Attia was curled against him when he woke up the next morning. Her bandage was nowhere to be found, and there were blood spots on the sheets and on him to prove it. As he glanced around him, he found her clock, an item he couldn't imagine life without, and realized he wasn't even late for once in the last year. When he tried to stretch, Attia groaned in her sleep and had started to turn. When he watched her, her eyes slowly opened and peered around until she met his gaze. For a moment, she only stared at him until she started to smile brightly, still leaving the silence between them untouched. He couldn't help feeling she was surprised to find him there at all. Even after she'd asked him to stay. When she had no intention of exploring the physical aspect of their relationship.
"You're bleeding," Keiro told her as he watched a drop of blood form on the corner of the lower cut on her neck. She looked momentarily confused as she reached up to touch her wounds gingerly. As she withdrew her fingers, she stared at the smeared blood on her fingertip with narrowed eyes.
"I don't remember taking off the bandage," she admitted as she turned her eyes up at him again.
"I don't either," he replied and she laughed before she put her head down on his chest. She didn't pay him any attention as she remained laying in bed. Her thoughts wandered, and not one settled on the idea of Keiro admitting he preferred a night with her to a night with any other woman. Eventually, she groaned and rolled away from him as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. It seemed a ritual had been created as she moved around the room and prepared herself for the day, while Keiro lounged in her bed watching with curious eyes. Half the time, he went through the first half of the day in clothes from the night before, before he actually made it to his own room to change. It was ridiculously lazy in comparison to all the little things that go into Attia's morning. With the fresh wound on her neck, however, she opted for a comfortable pants and matching top, and tied her hair back easily. Loose strands fell around her face, but she only tucked them behind her ear before she turned to Keiro.
"Get up," she told him as she rolled her eyes. Any sweetness she might've harbored towards him recently had seemed to evaporate instantly, and he met her tone with a cold stare before he finally climbed out of her bed to start pulling on his clothes.
"Why are you suddenly in such a rush?" he commented as he attempted to tame his long hair without much success. When she offered him a brush, he declined with a stare she'd deemed childish, though she didn't actually comment on his behavior. Of course, once or twice when she'd been out of the room, he'd used the same brush for that exact purpose, but he was suddenly too proud to admit it.
"Council is meeting on Kingston, Scotts, and King Damien soon," Attia told him as she watched his button up his shirt. "But I need to go to the infirmary and get another bandage first."
"I doubt you'll be missing anything anyway," he replied as he glanced down to be sure he had aligned the buttons correctly. "I'm fairly certain things with Scotts and Kingston will go the way you expect them to."
"Whatever, Keiro," she told him, but he could hear the smile in her voice. "Just get out."
"And tell Finn all about my tall blonde?"
Attia remained speechless, even as Keiro peered up at her from the other side of the room. If at any point in all the time she'd ever known Keiro that she'd hated that smug smirk across his face the most, that moment was it.
"Tall, leggy, blonde," she said. He knew she had meant to say the words with disgust, and yet she sounded more amused than anything. It was ironic, and he had meant the description of the girl to be that way.
"With those talented ankles that lock to tightly," he added as he strode across the room towards the short brunette. The closer he got to her, the more pronounced the smile on her lips became. "Didn't I say my story would be loosely based on the truth?" he asked as he put his hands on her waist, but she refused to meet his gaze. "That's the true part, in case you were wondering."
"I wasn't," she assured him as she finally meet his gaze. Up close, she hated the smug look even more. He didn't respond to her, and instead he pressed his lips against hers. For the duration of the kiss, she remained stubbornly still, and he laughed against her lips until he pulled away and looked down at her with narrowed eyes.
"Fine, be that way," he told her as he shrugged his shoulders and released her waist. "I'm fine without it." Keiro shrugged his shoulders as she back away from her, but his eyes never left hers. She scoffed and had started to laugh as she watched him.
"I don't think so," she told him and he rose an eyebrow.
"What does that mean?"
"I means, you'll be back here begging for sexual favors long before I go looking for you," she told him, her eyes holding his gaze, but neither even realized the intensity building between them.
Keiro scoffed as he tried to laugh. Even when entertained, he looked smug, but Attia tried her best not to let it bother her.
"I doubt that," he replied finally as he shrugged.
"Fine, we'll see who goes looking for the other first," Attia told him as she started to unbutton her pants. Keiro's eyes had immediately shifted from her eyes.
"What are you doing?" he demanded.
"Changing," she told him simply as she turned her back to him and retrieved a dress skirt from the chair near the wall.
"That's not fair," he replied strongly, but Attia only shrugged without even bothering to look back at him. Before she could actually strip the clothes from her body, Keiro had fled the room, groaning as he went. It didn't occur to either that Keiro could easily seek out the attention of any other woman at Court.
