Drawing? He smiled when Lily had proposed they draw, he was confident in his drawing skills, having taken art in secondary school. He took the class thinking it would be easy marks, but realistically he slightly struggled, not on the practical part, but more so on the theory part- he had no idea they would make him memorise the names of the artists when they were born when they died, what work they painted, it was ridiculous.
He burst into a fit of laughter seeing what Athanasia had drawn, his attention was broken hearing his loud laughter, frowning she looked to her brother.
"What?! Tell me what's funny!" she demanded, "You're a terrible drawer. Is there anything creative that you're good at? It's obvious I'm the superior twin, I'm talented at the piano and at drawing, and telling stories! Well, it makes sense since I'm the eldest." He boasted, childishly, enjoying what his appearance allowed.
He could say anything he wanted and it would be dismissed merely because of his age, but with Athanasia, it was the same, she would match him.
"Let me see what you drew!" she demanded again, her arms crossed where she was sitting on the floor. His drawing was behind him, he had been facing away from her when they were drawing.
He reached behind him grabbing his drawing, with both Felix and Lily looking at them fondly, with amusement shining in their eyes, watching the royal twins interact.
She grabbed the drawing from his grasp, and was stunned- Why is he so good at everything?! She thought in annoyance, trying to stop herself from ripping the page to pieces.
Athanasios had a smug smile on his face, seeing her reaction. The drawing was of a dragon, it was detailed to some extent, but he didn't over the top seeing as he would have to spend hours to do that. He shaded the drawing giving it a more realistic feel to it.
It was red, the scales prominent. It had dark green eyes, fire erupting from its mouth. "A decent drawing am I, right? Mine actually looks like something- yours is just.... just- Athy what is it?"
"Prince Athanasios, be nice" Lily lightly scolded, "you both did a good job." She continued, she smiled at his work, "You have a lovely furious dragon and you princess..." then looked at Athy's artwork, tilting her head, trying to grasp an understanding of what it could be.
"What are you drawing, princess?" Felix asked, staring curiously at the work.
"See even Felix is struggling to even comprehend those pathetic scribbles!" Athanasios muttered, for all to hear.
Athanasia threw her crayon at her brother.
"Athan!"
He laughed, "I was only joking, Athy, promise. I'll tell Felix just what it is," he spoke, looking at Felix smirking knowingly as he stood up, looking at the redhead, then to Lily, spreading his arms out dramatically.
"It's Felix's future wife, of course, our precious Lily!"
Lily's eyes widened, Felix was just as shocked hearing his words, wife? Both their faces flushed into a red. "You have a very interesting imagination my prince" Felix spurred out, refusing to look at Lily.
Athanasia looked between the redhead and their nanny, seeing their reactions and burst into a fit of giggles, finally stopping she spoke, "He's right! about it being Nanny. The prettiest person in the world!"
Athanasios nodded, looking at lily, "you are really pretty Lily" he said thoughtfully, then his hand massaged his chin in thought. "Which means..." he trailed off, then met her eyes, "That you deserve the best!" he finished.
Lily couldn't help but let out a laugh, "Oh really?" she mused, and he nodded frantically.
"Of course, which is why you deserve me! Just wait thirteen years, then I'll be a full-grown man, more handsome than the Emperor himself!" That had them all laughing and he let them, it was quite fun playing the part of a child, it was really- kids just said anything and everything. Forget about a filter, that doesn't exist in the mind of a child.
They continued drawing, well Athanasios, Athanasia was the one who continued drawing, his hand was simply sore from drawing the dragon. He laid down beside his sister, leaning over to watch her drawing unfold.
He placed his finger on the sheet, "That's me, right!" he beamed, the drawing was too bad, other than the fact she had made his head simply too big. There was another person besides the person who he believed to be himself.
They had long hair, that was yellow, just like his drawing, which he could only assume was Athanasia, she nodded, "Yup!" she responded as she continued to colour in her dress, on the image a pink colour.
"How come you made my head so big? Your head is most definitely larger by a margin," he asked, she looked at him sending him a playful glare.
"If you want I can make it bigger?" she threatened, he shrugged his shoulders.
"I suppose if my head were big, not that it is. The reason would be to distract people from your ugly face" he said with a grin.
She gaped at him, "ATHAN!" she shouted, chasing after him after he stood up taking a step back.
"AHH! LILY SAVE ME!" Athanasios yelled, looking back at his sister who was still chasing him around the room, he was trying to understand how the crayon had gotten that sharp- she was holding it like she was about to stab him with it.
Instead of Lily helping him, she was laughing as if it was the cutest thing. While Athanasios was seeing a deadly psychopath, chasing him to murder him until he was drained of blood, Lily was seeing flowers and rainbows watching the adorable young royals skipping around the room.
Eventually, it came to a stop as they had a moment of truce, and went back to drawing.
"...Blonde hair..."
"...Shorter..."
"...Just like..."
He hadn't been paying much attention, but hearing the voices, he turned to them curious about what they were talking about, so he leaned over to see her drawing. Again, Athanasios found himself staring intently at his sister's drawing, this time he couldn't give a proper guess of who it was, his sister herself didn't look as though she was confident in what she was drawing.
"What- who are you trying to draw?" his voice rang out, her blue eyes met his, as she looked forward to her brother was sat opposite him, and shrugged. She bit her lip nervously, her brows furrowed, "Well, I was trying... our mummy? I wanted to draw her, but I don't know what she looks like" her quiet voice, seemed to sound loud in the ears of the two adults.
Athanasios, hummed in thought, he too trying to imagine what she looked like. "I want to see her..." he heard his sister mindlessly say, he didn't see a problem with it.
He rolled over, onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.
"I want to see her too," he said above a whisper.
