𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐂𝐄

-𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘳

Unfortunately for Alice, there was another ball. And of course, she was expected to attend. This meant a night where her and Marcus couldn't sneak off together, not until very late at least. Mackenzie looked outside when they were in the wood house and gasped, seeing that the sun was starting to set and that they needed to go get ready at once.

So currently, they were quite literally running through the passages. Along the way, they were laughing like they used to when they were children, eventually turning it into a game of tag. Unfortunately to them, this meant they weren't paying attention to their surroundings, which resulted in the both of them ramming into very hard bodies.

Henry, Marcus and Charles nearly fell back, the trio almost snapping until they looked to see it was just Alice and Mackenzie. When the five of them made eye contact, they all bursted into laughter, the guys more so laughing at the girl's antics. But, laughter nonetheless.

In the moment, Alice and Marcus made eye contact with each other. He admired her smile, and how her eyes were so bright it could light up these dark halls alone. Alice ended up in some sort of trance, so Mackenzie discreetly nudged her to break her out of the intense gaze before Henry could notice.

"Where are you ladies off to?" Henry asked once the laughter died down, wrapping an arm around his sister.

"We have a ball to get ready for, remember?" She joked and playfully shoved him.

"Ahh, yes. I can't recall the last one too much," he trailed off. "I think you left early?"

Alice momentarily, and inwardly, panicked as she was unsure of what to say. Luckily, Mackenzie was always ready.

"I started to feel ill, so she helped me out. You know Alice, always looking for an excuse to leave these parties."

The boys all chuckled in agreement, with Alice and Marcus also releasing a breath they didn't realize they were holding in.

"Well, there's no leaving early today! We're going to be celebrating."

"Celebrating what, exactly? Ten days where you haven't executed someone?" Alice retorted. Henry just rolled his eyes at her playfully and shoved her towards her rooms.

"Go get ready before you're both late."

"Would we really be Mackenzie and Alice if we weren't late for a party?" His sister retorted, before grabbing her best friend and running off again before he could respond. But not without giving Marcus a glance, blushing seeing the amusement in his eyes as he watched her.

With a final nudge from Mackenzie, they made their ways to the Princess' rooms, where maids already had various dresses laid out.

"Okay, you both were practically having sex with your eyes back there," her best friend giggled and looked over at the dresses. "Tonight, we're going to give him something to truly look at."

Alice inwardly groaned, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get out of this.

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Alice tugged at her dress again, hating how low cut it was.

"I swear, you pick the sluttiest dresses for me," she grumbled towards her best friend. Mackenzie just pushed her along, making their way to the throne room.

"Oh, stop. The red makes your skin look like it's practically glowing. You're whole aura just screams sex appeal."

"I'm not trying to scream sex appeal, Kenzie. I just want to-"

Mackenzie nudged Alice to shut up, seeing Henry approach them. He looked at his sister nervously upon seeing her attire.

"Are you comfortable in that, darling?"