Silver woke up in his new room. It was freezing, to say at the least.
Okay, well, in bed he wasn't freezing while under the covers. He was buried in four blankets, each one bigger and softer than the next. He sat up in his the king-sized bed and looked at the room through the sheer canopy that enveloped the bed.
The floors were a plush red carpet that tickled his feet whenever he walked on it barefoot. There was a large glass door, across the room from the bedroom door that led to a small balcony. He threw off the black sheets that he wrapped himself with and stretched, bones popping loudly.
He walked over to the bathroom that was connected to the room and brushed his teeth. The bathroom had white marble floors and reminded him how chillingly cold the whole palace was. He quickly took care of his morning rituals, trying to ignore the fact that it wasn't in his normal home and turned off the bathroom light. When he left the bathroom he nearly yelped.
There, sitting on the armchair in the corner, was Prince Nicholas.
Silver almost became angry but then he realized that the prince was actually sleeping. He didn't even think vampires slept, to be honest.
The prince was still wearing his suit from the night before. His head was leaning against his hand in some attempt of comfort, which made his silver crown tilt goofily onto his ear.
Silver gave a small smile before reaching for his phone. "What a charming prince," he giggled, taking several embarrassing snapshots.
He slipped his cellphone into the pocket of the silk black pajamas the prince lent him and just stared at Nick for a minute.
Why was he here? How long had he been there? Did he plan to sleep here or did he just fall asleep? Fall asleep doing what? Staring at Silver? Watching him sleep?
Silver hadn't realized how close he had gotten to the prince while he was thinking. He was kneeling now, leaning on the arm of the tiny red armchair. Nick looked so peaceful and handsome when he slept. Silver eyes followed along his strong jawline. The same jawline that jutted out seductively whenever the prince smirked.
Slowly, Silver reached up and placed the crown correctly on his head. "Now you look like a real prince," he smirked, "You big weirdo."
Silver wasn't sure if the prince heard him, but Nick's eyes twitched for a second and then fluttered open. He scrunched his nose cutely before staring at Silver.
Silver watched him with almost admiration, admiring how icy and blue his eyes were. Nick just stared blankly, relishing in the fact that Silver was so close to him without throwing insults.
They stared at each other for a while. Silver wanted to snapshot this in his brain. The prince looking like a prince. He wanted to have Nick's sculpted face in his memory before the idiot opened his mouth and said something stupid.
Slowly, Nick started to smile. He didn't give that annoying grin, he actually smiled and Silver's face scrunched up.
He stood up, "Why are you sleeping there?" he demanded, "I'm pretty sure you have your own bed."
"Well I didn't think you'd appreciate me sleeping in yours, so I thought this chair would be the next best thing," The prince shrugged with a yawn. He rolled his head around, neck cracking with every movement, "That was not the best idea for my neck and back, however."
"I meant, why don't you sleep in your own bed?" Silver rolled his eyes.
"Because I thought someone might have followed us into the castle or something," He shrugged "Sure, we probably would've spotted it, but for the first night I just wanted to make sure, you know. I just wanna stay by your side. Just in case, you know."
Silver tilted his head at the prince's change in speech, "You speak differently to me," Silver noticed.
"What do you mean, love?" he raised an eyebrow.
"When you spoke to your father, you used a bunch of big words," he answered stupidly, "But then you dumb down your vocabulary when talking to me or anyone else."
Nick just chuckled and stood up, "Come on, we have to see off my sister," he gestured for Silver to follow.
"You have a sister and- wait! I don't have clothes or shoes on!" he said, grabbed Nick by the fabric on his shoulder. The prince turned to him with a dull grin.
"That's fine, love, we're not going anywhere. Just to the foyer," He placed a hand between Silver's shoulder blades and led him out of the room.
"I didn't know you had a sister," Silver said as Nick led him down a long hallway with black marble floors and black walls. Luckily, the hallways had long red rugs across them so his feet weren't that cold.
"Yeah, I never mentioned her," he smiled, "Name's Diana, sweetest little thing in the world, I assure you."
Silver raised an eyebrow, "You love her?"
"She's my sister," Nick broke out laughing, "Of course I do."
"I can't imagine you loving anyone," Silver shrugged, "Not just because you're a vampire but also because you're just so..."
"Scary" Nick yawned again, "Once we're married, I'll fall in love with you too, don't worry."
"I am not marrying you, idiot prince," Silver rolled his eyes as they took a left and found themselves in yet another hallway, "You don't even know me. Why would want to marry me before you love me anyway?"
"That's how royalty works. I'm looking for a partner, not a lover," Nick sighed, "And quick too because my mom's sick and my parents want to retire soon"
"How old are your parents?"
"Little over 193, I believe, but still looking good for their age," he shrugged, "My father looks old, but I assure you that's not from age, that's from stress. Vampires don't age for several centuries."
