Dax

"You read too much, Dax." Kai said with a laugh as he examined the section of the book I had to finish for my tutor.

"Trust me, this is the last place I want to be when you're here." I said without looking away from the book.

Kai moved to sit next to me, his warm breath fanning across my skin. "What's the first place you'd want to be?" He asked with his voice low.

My cheeks went red and I moved closer to the book. "You are distracting me."

He leaned back in his chair and laughed. "So it's working?"

I shut the book and laid it next to me carefully, praying that no one came in and told my tutor that I wasn't doing the reading.

"Okay, you have my full, undivided attention." I said as I turned to him. "Now what?"

He smiled, but I could tell he had no clue as to what to do next.

"I can always think of one thing I would like to do." He whispered, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Kai!" I exclaimed.

"What?! You are 16, Dax. You need to put those good looks to use before you grow old and are forced to get married to some woman." He exclaimed, laughing the hardest at the final piece of his argument.

"Read a book, maybe you'll learn enough for you to realize how absolutley mad you sound." I responded, reaching for the book my tutor assigned.

But Kai jumped into action and snatched it away before I could grab it. He jumped out of his chair and ran with it tucked under his arm.

"Kai!" I called, chasing after him. "Kai give me my book back this instant!"

He laughed out loud and continued to run around the library, dodging statues and other expensive items laying about.

"Pardon me, your highness but I believe we are both princes. You have no authority here." He said, stopping to take an overexaggerated bow.

I sprinted towards him and tackled his small body to the ground in his distracted state.

"That was not fair!" He whined as we wrestled for the book on the ground.

He curled into the fetal position with the book cradled to his chest like a treasure, and I did everything in my power to pry it out of his grasp, but he held steadfast against my attempts.

"Fine, I give up." I said flopping on the floor next to him, gasping for air. "What can I do to get my book back?"

He rolled to face me.

"I only ask for one thing, your highness." He said sarcastically.

"Kai," I whined.

"Kiss me."

We both went silent, staring at the other.

"Kai, I-"

He held up a finger to my lips, and stopped me.

"Just one, innocent kiss."

I contemplated for a moment. Surely we had other copies of that book somewhere in the library, but that copy is the one with all my notes inside.

I opened my mouth to answer, but the door to the library saved me the embarrassment.

Kai grabbed my hand, yanked me to my feet, and we both scurried behind a bookcase to hide.

"You aren't concerned in the slightest at the audible thumping coming from your library, Auden?" Bartram's abrasive voice filled the room.

"Not particularly. Dozens of people work for me, and where there are people, there is always noise." My father responded nonchalantly.

I stood as still as a statue with Kai beside me. But slowly, he leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear.

"What about that kiss?"

I glared at him, but it appeared that he was dead serious.

"Now is not the time, Kai." I scolded and peeked around the bookcase to see Bartram investigating the room with my father following behind him, disinterested.

His hand laid gently on my lower back.

"And why is that?" He prodded, letting his breath spread against my skin. This wasn't anything like earlier. Kai was poking fun at me before, but now, it seemed that he was serious, and very deliberate in each and every one of his movements.

I turned to face him, and he took advantage of my movement, all but physically pinning me against to bookcase. His body was almost on mine and my head was spinning with all the possibilities.

"Are you satisfied?" My father's voice drifted through the air.

"We haven't even checked the entire room, Auden. What if there in an intruder in here?" Bartram asked, his voice going serious.

They stayed quiet for a moment.

"If there is an intruder in here please show yourself so Bartram can prove me wrong!" My father raised his voice, and the sound echoed around the room.

Kai remained where he was, not making any further moves towards me, but still suffocatingly close.

"Since you seem so careless, I give in. But if you get killed later, don't blame me." Bartram gave into my father's persuasion and their footsteps slowly faded until the library door slammed shut, leaving Kai and I alone once again.

I turned to him. "Alright about my boo-"

And he cut me off, pushing me back into the bookcase and slamming his lips onto mine.

