Sleeping Beauty [WMMAP Fanfiction]

Chapter Thirteen: Lovely Princess

"Ph."

Alice coughed to hide her moment of laughter upon the vivid sight of Athanasia stomping on Claude's foot again. No one else seemed to notice, too entranced by the dancing pair; they did a magnificent show just then, of him sweeping her off her feet. No one noticed her stiffened shoulders either.

The dance ended soon, and earned thunderous applause from the crowd gathered around, continuing even as Claude helped her onto her feet from her kneel.

Felix glanced at Alice when she walked into him, her head bumping against his arm. "Hm?"

"I don't like these," she grumbled, taller than usual because of the boots she was wearing. Then Felix glanced over her ducked head and saw a group of people, young and old, staring at her in awe.

Ah. Admirers.

"It's okay." He patted her tense shoulder. "Why not eat something and calm down? You might like the food." His hand directed her to a long table, filled with assorted dishes and sweets. While tempting, it was also surrounded by people, in various colored-clothes. Still, the sight of pink hair, silver hair, hair of all colors, made her calm down a bit.

"What if someone talks to me?" she muttered. And briefly, she wasn't some snarky, chill person in his eyes, but an introverted girl born with a resting mean face, never needing to go to a ball before, and having no reason to attend til now.

It was refreshing. Then he pushed on her back, basically throwing her to the sharks. "It'll be fine, I can watch you from here."

"..!"

Aw, she made a little squeal. Haven't heard those in a while. Cute best friend Alice, young maiden at heart, underneath all the rudeness and plotting murders. So endearing. She even froze when she had to pass a barricade of people.

Ah. She bumped into someone. Since they both had the same silver hair, Felix got confused for a moment on which was Alice. It was like she just met an identical twin in passing. How nice! But then he noticed that Alice was actually gone, and he was watching the man she bumped into.

Two minutes passed that he considered going in to look for her. But he soon saw her stumbling out of there toward him, likely never actually touching any food. She seemed already sick of people, considering she looked she either wanted to hide under a table or throw up behind that face of indifference. But he saw it in her eyes, her sickly skin she couldn't hide, and her slightly ― a difference invisible to anyone else ― puffed out cheeks.

"I don't like this," she muttered dryly, feeling she would have an existential crisis if she stayed there any longer. She could see behind Felix that all the girls making their debuts ― not that she knew them, they just looked the same age as the princess ― were dancing together in something that brought back an unneeded memory of her neighbors in that marketplace, doing the same to celebrate and have fun. For what, she wasn't sure, even now, but it didn't matter to her.

Still, nobles were weird. All she heard was loud chatter about "secrets", the dance and bond between Claude and Athanasia, and "oh, notice mine struggles and allow thee to be so kind to blah blah blah". It was actually so foreign to her that it was terrifying.

"I don't know how you can enjoy these, captain," she told him, and saw he looked a bit uncomfortable, or worried, about her so far. "So, I'll try not to ruin your time here." Her hand grabbed his, which hovered in the air toward her. She pushed it to the side. "Try to have fun. You don't have to worry about me." She let go of him, and walked away. She didn't turn around or hesitate, because she really didn't want to have him feel she needed to be supervised; if she hesitated, he wouldn't believe her or let her go.