Surprisingly, she didn't feel normal to face him after what had happened last night. She supposed she would be fine but how wrong she was. As much she got flustered by his teasing before, it was ten time multiple of that. No man ever made her feel like this. If something like that supposed to happen in the future, that she knew will happen for sure, she had no idea how would she act. Gods, she was sure she would mess things up. She did feel nervous on her wedding day. But not like this. This was something else. It seemed like the next moment her heart would come out of her chest.
Get a grip on yourself and stop acting like a lovestruck teenager, she internally told herself, burying her face in the pillow.
"Are you alright, your majesty?"
Garack asked, little worried, seeing her flustered condition.
"Ah, sorry to worry you, "she instantly apologized and then further assured her, "I am feeling just fine."
"Are you sure?"
She asked again for confirmation.
"Yes,"She nodded, "I just need some fresh air, if that's possible." she requested.
"I'll have maids to make arrangements for you in the balcony."
"Thank you."
Soon enough, preparations were done in the balcony. With a shawl draped around her shoulder over the lounging robe she wore, she sat in the balcony breathing the fresh air and admiring the view. Her hair was settled down on her back waving like the strands of silk whenever the wind blowed.
It was kind of relief she won't need to wear any heavy dresses until she would be fully recovered. Anyway, she was getting used to wearing heavy clothes after the marriage. Before that, she had never thought she would ever able to do it. Well, if she had to marry someone else she must have caused some serious problems. But now that she thought about it, she was doing everything that needed to be done and what was expected of her. And the reason was him. He was so perfect, he was so good at everything he did that she didn't want anyone to look down on him just because of her. That's why she was doing everything in her power not to look as disgrace to him.
She passed her time alone for a little while, her thoughts filled with him until to her surprise haki and her brother came to join her for the breakfast. They needed to leave for alarecia in the afternoon as the crowning ceremony for the prince was upon them before their wedding, for which preparations would be starting soon.
"You didn't pick a fight with him, did you?" Anna asked in serious tone while she placed the cup of tea back on the table.
"No,"he simply stated, sipping his tea, "But, his nothing happened - calm attitude -enrages me."
She let out a chuckle at his statement and then changed the topic. "I wished I would be able to attend your crowning ceremony, but that doesn't seem possible now." she said feeling the disappointment
"That sure is unfortunate. But I hope to see you at attend our wedding." prince declared with a confidence.
"Of course. There's no way I'll miss it for anything in the world." she replied with assurance and excitement.
Their heart warming conversation continued for a long time before haki and prince left for alarecia with promise of meeting again soon.
The night fell silently and soothingly over the castle with everything running smoothly without any incident.
The second prince was in king's office giving the reports of his work to the king.
He was still surprised at what he witnessed last night. For the first time, he saw his brother so much irritated. And for the moment he had even assumed he would be receiving a punishment until he informed that there were some officials from the wilant sent by the queen mother haruto who wanted to have urgent talk with the king.
Well, he knew for the fact that his brother was meeting with his wife. But he couldn't help it. Even now he was still working, he didn't get any time to spend with his wife. And now zen was starting to feel guilty for disturbing him. He needed to do something.
"Aren't you working for a while, brother?" Zen wondered with a hint of worry in his voice.
"What are you suggesting, zen?" Izana asked calmly, adding further, "Abandon my work and go to rest?"
He didn't know what made zen suddenly worrying about him. It never happened before. He easily concluded, something was sure up in his little brother's mind.
Zen knew, it wasn't working. He needed to come up with something different.
"Actually, I met her majesty sometime ago. To me it felt like she seemed to had crying ."
Now, he had done it. He didn't know how did come up with it but he did.
Izana's hand immediately stopped which was signing the documents and he looked at his brother in haste.
And suddenly, zen felt like all the life from his body vaporizing. He breathed evenly when his brother didn't ask any details of his statement.
"You can go, zen."
Izana just ordered him and then he instantly left the office.
Initially, Izana had no plan to visit her today. He had his reasons. But it couldn't be helped now. Even he had suspicions about zen lying, he needed to check and make sure if it was true or not. He had to admit, after shirayuki came into his life, zen was becoming more daring in front him.
She was just had dinner and sitting on the sofa as maids came by for cleaning and picking up the plates from the table.
At the same time, the door of the room opened and she was greeted by figure of her husband entering inside.
"How are you feeling?"he inquired as he walked towards her.
