royally arranged

Blush [chapter 12]

Your mom and dad were having yet another yelling match, thinking you and Nikos couldn't hear their constant arguing. You were maybe ten at the time, two years before the life changing incident that would take place because of your father's doing.

Nikos trembled in your arms with a hot stream of tears falling down his face, the five year old scared for his life. You held him close to your chest, holding back your own tears to put up a brave front while Nikos was around.

"Shh, it's ok," you reassured, stroking his back in a gentle manner, your shaky voice working against you in trying to calm down your younger brother.

You couldn't even hear what they were arguing about this time, your primary objective being to calm down the younger boy shaking in your arms. Tears of your own had welled up in your eyes, but you absolutely refused to let them fall.

You would've gotten Mealonie or Emily if it hadn't been for the fact that today was their day off. You couldn't call to them for help, it would be unfair to them. You just had to silently suffer on your own. That's the way it was; that was how you were supposed to be a good older sister.

"Please stop crying," you plant a kiss on top of Nikos's head. You took in a deep breath, a shaky exhale coming out in return. "Nikos. Everything is fine, there is no need for you to cry."

"Why are they yelling?" Nikos asked with a sniffle, wiping his eyes as continuous tears fell down his cheeks.

You offered a smile, one that definitely didn't reach your eyes, "Because they're fighting over a toy like we always do."

He didn't seem to calm down much, but his sniffles became less frequent. You closed your eyes and slowly covered his ears, trying to muffle the sound of your parents yelling as much as possible.

And right when things were about to get louder, everything stopped. There was no more yelling. And that terrified you even more than when everyone was yelling.

Your eyes widened, a singular tear streaking down your face as you bit your tongue to compose yourself as much as possible.

"A princess doesn't cry," you repeated that line to yourself over and over again, blinking away any tears that threatened to fall from your eyes.

You looked down at Nikos who had now fallen asleep in your arms, sucking his thumb like a small baby would do. You held his closer, removing your hands from his ears with a breath of relief. There was no more yelling, just a sound of a door slamming and the other letting out curses.

"Everything is fine. I'm fine," you told yourself, trying as hard as you could to convince yourself you were doing just fine.

That's when you first started lying to yourself about actually being okay.

You awoke with a gasp, eyes snapping open. You immediately regretted the decision, the rays from the sunlight almost blinding you after you suddenly opened your eyes. You groaned, bringing a hand up to cover your eyes and turning away from the windows.

"What's wrong with you?" you heard a raspy voice ask from beside you, startling you a bit.

You slowly opened your eyes, squinting so you could slowly adjust to the light. When you were fully adjusted, you were met with a yawning Shoto. He had appeared to have just woken up, his hair a complete mess and his eyes tired.

"What the fuck?" you sat up, scooting a bit further away from the Todoroki. He stared at you confused for a moment before realizing you were in the same bed, and that was what sent him into the same state of confusion and shock that you were in.

"What the fuck are you doing in my bed?" Shoto asked, voice still raspy with his eyes squinted.

"I don't know!" you shrieked, fumbling to get out of the bed.

When you did, you quickly retracted into your window seat, staring at Shoto and taking in the somewhat appealing sight. He was without a shirt, his hair and absolute mess, and his voice was raspy. His eyes were still filled with sleep, and his calm expression tied the look together even better.

And though he might've had a clam expression, that was anything but what he was feeling. He just had trouble showing much emotion within the first five minutes of him waking up.

"Why were you in my bed?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at you with his eyebrows tightly knitted together.

"Last thing I remember before falling asleep was reading in the library. I don't know how I ended up there," you answered.

Shoto removed his eyes from you, his brows furrowing more as he thought about the possible causes that lead you to sleeping in his bed. Well, more the shared bed that the two of you refused to sleep in together.

"Just," Shoto started to say, not knowing what he was going to say since his mouth spoke before his brain could formulate a proper sentence, "Forget about it. Go get ready for our classes. We leave a few minutes after breakfast."

You mutely nodded, slowly getting up from your window seat. You went to a drawer, pulling out a pretty formal dress, assuming you needed to hold a good image in this class. When Shoto didn't make any comments about you going too fancy, you decided you did a fine job.

You tucked your dress in your arms, grabbing a corset before marching into the bathroom. You had called Diana to draw your water, giving her a thank you before she left.

Stripping yourself from your night gown, you slid into the warm water, bubbles covering you soon after. You let out a sigh, closing your eyes and basking in the warmth of the water.

I swear I'm more mentally fucked up than I'd like to believe.

"No you're not."

Yes I am. I'm literally talking to myself in my head. You call that mentally stable?

"..."

That's what I thought.

You chuckled at your own argument in your head, slowly opening your eyes and getting out of the tub after about ten minutes. As much as you wanted to stay in there longer, you needed to get ready for the day. And lagging behind was not an option today.

You threw on your clothes, tying up your corset before sitting down at the stool in front of your vanity. You contemplated on doing your makeup, eventually deciding not to since you would probably just end up getting frustrated because the eyeliner was uneven or something.

You just did your hair, braiding it back in a neat manner as to look more mature. With one final look in the mirror, you exited the bathroom, seeing a certain Todoroki adjusting his shirt.

When he heard you come out of the bathroom he looked up from what he was doing, looking you up and down to take in your appearance. He thought you looked nice. But would he ever admit that? Hell no.

"Go put on some shoes, your feet look gross," Shoto turned his back to you, hiding the small blush that crept up on his face from you.

"Rude," you grumbled, sauntering your way over to the closet where you stored all of your shoes.