#switch!kyle

While Kyle struggled and fought back as much as he could, Joe seemed amused by the whole scene. The prince could feel a drop of sweat trickling down his temper, the heat gathering around his collar and the blush rushing across his face. The air itself felt warm, almost hot enough to suffocate, but also comforting enough to make him consider–

No! This wasn’t it!

“You’ve never come inside my hut before… Am I dreaming?” Joe mumbled softly, her voice gentle and peaceful, calm. A faint blush spreaded over her cheeks as well, and even if they were lost, her eyes seemed to glisten in the dimly lit bedroom.

Kyle opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. Joe smiled at his reaction, giggling quietly.

“Joe,” he sighed, “I know you don’t remember, but last time- mmph!”

And just when he lowered his guard, thinking her clinginess was coming to a halt, Joe moved her hands. She held him by his face, gently but firmly, and pulled Kyle towards herself.

Before the prince could say anything, their lips met, stopping his words and thoughts in their tracks. He could still taste the alcohol lingering in her mouth and, hadn’t he been so shocked, Kyle felt like that kiss would have made him crumble right there and then.

After a couple seconds, they lips parted. Kyle’s face, still held between Joe’s hands, was even redder than before. She squeezed his cheeks slightly, smiling at his flustered expression.

“It’s okay because this is a dream, right?” She giggled, smiling fondly while her thumbs caressed his face. 

‘What was she thinking?’, Kyle yelled inside his head, trying to stick to his better judgement and keep in mind that she was drunk, not thinking straight. This had to come to an end, Kyle told himself. 

The prince slowly reached for Joe’s hand at his face, closing his fingers around her palm to dislodge it from his face. Or so he wanted to, but found himself hesitating to break the touch between them.

Even if she was drunk, her smile made his chest ache, as if the space around his heart suddenly became tighter than ever.

“Kyle..~” Joe called, tilting her head in her pillow while moving her free hand down to his shoulder and then to his chest, “hehe, are you nervous? Your face is so red right now ~”

He pressed his eyes shut, refusing to take another look into that sweet expression, even if it was just for a single more second. “Kyle always looks so cute, but in my dreams you’re extra handsome right now…”

“You’re not- h-hey, get yourself together, now,” he groaned, feeling a shiver creeping up his spine when her fingers roamed next to his ribs, pressing into the soft spots between each bone. “I s-shouldn’t be here in fihi- h-hey!”

[“He looks so serious, I want him to smile more…”]

Kyle widened his eyes as those words made it from Joe’s head to inside his own. She wasn’t just getting handsy, it was something worse, way worse!

“J-Joe, nohow it’s not- agh, gehehet off! Thihis isn’t t-the time for fooling aharound!”

No matter how much he tried to scold her, the only answer he would get from her was a lazy chuckle, poised with the alcohol from earlier. Kyle would push one hand away from the side of his chest, just to have the other one poking at his side. 

Besides that, keeping his balance with just one arm while being tickled was proving to be a more difficult task than he first expected. Kyle felt his muscles tremble, threatening to falter and fail their owner - and he couldn’t have that, not while Joe was right beneath him!

“Heh, aren’t you just so cute? Kyle is so ticklish… ~” Joe giggled, amused by their play-fight. “Kyle’s flustered smile is much better than a flustered frown… he should always be like this when he visits me in my dreams, heheh…”

“S-stohop the nohohonsense!” Kyle groaned, arching his back in a vain attempt of moving his stomach away from Joe’s hands. He tried to move and cover his ribs and sides, but her hands would always find their way back to his body, making those restrained, helpless giggles escape his lips.

“But it’s my dream! And I want to tickle Kyle in my dream…”

Such a nuisance!

He gritted his teeth, his eyes pressing shut and even his nose scrunching up a little as he tried to resist the urge to dissolve into a laughing mess on top of her. If that would make Joe behave, should he just let her have it? At least this would mean that there was no risk of her wandering around or running into some kind of problem, after all.

Against the better judgement, he lowered the hand that he was using to protect his body from the assault, placing it back by the side of Joe’s body. “D-dohohon’t be soho harsh, at leheheast!”

