"Kiss me, and you may see the stars. Love me and i will give them to you."
"So I talked to mother," Maxon began while we were sitting in a large chair on our balcony. "And she is going to talk to father about it."
"Really?" I asked while I listened to his steady heartbeat. He chuckled.
"Yes. Although I didn't say anything that they are already living in the palace."
"What did she thought about it?"
"She said she'd understand it and thought they are indeed punished enough. She thinks it is a good idea, actually. Everybody knows how close you and Marlee are and it would look good in the public eyes to see how they are doing and pardon them from their past."
I looked up at him. "So, you're saying we're actually making a chance over here?"
He smiled at me and entwined our fingers together. "That is indeed what I am saying," he said while he kissed me on the lips. He pulled back en looked back up at the stars again. I snuggled back and looked up at the stars, too.
"When is Kriss coming?" Maxon asked after a few minutes of silence.
"Monday," I answered. It was now Friday.
"And how long is she going to stay?"
"Two days. She has a busy agenda herself, why?"
"So that I know what's going on and won't be finding her in the front doors of the palace without warning." I grinned at this.
"You know what we need?" he asked.
"What?"
"We need a date night." I sat up at this to look at him. We hadn't had a real date since the Selection. Of course we did a lot of things together. I rolled my eyes.
"And how would that date look like?" I asked him. He sat up, too.
"You, me, tomorrow night at the football match."
"You mean watching the game on television in the theatre?" He shook his head.
"No, I mean that we are going to see the match in the stadium."
"Maxon, we can't go, security would never agree with it and we don't even have tickets!"
"Ahh, but that is where you're wrong. Security doesn't have to know about and being prince does have it perks, you know." I laughed at that. "Besides, when they find out that we're gone they can't really stop us because that would attract much attention, and we don't want that, do we?" he asked with a devious grin. I just shook my head at him.
"At what time is the match than?" I asked.
"The match begins at seven but you need to be there early. So we're going to stop working at four, that's usually the time meetings end anyway on a Saturday. Than we're going to change and head off to the match and we'll just eat dinner over there."
"But what if your father get's mad?"
"Let him, I'm not going to live my life in fear." I smiled.
"Sounds like a plan to me."
He grinned and captured his lips with my own.
The next day we stopped working at four o clock and said we would eat dinner by ourselves, which was true, in some way. We went to our rooms to dress casually. I gave Mary and Paige the night off and dressed myself with pants, which were dark blue with one single white stripe on both sides. I put on a white t-shirt and my hair in a loose bun. To complete the outfit u put on some white sneakers. I opened the adjoining doors to Maxon's room and found him tying his shoes. He stood up and came over to me.
He had on some jeans and a white t-shirt, too. You could really see his biceps. He put his hands on my waist. "Am I supposed to call you Mer now?" he asked.
"Yes, and you're Max."
"It has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" he teased. I laughed and pecked him on the lips.
"Are you sure the people won't recognize us?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"No, the people are just there to see the match and won't be paying any attention to us."
"Okay," I said.
"Come on. Let's go," Maxon said and he took my hands and lead us to the secret passageway. We snuck out of the palace without being seen by anyone and walked down the streets to the stadium. Our fingers where entwined together.
"You should wear t-shirts more often, that way I can admire your biceps more," I said.
He looked at me and grinned. "That so?"
"Yes." We entered the stadium and Maxon gave the tickets to the cashier. He didn't recognize us and we entered without trouble. I had never been to a football match before and the stadium was huge. There were so may seats and the field itself was huge too. And then there were places where you could get food. Maxon laughed at me and I just rolled my eyes.
"How about we go and grab some food before we're going to our seat?" he asked me. I nodded and we went to the food department. The people didn't even looked up at us while we walked by. It was a bit weird to think of that when usually we were the centerpiece of attention. It was nice that we weren't for a time.
"The people don't even recognize us," I whispered to Maxon. He smiled down at me.
"It's a good thing, isn't it?" I nodded. He bent down and pecked me on the lips. Then it was our turn to order something. We ordered two hotdogs and Maxon order two corn dogs, whatever that might be.
"I'm sorry," the cashier began. "But you two look a lot like out prince and princess."
I just started laughing. "Me? The Princess?" I turned to Maxon and he understood what I was doing. "Max, do you hear that?" I said while be both laughed. I turned my attention back to the cashier.
"You're clearly mistaken me by someone else. I don't even think the Prince and Princess would be allowed to go out of the palace without security," I said. A few people were looking at us but we just kept our attention to the cashier, who's name was Mark.
"I apologize," he said. "But I couldn't let the thought cross my mind."
"Sorry..." Maxon was looking at his name badge. "Mark, but we're just two people from town who are coming to see the game. Nothing special."
Mark gave us our food and Maxon paid. "I apologize again. Enjoy the game," he said to us and gave us our change. Maxon said he could keep it and we walked to our seats. Nobody was looking at us anymore and the game began.
"That was o close call," Maxon said.
"To close if you ask me," I answered.
"You handled it pretty good, you know."
"I think I was trained to handle situations like this, don't you think?" he laughed out loud at that and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "You do have to explain the rules to me, you know," I added.
"Anything for you, my dear," and so he began to explain it while the players were playing. We ate our food and having a good time. There were people taking pictures and then the kissing cam was reflected at us. I was shocked at first, but Maxon laughed and captured my lips. The Angeles team won and after the game ended we headed to go outside the stadium. While we were trying to push past the crowd, Maxon and I talked our way through.
