A/N: I seem to be fond of flashback and fast forwarding...
Hector sat comfortably in his chair with a content smile. It's a beautiful morning and the sun filtered into the royal apartments gently. He watched his wife play teach their daughter of two years to walk.
He never really had given it a thought that he'd really end up with the oh-so-lovable Master Tactician.
He thought that, when she left a day after his coronation two years back, means he'll be a bachelor forever. Or if some little princess somewhere and want to have an alliance then maybe that would have ended his bachelorship...
Imagine his surprise when the Master Tactician came storming into Castle Ostia two months after her departure, with Matthew and Serra tagging along behind her.
With a forced marriage proposal.
Evidently, he managed to impregnate her during that night when they got dinner together. He should have known better that she's not really suited for drinking too much. She tends to lose control of her wits. Not that he minds though.
It's no wonder she hates alchoholic beverages to the extent it's almost sin to think of one.
"What are you grinning stupidly about, Hector?" Saei said as she looked up at him. Her hair got longer, which she kept up with the barette Matthew picked up for her two years back. She also wears the earrings that once belongs to Hector's mother. Her simple gown of sable hue apparently made her look more regal than any lady out there that's bedecked with a lot of ornate clothes and accessories. Matthew's right, she must have come from some royal family.
"Nothing." Hector said flippantly. "I still can't get over the fact how lucky I am to get wed to the Master Tactician the Kingdoms of Bern and Etruria seeks."
Saei looked at him coolly, steering her daughter to walk towards Hector.
"I would still be abroad, sightseeing, if not for some little lordling I know took my innocence and managed to get me bear his child in one single stroke."
"Don't say that as if you really hate it." Hector said in a pained voice. He scooped up their daughter and gave her a hearty kiss. She giggled and played with his short beard. He knows very well that Saei hates men with beard.
That's why he kept his beard. And that's how much he adores her.
Hector looked up at his wife.
"You do love me, do you?"
"But of course dear. What made you think that I don't?"
"By the way you act, you seem to detest me. Because of this...accident."
"Don't call Lilina 'accident'." Saei said quietly. "Even though she really is."
"Okay okay...don't start throwing things at me."
Lilina, who had been busy playing with her father's beard, finally got annoyed for he doesn't pay attention to her and tugged at it.
Hard.
Hector obviously winced. Lilina only gave him a hearty laugh.
"Father~! Beard~!" she said in her baby talk. She had started talking some weeks back, and Hector remembers how emotional Saei was.
Women. They tend to be overly emotional over such stuff. But then again, he was quite happy that she had started talking. He was getting sick of her just staring at him.
"Yes dear." Hector said. "Just don't pull on my beard like that."
Saei chuckled. "It seems like our little princess shares my distaste for beards."
"She did came from your womb." Hector accused. Saei smiled at him and walked over to the window and looked out at the intertwined oak tree. For some reason she's so fond of that tree, since it has knowledge of how Roland, one of the Eight Heroes, lived and died.
"Oh that's just lovely." she wistfully said suddenly.
"What is?"
"Those two lovebirds at the tree." she said. "He just proposed to her."
"How can you know if it's a boy or a girl?" And how can she know how a bird proposes to another?
"Hector, don't you have any sense of imagination?"
"When things need it." Hector said defensively. Surely she knows how hard it is to rule Ostia, along with the rest of Lycia. He always has to think how the other countries, as well as the Lycians, around them will act to something petty everyday. He'd like to avoid war, may it be civil or an all out one.
He saw her heave a great sigh. "I'd give anything I have to have a decent marriage proposal."
"What for?" Hector said blankly as he set Lilina down and let her walk towards her mother. "We're already married."
"I know that." Saei snapped. "But it's the thing I've always looked forward to. Not the wedding or married life itself." She sniffed as she picked up Lilina and cuddled her.
"What's so special about marriage proposal anyway?"
"Hector, sometimes you're the most dense person I have ever met. Trust my bad luck on that." Saei said scathingly.
Hector looked at her blankly. "Oh I get it. You've been digging yourself a grave in my mother's collection of romance books in the library."
