The gala was finally over, and it was a relief to shut the door to her room behind her and just sag against it for a minute. She wanted nothing more than to peel off her dress and collapse into--
Bed. The sheets. The sheets she hadn't dealt with earlier, that smelled like fresh linens instead of dust and mothballs or people or grass or anything tolerable. Valentine bit back a sob. She did not have the energy to deal with them now. She should have known she wouldn't, but she'd just wanted to get the damn party over with. Three months of this! How the hell was she going to manage?
She grabbed her small bag with the essentials and left the room and its lurking horror behind. Anton was in the adjacent suite -- a shame they weren't adjoining, but what could you do? A soft tap on the door and Ianos opened it. The manservant took one look at her face and stepped aside to let her past, relieving her of her bag in an unintrusive motion and shutting the door behind her.
Anton had removed his jacket and shoes, and unbuttoned his shirt partway, but he'd not had time to actually change. Valentine didn't care. She darted in for the hug she desperately needed, knowing he'd catch her and pull her close and hold her while she broke down and cried.
It was some time before she could manage to say anything. By then she'd been coaxed into taking a seat on the sofa, still huddled against Anton's side, her own shoes discarded on the floor and her feet tucked under her. In bits and fragments, Valentine tried to explain why she was so upset. She didn't want Anton angry with Prince Akio, after the man had done nothing but try to be kind. But in its way, that was even worse than if he'd been absolutely loathsome. She felt guilty for her inability to reciprocate, to talk about...anything. And while he tried to understand he didn't really, and she could see that she was upsetting him. She didn't know what to do about it. She didn't know how to avoid that. And she didn't want to hurt him -- and she was going to eventually, if only by backing out of the engagement.
She didn't manage a great deal of coherence, but Anton pieced together most of it, listening and soothing her as best he could. Poor Blue was emotionally exhausted, crying as much from the release of stress as anything else. She'd stayed for the length of the party; even if she had retreated to somewhere quiet for most of it she hadn't actually left. He felt a twinge of guilt over that. He'd pushed her to go in the first place. Had she stayed because of that, or for some other reason of her own? It could be hard to tell with her.
He said little of importance, mostly the sort of inane things that worked to calm skittish horses and skittish children. And when Val was done talking and the pattern of her sobbing breath had evened out, Anton gave her a hug and pulled away a little. "It's late, 'Tina. I should be getting ready for bed. And so should you."
She froze, and immediately the prince knew his mistake. She'd brought a blanket and her "travel pillow", the ones that never saw the inside of a dryer in an age when hardly anyone hung things out to dry. Usually that was enough to keep her nightmares at bay.
Usually they had adjoining rooms, and nobody expected Valentine to play the dutiful fiancee. Usually she hadn't already pushed herself to her limit and past it. Usually she'd put them out right away, to help get rid of the inevitable clean-linen scent. Had she found the time for that earlier, between the shock of the news and her tardy preparations for the evening? Judging by her reaction, he doubted it. She'd make do if he asked. He didn't even need to lie and tell her she'd be fine -- and if she wasn't, she was old enough that she no longer sought him out every time she had bad dreams.
But the memory of little Blue at half her current age came to mind, the brittle and haunted expression she'd had so often then and the pain in her eyes when she'd woken from nighttime terrors. Anton couldn't inflict that on her, and tonight that was what it amounted to. He knew that.
They all knew that, if Ianos' raised eyebrow as he quietly held up Val's bag was any indication. "Tell you what," Anton said, cutting right through her soft plea as if he hadn't heard it. She was ashamed to be asking, so he'd spare her that as well, though he couldn't help with her self-criticism over needing it. "Why don't you go get changed and ready. By the time you get back I'll be done too, and then we can sit a little longer. ...Bring your blanket." He didn't extend the invitation in as many words, but it was there, and the flash of relief in Val's eyes told him she heard it and accepted.
It was harder than she expected to get up and go back to her suite to take care of evening toiletries. Even so, they were things she ought to be doing, so Valentine wiped off her eyeliner and brushed her teeth and took care of the rest of it. Then in slippers and pajamas with her pillow in her arms and her blanket draped over her shoulders, she made her way back to Anton's room. He let her in himself this time, and together they plopped down on the couch.
