A

Adamant

When she wasn't even past her fourth month of pregnancy with their first child, Horace put his foot down and started tightened the noose on her favourite past times. Not to say he was a cold-hearted man, but that he severely worried about her safety, especially since Crown Princess Cassandra was prone to having dangerous and athletic hobbies.

Her sabre practise immediately stopped when she found she was pregnant, as well as long visits to the ends of Araluen.

Cassie herself was hardly a pushover and was currently terribly hormonal and prone to being easily provoked, (and Cassie angry is quite a sight.) But she found more and more that her Prince husband was just if not more, stubborn than she.

And now, she only wanted to get some air, but a simple walk around her gardens wouldn't suffice. Cassie longed for the air of the plains surrounding her Castle and the feel of her horse beneath her as they ran hard and fast for a leisurely gallop.

But Horace had lock-down on her and the guards very reluctantly barred her way to the stables.

The problem with them marrying now gave him almost equal status to her, and so she couldn't simply overrule him.

But Cassie was smart, and resourceful.

She believed she was more stubborn and determined to win out in the end, and show her reluctant husband that until she became so bit she could only waddle around, she was just as agile as she used to be.

Cassandra marched towards one of Horace's many offices and let herself in, with the head physician of Castle Araluen behind her.

"Here we are dear, a statement from my physician himself, to tell you that I am more than capable of going for an afternoon ride." She announced triumphantly, her face beaming with success.

Horace seemed to whither under her gaze as she strode from the room and went to get her things ready.

However when she reached the stables the guards still barred her way.

"I'm sorry your highness, but we have orders to keep you away from your horse." The captain told her in a subdued tone.

"Orders?" She asked, her tone rising to a shrill. "Whose orders would they be?"

The captain shuffled his feet for a few moments before answering her. "The... er… King himself issued the orders, your highness."

And when Cassie made her way back to her husband she found him seated in his office talking animatedly to her father, King Duncan.

His expression was just a trifle too smug.

It was then that Cassandra discovered who was more adamant than the other.

Ambiguous

They had been spending a lot of time together lately, Cassie reflected.

It seemed whenever she woke up, had her morning meal and dressed for the day, he was there for whatever reason. And she found she really didn't mind the extra attention she was getting. After all he was one of her closest friends.

And yet whenever she glanced at him shyly, or from the corner of her eye, the expression he wore was always masked.

It was like this whole spending-extra time-together-thing was merely just that, two friends enjoying each other's company.

She had hoped that he might give her a small hint, one to tell her that her own affections weren't being wasted on him, that perhaps they had a future. But Horace was simply too ambiguous.

And when she turned away to return to whatever they had been doing, Horace allowed a small smile to spread across his face.

Aura

And when she was in his arms he felt like everything in the world was right. The way she held his hand and let her head fall onto his chest, like they simply fit into place, as if they were made for each other. And when she smiled and laughed he felt there couldn't be anything brighter in the world than the aura she gave off.