"Kai, it's bedtime. Please stop fighting me," Empress An sighed, trying to put her squirmy son to bed.

No matter how much she attempted to ease him into his crib, he would still resist. The prince was only seven months old, but he was already quite fussy—and he hated bedtime. Kai whimpered, holding his hands out to his mother's face, anything to delay sleep.

"No, I've already read you three stories tonight. That's enough."

His little feet wouldn't stop kicking as he flopped down on the mattress. "Pa!"

An's gaze softened, and she took one of his tiny hands in her own. "You want your father, don't you?" She said softly.

"Pa! Pa!" Kai chirped, tearing his hands away from her and clapping them together. The empress smiled, and her son squirmed even more. "Pa..." he whined, growing impatient.

An rolled her eyes. "He's probably in his study, moping around like usual..." Her expression turned sad and downcast—a rare change from her usually sunny and cheerful demeanour. "You'll see him tomorrow."

Kai stopped moving, and little tears began to form in his eyes. "Pa?"

"Don't cry, honey..." An ran a hand through his fine black hair. "Tell you what. The sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you'll be with Papa, okay?"

The baby grabbed onto his mother's hand, sniffling.

"Goodnight, Kai. I love you," she said, planting a kiss on her son's forehead. With a last smile, she left the room as silently as she could, flicking off the light switch. As she closed the door, she could hear Kai babbling instead of his usual crying—much to her relief. He would tire himself out eventually.

As if they had a mind of their own, her fingers ran themselves through her long bangs—she found herself doing that a lot lately. It was one of her many nervous ticks, that had been very prevalent for the past month, ever since Rikan had come back from Luna.

Alone.

Well, not really alone. Torin had returned with him, as well as their two guards. An had wanted to join him, eager to finally see the mysterious country on the moon—that she had so often admired from the palace on Earth, the domes nothing but small dots on the surface. As soon as she had brought it up, though, Rikan nearly threw a fit, saying that it was dangerous and that he was only going because Saito made him. She usually trusted her husband's judgement, so she dropped the subject. Besides—she wasn't all too keen with leaving her young baby alone for a week.

Now, she was somewhat glad that she didn't come. Rikan had returned that day, storming off the ship—apparently Saito had an 'accident', and the lunar court had made them leave the morning after the queen's coronation, saying that the emperor would return in due time.

And return he did—but not alive.

Never, in the many years that they had been together, had she seen Rikan so furious. He had spent hours in his older brother's chambers, curled up on Saito's bed—kicking and screaming and swearing like a fiend. And that wasn't even the half of it. Two days after the funeral, he had been crowned emperor, taking his brother's place. The ceremony was quite smaller and much more private than the typical Eastern Commonwealth coronation—to give the country time to grieve, although Saito's death was rather downplayed. The populace believed that he had died by accident, a malfunction on the spaceship that the emperor was supposed to return to Earth on. In reality, though, there was no malfunction, and only Saito's body was on said ship—no one else.

For the past month since he had returned, the new emperor wouldn't even leave the palace. An grew worried quickly, not wanting a repeat of when his parents and eldest brother died. Rikan would rarely even speak to her or their son.

And she was quite fed up. Enough was enough.

"Rikan?" She tapped against the door to her husband's office, desperately hoping for a response. Like before, though, he never answered—so she let herself in.

The young emperor was hunched over his desk, muttering something incomprehensible under his breath. The office that he had claimed as his own always seemed to be far too extravagant to work in—three ornate tasseled lanterns were lined up on a red-and-gold ceiling, hand-painted with elegant dragons. A holographic fireplace was set into the wall to his left, and there was a sitting area with carved cypress furniture surrounded a miniature bar in the far corner. Silent videos of him and An shimmered from picture frames by the door, sometimes paired with flashes of the three brothers growing up, and sometimes all of them together, with their parents.

"Rikan, this is getting ridiculous."

