The King's Artist

Ch 32: Personalities

Adelaide explanation of her wild thought process took a considerable amount of time. By the end, Henry's head had begun to ache dully, and he pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation, his brow furrowed in concentration. She repeatedly tried to rationalize her actions, stumbling over her words with every attempt. Henry silenced her with a look, and she sat down with her hands between her legs like a scolded child.

"What exactly would make you think that was a good idea?" Henry asked, his voice heavy, and his shoulders slumped. He looked up at Adelaide with a partial glare, and she gave him a sheepish smile in return.

"Sorry," she said softly with a half-smile. "It seemed like fun."

Henry looked at her incredulously. Adelaide tried to appear innocent, but the longer the silence dragged out, the more uncomfortable she became. The half-smile on her face quickly faded as she realized Henry wasn't amused by the situation at all, his face falling into a severe grimace.

"You were being greedy," stated Henry bluntly, his expression going blank and his face relaxing into a hard line. Adelaide gave him an indignant glare, but couldn't seem to manifest the words to counter his statement. To make matters more annoying, as she considered it, he was probably right.

"It's not that big of a deal, Henry," Adelaide attempted a justification, her face setting into a similar expression to his. Of course, internally, Adelaide knew she should have expected that Henry wouldn't have found her idea humorous. He, after all, wasn't someone who enjoyed pranks or anything close to nonsensical behavior. He was standardly a very serious person, finding practical jokes and the like a waste of time and unnecessary.

"Well clearly, you don't understand how much of a headache this is for me," he said with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. "I just don't understand why you would feel the need to cause such a commotion so needlessly. Don't you remember that just a few days ago you were practically preaching at me about how you were still Arthur despite being a girl? So forgive me for not being able to comprehend where your sudden desire to be female again came from."

"Can't I be both?" Adelaide stated angrily, her voice rising a few octaves. "Why can't I be Arthur and Adelaide? Why do I have to choose?"

"You can't be two people, Adelaide," Henry counted, his annoyance rising to the surface rapidly. His hands were clenched and, just like Adelaide, he had started to grit his teeth.

"Again, why not?" Adelaide's voice was only a few volumes from shouting. It felt strange for her. She had never raised her voice at Henry before, never felt so aggressively agitated because of him.

"Because now, as your friend and someone who knows the truth, you'll expect me to lie to those around us and pretend that 'Arthur' and 'his sister' are two entirely different people," Henry glared. "You should know I hate lying."

"I just wanted to know what it would be like to wear a dress and be treated like a lady," Adelaide suddenly shouted, rising to her feet in an uncontrolled outburst of emotion. She had started to feel guilty, which was something she didn't want to acknowledge at the moment. Right now, she wanted him to understand, to see her side, to know she wasn't just trying to cause unnecessary problems.

Henry's eyes widened as he stared at Adelaide, his body shifting away from her on impulse as if he had expected her to hit him. Adelaide immediately regretted her actions as she noticed his hesitation and uncertainty.

"If you wanted to be treated like a girl so badly, you shouldn't have pretended to be a boy," Henry retorted, also standing up, but much more calmly than Adelaide. However, his voice was as equally loud as hers, and his face etched to the same degree of agitation. "You know, you wouldn't be having this dilemma at all if you had just been honest from the start."