Chapter Two- Royalty

Chapter Two- Royalty 

__________________________________________________

Aro watched as she turned herself forward, interest sparked up in him at this. She paid him no attention which he wasn't used to, but to which he also liked. He was too used to women walking up to him, being over exposed in how they'd drops things by "accident", or how they'd purposely say they were either a widow, or had no one to provide for them. 

He'd give a simple roll of his eyes, some women just held no confidence. To him, a woman was not as attractive without confidence. And even though this woman was on the desperate side, she held confidence. 

He watched the way she moved, the way she looked as she spoke, a chuckle left him as he thought over her words. He truly had no idea about her, but he wanted to find out. "Then..." He began and paused, waiting for her to look at him. When she didn't he caused his eyebrows to rise and heard Caius chuckle. 

But finally, either by her curiosity or her deciding it had been enough teasing towards his ego, she looked at him. "Then, what?" She said in a short kind of tone, like she wasn't going to wait around all day. Aro noticed that she flinched from her own tone, he chuckled at her. She was worried now about turning him away? Tsk, tsk.

"Then...give me an idea my Lady." He showed her a grin which pulled her lips up into a smile. She turned towards him again and looked him up and down again.

"Your Lady?" She questioned him, curiosity and a look of thought crossing over her features. 

"Well, I do not know your name." Aro pointed out the obvious and watched her, looking over her features as she raised her small hand and tapped her slender fingers against her chin. 

"Well..."- Sulpicia started out, talking in a normal tone- "since I am far from being a Lady, my name is Sulpicia." 

"Ah..." Aro clicked his tongue once. "A strong Latin name of literature.." He said thoughtfully which made Sulpicia raise up her eyebrows like he head earlier.

"And what is your name?" Sulpicia asked. 

"Aro." He reached out towards her, finding her hand and bringing it up to his lips where he lay a single kiss to the top of her hand. But as the blush slowly spread onto her face, as did her thoughts and memories to his mind.

It felt as though a rush swept across him as he began seeing her from her child hood. He saw her running about her many homes, she was sometimes a cold child when she didn't get her way, which would have made him chuckle if he hadn't seen the harder things she had to go through.

He saw the conditions and her feelings, her thoughts, of how it was to live in a small place with no room for herself. He saw her wishes and dreams. Suddenly, she didn't seem as desperate now.

How was wanting to go after your wishes desperate?

He blinked momentarily, another rush going through him as he saw her throughout her teenage years, how men from the village would smile and send her grins, but they weren't up to her expectations enough for her to accept, no matter how much the old married man and woman said she should accept them and move on with her life.

He saw up until what had happened in her home right before they met, and her thoughts on when she saw him up until her thoughts now. She was nervous, maybe even a little scared. And wondering why he was so cold...

He dropped her hand carefully and cleared his throat. He locked his hands together tightly behind her back and looked at her. She lowered her hand to the side and smiled at him. "Its a pleasure to meet you Aro." She spoke in a more gentle like tone that caused him to drop his grinning appearance, the features of his face softened and he watched her. 

"The pleasure is all mine..." He said in a clear tone, but some of his natural accent from Greece slipping through. She raised her eyebrows upon hearing it, but her smile only brightened. She suddenly became... child like. 

"You're not from Italy..." She trailed off, glancing away before looking at him quickly. "You can travel freely?" She blinked, almost like the concept was unbelieving to her. "You must be royalty.." Her expression changed. This was a true reaction, although he could see it in her thoughts that she possibly had suspected it, but whether it was suspected or not, realizing it to be true was different. 

He thought about an answer before he answered her and silently nodded to himself, he noticed Caius staring at them, unblinking but faking the breathing motions with his shoulders to not have the villagers thinking he was a sort of evil walking amongst them that needed not to breathe.

"Yes...to a different type of people." He said cautiously to her. She blinked her eyes momentarily and started to ask him a question, but the yell from a frail voice caught both of Aro and Sulpicia's attention.

"Sulpicia! Si suppone di essere a casa!" An old woman that had wrinkles upon wrinkles on her face was walking towards them at a limping rate, using a twisted old cane to support what little weight she possibly had. She was a skinny woman, so fragile looking to everyone around her. Her eyes were the only young thing about them, oh how her eyes seemed like they never had aged, the blue in them as bright as ever. They seemed to brighten the older she got, her husband claiming she always had beautiful eyes when they were wed. 

"Vieni a casa, vieni a casa." She murmered over and over as she reached Sulpicia, reaching out a shaky arm to the young girl that stood in front of Aro. Sulpicia turned her head and frowned at the woman whom was beginning to pull at Sulpicia's arm, the only reasoning behind Sulpicia's arm moving towards the woman, was that Sulpicia allowed it to.

Aro also saw in her mind that she couldn't be cruel to the old woman, that she felt sorry for her on how weak she seemed to be. A look over at the woman told Aro everything he needed to, Sulpicia was correct. Aro took in a deep breath, the scent of the woman had became musky with age, nothing appealing and nothing that gave any hint that her health was perfect. Old age brought down sickness over the elderly, you could smell it in their scents, and taste it in their blood. 

"Un momento..." Sulpicia spoke softly to the woman and Aro had to admit, hearing her speak in her natural tongue was very appealing to him. 

"Forgive me Aro, I hope we'll be seeing each other again." She said in the same gentle tone, her eyes seeming to have glassed over by the time the woman had came to them. Aro gave a nod and gave a slow, but respectful bow to Sulpicia and to her guardian. The old woman looked at him in shock for a moment then shook her head in defiance. She seemed to notice how he looked, how he dressed and the crest pendant he wore. 

She muttered something that he barely caught, it was, "Reale." But it came out as almost a hiss, like she had a distaste for it. She ushered at Sulpicia who turned from Aro and walked with the old woman, helping the woman walk on the side that the woman wasn't holding the cane. 

Aro watched them go and returned to his place near Caius. Caius had by now, heard everything apart from what Aro discovered in Sulpicia's mind. "Well?" Caius asked in a voice that was clear how bored he was of this village by now. Aro could only guess that Caius was imagining how to massacre half the people in it for his own, and his wife's blood lust.

"I believe we'll be prolonging our trip here." Was all Aro said before walking away from him. 

__________________________________________________

I apologize if any of these translations are incorrect, I use Google Translate for them. The "Un Momento" translation said either A or one, so I put down both.

"Sulpicia! Si suppone di essere a casa!"- Sulpicia! You are supposed to be home!

"Vieni a casa, vieni a casa."- Come home, come home.

"Un momento..."- A/one moment. 

"Reale."- Royal.