Chapter 33: Morning!

[Fiore's castle, Emily's room - Morning]

Beck slowly opened his eyes to only be greeted by the blinding morning light, shining through the windows. He let out a yawn as he squinted his eyes to look over to make sure that it was indeed morning. Once he did, he shifted his attention to the clock across the bed.

"...What time is it?" He muttered to himself.

"Oh, it's just eight O'clock..." He groaned without realising that he had overslept.

However, after a few seconds...

He did.

"IT'S EIGHT O'CLOCK?!" He immediately had the urge to jolt up, but the his left shoulder felt slightly heavier than usual, which stopped him from doing so.

He looked down onto to his shoulder to see a black-haired girl. Specifically, Emily. She was asleep next to him, on his shoulder.

"Emily? Why is she next to me-- Wait no, why am I on the bed?" He questioned himself mentally as he looked down on his bare chest to see that his wound was completely healed. "How? Don't tell me...? Emily healed me?"

He looked at her, then back to his chest, and to her again.

...

"...She definitely did, didn't she? I should thanked her when she's awake."

He wanted to get up and change into a new set of clothes, but Emily was laying on his shoulder and she was sleeping so soundly that he felt bad waking her up. "Guess I'll stay here until she wakes up."

He then sighed weary as he looked at her.

Her hair was a little messy, so Beck reached out to tug some of her hair to the back of her ear, to get them out of her face. He had rarely seen her up close when she was asleep. So seeing her like this, his heart began to pound much faster than usual.

Emily was supposed to be one of the strongest upcoming beings alive. She is the daughter of two ridiculously powerful ability users, making her extremely dominant. Yet, now, she looked so vulnerable. So harmless.

So...

Cute.

There was no doubt. Up close, Emily, the fourteenth princess, is adorable when she is asleep.

Before he knew it, he was already staring at her like it was nobody's business.

Suddenly, her eyelids moved a little and slowly, she opened her eyes. She then rubbed her eyes groggily as she pushed herself up to sit up.

Flustered, Beck turned away as quickly as he could and tried to compose himself, hoping that she did not notice that he was staring at her.

Emily looked around her surroundings leisurely, until her eyes landed on Beck, who was shirtless.

There was a few second of blinking, before she began to freak out like her usual self.

Her eyes shot open as if she had just taken ten shots of espresso, which led her to jump momentarily, causing her to fall off the bed and onto the carpeted ground.

Beck immediately slid over to the other side of the bed to check on her.

"Emily, are you okay?!" He asked as he lend her a hand for her to get up, which she took. He then rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly and apologised, "Sorry for scaring you."

"No! It's not your fault." She protested as she avoid making any eye contact with him.

With both their hands still glued together, there was a moment of silence as neither of them knew what to do or what to say.

...

Feeling extremely awkward at the situation that they was in, Beck decided to break the silence, "Umm—"

However, even before he could finish, Emily turned to reply immediately, "Yes?!"

Once she did, she caught sight of his... Body. Her eyes traced from his neck down to his collar bone then chest and onto his defined torso. Slowly, her eyes went further down...

And onto a familiar looking scar—

"Well, how did you heal me exactly?"

"Yes."

When that word flew out of her mouth, she instinctively covered her mouth as her cheeks flushed a fresh shade of pink.

What the heck did she just said?

When Emily heard his slightly hoarse voice,

she instantly perked up and answered without thinking about what he had just said or asked.

Beck tried to hold back his laughter, but it was too much to him. Unable to hold it any longer, he broke into fit of laughter.

Emily stared at him as he laughed and laughed.

And laughed.

And laughed.

And... Wait, isn't he laughing for way too long?!

Throwing him a droll look, Emily looked away and muttered sourly, "...It's not even that funny."

Beck looked up and pursed his lips shut as an attempt to stop, but it was honestly barely working for him.

"Alright, alright. I'll stop laughing." He said as grinned at her, but she refused to look at him.

That left him no choice.

He placed a finger on a side of her cheek and pushed it gently such that her face was towards him.

"See, I've stopped laughing, didn't I?"

It was SO not fair...

Not when he have a face like this.

No matter what, she just couldn't get mad at him. Puffing up her cheeks slightly, she let out a couple words mindlessly, "...It's not fair that you have such a face..."

In a split second, her hands flew to cover her mouth, but thankfully, Beck didn't hear a thing as he got out from the bed to stretch a little.

"Sorry, you said something?"

"No, not at all!" She protested with reddened face.

"Are you sure? You're not mad at me or anything, right?" He asked as he raised a brow, "I didn't expect myself to laugh that much, actually."

Emily shook her head and smiled, "Well, I guess I have some things on mind when your were talking to me, so it's totally my fault in he first place."

Without any warning whatsoever, Beck surged forward and questioned, "What's bothering you?"

"Alright, pause. At this point in time, YOU'RE STILL SHIRTLESS AND YOU'RE ASKING ME WHAT'S BOTHERING ME?! HAVE YOU SEEN YOURSELF IN THE DAMN MIRROR?!"

That was what she wanted to say, but she did have the courage to actually say that to his face. Averting her eyes, she only managed to force out a word, "...Sh--Shirt."

