~Mykie~

I checked my outfit in the mirror, not that I was going to change it if I didn't like the way it looked, but I still looked. I made sure my wig was safe and secured on my head and there were no red strands sticking out. I had done that every morning for at least ten minutes before I was ready to walk out of my apartment. I was always cautious about my appearance ever since that day. It was all to make sure I would be safe.

I looked at the small congregation of elderly women who stood at the front of the apartment complex.

"It's just a rumor," one whispered.

"Who knows if it's true." I debated on asking what they were talking about, but my stomach was growling loudly for food. I passed by the women who all smiled at me and asked how my morning was.

"Hello, Mykie," Sofia's husband, Christopher, greeted me.

"Oh, hello," I smiled at the man as he reached for the newspaper. Christopher never was out unless Sofia was gone shopping. But when he was out, he always greeted me and then began to read the newspaper.

I continued to my favorite stand which had a breakfast sandwich I enjoyed. It was a simple ham, egg, and cheese, and was very cheap for what it was worth.

"Hello, young man." The lady at the stand smiled at me while she was already packaging a sandwich for me. "This was just made, still hot." She told me with a smile. "Saved it just for you." The orange-haired lady handed it to me and gave me a discount because I was a regular customer.

"Thank you," I happily took the food being very grateful for her actions.

"Oh, but be careful, Mykie. I heard a rumor of someone bad creeping around here." I stopped in my tracks to stare at the lady who cautioned me.

"What?" My voice came out shaky. Someone bad? "What do you mean?"

"I don't know myself. A customer just told me that, but he didn't give much detail over the topic. He just told me to be careful when I'm alone. Talking about a bad person being here. Sorry I can't provide much information." I thanked her and walked away gently biting my lip.

They can't be talking about me. I haven't done anything to prove that I was bad nor that I was a Red. Someone must have come up with a crazy rumor just to mess with everyone. There is no way that anyone could--

"Mykie!" I quickly flinched as I felt a set of hands on my shoulders. "Mykie?" I looked up at Victor who looked shocked. "Are you okay, what happened?" I looked at our surroundings seeing that everyone was staring at the two of us. "Let's go back to your place." He softly whispered to me while wrapping a protective arm around me and leading me back to my apartment. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing," I lied. I couldn't tell Victor. I wasn't even sure about it. Even if it was true, I just couldn't tell him. He would get overly worried about me and who knows what would happen after that. "There was just a lot of people there, and it made me feel very uncomfortable." I placed my sandwich (which I no longer wanted to eat) on my counter.

"It's okay." He told me and then softly began to comfort me by patting my head. "We can just stay here today." I looked at Victor then smiled.

"Yeah, let's do that." He gave me a side-hug and then laughed.

"It's not like I know where to go. I feel like we've seen this whole town already." Which felt true.

"It hasn't been that long," I told him.

"I've known you for a while now, we explore the town almost every day. It's no surprise that we are running out of places to go to." Victor smiled cheekily then made his way to the red love seat. "How many days? How many hours? How many minutes? How long have we known each other?" Victor looked at the ceiling while he spoke in a reminiscent tone.

"You speak like I am dead," I told him while taking a seat next to him. "But it's been quite a few days. Many hours. Thousands of minutes." I laughed childishly at him.

"Yeah, you're right." Victor stared at me for many minutes before I snapped in his face trying to get him out of the trance.

"You're staring," I told him after he gave me an odd look for snapping at him.

"Sorry, I was just thinking."

~Victor~

There was just an odd look to Mykie. Not that he looked odd. He looked perfect, it's just, there was something odd with him. I thought of asking, but instead, I just stared at him.

"Why are you thinking so hard? You're going to get premature wrinkles."

"The thought of being the next king is giving me premature wrinkles." I rolled my eyes, then brushed my blue hair out of my face. "I mean, my father is already planning on inviting girls that I could possibly marry. I'm barely going to be 18, I don't think I'm quite ready to be king." I pouted like a child.

"Marriage?" Mykie said as if it was so foreign. "Wow, you really are going to be king soon." He said with a big smile.

