A/N: sorry for the wait, but i think its worth it. this back to the normal 4,000 words for a chapter, so hopefully it's good.

I can tell you that a lot of this is music theory (happen to be a really big band kid and theater kid) so it might be a little boring. other than that, please review and give me feedback! I really do appreciate the support and comments! enjoy this chapter!!

*THIS IS RATED M FOR MATURE CONENT IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE, DO NOT READ*

I thank them all for being able to share some advice and thoughts with us tonight. I, then, remind them that we are boarding the plane tomorrow at 9:30 am, so they need to be up and ready by 8:00 am so that way we can have one last meal at the palace together. I can tell that they aren't happy to leave, even if it is just to pack up the Singer home in Carolina and then fly back later that afternoon to move into the house Maxon bought for them.

May asked, "Can I go back into your office to finish the mural? I promise I'll be done soon!"

"Of course, but you have to take Officer Leger with you. Understand?"

She nods and runs off to find Aspen. I silently shake my head and laugh at her antics. She is something else, something else indeed. After that brief conversation with May, I am able to slip away from my family and sneak upstairs. My family is all staying towards the front of the hall on the second floor. So, the only two people who should be back this way are me and, hopefully very soon, Maxon.

When I get to my old room, I notice a guard. That's odd. There hasn't been a guard there since I was actually staying in this room.

He bows when he notices me, "Your Majesty, a note for you from King Maxon."

"Thank you, Officer Ryan. May I ask why you stationed out here, sir?"

"Unfortunately, I am unable to give that information to you."

"Oh and why is that?"

"King's request, Your Majesty."

"Hmm, is this room safe to enter?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Very well, then. Thank you, Officer Ryan, for your help."

"You're Welcome, Your Majesty."

I enter the room and close the door. Why in the world would there be a guard stationed outside of this room? I don't understand. And why is he not allowed to tell me because of Maxon? I am beyond confused. I fall back onto the bed, but pop back up right when I hear shuffling coming from the other room. Mary, Anne, and Lucy all appear from the bathroom. I squeal, "What in the world is going on?"

"Sorry to startle you, Your Majesty." Mary says, her curtsy along with Anne's and Lucy's follows, "King Maxon wanted to tell you to read his note before asking us questions."

I sigh, "Alright… thank you."

I stop fidgeting with the note he gave me and actually open up the paper.

It reads: My dearest Wife,

I know you wanted tonight to be like old times. I was quite happy to hear that come from that sweet mouth of yours earlier this morning, America. I had a brilliant idea and if you got this note, that means it is all going to plan. Per your request, my Dear, it will be just like old times. If you haven't already noticed, I have asked for a guard to be stationed outside your door. I have also asked Mary, Anne, and Lucy to all be ready for you to return. Just be patient, my Dear. All questions will be answered when you hear my knock, which shouldn't be too long from when you finish reading this. I love you and can't wait to spend tonight with you.

Your dearest Husband, Maxon Schreave

Of course this is all part of some game he wants to play! I roll my eyes at his note. He called me his dear twice in that silly thing. I sigh. Even though he called me his dear, I know I will save this silly note without a doubt in my mind.

"Mary, would you be willing to put this with the other letters from Maxon. But wait until he comes in to take care of it. I don't want him to be suspicious."

"Of course, Your Majesty." She grabs the note from my hand and shoves it into her apron pocket.

Just as she does, I hear a knock at the door. Anne opens the door, the slight amount of heat filling in her cheeks like normal.

"Your Majesty." Her curtsy is deep. Lucy and Mary follow her by curtsying as well, "We'll leave you two alone."

The scuffle out together. Maxon waltz in all smug looking.

I stand up and curtsy to him, "King Maxon, what a pleasure to make your company this evening."

He bows back to me. "My royal bride. How are you, Darling?"

I dropped my overly proper act that I maintained for only a few moments, "Would you like a joke response or an actual answer?"

"Surprise me."

"Well, I am quite surprised. You have managed to shock me beyond all belief this evening and it is only 8:30. But then you have also managed to make me slightly irritated. You see, I was expecting a quiet night of reminiscing and then going back to our room to continue… other activities, and you made it a much bigger deal. Did I enjoy the surprise? Yes. Was it irritating? Yes. The other thing is the nickname. My love, Darling, Lovely Wife, My Queen, My America, My Everything, Babe, Baby, Spouse, America, and America Schreave are all names that you could have called me. But, you had to call me the only one I cringe at being called." During my whole rant, my voice drips in sarcasm as I watch his face twitch up into a wide smile.

"Just like old times…"

"Ah, I see." I sit down on the bed and he leans against the desk casually, "So what other activities do you have planned for us?"

"Depends on what you would like to do. If I remember correctly, we would come up here and talk, so I was thinking we would do something different than that."

