5 A lesson with Ace - I mean PRINCE Ace

"Will you stop doing that?" Ace asked me, pretty annoyed if I do say so myself.

We're currently at the library for my first lesson: History and the important people of each kingdom.

He kept on talking and explaining things. Continuously, if I might add. I was sleepy and uninterested. Who can blame me? And why do I even have to learn their history? Whenever I tried to sleep this off, he would snap his fingers in front of my face. So I ended up doodling on a piece of paper to entertain me. Oftentimes I would blankly stare at the ceiling and unconsciously make faces that cause him to get distracted. Steams would have appeared from his ears because of how pissed off he was. I think he prevented himself from punching me so much that his knuckles had gone white.

I am trying to listen to what he's saying but all the terms that he is using makes it hard for me to understand!

"It's obvious that you hate me and it is no secret that I also dislike you, so why can't we just agree to drop this lesson?" I said as I batted my eyes at him innocently.

"Not gonna happen." He said as he opened a book. "This is a part of your lesson. So you'll have to learn it."

"Nothing you even say makes any sense to me." I slumped on my seat. He didn't bother to look up this time as he read something from a leather bound book. His jaw clenched in annoyance, his black hair falling as he bent his head slightly forward to read in silence.

"Then I guess you need to try harder."

I pouted. "Easy for you to say. You were born here. I was born waaaay over there." Feeling disappointed, I started whistling.

"You are an annoying Princess!"

"Why thank you."

His head perked up and gave me an annoyed look. "That wasn't a compliment."

"For me it is." I said and began to get comfy on the couch. I haven't gotten much sleep since yesterday that my eyes started to close on their own. Not even a minute later and he was shaking me awake.

"No sleeping during class hours." He said and continued to shake me. I tried to ignore him but I was getting dizzy from his shaking. My head bobbing back and forth.

Can't this guy leave me alone?

I reached out and slapped his hand away. "Leave me alone." I said as I buried my face on the couch. A minute later and I heard a sound. I took a peak and I saw Ace holding a bag of cookies. He smirked when he saw that I was staring at it. "Now you're awake?"

"No I'm not." I blushed and looked away.

He started shaking the bag of cookies drawing my eyes at them again. "These are cookies baked by a well known baker in Thalia. His bakery is so famous that countless dukes and even royals come to Thalia just to buy these."

I stared at him. "You're bluffing, aren't you? The 'baker' is actually the chef of this castle."

There was a long pause.

Ace suddenly cleared his throat. "Of course not. Why would you even think of that?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you taking me for a fool? You said that he is famous. Naturally he would be hired by a nearby royal, which would be the king and queen."

He stared at me. "What?" I asked.

"You actually got the name of this kingdom right. That's a first."

"I did!?" I gasped. "Wow I am actually smarter than I thought. I could become a scholar."

"Now what is the name of the kingdom that was destroyed in the year 455? Specifically 10 years ago."

"You guys are in the year 465!?"

Ace frowned. "I asked you a question."

"In case you haven't noticed, I was already surprised by the current year and now you are asking me for the name of a ruined kingdom? I don't know! Hogwarts!?"

"You're hopeless! You didn't even get that right."

"I'm trying here!"

"I said try harder!" He was yelling now.

"Well maybe if you can speak in a language I can understand then it might not be difficult! Back in my world we have presidents and vice presidents. Only a few countries have royalty these days."

"Then what are you? A plebian?"

"I'm a student who doesn't even bother to do my homework and you expect me to learn this world's history? Sir, I bid you good luck."

He sighed and turned back. He didn't even bother to look at me as he said that. He just went back to the couch opposite of mine and sat down. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. A sign of his frustration. He then grabbed a book and started to read. "Self study from now on."

I frowned. "Hey Ace." He didn't look at me as I called for his name. I wanted to ask him something.

Maybe he didn't hear me?

"Excuse me, Ace? Yoohoo!!" I waved my hands for him to notice me.

He continued to flip through a book. Pretending not to hear when it was pretty obvious that I was calling him. I know he heard me. My voice was already loud enough. Why is he not answering?

Oh I see

"PRINCE Ace?" This time he looked up and gave me a questionable glance. "Yes?" He asked.

)/@@33&&/-&

Stupid-Arrogant-Royal-Pain-in-the-Butt!!!

I clenched my fist at my sides because of my annoyance towards the prince in front of me. I forced myself to smile despite his attitude. "Can I ask you a question?"

"No." He went back to reading.

I'm gonna kill this Prince.

"Why are you so grumpy?" I asked. Patience slowly faded. He didn't even answer my question and proceeded to read. I might go wolf on him now and tear him limb from limb! Hopefully.

