troublesome blondes
After James left Serena sitting on the floor, she wipes her dagger clean with his jacket and takes off her white, now blood-stained shirt and wipes the blood off her body before grudgingly putting on James' jacket and going to her dorm room, cleaning herself up and getting dressed again, before sitting down on her bed lost in thought about what the prince told her.
Trying to think back to the last time she saw her parents.
She remembers being on a farm with her parents' friends and watching her mother and father talk with a boy not much older than her, wearing all black clothing and a dark cloak, the only thing standing out about the dark figure being a pendant hanging on his chest. A silver Pendant with an intricate design of a crocodile she could swear she knows from somewhere, reminding her of what she saw when she passed out.
"He can't be right." Serena says looking at her hands and starts crying to herself.
After his training with everyone James leaves the gym with Lily, having told the group that his bloody nose and lip is from training with Serena.
"I can't believe I get to meet my beloved Alfred." Lily says happily.
"Yeah, yeah." James groans, leading her back to his home and lets her in.
Once they are in his apartment James sees his brother already there and freezes up when he sees the blonde inspecting the bloody set of clothes James tossed aside.
"Can you give us a minute? I need to talk to my brother in private first." James asks Lily, who nods a bit confused but steps outside only to hear faint yelling.
"What happened?" Alfred asks loudly.
"Calm down. I'm fine. I dealt with it." James replies.
"So the bitch is dead?" Alfred asks.
"No. And don't call her that." James says annoyed.
"She tried to kill our father and now you." Alfred shouts.
"She didn't know any better. And neither do you. You weren't there when it happened." James shouts back.
"I need to report this." Alfred says.
"Brother, don't. You owe me. Don't tell him." James says.
"Owe you?" Alfred asks amused.
"Yeah, you dick. Or didn't father tell you about this as well?" James asks motioning around his room.
"Tell me what?" Alfred asks surprised.
"For the supposedly smartest guy in the family you really know way to little." James groans, grabbing his brother's shoulder and sitting him down on his table forcefully, before sitting down across from him.
"What are you talking about?" Alfred asks.
"The only reason I'm here. I have been here for four years is because of you. I promised father I would do the research he wanted so that you could be with your girl." James says.
"What are you talking about? Father never wanted me to research a thing." Alfred replies.
"Yeah, because I said I would do it for us both. You don't really think the strongest person in Rowan besides dad would be stuck in the first year by accident." James says.
"Wait, you mean I was supposed to do research while I was enrolled here?" Alfred asks.
"Yes. But I heard you talking how great things are with the girl you liked and I offered dad a deal he couldn't refuse. I was always the stronger one of us and for years father didn't trust me, not that I can blame him. I stopped trusting him as well." James says.
"So, you repeated the first class over and over just so I could be a normal student here?" Alfred asks stunned.
"Yeah. If you don't believe me, ask father maybe he'll admit it." James tells him.
"So please just trust my judgement and leave her alone. She didn't do anything that proved much of a threat and I don't want more innocent blood on my hands." James begs his brother, who looks surprised, not having seen his brother beg him like this ever before.
"Hah. Fine but only if you promise that if something happens again, either you will deal with it or ask father to send someone." Alfred says offering handshake.
"I intend to." James agrees, accepting the handshake and pulls his brother into a hug once they are standing.
"We do need to talk about your time here though. I don't want us to become like you and father have. Especially not for something I didn't know about." Alfred tells him.
"I'd like that too. But first you actually have a visitor." James says.
"Be honest with her or I will hurt you if I find out you've led her on like some of the other girls." James tells his playboy of a brother, who nods in acceptance, giving him a playful thumbs up though.
James opens the door and Lily is waiting in front of it, looking at her classmate.
"Sorry. We had family business to discuss. He'll meet you now, just don't expect too much." James tells her before letting her enter while he leaves.
James walks around the area near is apartment, letting everything that happened that day go past him again and finally slumps down on a bench, lying down flat on it and closes his eyes.
"I thought you didn't need to sleep so much anymore." He hears Miranda's soft voice, seeing her standing in front of the bench.
"Yeah, well if you went through my day so far, you'd need a nap too and maybe a strong drink." James tells his teacher, sitting down normally so she can join him on the bench.
"Why are you out here then and not sleeping in your home?" She asks amused.
"Lily wanted a face-to-face with Alfred." James says pointing at his apartment.
"You don't think they are..." Miranda asks shocked, fearing the busty blonde might be sleeping with the older man.
"honestly? I don't know. I told Alfred not to play with her, but I mean if she wants to be a one-time thing or another concubine." James says shrugging before leaning his head back exhausted.
"And that's why your so spend?" Miranda asks.
"Nope, but I can't tell you why. I'd be giving someone else trouble they don't need right now." James says.
