Mamoru

If there was something Mamoru wasn’t going to do, it was fuck up as he had previously before. His job was on the line but more importantly, Delilah’s safety was at risk, especially after the bombshell that Kenji had dropped during breakfast earlier on, Mamoru was taking zero chances.

Once he had given everything to Delilah, Mamoru walked back to Kenji eating yet another bowl of cereal, “Man, how many more of those are you going to have?”

“I’ve only had one,” Kenji whined.

“Plus?”

“Quit being mean! I needed to talk to you,” his expression turned serious in a blink of an eye.

“That’s never a good thing,” Mamoru proceeded to pull up a chair.

“So yesterday before I came here, I did some research on Tarynsville and Frederick. Turns out they’re a lot more with the times than they let on. Frederick, may look stupid but he’s made sure his Kingdom made progress,” he explained.

“Hang on, you mean to tell me he has enough resources to find out where Delilah is and how to get to her?” Mamoru confirmed.

“Yes.”

“And everyone at Genevia? The Queen?”

“They’re all fine but the Kingdom is seized until the Princess returns.”

“Shit! Okay here’s what we’re going to do; we’re gonna take Delilah shopping to get clothes and anything else she might want, but most importantly we’re going to get her a phone. While I’m shopping around with her, I need you to go and get me some cameras I can put in and around the house.”

“Aye Captain.”

Mamoru was in front of Delilah while Kenji was behind on their walk to the car, or the horseless carriage as Delilah had said before, he smiled at the young girl’s innocence about unknown vehicles and tried to reassure her as best as he could that what she said isn’t embarrassing, on the contrary, it was adorable.

He opened the passenger door for Delilah as she slipped in, while keeping an eye out, Kenji got in at the back before Mamoru did a quick scan of the area with his eyes before getting in the driver’s side and buckling in.

He turned to help Delilah with her seatbelt only to find her buckled in, “I copied you,” she smiled.

Impressed by her speed of picking things up, Mamoru started driving towards the nearest shopping centre, “So, Delilah do you know what clothes items you need?”

“Yes, and thank you for taking me,” she smiled.

“Ahh it’s no problem, Del,” Kenji answered from the back.

Mamoru was still a little apprehensive about the whole ‘Del’ thing but he let it slide considering they did need to act normal.

“Okay, before we get there, we need to set some ground rules.”

“Oh goodie! Rules,” Kenji mumbled, sarcastically.

“Shush! They’re to keep Delilah safe, I’m not having a repeat of last time,” he sighed, stopping at the red light, “Okay rule number one; Delilah, by no means are you to go anywhere without telling me. Rule number two; when you’re out with us you are to stay in between Kenji and me at all times, I will walk in front and Kenji behind. Third and most important rule; if someone approaches you, you tell us immediately, got it?” he asks before starting to drive again.

“Yes,” Delilah whispered.

“Repeat those rules back to me, Princess.”

“Don’t go anywhere without telling you. Stay in between you and Kenji at all times. If someone approaches me come and tell you both immediately.”

“Good, and I’m sorry I’m being harsh but I need to make sure you’re safe. Protecting you is my number one priority and I’ve already jeopardised your safety before, I’m not going to do it again.”

“Please stop!” Delilah smacked her hands on her legs, clearly annoyed.

“Stop what?”

“Stop going on about how you nearly put me in danger when you didn’t. What happened back in my Kingdom is not your fault so please stop blaming yourself! That was inevitable. It was bound to happen because we’d had this threat before you became my bodyguard, that’s why Mama assigned me to you. Ever since Papa died and Dominik abdicated, Frederick had been trying to… pursue me but knew he couldn’t while they were still in the picture. My coronation rehearsal was the best opportunity for him because he knew everyone would be busy with that, we’re not sure how he gets all this information but he does. So please for the love of God stop it!” she huffed, folding her arms across her chest.

Mamoru blinked at the girl and through the rear-view mirror caught Kenji looking at him giving him a ‘She’s got a point’ look.

“Okay,” Mamoru nodded after a moment of silence.

“Really?” she raised an eyebrow.

“Really?” Kenji asked, surprised.

“Whatever Delilah wants,” he winked looking in her eyes with a small smile causing the girl to look down blushing, he chuckled and looked ahead driving when the lights turned green again. A few minutes later he parked the car in the designated area, “We’re here.”

Mamoru and Kenji both got out of the car. Kenji did a quick scan of the car park with his eyes before nodding towards Mamoru who proceeded to open Delilah’s door.

As she was told, Delilah walked in between her two bodyguards which was appreciated by Mamoru. He did feel bad as he knew her life at the palace was also filled with rules and regulations she had to follow for her safety, and perhaps coming here she might be feeling some freedom and now has more rules to follow. But he did make a mental note of making this experience fun for her, and he knew just how to do it.