"There are things that you must learn in this kingdom. You must first learn the ranks and positions in each kingdom so you can know your place. As you might know, the king ranks the highest. Followed by the Queen, then the Prince and Princess." His lips moved as he talked. His eyes glued to what he was reading.

This guy is really serious about this.

My gaze darted to the bag of cookies on the table. I silently made my way towards it.

"Are you listening, Princess?" He looked up from the book that he was reading. He raised a questioning eyebrow at me. Face a mask of seriousness as he looked at me. I don't need to be a mind reader to know that he didn't appreciate my lack of interest.

"I...uhhh....yes." I said and hid the cookies behind me.

"Oh really?" He asked. Not buying my answer to his question. He folded his fingers in front of him and placed his chin on top. "What did I just say just now?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Easy.....'What did I just say just now?'." I said. I know that wasn't what he meant, but that was the only thing I could think of.

"Your sarcasm always shows up in times like these. Let's be serious now and answer my question properly." His tone was dead serious. If I answer with another sarcasm, it might be my last. A small smile found its way to his lips when he saw my speechless form. He straightened up.

"You were really not listening."

"You know what? I should go upstairs and look for more books to read. Probably a dictionary so I can understand some of the words that you are saying and not purely history. Be right back!" I lied. I only ran upstairs to eat the cookies I stole.

It took me a while to get back as I made sure to finish all the cookies and leave no traces of crumbs on my face. I took a random book with me that if Ace ever ask, I'll have proof. And if the book is now the right one then I'll just pretend to be ignorant.

At least that was the plan, but when I came down, he was nowhere to be found. I looked around the library to find him. He must have left somewhere. I sat on the coach once again and closed my eyes to take a little break.

***

I woke up feeling rejuvenated. The dreams that I just had were awesome! I was floating in a cloud of cotton candy, Prince Ace was my servant and I finally told him how I feel. That he is an emo wanna be punk.

I felt great after saying it. Speaking of Ace. I wonder where he is. Is he back?

My eyes scanned my surroundings until I found him at the door, talking to someone outside. Maybe it was a servant? He was only wearing a white long sleeved undershirt which was tucked in his pants. It framed his muscular body well.

He said a quick thank you and closed the door. When he saw me, he gave me a tight smile that would make you cringe in fear.

What did I do now?

"Had a nice dream, Princess?" He asked. His lip was twitching as he forced a smile at me. Maybe he was angry that I had fallen asleep during his absence.

"Actually, I had a wonderful dream." In my dream, I saw my family and my friends there. I felt at home and content.

His jaw clenched even tighter as he jerked his head towards the door "Come on. The others are waiting. Lunch is ready." He held the door open, waiting for me.

I sat up and felt a soft material fall from my shoulder. I picked it up, it was Ace's dark blue coat. It made me wonder what it was doing here with me.

Did he not see me sleeping and simply threw his coat there? How rude.

I made my way to the door, the coat in one hand as I brushed my hair with the other. I gave him his coat back when I reached the door. "Thank you." I was meant to say it sarcastically, but stopped myself since I don't want to add more fuel to his already annoyed form. We walked towards the dining room side by side. Neither of us said a word. I was afraid to make a sound for fear of him. He was releasing some sort of dark aura that can really eat you alive.

"Tell me," I jumped at the sound of his voice. "What were you dreaming?" He tried so hard to give me a friendly smile, which failed miserably since it looked more like a grimace. It could make anyone cry and pee themselves.

I put a little bit of space between us since I was getting scared of this Ace. It was as if he was pissed or something. "Why do you want to know?" I asked nervously.

"No reason. I just thought that you owe me that much since I let you sleep." He said. I thank my lucky stars when we reached the dining hall. Everyone was already seated and waiting for us. I sat beside Nate and gave a sigh of relief when Ace sat across from me and beside Fred. We began to eat and I made sure that this time, I had placed a table napkin on my lap. I began to stuff food in my mouth as Fred asked Ace about how our training is going. Ace glared at me as he muttered a reply. "Terrific."

I grinned at him with my mouth full of food. I heard Nate tsk beside me. "You should not stuff food in your mouth like that. And don't slouch." Nate said and chuckled when he saw me glaring at him.

"Not turn to teach yet so let me have this short freedom." I said as I shoved another spoon full in my mouth. Nate continued to chuckle and tucked a piece of strand behind my ear.

"Nate, keep your hands off already." Dan complained while his brother, Ren, pouted. "Yeah, Nate. Don't tint her purity with your impure hands."

Nate moved up to my hair and dusted it. Torn pieces of paper fell from my hair. "Your hair has a lot of paper." He said.

My eyes widened and looked at Ace, who only stared at me and went back to eating. That jerk! It was definitely him!