"I meant it, Niko," she said a bit later, after they'd arranged themselves comfortably and few minutes had passed. She'd ended up lying with her feet propped up on the couch arm and her head leaned against Anton's leg. "I don't want to hurt him, if it can be helped." She'd said it already, sort of, but it bore reiterating. "He seems kind. He was trying so hard." She paused, lifting her eyes from her examination of the upholstery to meet Anton's gaze. "He doesn't want me. No one with any sense would. But he tried, and he was kind." Val blinked sleepily, slipping from Greek to Luxèmi. "If...if I absolutely must be married to someone...I would rather they be kind...."
"Do you want to marry him?" Anton asked, now in Luxèmi as well. He'd have to make sure Prince Akio was better than just kind, but letting the marriage go through would be considerably easier than trying to call off the engagement.
"No...I want...."
"What do you want, Tina?"
Valentine didn't answer, and after a couple more minutes Anton dared to lift her head enough to replace himself with a pillow, and carefully teased enough slack out of her balled-up blanket to achieve some semblance of tucking-in. He brushed her hair out of her face with a small smile. Sleep was the only time she ever let it stay that way. "Sweet dreams, Tina," he whispered, before taking himself off to bed as well.
~~~~~~
The morning after the party, Akio had woken up to his brother knocking on his door. He quickly got up and went to the door and opened it for him. He smiled small at him as he walked in and went over to his bed, he flopped down on the cushy sheets and smiled at Akio. “So how was your betrothed last night?” He asked him. Akio walked back over and flopped down next to Aito. “I don’t know how to say this nicely so I’m just going to say it, it was a disaster.” He closed his eyes and covered his face with his hand. Aito sat up and looked at him with a frown. “What was wrong with her?” he asked him.
“She didn’t talk. She said a total of two words the entire night. And then at some point she got so freaked out that she broke a champagne glass and cut her fingers on the glass. I tried to help her and I ended up getting it disinfected and wrapped up but it took a lot of work. I came back to this room right after. It was enough excitement for me.” He said and then let out a groan of frustration.
Aito looked at his brother and sighed. “Well you have to marry her in a few years Akio. You should try to get along with her. I don’t know, try buying her a gift or something? Maybe flowers? Girls love flowers. Oh and you could get white lilies since it's one of the flowers on our flag and its prized by Luxieme!” He said with a smile.
Akio nodded and looked at him. “Ok I will do that. Now get out so I can change and go buy some flowers.” Aito nodded and quickly walked out of the room and back into his own.
Akio got dressed into a blue and white sweater and some white jeans. He threw on a pair of his black shoes and made sure his hair was nice and tidy before he went out to find the palace florist. When he found the man taking care of some bouquets of flowers, he walked up and quickly found a nice arrangement of white lilies and pink carnations. He paid the florist and took the bouquet and set it in a vase which he also bought. He then made his way back up to his room and found a small card in his room. He then grabbed a pen and wrote down "I hope your hand is feeling better. I’m sorry for anything I did to upset you."
He then signed his name on the bottom in both English and Talulian. He set the card inside the petals of a carnation, so it stuck up and was noticeable. He then went to the room that he knew that Valentine was in and he knocked on the door. The door swung ajar at his knock. There was no sign she'd ever returned to the room the night before; a navy suitcase stood unopened near the entryway, and there was not so much as a paper out of place in what could be seen of the room beyond. He could tell that the bed was unslept in and he was a bit worried. He turned and saw a butler at the end of the hall and he called for them. “Do you know where Princess Edelessa is?” He asked them. As they shook their head no Akio let out a sigh and thought to himself for a moment. He then thought about the prince who had been seen with Valentine again and again. He knew that they must be friends. He also knew that the prince had a nickname like Valentine but he couldn’t remember it. He searched his mind for that name. “Do you know where Prince Ant- Andro- Adrien- Androniko’s room is?” He asked not only questioning the room but the name as well. He then saw as he pointed to the next room over and he nodded. He smiled and thanked him and then went to the door and knocked on it and stood there waiting for someone to answer.
