Sakura rarely became annoyed by the behaviour of others, and yet she found herself growing increasingly more frustrated by her husband's actions. Leo was kind, patient, gentle, but it was this cautious and tender nature that was the reason for her displeasure. She was being treated like a delicate flower, or a porcelain dish that he was afraid to touch, for fear of destroying it.
Using just the fingers on one hand, the pink-haired Hoshidan princess could count the number of times the couple had been truly intimate in the two months of their marriage. Leo always tried to find time during the day to go on quiet walks with her, but come the evening he often cited excuses as to why he couldn't come to bed with her. Whether it was a border dispute that needed to be resolved, or a trade agreement that had to be reviewed, something was bound to come up. While Sakura knew that her husband wasn't lying about being busy, she also knew that politics wasn't the only reason that he hesitated to even just lie beside her at night. More often than she liked, she fell asleep on the unfamiliar Nohrian bed with only a pillow to clutch, and woke to an empty space beside her. It wasn't so much the lack of sex that bothered her as it was the absence of physical affection from Leo, save for hand holding and kisses. She wasn't entirely sure about the source of his misgivings, but she had her suspicions.
Despite the tentative friendship that the second princes had struck up during the war, their relations took a hard hit just a few days after the defeat of Anankos, when the Nohrian prince had announced his intention to court Takumi's beloved younger sister.
All throughout Sakura and Leo's eleven month courtship, and subsequent six month engagement, the overprotective youngest Hoshidan prince had repeatedly provoked the Nohrian one. At its worst, the feud had nearly turned violent, and the two needed to be physically restrained from brawling. The ensuing shouting match had nearly brought Sakura to tears, as her brother and her then-fiancé hurled increasingly rude insults at each other.
Although it looked as though Leo brushed off the majority of Takumi's words, it appeared to Sakura that a lot of what her brother had said stuck in her now-husband's mind. The eventual wedding ceremony had taken place without objections from either families, but it seemed that Leo's reluctance to touch his wife, at least in part, stemmed from his Hoshidan equivalent's concerns that she was too delicate for him to properly take care of.
Sakura intended to change how Leo viewed her that very night. She was going to to snuggle with her husband, to be held by him, and to be loved by him. She wasn't going to take "No" for an answer.
The steaming bath created a perfect atmosphere for Sakura to plan her confrontation of Leo later that evening. The heat relaxed her muscles, which were sore from a long day's work of treating patients in one of Windmire's new medical clinics. Now that a healthier trade relationship was being established between Nohr and Hoshido, King Xander had turned his attention to improving the welfare of his people. It had been the idea of the youngest princesses, now sisters by marriage, to provide care for the capital city's sick. Elise and Sakura alternated between nursing ill people and training others in the field of healing.
Leo was in a late meeting with Chevois diplomats, but she had been informed earlier that the discussions was expected to wrap up soon. This left Sakura with only a little bit of time to strategize before her husband returned.
"Just be direct," she said out loud. "Be bold. If I make it clear to him what I want, he'll listen to me."
What did she want, however? To be able to cuddle with Leo at night, and for him to hold her in his arms without having second thoughts. But perhaps she was lying to herself if she said that was all. Deep down, Sakura did have a rather mortifying desire to make love with her husband regularly. It was such an exhilarating experience for her, and yet the pair had only coupled a handful of times. Each occasion left her wanting more, but Leo was disinclined to continue for the same reasons that he was often unwilling to be physically close to her in bed.
Sakura felt herself blushing red as she recalled those nights, and she was certain that it wasn't just the warmth of the bath doing this to her. Without thinking, she drew her hands towards her chest and began to stroke her soft breasts. As she sunk into the hot water, Sakura tilted her head back against the edge of the tub, and her left hand trailed down her abdomen. Her fingers were brought achingly close to her centre, but she hesitated to go further with her actions.
Her upbringing as a shrine maiden had implanted a strong set of ethics into her. Even now, after being married for two months, Sakura still wavered during her more private moments of lust. After all, the thoughts went against so much of what she had been taught. Just two years ago, the idea of partaking in such self-indulgent pleasures (that weren't her favourite sweets, of course) would have turned her as pink as her hair and left her out of sorts for the rest of the day. But so much changed on one fateful day. Her mother and her people had been murdered in the middle of their own capital city. This triggered a war in which she had killed, seen her parents resurrected and enslaved, and fought against otherworldly horrors that most could not dream of. In so many ways, Sakura was not the person she was before.
The sun was well below the horizon as the Hoshidan princess sat, hair damp, in the bedroom she shared with her husband. Sakura was wearing a pale pink yukata adorned with dark red and white flowers. The maid who helped her dress earlier had also lit a fire, so the room was warm and shadows danced frantically across the walls.
