Yu Liang & Elijah Rothchester
The weight was lifted from his head in what felt like milliseconds, and then it was nothing more but a memory. Rubbing the top of his head where the painting had been perched, much like a bird or a cat ready to pounce, Elijah made sure there wasn't some long dent in his head, before remembering his manners, of which he had few, and stood straight before his savior of a sorts.
The blond prince, at least Elijah assumed the one who stood before him, was indeed a prince, not a princess, was being surpringly polite. Most people would've laughed at him for winding up in such an unlikely and rather stupid scenario.
"A-Ahem...yeah, I'm Prince Eli Rothchester, of the Ivunate Empire." He chuckled nervously, almost quietly enough that it couldn't be heard. "Thanks for the assistance."
He couldn't help but pause at the question about the vengeance he wanted to enact on the painting, and he had to repress a snicker. "Oh uh, yeah, totally, that's what I wanted to do! That painting had it coming this entire time! I've never liked that painting." It was tough to tell if he was being serious or merely joking, Elijah's tone and his face rarely matched at all.
"So uh...who'd you say you were again? I'm not actually all that familar with the other heirs and such of other places..."
With a toss of his hair over his shoulder, Yu Liang replied breezily, "It was no trouble at all. My companion, Nianzu, was the one who did the heavy lifting after all.” The prince waved his hand carelessly in a general direction, but upon receiving no response, looked to his side. The aforementioned person was nowhere to be seen and seemed to have disappeared into the crowd of people.
Taking no longer than a moment's pause to realize that his supposed bodyguard had most likely abandoned the prince in favor of surveying the area, Yu Liang turned his attention back to the other prince and shrugged easily. "Well, no matter. He just does that sometimes. Vanishing into thin air, I mean.”
At the red-haired prince's response, Yu Liang frowned slightly in confusion, unable to tell for sure whether the prince truly had some sort of vendetta against paintings. His tone suggested otherwise, but the expression on his face was blank. He hesitated for a few seconds, wondering how to respond before realizing that the other man was most likely being humorous after a closer look.
"Yes, I suppose it did", the blonde mused. “Don’t tell the king and queen this, but it is rather bland. I don’t like it much either.” Then he had a sudden look of mischief on his face. Leaning closer, with a hand cupping his mouth as though he were conspiring, Yu Liang said in a loud whisper, “We can keep this incident to ourselves.” Although he doubted there would be any actual consequence for knocking over a painting that could be reinstalled on the wall, he found it fun to pretend to have a so-called secret. “For all they know, the painting could’ve mysteriously fallen on its own.”
Quirking an eyebrow, Yu Liang replied, “Prince Yu Liang of Weifeng. Friends call me Yuli.” Although he normally would be offended by people not remembering his name, he couldn’t blame Prince Elijah. If it hadn’t been for Nianzu pointing out whose face belonged to which name and kingdom, he would not have been able to name most of the royals—-his memory was not the best. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to get acquainted with them during your time here.”
A thoughtful look on his face, Yu Liang remarked, “You might not have heard much about the other heirs, but I would be surprised if they didn’t know about you. You’re quite famous on the Internet.“ Then Yu Liang shifted rather awkwardly before tentatively adding, “I personally enjoy learning of your latest plans of revenge. Remind me what your most recent one was again?”
A hand was brought to his mouth to suppress a snicker. True enough was the factor of the painting not being a large problem, but the idea of having a secret over it was rather amusing. Secrets that weren't really worth keeping were often the most fun to actually try and keep ahold of, regardless of how stupid it made somebody out to b-wait INTERNET!?
Elijah had to take a moment to process this. Internet famous was not two words he'd have thought to be used when describing himself, then again, himself and famous weren't generally two words he would have placed together. Incidents similar to the horde of chickens and the dog could be compared to this moment. The dog hadn't known which way to lunge first, and the same could be described of Eli. That street never did quite rid itself of the red.
"W-Wh-What?! How...!? I don't even use social med-...?" He spluttered for a few moments, composing himself when he became aware of his rather silly facial expressions. [color=Purple]"Heh, heheheh, so you know of me, good. Then you should know that I still gotta get back at that stupid vendor who sold me cotton candy without returning my change! Also theres a doorman I gotta get back at." His eyes wandered over to the hallway he'd came from, glaring daggers at it for a moment, then turned back to Yu with a small floish of his coat.
"Anyways, I like you already, prehaps we should team up, you could be my sidekic-" He turned away, mumbling to himself, he really had to stop calling people that, last time he'd done that he'd been stared at like he had been joking. His head whipped back to Yu. "Friends! I mean friends! Whatever you might call a patnership of mutal interest. Wait no, thats marriage. Damnit, was there another word for it. Should've read a dictionary before I got here..." Eli's words trailed off into another mumble.
Prince Elijah had paused mid sentence to turn away, so Yu Liang only caught part of his proposal. The prince had been suggesting that Yu Liang be his ...sidekick? He wasn’t sure exactly what that word meant, as he did not know how to translate it back to his native tongue. All of the possible meanings of a sidekick ran through his head, but none seemed to make sense. A kick to the side sounded ominous——besides, martial arts were more Nianzu’s area. He would have to ask said man later on. That or search the Internet for the definition, but the latter would have to wait until they could retire to their bedrooms. He could ask the prince himself, but from Prince Elijah’s hesitation, he decided it was probably best if he dismissed the word from his head for the time being.
Friends, on the other hand, was a much more familiar word. His puzzled expression was replaced with one that was of a pleasant surprise and an excited smile stretched across his lips. He hadn’t expected to have any conversations that weren’t about politics or simply for formalities when he came to the wedding——much less form a sort of alliance of sorts and it was for revenge of all things.
Had the blonde prince been talking to someone from his royal court, Yu Liang would’ve given them one of his signature bear hugs. In front of the Prince of Ivunate, however, it probably wasn’t wise to hug someone he’d only just met——even if they’d just established a newly formed friendship. Instead, with great self-control, Yu Liang extended a hand and nodded, “I believe the term friends will do just fine. Shall we shake on it?”
"Oh we shall. Friends it is." With a firm shake of the hand, a new friendship was forged, and Eli could only grin with a light air of mischievous glee. This was gonna be a good time.
