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"That blasted woman!! I can't get a moments peace with her around!" Yvan had muttered under his breath as he past corner after corner of the maze of halls that made his home. Whenever Yvan couldn't get anymore of Angela's pestering, he would go to the music room — for some reason, that Yvan couldn't fathom, Agnela loathed music (that was one of the many reasons why Yvan disliked Angela); she would never even step a foot into the room without paling, then excusing herself from the premises. Yvan would hide in the room until Angela gave up pacing in front of the double doors waiting for him to come out.
Yvan ran into the music room, and he tried to get his breath back. He felt eyes on him, and he looked towards the piano. To his surprise, he was looking at another boy. He looked like Angela, with shorter brown hair, jelled and combed back, and dark brown eyes staring — almost glaring — at him. He looked to be about 12 or 14 years old.
"Let me guess, Angela?" the boy asked as his brown eyes softened. Yvan nodded.
"How long have you played? He asked, gesturing to the piano.
"A couple years," the boy said with a shrug. "Do you play?"
"Yeah. . ." Yvan hesitated, not wanting to offend the boy.  "Could I hear you play?"
To Yvan's relief, the boy almost smiled, and nodded.
"Sure."
He turned around and started to play a slow, soft tune with long, sure fingers.
"What is this song called?" Yvan asked softly, coming closer. Yvan suddenly felt as if he spoke too loud, the magic of the music would be lost forever. He had never heard something this . . unique before in his life, he wanted to treasure the moment without interruptions.
"Letter."
That was all it took to make Yvan start day dreaming about a girl with golden curls swinging on a home-made swing on a big willow tree, the ropes made of vines with flowers braided into the vines. The girl had a letter in her hand, and as the girl made eye contact with Yvan, Yvan felt small for the first time in his life. Like he was inferior — to a girl!! But she was a beautiful girl, none the less. She had piercing Robin Egg Blue eyes that seemed to go right through your very soul. The girl kept the eye contact as she swung back and forth a couple of times, then on the up swing of one of them, she let go of the letter she had in her hands, and it flitted and flipped through the air as Yvan got a hold of it.
Yvan suddenly realized that the song ended. Yvan felt sad, because he wanted to know what was in the letter that the mysterious girl had given him, but he quickly shot down that thought, scorning himself about an imaginary girl. It was worse than having an imaginary friend for pete's sake!! Next thing he'd know, was that he was dreaming of love and romance. Yuck.
"My name's Alrik, by the way." the boy, Alrik, said, breaking Yvan from his mental punishment.
"Yvan." Yvan stuck out his hand to Alrik, and Alrik looked at the hand questioningly and Yvan almost lowered his hand, but Alrik grasped Yvan's hand in his own.
"So you're the one that Angela's been pining over!" Alrik said, barely suppressing a laugh.
"Yeah. . ."
"I am so sorry!! I know what you are going through, believe me. She's worse at home, than she is here, believe me."
That was the start of a blooming friendship between 2 very unlikely friends. Yvan had found that Alrik was more reserved, masked, in public than he was when it was just Alrik and himself.
When Yvan's fork hit nothing but the china plate, he looked down at his plate in surprise. He looked at the massive clock above the front double doors in the dining hall. He had wasted an hour on memories. He hastily jumped out of his chair.  Alrik was coming!
Yvan ran out of the dining room — ignoring the protest of his family and servants — and to the window overlooking the front doors to the castle.
When he saw the familiar flag of King and Queen Thompson, he couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. Alrik!
He sprinted down the hall to the master ballroom, and he stopped at the top of the grand staircase when he saw Alrik helping Angela with her many suitcases of clothes.
Yvan calmed himself down, and slowly made his way down the stair way. Alrik was wearing his usual dark green vest with matching pants and black boots. Angela managed to find an uglier dress than last year. It was an awful shade of Puce and the neckline swooped down, and her shoulders came down halfway down her biceps. Her skirt swooped out in a way that made it looked like a twolip upside down.
Angela heard the footsteps, and she raised her head. Her face lit up like a candle.
"Yvan!! It's so good to see you!!" she ran to him as he came to the ground level. She wrapped her arms around his frame, and Yvan shot Alrik a look. He smirked at him as Angela squeezed him. He awkwardly patted her on the back as she pulled away.
"I've missed you so much!!! How are you doing?" Yvan glanced down at her.
"I'm doing well. How are you?"
That was usually Yvan's response to get Angela into a huge re-run of her life until they last met. Yvan pretended to listen as he walked up to Alrik.
Yvan held out his hand, and Alrik smirked as he took it, their Pinkies interlocking, as was their 'secret handshake'.
"Angela, why don't you go and unpack?" Alrik interrupted whatever Angela was saying, and she glared at Alrik with her deadliest stare, but it didn't faze him. When she saw that, she turned to Yvan.
"I think Melody needs a hand with the details of the wedding. Why don't you go and help her?" Yvan helpfully put in. Her face lit up with the word, "wedding", so she ran off, leaving Alrik and Yvan alone.
"How are you doing?" Yvan asked.
"I'm doing well. How are you doing?"
"I'm doing well. A little fatigued from the wedding plans, but otherwise I'm doing well. Is Angela keeping you on your toes?"
