[Earth, Patricia's place - Morning]
"Breakfast is ready!" Mary announced as she set a plate full of pancakes on the dining table. Lavi was the first to appear there, when he heard Mary. He sat down as his eyes practically lit up at the sight of the plethora of food.
Emily went up to Patricia's room to see if she's alright. She knocked on the door a few times but there was no response. Suddenly, she heard a 'thud' and then a groan coming for the inside. Worried, she knocked the door harder, "Patricia! Are you okay?!"
After a few attempts, the door opened on its own, or that was what she assumed. She stared at her room at the eye level, to see no one, but soon she realised Patricia was just laying flat on the ground, by her feet.
Emily squatted down to see if Patricia is alright, "Hey Patricia, what happened?"
She wailed as she flipped herself over, "My head hurts, I can't get up. I needed to crawl here to get the door."
Emily pulled her up and helped her to her bed, "Last night, you drank too much. You are going to be late for work soon, you should get ready. Mary and Anna had already prepared breakfast, so y--"
Patricia cut in, "No, I don't want to go to work. I'll skip for a day."
Emily gave her a droll look, "That's your 48th this year, your boss wouldn't like it."
Patricia laid on her bed and got out her phone. She punched some numbers in, and waited for a few moments for someone, on the other side, to pick up.
Both of them were in the room waiting in anticipation. Suddenly, the call finally went through. Patricia dramatically placed her hand on her chest and spoke hoarsely, "Um, sir. It's me, Patricia. I can't made it for work today, I have a fever." She then added a fake cough.
Emily could not hear what the other person on the line was saying, but she could only see Patricia nodding.
"Yes, thank you very much, sir." Just as the call ended, a huge grin spread across on her face as she gave Emily her signature wink, "Ta-da."
Emily gave her guardian a long and unamused stare, "Patricia, I don't think this a good idea..."
Patricia sighed and she fell back onto her soft queen sized bed, "Relax, this is the last time. Oh yeah, can you help me get some food?"
Emily nodded hesitantly, "But, you got to promise me this is the last time."
"I promised." Patricia reassured with a smile.
Emily did what she asked. Even though, knowing her, this would not be the last time. However, she could not help but to continue believing her.
After all of that, she made her way to the dining table. Everyone sat there, without moving an inch. She looked at the food on table, which were untouched. She sat down awkwardly and raised an eyebrow, "Why aren't you guys eating?"
There a moment of silence before Jai stated, "It will be rude for us to be eating without your presence."
She blinked a few times before announcing, "Um, you guys can eat now?" She cringed when she said that, she never thought that there would be a day where she needed to say that.
Suddenly, Yukiko walked into the house casually with her hair tied in a high ponytail. Emily turned her head and rested her arms on the top rail of her seat, "Where were you?"
"I was training in the backyard." She replied before shifting her gaze to the bigger crowd, "I've found a message by the headquarters."
She took out a scroll that was around the size of her pinky. She took it out from its capsule and placed it on the table.
Mary took it up and read:
"I've heard about the attack by the Phantom and I hope that you are all fine. I need all of you, to come back immediately. There are a couple of missions for you all. We need to quickly prepared the declaration ceremony, before more attacks come in our way."
"That's all, it was by the King." Mary continued reading as her eyes darted from side to side, "His majesty had already grouped us into groups. Lavi and Anna. Jai, Ethan and Ben. Yukiko and myself... WAIT, WHAT?! Why must I be with that old lady."
Yukiko twitched her eyelids before yelling back, "It not like I want to, right?! By the way, I'm not that old! Just because my hair white, doesn't mean that I'm old! I was born with this!"
Ethan pointed at Ben and protested, "I don't want to be with this guy too."
Ben was offended when he heard that, "Hey! What do you mean by 'this guy'?"
As all of them were fighting over themselves, Emily took a look at the tiny piece of paper, and saw Beck's name at the very bottom. It looked like he needed to go on a mission as well...
"That's just insane. Beck is injured, he shouldn't be doing this." Beck, who was sitting next to her, leaned closer to her to see what it said.
Feeling slightly worried, she whipped her head to the right, to face Beck, "Does my Father know that you're injured? Your name is here--"
She paused once she noticed how close his face was from hers. They were just a few centimetres apart, yet he had not noticed it as he was too focused on the message. She knew that he was good looking, but when his face was that close, his features just stood out even more. At this distance, she could tell that he indeed looked slightly different from Ben.
He had a distinct jawline, but it was not as intense as someone with a chiseled jaw. His eyes were gentle, yet the reddish tinge to his eye colour suggested otherwise. His nose was relatively sharp, but it was slightly smaller than an average male nose. His lips were a little pale and dry probably because of the fact that he just woke up not long ago.
All his features were not perfect.
But, for some reason, all his imperfections made him look so much more attractive than someone with all the ideal features.
Looking at him, she could not help but to stare. For a few seconds, she had lost the ability to breathe. Her heart was pounding in her chest, as if it was about to explode. Honestly, she would be surprised if no one heard that.
She jumped back to reality when his lips began moving. She immediately yet stiffly turned her head back, away from his face. "I'm not that sure, but I think Jai had reported this to the headquarters, so it should have reached his majesty."
He then backed away from her, still oblivious to how close they were, "I think his majesty is probably giving me a light mission. So, I should be fine."
Emily shook her thoughts away and gave him a worryingly look, which he replied with a smile. "Don't look at me like that, I'll be alright. Right now, I can barely feel anything." That was somewhat a lie, but there was some sort of truth in it. He was feeling slightly better.
Jai managed to calm the four of them, who were arguing. In the whole group, Jai always seem to be the older brother, who kept peace among them. "This is not time for this, we need to complete these missions as soon as possible. His majesty is right, we should have the declaration ceremony as soon as possible, before we start making our move on those Phantom."
Emily sat there somewhat confused as to what was going on, "I'm sorry, but what is the declaration ceremony about?"
Jai turned to her and explained, "Well, it's the an essential ceremony to officially declare you as Fiore's Princess. With all these attacks occurring, we might not have enough time if we continue to drag this further. So, finishing it early is probably for better. Afterwards, we can just focus on preparing ourselves against further attacks."
That was so much for her to process, "Life just can't get more interesting. This is just great, more people coming after me. Yay. Couldn't be happier."
After they had breakfast, they went back to Fiore. Emily told Patricia that they were just going to hang around, even though that was completely not what all of them were about to do. Since time works differently here, going back to Fiore for a few days, it will be around half a day or so on Earth. So, everything was cool.
Who was she kidding?
It was not.