It's finally here hallelujah! I'm sorry it took so long! (TOT) I finally had some time to sit down and work on this update, sadly its not as long as I would have wanted it to be, because I wanted to make this one long because of your long wait, but I wrote til I felt this was a good full chapter. So I hope you enjoy it and I'll talk more at the end!
Disclaimer: I don't own the The Little Mermaid, those rights belong to Disney, in case you questioned it. Also I don't own the BMP guys, they belong to Voltage.
"There you are Phoenix. I was looking everywhere for you." I turn to see Prince Wilfred.
My eyes immediately widen. Not now. I swallow.
"I hope you won't mind if I take my date away from you?" Prince Wilfred looks to Viktoria.
"I don't mind. Though you should probably know she's had -" As she tries to tell Prince Wilfred she's cut off by the emcee as he starts talking, "Ladies and gentlemen, for your special entertainment tonight, there will be spotlight dances with the well-known couples of fairytales. Starting us off will be our Little Mermaid and her Prince." A spotlight hit Prince Wilfred and I at that moment. "Also to add to this special spotlight dance, Johanna Jokinen will be singing."
I glance up at the orchestra area to see Johanna standing on the small stage with a mike. She smiles at me and the music starts to Kiss the Girl.
My eyes widen at this sudden moment with all the eyes in the ballroom on us.
"Well, shall we?" Prince Wilfred gives me his gentle smile, and all I can do is nod as he leads me out onto the dance floor. As Johanna begins singing, Prince Wilfred whispers to me, "I wasn't expecting this. Mike's never done something like this before."
All I can do is shake my head.
"Not speaking to me? Are you staying in character?" Prince Wilfred asks.
I give a small smile and nod my head. My eyes stay focused on Prince Wilfred so that our movements are synced, though the whole time my heart is beating so fast; yet I'm unsure if it's from being in Prince Wilfred's arms or whether from all the attention on us. When the song is over halfway finished, I see Tarmo move to Onni on the sidelines. I can see the shot in his hand and he motions over to me with it. Onni nods and takes the shot from Tarmo, before they both make a move towards me onto the dance floor.
I don't even realize it, since the transition was so flawless, but as I did the underarm turn away from Prince Wilfred, I suddenly found myself in Onni's arms. I quickly turn back to see Tarmo now dancing with a very surprised Prince Wilfred. Onni quickly dances me off the floor, maneuvers me through the laughing crowd, and out into the hallway.
"Don't worry, Phoenix," Onni whispered to me as he helped me over to a secluded area in the hall. Onni set me down and quickly removed the caps, "Pardon me, Phoenix," Onni pulls my skirts up, exposing my legs, before quickly injecting the needle into my thigh. My breath hikes at the moment of injection, and I slowly count to ten. Once I reach ten I nod to Onni, and he removes the needle. "Good it looks like it worked. Now we just have to wait," as he's speaking he readjusts the skirts of my gown.
We can hear the applause signaling that the song is over. Onni helps me up, and escorts me back to the ballroom. As we enter, Tarmo and Prince Wilfred are heading right for us.
"Phoenix, are you alright?" Prince Wilfred asks concern written all over his face. "Tarmo told you've had an allegoric reaction to something."
I smile and nod.
"I gave her the shot, so she should be fine soon," Onni tells his brother and the prince.
"That's good." Prince Wilfred sighs, relieve now apparent to his face.
"Though I think you and I made a great dancing team, everybody seemed to enjoy that." Tarmo tries to joke, and elbows Prince Wilfred gently.
"That surprised me. Though I was about to go after Phoenix if you hadn't explained what was going on."
Man, I wish I could have watched Tarmo dancing with Prince Wilfred, I'm sure it was funny. Especially if Tarmo tried to take the lead. Oh, well, at least now I have the epinephrine in my body to fight my allergic reaction. I go to move forward, back to the party, when a dizzy spell hits me. I immediately stop and grab at my head.
"Phoenix, are you all right?" Prince Wilfred asks me.
"A side effect of the shot is dizziness or maybe she has a headache…" Onni says while holding me to keep me steady.
"Maybe its best if you take her back to the Chateau. She'll need her rest." Tarmo tells Prince Wilfred.
Prince Wilfred nods, "I think you're right."
"I'll go get Claude and tell him you're ready to go." Tarmo says, giving me one last look before leaving us.
"Thank you. Onni, I'll take her from here." Prince Wilfred took me from Onni, as we walked away I gave Onni a small reassuring smile. As we neared the door, Prince Wilfred slowed to a stop. "Are you okay? Or are you still very dizzy?"
