Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing the Children of the Red King universe from Jenny Nimmo for amusement purposes with the full intention of giving them back afterward. I am in no way making any profit or gain from using them.

Manfred's Mustache Mayhem is written for and dedicated to my wonderful friend, Prince of Cardboard. Without her, I never would have realized Manfred had a mustache.

Manfred's Mustache Mayhem

Chapter I

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Do you mind?" growled the pony-tailed boy sitting across from her at the circular table.

She immediately stopped tapping her pen against the table and answered back meekly, "Sorry Manfred."

He stared pointedly at her until Emma focused on her homework again. As soon as he looked away, Emma found her gaze drawn towards the surly older boy. She had never really looked at him before and usually tried to avoid him. Manfred was very intimidating. Even more so to Emma because he was the one that had kept her hypnotized for most of her life.

"Manfred has such wonderful eyes. You can literally get lost in them," she giggled internally. "He does look good with the whole bad boy appearance he has going for him."

Emma found her eyes slipping down to his lips when she was stopped by the wisps of hair on his upper lip.

"He has a mustache!" Emma's heart dropped. "I know some people look good with it, but mustaches are so not for Manfred. He would be absolutely gorgeous without it. The two of us would be the perfect couple…without that mustache, of course."

While Emma was contemplating different strategies to get Manfred to lose his mustache, his head shot up and he said icily, "Why are you staring at me instead of working?"

Emma ignored his hostility and mused out loud, "Have you ever considered shaving your mustache?"

"I-what?" Manfred had not been expecting Emma's answer and was uncharacteristically flustered by her question.

"You'd look so much hotter without it," she said nonchalantly before concentrating on her homework again, ignoring the questioning looks from the others.

Manfred fingered his mustache thoughtfully. He had never considered shaving it off before. He had always thought it made him look tough and added to his intimidation factor.

"Who does that little chit think she is, telling me to shave it off?" he scowled at his reflection in the mirror. "It was probably some immature little joke. And that pesky Charlie Bone was probably involved in it too, I bet."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a raven sitting outside his window, looking almost mournful. When he whirled around to shoo it away, it was already gone.

The next day in the King's room, Manfred could feel Emma's burning stare on him. He chanced a glance at her, but looked away after seeing the disgusted look on her face. Was she really that annoyed that he hadn't taken her suggestion seriously?

"What does she care anyways? Unless…she likes me but is extremely turned off by my mustache," Manfred snorted at that ludicrous idea.

The clock chimed eight o' clock and he stood up and dismissed the others. Emma had fallen behind the others, but Manfred took no notice of it and headed off to his room. He had nearly made it when he heard a flutter of wings behind him. He turned around and a blur flashed across his face, taking his mustache with it.

"What the…?" he trailed off as the bird that had taken his mustache morphed slowly back into Emma Tolly. "Why did you-?"

His words were cut off when she crushed her lips against his. Manfred was frozen on the spot, shocked by her unexpected action. Emma moved against him feverishly and backed him up against the wall. She deepened the kiss and slipped her tongue inside his unresponsive mouth. The feel of her mouth working against his shell-shocked lips was enough to make Manfred forget she had just sliced his mustache off. The shock that had rendered him immobile lifted slightly when she let go. She traced her finger across his clean upper lip.

"Much better," she smiled perkily before sauntering off, leaving a semi-comatose Manfred behind.

The Word of the Awesome: So the edited chapter one is up now. Not much edited in this one; a bit of rearranging more towards the beginning but that's pretty much it for this one. The other chapters will definitely be seeing more changes.

Also, I'm starting high school next week so that means my updates will be even slower than normal. And we all know how horrible I am at updating already (Please proceed to move at a glacial pace, you know how that thrills me xP).