"Well if we did get married, I would die after like 80-something right?" Silver said once they stopped in front of a bright pink door, "What would you do? Would you just get a new husband?"
"Get a new husband? Who do you think I am?" Nick blanched, "I hadn't thought that far ahead, I could always just turn you into a vampire."
"And that is why we are never getting married," Silver glared, shoving away from him, "I'd never want to become one of you."
"Oh come on, it's not that bad," Nick laughed, "Besides, I'd only do it once you die"
"You are not going to bring me back to life with your creepy-dead people powers!" Silver stomped childishly.
"It's not really bringing you to life, it's more like taking away your soul and bringing back your brain, you know," Nick grabbed Silver's wrist, still laughing. He pulled Silver so that their faces were centimeters apart, "I can't believe you're actually imagining us getting married"
"Of course I'm not. I'm not marrying a vampire. No matter how charming you think you may be," he glared, turning away from him, "I just know that once this whole thing is over, you're gonna find some other stupid reason to keep me here until I'm dead and then you're gonna try to turn me into a bloodsucking-leech like you,"
Nick giggled, "You know me so well!"
Suddenly the pink door slammed open and a girl about 11 or 12 glared at the two boys. She had short brown hair that barely went to her ears. Her pleated pink skirt went to her knees and matched her bright pink blazer. She wore a white button-down on under with a light ribbon-bow under her collar. Her white knee-high socks had light frills at the top that clashed with her rather boring brown moccasins.
"Diana," Nick beamed.
"You're too loud. I can hear your whole conversation from in my room," She glared, then turned to Silver, "You're not so loud, it's mainly my brother. Who are you?"
"This is Silver, he's my very special friend," Nick draped an arm over Silver.
Silver didn't want to embarrass Nick in front of this little girl, so he let the prince rub his shoulder affectionately, "It's nice to meet you, princess."
Diana suddenly beamed, "You called me princess!" she said, grabbing Silver's hand, "No one ever calls me princess! Only the butlers, but everyone else is part of my family or my friends and won't call me princess anymore, now that I'm older.
My name is Diana Lucille-Judith Schwarz and I'm twelve years old," she held out a hand. Silver bent over and shook it.
"I'm Silver Chase, and I'm 23," he answered with a small smile, "I like you a lot more than your brother," he confessed.
She laughed, "No ever tells me that either! I like you a lot."
"Yeah yeah yeah, well, you have to get to school now," Nick held out a hand, which Diana took after letting go of Silver's.
"I was waiting for you to come and see me off, Nicky." She smiled up at her brother as they walked to the door.
Silver walked behind them politely, with his hands clasped together behind his back.
"I'm sorry, I was talking to Silver," he replied calmly, "You know I have things to do too."
"Oh so, now that I'm older you don't want to spend time with me anymore," she grumbled. She seemed to have some sort vendetta against getting older, Silver noticed. The prince just laughed and shook his head.
"I swear, you're almost teenager now, but you still act like a toddler sometimes." They had reached a large foyer that towered over them. They stood in a white-rugged room. An opened, large black door as tall as the ceiling faced them, a butler standing at it.
Diana let go of her brother's hand a walked ahead of him once he stopped. She turned around to face us, "Thank you, Nicky! Thank you, Silver!" she waved as if they were fifty feet away and, after turning on her heel, skipped out the door as the butler followed. Then the large vault-like double doors slowly swung to close, most-likely automatic or using magic.
Nick spun around and beamed at Silver, the light from a nearby window reflecting off of his pale skin, making him look like the prince he was. His grin was so wide, his eyes were squinted. "I'm gonna go take a shower, love."
Silver raised an eyebrow,"Why are you telling me that?"
"Would you care to join me..." Silver scowled before Nick hastily added, "after I'm finished? For breakfast of course?"
"Whatever," Silver was about to turn around and attempt to find his way back to his room when Nick suddenly appeared in front of him.
In most vampire movies, you see a blur; a human-figured blur travels through the room at the speed of sound. Silver didn't even see a blur, it was practically teleportation. The prince just appeared, seemingly out of thin air.
Silver's breath caught in his throat. He didn't shriek, thank god, but he did flinch high enough in the air to make Nick chuckle.
"Y-you- you were just-" Silver tried to regain his composure, looking back to where Nick was, 20 feet away, less than a second ago.
Nick raised an eyebrow, "You have been non-stop griping about how you'll have to live with vampires. Yet you have still somehow managed to momentarily forget that I am a vampire,"
"I just didn't know you could do... that," he said, holding his heart.
"Vampires can run at the speed of light, I thought that was obvious"
"That was more like freakin teleportation, oh my Merlin," Silver rolled his eyes, "nearly gave me a heart attack."
"Then I would've been able to turn you into a vampire," Nick winked.
That was the first time Silver ever playfully punched a prince in the stomach.
