Battychaichilla
Senior Member
The dinner table was stifling, carrying only the sound of platters and utensils quietly scraping the plates and shuffling goblets about. Gabby had dropped one of the goblets and spilled fruit juice on the floor; Jiro rolled his eyes at this before promptly dropping a meatball on his own clothes. Both of them were chided appropriately for their carelessness.
After the maids rushed in to get the child and the floor cleaned, the parents resumed their previous discussion about the benefits of the marriage arrangement, talking about their heirs despite them being in the same room. Jiro had already distracted himself from the droning, catching Gabby glaring at him from across the table. He had a feeling she would be kicking him if her legs were long enough.
He glanced at his mother, and seeing she was distracted, stuck his tongue out at the princess.
Gabby puffed up in offense, shot a quick look at her own father, and then imitated the prince. This in turn made him pull both his eyes down— and the girl copied him. He puffed out his cheeks and made cross-eyes— and the girl copied him. He wasn’t sure what was bothering him more— the fact that she wasn’t as phased by the teasing that he wanted or the fact that she was just copying him.
Copycat, he mouthed to her. He then stretched out his face with both hands, pulling his cheeks outward and sticking out his tongue to make the ugliest expression he could muster, contorting it so much so that his glasses actually fell off his nose. Gabby pulled her hands up to imitate him, but they instead quickly flew to her mouth as delighted giggles burst out of her lips. It was loud and sudden enough that it startled Jiro, and caused both their parents to look down at the pair with a mixture of annoyance and amusement.
“AuGH!!” Jiro slammed his hands on the table. “Can I be excused???”
“For what reason?” His mother asked him.
“She’s annoying me!!”
For some reason this made Gabby laugh even harder.
“STOP LAUGHING!” Jiro yelled.
“You didn’t even finish your dinner,” his mother said, her voice firm. “You are permitted to leave once you’re done. You know the rules.”
Jiro sat back down on his seat, picking his glasses up from his lap and quickly began scarfing down the mountain of rice that he had kept to the side of his plate. Gabby was calming down, though a little giggle slipped out here and there. The prince stopped chewing and stared at her.
“You have a baby laugh,” he told her. He was instantly pelted with a spoon she flung at his face, and she actually stood up on her chair to attack him from over the table before her father grabbed her in mid-leap. He plunked her back down on her seat.
“Apologize,” he said. “Now.”
Jiro rubbed his head and irritably waited.
“I’m sorry for hitting your stupid face,” she said.
The prince bristled. “Well, you have a stupid baby face.”
“Stop calling me a baby! I’m— I’m twenty!”
“Nuh-uh!! Stop lying!! You’re a baby!!”
“Am not!!”
“Are to!!”
“Oh my God let it end,” the king moaned into his hand. “Gabriella, you are dismissed. You may leave the table.”
The five-year old pushed herself away from the table and hopped off of her chair.
Jiro’s mother sighed and waved her hand to also shoo away her son, who only too happily slipped off his seat to run off to play.
His immediate instinct was to retreat to his living room, which proved to be enormous enough to entertain at least thirty guests comfortably, and slink into the crevice which was almost tunnel-like between the sofa and the wall. At least here he’d be able to avoid the princess...
After crawling for at least ten seconds, he came across a wider opening, and then breathed a sigh of relief. Two picture books, a pile of colorful rocks, and a single stuffed fox were lying in wait for him. This was his favorite spot to hide in whenever his tutors proved to be too much for him and he needed a little ‘brain break’.
This was the place he hid when his mother told him of his engagement a year ago. It may or may not have resulted in him staying in his secret hiding spot for six hours and the queen having to have six of the palace guards pull the sofa away to get him out.
A small strained grunt startled him from his thoughts as he noticed a little shadow squeezing its way through the tunnel. He watched with increasing annoyance as Gabby managed to finally push herself into the space, her dress uncomfortably covering a good portion. She pushed it down so that it was more manageable and sat on it.
“Why are you here?” Jiro asked her, folding his arms petulantly.
She shrugged and began looking through the prince’s belongings, picking up two shiny rocks. Jiro kicked them off of her hand.
“Don’t touch my stuff!!” He chided.
Gabby rubbed her hand, glaring at him and giving a small pout. “That hurt.”
“You hurt me all day!! Even though I wanted to...” He trailed off as he glanced up at her and then looked down, irritated. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Gabby put her hand down. Suddenly feeling bad, she began to squeeze the ends of her dress. “I’m sorry I pushed you down the hill. And threw the spoon at you. And called you stupid. Are you sorry for calling me a baby?”
“You are a baby.” Jiro flinched in preparation for some sort of punch, but Gabby was looking at his things again. Either she just wasn’t paying attention or she wasn’t bothered anymore. That was kind of annoying.
“Can you read this?” Gabby held up one of the books with a little duck on it.
“Yeah.”
Gabby crawled over to Jiro and plopped beside him. “What does it say?”
Jiro traced his finger across the cover as he said each word, “‘The Ugly Duckling.’”
Gabby opened the book and looked up at him expectantly.
“It’s the same words. The Ugly Duckling.”
She turned the page, and then looked up at him expectantly.
Jiro sighed and rolled his eyes as he took part of the book from her. Granted he wasn’t the best reader, but he knew the story from heart enough to pretend that he was. She tried following along with the words with her finger, tracing along them as he had done in the beginning, but was often either too slow or too fast.
The five year old asked a lot of questions throughout the book, and Jiro answered every one of them even as his patience was being tested. Most of the answers were “wait and see what happens”. Some just devolved into ridiculousness, like whether or not a goose and a duck was the same animal (as Gabby kept calling the Ugly Duckling an Ugly Goose, even after Jiro told her off each time) and “who do you think would win if they had a fight to the death”. At some point he wrapped his arm around her to let her see the book better and to hold onto it easier, and at another her cheek was on his chest.
“Are you falling asleep?” Jiro asked her, feeling the warmth grow just a little heavier against him.
“No,” she said stubbornly.
Liar.
Jiro turned to the next page, of which it was revealed that the duckling was not a duckling at all— but a swan. He paused for a moment, waiting for her reaction. Gabby looked up at him, unimpressed. “What?”
“Look what happened to the duckling,” Jiro said.
The little girl suddenly furrowed her brows as the realization hit her. “It turned into a GOOSE.”
“NO,” Jiro said, sighing in aggravation. “It turned into a swan.”
“What’s a swan?” Gabby asked.
“It’s— it’s like a peacock, but white and prettier.”
Gabby rose her eyebrows. “Really?”
“Well— no,” Jiro scratched his cheek. “I mean— look. Look at the picture! That’s a swan.”
Gabby returned her gaze to the illustration and frowned. “I’ve never seen one before...”
“Sometimes they visit the lake in the forest,” Jiro said slowly. “In the summertime— oh, now, I guess.”
Gabby looked up at Jiro thoughtfully, her large grey eyes scrutinizing him. “Have you ever eaten a peacock before?”
Jiro actually choked on his words. Where’d that come from?? He thought they were talking about swans. “No?! Why would we eat peacocks??”
“Like, we eat chickens and geese,” Gabby said, “And peacocks sort of look like geese.”
“Peacocks are NOT like geese.”
“But swans are geese.”
“Yes—! ...No. That’s—” Jiro rubbed his eyes under his glasses. “Let’s just finish the story.”
Gabby went back to her comfortable position, now completely resting her weight on Jiro’s chest. He genuinely considered pushing her off of him, but sighed and decided to bear it. It wasn’t uncomfortable, and she’d probably get off after they finished the book. There were probably two or three pages left of it anyway.
