Title: Gardens: Part 2/?

Fandom: Prince of Persia

Pairing: Dastan/Tamina (do they have a shipper name?)

Rating: T/PG-13 to be safe

Genre: General/Romance? (idk…I never got this whole genre thing)

AN: Thanks to all my readers out there for the encouragement! A special shout-out to antiheroine, ManiazAzn, ikpo, Marcia, PaoHalliwell, newworldwriter1, kiame, chnoelle, Shani8, yaper4444, Cataglottisme, BellaCullen1789, and GottaLoveMEgan for reviewing and aimakichan and ballecer for commenting! I really appreciate it! Anyways, ENJOY!

Tamina was angry. No, that wasn't quite the right word. She was annoyed, frustrated, grumpy, and tired. But then again, that was four words. She sighed as she stood up, finishing her prayers. She had had to wake up way too early for her liking in order to perform a weekly ritual that just happened to be as soon as the sun appeared in the sky. She loved her gods, but sometimes, just sometimes, all of the rituals and ceremonies were a bit too much for her – especially after she had spent the night before walking the gardens with Prince Dastan.

As she thought about her time with him yesterday, she tried to mentally scoff, but she found that she couldn't bring herself to do it. Kicking some invisible dust off the temple floor, her patience towards the Prince was waning quickly, and to make it worse, it wasn't even his fault. It was all hers. Why did that good-for-nothing Persian cause her emotions to be spun out of control in a whirlwind? She paused and corrected herself. Dastan was good for surprising her and scaling walls. When she finished her thought, she could only throw her hands up in exasperation. Since when did she refer to him on a first name basis?

Pushing the thought of him aside, she decided to just concentrate on the Persians in general, but it seemed like the Prince was not only adept at invading physical barriers of cities but also mental barriers of princesses. Nonetheless, she tried her best to think of every despicable quality of the Persians, which wasn't very hard. They were unintelligent, illiterate, barbaric, stupid, arrogant, cocky, and curse the gods! They were turning her mind into an empty container. She couldn't even think of descriptive properly. She simply hated the Persians. They were probably going to interrupt Alamutian rituals too. In fact, she could hear someone whistling from afar, and it definitely wasn't a Guardian since they never whistled.

Dastan was in a good mood. He had some quality sleep, having been given a nice room with a bed. He had shared the room with Bis and some of his other soldiers, opting to trade his time alone for the physical comfort of the soldiers who had led him to a successful invasion.

When he had gotten back to his room after his walk with Tamina, he found that he didn't even care that his men and Bis were being loud and rowdy. He had just been able to spend a good amount of time in her presence, which was enough for him. To make it even better, he had managed to shock her speechless. With those euphoric feelings running through his veins, he happily fell back on his bed for some much needed sleep.

And as a result, this morning he was whistling through the halls, feeling the most carefree he had felt since the days before he became acquainted with the Dagger. Noticing that he was approaching the temple, he halted his whistling and steps, unwilling to disturb the Guardians if they were doing some odd ceremonial Dagger dusting or something. However, he couldn't quell his curiosity as his feet led him swiftly and quietly to the entrance. As he arrived at the doors, he pushed them open while thinking about how Tus always said that curiosity killed the cat whenever Garsiv and Dastan got in trouble. Dastan never knew how wise Tus was until the moment that a blade suddenly found its way to his throat.

Tamina heard the whistling stop, and suspicious, took her blade out from her dress. Most people were ignorant to the fact that she did in fact arm herself, mainly from barbarians, like the Persians, who entered her city and might be tempted to get a little too close. As the door inched open, she surprised herself in how fast the blade reached the intruder's throat.

"Whoa there, Princess. A bit excited to see me, are you?" And there he was, mocking her. Again. Making sure to keep the small knife pressed against the skin, she raised her eyebrow and questioned the man standing in front of her.

"What exactly are you doing here, Dastan?" Smirking at her use of his first name, Dastan couldn't let the opportunity to tease her pass.

"Oh, so we're on a first name basis now, I see. Well, Tamina, since you're so kindly asking me, I'll tell you that I was actually looking for you." Shocked at the fact that she both slipped up in calling him Dastan and that he was looking for her, she barely had a retort ready.

"No, we are not calling each other by our first names, Prince Dastan. You must not have heard me correctly. That however, comes as no surprise if your terrible, tone-deaf whistling is anything to go by." Tamina decided not to comment on the last part of Dastan's comment and focus on just the first. Why was he looking for her? How did he know where to find her? Her thought process was interrupted as Dastan had let out a small laugh at her remark, removing his throat from harm's way in the process.

