Sorry for my disappearance but I am back and will try to update more often. Hope you enjoy it – please review.

AMERICA'S POV

Date night hadn't gone very well. It had been Maxon's idea to make sure we still had some time together in between being king and queen, and being parents. However, it was strange – we hadn't been on a date in months. Even during the Selection, we would usually go for a walk in the gardens or something but the nights were too dark and cold to do that anymore. Maxon floated the idea of going down to the cinema but that was never really for us either.

Now that we were together properly, i.e. married with a family, it was hard for us to be romantic no matter how hard we tried. In fact, it was as if we were both trying too hard! Tonight Maxon had laid out a picnic in one of the conservatories with flowers all over the room and a blanket to sit on in the middle. I'm not going to lie, it was beautiful when we sat on the blanket with the lights off and simply stared into the dark sky with the stars shining. It was amazing how much Maxon knew about them, pointing out Mars and several constellations, but it somehow didn't feel right.

It didn't hit me until much later on, when we were lying in bed next to each other, that I figured out what it was.

"Max." I whispered. I could hear his breathing was still a little irregular so I knew he wasn't asleep but his speech was still slightly slurred, suggesting that he had almost been there.

"Mer." He grunted.

"I know what's wrong with us," I said quickly. "And better, I know how to fix it." He rolled over and looked at me. I stared into his brown eyes, there was no denying the fact that I loved him, that thought had never even crossed my mind.

"We can't be just a couple anymore because we aren't. We're parents now so we need to do more as a family. I spend pretty much all of my time with Shalom and you barely see him, then we have a date night once a week. What if we had family night as well? I know he can't play board games or anything just yet but…I don't know, put a kid's film on and cuddle together on the sofa or something. What do you think?"

"Mer, like all of your ideas, I think it's great." He kissed me lightly on the lips. "but I still think we need more time together." He kissed me again, his lips getting a little hungrier. "I know you don't want another one yet." His kissed moved down my neck. "But we are going to have baby number two sometime soon." It wasn't a question. It was a decision. One that I agreed with. I wasn't planning on getting pregnant that night but we knew that when Shalom moved into a bed, his baby sibling would be moving into his cot.

The next day was the normal hectic blur of royal life. We had the Italians coming over in a couple of weeks and, although we had a pretty good relationship with Nicoletta, her parents still seemed unsure about an alliance with Illèa, especially with Maxon and I being so young without Maxon's parents to guide us. Nicoletta was doing everything she could to convince them that we were great rulers and that if we built an alliance it would be an asset to both of our countries, but everything had to be perfect for them coming so they had no reason to refuse us.

Somehow, it got to three in the afternoon and I had a screaming three-month-old carefully balanced between my arm and my stomach and a screaming woman on the phone who was telling me that I hadn't booked any cars to pick up the Italians and they would all be busy on that day. If you had told me two years ago that I would say the next sentence that came out of my mouth I would have laughed in your face and asked what you had been drinking.

"Well, I'm the queen of Illèa so I think you'll find that you will get three cars to the airport on the 27th at two o' clock." She went quiet.

"I apologise your majesty, no one mentioned to me who you were." In her defence I had just spoken to someone much lower down on the pecking order before being told that he was going to get his supervisor – you'd have thought he would have told her who I was.

"Can you get it done then?"

"Yes your majesty. We had previously set three cars aside for you."

"Thank you. Now that we have that sorted I can feed your future king." I put the phone down and sighed. I unbuttoned my top and it took Shalom about three seconds to stop crying to begin his feed. I leaned back in my chair. There was so much in my life I wouldn't have thought possible just two years ago.

I was going to be a six! Yes I would have had to do a lot more manual labour than I was currently doing but at least when I got home that would be it. These dignitaries seemed to run on their own schedule and so they never apologised for waking all three of us up at two in the morning simply to ask if their rooms would have big enough wardrobes for their dresses. And, since we are king and queen, we can't ask them to ring back in a few hours, so we get up and go and measure the damned wardrobes before we can go back to sleep. I remember thinking that the royals were lazy and did nothing all day – boy was I wrong.

I looked up and suddenly noticed that Maxon was stood just inside my study and was watching me with a small smile on his face. I smiled back and soon felt an arm around me as he perched on the arm of the chair beside me. He kissed my hair and I smiled again. I honestly wouldn't trade this life for anything in the world – I loved my boys more than I ever thought possible.

We sat in silence for a while until Shalom had finished and was beginning to slowly fall asleep. I stood up and placed him in his cot in the bedroom before coming back through to the study. I closed the bedroom door as quietly as I could and then wrapped myself in my husband's arms. He was warm, safe, and perfect.

"How long were you stood there?" I asked.

"Let's just say that I heard you play the royal card to get your way." He chuckled and kissed the top of my head again whilst I scowled playfully.

"They didn't know who I was! They weren't going to send any cars to get the Italians and I think that could be a deal breaker." I laughed at the stupidity of the whole situation, the whole fact that it was partly on me to make sure that the country stayed afloat.

"It's going to be great, Mer. You were networking with the Italians before during the Selection! You got closer to an alliance, without even being royal, than my father managed in a lifetime." Maxon told me rubbing my shoulder blade soothingly with his palm.

"I love you Max. I don't say this enough, but thank you. Thank you for choosing me, for forgiving me over and over again." Maxon pulled me into a tighter embrace so that my head was on his chest and his chin rested on the top of my head.

"Darling, I never chose you. My choice was made for me before the Selection even started, when you just needed to go outside, how could I choose anyone else after meeting you. As for forgiving you," he sighed happily, "I love you, there is nothing that you could do that I wouldn't forgive." Tears rolled down my cheek, hitting his crisp white shirt beside me.

"Ok, I don't know if it's just the post-baby hormones, or what, but I love you so much Maxon. I can't imagine my life without you."

Maxon had to go back to his own work soon after that. I liked those moments better than our date nights for one simple reason: they were real. It's much nicer to be chosen by someone who had a moment to do anything they wanted and they chose to spend it with you. I didn't see him again until that evening when we sat on the large patio-style balcony eating dinner. By this time, it was half past eight and I was starving so we barely spoke as I wolfed down my meal.

We ended the day the same way we ended most days: saying goodnight to Shalom in his nursery and then going to bed together which was certainly the best way to end any day.

There you go! Hope you enjoyed it, please drop me a review regardless I'd love to hear what you all think! It's not just you I've been neglecting but my other story Lily Evans and the Marauders will be getting updated ASAP and I am hopefully going to get onto a better weekly update schedule so good luck me! – Chescaannie x