Joe gasped, happy and surprised. What an amazing dream, she thought (and made Kyle’s cringe with it). “Kyle will let me tickle him? This is the best- eheh, best dream ever!”

“I-I’m nehehever lehehetting you drihink again, you- ahAHAh, I- I tohohold you to behe gehentle!”

Those words, however, made it to one of her ears and then came out of the other, with not a single one of them sticking up to her intoxicated brain. Kyle scrunched up his shoulders and pressed his chin down towards his chest, hoping to build at least one effective barrier against Joe’s fingers.

She tickled his neck, managing to push up her fingers past the tight spaces and tease the sensitive skin. She tickled him at his armpits, prodding and vibrating right into that sensitive nerve in the middle of his underarms, hitting that soft spot over and over in a maddening way that made Kyle want to crumble.

Her hands continued to roam, and much to Kyle’s demise, to tickle the prince as much as they could. His ribs, sides, stomach, and even down to his waist. 

On the contrary of what Kyle hoped for, Joe didn’t seem to be getting tired or satisfied - at least, not at any time soon. The more she tickled, the more encouraged she seemed to get by his laughter and strangled pleas.

With a smile plastered on her face, Joe looked up to her fairytale prince. “You look so cute right now, heheh… chirping for me just like a little canary! ~”

Those words made Kyle feel like his stomach was turning upside down. If only he wasn’t so busy laughing, he would probably retort or snap back at that. Properly, at least. “S-shuhut it! AHAhaha, I-I’m nohot a bihihird!”

“Of course you’re not - birds are not this handsome or… heh, sexy…” Joe added, grinning as she cupped Kyle’s cheek with one hand while the tickled back at his armpit, making him twist in a funny way that made her chuckle along. “I also don’t have dreams about birds, just about you ~”

Kyle clenched his hands, clasping so tightly at the bedsheets that his knuckles were turning white while his palms trembled a little.

As if the tickling alone wasn’t enough to make him crave an exit from this awful situation, the teasing was making ten- no, a dozen times worse. He wasn’t sure if he was feeling shy or secondhand embarrassment, truth to be told.

That sweet talk was too sweet. Nauseating, even. He felt like he was being exposed to the depths of Joe’s feelings with no filter or social cues to hold her tongue - or fingers, for this matter - back.

And on top of that, the fact that Joe, of all people, was the one saying these obscene absurdities to him… Probably being thrown a tomato in public would feel less humiliating than this. He should stop her, Kyle knew it, but a part of him wanted to pry more into these feelings, to let it happen and see just how much Joe would be willing to share.

Still, there had to be some other way to do this than being tickled to his dismay. “J-Joe! Yohohou ahAHahre- ahAH, s-stohop sahahaying nohOHohonsense, you dah- AHaha, w-wahahait!”

“It’s not nonsense, your highness,” she cooed, cupping both sides of his ribcage and slowly wiggling her fingers up into the tight spaces under his arms, her thumb teasing his chest while she did so. “I wish I could stay in this dream forever, just to see you laughing like this, my dear Kyl- ah.”

Enough- that was enough of that humiliating talk. Kyle gasped, his hands that were on the mattress suddenly lifted from the bedsheets, his fingers closing around Joe’s wrists and pulling her hands away from his body once for all. In a blink of an eye, the control over the situation was stripped from her hands.

“I tohold you- hahh, to stop these absurdities, Gingja Ging!” Kyle scolded, his flushed face and disheveled hair contrasting his anger features. He still felt the heat around his collar, the burning in his lungs and the tingles on his skin, but above all that, Kyle still felt the embarrassment from the way Joe talked so casually about him. Yes, she was drunk, but there was only so much he could take. “You s-shouldn’t have pushed your luck.”

“Eh?” Joe giggled, clueless. In her intoxicated mind, this was all but reality, after all. Was the Kyle in her dream going to act scary now? This wasn’t really the Kyle she always thought about, but the idea of a ‘bad boy’ of sorts was… curious.

Still, these would’ve been better kept inside her mind only. “Stop having these foolish thoughts!” Kyle hissed, “you-”

“Kyle looks so handsome when he is angry, heh,” she smiled at his rage, tilting her head.

