Thank you to all those who have been reading this fic. I hope you've been enjoying it so far.

So... here we move on to the next chapter.

An important warning note: I mentioned in a previous chapter that these stories take place in my AU. Well, said AU includes some behind the scenes stuff that hasn't been shown yet in the form of my fics, but which I plan to do at some point in the future. I tried to make the references to the 'relevant events' strong enough to stand on their own, but you'll be the judges on whether I succeeded.

Thanks to lostbutterflyutau on Tumblr (Adrianna Nadine on this site) for taking a look at two scenes on this chapter and giving me her thoughts on them.

I hope you enjoy.


Chapter 2 - Gorgeous Eyes

All too late, Alonso realized he should have been careful with what he wished for. Without the magister of trade's company, his stomach's protests were much more difficult to ignore, and even the other things he had to keep himself busy with in his messenger bag did not help much there.

His former self would have had less than exemplary attitudes - to say the least - but his current one thought he might as well do something productive while he waited. And even if said productive thing was difficult to focus on when he was so hungry, he knew from personal experience that hunger wouldn't be his biggest problem if he really needed to use it.

So, he grabbed his tamborita by its golden handle with black swirls and aimed it at his messenger bag, which lay on the floor by the door.

"Canaza!" he said as he tapped the tamborita's drum right over the silver horseshoe with red dots on it.

A pale yellow glow erupted around the messenger bag and it shot toward him so fast that Alonso could barely throw up the hand he'd tapped the tamborita with to grab it.

He frowned. He still had to practice to not put more magic than required into a given object. But at least it was a step up from the days he had problems moving anything heavier than a napkin even if it was only two feet from his tamborita.

Let's try again, then. He thought.

Those plans came to an end a moment afterwards, as the kitchen's doors creaked open behind him. Alonso turned behind and saw Julio Guzman approaching him with a plate in his hands and a rather surprised look on his face.

"Something wrong?" Alonso asked.

The man composed a neutral expression, which would have succeeded if not for his wide eyes. "I didn't know you could do magic, your highness."

Alonso frowned. Perhaps he shouldn't have started practicing magic in a place where anyone could stumble in at any time. But magic was something he had good reasons to get better at, and both Elena and Mateo had told him it took plenty of practice, which he had already learned from experience.

But he couldn't very well give the man all the details, even if he had to say something.

"Cordoba doesn't have a royal wizard," he explained. "And recent events made me realize what a gap that was. Avalor's royal wizard was kind enough to get me started on it a few months ago, and I was taking some time to practice."

That was all he dared to say. It was vague, but he didn't know the magister of trade well enough to bare his personal failures. The most he'd tell if pressed was about the incident where he couldn't do more about Victor and Carla Delgado than give them Pedro in an effort to slow them down while he sent Princess Elena a warning of their arrival - a warning she had never received, no thanks to her treacherous cousin.

It wasn't his most important reason to learn magic, but it was the only one he would dare to voice.

To his relief, Alonso didn't have to tell even that. Julio Guzman just nodded in acceptance as he approached the table, and Alonso held back a relieved sigh as he set the messenger bag on the floor and put the tamborita on his lap, on time for the other man to put his plate at the spot he had vacated.

"Here are the rissoles, Prince Alonso. My sister will bring the arroz rojo shortly."

"Thanks." Alonso replied before he turned to look at the dish that had been set down and the five snacks shaped like a half moon in it.

These rissoles' shape vaguely looked like that of the spinach puffs his grandfather loved to cook, and the deep friend exterior also was vaguely similar. But Alonso had eaten those countless times since he could remember, and could tell from the smell alone that these rissoles were nothing like his family's spinach puffs.

But they did smell delicious, and Alonso couldn't wait to try them.

"Is there any problem, Your Highness"

Julio's voice brought him back to reality, right on time for him to hear the kitchen's doors creaking again, presumably as Julio's sister walked out of it. Meanwhile, the man himself looked rather apprehensive. Apparently he hadn't liked that Alonso had decided to survey the rissoles before starting to eat them.

Well, there was no way out of it other than lying or being honest, and he was trying not to do the former, but he didn't really know how to do the latter without sounding offensive. Elena was right about the virtues of telling the truth, but it was difficult sometimes.

After some thinking, he settled on, "I was just thinking that these rissoles look like another snack I know, but I can tell from the smell alone they are clearly quite different."

Julio made a face as if he'd just spotted a plate of weird-looking food but was trying to hold back any honest comments on how it looked. Then, his eyes widened in very clear alarm, as Alonso could swear he felt a chill running down his back.

After a few seconds, there was a dull thud as something ceramic was set on a table, and then a female voice asked in a voice that sent a new chill down Alonso's back, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Alonso gulped at both the words and the question, as mortified as a child who'd said a swear word by accident. He might not be very bright, but he knew his attempt at politeness had been taken very wrongly.

Torn between his fear and what he would see and his fear at giving whoever had spoken another reason to be angry, Alonso slowly turned back to look at the woman.

