Chapter 3: A SISTER’S CALL

Chapter 3: A SISTER’S CALL He immediately sprang up to his feet "Lia?! What’s wrong with you?" On his bed was a fair-skinned little girl in a white dress. Her long, flaxen hair bounced as she turned her head away from him defiantly with her little mouth in a pout. She was beautiful and looked adorable at that moment. She opened her eyes and looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "You were asleep! You’re thirteen, and you can’t wake up when the sun rises, so much for a prince!" Aramith shook his head. "Says the princess who still hasn’t understood the principle of knocking. I’m disappointed in you as my sister. You-mmf!" He didn’t finish before another pillow found its way into his face. "Shut up!" "Hey, enough with the noise. I only just woke up you know. Just because you’re my sister doesn’t mean I can’t kick you out" His threat made Lia chuckle. "You? Just because you’re one year older than me doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want here." Aramith was annoyed " Oh, can’t I get my peace?" "Will you sack me?" Lia looked at him, distressed. Aramith calmed down, but then he noticed the smirk she was trying to hide. "That’s it! Get out!" "Haha, make me." "You..." Aramith’s face darkened, and he started to walk toward her " Look at you, like I care," she said tauntingly, closing her eyes. Aramith got there, beside the bed, and looked down at her. A vein appeared on his forehead. Is she mocking me? "Heh," he grinned. She felt something on her wrist, and before she knew it, she was being pulled. Her body lurched forward, and she staggered forward. "Hey, What? What are you doing? Let me go!" " What am I doing? I’m making you, just as you said. " "Hey!"She now struggled to release herself when she saw them approaching the door she had left open, but he just pulled her out, not listening to a single one of her complaints. When they arrived at the door, he made no attempt to see if there was anyone, but just ’threw her out and shut the door, sighing in relief as he leaned his back against the door. before he could even take two breaths, he heard a bang on the door from the other side, followed by a muffled voice, of which he could only make out a few words. "...mith...let...in...do...kill...you...regret...." the voice went on for a while, threatening him then there was silence. Aramith just shook his head again, tutting as he moved aside from the door and grabbed the gold handle of one of the carefully and richly designed doors. " Seriously, Lia. You are a disgrace to the reputation of all princesses", He said to himself, then sighed. " 3...2...1..." Just as he finished counting, he heard the voice again from the other side and opened the door. Lia flew straight in, landing in the middle of the room and thrown off balance. She still had momentum and ended up going forward a few more steps before falling on her face. Both her hands glowed white for some time before disappearing. "Oww..." She got up in a sitting position, grabbing her nose painfully. Aramith just stood there, silently looking at her back profile with his hands crossed over his chest. " Trying to break the door, and break in? How shameless of you. You should be locked up for your crimes, Lia. " Aramith said calmly. "hmpf! You’re the shameless one here! Your whole stinking room is shameless!" "Shameless? If this room were stinking, why would you attempt to barge in? And tell me, Lia, how a room can be classified as shameless? You should take your lessons very well, Lia. You don’t even know what simple words mean." "GO away! shameless!" she said, annoyed. " and how Lia am I shameless? hmm?" " You say you are not shameless but the first thing you did was to headbutt me. " Aramith looked offended. "Me? Headbutt you? Why do I have no memory of that?" "You’re even pretending." Aramith thought back and remembered that when he woke up, he did hit his head against something, and Lia groaned right after that. Lia saw the look of apprehension on his face and realized he remembered. "See? You remember and still pretend not to. Here’s proof. " She held her hair to the side of her face and pointed at the purple mark that blemished her forehead. Aramith shuddered inwardly at the sight. How hard did he hit her that it even left a mark? He reached to touch his forehead, and after feeling for a while, felt a stinging pain as his fingers passed over a part of his skin that felt different. "Oh, your forehead. Does it hurt? What happened?" she asked seriously Aramith’s eye twitched as he looked at his sister rushing to see his forehead. It seemed she didn’t know what happened. Couldn’t she make a guess? It’s obvious. " Stop it already, Lia. No one’s forehead would’ve looked weird if you hadn’t tried to wake me up by trying to your face into mine" "He waved her away when she got close enough. ," I did?" she lowered her head, biting her fingernails. She looked coy with her cheeks flushed. Aramith had seen that face way too many times, and his expression didn’t change one bit. "Yes, you did, Lia. Now get out of my room. I just woke up, and you’re causing me a lot of trouble. Couldn’t you wait a little longer, or go disturb someone else? You know that the reason I didn’t wake up earlier is that you kept us all up the whole night." "I thought we were having fun last night.," she said under her breath, sad. "I...hurt you?" she raised her head to look at him, teary-eyed. Aramith could only sigh, and feel bad for saying what he just said to her though he still felt like kicking her. He looked at her, already regretting what he was going to do next. "Okay, I’m sorry, Lia. I shouldn’t have acted how I did." Her face immediately lit up "You mean it?" Of course, I can’t be lying to you, can I?" She nodded, and he patted her on the head. [Is she a pet? ԅ( ̄『 ̄ԅ) ] " I thought you were mad at me. " " Don’t worry, I was just confused from just waking up, that’s all. Now, why did you come to see me?" She looked at him with a face that said-I have no idea what you’re talking about, seriously - "Heh?" It took some time for her mind to fully process what he just said, and when she did, she looked down, her eyes darting around uneasily. " I just wanted to see you," she mumbled to herself, but Aramith didn’t hear her words, or pretended not to. "What?" He asked and crouched so he could look up at her flushed face. " Come on, Lia. Tell me " She didn’t look at him, and only stared at her feet, fumbling with her fingers before her, and being childish. " I...I just came here because..." " Because what?" he pressed on. " Be-because...I..." "Well, say it. I’m not scaring you." " well, it’s because mom...mom said I should come to call you. " Aramith was startled. "Mom? This early? " he thought about it for a while. " Did she tell you why? " She was now fumbling with her white dress. " Mom...she said...she told...she said I-" " It’s okay, you don’t need to say it. I’ll just get ready and we’ll go." He said and rose to his feet. Aramith sighed loudly, exasperated. he agreed to it, but he still had his suspicions. Why would she request for him to be called so early, give no clue about what it is, and send no maid or servant, but his sister who would only trouble him? He glanced at Lia and walked off to the bath. He entered the bathroom and didn’t do anything yet, still thinking of Lia. It all sounded very fake and Lia could very well be lying with all this being one of her antics to get him to do something against his likes, but then he thought of the fact that she wouldn’t use their mother for anything as such. Except for that time when...oh never mind that. After some time, he finally got out, wearing only his inner robe, and his hair still slightly moist with steam. He saw Lia sitting on his bed, tightly hugging her knees with her head buried between her knees, and her hair draped over to cover her face. He didn’t bother her and just moved to his wardrobe to put on clothes. Lia only lifted her head once to look at him when he was halfway done, but quickly buried her head again, as if she were afraid. In a short while, there was silence, so Lia raised her head to see if he was done, but he wasn’t in his previous position. She heard a shuffling sound behind her and turned around, for her eyes were assaulted by the bright sun rays that instantly brightened up the room.