The Selection (1x1 with AnnaCat17)

[EchoOfShatteredIce]

Abril smiled as she woke up, wrapping her arms tighter around him. She snuggled closer to him, kissing him back. "Good morning," she murmured, peeking her eyes open at her. "I love you."

Eleanor groaned in irritation as someone knocked on her door, pulling the covers around her head in protest to waking up. Her maid answered the door for her, asking in a soft voice if he wanted to speak with Eleanor.

[AnnaCat17]

Pavel smiled happily at her. "I love you too." He kissed her cheek before reaching onto the side table to grab an envelope. He leaned back over her, laying pressed up against her, and held the envelope up to his lips so he was peeking over it at her. "I have your present. I think you might cry when you see it."

Vice dipped his head to her. "yes ma'am. Please tell her it's Vice." He said softly, feeling bad for bothering the maid.

Matteo sat down in one of the parlors by the window, sipping coffee was he watched the snow drift down and cover the garden. The castle was only just starting to stir with life and it felt good to be able to relax before he got busy meeting everyone's families and trying to find the best moment to break the news to everyone. It had been nice catching glimpses of everyone with their families the previous day. It made him hope that perhaps the selected wouldn't hate him quite as badly for leaving.

[EchoOfShatteredIce]

Abril smiled, unable not to feel excited. "What is it?" She wrapped her arms tighter around him, excitedly watching him. "Can I see it?"

After grumbling a lot, Eleanor made her way to the door with a robe wrapped around her. "This better be good," she muttered to herself. "What do you want?"

Jakob made his way over to Matteo, trying to be as quiet as possible. He wrapped his arms around him front behind, smirking. "Hi."

[AnnaCat17]

Pavel nodded and gave her the envelope. Inside was his most recent test results showing that everything came back negative and two plane tickets to a tropical island. "It's gone. The doctor confirmed that all of the cancer is gone. He still wants to keep an eye on it and to have me rest but when Matteo gets home from his trip we should be all set to go on vacation for a week or two like I promised."

Vice was a bit taken aback by her aggression but wasn't in the mood for a fight. He held up the camera. "Why is the prince buttering us up? He is going far beyond what he needs to for all of us selected and that probably means he is hiding something."

Matteo smiled and shifted so he could sit beside him. "Good morning. What did you think of your gift? it's what you said you wanted, right?" He asked as he sipped his coffee.

[EchoOfShatteredIce]

Abril gasped, sitting up quickly. "Pavel, that's amazing!" She hugged him tightly, beaming with joy. "I love you so much. Thank you, Pav."

Eleanor shrugged. "Shouldn't you be asking him? I'm not a part of the Selection. I don't know what's going on. He's probably going to send a lot of you away in time for his trip."

"You shouldn't have given me anything, but yes, I like it. I thought I'd catch you before you get busy so I could give you your gifts." Jakob sat down beside him, thinking about the new guitar in his room. He'd be able to get rid of his old, rusted one at home. He set a wrapped box down on Matteo's lap.

[AnnaCat17]

Pavel hugged her back, smiling happily as he held her. "Thank the doctor. I didn't do anything but follow his orders."

Vice raised an eyebrow. "Trip? What trip?"

Matteo looked down at the box and thought his instinct was to tare into it he felt guilty at the sight of it. "You didn't have to get to get me anything, Jakob. Im just happy having you here." He said and kissed his cheek so he could look away from the temptation.

[EchoOfShatteredIce]

"Well, thank you for following them." Abril smiled, giving him a kiss. "And thank you for the trip."

Eleanor shrugged disinterestedly. "He probably wants to tell all of you himself. Is there more that you wanted to talk about, or can I go back to bed?"

Jakob smiled, nudging him. "Open it." Inside the box were three gifts. The first one was store-bought driving gloves, which Jakob explained he had gotten a staff worker from the castle to get for him, because he wasn't allowed to leave himself. The other two were hand carven figures out of wood, one of them a dinosaur and the other Matteo's car. He blushed a bit as he said that he had tried his best to make them. "I didn't really know what to get you, since you probably have everything that you want, so..."

[AnnaCat17]

Pavel kissed her back slowly. "Anything for you, my love."

Vice narrowed his eyes at her. "What is your problem? Why are you so determined to be a brat right now?"

Matteo smiled as he held the figures in his hands. He turned and kissed Jakob for a long moment before looking into his eyes, his own glittering happily. "Thank you. It's perfect."

[EchoOfShatteredIce]

Eleanor glared at him, folding her arms across her chest. Not having anything to say to him, she promptly closed the door in her face and stalked off to bed. She was irritated that he had called her a brat. It reminded her of the time when Vice said he pitied whoever ended up marrying her. Scowling, she buried herself into the blankets and tried to fall back asleep so she wouldn't have to feel the hurt in her chest.

Jakob smiled happily, wrapping his arms around his waist and kissing him back. "Merry Christmas, Matteo." He was pleased that the Prince liked his gifts.

[AnnaCat17]

Vice growled angrily. "Merry Christmas to you too I suppose!" He yelled at her through the door before stalking off to his own room.

Matteo's smile slowly drifted away as he ran his fingers through Jakob's hair. He didn't want to hurt him but he didn't know how to avoid it. It was time to tell them all. He new it might ruin Christmas for some of them but he couldn't keep it to himself anymore. If they couldn't handle being apart from him for an extended period of time then this job wasn't for them anyways. "I need to gather the selected. Stay here." He said and kissed his cheek before getting up. He stood for a moment, unmoving as he looked down at Jakob sadly. Would he want to leave and write him off as not worth it. "Im sorry in advance." He muttered before walking off to have a maid collect the selected.