When Mia woke up, it was still dark, and it took a few moments for her to recognize her surroundings. Oh, yes, Remno—the guest bedroom. She continued to reassemble the evening's events. I can't believe I left dinner before the meal was served. I hope Abel isn't upset—Oh no! Abel! I am supposed to meet him in his office!

Mia immediately popped out of bed, quietly scooting past a sleeping Ann, and began her rush to Abel's office.

While, Mia wasn't really the worst with directions, she probably was the worst with whisky. Her speedy search for Abel had her slightly lost. She wandered down the south wing of Castle Lykos looking for his office and noticed a light shining from underneath a door. This has to be it!

She found the Prince busy working at his desk. Oh no! I hope he hasn't been waiting long. She was feeling a little bad—but that feeling quickly was displaced with a feeling of mischievousness, since his desk faced the window she could only see the top of his head popping up from his princely chair—which meant he hadn't noticed entering the office at all...

Oh, this is too irresistible!

She silently snuck up behind her love, and swooped in and gave him a big kiss on the cheek! Except it wasn't her love...

"What in the holy hell!"

Gain flopped on the floor as if he had just been punched in the jaw!

"Eek! Prince Gain what are you doing in Abel's office!"

"Abel's office! This is my office! Our offices aren't even on the same wing!"

"Oh my goodness! I am so sorry! Let me help you up!"

"No! No! I can help myself up."

Except that Gain was not getting up. He was just sitting on the floor with one hand on his desk and one hand on his cheek, making every effort not to look at Mia—who, it should be mentioned, was standing in her nightclothes.

It had not even occurred to Mia to change back into her dress clothes, because she had no recollection of ever getting out of her dress clothes. Ever the expert maid, Anne had effortlessly changed Mia once they had gotten to the room—so effortlessly that the slightly impaired Mia had no idea that she had changed clothes at all!

Not that Mia's nightclothes were any more revealing than her dress clothes—less so, in fact. But they were nightclothes, that she wore to bed—and between the nightclothes and kiss on the cheek, Gain was a bit of a mess. For some reason, going around the school being an obnoxious, overbearing jerk, had severely limited his interactions with the opposite sex—so much so, that he was completely unprepared to get his first kiss (on the cheek, but still a kiss)—from his arch-nemesis who also happened to be his brother's girlfriend—though admittedly, that situation might be hard for most folks to prepare for.

After watching Gian stare at the floor for a few minutes, Mia began to worry. She bent down put her hand on his shoulder and asked, "Prince Gain, are you okay?"

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Gain recoiled, but finally got back on his feet and decided to speak (with his head facing away from the visiting princes),

"I am okay, Uhmm, you need to leave."

"Yes, but..."

"But, what?"

"But, I don't know where I am. Could you walk me back to my room?"

I guess I don't have a choice.

"Yes, of course. Follow me."

When Gain said 'follow me' he meant it literally. He did not want Mia at his side or diagonally behind him—he wanted her to be directly behind him and at least five paces back—his heart could not take the princess being any closer.

"Thank you. Again, I am so sorry."

"Yeah."

As they walked, Mia decided to have a conversation with the back of Gain's head.

"We haven't really had much of a chance to talk—not since the party."

It was true. Anne and Abel had been doing a very good job of keeping the two apart.

Well, if I am ever going to get some good information to use against the princess, this is it. Gain wanted information, but had no idea how to even talk to the princess.

Of course, Mia would have been happy to tell Gain anything he wanted to hear—having completely embarrassed herself, she would have been thrilled to talk about anything to get her mind off of recent events.

But, Gain didn't know what to say. So, he tried to think about what his brother would do.

Flattery maybe? "Uhh, I never congratulated you for winning the tournament." Gain forced a smile—not that it mattered. "Yeah, that was some riding you showed off in your duel with Miss Redmoon. I can't believe you kicked mud in her face like that!"

Mia laughed, "Oh, that was Kuolan's idea, I pretty much left the strategy up to him."

"Kuolan? Really?"

"Oh yes, he's pretty smart about those things."

"Well, good advisors are important, I guess." Gain didn't have a clue who Kuolan was (Reminder, Kuolan is a horse).

"Oh, I have never thought of Kuolan as an advisor, that's Ludwig's job. Well, I guess Anne is sort of an advisor, too. She advises me in a lot of my subjects—geography, and math mostly. I don't even think I would have passed mathematics without Anne."

"Math, huh, that's interesting." Gain sensed he may be on to something good talking about this Kuolan fellow. "But, back to Kuolan. Besides strategy, what does he do?"

Mia thought back to her escape at the Winter Festival. She never would have survived without Kuolan. Neither would her granddaughter Bel. Mia closed her eyes. "Well, I guess Kuolan looks out for me, and I trust him completely."

This conversation thing was working even better than Gain could have possibly hoped. It couldn't be that easy, could it?

"So Kuolan is more of a close friend."

"I would say so! Ho ho! A friend that I can run away with at a moment's notice!"

"Really? Doesn't he have a job to do, any responsibilities?"

"Well, he does have a wife and kid now. So, I guess I have to be a little considerate of that. But, I am sure he'd go crazy if we didn't get out from time to time—I think it's important for both of us. It's relaxing, plus it helps keep the weight off."

"Weight off?" Gain could not believe where this was going.

"Oh yes, if I didn't do something to get my heart going, I would be big as a horse! Oh, but I guess shouldn't say those things to Abel's brother. It's sort of embarrassing."

You think?

In case you have forgotten, Kuolan is a horse, a very smart horse, but still a horse. His "wife and kid" are also horses, and the thing that got Mia's heart going was riding said horse—and the embarrassing part of the conversation was Mia's concern about her weight—nothing more, nothing less. All of this completely went over Gain's head, who thought that Kuolan was surely a human knight with a human family—and what he and Mia were doing "to get her heart going" was well...she had just brazenly kissed him on the cheek—so Gain sort of let his imagination run away with him.

At any rate, Gain was sure that he had just struck gold. Even in the unlikely event that Mia and her Kuolan's relationship was somehow completely innocuous, Gain was sure he could still make it work to his advantage.

"Well, we are here. Good night Princess."

"Goodnight Prince Gain. I am really sorry about what happened, but I am so glad I finally got a chance to talk to you."

"Uh, me too."

I have a plan!