Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's note: Yea! I got the next chapter up. I hope you guys like it. It's a bit different than when I originally pictured it, but I felt things had to run a bit differently, so…

A Day Out

Tori sat on her chair while Kelly stood behind her brushing her blonde hair. She had already gotten in a light blue dress that flowed and wasn't puffy or heavy. She had a chain with a simple diamond on it. She looked down at her hands and sighed.

"Come on Tori, I know you don't want to do this, but you never know what could happen."

"I never know what could happen. I have to get up while it's still dark and I don't even get to go riding. And there'll be no sparring later all because I have to spend it with him."

Kelly had finished brushing through her hair and was now pulling two small sections of hair up and into a braid that was in the middle of the rest of her hair that hung to a little below her shoulders. "There's always tomorrow."

"Sure. So what exactly do I have to do today?"

"Well you father said that you two will have breakfast together in the east dining room, then you're to take him on a tour around the kingdom. For lunch you'll picnic by the Sadies Stream and you'll spend some of the afternoon there. Then you'll head back to change meeting again in the west dining room for supper."

"That's it?"

"Well, after dinner you're expected to sit together in the front room on the west side." Kelly came around to the front and gently let two strands of Tori's hair down on each side of her face. "Then it's bedtime."

"Nothing good will come of this you know."

Kelly smiled big and gave her a look that meant something fun, "You're forgetting that you won't have to see someone today."

"Who?"

"Your teachers."

Tori's lips slowly curled up, "That is one plus side. But you never know, I might prefer them to him. Right now it's a toss up." Kelly laughed causing Tori's mouth to drop before joining in. "Alright, alright. So am I ready?"

"Yes. Go on, try to enjoy yourself."

"I'll tell you what, if I do, then I'll be extra nice to him, but if I don't then I don't have to look at him again."

"Tori. I can't make that bet with you."

"Fine. But if I don't enjoy myself it's his fault."

"If that's what you say."

Tori smirked at Kelly who just smiled at her. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Or tonight. I mean I'll want to know all the wonderful details of your time with your future husband."

"Want me to tell you now?"

"No, I'll wait. Thanks though. Bye."

"Bye." Tori left the room and headed toward the east dining hall.

Blake woke up from a knock at the door. He rubbed his eyes and sat up looking around in the dark room. Was it morning already? His door opened up and someone entered his room, he quietly started to move when he saw the shape at the bottom of his bed. He didn't say anything as the figure stood there, but soon the shadow came to life, "What? Are you going to sit there all day?"

Blake rolled his eyes and got out of bed and quickly got dressed then he went and lit a torch on the wall. "Hunter, why'd you do that?"

"Needed to get you up."

"By standing by my bed?"

"No, you didn't answer, so I assumed you were still in bed." He finished by merely pointing at the bed as if that justified what he had done. "You have to head over to the east dining room. That's all the page was able to tell me." Hunter stood over by the small window and looked out. "The sun will be up soon. You'll have sunlight to eat your breakfast. I suppose that's supposed to make you more likely to start liking each other."

"Sunlight?" Blake asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

Hunter shrugged and continued, "You'll probably tour the kingdom to allow you to see what here is like, since she'll be coming to our country next time. Then you'll probably eat lunch somewhere quiet so you'll be able to talk and 'enjoy' each other's company. Then I don't know, walk. Then you'll come back here for supper, I'm assuming somewhere on the west side, and then you'll probably have to sit somewhere, just the two of you, and then you can come back here."

"How do you know?"

"Elizabeth."

"Right." Blake grew quiet as he felt Hunter close up again; he hated when that happened but unfortunately there was nothing he could do. He looked down at his dark blue outfit; he felt comfortable and that was the one thing he'd like about today. He ran one of his hands through his short black hair just to make sure it looked good and then he sat down on the bed.

"So are you ready?" The dark blonde asked as he turned towards his younger brother.

Blake shrugged his shoulders, "What's there to be ready for?"

Hunter smiled, "Well, you're going to have to head down to the dining room, just go down the hall until you get to the intersection and then turn right. From there you go straight until the end and its there."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. You be careful."

"I will." And with another smile at his older brother, who gave a small smile and nod in return, Blake headed off towards the east dining room. The way was easy enough so he didn't have trouble getting there at all. When he opened the doors he saw that the sun was beginning to come through the windows causing things to sparkle everyone and giving the girl who sat at the table a bit of an angelic appearance. He walked over and sat across from her where the only other table setting was. "Morning."

"Morning." He knew it came from her, but it had been quieter than when she had spoken up the night before. There was already some toast, and a hard boiled egg that sat on his plate with a glass of water to the side. He looked back up at her and motioned to his food; she only nodded.

They ate most of breakfast in silence until Blake broke it, "So what do we have to do after this?"

Tori raised an eyebrow, "Have to do?"

"Yes."

"Fine. We're going on a tour of the kingdom." Blake heard Tori say the last part in more of an annoyance which intrigued him; maybe she wasn't as bad as he thought.

"Sounds like it'll be loads of fun."

"Are you done yet? Because I'd like to get this day over with."