A manservant opened the door promptly after Akio's knock, just enough to see who it was. When Akio asked for Valentine, the man bowed politely. "I will ask his highness if he knows where she is. Please excuse me." With that the door shut again.
Ianos knew full well where Valentine was, of course. The young lady was up and dressed after her night on the couch, but showed no sign of wanting to seek out breakfast. Instead she'd taken a seat by the window and was very determinedly focusing on her phone. But even as he turned to address Prince Anton, Ianos knew better than to think she wasn't aware of the knock, or to believe she wasn't listening to every word. He was speaking as much to her as he was to the Athenian prince, who started at once to tell him to send their visitor away.
Valentine closed her eyes at the mention of her fiance's name, gathering her nerve. As much as she hated the mess she didn't hate him. "No," she interjected in soft Greek. "I will see him." She took a deep breath as she turned off her phone and slid it in her everyday purse, trying to stand straight though her shoulders inevitably drew inwards. "Ianos...thank you." It was a quiet dismissal, and he bowed and stepped out of the way.
---
When the door opened again it was not the servant but rather Valentine herself there, making an effort to look Akio in the eye even though that also let him see her own face. She was still scared but she was trying, at least. She had on a pair of loose, comfortable black slacks and a simple shirt in pastel rose, the impression one of someone just sitting around the house than planning on entertaining ranking visitors.
As a manservant came to the door, Akio asked for Valentine, hoping that Anton knew where she was, if she wasn’t in there with him. As the door shut, he looked down at the flowers in his hands and sighed. He was hoping that this would go well and that Valentine and him could get a fresh start or have a better relationship. When the door opened again he smiled at Valentine, seeing how much more comfortable she looked in her own clothes. “Good morning Princess. I got you these flowers, hoping that I could make up last night to you” He told her moving the flowers in the vase a bit closer to her.
She'd been in the middle of pulling the door open and letting Prince Akio in when she spotted the flowers. No, not just any flowers. Valentine froze, the knob slipping from her loose fingers under the door's momentum as it swung wide, and a thin, whimpering noise escaping her. The color had drained from her face, and her blue eyes were wide and glassy.
White lilies.
Anton wasn't exactly eavesdropping, but he noticed Val freeze and was already making his way over when he saw disaster. With a curse he knocked the offending vase from Akio's hands and shoved the man back, putting himself between Valentine and any glimpse of the flowers. She didn't move, staring through him at a scene only she was privy to.
White lilies, covered in blood.
It was one of the things she remembered in painful clarity. The palace always had flowers in vases all over, particularly lilies of pure white -- some silk, but many of them real. Most of the vases were knocked over, the flowers trampled beyond recognition. But she'd found one, large and ceramic, tipped against the wall from where it stood on the floor. A crimson stain edged in a browning crust cut across the white of the petals.
Just beyond she'd found the first of the bodies.
"Blue? Blue, focus." Carefully Anton put a hand on her shoulder, prepared for the gasp, the flinch, the look of heart-wrenching terror as she tried to move between memory and reality and didn't quite make it all the way in the first go. "Listen to me, Blue, you're not there. You're somewhere safe" -- if "safe" included "where idiot princes will shove flowers in your face"; it was debatable -- "and no one is going to hurt you." He kept talking in the same level voice, watching her face until she focused properly on him and her expression started to scrunch into misery before he drew her into a tight hug, letting her hide her face against his chest. She was shaking, unsteady enough on her feet that he took a moment to make sure he wasn't going to have to catch her before turning a searing glare on Akio.
It was a few minutes longer before anyone was comfortable handing Valentine off to Ianos, who escorted the still-trembling girl back into the room to sit down. Anton waited for the door to swing to behind the pair before rounding fully on the other prince. "What the hell were you thinking?"
