Author's Notes: I'm so sorry this chapter has taken forever. I had a major case of writer's block. I'll try to get another chapter out before Sunday. Anyways, I hope you guys like this one. I don't think it's very well-written, certainly not my best, but there's a fair bit of action in it. Reviews are very much appreciated!

Michael's shoes made loud clicking noises on the marble floor as he walked along the darkened hallway. Unexpectedly, he walked into something and banged his shin against the wall. Crying out in pain, he bent down and removed his shoes, rubbing his leg furiously. The castle during the day scared him enough – at night, it was deathly quiet and pitch black.

It was their first night there, and Michael was trying desperately with no success to find the bathroom. He kept walking, hoping that he wouldn't unexpectedly suddenly wet his pants or anything embarrassing like that. He had to find the bathroom sometime soon. As Michael walked, he spotted a light underneath a door, and walked over to it. He stood outside the door and checked his watch. "Four in the morning," Michael muttered, and frowned. Shouldn't everyone else be asleep by now?

Curiosity getting the best of him, Michael knocked lightly on the door. When there was still no response a few minutes later, Michael pushed open the door and walked inside, to find himself in Mia's bedroom. Only, Mia was nowhere to be found. Michael looked around in awe. They had only been in Genovia for one day, and so far, Michael hadn't been anywhere near Mia, due to Kenny's prevailing thought that Michael was stalking Mia. He shook his head, laughing slightly in bitter contempt for Mia's boyfriend.

Shutting the door quietly behind him, Michael walked inside a little bit further. The floor in Mia's room was hardwood, but he was standing on a bright blue fuzzy rug. Michael sat down and removed his shoes, throwing them to the side a little bit. Remaining seated, his eyes continued their perusal of her bedroom.

It was not what Michael would have expected from Mia. The room was as neat as a pin, and Michael wondered what exactly Mia had been like before she'd moved to the United States. Nothing, and he meant nothing, was out of place in Mia's room. It almost looked as if no one had been living in it – a complete opposite to Mia's room in Helen Thermopolis' New York loft.

Michael let out a cry of surprise as a pair of hands laid themselves on his head and fingers began weaving through his dark hair. He turned around to find Mia standing behind him, a confused smile on her face. "Hey," Michael said softly, smiling up at her. He reached up and grabbed her hand and pulled her down to sit beside him on the rug. "It's a funny story, really…" Michael started, interrupted by Mia's lips on his.

"Shh," she muttered in between kisses.

Michael smiled.

When Mia finally pulled away, eyes shining, she looked at Michael quizzically. "So, what are you doing in my room at four in the morning?" She asked, an amused tone present in her voice. "Just had to see me that badly that it couldn't wait until tomorrow morning, hey?"

In response, Michael rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Yeah, right. Wait until tomorrow morning? Kenny thinks I'm stalking you and he won't let you out of his sight for even ten seconds. How am I supposed to get around that?" Michael sighed, despite his playful tone. "I was just up looking for the bathroom," he continued, remembering the fact that he still had to go.

Mia laughed and pointed to a door on the other side of the room. "You can use mine," she offered.

Relieved, Michael jumped up and ran to the door on the other side of the room that Mia had pointed to and walked in to find a bathroom that must have been bigger than his entire bedroom back in New York. He finished, washed his hands, and returned to Mia's room to find her lying in bed, covers pulled up tight around her, her eyes closed delicately.

Michael snuck up to Mia's side and kissed her cheek softly, lying himself down beside her. Her eyes fluttered open and she turned her head and smiled at Michael, who smiled back. He turned over slightly and reached underneath the covers to find Mia's hand and grasp it within his own.

After lying in this position for what seemed like not a long time at all to Michael, Mia's breathing had become regular and he assumed that she'd fallen asleep. Michael smiled to himself and released his hold on her hand, kissing her lightly on the lips as he got up from his place beside her on her bed. He walked over to her door and shut off the lights, closing the door quietly behind him. He hoped he'd get to see more of her tomorrow morning than he had yesterday, due to Kenny's watchful eyes.


