A Royal Pain

N I N E

In the end Marinette just decided to wear a plain light blue blouse and denim capris with a pair of white flats, earning an approving nod from Jiānhùrén and a thumbs up from Lucas. Marinette grinned in reply and hurriedly closed her bedroom door.

"Wait, wear this face mask. We can't let any of the citizens see you and possibly connect the dots from the news report yesterday." Marinette took the plain white face mask out of Jiānhùrén's hand and put it over her mouth.

"There was a news report about her?" Lucas questioned. Jiānhùrén nodded in assurance.

"Huh. The presses are total stalkers." The bespectacled boy concluded as an afterthought and the other two silently agreed. Marinette got a slight shiver down her spine at the thought of reporters and paparazzi trying to get into her personal space in the future when she officially gets revealed to the public as the princess. She grimaced for a second before falling into a straight face.

"Ready to go?" Lucas asked and Marinette nodded, prompting the three of them to start walking along the corridor.

While Marinette and Lucas were chatting their heads off with frivolous conversation topics, Jiānhùrén remained silent throughout and calmly ignored the excitable teens. He didn't exactly care about what they were talking about and was only tolerating the bespectacled boy's presence. Honestly you'd think that Jiānhùrén didn't have to put up with Lucas on a daily basis but it seemed that Lucas's favourite pastime, other than tending to the royal botanical garden, was annoying the absolute hell out of the stoic adult. But as much as Jiānhùrén hated to admit it Lucas did grow on him to the point where Jiānhùrén could compare him to an annoying younger brother or nephew. Like the relationship between Scar and Simba only Jiānhùrén didn't have any bloodthirsty emotions towards Lucas.

... Most of the time.

"-ere are we going to go anyway?" Lucas asked Jiānhùrén directly and the older male simply gave the slightest of shrugs, maintaining an indifferent expression.

"Wherever you two want to go, I'm simply your tour guide and chaperone for today." Marinette frowned a little bit at his statement.

"I'd feel bad if I was to end up dragging you to areas and places you don't enjoy." She confessed quietly but Lucas snorted.

"Really? I would be taking advantage of this moment. Who knows when he'll be this generous and tolerant again."

"This is why I try to ignore you the best I can." The bodyguard plainly stated, further ignoring Lucas clutching his chest with faux pained expression. Marinette let out a small giggle but stared at Jiānhùrén again with furrowed eyebrows.

"Do you have anywhere you want to go though?" She meekly inquired and Jiānhùrén gave her a side glance with a bemused expression fleeting across his face.

"Not at all miss, I've lived in Beijing for half of my life and I don't think there's any place I really want to visit."

Marinette opened her mouth but quickly closed it with a thoughtful expression and a pout to her lips. At this point the trio reached a sleek black car. Jiānhùrén took out a car key and unlocked it, getting the teenagers into the back seat and settled himself in the front seat.  Marinette finally let out a defeated sigh. She shook her head and scrunched her nose with reluctance to reply.

"Okay then... If you're sure that is." Marinette concluded by giving her bodyguard a small smile which he returned.

"Quite sure."

"Alright enough of you and Mari being all polite and formal, I want to introduce her deep fried scorpions." Lucas directed the conversation into a more easy going atmosphere but plastered an evil looking smirk on his face the moment he said 'deep fried scorpions'. Poor Marinette, not knowing everything about Chinese cultures and native street food, giggled and gave Lucas a challenging smile.