The Princess and the Dragon
"Are you sure you aren't gay? You have a long hair and you have a male best friend, who's always close to you!"
"I have nothing against gay but I assure you I am not a gay."
"How can you be sure? I mean, maybe you just don't realize it since you say you don't know how to like someone!"
Julius was tempted to snap at Alice that he told her that statement when he was four and he was now seventeen years old. That and he liked Alice, not Ace or any other males.
He could just hear the snickers of triumph from the dragon, who was watching at the corner of the room. The dragon after all was the mastermind of why Alice was now a fujoshi.
He wondered why he was still even in the castle after finding that Alice was not a damsel-in-distress princess and that the dragon was her cursed sister, Lorina.
.oxo.
When Julius heard that Alice was captured by a dragon, he had gotten worried of his childhood friend and secret crush and his best friend, Ace, suggested they try to rescue her. He had thought it was a stupid idea since the two of them were not trained to fight dragons.
Even if he was worried for Alice, he was not stupid enough to rash things.
He wouldn't be able to save Alice like that but then, he knew that Ace wouldn't take no as an answer so he devised a plan that included Ace to distract the dragon while he went ahead to rescue Alice. It was much better than him fighting the dragon. At least, Ace knew how to fight and actually like fighting.
It didn't mean that they did it as soon as possible. It took a month for Julius to finally decide that they were ready. The two of them went to the tower and didn't saw the dragon at first. They quickly went inside the tower and went to the top, where a single room was located.
Ace grinned in excitement while Julius was sighing and was thinking if he could back out. As the door was opened, he didn't know what to think of the scene he came across with.
Alice was happily shining the scales of the so-called dragon which kidnapped her. It didn't even look like she was forced into the tower. Her clothes and possessions were there in the room as if she had the time to get packed.
"Alice?" Julius called out as Ace was laughing at the situation. He got an excited cry of his and Ace's name from the female and an angry growl from the dragon. "What are you doing?"
"Ah, I'm just making Lorina's scale shiny! Sometimes, Big Sister doesn't take care of her wings that well so I take it my mission to do it for her!"
'Lorina? Her big sister?' he thought to himself but he could only see a dragon in the room. 'Is she talking about the dragon?'
"Eh, your sister is the dragon?" Ace wondered in amazement and analyzed the creature. "So cool! I want to have a sibling like that!"
"I know, right?" Alice smiled at him, causing Lorina to glare at the male. Somehow, Julius was seeing a pattern. "Lorina said that this tower will be our new home and that I would be protected here. She also said that this tower has all that I need and of course, she is right!"
"Why is she a dragon?" Julius finally asked and when Alice's attention was on his, he was not surprised to feel heated glares from the dragon. It seemed like the dragon hated males or someone that took Alice's attention.
"Ah, that. She said that she made a deal with a witch to turn her into a dragon so she can protect me!" Alice said a little guilty that she was the cause of Lorina's transformation. "I didn't like it before but now, I'm glad she did it! I'm more happy than ever and Lorina's happy, too, so that's all that matters!"
"So you aren't kidnapped?" Ace was pouting at this. "Does that mean I don't get to fight a dragon and rescue the princess?"
Alice looked confused at that but then said, "I don't know about rescuing the princess but I think, Lorina can fight you just fine."
So the knight and the dragon fought each other outside with Alice and Julius watching by the window of the tower. Alice didn't like going out of the tower so Julius just stayed behind as well. They were able to see the fight by looking with binnacles.
"Are you not planning on ever going back to your village?" Julius started the conversation awkwardly.
"Mm, I'm not needed to the village anymore. Edith always wanted to be the queen, not me so I'm okay with just being here with Lorina. Going outside of the tower is dangerous," Alice said honestly.
"I see," the male didn't know how to convince her otherwise. He could respect her wishes but it didn't mean he liked not being with her like old times. He had really liked her company.
A bright smile came from Alice as she said, "You can come visit again if you want to, Julius!"
He let a small smile at that and felt that a pang of hope was filling in his stomach.
After that, he decided to visit her again when he had time. Sometimes, he would brought Ace. In all those visits, Lorina had always glared at him and caused trouble to him without Alice noticing.
So when she left him alone one day, it caused him to be suspicious. He walked towards Alice who was too focused in what she was reading to notice his arrival and looked at the book he was reading.
It was a manga, a BL manga to be exact and he was quick to step away. He coughed a little to get her attention.
"Julius?" Alice blinked in confusion before smiling. "It's nice of you to visit again. It gets really boring in this place. I'm sorry I didn't notice you. I was reading the BL manga that Lorina gave me."
'So it is a BL manga,' Julius wanted to curse the dragon-slash-sister. 'Lorina really is a formidable enemy for Alice's suitors. Should I be glad that she wasn't pairing me up yet or should I be worried that she will pair me up with other guys in the future?'
"Ah, that reminds me! You and Ace are close, right?" Alice asked with a glint of a yaoi fan girl.
"NO!" Julius denied it firmly. Yes, they were actually close and were best friend but if he had answered like that, he feared that Alice would misunderstand the idea.
"Oh," too say Alice was disappointed was an understatement but it was better than her misunderstanding the situation.
He had been firmer at the statement when Blood, a prince from another village, came with his best friend, Elliot. He had never seen Lorina that vengeful and spiteful. It was like Alice also knew of the man but she couldn't remember well.
Blood had tried to charm Alice and tried to convince her to get out of the tower but after seeing how he and Elliot acted like, Alice had gotten into her fan mode and shipped the two.
Julius was the unfortunate one to hear about how Alice really had thought of the two but in a way, he was glad that Alice didn't like Blood. It meant he had no rivals yet but in the end, he was still in the friend zone and Alice could pair him up to any male any moment.
But then, it happened. Alice had paired Julius up with Ace of all people and had asked Ace if he liked Julius. The idiot had stupidly said yes and didn't elaborate that it was only as a friend so now, Alice was pairing Julius and Ace out. It had actually became her OTP.
Really, he wondered how he could change the female's opinion at that. Well, he could confess his love for her or even kiss her but he had already done the two of them and Alice just thought it was something friends do.
Again, Lorina's fault for giving her books about how normal friends were affectionate and it was normal for friends to give kisses to each other.
So he's stuck with trying to get Alice understand that he didn't like Ace that way. He was actually tempted to cut his hair in a more manly manner and confessed again.
.oxo.
Cat: Ah, somehow that seemed incomplete but it's really just a one-shot! This is for Bee! I finally had gotten the time to write this. I don't know if it's a good spin-off but I really hope it's just fine!
(To Bee: Remember you were asking for a spin-off of Chapter 4? I didn't know how to the champion thing so I did a somehow Rapunzel story instead. I hope you're fine with it!)