The next morning, Michael woke up to the sun streaming through the windows invasively. Rubbing his eyes furiously and swearing under his breath, he glanced at the clock sitting beside him. Eight in the morning. In other words, much too early for Michael's comfort. He rested his head back on his pillow, pulling the corners in over his ears to block out the sunlight. All efforts to do so were fruitless, however, and Michael resigned himself to waking up.

He showered quickly in the bathroom down the hallway, and then got dressed for the day in some comfortably tight black pants, a black canvas belt with a silver buckle, and a light blue Desaparecidos shirt, along with a black pair of converse chuck taylors. He looked himself up and down in the mirror and ran his fingers through his hair, messing it up slightly and pulling some to rest across his forehead. Mia had told him she liked it best that way. Satisfied, Michael smiled at his reflection confidently and headed down to the dining room where breakfast was to be served.

Upon his arrival, Michael found that Kenny, Mia, Grandmere, Tina, and Lilly, were all already sitting down to eat. Mia looked up when she heard Michael enter, and flashed him a secretive smile, followed by an apologetic look when her eyes left his to land on Kenny, who sat directly to her right, his hand firmly grasping hers. Michael sighed. Tina sat on Mia's other side, and Michael resigned himself to a spot at the table directly across from Mia.

Seconds after Michael sat down, a man in a stark white uniform, crisp and clean, sat a plate full of breakfast food down in front of him. Michael looked up in surprise and thanked the man, stuttering slightly. Across the table, Kenny laughed at Michael.

Michael rolled his eyes and dug into his breakfast, ignoring Kenny completely.

And then, he was whispering in Mia's ear. Mia giggled, slightly nervously. Michael shot Kenny a glare, but Kenny didn't seem to notice, as he was too busy playing with Mia's long, straight, shiny hair. Michael dropped his fork on the table loudly, hoping that the noise would catch Mia's attention and pry her away from her disgusting boyfriend.

The plan failed. Michael sighed. "What are we doing today?" Michael asked, impatiently, to no one in particular.

Mia leaned away from Kenny and as a result, Kenny righted himself in his seat and unlaced his fingers from Mia's to continue eating his breakfast. Michael smiled smugly to himself.

"I think we're going for a walk this morning..." Mia started. "At least, Kenny, Lilly, and Tina wanted to go for a tour of the castle grounds. If you wanted to come, you're definitely welcome to," she offered, a smile lighting up her face as she made eye contact with Michael.

Lilly looked back and forth between the pair, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Why would Michael want to spend the day hanging out with us?"

Michael shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance. "I have nothing better to do," he said, shrugging, hoping that he sounded non-committal and not at all like someone who was completely after someone else's girlfriend.

Lilly rolled her eyes. "Whatever." She didn't look convinced by Michael's lame answer.

Mia sensed the tension in the air and quickly changed the subject. "I'm so done with this breakfast," she said abruptly. "Is everyone else done? Because if we are, I'm totally up for showing everyone around right now, if you guys are ready to go."

The general consensus was that everyone was done their breakfast. Michael no longer had any appetite for the pancakes that laid in front of him due to the disgusting outright displays of affection between Princess Mia and her official royal consort at the breakfast table. He pushed his plate away and got up from the table, following Mia and the rest of her friends out of the dining room. They stopped once they reached a large, open space near the front door of the castle.

Mia coughed and spoke up. "I just need to go get a jacket from my room, so I'll be back in a few minutes. And if anyone else needs to go get anything right now, you guys should do that and then we'll meet back here when everyone's done that." She turned and walked towards the stairs and began to climb them.

As for Michael, he had grabbed a red thick hooded sweatshirt before leaving his room, because he knew that Genovia in the wintertime could probably be kind of cold outside, and just in case they were going outside, he'd be prepared.

Tina sat down on the floor with Lilly and the pair quickly began whispering about something. Kenny was wandering around aimlessly, and then after a few minutes of that, he wandered off and out of Michael's sight. Sighing, Michael sat down on the floor alone and waited.