"Well, then what do you want to do?" I ask him.

"I want to hear you make music again. I keep thinking back to Kriss's birthday. That was the last time I heard you play, and I want to hear it again." He grabs my hand and looks at the calluses from playing violin for so many years, "I want to see you play with these hands and I want to hear the music that you make with these hands."

"I have a feeling that I can make that happen. But, I have an idea, too. I teach you to play either violin or piano. Maybe sometime you can show me how to take a good photo. We can learn each other's hobbies…"

He beams, "I would love that, America."

I stand up. My hands grab his and I look down at them. His wedding ring is gold, like mine, and it rests perfectly on his finger. It was like it was always meant to be there. That thought makes me smile.

My thoughts are soon interrupted by him pulling me out of the room. I grab onto his arm once we are out the door.

"So, I think we should get your camera and my violin, then we can go down to the Women's Room and hangout there. It should be empty, so we wouldn't have to worry about Marlee or my mom or anything. Does that sound like a good plan?" I ask him before we reach the stairwell.

"Sounds pretty good to me." He guides us up.

We stop in his office first. He turns on the light and quickly gets to getting his camera. I just look at his work space. Papers, folders, and pens are strewn across his desk. His work space is rather messy despite being so clean and put together. I notice that my bra from earlier is also on his desk. I blush, which he doesn't notice, thankfully. He grabs two cameras off of the shelf, placing both of them around his neck like a lanyard. My fingers lace into his and we leave, turning the light off as we go. We walked the short distance to my office. I let him guide me through the door of my office.

I spot Aspen first. He is standing right by the door, watching carefully. He is panicked, but relaxes and bows when he recognizes that it's just us. Then, I see my little sister. Her hair is pulled up in a large curly messy bun and she changed back into her paint clothes so she didn't ruin her dress from earlier. May looks to us, but quickly turns back to her mural. It's gorgeous. She is adding the final touches when we walk in, and I am in awe of what she has created. Along the bottom she painted piano keys. On the left side she painted music notes and a violin along with some sheet music. Then on the right, is the tiara with some additional jewels. Both sides have a bright blue background, but it is interrupted by what the middle holds. In the middle it says "Even as Queen, America Schreave is a Singer" in black paint and the background of the text matches my fiery locks of hair. She painted navy flowers along the top of the wall.

"May, it's gorgeous…" I walk towards it.

"Thanks, Ames! Think this does what you told me justice."

"It most definitely does. I love it!" I hugged her, not wanting to let go of her. I hear a click coming from the side of the room. I pull away from her. May and I both looked over to where we heard the sound. Maxon stands looking at the photo on one of his cameras. I tap my foot and his head pops up to meet my gaze. His cheeks turn a shade of pink when he realizes that he was caught, "Sorry, girls. I just thought that you both would want to remember this moment."

I walk over to him and kiss his cheek, "Of course, my love. Thank you."

"Anything for you, Darling. Let's get going, we don't want to stay up too late and disrupt the others." He offers his arm. I hold onto him like he is my life line.

May skips over to us, "What are you guys doing?"

"We are going to have a date, like we did during the Selection." I tell her, nuzzling into Maxon's arm.

"Awww, that's so cute. Why'd you need to come up here then?"

I squat down in my dress, "I'm gonna teach Maxon how to play and read music. Wish me luck, okay?"

"Oh, you're gonna need it." He butts in, "I'm not very talented."

I glare up at him, "You are too talented!"

"At what, America?"

"Picking a wife, of course!" I joined his level and kissed his cheek again.

"You got me there." We giggled slightly which made May sigh in what I assume is contentment.

May giggles along eventually, "If you two aren't perfect for each other then I don't know who is…"

I walk and grab my violin case and some simpler music, "Why thank you, May. I'll see you tomorrow morning. Be ready to fly back home, okay?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." She curtsies to us. I stick my tongue out at her.

I nod my head slightly to Aspen, and he bows again. We leave with our respected materials and we are off to the Women's room.

Maxon holds the door open for me while I turn on the light. I am slightly embarrassed by the current state of the room. Normally this room is very clean, but I haven't done a very good job at keeping my stuff organized for the maids to clean. There is half written sheet music on the piano and magasins skewed across the couch that I refuse to get rid of because of Celeste. I set down my violin and the sheet music I brought down from my office on one of the couches that is right by the door.

"Please, mind the mess. I haven't had time to clean up this space, and with the extra guest… well, let's just say that I haven't been able to maintain the usual state of the room."

"America, Darling, you don't have to clean up anything. That's why you have maids." He set his cameras down on one of the tables that doesn't have magasins on it.