I smile and mouth: 'I'm fine.' Just as another bout of dizziness hit me, and I crumpled a bit. If Prince Wilfred still didn't have his arm around me, I would have probably fallen right to the floor.
"Phoenix, you should be more honest with me. I don't feel safe getting you down the stairs in this fashion. Please don't put up much of a fuss."
Before I can fully realize what he's planning, Prince Wilfred has already scooped me into his arms, bridal style. Since he told me not to make a deal about it, all I can do is blush; though I worry if he'll be able to carry me down all those steps. The doormen opened the door for us and Prince Wilfred walked me out. Halfway down the numerous stairs, Prince Wilfred stopped. "Phoenix, you were right about how it depends on who you go with. To parties. I had a lot of fun tonight, and I know its thanks to you being my date." Prince Wilfred smiles at me, and I can feel my already red cheeks burn hotter than they were before.
Suddenly Prince Wilfred pulls me tightly to him, and with one hand pushes my face towards his chest. I could hear the shutters of cameras and hear a group of reporters questioning Prince Wilfred. "Who's the girl, Your Highness?" "Your Highness, are you two together?" and the barrage of questions surround us. I can feel Prince Wilfred trying to move me out of their shots as much as possible.
"I don't care that you take pictures of me, but you're bothering her. So stop and hand over your footage!" Prince Wilfred commands at the same time that I hear Claude yelling, "Your Highness, get into the car," and the sounds of many approaching footsteps follow.
I don't dare look, until Prince Wilfred helps me into the car and closes the door. I can see that the bodyguards were dealing with a couple of the reporters, but some of them got away. A feeling of dread makes its way to my stomach. Though I can't be sure if it's another side effect of my shot or knowing this isn't going to end well.
~)~~~~
The next morning, I wake up feeling refreshed, and see Claude standing at attention with his usual tea and breakfast cart. "Miss Adele, if you would like to lend a hand today, I have something for you to do."
That was unexpected. "What is it?" I ask, luckily by the time we arrived back into Phillip last night, my voice was back to normal, but I was completely exhausted by the time we reached the Chateau.
"Just doing some cleaning around the castle."
Though this is Claude we're talking about, I'm sure there's going to be some awful aspect to this… but I feel since he's offering me something to do, I should do it. Though this doesn't mean I haven't forgotten about our war. On the contrary. I know he'll be expecting something soon, so I plan to take my time and strike back when he least expects it.
"Sure. I'll help clean." I say quietly as I begin to eat my breakfast.
"Good. Come find me when you're ready." With that said Claude leaves the room.
~)~~~~
Since I knew I would be cleaning, I wear a loose pair of jeans, the closest thing to a t-shirt that's in the closet, and tennis shoes. Claude ended up assigning me to clean a stair case on the first floor, in what seems like a somewhat deserted part of the castle.
As I'm cleaning the railing with a rag, I loosen my grip mid-wipe and the rag goes flying to the floor away from the stairs. Shoot. I hurry down the stairs towards the rag, which is sitting crumpled by a cracked open door. I glance inside to make sure no one's inside, intending to shut it, when I see the back of Prince Wilfred.
"Prince Wilfred?" I accidently call out.
He turns back to look at me, "Phoenix?" Once he sees that it's me, he motions for me to come in. As I enter I see a beautiful crown of only diamonds, there are so many, I can barely see the metal parts of it.
"Woah. That's some tiara. It's really pretty." I say as I walk over to him.
"It's the crown given to the Queen of Phillip. It's been passed down through the families through centuries."
"Really? Well, I'm sure any girl would be happy to wear that crown."
"You think so?" Prince Wilfred asks.
"I'm sure. Though I would say she'd be even luckier because she'd be married to you." I say honestly.
"What?" I look over to Prince Wilfred, and can see his cheeks are pink and he's not looking at me.
"Sorry. That was probably weird of me to say, but it's what I truly think." I rub that back of my head and look away from Prince Wilfred this time. "You're such a nice guy, you're much better than this crown."
"Phoenix, how would you-" but before Prince Wilfred could continue, Claude called into the room, "Your Highness, Their Majesties would like to have a word with you in the throne room."
"I'll see you later, Phoenix." Prince Wilfred gives me a weak smile, and I give him a reassuring one in return.
When the prince is gone, Claude zeros in on me, "And what are you doing in here?" I can hear the anger getting ready to rage out.
"Look, it was an accident and Prince Wilfred invited me in…" I quickly explain everything to Claude so he understands.
He lets out a frustrated sigh after I tell him everything, "Alright, get out of here." He motions, clearly annoyed that I had a decent reason.
