"What are you doing?" Lena asked leaning over Kara's shoulder to see what she was doodling. "Revenge plans? What are these revenge plans for?" Lena asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Take your pick. Breaking my shoulder—"
"It was dislocated, you're fine and more importantly the two of you are square, you did hit her in the face with a hammer," Lena interrupts. Someone needed to be the adult in the room.
"How about the fact that she crashed our wedding?"
"You threw her out of the dwarven kingdom for that, she hasn't visited since, and you were the one that picked that fight according to Kal," Lena corrected.
"What does Kal know? She cheated at cards. I was justified in smacking her around and it was my wedding, she could have just taken it but we had to call for healers!"
"That was again mostly your fault," Lena stated.
"She crashed all our dates!" Kara insisted, she wasn't going to take the blame for this.
"No she didn't, she crashed like two of them, but that was back when she still thought you had stolen her from me despite the fact she had never said more than two words to me and only stared at me," Lena mused.
Kara suddenly grins, "She needs a chaperone!"
"Kara."
"No, I mean it's only proper right that she get a taste of her own medicine. I hear that she's going into the city with Santana to try some of the local cuisine, and to give her a personal tour of the capital." Kara smirked, this would be perfect.
Lena groaned, she would definitely have to go with Kara to make sure that there wasn't another incident. She sighs, Brittany had said that they could take a closer look at the crystal scorpion core that Charlie brought back, to see what they could learn from it. "Don't ruin this for her Kara."
"It's just a bit of fun between friends," Kara smirked. "Besides, I'm doing Charlie a favor."
Lena opened her mouth to protest but decided against it. It was generally best to let the two of them sort things out on their own. She just hoped that there wasn't a pile of rubble around them by the time they figured it out.
~ O ~
The curtains being drawn are enough to cause Charlie to groan and roll over, everything hurt, after demolishing nearly everything in the kitchen. She had dragged her body which had finally begun to protest at how badly she'd been treating it for the past week. Under normal circumstances, she would have been up working out, but she truly felt awful, and her head pounded. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a hangover, and she had barely taken anything.
"I know you're awake."
Charlie's eyes snap open and she lifts her head to see her mother at the foot of her bed, tapping her foot expectantly as she waited for her youngest to get out of bed, she immediately grabs her covers to try and cover her nudity as she takes in the fact that there is literally an army of maids in her room. She immediately grabs her covers and wraps them around herself at some point she had stripped down and was currently naked. "What the—"
"Language," Judy cuts her off, before turning to the head maid, "She looks awful doesn't she?"
"I'll have them run a bath, she smells like stale booze," the head maid agreed readily.
"Have guards posted at all exits. We don't have that much time."
"Time for what?" Charlie says looking around for her swords but they are currently nowhere to be found, her mother had probably had them removed from the room as she slept. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Yes, do you?" Judy retorts and turns to one of the maids who had the unfortunate pleasure of rummaging through Charlie's wardrobe. "Anything?"
"Everything is sleeveless, or dirty—or shredded."
Judy blinked and looked at her daughter, "Do I want to know?"
Charlie stared at her mother and the maids, it takes her a few more minutes for her mind to finally realize what's going on. "It's just dinner, mother. I am capable of having dinner without a disaster happening." These words are met with a snort of derision from the head maid. "I don't need anything fancy, I am going to show her the capital, maybe a ride on Hiccup—"
"No."
"No?"
"Charlie I know you love him, but Hiccup is a menace, and you really should be putting your best foot forward. Don't think that all because she believes you to be her mate, that you don't have to try. I realized that this might be my only chance to have someone here who you want to impress. I mean I assume that's what the scorpion, which I told you to move is still doing where it isn't supposed to be. You look awful, get out of bed dear, and let's get this over with. Beauty takes time, and you want to look your best don't you, and smell nice."
Charlie glanced over at the window, wondering if she could make a break for it, it wouldn't be the first time she'd been naked and run through the palace. But she really could never tell when Santana was spying on her, and she really didn't want Santana to think she was a pervert, or that she was afraid of her mother.
~ O ~
"No."