I sigh. I start to clear up the sheet music off the piano, "I know, but I was raised differently than that. If I made a mess, I cleaned it up. Especially if it's something like this." I reference the sheet music.

"What is that?"

"Sheet music I was writing earlier. I've been trying to compose some things for someone I know and happen to love very much."

"Can I hear what you have?" He walks over and leans on the end of the grand piano.

"Sure." I set it on the stand, "I think this will be called 'It Was Only Ever Yours', but I haven't decided yet. Also, please don't judge too hard. It isn't done yet."

I sit down. I have to adjust my dress slightly, but once that is done, I rest my hands on the keys lightly. I inhale, exhale and begin to play. My fingers work effortlessly over the keys, playing in bright major keys for two thirds of the piece. The tempo is bright and lifted. It is a happy melody with lots of fast runs. There is an occasional minor chord, but for the most part it is all very positive. Everything is bright, everything is working out fine, but then at measure 90, there is a key change. The key becomes minor and the chords are dark and gloomy. The tempo is slow, and there are lots of long tones that don't sound perfectly right. It stays that way for what seems like forever, but it's only 20 measures. I stop playing after that. I haven't finished it, but I think it is going to go back to the bright positive melody that I had used in the beginning.

I look up from the keys, and Maxon looks star stuck. His mouth is gaping and his eyes are wide.

"What is it?" I ask.

"It was beautiful… 'It Was Only Ever Yours', referencing what I told you right after I got shot?"

I nod, "I wanted it to be like our story. It wasn't all bright and positive in the beginning, so there are a couple of minor chords to represent little hills we had to tackle. But when the key changes and becomes dark, it's right after you spent the night in my room and us getting caught with only our sleepwear on. This dark part is the part that scared me the most to put into music, because it's the part when I thought I had lost everything, the part when I thought I had lost you. That part is me getting caught in the morning after you left. It's you getting shot and me getting dragged away from you. It's me waiting in the safe room hoping that you are alive because I wasn't ready to lose you. It was me walking into the infirmary looking for you, but not seeing you and thinking that you had died. It… it was everything up until I was told that you were in your room, resting, after they attacked. It was everything up until I saw you…" I start to cry, "Saw you broken… on the bed… unable to get down on one knee to propose."

His arms envelope me, holding my shaking body. He hushes me down, "I know, Darling, I know. But look at where we are now? We are together and safe and, more importantly, we are happy. You did a beautiful job taking what we went through and putting it into music. I won't pretend to understand why things happened the way they did, but I wouldn't change any of it for the world, especially if it meant that I would get to hear that again when it is finished. I love you, America."

"I love you, too, Maxon." I nuzzle into his chest. He doesn't protest. His hand rubs absentminded circles on my back, the other is twirling my hair by my shoulder.

"And this music is truly beautiful. I know that I was joking around this morning, when I was poking fun at you, but I meant it when I said that you are talented. Can you play another piece, maybe on your violin?"

I look up at him, "Of course I can."

I kissed his cheek lightly. My body shifted and moved off the piano bench, my hand dragging along his shoulders as I walked towards my case. I pulled out my violin, and made sure that it was in tune. I picked out a rather moderate song and just let music move me. It was a slower song, full of sweet sultry notes and long holding tones. It also has a fair share of nice runs, but nothing like 'It Was Only Ever Yours'. It was quite peaceful to play. I put the violin back in the case and rejoined him on the piano bench.

"What was that one called, Darling?"

"It was another one I wrote. I call it 'Chocolate and Strawberry'."

His face contorts in thought, trying to decipher the meaning behind the name. He gave up and asked, "May I ask why?"

"It's named after my two favorite things in the palace: the strawberry tarts and your chocolate colored eyes."

"That's clever. And it's another beautiful piece of music."

"Thank you." I clear my throat, "So, let's get you started with some basic music. First, things first, hand placement and scales. The piano has a center key called 'middle C'. To find middle C, you look at the name on the piano and it should be the C closest to the first letter. So, on this piano it would be this one."

He presses down on it with his right index finger. "You have the hand position pretty close to what it actually is. Your thumb will go on middle C and the rest of your fingers hit every white key following that."

"Like this?" I look down at his hand, and it looks pretty good. His fingers are arched and they aren't laying flat, so he is doing very good so far.

I nod, "Yes, exactly. Your fingers are currently on the natural notes. The black keys are notes that have accidentals. So, your thumb is on C, but if you go up to the black key here," I press it with my finger lightly, "You'd be playing a C sharp, which is also called a D flat. They are the same note just called different names."

"That's confusing."

"It can be. The easiest way to remember it is when you go down from a note, you are playing the flat of that note, but if you go up, you play the sharp of that note."

"Okay. You said something about natural notes, but then you also said accidental notes, can you explain that more?"