I stood frozen. I had never kissed anyone that I liked as much as Kai. Actually, I had never kissed anyone, anyway. I did not want to mess it up for him, and I really did not want to disappoint.

But before I could try and change my own mind, he pulled away from me.

"I-I am sorry." He took a step back. "I didn't mean to pressure you into that." He picked my book up off the ground, where I assumed he had sat it when he made his plan to kiss me, and handed it to me tentatively.

I remained frozen for just a moment more, before I pushed the book away and wrapped my arms around his neck, slowly.

"Are you sure?" He whispered. "If you aren't comfortable with this, we won't. I know I hint at kissing you often, but if you don't want to, just tell me. Please."

"I can't promise I will be any good at it, the first time I ever tried was 20 seconds ago." I said quietly.

Kai smiled.

Neither of us moved, just stood there and looked at one another, grinning and blushing like madmen.

"Kiss me alr-"

And for the second time, he completley cut me off with a sort of desperation that I had never seen in him. But that time, I mimicked his movements the best I could until I found myself thinking less, and just doing.

We broke away, both gasping for air.

"My apologies for cutting this short," I reached for my book that he had haphazardly placed on one of the many shelves. "But now I really must catch up on this book, your highness." I mocked his earlier tone.

"That is cruel, Dax." He whined and followed behind me.

"I held up my end of your deal, it was only fair that I took my book back l after your 'one innocent kiss'." I sat back down in my original chair and opened the book to where I had left off.

"Will you at least talk with me?" He asked, draping himself over the table. His hair was disheleved and I could only imagine what mine resembled. "Just sitting here is not very interesting."

"If I must, though it will be a very tedious task." I looked over with a small smile.

Before he could even open his mouth to argue, I spoke first.

"You know almost everything about me and my upbringing, and I know almost none about you. Do you have siblings? What happened to your mother? What did you do as a child in Grohera?"

His expression softened at my questions for just a moment before a devilish grin replaced it. "If I answer your questions, will that earn me another kiss?"

I blushed.

"Let's see how you do." I couldn't muster the words to give him the true answer, that I would kiss him so hard that I would back away with no oxygen left in my body, that I could never get tired of kissing him.

"Well, I have three brothers, all of which are younger than me. James is 13, Peter is 8 and Oliver is just now turning 2." He paused, giving me time to ask any questions about his answer before he moved on. "My mother's name was Laila, and she was the kindest, most gentle person I have ever known. She lived in Grohera for most of my childhood, occasionally visiting her family in Apera, a neighboring kingdom to Grohera. And one night while she was at the castle, someone broke in and tried to assassinate the royal family. At the time, only James was there with us, my father was not a loyal man, and after his mother passed during childbirth he took him in out of pity."

Kai took a moment, both of us knowing what part of the story had to come next.

"She knew something was out of place and went to investigate. When she ran into the intruder, she held him off long enough for guards to arrive and take care of him." He gave me a pained look and I reached out to hold his hand while he recounted the story. "He was a Magi, and he killed her. I was 6, Dax."

I pulled him across the table and closer to me, letting him bury his face into my shoulder, but no tears came and he raised his head up soon after to look me in the eye.

"It doesn't hurt as much as it used to, it's in the past, and with each day, it gets easier to face. I do miss her often though."

"I can understand that, missing them is unavoidable." I sympathized solemnly. "Thank you for telling me."

He nodded and leaned forward.

"So, did I answer your questions to your satisfaction?"

"I'm not so sure, the description of your brothers was a little lacking." I teased.

He leaned the rest of the way in and kissed me softly, but the positions we were both in were inconvient for him.

He broke the kiss.

"I'm not getting off the table, so it seems as if you're coming up here."

I rolled my eyes, stood up in front of him, and pulled him back into another soft kiss. He wrapped his legs around my hips loosely and I laughed against his lips.

I was sure that we would be doing that often.