Santana stopped at the doorway to their bedroom and looked at the adorable image of her husband with their son Alexander sleeping on his chest while Isabela was currently curled up on his lap. She smiles at him when he finally notices that she's in the room. He had taken to being a father again as well as he'd taken to it the first time. Isabel on the other hand had taken time to adjust to the newest member of the family. They still weren't certain that they could leave them in the room without supervision. "Your father has summoned us again," she said finally slipping onto the bed with him, allowing him to transfer Alexander into her arms.
"Well, he can march upon this palace and bring me there himself," Charlie muttered rubbing Isabel's back. He was content, Isabel seemed to love this place and loved feeding the horses with him in the mornings. He had been happy here with his family, away from the politics, away from the constant bickering, and Lucas's attempts to constantly best him as a way to prove himself to their father who was now looking at him differently.
Santana rolled her eyes, "How many summons has he made?"
"Since we arrived? Six."
Santana narrowed her eyes, she had only been aware of two, "Charlie."
Charlie smiled, "I'm tired, I want to rest. The kingdom is safe and if it wasn't he'd send someone to inform me of the situation, they just want to see Alexander, I imagine."
Santana sighed, her husband was being childish, and while she was happy that he was trying to insulate them, she wanted to be queen. If her ideas were as good as she believed them to be the empire would only grow, and the people would have little reason to rise up. "We'll give it a few more days, and then we'll return. We've spent several months here already."
"You were recovering from birth," Charlie said defensively. "I was worried."
The smile on his face let her know that he was looking for a plausible excuse, she rolls her eyes. "Charlie it's nearly been a year, we can not be insulated from the nobles, or the people. Besides you're becoming like your father." Santana reached over to grip Charlie's love handles causing him to puff his cheeks clearly outraged by the action. She hadn't minded at all but she needed him to be motivated.
Charlie gently swats Santana's hand away, "Why can't we just stay here and raise the children in peace?"
"Because you promised that I would be queen, and I doubt your absence has made your father grow fonder. You are the hero who quelled the rebellion. You've never been more popular with the people Charlie. We need to turn that adoration into actual policy to make the empire stronger and so you don't have to go out and fight again."
Charlie frowned and watched as Isabel began to stir, Santana was more ambitious than he was. "We need to have a standing army. An army that would warn any other empire, to avoid us at all cost. These marauding bands were fine now but I realized it that we should have some sort of proper military."
Santana grimaced, "That's expensive—but I think I could make it work." It would slow down growth. She enjoyed when he contributed like this, it showed that he had some ideas and there were things that she didn't think about. A military of sorts would be important. They needed people truly loyal to the crown. "Okay."
"Okay?" Charlie repeats.
"I will leave matters of the military to you, I know nothing and I think you know better than I do on how to run and maintain a successful military force. All I know is that you're going to need generals. People that you trust. We do not want a version of Al Motta popping up down the line, with the force of our military."
Charlie nods, "I understand that."
Santana leans against his shoulder and watches as Isabel wakes up and looks up at her parents and smiles at them before scowling at the fact her brother was laying on her mother's chest and immediately makes a move to join him only to be pulled back by Charlie. "We've talked about this Isabel. You're his big sister, your job is to protect him."
"No!" Isabel insisted, shaking her head so hard that her messy hair fell into her face.
Charlie picked Isabel up, so that she was looking at him, "Isabel, when he gets bigger, you can totally boss him around. The perks of being first, but for now you need to take care of him. Okay?"
Isabel wrinkled her nose and pouted but nodded. "Horsy?"
"Yeah, we'll go see them after dinner and we can feed them carrots," Charlie said kissing her forehead.
Santana shook her head but smiled as Isabel smiled and nodded happily. She had realized that Isabel liked having the one on one time, without Alexander, and she would get used to them. "Be careful."
Isabel nods, and flops back on her father's chest curling up. Charlie sighed and rubbed her back and rocked her a bit. "We're going to need to fix their relationship. I know some of the nobles have had children and the servants generally have children around the grounds. Perhaps if she sees how they act with their younger siblings, she'll want to do that."
"Maybe, I would like to be able to leave them alone together." Santana sighs as Alexander's eyes snap open and his bottom lip trembles. "Shush, Mommy is here," Santana said gently kissing him on the forehead and rubbing his back.
"The joys of parenthood," Charlie said with a sigh, as Alexander began to scream. He holds his hand out in front of his son, just out of his reach and begins to do some sparkles which generally worked in soothing him but this time his son just kept crying.
Isabel scowled and moved towards her brother ready to hit him to make him stop when she gets pulled back by her father. "Daddy!"
"He's hungry," Santana said pulling away from Isabel before she could hit him again. "You can't hit people Isabel," she said with a sigh, getting up as she rocks him back and forth and heads to the door, to find the nearest servant. She smiles at him, "Can you fetch his nursemaid please?"
The servant nods quickly and turns and scampers away, and Santana sighs watching as Charlie tries to change Isabel's focus. "You're the one that insisted that a second child was a good idea."
Charlie snorted, of course this was his fault. "You had fun creating him. I gave you some of my best work."
"That was your best work? I've had better," Santana retorts watching as he sticks out his tongue. He was such a child. "We're not doing that again."
"At least until they're old enough—"
"No."
"Santana! They'll be lonely!"
"The children shouldn't outnumber the parents," Santana said firmly, rolling her eyes. She watches as Charlie puffs out his cheeks and gives her a look that is reminiscent of a sad puppy. "That's not going to work on me."
Charlie frowns and holds up Isabel she was adorable and he had a hard time not giving her everything she wanted, maybe she could be used to convince Santana, "Do you want a little sister?"
Isabel stares at her father before smacking him in the face. "No."
Santana snorts at this as the wet nurse appears, and she hands her son over, and motions for the chair so she could keep an eye on her.
