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Finn, Attia, and Claudia were first to arrive in the Council meeting hall, given they were already awake. Each carried a cup of coffee, hoping the liquid caffeine would keep them going long enough, especially since the negotiations that day would become real opposed to all the pretending they'd been doing about a marriage between John and Avery. The three sat at the table quietly as they drank their coffee, looking up only when John and Victoria walked into the room with a few other Council members. The Council members went to the far side of the room as they usually did but Victoria lingered with John as he moved to his seat next to his mother.
"Victoria," Finn said, half surprised, until he recalled that little Finn had told them she'd come. "What brings you out of John's room all of sudden?"
"Nothing," she answered, her voice higher than usual as she sat in the seat next to John. "Does anybody sit here?"
"No," Claudia replied as she narrowed her eyes at the girl.
"Have I missed anything lately?" she asked as she turned to Claudia, then to Finn, and finally Attia. John just stared forward as he stayed out of the interaction between Victoria and his parents.
"Can I see your hand, Victoria?" Claudia asked suddenly. Victoria swallowed and nodded as she handed over her left hand, which Claudia motioned away. "Your other hand, Lady Victoria."
"Oh," Victoria said, her lips pulling up into a wide smile as she leaned over John to hold out her right hand. Claudia took Victoria's hand as she stared down at the sparkling diamond ring on her ring finger. Finn rose an eyebrow as he stared at the ring then peered up at Victoria, then John.
"Too bad it's not on your other hand," Finn commented, though he wasn't fooled by Victoria's ruse.
"Where do you think it's supposed to be?" Victoria answered and Claudia laughed as she released Victoria's hand. "Somebody wouldn't let me leave the room with it on properly."
"What are we supposed to be pretending?" John asked her as he turned to meet her gaze.
"I could just pretend I'm marrying someone else," Victoria said as she started to pull the ring off her right hand, but John stopped her with his hand over hers.
"Don't," he told her simply. She laughed at him and dared to press a kiss to his cheek as she pushed the ring back down her fingers. "And hold it together for the meeting. You look like a-"
"A what?" she questioned before he could finish.
"You look great," John answered, aware she'd stopped him for his own good. Victoria nodded at his answered as she turned to look at Attia, who'd only laughed as she smiled at the pair. "So how much longer do we have of this?" he asked as he turned to his parents.
"Not that long after today, hopefully," Finn answered. "You chose a good day, Victoria, to come back."
"Why's that?" Victoria asked as she turned to Finn as well. Before he could answer, the rest of council filed into the room followed by King Logan, Queen Abigail, and their advisors and guards. After they took their seats, Attia had the two seats beside her cleared for Finn and Avery when they stepped into the room next and sat down, Finn beside his mother, Avery next to him.
Victoria and John stared across the table at Finn and Avery, neither sure what exactly had happened that would result in the two of them attending a Council meeting. King Logan and Queen Abigail were just as surprised as they looked to their daughter then to King Finn for an explanation.
"John isn't going to marry Avery," Finn announced simply as he stared across the table at King Logan. "We've come up with something else to solidify our alliance, if you'll hear it."
John turned his father in shock, but Finn, Claudia, and Attia stared across at the royals on the other side of the table. King Logan's eyes narrowed as he glanced over at his daughter, then at Attia before he met Finn's gaze once more. "What exactly did you have in mind?"
"A marriage of another kind," Finn answered, careful to keep his voice even and his words diplomatic. "Marrying her to someone else."
"Who?" King Logan demanded, ignoring the whispers of his advisors behind him. "And for what reason?"
"We'd like to marry her to someone here to keep our alliance, but we don't want her on the throne immediately. Instead, we'll marry her to who's second in line for the throne as of this morning," Finn answered. He could feel King Logan getting drawn in by the appeal. Of course, he hadn't actually asked Attia if she was willing to remove herself from the line of succession, but he assumed she'd have no real objection to it. "She'll stay Princess of Mallery, become High Duchess in her time, and perhaps even Queen if it came to it that John has no successors. And he's not married, so at the present it's a possibility."
"And in addition, we'll offer you military, political, and economical support for whoever you choose as your successor in Mallery," Attia added, pulling King Logan's gaze to her. "We don't care who you want on your throne, but we'll support them in exchange for your daughter's marriage here."
