A/N: it is 5th of feb, wednesday, as I edit this chapter in my dsa class and I would like to call myself a dumb whore in all possible ways for changing the complete map of empire of leaf right now which is going to lead to me making major fucking changes in the next seven chapters that I have finished by now. I will never recommend this to anyone, ever.

CHAPTER 7

EDELWEISS: daring

The Uchiha prince and princess left after a five-day stay. I felt an unfamiliar pang of loss in my chest when I bade them goodbye.

I spent the rest of the day holed up in the bedchamber, drawing dresses – each one a little more improper than the previous one – to distract myself from the sense of loss that persisted. Sakura had quite an impact on my innocence in the mere five days she spent with me. I learned more about men and women in the last five days than in all the years before. I also finally gave all my finished designs to Shizune so she could have them made. I did need more clothes suitable for this climate after all.

The night came faster than I realised, and Shizune had to remind me to have dinner with my husband. I painstakingly straightened my skirts and followed her to the dining hall. And for the first time, he was there before I was.

"I apologise to keep you waiting, Your Majesty. I did not notice the time," I said as I slipped onto my usual chair, opposite him.

"Oh, nonsense, Hinata. You should never apologise to me for anything, I told you."

I supressed the urge to apologise again, and followed him as he started filling up his plate with food.

"So, how was your day today?" he asked me, like he used to do when it was just the two of us at the dinner.

"It was nothing special, Your Majesty," I said, and because he really did like listening to me, I continued, "I just spent the whole day in the bedchambers, designing some dresses. I could not find it in me to do to anything else today."

He pondered on my words quietly and then spoke, "Do you like designing dresses?"

I wanted to shrug, but that was not proper so I did not. "It keeps me busy, Your Majesty."

"What do like to do, then?"

I opened my mouth to answer, and then stopped. My mind flashed through all the things I used to do at the Hyuga Palace – training, attending visitors, reviewing proposals, drafting budgets, spending time with Neji and Hanabi – they were mostly the things I was supposed to do.

I was supposed to help Father and Neji with ruling the kingdom, as the eldest daughter. I was supposed to train to be one of the best Hyuga fighters, as the eldest daughter. I was supposed to attend the visitors if Mother, Father or Neji were busy, or even if they were not, as the eldest daughter.

Most of the times, I liked doing my duties, but sometimes they felt like a burden too.

The Emperor stayed quiet when I did not answer his question, and we continued eating, until he started talking about another topic.

He was too good at that – filling silence with useless but captivating chatter. I wondered why.

…

It truly took me a whole day and then some time to make up my mind and force myself to speak about it to my husband.

I hated the way I would get afraid of him, afraid of his reactions, when he had been nothing but accommodating to me the whole time since I had been with him. He had never refused me anything, never been anything but kind and charming to me, never ignored me, and I kept fearing it would all change anytime. He would one day see what a disappointment I was and regret marrying me forever. I did not want him to change, ever.

So, the next night, when I settled into bed, I spoke up before he could.

"Your Majesty?"

He was already facing me, so he just had to say, "Yes, Hinata?"

Heavens, I really loved hearing him say my name. "I was just wondering… how do you feel about being an emperor?"

He did not answer, so I rushed to clarify, "What I mean is, about the duties that come with it. You seem to enjoy being a soldier more than being an emperor."

He still did not answer, and I pursed my lips, thinking that he ignored me, or that I finally overstepped.

But then he did answer, "I don't know, Hinata. I loved being a soldier. Being on the battlefield, having that camaraderie with my fellow soldiers, helping the kingdom win battles – I loved all of it.

"But then The Wars ended, and there was no battlefield for me anymore. There was an empire and no emperor, an heiress who didn't want the crown. My friends who would have no regard for my age when they talked absolute filth in front of me were suddenly too courteous in front of the only other living member of the royal family. It was… lonesome, I guess."

I did not know how to respond to that, but then he continued before I could formulate an appropriate response. "So, yes, I do like being a soldier more than being an emperor."

I released a sigh. "I am sorry."

"For what?" he asked, his tone firm but not unkind. I realised that this might be the first time that there would be no cheeriness in his face, and suddenly, I did not want to look at him.

"For you to have felt obliged to become the emperor. For you to have lost all your friends – no, most of them. For not knowing how I can help."

He was quiet only for a few seconds. "Look at me, Hinata."

I did not want to, but I still turned on my side to face him.

