R O Y A L S

XXXII.

IF you are torn between Steve Rogers or the Crown, you must always choose the Crown. You will always be King of Midgard first, Steve Rogers second. It will be difficult, my boy, and I won't even pretend and say it'll get better, it never will.

For his entire life, his father has always taught all the things he needed to know when he ascends the throne, yet this is the one he remembers most, mainly for one thing: he did not realised what it meant when he was younger, but now he understands it completely. Better realise it early in his reign, that there will be difficult choices to be made, choices Steve Rogers would rather not choose but the Crown must. No matter how hard, he can not escape, after all he was born for this.

It hurts, uttering those words to Natasha. It hurts, suspecting his own wife. It hurts to Steve Rogers, he would never have done any of that to Natasha, but as king he had to take all means necessary. That night he went to bed, mind clouded with guilt and frustration, if not the Russgardians then who could possibly be involved in his father's death?

"Goodness, Steve! You look a mess," Sarah exclaimed upon the sight of her unsightly son, under eyes dark from sleep, or lack thereof, and his tousled blonde hair wild and chaotic, "This really is not a way to start the royal tour,  darling. First fighting with your wife and then you looking like a stable boy, very unlike a King," his mother added with disappointment.

The residual emotions from the night before made him silent, broody, ignoring his mother's words as he tossed pieces of clothing into the trunk and the helpers hurriedly closed them shut and whisked it away, they're running a bit late for the tour already. He looked at the mirror before him, tightening his coat around his waist and putting every decorative piece of his suit to its proper place, and his ensemble was regal in every way dark navy fabric decorated with golden linings yet his glum self managed to darken his entire look, "Come on, dear. Tell me what's going on in that head of yours, you can't possibly begin the tour with such a dejected demeanor," Sarah said as she helped her son button his suit to perfection.

Steve sighed, "I doubted Natasha, accused her and her father had something to do with father's death," he started and already Sarah could tell this was going to be bad, "I didn't want to, believe me I didn't. I love her very much, trust her too. But, something about her here seems off, Mother, and Father died so suddenly right in the peak of our rivalry with Russgard. Fury said something about it the other day, nudged me into actually believing she would and I just-," he let out a breath, "I couldn't bear to even imagine ruling this kingdom with someone that tried to kill my own father. As king I must investigate, I owe it to father and to our people, yet why do I feel like I've betrayed Natasha?"

Sarah stepped back, gathered her dress and sat the lounge chair across the mirror, she took a few silent moment before she said, "Steve, there is something you must know about your father."

Steve snapped his head away from his reflection and towards his mother, "We had to keep this under a tight wrap or our family's reign could be challenged. Your father, he was never in perfect health, sickly as a kid exactly as you were. Thanks to the Starks we were able to help you from a young age, as you grew you became stronger, healthier, but your poor father gets older with age and the business of war, the stress of it all aggravated his health to no return. Everyone at court would have preferred we continue the war, expand our reign into Russgard and beyond, we were getting close to victory, but I was afraid your father's health would have taken the toll and so we decided it'd be best to have a peaceful alliance, to let our heirs have the chance to rule both kingdoms," Sarah said, her voice trembled with every sentence and her eyes began to fill with tears, "But we should have known how thirsty for power your father was, his predecessors were great kings, he just wanted to live up to their greatness and of course he pushed forward the crown matrimonial to Natasha at one point he did talk about taking her out of the picture after your marriage. Of course when Natasha fleed our kingdom, the war talks began again and the escape of his way to Russgardian throne only hit him harder, he became very ill. Natasha had nothing to do with this, my dear," and Steve's eyes began to well as well, anger at his father's hunger for power that knows no bounds and at himself for having the capacity to doubt Natasha in the first place.