As Prince Anton knocked his flowers out of his hands and pushed him away, Akio fell onto the ground. He glared up at Anton before he crawled over to the now broken vase, he picked up some of the glass pieces and put them into a pile with the flowers. Every now and again he would look up and he could see how scared Valentine looked. What had he done now? How would him trying to be nice go wrong this time? Of course it had to go wrong, it always did with Valentine. In his mind Valentine was just seeming to be more and more like a brat. Would she not accept flowers if they weren’t her favorite? Would she whine about it to Anton later and then not tell him anything so he could learn? Probably. She was frustrating and stubborn and he was so tired of having to try and deal with her and her problems and it was only the second day. He cleaned the glass as much as he could, knowing that Valentine might be dumb enough to run out in bare feet and cut herself again and then when he would try to help he was sure that Anton would yell at him again. He sighed and let out a groan of anger and frustration as he piled all the flowers and glass on top of each other. He could probably save the flowers and give them to Aito or his mom or just leave them in his room. He then stood up as Anton closed the door and he looked at him. “What do you mean? All I was thinking was doing something nice.” He then gestured towards the vase on the floor with the flowers and shook his head. “I paid for those. I paid for those flowers and the vase and you just broke them. What the hell?” He was already a tall and large person especially compared to Anton but he tried to broaden his shoulders and seemingly look bigger just to appear threatening.
Righteous anger flooded Anton. Had the idiot prince seen nothing of Blue's reaction, that he was so upset over the loss of what had caused her panic?! He grabbed the taller man's shirt and pulled hard, bringing Akio's head down where he could get at it. And then he punched the other prince in the face. "Are you blind as well as stupid?" he demanded. "Or did you just have your head up your behind while making your assumptions?"
The moment was quick as Anton pulled him down to his face and punched him. His head snapped back and he felt his face for a second as he listened to Anton and shook his head. “I'd like to point out that I am very smart, it's kinda the whole point behind our kingdom.” He said and removed his hand from his eye. “Secondly have you ever considered that Valentine is a little spoiled brat who obviously has some pretty terrible mental problems?” He asked him, he was partly distracting the other man, trying not to be too physical yet. “I'm no doctor but my brother is. I can go get him now and we can diagnose Val with insanity right now.” He said to him.
Anton could not believe what he was hearing. "If you're so smart," he snapped, the words hissing between his teeth as he tried to keep from shouting, "then consider doing your research! And perhaps a little thinking! Or were you just going to step up to the throne in two years without knowing a lick of the nation's history? Edelessa D'Argent was present for the first of the Lumerie massacres. She was found weeks later in the palace wreckage, where they were still in the process of recovering the dead. It's on godsdamned Wikipedia! And if you think for one moment that every effort hasn't been made to help her, then perhaps your brother can educate you on how trauma works."
“Maybe I didn’t do that much research because I wanted to get to know this girl from her and not what the media says. We all know how terrible they are and how they twist words. Maybe I wanted to get to know her but I'm pretty sure that I could learn a lot more about her from the internet then I ever could from her. I've dealt with people with post-traumatic stress disorder and guess what, if she really has gotten treatment then she's not talking because she’s a little brat who would rather just be quiet than try to get to know people.” He said with anger in his words, pointing at the door as he called Val a brat. “I spend my free time preparing to rule my country, not looking up information on a girl I'm going to meet in person anyways.” He then shook his head and looked at the flowers. “And I'm sorry that she saw a massacre and dead bodies but I in no way see how that relates to flowers. And even if it did, you didn’t have to be a dick and knock them on the ground and break a vase. I guess both of you are just spoiled brats.”
Anton swore and swung for Akio again, but the taller prince dodged out of the way and tripped him so he went sprawling. He scrambled back to his feet, still furious enough that he wanted to strangle the buffoon before him but recognizing that he'd at least need to go about it a smarter way. And the gall of the man, to imply that he'd been preparing to rule when everyone knew his brother would inherit -- unless there was truth to the rumors of his abdication. That could be useful to know.
"You have a lot of nerve," Anton said, his eyes narrowed. "If she was a brat, she wouldn't have gone at all last night. She wouldn't have turned up at my door after the party, in tears because she'd pushed herself as hard as she could and still saw it as a failure. She wouldn't have made the effort to see you this morning. And she certainly wouldn't be so worried about hurting you." He glared at Akio. "Here's some advice, so you stop making her so miserable. No white flowers. No lilies. The more people there are, the harder it is for her. You're still a stranger, and all the smiles in the world won't change that overnight. Pay attention to when she's tense and back the hell off instead of badgering her." He paused, looking the Talulian prince up and down. Valentine didn't deserve having to deal with this lout. "You have no idea how hard she's worked to get to where she is now. And she might not want to upset you, but know this: if you keep upsetting her, I will find a way to make you regret it."
