Slowly, you pushed the door open a crack and peeked out. You looked down the hall one way, then the other. Then you began to open the door further. You slipped out of the slightly open door and closed it behind you. You were careful to be extremely silent. You walked down the hall wondering if Kouha would actually care that you had left his room anyway. He probably said that in a fit of anger and had forgotten that he had ever said it in the first place. However, that wasn't important, all that mattered to you was to get as far away from him as you could. Why he had hit you so much was beyond your knowledge. If you could just get to other people he wouldn't be able to hurt you, after all it was against the law to abuse you. Maybe if you went to Jinjin and those other 2 maids you would be okay, you then remembered how those 3 maids had reacted to being hit by Kouha and concluded they probably wouldn't help you. In fact they would most likely be jealous. You needed to find somewhere else to go.

You continued walking quietly through the halls until you figured you had gone far enough from Kouha's room to walk a bit faster and louder. You began speedily walking down the halls until you reached the door to the outside. You didn't know where Kouha might be, but he could be anywhere. He may even be outside this door! Stealthily you peeked out the door only to see a figure standing right outside. You gasped as your eyes fixed on the pink hair. Swiftly you attempted to close the door but instead you shoved it into your forehead and tripped forward flying out the door.

Laying on the floor you saw feet running towards you. You winced preparing to be hit again.

"Are you alright?"

'Huh?' You looked up to see that it wasn't Kouha but a girl who looked a bit similar to him. At least you hoped she was a girl.

"I'm okay." You said anxiously, expecting Kouha to appear any moment.

"You don't sound okay, I can call some servants to take you somewhere to rest."

You sat up and took in to account what she just said. "Are you a member of the royal family?"

"C-can you not recognize me?" Her face look flustered, maybe you shouldn't of asked that. "I'm the Eighth Imperial Princess, Kougyoku Ren."

Seeing that she was a princess you decided to treat her with more respect, although you weren't quite sure how to go about this. "I'm sorry Princess, I spoke carelessly."

"I-it's fine." She replied and began to walk off. You let out a sigh. That was nerve wrecking. The whole time you were afraid Kouha would show up.

You now hurried off towards the main palace. You decided, for the time being, it would hopefully be safer over there. Then an idea came to you, you could try to get an audience with the king. A country couldn't just make laws and not enforce them. If Kouha kept mistreating you, you could bring it up in a court of law. You paused, no one would believe it if a slave like you made an accusation against the third imperial Prince. You would need to have evidence. Your shoulders dropped, you stopped walking and stood there. In order to get evidence you would have to go back. You let out a little moan and turned around. You could to deal with being slapped a little at least he wasn't doing anything too extreme. In fact when you thought about it, you might just be overreacting. He hit you but it just had happened that one time. Besides when you first met him he didn't seem like a crazy person, in fact he was kind of sweet. You remembered how he told you not to leave and now you felt a hint of guilt. You decided to get back without him noticing you had left.

Now you ran across the gardens and made back to the west wing of the palace. It was already getting dark. You neared the door you had slammed into your head into earlier. The door creaked open and you entered. Quickly but quietly you made progress back to Kouha's room. Just as you turned a corner you saw Kouha going straight to the door to his bedroom. You ducked out of sight. You worried about what to do then quickly grabbed your shoe and threw it into at a vase sitting on a table in the hall outside his room. You felt a little bad, it looked new.

You saw Kouha jump, then as he walked over to the broken glass you made a dash to the door. You opened it and slammed it shut before Kouha could even turn around. Once in the room you leapt onto the couch just as Kouha opened the door. You slipped the other shoe you were wearing under the couch.

"(Name), did you leave this room?" He questioned you.

"No, no I've been here this whole time." You laughed out, ugh why did you have to be so bad at lying.

He looked at you suspiciously but didn't question you anymore. You couldn't believe that he would believe you so easily. He walked over to where you were sitting and wrapped his arms around you. "I'm-so-bored." He moaned on you. "(Name), I wanna do something."

"Then go do something," you said while pulling his arms off you. "Well, I guess since you're here I can leave now." You began to walk to the door.

"No, I wanna do something with you." He jumped onto you wrapping his arms around you again.

"Okay, just get off of me."

"Alright," he agreed. "(Name), what do you wanna play?"

"I don't know, chess?"

"No, can't you think of something more exciting?"

"If your going to complain, why don't you think of something?"

"Ugh!" He jumped into his bed. Not only did he look like a kid, he could seriously act like one too.

You sighed "Can I leave now?" Once again you began to head to the door, excited to leave.

"(Name), you belong to me." He slid of the bed. "That means you have to do what I say and I say you're never allowed to leave my room." He walked over to you and hugged you tight. "You're never allowed to leave my side. If you do I'll make you regret it"

"What?"

"..." He stood in place holding you tight and nuzzling his head into your neck. After a while his grip slowly loosened.

"Prince Kouha?"

"..." You looked at his face to find him sleeping. 'Huh? How does someone fall asleep like that?' You didn't know what to do about him when you heard a knock at the door. You dragged him over to the couch and sat him down as someone let them self in. It was the maid, Jinjin, from before. She brought in a steaming hot meal in which was probably Kouha's dinner. She looked at him asleep on the couch.

"I'll come back later." She said as she walked out the door.

"Wait!" You called out to her hoping to have her help you, but she had already left. You looked over at Kouha's sleeping face. His mouth was slightly open as he gently breathed in and out. You sat down next to him. It seemed almost on cue he tipped over onto you. A little bit of drool ran down his cheek then onto your bare arm. You slowly laid him on the couch while you got up. You wiped the drool of of yourself and back onto him. You looked down at his sleeping figure 'Maybe I should have put him on the bed?' You wondered but decided to leave it be. You opened the door to his room, turned around to look back...

...and left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~