If love had prevailed (Ponniyin Selvan AU)

Thodangam

Translation: Starting

Siva held back his irritated groan as the prince re-appeared with a reddened face and maniacal grin. It gave him more than enough information on why he had taken this long. 

Nandini. 

The soldier couldn't exactly judge him either, as he himself was lovestruck, and had been sporting a similar smirk 2 days ago. 

When Yazhini had told him she liked him.

Then kissed him on the cheek. 

Even now, traces of the butterflies and the shivers down his spine remained. He doubted they would ever leave. 

But at least they had told each other and didn't have the tension of 2 warring empires. The Cholas and the Pandyas were better than these 2. 

That's why, despite him being skeptic of the plan, he wanted to attempt to get them together. One chance was better than nothing. 

And there was only one way to find out whether it would work.

----------------

 Aditha felt the emerging whispers the second he walked into the training ground. 

He usually wouldn't have cared, but one man mumbled, "the prince..."

His interest was now piqued. 

So now he was inconspicuously eavesdropping. 

"The girl is pretty"

"Have you noticed, he's late for the morning sessions. For like the past month"

"They should make it official"

An easy grin made its way onto the crown prince's face. He was going to give them quite a shock. 

"She has to like me for that to happen", he said, to the last speaker. 

However, instead of the shocked expressions and fumbling voices that Aditha had expected, the soldiers groaned with exasperated expressions. As if they'd known he was here all along. 

Not as inconspicuous as he thought. 

The first one to talk was a 20-year-old looking man Aditha recognised as Vaishnav, "Ilavarase, she already likes you!"

Aditha was bewildered about how every man here knew who they were talking about. 

Maybe they were stalking him.

But he held in his confusion as he asked back, "What makes you say that?"

Now, completely out of the blue, the soldier's face flushed red, while others snickered at Aditha's question. Siva was the one to answer. 

"He was also out at sunrise, Ilavarase. With- OW!"

To prevent anymore secrets being spilled, Vaishnav had tackled Siva to the floor and they were now wrestling each other with vigour. 

On behalf of all ladies reading, I'd like to say just one thing. 

Men. 

Now going back to their conversation, Aditha could feel blood rushing to his cheeks. They knew about his early morning escapades! Thank god they didn't tell his family. He just prayed that the blood in his face wasn't visible to them. 

"Wait, so he saw-"

"Yes, Ilavarase, Vaishnav saw you and the Vaishnavaite girl together, almost every sunrise. As per him, you were evidently in love", a soldier whose name was Ashwin, replied, with a childish grin on his face.