edited

|Adara De Clare|

Ever since Nikolai came back from the palace, he's been acting a bit weird. He's been distant. Anytime I'd get close to him, he'd pull away. Not to mention he doesn't seem to be all here either.

His eyes always look up to the ceiling then he looks away, pissed. I have no idea why.

I'm not going to ask him. I don't want to get yelled at. Would he yell at me? I know he wouldn't yell at me, but I once asked someone that, and he yelled at me. Either way, I'm not taking that chance.

I look at him with suspicion as he flips through one of the books he took off my bookshelf. Laying on my bed, he holds up the book as he reads and flips through it.

I nibble on my lower lip as I walk toward him. Sitting on the bed, I fiddle around with my fingers, as I wonder if I'm supposed to say anything.

I mean, he's reading so no, I'm not going to bother him, but it's also uncomfortable with me just sitting here.

He looks at me just for a second, then he goes back to the novel. In an instant, he does a double-take. His eyes immediately look at my lips. He stares at them.

I swallow. Blinking, I look up at him and he closes the book, his finger acting as a bookmarker. He shifts onto his side then he extends his arm, and he lightly runs his thumb over my lip.

I shiver a little at his cool touch. He parts my lips and I feel myself crumbling. The walls that had built up around me and secluded me from society and from. . .intimacy fall like glass; shattering.

A ball forms in my throat, and I wonder what he's going to do. His brown eyes are normally light, but now they're dark like roast. He looks me in my eyes then he looks back at my lips. This action continues for a minute or so until he begins leaning in.

My eyes become wide as he gets closer to me. He puts his hand under my chin and lightly brings me closer to him. As he gets nearer to my lips, and our foreheads are nearly touching, I pull away.

I rest my forehead on his. "I'm sorry," I say.

"Don't apologize." He whispers.

I nod a little. He was going to kiss me? Wow. I-I have no idea what to say about that.

"It's okay if you don't want to." He says.

"It's just. . .I've never kissed anyone before." I admit in a whisper.

He lifts my chin, making me look into his eyes. He cracks a smile. A beautiful, amazing smile.

"There's nothing wrong with that. You can take your time." He says, looking me in my eyes and I nod.

He then kisses me on my forehead. Butterflies swarm in my belly, making me feel all giddy, happy, and something else. . .something I haven't felt in a while.

A blush appears on my cheeks along with a smile. I hold my head down, not wanting him to see what he did to me. Just like he always does, he lifts my head, making sure that he sees what he's doing.

Which of course, made me blush even more. How does he do this? I guess millenniums of being alive makes him experienced.

"Why do you always hide your face from me when you blush? Don't you know how beautiful you look when that happens?" He says, his voice soft.

"Thank you." I squeak out.

I look up at him and he's looking right back at me with bright eyes. He's happy. I swallow, taking this as my time to ask him what was wrong with him earlier. I'm probably going to spoil a great moment but it's now or never.

"Hey, Nick—I can call you 'Nick' right?" he nods with a smile, "Alright, well, did something happen when you went to the palace earlier? You seemed upset when you came back."

Just as I bring it up, his smile vanishes and is replaced with a frown. His bright eyes dull and become darker.

I gulp as anxiety fills my body.

He closes his eyes, breathing in then he opens his eyes, exhaling.

"I'm okay, Flora just said something that aggravated me, that's all." He tells me, putting a clump of my curly hair behind my ear. He forces a smile.

That's not all of it. I know that I have no right to want to know about his personal life but honestly, I'm his girlfriend. Right? Aren't I?

He said I was. When I think about the number of things I know about him and what he knows about me it doesn't seem like we're dating. We're just in this weird middle area.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried." I apologize.

"Why are you apologizing? You didn't do anything wrong, Adara." He tells me and I nod.

It feels like I did.

He goes back to lying down on the bed, "What do you want to do right now?" He asks me, putting his hands behind his head and putting one of his feet over the other.

I sigh, dropping my shoulders, "Uhh, I don't know. I know what you want to do though." I tell him gesturing to the book that his hand is still in, acting as a bookmark.

He smiles, feeling guilty, "This is a great book." He tells me, holding it up.

"I know, it's one of my favorites. You get back to that, I'll find something to do." I tell him then he nods and he opens the book, continuing to read.

I look around my room, looking for something to do.

"Come here." He says and I look at him confused.

He holds the book with one hand then he extends the other one to me. Is he telling me to lie beside him? Yeah, no.

He sees my reluctance. "It wouldn't be the first time, Adara." He reminds me of the times he slept in my bed. Mind you, however, he was a Flaix.

"You were a Flaix," I tell him.

"What's the difference? It's still me. Was just a different body." He says.

That's the point though, if I lay beside him now, I'll be pressed against his body. He'd be pressed against me. That's a new level of intimacy. I'm not too sure I want to go there.

"I know but. . ." I trail off.

I get cut off by the ringing of my phone. My eyebrows scrunch together, I wonder who's calling me right now? It's 8:00 at night, why would anyone be calling me right now.

What if it's my parents? I quickly rush over and I answer the phone without even looking at the caller ID. I'm so eager for it to be my parents on the other line.

"Mom? Dad?" I say and there's hesitation on the other line.

"It's me, Ara." Via's small voice rings in my ear and I'd be lying if I say I wasn't disappointed.

It's been two days, nearly three, I desperately want my parents to call me. To tell me that they're alright, to ask how I'm doing but I guess that's way too much to ask.

"Oh," I answer dejected, "How are you?"

