The Royal Romance - The Valtoria Diaries

You don't know me

Hell, why was it always so cold here in Lythikos? By rights at this time of year he should be gently acclimatising to the Cordonian winter, but here he was, layering up on a daily basis.

Drake had just come up to his room to grab another sweater, and pondered putting on the Henley one that Jones had convinced him to buy in New York. He laughed to himself, fondly, thinking about their little shopping trip. That day had ended up being quite eventful for Jones. She just hadn't known it then.

But that day, even without the added complexity of Jones finally beginning her seemingly doomed love affair with Maxwell, everything had already seemed so complicated. Sure, at that point they'd identified who was responsible for the Tariq incident, and were getting closer to bringing Tariq in, but it had still all been a little daunting. If they'd only known what was in front of them all then, in particular Anton Severus, they'd have realised how simple their lives actually were at that point.

Still, all was quiet on the western front. For now. Drake had a feeling that it wasn't as straightforward as that, though. And that was why, despite being outwardly critical of Rick's decision to post him here until the trial, he'd accepted it. He threw the Henley on, put his coat back on over the top of it, and headed back downstairs, immediately coming face to face with his charge. Or, should he say, his nemesis.

She was standing at the bottom of the stairs, glaring up at him. "I'm pretty sure Rick expected you to put more hours in than this."

"Calm yourself, Olivia. I went up to get an extra sweater." He gestured to it as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "I'd been wondering where you had got to this morning, actually."

She huffed. "What I do is none of your business, Drake. Your business is to protect me. Even though I don't need protecting."

"Yeah, but I need to know where you are in order to do that."

"Like I said. I don't need protecting."

She strutted off, and Drake rolled his eyes in frustration. The things he did for these people.

He slumped down on a nearby sofa, and got out his phone to check his messages. There was one from Hana. A photo of her standing outside her new house at Valtoria, presumably taken by Jones. I can't wait for you to come and visit!

He sighed, and tapped out a message. I'm happy for you, Hana. Can't wait to see it either.

He threw his phone down and put his head in his hands. Handling Hana had been tricky the last few weeks. They'd grown close over the Unity tour, both finding a sympathetic ear in the other over their mutual unrequited affections for a certain person, and the endless trial of seeing her so happy with someone else. It wasn't that they weren't happy for Jones, or Maxwell. Far from that. They were both really happy for them. It just felt.. complicated.

And it got more complicated when Drake realised, on that crazy night in Vegas, that Hana was starting to look at him differently. At first he'd thought he was imagining it, as he'd been convinced she played for the other side, a fact that had always put him at ease with her. But Drake wasn't stupid. He soon got to know when a woman was into him. And seemingly Hana's sexuality was more complex than he'd previously thought.

The frustrating thing was that he did find her attractive. She hadn't knocked him off his feet like her friend had; but she had over the course of a few weeks been a safe diversion. But it didn't feel so safe now. And he didn't know where to go from here. He didn't want to encourage anything. She'd already had her heart broken once this year. So had he. There was no sense in them being each other's consolation prize. And he'd spoken to her about this last week, before they'd gone their separate ways.