The prince opened his mouth to talk back, but no words came out. His lips, then, pressed back into a thin line, refraining from letting anything unneeded escape him at that moment. There was no reason, not at that moment at least. “Let me do it your way, then.”

With few things making sense inside her brain at that moment, Joe calmly watched as Kyle gathered her wrists under just one of his hands, pinning her arms right above her head. Her eyes shifted from where their hands were back to Kyle’s annoyed smile, trying to figure him out. Was he going to do something nast-

!!!

“W-whAHahat- ahahah, K-Kyle, thihihis tihihickles!” Joe laughed, her back arching off the mattress while the prince began to wiggle his fingers against her side and then at her ribs. His touch was rougher than usual, but as ticklish as ever.

In silence, Kyle shook his head, feigning disapproval as he continued to tickle. “Don’t start complaining now, you brought upon yourself,” he scolded, his eyes narrowing into a cold, sharp gaze as he clawed at her stomach, pinching and squeezing whatever soft spot he could get a hold onto.

Joe shook and pressed her head back into the pillow while free, careless laughter poured from her lips. “NohOHOH, ahhahah, t-thihihs is my dreheheam! I waHAhahanted to tihickle you moHOHore!”

“You- ugh, just stop talking at once!”

“K-Kyle, noHOHOH! AHAHA!! ~” She squealed, her feet kicking the sheets behind them as the tickling seemed to step up a notch all of the sudden. Why was the man of her dreams so angry at her? Wasn’t he just a cute, giggling canary in her hands moments ago?

She was as loud as she could possibly be, loud enough to make Kyle worry if there wasn’t going to be any inconvenient passerby to get the wrong idea about what was happening inside that bedroom, but, still, Joe deserved this punishment. “Spare your voice, I don’t want to hear whatever you may have to say!”

Despite the cold nature of his words, this was as far as he could possibly get while acting angry at her. The more Kyle looked at Joe now, the less sense this whole scene seemed to have. Maybe even under the effect of alcohol, Joe still had a better understanding of the situation than him.

“You should think about what you did,” he added later, his tone less fierce than before. He moved his fingers and focused his tickling under her arm, gently clawing at the middle of her armpit before moving further down to tickle her ribs.

Just like Kyle’s anger, Joe’s laughter was slowly dying down as well. Maybe because the tickling wasn’t as harsh as when it started or maybe because she was growing used to the feeling, but her laughter began to sound more lighthearted, tranquil even. 

She dragged her heels over the bed in a playful squirming and lightly arched her back, barely going anywhere as she was still trapped inside Kyle’s grip. Her cheeks were as red as they could be, but something about Joe’s smile made it look even more genuine than when she was teasing the prince.

And when Kyle realized these were none other than his own thoughts, his hands froze in their tracks, with his fingers pressed - but staying completely still - against her side. For some reason, despite Joe being the one that was tickled for the past minutes, Kyle found himself out of air at that moment.

His heart was beating fast and his chest felt like it was clenching around his heart when he looked down at her. Was this..?

The prince shook his head, trying to recover his better judgement of the situation. He sighed, getting off of Joe’s lap and running a hand through his hair, giving her a stern look with the corner of his eyes. “Looks like you had enough, after all.”

She didn’t answer, only giggling to herself while staring blankly at the ceiling of the room. Joe looked like she was in a daze, lost in thoughts kept to only to herself this time. Maybe it was better like this, Kyle thought, sliding to the edge of the bed.

“I’m going to get a physician, so… please, behave,” he muttered, hoping to not wake Joe from whatever dream she had going on inside her head.

However, just as he was about to stand back on his feet, her hand closed around the back of his clothes. With her tight grip closed shut, Joe pulled the prince back into the bed, quickly wrapping her arms around his body.

“Don’t go,” she hummed, quickly securing the upper hand and straddling his lap instead this time. Joe looked down at him, her smile just as wide as when she was getting tickled just now. Kyle felt his heart skip a beat, swallowing whatever words he had to say back to her when he looked at her face.