"B-better."
She answered looking at him for an instant and then fixed her gaze on the empty table as the maids gone finishing their task while leaving two of them alone. She wasn't feeling prepared to face him.
He hadn't even said something teasable far from doing anything, but her cheeks were already tinted scarlet. He could tell, she was hoplessly nervous.
"Did you cry today?"
He asked in serious tone after sitting next to her.
"No, of course not!"
She exclaimed, shrugging off.
"I see."
He had expected it, and zen was the one to blame or maybe to thank.
He then remained silent without initiating any further conversation.
In truth, after pulling his little stunt last night, it felt like he was doing something against her wish. Like imposing himself on her. It was the subject he knew he had to encounter later in their marriage. It was definitely not his first concern, but there it was. Concern of not being loved by her.
She didn't like him or may be she hated him suited better. But now, slowly but eventually he was seeing her growing feelings for him.
But he couldn't just go and tell her he loved her, and shockingly to add for years. Well, for the fact he knew she was no fool who did not know it by now. She was rather clever. And the way he was showing concern about her, the way he was showing his vulnerable side to her, she had been concluded it by now. It was the unspoken truth between them.
As time passed and no one uttered single word, he finally decided to break the silence.
"Why did you want so desperately your brother to get marry to haki?" he suddenly queried to her surprise, while also creating a distraction from the thick tension growing by second.
In actuality, he wanted to ask this question for long time. Of course he knew her brother and haki loved each other. But it wasn't just that. He knew better. There was something else.
She looked at him, understanding the meaning of his question. She thought for a while on deciding whether or not she should tell him.
"You see..."she finally began calmly, "Brother never told me about this but eventually I found out."
He was listening to her with full attention, scrutinizing her every expression.
"Our mother never loved our father. She was forced to marry him. Maybe she loved someone else. From what I heard she never loved being in the castle. Despite the fact our father always tried his best to make her comfortable she still suffered living with him. She never considered me and brother as her children. She despised us and our father. And in the end she couldn't live the life fate had chosen for her."
She took a deep breath after finishing, and continued again, "That's why, I didn't want my brother and haki to face the same fate, to suffer like our mother did."
"I see."
He said absorbing the information she just gave him.
There was moment of silence before she spoke again, "It was really selfish and foolish of me thinking I could possibly try to bend the ways of fate and go against it. Even my intentions weren't to create problems for you or put you in the difficult situation, but I did. "
"It's all in the past."
He told her.
"That's right."
She understood that he didn't like to talk about anything that happened before.
But she was glad, atleast for once, he chose what he truly wanted.
"Izana..."
She called.
Instantly, his head snapped in her direction, looking straight into her eyes. It was the first time he had heard from her. Before this, she never called him jusy by his name.
"Thank you for believing in me. Not giving up on me." She smiled, a single tear escaped her left eye. "I'll always remain by your side, supporting you in every situation." she said gazing directly into his blue eyes, giving him full assurance, putting all of her trust into him.
His eyes widened at her words. He was stunned and secretly overwhelmed by her sudden declaration.
He then settled down his expression and a small and genuine smile appeared on his face. The smile she had never seen before. The smile that made her heart flutter hard inside her chest. The smile that made her crave to get to see more of him.
And before she could comprehend he closed the gap between them. His lips were on top of hers before she knew. The whole world seemed to frozen around her.
Her eyes closed automatically, relishing the moment.
All the feelings the words couldn't describe flooded inside. Emotions exploded, breathing stopped and heart beated loudly like there was no tomorrow.
It was not gentle, tender. He kissed her passionately, intimately, with full of love.
Nothing else mattered now. World disappeared from the sight.
He felt her hands digging into his shoulders, trying to regain her composure. Her nervousness started to dissipate, she kissed him with the same passion, same desire and same want he felt for her.
He never did say anything and always hid his true feelings but she could feel it now.
When he pulled away from her, they breathed out heavily, gasping for air. Their foreheads rested on one another as they stared into each other's eyes. Words weren't necessary. It was the unspoken truth between them. They could see it in their eyes.
Love
There was moment of silence before their lips found one another again. Delicately, he snugged his hands around her waist, pulling their bodies close. Her arms moved and placed around his neck with the fingers tangled up in his air.
They kissed each other more passionately and intimately, loosing themselves in the moment.
I hope you guys are very much happy with this chapter.
