Red Faced Princess

After giving Astrid's palm one final squeeze to give her some confidence and nodding at her to indicate the start of the performance, I let go of her hand and started to walk towards Lucille to intercept her.

I couldn't clearly see it from afar. But now that she was only a few metres away, I could see that she was fuming for continuously teasing her earlier. And even started to rush towards me, ignoring the etiquette of a noble lady as if she couldn't wait to punch my spiteful face in and teach me a lesson.

"Luca, you bastard! Here, I am searching for you all over the place to give you a good beating. Only to find you hugging some girl without any care in the world!"

"Do you really think that I'm easy to mess with!"

Lucille yelled out at me and looked like she was going to pounce at me after seeing me hug Astrid from afar.

But before she could jump on and give me the thrashing I deserved, I quickly rushed to her figure, who was approaching me. 

Hug~

And to her shock, I caught her in my arms as she lunged at me and gave her a hug. 

Not only did I give her a big bear hug by wrapping my hands around and pulling her slender but well-proportioned body towards myself. I also restrained her from doing anything to me and she was in the mercy of my hands. 

She had no way to retaliate and could only flap her hands around with a flustered look on her face.

"Luca! What do you think you're doing? Everyone is watching us, so let me go!" She exclaimed, clearly embarrassed, just like Astrid initially was from being hugged, while everyone around us was gasping in shock from seeing the Princess of the Continent being hugged by a random boy.

"Then is it fine if I hug you in a place where no one can see us?" I turned my head to look at her side profile and asked with a smile on my face.

"No, it isn't! Stop twisting my words!" Astrid exclaimed as she too turned her head to look at my face. 

But since we were so close to each other, our faces were only inches apart when we turned to face one another, which made Astrid turn away in embarrassment. This also made her stop thrashing around and obediently lie in my arms.

She was still resisting a little bit. But it was as much as before where she was trying to kick me in the leg, seeing that her arms were restrained.

After getting over her embarrassment, she turned to face me again with narrowed eyes that looked like they wanted an immediate explanation and asked 

"Why did you hug me all of a sudden? If you don't explain it to me, I'll make sure that your shin has my heel marks on it." She threatened as she rubbed her shoes against my ankles.

Not wanting to get kicked by such a violent princess, I said with a suprised look on my face

"What? Weren't you the one who was running to me for a hug?" 

"Who was coming for a hug!?" Lucille harumphed and glared at me.

"I was rushing to you so that I could beat you up. How did that turn into me wanting a hug from a pervert like you?"

"Well, you really can't blame me since you looked like a wife who was running to hug her husband after not seeing him for a long time." I gave my excuse.

"When did I become your wife?!" Her cheeks flushed as she lightly headbutted me to show her anger.

"Fine. Then you looked like someone else's wife that was running to me for a big hug."

"Well, I actually prefer that scenario since it seems more exciting to steal someone else's wife." I said with a leer on my face, imagining that scenario.

"I'm no one's wife!" Lucille exclaimed, fuming at my words.

"Okay fine. You're no one's wife. But you still shouldn't be pinching and headbutting the guy who helped you out." I said as I held her hands to stop her from pinching me.

"When did you help me out?" She looked at me and asked.

"Right now. By hugging you."

"How does hugging me help me out, when you're clearly the one winning in this picture and having a great time holding my body against yours?!" Lucille said as she felt my body's heat on her and tried to push me away to no avail.

"Because if I hadn't hugged, you would've gone on a rampage on me, and it would've ruined your image as a princess." I said and continued

"Just imagine the headlines tomorrow after beating me up. 'Royal Princess of the Human Race, Florence Lucille beats up an innocent commoner boy in her school. Is this the true personality of the princess, a tyrannical queen who thinks she can get away with anything'."

"Your whole reputation would have been ruined if I hadn't stopped you. So you should honestly be thanking me instead of kicking my shin for doing you a favour."

Lucille didn't care about the story I created to hug her and seemed to be more interested in something else.

"So you do know that I'm a princess..." She looked at me with her lips slightly curled up, as if she wanted to ask me this question for a while now.

"I just recently found out." I replied.

"Just what kind of forest were you living in before for you to not be able to know that I'm a princess when my face is plastered all over the place to the point that even a baby can recognise my beautiful face?" She said with a haughty smile, as she let out an aura of proud queen.

"Isn't that a little too arrogant of you?" I said with a wry smile on my face.

"I'm royalty. Arrogance was in my blood from the day I was born to rule this land."

"Woah...What a haughty line. You finally look like a princess now." 

I said looking at her stellar blue eyes that twinkled like saphires, which contained needless vanity, that was given to her along with her title as the princess.

"What did I look like before?" She tilted her head up and asked with a lofty smile on her face.

"When I first met you?" I asked. 

Lucille nodded her head.

"Well, you looked like someone with a higher status than a princess."

"Oh...A status that is higher than the ruler of an entire race. Just what could that be?" Her eyes lit up as her interest peeked.

"A Goddess..." 

I said as I looked at her beautiful countenance with pretty blue eyes, tender pink lips, a small nose, and hair that flowed like a golden waterfall.

"A goddess that descended onto the mortal world to bless our eyes with her breathtaking beauty."

"That's what I first thought when I first saw you." 

I said and looked down to see how she would react. But when I looked below, I didn't see her face like I expected and only saw the top of her head since she had already buried her head into my chest.

And judging from the way she was clutching my clothes and how red her delicate ears were, I'm guessing she was too embarrassed to look at my face and chose to hide in my chest.

Seeing her act so docile, I thought she wouldn't be so angry at me anymore and decided to let her go.

Hug~

But just as I released my hands and moved a step back to reveal Lucille's figure that was hiding in my arms. Lucille quickly came up to me with her head still down, hugged me like I first did, and placed her head exactly where she had placed it on my chest before.

"What's wrong? Didn't you want me to let you go? Why are you coming forward and hugging me now that I left you?"

"Does a hug from me feel that good that you just can't seem to have enough?...Ow!"

What I got in response to my question was a light kick to the shin by Lucille, who still had her head down on my shoulders.

"My face isn't the most presentable right now. And I don't want anyone around us to see me in such a state since I have an image to keep up, so don't move away until I say so." Lucille murmured into my chest.

Her face seemed to have gone so red from what I said that she didn't want anyone else to see it, as it wouldn't be fitting for her image of a noble princess she was trying to keep up. 

So she decided to hide in my chest until the blood in her cheeks stopped flowing which I graciously agreed too. And patted her smooth back like a baby to help her calm down.