The prince was bored.  So incredibly bored.  Even with dancing women working their way around the ballroom, elaborate and foreign cuisine being passed about on lavish silver trays and foreign dignitaries surrounding him and his parents, Prince Eugene of the land of Azerothian, was so bored he kept yawning.  Yawn after yawn, some of them followed by a hiccup kept slipping from between his clearly glossed lips  (It makes it so the peasants can see how healthy you are with shining lips, he was once told... he hated it...) and after the third yawn within a two minute span, his mother reached over and whacked the boy across the back of his head with her latest gift from some other royal.  That gift being a rather large and heavy fan made with metallic ribbing that surely left a mark underneath the prince’s pink dyed hair (The better for the guards to spot you should you try to escape...)

“Genie, my dear.  What have I told you about acting this way in public?” The Queen didn’t even spare a glance at the boy as she continued to wave at onlookers and visitors, her smile as fake as the hair she wore on her head.  “All we need is one of those little fae gnats to  come in here and sneak a photo of you looking as if death is about to take you.  A photo like that gets out and it’s all kinds of havoc that the royal p.r. firm has to deal with.”

He formed a smile just as fake and spoke back to his mother from between gritted teeth.  “Then just allow me to go back to my room.  Say I’ve fallen ill or that I’ve been called away.  Anything to get me away from this snooze fest that is...”  Eugene paused, blue tinged eyes blinking, the glitter upon his cheeks catching the light as he did so and almost blinding him afterwards.  “What is this event anyway?”

The Queen finally looked at her child, lips pursed as she made it known that she was clearly unimpressed with the heir to the throne.  “This is your engagement announcement party, you dolt.  You came down here not even knowing what was going on?”

“Engagement?”  He dropped the glass of wine he had just picked up as a waiter passed by.  “Shi---”  His mother glared, “---take mushrooms, look what I’ve done.  I’ll go and get Hana to help me change into something more appropriate.  And then I’ll return swiftly to revel in the announcement of my marriage to some woman I’ve never met, for sure, right?”

“Princess Oragatha or the Clan Frostvulf.”

Eugene felt his jaw drop.  He had not only been promised to marry someone, he was promised to what every other prince of the twelve kingdoms referred to as the ‘Orc Princess of the Mountains.’  His parents seriously must have thought him a no good son to do something like that to him.  Especially since he had dropped hints every day that he had found himself a lover.  One who accepted him beyond his royal status.  One that cared deeply for him and while his mother always ignored the tell tale signs ‘Mother, I’m going to marry someone soon... please accept her when you meet her.’ (Very subtle, yes?)  It had all been ignored.

“I certainly hope you at least got more than 3 cows for my virtue, Mother.” He hissed as he snapped his fingers and called his hand maiden towards him.  

“Four.” She quipped in return as she welcomed the young woman who had approached.  “Hana, be a dear and help this bumbling idiot into something clean.  He must return before the King joins us.  So if he needs a breather, it will be allowed.  But please, make sure Genie is back within the next three hours.”

“Of course, your majesty.” Came the soft reply and with that Eugene stormed off to his room, waiting for Hana to catch up.