How to rule a king

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Alexei:

We had been driving for hours and despite her childish promise to stay awake with me Ronja had fallen asleep nearly two hours ago.

Good. She will need all her energy for what's to come once we are finally home. Home. As if I had a place I would actually call home. I belonged nowhere. Even if Moscow's cold streets would forever be haunting my nightmares they never where what anybody would have called home. They were just as hostile and crowded as they were lonely. I had been alone ever since my crack-whore of a mother left me on the streets to die.

Maybe that's were my life should have ended if such a thing as a kind and gentle God existed. It would have spared the world a lot of pain. Not that I actually gave two fucks about what happened to the world. There were only three people I had ever cared about on this god damn planet, my son, Piotr and Mikhailovich. Glimpsing at the girl that slept in the passenger's seat, I sighed.

Maybe four.

Even though I didn't know her I still cared.

Why? Why would I care so much about a complete stranger? Enough to betray an old friend, enough to probably start a fucking war?

All of a sudden her eyes snapped open staring at me, pulling me out of my train of thoughts.

"Oh my gosh! I actually fell asleep. I'm so sorry. I'm such a bad person."

She fumbled with the blanket which was tightly wrapped around her small body.

Hiding her curves. The only part of her body proving her to be a grown woman.

Everything else about her screamed nearly childish innocence. Her face made her look even younger than I knew she was. Every time she looked at me with those big sad eyes I wanted nothing more than to capture her in my arms, promising to never let go. What the fuck was wrong with me?

I don't do hugs. Not now not ever. Even my own son hardly ever gets a hug from me when other's were around. Besides I would probably crush her with one of my hugs.

"How am I supposed to have sex with someone so small?"

Her eyes got even larger than they naturally were as her eyebrows knitted together in slight confusion before an angry scowl made it's way onto her innocent looking face.

Oh shit. Here we go.

"Excuse me? I'm exactly 5'3ft. That's the average size of a modern woman. If anything, you are just overly grown. I mean how tall are you even? 6'3? It's not my fault you ate too much spinach as a child, Popeye."

Her eyes sparkled with mischief as a faint blush stretched across her normally pale skin.

I growled: "I'm 6'4ft and I've never had spinach as a kid. I would have given my left arm for a single healthy meal back then."

I would have replaced my missing arm with a metal one by now.

Just like the Winter Soldier.

"Great you're even taller", shrugging her shoulders, she smiled at me. "Doesn't matter, you will just have to kneel in front of me if you wish to talk to me."

"I'm not going to kneel in front of you, dwarf."

Who the hell does that girl think she is? How could she be so reckless to speak to me in such a way? Did she lose her mind sometime during the battle, forgetting who I am? Forgetting what I like to do to backtalking people?