Delilah

Waking up in an unfamiliar bed was strange to the Princess, but she had a peaceful night’s sleep nonetheless. The sun graced her with its presence by slightly warming her face. After stretching and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she got up and walked out of the room, following the sound of voices she entered the living room.

“Good morning… Kenji!” she smiled, after acknowledging her new friend.

“Hey Del,” Kenji got up from the chair with his arms stretched out.

Accepting his friendly embrace she turned her attention to Mamoru, “Good morning, Mr Himeji.”

“Good morning, Princess. How did you sleep?” he asked, politely.

Delilah nodded, “Good, thank you.”

“What I like to hear,” Mamoru winked.

“Hey, Del guess what,” Kenji bounced in excitement.

“What?”

“I’m staying too!” he grinned.

“Yay!” Delilah cheered.

“Yeah, yay,” Mamoru deadpanned, looking at Kenji.

“Thank you for that very enthusiastic cheer, you were showing plenty yesterday when you nearly killed me!”

“What?!” Delilah looked between both men.

“What else do you expect me to do if you’re banging on the door like a maniac!”

“Why do you have a gun in the first place?” Kenji pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I’m second in command in an agency that rescues princesses I get threats sometimes, it was Mum who suggested for my safety I keep a gun on myself.”

“Who’s threatening you?” Kenji’s expression turned serious, his playful demeanour quickly vanishing.

“I don’t know but I doubt it’s anyone from work.”

“Well, whoever it is, I’ve got your back,” Kenji placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Thanks, anyways forget about that and let’s concentrate on the matter at hand. And what’s ‘Del’?”

“’Del’ is short for ‘Delilah’” Kenji grinned.

“I like it,” Delilah finally spoke up after listening to the back-and-forth conversation between her two bodyguards, which went straight over her head.

“Really?” they both spoke up, one excited, the other with his eyebrow raised in question.

The young girl nodded, smiling, “It’s cute. And Mr Himeji you can’t be calling me ‘Princess’ now. As per our deal, you have to call me Delilah when we’re outside the Palace. We’re not even in my Kingdom, so I guess you can call me by my name.”

Mamoru looked momentarily perplexed, but he knew to keep her identity a secret from keen ears, he had to address her by her name and not by her title, “As you wish… Delilah,” making a huge smile appear on the young girl’s face.

“Okay, I’m starving, you hungry, Del?” Kenji perked up, making his way to the kitchen and grabbing a few items.

“Is this how it’s going to be every day? You eating me out of house and home?” Mamoru grumbled.

“Hehehe yes.”

Delilah noticed that the relationship between Mamoru and Kenji was more like siblings than anything else, it almost reminded her of how she and Dominic used to be. She missed him terribly and knew he never would have left if she had just told him to stay, but maybe this is what he needed, a bit of time, a bit of space before he was ready.

“Delilah,” a soft voice broke her chain of thoughts.

“Yes?” she smiled.

“Why are you crying?” Kenji asked, mouth stuffed but eyes were showing concern.

“Oh,” she chuckled, turning to wipe her tears, “It’s nothing.”

“Hmm,” Mamoru narrowed his eyes, “Okay we’re not going to pry, but if you ever want to talk, we’re here for you.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Okay, according to your schedule back at the Palace, you usually have a shower before you have breakfast so how about you freshen up and I’ll make sure some food is left for you,” Mamoru turned to look at Kenji who grinned in return.

Delilah couldn’t help but giggle at their bond, “Yes please.”

“Follow me.”

She followed him to the bathroom where he passed her a towel and a toothbrush, “Are you okay to wear the same clothes as yesterday? I’ll take you shopping later to get a few things to wear.”

Delilah nodded, “Yes, thank you.”

“No problem.”

Before leaving Mamoru had briefly explained how to turn on the shower and which ones to turn to get hot and cold water, once Delilah had understood, he shut the door on his way out.

