Chronicles of Panchali - The 100th Selection

Chapter 4; Bro...

Aiden Acharya was doing perfectly fine. Perfectly fine, being teased relentlessly by Keefe on the way to rooms, which were not-so-conveniently located near each other.

"So..." Keefe started, "Is Double A in love?" He started wiggling his eyebrows at him, and Aiden shoved him away.

"I'm-!" Aiden suddenly realized what Keefe had asked him. He turned defensive immediately. "Hey! What is your obsession with me?" He didn't like the princess. Right? "I don't like the princess!"

Keefe raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Who said I was talking about the princess? Well, I guess if you say so..."

Aiden flushed, and tried to shove him again, but Keefe dodged this time.

"Are we talking about a love quarrel here?" Keefe's bodyguard caught up to them, ignoring the protests of Aiden's bodyguard, who was named Sandor or something. "Cause I love those."

Aiden and Keefe both looked surprised. Aiden looked the new person over. She had two pigtails dyed hot pink, and was examining her freshly painted nails. She also had daggers attached to her belt, was twirling a couple of scimitars in one hand casually, and was very tall, and sporting large muscles that lined her arms and legs. She was scary, but fashionable. Scary fashionable.

(A/N Ro is, by far, my fav KOTLC character)

(A/N I'm pretty sure you can already tell that there is only one KOTLC fangirl here:D)

(A/N Hey!)

(A/N *Shrugs* Do you deny it?)

(A/N ...No...?)

(A/N And here we are.)

(A/N Hmph)

(A/N Excuse R and S having a complete convo)

(A/N Well, I can't fault you. I am FULL HUNGER GAMES girl)

(A/N I'm an ultimate fangirl (I'm #UltimateFangirl from the KOTLC fandom, and I sometimes come on other fandoms) of every book I read...Including hunger games...I got problems)

(A/N Don't we all?)

(A/N *Shrugs* That is why we are called the Book Lovers, I suppose. Now let's get back to the story)

(A/N If you say so)

"You...are interested in...love?" Keefe asked her warily.

"Duh! I have a life too, you know." She responded back. Her tone made both of them cower. The girl reminded him of one of his childhood friends, who had moved away to work at the castle, but 10x scarier.

"Uh-I-uh..." Aiden stammered to find the right thing to say. "Tell us about it."

At least that would keep Keefe distracted.

"Long story short, I got married to this person named Botros, I call him Bo. Arranged marriage. Don't like each other. Fell in love with this other person named Cadfael, but he was a traitor to my dad, who is a king from a different place, so that fell apart quickly. That's it. Suffered through a lot of emotional and mental issues, trauma, blood, death, etc., the end." She said, unblinkingly.

"Wait, wait, wait." Keefe held out his hands. "Your name is Ro, right?"

"Romhilda, but I prefer Ro. Romhilda is my grandmother's name, so I said nope from day 1."

"Ro...married to...Bo," Keefe began, feeling the words on his tongue.

"Bo and Ro." Aiden said slowly. "Bo and Ro...equals..."

"BRO!" Aiden and Keefe finished together.

(A/N *Facepalm*)

(A/N Naturally.)

"No-Just no." Ro shook her head, cutting in front of them.

"Hey." Keefe whispered to Aiden. "My bodyguard has juicy gossip. What about yours?"

Aiden shrugged. "I don't know. You ask."

Keefe smirked in a way that made Aiden instantly feel sorry for his bodyguard. Keefe marched towards Sandor dramatically, who was standing behind them. He made sure to pant by the time he reached his target, acting like he had run the whole of Panchali.

(A/N Keefe is always smirking)

(A/N How dare you insult the great Lord Hunkyhair? - What Keefe would say while flipping his hair and somehow succeeding)

(A/N Maybe, maybe not)

(A/N He would say that. Believe me)

"Wow, I didn't know 4 steps was so difficult." Aiden rolled his eyes, but smiling nonetheless.

(A/N I really like that word XD)

(A/N TBH, I like this bond between Double A and Lord Hunkyhair <- R made me write those nicknames)

(A/N And proud of it! *Smirks*)

"So..." Keefe smirked (A/N Do his face muscles ever hurt from smirking so much or are they permanently stuck like that? LOL), "Any juicy gossip to feed us, Gigantor?"

"Gigantor?" Sandor scowled, just as Aiden hissed, "Gigantor?" ."I assure you, my name is Sandor, not...Gigantor."

Great. Now Aiden was making a bad impression on his bodyguard because of his somewhat-friend. Keefe ran his hands through his hair for the millionth time (A/N The Hair...) and deadpanned as he announced, "Well...It's your new name."

Ro, who had somehow overheard them, laughed loudly, and called back, "I think I might like my charge."

Keefe acted mock offended and called back, "Everyone likes me!", before turning his attention back to Sandor.

"So, where was I? Ah, yes...." Before Keefe could continue pestering Aiden's poor bodyguard, red lights started flashing through the halls, and tumultuous alarms vibrated through his ears.

Aiden opened his mouth to say...something, but Sandor grabbed him, conferred with a neighboring guard too quietly for Aiden to hear, followed by a shocked, yet determined look on Sandor's face, and ushered Aiden, along with Ro who had grabbed Keefe into a room he had opened by pushing a button hidden by a frame depicting the queen.

"What happened?" Aiden questioned, once he had found his voice - And Sandor had put him down.

Sandor's face was grim. "There was an attack by the Sleeper. He was spotted near the palace grounds."

"Wait, if he's the Sleeper, wouldn't he attack while he's sleeping? Get it? ...Sleeper, sleeping...No? Ok, I'll shut up," Aiden coughed and closed his mouth.

"What did he do?" Keefe, Keefe Sencen, the one who called himself 'Lord Hunkyhair', looked unbelievably serious, and worried.

"He left a message, in blood."

"What did it say?" Ro asked, her cool mask unleashed.

Sandor shook his head. "Hard to hear. But as far as I'm concerned, it was a death threat to the Princess."

A/N Hi, this is R... I'm really sorry for this late update. We've already prewritten some chapters and this is one of them, but since we haven't been able to work together lately, we're trying not to publish all of them at once. I really am sorry and I promise on behalf of us three that we are trying to find a way to make this... situation work.