Title: When We're in the Dark

Chapter: Lockdown

Disclaimer: I don't own The Royals, I'm only borrowing!

Rating: M. The rating on the site is T only to make it show up in the bloody search!

Author's Note: So I wrote what I thought was a one-shot (The Effing Fours) which is set in a future AU. However, I'm the kind of writer (and reader) that likes to know what happened in the intervening years and how the characters came to be who they are. So this, my lovely readers, is what I like to call context.

Now, it could be entirely shit. I have a habit of treating these types of works with less enthusiasm so if anything seems a bit off, or doesn't make sense please ask. I might not always write everything that is in my head the way it should be!

I reckon this one will be somewhere between 6 - 8 chapters long. I have the first 5 written already. Regular updates I think, should be more than once a week at least.

Oh, and I might have written Liam into later chapters in a bit of a weird way. I don't know why, it probably comes across as I don't like him very much but that's not true, I promise.

Ave x


The last time Eleanor was in the underground bunker had been when Hagrid had huckled her inside after her father had been attacked. This time it was just Eleanor, Liam, Jasper and James Hill. Her mother had been secured elsewhere and fuck knows where exactly the King is at this point. That particular problem would have to wait until tomorrow.

She feels James flit his attention between the other three inhabitants of the room whilst steadfastly guarding the door. They have been in there for over 20 minutes, but nobody has uttered a word.

Her brother is lightly pacing in the back of the room. Eleanor understands his restlessness - from what she had seen, at great height and distance from the affray, it had looked like a particularly nasty riot in the stadium, with Ted slap bang in the middle of it. Liam had been front row and centre to the whole shebang. He'll talk when he was ready so she isn't about to push him.

Her current problem however, is sat as far away from her as he can manage, across the room, head bowed, steadfastly refusing to look at her. She is entirely unclear as to whether or not he is actually pissed with her, and if he is, what in the bloody hell gives him that right?!

She's been consistently losing patience with him since he bundled her into the limo and refused to utter a single word. He did his job perfectly, but as soon as she was mostly secure from the baying crowd he'd almost turned to stone. So, having progressed from silence to being completely unable to even look at her, Jasper Frost has her down to her last nerve and he is perilously close to making her lose it altogether.

"Jasper, the least you could do…" she begins to address him but is stopped in her tracks when she sees his blue eyes staring back at her, face impassive as ever, but those eyes...they sent a chill down her spine.

"Hill…" he addressed the older man as he pulls himself up off the chair he was sat in, and stalks towards the door "...can you handle things from here? I really need to get out of here."

To his credit, James Hill at least looks like he is considering the request, but her security detail knows that his young charge has spent the last few hours ruminating on how to deal with the never ending problem that is Jasper Frost, and whilst Hill might extend some sympathy towards his younger colleague, his loyalties will almost always lie with the Princess.

"Sorry Frost, you know the protocol. The bunker is just an extra measure, but both the Prince and Princess must have a member of palace security each, within sight, at all times during lockdown," Hill manages a glance towards her and she can see there is the vague beginnings of a plot behind his eyes, "I'm afraid that is the only way you can leave this room, with a member of the Royal family."

"Well that resolves it then, James. If Mr Frost cannot bear sitting in a room with me then I'll be the one to leave," she pushes past Jasper and stands in front of James, "open the door please, Mr Hill."

He nods in consent and punches in the appropriate code, "as you wish your Highness."

He swings the door open and allows her to leave the stuffy room. She waits outside in the tunnel for Hill to join her but he gestures to her former bodyguard to follow instead. Eleanor can't help but note the sour look on Jasper's face.

"I'm the Prince's security detail Hill, I stay with him."

"Indeed Mr Frost, however yesterday evening whilst briefing the Queen in relation to the arrangements for the Cup game, she gave me very specific instructions that should your plan succeed, I was to be temporarily assigned to Prince Liam. Something about the future King requiring protection from the Acting Head of Security, which I should probably also let you know is now my new position within the Household. You can congratulate me later, but the immediate consequence is that I go where the Prince goes and as he isn't leaving this room, Mr Frost, that means you require to accompany the Princess. As you well know Mr Frost, it does not serve you well to disagree or refuse a direct order from the Queen."