“This is my favorite dream ever,” Joe giggled, leaning forward to hug the prince and rest her head on top of his chest, “Kyle appeared in my dream… we kissed… I could tickle him… and he tickled me back, hehe…”

Kyle clenched his hand, feeling something funny stirring up inside his stomach. Her words reached him, one after the other. Part of him wondered what it would be like later on - was she going to remember this moment and cherish it like a precious memory? Or was it going to become a blurry memory, a feverish dream at best?

The other part of him, however, couldn’t focus on anything else but the present, but the woman he had just before his arms and the way she made his heart beat faster and faster, out of rhythm and control.

He sighed, his hand hesitating before wrapping itself around her body as well, turning that awkward position into a comforting hug. “So… am I always like this in your dreams?”

“Not always,” she hummed, nuzzling her cheek into his chest, filling her nostrils with his scent, “sometimes you act shy and then you get angry, but you always have that cute face and a handsome body… sometimes, heheh, I have really fun dreams…”

“F-fun?”

“Yeah… we are all by ourselves and… you and I… heheh…”

“‘You and I’..?” Kyle repeated, feeling his throat drying up at the sound of those words. Could she mean that they..?

…

“Ahm, Joe?” He called, waiting a couple seconds in the dead silence of the room before calling her out again. Still, no response. “Joe..? You, you didn’t fall asleep, right? Hey, Joe!” He called, louder this time, as he shook her body by her shoulder.

“You can’t be serious!! Gingja Ging! Wake up!! Don’t you dare fall asleep on me again,” Kyle shouted, now on his knees as he stood by her side, trying to get Joe out of her deep, deep slumber. 

Joe, on the other hand, already gave up on every lesson she was recently taught. She clung at her sword, her shoulders slouching forward while she faced the skies. Maybe if she didn’t move, the prince would think it was someone else? Maybe even leave her alone to finish her duel?

“I’d like you to explain what’s going on.”

Vegten looked up to Joe’s face, confused at what was going on. To his surprise, the fear he once hoped to strike on Joe during their duel was now showing on her face because of the prince’s request.

Her body trembled, her grip at the sword faltered. How was she even going to explain this? And, even worse, talk to Kyle about the reason behind this duel? Of course, not to mention the fact that she was ready to behead one of the marquis Collin’s knights.

Joe could feel the prince’s burning gaze on her back and she didn’t even need to turn around to know what kind of expression he was making. He was definitely angry. Angry enough to trigger her flight-or-fight instinct - and since the fight was over, this was the perfect time to flight.

A small, composed gasp left Kyle’s lips once he noticed the sword being tossed away. In the split of a second, before he could do any further confrontations, Joe was already dashing away from the scene. There wasn’t time for orders, it was clear she wouldn’t listen to him. So, with that in mind, Kyle knew there was only one thing he could do: chase her. 

“Why are you running away?! Come back here!”

“Agh! No!!”

While the prince chased away the knight, all the other people present in the makeshift arena inside the training camps dropped their jaws in what could only be described as a mixture of concern and awe. All, but one: sir Snow, who scoffed a soft, short chuckle at the scene. ‘How nice is it to be young’, he thought while making sure to ease the other knights’ worry. Snow knew they needed this time to settle and would, eventually, be back.

Back to the prince and the knight, Joe pressed her eyes shut, begging for each of her legs’ muscles to not give up on her now. She could hear Kyle’s steps getting louder as the prince quickly approached her and, if she didn’t want to get caught, she had to think of a way out and she had to do it fast!

“Stop running!” Kyle ordered, again, from behind, but the only answer he got from the other was an annoyed groan. 

Joe cursed the prince’s endurance inside her head, knowing she was probably just about to get caught. She shook her head, trying to get rid of those thoughts while deciding - in the blink of a second - to face the ‘problem’ head on. That was it, all or nothing. 

Digging her heel into the ground, Joe braked and interrupted her sprint. She quickly spun around, facing the prince like a beast tamer would face a fierce lion charging at them. She knew what she had to do, how to achieve her way out of the incoming scolding.

Kyle, surprised at her sudden stop, couldn’t help but to run into Joe’s arms, barely managing to slow down or avoid the crash. “W-what are you-”

“Heh,” she scoffed, looking up to him, “caught you.”

