Doe's POV:

"I swear they're not always like that," Xander attested as headed back to our room.

That dinner was certainly... interesting.

It definitely gave me a more clear picture of the family dynamic.

The obvious disfavor their dad was showing towards Nico, from what I could only assume to be from the lack of finding a wife that Xander mentioned earlier today.

And the awkward yet knowing looks Xander and Caroline would share every time the other men in the family engaged in their petty disputes.

The blatant glares she'd send to her husband that would... sometimes work in shushing him for a short time.

That and Nico just looked completely distracted. In a specific whay that I hadn't seen on him before.

The food was great though. Can't complain on that end one bit.

And Khloe and I had our own seats beside our respective brothers.

Other than the scorching hot tension between Nico and his father, all in all, it was a decent experience.

"I'll take your word for it," I eased. I think he was almost embarrassed by what had happened between them, "I do like your mom so far though."

I could've sworn I've given Xander the same look I saw on her on countless occasions.

There was a soft laugh mixed with his relieved breath, "I'm glad to hear it. I'm betting that she'd like you two if you ever got the chance to talk one on one."

"And exchange embarrassing stories about you?" I quipped, not at all expecting the genuine, warm smile the thought put onto him.

"You two would have a lot to talk about then," He concluded, scooping up a pile of papers that sat on the small table beside his door.

He flipped through all of them, handing something to me.

"What's this?" I asked, looking over the thin magazine-esque thing.

"It's a catalog," He spoke as he opened the door, "For your new clothes and stuff. Mark off the things that you want, and it should be here by tomorrow morning."

I gave it a quick flip through while I stepped in.

"And the rest?"

He looked over the remaining parers and file envelopes.

"Citizenships stuff that I have to fill out," My heart sank at the words, "Since I lived in the Bronwyn territory for a bit, even as a prince I gotta fill these out and redesignate my status. One of these is probably written up by my mother, filling me on in what changes they've made since I've been gone."

Oh okay... it's not for me then.

Good...

"Sounds like we've both got something to keep us busy," the sudden scare luckily didn't show in my voice.

"For a little bit. This shouldn't take me too long."

So he says, but we were both aware of how easily distracted he can be.

Although... maybe here, in a place that he actually cared about, it would be different.

He tossed the assortment of mail onto his desk before plopping down into his chair there.

