 Thea was stronger than she looked; she dragged him through the door with such force that he almost dropped his boots in his surprise. Tristan staggered a good few feet into the room before he managed to stop himself.
"What do you take me for?" he responded with a grin as he pulled his clothes straight, "some kind of amateur?" When he looked up, she had her ear pressed against the door. The sight caused Tristan to raise an eyebrow. What was she so worried about?
"There's no one there," the prince said, retreating a few steps to perch on the edge of Thea's bed. Tristan settled himself amongst the ruffled sheets, "trust me, I checked...again...and again...and again." Resting his feet against the bed frame Tristan looked around the room with interest, taking note of all the things that had changed since he'd last been there. It was starting to look more like his aunt's room, he reflected, more grown-up.
The point was underlined when she turned around; she was gorgeous. It was a challenge to stop his jaw from dropping, but he thought he did admirably given the circumstances. Nevertheless it was a while before he managed to form a coherent sentence in his head. In the time it took Thea had closed the space between them and pulled a piece of straw from his hair. Unabashed, and trying determinedly to stop his eyes from wandering downwards, he grinned at her again.
"I missed you," he said, leaning back on his hands, "looks like your trip did you good though. Did you enjoy it?" Tristan held her gaze with a good-natured expression. He really had missed her. Thea belonged to a relatively small group of people he didn't feel he had to play the prince for. Admittedly, he sometimes liked to play the part in front of Thea, but it was nice to know that she knew the other parts of him too.
"What kind of welcome would you have liked?" he teased as he hopped off the bed. He had grown too, starting out along the line between boy and man, getting taller and broader. The light shadow across the line of his jaw testified to the fact that he had begun to shave. There was something strange about standing in her room; Tristan suddenly became aware of how much they had both changed since they had first met and he felt an unusual rush of awkward self-consciousness. Eager to break the spell Tristan strode across the room to the chair in the corner. He plucked up Thea's dressing gown and held it up to help her put it on.
"Put this on and come with me, I'll show you." He glanced over at her desk, "and you might want to bring your sketchbook."
When she was ready Tristan took hold of her free hand and lead her over to the door. He opened it quietly and peered up and down the corridor. After a while he drew back into the room, "coast's clear," he informed her, his green eyes glinting in the candlelight, "come on."
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