"Yeah. So, the natural notes are the notes that when written will not have an accidental by them when in the key of C. So, if you have a blank key signature, then you will only play the white keys unless marked otherwise. Accidental notes are the notes that are a half step up or down from a note. That's where the sharps and flats came in. Those sharps and flats are the accidentals. When put next to a note, they change the pitch. Note names are easy, I promise. They go from A to G. So, you are on C. If you go up one white key, then you are on D. If you go up one more then you would play an E. If you went up again, you'd play an F and so on and so forth. When you go up from G, you play an A and then the cycle continues. Does that make sense?" He nods slowly. "If I'm going too fast, just let me know. A scale is from one octave to another. So if you were to play a C Major scale, you would play from one C to the next. Scales have 8 notes in them. A C major scale would be played C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and finally C again." I play the notes as I say them, using the same technique that he is going to need to play that.

"Can I try?"

"If you think you are ready, then yes."

He nods to me and tries. He tries so hard, but his finger technique isn't too good. I guess he can tell that I am cringing at it because he sighs, "I told you I'm not talented."

"You are learning. And I just loaded you with music theory, which didn't help. You'll get there. Do you want to teach me about your hobby now?"

"That would be much easier to do." He gets up and grabs his cameras. He meets me back at the bench, setting one down beside me and the other in his hands. Maxon's face is lightened with joy, "Okay, so there are only a few basic things you need to know about photography and then the rest comes with practice. First thing is how you want to take the picture. There are two typical positions, vertical and horizontal. If you take a vertical picture, you need to have balance in half. So, imagine two lines over a picture, on vertical and on horizontal, across the middle. For that to be balanced you try to maintain weight on each part of the lines. For horizontal it divides into thirds to be balanced. So, for that. Two lines going vertical over the image and one going horizontal. You try to keep either, all three boxes with equal weight, or push all the busy-ness to box, preferably on the edge of the picture."

"Okay, that's not too bad." I nod.

"Then, there is lighting. The best lighting is natural lighting at around 5 o'clock, that's golden hour. That lighting will make people look golden and glow. Natural lighting at around 10 or 11am and 1 or 2 pm is pretty good for bright natural lighting. You always try to keep the lighting in front of you, but the photographer can get some good shots with the light behind the model as well. It is just preference as to what the photographer wants to focus on. If you don't have a light source, you use the flash. Otherwise, there is no need to have it on."

"What's next?"

"Focus. You know sort of how to judge where the focus should be, but you can get the camera to focus on the background which would blur the foreground or you focus the foreground and blur the background. It's all photographers' choice. Here, let me show you what I mean. Pose pretty for me by the piano and I'll take some pictures to show you what I mean."

I nod to him. He pulls away from me and stands back. I place my hands lightly on the keys, and let them just skim the keys. I close my eyes, and feel each ivory key lightly fall under my touch. I hear the clicks, but don't bother to look at him.

"America, Darling, Can you tuck your hair behind your ear? I want to see your face, but you're doing great, Darling."

I touch the strands by my face back and go back to feeling the keys. I hear more clicks.

"Alright, Darling, you can open your eyes. You were doing great. Absolutely stunning!" He sits next to me and starts to go through the gallery, "So, this the balancing. See in this picture, you are in this part but the rest of the piano takes up the other two thirds of the screen?"

I nod, "So that's how you keep it balanced."

"Yep, exactly. And in the picture you split the attention half and half." It flips again to a different picture, "Here is a good photo that shows the focus. The background keys are blurred, but your hands and the keys by your hands are in focus and clear."

"I see. That's really cool, Maxon."

"Why don't you try?"

"Taking a picture of you?"

"Yeah. You'll do great. I just sit on the piano bench, messing with my camera, and you take the other one and snap a few pictures. Try to get the focus to change and take a few horizontal and a few vertical."

"If you have faith in me, then I'll do it." I take the camera and stand back. He sits on the bench, legs facing the door to leave. His posture is perfect, and his hands work silently on the camera in front of him. I take a few pictures, then I decide that he needs a few close ups of his hands. I slowly approach him, which makes him smile lightly. I crouch down in front of his left leg and try to focus on his left hand. I think I got it so I sat next to him on the bench and handed him the camera. He skims through the pictures. The anxiety to impress him sits on me like an elephant. He nods as the pictures change on the screen.

"Well, America, these are really good. They all look balanced and the focus on the ones of my hands is amazing. I'm very impressed."

I released a breath I didn't know I was holding in, "Thank you."

"I think this will conclude our lessons for tonight. I'm kind of tired and I want to spend the rest of the night in bed with my beautiful wife."

"Sounds good to me. Let's go!" I stand up and he follows. I grab his arm and one of his cameras for him and we begin the walk upstairs.