Liam watches on and simply shrugs his acquiescence. Had Eleanor given two shits about the Monarchy she probably would have stopped to ask James what in the hell he was talking about, what this 'future King' nonsense meant, but at this point her Bodyguard storms past her in a particularly shitty attempt at disguising his displeasure with the newly implemented security protocols.

Hill smirks at her and shuts the door to the panic room behind them, but not before whispering a short, "Good luck, Princess."

She rolls her eyes and follows quickly after Jasper, noting that he has actually chosen to wait for her at the entrance to the tunnel holding the fake wall open for her to pass through. At least his manners remain intact, if not his ability to actually speak to her.

He walks beside Eleanor towards her bedroom and opens the door, muttering something about standing guard outside.

"Honestly Jasper, you wouldn't normally wait for an invitation into my room, I'm not sure why you decide to stand on ceremony now."

She is sure that she hears him growl.

"Elea...Your Highness..." he corrects himself, finally turning around to face her in the doorway, "...last night you asked me to leave. I already said that I'd do as you asked when all of this is over, but until this lock-down is lifted I have to continue to do my job, so let's not make this any more difficult than it needs to be."

Sometimes she just can't help herself.

"Difficult? Oh I'm sorry! I really must remember to mind my manners, for a moment there I thought you had in fact obtained that job in an effort to rob me. If anyone has made this difficult, Jasper, it's you."

He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. She feels mildly contrite about losing control of her sharp tongue.

"Eleanor, please, this is…"

"This is what, Jasper? What could this possibly be other than fifty shades of fucked up?"

Gone is the calm, impassive face, his eyes sparking into life.

"Fine, you want me to talk, I'll talk. Last night you told me to leave and not come back, but today, when I almost lost you in that complete and utter shit show, you were the one who took my hand, you relied upon me and haven't taken your eyes off me since we got back to the Palace, so maybe I'm not the one who should be explaining a damn thing. I'm done trying to get you to admit that I'm more than just a casual fuck. I've lied about a lot of shit Princess, but let's get one thing straight - in case you haven't noticed, you're the one with control over me, Eleanor, not the other way around. So, maybe you're right, this entire situation can't get any more fucked up than it already is."

He is quivering with anger and she's not sure this was the right course of action, because he is right, she's been the definition of mixed signals all day.

'when I almost lost you'

He grabs the door handle and moves to slam the door shut. She acts quickly and grabs the edge using a strength she didn't know she possessed to throw the door back open.

"Are you quite finished, Mr Frost?"

His eyes flash again but he holds his tongue, which is probably a good thing because two seconds after that she has attached herself to his face and is pulling him into her room, slamming the door behind them.

Much to her relief he doesn't push her away.

His arms go immediately around her waist to pull her close as he navigates them back towards the foot of the bed. He's unzipped her dress and has it off her within seconds, leaving Eleanor in nothing but a lacy set of french knickers. He takes barely a moment to remove his own clothes - jacket, tie, shirt, belt, trousers and boxers one by one fly to the floor.

His rough hands feel their way up her legs, from knee to hips, before yanking the last remaining scrap of fabric down her legs, replacing the material with one hand, the other he uses to push her down on the bed before kneeling over her.

"We're going to need to have a proper conversation about this when we're done here, Princess," he whispers in her ear.

"Really?" she responds breathlessly, as he kisses a line down the column of her neck, annoyed at the way her body betrays her despite this being exactly what she wants from him.

"Mhmm, but I figure you've got at least another hour or so to figure out exactly how you're going to ask me to stay."

She barely processes what he's said as he ghosts his lips over her breasts and moves down toward her navel.

"If you want me to stop, you'd better say so now."

She quickly responds with a rather breathy "Oh God, don't stop…" before immediately wanting to shoot herself in the face at how desperate she sounds but then that angry, smug bastard is smirking up at her from in between her thighs and the next thing she feels is being completely at the mercy of his silver tongue.

