I am so sorry for the confusion caused earlier by posting the wrong chapter. This is the real chapter 7. Thanks so much to the person who pointed it out, your name is escaping me. Anyway, this chapter is skipping ahead to a few weeks before the wedding. this is just a little insight to one of America's first big shindigs she had to plan.

"The real power of a man is in the size of the smile of the woman sitting next to him."

I collapsed on Maxon's bed, letting my feet dangle off the edge. "Tell me again why we didn't elope?" I asked as I stared up at the ceiling.

He laughed from the bathroom and I could just picture him shaking his head. "Because," he began, walking out and flipping the light off, "I think there would be a hundred or so of very disappointed people." He lay down on the bed next to me, leaning on his elbow.

I looked over at him. "I'm so tired," I groaned, putting a hand to my mouth to cover my yawn. Fitz jumped up on to the bed next to me and curled into my side. I stroked the soft hair on his back and looked around to find a chew toy in the bed. Maxon, reading my mind, picked one up off the floor and tossed it to me, hitting me in the face.

He came and crawled into bed next to me and lifted my head to place it in my lap. I stared up at his beautiful face, telling myself that it was just three more weeks until he really was mine. Fitz jumped over me to start licking Maxon's face all over, making him laugh and fall back on the bed. I sat up and started adding my own kisses to his shoulder where there was still a scar from when he was shot. There probably would be a scar there for the rest of his life.

"Okay, uncle, uncle!" he exclaimed, putting his hands up to cover his face. Fitz moved and started nuzzling Maxon's other shoulder. "What am I supposed to do with you two?" he asked, still laughing.

Fitz walked down to the end of the bed and curled up at our feet, signaling that it was bedtime. I crawled under the covers to join Maxon and wrapped myself up into his side. "What time do you want to wake up tomorrow morning?" he asked, setting the alarm clock on his stomach to set it.

"My maids will wake me," I said sleepily.

He set the alarm for eight – late for him – and put the clock back on his bedside table. He wrapped his arms around me and settled in for the night. He kissed my forehead and whispered good night before I succumbed to sleep.

The next morning I was the first one to get out of bed. It was so early in fact that I had to call for my maids. Lucy was even a little bleary-eyed when she arrived. Haley – my new maid – got me coffee that made my teeth hurt it was so sweet. I had been waiting and planning for this day to come for such a long time that I was giddy with anticipation. So far I had only seen rehearsals for the ceremony but I hadn't seen any of the talent displays yet. I knew that Maxon was really excited for them although he was nervous for the actual ceremony; it was his first public act as king.

Today was the Elevation. It was a huge outdoor festival held on palace grounds celebrating the promotions of all of the guards that always occurred this time of year. There was a long ceremony where Maxon gave the official word on their promotions and appointed them to their new positions within the guard. There was plenty of food and the guards got to perform for the royal family and their own families. Their families were always invited. Aside from the ceremony, Maxon and I have no responsibility during the day besides enjoying ourselves. King Clarkson actually made it a tradition, wanting to celebrate the guards' work to protect him and his family.

My maids dressed me in a plain navy blue dress with gold buttons down the front. Maxon knocked on the door, dressed in his formal military uniform. He stopped next to me, looking at my reflection in the mirror. "Good morning, my dear," he greeted, swooping in for a quick kiss on my cheek.

I rolled my eyes. "Good morning, Prince Maxon."

He paused in lifting my cup of coffee to his mouth. "Now that's just offensive," he joked. He took a sip of the coffee and coughed on it. "And that coffee is awful."

Haley entered and curtsied. "Would you like some coffee, Your Majesty?"

"No, thank you, Miss Haley. I need to give my taste buds time to recover after drinking America's." He put his hands on my shoulders, playing with the curled bottoms of my hair. "Are you ready?"

I smiled. "In a nervous way, yes. I just hope everything runs smoothly."

"Well, I am sure that it will all be perfect. Just remember to enjoy today, okay? After these first couple years of planning it you won't think anything of it. I know this was always one of my mother's favorite things to plan." He smiled at the memory and walked back to his room. I sensed he had more to say so I waited for him to come back. When he returned, he had a long, thin box in his hands. "It's tradition for the King to give these to his Queen every year for this day. My father let it slide these past few years so I always did it."

He opened the box, revealing a slew of badges and ribbons. He knelt down in front of me and pulled one of them out. "You won't get to wear all of these because you're not officially queen yet but it's only a couple. Each badge represents something different. This was always my mother's favorite," he explained, cherishing the badge in his hand. "There are eight badges, one for each caste and this is the one for Fours." He brushed the soft fabric of my dress, right over my chest, and pinned the badge there. Then he lifted another. "Typically, you just wear the badges for your original caste and Ones but I figured you would like my mother's."

