Disclaimer: I own nothing of Reign, this is for entertainment purposes only and I have never made a cent from this work.
AN: So I think my plan for right now to get me through finals is to alternate between writing for Assurance and for First Light, just letting you know. Writing for you all is so much better than writing an essay or doing chemistry homeworkàYes, I still have homework on finals week, and it's horrible. I love my professor, she's a darling, but really? NO THANKS PROF. Sorry, rant over. Enjoy the read!
"Prince Henry, you need to hold your sword more firmly—not too tight! Yes, there you go. You keep losing your sword because you aren't holding it tightly enough, milord."
"Is this alright, Maurice?"
"That's perfect, Prince Charles, just spread your feet a bit more and remember to shift your weight as the blows come."
"I think I'm doing this wrong…"
"The strength of the blow doesn't all just come from the arm, when you move, the power will shift if you move with the blow."
"Your opponent won't be a straw dummy, he'll be moving around too, he won't wait for you to start hacking away at him."
"Your Grace!" Maurice cried, sweeping into a deep bow.
His Majesty, King Henry strode farther into the training yard. It seems as though he had intention for coming to the yard as he was dressed in common clothes and not his full royal get up. The young princes cheered at their father's approach, young Henry even going so far as to launch himself at his father's legs in happiness. His father stumbled at the embrace, but good naturedly ruffled his son's hair before plucking him off by the back of the shirt. Little Henry giggled as he was lifted straight into the air.
"And what have we here, Maurice? A little rapscallion posing as my son?" Charles laughed as Henry wiggled about in his father's grip.
"No! It's me, Father! It's Henry!"
"What say you, boy? Is this my son?" Henry directed to Charles.
"I don't know, Father, but he looks an awful lot like him!"
"Let's see him better in the light, shall we?"
At his, Henry threw his son in the air as the boy squealed in delight. Easily catching him, he put his youngest son back on his feet and nudged his fallen sword to him. Falling over in the grass, little Henry laughed and Charles helped to pick him up with a smile. Maurice and the other men and boys who were training looked on with fond smiles. It was quite unusual for King Henry to take time out of his day for his younger children, it was nice to see him just being a regular father for once and not the king of a nation. Henry took up a wooden sword from the rack nearby.
"Come, come now young sirs, and fight me in the name of your house!"
Charles and his brother armed themselves, and mustering up a battle cry, swung at their father.
"For the honor of the house of Valois!"
Henry easily blocked their blows, lightly blocking and circling around them. His feet fluid and his arms sure he feinted left for which the boys followed, and he tapped their sides. Springing forward with a lot more distance than Henry gave him credit for, Charles slashed at his legs which he parried and returned with a light tap to the top of his head. Little Henry came from behind, and out of the corner of his eye, their father saw and blocked the stab that was directed towards his hip. He quickly recovered and dodged as Charles came up with a slash meant for his chest. His boys really were doing well with their training. Unarming Charles, he let his younger son get a poke to his abdomen. Falling to his knees and lying face down in the grass, he tried not to smile too much.
"Henry, what did you do?!" Charles was old enough now to know he wasn't really hurt, he was just playing along.
"I—I just poked him in the tummy! I thought he was going to block me!"
"Well, he didn't and look what happened." Charles shook his head. "Oh, what will Mother say?"
"Oh, no! Mother!" The men around them were holding back laughs. "Do you think she'll be very angry? It was an accident!"
"I don't know, Henry, I really don't know." Charles shrugged. "I think we should go to Francis and pay our respects."
"Wait, why?"
"Because since you killed Father, Francis is the new king, didn't you know that's how it works?"
"But I didn't mean to!" There was a sniff, he better fix this right now.
Rolling over onto his back, he smiled at his sons. "No need to go to Francis. I'm still King."
"FATHER!" The entire training yard burst into laughter as Prince Henry fell on top of the king. "Father, I'm sorry! Are you hurt? I didn't mean to, honest! I thought I'd killed you!"
"Me? Hurt? No, it would take a lot more than that to hurt me. I'm fine, Henry, I won't be going anywhere for a long while."
From a higher window, the queen smiled down fondly at her family.
AN: This is SOOOOO OOC for King Henry, but I don't even care. If he can do swords with Bash, than he can play with Charles and Henry too. I hope I didn't accidentally traumatize little Henry…
To Guest Reviewer Greg: Your Catherine and Henry centric story is coming up. Look forward to some bonding times with our favorite royal couple! Anything specific you want to see from these two? Would you like more humor or more romance or friendship? I ship them hard and so I tend to go towards the romance side of things, but I LOVED them during Dirty Laundry. They were HILARIOUS together covering up the Duchess's death. "Then we roll it forward—like my chefs do with stuffed pastry." Ahhh, love that line.
To Guest Reviewer Maya: To address your prompt that you put onto First Light, I really do think we are in synch. Before, you asked for a rated T story for Catherine and Henry, and I was thinking of making one leading up to the wedding and wedding night. It will be a separate story from Assurance and First Light, letting you know. I think you're going to like it. Thank you for the exam wishes, you make me feel better about college.
To smacked lover 22: Thank you for the comments! I really envision Henry as more of the type of father he was to Bash, fun loving and carefree even though he's not that way AT ALL with Francis or the younger boys, which made me sad. There are so many levels to Catherine that I just want to explore them all, and I'm so so so glad that you like how I portray her motherly side. After that scene with Charles after Madeline had just come to the castle and she tells him that Madeline has her own giraffe and he asks if he may have a giraffe as well and she says something along the lines of, "Of course you can have your own giraffe, darling!" Or something like that. It was SO DIFFERENT from the way we've seen her with Francis and….well, everyone. That smile she gave him was a mother's loving smile and it just warmed my heart. I do thoroughly believe that she loves her family to the ends of the earth, and would do anything for them, including getting her son a giraffe if he so asked it and it was possible to keep a giraffe at the castle. In the episode where Clarissa kidnaps the boys *shudder* we see her so thoroughly desperate to save her children, even foregoing the chance to escape France, doing everything in her power to save them…the feels when she kneels down in front of them in the forest and says, "Mary will take good care of you." Oh God, I nearly cried. Sorry, this is a really long note. I just really love Catherine's character and Megan Follows' portrayal of her. Haha, Team Catherine anyone?
To Catherine Woods: I am so happy I wrote what you wanted! It's so nice to know that there really is a community out there so dedicated to Reign, but more specifically to Catherine and Henry. Just let me know if there's another type of chapter you'd like to see up in this story or if there was a different kind of story you wanted to see. Thank you for the support on my finals! I'll try and make studying fun aka: taking hour long breaks to write my pieces for you all :)
I'm now going to keep a list in my bio for upcoming ideas of my current stories as well as ideas for new stories so you all can see what's coming up. Once more, thank you all so much, the next story to be updated will be First Light happening tomorrow!