The first time he'd ever gone down on her, a passing security guard had thought she was screaming for help and attempted to break down her door. That was oh so many months ago yet she struggles to keep from making the same mistake again. Without breaking focus he absentmindedly throws a discarded cushion to the head of the bed and she's fairly positive he just mumbled something that sounds (feels) like "you can scream into that."

That is absolutely not mortifying in the slightest.

After what feels like hours on end of him bringing her up, only to pull her back from the edge, she risks a look at what he's doing to her, only to find that when she finally builds the strength to lift her head and look down, she sees him staring right back at her from the apex of her slender thighs as he continues to lap and stroke her intimately. The intensity of his gaze, and his mischievous grin is exactly what it takes to set her off like a rocket.

Her eyes close for a moment and she gasps five, maybe six times, trying hard not to scream out loud. She fails miserably from reaching one hand down to grab a handful of his dirty blonde hair

"That sounded like you missed me?"

Cocky son of a bitch.

She feels him move up the bed, his hands roaming her body which is now slick with sweat. He's hard against her hip and that just won't do.

She doesn't answer his question.

"Why aren't you inside me yet?" She complains before bucking upwards to put him onto his back. She appreciates the control he is conceding to her.

She takes a moment to admire the way his hands move to grip her thighs holding her in place. She leans over and kisses him softly on the lips thinking that maybe, she might like to tease him slightly. Jasper, however, has other ideas in mind as he raises his hips before pushing her down onto him.

She hisses at the sudden intrusion, but he moves his hands from her thighs to her hips in an effort to guide her body. She is desperate to take control, to show him exactly who is in charge. She grips his hands tightly and moves them slowly upwards to her breasts, all the time maintaining a slow rhythm that he seems to be highly appreciative of, judging by the guttural moans he is making.

"You're so goddamn beautiful, Eleanor" he says, reaching one hand back down to her behind and in one swoop pulls her close before hiking himself up against the headboard so they are face to face, not once breaking their intimate connection. The moment she looks into his eyes, it sets something off in her as their rhythm increases in speed.

She can taste herself on his lips.

One of his hands moves to where they were joined, fingers toying with her so intimately and within seconds, she feels her orgasm break the dam like a flood. He pulls her to him, buries his head between her breasts and shudders as he too finishes, driving upwards into her without mercy.

They stay like that for a minute or two, Eleanor feeling extremely light-headed trying to catch her breath. She gasps as Jasper quickly flips her underneath him, kissing her neck softly, hands trailing her arm, still resting between her legs.

"What now?" she murmurs, realising that she has no fucking clue what comes after that.

"You tell me, Princess."

She runs her hands through her hair before using her fingers to push his own hair from his eyes. He really is exceptionally good looking.

"What I said yesterday…" she pauses briefly to consider exactly what it was she wanted to say, "...asking you to leave, I did mean it, or at least I thought I did. So imagine my own surprise when you pulled me out of that stadium today but then refused to talk to me. I had some idea then what it would be like if you wouldn't talk to me again, no more cat and mouse games, no more annoying little comments. It would be replaced with silence and I realise that would be horrible. But it would be immeasurably worse if I could never actually see you again, Jasper."

He kisses her softly on her forehead.

"That is possibly the nicest thing you've ever said to me, Princess."

They lie there in silence for a few moments, before Jasper pulls away slightly and drags her into the crook of his arm, a feeling she welcomes when she realises how well and in how many manner of ways they fit together.

"I'm a Royal, I have people to stand behind and protect me. I reside here in the Palace, and I have plenty of material possessions that make this look like a nice place to live, a nice house, but it's not Home. And it occurs to me now, when I see who is left standing beside me, that Home is not a place, it's a feeling. You're my home, Jasper."

She smiles, part of her burdens lifted from her shoulders.

He says nothing, but holds her tightly and smiles back.

She thinks it might be the first genuine smile he's ever given her.