Mia went into her closet and grabbed a black pea coat and slung it over her shoulder. She stood there for a minute, looking off into space, letting her thoughts drift to her situation with Michael and Kenny. It wasn't fair, what she was doing. It wasn't fair to either Michael or Kenny. Michael was being patient with her, and she had sworn to Michael that she would break up with Kenny for him. Why couldn't she? It wasn't as if she actually liked Kenny anyways. For some weird reason, she was just absurdly concerned with not hurting his feelings.

But while she was trying so hard to not hurt Kenny's feelings, she was hurting Michael. And she could tell that every time Kenny held Mia's hand or whispered in Mia's ear or worse, kissed Mia, Michael tried not to notice, but on the inside, it was killing him.

A tear escaped from Mia's eye, and she brushed it away. She had to be back down in the main foyer to meet her friends. Mia closed her closet and ran out her bedroom door, shutting it loudly behind her. She ran towards the stairs, but was stopped abruptly when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her from behind. She giggled when the person blew quickly and softly into her ear.

Mia closed her eyes and turned herself around in his arms and kissed his lips, gently at first but then deepening the kiss slightly. She pulled away after a few moments, her cheeks flushed and her eyes still closed. "Michael," she said, distinctively and clearly. She felt her assailant pull away from her slightly.

"What did you just call me?"

Mia opened her eyes. "Oh, shit," she said, under her breath, as she looked guiltily into Kenny's angry eyes. "I didn't mean it... I thought you were someone else."

Kenny's eyes narrowed. "Why would you think I was Michael?" He let go of her and let his arms fall to his sides. "Damn it, Mia, I'm your boyfriend. And I'm demanding to know what's up with you and Moscovitz. I'm not stupid, you know. I can tell that something's up between you two and you're just not telling me what it is."

Out of the corner of her eye, Mia spotted Michael coming up the stairs. "Hey, guys, what's going on?" Michael asked, a concerned tone in his voice. Probably due to the way that Kenny was staring angrily at Mia and Mia was about to cry.

Kenny spoke up before Mia could. "Mia called me by your name when I came up and kissed her in the hallway a few minutes ago. Maybe you want to explain to me what the hell this is all about? I'd really like it if someone could." Kenny finished.

Michael feigned innocence and widened his eyes. "I have no idea why Mia would do that," Michael said airily, shooting a glare at Mia. "I don't have any feelings for Mia and she doesn't have any feelings for me. You're just being a paranoid freak, Showalter," Michael finished, and patted Kenny's shoulder condescendingly, laughing to himself. "Now can we get over this third-grade drama and go already? Tina and Lilly are getting anxious."

Kenny stomped away from both Mia and Michael and walked down the stairs ahead of them, his back arched and head held high. Mia looked over at Michael, her eyes filling up with tears. "Michael, why did you say that to me? That's not the way I feel, and you know it."

Michael sighed and quickened his pace, leaving Mia to walk down the stairs by herself. Truthfully, he'd said those things because he was getting upset with Mia. And he was beginning to wonder whether or not she'd actually break up with Kenny or if she was just stringing Michael along, playing a game in which she controlled the emotions of two unsuspecting boys. Michael didn't like being played with. Especially not when he felt the way that he did about Mia.

Wondering what on earth she'd just done, Mia walked down the stairs listlessly.


"And this is the lake," Mia said, leading the group of her friends up one of the docks on their small lake. It was peaceful and calm out on the water, and the sun reflected off the clear blue water. The lake was surrounded by trees that had been planted years ago and now were tall and reached up into the sky majestically. This dock was one of Mia's favorite places to just come and sit and be alone. She'd spent many hours out here by herself. The royal family owned a few small recreational boats, and they were all tied up at another dock down a few hundred meters.

Lilly coughed and spoke up. "Wow...I think this is the most beautiful place you've shown us today, Mia," she said, her voice clearly in awe.