Perhaps an hour later, Keiro strode into Council and took his seat on the other side of Finn. He took a deep breath as he settled into his seat, but Finn could tell he was fidgeting. Though he had changed his clothes before arriving, Finn had a feeling Keiro and Attia had been together that night. Since he learned of their relationship, he couldn't stop wondering when exactly it had begun. And how long they'd been flaunting it around, but nobody was clever enough to see it. The more he thought about the two, the more he realized it was fairly clear the way they spoke to one another, the way they regarded one another, even the way they argued, that they were involved.
"We will begin when Lady Attia arrives," Lord Vega declared as he turned to Finn. Though Vega seemed to have simply stated something, he waited for Finn's approval before he turned away. Claudia had a seat next to Finn on the opposite side of Keiro, and Casper had for once decided to show up. He didn't seem to care that Claudia had taken his place and pushed his down one spot. An empty seat was made available between Keiro and Finn, and Keiro knew it was for Attia. Under any other circumstances, he wouldn't care, but the reminder of the little game they'd started that morning haunted him. He doubted Attia would be playing fair.
As though he needed proof she wouldn't, she walked into the room, a fresh but smaller bandage across her neck. But Keiro was paying attention only to the dress she was wearing. It definitely wasn't the dress she had made him think she was putting on. Instead, it was a modern design with short sleeves. There was modest coverage over her chest that still made her upper torso appear attractive. The short length of the dress left her legs uncovered, and as she sat in the seat beside him, she crossed her legs and the dress rose up even farther.
"How are you feeling, Lady Attia?" one of the Councilmen asked out of concern and she answered him, but Keiro wasn't paying attention. The meeting started, and as everyone expected, Scotts and Kingston were found guilty of treason, an offense that left no rights to those accused. As such Kingston and Scotts would have no fair trial, only one chance to give up information in exchange for mercy. Keiro and Attia, and probably Finn, were fuzzy on the exact details of what their sentence would entail, but none of them bothered asking for clarification. When the topic of King Damien arose, conflicting opinions about what should be done were voiced.
"There is no way for Scotts' wife not to know about her husband behavior," one of the Councilmen reasoned as he looked up and down the table, his eyes meeting various people's gazes. "We should set up a military party and go there immediately."
"And do what?" another Councilmen replied with a sigh. "Knock on her door? She probably doesn't even know her husband has been arrested."
"Which is why now is the best time to go!"
Keiro's loud groan was enough to stop the bickering. He'd even managed to pull a few stares. Finn usually encouraged the Councilmen to ignore Keiro and carry on, but even he had begun to lose interest.
"Your Majesty?" Vega asked and Finn slowly meet his gaze. "Shall we continue another day?"
"Why don't you schedule a meeting with Scotts and don't let her think anything is wrong, and we can all get on with our lives," Keiro commented as he stared towards the Councilmen but not at any one in particular. "And send a few people there to blend in send back information about whether or not she's found out and reacted."
"Good," Finn said as he nodded. "It's settled. We'll do that."
The five seated at what had become the 'royal end of the table' rose from the seats rather quickly, whereas the rest of the Council remained where they were.
"That's it?" the first Councilmen asked as he looked up at Finn in disbelief. His idea was effectively rejected, and it was clear he wasn't very happy about it. "Just agree with everything he says?" he asked with a hand motion in the direction of Keiro.
"Everything I say?" Keiro repeated with a scoff. "I'm not even here half the time, so I find it difficult to believe Finn listens to me any more than he listens to you. Besides, if he had listened to me, you wouldn't even be here!"
"Let it go," Attia said as she put her hand on his arm and gently pushed in the direction of the exit. Finn's eyes had been quick enough to notice the small gesture, but he had been looking for it throughout the entire meeting. He refused to believe it was possible his only two friends, other than Claudia, were capable of having an affair without giving themselves away. As they left the room, Casper followed them. Finn and Claudia lingered behind with the rest of Council for only a moment before they too left the room.
"You think that dress is cute?" Keiro snipped as he and Attia walked down a corridor alone after taking a few turns away from the Council meeting room.
"I wasn't really going for cute," she replied and Keiro did not look down at her. One glance upward, however, and she saw the irritation laced with a smile across his face.
"That's cheating," he finally said and she scoffed as she stopped walking in the empty hallway. Keiro noticed and stopped as well before he slowly turned back to face her.
"Cheating?"
"Yes, cheating. You're trying to tempt me, and that's not fair."
"You do realize how incredibly childish you sound, right?" she asked as she rose an eyebrow at him. The way she peered upward at him made her even more attractive, but he couldn't tell if she was doing it on purpose or not. Her dress was so distracting; he couldn't really look at her objectively. Instead of responding, he just stared down at her, waiting for her facial expression to change as her temperament changed.
