Chương 3: Meeting New Friends
I wake up, and Liam's gone. I look at the spot he normally lays in. I close my eyes, imagining he's next to me, then I hear the door to the room open. I open my eyes, and see Liam walking in. I lock eyes with him.
"Good morning" he says with a smile.
"Morning" I yawn. This is the first time I realize he is wearing pajamas. Normally he's in whatever he wore the day before, or a bathrobe. He lays next to me on the bed, but he's propped up in a half sitting position. I lay my head on his ribs, wrapping my arms around him. He wraps his arms around me.
"What do you want to do today?" Liam asks me. I think for a moment.
"I'm not sure"
"How about we see what Lilly is doing?" He suggests.
"Yeah, but just five more minutes?" I feel him loosening his grip on me. Then he starts to get up.
"Nope!"
"Liam! Come back!" I wave my arms out toward him! He takes my hands and tries pulling me out of bed. "No! I don't want to get out of bed yet!" He pulls me almost all the way out of bed, my legs are half way on, and he has me from under my armpits.
"C'mon!" Liam shouts.
"No!" I pout.
"Fine" he drops me. I hit the floor. I'm surprised he did that. He starts walking toward the closet, and I get up and jump on his back. He stumbles backward a bit. "What the hell!" I hear him yell. I giggle. "You little.." he reaches for me. He successfully grabs my arm. He pulls me around so that I'm facing him. His hands are on on my back, and my legs are wrapped around his waist. We stare into each other's eyes. We are about to close the distance, when there's a knock at the door. We both ignore it, and kiss. The person knocks again, and again we ignore it.
We hear the door opening, but continue to make out. Then all of a sudden Liam breaks the kiss, and clicks his tongue in annoyance. His grip tightens as he pulls me into a hug.
"What do you want cat face?" Liam asks, clearly annoyed.
"Sorry for interrupting lover boy, but your brother wants to see you." Xander responds.
"Well tell him I'll be there in a half hour."
"Ok" Xander starts to leave but pauses to say one more thing. "You know, I always knew it got hot in here, but I never knew it got that hot." He chuckles as he closes the door. My face becomes a tomato. Liam's grip loosens, and I pull back to look at him.
He has a bit of blush. We stare into each others eyes. My legs unwrap around him. He puts me down, but we continue staring at each other. I go on my tiptoes and kiss his cheek.
"I love you" I say.
"I love you" Liam says back. Then he starts coming closer, and pushing me back, till we eventually hit the bed, and lay down. We lay next to each other, facing one another. I want to hug him, kiss him, I want to talk to him. I want to do that for the rest of my life. But, I know I can't. There other people besides him, and I can't not acknowledge their existence. I have to be around more than just him. But I have this craving, to be near him, to talk to him. I want him, and only him. I want to grow old with him, and have children with him.
I get pulled from my thoughts by him kissing me. But he pulls away way too quickly for my liking.
I wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss him again. A knock is heard at the door. He breaks the kiss again. "You guys better not be doing it right now!" I hear Xander muffle from outside the door. I have a plan.
"Liam~" I say and I look at him, and he smiles understanding.
"Oh Violet, this is so satisfying!" Liam says.
"Oh God!" Xander chokes. "You guys, you need to finish! Like now!" I giggle.
"Xander you can come in!" I yell.
"I'm not walking in there with those noises happening." Xander says in a nervous tone.
"Don't worry, we're just messing with ya!" I tell him. He slowly opens the door, and peeks from behind it. The cat barely holding on, while on his head.
"Ok! Your brother wants to see you." Xander sighs in relief.
"And I said in a half hour!" Liam yells.
"He says it's urgent!" Xander says with a knowing smile.
"What? What's urgent?" Liam sighs.
"He figured you'd say that! He said that you would want to know something he just heard! That you've been looking for." Xander tries hinting.
Liam perks right up. He quickly gets up and pulls me up out of bed.
"Vivi, you can travel around the castle if you want! I'm going to go talk to Zack." I look at him puzzled. What does he want so badly, that completely changed his mood?
"Ok!" I say. Well, it doesn't matter now! He's happy, and that's what matters.
We head out and I end up in a giant library.
"Hello!" A short girl appeared from behind a bookshelf. She has long red hair that goes down to her knees, and has golden eyes. Her bangs are pushed out of the way with a headband.
"Uh...hi" I say.
"Are you Liam's fiancée?" The girl asks.
"Yeah" I say shyly.
"It's great to finally meet you!" She runs up and hugs me. "My names Loretta! I'm the librarian!"
"Hello, I'm Violet!" I tell her. "It's nice to meet you too, but what did you mean by finally meet me?"