A hot shower was exactly what she needed, and lathered herself with the silky body wash, she was surprised that Mamoru was using a delicate floral scented one, but then again it did make her smell good and made her skin feel soft afterwards, so she didn’t complain.

She turned the water off and wrapped herself in the towel, before stepping out. Looking in the mirror she let her hair down which was sitting on the top of her head wrapped in a bun. After brushing her teeth, she got dressed and ran her fingers through her hair, it still felt silky after her hair treatment just the day before.

She came out of the bathroom feeling a lot more refreshed and walked back into the living room, both men turned their heads to see her simultaneously.

“Hey, Del. I made you some pancakes,” Kenji grinned.

“Thank you, Kenji,” Delilah smiled and sat down where he was previously sitting, he slid the plate of pancakes in front of her which was dripping with syrup and topped with strawberries.

The sweetness of the syrup mixed with the slight sourness of the strawberries created an explosion of flavour on her tongue, “Kenji, these are amazing!”

“Really?”

“Of course, they’re incredible. I think I want these, every morning,” she laughed.

Chuckling he dropped to a low bow, “Sure Del, anything you want.”

“How come you never make me any pancakes?” Mamoru grumbled.

“Well for starters you’re never nice to me, and secondly you’re not that important,” he shrugged.

“Ohh! Okay. Remember that the next time you try to take a day off to get out of training, the amount of times I’ve covered your ass is…”

“Okay, okay. Point taken! I’ll make you some pancakes” Kenji cut him off.

“You’re important to me,” Delilah’s quiet voice was still heard over their bickering which completely stopped their conversation.

She tried to divert her gaze but couldn’t as she stared into Mamoru’s eyes, she was drowning and didn’t want to come up for air, for the breath in her lungs had already left long ago.

“Cough, cough, I hate to break this intense… energy, but we have to hurry up if we want to go to the mall to beat the morning rush, we have to be in and out within one hour,” Kenji explained, breaking their eye contact.

“Oh right! Sorry, I’m done,” Delilah nodded, wiping her face with a napkin and carrying her dish in the sink.

“Here let me,” Mamoru went to clean the plate but Delilah held up her hand.

“No, you made breakfast, I’m going to wash up that’s how it’s going to be now,” Delilah smiled.

She watched him think for a second before nodding and stepping back, once she was in the clear she quickly washed the dishes and placed them on the rack next to the sink to let them dry, “Ready.”

“Good, let’s go!” Kenji jumped up, wrapping an arm around Delilah’s shoulders.

“Are we going to take the horseless carriage?” she asked.

“Horseless carriage?” Kenji asked, confused.

“You mean the car?” Mamoru asked.

The young girl felt her cheeks grow warm, “Yes, of course, the car.”

“Yes, we are,” Mamoru smiled.

Still slightly embarrassed the young girl kept her gaze down and followed them to the lift, they waited a few seconds before stepping inside. Delilah was used to it now, no longer feeling dizzy as she did last time.

“You should get one of these lifts in the palace it’ll make things easier,” Mamoru told her.

Delilah chuckled at the suggestion, “It’ll certainly make things interesting.”

“Maybe you can get the ones with the glass instead, so you can see yourself going up and down the lift,” Kenji smiled.

“They do those?” she asked, amazed.

Both men nodded.

“Then we might have a problem,” Delilah smiled.

“What’s that?”

“The Palace staff might not want to come out.”

The three of them shared a laugh and Delilah felt comfortable around them two, she considered herself lucky to have made two best friends in the form of her bodyguards.

Once they got out, they walked to the car with Mamoru in front and Kenji right behind her, she could tell they were both on their guard just in case anyone might have followed them. She knew it was unlikely since none of them had the contraptions to even get to where she was, but she wasn’t sure of how things in Tarynsville were.

She knew her Kingdom was decades behind the times, considering she had never seen a lift or a car before in her life. Taking this as an opportunity to educate herself she was going to take these ideas back with her, so her Kingdom could progress on the same level as all these other countries.