***
After a particularly lonely breakfast, where Nick was called for a random meeting and Silver had to eat alone, Silver got dressed in what he found in the drawers.
He was expecting to find a suit, which is what everyone seemed to where here; or worse- a maid dress, but he was pleasantly surprised to find only slightly formal clothes in the drawers.
He found some khaki pants and a light blue sweater that fell off of one of his shoulders. He kicked aside his shoes once he found some fuzzy purple slippers and slipped them on.
He realized he didn't have anything to do, or anyone really to see so he begrudgingly set out to find Nick.
However, the moment he stepped out of his room, he found the prince leaning on the other side of the wall with his arms crossed. Nick's eyes flicked up from the carpet and he met Silver with an award-winning smile.
"Hi there, beautiful. Sorry, I couldn't make it to breakfast," he said slowly. Silver just stared at him in shock, because the prince wasn't wearing a suit.
Nick wore ripped black jeans and a red polo shirt, he had large black Timbs on his feet. He wore a black and white flannel tied around his waist that swung with his hips when he walked over to Silver, looking down at him with a small smile.
"You look cute in Don's clothes," He complimented.
Silver looked down at himself incredulously, "These are that butler's clothes?"
"That butler is one of my best friends--even though he's an old man, and he's adorable," Nick shrugged, "Anyway, I'm going to need to start the 'investigation' today, so be ready for that."
Silver leaned against the door framed, "What investigation?"
"You know, the reason you're here," Nick chuckled softly, "Or have you forgotten there's someone who wants to kill you. Allegedly,"
"Right" Silver sighed, walking back into his room, Nick followed. Silver kicked off his slippers and sat up in the bed with the covers over his lap. Nick gingerly sat on the edge of the bed next to him.
"I just need to know everything that happened," Nick said, "Get some background info."
"I told you," Silver whined, "The car wouldn't stop, that's all I know."
"No, I mean everything," Nick sat up a bit more, "Your life is a bit of enigma. I need to know the story of what happened before and during the time you were adopted by the Boris guy."
Silver gave a long sigh, "I don't remember much. I was young when I decided to run away from my aunt and uncle."
"You lived with your aunt and uncle? Why? And how old were you when you ran away?" Nick questioned, sparing Silver's feelings.
Silver just shook his head, "I don't know how old I was, I lost track of my birthday back then, but I'd assume about toddler age. I tell people that I'm 23 when they asked, and that was about 11 or so years ago. Oh, I lived with my aunt and uncle because my parents died a few years after I was born."
"How did they die?" Nick asked.
"They were murdered," Silver shrugged, "So were my aunt and uncle after I left apparently. Don't ask why or by who, because I don't know."
"So it's not just you, someone's trying to take out your entire family," Nick bit his lips, his brows furrowing, "But why? What did your parents do? Like, what were their jobs?"
"I don't know. As far as my aunt and uncle go, I know my aunt had some sort of job, but my uncle stayed home and just got drunk," Silver answered, "If someone's after me, why would they choose now to try and kill me?"
"They probably weren't completely sure that you were alive until you left Willow," Nick looked at him for a second, "Are you sure you're human?"
"No, but I haven't shown any sign of being anything else. What do you suggest?" Silver asked. He always said he was human, but it's not like he was 100% sure. No one ever told him for sure.
"Well you're not a werewolf and you're unfortunately not a vampire... yet," Nick winked, "Maybe I can bite you and find out."
Silver pushed him away, "What would that do?" he glared.
"If you turn into a vampire, then we know you were human. If you don't, then we'll know you're something else," Nick put his hands up, "Everyone wins!"
"Not me, I'm not being turned into a bloodsucker," Silver growled.
Nick smirked, "Alright alright, what were your aunt and uncle's names? I'm going to see if I can dig anything upon them"
Isabella and Chad Chase were my aunt and uncle, they were white. My parents' names were..." he thought for a second "I'm not sure, but their last names were Chase. My last name"
"So it was on your father's side," Nick nodded to himself, "Alright so, I'll pass on that information to my people,"
"'Your people'?" Silver repeated.
Nick just nodded, "My people," and bounced off of the bed, looking at Silver with a wide smile "You have two options of what you can do today."
"What do you mean?" he swung his legs over the side of the bed.
"Well, I have stuff to do. You can either come with me, or you can stay here and find something to do yourself," he shrugged, "You said you lived a boring, you might prefer to just stay here and read a book. We have thousands."
"Um," Silver thought about it. While it was true that his day usually consisted of cleaning and mowing the lawn, he didn't fancy staying here in a castle with a bunch of vampires while the vampire he hated the least was gone, "I think I'll help you with whatever stuff you have to do."
Nick beamed, "Just can't stay away from me, can you?"
Silver rolled his eyes, moving over to try and find his sneakers, "If only."
Bending down to tie his shoes, he was able to hide the small smile on his face.