"You're weird." she says.
"Why are you in the neighborhood? And don't say to see Alfred cause either I will kill myself or him for letting that happen." James says half-jokingly.
"Don't worry. You're the only Rowan Prince I find charming." She replies in a whisper before making a shushing motion so he keeps it a secret.
"Good. So, what brings you by?" James asks.
"You. I wanted to check on you after you told me what happened 3 years ago." She says nervously.
"I'm fine. Are you though? And yes is also an acceptable answer." He asks chuckling.
"I'm dealing with it." She says grinning at his humor.
"I should probably head out again. I'm on watch tonight and should get some sleep." Miranda tells him.
"Thanks for checking on me, seriously it means a lot to me." James thanks her, with her nodding while smiling to herself as she leaves.
James waits another few minutes before Alfred leaves his apartment.
"You are leaving? Then where is Lily?" James asks confused.
"She's inside. Good luck with that." Alfred says before leaving quickly.
As fate would have it, Alfred only left his brothers apartment for about 5 minutes before bumping into a busty redhead he at first doesn't recognize and only figures out who she is based on her stunned expression and the blood smeared jacket she's holding which he recognizes as his brothers.
"Hey, let me see that jacket."
Alfred says, taking the jacket and searches through the inner jacket pocket, finding a silver crocodile broken in two in it and looks at it, while Serena can see it.
"I wouldn't have done it." Alfred tells Serena, placing the crocodile in her hands and lights the jacket on fire with low level magic, the clothing burning to ash in seconds.
"Done what?" She asks not daring to look at the older Rowan prince, instead staring at the crocodile pendant stupefied.
"Used that spell. It takes a lot to bring someone back from death. I'm assuming it was you, since I don't know anyone human in this area who could kill my brother safe for 2 or 3 people, whom you obviously aren't." Alfred says.
"I won't hurt you. But I don't like you. You hurt my brother and he begged me to spare your life, so don't waste it." Alfred tells her coolly before walking off, leaving Serena standing there with the crocodile pendant she recognizes from her memories as the boy's who smuggled her family out of Vilance.
"He was telling the truth?" She says choking up and runs home to her room.
In the meantime, James enters his apartment and hears sniffling from his couch.
"Sorry." James says, going over to the crying blonde and sits down beside her, handing her some tissues, which she gladly accepts and uses.
"Do I need to kick my brothers ass or what happened?" James asks, looking at her.
"He told me the truth. That he loves his fiancée and the most I could ever be to him would be a concubine and that even that is far-fetched since I'm not cute enough for him." Lily sniffles.
"Go on, rub it in, say you told me so." She says saddened, expecting him to comment badly.
"It's his loss." James says, just leaning back in his couch.
Lily smiles weakly and says "Yeah, right? I'm a total 10." She says wiping away her tears.
"I wouldn't go that far." He laughs bumping her shoulder jokingly only to get hit on the arm.
"ass." She says smirking.
"That you have a great one of. I am more concerned with how controlling and pushy you can be." He jokes, looking at her mirthfully.
"Jerk." She tells him while smiling.
"He is isn't he?" James asks, making her laugh.
"stop it. I'm sad. I don't want to laugh." She complains, kicking his shin.
"Why not? I know I'm sad all the time and the best thing for that is to crack a joke." James tells her.
"Thanks for giving me this chance to talk to him. At least now I can stop kidding myself and look for someone in my league." She says gratefully.
"What league is that?" He asks jokingly.
"You dick. You or your brother would be happy to land a girl like me." She tells him, pushing him away and hitting his arm annoyed over and over.
"You're right." He says cheekily.
"I still don't like you, you know. But you have a nice couch. Can I stay over tonight?" Lily asks, wiping her eyes and nose again after stopping her assault on his arm.
"Yeah, just don't open that cupboard. Even if you're one of my countrymen it's highly classified stuff." James tells her, pointing at the cupboard he keeps closed with the knife stabbed into the frame.
"As if I'm interested in your doodles." She says teasingly and pushes him off the couch, lying down on it with a sigh.
"You can sleep in the bed if you want. No catch." James offers, getting off the floor.
"Thanks." Lily says softly.
"You hungry?" He then asks, stepping into the cooking area of his apartment.
"I could eat." She says, still lying on the couch.
"Alright." James says and starts to make them dinner.
Later that day, after sharing a meal during which they chatted a bit about their home, James learns that she's from one of the poorest districts in the Empire actually and that she developed her crush on Alfred when he and his father helped the district back on their feet and saved the people from starving and depression a couple years back.
After the meal she thanks him once more for letting her stay and enters his bedroom, stripping into her underwear and enjoying his comfortable bed while James leaves his apartment.