A/N: we've reached a stack of chapters, and surpassed 14500 views, woohoo!

If you've stuck around this far, thank you, and hold on tight.

I'm not going to rant about why this took two months to write, just know I'm glad I can put my energy towards the next chapter now because that might take even longer(or not)

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

Enjoy!

Mike couldn't help but notice that Noah seemed a bit on edge this morning, more so than usual.

He was coming back inside from hanging up laundry, a few fresh bruises on his cheeks and a new aching in his side after he'd finally left that room and stepped two feet in Scott's direction. He wasn't starving or dehydrated anymore, but still felt off, having not shaken his ever present feeling of grief just yet.

Mike spotted Noah peeking out the front windows and checking that the door was locked. His stepfather had been silent on the matter of his several day disappearance so far, barely acknowledging him today. Normally he'd have made some sort of remark about how useless or incorrect his actions were, but…nothing.

Mike was headed towards the kitchen to get a bite in before moving to his next task-it was around lunch time- when Noah stopped him. "Mike, come back in here," he said stiffly and with a small level of urgency.

Here we go. Slowly reversing directions, Mike reentered the living room and looked at Noah. He had a feeling he was finally getting punished for disappearing again; Noah only addressed him by his name when he was angry. He kept as straight a face as he could as he spoke: "Do you need something, sir?"

"…yes, I do. Please, follow me to my office," Noah replied tensely.

Mike was surprised; usually Noah didn't let him go near his office, let alone discuss anything in there when there was the rest of the house available.

Silence followed the two into the space, where Noah closed the door behind them and sat down at his desk. The surface was clear except for a folder of papers and a pen.

Odd.

"I believe you are aware of the fact that your brother has died," he started with a real soft opener. "As tragic as this fact is, I cannot allow it to impede on your ability to work. I expect that you have overcome whatever grief you may have been feeling up to now and will continue as normal, yes?" His face was stone cold, his voice emotionless as it could possibly be.

Although he wondered just how long Noah had known about Mal's death, Mike couldn't ponder it for very long before swallowing dryly. "…yes. Sir," he replied hesitantly. What else was he expected to say? "…I-I apologize for my absence-" the routine to every screwup came out of him completely unprompted.

"I don't need another empty apology, servant. Whatever you say won't matter in the end. It never has," Noah reminded him with a frown, "and it certainly won't now." He picked up the folder of papers and peeked at the contents, as if contemplating opening it fully.

"…right," Mike half-heartedly agreed, the bruises on his face pulsing a bit more with pain as he spoke. "My opinion doesn't make a difference to you no matter what."

"Precisely. You're finally catching on," Noah said with a nod. He pulled a paper out of the folder. "You haven't forgotten how to read, have you?" he asked condescendingly.

"No, sir…?" Mike wasn't sure where he was going with this.

"Explain this to me, then," Noah challenged, offering him the paper. It curled in on itself like it had been rolled up for a while.

Mike took it and read over what it said…at least, what he could discern between the blobs of blacked out words and shoddy script that was barely legible to begin with. Whoever had written this was in a hurry, and…a royal scribe, based on the stationary. He barely recognized the specific curvature present in the ingrained pattern of the decorated paper; there used to be a stack of the stuff piled on that same desk in front of him when his father had an especially busy day of passing out letters from the king ahead of him-

Focus. Now is not the time. Mike took a deep breath and pushed the thought away as he continued examining the paper.

There was nothing discernable about any date or time, and the most he was able to understand from it was that a royal escort was on its way for someone. The areas with omitted words were wet to the touch, as if they were altered recently.

Suspicious but startled that something like this found its way into Noah's hands, he posed the question, "I haven't seen anything like this before sir, is there a problem…?" He hadn't said a single word about the princess' visit to anyone who could have snitched. He hadn't communicated with her or DJ since they'd left either.

"You tell me…should I be concerned about this?" Noah asked in return. "Are there things you haven't been telling me, Michael?"

Oh boy, was Mike not comfortable with Noah using his full name.

Was it worth lying about his few interactions with Ella to keep them being used against him the way he knew they would be? Keeping one thing to himself that Noah couldn't control?

No, no…there's no point, he decided dreadfully. What good will it do for me to hide it now when they're going to be coming here eventually anyway?

"…there…might have been…" he still hesitated greatly to admit to it, "…a moment, where I spoke to a princess, but-"

"Only a moment?…really." Noah narrowed his eyes as he stood up and snatched back the notice. "Do you mean when you danced at the ball before you so conveniently vanished, or was there another 'moment' that I'm missing?" He placed the paper back in the folder.

"Y-you saw that?" Mike had backed up one more step and was against the bookcase that stood opposite the desk. "I-I didn't think that-I never wanted to-" he stuttered aimlessly. He heard his heart in his ears.

"I never brought it up because your disappearance was more inconvenient and bothersome at the time, but I didn't think it would garner such attention. It's been a month now, and they're asking for you again? Surely something else has happened in that time." Noah moved around the desk as he stared at him accusingly. "Am I wrong?"

