"Probably," he agrees. "I got used to the idea of being king already."

"King Hector the Second. Do you suppose you have to bother adding the 'the Second' all the time outside formal situations?"

He makes a face. "Ugh. I dunno."

"It'd be pretty cumbersome."

"And I don't like my name anyway," he admits. "Being a 'the Second' of it wouldn't be any better."

"How come you don't like it?"

He shrugs. "I just don't."

"Do you have a nickname or something or do you just sort of - go around not liking your name that everybody calls you?"

"The second one," he says, smiling wryly.

"That sounds super annoying!"

"It kinda is!" he says. "Kiri knows, and she just calls me 'your highness' or doesn't call me anything, but I don't tell most people because I bet my father wouldn't like it if I went around telling the whole kingdom I hate his name."

"Yeah, I bet that wouldn't go over so well. Well, I can call you 'your highness' too if you want if there isn't anything you like more."

"There isn't really," he says, shrugging. "I don't care about names much except for not liking the one. That'd be nice of you."

"Okay, then I will."

Spontaneously, he hugs her again.

Hugs!

Hug hug hugs. The prince likes hugs. He likes them soooo much.

It seems like Patience also likes hugs!

That is excellent. They shall have many hugs.

So they shall!

When the Frothens have settled in and Kiri is no longer socially obliged to be constantly available to and solicitous of them, she goes a-wandering down a hall on the second floor that leads to the pantry. (There is a dumbwaiter allowing coordination of the pantry with the kitchen.) She wants to see if they still have that apple jam so as to inform her meal requests when next she issues them.

There is a small blue corner of a small blue sleeve just barely poking out from behind the urn on one side. Whoever is back there must also be quite small, to fit into that amount of space.