Normal POV
It had been a few days since Aria had been in the Leopold Manor and to say things were different was an understatement. Everyone here was so serious all the time.
Anyway, since she was no doubt gonna be in the house all day again, Aria threw on a white crop top and some burgundy shirts; leaving her hair up in a ponytail from last night.
Since her grandma was busy today, she was gonna do some more exploring around the house because she was a lost cause without a guide. She didn't wanna bother the staff; she would never get used to saying that. Made them seem like slaves and she was not master to serve; she was just a girl from Oakland.
Aria was wandering around the third floor? Fourth? She didn't really know, but either way she found herself in a seemingly vacant part of the manor. She was walking down a particularly dusted hallway when she came upon a painting.
She looked down at the gold plate inscription beneath the portrait,"Henry Mordecai Leopold, son of Reginald Copernicus Leopold", she read back, before stepping back to look at it again.
'So this is granddaddy, huh?'
Aria was pulled from admiring when she heard a door open from her left and not long after a figure emerged from a room at the end of the hall.
"Frederick?", she asked, upon seeing her father's face. What was he doing up here?
The older man startled at the outburst, looking around in an attempt to locate the voice until he saw Aria,"Oh well uh, hello", he greeted with an awkward wave before moving in her direction,"What are you doing in this part of the house?"
"Just exploring; ya know, learn my surroundings", she explained, fidgeting in her spot; she hated how awkward it was between them,"I take it I'm not supposed to be in this part of the house?" She should've noticed when she saw the dust and lack of pristine gold things like everywhere else in the house.
Frederick shook his head,"Oh no, it's actually...quite fine", he managed to say quite unsurely, making his cringe. "I mean it is fine, just that nobody really comes here anymore aside from me", he suddenly had a distant look in his eye,"Not since..", he trailed off faintly.
Aria knew that he was talking about her Grandfather. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this had been his office space in the house before he passed away. She wasn't surprised no one had come in here since; with how emotionally congested people in this house was she knew they wouldn't exactly jump for joy at the thought of remembering a loved one who is longer with them. However, she was shocked that Frederick would be the only exception to that, but then again, from what her mother had told her; her dad and his dad didn't have the best relationship before.
Just as soon as he'd sunken, Frederick had corrected himself,"I take it you slept well?", he asked, swifting deflect the small moment he had had in true politian fashion.
Aria noticed this, but shrugged,"So so." If she was keeping it a buck she had never really slept away from home before and you could tell just by looking at her.
"Have you called your mother at all?", he asked, suddenly recalling Memphis saying she hadn't called. He had never gotten around to asking her about it, but then again he had been busy with things pertaining to her welcome and of course his campaign.
Aria shrugged pushing a strand of hair behind her ear,"I've been trying to skype with her on my laptop, but I don't have signal", she responded making his eyebrow raise. She would ask for the password, but grandma didn't know what she was talming about and everyone else avoided her like the Black Plague.
"What happened to your phone?", Frederick asked and her face scrunched up.
"Your guard dog kinda did a number on it", she said, pulling out her shattered phone. He was lucky she just so happened to back up her stuff on the plane.
Frederick cringed at the sight of the device, taking it out of her hand. He was surprised the screen was somehow still attached,"I apologize for that, Reamus is a bit rough around the edges but he means quite well. I'll ask someone to set you up with a new one", he told her, making a mental note to tell the Percy or one of his assistants.
Aria just stared at him in disbelief, shaking her head,"You don't have to do that Frederick", she told him. She had kinda put off telling him about it because she didn't wanna bother him. Here she was with her little problems while he was trying to win over an entire country and her involvement wasn't helping either.
As much as she insisted, it had fallen on deaf ears,"Nonsense", he persisted,"It's the least I could do for you." He immediately began scolding himself for his choice of words. ('Of all things to say, I let that come out of my mouth.')
He recovered quickly,"Anyway, I wanted to find you before I left for the office. Since the people have reacted well to your appearance, we have come to a uh agreement if you will", he told her.
Aria nodded, hanging onto his words, curious as to where he was going with this. She had been locked up in the mansion since she's gotten here. From what she'd been told, they didn't want anyone to see her and spill the beans about "the mystery girl" before they could break the news and disperse any possible backlash. They had released the story yesterday, but no one had said anything to her after that.
Frederick continued,"Well with that being said; there is a dress show in the works and I was wondering if you wanted to come, kinda like our first outing?", he suggested, stuffing his hands into his pockets to give off an air of confidence he didn't have. The event had kind of been thrusted upon him at the last moment so he didn't have all the detail; Eleanora and Johnston just assured me that she would need a nice clean introduction to Britain and this would be it.
"Really?", Aria asked with eyes wide in disbelief. She quickly fixed her face,"I mean, th- that sound nice", she corrected with a professional tone,"I'd like that." It took everything in her to not do backflips of utter joy.
'Our first Frederick-daughter outing!', she discreetly pinched her thigh to see if this was a dream.
Frederick didn't seem to notice her blisssed out expression, clapping his hands together,"Wonderful", he cheered with a wide smile. He was trying to find a way to ask her since yesterday, and he had finally done it. He wanted to give himself a pat on the back right there.
"Now if you have any questions you can ask Eleanora or Evangeline and they'll be happy to help you", he told her before heading to the front door, a faint "yes!" leaving his lips.
* * * * * *
After her five minute fangirl freakout, Aria had calmed back down from her hysteria and continued on her path. She went to Frederick's office to use his office phone to make a call.
She closed to the door behind her before going over to his desk. She was surprised to find her scrapbook ontop his desk, the book open to the picture of her riding her bike when she was five. Her heart warmed at the thought of him looking at her pictures, a smile on his blank face.
Remembering what she bad come in here for, Aria reached into her shirt and pulled a piece of paper out of her bra, unfurling it to reveal the ten digits written on it:
For your eyes only
×××-×××-××××
-Ralph
She rolled her eyes at his cheesiness; careful when typing in the numbers before bringing the phone to her ear.
The line rang three times before someone picked up,"Alcott speaking", a posh voice said.
Aria was shocked for a moment, she hadn't expected to hear that voice in her phone,"Alcott?", she questioned putting the paperweight down; now confused as to what was going on. Did he really give her a fake number?
The line went quiet and she heard them mutter a curse word,"Who is this?"
She frowned once again,"It's Aria?", she wondered why she still hadn't hung up the phone.
"Oh!", they said loudly,"one moment please, ma'am."
A few seconds passed before the line was picked up again,"Hello Aria", that smooth British voice greeted making her smile.
"Hey Ralph", she answered, not able to help the smile that grew on her face,"for a second I thought I got a wrong number."
"No not at all", he said,"a friend answered for me, but enough about that", he quickly dismissed with a chuckled. "How uh, how have you been? For a minute I was afraid you were stringing me along." He had given her his number almost four days ago and had almost given up on waiting.
"Nope, just lost my phone", she told him with a sigh,"it's a long story."
"Well you must simply tell me it some time then."
Aria could hear the smile in his voice,"Later", she promised, jumping up to sit on Frederick's desk,"Guess where I am right now."
She then went on to recount the entire story of what had happened when she arrived, in the past two days and even about going the royal dress show tomorrow. She couldn't wait.
Endnotes: I'm gonna be honest; might have to take an unwanted break becuz my laptop is fucked rn and I'm in college so that's not good. I'm gonna go to IT in the morning. I just wanted y'all to know so I went ahead and posted some updates.