The Selfish Prince part 7

A beautiful stranger knocks the gate of the palace. She was wearing a long yellow gown with the best silk ever. It was as the gown was designed by what looked like the best designer there could ever be. The gown was a sleeveless one, exposing her smooth arms. The dress was body hugging and showed off her slim waist.

“Hold up. State your business woman.” The guard's voice echoed throughout the empty place.

The woman looked up. She just needed to say a word to describe her business. “Vanz.”

The guard's eyes widened as he let her into the castle.

"Your Majesty! This woman is here to see you!" The guard kneeled down in the presence of the king. He nodded and motioned for the guard to leave them alone.

"It's been long time since you came here to ask help for your research." He retorted.

The woman nodded in response. "12 years, my king, 12 years of research." She kneeled down as well, smiling with pride toward Alexander.

Alexander leaned back in his throne, looking to her eyes, questioning. "State your business." His voice sharp as a knife, cold as ice, hard as steel.

The woman raised her head, again with the same amount of pride, even after the merciless voice dedicated to her only. "My research finally meets an end today. I've come to take my daughter home."

He stared at her, amused. "Who?"

“My daughter, Vanz.”

Silence.

"After 12 years, you finally manage to know her identity after she was kidnapped and sold here. Nevertheless, your daughter doesn’t know you, right? You still think she would regard you as his mother? Valentine Ulrich?"

The woman brushed away her bangs that covered her face, revealing two wide, dark brown eyes, a flawless complexion despite her age and the exact same face shape as her daughter. If she was any younger, she would be mistaken as Vanz.

The king stood up. He circled around her, like an eagle, prowling around his prey, waiting for the right time to strike. "Do you really think that she would accept the woman who did not prevent her being kidnapped and sold here?" His voice grew misty and his expression changed for the worse.

Valentine stood up and smiled. "I'll buy her back."

"Guard! Bring V here!"

The guard bowed in response and left.

Another individual walked in as soon as the guard left. Sharon bowed to Alexander as she stood beside Valentine.

".. Go of me! Where.. Me!?" A muffled voice could be vaguely heard from the other side of the door. The guard kicked the door open with force. The sound resounded throughout the entire throne room.

"Ah, Vanz, what a joy." Sharon retorted, the disgusted look clearly visible.

Vanz's mouth curled up into a snarl but immediately disposed of it when he saw the somewhat familiar woman in the room. She stared at the woman for quite a time until the king decided to break the silence.

"This is your mother." The king's voice echoed in Vanz's perked up ears.

What? My mother? He stared at her, baffled. This, my mother? What is she... Why is she.... How...

"You're my... Mother..?" Vanz's voice grew shaky as he walked backward, further away from the woman.

She nodded. Her head bent down, as if to say, "Sorry." She looked up at her, hazel eyes brimming with tears. "I’m sorry, Vanz. I could not find you in a short time. Your real name has been covered by the nickname, so it’s rather hard to find you. I know you’re somehow still mad at me because I left you for such a long time with you, but I hope..."

Vanz didn't bother hearing the rest. She closed her ears with both of her hands, down to her knees. This moment was the last she wanted to know after such a long separation from Sebastian.

"Mom? You’re my mom?!" She kept repeating as the tears continued streaming from her face.

The two princes showed up in no time after hearing Vanz’s clear voice crying like she never have. Sebastian quickly ran toward her in great surprise, unconsciously bringing her to his embrace. No one have ever made her cry beside him, and he was bothered to know who. Phelps, watching the scene, smiled bitterly a little and walked toward her.

“What happened, V?” Sebastian said anxiously.

"Her mother wants her back," Sharon said.

Vanz looked questioningly at her, shook her head in disbelief. Her mother was everything she wanted in her life, but with Sebastian hugging her like that, she seemed unsure.

"Is that okay with you?" Phelps asked.

Vanz looked uncertain. Of course, she wanted to get out of this hellhole. Isn't that what she wanted all the time?