I smiled at him, dumbfounded by all of this. I had never heard of this tradition. "How'd you know?"

"The same way I knew you loved me without you ever telling me," he whispered.

I noticed that he'd somehow ended up kneeling between my legs and that now, his face was just inches from mine. As if he couldn't take it anymore, he smashed his lips against mine and wrapped me in a passionate kiss. This was way more effective than coffee, not to mention better. When he pulled away, he had another badge in his hand. By the inscription, I knew it was for Fives. I briefly wondered what we would do with these once the castes were gone but I didn't dwell on it too much.

"Since that day in my room, I've pictured my life as a Five multiple times and I've somehow developed a connection with your former caste. Whether it's because you were a Five or maybe because I have simply started to cherish the people in it, but if you haven't noticed yet, I added this badge to mine, hoping to honor you and your family," he told me.

That man just never ceased to take my breath away with his words. "You have no idea how much that means to me."

He smiled and pinned the badge to my dress. He started to retrieve the Ones badge, which was noticeably bigger and gaudier than the others but I stopped him. "I'd like to wear the badge for Twos. For Celeste."

Without the slightest hesitation, he nodded. "Of course." He pinned that one to my dress and then followed it with the Ones badge. I looked down at the collection of badges. Half of the castes were represented here but I hoped that sooner rather than later, I could represent all of them in my actions.

I was attending to some last minute matters before heading down to the party when there was a knock on the door to my study. "Come in," I said, looking at the door because despite most of the palace guards partying in the gardens, my personal guards as well as Maxon's were still on duty.

Lucy stepped through the door, surprising me. "My lady," she said reverently, curtsying.

"Lucy, what's up?" I asked, setting my pen down.

"Well, my lady, Aspen and I would like to thank you and King Maxon from the bottom of our hearts for his promotion," she prompted. "It really is rather kind, especially after the mess he's caused with you two."

I waved her off. "Maxon and I are engaged now and happy; it's water under the bridge."

She nodded, taking in my words. "Yes, and he and I are very happy as well. He just told me the other day that he will be proposing soon." She blushed. "I caught him talking to my dad about it a few days ago. Anyway, with my impending union to him, he said he could take care of the both of us comfortable, especially with this promotion and the bigger pay check."

Bigger pay check? I thought. I didn't remember that. I'd have to ask Maxon about it at some point. "Go on," I encouraged her.

"I would like to ask your permission to step down from my position here as a maid so I can be home and take care of Aspen until he is completely healed as well as eventually start a family."

I considered it. Lucy was so special to me. I trusted her with my life and she had been with me from the start. How was I supposed to let her go? But at the same time I knew that it was right to let her go. Aspen needed her more than I did at that point and she was living in fear in the palace. I had to give her some peace of mind and spirit. I slowly nodded, a smile spreading across my face. "I think we can arrange something," I told her slowly.

She smiled and laughed in relief, clapping her hands. "Thank you so much, my lady!" She ran around my desk to hug me. "I'm going to miss taking care of you though."

"We'll keep in touch," I assured her. "Besides, Aspen's job is going to keep him here at the palace so we can still see each other."

She nodded. "Yes, he's getting a house just outside the city!"

A house? Oh my Maxon, what have you done? "That's great Lucy! Now, if you excuse me, I need to go take care of some things with Maxon and then we need to get down to the party. Do you know when your last day will be?" She shook her head. "Okay, just let me know as soon as possible."

I left her in my study and I felt sad leaving her in there. I knew I made the right decision granting her wish to leave but it still hurt to let my friend go. Maxon knew from the look on my face when I walked in his office that something was wrong. "Are you okay?" he asked, putting his hands on my shoulders and keeping his eyes trained on mine.

I shook my head. "Lucy asked to leave her position so she could take care of Aspen in their new house with his bigger salary. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips and staring him down.

He groaned and tilted his head back. "I wanted to surprise you."

"What?"

"I promoted Aspen to head of security for the royal family. It's a job he doesn't need to be able to run or anything but you'll still get to see him and Lucy," he explained. "Carter will be working with him as his partner."

My eyes widened. "Really? Are you allowed to do that?"

He laughed loudly, the sound echoing off the bookshelves in the room. "I'm king; I can do anything I want. Soon you'll have that power too." His face sobered and he lifted his hand to cup my cheek. "I told you that you can do wonderful things in this job."

