A/N: I wrote this in response to a 1+5 prompt game and as you can see, I failed to play by the rules as this got a lot longer than the 5 sentences with which I was supposed to continue the first sentence given to me XD I posted this on Tumblr back in February already but wanted to archive it here as well. I'd love to hear what you think about this!

Marion heard the steps behind her back and then felt Oritel's presence and the warmth of his hand on hers, grounding her there and making her want to pull away at the same time for she wasn't in the mood for comfort, or for anything, really.

What she was in the mood for, she needed to have nothing whatsoever to do with Oritel; if she were to succumb to the grief threatening to swallow her whole and unleash the flames that she had sealed inside her and that were havocking her soul in retaliation, turning everything within a five-mile radius to ash in the process, she wouldn't want him anywhere near her.

The counselors, for their part, could burn if they didn't have the insight to flee for their lives in time.

Gold, however, wasn't flammable, which – before Oritel's hand – was the only reason Marion hadn't tried to scorch her own palace yet. The crown weighing on her head would only turn to liquid and cling on even tighter, making sure she'd never again forget the role she'd been raised to first and foremost fill. Everything else she was, came up short in comparison.

"Are you all right?"

Marion flipped her wrist so that she could grab Oritel's hand.

"As all right as I was this morning", she said, her words vague and her tone clipped both because she was cursing the unwritten rules of propriety still engraved into her even after everything she'd been through and because Oritel should've known better than to keep asking that stupid question he knew she'd never answer honestly outside their bedroom. He'd asked her the same before they'd gotten up that morning when she'd set her nightstand on fire for daring to host a piece of paper.

As if it hadn't been enough that the date had taunted her, the year at the top of the supposedly innocent calendar had felt like she'd thrown herself into Oritel's sword instead of inside it.

Turning to look at Oritel in alarm since none of it was his fault and he must have been hurting just as much as she was, and she should never have added to his pain when he'd only been looking to alleviate hers, Marion raised their hands to press a kiss against his thumb.

"I'm sorry."

Her apology was mostly mumbled into Oritel's chest as he'd reached to draw her into a hug before she'd gotten the first word out.

"It's all right. I know."

Biting her lower lip to keep herself from crying, Marion struggled against Oritel's embrace since, like his earlier touch, it soothed her heart but wasn't where she was supposed to be at the moment.

In theory, it shouldn't have been her in Oritel's arms. In practice, she shouldn't have been in Domino, stuck in endless meetings on the day the whole kingdom refused to acknowledge, as if pretending there wasn't anything special about it was any lesser an evil than remembering what had actually happened.

Marion had played her part if it had made it easier for her people, the wellbeing of her subjects always outweighing her own. But she knew they were wrong; pretending nothing was wrong was far more painful than addressing the situation properly would have been.

Especially since the cruel, callous universe had shown them the slightest ounce of mercy (not enough for anything to be fair but enough for Marion to feel grateful for it on most days). They wouldn't even have had a body to bury, and visiting a lake was better than visiting a grave.

She pushed herself away from Oritel, hiding her face behind a curtain of hair as she fought to get herself together before she'd need to get back to her meeting.

"Marion."

Even when she didn't want Oritel to see her, she looked up dutifully at the sound of her name.

"You should go."

Frowning, she opened her mouth to argue he was being ridiculous, but the tilt of his lips told her he knew what she was thinking already, and so he didn't let her interrupt him.

"I'll distract them, they won't even know you were gone", Oritel smirked conspiratorially before his tone softened. He tugged a curl behind her ear, his touch as gentle as his words, "Go. Give her a hug for me."

The conviction with which he spoke finally assured Marion it was something she could do. She was the queen, after all; the title gave her the right to embrace whichever of her other titles as she pleased.

Pressing a kiss to Oritel's cheek, she wiped hers free from the rogue tears and summoned her magic. It responded eagerly, nearly aggressively, as she channeled it into the image she was picturing in her head.

It was time to go wish her daughter a happy birthday.