He raised his head, turning to look at An, who had her hands on her hips. "What?"

"You and your moping. All of New Beijing is wondering if you're still alive, and the Prime Minister of the AU is still nagging me nonstop on when you'll be joining her and her family this spring."

Rikan groaned. "Let her know that I'll talk to her when I'm available. Right now, I'm very, very busy," he spat.

"Doing what? Trying to resuscitate your brother in your dreams?"

He set his cheek against his knuckles, obviously annoyed. "I don't need your snark."

"Rikan, your son has been wanting to see you for days—I'm tired of making excuses. You can't just stay in here forever. That won't change anything, and you know it." An tucked a lock of black hair behind her ear and sighed. "Look. I know you're upset, and I fully understand that. But this isn't you, Rikan. I know you well enough to say that this is more than you make it seem. Will you please talk to me?" She walked up to him, putting a soft hand on his shoulder, barely noticing as his fists clenched, hard.

"I'm going to kill them."

An's brow furrowed. "What?"

"I'm going to kill every single one of those goddamn Lunars, and I don't care if I wipe out their whole disgusting race," he spat, every one of his words full of pure hatred.

"Rikan..."

"No, An! Don't tell me that I don't know, that I'm just making assumptions! I know they're behind this! I KNOW!" He slammed his fist against the hard wood, making both An and the lamp on the desktop jump. "They killed him! They KILLED MY BROTHER!"

An covered her ears with her hands, cringing. "Please, stop shouting! You know it freaks me out," she whimpered.

"I told him! I warned him, but does he ever listen to me? NO!" Rikan went on, as if she hadn't spoken. "It was the same with Tsukune! The little runt brother doesn't know anything at all—his word is worth nothing!"

The empress sighed, shaking her head. "You don't know for sure..." Her voice wavered. "The court might be telling the truth—maybe it was just an accident."

Rikan stood suddenly, pushing his office chair back. "Do you know what they found in the autopsy?" He turned to her, his gaze smouldering. "A bullet. In his brain."

"But—"

He threw his hands up in the air. "How are you even still doubting it, An? He was murdered! Killed!" A growl escaped him as he bunched his hair in his fists—it was a habit that was quite common amongst all three brothers. "And I have a pretty good idea who did it," he muttered darkly.

"Who?"

Rikan's lips curled into a sneer. "That cursed princess that he had been fooling around with—I had warned him against her, but he was too obsessed with sucking her face. You should've seen them, An. She was clearly trying to get in his pants, like her kind are so good at doing."

"No need to be so vulgar," An sighed. "I get your point, but I still think that you're drawing to conclusions. To me, it's much more likely that the Lunar queen is behind all this. After all—she does have motive..."

Rikan rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm well aware that she's trying to sweep the commonwealth from under our feet. Who do you think half of my unread comms are from?" He pulled up his chair and sat back down, still fuming. "She was trying to forge a marriage alliance with Saito."

An's jaw dropped. "What."

"Yeah, that was my reaction too. He made me swear to keep it a secret while he dealt with her privately, but he's dead now, so it doesn't really matter, does it?" He chuckled softly. "At least I have one defence against her demands: I'm already married." Rikan turned to face her, a genuine smile on his face.

An blushed slightly, fiddling with the wedding band on her ring finger. "That's slightly comforting..."

"Yes, but it won't be for long. The witch will eventually find some other way to threaten us. Maybe with war, or..." He trailed off, and An could see his jaw tense.

"Or?" She wrapped her arms around her chest, feeling nervous. An was quite new to the world of politics, only having met Rikan three years ago—and even then, he wasn't really involved. As the third prince, he wasn't taught the ways of a ruler as much as his brothers. He never thought he would get the throne, so he slacked off quite a bit. An could tell that he was struggling, stressed—and although he would never admit it—afraid. He didn't really know how to deal with such a situation.

"She might go after Kai."

