The three Kingdoms

He crash landed onto her, using one of his hands to support himself before their heads collided, everything went in slow motion for both of them as they stared into each other's eyes for a while.

'Why am I feeling something soft?' Leo's grip on whatever his hand felt tightened, giving it a gentle squeeze.

A moan escaped Mae's lips before her eyes darkened with a glare at him.

"Leo!" Mae hissed, her eyes still glaring at him, clearly displeased at how he had suddenly groped her bust and made her let out a lewd sound at such an awkward situation she found herself.

'You stupid girl! How could you moan to that at a moment like this?' She internally scolded herself, wishing the ground would swallow her whole. Slowly her face burned up.

Suddenly Leo came to a final conclusion on what he had groped and gulped down hard, anxious sweats trickling down his forehead, he immediately let go of her, but his hands still held the shape they had grown accustomed to at that moment.

'Men!' Mae scoffed in her thoughts, she could clearly tell he was still fantasizing on how he had groped her so indecently.

Mae squirmed under him, pushing him off her, she crawled away to the corner of her room, kicking her chair with all her might–venting out her anger, quickly getting up and dusting her blue nightdress.

She turned around, momentarily scared to show her reaction, her hand on her chest as she tried to calm her racing heart.

"Do you have anything to say?" She turned back at him, hopeful he couldn't detect how red her face had gotten.

"I- I'm sorry Princess Mae, I didn't mean to do-" He grabbed a handful of his hair and cussed at how stupid and embarrassing it would sound if he were to complete his sentence.

"You said you were going to explain." She deadpanned with a raise of her brow, her arms folded as she awaited answers.

Leo froze after finding out how right she was and he was only overthinking what had happened earlier.

"Right." He agreed with a nervous laughter.

Jumping onto her bed she sat cross-legged, she smiled, nodding in the direction of a chair.

"Thankyou." He walked towards the chair, pulling it out, sitting on it with a wide eyed expression.

"I'm listening!" Mae drummed her leg on the bed sheet impatiently.

"It was a pretty long time ago. A man named Iac Moss suddenly showed up in our Kingdom. He was stopped by two soldiers who requested to know why he showed up unannounced." Leo took a brief glance at Mae's face who looked serious and immersed in his story.

"Hey! Why did you stop?!" Mae whined, a pout evident. "Just tell me, why did he come to our Kingdom?"

"He said he speaks for the three Kingdoms, and with him; a letter for His Majesty." He replied in a whisper, careful not to say it out loud.

Mae gasped on his response, she didn't quite expect that, "You mean the three Kingdoms... The three Kingdoms?!!!" She repeated, mind blown.

There was a time she had spoken with Elvis, he had made mention of the three Kingdoms, they were fierce and known to look out for each other when it was a time for war, her father had broken off their ties from these Kingdoms.

She had always tried asking what had caused this rift, but it had always ended with Elvis turning her down with the words: "You are still too young to understand, child."

Reminiscing on the past, she frowned. A single guess came to her mind as to what could have been written in that letter.

"Tch-" She scoffed before laughing out loud, "So I really was a bargaining leverage at the end of the day."

"Princess, please calm down." Leo could feel how bitter she felt about her predicament. He had wished he could help her out of this, but this was something even beyond him.

"So, you didn't tell me because you were ordered to, and mainly because it had something to do with the infamous three Kingdoms." Mae cut straight to the point.

"Uh–" Leo was at a loss of words at how accurate she was with her speculations. If he had told her about this, she was bound to have reacted a lot sooner and caused a bigger trouble that would be difficult to fix.

"So tell me–there is no way you were there when this was given, so how did you know what was in the letter?" She raised a brow, throwing the question to Leo.

"You see... about that–" He chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "The soldier who took the letter to the King was my father."

"So that's why I was also tasked to keep an extra watch on you for your safety and a probable way of you being comfortable with me until you were old enough to be umm..." He coughed on the last part, not willing to say it.

"You did a great job watching over me, it must have been tough for you, watching over a tough nut like I am." Mae suddenly had a change in emotion, flashing a bright smile, bringing out her hand for a shake.

Leo looked down at her hand in confusion and worry at what was going on in her thoughts.

"Do you want to keep my hands waiting? It's gonna hurt sooner or later if you don't accept this." She exchanged glances from her hand and his face.

Taking her odd gesture, he shook her hand, but then something felt odd, she didn't let go of his hand after the required number of seconds had passed for a normal comfortable shake.

"Princess?" He asked with worry, trying to pull away his hand without injuring her in the process, but she wouldn't budge, her head was hung low, her hair cascading down her thighs and onto her ankle.

On a closer look, he suddenly found something oddly strange about her posture, "Princess Mae?" He called, horrified.