The king and the cat

Chapter 20

The next day during their stay in the alter world, the group split up to either do something on their own or they wanted to explore with their family considering a holiday was coming up. Kiri, one of those who decided to do something on their own, found herself in the school garden looking at the plants. She wasn't alone there in the area it appears, she had noticed Nick's scent being there at the moment. While the garden is tended to by other students, she had smelled Tenshi's scent more frequent there than others. Glancing up from tending to the plants, Nick had a brief look of surprise in his eyes when he saw the girl. "So you're all still here huh." he questioned seeing her when she walked closer to a plant. "They're all doing something else." she answered with a shrug and stared at the plants, keeping her hands in her pockets. Each was a different size or color so they had peeked her interest, most of the plants in that garden wasn't even seen in her home. "They're all really beautiful, I don't normally see these plants in my home..." she said out loud and remembered that her home was practically winter all year round, so no plant would've grown in the first place except in the private garden areas. "Actually, these don't grow here naturally either. Tenshi brought them with him when he came back from the last angel's conference." the bluenette explained, "I see... His scent is the most frequent here anyways..." her icy blue eyes glanced over at one of the plants, "Either way they look nice..." she mumbled and began to take out her hand from her pocket to touch them, which  Nick noticed had a glove on it giving off the energy of being a very powerful restrictor. A moment of hesitation quickly stopped her from touching the little plant, worried that she might accidentally freeze it with her powers. She could barely control her icy powers so out of fear she quickly put her hand back in her pocket.

"Those are nullifier flowers. Tenshi likes them so much because like him they can't be affected by magic or aura." Nick explained once he got a good look at the plant she was going to touch. Curiously he asked her, "Have you ever met one? A real angel." Thinking back to when she was a child, she remembered that she had. It was the only reason why she wasn't mean or rude to Tenshi like the others were. "When I was still a kid I only met them once... But I haven't seen them as I grew older." she explained remembering how much red snow was there at the time below her. The red being her blood from injuries she had received from others for not being able to control her powers. The fact that she was born with another thing hindering her ability to control it made it worse. "He was the same age as me." she remembered, "There was an accident but I haven't seen him after that..." she finished with a sad look in her eyes. Nor was she able to thank him for saving her life either.

Shaking her head as if to ward off the sad memories she asked him, "Are you and the 'scowling princess' a thing or not?" as Nick laughed bitterly having a angry and sad look in his eyes despite the smile on his face. "She doesn't like guys who can't express how they're feeling and if you haven't noticed I'm always smiling no matter what I feel. Hence the title of 'smiling prince'." but he was at least a little happy that she went out on one date with him. Even though it was just once it still made him happy, still he couldn't guess if it was for him or because of the sweets. "But regardless nobody tends to actually want to be with the 'royals' since we're just cursed... Tends to scare off others once they really figure it out. Tenshi is an outcasted angel only kept around in the heavens to take out the punishment. I'm Apollo's child who's cursed to smile or suffer and king... Claw was born to die."

While Kiri felt bad she thought it was best not to tell him that Kitsune, the red head who looked a lot like Kit, is a reaper. That would've made it worse and telling him that Kanota was also fated to die,  that part wasn't her place to tell and Kanota wasn't very keen on telling anyone that wasn't related to her. Even Claw who she had bound herself to as well. To attempt to cheer him up she reminded him, "Mitsuki didn't run off from you since she got a small hint from Claw. Despite isolating himself he shows that he cares and tries to make others around him happy."

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A little while later Nick was at one of the school games that they were having against the other school. Currently it was girl's volley ball and the only reason why he was paying more attention to the game was because Mitsuki was in it. He'd be cheering on for them with the rest of the school if he could keep his eyes off the shorts that Mitsuki was wearing. While it was part of the uniform for them he couldn't stop himself from staring. He didn't even notice the disapproving look he was receiving from Tenshi and Aki. "Hey, you know that you could get the uniform changed to shorts that aren't distracting right?" Aki pointed out, nudging the male with her foot. "I'm not complaining..." Nick said watching her move around in helping their team win. "Her eyes are on her head not her butt." Konata said kicking his back in an attempt to make him stop staring. "I can't help it! This is the first time she's worn shorts and I'm not going to let this moment pass!" he huffed occasionally cheering for his school but cheering for Mitsuki whenever she scored. Thankfully, they won the game and Nick finally got to see Mitsuki wearing shorts.