"Did you enjoy it, Mer?" he asked with a grin. I rolled my eyes and took his hand.
"Of course I did. We should do this more often."
"I agree."
We were on the streets again and headed back to the palace. When we were in front of the gates Maxon opened a smaller door and we went through it. Now we were on the driveway and I had never had seen the palace from this point of view. It was just breathtaking. The trees with its flowers, the big fountain, the front off the steps...
"What is it?" Maxon asked when he saw me standing with my mouth probably open. I shook my head.
"Nothing. Its just... I have never seen our home from here and it's so beautiful," I answered. He just stood still and gaped at me.
"What?" I asked. He shook his head and walked to me to take my hands in his.
"You just called the palace home," he said full of awe.
"It is home," I said.
He smiled. "I know. It's just the first time I met you, you called the palace a golden cage. Now you're calling it home."
"Home is wherever you are, and that so happens to be the palace."
"I love you," he said and he closed the distance between our face and kissed my lips. Kissing Maxon would always give me butterflies, no matter how much we kissed. When I pooled away to take a breath we just looked at each other.
"I love you too," I told him. He wrapped his arm around my waist and we walked inside. When we were in his bedroom I kissed his lips and began to undo the buttons of his shirt. We both knew where this was going to lead to and we excepted it eagerly.
We both didn't do much on Sunday. I was reading a book in what we called the living room. It simply was one big room with several couches where you could lay down and stretch in. there was a television too and blankets and some stuff to decorate the room. There also was this one big mirror hung up to a wall. Then Maxon and Amberly came into the room and I looked up from my book. Maxon came to sit next to me and put his arm around my shoulders. Amberly sat across us.
"As you may know," Amberly began. "I have discussed the matter about Marlee and Carter with Clarkson and several of the advisers and we came to a decision." I held my breath. I didn't know they were having meetings about them. I looked at Maxon and I could see he didn't knew it either. We both looked back at Amberly.
"Manny advisers didn't like it but we came to the decision to let them live at the palace," I released my breath I didn't know I was holding. They were allowed to live here! Although they already did but she didn't know that. "It's your responsibility to find them and give them jobs here at the palace."
I practically attacked her into a hug and she was a bit surprised at first but then put her arms around. "Thank you," I whispered. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
"It wasn't easy, but it was worth it," she said while we just kept hugging. She pulled back and wiped away the tears on my cheeks. "Why are you crying, dear?" she asked with a laugh. It made me laugh too. Maxon was now sitting next to me and put an arm around my shoulders.
"I'm just so happy," was all I said. It was true after all. I kissed Amberly's cheek and leaned into Maxon. He placed a kiss atop of my head. Amberly placed a hand on my knee.
"Well, I'll just let you two leave so you can talk," she said as she stood up and walked out of the room. I looked at Maxon and he had this smile on his face.
"You really didn't know about this?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"No, I didn't. I think we should come up with an idea how we are going to tell them this, don't you think?" he asked. I just threw my arms around him and he was laying flat on the couch with me atop of him. He put his arms around me too and hold on to me tight.
"I love you," I told him. He kissed my head.
"I love you too, my darling."
That same day we had come up with a plan. We would let Carter and Marlee come at five o clock in the evening on Monday through the front doors. It was a really simple plan. Now we were heading towards their room. When we knocked on their door they were surprised to see us, but invited us over anyway.
"First of all," Maxon spoke. "I want to congratulate you both. I'm very happy you," he said with a bright smile on his face. He shook Carter his hand and hugged Marlee. Then their faces grew more seriously.
"What's wrong?" Marlee asked. Maxon and I didn't come often to them at the same time so she assumed there was something wrong.
"Nothing's wrong," I said. "I just thought you would like to know you're one of my personal maids from now on Monday."
Shock covered her face and Carter looked confused too. "What?" she asked.
"You heard me right. And Carter, for you, do you like your job as a gardener?" I asked.
"Wait," Marlee said. "Does that mean..." Maxon had put his arm around my waist and cut her off.
"Yes. You two are pardon from your past and are free to work here at the palace and be seen in public like anyone else."
It took a second for them to realize what we just had said before Carter swept Marlee off of her feet and spun her around and resting his hand on her stomach. "Thank you so much!" Carter said and he came over to hug Maxon and I. Next we hugged Marlee and told them what was happening and how it would proceed from now on. After an hour or so we left them and went to the gardens to sit on our bench.
I rested my head on Maxon his shoulder and he rested his head on mine. Our fingers were entwined together and there was a peaceful silence. I was so happy at the moment, nothing could ruin this moment.
"I can tel you're happy," Maxon said.
I smiled and I am sure he could hear it in my voice too when I replied. "I am. This weekend was full of amazing surprises and spontaneous activities and it couldn't get any better. And then there is you, of course," I added. His shoulders shook a bit because he laughed a bit.
"Good. For a second I thought you where forgetting me."
"I would never forget you, my Royal Husbandness." I closed the distance between our lips and kissed him full of passion. After what felt like forever we had to pull back for some air.
"What would you say if we would take a dive in the swimming pool after dinner?" he asked. I looked at him.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Have I told you how amazing you are?" I asked him.
"Not today," he replied.
"You're amazing."
"I know," I rolled my eyes at him. "But you're incredible, love."
"That so?"
"Mmhmh," he nodded. He looked at his watch, stood up and extended me his hand. I took it and together we walked to the dining room. After dinner he put on his swim trucks and I put on one of my bikinis. This weekend couldn't have gone any better.