Nate's attention went back to the twins for their previous comment. They stuck their tongue out at Nate. If this were an anime, Nate would have an angry mark at his head. Nate gripped his fork rather tightly. "I could stab you guys now and end this mess." He said as he forced a smile.

"Your highness." One of the twins said without any emotion like he was bored or something while the other continued in the same tone. "Nate is threatening our lives with a fork."

"Oh come now you boys. Don't start a fight now." King Luke said and shook his head at the boys. "Honestly."

The twins tsk at Nate three times. "Now look what you did Nate." One twin said. "You made the king angry." The other continued. It's amazing how the two of them know what the other one wants to say. I wonder if I had a twin...could be fun.

Nate stood up and chased the twins as they hid behind Fred. "Now you boys. Settle down." Fred said to them as he tried to separate Nate and the twins. "The Princess is looking so please be in your best behavior."

So they have to be in their best behavior when I'm here?

Well I wanna see some action so I devoured my meal faster. After that I got my table napkin and wiped it to my mouth and got up, leaving the dining hall. "I'm done." I said.

At the corner of my eyes, I saw Nate smirking at the twins and ran around the table to get them. The twins and Nate ended up running around the table while Fred tried to stop them. So this is how the Princes behave when the rest are out. Interesting. Just like children.

I made my way to the library when I saw that Ace had also gotten up from his seat.

Oh no, I don't want to have a lesson with him yet! Especially when he's in a bad mood.

I briskly walked to the library since running around when your stomach is full is not good for you. Ace also noticed what I was doing and increased his speed. Too bad for him that I had gotten to the library first and locked the door behind me.

I heard him knock outside.

"Who's there?" I asked even though I know that it was him.

"Don't play dumb with me. I know you know that it's me." He growled.

I wonder if he's related to a wolf or something. Growling like that.

"Open the door!" He screamed.

"Sorry, but the library is closed for today so please come back later." I walked back to my couch and to my pleasure, I saw a book that I wanted to read since I finished reading the first book.

"Rose, you open this door right now." He shouted. Voice rising from every word.

"Quiet! We're in the library." I said and grabbed the book while sitting on the couch and reading it. He didn't say anything anymore. I just heard his groan in frustration and heard the door rattle. I guess he was leaning on it.

Three minutes later and I heard him try to talk to me again in a much gentler tone. "Princess, please open the door so we can begin the lesson."

I smirked as I flipped onto another page and shifted my position so my stomach was laying flat on the couch. "Nope."

I heard him mutter some profanities before he quieted again. After a few minutes he tried again, this time his voice was laced with warning and authority. "Princess, you open this door right now you hear?!" He said as he banged the door.

"The princess is currently not around. Please try again later." I heard him kick the door and shout some curses.

I have no idea where I found the courage to to act like I do now, but it is somewhat relaxing.

I was just one page away when the door was banged loudly making me jump. "Open this damn door or I'll break it open!"

Wow. What a temper.

I ignored him and finished my reading. Just as I finished, I heard him bang the door repeatedly as if he was hitting it with his shoulder. He probably was.

I set the book down and walked to the door. Now we wouldn't want it to break now, do we? The door was already rattling on its hinges. When I opened the door, Ace almost fell to the ground but immediately balanced himself. I slapped a hand to my mouth to keep myself from laughing. I watched as he composed himself and glared daggers at me.

If looks could kill I'd be dead a hundred times already.

"Stupid, Princess." He muttered as he made his way to his seat. I followed.

"Thank you kind sir. But please don't call me a Princess anymore." I said and sat down.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Why?"

"I don't like to be called a Princess. It gets on my nerves." I shuddered. My mistake when I said that it gets on my nerves when I saw him smirk.

"If you hate it so much, then all the more reason to call you a Princess."

I knew this was coming when I said that. I have to watch my words from now on cause he might use it against me again. "Now, lets begin." He declared. When he saw how unenthusiastic I was. He sighed. "What? Are you gonna sleep again?" He asked.

I shook my head. "No, I won't. But I might since things like these aren't my thing. If I can't sleep, then my consciousness might fly to somewhere else."

"Now that is a problem." I watched him as he rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. "What if I will just make a story out of it? Will that work?"

I have to say that I was impressed with Ace for his way of thinking. "It might."

"Alright so, once upona a time-" He started.

"Oh not that crap again." I muttered and noticed him staring at me. I quickly covered my mouth with my hands. "Crap! Sorry. Please continue."

"So there was this Prince, who had two older sisters. One day, the eldest was asked by another prince from a different kingdom to marry him. Since she accepts she had no choice but to leave the throne to the second eldest sister.