But something was preventing her from going, somehow trying to convince her of something that she could not figure out. A feeling? A longing sensation? Vanz didn't know. She stared blankly at the figure of a mother that she longed the most. No, now it seemed to be the second thing she wanted. Why?

“I don’t know,” she whispered slowly. “I need to think.”

“I don’t want you to go,” a soft whisper came to her ears. It was Phelps’. He smiled toward her and caressed her cheek gently.

Sebastian Keen.

Vanz jumped in her skin. Did she just picture Sebastian saying that line to her? She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. Soon, she opened it again and looked at the king. “I need to think first, can I?”

Others quickly nodded. Sebastian, again, unconsciously keep taking part of a fiancée that should be filled with Phelps. He carried her slowly out of the king’s chamber as he excused himself with a bow.

Phelps could not help but smile. Sharon stared in disbelief.

Sebastian took her far from the chamber, where he could made her stand against the wall and looked her in the eye.

“Can you decide it today?” he asked.

Vanz shook her head slowly, quickly avoiding the eye contact between them.

Sebastian snorted. "Why don't you hurry and run back to your beloved mother's arms? Don't you miss her? She was all you ever wanted, right?" He lifted her chin so that they were now making eye contact. "Or would you rather be trapped in here for the rest of your life?" He said, a tinge of amusement evident in his voice.

Vanz avoided the eye contact once more.

"You're going to suffocate." Sebastian added, was right from any angle she could imagine. Vanz could feel her lungs begging for air. She gave in and looked at him.

"Look, I know you hate me and want me to go back so that you'll never see me again. But this concerns not just you, so I need to think about it."

Vanz’s voice was edgy, which made Sebastian’s ears perk up in confusion. "Who ever said that I hate you?"

Vanz stared at Sebastian as if she was crazy. "Don't you?"

Sebastian's eyes pierced Vanz's, which made her jump in shock. "If I said I don't?"

“You’re not lying?” she asked.

“Why would I?” came the reply.

Vanz stared at him. He was right, why would he need to lie to her in such a moment?

Sebastian smiled at her reaction and hold her hand tight, slowly helped her to walk to her room. He was so nice that Vanz could hardly notice Sebastian as the prince that abuse her again.

“Think about it, okay?” Sebastian smiled as he lead her to her bed. “I’m going to be back later, so use your time wisely to think.”

Vanz nodded, and as soon as he was out of sight, she curled up and sighed.

She loved her mother. She had been waiting like forever for her to come and pick her up, it was all that she ever wanted for the last 12 years. But when her mother finally approached in front of her, all she wanted to do was stay.

Wasn’t it obvious that she wanted to go home?

No, she wasn’t really sure about it. Somehow, the few weeks had even made her forgot about the presence of that dream. The laughs, the tears... Somehow, they brought a new dream for her. Somehow, they brought light to her life. Shomehow, they brought a new person to love in her life.

Sebastian Keen.

No, that was not a conclusion. What the hell was she thinking about?! She didn’t, at any rate, having any feelings toward him.

Did she?

Vanz sighed and stood up from the bed, quickly realizes the presence of a bottle of Vodka and Gin on the table beside her bed. Laying beside it was a card with a handwriting that was definitely Phelps’ and Leonard’s. The card said, “Again, we could not find any Tequila Sunrise. But since Vodka and Gin seemed good, we decided to bought it instead. We know you need to think, but a little bit of both will help you to refresh. Enjoy!”

She laughed to the card and opened the bottle. Even though they clearly wrote ‘ a little’, in no time she had drank both of the beers until it one of it was naught but an empty bottle. She was stronger that any of them in drinking beers and wines, but the amount of alcohol finally hits her in the head.

The girl threw herself to the bed and sighed soundly.

Just in a perfect bothersome time, Sebastian walked in anxiously, dying for the answer, just to find the girl was totally drunk and out of her mind. Looking at the card on the table, he knew where the beers come from.

“How can you think when you have that headache?!” he rolled his eyes, walking toward the bed and sat beside the drunk Vanz. “With this amount of alcohol, I doubt you could rise tomorrow morning.”