"Can I touch you? Just right now?" he asked, and raised his hand just a little between us.

My heart beat faster, and it was more from anticipation than fear. I wondered when that started happening.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

His hand landed on my cheek, so softly that I had to close my eyes to feel it.

His fingertips trailed over my cheek, then swept over my bangs, pushing them behind my ears. His fingers stayed there, the thumb in front of my ear, and the fingers in my hair. His palm still did not touch me.

"I am not sad that I became the Emperor, Hinata." His tone was soft when he spoke, his words genuine, "I love taking care of people, and I would have done that even if it wasn't my duty. If being the Emperor is the way to do it, then I will take that. I am, and I will be, their servant, even if they call me their Emperor."

Then he grinned, "And well, being an emperor did lead me to you, so I wouldn't say it wasn't the best decision I ever made."

I blushed, but ignored that last line. Instead, I asked what I had really wanted to ask. "I was wondering… perhaps, I could help you with your work? Managing the relations with other kingdoms, or administering the Uzumaki kingdom, budgeting, or anything really. I used to help Father will almost everything in Hyuga kingdom. I can help you, too."

He moved his hand back. "Why, Hinata?"

"Is that not what the queens do?" I asked uncertainly.

He did not even think before answering. "I don't care what the queens do, Hinata. I care what you want to do."

"Yes, well. I want to help you."

He grinned. "You sure you won't rather spend your days travelling and tanning?"

"I am sure."

"Whatever you want then, my Empress."

…

Somehow, Shizune knew to wake me up earlier than usual the next day. She told me that the Emperor was already training and would be done in less than an hour. I washed and dressed myself for the day, and went straight into his study room, right next to the bedroom.

As I had expected, no one was there when the lone guard standing at the door let me in.

There was still time before the Emperor would be there, so I busied myself with the sparse book collection dotting his shelves.

Most of them were about studies – geography, history, demography, flora and fauna, maps. I picked out one of the maps of Uzumaki kingdom.

Unfortunately, it was at least a century old. (The only reason I knew that was because it was dated on the top right corner.)

I wanted to spread it over the table, but unsurprisingly, the table was cluttered. I debated with myself for a short moment, then picked up the piles of documents one by one, depositing them onto the couch. When the couch was full, I dropped other piles on the ground around it, making sure to transfer them as they were placed on the table. Who knew if they truly were organised in a pattern?

Finally, the table was cleared and I laid the map on it, holding the corners by inkpots and books. I searched for another, more recent map and laid the both of them side by side.

I had no idea where we were, and there were no palaces (estates?) on either of the maps. But I could see, quite clearly, that the civilisation had shifted from the north to south in the past decade.

The older map had the northern hilly parts and forests full of roads and towns. I guessed the forests were not as dense back then as they are now. In contrast, the newer map had almost as much connectivity all over the kingdom. Except that almost half the towns in the old map were not there on the new map. And the northwest-most part was now a dense forest with no villages.

I was more than convinced it was because they were destroyed over the century.

The doors behind me opened and I turned to watch my husband enter. He stopped when he saw me. His eyes moved from me to the table to the documents on the couch and the ground, then back to me.

I could not muster much apology in my expression, though I tried. My efforts were as insincere as I felt. He could have, should have, kept his documents in proper places.

When he did not speak, I said, "I wanted to ask you some questions, Your Majesty," and gestured towards the maps.

He came closer. Gazing at the maps, he spoke, "Yes?"

"Where do we live?" I asked the first question.

He put his finger at a small forest in the northeast part on the newer map, just beside the place marked Uzumaki Temples. I should have guessed that.

"Why is the estate not there on either of the maps?" I asked further.

"Everyone knew the Uzumakis lived near their temples," he shrugged. "There just didn't seem to be a reason to show the estates before this empire was formed."

"Oh. Where is the newest map then? Of Uzumaki Kingdom in the Leaf Empire?"

My husband walked back, to the end of the shelf, and plucked out a book, unfolding it to open another map as he put it on the table. I watched him with pursed lips, wondering how to say what I want to say without being disrespectful.

"What," he said when he noticed me watching him.

"These two maps," I pointed at the two maps I picked out, "were placed there," I pointed at the right side of the shelf near the middle, "and then you bring this map from there," I pointed to the left corner of the shelf.

He just looked at me, not understanding.

I huffed. "Is there a pattern to the way you keep things around here that I am not following?"

