Prince and the Pauper

Chapter Twenty-Five

"That all you got pretty boy?" Zaiden gloated, making Harry grunt as he swung another right-hook, much harder than the first, into the boxing pad Zaiden held up.  I watched on eagerly from the corner of the ring, trying to not only observe Harry's fighting skills, but listen to Zaiden's orders, so I could be fully informed and in the loop with what  was going to go down in the fight with Sebastian. Two weeks had passed since Harry and told me the horrible truth about how my best friend had been involved in the attack that put my brother in a coma. Two weeks, and every time I thought about it I felt a pinch in my gut. The betrayal was too much for me to simply get over, and much more painful than any other wound a knife could inflict. Harry's back was to me as he hammered his boxing gloves into the pad, and I watched in awe as his back muscles contracted and tightened with every jab.
"Good." Zaiden lowered the pad, and Harry gulped in some deep breaths. I scurried over with the white towel, and wiped the collecting sweat from his body. Harry smiled with his trouble-promising dimples, as I dabbed along his bare chest, his Greek God like body glistened with sweat.
"How you feeling, champ?" I asked with a wink, and Harry laughed. Suddenly his sticky, warm arm wrapped around the back of my neck, and I shrieked as he pulled me into his clammy body.
"I'm feeling great." His chest rumbled with laughter as I squirmed to pull back, and I heard Zaiden laughing along. I groaned, and eventually he released me, a smirk plastered across his pink lips.
"You're doing great," Zaiden praised Harry, "but now we need to get into the nitty-gritty." I swallowed with unease, and as if Harry sensed it, he pressed a kiss to the top of my head.
"Take the gloves off." My mouth opened in protest, but Harry had already discarded them, and Zaiden handed him a roll off what looked like tape.
"You won't be using gloves in the fight?" My voice went up an octave, and Harry smiled reassuringly.
"That's not how illegal fights work, baby." Harry informed me.
"Won't you bust your knuckles?" I enquired, and Harry waved the tape in the air.
"That's what the tape and gauze are for." Harry said with a smile.
"Don't worry about Harry, Dev." Zaiden assured me, playfully punching Harry in the arm, "Harry will take him out easy."
"You better." I directed at Harry, and his smile transformed into his signature smirk.
"You've been training well for two weeks now, and you've made even more progress, but fighting without gloves is a change. So from now on, it's tape and gauze." Zaiden said firmly, and I watched as Harry wrapped his knuckles up, and when he looked up at me, I had to swallow a smirk.
"Admit it, this just ten-time hotter for you." I coolly shrugged, but then my lips perked upwards and Harry winked, stealing my composed manner.
"Alright, alright, cool it lovebirds." Zaiden stuck a finger in his mouth and pretended to gag.
"Let's begin!" Zaiden cheered, and once again I hid in the corner of the ring, and watched with a mixture of fascination and anxiety.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

'You're getting better at cooking." Harry kindly said as his arms wrapped around my waist. I smiled as he kissed up and down my neck, and I stirred the stir-fry around, trying to act unaffected.
"I had a great teacher." I grinned, and Harry's minty breath swarmed my senses as he laughed by the shell of my ear.
"I still can't believe you worked in a diner, and yet you couldn't cook." I elbowed him from behind with my elbow, and Harry groaned with laughter.
"I served the food, I didn't cook it." I defended, and Harry's lips returned to my neck, making my eyes close. Heat from the pan warmed my face, but I knew the heat simmering in my stomach had nothing to do with the element in front of me.
"You're going to make me burn the food." I warned, and Harry growled teasingly, his teeth biting down gently on my collarbone, making me laugh and gasp simultaneously.
"Who cares?" Harry whispered into the crook of my neck. I spun around in his hold, and his hands lowered from my waist to a more risky place.
"What is it with men and sex? You're crazy about it."
"No, I'm crazy about you." Harry spoke lowly, and I licked my lips as I pressed myself to Harry, and his eyes fluttered closed.
"You love it too." Harry smirked, and I tilted my head up to look at him.
"No, I love you." I spun his words back, and his eyes glistened with passion.
"You're amazing." He whispered like it was a guilty confession. "I'm so lucky." He swiftly picked me up and spun me around, making me shriek and giggle as he flipped the element off at the wall and threw me over his shoulder and carried us to the bedroom, me laughing all the way.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
My legs were tangled up with Harry's as we lay in bed, my head pressed to his bare chest listening to his heart beating, and I smiled at the sound as it beat slightly faster. I trailed my index finger up his torso, and Harry hummed with the touch, as I dragged it up, along his sharp jawline and across his lips. I laughed as Harry playfully opened his mouth and gently captured my finger between his teeth. A buzzing sound outside the curtains surrounding the bed made us both groan, and I shuffled up, bringing the silk sheets with me as I peeked out the curtains and grabbed my phone from the nightstand. Nicki's ID flashed across the screen, and I inhaled sharply, a sickening sense of Deja-vu flooding within me.
"Nicki?"
"Devonne, I-you haven't been to the hospital today, have you?" Guilt flashed through me, and I shook my head.
"No, I was busy with Harry training for the upcoming fight I told you about, and then there was work. I just haven't had time. I'm sorry." I gushed into the phone.
"You don't have to explain yourself, sweetie. I wasn't  judging you. It's just, somebody has visited Geordie today. It must have been when I was doing rounds or on my break, because I never saw them." My brows knitted together in confusion.
"What? Then how do you know he had a visitor?" I asked, and she let out a distressed sigh.
"It might be nothing." She avoided the question, and my heart rate picked up. Harry sat up and shrugged in questioning, and I shrugged back listening to Nicki.
"It might just be a gift, you know, you told me he was always into sports, it could be a gift."
"Nicki." I urged, and I heard her swallow.
"It's a baseball bat, Devonne. Somebody left a baseball bat on his bed."