14| Egotistical, Narcissistic Maniac

"Apollo probably visits the garden every day when he comes back from the beach. We used to spend a lot of time with our mum at the tree so it just sort of became our spot," Princess Iris smiled as she carefully drew the outline of the succulent on the floor.

"My dad and I used to do the same back at our home in France, that was until I fell off the tree and broke my arm. My mum never allowed me back on it again," I chuckled.

"You're from France?" she asked sounding a bit shocked.

"Yes my family moved here when I was ten."

"I always did wonder about your accent, I could just never pinpoint where it was from. At times you sound like us locals."

"I think cause I moved here at such a young age, I eventually adopted the accent as well," I smiled.

"Do you ever visit your home town?"

"Yes my parents and I make the effort to visit relatives every Christmas, last year I could not go though, because I had to work."

She huffed and rolled her eyes, "Adonis gets really paranoid if he thinks something is wrong with the tree. I guess it's because he feels like it connects us with our parents so whatever small change there is he freaks out."

"And here I was thinking he just enjoyed making me work," I joked.

"That too," she giggled and continued to shade the separate leaves. "What do you think?" she turned over her journal for me to see the extremely accurate drawing of the plant. In fact I was extremely jealous.

"You need to do my diagrams from now on. At times mine don't even look like the plant."

This caused her to laugh and shake her head, causing her beautiful blonde locks to move with her, "I enjoy shading too much, I remember during my biology days that was a big no, no."

"Maybe you could convince King Adonis to change that in our country. All scientists would flock to you," I chuckled.

"Well if that is the case we should definitely keep it a secret or my poor hands won't be able to ever draw again if that had to occur," she smiled.

We both continued joking about and I continued to tell her interesting facts about each succulent. I had to take soil samples of each plant and test how much minerals they contained. Winter was approaching and I had to make sure each plant had the right mineral content. If there was too much it risked the chance of dying and if there was too little it also did. I had to make sure there was a perfect balance.

I scooped small amounts of soil with a spatula and placed a certain amount in individual bags and test tubes. I would test everything back at the lab then I could measure just how much fertilizer each needed. It was tedious work but extremely important as I used these plants for research purposes for other scientists across the country to compare their results too.

That way we could see if there was any region of the country that needed a lot more or a lot less. This would help us check if there was a sudden change in weather or more. My job was extremely important because without our research we would not be able to make sure that vegetation of Kommos was in good health.

"Who knows maybe you could become a scientist," I smiled at Princess Iris who immediately scrunched up her nose and shook her head disagreeing.

"I don't think I'm smart enough. I'm more into humanities."

"That doesn't mean you are any less smart than me."

"I know but I'm a creative soul. I'm not good with data and science," she waved her hand indicating the world around us, "Apollo and Adonis are the smart ones. Adonis eats and breathes anything science, and Apollo is all about statistics, mathematics and business. Maybe that's why Adonis treats me like a little princess."

"Well I'm sure because you are the youngest he feels that he needs to protect you. He means no harm."

"I know, but I am responsible for this country as well. I should be making laws and all that jazz," she giggled.

"Would you want to?" I laughed already knowing her response.

"Nope. My brothers always look so stressed I rather stick to music and art." We both laughed. Princess Iris was a lot more complex than I would have imagined.

I always figured she would be kind, quiet and the picture perfect princess but she was not. She had opinions and thoughts. She loved stressing out her brothers just because, she enjoyed debating anything under the sun and she was in general a happy soul. I could not imagine seeing her sad.

We had spent two hours together in total but in reality it felt like just a few minutes. We just naturally clicked and I was amazed she was that comfortable around me to tell me her thoughts. After our two hours of me taking samples and her drawing I walked her back to her wing of the Palace.

"See you next week Cloud. Thank you so much for today," she smiled as she stood on top of the stairs. I was below her on the first step looking up to her as if she was an angel.

"My pleasure Iris. I hope I was some help."

"A great amount," she blushed. Just before she could open her mouth to say something the door behind her opened and just to rain on our parade King Adonis appeared wearing a black suit, white button up shirt and black tie.

He looked as expressionless as ever until he caught sight of his sister and I. He immediately frowned as his eyes looked down to me but he quickly wiped it off with a nonchalant smile, "Cloud Belmont, I hope my sister was not much trouble."

"Of course not my King," I bowed slightly as the waves of power and authority slightly condensed me, "she's an excellent artist."

"She truly is," he agreed with a smile.

"I thought you were only coming home tomorrow," she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"I was but my meeting in Italy ended sooner than I had thought," he shrugged, "come on I got you a gift."

"Oh really!" Princess Iris jumped and before he could utter another word she dashed into the Palace.

That left the King and me alone. "I should get going King Adonis. I hope you enjoy your day."

"Thank you Cloud," he curtly nodded. Just before I could turn around he called out my name. I turned around again, facing him and waited to hear what he would say. "Don't get your hopes high for my sister. She is a princess."

His words took me back a bit as I looked at him with large eyes. What the hell did that mean? Was he insinuating that I was interested in his sister? Not that I was not because only a fool would not have a crush on Princess Iris but he made it sound like I was not on her level.