"No," he answered, unbothered or uncaring about the issue.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. "Okay. Well, can you tell me some basic things about this kingdom? So that I can help you with your work?"

"Of course, Hinata."

And then I spent the whole day with my husband learning about the kingdom I was now supposed to serve.

…

Three days later I was still studying about my new kingdom. I should not have been surprised – I had known how vast this kingdom was, both in area and in resources, when I studied about it during my teen years.

Even so, now learning about all of it again, in detail, was too much.

Uzumaki kingdom had hills, forests, grasslands, desert (though very small), rivers (way too many for one kingdom), and all of them with a wealth of history.

The hills were cluttered over the north-eastern part of the kingdom, flowing into Inuzuka Kingdom. The whole north-western region was a clutter of dense forests, broken by the towns and settlements that were destroyed decades ago. Yamanaka Kingdom bordered on north and the west, southwest, and south borders joined us to Nara Kingdom. Uchiha Kingdom had a little slice of southeast border along with a not-much-bigger slice of land in their kingdom.

The size of Uchiha Kingdom had been the biggest needle in their sides which lead them to cause The Wars. Even though they had more than half of all the coasts in the empire, and thus has a big control over trade with foreign kingdoms, being bordered with two largest kingdoms made them envious.

Nara and Uzumaki were the biggest kingdoms in the empire, with Uzumaki having so many resources that it put every other kingdom to shame and Nara having the rest of the coasts and an intelligent court that had never been defeated. The brains of Nara were so mighty that the moment they allied with Uzumaki instead of staying neutral, The Wars that had been going on for almost 5 years ended within six months.

And because Nara had a lot of land but not as many resources, Uzumaki had to compromise and trade its resources even though it could not afford to.

In the past fifty years, more than twenty towns and villages had fallen, and more than forty had appeared anew. It was like a living, breathing creature, this kingdom, always changing, always moving.

As such, the resources of the kingdom, as plenty as they were, had been stretched for decades. As soon as they were used to help one region, another needed them more. Not to mention, now with the alliances with other kingdoms of the empire, we also had to trade those resources with them. It was the biggest compromise that settled the peace among all the kingdoms

I could see why my husband did not like being the emperor.

Today, I asked for all the reports he had been provided about all the trade agreements made between any two kingdoms of the empire in the past twenty years. I wanted to see how Uzumaki dealt with so many frequent changes before I proposed anything. The current agreements made under the peace treaty among all kingdoms were not sustainable for Uzumaki if nothing was changed soon.

The Emperor could have assigned the task to anyone else, but for some reason he took it upon himself to collect all those reports. It took almost all the morning and I spent the time with General Kakashi, asking him about a few things regarding the trade since the empire was formed. He was not much help.

When the Emperor finally came back, he sent away General Kakashi. But instead of taking the empty seat, he offered me his hand. "Walk with me, Hinata."

He did not ask, but I would not have refused him anyway. I took his hand and stood. As soon as we crossed the lawn and entered the shade of pathway, he released my hand from his. His hands crossed behind his back, and the gesture was so natural that I had to force myself to not think about it.

He started walking and I fell into step beside him as I waited for him to say something. He did not.

In the end, I spoke first. "Did you get the reports I asked for, Your Majesty?"

"Hmm. Yes, they are in my study. You can read them later. Tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" I asked. He was strangely quiet today and it was confusing me.

"I just thought- I thought maybe we could spend today together?" he finished unsurely. "There's not much to do that needs my immediate attention."

For his sake, since he looked a bit nervous, I smiled a little. "I would love to, Your Majesty."

He was quiet for a moment, like he wanted to say something but could not. Then he said, "Would you tell me something about you? When you were in Hyuga kingdom, I mean."

I did not want to, but I said, "What do you want to know, Your Majesty?"

"Anything, everything," he shrugged. "How about your sister? You seem to like her the most."

I do like her the most, I thought, relaxing at the thought of having to talk about just her.

"She is five years younger than me, but she looks older. And she is the fiercest and most capable person you could meet. She cannot sit still, not even for five minutes. She is always moving, always doing something, like she vibrates with this uncontainable energy. And she is very good at everything she does – dancing, sewing, martial arts, strategizing. Not studying, though. But that is because she does not have patience for it." I shrugged and looked at the Emperor. He was listening attentively as he always did, so I continued.

