Icy Highness | Yuzuru Hanyu

26.

Yuzuru was quick to get himself under the covers after that. Just imagining the water drops falling down on her naked body was enough to affect his own in ways that he didn't want the princess to know or worse, notice.

Knowing that his lower body was covered didn't make the situation of her coming out in just a towel any less intense.

"Huh... can I take that dryer?"

The object was at the border of the bed where Yuzu had left it a few minutes prior.

"Of course" he said, but he couldn't hide his flushed cheeks at all, not when part of the images that were on his mind seconds before were now very real in front of his eyes.

"Are you ok?" she asked noticing his face.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

She disappeared from his sight once again and Yuzuru could only groan. This was all so frustrating when he knew he shouldn't be thinking like this at all, not about her.

If the images had been very detailed just a few minutes before, seeing part of her body exposed while wearing that towel did nothing to make it better.

Thankfully or not, it didn't take too long for her to come back.

Yuzuru wasn't at all ready for the sight that graced his eyes.

He had always been used to seeing her dressed up to perfection with makeup on her face and perfect hair. He had seen her different side through the video calls, but there was something about seeing her like this in person.

She was wearing his clothes that seemed to fit well, but what made a bigger impact was her hair. Every single time he had seen her, she wore it completely straight, and yet, she showed up with the most beautiful waves that changed her appearance completely.

"What happened to your hair?" he said, not being able to hide his surprise.

"I washed it?" the girl was chuckling at his surprise, she hadn't realized he didn't know what her natural hair looked like.

"But I always see it straight."

"Because I straighten it every time I wash it. I just don't have my straightener with me."

"It looks good like that."

"You think?"

"Yes. You shouldn't mess with it."

"It's too much trouble to keep this hair well-behaved on appearances without it being straight."

"Ok... but you don't have appearances for two weeks."

"Yes."

"Leave it like that for me while you're here? Please"

It was almost ridiculous that he was making such a request. Hair shouldn't matter this much.

"I don't have much of a choice, do I? I didn't bring anything with me to fix it."

"I don't know what you keep in your bag at the hotel... as far as I know you could have all sorts of hair tools."

"Nah... That's usually my staff's job. I always forget those things."

Athena went behind the covers by his side and he couldn't help but tease her.

"Spoiled princess"

"Shut up..." was all she said before laying down and placing the covers over her head to avoid him.

"Thea... are you hiding from me?" he teased.

Truth be told, all Yuzuru wanted was to touch her, but he didn't want to cross any boundaries.

"No. I'm trying to sleep."

He didn't reply, but the lights were soon turned off and she could feel him changing positions and lying down to a sleep position too.

Athena wanted to sleep, she had been tired and jetlagged for hours, but at the same time, knowing that Yuzu was right there was making it very hard to relax. It was just that thoughts of him kept filling her head over and over again.

She was still confused by his expression when she left the bathroom in the towel, was he thinking of her in that way? Did he find her attractive at all?

The princess turned on the bed to find Yuzu looking straight at her.

"I can hear you thinking from here"

"I tend to overthink things."

"It's not worth it, you should let it all go and get some rest."

"I'm not the only one thinking."

"You're not."

"You want to share?"

"No. Do you?"

"No."

Yuzu was still dwelling on a lot of things that night. She wasn't the only one overthinking all of this.

"Thea" he called out.

"Yes, Zu?"

"Do you ever wish you were someone else?"

The question caught her off guard, but the princess knew why he was asking it. It wasn't a secret that Yuzu was bothered by who she was, even if he tried to hide it from her.

"All the time. You?"

"Sometimes. But I love what I do."

"Yeah, I wish I had something like that."

"You do... you have drawing."

"That's a hobby, not a job."

"There are plenty of people that make it a job. Skating is not considered a job by a lot of people"

"It's not a worthy job for a royal in the eyes of my mom."

"Is that why you never went to uni?"

"Part of the reason... It may sound dumb but I started doing active Royal work to try to find inspiration on what I wanted to study."

"But you do know what to study."

"My mom doesn't want me doing arts, so I just settled with it as a hobby and figured I should find something else."

"How is that working out?"

"Not great."

Yuzuru chuckled and Athena's heart clenched. The sound of his laughter was just music to her ears, so sweet, so melodic. If only she could listen to it every day...

Things could have been so different if they were different people, if she didn't have a whole family and title to tie her down to the royal responsibilities, and if he wasn't a skating superstar.

It was just that no matter how much they cared for each other, and it was no secret that they cared, they simply couldn't have what any other two young adults would want out of this.

Responsibilities were heavy, but their thoughts were even heavier.