"You don't have to tell me twice." I hurry out of the room, and resume cleaning the staircase.
Claude shuts and locks the door, before leaving for somewhere else in the castle.
~)~~~~
I was heading back to my room after cleaning the stairs when Claude appears looking frustrated. "Miss Adele, Their Majesties the King and Queen would like a word with you in the throne room."
"Is this about the reporters taking pictures of us last night?" That feeling of dread reappears in my stomach.
"Yes, it is." Claude huffs.
"Is that what they wanted to talk with Prince Wilfred about also?"
"Yes, so you better get down there now. They don't like to be kept waiting."
"But what about my appearance?" I realize I look awful after cleaning for almost an hour.
"There's no time for that." Claude motions for me to follow him.
As soon as we enter the throne room, I see the King and Queen sitting in their thrones, and Prince Wilfred standing between them at the bottom of the stairs leading to their thrones.
"What exactly is your relationship with Wilfred?" The Queen immediately asks when I'm standing in front of them by Wilfred.
"We're friends." I immediately respond as if that weren't obvious.
"Your Majesty, I told you this isn't her fault. She was feeling ill and I felt the best way to get her to the car was to carry her."
"Is that true?" The King now looked to me.
"Yes, it's true. I accidentally ate a truffle with almonds in it, which I'm very allergic to, but luckily King Erik's butlers got me a shot of epinephrine which put me on the mend, but I always get the side effect of dizziness. I'm so sorry for this misunderstanding." I bow to the King and Queen.
"Phoenix, this isn't your fault." Prince Wilfred put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back to a standing position. "I take responsibility for this." He looks to his parents again.
The Queen nods. "I suppose knowing the circumstances which the photos came from, we can't be upset with you. Wilfred, this is still going to cause a scandal and the papers aren't concerned with knowing the facts about why you two looked so close."
The King also nods in agreement with his wife. "We've taken this girl in as a favor of Lord Michael, and you did a good job of protecting her. So we'll just have to hope that Lady Cecile is understanding of the circumstances."
"And no more scandals like this, Wilfred. Your father's birthday will be here soon." The Queen declares.
"Will Stephan be there?" Prince Wilfred asks.
A smile I hadn't seen on the King and Queen appeared. "Yes, he will be attending." The Queen answers.
"As will Lady Cecile." The King adds. "You are both dismissed."
Prince Wilfred and I exit the throne room together.
"Prince Wilfred, I'm sorry I've caused another problem for you." I start to bow my head to him, but he shakes his head.
"It's fine, Phoenix. You don't need to worry about it. It'll blow over." Prince Wilfred says.
"You're sure?"
"Well, this is kind of my first scandal, but from what I've heard from Roberto these things don't last too long as long as you don't keep feeding the reporters more fuel for that story."
"That's good… So I was wondering something…" I wasn't sure whether I should ask him about his brother or this mysterious Cecile. It seems that both would be hard topics for him.
"What is it?" He peers so that our eyes meet.
"What were you doing in the crown room earlier?" I chicken out and decide to ask something else unrelated.
"Oh, that. I just had a lot of questions that I needed to work through. It's a place where I can do some of my best thinking lately."
"Oh. That's good. As long as you're able to come up with the answers you need."
We continue walking.
"Was there something else on your mind?"
"Well, I was wondering about Stephan. He's your brother, right?" I ask him, finally getting some of my nerve back.
Prince Wilfred is quiet for a moment and I can see a storm brewing in his eyes. After the silence, "Yes he is. If there's a chance, I'll introduce you to him at the party. I need to do some work, so I'm going to my office." With that he left me.
Well, where to begin... I graduated university! Yay, me! Though I still have one more class to do before I get my diploma in August; which is an internship. So I will be working over the summer, but I should be able to write more now, hopefully more frequently than months, between updates. Like a week or two.
So, here's the deal. Since this one was so short, I will update another chapter of this one, hopefully in the next week, because I think my writing bug is finally feeling fully recuperated and wanting to write for you.
***IMPORTANT PLEASE READ: Though I do have a question for you, my lovely readers, because without you this story wouldn't be possible. Your love for it and support through reviews, favorites, and follows keep me motivated to write for it. I'm debating about if Phoenix should pull a prank on Claude or just let her revenge be her telling him she's already a princess? Which would you want to see? If you have a prank idea you would love to see Phoenix pull tell me in a review and explain why she should do your prank. Or if you just want her to let their war be resolved by her just telling him later that she's a princess, mention it in a review.
Also, I'll just tell you now. Next chapter, Phoenix meets Stephan and Cecile. So be ready! Later My Lovely Readers!