"She loves to explore. She used to drag me along with her to sneak out of the palace and we would wander in the woods along the mountains. I am sure she did it a lot more than that without me, too. And then there are pranks. She is the youngest child in the family, so she gets a lot of leeway for a lot of things. And she takes full advantage of it. It was quite annoying for a couple of years when she was younger, but she grew out of that phase. Thankfully."

"What kind of pranks?" the Emperor chuckled.

"I do not know many. I mostly just heard about them from my maids and butler. Like one time she somehow switched the drink of a family member at dinner. Neither of us liked him and it was fun to watch him splutter. And one time she put a frog in Father's room. Thank heavens there were not many to witness that."

The Emperor laughed out loud. "How old was she?"

"I think twelve?"

He shook his head, chuckling. "I can't even imagine Hiashi in that situation. I like your sister."

I remembered all the tales I have heard of my husband pranking every person in sight. "Of course you do."

"What else does she do?"

"She, well, does not mind her tongue very much. Most of the time, she does not have a filter between her mouth and brain. It would not be much of a problem if her thoughts were more decent. But they are usually not. And then she has quite a… we cannot call it fear, but she does not do well in crowds. She gets very uncomfortable, so much that one time when she was very young, maybe four, she actually fainted. Since then, Hyuga Imperial family has not been known to host many events. That is also why she was absent when you… came to Hyuga Kingdom, and why she did not come to my coronation."

When I looked at the Emperor again, he was grinning widely.

He must have read the question in my expression because he said, "That was the most I have ever heard you speak, Hinata."

Immediately, I flushed, realising how much I had spoken. I was just about to apologise, when he chuckled. "You really do love her very much."

I nodded, keeping my mouth shut now.

My husband sighed. "I had always wanted siblings." He shrugged then, "But it wasn't really possible though."

"Why?" I asked before I could wonder if it was an appropriate response or not.

He did not answer me. Instead, he said, "I have Sasuke, anyway. He is my brother in everything else even if not in blood."

Then he wiggled his eyebrows at me. "So, sneaking out of the palace at night, huh? I must admit, I am surprised."

"Hanabi is very persuasive," I averted my eyes as my cheeks flushed. We were in another lawn, walking toward forest of black bamboo ahead. I wondered how and when we got there.

I thought we would turn back now; there was no obvious path into the woods visible to me. But he led me right to the front of the trees. We walked along the invisible line separating the forest and the lawn for a few minutes, until a thin trail was visible.

"This is the way to the Uzumaki Temples. Would you like to see them?" he jerked his head toward the trail.

My brows raised in surprise. Shizune did tell me he would take me there someday, but I had completely forgotten about it.

I turned my eyes to the trail. "Yes, of course."

He offered his hand and I took it without hesitation. The trail was quite narrow so I walked behind him as he led me by my hand.

"Uzumakis are quite religious," he said and twisted his head to look at me for a moment. "I know Hyugas aren't. I don't expect you to follow my rituals all the time, but I do expect you to respect them. At least when you are at the temples."

He looked back again to emphasise his last sentence. In all our days of marriage, this was probably the first thing that he had actually told me that something was expected of me.

"Of course, Your Majesty," I answered, unbothered by his words. I would have respected and followed them even if he had not asked.

"There aren't many things you need to do. Remove your sandals when we exit the forest. We do not enter any temple if we are not barefoot. Do not look into the eyes of the gods. It was first supposed to be a gesture of respect and humility, back when the gods had been generous. But when they turned corrupt, it became a gesture of fear and submission. Now that they are defeated, we once more show them our humility and respect."

"I understand, Your Majesty."

"Also, don't disturb the priests. They will come to you themselves if they want to, otherwise they prefer to be left alone."

"Okay," I said, just as the end of the trail became visible.

We stepped out and my husband released my hand to untie his shoelaces. I followed as I stepped out of my heels. I felt too much shorter without them, and then even more when my husband straightened beside me.

I looked ahead at the large stone structures – four different ones that I could see – in a curved line. Walkways of large slabs of stone were made between every two temples. All four temples were different – one had no roof and looked circular, the other had pillars instead of walls, the third one had a high peaked roof, and the fourth one was built like a large box. They were all made of thick stone, and looked as old as I knew them to be. There were some kinds of vines creeping up the walls and pillars, but they were sparse. It all felt strangely tranquil, especially considering the stories of these gods.

My husband started walking toward the temple that did not have a roof, and I followed him like a lost puppy. The temple's walls were covered with vines and climbers every here and there, and little shrubs of flowers scattered the ground around its perimeter.

