Unexpected Visitor

Katherine whipped her body around and felt a scream form in her throat.

Her eyes found the intruder, and she nearly choked seeing who it was.

She would have recognized his curly brown hair and chocolate eyes anywhere.

Prince Charles held his hands up and grimaced when he saw how badly he had startled Katherine. "I'm so sor--," he had started to say before she cut him off.

"What the hell, Charles?!" she screamed at him. "How did you even get in here?"

"Your security really is as bad as I thought," he said in a soft voice. "You don't keep a guard posted outside of your room at all times? I literally just walked in here and no one noticed."

"I'll have to fix that," she snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her old childhood companion.

When they were younger and their parents would meet frequently to discuss the futures of their lands and the Kingdom of Titanus, Charles and Katherine would play together.

They never were around each other enough to become friends, but they were around each other enough to remember the other.

She always remembered how sensitive he was. If Katherine ever took the toy he was playing with, he immediately would start crying.

He always lacked confidence, in her opinion, and he never stood up to her when she was mean to him.

Part of her wondered if he had ever changed, but she also tried to not give him too much thought. The more distance she could get from the man who was technically her fiancé, the better.

They stared at each other for a couple of seconds before Katherine threw her hands up in the air and shouted at him, "Well?!"

He blinked quickly and twitched as if she made him want to jump out of his own skin before he said, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about your mom and dad. I always admired how kind your dad was to me when we were kids, and I'd love to attend his funeral if you would let me."

Katherine took a step back, shocked by his words. She blinked hard as she felt tears suddenly assault her and tried to clear her throat that felt like it was closing.

"Sure, you can come," she said in a voice barely above a whisper. "Anything else you decided to break into my room for?"

"I really would like to offer my help. Whether it be with finding your mom, studying the rebels, or even just being someone to lean on during a difficult time." Katherine started to shake her head but he held up his hands again and spoke quickly, "I'm not like my father. I don't have an ulterior motive. I'm not asking you to marry me like our parents want, I'm just asking for you to let me be a friend and a support."

Katherine pinched her forehead in confusion. "Why would you want to do that?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"I can't imagine this is easy for you to go through, and I know if it were me, I wouldn't want to be alone."

"What makes you think I'm alone?" she asked.

Charles smiled and tilted his head sideways before responding. "That's fair. I should not have made that assumption. But either way, I know we never had the chance to become close friends, but I did always wish that we had. I'm a firm believer in the idea that it is never too late to right a wrong, and that is a wrong I'd like to right. Not many people know what it's like to grow up as royalty in a world like this. I think we can benefit from being friends because sometimes there are things we go through that literally no one else would ever understand, you know?"

Katherine did know. She knew exactly what he meant. It was something that no matter how many times she had tried talking about it with Jasper that it always just felt weird to discuss. As much as Jasper loved and understood her, the struggles with growing up as the Kingdom's most hated was not something that he would ever truly grasp.

It wasn't something she could talk about with her parents, and it wasn't something she could talk about with the other guards, or the Royal Advisor, Eric. Charles was right in saying that they were the only two who would really understand that obstacle.

As much as she didn't want to trust Charles, her gut told her that he was being genuine.

"I think it would be nice to have someone who understands," was all she could bring herself to say.

He smiled a big, goofy smile as if he did not think that she would actually agree and was surprised by it.

"Maybe we could discuss some things over dinner tonight?" he tentatively asked her.

Katherine still was not sure she wanted to get close to him, or if she could trust the fact that this was not some ploy to take her lands from her, but she knew Jasper would be back soon, and she was not sure she could ensure that Charles would still have his life if Jasper walked in and found an unexpected person in her room.

She needed to get him to leave, and quickly, so she agreed. "Sure, Charles. Tonight is fine."

He hesitated for a moment and gave her a funny look. "I like it better when you call me Charlie. You always were the only one who ever called me that, and I always thought it was cute," he said with a smile and a small chuckle.

Katherine had forgotten about the pet name she used for him when they were kids. Before she had a chance to say anything, he added, "We'll get there. I'll see you tonight, Kit-Kat."

He awkwardly shuffled around her and showed himself out.

Katherine blew out a loud breath in relief when he was gone.

She took some medicine for her migraine, got in comfortable clothes, and curled up into her bed so she could get some much needed rest.