IV

"Jasper, we won't trouble you any longer. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. I'd like to speak to you when I'm back." Vincent told Jasper, watching his expression. He only turned away when Jasper nodded in response. He turned his attention to the conquest.

"Follow me out." He told her coldly and walked right out the study. He didn't bother looking back to see whether or not she followed.

The woman shot Jasper a look, before walking out after Vincent.

Jasper waited till he guessed they were out the main door before leaving the study and going back to his work.

*

He was wiping the furniture when Vincent walked back in. "Jasper." He called, standing beside the sofa, arms crossed as though he was here for an interrogation.

Jasper turned to him, holding the cloth he used to clean.

"Your Majesty."

"Vincent." Vincent corrected.

"Vincent." Jasper corrected himself too.

"I told you not to allow these people treat you anyhow. If they're rude kick them out. Don't just take their nonsense." Vincent scolded.

"I can't treat Your Ma- your guests that way." Jasper explained correcting himself at the raise of Vincent's brow.

"Guests? You're seriously calling them that? Next time just get security to throw them out. Why on earth do you take the humiliation?" Vincent scowled.

"Humiliation? There's nothing humiliating about it, Vincent." Jasper laughed.

"What do you mean there's nothing humiliating about it? You know what? No more blind dates." Vincent declared with a straight face.

"But Your Ma- Vincent, the point of the dates and everything else is to find the one that will help you break the curse. "Jasper corrected himself in order not to rile Vincent up any more than he already was.

"Well it's not working. I don't like any of them so I don't think the love part is going to work. Didn't work before and it still isn't now. So no more." Vincent ordered in a firm tone.

Jasper kept quiet, holding the cloth tightly in his hands. He only stared at Vincent. 'I don't think you can go so long without the sex though.'

Vincent sighed. "I know you're really trying your best, but there's nothing to be done. You can't force love. And again, you have to deal with me and my bad habits on top of everything else."

Jasper remained silent.

"From the beginning, nothing we've tried has worked and you've been so focused on trying to get my curse broken, you rarely want to spend time with me as friends rather than master servant. You already know you're the only one I trust and you're my only friend. Just, hang out with me. Ok?"

Jasper paused for a minute, the sting of guilt in his heart. "Alright."

Vincent smiled. This was the first time in a while he smiled in such a relaxed manner. "Good. Very good. We're staying home today. Let's play a game. If you don't know how, I'll teach you."

"Ok." Jasper replied with a small smile still feeling really guilty. 'So I never took his feelings into consideration after all.'

*

They were on their fifteenth match now. Jasper didn't know how to play games using a controller and Vincent sat with him, teaching him what each button was for.

On the first round, Jasper had lost by a major mark. The gap was so wide, even a child playing wouldn't be that bad.

"It's fine, you'll do better in the next round." Vincent comforted Jasper, who didn't look bothered by the loss at all.

By the second round, he lost again but by barely a mark, having gotten familiar with the game and it's rules from the first match already.

By the third round he won. By the fourth he won again. As though he wasn't the same player that just learnt to play that day.

"I refuse to believe this. It's just luck. Yes, just luck." Vincent muttered to himself.

Jasper said nothing.

By the seventh, Jasper lost again. And lost every match since then.

"How can someone be so bad? I'm pretty sure I taught you well." Vincent asked in genuine confusion.

Jasper shrugged. "Maybe I'm just not made for it."

"But you won at a point." Vincent pointed out.

"Luck. Just sheer luck." Jasper said with a smile.

Vincent eyed him for a moment, then shook his head. "The audacity some people have nowadays."

"Your Majesty, what happened?" Jasper dropped the controller on the chair beside him, turning to Vincent with a look of concern without a moment's hesitation.

Vincent smiled suddenly. "It's nothing important. I just remembered something. So... What next? Do you want to go out or do you still want to stay home?"

"We can stay home, Vincent."

"Oh, great. Let's order pizza. I saw the trailer of a movie that just came out. It looks really interesting." Vincent said pulling out his phone and then showing Jasper the trailer.

"Want to watch it?" Vincent asked when it finished.

"Yeah. It looks really interesting." Jasper replied.

"Great! I wasn't about to watch it alone or with any of those girls. Even better we can just watch it at home." Vincent grinned.

Jasper laughed. "You're so mean. Why didn't you want to watch it with them?"

"They're girls. They might not like this genre," Vincent shrugged, "and I don't want them thinking they can have more than they already do. It's better to make your stance clear to others."

Jasper raised a brow, clearly begging to differ. 'Yeah, but you sleep with them. The greatest way to lead them on and make them think they have a chance. You're very odd.' He thought to himself but he said nothing.

By this time, Vincent had long closed the windows, turned off the lights and started searching for the movie on the projected screen.

The intro tune of the movie played and he paused it. Jasper turned to him in confusion.

"Hold on a moment." He flashed Jasper a smile then left to the kitchen.