Chapter 18:

Lunch

Pixie


“So,” Kai began conversationally, “are you going to tell me how you grew five feet in a matter of minutes or…?”

Poppy snorted and shook her head against his chest. They’d been standing on the bathchamber tile for several minutes now, holding each other and listening. Kai’s heartbeat thudded strongly in his chest, whereas Poppy’s was an anxious flutter. She still hadn’t quite calmed down from earlier, and him being this close certainly wasn’t helping.

She didn’t mind it though.

“I just,” she began to pull away, and Kai slid his hands down her arms to hold her hands in his. Something flickered in her stomach and she focused her vision on his chest. “That potion I’d been working on? Well, this is what it does.”

She laughed awkwardly, being overly sensitive to his callouses which scraped against her hands. “I wanted to make it a surprise, but your brother kind of ruined it. I panicked when he opened the door and I didn’t have time to hide, so I drank the potion.”

“Ah,” Kai said. “Well, I can tell you that it certainly didn’t take away from the surprise factor. Although,” he paused and Poppy finally looked at him. She was surprised to see a hint of ire in his features. “I would have appreciated it if you’d been clothed when my brother walked in here.”

Poppy scowled and swiped her hands away, firmly placing them on her hips. “That wasn’t something I could control!” She pointed to the blue slip she’d been wearing which was now in tatters on the ground. “The potion didn’t make the clothes grow with me.”

His eyes flashed. “Well, then why didn’t you use some other spell? You have so many memorized, there had to have been a way to lock the door or perhaps turn yourself invisible.”

He made a very good point. Poppy swallowed. “I told you, I panicked. Besides, that’s the last time your brother will ever see me, so don’t worry about it! He’ll just brush me off as someone you slept with.” Poppy nearly choked on the last sentence but managed to bite it out.

Kai opened his mouth to say something but instead sighed and scratched his jaw. “It’s my fault Rainn came in here in the first place; I’ll take the blame. However, it’s not good for you to assume the two of you will never meet again.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, you never know,” he said carefully.

Poppy pursed her lips.

“I’m hungry,” she said and turned to leave, her hair flipping over her shoulder. Poppy hesitated when she walked out into the sitting room. It looked so different from this high up. She fought off the giddiness which bubbled up inside her.

She practically skipped into the kitchen and threw open the fridge. Kai leaned against the doorway and observed her with amused eyes. “You seem overly eager for a sandwich.”

Poppy grinned toothily at him. “I’m going to enjoy everything giant-sized I can while this potion lasts. No matter how mundane the task!”

Kai’s smile faltered. “How long will the potion’s effects last?”

“Eight hours,” she replied as she perused the drawers for a butter knife. She needed something to slather a bunch of condiments onto the bread with.

“Here,” Kai placed the knife on the counter in front of her, his arm brushing against her own.

“Ah, thanks,” she said with some warmth in her cheeks. It was especially odd to not have to crane her neck in order to make eye contact with him. His face was right there, albeit he was still a bit taller than her.

“You’re welcome,” he said kindly.

Poppy made dinner with clumsy fingers. The prince watched her the entire time, and she felt herself burning beneath his gaze. Didn’t he have something to do? She especially hated how every time she dropped something or forgot an ingredient he offered her assistance. Poppy could make a damn sandwich by herself at least!

“Is this what your people’s tax dollars are going towards?” she muttered. “Don’t you have papers to stamp your approval on?”

He smiled. “Says a person who lives tax free, in the castle of all places.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Here,” she handed him one of the sandwiches on a plate. It was messy and desperately needed a toothpick run through it, but she’d tried her best.

He raised his brows. “For me?”

“Do I look like I need two sandwiches?”

“I won’t lie and say I thought one of them was for me.”

She snorted and sat down, waited for him to follow suit. Once they were both seated, Poppy waited expectantly for the prince to try it.

He glanced at her and shook his head in an amused way. Took a bite.

Poppy stared at him as he chewed, gauging for any reactions. After thirty seconds of this, she finally groaned. “Well?”

He swallowed and covered his mouth, expression unreadable. “Did you mean to add soy sauce?”

She slammed her head down against the table. “Damn it all.”

Kai chuckled. “It’s not bad by any means. It’s just not my first choice in condiments. For a sandwich, at least.”

How was she supposed to know that? She just thought she could add anything, basically. It hadn't looked like a difficult equation when she'd watched Kai make them.

Poppy said something unintelligible and rolled her head so one cheek was squished against the table. “You don’t have to eat it.”

“No, I’m eating it,” he informed her and picked up the sandwich for a second bite. Poppy snatched it from his hands and set it back on the plate.

“I refuse to be the reason behind the crown prince getting food poisoning,” she deadpanned.

“Soy sauce is hardly an originator of food poisoning,” he said and reached to steal back his sandwich.

