R O Y A L S

XXXV.

THE CASTLE staff have been moving stuff around all day and they can only begin to try to understand why their King has suddenly decided it was time to redecorate. This day only, they had already installed one gigantic portrait of Natasha in his chambers and another one from their wedding day in the office.

"Well, I miss her Sam, and I just want to see her face any where I can," Steve explained when Sam began to question him the necessity of all this, he's sure everybody deals their problems in their own way and he thought Steve would bury himself in work, not redecorating.

Sam didn't dare to say another word, so as not to push Steve further spiralling than he already is. A couple of staff came in with stacks of her clothes and asked where they should place them now that he had asked them clean out the closet space. He looked at the articles of clothing blankly, he hadn't decided what to do with them or where to put them, so he has them placing the heaps and heaps of dresses on the lounge bed on the corner of the room.

Steve decided to overlook all the moving from the room just a bit more, besides he doesn't have any other pressing matters to attend to and after a few months of gloom he was sure the court understood the circumstance if he had to skip the office for a moment to himself a few times. While Steve and Sam was lost in their chatter, he heard a voice in the room.

"What's going on?" the voice said so clearly, it's like she's here, Steve thought and stared at the humongous portrait of Natasha on his left. Sam turned his head, oh he heard it too?  So Steve followed suit and turned around.

"Natasha?" he said breathlessly, taking in the sight of his beautiful wife. Hair braided to one side as red as he remembered it to be, falling over her bare shoulders as she took off her coat and tossed them to a chair next to her, revealing a pretty mid length dress in the softest hue of blue with straps so thin he didn't notice at first glance. At the sight, he seemed glued to his spot that Sam had to nudge him to even get him to breathe.

"You're back so early," he said as he approached her with open arms, practically running to her. He reached his arm to brush her hair only for them to be swatted away so quickly by Natasha.

"Oh you wouldn't want that, darling. I really need a shower," she warned. But he didn't seem to care as he pulled her in his arms and gave her a long kiss, "I missed you," he whispered and held her a bit tighter.

"I can see that," she replied, pointing at the ridiculously large portrait of herself. Steve laughed, he knew she would find it absurd. He pulled away to give her a glass of water from the table, "Wine, please. It's a long journey from Russgard," she said as she plopped onto the chair.

Natasha has just returned from a trip to Russgard to break the wonderful news to her father herself, that she was completely cured and he need not to worry any more. It was a sweet reunion with her father, she didn't remember having peaceful dinners without talks of war or dying with her father for a while. She was supposed to spend a few more nights at home but she decided she missed her new home more, the one with Steve.

"I am not sleeping facing my own portrait, Steve," Natasha quipped as she took a sip of her wine.

"I see you're not a fan of my redecorating skills, which is not a problem since we're not going to be sleeping here anyway," Steve replied as he offered her a hand and led her out. He led her up the staircases, smiling like a lovesick prince sneaking away with his newfound love.

He opened the doors to a room at the end of the hallway, and Natasha was greeted by the abundance of sunlight seeping into the room from three sides of floor to ceiling windows. It was much bigger than their previous chambers and Steve had practically fight the advisers at court to let them use this room, it was right down the hallway from the office but they felt it was too much of a risk for the royals to be exposed with too many windows in a room.