The Prince had a friend, a duke. A duke is another royal, but not like the king and queen. Their sons and daughters are the one who will take the throne if there aren't any heirs to another kingdom. They are also good candidates when the king is looking for someone to be betrothed to his son/daughter too. Dukes for males and Duchess for females."

"Like the queen and the king? They don't have an heir so does that mean that you and the boys are Dukes? Wait no. You guys said you're princes. This is confusing." I asked. Afraid of the consequences since I just interrupted him. Surprisingly, he didn't go all hulk on me and answered calmly. "No. The princes and I are born of royal blood from a different kingdom. We are real Princes....we just don't know what has gotten into the queen of picking us instead of a neighboring Duke.

"So." Ace continued. "The prince's friend fell in love with his sister and again asked her hand in marriage. The Duke now becomes the new king and the sister becomes the new Queen. You see, when your rank is higher, your husband/wife 's rank will also become the same level as yours."

"What happens to the Prince?" I asked.

"He remains a prince. If the his friend and sister, who are currently the king and queen dies with no heir, then he succeeds the throne." He said flatly. He continued to explain to me something by making a story line out of it. Even though he wasn't good at it, he still forced himself for the sake of me learning.

I was surprised that I had learned a lot in such a short time. Ace was a good teacher if I do say so myself. "I want to say that it's awesome, but the sword thing?" I said.

"Well, that's the rules so we have to deal with it." Ace looked out of the window to see that the light was still shining outside. "Seems like we finished early and had some more time." I noticed that his eyes weren't purely black, they were a dark shade of blue when hit by light. They are just so dark that you would mistake them as black.

I grinned. "Well, how about I'll tell you something of my world?" I said and started to tell him how much we had improved. I told him about cars, airplanes, and other transportation rides. I also explained to him that we don't use gold coins anymore and that our medium of exchange now is in a form of a dollar. He was leaning on his seat the whole time. He would often make comments like: "You guys use a piece of metal to take you to places?", "You exchange valuables for a piece of paper?", "How can a metal bird fly?"

As I finished explaining things to him, he fell asleep.

And he goes all hulk on me when I sleep.

I grabbed the book that he was holding and placed it on the table. His bangs were covering his eyes so I brushed it away with my hand. His skin is too smooth. I have to admit that he's cute despite the monster-like attitude that he possesses. His lips are a beautiful shade of pink and he smells so good. I placed a hand on his cheek as I leaned closer......

.....then used my other hand to grab a pen and draw on his face.

I draw circles around his eyes and draw a mustache above and below his lips. I also drew stars on his left cheek. On his forehead I wrote. "Kick me."

I smirked as I placed the pen back on the table.

This is payback for him bullying me the first time we met.

During dinner, as Ace and I stepped into the dinning hall, everyone stopped talking and starred at Ace. I, on the other hand, avoided everyone's gaze as I made my way to my seat beside Fred. Better be safe than sorry.

Ace noticed that they were staring at him, but proceeded to sit beside Nate, who was biting his lips to prevent himself from laughing. The King and queen kept on smiling while the twins didn't hold back and laughed hysterically. Fred covered his laugh with a cough. "Did you do that?" Fred whispered to me.

As an answer, I smiled cheekily at him and he laughed. "Nice." The twins said from beside Fred and gave me a thumbs up.

When the servants arrived to bring us our food the one who served Ace gasped and almost dropped the plate. "What?" Ace asked. "Is there something on my face? You kept staring at it." you can hear the annoyance in them.

"Y-your highness. What an...interesting change of image you have there." said the servant.

I know that my life is ticking away like a clock every second that passed.

"What are you talking about?" Ace asked, confused.

The servants held out a plate and showed Ace's reflection to it. Ace abruptly stood up and grabbed the plate and examined my handy work.

"How?" Then he turned to me, fury in his eyes and he gritted his teeth. I smiled at him. "You!" He screamed at me.

I gasped. "Me!"

"Why you!" As Ace began to reach for me. All of us, except the king and queen who acted as if this was normal, stood up. Nate pulled Ace back to prevent him from killing me while Fred shoved me behind his back. "I think this is the right time for you to return to your room." He said as he tried to talk some sense back to Ace as the twins escorted me.

The scene with Nate, Fred, and Ace somehow reminded me of a meme with two ladies and a cat.

"Nice handy work." One of the twins said and laughed as he walked beside me. The other was at my other side. "But don't do that to us tomorrow or we'll cry." I laughed as me and the twins ran away from the dining hall, where Ace was shouting something about ways to kill me.

Well he started it. I was just giving him a taste of his own medicine.

At least I don't have to see him tomorrow, because I'll have lessons with the twins on that day. Though I couldn't imagine what kind of lesson it would be.