Sweet CEO's First Love

Kit sat down on the floor in front of the couch. Ten watched him hand a plate full of snacks to Mouse, she hovered her hand over them for a moment before deciding to grab a type of little cake they had bought from a restaurant earlier on when they found out she would be coming over.

It wasn't very often that Mouse's mother would need to leave Mouse with him on such short notice, and she knew he had a plane ride to catch but the fact that Ram's mother had gotten sick all of a sudden and she had to go with Ram to the hospital. He understood why she didn't have anyone else to watch Mouse and with Mouse having never met the lady before she could see why she would be apprehensive to have their first meeting place at a hospital.

So, of course, he would be happy to go ahead and sit down to spend some time with his niece.

Kit turned and gave him a look of understanding. Both of them were suddenly extremely thankful they were avid planners and had everything pre-done in advance so that they were not rushing to do things. This way, since they were VIP clients, they could just show up at the airport a little in advance to the flight and everything would be fine. 

He wondered if Heart was having the same kinda luck. From the look on his face, he was fretting again. Ten sighed.

When was Heart not fretting? The poor kid was worried about something all the time. If his heart was not troubled by his own problems then he was worrying and trying to solve someone else's.

The kid had a golden attitude and the only thing he saw that was his problem was he was occasionally a pushover.

Ten walked over to the little counter and barstools where Heart was sitting and cocked his head staring at him for a moment realizing he was lost in his own thoughts and wouldn't be able to see. Ten tapped the counter with a single finger. Heart seemingly snapped out of it and blinked up at him a few times before his brain seemingly joined them in the present and now. Ten caught Saint chuckle and held back a smirk of his own. That kid also would sit there and pretend to not be paying attention to anyone or anything around him, working in his own little bubble, but in reality he was observing and staking out the surroundings while he was busy. Saint was a talented multitasker and he used that tool of his, even now while standing next to their balcony door his phone in hand looking like he was terribly focused and busy.

"Hey, Ten. What's up." Heart said sweetly, and he smiled, his pretty dimples popping up. But the smile was flat and forced.

"So are you going to keep pretending nothing is bothering you and we won't have a conversation about it. Or are we going to address the inner goings-on that is troubling you so that we can make that smile real?"

Heart chuckled softly. "Ah actually, it's really nothing bad. I just feel really annoyed with myself that I forgot something so important."

"What did you forget that was important?"

"The trip." heart said sheepishly.

Ten leaned back and drummed on the counter glancing over at Saint he saw that Saint still looked engrossed on his phone but that his thumbs were not moving at all.

The corner of Ten's mouth twitched upwards and he had to control it.

"You forgot about the trip, like in its entirety? he asked.

Heart nodded.

"Yeah, Saint is going to take me back to my place after this so I can pack, and then we can leave for the flight later."

Ten nodded. "Sounds good. So what's the problem, it's like that saying: 'Why worry when there is nothing to worry about at all'?"

"Ah, I guess I just feel guilty and in general fairly bad about it because I forgot something that was important to the people in my life I care about."

Ten smiled and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kit get up to join them.

"Ah, see when your life is chaotic and filled with too much it is hard to calm and center yourself and if the people around you know you have a lot going on I doubt such a small thing would bother them. I'm sure they would be more than understanding." Kit said

"Sometimes the people who take a complication or a curveball in their life the hardest are the people who didn't need to in the first place. And most of the time the hardships they go through are caused by their own unnecessary worries, doubts, and fears. Sometimes our own emotions are our own worst nightmare." Ten stated.

Kit nodded, and Saint walked over finally dropping his pretense and placing his arms on the white marble countertop.

"They aren't wrong. Half the time I see you stressed it's something that could be solved if you took a moment to get outside of your own head."

"Ah, thanks..." Heart said flatly giving Saint a look, and Ten had to suck back a snicker as he watched the two bicker in front of him like an old long-married couple.

'Heart really has been such a healthy growth and a plus in Saint's life. The Saint from before Win is back with only tendencies of the Saint from after Win. It's like they had gotten back the kid that had been before.' Ten had met Kit at right around the time that everything had started to go down. And the kid that Saint had been before to the person he was now was much more similar than the one Heart had so fondly deemed Demon Lord.

Ten watched Saint torment Heart and paused. 'No that wasn't necessarily true, he really always had been that demon lord all along, and he still was. Saint was determined, charismatic, hardworking, a stickler for perfection, liked to get his way, and demanded that people put in as much into any relationship or anything they do as they wanted to get back in return. So, in reality, the demon lord was still there. The only difference was when Heart was around there was also a hint of the playful, loving, open caring person he used to be back when he was a child. You could say that Heart gave him back a reason to care.

