The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

Alicia watched in disbelief as Harold took off his boots and then lay on his side of the bed with his back to her.

"You are going to sleep without your clothes?" She asked, still staring at his back.

"I always sleep this way. Do you have a problem with it, Princess?" Harold asked without turning to look at her.

Alicia cleared her throat. "We need to come up with some rules for the next couple of nights. This won't work," she said, and this time Harold turned to face her.

"What kind of rules?"

Alicia swallowed. "You can't sleep without your clothes. It's not proper," she said without looking directly at him, as her eyes kept straying to his chest.

"Why not?" Harold asked, his right brow arched.

Alicia cleared her throat, "You are a man..."

"Ah! I'm no longer like a younger brother to you?" He asked, making her brows pull together in confusion.

Although she remembered having that thought, she couldn't remember uttering it, so where did he hear it? "When did I ever say you were like a younger brother to me?"

Harold smirked, "So I'm not like a younger brother to you?"

"That isn't the point. You shouldn't go to bed without clothes. How would you feel if I was sleeping beside you without clothes?" She asked without thinking.

"You are my wife. I don't mind you sleeping naked if it will make you more comfortable," Harold said with a harmless smile, but Alicia wasn't fooled by it.

"I can't share your bed with you if you're not going to wear your clothes," Alicia insisted as she eyed him.

"As long as you maintain your side of the bed, I don't think my lack of clothes will be a problem for you. The same way you need your make-up to have a good sleep, I need to sleep without clothes to have a good sleep," Harold said with an innocent smile as he turned his back to her.

Alicia stared at his back for a moment, and when she didn't know what else to say, she lay down but didn't turn her back to him. That would be too risky since, even though he was acting so innocent and indifferent, she wasn't naive enough to trust him.

Each of them lay on their side of the bed, unable to sleep. While Harold was surprised that he didn't transform as usual and was wondering why things were different when he was with Alicia, she, on the other hand, just couldn't sleep because she was in the same bed with him. She kept staring at his back. Her eyes moved from his broad shoulders to his tiny waist.

"Harold? Are you asleep?" She called softly after a while.

"No."

Okay. So now that she knew that he was awake, what was she going to say? She couldn't fall asleep, and she didn't know what else to do.

"I can't sleep," she said after some time.

"Try," he said dismissively.

"I've tried. I can't."

"So what do you want to do?"

"Let's talk. Tell me a story so that I can fall asleep," Alicia suggested, and Harold turned to look at her, disbelief written all over his face.

"Me? A story?" He asked, not sure he had heard her correctly.

"Surely you know some stories, right? Just tell me something to make me sleep," Alicia pleaded, and Harold frowned. What was he supposed to tell her?

"Something like what?" He asked hesitantly.

Alicia propped herself on her elbow and looked at him. "Did you mean what you said earlier about being my instructor?" She asked curiously.

Harold still didn't know what had possessed him to suddenly say that, especially since her classes usually fell during his training time. But then again, he didn't think it was a completely bad idea. At least that way, he would keep his eyes on her and monitor her more closely.

"Yes."

"Really?" She asked with a wide smile, and Harold's brows pulled together since he hadn't actually expected her to be happy with the idea.

"Yes. Now go to bed," Harold said as he turned his back to her once again, hoping to get a good sleep.

"Harold?" She called after a minute, making him want to groan.

"What?"

"Am I disturbing you?" Alicia asked when she heard the weariness in his tone.

"What do you want?" He asked instead.

"You haven't told me the story," she reminded him.

"I don't have any stories to tell you. Why don't you tell me more about where you come from instead?" Harold suggested.

"How am I supposed to fall asleep when I'm talking to you? It's better if you do the talking," Alicia said, and Harold turned to look at her again.

He wished he knew the best way to make her fall asleep. What could he say or do? "I don't know what to tell you."

"Then tell me about yourself. Why do you behave the way you do?"

"How do I behave?" Harold asked with a slightly raised brow.

"Like you don't care about anything or anyone," Alicia said, even though she knew he cared about her.

"Because I don't care," Harold said flatly.

"You don't?"

"I don't."

"Why don't you care?" Alicia asked.

"Why do you care about everyone?" Harold returned, thinking about how she was being friendly with everyone. He wouldn't be surprised if he saw the queen eating from her fingers soon.

"Because it's the human thing to do."

"Have you always been like this? I mean before you came here," Harold asked, and Alicia's brows pulled together as she thought about it.

"Yes, I think so. I try to be nice to people when I can," Alicia said, and Harold raised an eyebrow.

"And where did that get you?" He asked, and Alicia blinked at him, feeling slightly hurt that he said that.

"My being here has nothing to do with being kind," Alicia said defensively. "It is not a weakness to be good to people. It is a strength because not everyone can be good."

He heard the hurt in her tone and felt a bit bad for saying that.

"Just don't get too close to anyone. Else you are going to end up getting hurt," Harold warned.

"But you are close to Alvin. So can I get close to Alvin?"

"NO!" Harold snapped, angry that she had even thought of it.

"But you just said..."

"Don't go anywhere near Alvin. You are my wife," he reminded her, and she snorted.

"Whatever," she muttered with a yawn as she turned on her side. She doubted that they could have a proper conversation that involved her relationship with other people, and he wouldn't use the 'You are my wife' line.

Seeing how she turned to her side, Harold did the same, and before long, they both fell asleep.

Harold woke up in the middle of the night, and he groaned when he realized that not only had Alicia rolled over from her side of the bed to his, but half of her body was snuggled against his.

So much for putting the pillows between them, Harold thought as he tried to gently push her off him, but it was as though the more he pushed, the closer she stuck to him.

For some reason, he wanted to let her be and blame it on her stubbornness to go away, but he knew that he had to push her away since she was most likely going to accuse him of touching her if she woke up in his arms. He knew how crazy and illogical she could be.

Finally, he managed to push her off him, and she stirred in her sleep. She opened her sleepy eyes to look at him, and Harold held his breath, not knowing what to expect, but then she smiled at him and returned to sleep, causing Harold to sigh in relief.

After that, Harold could not go back to sleep, so he got off the bed and spent the rest of the night pacing around his chamber and thinking about different things. Now that he knew that being with her would stop him from transforming too often, he was going to have to find a way to spend more nights with her so that he would have normal night rests like everyone else. To do that, he had to figure out a way to win her heart so that he wouldn't have to resort to deals to make her spend the night with him. He also had to think about how to go about being her instructor.

After thinking for some time, he realized that it would be dawn soon, and he needed to sneak out of the palace so that they would see him returning inside come morning.

He went to the bed and sat down beside her while looking at her peaceful face that was completely in contrast with her personality.

He gently brushed some strands of hair away from her face and called her softly, "Princess?"

She stirred in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes to look at him.

"Is it morning already?" She asked with a sleepy yawn, and Harold nodded.

"You can remain here. If you're asked where you spent the night, tell them I let you have my chamber because yours was bad. You don't know where I spent the night," Harold said, and Alicia gave him a nod before returning to sleep.