Tina nodded. "Yeah," she echoed.

Michael kept his distance from Mia, and he noticed that Kenny was doing the same thing. But when Kenny walked off with Tina and Lilly to go see some ducks that had gathered on the other side of the trees, he thought he'd take initiative once he and Mia were alone to talk to her. They needed to talk. There were things that they needed to get straight with each other. And if Mia wasn't going to start conversation with Michael, Michael would take matters into his own hands.

When Kenny, Lilly, and Tina had disappeared from sight, Michael approached Mia from behind. She was standing near the edge of the dock and just staring out onto the water, her hair blowing behind her in the warm wind.

"Mia?" He said, softly.

She turned around to face him, and Michael caught sight of the fact that she'd been crying. His heart nearly broke as she lifted a hand to her face and wiped away her tears. Her eyes were red and blotchy, her cheeks stained with tears. "Oh, Michael," she said, in a sad voice, "I've ruined everything. I've messed everything up."

Michael couldn't deny it. And even though she had been crying, Michael couldn't deny the fact that he was still kind of angry with her. Angry, as well as frustrated. "Yeah," he said. "You kind of have." He knew it was mean, but he couldn't help himself. He was just so hurt by her. "I'm getting sick of waiting for you, Mia. You said you'd break up with Kenny. And now I'm beginning to doubt whether you were actually being truthful, or just lying to me."

Mia's voice rose, and she stepped towards Michael aggressively. "Why would I lie to you, Michael?"

Michael spoke back to her in a heated tone. "I don't know, Mia! Why would you lie to me? Are you just playing some sort of stupid game where you get to control what Kenny and I do? Do you get some sort of sick pleasure out of hurting me? Damn it, Mia, I like you a lot and I'm sick of you toying with me like this!"

Mia's eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not playing any sort of game," she cried. "You don't understand what it's like for me at all, Michael! I can't just break up with him. I don't want to hurt him."

"Don't you care about not hurting me?" Michael shouted. "Or are Kenny's feelings all that matter here?! Because that's the impression that I'm getting from you, Mia. I'm hurt, by you, and no one seems to care about that. You don't. You said you liked me, and you don't even act like it anymore!"

Michael was breathing hard, and he knew he'd almost gone too far. He couldn't even look at Mia's face because he knew that he'd hurt her with his angry statements. He'd yelled at her.

But it was the truth, what he'd said.

For once, he had just let her know exactly what he was feeling. And in some sick form, it made Michael feel better. He'd just gotten everything off his chest. Everything that he'd been keeping inside since he and Mia had expressed their feelings for each other a few weeks ago.

After a few moments of tension-filled silence, Mia spoke up so quietly Michael had to lean closer to her to hear her. "I do like you, Michael. And it was never my intention to hurt you. Ever."

Michael's resolve to remain angry with her crumbled as she spoke with such a dejected, defeated tone. He sighed, running his hands through his hair. She was standing not even a foot away from him now, and he could feel the warmth eminating from her. He couldn't stay mad at her.

He held out his arms to her, and she looked up at him with shining eyes and stepped closer to him, resting her head just below his shoulder, wrapping her own arms around him. "I'm sorry for yelling at you," he whispered in her ear.

His breath tickled against her ear, and Mia giggled quietly, despite herself. "Forgiven," she said softly, and leaned her face up to his.

He met her waiting lips with his, in a soft and delicate kiss filled with his love for her. Love? He pushed the thought out of his mind as he continued to kiss her. He didn't need to think about that right now. Mia's lips pushed against his desperately. Michael smiled. This was how it was supposed to be. If only she'd break up with her boyfriend already.

Suddenly, both of them heard a clanking sound at the end of the dock and as a result, they pulled away from each other's lips, their arms remaining wrapped around each other tightly. Michael looked down at Mia, who was staring in disbelief and horror at the sight at the end of the dock. His eyes followed the direction where she was looking.

Kenny was standing by himself at the end of the dock, his eyes wide, his expression one of disbelief, yet complete understanding.