Saei gave him a hurt look. "So what if I am? I AM a woman after all. And every woman is entitled to a little pampering from their spouses."
Yep. She'd been reading too much. "I know that you're a woman, Saei. You were the one who got pregnant with Lilina, not me."
"Hector, you are so hopeless!" Saei said indignantly. Lilina turned her innocent blue eyes towards her father, as if asking "Why are you making mother distress?"
Saei set Lilina down and stormed out of the room. Hector rolled his eyes and went to pick up Lilina.
"What got into your mother?" he demanded to the innocent child. In response, Lilina tugged on his short beard again.
Saei found herself in the throne room, where Armads hung above the throne. Sometimes, she wonders what with Lycians and their wanting to display a family heirloom or their favorite weapon above their heads?
Didn't they realize it's hazardous, especially if there's an earthquake?
Saei shook her head. She'll never understand Lycians. She looked up straight at Armads and Athos's words came flowing back to her, though only vaguely. It's about Hector's death.
"An interlude to something much greater." she muttered. Even though Athos had told her that her duties as a guardian is over, she still feels that she's missing something.
She knew, at the back of her mind, that putting Zephiel on the throne is something bad for their future.
She never really liked him anyways. But then again, she's not even fond of Desmond.
She scowled at Armads lightly, as if the thing offends her in a way. Saei turned her back on it and went to the library to read more books to get dark and depressing thoughts out of her brain.
No. Not romance books. It leans more to the Academic side. Lilina will be needing her first tutoring before Saei hands the authority to an old grumpy man. Lycians really like to lean onto the elderly don't they?
Matthew slipped into Hector's study later that afternoon and handed an envelope to his liege.
"So, anything new?" Hector said as he opened the envelope and read its content.
"Some vague informations." Matthew shrugged. "Since the Black Fang aren't functioning anymore, it's hard to track those people who are close to the Reed Family."
"Hrm..." Hector mumbled as he read through the spidery script.
"Why don't you just go ask Saei about it, Lord Hector?" Matthew said. "That will save us some time."
"You know how evasive she is when it comes to her past."
"You ARE her husband. Surely you're entitled to know her past."
"Matthew, I never really liked asserting authority over her."
"I didn't know you were...submissive, milord." Matthew smirked as he slinked away. "Honestly, just ask her. And oh, I think you should give her a nice marriage proposal. That might become your advantage to know her past."
Hector scowled. What kind of a Marquess is he if his subjects lecture him and make fun of him that way? In either ways, he might as well try asking her.
"I thought you'd never ask." Saei said as she nursed Lilina that night. Hector pointed out before that Lilina is old enough to stop breast feeding, but Saei never really listened to him. "I've been wondering how long it will take you to stop bullying Matthew to sniff out informations about my past."
Hector tried to control his tongue from unleashing a lot of curses. So all this time, she had been waiting for him to ask?
"But first there's something I'd like you to do." Saei said as she put down the sleeping Lilina onto her small bed and closing up her blouse. Hector rolled his eyes. Expect that from the Master Tactician. She won't give any information away for free. Sometimes, Hector wonders what her nationality really is, since the information he got doesn't say so.
"What?" he asked tersely.
"I want my marriage proposal." Saei replied, looking at him haughtily. "By the oak tree, under a clear crescent moon."
"You're really reading too much of my mother's books." Hector said. "And we don't have a crescent moon tonight, love. We have a half moon."
"Then you have to wait until I get my marriage proposal." With that, she went to their bed.
Hector cursed inside his head. Sometimes, he wish she's back in her old ways, where she picks on him, her nerdy talk about warfare and such. Though he also love, and prefer, the way she is right now since hearing a woman barking out military commands set his teeth on edge...
He slipped under the covers and wrapped his arms around her in a warm embrace. Saei snuggled up to him and kissed him full on the lips.
"You're accumulating some fats." Hector noted as he patted her bottom. Saei scowled at him.
A/N: I thought I was able to finish it here. Guess I'm wrong. Lengthy isn't it, though?