"It's a big responsibility," I told him like it wasn't obvious. "My father has been running the kingdom fine on his own, I find that quite amazing. I don't know if I will be as good as a king like my father is."

"No, I think you will be great. People already look up to you as is. I don't see why you won't make a good king." Mykie spoke oh-so-innocently.

"Yeah?" He nodded. "Although, I don't see myself ruling this kingdom with a wife. I would be more like my father, he has his best friend who is always by his side. Technically, Charles is my guard, but he probably spends more time with my dad."

"That's probably because you spend the majority of your time with me. He can't protect you when you are not even at your estate most of the time." Which was a true fact. Charles was supposed to protect me, but he couldn't do that when I rather go out on my own.

"Touché, you got me there," I softly laughed. "But I think my father enjoys Charles company more than I do. I don't want a 50-something-year-old man following my every move. I would rather have a... wait, how old are you?" I questioned.

"Oh, I'm 16."

"Wow, you are quite young. Have you just turned 16 or are you going to turn 17?"

"I'm not an old man like you. My birthday isn't until next year." Mykie leaned on the armrest on the chair, curling up into a ball so he wasn't in my way. It, of course, worked because Mykie was a small kid.

"I'm not that much older than you." I rolled my eyes as Mykie teased me.

"No, you're a big old man." Mykie laughed childishly at me.

"You are still a child at heart," I told him with a soft tone. I pointed to the wig that he wore even though we were alone.

"What?" He questioned.

"Why don't you take it off? It's just us." Mykie looked up at the ceiling, then shrugged his shoulders.

"I just feel like wearing it." I sighed, then reached over so I was able to take his wig. He groaned, then pushed my hand away when I tried to reach for his hair.

"Why don't you let me touch your hair?" I questioned

"Why do you always take off my wig?"

"Because it's so garish and offensive to my eyes. Now, why don't you let me touch your hair?" I rolled my eyes.

"Because you don't need to touch it. It's just hair." He said while crossing his arms.

"Or is it because you have red hair?" I asked simply.

"A prince like you shouldn't touch such filthy things," Mykie said fully seriously, but then softly laughed trying to ease my expression.

"Being Red is not filthy," I told him. "It's what makes you unique." The teen shook his head at me.

"Being unique is what got me into this whole situation. It's filthy, I'm filthy." I took a hold of the boy's pale cheeks, softly frowning.

"But you're not. You are absolutely wonderful, being Red does not make you filthy." He didn't look convinced, but he agreed with me. Probably to get rid of our close proximity.

"My hair is not as amazing as yours," Mykie teased. "It's much silkier compared to mine." Despite that, I still liked his hair, soft waves started to appear because his hair was growing.

"Let's not compare our hair seeing as they are mildly different."

"Everything about us is mildly different." He admitted. He wasn't wrong; there were millions of differences that the two of us had, though I didn't bring it up.

"What do you even do here?" I asked while looking at how barren his apartment was.

"Read, talk to the neighbors, look outside. There is a nice balcony I have, you can see a lot of things from it." I looked at the small balcony. His apartment was not that far off the ground, but it still gave a nice view of the town. "There isn't much to do here," he said honestly. "The only time I ever do something is with you. But you are the only person I would want to hang out with." I looked at Mykie who was smiling at himself. "Plus, I rather not over-complicate my day."

"I'm the best part though."

"Most definitely." I softly nudged Mykie's shoulder while he chuckled.

"Well, they sound quite peaceful, but I can't imagine what your neighbors talk about. They are all elders, how interesting can their life be?"

"Not quite, I hear many knitting stories or complaints about their husbands. Random cooking recipes I'll never try, and rants about how their children don't call them anymore. A typical elderly thing," I laughed at that.

"I guess that is interesting for the elders. I don't know how you can just sit there and listen to all of that, though." Mykie simply chuckled at that.

"It's quite funny. You should hear their complaints, they are so sweet, but still, have a tinge of hatred that sits in them." Mykie covered his mouth while he laughed. "But they need someone to talk to, so I'm here to listen."

"Oh, how kind of you."