The Prince

Part 32

"Good morning," Tsukasa called from the gate as Noah locked the front door.

"It's him again," Skye mumbled.

"Be nice and pretend that you like him or I'll kick your ass into tomorrow!" Noah whispered violently before turning to Tsukasa with a smile, pushing Skye out of the way.

"Are you working this afternoon?" Tsukasa thought he'd try to spend some more time with Noah, other than studying together.

"Nope, I have the day off," he sighed happily. Besides school, the rest of the day was his. "What about you?" He noticed that Tsukasa didn't have his gym bag with him.

"With exams coming up, practice has been suspended for some reason," he shook his head unable to understand how the whole sports programme came to a grinding halt because of exams.

"It's for people like him who can't do two things at once," Skye enlightened Tsukasa.

"Shut it, toad," Noah jabbed at him with his elbow. "Well, in that case, it looks like the three of us have the afternoon off. Should we do something?"

"That would be great!" Tsukasa said in excitement. A whole afternoon together, this was a dream come true.

"Count me out, I'm not going,"

"You have to come!" Noah suddenly said in a panic. If he was going to be alone with Tsukasa, he may declare his undying love for him and that wouldn't be good. He needed Skye's ice-cold heart around to keep his feet on the ground.

"Maybe next time," Skye saw Noah scowl at him while Tsukasa seemed to be struggling with himself. He didn't want to get in the middle of whatever it was that they were doing, so he stalked off to class.

"I'll take that as a yes," Noah called after him. "See you later at the gate!" He was satisfied when Skye waved his hand in what looked like agreement, but he'd take it anyway.

"Well, I'll see you later?" Tsukasa asked once Skye'd left.

Noah could only smile and nod and walk to class on cloud nine. Having two hot guys walk you to school great perk of his new life, he thought smiling. Skye did seem to have a good heart and was always looking out for him.

Midway through the morning, Skye's classroom door swung open with a bang silencing the class. Everybody watched as two men dressed in black suits stationed themselves at the door while an elderly woman dressed to the nines came wafting in as if she owned the place.

"I'm sorry to barge into your lesson like this, but I've come to get Skye," she looked benignly at the teacher as if this was the most natural request in the world.

Skye wanted to sink back into his chair. What was his grandmother doing, making a spectacle with her two so-called bodyguards? It was almost as bad as having Jackson come to school.

"I'm sorry, Mrs?" The teacher politely asked, unsure of what was going on.

"Priestly, dear. The library and rose garden were named after me," her eyes sparkled as she kept smiling until she saw the penny drop.

"Of course, Mrs Priestly, I'm so sorry. Skye, get your things together." She immediately ordered.

Turning to watch Skye pack up, her eyes landed on another boy who looked mildly familiar to her. The more she looked, the surer she was that she knew him.

"Tsukasa?" She asked, watching as the boy turned his gaze to her. "Is that you?" She clapped her hands together in glee.

"Kon'nichiwa sobo," Tsukasa said immediately getting up to bow to her.

"Come, you're coming with us," she ordered, turning to leave the room. Following her, Skye could hear the buzz starting in the class. His family did love to cause a good scene, he smiled ruefully.

"Grandma, where are we going?"

"Well, once we get Noah, we're all going shopping. You asked me a while ago, remember? Come, this looks like his class."

As before the door was thrust open bringing the lesson to a halt. Skye and Tsukasa silently followed in tow as the buzzing of the class became louder.

Noah looked up at the disturbance and nearly fell off his chair when he saw Tsukasa, accompanied by Skye, following his grandmother. Neither of them looked like they wanted to be there, with Tsukasa looking extremely uncomfortable giving Noah a shy smile, but quickly looking down at his feet again.

Skye, on the other hand, had his usual disinterested expression and seemed more arrogant than usual as he stared each person down while his hands were in his pockets. When Noah heard his name being called, he jumped up waiting to be slaughtered.

"You can leave for the day," his teacher sighed, not looking very pleased.

Within a second he had his bag packed and followed the group out of the classroom.

"What are we doing?" He whispered to Skye as he jogged to keep pace with him.

"Shopping, now shut up and let her do what she wants and that's an order," he briefly looked down at Noah. "We can argue about this later, but trust me, simply let go.

Deciding to keep his mouth shut, he got into the car with the others. Skye's grandmother immediately started loosening her hair, taking out pins and letting it fall to her shoulders.

"I hate getting dressed up like this, it feels like you're being stuffed and paraded," she sighed, turning to Tsukasa with a wide smile, taking his hand.

"Then why do you do it, Grandma?" Skye grinned widely at her, his affection for her clear.

"Then they wouldn't take me seriously and I'd have to go explain to the principal. This way is easier and the boys don't mind playing security for the day, do you? She asked the two men who occupied the front seat before she turned to Tsukasa.

"It's so wonderful to see you again, dear. The last time was when you were twelve, wasn't it?" She laughed. "You've grown into a wonderful young man," she waxed on. "But why didn't your mother let me know you were here?"

"They've been called away for a few months on a diplomatic mission, Sobo. They left as soon as we moved in, so there wasn't much time to tell anybody."

"Well, that won't do, you can't be living all by yourself in that big house," she frowned thinking of a solution. "Why don't you move in with Skye and Noah? I'm sure there is another bedroom spare and then you wouldn't be all by yourself and Skye wouldn't mind, would you, honey?"

Noah looked on with abated breath, wondering how Skye was going to get out of this situation, he didn't like Tsukasa very much and barely tolerated him when they were together. He watched as Skye's face became a mask, his tight smile in place.

"I don't want to inconvenience Tsukasa, Grandma. The house isn't ready yet and I'm sure he prefers staying on his own." He flashed a brief smile to Tsukasa who seemed blissfully unaware, his eyes trained on Noah.

"Oh come on Sweetheart, it will be fun, almost like camping out, what do you say?" She turned to Noah.

"Yes ma'am," Noah nodded too afraid to disagree with her. Skye he could still handle, barely, but his grandmother was a completely different kettle of fish. At the same time, he was skipping inside at the thought of Tsukasa also joining them. His life was close to being perfect with two hotties around all the time.

"It's settled then, we'll move Tsukasa in this afternoon after we've done a bit of shopping," she smiled, satisfied that everything was going to be good for a while. With three around she didn't have to worry about their safety anymore.

For the rest of the day, they traipsed after Gillie as she went from shop to shop, happily grabbing clothes for Noah to try on. Skye and Tsukasa also didn't escape completely unscathed but seemed to accept their gifts with good grace.

It was strange for Noah to watch Skye interact with his grandmother. He usually was obviously very fond of her and seemed so much lighter in spirit now that she was around. This was a different, softer Skye that he was seeing. Maybe he wasn't such a troll after all, he thought briefly when Tsukasa distracted him by holding the door open for him.