Mike felt trapped, frozen in place against the wall of books. His one little act of rebellion had finally come back to haunt him. He couldn't lie now, there was no way he could do it convincingly at this point. "…w-why does it matter if I did spend time with one of them?" he asked instead, trying and failing to stand up straight again. "It's not like anything is going to come of it-" He honestly never really expected to hear from the princess ever again because why would he? Even though she'd promised…it didn't feel feasible.

Apparently he'd been wrong to think that way.

"I'm more worried about that poor girl believing you're something you're not," Noah interrupted. "Just look at yourself." He stopped his approach for a moment to look Mike up and down. "Dirty hair," he plucked off a stray crumb of dust off a strand and crushed it between his fingers, "malformed face," he lazily gestured to the once angry scars on Mike's cheek, his nail leaving a ghostly scratch when it got too close, "ragged clothes…" he tugged on the loosened sleeve of Mike's shirt, effectively tearing it partly at the seam,"…terrible posture."

Mike felt very uncomfortable being this close face to face, turning his face away from Noah's hand when it came near. "…e-even if she did see me this way, it wouldn't change her opinion of me." Absolutely it would. She'd be repulsed by him. Who would want to approach someone who looked the way he did? Besides, she was a princess and he was-

"Well, it doesn't matter much regardless. You're not going with them," Noah stopped that train of thought in its tracks. "Unless…you do something for me." He stepped back to pick up the folder once again.

Mike watched him carefully. What would it be this time, he wondered. All Noah ever did was make him do things for him.

Why would it be any different now?

A few hours earlier…

The sun beat down hard on the team of guards as they rode through a sparse forest that stood between the capital and their destination. They had at least two hours more of riding ahead of them, and they'd already been at it since that morning.

"I don't know about you, Captain, but this heat is starting to get to me," DJ admitted, swiping his forehead with his hand and flicking away the sweat.

"Tch, seriously, DJ, we trained for conditions like this, didn't we? It's definitely not worse than that," Jo reminded him, appearing unfazed by the heat.

"I guess you're right," DJ conceded with a small chuckle. He glanced behind him. "You two alright back there?" The younger guards had lagged behind, appearing to be in deep conversation.

Jo rolled her eyes and turned slightly to check on them. "Pick up the pace! We'll get there faster if you quit the chit chat," she ordered.

The two snapped to attention. "Sorry, Captain, it won't happen again!" Sanders quickly apologized.

"We've never been assigned together and we got a bit distracted. I promise we'll do better moving forward! One hundred percent focus!" Devin added with multiple nods.

Jo sighed at their enthusiasm. "Good," was her only reply while the two evened out their speeds so they were just behind the older duo.

"What were you two talking about?" DJ asked, curious as they kept moving.

"Our partners," Devin replied quickly with a smile. "I haven't seen my best friend or my fiancée in the two years since I started training to be a guard, and Sanders said she missed her…" he quickly looked at Sanders, who seemed a bit tense as she rode silently, "…'roommate'. The conversation just sort of happened."

"Really!" DJ exclaimed. "I can't say I relate to having someone waiting for me back home other than my Momma. We might be able to see her briefly, actually, she lives where we're headed." He looked between the two. "I'm sure your loved ones miss you too, wherever they are." He then glanced at Jo, who hadn't put her two-cents in yet. She was looking straight ahead.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see them again!" Devin admitted with another smile. "When I get time off I'm going to get married-Shelly's been really patient while I've have to be away, and Carrie was really supportive when I told her I got chosen-"

"You should really be focused on the task at hand, newbie. We're slowing down again," Jo chided Devin. "Honestly, talking is the last thing we should be doing right now." She looked straight ahead once more.

"Come on, Jo, it's not doing any harm," DJ tried to convince her.

"If it's making you all lose focus then yes, it is," Jo rebutteled with a small frown. "I have a feeling this might not be so easy if we don't get there as soon as possible."

"Why not? We're just picking up a suitor. It can't be that difficult, right?" Devin figured optimistically.

"You haven't met this guy or his family," Jo reminded him, dead serious. "I'd be surprised if it went smoothly." She looked off to the side. "Hopefully he's in better shape than last time…" she said under her breath, a slight shiver crawling down her spine remembering his condition as he lay crumpled on the floor of that guest bedroom.

DJ hummed in agreement, thinking of his own interactions with Mike at his home.

"I'm sure with the four of us it'll be okay, Captain," Sanders finally spoke up, her face straight.

Jo nodded. "Let's make sure you're right," she replied, cracking the reins and causing Lucky Shot to gallop ahead of her subordinates, who followed suit.

"As you may remember…with the most unfortunate death of your dear brother-" Noah spoke with such lacking sympathy it was almost like he had some part in it… but Mike couldn't know that- "you are in possession of something that, well, I think we both would agree you're not qualified to have." He pulled the other papers out of the folder and offered them to Mike. "I'm willing to take it off your hands in exchange for graciously allowing you to maybe see your princess again…" The absence of definitive promises wasn't very reassuring.

With salt rubbed in that wound, Mike accepted the paper hesitantly and scanned the front facing page. "You want me to give you the house," he summarized under his breath. He noted that Noah had pre-signed the areas necessary. All he had to do was fill in the rest of the blanks.