I nodded. "I know but all those weeks I was worried about what Aspen was going to do once Dr. Ashlar released him from physical therapy…"

"He was actually being groomed for this position," Maxon finished for me. "I know he's important to you and with the year we've had, I didn't want you to have to say goodbye to another person."

"You're too good for me," I moaned, pressing my head against his chest.

He laughed again and the sound filled me with warmth. "How many times do I have to tell you that I wouldn't be who I am today without you? You've changed me America."

I put a finger to his lips. "Save the rest for our wedding vows," I joked.

He kissed my forehead tenderly and he sighed, lifting a stack of papers from his desk. "These are for you to sign, my dear."

I rolled my eyes at the endearment but didn't turn it down. I could never tell him how much it had actually grown on me. I leaned over Maxon's desk and picked up his pen and signed all of the papers where I needed to sign them. I handed them back to Maxon with an exuberant smile.

"Do you know what you just signed?" he asked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "No," I sighed, scared he was going to use this as a queen lesson about how I shouldn't sign things I haven't read first because it could be an order to blow up the palace and I wouldn't even know.

"You just created a school for kids interested in pursuing professional sports careers, open to all castes," he informed me.

"Wait, what?"

He smiled and clipped the papers together, tucking them into a filing cabinet behind his desk. "While I was promoting Aspen and working to abolish the castes, I also was getting to work on your idea of this school where kids could learn but also focus on their athletics."

I remembered telling him about my idea, thinking that for kids like Gerad a school where education and sports were balanced equally would be ideal. I never thought I'd see it come to fruition. "Gerad will be so happy!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, and I am putting you in charge of overseeing all of the construction and organization of the school," he told me, his face alight with pride. I practically tackled him with the force of my hug. He happily wrapped his arms around me and kissed my hair before pulling away and taking my hand. "Okay, okay, enough of this. We do have responsibilities for today." He walked over to the safe sitting on his book shelf – made out of the same stuff as the safe room doors so it was pretty impossible to break into – and unlocked it, pulling out his crown and settling it on his head as easily as if it was a ball cap.

The people sitting in the wooden bleachers in the gardens applauded as Maxon and I mounted the steps leading to the scaffold stage. I tried to ignore the thousands of people watching me and focused on the small touches Maxon snuck into our actions – a hand on my elbow, his fingers brushing my back as he ushered me forward, brushing his arm against mine as we stood next to each other waving. We technically weren't allowed to hold hands in a public setting outside of the palace. Silvia was enforcing a strict 12-inch rule between Maxon and me.

As Maxon waved his hands to get the crowd to quiet down, the guards stood tall from their bows in front of us. We had about two-hundred guards in front of us to promote; it would be a long ceremony. First were the soldiers being promoted to palace guards. Next were the guards being promoted to leadership positions at the palace. Aspen was the last one as his position was definitely the most important.

He knelt with difficulty but he held his head high with pride anyway. I could see Lucy in the crowd, looking beautiful in a dress she probably made herself and her hair long and curly. Aspen practically beamed as Maxon addressed him by his new title and my heart swelled as my fiancé helped him to his feet. Maxon patted Aspen on the shoulder and then stood tall as Aspen slowly hobbled off the stage.

Maxon delivered a short speech and then the festivities truly began. Some guards were doing staged sword fights, others were doing lessons for little kids. I had ordered hundreds of plastic swords for the kids to play with. On a stage in a different section of the gardens, guards were performing special talents.

Maxon and I got to our seats as a guard was finishing his demonstration with fire. He tossed batons with flames on both ends into the air, catching them and twirling them around his body effortlessly. "That's a talent common for young men in Bonita," Maxon informed me, leaning close to me. Our arms brushed each other and I wondered if I would ever get used to not getting to touch him in public. Would I always want to rip his clothes off with the smallest touch?

Next was a pair of guards performing a comedy act. Maxon and I were trying our best to be reserved but it was so hard; they were hilarious. I snuck glances over at Maxon and was so relieved to see him enjoying himself. I was spending a lot of time worrying about him being happy and relaxed lately what with all of his new responsibilities and just still dealing with the loss of his parents. I knew there were still days where I missed my dad so much the grief practically confined me to my bed; I knew Maxon was not having it any better.

The next group of about ten guards performed a step dance, leaving me speechless as I watched them complete the complicated choreography. "They need to teach me how to dance!" I laughed, looking at Maxon who smiled at me sympathetically.

"You'll be a good dancer in no time," he assured me, lifting my hand to his lips to deliver a chaste kiss.

I shook my head. "There's no hope!"