Walking in through the doors the place wasn’t as crowded as Mamoru anticipated, in fact, due to how early they were some shops were just opening, much to his relief. He turned to the young Princess and as expected her face was in awe. The centre was 150,000m squared with around 314 shops, it had 5 floors and many entrances.

“This is amazing,” Delilah bounced excitedly on her toes.

“Are you ready?” Mamoru smiled.

She nodded eagerly causing him to chuckle. The three of them walked to the nearest clothing shop where Mamoru asked for assistance from a red-haired employee, she took one look at Delilah and immediately started piling clothes in the poor girl’s arms, soon she was cradling a mountain of clothes in her arms consisting of jeans, dresses, leggings, and t-shirts, without thinking twice Mamoru took all the items and paid for them.

“Mr Himeji! They’re too much,” Delilah whispered.

“The more the better. We’re not sure how long you’re going to be staying with us so it’s best if you have all these.”

“Girl, you’ve got yourself a keeper! I wish my boyfriend was like yours,” the store assistant told her making Mamoru’s cheeks grow warm, he was lucky Delilah didn’t understand otherwise things would’ve been awkward.

“T-thank you,” Delilah spoke in Japanese making Mamoru’s eyes widen, even her accent was adorable.

They left the store and he was still surprised, “How did you…? When did you…”

“Oh, I saw another lady doing that and thought she might be thanking her, so I did the same, why did I do something wrong? Should I go and apologise?”

“No!” he replied immediately, “You were brilliant, and I’m impressed with how quickly you can pick things up, first it was the seatbelt and now this, you’re observant which is a great trait to have, Del.”

“Del?” she asked, smiling wide.

Mamoru averted his eyes, “Oh wow. I didn’t even realise… I guess with how many times Kenji has called you Del it just slipped out.”

“If I ask you to call me that from now on, will you?” she asked, shyly.

“Do you want me to?” he raised an eyebrow.

Delilah nodded, eagerly, “Yes, very much so.”

“Okay.”

“Where to now, home?” she asked.

Home. Just that one word from her lips caused butterflies to explode in his stomach, of course, it was just a normal word used by most people in the world to describe the place where they live. But to hear that come from her, knowing it's where he’s going to be seeing her every time he comes back from either University or another mission just made things better.

“Oye, Himeji!” Kenji slapped his shoulder making him come out of his sweet daydreams, and with good reason too, he shouldn’t be having those thoughts about the Princess, especially not the Princess. But Delilah made him feel things no other woman had in a very long time.

“What?”

“You were up with the fairies. Anyways I’m gonna go do the thing, where do you want me to meet you?”

While they were in the store, Mamoru asked Kenji to make sure that there wasn’t anyone sketchy they needed to be particularly aware of, it was easy for the young man to do so since he was able to hack into the shopping centre’s security system through his phone, how he managed to do that was beyond Mamoru but he knew better than to divulge in things he was better not knowing.

“Meet us directly in the car. If you’re leaving, I’m guessing all’s good.”

“Cool.”

“You’re leaving?” Delilah asked, sadly.

“Aww no, Del. I just need to do something really quick and then I’ll meet you back, okay?”

“Oh okie,” she smiled.

Kenji nodded and left them, Mamoru and Delilah walked in a comfortable silence, “There is one more place we need to go before I take you home.”

“Where?” she asked.

“What’s the one thing you love most in the world?”

“Books!” she announced without having to think about it.

“Mhm, and what’s that?” he pointed to the shop just a few feet away.

“BOOKS!” Delilah squealed, bouncing on her toes.

Chuckling Mamoru guided the girl to the bookshop and watched her walk around admiring all the books, again the store was empty with how early they were and he stood by the entrance watching her weave in and out of the bookshelves trying to decide which book she wanted.

She picked up two romance novels and studied both of them with the utmost concentration, “Take them,” Mamoru came from behind startling her a little.

“Sorry?”

“Take them both, Del.”

“But you’ve already bought me so many clothes and I…”

Without hearing another word, he gently plucked the books from her grasp and took them to the till, once they were placed into a bag and paid for, he returned to the scowling girl, “There you go and they threw in a nice little bookmark for free too,” he grinned showing his pearly white teeth.

“You’re spoiling me, Mr Himeji. Thank you.” Delilah blushed.

“Shall we?”

She nodded and the two of them walked back to the car, in silence where they met up with Kenji.

“What took you guys so long? I was starting to get worried!”

“Sorry Kenji, Mr Himeji took me to a bookshop.”

“Ahh yes Mamoru told me about your love for books,” he chuckled.

Giggling Delilah slipped into the car followed by both Mamoru and Kenji.

“Did you get it?” Mamoru turned to look at Kenji.

“Yup, here you go.”

He passed him a phone which he handed to Delilah, “What’s this?”

“A phone, when we get home, I’m going to teach you how to use it, trust me it’ll come in handy.”