Chapter 9: Welcome Home Nickolai

"What the hell is this?!" Nickolai shouted. 

 

Asher was lying on the floor in the apartment sleeping with all his limbs stretched out like a starfish. His head resting on top of a small, white ball that seemed to be floating in some sort of liquid that looked more like milk than water. He was completely unconscious and looked as if he had just fallen asleep and dropped something, though Nickolai knew Asher couldn' have possibly lost such a valuable item so easily, it wasn't even close to dawn yet.

 

Nickolai used his magic to make the floating sphere burst into little particles and fall to the ground beside him. Asher opened his eyes, groaned in pain, and sat up slowly. It took him a moment before he could see what was right in front of him, but when he did, he stood up straight and stared at the person responsible for whatever mess they'd made.

 

"When you said adventure I didn't think we would be in your little bachelor den!" Nickolai argued. 

 

"What's wrong with it?" Asher asked, looking confused and a bit angry, because he was not expecting this kind of reaction from a stranger, especially someone he'd never met before now.

 

"This place is covered in dust and garbage," Nickolai informed him, gesturing towards Asher's living quarters with his hands, then turned away and picked up one of the many dirty bowls sitting on the kitchen table.

 

It smelled awful, but that didn't stop him from grabbing one of those plastic plates that were always around and tossing them in the trashcan in the living room. "This is the worst place ever!"

 

A long silence followed. Nickolai tried not to take it personally as Asher looked around his surroundings in shock. If he hadn't known him for a while, he wouldn't have been able to tell Asher was still in the process of coming to terms with the situation.

 

“Hello Prince Asher! Prince Nickolai!” Naminé shouted. 

 

He appeared in between Asher and Nickolai, her expression cheerful and excited, though it quickly changed to confusion upon seeing the mess. “Uh…what happened here?”

 

Naminé's question seemed to startle both prince’s, Asher especially since the first time Nickolai heard him say his name he hadn't said anything at all. Nickolai was about to reply when Asher interrupted his train of thought.

 

"What did you get Naminé?" Asher asked. 

 

"Oh! Uhhh I got lunch for us all and I wanna talk to you later!" Naminé laughed. 

Asher took the bag and ran off to the dining room placing it on the table. Lots of different containers filled with different dishes and foods inside. Popping the lids off each one to examine their contents to have Nickolai embarrassed. 

 

"I dunno what the hell this is, but it's so good!" Asher muffled. 

 

He reached out for another serving. "It seemed like a lot of food." Naminé whispered.

 

"Fast food? Do you not cook?" Nickolai asked. 

 

"I work a part-time job...to feed, Prince Asher." Naminé explained. 

 

"Then allow me to start cooking!" Nickolai stated. 

 

"Do you have meal plans?" Naminé questioned. 

 

He paused as he had never thought about it before. Never in his life did he think he would be planning meals for an oaf of a brother, But then again he wasn't exactly known as an excellent cook either, considering he spent most of his time catered to since they lived in a mansion. 

 

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Asher had lived in another world separate of his own and suddenly came to this one.

 

"We will talk later, but first lets eat." Naminé winked. 

 

"Hey, don't look at me like that!" Asher protested, holding his empty bowl and looking over at Nickolai.

 

“Whatever just move over…” Nickolai huffed. 

 

Later that night found Naminé sitting in the library next to Asher, listening to him read aloud a series of books and articles he had pulled out from the shelves. They were all in English and apparently Asher wanted to learn how to speak better English.

 

"Okay, this sounds really complicated..." he muttered after reading the third paragraph."Can you translate this?"

 

The page where he was supposed to have been translating lay open in front of him, the words printed clearly despite his poor translation skills. There was no way he was going to be able to understand half of those. Not that he expected to have any difficulty understanding them anyway.

 

Naminé shrugged. "Maybe tomorrow?" she offered.

 

"I get that I am now cursed, but I have a lot to learn here..." Asher replied.

 

"Why do you care? You're already pretty fluent in everything else…" Nickolai pointed out.

 

"Yes, but you are a prince and you have magic powers that can help you master your own language! And I know you don't care about any of that, but-" Asher sighed. "Look I don't mean to snap or anything, but I need to concentrate. I'm trying to do my best here and this whole situation is stressing me out a bit…"

 

"Oh...we will talk later then." Was all Nickolai managed to say. He'd expected Asher to argue, complain, shout and even throw something at him. But instead he was being surprisingly civil and reasonable. Maybe Asher had taken Nickolai's suggestion seriously. Perhaps he had been wrong about him; he might actually be capable of learning to communicate in his own language. 

 

"You were born in this time right?." Asher asked, "How do you live here? Did you grow up with the other kids here? Are there servants who do all of your chores?”

 

For once, Nickolai had trouble finding an answer to Asher's questions. "Wha-?" Nickolai answered honestly.

 

The doorbell rang and Naminé stood up immediately. "That must be Miles." He announced, heading for the door.

 

As soon as he left, Asher sighed and rested his face on his palm. He closed his eyes, hoping he could at least get through the next couple weeks without any major fights breaking out. It was almost impossible.

 

“Wait who are you?” Naminé questioned. 

 

A woman dressed in a drenched white over sized shirt and jeans stepped onto the threshold of the door. She looked around curiously, trying to spot Asher, before stopping right in front of him.

 

"Is Prince Asher home?" she asked politely in accented English.

 

Asher's heart sank into his stomach and he felt all the blood rush from his face. The woman standing before him wasn't his mother. That much he knew, but he still needed a few moments to realize what to do. How do I explain what happened? Or what I've done? Asher began to panic slightly. He wanted to run but he was frozen in place.

 

"Um, yes." He finally answered. "May I ask who you are?"

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