He was curious what life would have been like if she had lived. Would they be a happy family? Claude, their mother, Athanasia and himself. A family of four, an even number.
He lazily closed his eyes.
The days to come after that had Athanasios beyond confused... Felix and Lily were acting strange and it was starting to get annoying.
It didn't seem that he was the only one to notice, he could feel his sister's irritation as well.
He couldn't even read in peace without Felix breathing down his neck, "Reading?" that was Felix, again.
Athanasios didn't look up from where he was seated, the book was resting on his lap, angled perfectly for him to see, barely having to strain his nack, as he had his feet on the chair, his knees at level with his chest, but not close, leaving enough space for him to read his book.
He hummed in response to what Felix had said.
"Ah... is it interesting?"
Athanasios sighed inwardly, as he finally looked up, he found himself staring at a similar scene, his sister was going through the same thing across the room, with Lily, while Felix was at his side.
"Ah, Felix?" Athanasios, called out, finally looking up at him. The red-haired knight's eyes seemed to brighten at the prince's call. Perhaps he could help him.
"Here." Athanasios merely said, handing the man the book, and smiled at him, he stood up as Felix awkwardly took the book, from his grasp. "Ah, um, prince?" Felix said, his confusion showing on his face.
"And here..." Athanasios continued, as he dragged the sleeve of Felix, leading him to sit on the chair. "You can read the book since you seem more interested in it than me- well, that's me gone!" With that said, Athanasios bolted off, on the way grabbing Athanasia's hand, with a yelp Athanasia was being dragged by her brother, leaving behind a confused Lily, and a very much confused Felix.
"Athan! What are you doing?" She called from behind him as he continued dragging her, flinging them across a corner. As he did, he hid them behind a rather large vase. He placed a hand over his sister's mouth.
"Prince! Princess!"
"Where did they go?"
"I'm not too sure, do you think we upset the prince?"
"Well, what did you say to him?"
"...book... not..."
Their voice faded and faded as they got further away.
"...way..."
Finally, as he could hear them no longer, he dropped his hand and stretched, "Finally!" Athanasios yawned out as he finished stretching, truing to see Athanasios with furrowed brows, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Would you rather be in the room back with them? Or go on a walk with your favourite person in the entire world?" he smiled amusingly at her, as he walked backwards, before turning and beginning his leisurely walk.
He heard her tiny feet run to catch up with him, "You've noticed it too?" she asked him, and he knew exactly what she was refereeing to, "Lily and Felix being complete weirdos?" was his lovely response.
She rolled her eyes, and sighed, "...I think I know why they're acting think that" she told him, he looked at her, his head tilting waiting for her to continue.
"It's because we said we want to see our mummy..." she finally finished.
He gave her a strange look, "We did?" he said dumbly, he watcher he slap her forehead, "Yes! About three days ago, did you really forget?" she responded, in annoyance.
"Ah... then why are they acting like that? They're acting as if we sobbing our hearts out. They'd see me cry over a piece of cake before they see me cry over some woman we never met before, let alone heard the voice of," Athanasios said nonchalantly, as he did a random spin in the middle of the hall. It wasn't every day they could walk about without someone pestering them, especially since their father got them those new maids.
His sister didn't respond, she was quiet, so he turned and their eyes met again, "Don't you want to see her?" she said slowly.
Was she worried about him?
"Well, yeah I guess that would be nice, just to see what she looked like, but I wouldn't say I have any emotional connection to her- don't even have one with our father, you don't either..." Athanasios responded.
She went quiet again, and both of them stopped walking. Athanasios looked out the large window that was on her right, one of the windows that rightened the hallways they were walking through. "Let's see the garden. I want to get Lily flowers," she finally spoke again.
He crossed his arms, "Oh? Lily? Do you prefer Lily more than me? Why not get me flowers?" he teased her, not letting it show on his face, as he turned away from her.
"No!! we can get you flowers too! Green ones, because it's your favourite colour." She responded, grabbing his arm to turn him around on to see him smiling like an idiot.
"Athan!" she said in a scolding tone, for he had tricked her again.
"I don't want flowers, I really don't see the point in you giving them to Lily... to look at them?" Athanasios drawled, as he leaned against the wall, beside the window.
She rolled her eyes, "Because-" she didn't get to finish because Athanasios cut her off.
He pushed himself off the wall, turning to look at her, "Well, you better look at them quickly, because in a few days all that will be left will be a bunch of dried-up-dead-plant caresses. Do you think Lily as the dead remains of all those flowers in a drawer somewhere?" he dramatically said, before snorting.
"Athan!"
"Honestly, I would rather piece of toffee, that has been sitting in the corner of some kitchen for a week... at least that would have somewhat of a use," he said in a bored tone.
He walked closer to his sister, grabbing both her shoulders, making sure she was looking at him, "If you ever think of getting me flowers... your next thought should be, you know what I'll give him some gold instead."
"Why don't you like flowers!"
"Well, I made my point already didn't I? besides why do you like them?" he responded.
"They smell nice!" she refuted.
He gave her a weird look, "Athy... they smell like dying bell peppers."
"They do not!"
"They do."
"Not!"
"Do!"
"NOT!"
"DO!"
"NO-" Athanasia was cut off by another voice. It seems their loud bickering had alerted the weirdos where they were, "Prince, Princess! Thank goodness, you here, we were starting to get worried." It was Lily that spoke, she grabbed them both in a hug.
She was finally released after nearly choking them to death.
His sister turned to him, narrowing her eyes at him, "You just watch! I'm going to start my own garden, grow the best flowers, and you're going to like the smell of them!" she said determined, while Lily listened in amusement.
"Oh? Is that your plan?" he asked.
"It's a promise!"
"Then I look forward to this promise, that's going to fail terribly."