What A Girl Wants: With A Twist (BWWM)

A Not So Silent Night

Normal POV

Aria tossed and turned for the millionth time tonight before she sat up in her bed. She had been trying to go the sleep for the longest but it evaded her every time. She tried counting sheep, singing lullabies, everything; she was wired from being in a new place with new people. She felt like a baby that needed a nap so they could absorb everything they had learned that day.

She felt stupid just laying in bed looking at the ceiling.

After four more minutes of sitting there, she threw back the heavenly soft sheets with groan. "Might as well go get something to eat", Aria decided, shuffling off onto the cold hard floor.

She pulled on her slippers and stepped out her suite to journey through the maze like halls of the castle. Somehow, by some miracle, Aria had found her way to the kitchen without getting lost. When it came to food; call her Indiana Scones.

Quietly, she pushed open the door before remembering it was passed midnight and no one was up. She felt around the large silver fridge until she found the handle and pulled it open.

"Feeling peckish?"

"Shit!", she practically jumped 5 feet in the air spinning around to see Frederick sitting at the far end of the table,"I mean, shoot", she corrected realizing she had cursed.

She didn't know how they felt about cursing, but she knew her mom would've killed her if she heard it. "Sorry I uh didn't know anyone was up.", she abandoned the fridge, making her way over to him. As she got closer, Aria couldn't help but note how tired he looked.

"Nope just me", he answered eating other "biscuit" cookie thing out the tray,"Jet lag?"

He nodded over to the seat across from him. "Oh uh yeah, never been on a plane for that long before, got here two days ago and still haven't adjusted", Aria shrugged it off,"What uh...what about you?", she doubted they were both awake right now for the same reason.

"I uh...I couldn't sleep, have a lot on my mind and didn't wanna wake Eleanora", he answered, looking back down at his glasses of milk. He couldn't handle how much she reminded him of her; she was the spitting image of Memphis.

Aria nodded in understanding,"It's been a real long day, I get it", she admitted, sitting across from him on the bench,"It's not everyday your long lost love child appears out of nowhere on your doorstep." She had only seen stuff like that on Hallmark or Lifetime TV.

"Thank you for understanding", he offered before silence took over for a long moment. Neither knew what to do, what to say; everything was so new to both of them, new and awkward.

Deciding to bit the bullet, the older man spoke up,"I've been meaning to ask you some...questions."

As casual as it sounded, Aria raised an eyebrow, pulling a face,"What kind of questions?"

Frederick glanced at her before looking away, scraping his spoon against the edge of his bowel,"Nothing crazy", he promised,"just to get to know one another", he offered her a small smile in an attempt to calm her nerves.

"Oh", she relaxed again,"okay, cool." She moved closer to him, picking up a cookie from the tray and taking a big bite,"Well my name is Aria Henry Blake", she started simply with the basic details.

She snickered at the face he made at hearing her full name, her middle name to be specific. "Yep Henry", she assured him, answering his silent questioning,"it's on my birth certificate and everything." She contemplated going to show it to him, but she felt like she was trying to hard; he probably already had people do a background check on her.