She sighs, "I'm okay. Why aren't your parents at home?" She asks me.

"They're away at a meeting, they'll be gone for a little while and they haven't called me yet. I've tried calling them but all I got was their voicemail." I tell her.

"Aww, maybe they're busy at the moment." She tries to make me feel better.

I frown. Could they be busy for two days straight? I'm sure they sleep. So couldn't they have at least sent a 'good night' text to check up on me?

"Yeah," I answer.

"Hey, can I come over and keep you company?" She asks.

I hesitate. I do want her to come over. We haven't hung out properly since school started. Last school year we hung out nearly every single day. Either she was at my house or I was at hers.

Sighing, I look at Nikolai to see him buried in the book. Well, he's not looking up any time soon. I make up my mind.

"Yeah, sure, we haven't hung out properly since school started back," I tell her and she squeals a little.

Nikolai looks up from the book and he looks at me. Confusion spread across his face, he wonders who I'm talking to.

"Yay! I'll be over in a few minutes." She tells me then the line disconnects.

"Who was that?" Nikolai asks me, with innocence evident in his voice, and I turn to him.

"Oh, just Via, she's coming over. Do you mind?" I tell him and he shakes his head.

Without saying anything, he goes back to reading the novel. I crease my eyebrows, what was that about? Is he upset that she's coming over? Does he not want her over? Why not? I mean, I haven't hung out with her properly in a while.

It's fine, Adara. It's your house, you don't need to explain yourself or feel sorry. Besides, Via is your best friend. You're allowed to see her.

Six or so minutes pass when I hear knocking at my door. My head lifts and I quickly run downstairs opening the door to let her in.

"Via!" I shout, hugging her tightly and she giggles hugging me back.

"Ara! Oh gosh, girl, it's been a while since I've been over. How are things?" She says then we part from the hug.

I let out a breath, "Everything's fine right now." I tell her.

That is the shortest way I can tell her about what's happening. It would take too long for me to say that I'm trying to find out about Justina's supposed pregnancy, trying to deal with dating the Vampire Prince, and juggling the paparazzi, not to mention the school work.

Ughh! Life right now is being super sucky to me. I have no idea why it's so rude to me. I just wanted a good junior year and a great start out to it all but instead, the opposite had to happen.

Via angles her eyes at me, "You sure? Even things with the Royal Family and the Prince especially. I heard about the latest girl claiming she's pregnant with his baby."

Right. I completely forgot about that. Awesome. Just more things on my plate and trying to deal with Nikolai and his accusations. I mean, I trust him but why would so many people come forward and try to ruin his image if it's all fake.

They can't be true though. They just can't. When he tells me things, it seems true. There is absolutely nothing about him that makes it seem like he's lying.

"Yeah, so far the only bad thing is that whenever I go out, the paparazzi follow me and asks me questions. Thanks to N—the Prince, I know how to get rid of them." I tell her the easy stuff. Not the stuff that's between me and Nikolai. Only between me and him.

"Oh, that's great then." I lock the door behind Via and lead her to the living room. I don't want to go up to my room right now. I know that she'd be completely freaked out that Nikolai is here. In my room to be exact. Lying on my bed. Reading one of my books.

Yeah, she'd flip out.

We sit on the couch and I lay my head on her lap as she fishes around for the remote. Once she finds it, she exclaims in victory then she immediately turns it on.

I know exactly what she's going to watch. Her favorite series, 'Junky'. It's this wacky show about kids who are addicted to drugs and have to save the world. It's a nice show I'm not going to lie but just not for me. I'll watch it with her but watching it by myself? No.

She clicks on the show then a smile comes on her lips. Just like that, the smile vanishes, and her brows scrunch together. Her head turns to the side, by the stairs.

What is she looking at?

"What is that? Is that a cub? Why do you have a cub?" Via asks me and my eyes widen then I immediately raise my head off her lap. I look at where she's looking.

Oh my gosh, he is adorable!

I see Nikolai in Flaix form trying to get down the stairs without falling. He slowly walks to the edge of the step then he peers his tiny, cute head out, and he takes a step but he miscalculated. He ends up falling. His entire small body falls, flips and twists until he is at the bottom of the stairs, his head woozy.

I immediately rush over to him, and I scoop him up in my arms. "Aww, are you okay?" I speak in a baby voice then I remember that it's Nikolai and not an actual animal.

Oh, goodness! I keep digging a grave for myself out of pure embarrassment. He's probably going to taunt me with this.

'My head hurts. I did not expect to fall.'

He complains and a smile extends on my lips. "It was cute," I tell him.

'My fall was cute?'

"Kinda," I admit with a tint of blush on my face.

I look at Via and she looks at me with sheer confusion written on her face. "Are you. . .talking to that cub? All I heard was purring and you answering." She says with widened eyes and pointing at us.

I look at Nikolai then at Via. Right, I completely forgot that she can't hear him. "Oh, no you know those things you do with animals?" I try to save myself.

"Oh yeah, right." She says.

I come back to the couch and I rest Nikolai on my lap. He steps around on my lap a few times before finding a position that makes him comfortable and he lays down, closing his eyes.

Did you finish reading that book?

'No, I wanted to be near you.'

Blood rushes to my cheeks and I blush.

Umm, okay?

Truth be told? I have no idea how to respond to that. I mean, how do I? Say thanks? Say 'me too'? I don't know.

Nikolai purrs then his small body begins moving up and down, signaling that he's asleep.

I smile. He's so adorable in this form. So so cute!

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