneath him. 

"Now that I've taught you a lesson," Baekhyun exclaimed triumphantly, "the kitchen calls me for a snack." 

Sehun made no reply as the former took strides towards the door, gesturing Kai to come and follow. Kai shook his head and pointed to Sehun. 

"Ah yes. I forgot! You have to stay near him." Baekhyun took one last glance at the younger. "No worries! I'll bring you something to eat back from the kitchen. And you." He pointed a finger at Sehun. "Don't you bother Kai. Be nice."

~~

Baekhyun

    He could smell it. The delicious yums that would fill his stomach in such a satisfying way and make him fall fast asleep in the middle of the afternoon were only a few feet away. He wasn't worried in the least about leaving Kai and Sehun by themselves for a little while. Sehun could be....stubborn...but he would get over himself or whatever was bothering him. And Kai? He could handle himself. What was important for Baekhyun right now was getting his gut filled with food. 

    He made a turn down one hallway and took a step inside the grand kitchen , perhaps his favorite place in the entire palace. He didn't have anyone to cook for him at home, so cooking had been a skill he had to procure on his own. But at the palace, there was always food cooked or being cooked. He could smell the freshly baked loaves of bread resting in their covered baskets and he could only imagine the other pleasant smells that would waft their way down the hallways a few hours from now as dinner was made. Perhaps, Baekhyun pondered as he took a few more steps, because it was in the mid afternoon no one was around in the kitchen. He let his eyes scan its enormity and finally his eyes settled on a big wooden pantry. A big....open pantry. 

   A shuffling noise from behind the pantry door made Baekhyun become suddenly more alert. Was that an intruder? What was there to grab around him for self defense?

   On the counter a long wooden ladle lay idly for his convenience and Baekhyun grabbed it, holding the spoon portion out in front of him. He was ready for whatever decided to jump out in front of him. At the moment, he wasn't worried about exactly what was in his hand, but how he could use it to defend himself. Whoever it was behind the pantry door  wouldn't even realize that they'd been attacked with a ladle because they'd be too focused on the throbbing pain in the back of their skull. At least, that's what Baekhyun reasoned as he inched foreward, shifting his feet on the granite floor. 

   The shuffling continued and a small grunt of a man whose hunger was being satisfied came from behind the door, confirming Baekhyun's suspicisions that there was indeed a person there. 

    "Who are you?" Baekhyun mustered. There was no stutter in his voice, right?

     The shuffling continued. The theif must not have heard me. That's right. A theif. Who else could it possibly be? Who else would be in here without kitchen staff-?" He paused in mid-thought as he remembered that he was also here in the kitchen too. 

    "I-I asked who is in here! Don't let me have to ask you again! Come out, if you're a theif!" Baekhyun was now a couple of feet in front of the pantry, ladle held out with both hands in front of him as he swayed from side to side, ready for any sudden movement. 

   The shuffling stopped, following by a small choking sound, as if the person was caught off guard at having been discovered. 

   "So..." the voice answered back. "If I were not a theif, then I don't have to listen to you, right?" The voice was deep, contemplative. Amused even. And definetely. not. scared. 

    Baekhyun frowned, tilting his head to the side. "Stop playing games and come out. I'll be the judge of your theif status." 

    A dark haired head popped over the pantry's edge, and as it turned, only two eyes were visibily squinting at him in an analytical sort of way, and then immediaely relaxed into their normal roundness. Amused was definetly the word. 

   "What are you going to possibly do to me with that, Ladle Boy?" The man called out before rising to his full height, a basket of what could only be food was tucked under his arm, as if he were more than ready to take off with it at any moment. A few bread crumbs rested on the edge of his beautiful, full pink lips. He adorned all black, although his clothes were visibily patched in certain places and torn in others. 

   "I would knock some sense into you that's for sure." Baekhyun responded, leering at him. "You're not from the palace." 

   "Nice analytical skills, genius. But if i may add," the man closed the pantry door with cool ease before placing the basket down on the countertop to adjust his jacket on his shoulders. "The only one that needs to have any sense knocked into them is you. You realize that you can't do any real harm with that ladle? If I were really someone dangerous, you would have not stood a chance." A sided smile rose on the man's lips with the hint of amusement resting clean in his voice. 

   "I..I could harm you." 

  "Don't hurt yourself trying, Ladle Boy." The man shrugged, picking up the basket. 

  "I suggest you leave that there, Shortie." Baekhyun spoke, refusing to put the ladle down.Baekhyun wasn't much taller, but he didn't have any better insults in his head at the moment. "It doesn't belong to you." 

  The man only laughed in response. "Isn't that fact for just about anything! This doesn't belong to me. That ladle doesn't belong to you." He leaned his body forward towards Baekhyun and spoke in a sleek whisper. "Not even this palace ground truly belongs to the king and you royals." The smirk had never left his face. 

 Baekhyun began to put his arms down. "That-."

 "Nothing really belongs to anybody. But we take what we need, when we need it. That's how we survive." He pulled a small black hat from behind his head and tipped it to Baekhyun. "Just a small little fact of life, from yours truly."

And then he vanished. 

~~~

Kai

     Once it was just the two of them in the room, there was nothing between Sehun and Kai but space and silence. Kai stared at the younger, whose gaze was once again concentrated on the book in front of him. What was bothering the prince, he had no idea. He could only guess that Sehun had been embarressed for sneaking into his room a couple of nights ago, but that's not Kai's fault! Alcohol plus Sehun were not a good pair, as proved for the second time. 

    Normally Kai would have brought Sehun straight to his room after reprimanding him for having even looked at the wine cellar. But he had felt Sehun hurting that night. The sad strain of loneliness in his voice had been all that had made Kai freeze and hesistant to act when Sehun had snuggled up closer to him.

   "Just stay here next to me. Like this."

   Those words could not be erased from Kai's mind. But he knew Sehun couldn't have meant them. He was just under the influence. There was no reason for Sehun to want Ka