How to rule a king

три́дцать три

AN: This disclaimer goes out to all the people who had their hearts broken before. 

XOXO, Sissy

PS: Franzl apologizes. Sissy had her heart broken by a stranger at last night's royal ball.  

Ronja:

Putting Vasily to sleep had been exhausting tonight. Throughout the whole day, he had been nervous and disgruntled, running around the apartment, leaving his toys lying around everywhere for me to pick up once he was put to bed. Now that he was finally, after submerging the bathroom while taking a bubble bath and spilling his pasta all over the kitchen table, asleep, I felt completely spent. Despite all of it, I was not only happy to have been able to spend the day alone with him but also proud that I finally seemed to get the hang of the whole parenting thing, without his nannies. I wanted to raise my child on my own, well, with Alexei of course. Especially now that I knew he would be the only child I would ever have. Bending down to pick up his favorite black sports car with the distinctive red stripe on its side I couldn't help the snort escaping me when I realized that I had seen the exact same car parking in the storage room last night. Like father, like son. Apparently, my son and husband didn't just look the same, with those dark blue eyes, black hair and their tanned skin, but also had the same taste when it came to their toys. Looking up to search the living room for the box Vasily's car collection was stored in, I spotted my husband leaning against our bedroom door, his figure nearly completely hidden in the shadows as he watched my every move.

"Alexei...I didn't hear you coming home..."

Holding my left hand to my chest to calm my erratically beating heart I felt the corners of my mouth lift into a welcoming smile as I stepped around the couch towards him. Yet my husband didn't move from his spot against the door, standing completely still as his eyes bore into mine, illuminated with something I couldn't put my finger on.

"Is everything okay, my love? Didn't the prisoner give you the information you wanted?"

Still no reply. Just more dagger-like looks being sent in my direction as he kept leaning against the door, his arms crossed over his chest, impressive muscles bulging underneath the tight fit black shirt he wore. Now he was starting to worry me. It was normal for him to just appear out of nowhere just to watch me do whatever I was doing, but normally when spoken to he would answer, whether it was with actual words or taking me in his arms. But this, hovering in the shadows and not responding in any way while being clearly focussed on me, was odd. Extremely odd. Placing the toy I still held in my right hand on the couch's armrest I closed the distance between us, taking his left hand into mine, realizing how tense he was. My fingers shifted over his once again bruised knuckles, feeling the open wounds underneath my touch. Huffing in defeat, I didn't even try to scold him for getting hurt again, instead, I tugged him towards the dark leather couch, telling him to sit down as I got some antiseptic wipes as well as bandages from our bathroom.

Sitting down with my legs folded underneath me on his right side, I reached out for his left hand, first wiping the wounds clean before gently bandaging them and placing a soft kiss on the back of his hand. Holding his right hand up to my face for inspection I sighed in relief when I couldn't find any wounds there. Still placing a kiss on this hand too, for good measure I rested my head on his shoulder placing his right hand on my lap.

"You lied to me."

His voice was so quiet that I wasn't even sure he had actually spoken at first. Sitting up, I turned my whole body towards him trying to make out the emotions crossing his features as he denied to meet my eyes.