"C'mon, you'll always be dancing with me. How will you not be superb?" But I could see the twitch in his temple that was always the telltale sign of him fighting back laughter. I reached over to adjust his crown which was just barely lopsided.

I looked back to the dancers just as they were finishing their performances. They bowed and exited the stage and the show took an intermission which was our signal to leave. It was inappropriate for Maxon and I to mingle with our staff to such an extent and we wanted everyone to relax without having to watch their manners in front of us.

We retired to our balcony where we could still watch the festivities but nobody could see us. I curled up on a chaise lounge with Fitz as Maxon sat on the ground next to my chair, leaning against it with a stack of papers in his lap and our dinners sitting next to him. I was trying my best to distract Fitz from the food so he wouldn't eat it all. I ran my hand through Maxon's hair, amazed at how soft it was. "You need a haircut, sir," I told him, playing with the hair that was hanging over his neck.

"I know," he sighed, "I'm waiting until closer to the wedding." He held a strawberry up to me and I bit it out of his hand. Fitz started climbing up my leg, begging for a piece. I took one bite and then let Fitz eat the rest around the little leaves. Once he was content leaped up to join me on the chaise.

"Just not too short, okay?"

He turned and looked at me with a confused expression on his face. "What do you mean? I've always had it cut short."

I smiled reassuringly at him. "I like it a little longer."

He nodded as if the answer should have been obvious. "Carter warned me that soon enough all of my decisions would be made by my wife," he joked.

"Luckily you have a pretty brilliant soon-to-be-wife," I whispered, putting my face close to his and kissing the corner of his mouth. He turned so he could kiss me and we would have kept kissing all night if Fitz didn't decide to get down from the chaise and pee on the balcony a few feet from us. We both pulled away and laughed at him sitting next to the small puddle with guilty eyes. "Well at least the food was spared!" I pointed out.

Maxon smiled and then looked back at me. "He's just jealous. He'll have to learn to wait his turn."

I laughed out loud as Maxon walked inside to retrieve a towel to clean up the mess. He removed his sock before stomping the towel into the puddle and pulling it away with a mildly disgusted look on his face. "You're changing diapers," he said simply as he walked back inside to get rid of the soiled towel.

I shook my head as he walked back outside. "I don't think so. I'm already the primary food source. Unless you want to breastfeed?" I offered sarcastically.

He nodded. "Of course." I stood up to meet him and looked into his beautiful face. The way the light hit him from our bedroom made him look just like the night he first kissed me on my balcony. At the same time though, he seemed almost older. I didn't know how someone could age so quickly in such a short amount of time but seeing the emotional turmoil we had gone through, I supposed we both seemed older than we were.

I swiped a hand across his forehead and he seemed to read my mind because he bent down to kiss me. I would never get tired of kissing Maxon and with the way he kissed me, I was pretty sure he felt the same way. I could feel every emotion whenever he just barely touched me. His kisses were just an outpouring of emotion. I was only able to imagine what it would be like to do more with him than kiss. He always somehow made me feel beautiful. I didn't have low self-esteem per say but I always felt inferior to other women until he looked at me with that look that said I was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. It also helped that he reminded me of it daily.

"Do I hear fireworks?" Maxon asked, pulling away just enough to ask me.

I laughed at his wonder and put a hand to his face to push it in the right direction. "You sure do."

He turned back to face me. "You're amazing."

I shrugged, acting nonchalant even though the compliment really touched me. "I try."

"No, really. Today had the makings of being a disaster but your hard work ensured that it went seamlessly. Not that I ever doubted you, but I heard the advisers talking and they really questioned your competence with having to plan it without Mom."

"It wasn't easy but I have some pretty great people supporting me. There's this one guy who believes in me so much. Sometimes it's downright annoying with how supportive he is."

He nodded. "Annoying, huh?"

I quickly shook my head. "I wasn't talking about you; I was talking about Carter."

"Yeah, right." His hands settled on my waist and he hoisted my over his shoulder effortlessly. "Like I'd ever believe that." He threw me down on the bed and covered my body with his, stroking a hand down the side of my face. "While we're at it, I should probably tell you about the maid I've been seeing."

"Uh huh, like I'd ever believe that," I said, throwing his words back at him. "Now kiss me, you fool."

"Gladly."

and I just had to finish it with some maxerica smut! hopefully i'll update again before the end of the week; I'm going on another mission trip next week from the 5-12. if I do update, it may be out of order. it kills me to do it but I have more of the chapter that is two from now than the next one, if that makes any sense. anyway, hope you enjoyed it!