Alrik chuckled, and nodded. "That's good to hear. I was hoping you weren't too bored out of your mind."
"Me? With Melody as a sister? Never!" Yvan teased. "My sister is almost as bad as yours!"
"I doubt that."
Yvan and Alrik chuckled.
"I've been working on a new song. Do you want to hear it?" Yvan asked.
"I would love to."
With that, the Two young men walked in the direction of the music room.
"So have any new girls come and take your fancy?" Alrik teased. He knew perfectly well that Yvan hadn't had a date for a good year.
"Not yet. You?"
"Nope."
"No one has caught your eye yet?" for some reason, the more out going girls seemed to attract Alrik's gaze.
"Nope. I'm hoping that I'll see one at the wedding in a day. How does it feel to be the one who takes on the kingdom in less that 24 hours?"
Alrik knew that Yvan didn't particularly want to take over the kingdom, but he had to anyway, because he was the only one left in the family. Yvan glared at Alrik to the side.
Alrik laughed, and gently punched Yvan's arm.
"Oh come on, you know I was joking." but he sobered when he saw how truly upset Yvan was. "Hey, it's not that bad. Both of your parents are in good health, so you shouldn't have to take over the kingdom for another good 10 to 20 years."
Yvan sighed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."
"I'm always right, what are you talking about?" Alrik teased.  Yvan rolled his eyes, but let a small smile creep onto his features.
"Now let's hear this song, shall we?"
As the song was played, Yvan and Alrik started opening up about how their lives have been the past 3 months. Yvan's re-telling consisted mostly of wedding plans, but Alrik always had the greatest adventures to tell.
Alrik told Yvan how he had sailed farther than he had ever gone before, to trade with the neighboring country. His face lit up as he described the women, scenery, shops, and produce. It was so foreign to Alrik, and he loved discovering new places and towns.
He described one girl, Catalina Sanchez in particular;
"You should have seen her!! She was dueling 2 men at once with her sword, and she was wearing a skirt no less!! And her boots. . ." Alrik faded off, lost in his own little fantasy of whoever this Catalina was. Yvan held back a chuckle as he practiced the piano more.
It took Alrik a good half an hour to come out of his trance, and when he did, he blushed.
"I'm sorry, I zoned out again, didn't I?"
Yvan laughed, and nodded.
"You're fine. I bet she was fine," Yvan teased, and Alrik stuck out his tongue.
"Did you get her anything? Does she even know you exist?"
Alrik dropped his head a little, and Yvan gaped, then laughed loudly.
"Oh that's great."
Alrik punched Yvan in the arm, and glared at him.
"You try talking to a girl like her! She's intimidating!!"
"Probably as intimidating as a mouse!"
"Alright, I admit it was stupid not to get any contact information on her, but there was a man beside me, who knew this girl, and he said that 'she wasn't available', whatever that means." Alrik frowned at the memory, and shook his head. "But oh, was she fine!!" he put his elbow on the edge of the piano, and rested his chin in his hand.
There was a knock at the door, and Alrik snapped straight up, the mask that he put on for others on his face. Yvan almost sighed. He never understood why Alrik was always so uptight about letting others see the true him.
It was his Mom.
"Hi mom."
"Hello, Queen Ariel."
"Hello boys," Queen Ariel walked into the room, and closed the door. "I just wanted to say thanks for all your help. Yes, even you Alrik," she said when she saw Alrik start to protest.
"I also wanted to remind you that there is a grand ball celebrating the wedding, and I want both of you to be there, on the grand boat, dancing." her request left no wiggle room.
Yvan sighed, and nodded. "I'll be there."
"I'll be there as well."
"Good. Thank you boys. That is all." With that, Queen Ariel walked out of the room proudly.
Yvan gently put his head on the piano keys, making a horrid chord.
"I can't believe this! Melody isn't even married yet, and they're basically shoving me out there to get engaged!"
Alrik frowned, unsure how to comfort his friend, because that's how he saw it too.
"I'm sorry. I know that doesn't help at all, but I'm sorry."
"At least you have good parents."
Yvan had always been jealous of Alrik's parents ever since Melody had announced her engagement, and his parents had started to pester Yvan about who he was going to marry.
Wait. Did his Mom say 'boat'?
"Did my mom say the grand boat?" Yvan asked Alrik. Alrik thought about it for a moment, then nodded. Yvan groaned.
"WHY!?" Yvan got up so quickly from the piano bench, that he knocked it over with a loud crash.
He started pacing, a habit that he got from his mother when she was distressed.
"They know that I loath anything to do with water! They know that I hate dancing! They know I hate this whole idea! So WHY DO THEY DO THIS TO ME!?" Yvan had slowly increased his volume, until he was practically shouting the last sentence.
  Alrik was shocked. He had never seen Yvan this distressed.
"They only care for you." was the only pathetic thing that he could come up with.
"They care that I get out of their house!!" Yvan countered, then calmed down when he saw the look on Alrik's face.
"Alright, I'll go, but you better be there to shove Angela off of me." Yvan attempted a small smile, and Alrik gave a smirk back.
"I wouldn't have it any other way."