"Oh, it's nothing." She smirks. "Only that you're all he ever talked about before you got here...it was always 'Violet said' this! 'Violet said' that! 'She complimented me! What do I do?' It was quite amusing, though I wanted to meet the one who made Liam suddenly blush every time he read a letter from you." I blush tremendously at this. She giggles.
"I-I had no I-idea that I had that effect on him!" I stutter. Loretta giggles again.
"Well, now you do!" She pats me on the back. "You should go head to the pool at some point! I have a friend named Autumn there. She's the swimming instructor." I nod.
"Okay!" I say bye, and head toward the pool area. I see a big double door, and push it open. It reveals a very bright light. I block out the light with my hands and look around the room. There is a big pool, with a bunch of lounge equipment. In the back I could almost make out the words that read 'Changing rooms'.
"Hello!" I look over to see a short haired woman. Her hair was the color of the ocean in the tropics. Her eyes are ultramarine blue, and very lively. "Autumn is delighted to meet you! She would also like to know your name, rival!"
"Rival?" I ask confused.
"Love rival! Stay away from Xander! He is mine, and no one can do anything about that!" Autumn yells, with a dark aura surrounding her.
"I'm not your love rival, I'm interested in someone else." I tell her. Her dark aura disappears.
"That's good! Autumn would like to know your name now!" She says with a really bright smile. It's so bright, it's almost creepy.
"My name? It's Violet..." Autumn's eyes widen.
"You're Violet?!" She points at me. "I've heard from Xander, you've been doing things..." she shivers, and blushes. I look at her puzzled. Oh god! Why me?
"N-no! That was a joke we played on him! We never actually did that, yet!" I clear up for her. Geez this girl seems to be dramatic.
"Oh...okay" is all she said. No, 'I'm sorry for yelling at you', or even starting up a conversation about...that.
"So I take it, you're Autumn?" I ask. She looks at me puzzled.
"Yeah! How'd you know?" I look at her in disbelief. There's no way she doesn't know she's talking about herself in third person, is there?
"Um...first of all you talk in third person. And secondly, Loretta told me where to find you." Autumn still doesn't seem to understand.
"What do you mean, when you say 'Autumn speaks in third person?'" I can't believe this girl! How?! How does she not realize? She smiles. "Autumn was only joking, she knows she speaks in third person. She's always known!"
"Okay!" I sigh in relief.
"Autumn thinks you should go meet others around the castle! There is ms. Alexandra, Shawn, ms. Bella, Linsey, Jackson, and sir Arthur." She counts off the names using her fingers.
"Okay! Where exactly would I find them?" I ask.
"Ms. Bella would be in the kitchen, she should know where everyone in the castle is!" Autumn answers.
"Okay! Thank you, bye!" I wave to her, and start to leave the room. She runs up to me.
"Wait! Violet!" She gets close to me and whispers to me. "Remember to be protected at all times.." I blush.
"W-What?!" I stammer. Why do people keep implying this stuff?!
"The castle...normally strangers don't get in, but sometimes people have ways to get in...so Autumn wanted to warn you to stay alert!" Autumn explains. I relax...oh, that's what she meant.
"Okay! Thank you! Bye" I wave to her and start looking for the kitchen. I reach the end of a hallway, with one door. I open it to find a huge garden. It was full of flowers. Lilly was sitting on the grass next to it, with Xander's cat in her lap. As I walk a bit closer, she looks at me.
"Hello Violet-Chan!" She smiles. Her voice is so small. It's different from the other day. She sounds younger, somehow.
"Hi Lilly" I knew about Lilly for some time. Liam really cherishes his sister, he would talk about her in our letters. I was so excited to finally meet her, but we were under such bad circumstances before.
"I didn't know that Xander's cat hung around anyone but him.." I tell her. I see the black cat that normally sits on Xander's head.
"Oh! She's my cat. Her name is Eden." I tilt my head in confusion.
"Wait, if she's your cat, why is she always on Xander's head?" I ask her. She blushes.
"Well, a while ago... Mr. Xander had been sick. I had fallen asleep, and accidentally left my door open. The next day I woke up to Mr. Xander yelling. She kind of slept on his face...ever since then, she has loved being on his head." Lilly explains, embarrassed. I giggle.
"That must have been funny" I tell her.
"Yeah, kind of.." she smiles at the memory.
"Do you often come out here, in the garden?" I ask.
"Yeah, I like to take in the beauty. I like to sit on the grass alone sometimes, and listen to the winds. They say a lot, you know." I smile.
"You must enjoy nature..." I point out. She smiles.
