Alex's smile turned into a playful grin as she winked at him and he watched her with interest. It was no secret that the princess wasn't very soft-spoken and gentle, but seeing her actually get a group of young men to basically fall over themselves to greet her was impressive. He adjusted his suit as he listened to the chorus of voices, meeting eyes with her again and matching her amused smile. Now he just had to hope that he didn't look like he was being rude by not shouting out a compliment at her.
Once the hubbub died down, and the food was served, Lacey leaned across the table to look at the men. "So. Who has the most interesting family here." The men all started to talk, and she shook her head, tutting. "No. I want one by one." She pointed at the guy closest to her. "Do you have family?"
The guy she pointed to looked nervous as she talked to him, but he replied calmly and respectfully, even managing to smile, "Just my mother, Princess Lacey. We're not that interesting." He definitely looked like he wasn't used to being surrounded by important people, but with his black hair and piercing green eyes paired with his crisp black suit his looks could easily make it seem like he was used to being around these people.
"Well, you can't be too boring, right?" Lacey asked, leaning on her arm, resting her hand on her chin. She smiled slightly at the guy. "Everyone has something interesting going on with them. Tell me…" She looked at him pointedly. "Remind me of your name again?"
"I'm Aidan, Princess Lacey, Aidan Serry," He introduced himself, his small smile growing as he became more confident, "I don't think that my family is boring, we're just not the most interesting." Aidan messed with the cuffs of his suit as he talked, sure to make eye contact with her and not his fidgeting hands.
Yawn. Lacey didn't do it, but she wanted to. Although the guy seemed nice, he wasn't the wild ride she'd been hoping for. "What does your mother do?" She asked instead, popping a cookie into her mouth.
"She's a seamstress, helps make dresses for models and actresses specifically," He explained, shrugging as he picked at his food, "Her work is featured in tons of magazines." Adian cracked another small smile, "I would ask you what your parents do, but that's already something that everyone knows."
Lacey smiled. "Really? What's her name? I might know her. I love seeing what models wear." She made a face. "Wearing them is another things, however."
His smile grew once more as she asked questions he knew he could answer, "Her name is Lana, but most of her pieces are either just installed L.S. or known better by the names of the pieces. She usually names them after plants and flowers."
"Oh! Yeah, I think I know of her. My mom loves her style." Lacey smiled warmly at him. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Aidan." She sent him a wink, and turned to the next guy, the attractive one she had seen first. "Who are you?"
"It was nice to formally meet you too, Princess Lacey." Aidan replied, returning a charming smile as he settled into his chair.
Alex had been quiet as she talked to the other guy, eating and listening to their conversation like everyone else. When she turned to talk to him though, he flashed her a grin. "I'm Alexander, though you can call me Alex. At your service, princess," He said, letting the flirty and playful parts of him take charge rather than the nice side of him that wanted to greet her the same way that Aidan did.
Lacey snorted, eyes flashing in amusement. "Not going to be polite? How rude. Especially since I could send you home whenever I wanted." She sent him a smirk. "You're lucky that I like your attitude." More than that, she admired him for being so forthright. She tossed her head and sent him a grin. "What's special about you?"
It couldn't have worked out better for Alex, that Lacey seemed to like his less polite approach. "Besides my informalness, I'm an athlete and actor in training, I suppose that's special," He replied, matching her grin easily, "If that's what you're asking about, princess. I hope that's enough to get me not thrown out the very first day I'm here?" Already talking to the Princess for less than a minute was proving to be one of his favorite conversations of the day, mostly because she actually played off his playfulness with her own.
"I dunno," Lacey said, sending him a playful frown. "Why on earth would you want to be an actor? For all the ladies?" He was hot, and funny, and didn't seem to care that he was supposed to be polite. He was… interesting.
"Well, it pays well, and runs in the family…" Alex started, his voice purposely monotone until a grin split his face again and he continued, "The girls are a plus too, though none of them are as fun to be around as you are so far, Princess Lacey." He leaned back in his chair and just watched her with a playful glint in his eyes and matching smile, paying no attention to the food in front of him.
"Sweet talker," Lacey said delightedly, not the least bit affected by his smooth words. Of course not. That was silly. She had better sense than that. "I wouldn't know the pay of actors," she said, tilting her head and blinking at him with innocently pure eyes, seeming to be just like a child.
He shrugged, grinning at her words. Not many people ever asked about the pay of an actor, and so her question caught him off guard. Within seconds though he covered the impressed look on his face with his grin again and answered, pretending to think, "Well, depending on the film, our pay varies. In the roles I normally play though, I'll just leave it simply at enough to live comfortably in the city and be considered famous for a long time."