Footsteps in the hallway drew her attention towards the door. Leo walked in, dressed in his now mostly ceremonial black and gold armour, with a stack of papers in his hands. Sakura quickly stood from the edge of the bed, droplets of water scattering from her pink locks.
"H-hey Leo," she said, smiling shyly. "Long day?"
The blond prince deposited the documents onto a nearby table, and rubbed his eyes with the one hand. "Yeah..." he answered, clearly tired. "How did today go for you, my sweet?"
Sakura briefly recounted the patients she and Elise had treated, the students she taught, and the beautiful flowers they bought at the underground marketplace. Eventually, though, she decided that she couldn't continue to stall and wait for a better opportunity.
"Um... Leo? T-there's s-something that I've been meaning to ask you about..."
"Alright, what can I do for you, Sakura? Is there something you need?" he replied smoothly.
Her husband's calm demeanour only made it more difficult for the princess to reveal her strange request to him. She stiffened up and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Leo, noticing her peculiar behaviour, frowned slightly and looked his wife in the eyes. Then, he placed the back of his hand against her forehead, checking her temperature. "Sakura? Is everything okay?"
Sakura jolted back to reality, and held up her hands as if to ward Leo away. "Oh, n-no, I'm fine. My bath was a b-bit too warm, so I'm a little dizzy, that's all."
"I'll talk to the servants about that tomorrow, then. So, what was it that you wished to tell me?" he inquired once more.
The healer hesitated again. Be direct, she told herself. So, Sakura took a deep breath, and—
"LeoIwantustomakelovetogether," she blurted out. Immediately after, she put her head down and turned away from her husband, afraid to see his reaction.
His composure slipped as he decoded what she had said, surprise flashing across his face. "Um. May I ask why—"
The Hoshidan princess' head snapped back up. "Because we never do! I know that sometimes you're busy, but it just seems like you're avoiding me every night because you're afraid of something!" Sakura found her voice becoming louder as she talked. She caught herself, and proceeded in a quieter voice. "Leo... I don't want you to treat me like I'm going to break."
Gently, the Nohrian prince clasped his wife's hands in his own. "Sakura... Are you sure? The last thing that I want is to hurt you."
Sakura squeezed her husband's hands. "Please, Leo... I'm not that delicate, believe me. This is what I want us to do. That is, if you'll have m-me."
Leo was clearly torn between what his wife's insistence and his own beliefs on what she could handle.
"Am I not g-good enough for you?"
His eyes cleared as he heard those words. Leo suddenly pulled Sakura closer, pressing her head to his chest, as he said, "Please, don't ever think that. If anything, I am undeserving of you."
The pink-haired healer's sigh was muffled slightly as she snuggled into his unexpected gesture of affection. "This is r-really nice... So, Leo? This is y-your decision to make as much as it is mine."
He was silent for a moment. "Okay, my sweet Sakura."
With his wife held bridal-style in his arms, Leo carefully moved across the room to the couple's bed. He set Sakura down on the edge with a kiss on her head, and then set about untying the multiple sashes that held together her clothing. Silk ribbons fell to the floor, discarded, one by one.
Sakura's blush intensified as her husband continued to undress her. As his actions began to reveal her sparsely covered chest, she noticed his eyes briefly flick towards it, before looking back up at her face. Realizing what he just did, he broke her gaze again, this time away from her entirely. "My apologies," he said quickly.
"I-it's fine..." she whispered back. The blond prince, kneeling on the floor, first helped her slip her arms out of the sleeves, then loosened the rest of the yukata, exposing her undergarments, slim waist, and slender legs.
They fell into silence, staring into each other's eyes, with only the occasional crackle of burning wood or gust of wind disturbing their peace. Leo was trying to collect his thoughts, but was unable to pull them away from the bewitching sight in front of him. He had his hands laid gently on his wife's legs, and was absentmindedly running his thumbs in small circles along her inner thighs. Sakura, much less familiar with his actions than she liked, found herself lost in her husband's dark brown eyes, relishing the tranquility and his warm touch.
It was the Nohrian who stirred first. He took his hands away from their resting place of the past few minutes, and began to get to his feet. "Well, if you're sure about this... Just remember that, if at any point you don't feel comfortable, tell me and I'll stop, alright?"
"I-i'll be okay... I know that you w-wouldn't—" Sakura paused as she felt a shiver run through her. It wasn't because of anticipation, or fear, but from chills. The fire still glowed bright, but as she was now virtually naked, she was more susceptible to the crisp nighttime air. She had ignored it up until then, but for whatever reason, she couldn't bear it anymore.
"You're cold," Leo noted, as Sakura drew her arms close to her chest.
"Mhm," she responded softly. Without thinking, she blurted out, "C-could you w-warm me up?"
They simultaneously turned red at the connotation.
I wanted to make a moderately obscure political reference here, but I figured that it wouldn't be right for this story, so I left it out.