"Yeah, my mother and I used to listen to the wind, when I was younger." Her expression softens, as she remembers the beautiful memories she must have of her mother that died those years ago. "Um...I'm not trying to be rude or anything....but...um.." Lilly starts.
"Yeah?" I let her continue.
"Umm...your mother passed too, didn't she?" I'm a bit startled by her question. I walk over to her, and gently sit down next to her. Eden glares at me.
"Yes...my mother passed about seven years ago."
"I'm sorry..."
"It's alright!"
"Umm.. do you ever miss her? Like a lot?"
"Yeah..." Lilly starts to tear up. "Are you okay?"
"That's how I feel right now...I miss her...I'm sorry. I don't mean to cry so much..it's just that she used to sing me to sleep sometimes. Onii-Chan tries to help, but he sounds like a cat dying." We both start giggling at the thought of Liam singing.
Soon the laughter dies down, and she goes from laughing to sobbing. I hug her. Eden leaves from her lap, disgusted that I'm in the same proximity as her.
Lilly cries even harder, after a few minutes. By the time she finally stopped crying, she was laying in my lap, with me gently stroking her hair. I was trying me best to calm her, and it seemed to work.
"I'm sorry..." she says to me.
"For what?" I ask her.
"For sobbing, loosing my composure..."
"It's alright...who says we always need to keep composure?"
" Onii-Chan. Not big brother Liam, but big brother Zack... he said to always keep composure, or else people will think I'm a crybaby."
"Well don't worry, always remember it's okay to cry.." she smiles, and closes her eyes.
"Can I call you Nee-San?" Lilly asks.
"Yeah!" I answer. "You can call me whatever you want." As she starts to drift off into dreamland, I close my eyes and listen to nature. I hear footsteps from behind me approaching.
I open my eyes and tilt my head back, to see Liam walking over to us. I close my eyes again, and his arms wrap around me.
"Is she sleeping?" Liam whispers.
"Yeah, she's asleep." I respond.
"I can carry her to bed, let's go back inside, for lunch." Liam suggests. I nod my head. He gets up and starts picking up Lilly. Lilly's eyes shoot open.
"OniiChan?!" She relaxes when she sees who's picking her up.
"Relax it's only me, I was going to carry you to bed. But since you're awake, I guess I don't need to." Liam smiles.
"Nee-San, can I ask you to do something for me?" Lilly asks.
"Yeah, What is it?" I respond.
"Tonight, can you sing me to sleep?" Lilly asks.
"Yeah! I'd be happy to!" I respond. She smiles.
"Can we go have lunch now?" Liam asks, his stomach rumbling.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go." We get up and walk back into the castle. We walk into the dining room. Food is already prepared for us, on the table. We sit down and start eating.
~Time skip to after lunch~
Lilly went off towards her room, while Liam and I went to ours. I feel more comfortable here, now. I've gotten used everything. I remember something.
"Liam?" I ask, as we enter the room.
"Yeah?" He questions.
"What did you want to get from your brother." He smiles.
"Oh nothing you need to worry about now!"
"Are you sure?" I ask.
"Yep! Now, what were you and Lilly talking about?"
"What do you mean?"
"In the garden when I went to pick Lilly up, her eyes were red and puffy."
"Oh, yeah...she was missing your mother...and she started crying." I sat down on the bed.
"What?!" Liam's eyes widened. "Was she okay?! Was she apologizing a lot?"
"Umm...yeah?" I respond. Liam's head falls.
"How did you stop her?" Liam mumbles.
"What? What do you mean 'stop her'?" I ask.
"Whenever Lilly was sad, she would go to me. But I could never cheer her up. She would miss mom a lot. She would cry, but nothing I did would make her forget her sadness. No one has ever stopped one of Lilly's crying sessions." My eyes widen.
"What?! Never?" I ask him.
"Yeah, except for mom, of course. I tried to do what mom did when Lilly was sad. But it still didn't work. How did you get her to stop crying?"
"I just hugged her, and told her it's okay to cry. Then she cried it all out."
"And it worked like that? Just like that?! How?! That's all I had to do?" He asks.
"Yeah..."
"Thank you. Thank you for helping her." Liam thanks me.
"Of course!" I smile.
Liam POV:
While Vivi was singing to Lilly, I got out what I had been looking for. I pull out the old ring. My mother was proposed to with this ring, her mother was too, and her mother, and so on. This is the treasure of our kingdom, just like Violet is my treasure. She comes back from singing.
"Hey Vivi, how'd it go?" I ask.
"Lilly was fast asleep, when I left her."
She changes and we hop into bed. We snuggle and say our good nights. I love her so much, I'm so happy she's here.
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