"If you get a good role." Lacey looked him over, scanning him from head to toe… well, as much as she could see, anyway. "But then again, with your looks, that shouldn't be too hard." She returned his grin. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she realized that she should probably talk with another guy, instead of this one. But he was so interesting…
"Now who's the sweet talker, Princess Lacey?" Alex replied jokingly, winking at her as he grinned. As much as he knew the Princess would soon move to talk to someone else, he found himself wanting to just keep talking to her, to learn more about this playful and fun girl that was talking to him. She was interesting and her wild, un-princess like attitude was definitely cautching his attention more than he wanted to admit.
"I never said I wasn't," Lacey said, sticking her chin in the air. "I only speak the truth, you know. I don't butter people up." She winked at him. "Well, it was nice talking to you, but I should probably let others talk to me." She sent him a grin. Alex had been fun to talk with. He had more common sense than most of the people she knew combined, and he was hot.
He sighed and rolled his eyes, pretending like a disappointed little kid now that she had to talk to someone else, "Aww, but it was just getting fun." Alex swapped his act for a polite grin seconds later though, nodding and motioning to the next guy at the table, "It was fun while it lasted I guess, and I'm sure I'll be able to talk to you again. Have a fun time meeting everyone else, Princess." He didn't want her to have to talk to someone else, but it would be rude to take her attention any longer, so sadly he let her move onto the next guy.
Lacey gave him a mock, two fingered salute. She noticed that other guys, although they looked angry and jealous, were not as annoyed as she thought. Boys definitely weren't like girls, she thought with a chuckle. They didn't try to tear down and undermine and destroy each other the way girls did. She turned to the next guy. "Got anything interesting about yourself?" She asked, leaning on her elbow.
"Not really, I work with music and music," The guy said, smiling politely at Lacey, "I don't think that counts as interesting, especially compared to Alex." He turned and glanced at him, matching the grin that Alex showed back to him, "Hard to beat an actor."
"Music can be cool," Lacey commented. "As long as it's not classical." Classical was so boring to her. All music and no words, all peace and no excitement. She was glad to see that the guys weren't getting on each other's nerves, or trying to beat each other or out-do each other. "Do you have a favorite kind to make?"
He shrugged, thinking for a minute, "Not really. If I had to choose a favorite it would probably be something upbeat and happy, probably containing some good vocals and no slow parts." The guy chuckled and shrugged, "I don't have a favorite genre to create in, it all depends on my mood. What's your favorite kind of music?"
"Not classical," Lacey said instantly. "I dunno. Something upbeat and good to dance to." She sent him a bright grin. "Oh my goodness, I am so sorry! I totally forgot to ask your name!" She popped a chocolate-covered strawberry into her mouth and smiled blissfully at the mexplosion of flavor in her mouth.
“I’m Kohen, nice to meet you Princess Lacey,” He replied with a musical laugh, smiling brightly at her, “Don’t worry about it by the way, plenty of people don’t even bother to ask my name.” Kohen looked over the selection of deserts, admiring everything and trying to decide what he wanted.
"Why not?" Lacey asked, stuffing another desert into her mouth, not acting very much at all like a lady. "Do they not caer, or so they just forget?"
He shrugged, picking up a cookie and popping a small piece in his mouth, "Not sure. More likely than not they just don't care, I've only met a few people who've just forgotten to ask." Even if his reply seemed a little boring or even sad, he seemed like he was anything but, his tone light and matching his mostly carefree attitude, "It doesn't bother me though, I know the people who actually want to get to know me will remember to do something as simple as learn my name."
Lacey swallowed her food and smiled at Kohen. "Well, I look forward to getting to know you."
She went through every guy at the table. She tried to give them all equal attention, but some of them were just so boring! Like seriously, she would be so sad if she was paired with some of them. Like the guy who adored chickens more than his own life, or the man who had thirty-two siblings and step siblings and would never stop talking about them… it was sweet, yes, but so annoying!
Finally, she was done. She had talked with them all, and she had eaten her fill, and she was tired. She stood from the table. "After you guys are finished eating, you'll be escorted to your room for a few minutes before meeting with the king, or someone like him, for a final introduction. Or introduction. Or something like that. I have no idea what it'll be about. After that, you have free time until you decide to go to bed. So… see you guys around, I guess." She blew an air kiss to them all and left the room in a hurry.
