To melt the ice-cold heart [DISCONTINUED]

Chapter #04 - New beginning

It's been years since the King and Quinn were announced dead and life seemed to... move on. Their picture was still covered in the hall, sure, but it didn't bring as much pain as it used to. Years were passing by and wounds were slowly healing, the third anniversary was already in the past as well, arriving sooner than expected. And life seemed normal.

Chase was getting better, with just a bit of effort he was able to bring his bright smile and unlimited energy back as if nothing happened. It took time, of course, but he luckily had plenty. He could also proudly say that his relations with Marvin were warming up again. They didn't really interact in person, but they talked through the door quite a lot, they were getting to know each other all over again after all these years. It didn't take much time for Chase to realize which topics were better left unspoken and the conversations between them were getting longer each time they talked. So everything was really looking up.

"Prince Chase?" came a knock on Chase's door. He sat up lazily on his bed, not opening his eyes just yet. "Prince Chase?" the person asked again.

"Y- yeah...?" he asked, fixing up his messy hair.

"Sorry to wake you up..." the man outside started.

"What? Nonononono, you didn't! I've been up for hours...!" Chase yawned And rested his chin on his hand. His expression quickly turned from a smile to a relaxed one as he drifted back to sleep. Yet his head quickly slid off, so he jumped awake to avoid falling. "Who is it?!" he asked, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"...Well, it's still me, sir..." the man outside his door stated. "The gates are opening soon, time to get ready!" he added.

"Of course!" Chase smiled as he nodded, his eyes still closed. "...Ready for what?" he asked.

"Uh... Your brother's coronation, sir...?" the servant outside the door answered uncertainly.

"Mhm... My brother's... coronation," Chase mumbled to himself as he finally opened his eyes just a bit. His gaze fell upon a suit in front of his bed. He gasped, finally waking his mind up. "It's coronation day!" he smiled as he jumped out of his bed.

He quickly changed his clothes, fixed his hair properly in front of the mirror and ran out of his room. He was wearing a big smile on his face as he ran down the hall. He obviously had his favorite hat on even though he knew he'd have to take it off soon, he just wanted to keep it on as long as he could. He ran down the hall literally bouncing up and down and scaring one of the female servants who was carrying some food almost to death. He turned around just in time to see another one open one of the windows and letting the sun into the building. He smiled brighter.

"The window is open! So is that door!" he gasped in awe as he looked around, seeing more and more things opened. "I didn't know they did that anymore!" he chuckled to himself as he ran along. "Who knew we owned a thousand salad plates...!" he mumbled to himself as he watched other servants carry a really big amount of them.

He was really excited. He kept running around and admired every little change he noticed. Every single open window, every humble decoration, every tiny plate with food... everything. It was amazing, he couldn't recall the last time anything like this happened. He decided to see how the ballroom looked like, even though it was on the other side of the building

"For years I've roamed these empty halls, why have a ballroom with no balls? Finally, they're opening up the gates!" he cheered on his run. "There'll be actual real-life people, it will be totally strange..." he mumbled to himself, wondering if he was still capable of talking to strangers after all these years of living away from others. Yet his face beamed up eventually. "But wow, am I so ready for this change!" he realized.