The room went silent. The Council meeting had taken a turn it'd never had before, and nobody was sure what to say. The idea of Princess Avery marrying someone else hadn't occurred to anybody, and the idea was so new that nobody had an opinion on it just yet. King Logan put up his hand to stop his advisors from whispering in his ear, and then stared across the room at Finn as though measuring up the other King. Eventually, King Logan looked to Attia, then finally to little Finn. His eyes narrowed at the young man, but he held his ground and endured the stare. He tried not to let the feel of Avery's hand on his leg beneath the table affect him, and he hoped nobody could hear his heart beating too fast against his chest.
"King Logan?" Finn called from the end of the table and pulled the other's King's attention to him. "Have you any thoughts on it?"
"No," King Logan answered harshly. "She's a Princess, not a Duchess, and I won't have you reducing her that way."
"We're the one's reducing her?" Attia questioned and King Logan's gaze shifted then to her. "You're the one that traveled all this way to trade her like cattle."
"Attia!" Finn yelled as King Logan stood up, his anger having gotten the best of him.
"She's my daughter, and she will not be compared to cattle! Nor will she marry your bastard son!"
"Get the hell out of Court, then," Attia told him sharply. "She's not marring John, that's already been determined. She can marry him, or you can take her back and explain to all of your barons and dukes and lords why you've got one lousy unmarried daughter to inherit your throne," Attia told him sharply, ignoring the looks she was getting from all angles of the room. While everyone thought her comments had ruined the chance of making an agreement, King Logan actually paused as he thought through Attia's comment.
"We're eliminating her as your problem in your succession," Attia rephrased, her voice still hard and cold. "You don't have to give your throne to your nephews if you don't want to."
"How do you know about them?" King Logan demanded and Attia scoffed as she rolled her eyes.
"You think we don't have spies?" Attia asked, the half lie slipping off her tongue easily. "Don't you remember our little problem last time you were here? We didn't want to accidently kill anymore of your stupid soldiers, so we were just making sure they were waiting their turn to step into our lands."
King Logan's face flashed instantly, but he controlled his response when he heard whatever his advisor had to say in his ear. He drew in a deep breath before he plopped back down in his chair, his gaze cold and focused solely on Attia. "What about my people?"
"Not our problem," Attia answered. "We'll protect your successor but we won't run any political campaigns for them."
"Even if I chose one my sons?" King Logan asked as he narrowed his eyes briefly at Attia.
"Oh, my son is a bastard but yours can inherit a throne?" Attia snapped back at him. He didn't appreciate the comment, but he said nothing in response to it directly.
"Well so can yours apparently," King Logan replied and Attia smirked at the small victory. "Why do you want her?"
"She's noble," Attia answered easily as though that question hadn't been the one she and Finn had struggled to think of an answer to previously. "Why would I have my son marry anything less than the best?"
"So this is all your doing?"
"Would it offend you if it was?" Attia asked.
"Will you turn my daughter into some bitter and sarcastic bitch like you?"
"Would you even care?"
King Logan stood up again and Attia matched the movement. She held his gaze until he finally turned away and stormed out of the room. His advisors struggled to keep pace with him while his guards were able to quite easily. Queen Abigail lingered at the table, her guards staying in the room with her as Attia sat back down and turned slowly to Finn and Claudia who stared at her.
"We weren't going to get anywhere going your way," Attia said defensively and Finn rolled his eyes as he sighed. "Besides, he's just mad that I talked to him. We'll come around."
"And when he doesn't?" Finn asked but Attia ignored the comment. The two turned forward when they heard the sound of Queen Abigail's chair scraping the floor when she pushed it back as she stood. She met each of their gazes before she turned to look at her daughter, who was understandably a bit overwhelmed after the meeting.
"I know what you're doing, Lady Attia," Queen Abigail said as she shifted her eyes to little Finn and smiled at him before she met Attia's gaze once more. "I wish it could've been me to do such a thing for my own daughter," she said rather vaguely before she turned and left the room, her guards following behind her.
"What do we do, Attia?" King Finn asked her as she stood up. She turned down to look at him, but she said nothing. She met Claudia's gaze for a moment, then her son's before she started towards the door.
"Don't do anything. Just stall them," Attia answered before she left the room and disappear around the corner.
