Princess' Body

Tianshi Xue was surprised. She was supposed to be asleep already but she could not help but feel the air around her and the prince. She could not sleep. It would not just pull her tonight. The prince's presence was so strong beside her. It was like a shadow's hand probing her to stay awake.

She knew he was still up too. He was still on his Linker (hologram cellphone). She did not know when she had gotten so conscious of the prince that the mere slight movements of his arms alarmed her.

"You know," she said, "the emperor does not sleep next to his wives."

He replied almost immediately. "Your point being?"

"Ohh you know, it wouldn't be so bad if you would follow his footsteps."

"Har-har," he fake laughed. "Subtle… real subtle."

Tianshi Xue flipped on her other side and hated herself for it. The light on the hologram of the Linker made the prince's face even more immaculate. It straightened every feature by darkening the hollows. His dark eyes danced on the air. "Do you mean that we're really going to sleep on the same bed in the duration of this marriage?!"

He sighed like he was getting annoyed that his peace was suddenly disturbed. "You don't need to worry much on the sleeping part. I'm not going to stay much in the room. You could pretty much have it every night."

"Really?"

"I have lots to do."

"But what if you need to sleep already?"

"I'll sleep when you're not in the room. I could tell that you would try to smother me with a pillow at night."

Tianshi Xue sent a smile his way but he did not look at her. "Do I really look that scary to you?"

"Not really. But with your desire to divorce me, I don't think that you would wait until it was all processed and kill me instead. Widow sounds better than divorcee, doesn't it? All my properties would be transferred to you right away."

"Do you have anything under your name?"

"I'm a prince. What do you expect?"

Tianshi Xue did not know what to reply to that so she started another line of questioning, "Were you able to ask the emperor about it already?"

"Do I look like I had the time for that earlier?"

She made a face in annoyance. "Are you going to sleep tonight?"

"I don't know. I'm not so sure."

"Can you just move to the couch if you're just going to be on your Linker the whole time? Let me use the bed."

"I don't want to. I don't want to lounge on the couch—" the prince stopped talking then slowly turned his face towards her. Again, with the blank expression on his face. "You do realize that you're talking to a prince?"

She nodded her head. "What about it? Does that still apply when we're husband and wife?"

"Says the wife who wants out even before we got married."

"What? Do you like this marriage?"

"I don't like marriages in general. But even more so with you."

Tianshi Xue laughed. "I'm glad we share the same sentiment."

"Just go to sleep. I don't want to talk anymore."

Tianshi Xue craned her neck a little to see what was the prince looking at but she could only make out some text on the hologram. Hmph, nothing interesting.

Well, what did she expect? It did not seem like the prince had other pastimes than taking princesses away from the palace and taking people as prisoners.

She turned away from him again and closed her eyes. She was falling asleep, she knew it. The pull was there now. All she had to do was reach for it.

There… her mind whispered. A soft bed, the cool breeze of the air, and the warmth that her comforter brought her… this was heaven.

As she drifted all the way to dreamland, a memory flashed in her mind: she was hugging Prince Qui as she fell asleep in the shack.

Her eyes quickly popped open. No, she was not just imagining that she was in the prince's arms as she fell asleep.

"Are you okay?" she heard him ask.

"Y-yeah, why?"

"You were startled. Were you dreaming already? It hadn't been five minutes."

She clenched her teeth. "Mind your own business."

The prince did not reply to her anymore.

Tianshi Xue slapped her cheek a little, maybe the pain would bring her back to reality. What was her mind thinking?! Why was she thinking about sleeping in the prince's arms?!?!??!?!?!

It was so disgusting. Just what the hell was happening to her?

No, no, no.

This was not her. Maybe it was the princess' body. Maybe this body had felt some sort of attraction to the third prince and now that it was finally living its fantasies, it could not stop thinking about it.

Right, it was the princess' body.

It was not HER.

When she was younger, she had been afraid of the dark. She was afraid of the monster under the bed—the one who would touch her toes and the like.

Now, she had to remind herself that the only monster was not the one under the bed nor the one in the closet and neither the one in the bathroom.

The monster was on the other side of the bed. Right next to her.