The Prince's Curse

Chapter 10 - The Late Night

Once he got to the first floor, he grinned, feeling happy and free. He resisted the urge to giggle like a madman, only because there were a couple people lounging on the chairs and couches the lobby provided, but he was loving the carefree feeling this gave him. He pulled out his phone to text Calum to see where to meet when he almost walked into somebody.

He startled, lowering his phone and bringing his face up to apologize, the "I am so sorry," on the tip of his tongue until he saw who it was in front of him. The words died in his throat as he stared up at the cross face of his guard.

Luke.

Of course.

The blonde had his arms crossed. His brow was furrowed, ever-present scowl on his red lips, and he was tapping his foot, almost asking his charge what he was doing without words.

Ashton babbled incoherently, the good-mood he hadn't felt since before his 18th birthday when he'd been forced to flee his home, disappearing. Luke had found him, followed him clearly. Why had Ashton thought he could outsmart the security guard who's literal job was to watch him at all times?

"Well?" Luke drawled, wondering what excuse he was going to come up with.

"I was trying to be sneaky," the prince shrugged casually. "I wanted to go to late night and I thought that I could wait until you were not in the room and I would escape,"

The obvious truth wasn't what Luke had expected, but Ashton had never been a liar. He would own up to what he did. Luke begrudgingly respected that about him.

"I know this is new to you, but we need to stick together. You can't just do what you want, there's precautions we need to take,"

"Yeah," Ashton knew that. But why was it so dangerous to go out with his friends?

Luke watched as Ashton fixated on a group of three people walking out the lobby, talking and laughing. They were so innocent, care free. That was all he wanted, something he never had. Why had he thought that being incognito would give him the chance at something new? If anything it was worse here. Before there were places he could go, like his room, studio, or study and sure there were guards around, but they respected his privacy and let him be. Here, Luke was always with him, teasing, judging, waiting for him to mess up and scold him. It was a different kind of scrutiny the young prince wasn't used to, and it was too much.

Luke watched the way Ashtons emotions started to play across his eyes, then shut down. The prince shut up the loss he felt and displayed a blank look, and for some reason when he looked at his guard, the taller man winced. He didn't like Ashton like that, he was growing slightly fond of the overly curious, proper boy. He shouldn't have to feel like this.

Luke was used to watching when his clients realized that they couldn't use their protection time as an excuse to do whatever they wanted, but it had never hurt him like it did with Ashton. Usually they got upset, yelled, some threw things. He could handle that, even the fact that most of them got mad at him, like it was his fault they were in this situation. But he'd never seen anyone close up and turn it off like Ashton had, and it wasn't good.

"M-maybe we can see if Calum can meet up for lunch tomorrow," Luke offered. He needed Ashton to feel something, to get that horrible blank stare off his face.

Ashton blinked twice before shrugging.

"Yes I suppose that would be all right." Cold, robotic, stoic. He had to do something to fix it.

"Let's go upstairs, we can maybe watch a movie together on my laptop," he offered. Ashton shrugged, his posture falling for the first time Luke had ever seen. The kid had amazing posture all the time. Luke was about to put his arm around the brunette and walk up with him when he heard a voice.