ROYAL AFFAIRS (MXM) ✔

Twenty-nine

Breakfast was a little awkward. Everyone was silent and just focusing on the meal. Everyone of them just assumed it was because of Carson's death, but for the two new kings, it was more than just that. Ronaldino and Hazel left after consuming their morning meal. Hazel was training with Avery, she was younger, more understanding and patient, and the girl would look for any excuse to hold her sword. But Hazel was also going to start going to school. A real school with textbooks and universal knowledge. Apparently, she's always wanted to be a nurse or a social worker which was very strange when compared to her lack of tolerance for the needy.

Augustus attempted to leave the table, but Sebastian captured his wrist. He looked at his hand that was wrapped firmly around his own wrist, before he sighed and sat back down.

"I know it's a difficult topic to talk about..."

"We've just gotten married. We've just buried your father, and yet you already want to go whoring around," Augustus muttered, avoiding eye contact.

"You're not being fair Augustus," Sebastian's voice was laced with pain, as he retrieved his hand slowly.

They were silent for a while before Augustus spoke.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "It's just hard for me to process it Sebastian. We just got married and..." he released a huge breath through his nose. "Magdeline, Seb! Of all people Magdeline?" he turned his head to look at his husband.

Sebastian leaned forward, clasping his hands together.

"What her and I had is over Augustus. Whatever I once felt for her doesn't compare to what I feel for you..." when he saw Augustus face scrunch up, seeming skeptical, he reached out to hold his hand. "Don't you think it's better for me to have kids with someone we both know I'd never fall for, or a complete stranger?"

"I think it would be better if you slept with Hazel. At least when you leave me you'd go back to whom you were suppose to be with..."

"When I leave you? Augustus..."

"And the alliance wouldn't break!" He yelled to over power Sebastian who was also getting louder.

"Are you even hearing yourself?"

"I care about my kingdom as much as I care about yours..."

"This is your kingdom Augustus!" Sebastian groaned.

Augustus sighed, leaning his cheek on his palm, his elbow pinned on the table. He looked at Sebastian as if studying him, and then asked a question the brunnet wasn't expecting.

"Would she even agree?" Augustus asked.

Sebastian bit his lip and shrugged.

"We could always ask," he said.

Augustus nodded, yanking back and leaning against the chair.

"I guess we should then," he said.

Sebastian was stunned by that response.

"Are you sure, you're okay with this?"

"It's for the kingdom," he responded rather too quickly.

"We can wait for a few more years before we actually implement it," the new king suggested.

"The sooner we get this over and done with the better. Postponing it will just make the experience hurt more than it already does," he countered.

"I don't want to hurt you Augustus..."

"There's no way you can have a heir without hurting me, Seb. So, let's not even try to prevent the inevitable," he scoffed.

Sebastian sighed. This whole experience was going to be hard on him too. He didn't want to sleep with someone else, but how else do you make a baby? It's not like they could go to a shelter and adopt a kid. Only a child of royal blood can rule the kingdom. They have tested the council enough to be asking them for the one law that meant a lot to every kingdom to be changed.

And as they stood before Magdeline in her small barn, they were slightly terrified. She could easily say no.

"What pleasure do I owe for the king to personally visit me?" the woman asked, tucking a strand behind her ear.

"Oh...come on Maggie, it's not like I would summon you..."

"We want you to mother our child," Augustus quickly cut in.

Sebastian gasped, as Magdeline blinked. He honestly didn't want to stand here and hear his husband and ex-lover chit-chatting and throwing jokes around as if he wasn't there.

"Well...you'd have to sleep with him since he's a Rubenstein and this kingdom belongs to his bloodline," he went on to explain, ignoring Sebastian's persistent glares.

"Oh..." Magdeline muttered, a slight frown visible on her forehead. "Alright then," she said.

"Alright?" Both kings exclaimed.

"I mean it's not like I ever saw myself settling down. And I wasn't planning on using my womb, why not donate it to the royals?" she grinned, but Augustus narrowed his eyes. She sighed, "and besides, I've had a chat with Bonnie right after you announced your relationship. I know, you know I'm suppose to give you a heir. Why delay the inevitable?"

"This is not about responsibility..."

"Oh...it is!" Augustus retorted to his husband's incomplete statement.

"It is not..." Augustus nodded mouthing the words it is. "I don't want you to do this because you feel like you have to," Sebastian went on to reassure her.

Augustus snorted. Yet he was expected to accept it because he was a king, and the kingdom apparently came first. Magdeline glanced at Augustus before looking back at Sebastian.

"I understand that. Seb, I didn't just hear this now or two days ago. I had time to process it, think it through. At first I was angered, and very against it. But then I saw beyond the anger..."

"And what did you see?" Augustus was really intrigued.

"How much you love each other, and the good parents you would make. You would teach him how to be a good person, and a great king that the kingdom needs. It's the least I could do for the people who took me in when I was a baby and raised me. They helped me keep my identity a secret and for that I'll forever be grateful. And I meant it when I said I have no desire to settle down nor have kids of my own," she said.

"As the mother of the kid you can obviously stay at the castle and be his mother. He'll just have two dads," Sebastian offered.

Augustus glared at him. Magdeline staying in the castle and raising the child with them wasn't part of the deal. But now it was out there and he couldn't be the bad guy that tells a woman, no! You can't raise the child with us. He turned to her and smiled.

"Of course," he said.

Magdeline smiled, her eyes glimming with joy and gratitude.

"Thank you. I may have not longed to have a kid, but if I were to birth one it would be nice to be part of his life. Thank you," she said.

"No thank you," Sebastian said, and Augustus only smiled. "I think we should talk to Caesar..." he dragged out his thought.

Magdeline nodded, completely understanding Sebastian. Augustus also hummed, completely getting it.

Caesar is a herb specialist, which meant he could mix herbs that would clean Magdeline's womb, and assist her to get pregnant faster. Later he would give her herbs to assist her pregnancy to move along smoothly and suppress the nausea.

And with that agreed upon, they agreed to start the process sooner so they could move forth with their lives without the responsibility lingering over their heads. It was afterall, Augustus' request. It had seem important to him, for things to move along faster and both Sebastian and Magdeline were okay with that. Magdeline secretly adoured Augustus, but could never find it in her to actually admit that. She had once hoped that Sebastian would come back to her. But now she knew he would never, and she was content with it. Not happy, but content!