Thawing His Heart

Prince Nuada woke up early. Richella was nestled under his arm and breathing softly. He remembered the first night he was in this room. He located the reason the room smelt so strongly of Cherry Blossoms, pots with plants covered in blooms were in each corner of her room. He looked down at Richella and remembered how quickly her powers had taken hold of him that night. Even without her knowing she was entrancing a man, he had fallen for her.

A pit fell in his stomach as he realized what had happened. He had been seduced. He always thought of himself as a strong man, especially when it came to women, but he had been seduced just like any other male. His nose crinkled in disgust; not at her, she couldn’t help what she was, but with himself for being weak.

He rolled himself to the end of the bed, and looked back to make sure he hadn’t woken her up. As he got dressed he cursed the alcohol for kicking him off his senses. He got up and walked to the door, a whiff of Cherry Blossom caught him before he could leave. He stopped and turned to look at Richella. He wasn’t sure how she would handle all this but he assumed she had a routine.

Richella woke up a few hours after Nuada left. The sun had made its way to her pillow and the rays were warming her face. The sheets next to her were cold though. She quickly opened her eyes to find she was alone. She sat bolt upright and looked for any sign of Nuada. There was nothing. His clothes were gone and there was no note. Judging by the temperature of the sheets it had been that way for awhile.

She took a few seconds to gather herself. She took a few deep breaths and a few chants of “it’s ok, it’s ok”, then the clock caught her eye. It was already 10 o’clock so Richella got dressed and headed down for a glass of water.

She could hear voices laughing as she got closer to the dinning room. She hesitated for a second wondering if he might be in there, but she was extremely thirsty so she pushed open the door.

“I was minding my own business peeing in the bathroom when this lunatic kicks in the door and Abe comes barging in and jumps on my back WHILE I’M STILL PISSING!!!!” Hellboy exclaimed.

“I told you I don’t mix with alcohol very well. Besides there is a huge lump on my head from when you backed me into the shower” Abe replied.

“You jumped on my back while I was pissing! What do you expect?” Hellboy laughed.

“It’s not funny Red; we all thought he had a concussion. He couldn’t say his name for 20 minutes” Elizabeth scolded.

“Yeah you kept writing your name in the carpet!!!!” Hellboy laughed even harder.

Abe and Hellboy laughed about other shenanigans from the night before as Richella slipped into the room and poured herself a glass of water. She saw Nuada sitting in the corner and she could feel his eyes on her the whole time.

She could feel the fire start to blaze in her stomach. She couldn’t believe he would leave her with no explanation. She had hoped there was a good excuse but there he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing last night sipping tea. She quickly took a swig of water to distract herself. She felt the cool liquid pour into her stomach and she imagined it putting out the fire that was building there. Only when she had herself considerably calm did she venture to turn and leave the room.

“You disappeared early” Nuala winked at Richella.

“Something wasn’t sitting right in my stomach. Sorry I missed the fun” Richella answered and made her way to the door.

“Sounds like you made your own fun” Hellboy murmured into his glass.

“WHAT!!! YOU TOLD THEM!” Richella whipped around to face Nuada. She felt her face twitch out of shape but she quickly calmed herself to prevent shifting.

“Whoa! We didn’t hear anything” Elizabeth glared at Hellboy.

“So what did happen?” Hellboy leaned over to Nuada.

“Obviously nothing of great importance! At least nothing worth sticking around for” Richella hissed and marched out of the room.

“You really don’t know when to stop do you?” Elizabeth smacked Hellboy’s arm.

Nuada watched her leave. He thought that sometime during the day Richella would pull him aside and have some rehearsed talk with him about how that was just a moment and things can’t go any farther. But the reaction he just saw left him speechless. Everyone in the room was watching him but he caught his sister’s eyes. She looked as confused as he did.

He shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the room just in time to hear a door slamming down the hall.

Richella ripped the sheets off her bed and threw pillows against the walls. She had let herself give in to emotion again and again it had turned into a horrible mess.

“Of course he would leave! Who are you? He’s a fucking Prince Ella what would he want with you!!!!” She screamed as she gathered the sheets from the floor.

She threw them into a basket and picked the basket up under her arm. She wanted to get them washed as soon as possible. She threw open the door again and froze. Prince Nuada was leaning against the wall on the opposite side of the hall.

“I think we need to talk?” He said with a hint of question in his tone.

“No there’s nothing to talk about. I get it” Richella answered and forced herself to take a few steps into the hall.

“We’ll I don’t” Nuada said tilting his head slightly.

“You’re the one who left” Richella said hissing the last word.

“Do the men usually stay around for further humiliation?” Nuada glared at her.

“Humiliation? Who do you think was humiliated in all of this?” Richella said placing her hand on her chest.

“I wasn’t going to wait around for you to throw me out” Nuada yelled.

“What gave you the idea I was going to throw you out?” Richella asked matching his volume.

“Why would you want to keep us around?” Nuada asked back.

“US? Who the fuck is ‘us’?” Richella continued the questioning.

“The men you seduce” Nuada finally answered.

“I think you’ve misjudged me. I don’t sleep with many men” Richella said offended.

Nuada was confused. Last night had come so naturally, he figured she was accustomed to bringing men back to her room. If she was as innocent as she was saying there should have been more of a fight.

“Nuada, I can’t sleep with many men, it wouldn’t be fair” Richella said sheepishly through the silence.

“You know it’s not fair. Then why are you so upset with me?” Nuada asked.

“It’s not fair for men I have power over…but you…” Richella trailed off not sure how to end her thought.

“You do have power over me” Nuada admitted.

Richella’s head began to spin. He did feel something for her, and she couldn’t blame her Veela blood. Her breathing became shallow and her eyes widened.

“If it’s not fair how can you be upset with me?” Nuada repeated.

“You’re not human.” Richella answered.

“True” Nuada was happy to admit that.

“I only have an effect on human men. You’re elf blood protects you from the influence” Richella explained.

Nuada’s forehead crinkled as he ran her words back through his mind. He had felt the power though; he was drawn to her beyond all reason. True it wasn’t as strong as the men at the party but maybe the effect was just diluted for him. But if what she said was true he would either have to admit having feelings for her, or having human blood in his veins. Neither one would be easy to admit for him.
~~~~~~~~

I would like to thank my crazy roommates for inspiring the shenanigans between Hellboy and Abe. Yes someone actually got a concussion at my New Years party after jumping on another friend’s back with they were pissing.

Aemrynna~ Sorry it took so long to get back to this story. The Holidays have been far more busy than I hoped.

The Book~ That was a fun chapter to write LOL