It wasn’t that Thomas had been avoiding Mia. That would’ve been more-or-less entirely impossible when they were stuck in one building together, anyway. But he hadn’t been seeking out her company lately, either. He’d been busy. He had... other priorities. Ones that he didn’t exactly want to talk about with his big sister, so when he’d entered the kitchen that morning and saw Mia standing at one of the fridges, he nearly (completely irrationally) ducked back out before she noticed him. 

But he was already here, and the kitchen staff, eyeing him warily, had already seen him break the rules. The (rightfully) cranky chef who’d already chased the English prince out of the kitchen more than once would hear about it either way, so Thomas figured he may as well steal some food while he was here. 

“Anything good in there?” he asked, standing on tiptoe to see over his sister- he was taller than her, something he’d reminded her of every single day since his growth spurt at the age of 12, but not by much.