I'll Protect You (Original Version)

Where's the assassin when you really need him?!

Alec

"Where's my darling spring bird?" the almost-king said, looking sadly around the kitchen. "I had one of her favorite drink made by one of her most favorite people in the world, and she isn't even here to receive it! My heart is breaking!"

Park's father collapsed into a chair at the square counter in the middle of the kitchen, dryly sobbing about how the worry he kept for his daughter was going to kill him one day.

Alec eyed the soon-to-be king with a freaked out look. When Alec had first met Prince William Sparrow, it was a day before the grand wedding. Interrogated was taken to a whole new level as Alec conversed with him. The almost-king had been stern, protective, slightly angry, and a bit mysterious, just like any loved king from a fairy tale.

The wedding had merely proved the majestic nature of the king, who stood at the altar, calm and handsome as he watched Princess Giselle float down the aisle, taking her hand, and vowing that he would never leave her.

But now, he had lost the black clothes of a prince, and was wearing a sweater vest, hipster glasses, with a knitted pink hat covering his tousled brown hair, and pretending to cry over how his daughter was late ot breakfast.

Talk about first impressions!

"I'll go get her," Alec volunteered, he himself feeling worried for Park. William Sparrow lit up like a puppy who was about to be rewarded. He then bound across the kitchen to envelope Alec into a tight hug.

"You are the most brilliant young man I have ever talked to! Thank you, Alexander!" Park's father gushed, tears swelling up at his hazel eyes. "Thank you for being here! She's been going through a lot, and I think you've really helped her!"

Alec felt a twinge of guilt pull at his heartstrings. Alec had never been one for comforting people. He was never one to be comforted. With him, he merely sulked into his bedroom, closed the door, and slept through the whole day, refusing to eat, drink, or talk. He hadn't known what to do the first time she had been crying in her bedroom. He had sat there, waited for her tears to dry (along with his t-shirt).

Again and again this happened. Her father, along with Elijah (and even Logan, though he didn't have a single idea that she was crying--he just knew that she wasn't as sarcastically bubbly as usual) became very alarmed. She never cried this much before, according to them.

And all Alec could do was sit beside her and hope she didn't dehydrate herself.  He wasn't helping her, in his opinion. After all that she had done for him, he couldn't even cheer her up.

"Don't look like that," her father reprimanded gently. "I know that you don't think you're doing much. But you've been such a brother to her, and that's the only thing she wants right now."

"It's no problem at all, sir," Alec said sincerely. "Even if I'm no help, I'd do anything to get her better, especially after what she's done for me." Smiling encouragingly, Alec took the two cups of white chocolate mocha macchiato and headed upstairs.

Alec took at the watch his father had given him, one of the few heirlooms he got to keep. The minutes were ticking dangerously closer to the eight, so they had merely ten minutes to complete the fifteen-minute walk to the academy. And where was Logan?

 Alec stopped in front of Park's closed door, and frowned. Before Park had discovered that horrifying truth about her past, her door had always been wide open until she went to sleep. And now, the white wood was always closed, making Alec feel like a shut-out. And lonely.

"Park? We're almost late," he said softly. Was she crying again? The thought alarmed him, and he  opened the door (using his knee).

She wasn't crying. But Alec had the feeling that she was close to. She sat at the edge of her bed, her head bowed down as fake red strands tumbled past her shoulders. By her side was her black backpack. In her hands was her phone. And on the phone was Archer's number.