"Calm down. I'm done, when I'm done." Tori just looked away. Blake was confused he must have misunderstood the annoyance in her voice. Although she probably still didn't want anything to do with him, at least she was lucky; he definitely didn't want anything to do with her. He looked down at his food which was basically gone, "Alright, I'm ready, let's go."

He stood up and was about to head over to the other side to help her up when she stood up and walked towards the door. He followed her and wished that he could be in his room talking to Hunter, at least he made sense.

Tori folded her arms as Captain Brian had the horses move the carriage forward. She had been all willing to give Blake another chance by the time she had gotten to the dining room. She sat down and waited for him to come, but he was later. Okay only a few minutes late, but he was late. Then when he walked in there was something about him that once more made her heart start to race. Sure he was really cute, but something else kind and sweet was there. He had sat down opposite from her and he spoke to her first, usually she would have thought the other way around, but he started it. She had barely been able to find her voice but it had come out.

She wanted to listen to her heart, but then near the end of breakfast he had to say it. "Have to do." Obviously he didn't want to give her a chance and he wanted the day to be over with. She swallowed her accusations and instead tried to get him to say something else, instead it turned out that he didn't want to even see the kingdom. Kelly was wrong; there was no way that anything real could come from this.

The blonde felt the person next to her move a little and she stole a glance at him; he was looking out his side as they continued through the country and into the main town. The streets were coming alive with people on their daily routines; they stopped and pointed at the carriage, some waving while others went back to their work. Tori waved every now and then but soon found if very tiresome and was glad when the carriage moved to a quieter part of town.

The silence between the two young adults kept building, and it was only to soon that it would be ended as they stopped for lunch.

Blake looked around the area that they were having lunch. It was a quiet field with a stream nearby and woods on the other side. As Tori stepped out onto the grass she seemed a bit freer, but she had made it obvious that it wasn't going to happen. He followed her as she made her way to what seemed to be an almost familiar spot. The servant who had come along set out the blanket, followed by the food before they left. Soon it was only Blake and Tori as the carriage rode away.

"When are they coming back?"

"Can't wait to leave?"

"Look, I was just asking a simple question."

"And I asked you, so…"

"Well considering that you're completely unreasonable, so yeah I want to leave."

Tori's mouth opened a little in shock before she shook her head gently and looked clearly into Blake's brown eyes with her own blue eyes, "You're the one who didn't want to be here."

"You didn't want to be here. Don't you remember? Or do you suffer from no memory?"

Tori's eyes flashed, "Really, well at least I have a personality."

"That's the best you can come up with? I suppose all that intelligence comes from your older brother?"

"Leave Cam out of it."

"What are you going to do about it Tori?"

"I told you not to call me Tori. Only humans are allowed that."

"What's that supposed to be mean Vicky?"

"It's Victoria. But I forgot that all Brontëns are unintelligence."

"You don't know anything about my kingdom so stay out of it."

"What does it bother you?"

"Nothing you can say or do will bother me."

"Really?" A smile spread across Tori's face as Blake felt liquid running down the back of his neck. "Now you can cool down."

Blake grabbed her drink and poured it down her dress. "Better?"

Tori stood up and walked over near the water and stood with her arms folded, Blake did the exact same thing on the other side of the blanket.

Tori didn't know how long they had been standing there but she was sure that it was only a an hour until sunset. She still couldn't believe that Blake had poured the water down her dress. Sure she loved water, but that wasn't the point. But then again she had done it to him; she shouldn't blame him for getting her back. She looked over at him and felt the corners of her mouth tugging up just at the sight of him. Maybe she should go over and talk to him. She pursed her lips together as she thought about that idea but before she could act on it Captain Brian came back with the carriage. Susan got down and picked up the food. The Captain looked at her, "Princess, are you alright? You didn't eat anything."

"No, we just weren't hungry and want to go back to the castle."

"Very well."

After Susan picked up all the food, they got back onto the carriage and took off. After a while Blake finally spoke, but only so Tori could hear. "So couldn't handle that or me?"

"You don't take part in any of the equation."

"Right. Of course not."

Tori glanced in the front to see if Captain Brian or Susan were listening; if they were they were being very good not to show it. She moved closer to Blake, "Look you don't want to do this; I don't want to do this right?"

Blake was distracted by how close she was to slow his response just a second, "Y-yeah. Right."

"Well then let's just pretend and get through the rest of your time here. How much longer do you have?"

"Next week?"

"Alright, so we'll deal with it. We don't have to be near each other if y-we don't want to be, right?"

"Sounds good."

"Great." Blake sat up leaving Tori who slowly sat back up; thinking how odd is was that she was missing being close to him.

Captain Brian took a long route home so that by the time they got to the castle the sun was setting. The two quietly made their way into the west dining room and hungrily ate all the food. They didn't think much of anything else during supper. Afterwards it was Blake who spoke up, "Now what?"

"Well, we're supposed to sit and talk in the front room or something like that; however I'm tired, so I'm going to go to bed." Tori wanted to leave Blake as soon as she could. She wanted her heart to stop beating so hard when he got closer to her. Maybe that was supposed to be a good sign, but to her it just meant getting closer to someone who was responsible for her parents death.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Sure." She said with a shrug. Blake nodded and watched Tori depart leaving Blake to follow a little behind, confused about what exactly had happened between them that day, if it actually did mean something or not.