A Royal Pain

E I G H T

"Wow-" Lucas said dryly "-she sounds like a huge pain in the ass."

"Lucas!" Jiānhùrén reprimanded sharply causing the boy to laugh sheepishly.

Marinette ignored Jiānhùrén and nodded vigorously towards Lucas's statement.

"She really is! You would not believe how much of a brat she is. I spent three years being in the same class as her and this is the fourth year I'm still with her! When I think she can't get anymore rude, she always surprises me." Marinette complained about the intolerable blonde she had to protect on a regular basis whenever there was an Akuma attack. Usually caused by her but Chloe still manages to find someone else to blame other than herself.

Lucas looked disgusted and Marinette even caught an expression of disrespect for the blonde from Jiānhùrén.

"I think I recall your great uncle mentioning a particularly disgraceful child that sabotaged his position in the competition of 'The World's Greatest Chef' when he came to visit that one time." Her bodyguard commented with obvious disapproval coating his words. Marinette snorted and crossed her arms.

"That's Chloe alright."

"How... quaint." Jiānhùrén's lips curled in distaste and he struggled to keep his tone of voice neutral.

"That's stretching it." Lucas deadpanned. He openly showed his feelings on Chloe and it was very obvious that should he ever meet her, it would be quite disastrous on the blonde's part. Marinette suspects Lucas would just outright insult her on her actions. Actually, Marinette would love to see someone as hot headed as Alya call out Chloe on her actions. Maybe it could teach Chloe that not everyone she meets will "love" her at first sight.

"Yeah but I think the worse thing she's done was 'protect'-" Marinette quoted with her fingers "-another one of my classmates who was homeschooled. He only just enrolled in my school last year and Chloe was his childhood friend. She's quite attached to him."

"I take it she's quite overprotective of her relationship with him?" Her bodyguard inquired.

"Very. The first week was a nightmare. She practically growled at anyone who went near him though I will admit she was useful for keeping the more... persistant ones away."

"What do you mean by 'persistant'? What is he like super hot or something."

"U-um! I guess?" Marinette fumbled over her words but tried to play it off by coughing and hoped neither of them noticed. Damn Lucas's unnatural hearing abilities though.

"Oh I get you, you're into him aren't you?" Lucas asked, a sly smile playing on his lips and an extremely annoying mischievous expression. Marinette's opened and closed her mouth, wanting to get her protests and denials out but came up short in any retort and instead huffed and determinedly looked away from Lucas in embarrassment.

The little prick just had to burst out laughing.

"You're infuriating." She sniffed, still half feigning interest on the structure of her family's mansion.

"You're easy to infuriate." Lucas quipped easily, letting a roguish smirk to form causing Jiānhùrén to roll his eyes.

"Alright children, enough." the bodyguard's sentence earned him twin cries of indignant protests to which he dutifully ignored.

Suddenly, Jiānhùrén stopped right in front of a door a addressed Marinette. "Mademoiselle we're back to your bedroom. As soon as you've changed into more casual attire I'll take you and Lucas to the markets."

"Does he have to come?" Marinette said bluntly but she didn't have any nasty intent behind her words. Marinette was just completely done with Lucas's personality. She shot a playful scowl at Lucas and in return he wiggled her eyebrows at her. A scoff was returned and he let out a bark of laughter.

"If you don't want him to accompany us, I will tell him to leave." The bodyguard replied monotonously but something about the tone of his voice made her raise her eyebrow at him suspiciously.

"Why do I get the feeling you would do more than tell me to piss off?" Lucas groaned and shuddered away from Jianhuren, looking at him with wary eyes. To both Marinette and Lucas's surprise the stoic bodyguard replied.

"I will."

Lucas looked at Marinette with fearful eyes and sniffed pitifully. "Do you see how much danger I'm in around this 'person'?!" He used quotations marks on 'person' and tried to look as pathetic as possible to gain sympathy from Marinette but she simply sent him a smug grin and swiftly went into her room, leaving Lucas to stare agape after her and Jiānhùrén discreetly sniggering at the bespectacled boy's ridiculous imitation of a fish. Marinette tried her best to keep her composure in front of the two males but once the door of her bedroom closed, she slowly slid down the door shaking with silent laughter. Lucas's actions weren't even that funny but she couldn't help but laugh, letting out all the tension and stress built up inside her from these past few days. Marinette's giggles slowly faded and she sighed peacefully.

The slight movements coming from her purse made Marinette remember the small being currently residing in her purse and she quickly opened the latch of the purse to let Tikki out. Tikki floated upwards slowly, tiredly blinking at Marinette. The bluenette stifled a snort and gently took the pink swami into her hands.

"Have a good nap Tikki?" Marinette softly inquired, patiently waiting for Tikki to wake up completely and respond. A second later, Tikki gave her a sleepy smile and nodded.

"Have you been informed of everything now?" Marinette looked upwards to the ceiling thoughtfully for a moment then closes her eyes and gave a slight shake of the head.

"I...I can't help but feel that my grandmother is still leaving a few details out." She murmured, closing her eyes once again and leaning her head back up against the door. Tikki had the faintest hint of guilt written across her face as she heard Marinette's observation. The small god might've had an idea on what Changying was hiding from Marinette but chose to keep it to herself for the time being.

Tikki suddenly flew up from Marinette's hands, drawing the attention of the bluenette to her small form and Tikki displayed a bubbly smile at Marinette.

"Come on, you should get up now. I woke up a little earlier to hear plans to go to the markets! I don't think that's very casual attire." Tikki giggled and started flying all over Marinette's room to explore to more secluded corners, leaving the girl to giggle at her kwami's antics.

Marinette pulled herself up and stretched out the kinks in her joints from sitting down and breathed out in contentment. She walked over to where her suitcases were placed and started opening the lot of them, looking over all of them thoughtfully as she tapped her index finger to her chin.

Which clothes should I choose...

[A.N: haha I've gotten so deep into kpop that it's not even funny anymore and low key ruining my life but I still love my babies

I also love you guys for being so patient with updates; What, Who, When will be next]