The Emperor looked back at me, and said, "You don't have to come inside if you don't want to," before entering the temple.

I watched him from outside. It somehow felt wrong to enter when I had no faith in any of these Gods. There was a mask hung on the wall, with a low table in front of it. The Emperor lowered to his knees in front of the table and lit a few incenses.

When he came back, he had some ash in his hand. "Give me your hand," he extended his own hand to show the me the markings of ash on the back.

I obediently gave him my hand and watched him trace the same marking that he had on my hand. "What does it mean, Your Majesty?" I asked him.

"These ashes have the blessings of the Gods, and this rune used to be the symbol of Akanayu, the Goddess of Nature. We call her Mother Akanayu."

I nodded absently while flexing my fingers, watching the ruin. The ash only stuck on my hand because of the humidity of this kingdom.

"Come, there is more to see." He tugged on my other hand and led me through the pathway beside the temple.

"Should you not go to other temples?" I asked him.

"No. We can visit whoever we want and whenever we want. There isn't a requirement that you have to visit every God every time you come here."

I nodded, "Okay."

On the other side of the temples was a large banyan tree. It was not very tall, especially when compared to the firs and cedars of Hyuga, but it was spread over so much area that it was all I could see in front of me – all the root branches falling into the soil to make a dense maze of roots and leaves. The roots near the trunk were so many and so thick that I could not see past them. There were some flowers near some of the outer roots, wilted and fresh. It was breathtaking.

I started to walk around it, keeping as close to the heavy canopy as I could. The temples circled the massive tree and I had to walk all around it to see every temple. There were eight in all, and each of them different than the other.

The Emperor was waiting when I made a full circle around the tree.

I felt compelled to say something. "This is beautiful, Your Majesty."

"Yes, it is," he smiled. "You can offer flowers or something like that as gifts of goodwill, if you want. Do not feel obligated to do it, though. It should be done only if you want to do it."

I nodded, looking up at the dense, beautiful tree.

I would not know how long we stayed, walking around the tree and the temples, but the Emperor did not rush me. After some time, we both walked back toward the trail from where we had come from.

As we walked back, the Emperor told me, "You can come here anytime you want. And bring Shizune if you don't remember the way."

Then he looked at me and smiled, "Of course, you can also ask me anytime you want. I am always at the service of my empress."

…

The next few days were spent learning the rituals, customs, lore and myths of the Uzumaki kingdom. Along with a little geography.

"Why can we not make routes along this forest?" I asked the Emperor one day when he found me in his study room after lunch. I was pointing at a small, untouched forest near the northmost border of Yamanaka.

"A lot of old tribes inhabit those forests," he explained. "They won't let us invade their lands. And since the birth of Leaf Empire, that forest is also home to a lot of rebels and bandits. It's a waste of manpower and resources. The tribes are self-sufficient; they do not want anything from us. They prefer to stay isolated."

I nodded along, remembering the few instances he talked about rebels and bandits raiding towns and villages. "What do the rebels want?"

The Emperor did not answer as he would normally. I saw his fingers twitch beside me, and he said after a few seconds, "They don't want me to be the Emperor. Well, most of them, anyway."

I tried to sound less invasive, since it was clearly a topic he did not want to talk about. "Why would that be, Your Majesty?"

"I… didn't use to be the favourite person of people in this kingdom before The Wars. And these rebels still don't like me."

I wanted to ask more but with his clear unwillingness to talk about it, it would have been rude, so I let the conversation drop.

Later that night when I asked him if I could train with the soldiers in the morning, he agreed without any hesitation. He woke me up the next morning, letting me use our bath chambers while he went into another one.

He was ready before I was, but he waited for me. I had had Shizune prepare some training outfits for me, and it was the first time I wore pants in front of the Emperor.

Surely enough, his eyes swiftly travelled all over my body from head to toe, before he averted his eyes and cleared his throat. "Let's get going."

Unlike the last time I visited the training grounds, this time at least half of the grounds were covered. Temporary, stilted roofs made up of some kind of thick cloth that can be very easily removed if need be.

He led me to a covered ground. We started with some stretches, then he had the field cleared for us to spar. We were both allowed exactly one kunai knife and we took positions at the centre. The green soldier, I was told that he was called Maito Gai, was assumed the role of overseer.

I closed my eyes, and just as I was about to activate my byakugan, the Emperor spoke, "Don't use the byakugan, I want to see how good you are without it."