“Get away, Prince!” she barked while leaning back precariously far in her chair. “I’ll eat both of these sandwiches like you imagined my fatty self would do in the first place!”

“It’s bad to overeat,” he said while struggling to grasp the plate in his hand, body halfway across the table.

“I’m a growing girl, I need the nutrition. My body, my choice!”

“Stop being a child and give it!”

In the end his long limbs won out, and Poppy was left with only one sandwich. They were both perspiring and huffing at each other, eyes making electrified contact. The tense air about them was thick enough to cut with a blade, up until it burst completely.

Poppy was the first one to break. She giggled when a strand of hair fell into his face. He smirked and swiped the escaped bits back into place.

“This is possibly the most stupid thing we’ve argued over,” she pointed out.

“I agree,” the prince nodded. “Which is why you need to realize when you’re wrong. It’d save us much more time.”

She shook her head and took a bite of her own lunch. Grimaced.

“Salty,” Poppy said.

The prince chuckled, his eyes dancing, and took another bite as well.

“Truly,” he agreed. “But this is by far the best lunch I’ve had.”

“Because it came with a show?”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

They were both smiling like idiots and Poppy couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so happy. Ever since she’d begun living with the prince, so many unexpected things had happened. Not only did she grow as a person, but she’d also gained something she cherished. Something without a definition, but certainly with substance.

“I appreciate you,” Poppy said quietly.

“Hm?” Kai asked while finishing off the last bit of his lunch.

“I’d appreciate it if you could get me some water,” Poppy said. “The salt in this sandwich is leeching all hydration from me.”

He snorted. “Same here. I think I lost feeling in my tongue halfway through. Such a shame, really, since I’d been enjoying the scrumptious taste of it.”

Poppy made a gross expression at him, and it must have been amusing because he grinned.

“So, what would you like to do while you’re giant-sized, as you call it?” Kai asked while retrieving glasses from the cupboard.

She tapped her lip in a mocking manner. “Hmm, well I never really thought that far ahead. Perhaps I shall go outside and see where the wind takes me?”

“I think you’ll have to go back to your original size in order for the wind to carry you somewhere.”

“Ha ha,” she said stonily. “You’re just full of wit, today aren’t you? Isn’t sarcasm my thing, or have I rubbed off on you in a bad way?”

“There’s a good way?”

“Ugh!” she exclaimed and threw her napkin at him. “You’re being impossible today.”

Grinning, he set a glass full of ice water in front of her. “Yet you still keep me around. Shall I count myself lucky?”

She pouted before lifting the water. “Maybe,” she said into the glass before taking a sip. Then, having realized just how salty that sandwich had been, she finished the rest of it.

“Damn.” She wiped her mouth. “I feel like I’ve run a marathon, yet I’ve hardly done anything today.”

“Well, you were dehydrated both from the sandwich and crying,” the prince observed. He looked at her eyes which were still a bit puffy. “Do you want a cold compress? There’s still some redness, it seems.”

She waved him off. “I’ll live. You’re too kind to me. You offer me hugs and compresses, and here I am trying to give you salt poisoning.”

“Ah, salt poisoning does sound more likely than food poisoning,” he pondered. “But is that why you made me a sandwich? To thank me? You know I don’t mind giving hugs and compresses, right?”

Poppy twisted her mouth. “Still. Sometimes I feel like a bum around here. At least I’m usually small so I don’t take up much space or eat too much food.”

He pulled his chair around so instead of facing across the table, they were adjacent to each other. “You know I don’t care whatsoever about you being a freeloader, right?”

Freeloader bounced back and forth within Poppy’s mind. “Gee, thanks.”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he sighed and placed his hand over hers atop the table. Squeezed slightly. “You being here isn’t a burden on me. I don’t care if you eat mere crumbs or entire cakes, you’ll never be a burden.”

Poppy felt oddly touched by this, as weird of a gesture as it was. “If I was eating entire cakes I’d have to be a bit bigger than this.”

“I don’t care what size you are,” the prince said decidedly. He moved his mouth as if to continue but hesitated. “Although I will admit… I do appreciate the size you are now. You have no idea how careful around you I am all the time. I have nightmares of accidentally stepping on you, you know.”

Poppy’s brows raised. “Really? That sounds awful. For both of us.”

The prince nodded grimly. “They’re not pleasant dreams.” His gaze turned tender and he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “Some of my dreams are much more enjoyable, though.”

Poppy’s breath turned shallow and time slowed infinitesimally. “Really?” she inquired. “What happens in those?”

They’d been leaning closer without her realizing. She could feel his breath waft against her neck

“In those,” he said, his voice guttural in a way that sent Poppy’s spine shivering, “we’re both the same size.”

Tic.

“Am I big or are you small?”

Toc.

“I’m not sure. That’s not what matters.”

Tic.

“Then what are we doing?” she breathed.

Toc.

“Something like…”

The grandfather clock chimed the moment his lips met hers.