You walked to the earl's room, head hung. You had to spend an entire night with that annoying bastard! What am I going to do? You kept trying to figure out ways out of it, but whenever your mind touched the idea of sleeping in the same room, you got butterflies like nothing before.

He finally opened the door, and you tried not to gasp. His room was huge! He immediately ran over to the bed, and flopped down onto it. Making the blankets flop up at the ends. You laughed, then slapped a hand to your mouth. No! Stop it!

"I knew it!"

You looked at him, puzzled. "What?"

"You can be happy. This entire time you've been really glum. I finally got you laugh!" His face was still buried in blankets, but you heard every word. "I'm calling that a success." You weren't quite sure why, but that brought a smile to your face. He rolled over, and you tried to hide the smile, but too late. "I got a smile too!" He smiled huge, then jumped up. "Why are you so glum anyway?"

You were kind of surprised by that question, but answered it anyway. "Um... well, it's just that I was really tired, and hungry, and everything was really confusing and I'm just not the best at being happy." You mentally slapped yourself. You totally just spilled the fact that you were confused!

"Really? I'm sorry, we really didn't explain anything did we?" Pity?! He was digging through his closet, and you got even more confused, but were snapped out of your thoughts when he threw a shirt at you. It was so long, you could have worn it as a dress.

"Hey, you don't have any pajamas right? Go ahead and use that, okay?"

You noticed it was his, and was tempted to throw it back. Another part of you wanted to hold it and never let go. "Ah, no, it's fine. It doesn't matter..." your voice trailed off.

"Okay? So you're saying you'd rather sleep in dirty work clothes?" Damn. He had a point. A very good point.

"Nevermind." You said, quietly. He laughed again, and you realized something. "Hey, how are we supposed to change?"

"Just face opposite ways."

"What?!"

"Oh come on! It's not like I'm gonna look!"

"Yeah, but..." you sighed, "Fine." Then faced the other way he was. You could hear him changing, but you were still not liking it. Finally, you realized that you weren't getting any other circumstances, and began to change. You left the small shorts you wore under your work skirt on. They made you feel a little better.

"Hey, I still don't know your name."

You sighed, "Does it matter?"

"Yeah! Wait, what about this. If you're still confused, we can just ask eachother questions. I'll ask one, then you'll ask one. We can just keep doing that until we're satisfied."

"Okay?" You were skeptical, but decided it'd be a nice way to pass the time.

"Yay!" You could feel his smile. It made you smile too. "So, what is your name?"

"Y/N, Y/N L/N"

"Wow. It's pretty." Is he flirting with me? No, thats ridiculous. Despite the obvious falsity of the statement, your butterflies flew to the front of your mind.

"Thanks. Anyway, umm..." you sorted through all of your questions, till you found one that would help begin the explanation. "Why did you go looking for me?"

"Ah! That's because the queen wants to see you."

"Why?"

"Hey! Wait your turn!"

"Sorry." You didn't know why you were so embarrassed about your outburst, but you struggled to control the light blush rising in your cheeks.

"It's okay! Anyway, what did you mean, you can't escape?"

I forgot I said that.

You took a deep breath. "Well, first of all, I really don't want to. I don't care if I'm here or home. It doesn't matter that much to me." You desperately hoped he wouldn't press.

"And?"

Why?! I hate this guy sometimes! "What do you mean, "and?" "

"Haha." You heard him turn around did the same, slightly wincing as you put a bit of pressure on your ankle wrong. "I was wondering if it had something to do with this." He kicked your ankle, right where it had landed. You flinched, then fell to the side, as you had over compensated for the sudden uselessness of your ankle.

He caught you, and you ended up leaning against his chest. The butterflies were insane now, and you couldn't hide your blush. You looked at the ground, and mumbled the answer.

"I have weak ankles, and I landed on one wrong when I jumped from the tree. I'm really slow now, and it hurts to walk."

He held you tighter, and whispered an apology. Then, without letting you go, prompted the next question.

"Oh!" You gasped, then thought of what you had been going to ask. "Well, why does the queen want to see me?"

"That's a long answer, wanna sit?" You silently nodded, and he helped you over to the edge of the bed, where he sat right next to you. You were thankful for the help, as after he kicked it, it most definitely could hold any of your weight.

After you had both gotten comfortable, he explained everything. All about the knife, and how the queen recognized it from a family of assassins that used to be against the royal family. When he was done, it was pretty late, and you noticed that sometime through the story, you had ended up leaning on him again. Go- why must I keep doing this?!

He looked at you, and, as always, laughed. "Tired?"

You gave a small chuckle, "Little bit."

The candle had long since gone out, and the moon was so bright you could see decently, but not well enough to see what had come next.

Quickly, the earl grabbed you from behind, around the stomach, behind your arms. He pulled you back, and you both ended up flopping onto the bed. You were thankful for the dark, as your face was burning, and you were sure it looked as surprised as you felt. After all, your heart was racing, and there seemed to be more butterflies than stomach. You tried to steady your breathing, to calm your heart, and to push away the butterflies. Nothing worked, and eventually, the earl removed a hand to cover the two of you up, then whispered a bit in your ear before going to sleep.

"Sorry, you were just a little too cute like that."