Royal Disaster

the disastrous lunch

"You can't leave me with him!"

North stayed me with a reprimanding glare. I huffed, crossing my arms in front of my chest. My brows dipped into a stubborn frown, turning away from him to look at Arthur sitting on the couch, an annoyed expression on his face.

"It's not like I want to stay with you either," he grumbled.

I glared at him. Okay, I know that it sounded childish- needing North's supervision, but it wasn't like I had no reason to not think that. Arthur'd been here for four days and he spent seventy five percent of that irritating me to the ends of the earth through my bedroom door with insults and complaints and I wanted to throttle him.

He rolled his eyes. His gaze shifted for a beat in North's direction before looking up to the heavens, as if pleading for help. Heaving a deep breath, he pushed himself to his feet and approached us. I scowled at him, stepping away.

He turned to North with wide, exasperated eyes, palms out and fingers curled in my direction. I stepped away, grimacing at his hands. Whatever North responded with, I didn't see, but it made him heave a heavier sigh, his hands dropping to his sides.

"Look, didn't I explain everything to you?"

Again, I huffed.

He did, in fact, explain. My parents were, apparently, going to be gone for a record beating time of a year- at most. Arthur explained that they were caught up on something important and that the details were confidential so I couldn't be told. The confidentiality didn't surprise me considering about ninety-eight percent of their job is unknown to me, but it did manage to pick at my nerves. However, when I asked them when they would be back, I was surprised at the duration.

They have never left me that long, and if they did, they would come back for a weekend every other month or so. And they would, at the very least, tell me in person and not through some messenger. So for Arthur to be the one to tell me that they would be gone for a year straight, well, it made me worried and the worry overshadowed my irritation with their replacement as I assumed Arthur to be.

"But why didn't they tell me that in the letter or even called me?" I had asked him, frowning when I thought back over to the letter. They said they would see me soon. A year is not soon.

"It must've slipped their mind," he had responded, looking at a point over my shoulder, eyes hard. When his gaze returned to me, he said, "Look, I get you don't want me here-"

"You don't want to be here either," I grumbled.

Ignoring me, he continued, "-but I am. I have my own business to do here and they thought it convenient for me to just babysit you while I was at it." I didn't miss the annoyance that laced his voice. I was sure that my parents didn't say "babysit" when they told him this, so I just let that one go.

I rolled my eyes, then, turning to North. "And you-" I poked his chest, "You must've known about this or else you wouldn't have entrusted me into this moron's hands."

It was doubtful that North didn't know. Responsibility was his middle name. He was always the mature one between the two of us and there was never a moment that he didn't get me out of trouble and kept me safe. He's never left my side- well, aside from that one summer, but that was because he got accepted into this cool boot camp and my parents were, surprisingly enough, home for the summer.

"I did," he admitted with a nod, his face grim.

"So why couldn't you explain it to me?" I propped my hands on my hips, challenging him. "Why'd you have to leave it in his," I jerked my head in Arthur's direction, continuing, "obviously incapable hands."