Just as he was about to question her words, Kyle felt a shiver running up his body. A foreign, unexpected feeling that made his brain short circuit and his nerves freeze, overwhelmed. The prince barely had time to look down to Joe’s hands before this same sensation washed over him again, forcing a loud squeal past his lips.

“H-HEHEY!” Kyle laughed, trying to step back and make his way out of Joe’s hug while she squeezed his hips again and again. “S-stoho- AH! J-Johohoe, whahat are- hngh! S-stahap!”

“Can’t fight it, hm?” She grinned, her hands evading his in their attempts of stopping her tickling. “What’s wrong? Didn’t you want me to stop running? Why are you running away now, your highness?”

“B-becahause- agh, n-noho!”

Kyle gritted his teeth, trying his best to keep his composure while looking for any openings in her “attack”. However, the only thing the prince managed to get from watching Joe more than watching his own steps was to lose his balance, his steps faltering as walked over the unfamiliar and uneven grounds of the training camp.

“Oops ~” Joe mused, seizing the opportunity - just like the old man Snow taught her - and moving her hands up to the prince’s shoulders. After giving him a gentle, but strong push, Joe watched Kyle fall down like a lumberjack would watch a falling tree, trying her best to not laugh too loud at the scene of the prince falling on his own butt.

“Y-you, what are you thin- w-woAHI”

Still, this wasn’t the time to call herself the victor of this little battle, Joe thought. She had already found an opening in his posture and, if he was out of breath, he wouldn’t possibly be able to keep chasing her, right?

“Your highness, my goodness, why are you in such a terrible mood?” Joe feigned worry, holding her cheek against her hand after making herself a seat at the top of his legs. “Let’s get rid of this frown first, then I’ll give you the explanation you wanted! ~”

Wasting not a single other second after that, Joe put her hands back into work, latching at Kyle’s sides and squeezing the spot through his clothes. Her fingers prodded at the spots below his lowest ribs and then moved to his waist, looking for any seemingly more ticklish spot. “Come on ~ where’s that beautiful smile of yours, your highness?”

“J-Johohoe, you- agh, stohohop this nohohonsense!” He grunted, tugging at her hands as if his life depended on it. He planted his heels onto the ground, kicking the grass behind her while laying his head back. 

Kyle gritted his teeth, trying to stop any more giggles from spilling past his lips. Still, with each prod, tickle or squeeze, the bubbling - or, better saying, burning - need to break apart in a puddle of laughter grew stronger and stronger. “T-thihis is not- ahah, nohot the time for jehehesting!”

The scene was way too good for Joe not to be smiling herself, meeting Kyle’s annoyed, crooked up smile with a fond, but sly smug. How could she ever forget how charming, how adorable he was?

Joe shook her head, snapping back from any fantasy her brain could form and focused back at what she had in her hands at that time. “Oh, if that was the case, you wouldn’t be laughing, would you?” Joe teased, poking at both his sides and earning a strangled squeal from the prince.

“I-I’m lahahauing because- agh, becahause you ahahare tihihickling me!!”

“Ah, is that it? But you’re still looking waaay too angry, your highness. Are my jests not enough for you?” She giggled, bringing both her hands down to his stomach and poking around where his navel would be.

Joe watched each reaction carefully, putting on her best efforts in, besides tickling the prince, avoiding his pesky hands that continued oh-so-determined to stop hers in their tracks. This wasn’t so different from sword fighting, she thought, an amused smirk pulling at her lips.

Just like when wielding a weapon, if Kyle’s hand covered his stomach, Joe needed to avoid clashing his ‘defenses’ head on and look for an opening somewhere else - at his sides, for example. Now, if Kyle tried to grab her hands, Joe needed to pull her hand away and then “charge” forward again, latching her fingers somewhere else and surprising him with a renewed ticklish assault.

Still, even more annoying than Kyle’s hands trying to stop her was his endurance. Tickling his sides, poking his stomach and even clawing at his ribcage, all seemed to earn her a good reaction, to actually tickle him, but none were enough to break past the hardened shell he built around him, successfully restraining most of his sweet laughter.

