Miyako fruitlessly tried to contain her excitement as she quickly approached the Nohrian visitors. Front and center stood none other than Winston himself. He was horrendously tall, even taller than Jackie. This made Jackie jealous. Very, very jealous he thought. Even his slightly off-center nose looked good on him, how was this possible?! He gracefully slid off of his equally glorious steed, fixed his stupidly good looking hair, and bowed to greet the pair.
"It's a pleasure to see you again, Miyako. You seem to get more beautiful each time I see you, I'm not sure how much longer I can handle it..." he wooed. But he stopped. Jackie was staring daggers at him. "...ah, anyways, how are your parents faring? Affairs have been relatively peaceful this year."
Miyako turned around, shot a nasty look at Jackie, and responded, giggling. "Yes, they have. It's nice to see you again, too..."
While the two lovebirds chatted away and Jackie disdainfully watched, Wesley somehow appeared behind him. She looked up at him, doe-eyed. Jackie didn't know how to feel about her. Were they destined to be nothing more than friends? Was it something more? The last thing he wanted to do was lead her on or hurt her, she was too delicate, too fragile. At the very least, he knew he wanted to protect her.
"Annoying, isn't it? You know, the whole way here, Winston wouldn't shut up about Miyako. It was a pain in the butt to listen to him, but also kinda funny." Wesley snickered.
"Tell me about it. I don't understand why they can't just get a room. No one wants to see this." Jackie groaned.
Taking Jackie's hand in her own, Wesley tugged at it. "Speaking of rooms, why don't we get one. We're gonna be staying here for a while, I would like to at least see where I'll be spending my time."
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Being left bedridden with a broken leg was not the most ideal way Nathaniel wanted to spend his day. Watching paint dry would be more interesting than laying in the oddly plush bed. But at the same time, it was somehow better than being lectured by his father for something he did wrong. His father, he remembered. There was a fairly good chance that he had been alerted of his son's predicament and was on the way. He wouldn't hurt his poor son with a broken leg, would he? That was a lie. He probably would. And he was going to. Thinking about it made him wish he had just bled out in the forest. Before he could begin mentally planning his funeral, the door opened. Speak of the devil. In the door stood his giant, fuming father. He caught a glimpse of Lou mouthing what seemed to be 'I'm sorry!'
"You insolent, irresponsible child! Are you thick? You had me worried sick! And what's worse is that you deliberately disobeyed me. Do you not see what you have gotten yourself into? You could have died, Nathaniel. If this kind girl hadn't found you and brought you here, I would have never seen you again, nor would I have known what happened to you. Why do you do this to your father, Nathaniel? When will you grow up" He asked, wearily.
For the first time, Nathaniel realized how tired his father looked. He saw how much stress and worry he was causing the poor man who raised him. It did not make him feel good. He started to say 'I'm sorry' but he knew that would not be enough. It would never be. If his leg wasn't broken, he would have gone to give his father a hug.
"I'm going to give you two some alone time...ehehe, I can come back with some pie...?" Lou nervously asked.
Without taking his eyes off of Nathaniel, Kazimir waved his hand. "No, thank you. You have already done enough, and I don't think he deserves it."
Okay, now that was offensive. Not deserving pie? Was he a child? He had acted like one, but that wasn't the point!
"Do you have anything to say for yourself, Nathaniel?" Kazimir asked one more time.
"No..." Nathaniel trailed off.
"Of course you don't. I ought to teach you a lesson once and for all. It's time for you to stop living in the lap of luxury and being able to get away with whatever you want. As soon as you are healed up and we return home, I'm assigning you to military duties. You will live with the soldiers, train like one, and learn to behave like one. You will get no special treatment, and you will absolutely not be excused from any duties." Kazimir barked.
"Hey! Listen, that's just not fair! Give me one more chance, you can't make me do that! I won't do it!" Nate retorted.
"You will do whatever I say, young man. I've given you far too many chances, now is not the time to beg for one more. Your behavior in the following weeks will determine what becomes of you. Now rest up, and be ready for what awaits you, soldier."
With those words, Kazimir left the room. Nathaniel began thinking to himself. In no way was he going to let himself be bossed around. Lou appeared in the doorway once more, empty handed. She frantically looked back and forth at Nate, and down the hallway where Kazimir was departing.
"Is now a bad time to come back?" she asked.
"It could be worse." Nathaniel grumbled.
"I heard what he said, I'm sorry. Oh, um..." she trailed off, reaching into her pocket. She pulled out a small piece of paper with writing on it. "...here's the mailing address to our castle. You should write to me, sometime, and tell me how everything's going. I hope we can see each other again."
She gingerly placed it in his hand, and for a moment time seemed to stop. Nothing else seemed to matter except for the two of them. Nathaniel even forgot of the stinging pain in his leg. Was a union between human and Ailuran even legal? Would they have to meet in secret, only communicating through letters and forbidden ? Nathaniel liked the sound of that. It was wild and daring, just his style.
When he became aware of reality again, Lou had turned beet red, and her hand had become sweaty in his. "Err, um, are you okay?! You began staring into space for a minute...was it something I said?!" she jumped away, covering her face. "S-sorry if I said anything awkward!"
He shook his head. "No, no! It wasn't you. Well I mean...it was, but not in a bad way! I was just thinking...about things. A lot has happened, I guess."
Still red, she giggled that cute laugh once more, albeit a bit nervously this time. "That's...reassuring to hear! You should get some rest, I think your father plans to leave by morning. If you ever visit us again, I'll make you all the pies you can dream of eating, and more!"
Nathaniel smiled. "...Thank you, Id' like that."
She smiled back, and left the room. What had he gotten himself into, Nathaniel thought to himself.
