Once Upon A Switch

4

Alas! An update! I didn't reached my number of words goal since I've already done it in a Cassarian one-shot I made.

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Lab? He have a lab? That's unusual.

The steep staircase led to a dark hallway as they reached the end of it.

"What is this?" The dark haired girl asked.

Surely, the prince isn't trying to kill him, right? Because this place would surely be the perfect hiding place for a dead body. Although, he doesn't look like a psychopath. He even seemed like a nice person.

The wall slammed behind her making her jump in shock. She slowly turned her head to his direction – in fact, she doesn't even know where he is right now if it weren't for the fact that she can hear him breathe.

"Hey, where are we?" She asked.

The prince clapped his hand and to her amazement, a light turned on and the lab was revealed. She couldn't help but be impressed about what she is seeing. There were illustrations and calculations everywhere. There were some different colored chemicals on the bottles and everything. Some contraptions that she can't even name.

"Does your dad know any of this?" She asked.

The latter shook his head and looked down. "No. I never let my dad know. He doesn't want this for me."

She sighed. She know how he feels. Her father used to shut her up when it comes to guard training — but as time passed by, her father gave up.

Varian walked towards a switch and pushed it. Suddenly, she heard a sound of clancking of screws and a chair was heading towards her direction and stopped a few inches from her.

"Take a seat," said Varian and walked towards his table, proceeding to wear his googles.

"Woah," Cassandra said, impressed. Her eyes roamed around, examining the room. She could tell why his father disapprove of this. Everything in the room was in chaos — well, for her. She can't understand any of the things that were written. X+Y? What the heck is that? Cyanide? Nitro?

Cassandra stood up and walked towards a side of a hidden room while Varian was mixing something she have no idea what. She blinked at the stack of papers scattered around. She sighed. If she's going to serve him once he and the princess got married then she better start now. She bend down and started to pick up the papers.

"H-hey, what are you doing?" Varian asked.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and straightened up, a pile of papers in her hand. "This is what you call cleaning, your majesty."

"Why are you cleaning?" He asked, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Because it's my duty–" she stopped when she realized that she's blowing her cover.

Varian's eyes narrowed at her and stood up. "Your duty? What do you mean?"

"I—" Cassandra quickly thought of an excuse. She cleared her throat. "It's my duty because — I will be your future wife, right? I need to learn to clean up your mess because you'll surely be doing a lot of it once we got married," she said in a matter of fact tone, her cheeks turning bright red.

Varian's face turned scarlet. "Right." He sat down. "Are you sure? Do you want some help? I heard that princesses doesn't like doing chores."

Cassandra chuckled. "Well, this princess is different," she turned to him. "Do you want me to teach you how to stack up all this papers and give you a piece of advice in organizing?" She raised an eyebrow and gave him a deadpanned look.

"Sorry." Varian blushed and fiddled with his fingers. "I just have a lot of things to work on. Balancing swordfighting and prince lessons with alchemy takes a lot of my time."

Cassandra sighed, feeling pity. "Alright. I'll go clean this up while you work there."

Varian's eyes widened. "R-really?"

"Yup." Cassandra gave him a warm smile, making Varian's heart skipped a beat. "I somehow understand how you feel. I'll go do this and you go do the thing that you love."

"Thank you," he smiled, showing his perfect white teeth.

Cassandra's cheeks turned red again. "Y-you're welcome."

Cassandra quickly turned to the pile of papers, her heart beating fast. What is this feeling? Why does it feel like she wanted to see more of him smiling? She quickly shook her head. No. There's no time on feeling things like this. Distractions are not needed.

After a few hours, Cassandra was done cleaning the whole room while Varian was still focused on what he's doing. He's mixing a red and green water in one vile and it turned yellow. Her eyes widened, walking towards him.

"How did you do that?" She asked. "It turned yellow."

"Oh," Varian took his googles off. "It's just a mixture of colors. You see, if you mix red with green, it'll turn yellow. Just like if you mix blue and green, it'll turn Cyan," he explained.

Cassandra took a chair and placed it in front of his table and sat down. "Tell me more."

"A-are you sure?" He asked. "A lot of people don't actually care about—"

Cassandra crossed her legs and stared at him, a hand on her chin. "I am sure. Now stop babbling and explain what you just did."

"Oh, why don't I just show you," Varian said with a proud voice. He took a circular glass container and placed the yellow liquid inside it. "Watch and see!" He threw the glass bottle up as hard as he can.

"What are you doin—" she stopped when the glass broke as it hits the ceiling and lights came out with a blast.

"W-what was that?"

"I call it 'Fireworks'. It's the very first one I made. You're fortunate to see it," he smiled.

"I-it's beautiful," Cassandra said truthfully.

Once again, Varian's eyes widened. "You don't think that it will only cause damage? You don't think that it was dangerous?"

Cassandra turned to him. "Of course it was dangerous!" She said and Varian frowned. Cassandra continued. "It might be dangerous but it was beautiful! And the risk was worth it! That was amazing, Varian!"

"I-" Varian was cut off when they heard a booming voice.

"VARIAN?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"It's my dad!"

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