Running Around Royal (Prince Harry #4)

Chapter Thirty-One

The royal couple had spent the night in the British consulate of Bucharest. It hadn't been a long flight, but it had been a late night flight. Upon reaching the consulate, the royal couple went immediately to bed. Harry threw himself into the comfort of the bed, which sat roughly, but after a long day, it didn't matter. Meredith followed a few minutes after. Climbing into bed beside her husband, Meredith curled into the blankets, bringing them up to her chin. Harry, on the other hand, slept with them down at his shoulders, as if not to be swallowed whole. It was a peaceful night. Meredith didn't stare into the closet, wondering if Jack Campbell was going to jump out at any moment. She slept silently, exhaustion taking over her body.

When she woke up in the morning, always up before Harry, she sat in front of the mirror as the stylists did amazing work, as always, but it didn't cover the dark hefty bags under her eyes. Already Meredith's light skinned displayed her blue veins underneath her skin, and usually that was fixed with heavy makeup on the palest parts. With all the makeup in the world, and the stylists tried, it wasn't able to fix the bags underneath her eyes. Heavy and pale, the blue veins easily came up, making their way on her eyelids as well.

"Smile more," Jessica offered, knowing another break was necessary already, and some photo shop was needed too.

In the morning, Meredith was placed in work out clothes, even with her hair blown out and straightened. It was pulled back into a neat bun. She wore sneakers, like they meant to trick her into running. Harry was placed in a track suit as well.

After breakfast was eaten, the royal couple was loaded up into a sleek black car, and they were off. To start off the day, they went to the Romanian gymnastic community, where Nadia Comăneci waited for them. Nadia was a five time Olympic gold medalist gymnast. Not only did she popularize gymnastics, she scored the first 10.0, and then did it eight more times in three Olympics. Standing a few inches over five feet, when Nadia met the royal couple, they towered over her.

"Welcome, welcome," Nadia said in perfect English. Since 1989, Nadia lived in the United States with her American husband, but she traveled back to Romania to work with gymnasts. Nadia gave a tour of the facilities before Meredith and Harry were let loose to meet and greet with young gymnasts, who had hopes on going to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Due to the immense stunts that they did, none of the young gymnasts came close to the height of the royal couple, who were already considered tall.

"Would you like a go?" Nadia asked. Meredith's face gave it all away. "Don't worry, your highness. We promise to take it easy on you."

While those words might have been comforting to some, they were not for Meredith, who preferred to have her head up with her legs down. While she had been a dancer for most of her life, flexibility wasn't something she easily mastered.

"Harry?" Meredith prompted.

Of course, he was up for it. None of the tasks were seen as particular difficult. It wasn't even a somersault, but it meant trying to walk across the balance beam, which Harry managed to get halfway over before falling onto the pads. Meredith came over it next, taking smaller and more careful steps compared to her husband, and this allowed her to get across the balance beam. 

The second opportunity were the uneven bars for Meredith, who just needed to swing herself into a foam pit. Her hands were chalked up to get a good grip. Even though, after one go, her palms had callouses. Nadia gave pointers as Meredith practiced a few times running and grabbing a hold of the bar before flinging herself forward. This was practice for four year old gymnasts. Meredith remembered doing this at a birthday party once when she was really young; back then, because she hadn't been able to do a flip, she wasn't able to move onto the next step so she spent her whole day just flinging herself into the foam bit, and she didn't mind a bit.