Akio shook his head with a smirk and looked at him. He then stepped closer to him and looked down at him, shadowing over him. “That girl doesn’t give a damn about me. She would happily watch me struggle to try and make any connection with her in the next few years and then call it all off at the last minute. I backed off last night when she seemed tense. I tiptoed around her and tried to make her feel comfortable. When she hurt her fingers I lead her out of the party and to a quiet place so don’t you dare suggest that im not trying.” He then pushed Anton and glared at him. “If you know her so well then why don’t you marry her? I think she would be much happier with you than she would ever be with me. If I married her she would freak out about every little god damned thing. I wouldn’t be able to get one bit of work done because every moment would be ‘Oh Valentine's freaking out about living in a cave’ and ‘oh Valentine is having a panic attack because she saw a flower’ and ‘Valentine doesn’t appreciate anything that anyone does’ because it always has to be about her and how she’s messed up. If you don’t fix yourself to work with Valentine than her best friend will beat you up until she is the center of the universe.” He then looked at him and bit his lip. “I don’t have time to cater to her every want and need. I’m not her servant. I think everyone would have been happier if she would just let her broken kingdom collapse into oblivion.” He then backed away and shook his head. “It doesn’t matter if we get married or not. I can’t help her or her kingdom when she doesn’t want help. If she keeps going on this path then Luxieme will fall and she will be out of a job.”
"She is sixteen, you entitled bastard. She found out yesterday that a marriage had been arranged for her. So you're right. She doesn't want to rule and she doesn't want to be forced into a marriage, and if you and your harmful kindness don't want to deal with the issues she has to fight through every day then perhaps you should just break things off now and go crawling back to your hole in the ground.”
“Exactly! She is sixteen. I am twenty-one. She knows nothing about what is actually going to happen in this world and to her and her country if she doesn’t get her shit together. She was allowed to act like the victim for a few years but she has to stop pulling that card eventually.” He then grabbed Anton and pulled his fist back like he would hit him but he didn’t. “You can talk bad about me but if I hear you call Talulia a hole in the ground or something worse I will not be so kind. Remember that my country can buy out your entire country in a minute if we wanted to and we also haven’t lost lives to wars since the 1500s. You can have your problems with me but you can’t say that Talulia doesn't have some of the best politics in the world based off of how we are running. I can’t say the same about your country or hers."
Anton snarled as the other prince grabbed him, bracing for a blow that didn't come. "If you can't handle one frightened girl then I shudder to think how you'd manage in Luxemi politics, because they are--"
Anton cut off suddenly, for Valentine had slipped out of the room and grabbed his hand. "Stop." Her voice carried in the sudden quiet of the hallway. "Please. ...Both of you." She looked over at Prince Akio as the two men separated, and guilt chased misery across her face with a flinch when she saw the damage Anton had inflicted. She took a deep breath and held out a folded slip of paper. "I'm sorry. Y-you should go. ...Later?" That was all she could manage to say, and she didn't quite look at Prince Akio as he took the paper from her quivering fingers. Even if she was able to say more, what else could she say?
He stared at her in shock as she began to talk almost normally. As she looked at him, he quickly covered his eye with his hand knowing that it must be bruising and red. He then looked at the piece of paper that she held out and he gently took it from her hand. He kept it folded in his as he looked at her and nodded. “I'm sorry to upset you Princess. Yes we can talk later.” He said softly before he bowed. He walked over to the pile of glass and flowers on the floor and picked it up before walking back to his room. He then set everything but the paper down onto a table. He then sat in a big cushy chair that was next to a window and he opened the note reading the words from Valentine.
I am sorry. I appreciate your gesture, even if I reacted poorly.
~Valentine
PS please forgive Anton. He--
The note ended with a crossed out portion, and the sentence was never finished.
((first part is written by me; second part, me and BurningWaterfa(ll). Amethyst consulted for both parts))
Member
Tim the Yeti
X Fiendfyre X
Bugman
ThatLostDude
Nev
Shadow Dragon
Lucid Dreaming
Nallore
threetoads
CyclingTortoise