“You know,” Joe hummed, pinning one of Kyle’s hands against the grassy ground while her other hand tickled his exposed side, “this would be a lot better if you just laugh, your highness ~”

“Sh-shuhut it, Johohoe!” Kyle grunted, twisting and turning his torso around, flailing like a fish out of water. He tried to reach for Joe’s hand, either to free his restrained arm or to stop the ticklish assault against his body, but all of his attempts were fruitless. “Juhust stohop, it’s an ohohorder!”

She snickered, barely containing a giggle from escaping her own lips as those words reached her. “Pfft, a ‘what’, your highness? I couldn’t understand it. Could you repeat yourself for me? ~” Joe added with both mirth and mockery poisoning her voice, how could she resist taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime situation?

Still, his reactions were far from what she expected, from what she wanted. Kyle was laughing, yes, but these quiet, composed giggles weren’t enough for her. This was probably the reaction that fitted him the best, if she really thought about him, but he could get more, right?

While these thoughts came up inside her head, one idea popping up after the other, a (loud) detail caught her attention when her fingers tickled a little closer to Kyle’s waist. Did he just-

“J-Joe!” Kyle whined, gritting his teeth while a faint shade of red began to take over his cheeks, spreading over his face to the tip of his ears and down to his neck. “Don’t y-you dahare!!”

“Oh?” She widened her eyes, shaking her head to free it from any nasty, improper thoughts. “But I didn’t even say anything,” she grinned, her hand already resting over Kyle’s hips, making the prince shiver in anticipation.

Kyle scrunched up his shoulders slightly as those predator-like eyes landed on him. He tugged at his restrained arm, trying to free his hand while shifting his gaze between Joe’s face and her hand at his hip. l“I-I’m telling you! D-do not!”

“‘Do not’ what, your highness?”

“T-tickle me, of course, your mor- no, wahait!” Kyle widened his eyes in panic as realization settled in. “J-Joe, wahait, I didn’t meahAHAHA- NOHOHOT THEHEHERE!!”

“There it is,” she mused proudly, her thumb digging into his hips while her other fingers tickled the back of his side, earning the reaction she was craving for this whole time. “Now I’m seeing some progress! Isn’t this much better than frowning like you were doing, your highness?”

“I-IT’S NOHOHOT!!” Kyle laughed, his eyes pressing shut while small tears of mirth clung to his lashes. The air could barely make it to his lungs before it was forced out by his bright, contagious laughter. “YOU AHAHARE KILLING MEHEHE!!”

“Oh, don’t be such a cry baby. How can this be killing you?” Joe mocked, letting go of his hand to tickle both his hips. 

The reaction that followed surprised both of them as Kyle buckled his hips like a wild horse, kicking his feet high up in the air before laying on the ground, helplessly pawing at her hands while what seemed like an endless stream of giggles poured from his lips. “J-JOHOHOE!! PLEHEHEASE!! AHAhahah, I cahaHAHAnt tahahake it!”

Joe let out a small, breathless sigh, losing track of the seconds that passed her by while admiring the prince’s smile. It was all worth it: the incoming scolding, the chasing and even the fight against Vegten. For him, it was all worth it.

“J-JOHOHOE! I caHAHAhan’t breheheath!! PlehEHEHehease!!”

“O-oh,” she muttered, feeling the heat taking over her own cheeks while coming back to her senses. Right, breathing, he still needed to do that, yes. “I’m s-sorry, your highness, was it too much?”

“Y-yohou- hahh… b-bastard,” he groaned, his body going limp, barely having energy to look at her.

Joe chuckled, getting on her knees and then back up on her feet. “Well,” she hummed, patting her legs to dust off her clothes, “guess that leaves my explanation for another day.”

“H-huh?” Kyle perked his head up, seeing Joe turning around, “w-wait, I’m not d-done with you!”

“Haha, sorry, your highness, that will have to wait. Now, if you excus- h-hey!” Joe widened her eyes, looking back down to her legs to see Kyle’s fingers tightly wrapped around her ankle. “Y-your highness! Let g-”

“I said,” Kyle inhaled, narrowing his eyes before pulling Joe’s ankle and, consequently, taking her down to the ground with him, “that I’m not done with you, Joe!”

