A/N: New chapter time, yay

Two continuing scenes in this one. Learning things and also not learning things.

Thank you once again to Kitkatkatester for the lovely review last chapter. :)

Enjoy!

"Vito, this is your stepbrother Mal. Mal, this is your stepbrother Vito."

Duncan had taken the reins of the conversation after the other two had remained silent for an uncomfortable amount of time. They had taken to staring at each other, Vito still in shock and Mal trying to hold it together and not lash out.

"Ey, so...you didn't die?" Vito was wrapping his head around the situation.

"Has that not gone through your thick skull just yet?" Mal frowned.

"Let's leave that explanation for later," Duncan suggested. "It's not important right now that you know that stuff." He looked at Vito. "What is important is what you know."

Vito raised an eyebrow. He didn't know things, did he? No one ever came to him for the answers to anything, let alone anything important. "Ey, I donno what you think I know 'bout anything but it prolly ain't much…" he said with little confidence.

"It's to do with Mike," Duncan said bluntly. "And Noah."

"What about 'em?" He had varying knowledge of the two, but he didn't really know why he was being asked these questions.

"Anything you can tell us…" Mal chimed in with a low tone of voice that was definitely instilling a level of fear in Vito, preventing him from questioning their questioning.

"I've spotted Noah a lot in town recently...in passing, of course," Duncan remarked.

"M' dad's out a lot, yeh," Vito confirmed quietly. "Meetings an' all that. Normal stuff, yo." It was standard at this point that Noah would go out to meet with...someone.

"Who does he meet with?" That was a big potential piece of information.

"I dunno...he doesn't talk much 'bout 'em," Vito said with a shrug. "'Cept once he…" He stopped, thinking if he should continue.

"Once he what?"

"...somethin' bout... legal things…" Vito said cautiously, looking at Duncan who was far less intimidating than his new-ish stepbrother who continued to look at him intensely.

Progress! Finally, something they could work with.

"Hm…do you know his lawyer's name?" Duncan pressed.

"Burr o something or whateva. Guy speaks funny, yo," Vito said, trying and failing to remember Al's full name.

Duncan had a light bulb moment for himself. "That's perfect," he said, cracking a smile.

Vito worked up the courage to ask why they'd needed to know these things.

"You said earlier that you were having some trouble with your brother over your so called...'servant'," Mal started, one of his hands clenched in a fist as he finished the sentence. "That he has done things to Mike, and refuses to see reason." He made sure that Vito was looking at him as he spoke.

"Y-yeah, pretty much, yo…" Vito agreed, shrinking under his one-eyed gaze.

"...me and Duncan go way back, and agreed that what is going in that-" he stopped, "...in my house…" His hand appeared to be vibrating slightly. "...I refuse to let Mike suffer any longer because of your family." His tone changed drastically, from calm to accusatory. If one were perceptive, unlike Vito, one could notice a glaring hint of pain in his expression as he continued speaking.

"...he never did nothin' wrong…" Vito spoke quietly, as if he was actually agreeing with what Mal was saying.

There was some shame in his voice, signifying how he didn't agree with what his family was doing.

As much as he didn't like admitting he was wrong...but then again, he wasn't.

At least, not anymore.

Duncan coughed. "I think we're all on the same page now, yeah?" he asked.

Vito shrugged but didn't seem as confused as before. He was still processing everything but no longer freaking out.

"Thank you for being so agreeable, Vito. I honestly didn't expect this to go so well," Duncan admitted.

"Ey, what're gonna do wit what I told ya?" Vito asked.

"Don't worry about that. I need to take another trip to town…" an idea popped into Duncan's head. "...why don't you stay for lunch?"

"To think the backyard is even more beautiful than the front!" Ella exclaimed with a grin as she did a little spin around the back garden. They had moved back there since she had asked to after regaining some of her energy, and DJ had asserted that he would continue his watch out front and alert them if it was a good time for him and the princess to leave.

Mike smiled slightly at her, staying in one place as he watched her move about the relatively small area of slightly broken cobblestone that merged into grass, an array of plants and flowers, then woods if you went far enough from the house. The skirt of her understated disguise dress spun just as easily as the finest ball gown would have; it seemed she could look beautiful in anything she wore. "You fit right in with the flowers," he said without thinking, feeling his face warm.

Ella went rosy as well, unable to muster a response. He only got more charming and likable by the minute.

The longer they were in each other's company, the easier the conversation became. He relaxed a bit more, since formality had been tossed aside and there was far less pressure to act a certain way than at the start.

She'd asked him all sorts of questions about himself, and he'd answered them...mostly. When she spoke of family he was far more closed off, quickly changing the subject to deflect back to her.

"It must've been lovely to grow up in a place like this," Ella figured after Mike had mentioned this was the only place he'd ever lived.

"It was, mostly," Mike agreed partially, continuing to be evasive in his answers. "...sometimes I hoped we'd move somewhere else but we never had the chance to." He felt his throat tighten after he said that, as he'd realized he'd sounded sad, and he really didn't want to dampen the mood at all; times like this were so rare for him nowadays, and he didn't want to waste Ella's time with his uncalled-for wistfulness.

"You wanted to see more of the world?" Ella guessed, noting the sad tone but not wanting him to feel or talk about anything that made him sad.

"...sure," Mike replied half-heartedly before clearing his throat. "Now that I think about it, I haven't been to too many different places." The most he'd seen of anywhere outside his own home kingdom was the stuff that Tyler sold at his booth.