His words immediately made me self-conscious and anxious. I was no good with my byakugan. I did not want to imagine what I would do without it. But I was not going to argue about my limitations on my first day of training. I tightened my hold on the kunai knife and took position.

The Emperor attacked with barely a warning. His arm was a blur and I blocked it poorly, and only through instinct. Our kunai knives clashed and he attacked with his other hand. I blocked again and he continued relentlessly without pause. As he continued, I blocked lesser and lesser hits and soon he had my knife on the ground. He paused just for a moment at seeing me without any weapon and I took the opportunity to finally get a hit in.

I hit the inside of his arm where I knew his grip would loosen. He was more surprised than hurt, but his grip did get loose, and I snatched away his knife. He grinned, and I almost stopped to stare. But thankfully, he continued attacking me, and I continued getting hit everywhere. He was moving so fast I could barely keep up with it, and I had no idea how I had not fallen on my back and lost the fight already.

I continued backing away as I blocked blows after blow, getting closer to the boundary of the circle. As I did, I stepped over my fallen knife in the sand and it cut my heel. It was a shallow cut, did not even hurt, especially in the middle of a spar.

Almost lazily, the thought was followed by another idea. I hovered my foot over the knife, and as the Emperor leaned over to hit my shoulder, I caught the knife with my chakra and threw it at his shin. Or, I hoped it would hit his shin since I could not watch where I actually aimed it.

Impressively, he dodged and his fist hit my arm block with even greater force as he lost his balance. I stumbled and caught myself with his shirt. But all it resulted in was making him follow me as I still fell down.

He barely stopped himself from crushing me and held himself up with one arm beside my head, pulling some of my hair. But I did not mind. I was so shocked at what happened, I laughed. And I laughed until he started chuckling too.

When I quieted a little, he was grinning at me widely.

"What was that?" He asked me breathily. Without waiting for a response, he backed up and straightened. I took up his offered hand and got up, brushing off the sand stuck to my clothes and skin. I stepped around to pick up both the fallen kunai knives, and suddenly felt his mood change.

I turned around, confused. He was looking down at the sand, still and wide-eyed.

"Hinata." He called my name.

"Yes, Your Majesty?" I answered uncertainly, still confused about the abrupt change in his mood.

"You… you're bleeding." He was looking at the sand, which I then noticed was little bloody, and as he spoke the words, he seemed to snap into action. He stepped forward and almost immediately was in front of me. His hands were all over my arms and he looked frantic.

"Where? Where are you hurt?" he asked me and it was the first time I saw him scared.

"I- I am fine, Your Majesty. It is nothing," I tried to reassure him.

"Where are you hurt, Hinata?" He asked again, more firmly this time.

"My- my feet," I answered quietly.

He kneeled as soon as he heard it and gently lifted my injured foot, holding my other leg at the knee so I would not fall. He twisted it at the ankle slightly to look at the bleeding and released my knee to dust off the sand stuck on the foot. "We need to wash it and bandage it quickly," he said as he examined it.

"Yes, I will do it as soon as I get back to our chambers, Your Majesty," I tried to tell him, but he did not listen.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he called and stood up, looking for his General. "We need some warm water and bandages!"

"I- Your Majesty," I said louder, and pulled on his shirt sleeve to get his attention. "I can do it myself. There is no need to inconvenience anyone. It is just a scratch."

"It's not just a scratch, Hinata!"

"Nevertheless, I will tend to it myself." I asserted myself, and then wondered if I was out of line when he fell silent and turned all of his attention on me.

He seemed to search something in my face, and when he found it, he asked me, "Are you sure?"

"Yes," I answered forcefully.

"Alright, let's go then." He took my hand and then started to lead me back to our chambers. As soon as started to walk, he stopped and turned back to face me, "Can you walk?"

"Yes," I replied as forcefully as before.

He nodded and we walked back to the King's quarters together. I went into the bathroom as soon as we walked in and took a quick bath before bandaging my foot. When I walked out, the Emperor was waiting on the bed.

"Does it hurt?" he nodded toward my feet.

"No," I answered truthfully. Then after a second thought continued, "May I train again tomorrow?"

He opened his mouth to say something, then though better of it and nodded. "Of course. Tomorrow same time, same place."

He walked to me and squeezed my hands. "Well, I'll be off to shower and work then. You take care."

He clearly wanted to do something, but he did not and simply walked out.