Zenobia woke up to kisses on her neck. She opened her eyes lazily, groggily wondering why she felt so uncomfortable.

"Good morning, sunshine," Evin whispered. "Want some breakfast?"

"What time is it?" Zenobia asked, sitting up from Evin's desk and looking blearily down at the pages of notes written in front of her.

"Well after dawn. You never came to bed last night," Evin said, stroking her hair. "I take it you've decided to become our next Lord Provost?"

Zenobia smiled grimly and nodded. "Emma actually wanted me to do it, and not because she thought I'd be crooked. She thinks we can clean up Corus together and fix a lot of the problems. I just hope I can live up to her and everyone else's expectations. I started working on some ideas, but I just don't even know where to start."

Evin smiled. "First of all, you don't have to do this on your own. The King is not going to leave you all by yourself here, and neither will George. Second, you don't have to do it all in a night. When did you go to sleep?"

"I remember seeing the first lights of dawn," Zenobia admitted.

"So, two or three bells time, perhaps? Come on love. Let's get you to sleep for a few hours at least."

"I need to meet with the King."

"And the meeting will be far more productive if you've slept some. I'll tell the King you want to meet with him this afternoon, and I'll come wake you up before then."

"No, Evin. I need to work on this," Zenobia replied, pushing her hair out of her face.

"No, you need to sleep," Evin replied, pulling her upright.

He slipped a hand around her waist and pulled her, still protesting, towards the door. He helped her into the bed and pulled the covers up over her before leaning over and kissing her on the forehead. "Sleep, sweet. I'll wake you up this afternoon before you meet with the King."

Zenobia murmured unintelligibly before sinking into the pillow and falling immediately asleep. She didn't stir until Evin kissed her awake in the early afternoon.

She opened her eyes slowly and smiled, pulling him down insistently into the bed with her. She curled into him, burying her face into his shirt.

"What's going on in there?" he asked, burying his fingers into her hair and gently massaging her scalp.

"Am I crazy to think that I can do this?" Zenobia asked, speaking into his chest.

"Of course not," Evin said. "You would be glorious at this. Remember when you were worried about being a guard for Kally? Turned out you were perfect for it. The King is good at what he does. He wouldn't ask you to do this if he didn't think you would be the best person for the job."

Zenobia smiled and slowly moved on top of Evin until she was looking directly down at him. "I love you," she said quietly. "So very much."

Evin reached his hand out to tease the nap of her neck. "I love you too, sweet," Evin replied, before pulling her to him and kissing her sweetly.

Zenobia deepened the kiss, reaching her hand down to tug Evin's shirt out of his breeches and slide her hand over his stomach and up his chest.

He caught her hand under his shirt. "You are meeting with the king in ten minutes," he said, making her groan.

"We are finishing this tonight," she said as she slipped out of bed.

Evin sat up and caught her by the waist, lifting up her shirt and kissing her on the stomach, biting down gently. "Yes, we are. You've been neglecting me."

"It's been a day and a half," Zenobia said, stroking the top of his head.

Evin looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, I suppose a whole day and a half is neglect for us, isn't it?" Zenobia said with a grin. She kissed him one last time and then pulled away and changed clothes quickly before heading to the King's study.

Zenobia knocked on the door, waiting for the King's reply before she walked in.

"Well?" the King asked, once she'd settled into place.

Zenobia nodded. "I'll do it."

Jon smiled. "Good. Do you have any ideas for things you want to do?"

Zenobia placed the notes she'd made on his desk, making him laughed out loud. "Well, this is certainly a start."

They worked through the notes well into the evening, and the King provided her with some of the ideas he and other members of his Council had come up with. They'd sketched out a basic outline of new training procedures, new punishments for corrupt or negligent Guards, new patrol routes and agreed that medical costs of guard's injured on duty would be paid by the crown, as well as continued pay during their recovery time. They also decided to let women back into the guard, and Zenobia grudgingly agreed to discuss the adding bloodhounds back into the guard with Lord Wyldon.

The midnight bell tolled, and Zenobia groaned. "There's still so much to decide."

Jon smiled at the girl. "We have a few days still. I plan to announce your take-over in a week, and we'll have all the Guards gather that day so I can introduce you and you can speak to them and outline the changes we are making. Go home, and sleep in. I have a meeting in the morning with some merchant's. We can meet after the midday meal."

Zenobia nodded, standing and stretching slowly, wincing as her back popped. "How do you do this all day every day?" she asked wearily.

"I don't. That's how," Jonathan replied wryly. "This is just the early stage. I promise you, you won't be at a desk all day."

Zenobia grimaced. "I'm going to hold you to that promise."

She walked out of the palace and down to the Riders, entering slowly, expecting Evin to be asleep. To her surprise, he was still awake, working through the stack of papers on his desk.

"What are you still doing awake?" Zenobia asked, pulling her boots off.

"I figured I might as well get some work done while I waited up for you," Evin said, scooting his chair back.

Zenobia smiled and walked over to sit in his lap, kissing his neck gently. "I do believe we were in the middle of something when I left this afternoon."

"Is that right?" Evin asked, running his hand up under her shirt. "I can't quite seem to remember what that was."

"Are you suggesting I remind you?" Zenobia asked, reaching up and touching his cheek affectionately. She kissed him on the mouth, scotching even closer to him.

Evin pulled away and grinned. "That's right. I remember now. How could I have forgotten?"

Zenobia laughed out loud at the exaggerated look of confusion on his face and kissed him again. He deepened the kiss, and she responded, eagerly letting the comfort and pleasure of his touch overtake her as he picked her up and made his way towards their bedroom.

---

On the other side of Corus, a petite young woman walked into the Jane Street Guard Station. A bloody slash marred her pretty face, running from her cheekbone to just touch the side of her mouth. "Can somebody help me?" she asked, looking wide-eyed around the bustling station before falling into a dead faint.

--

Short I know, but school is crazy busy at the moment. I promise slowly but surely all stories I have started will be finished (even Gillyflowers if any one reads that). I'm not the type to abandon my readers. It just may take some time.

Now Review and tell me to hurry up because chances are I'll listen!!!!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT. I need a little help. I chose the Shang Unicorn as Zenobia's teacher and was googling for her name and found out that TP wrote a short story about her. I have never read it. I'm planning to have her character show up, and I prefer to keep canon as much as possible. Anything I should know about her? I have what's on the TP wiki, but if anyone thinks there is anything that will be super useful for me to know, I'd appreciate if you'd put it in a review for me. Thanks!!!