The only other person he had ever seen that treatment with was Kit and himself, people that Saint could trust endlessly without any reservation and fear.

He wished he could say that about Amonrat and I guess in a sense he could, but for some reason Saint had always kept Amonrat a hands length away. Almost like he wanted to reach out to him but was too scared to add him into the fold. Like there was something that was stopping him from holding out that last branch of trust and letting him in.

The only other person who had ever been inside that fold had been Somchit, Win, and Ben. But in the end, they were all gone now and it had been just Kit and himself clinging on tightly hoping that Saint wouldn't lose himself into the endless abyss that was leading him down a dark path like he had been.

And now almost six months later here Heart was and here was Saint. The same and yet oh so completely different than before.

Odd that two people who were worried about hurting the people around them were drawn together and were somehow healing each other.

"Take it easy Heart and don't be your own worst enemy." Ten said closing the matter with that singular decisive statement.

"Smile, you are going abroad, and you get clothes this time. Isn't that nice."

Everyone but Saint laughed.

"Seriously, you take a guy to a place without clothes one time and you never live it down."

"Two times" they all said in unison.

"Fine, you take a guy someplace without clothes twice and people never shut up about it."

"Besides I want to point out that I gave him my credit card and bought him stuff. It's not like I told him to grab some leaves, string them together and go all-natural into a meeting.

"You can make clothes out of leaves? Wow, wouldn't it be super itchy? Mom made me wear a hula skirt once and my butt itched for days." Mouse said walking over.

"Hey mouse you were listening to our boring adult conversation?" Heart asked leaning forward.

"Hmm, the show got boring and I didn't want to watch it anymore."

"Oh no, our little angel Mouse is tired of tv! What do you want to do then? I dunno what your uncle has for fun stuff at his house, but maybe we can all play a game together." Heart looked up at him and he nodded.

"A game sounds fun." Mouse said, nodding her agreement.

"We should all play a game together, definitely." Kit said.

"What kinda game do you want to play?" Ten asked.

Mouse giggled "Nong doesn't know but I think it can't be the princess needing rescuing."

Heart looked at her puzzled

"And why not?" He asked her.

"Because there is only one princess and there are too many princes whose only job it is to save her."

Ten laughed at her clever little answer.

"Oh, well, maybe some of the princes need saving too." Saint pointed out. Ten turned to look at Saint surprised and everyone else did the same.

"Oh, that sounds fun, let's play Princes and Princes saving each other." Mouse said looking inspired.

"That sounds fun." Ten agreed, chiming in with his opinion on the matter.

"What will the princess be doing in this story?"

"Oh, Nong won't be a princess in the story that is much too boring. If we are going to have a great story like this one. Nong Mouse should be something else." Mouse said quickly, making it an announcement

"None at all?" Saint asked. Mouse shook her head no.

"No princesses?" Ten asked, surprised.

Then what will you play?" Kit asked, curiously.

"Nong will play the Queen that locked you all up of course." She said, then put on her most haughty fierce expression and looked down her nose at the giant men in the room who were so much taller than her short little size.

"Pick me up slave, I need to see what my people are doing and I need to see it from above." She commanded pointing at Saint, looking incredibly cute and demanding but not at all like a scary fierce queen.

Saint's eyes twinkled with amusement but he picked her up and held her in his arms as she commanded. She wrapped her arms around him and squished her cheeks into his.

"So who is my savior?" Saint asked.

Mouse turned to Heart "Uncle Heart?" she said sweetly, calling him uncle for the first time. Heart flushed and immediately obeyed; caving to her little command and her sweet little face in an instant.

"Heart? You want Heart to save me from you? Not Kit?" Mouse nodded.

"Oi, I see how this is. It was all a ploy to cuddle me and then get Heart to come over here and try and cuddle you away from me." Saint said, accusing her.

She nodded smiling big then held out her arms to Heart, who went to take her, but Saint pulled her back.

"That's it, this is a prince revolt." Saint declared.

"You can't enslave me to get to the prince you really wanted. Saint stated, tsking.

"We, the handsome princes, are revolting; the queen must be punished."

"By tickles!" Saint said, dropping Mouse down on the couch. Mouse screamed with delight.

"Not tickles!" she squealed, laughing as Saint's big hands tickled her belly.