An snapped out of her thoughts, a look akin to shock on her face. "Kai? You don't mean that she'll..." The empress put a hand to her mouth. "She wouldn't do that, she can't do that! He's just a baby!"

"Well, as far as Queen Channary is concerned, morals and values are only for the," he made quotation marks, "simpleminded peasants." Rikan let out a long sigh. "As soon as we're out of the picture, she'll most likely reel him in with threats—or seduction."

An felt sick to her stomach, her disgust obvious. She couldn't bear to imagine Kai, no matter his age, with a woman who was old enough to be his mother.

"Scary, right?" Rikan said suddenly, making An jump. "But I swear, as long as I'm alive, she will never lay a finger on our son." In one swift motion, he stood and came next to his wife, taking her by surprise as he wrapped his arms around her waist. "I'm so sorry about the past month...I never meant to abandon you or Kai," he whispered in her ear, nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck.

An could hear the genuine sadness in his voice, and she took him into her embrace. "I understand, Rikan. I can't even begin to imagine how hard this must be for you—but I've dealt with loss, so I know how you feel," she sighed. "However, you can't go on like this. It's not just you and me anymore."

Rikan pulled away, close to tears. "I just...I want to avenge him, to make those," his lips curled into a sneer, "freaks understand that he was more than just a pawn. That he mattered."

"Rikan, he did matter. All of our people loved him, as they love you." An took his hand and fiddled with the matching wedding band on his finger. "Please, don't go messing with the Lunars. I fully agree with you—that they should pay, if one of them did indeed kill Saito—but you can't just go threatening war against them. They're so much more powerful than we are, and they would kill off our army before we could even leave the planet."

"I wasn't really thinking of war per se," he muttered.

She put a gentle hand on his cheek, her brown eyes glistening with tears. "It's not just us. There's our country, our people—and our son. They should always come first. You know the biggest rule in politics—never make it personal."

Rikan chuckled. "You remember that bit?"

An quirked an eyebrow. "I know a lot more than you think. Don't underestimate me just because I wasn't born a royal like you, Your Majesty."

The emperor took her in his arms and dipped her down, leaving her in the vulnerable position of teetering between him and the floor. An gasped. "I never have, darling," he smiled. "Stars, I love you..." He said as he gently kissed her cheek.

In a rare moment of boldness, An pulled his face away slightly and captured his lips with hers, pulling him closer as she deepened the kiss. Slowly, she came upright until they were both standing straight, with her slightly on her tiptoes to match his height.

They were both quite out of breath when they finally broke apart. Rikan grinned, and he rested his forehead against hers. "So, does that mean I'm forgiven?"

"No, not really. You're not off the hook yet," An giggled, her skin flushed. "That was just your birthday kiss."

Rikan pulled away slightly, putting his hands on her shoulders. "Birthday kiss?"

An rolled her eyes. "You forgot that it was your birthday today?" She asked, as if he were the most idiotic person she knew.

He ran a hand through his hair, incredulous. "I guess I did. How come none of the staff mentioned it?"

"Because you've been holed up in your cave all day, and the staff were too afraid of angering the troll," An replied playfully.

"Troll?" Rikan smirked. "I'm pretty sure that I'm a mighty dragon."

An let out an unladylike snort, poking his chest. "You wish."

A bout of silence fell upon them, as they both gazed out one of the large glass windows behind the large desk. From it, they could see the night sky—the stars faint because of all the light pollution. But the thing that caught their eye was the full moon, big and bright in the dark canvas of space. It sent a shiver up both of their spines.

"What is it like up there?" An asked, resting her head against his chest.

Rikan took a deep breath. "At first glance, it's mesmerizing. You can't look away once you set your eye on one of those gleaming domes. It's the most beautiful place in the universe, full of gorgeous, perfect people."

"Is it really that amazing?"

He ran a hand around her torso, pulling her closer to him. "Yes," he breathed, blinking once. "But it's also the most ugly, terrible and terrifying place you could ever imagine."