A Prince and a Flower | GeminiFourth

Chapter 4: The Tea

"I'm not his cousin," was the first thing Orchid said after he picked up the phone.

"Huh?" was Nattawat's initial answer. Then he realized that wasn't very prince of him and cleaned his throat with a small fake cough. "I'm sorry, sir. What did you say?" he tried again.

"I'm not his cousin," Orchid repeated. "We Flowers don't reproduce like humans do. We don't have cousins. We don't have any family members, actually."

Nattawat blinked, puzzled. "Mr. Orchid?" he asked.

"That would be me."

"Do you answer all your calls by first letting people know you are not cousins with Mr. Aster?"

The line was silent for a few seconds, and then Orchid made a sound that was very similar to a snort. "I don't think so, no," he replied.

"Then why me?" Nattawat asked again.

Orchid was openly laughing now. "I just knew he told you he was my cousin."

Nattawat didn't find any of this funny, however. "Then what are you to him?" Was it even important right now?

"We were born in the same batch, so you can call us cousins, I guess."

"Then you are his cousin."

"I am not his cousin."

Nattawat took the phone off his face and looked at the screen for a second, to be absolutely sure he wasn't calling the wrong person. Were all Flowers this impossible to have a proper conversation with? What was in their DNA that was making them unbearable like this? He glanced at the bed he was standing next to, and eyed the person who was sleeping on it. The person who was as bizarre as his non-cousin cousin was, but the knocked-out version. The things Nattawat had to put up with because of a few pieces of stupid marinated fried chicken!

"Mr. Orchid," Nattawat put the phone back on his ear and started again, but not until he counted to five in his head. "I'm Nattawat. Aster probably told you about me. I'm calling you beca-"

"Yeah, I know you!" Orchid cut him off excitedly. "You are the crown prince. The one that was supposed to get married before all the girls got magiced off, right?"

"Yes, sir," Nattawat answered. "That's me." What the hell does 'magiced off' even mean now?

"That's sad. Were you able to find out who had done it?"

"Not yet, sir."

"That's even sadder."

Nattawat sighed. He did it as loudly as possible to make it audible. "If you don't have any more questions, can I get to the point of my call already, sir?"

"Oh, are you annoyed?" Orchid asked.

'Yeah, is it a batch thing or a Flower thing?' Nattawat wanted to ask, but he opted for a blatant lie. "No."

"Okay, Mr. Prince," Orchid began, sounding much more serious now. "I know why you are calling me and I know what happened to that idiot. Don't worry, I'll help you."

"Idiot?" Nattawat exclaimed. "Don't call him that! He's been really sick since yesterday morning, you know. He is hurting a lot!"

"Uh-huh," Orchid agreed, probably sarcastically. "We don't eat food in our own realm, Mr. Prince. We only drink nectars, that's all we need. But when we are in the human realm we need to eat human food, so we can survive."

"Okay?" Nattawat said, trying to understand where he was going with this information.

"Our bodies are not used to human food, as you can imagine," Orchin continued. "I told Aster to eat as little as possible at first, chew thoroughly, drink a lot of water, and start with fresh fruits and vegetables. Yet, as soon as he was on his own, he went and chose to eat chicken that was smeared in a mountain of spices and deep fried twice in disgustingly overused oil. Now tell me, is he a raging idiot or not?"