Trust

Unwanted Guest | 望まれない客

At some point, Kouen decided to stop sighing as much as he was and decided to actually do something. He knows for a fact that he's going to get very annoyed very soon and would rather actually do what he came here to do instead of putting it off until after the annoyance leaves and give himself more things to stress over.

So, through sheer willpower, he forced himself to finish the stack of papers sitting on his desk and huffed in contentment when there was finally nothing left in the pile, ignoring how his hand ached after going through so many documents.

That should be enough for the next few days, leaving him enough time to scream into the void, something he assumes he's going to want to do a lot over the next few days.

- - - - -

As soon as he made it back to his room, not caring about his surroundings, he flopped on to the bread and groaned, sound mostly muffled by the sheets but still easy for the people in the room with him to hear.

"Tough day at work?" Lucy said sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow and dramatically more of her weight onto her hand.

Hearing her, Kouen instantly paused, suddenly remembering that he's not the only one here.

Mechanically, he slowly turned his head towards the edge of the bed where she sat, amusements evident on her face.

Really, he's shocked at how much has changed in the span of a few short weeks (if he counts their time on the ship and when Lucy mysteriously vanished—he still has to figure out why—as well as the past week she's been staying in his room, which he is) but he isn't complaining. It's been a long time since he's had someone to be so carefree with, something that still kind of concerns him. He hasn't even known her long but can say with full confidence that she's not a threat.

She may be able to get past his trained guards and climb walls like a spider but she just so... so... something. But he can't even think of why he doesn't consider her a threat, even after only partially seeing what she can do and that concerns him. He definitely should not be allowing someone of unknown origin, strength, and motive be allowed to live with him but, well, he honestly doesn't care anymore.

"Where are you from?" He asked suddenly, stunning Lucy and himself, as he wasn't expecting to blurt out the question like he did. He wasn't even planning on asking her anything yet, as he still wanted to give her a bit more time to adjust before he started his 'interrogation'.

"Wow, loaded question. You mean where I was born, where I was raised, where I went when I left on the boat, or where I lived after I left home?" Lucy knows the question wasn't that hard to answer but she still decided to overcomplicate it just for fun. Since she's sure he isn't a threat to her anymore, she wouldn't mind telling him a bit about Earthland, including where she's from, so she really only did that because she wanted to see the look on his face.

Kouen also hasn't asked her much about herself, even though she promised to tell him everything, and because he finally asked something, for the first time, she was at least going to keep her promise.

Face going from slightly shocked to a light frown, Kouen spoke up again. "Where you were raised, I suppose, since that's where you would have spent the majority of your life."

"Ah, okay. Well, I was raised in a country called—"

"Um, your highness?" A hesitant voice cut Lucy off and lightly knocked on the door.