Sansa looked up at Santana who was seated on the bed, looking completely uninterested in preparing what to wear for her mate, she had already been through most of Santana's formal wear, and she had even brought in one of the designers from the city to help design something for this. "She is a princess, she is wealthy, you must be dressed to impress, you will be ruling over these people one day and you cannot have them looking down at you. Or thinking you are nothing more than her sex-pet. I've said it a million—"
"Have you ever seen her wear sleeves without ripping them off?" Santana questions, she might not know her mate on the level that other beastkin knew their mates, but she had been observing her mate and following her around. Charlie didn't like fancy, it seemed like a headache. "I'll probably be doing a bit more walking, maybe I'll ride on her drake again, and I need something that I can remove easily. She doesn't know how to mate so I'll have to lead her through it."
"You need to put your best foot forward Santana, she is the princess and this is the public. The perception must be that she is in love with you and that you in turn are respectable. I mean it's a miracle that no one has heard about your past, all those people who you were with, how do you think that your mate feels?" Sansa continues her lecture. "Public perception is everything and we cannot give them a reason to look down on us, your mate is quite popular with the townsfolk.
"You misunderstand why Charlie's loved by the people, they like her because she isn't some pompous asshole, like her twin and her sisters. When she breaks things she's right there fixing it, and making sure that they're taking care of, the children love her because she takes time to play with them and give them money, and an orphanage has been opened up in her name. She makes them feel safe and more importantly she hears them. I'm not going to act differently, once they see how much she adores me, they'll adore me too. That's how it works," Santana insists.
"That is not—" Sansa sighed, and moved towards the door and opened it before the maid could even knock. "Do you know what her highness will be wearing to escort, Santana?' Sansa questions.
"Unfortunately no, the last time I saw her she was being dragged away by the guards."
"See," Sansa insisted immediately.
Santana's lip curled into a scowl, she really needed to be planning how and where she was going to jump her mate and make sure that by the end of the evening that they were mated. "I'm not wearing a dress, I can't ride Hiccup on a dress."
"Her majesty wanted me to assure you that Hiccup won't be attending today, you will be taking a carriage."
Santana blinked, she really didn't understand why everyone was insisting that they knew best when they weren't the ones that were going to be mated, she needed to figure out things with Charlie not have everyone tell her how to behave and act, "I'm still not wearing a dress," she said flatly.
~ O ~
"You smell."
Charlie blinked at the harsh words from Santana, who ignored the flowers that she'd brought. She immediately lifted her arm to give herself a quick sniff and crinkled her own nose, she smelt like she'd been attacked by a multitude of different flowers. She had just planned for a light soak, "Sorry," she mumbled, her cheeks flushing. This was not going well at all, and she wasn't sure how to fix it.
"Santana." Sansa hisses, but even she's moved downwind of Charlie, and is wrinkling her nose.
Santana doesn't spare Sansa another look, "You got told what was best too?"
"I was going to bathe, but I thought that the smell might be too much for you and I said as much. My mother is insisting that I be clean."
"Clean doesn't mean smelly, and I like the way you smell when you're sweaty, I like watching you get sweaty," Santana admits freely as she passes Charlie who flushes a bright red and quickly shoves the flowers into Sansa's hands so she can follow Santana. Even if she was in a simple shirt and leather pants, it hugged her body in a way that made it very hard to concentrate on much else.
"On most days, I'm up early to train, you can come watch."
"Who says I haven't been watching?" Santana questions smirking as she turns around to look at her mate, she looked good even if she was wearing too many layers. They would be off by the end of the night. "Is it dangerous in the capital?" Santana said, motioning to a sword on Charlie's hip.
"No. Not really, most of the people know me and the truly bad people avoid me, I feel naked walking around without one."
"And is that bad, being naked?" Santana grins watching as Charlie nearly trips over herself at the implication. "When we do get naked, please put the sword away. I wouldn't want there to be any—accidents, understood." As Charlie nods, Santana hums, "So where are we going?"
"It's a surprise?" Charlie offers.
"You didn't think that far ahead did you?" Santana questions and can't help but smile when Charlie shrugs her shoulder and flashes her a sheepish grin.