Beck looked down and realised why she was acting all nervous. He rushed to closet and grabbed a new shirt and put it on as quickly as he could. He came out and apologised once more, "I'm so sorry, Emily."

He then headed to the door and opened the door, "I'll wait for you outside, just come out once you're done."

*****

[Fiore's Castle, Hallways]

Taking a deep breath, he fell against the wall behind him as the images of what had just happened began to haunt him again like a broken video tape.

"What is wrong with me?! I'm acting all tense! This is so unprofessional. Also, why did I just touch her like that? What's wrong with you, Beck?!" He said discreetly as he placed his hand over his heated face, "I need to calm now. It's just Emily, just... Emily."

After twenty minutes or so, Emily walked out to meet Beck. By then, the two had already calmed down and were walking to the garden, where everyone were having their breakfast at. As they were walking, Beck took the chance to thank her.

"Um, Emily? Thanks for healing me." He said, "Right, you haven't answered me yet. How did you heal me exactly?"

"Oh, yeah. You're welcome." She replied as she looked away, "...Well, it's technically not me who healed you though. I'm just the medium, Elizabeth did it. So, I didn't really know how she did it."

"Elizabeth?" Beck repeated just as he heard the unfamiliar name, "Who's that?"

"...Um, a fairy."

Beck blinked a few times, before he spoke, "A... Fairy?"

"Yeah, a fairy." She assured as she finally made eye contact with Beck. Squinting her eyes at him, she uttered, "You don't believe me, do you?"

"No! It's not that." He protested as he raised his hands slightly to surrender, "I just never seen them before, so that is just surprising. Um, where is this fairy you're talking about?"

"I'm not sure, actually. She was not in the room when I woke up." Emily explained.

"Maybe we'll see her la--" Beck's words were interjected by a loud greeting from Mary, "Good morning!"

"Oh, Mary. Morning." Emily greeted back with a smile.

"Wow, I thought I was the only one who overslept." She admitted as she laughed nervously, "But, apparently not."

"You woke up late?" Emily asked with surprise look since Mary was known to be a early waker.

"Well, yeah. I guess everyone has their bad says, huh?" Mary shrugged as she retained her bright smile. "Anyways, let's quicken our pace, shall we?"

The three of them then walked briskly to the garden, hoping that they were not as late as they thought.

Fortunately, they were right - They were not the last to arrive. Apparently, Ben and Anna were still absent.

But, nonetheless, the three of them quickly sat down and apologised for being late.

Having a quick sip of her tea, he queen looked over to them and smiled, "It's alright, there's still plenty of food left."

Emily could never get over how affable her Mother was. She smiled back at her and nodded before looking around the table at those who were here.

Just then, she noticed that Ethan was at the table. He hadn't been here for quite a while now since he was attacked, so seeing him now, did made her glad.

"Ethan, you came down. Are you getting better

Shifting his attention to her, he smiled softly, "Yeah, I am. Thanks for asking."

Lavi saw the two were smiling at each other, so he leaned closer to Mary and whispered, "...When were those two THAT close?"

Mary heard and whispered back, "Emily visited him she got back from Earth, so they got closer, maybe?"

"Hmm, I still find it suspicious." He added on as he rubbed his chin playfully, "...Rivalry?"

Mary elbowed him and scowled, "Just eat your waffles, Lavi. Before I sho—"

"Where's Ben and Anna?" Emily's voice cuts through their conversation. The Emily's members exchanged looks as none of them knowing how to start answering without clashing with each other made-up stories.

Luckily, Ben arrived on just the right time.

"Wow, Emily. Have you finally some interest in me."

He walked up behind Emily an s made his way to the empty seat causally as if everything was alright, but the state that he was in suggested otherwise. His left arm was wrapped in bandages and he had a couple of bad bruises here and there.

Emily saw those straight away. Eyeing at his wounds, she questioned, which sounded more like an interrogation, "Ben, what happened?"

Ben lifted his injured arm and replied nonchalantly, "Oh, this? I fell down the stairs yesterday. It's no big deal."

Even though he said it so convincingly, Emily still did not believe him since she knew he was one of the more cautious people around and it was not like him to just slip and fall.

"Are you... lying?" Emily subconsciously pursued further.

There was a moment of awkward silence.

"Lying? No way." Ben replied with a grin, "I really did f--"

"I can't take it anymore!"

Mary yelled from across the table and shot up from her seat. She then looked directly at Emily and continued, "Ben did not fall at all. He-- We-- How should I put it? Damian-was-part-of-phantom-until-yesterday-he-betrayed-them-so-a-phantom-was-sent-to-punish-him-but-we-helped-him-and-in-the-process-Ben-Beck-and-Damian-were-injured." Once she was done, she took a huge gasp for air.

Emily could barely catch that, but she still realised what was happening. Damian got trouble with the phantom and her friends helped him, even injuring themselves in the process.

Emily stood up slowly, shocked.

She knew something was going on, but she did not know that it was that bad. "...Where's Damian?"

Mary looked away and rubbed her elbow, "...He's in one of the guest rooms on the second flo—"

"Thanks." Emily answered even before Mary could finish. She then got up and bowed to the table, "And thank you all for helping Damian, I owe you guys one. Also, sorry for the troubles."

Abruptly, she raised her head and made a swift turn, before making a run to the second floor.