The ballroom was full of music and activity, but Adgar was observing everyone, not participating in the celebration of the fall equinox. He watched his sisters banter with the guests and his brother nowhere in sight, the lucky bastard. He also watched Athena; she was with Kayla talking to some other female guests.
Adgar didn't particularly care for Athena; he knew she was only staying in Arendelle because his parents wanted him to marry her. He mostly saw her as an annoyance and was like all the other girls his parents wanted him to court. All they did was argue, their arguing once got the point that Athena threw a book at his head, twice, and she had great aim.
"Adgar," a stern voice said behind Adgar, making him jump. He turned around to see his father.
"Yes, dad?" Adgar asked.
"Why aren't you enjoying the party, and talking to others?"
Adgar scoffed, "What do you mean? I always stand by the wall and avoid social interaction at parties."
"Well, you're nineteen now, and you need to start talking to others, you can't stay in a library all your life."
"Now I don't see why not."
His father shook his head and chuckled slightly, "Why don't you just ask one of the young ladies here to dance, how about Athena."
Adgar smirked, "I thought you wanted to make her like me, I can't dance for shit. I don't think she'll appreciate me stepping on her feet."
"Adgar, if I don't see you dance with her tonight, I will post guards outside every entrance to the library, so then you'll have to something else besides read."
"I have books in my room–"
"I'll have maids take them out, just ask her," The King looked completely serious. Adgar sighed and started to walk towards the princess, might as well get the task over with.
Adgar weaved through the crowd to get to the princess; he then noticed she was already being escorted to the dance floor. She seemed tense with the man, and as he watched them dance her could see her get more uncomfortable with him by the second.
When the music finished, Athena ripped away from the man's grip and started to get away from the man quickly, but he got a hold of her arm. Adgar could see her resisting and say, "No" to him. She started to scan the room and then made eye contact with Adgar, and he swore he could hear her voice in his head pleading for help.
Adgar was going to let her deal with the problem herself, as revenge for the book throwing, but all he could think about was, what if one of his sisters were in this situation. Without thinking he walked over there, how could he persuade this man to leave her alone? He couldn't be a guy who Athena fought all the time or some friend. He then realized he would have to pretend to be her fiancé; he almost cringed at the thought, but it would be the only idea that would work.
"Athena, darling!" Adgar called out, Athena turned her, and a look of relief washed over her face. Tears were lining her eyes, what was this man doing to her? "I've been looking everywhere for you." Adgar slipped an arm around Athena, luckily Athena didn't retaliate and played along and put an arm around his waist.
"Sorry, Adgar, I was trying to find you too, but this... nice man asked me to dance," anyone a mile away could tell that the compliment was anything sincere and genuine.
"You promised that I'd be your first dance of the night," Adgar looked at Athena, and she just shrugged as if to say, 'oops, I forgot, silly me.' "Well, thank you, sir, for looking after my fiancée–"
"Fiancée?" The noble gave a pointed stare at Athena, "You didn't tell me that you were engaged."
"You didn't ask," Athena snapped back, her tight tightening around Adgar's waist.
Adgar swore he saw smoke coming out the man's ears; he bowed, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were engaged to the prince. I'm sorry for any inconvenience." He then walked away.
Adgar and Athena waited until the noble was out of sight to finally drop the façade, Athena let out a sigh.
"Adgar," Her voice was shaky, "the things"–those words came out as a sob, she took a deep breath, looked down at the floor and then started again–"The things that man said to me, the things he wanted to do to me." She shook her head, "Thank you," she breathed. He hugged the princess, and her feminine floral scent filled all of his senses, this smell was hypnotizing; he gently pulled away from the embrace. The princess looked up again, a tear rolling down her cheeks, Adgar wiped away the newly fallen tears with his thumb and rested a hand on her cheek; she leaned into it. She was so vulnerable; she was about to break.
Adgar didn't realize how beautiful Athena was until now. Her brown hair tied back made her neck look long and elegant, the red ballgown she wore was beautiful, and such a change from the blue and purple dresses she usually wore, her gray eyes were so entrancing.
Adgar broke out of his trance and dropped his hand from the princess's face and awkwardly cleared his throat. Adgar then remembered what his father told him earlier.
"Athena, would you like to dance with me?"
Athena looked surprised, "Oh, um, sure."
"But be warned, I am a bad dancer."
Athena smiled, "I'm sure you'll be fine." Adgar lead her to the dance floor.
As they danced, they didn't talk. Athena was either looking at the ground, around him, there were times where times where she stared at him like she was trying to solve a puzzle. After the dance was over Adgar escorted Athena back to her room. As they walked through the quiet hall together, Athena said, "You know, you're not a bad dancer."
Adgar laughed, "You don't have to lie."
"I'm not!" Athena chuckled back, her smile faded and then said, "I want to thank you again for helping me."
"Of course."
"But why?"
Adgar raised an eyebrow and looked at Athena, "Why what?"
"Why did you do it? I mean, you probably weren't going to do it," Athena looked down. "I thought you hated me."
"I don't hate you, I mean I did for a time, but, no, I don't hate you," That wasn't a lie, he just found her as an annoyance, but after she had stopped bothering him, he didn't hate her as much as he did anymore.
"But why did you do it?"
"Because," He took a deep breath. "I would've wanted for someone to do the same thing for one of my sisters if they were in that situation. Why should you be any different?"
They were silent for the rest of the walk to Athena's room.
As they reached Athena's door, Adgar uttered, "Goodnight, Athena."
He started to turn to walk back to his room when he was stopped when Athena said, "Adgar wait." He turned and looked back at the princess.
"Yes?" He asked.
She walked a step closer to the prince and pecked him on the cheek, Adgar's cheeks flushed with color. "Thanks again," she smiled and walked through the threshold into her room.
Adgar stood in place for a minute. He ran a hand through his slicked back hair and turned and walked to his room. He slipped his hands into his pockets, and he felt something in there that wasn't there before. He pulled it out, and it was a handkerchief, this wasn't his, he sniffed the silk cloth, and the familiar flower scent hit him. He smiled and placed the fabric back into his pocket. How or when she slipped it in, he had no idea. But he did know that Athena wasn't like the other girls at all.