"Well that's a shame," Ella decided. "Traveling is so much fun, and there's so much to see out there!"

"I used to travel with a theater company but we never really left the country...too small," Mike admitted. He hadn't mentioned that he'd been an actor until now. Somehow it hadn't come up.

"Did you really?" Some gears were turning in Ella's head. "Did you perform at the capital festival, by any chance?"

"Yeah, last year I did…" he replied.

Ella's eyes widened. "So that's where I knew you from!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe it took me this long to realize." She recalled her conversation with Trent. "Your director spoke very highly of you, Michael, but you weren't there, and I suppose I'd hoped to see what you looked like when you weren't so old." She had a slight joking tone at the last bit of that sentence as her face tinted pink.

Mike had gone silent and red as she talked. He hadn't heard about that interaction, so this was news to him.

Ella smiled brightly. "We did meet not long after, so it worked out in the end, right?" she figured.

A bird flew down from a branch and tweeted in Ella's direction before she offered her finger for it to perch on, her focus shifting to it. Mike watched as he replied, "Right…" and a small smile returned to his face, still looking rosy.

Ella looked back at him, her new bird friend chirping and asking for attention. A small amount of his long hair had found its way from behind his ear and in front of his face. Now that won't do, his face shouldn't be covered up like that she thought to herself out of nowhere. It wasn't even that much hair, but it still bothered her, and more than it bothered Mike, apparently.

She moved the bird to her shoulder, shifted a couple steps, got on her tiptoes just to reach up and brush the hair back out his face. This happened at a pace that Mike was late to process, and when he did his eyes widened and he felt his breath catch in his throat.

Her hand had ever so slightly glanced off his cheek for a split second, over one of the scars that still had yet to disappear there. He stood frozen, watching as she removed her hand slowly and just a little too close to his face, and due to his unfortunately developed reflex from a certain redhead putting his hands too close to his face, he raised his arm as if to block a punch but ended up with his large hand around her small wrist, stopping her hand from moving any further, but he didn't put any force into his grip so it was very loose.

Ella looked up at and then away from him, feeling embarrassed, her face red as she moved her hand down and got back onto her flattened feet. Through a small amount of movement on Mike's part they ended up with their hands entwined for a few moments before they dropped and he finally breathed again. "I'm sorry, I didn't-" Ella started to apologize.

"N-no, it's fine-" Mike insisted, the heart pounding in his chest starting to calm down.

"But I-" Ella continued as she placed her hand over her face.

"I'm okay," Mike insisted quietly. "You didn't mean any harm by it, it's not a big deal."

Ella exhaled, glancing at the ground and dropping her arms to her sides. "That was inappropriate of me, and I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable...I don't know what came over me," she explained with a small sigh. The bird on her shoulder tweeted and then flew off to sit on a branch.

Mike wasn't sure how to respond and there was a brief time of awkward silence and looking at each other oddly.

"Hey," DJ's voice broke through the quiet. "Everything good back here? No one's passed by, but it might be a good time to wrap this up…" he asked.

They both seemed a bit dazed and his words snapped them back to reality. "Things are okay…" Mike replied.

"Just another few minutes, DJ, please?" Ella asked. She didn't want to leave Mike on such an off note. It still hadn't felt like nearly enough time together when it had been about an hour.

"Of course, Your Highness," DJ agreed with a slight bow. "I'll be waiting out front." He turned and walked out of sight once again.

The two left behind looked at one another again. "I truly am sorry, for everything...I didn't want this meeting to feel sad but I ruined it like I ruined everything at the ball and I just-" She hadn't addressed her guilt about that with him and her emotions were starting to get the better of her. Her impulsivity and lack of social awareness had done it again, he probably hated her now-

"Ella...you didn't ruin a thing," Mike interrupted her self-deprecation. "What happened at the ball was more my fault than anyone else's, especially not yours…" He really believed that, didn't he? "And this was nice, spending more time with you, despite...despite everything." He could rattle off any number of reasons why this didn't feel like it should've been able to happen, and yet it did.

Still, he smiled after a brief pause. "I hadn't really felt wanted in a long time, and I felt that today with you," he confessed.

Ella didn't catch what was inherently wrong about the first part of that last sentence, because she was too busy blushing. "Michael, I…" She didn't know what to say.

"Let's head out front," Mike suggested, taking a limping step towards the side yard.

Ella closed her mouth and followed him. His gait was much longer than hers, despite his limp, and made it around the house quickly.

DJ stood against the fence separating the yard from the road. He smiled in their direction, waiting for them to wrap up.

Ella faced Mike when they both stopped walking, near the front step of the house. "I'm so happy to have come here. I wish I could stay longer…" She glanced pleadingly at DJ, who glanced at Mike, who affirmed his actions as the correct ones with his expression. "I feel like I know so much more, and still so little." She sighed.

"Well, there will be other times, right?" Mike figured.

Ella's face brightened. "Yes, yes there will be. I'll make sure of it," she promised, smiling.

Mike nodded, offering one last smile in return.

The guard and the princess would take their leave at this time, waving goodbye to their host who stood in the doorway to his still-empty house, enjoying the last few sights of Ella, as no one could say when they would meet again.

It could be sooner than they thought.

Forgot how to write romance wooops lol

Hopefully this chapter was good, please lemme know any and all thoughts.

Next chapter is a big milestone for the story, that's something to look forward to.

Til then, stay safe out there y'all, and I'll see ya next time :)