The other party laughed. “I’ll recover fast. I always do.”

“Yeah, you do,” Sebastian smirked slowly, taking the half-empty Vodka bottle from her hand and drink it. “Guess this will make us recover at the same time,” he said as he finished the beer as quickly as possible.

“You can’t drink much, you’ll faint,” Vanz gasped between the random cough, and Sebastian shook his head emphatically.

“You drank 3 times more than me.”

“Point.”

A smirk. “We’ll be up at the same time since you recover quickly from this kind of alcohol,” he said as he helped her to get up. “But we badly need to drink water now.”

“Sebastian,” Vanz protested as she was dragged bodily from the house, digging her heels into the ground to try to combat the prince’s strength, to no real avail, “For god sake, Sebastian, it’s freezing out here... It’s like minus something here...”

“We’ll soon get warm once we get into the castle,” he replied.

“We’re drunk,” she tried again.

“Oh, and as if there are people in castle that haven’t been drunk?”

“Point,” she sighed as she blinked, “Ian hasn’t.”

The prince looked at her as he rolled his eyes, “He’s far younger than us.”

“Point,” the girl murmured in agreement.

He was right, as soon as they were in the castle, the temperature increase and get their body warm again. They walked down to the—luckily—empty kitchen, and took a glass of water. But instead of waiting for the recovery, Sebastian took a peek to the wine storage and took a bottle of the most fine wine.

“Wine?” she wrinkled her eyebrows. “We’re already drunk.”

“A little won’t hurt.”

“Point,” she agreed.

“Why do you only ever concede defeat when you’re drunk?” Sebastian rolled his eyes as he pulled the girl out of the kitchen.

“Because that’s just the way it is?” she replied.

“You’re badly drunk.”

“Hmm,” she nodded.

Sebastian laughed and suddenly grabbed her head and leaned down to kiss her. Just like the moment when she was before, she did not refuse it. She just hesitate a bit to reply the kiss now before they were both drown in the moment.

“Se... Bas... Tian,” she gasped between the kiss.

“Hmmm?” he smiled.

“I don’t think... We should continue this in such a public place.”

They were both quiet in all of sudden. She was right. He don’t care about the public place, though, but in front of a kitchen? It was like the most so-not-into-the-romantic-moment-place ever.

“Right,” he growled.

He looked around and saw two opened room ahead of them. One of them was clearly the mini theater with a coffee maker and popcorn, but one of them was... Bathroom?

“Coffee?” the girl asked.

“Bath.”

“Alcohol,” added the younger decisively, nodding, and then they stormed through the corridor and go to the bathroom. Sebastian immediately walked toward Vanz, hissing as hot water hit his back straight from the faucet, mouth pressing up hungrily against the younger one’s, only breaking apart for long enough to gulp down a mouthful or two of wine when one or the other decided that they wanted it.

They laid down in the bathtub, warm water made Sebastian’s and Vanz’s shirt clinging to their body like plastic wrap, and their hair was flat against their forehead.

Sebastian opened her first shirt’s button, just to get slapped by Vanz.

He stared at her.

“Drunk, but not that stupid,” Vanz said. Her mind was starting to recover from the headache and the alcohol. “Bed.”

“Fuck bed,” the prince cursed, drown all of his body inside the water before popping out again with a yawn. “I’m not that fully recover to walk back to my bed.”

“What, so you wanna sleep here?”

“What, so you wanna help me climbed back to the 5th floor?”

Vanz shook her head. “Point, point,” she sighed, “I’m also not that better. So you wanna sleep here?”

“I will be.”

“The water will be cold in the morning,” she pointed out.

“Hey, V, that’s morning. Which is not now. Now is night. It’s warm right now,” he said.

“Point.”

“You’re not fully recovered and not fully drunk, yet you still concede defeat but refuse doing things too far,” he mumbled in protest

“Whatever.”

They both sleep there, smiling. Sebastian hugged her close as if he would lose her once more if he did. Then they fell asleep.