"Trust me my King. I have no interest," I responded through clenched teeth. He looked down to me with a smirk and like a jerk jock from an American high school movie turned around and walked back into the Palace without a word.

He was so lucky he was my boss and well the King or I would have said a word or two about his assumptions. From then on I definitely knew the King did not approve of me. In fact I knew he did not even like me. The first few encounters I thought he was simply having a bad day but his attitude towards me was completely uncalled for.

With an angry mind I stomped back to my bicycle and cycled back to the lab to drop off the samples and placed them in the freezer so that they would not degrade over the day. I would only be able to test them tomorrow since it would take me a long time and I needed to be at the Palace tonight since I was working for an egotistical, narcissistic maniac.

I called Adriano and asked him if he could meet me at my apartment after work and he was quick to say yes. In fact he had even offered to bring dinner. Two hours later we were sitting on my couch, whilst he watched a football game and I well just pretended I knew what was going on.

"So what's the plan?" he asked once he was done vacuuming his food and gulped down his beer.

"I'm going to wait for him tonight. There is no way he can't be roaming the grounds. He always mentioned it helped him destress after work and after my encounter with the King today I would walk twenty flipping kilometres if I had to see him every single day."

"He sounds like such an ass. Who the hell is he to tell you that you have no shot with the Princess?"

"Her brother and the King," I rolled my eyes, "I could buy a small island right now and declare myself a King. He's not all that."

"Like sure he is named after a god, looks like a god and dresses like one too but that serves him nothing if he has that attitude."

"Exactly what I thought," I exclaimed and threw my hands in the air, "any way he is not the priority. I'm going to confront Ezekiel one way or the other. Even if I have to go to Place every single night. I'm going to figure out who he really is."

"You go boy!" Adriano clapped.

After our crazy dinner, Adraino dropped me off at the Palace since I still had work to do. Ezekiel knew exactly what times I worked therefore I knew he would not be expecting me to be there an hour later after I was supposed to knock off.

To be even more stealth I wore a black hoodie, black jeans and sneakers with a black beanie to hide my red hair that always seemed to shine even in the dark. I finished my work, then hid my bag in the bushes and tiptoed to the Royal Family Tree.

I had no idea for how long I hid behind a bush for but after some time I heard the distinctive footsteps of someone approaching. I tried to peek through an opening and just like a dream there was a tall, board shouldered figure walking up to it.

Ezekiel.

The damn snake.

When he was close enough I jumped up from behind the bush alerting the figure of my presence. The man jumped back startled as I approached him with hurried steps.

"Cloud?" the voice I had not heard in days finally said.

"Why have you been avoiding me!" I yelled and threw my beanie on the floor. Tonight we were surrounded in complete darkness. Only the stars lighting the sky above us.

"I just needed some space to process everything. What the hell are you doing hiding behind bushes?" he argued back.

"Trying to get to you because you have been avoiding me."

"You could have just texted you know."

"So you could ignore my texts as well," I challenged walking closer towards him.

"I'm not that immature Cloud," he sighed.

"Says the man who has been avoiding me!"

"Cloud, what don't you understand from 'I needed space'?" he clasped his hands together and nearly growled out.

"Listen here Ezekiel, if there's one person who deserves to be angry it's me. You kissed me then expected me to be completely fine with it simply because I kissed you back. You haven't even let me see you in the daylight and I know you're real name isn't Ezekiel. I have hunted down every single Ezekiel that works for the Palace and none of them are you. Who the hell are you?"

"Cloud if you knew you wouldn't want to see me anymore?" his voice suddenly became a lot softer and calmer reminding me of someone. I just could not put my finger on who.

I took a few steps closer to him so that we were only a foot apart and tried to look into his eyes. I could have been looking up his nostrils for all I knew. "It wouldn't change a thing," this time I lowered my voice and answered calmly.

"I know you don't feel the same way Cloud. I don't think I would be able to handle seeing you every day knowing that you never felt the same way about me," he sounded sad once again and I hated it.

Even though I was angry with him beyond words could describe, I missed him and I missed seeing him every week. I missed our garden encounters and hilarious chats. I took a step closer so we were only centimetres apart and gently rested my hands on his chest. "I've had time to think and… and who said I didn't feel the same way."

I physically felt him stop breathing as he looked down to me. "You don't mean that," he whispered out.

"I do. I would never lie about this," my voice wavered as nervousness flooded my body. I really prayed he had not changed his mind.

Without responding he connected his lips to mine immediately making my legs turn to jelly. My heart rate accelerated as he wrapped his arms around my waist and deepened the kiss. My head was spinning and I swore if it was not for him holding me up I was sure I would have fainted.

Once again as if the universe did not want us to be happy a flashing light shone past my eyelids. Ezekiel… or whoever I was kissing seemed to be disturbed by it too as he let me go. It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the bright light but when I did I noticed guards running towards us.

I quickly looked back to Ezekiel in panic but quickly realized the guards were not the problem. In front of me, out of my worst nightmare stood no one other than KING ADONIS! He looked at me with a panicked expression and before I could utter a word a guard yelled out, "Who goes there?"

With a growl he responded, "Your King…"