I swiped up a pen from it, readying myself to redo my entire wardrobe while sitting comfortably by the fire.

~~~

By the time I finished going through that catalog, Xander was still focused on what was given to him.

Intently, might I add.

I didn't feel like bothering him given how truly and surprisingly focused he was, so I went back to the book he'd given me.

A little bit later and it gave me an idea.

The scene I was reading through reminded me of something that happened a few days ago.

When Xander walked out of the bathroom after a shower with nothing but a towel around his hips and I found myself frozen.

At the time I blamed it on the sex-centered conversation we'd engaged in beforehand, but now every time I thought back on it, it brought up a similar feeling to when his lips were on my neck.

I'd seen him in such a state a handful of times before but never had it brought such an... unignorable reaction out me.

The absolute inability to tear my eyes off of him and instead drink in whatever I could.

I was at a complete loss for words.

He was so much more pleasant to look at for some reason and I didn't know how to handle the sudden change properly.

A product of that, however, was the want for me to see if I could do something similar.

To see if I could get that sort of reaction out of him.

Except I never knew how. Or at least never a proper way to.

I could have simply copied his actions, but that might make my intent a little too obvious.

And I didn't want to make this a challenge yet... Not when a part of me felt like he could so easily win.

Luckily though, this book gave me what looked to be a good way to handle it, if the man's reaction to it in that scene was genuine.

His reaction was close to how I felt in that moment so... Maybe.

And I'd also realized that I didn't bring any pajamas and was fresh out of clean clothes until tomorrow morning so this was perfect.

After heading into Xander's mansion of a closet to change, I set my plan into motion.

It took me a while to find a shirt of his that would work, with a soft fabric I could sleep in.

And button-down... It needed to be button-down.

Through the rows and rows of every design and color of clothing imaginable, I think I found what I needed.

I think it was a dress shirt, a light blue with thin, faded yellow stripes.

Good enough.

I hurriedly removed everything but my undergarments, and changed into it, staring at myself in the body-length mirror as I made some adjustments.

His shirt came down to just above my mid-thigh, and I had to roll up the sleeves to just below my elbow

I situated the collar so that it sat a bit low on my shoulders, buttoning it accordingly to help it stay there. In fact, I only really buttoned the middle of it.

It fit loosely around my frame which I think made it more perfect for sleeping in.

I thanked my past self for the bralette I decided to put on this morning, with the black laced strap that went around the back of my neck instead of over my shoulders.

I didn't quite know what I was doing, but I felt like it added a nice touch.

With some further inspection, I could still see the remnants of the marks he'd put over my skin with how much of my shoulders and neck were showing.

And even amongst it all, there was a hint of nervousness poking through.

What if this doesn't work?

What if this doesn't pull the reaction that I wanted out of him?

Why was I having these sudden doubts?

I snapped myself out of it, turning away from the mirror.

If he doesn't then, well... his loss.

I merged my way back to the door, slowly and quietly peeking it open to see if he was where I'd left him.

He'd abandoned his chair about thirty minutes ago and again just settled for leaning over his documents.

My heart raced in my chest, and I just hoped with his new abilities that he still couldn't hear it without explicitly listening for it.

I stepped out.

"I forgot to bring something to sleep in, so I stole some of your clothes. I hope that's okay." I spoke.

"Yeah, go ahead. Take whatever you need," was all he responded with.

Without sending me the slightest glance...

I just stood there for a few seconds longer, hoping that maybe he just wanted to finish the paragraph he was reading first or something.

Nothing.

My fingers fiddled with each other near my chest as the elongating silence brought a very one-sided awkwardness.

Maybe I should have just waited till he was done...

I wasn't trying to explicitly distract him but- I don't know.

My head lowered with a silent sigh, arms falling to my side with it.

I forced a roll of my eyes for my own sake while an uninvited pit grew in my chest as I trudged over to the other side of the bed.

Whatever... Maybe tonight just wasn't the right night.

It was the night he returned, and he's a Prince here, so of course, he'd be busy.

I didn't want to completely take his attention, but just... a reaction or acknowledgment of some sort.

Perhaps I'd just gotten too... eager to attempt this so quickly.

Yeah, I was probably jumping too ahead of mys-

A soft gasp followed by a hard thud, some clattering, and the sound of papers getting scrambled took hold of my attention.

I turned to see Xander, now with one knee on the ground to quickly gather up the sudden mess he'd made, a few papers gently falling to the floor beside him.

The hand he had over his mouth paled compared to the red on his cheeks, eyes pointed straight to the floor.

They flickered to me for barely a second and the color deepened even further as he grew unnaturally still

Oh..?

Oh..!

The pit disappeared just like that and I was instead left to fight off the grin threatening to form.

I turned to face him fully, forcing my legs to move normally towards him to help him clean up his mess.

"Well, how'd you pull this off?" I taunted unbeknownst to him, bending my knees to lower myself and pile together the papers that landed behind him.

"I... I uh," His eyes were stuck on me now, and I could see them almost hastily looking me over as I rose back onto my feet.

The same way I'd done to him.

Holy shit did this really work?

My heart thumped for a different reason.

"The pile of papers I was leaning my hand on," He sputtered out to his best efforts, "It slipped and I...,"

Liar.

His sentence died there, and I let my hair fall in front of my face for a moment to hide my smile.

"Huh," I placed what I'd grabbed neatly back onto the table, fixing the cup of pens that had been knocked over as well, "Good to know that your 'princely advances' don't make you any less clumsy."

He copied my actions, though it wasn't anywhere near as neat as I had done it, now facing me completely.

"I think if anything it just makes my clumsiness worse," he admitted under his breath, awkwardly scrambling to fix other small things on the desk.

It was cute.

And... endearing in a way.

Especially with the way that the blush on his face just deepened and deepened all with the worsening his ability to keep decent eye contact became.

Huh. Maybe this was working better than I thought.

That realization kicked some sort of excitement into motion, the itching want of his closeness appearing yet again.

"Anyway, you um. You look good. Nice choice." there was a tightness in his voice that let a quiet laugh bubble from my throat.

"Thank you," I replied, my finger aimlessly tracing against the desk, "So... how much longer do you think you'll be working on this?"

He blinked, eyes looking to his desk for a few seconds before returning to me.

This got repeated a few times before he finally said something.

"I'm done... for now."

My brows rose in amusement at the answer that had obviously just been decided.

"Riiight," I drawled, taking a step closer.

And within that step, an urge crept up behind me, similar to the times I caught myself wanting to feel his lips against me.

Well, that last part was also absolutely present, but with the image of him stepping out of the bathroom that day still fresh on my mind...

I took a gentle hold of both of his hands.

"Do you wanna try something with me then?" I offered.

That nervous, fumbling disposition of his slowly faded after I asked, eyes narrowing.

Followed by that confidence I'd seen on him a few times appear a little too quickly for my liking.

I had no idea what triggered the sudden switch, but the sight of it made my stomach twist in an oddly pleasant way so I didn't really mind.

"Does this 'something' involve me kissing you?" He questioned, giving my hands a squeeze.

He was catching on fast, which was nice since I wasn't confident in my ability to always voice what I wanted to try with him.

"Yeah. A little," I causally disclosed.

"Then yes. Absolutely."