"Is there a problem?" Noah asked coldly after there had been a few moments of silence as Mike continued examining the paper. "Having trouble reading?"

"No," Mike replied quickly. I can read just fine.

"Wonderful!" Noah exclaimed before swiping the pen off his desk. "If you sign now I can have it processed in town by the end of the day. It won't be the…burden it would have certainly become for you, all things considered." He gave him another once over.

Mike frowned. It's not as if I haven't already been taking care of the place… he thought. Even if he screwed up, a lot…all the time…every moment of every day…he still was the only one who tried to keep things in order. It was his home, it had always been his home…despite it feeling less and less like one the last year.

"I'm waiting," Noah said with a hint of impatience.

Take care of this place for me when I'm gone.

His mother's words to him shortly before her passing suddenly made their way back into Mike's mind. "…what would you do with the house if I handed it over?" he asked to stall for time while he sorted out his thoughts. His hands tightened around the papers.

"I don't think that's for you to worry about…it would be of no consequence to your future," Noah brushed off the question. "A nonissue."

Not of consequence huh…Mike suddenly thought back to that dinner before his house arrest. He'd almost forgotten what he'd overheard, but it hadn't slipped away just yet.

Legal hoops…

Problems to take care of…

Kicking him to the curb….

"…you're planning to get rid of me, aren't you," he deduced with a sharp inhale and a small crunch from the paper crinkling under his fingers suddenly. "You've wanted this place the whole time, for…for what?" He wanted to understand why.

Instead of a verbal response, Noah was silent for long enough to confirm Mike's suspicions. He felt his hands begin to shake, overwhelmed by…he couldn't place what emotion he was feeling but it was not one he could suppress out of fear any longer.

"I wouldn't say it so dramatically…but your usefulness to us is starting to run dry," Noah admitted. "Your inheritance is the only reason you're still here, and we're in much greater need of it than you ever will be." He cleared his throat before he could divulge any more information about his motives. "In fact, I have no doubt I would have been granted the deed in the first place if Kate's condition hadn't deteriorated so suddenly…" he spoke slowly. "Her mind was suffering as much as she undoubtedly was. Clearly she wasn't thinking straight when she wrote her will and never intended to give it to you-"

"Don't you dare speak of her that way," Mike interrupted, his voice suddenly full of anger. "She was perfectly well until you showed up and ruined everything-" Just thinking about that short period of their marriage made his skin crawl.

"Why do you suppose she chose to marry me so soon after we met?" Noah countered, a new tenseness in his voice. "Her time was already running out. She was desperate, and so was I." His hand had curled into a fist before a demonic smirk formed on his lips. "She never told you, did she? How her sickness was eating away at her for so long with no way to know when it would consume her-" He stepped in Mike's direction.

"No! That's not true!" Mike's grip on the papers had loosened and they scattered to the floor, his hands shaking furiously. "Sh-she would have told me that…" Right? Why would his mother keep something so important from him?

"And yet she never did. She obviously didn't trust that you could take care of her when she needed you most," Noah claimed. "Do you really believe she wanted you or your criminal brother to be responsible for this place?"

"She…she told me I had to be," Mike muttered, his voice having shrunk. "This is all I have left of her, of them…" He thought of Mal asking him to feed his stray cat while he was away for the final time, his father's sorry, hollow eyes as he'd gone on his last trip, Kate on her deathbed staring into his soul before she too was gone-

No, stop it! They didn't just come and go from this world, they…we…

Before Mike could conjure any positive memories, however, Noah chuckled. "It really is truly pathetic how you still think you have any real say over the matter, servant…" His smirk turned to a dark frown as he took another step. "You are nothing without me, and your pitiful existence thus far has only lasted so long because I was patient enough with you to allow it. I'm doing you a favor, taking this responsibility that you cannot and will not be able to handle away. All you have to do… is sign." He offered the pen again, almost pushing it into his hand. "You can do that much right, can't you?"

Mike's heart was caught in his throat. In his head he was trying to find a rebuttal, something to prove him wrong. Even though Noah hadn't laid a finger on him, he felt a panic not unlike the kind he often felt around Scott; thank goodness his step brother was still on the other side of the house.

Before he could possibly hope to come up with an answer, however, a faint knock could be heard at the door. Both of them turned their heads in the direction of the sound, but Noah reacted quicker to grabbing the door handle and blocking Mike from leaving, retrieving his office key from his pocket. "We're not done here just yet. I'll be back once this distraction is taken care of…but do consider making all our lives easier and signing the papers before I come back," he suggested with a fake smile, shutting the door and locking Mike in before a word left his lips.

At least the walls weren't thick enough to keep him from eavesdropping after his rushing heartbeat left his ears, his eyes darting around to the misplaced forms on the floor that surrounded him like some sort of sick invitation to surrender.

He just hoped that whoever was at the door wasn't there for him, for their sake.

Writing this chapter made me realize just how much the first four or so chapters desperately need a rewrite...

Leave a review if you have any thoughts. I do hope to at least have a draft of the next chapter before school starts, we'll see if that pans out.

In the meantime, stay safe out there y'all and I'll see ya next time :)