And then all breath left his lungs for a different reason entirely.


A moment ago, Carmen's blood had been boiling.

Now a different kind of heat spread through her body.

The moment the prince turned to look at her and their eyes met, it was like a spark falling on kindling covered in alcohol. What she could only describe as liquid glow rushed through her body from the end of her braid to the tips of her toes. The rest of the world vanished even more thoroughly than when she lost herself in her cooking. She only knew his gaze, and she could only stare into his gorgeous eyes, as sweet and warm as melted chocolate, and somehow more like windows to his soul than an actual window would be even if it didn't have glass panes or curtains behind it. Her whole being tingled with fuzziness from eye contact alone, and she just wanted to keep staring and staring, to get to know the gaze's owner as deeply as she could stare into it, and pour herself out to him at the same time.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, a voice shouted at her what a load of nonsense it was for reasons she knew far too well.

Carmen ignored it.


An instant before, Alonso had shivered in fear.

Now he trembled from warmth.

The moment his eyes met hers, a light flared within him like a candle flame that only grew brighter and bigger and yet never burned. Every inch of his whole being seemed to be caressed by warm feathers as the rest of the world vanished much more completely than it ever did when he lost himself in all the horse-racing he did. All he knew was her gaze, and all he wanted to do was to stare into her gorgeous eyes, so much more beautiful than any gemstone he had ever seen, blazing with energy and passion with a softer kindness shining underneath. He remembered the old saying about the eyes being windows to the soul, but her eyes were like windows the Yacali had punched through.

He couldn't put exact words to the feeling, and he didn't want to. He just knew that he wanted to know he wanted to stare on and on, and get to know the woman those eyes belonged to as deeply as he could stare into them, and also let her get to know him just as deeply.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a voice shouted at him what a terrible idea it was for reasons he knew far too well.

Alonso ignored it.


Standing to Prince Alonso's right, Julio could only blink in confusion at what transpired before him. He had thought he would be about to see the heir to Cordoba get chewed out by Carmen over his comment on abuela's recipe, especially when Carmen made it a point to set down the bowl with arroz rojo on the nearest table before putting her hands on her hips.

But before Julio could even try to get ready to prevent what could be a diplomatic catastrophe, both Carmen's fury and Prince Alonso's fear seemed to shatter like crystal as they just started staring into each other's eyes like characters from those cheesy romance novels Julio would sometimes look at, the kind that fell in love at first sight and from that moment on could never be driven apart.

Nonsense, as far as Julio was concerned. Carmen was not celibate by any means, but he couldn't remember her paying much attention to her dates' loks. As for Prince Alonso, Julio knew he had gone out with plenty of girls, and even if it seemed that in his particular case they really were just dates, he still wasn't impressed.

Point was, neither of them seemed the kind to fall in love at first sight. And yet, unless Julio's eyes and other senses were deceiving him, that was happening at this very moment.

Julio snapped out of those thoughts as something seemed to shift in their gazes, but neither of them broke eye contact.

"You have gorgeous eyes," Prince Alonso whispered as if he just couldn't keep that to himself.

"You too," Carmen replied in a matching tone.

As far as eyes went, Julio could swear his own had widened to the size of pumpkins. Really? This had to be beyond any cheesy romance novel he had ever glimpsed!

And yet, from their tones, Julio knew both of them meant every sound they made.

He just hoped he wouldn't actually start to see pink hearts popping out of them.

As if that thought was all it took to break the magic, both Carmen and Prince Alonso jerked as if snapping from a trance, and Carmen even shook her head like a wet dog before putting a fierce glare back on her face and drawing the serving spoon from the bowl of arroz like a sword as she stomped over to Alonso and leaned down so close into his face that their noses were almost touching.

"Just who do you think you are to come here and talk like that?" she demanded. "You may be used to caviar and foie gras and I don't know whatever else you stuck-up fancy royals eat, but that gives you no right to be rude! If you don't like the food, just say so! And if you don't like it, you may as well go hungry! But you're not coming here to throw thinly veiled insults at these recipes!" She raised the serving spoon toward the prince's face so fast he barely managed to lean away from it. "Do you understand?"

Julio gulped as Carmen glared at the wide-eyed prince. He knew Carmen could get touchy when someone disparaged abuelita's cooking, especially when it happened close to sensitive times of the year, but he had never seen her this cross. Thankfully Prince Alonso seemed startled rather than outraged, but Carmen might well be about to ruin the alliance between Avalor and Cordoba. Julio understood where she was coming from, but he had to somehow temper her extreme reaction.

He raised his hand to draw their attention, but then Carmen made it a point to intensify her glare before she straightened herself and turned around to stomp her way back to the kitchen.

She only got halfway there before her foot slid against the floor and her whole body turned upwards as a cry flew from her lips.


So... this was chapter 2. I hope you've enjoyed it.

I can't promise when chapter 3 will come, but I hope it won't take too long.