His Majesty (Slide Away)

66.

In that evening, once John had calmed down, he began to plan his speech. Paul offered to help, but John politely refused. He wanted these words to come from his heart, he wanted the people of the once beautiful Aquitaine to feel like the Kingdom they lived in was beautiful again. That it was heading for even more greatness

John had only been King for three days, but in those three days he had given no type of statement to his people at all. The prime minister had... A statement on the Queen's death a very brief statement on the causes, though the truth to what had actually happened spread very quickly. However, John had not.

He did not wish for his people to think he too would hide away from them in times of hard ship, even though deep down he knew that nobody would think that he was doing such a thing. It had only been three days, and he had been dealing with loss. It had not been almost fifteen years.

Paul had gone to bed early, around 10pm, and John had started work. He stayed in his own room with his record player on, as he did not wish to wake Paul, and got to work. He thought it very necessary to not shy over Mimi's behaviour, and to not shy over his hopes for Aquitaine. After all, he was going to make the Kingdom such an amazing place to live in again.

Of course, since most of the other Royal families were also in Rotherham for Mike's coronation, the had seen and heard everything. Some families found it hard to believe that a Kingdom that was supposed to guide them and protect them would have a ruler who did what Mimi did...

Some were even considering stepping away from the alliance, feeling betrayed. It was honestly understandable for them to be weary, but John was going to make sure they stayed, he would show them that Aquitaine was trustworthy again. If Mike could make the whole of Rotherham trust their monarchy again in just a few months, then John could get a few royals to stay stood by Aquitaine and not give up on them.

He finally fell into bed next to Paul at around 1am, wrapping his arms around the boy, ever so carefully so that he didn't wake him, and fell almost immediately into slumber.

The next morning, he kissed Paul good morning, picked up the phone to call his mother, then rushed off to show the speech to Martin. The Chamberlain was the only other person in the Palace who was qualified to know if it was up to standard or not.

He made his way down the corridor, slowly and nervously. He was scared that his speech was not good enough, and that Martin would think it was incorrect. But the words had came from John's heart.

John knocked on the door to the man's office.

"Come in!" He heard Martin yell, and John did just that, opening the door and entering.

"Your majesty..." Martin smiled, taking his glasses off and standing up. "How are you?"

"Fine, I suppose..." John nodded, simply. "I just have something I wish for you to look over."

"Of course, your Majesty." The man smiled.

"Martin..." John rushed out, as soon as the man had finished talking. Martin eyed him, oddly. "You have been in my life since I was born... You- Well, you have been in my life longer than my father. I don't wish to be soppy at such an early time in the morning, but... But I- Well I think of you as my father. And I just have one request..."

"Yes?" Martin, who's eyes had turned soft. He clearly was happy and emotional about what John had said.

"I know this will be hard for you because of your job... But, I'd like you to call me John from now on." John spoke, rather shyly, like a little boy.

Martin smiled, making his way over to John.

"Of course I will call you John." The man laughed, fondly.