"Stall until when?" Finn called after her but she was already gone and if she heard, she didn't answer. Finn groaned as he leaned back in his chair. Claudia touched his shoulder before she leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. "Is Council still here?" he asked, too lazy to turn around and check himself.
"Yes," Claudia answered, and Finn nodded as he lifted his hand and motioned them over to the table.
"Good, we'll vote on Victoria now."
"Vote?" Victoria repeated, and Finn turned his gaze to her.
"You do have to have Council's approval, you know," he told her just as all of Council finished filling in all the seats. Turning towards the rest of the table, including little Finn and Avery, but mostly ignoring them, he felt Claudia slip her hand into his. "Votes in favor of Victoria marrying John," he said simply, deciding to skip over all the formalities. Many of the Council members looked over at John and Victoria with wide congratulatory smiles as Victoria moved her ring over from her right hand to her left. Slowly, all hands around the table went up, including little Finn, who wasn't officially part of Council but still granted a seat at the table whenever he pleased. "Perfect," Finn said as he stood up and walked around the table to John. "Congratulations," he said as John stood up and accepted the hug from his father.
Claudia stood as well and hugged Victoria, the two admiring the ring before Claudia hugged John as well. Victoria all but threw her arms around Finn in her excitement, and he laughed as he hugged her. He'd known for some time John had intentions to marry her, but it was still exciting nonetheless after it had become official. After Claudia pulled away from her son to return to her husband's side, Victoria put her arms around John's neck and hugged him tightly.
"You could've waited, you know," Finn commented as Victoria released John's neck and the two of them turned back to him. He was obviously thrilled at their news. "Until all of this other stuff blew over."
"I was planning on that," John replied as he stared at his father. "She found it and it's not like I could take it back from her and hide it again."
"You had a shitty hiding spot, John," Victoria said and John rolled his eyes as he turned down to her.
"It was a perfectly fine hiding spot, if you hadn't gone riffling through my stuff because you basically moved in," he replied sharply and Victoria held his gaze, her eyes narrowed. Both, however, were smiling and unable to hide it even during their pretend half-fights.
"I wasn't rifling," Victoria said defensively. And if you wanted to wait for all this to blow over, you should've waited to buy it."
"I've had the damn thing since-" John started then stopped himself. Victoria rose her eyebrow at him as she took a half step towards him.
"Since when?"
"Since I bought it," John answered, earning muffled snickers from around the room. The scene wasn't exactly new between John and Victoria. She could smell a cover-up from miles away and the Prince's were any different.
"Bought it when?" Victoria asked.
"Tread carefully, John," little Finn called out from the other side of the room. Victoria's gaze shifted to him but he just stared at her. "That look isn't getting anything out of me. I'm not having sex with you." Victoria rolled her eyes as she turned her attention back to John.
"How long have you had the ring?"
"I don't know," John said with a shrug. "Like… six…"
"Weeks?" Victoria pressed, in disbelief.
"Months," John answered softly.
"Months?"Victoria repeated as she started at him. "We could be married right now, John, if you'd asked me six months ago. And none of this Princess stuff would've happened."
"But then Finn wouldn't be so happy," John said as he motioned to Finn behind him without actually looking. "So, you know, sometimes you have to sacrifice your own happiness for him."
Victoria stared at John, her lips pulling up in a smile at his cover up. She let out a scoff of a laugh before she hugged him again and let him even pull her feet of the ground in his embrace. "I want the wedding to be blue and white."
"Ok," John answered as he laughed and pressed kisses to her forehead and cheeks. "Whatever you want," he told her as they separated and started to walk out of the Council meeting hall without looking at anybody else.
"And lilies," she said as she peered up at him.
"We'll have them shipped in," John replied as he pulled open the door and let Victoria walk out under his arm. In the hallway, she spun around to face him again.
"And you and Finn and Chase and Chris will all where the same style jacket with your ties blue and your shirts white," she explained and John only nodded along as he slipped his arm around her shoulders and walked with her down the hallway.
"Alright," Finn said with a heavy sigh as he turned his head to Princess Avery and his nephew. "You might want to clear out of here for a while, but don't go too far. I have to go entertain her father until your mother finishes whatever she's working on."
"You know what it is, don't you?" little Finn replied as he stood up and held his namesake's gaze. "You know what she's going to do." Finn and Claudia looked at him, but neither said anything as they started towards the door and left without providing him an answer.