"Still as clever as before. Glad to see that some things don't change with tim-" Dastan caught himself, hoping that it wasn't too late. Quick as ever, Tamina's eyes flashed to his, trying to read the panic flashing through his eyes.

"Before? Time?" Tamina's voice continued to rise with each word before falling into a deadly, warning whisper. "Dastan…" Dastan had no clue what to do. He was never going to tell her, at least not so soon, and now he was caught because of his own words. If he had never opened the doors to the temple. Damn curiosity killing cats. Why did he have to be the Lion of Persia anyways? Why a cat?

He had to find a way out of this situation, and something told him that simple charm was going to do him no good against the steel determination of the Princess standing inches from him. As desperation to find a solution mounted within him, he realized that his time to respond was running out. Opening and closing his mouth, gaping like a fish, could only buy him so much time.

Perhaps he could just kiss her? She couldn't very well kiss and speak at the same time, right? But then again, she had a knife in her hand, and he had two swords on his back, well within her reach. Last time she had tried to seduce him, partially succeeding if not for her eagerness to get the Dagger. Nonetheless, she had come quite close to killing him in that time, and somehow he doubted that she would fail to carry out some version of that plan this time. She would probably castrate him with her knife during the kiss.

Tamina was finally able to grasp the emotion in his eyes. Panic. Good. He should be feeling worried in this situation. She had a knife in one hand, and she was pretty sure that if she stood on her toes and reached, she would be able to grab a sword of his. She would do nothing short of threatening him bodily harm if he did not tell her what she wanted to hear.

As his finger once again found her lips, she swatted away his hand. That whole quieting gesture wasn't going to work this time. She was prepared for the feeling of it and ready to act, regardless of the liquid fire it sent down her spine.

"That's not going to silence me this time, Prince! I need to know what you know about the – " Tamina was cut off this time as Dastan's whole hand had clamped her mouth shut, effectively muting the outspoken Princess. Hoping that he wasn't hurting her, he kept her still and quiet.

He was worried. Incredibly worried, and it wasn't because of the fuming and probably scheming woman who was standing defiantly in front of him. Quickly, he wrapped one hand around Tamina's, securing her hold on her own knife and clutched his sword with his other hand,

Tamina's eyes widened in astonishment. What was he going to do to her? Was he trying to kill her? She struggled to remove herself from his grip as one arm had also wrapped around her waist, pushing her against him. The positions of their bodies left no room for her to maneuver her now useless knife. But as he gave her a sharp look while his hand left her mouth to reposition her grasp on her knife, she realized that he was trying to do no such thing. His eyes had turned dark and fierce. When his arm slid itself from her waist and his free hand unsheathed his sword, Tamina froze, desperately wanting to let go of her knife to intertwine her fingers with the hand that was still wrapped around hers in a fist. What was going on? Why did he need to grab his sword? Most of all, why wasn't she screaming for help? Why did she trust him to stay quiet? He was a Persian who led the attack on her holy city! Still, for a reason unbeknownst to her, she remained as quiet and unmoving as she could.

Dastan berated himself for letting himself forget to stay alert, for letting his guard down. He took a deep breath, tightening his hold on Tamina's hand even further.

Tamina felt Dastan's hand wrap even more firmly around hers and felt the unfamiliar sense of trepidation slowly flood her body. Looking at him in confusion, Dastan simply shook his head in a curt motion, mouth set in a grim line and eyes smoldering.

This was no time to explain.

He took one last look at Tamina's face and saw the traces of fear that her eyes betrayed. He had seen those haunted eyes staring back at him once before, in a time that never passed. Their hands were once again clasped, and he swore that he wouldn't let go. He wouldn't lose her. Not this time.

As his eyes flickered to her lips, he couldn't stop himself. Pressing his lips firmly against her own, he stole one more moment with her. Ending the kiss, he looked up over her head. Hefting his sword to prepare himself, he briefly wondered when his relationship with Tamina would be more than stolen moments. Pushing the thought aside, he cleared his mind of all things except the one task at hand.

Protect her.

AN: So I'll be going on vacay (that's vacation to all you peeps who don't speak my speak) for a week. I will be bringing my computer, but I'm not sure how much writing I'll be doing next to the pool…Nonetheless, REVIEW. Please? It'll encourage me to at least write a little everyday. =D