-Just One Bite: His Candy Fangs- {Nuzi}

"The boy next door."

Y'all, have some Nikolai and Una
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It was mid day, and Una was out in the front yard, practicing with her sword on the hay bail like dummy on nothing but a wooden peg.

Una felt too peaceful in the dream like land scape despite her hands being all blistered from the practice and sweaty from the hard swinging.

"Huh? I didn't know you lived here." A voice called out.

Shit.

"N-... Nikolai?" Una turned around, sword being sheathed. She wasn't expecting it to be him of all people.

He smiled at her, and she returned the sweet smile.

"I've been uh.. watching ya from the window. You want some help with this?" He offered. "You can't be hunting if you're gonna be blistering you hands with your weapon."

Una took a moment to think, and nodded, drawing out her sword, facing the dummy for certain instructions.

She wasn't expecting to feel his body press against hers, and hands on the exact placed hers were on the sword. He was warm.. sweet.. he felt too much like that of a human to her for some unknown reason.

It didn't feel right at first, and racing into it, it felt right. It felt sweet and just so right.he helped her raise the sword correctly, and let her swing down.

"There you go. Isn't that just right?" He said placing his hands on her hips, causing her to blush. "You aren't meant to have it go down at a slight angle. And you're meant to have it in your hands in these places so you don't blister your hands too much. I know you're tough from being a servant, but you can't be reckless."

"Una!" A voice had called out. "Una, you KNOW you can't be meddling with a boy like that, whether it be someone you know or not!" Alice spoke, charging out with a shoe in hand, causing Nikolai to step away, and Una the sheath her sword.

Alice had thrown the shoe at Nikolai, lucky for him she had missed "and you keep your hands off my niece!" She glared at the boy who laughed off the situation awkwardly.

"I apologize aunt Alice, he was just trying to help me." Una stammered. "Besides, I'm sure he already has himself a bride."

"Nope." Nikolai muttered.

"Bride or not, his hands shouldn't be on you like that. Now get back to practice or I'm sending you back myself!"  Alice scolded before heading back into the home which had beau peeking out the window.

"Is she.. always like that?" Nikolai questioned.

"Yeah. She may just be like that sometimes." She said, almost as if it were a normal treatment.

"Alright. How about I grab the bow and arrows to see if you'd be any better with those." He said, petting the top of her head, causing her to push his hand off as if she were a child trying to say they're all grown up.

"Yeah, that's mostly what I used when hunting with uh.. the other hunters at the palace." She explained.

"Ah, alright." He smiled and left off to his house, leaving her in thought.

She was thinking of the first time they actually had met.

When she had snuck out the castle and he had seen her from the distance.

She was lucky to have swiped a maids dress when she went down to not be too suspicious when it came to other.

He had stopped her to ask why she climbed out the window and made the excuse 'in a servant, just trying to get by and walk away for unfair treatment.'

He bought it and tagged along.

She had learnt a lot about him, and became fond of him. Unlucky for her to be found by guards and dragged away, only for him to call out and tell her where he would be the next night.

They had both met the night after, giving him the lie that both her parents died at birth so he wouldn't have to meet Kian and treat her differently.

It wasn't till the third night they became playful and ran around with wooden swords in hand, and pretending to fight.

The 7th night was when she was supposedly 'fired' and thrown back out to her aunt.

"I got it, Una." He called out, making her turn her head with.

"Oh, alright!" Una walked on over, with him handing over the hunting items.

"Cmon, let's head out to the forest before dark so I can show you common places to find creatures." He spoke, grabbing her empty hand, and leading her away.

The sweet hand felt rough, yet smooth. She couldn't help but hold on, as if it gave comfort and eased away her worries.