The next few days continued in a relatively similar manner. Some had taken notice of Attia's sudden wardrobe change, but only a select few were daring enough to comment on it. Finn was not included within them. Almost daily Council meetings were held, and the majority of the topics covered had something to do with Kingston, Scotts, Scotts' unknowing wife, or King Damien to the North. Keiro wanted to refuse to attend, but Attia still went to them, and when he grew bored enough, he'd wandered into them. Casper was absent more often than not.
He had suddenly become infatuated with one girl, and it was painfully clear she distracted him all hours of the day. The daughter of a Lord, she had been born into her place at Court, but nobody paid her any attention. Claudia and Attia knew she had suffered at the words and biting comments of the other women at Court, all of whom fell into one of two categories: women who had already been used and left behind by Casper, therefore jealous of the woman most recently on his arm, and the women whom had so far failed to catch his attention, therefore jealous of the woman who had caught his eye first.
Of course, between ten Council members, all of whom have an individual opinion, and the growing concerns of Finn as King and his overall effectiveness, Casper's romantic life was not so closely watched as it might've been otherwise. There had been a time when the King and his closest friends made an afternoon of watching Casper and the women he toyed with. Those had truly been entertaining days. Currently, as Finn, Claudia, Keiro, and Attia, sat at the end of the table listening to the Councilmen bicker amongst themselves, Finn longed for the days he chastised Claudia, Keiro, and Attia for partaking in bets. Of course, the way Keiro eyed Attia, seated across from him, Finn doubted Keiro was thinking of the same harmless innocent fun they had used to have.
"You're all driving me insane," Keiro finally said loudly as he groaned and leaned back in his chair. Attia laughed and grinned as she held his gaze. The men of Council had slowly turned to meet his gaze as well. "I thought we settled this already days ago."
"We are not all in agreement," Vega replied when nobody else did.
"Well, I don't really care," Keiro answered with a shrug. The honesty in his voice only added to the amusement Attia, Claudia, and Finn were undoubtedly taking from his outburst. "If it was up to me, we'd just march on down to the cells and kill them both right now."
"Never mind the fact they could have valuable information?" a Councilmen had seemed to decide to humor Keiro's direct, and perhaps premature, approach.
"And even if they told us, would you give them a lighter sentence?" Keiro replied as he turned to the man who had spoken. "Never mind he tried to kill Attia and we found letters exchanged with King Damien in both of their rooms in each of their own handwriting," Keiro added, speaking in a tone mocking that of the man questioning his approach. Keiro might not have wanted to admit it, but the direct approach that very well saved his life—as well as Finn's and Attia's—within Incarceron didn't work quite as well on the Outside.
"Of course, otherwise there's no motivation for him to tell us."
"Well, if you held a gun to his head, he'd like to live."
"I don't know firsthand what it was like Inside, but such tactics will not be used here, Your Grace," the man replied, his tone growing stronger and louder as he wholeheartedly objected to Keiro's view.
"Of course you don't," Keiro replied, keeping his smug smile in place and his tone lighthearted. Only Attia saw how the comment had really affected him. "I'm sure the only knife you use is at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, right?"
"It's view as uncivilized to just pull a weapon on anybody at any given moment."
"Opposed to drugging and faking the death of your pretty little Prince and trying to make Casper King? I don't know which part is more uncivilized, the actually drugging, or the fact you'd have had twenty little Caspers running around from twenty different women. And I wouldn't even be willing to say one of them would've been Claudia. She probably would've killed herself before that ever came to, because between him and every pregnant maid hand with a bastard prince, you really can't blame her."
"Are you finished?" Vega asked, hoping Keiro's rant would come to an end soon. He certainly had a way of telling the truth without twisting it too much and yet making it sound more entertaining than it actually was at the same time.
"I would not have committed suicide," Claudia objected and Keiro's grin had quickly shaped into a genuine smile. Of all the ridiculous things he'd managed to squeeze into a few short comments, the idea of suicide was all Claudia objected to.
"You're right," Keiro agreed as he nodded. "You're more homicidal in nature. Who'd have been first? Casper or one of the women?"
"Casper," Attia answered for her, and it was Claudia's turn to smile as she held back her laughter. Finn remained quiet throughout the banter that continued around him. As entertaining as it was, he did not want to appear so childish in front of Council. But he doubted that was how Council viewed the three seated on each side of him.
"Killing a King is a little harsh," Keiro pointed out as he shrugged. He held Attia's gaze but anything more than friendship between them was undetectable. Only Finn could see it, but of course, he was still looking too hard. "You could push him off a horse though," he added as he turned his gaze to Claudia. Though nobody in the room was at fault for what had happened to young Prince Giles, the conversation still managed to somehow mock them.