A strong, and dreadful, sense of deja vu passed through Joe’s mind as he fell face first to the ground. Yes, this happened before - no, better saying, it just happened. So, did that mean Kyle planned to-

“AHAHaha, y-yohohour highness!! W-wahahait!”

Yes, he did.

“Not until you explain yourself,” Kyle groaned playfully, sitting on the back of Joe’s legs while his fingers crept up her sides. Sparked by revenge, his digits dug into the knight’s body, climbing up her torso like spiders up a wall.

To make things worse, Joe couldn’t see Kyle or his hands. Even if she tried to look over her shoulder, she could barely keep her eyes open as giggle after giggle came out of her mouth.

Joe aimlessly flailed her hands, getting only faint hopes of protecting herself from the ticklish onslaught that followed whenever she touched Kyle’s hands, even if it was just for a brief moment before he evaded her and resumed the tickling.

“S-Slohohow doHOHOhow, you h-hihighness! It tihihickles!”

“That’s not what I asked you, Joe,” Kyle grinned, his fingers drumming at her ribs in a way that provoked embarrassingly loud squeals out of her. “But I can definitely tell you can’t stand what you dish out, hm?”

“Y-YehEHEHes!!” She pressed her head against the ground, the blades of grass also brushing against her cheeks and ears, making the whole thing even worse: it itched, but in a way that also tickled and made her skin prickle with goosebumps. So unfair! “ThehEHEn plehehease, s-show some mehehercy, yohohour h-highness!”

Kyle chuckled quietly to himself, still prodding and poking at Joe’s ribcage and the space between each bone. She probably didn’t have such an easy time pinning him down, he thought, taking full advantage of his raw strength and weight to make sure she wasn’t going anywhere before ‘paying for her crime’.

“‘Mercy’, you say? Did you even consider that a couple minutes ago?” Kyle sighed, shaking his head while clawing at Joe’s ribs, making her back arch while her laughter rose another pitch. “Or, even better, while you were swaying your sword at that man?”

“I- AHAhahah, I cahAHAn explahahain!! I swehehear!” She groaned through her fit of giggles, clenching her hands into fists and ripping the poor, innocent blades of grass that surrounded them off the ground.

It took her so much effort, so many different attempts, so much time searching for the right spot to get the prince to laugh, but here she was, losing her head after he barely started tickling her. Was his endurance that much better than hers or… was he simply not as ticklish?

These thoughts barely had time to sit on her head and be processed. Soon, the only thing Joe could think of how dangerous it would be if Kyle’s hands climbed any further up! “P-PLEHEhehease, yohohour highness! Nohohot thehehere!”

“You said you could explain,” Kyle muttered, looking down at her now that he was the one dealing the cards - or, better saying, doing the tickling, “then do explain yourself, Joe. I’ve been dying to hear what could possibly justify that behavior.”

She gritted her teeth, the original color of her cheeks replaced by that hot shade of pink a long time ago. If she explained, he would surely get angry, but if she didn’t, then she would surely lose her mind!

Joe pressed her elbows down against her sides, trying to curl her body up into a ball and free her legs from under the prince’s. “I c-cahahan!! I-if you stohohop!”

Kyle grinned down at her, meeting her eyes when she finally found a way to look back at him. Well, let’s hear what she had to say.

…

“You’ve seen me get into fights before. I had some minor scuffles in the cafeteria. I even had a fight with his highness Isak,” Joe mumbled, her voice tainted with defeat while the only sound that followed them besides her voice was from her heels being dragged over the ground. “I fight people all the time. It’s not a big deal, your highness.”

 “Do you even want to go back to being a woman?” Kyle groaned, annoyed after finally - after some thorough interrogation - becoming aware of the context of that duel.

Joe sighed, feeling the warmth of the sunset on her back as Kyle continued to drag her over the training camp, probably back to where the old man Snow and the others were. ‘He caught me’, she thought, still not believing the sequence of events that filled that afternoon.

Despite the incoming scolding, Joe sighed, pleased. In the end, she could still stand her ground and protect Kyle’s honor - and, even better than that, she got to see him smile and laugh all by herself. It was worth it, she thought while nodding.