[OOM] Eiattu - Private Office

[fighting_mad]

Chin in her hands (both hands; it's a thing that she thinks bears repeating), Princess Isplourrdacartha Estillo glowers down at the open datapad and stack of rifled-through flimsi sheets on her desk. The night sky of Eiattu is beautiful behind her, stars glittering in the black sky, the outskirts of the city bright and cheerful, but Plourr is not bright or cheerful, nor is she glittery.

Absently sticking one hand through the holo representation of Eiattu IV revolving on the edge of her desk, its princess looks about as happy as the stuffy portraits of her stuffy ancestors hanging on the office walls.

Comments

[fighting_mad]

She glances at him quickly and she flips open the datapad again and, with a tap of the stylus, zeroes in on two images. "If I had to choose anything, it'd be this," she says, pointing at the image on the left. It's a simple circlet, silver-colored; a slightly thicker version of what she wears (very rarely) now.

If she were being entirely honest--and she isn't--it really isn't something befitting her upcoming title.

"But," she says, and she doesn't bother to point at the other option; just looks at it.

"This is close to the crown that was lost when the Prims took power. What all of the old empresses wore." A moment passes. "What my mother wore."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial doesn't say anything for a moment, looking at both. After a time, he reaches out and squeezes her hand.

"Whichever you think is best."

He'll let het decide on this one, really.

[fighting_mad]

She wraps her fingers around his hand.

"It feels weird," she says finally, still looking at the datapad screen.

[eiattu_pride]

"What do you mean?"

He glances away from the datapad, at her.

[fighting_mad]

"Empress Isplourrdacartha," she says, her voice tinged with self-mocking humor. She drops it after a moment, watching her thumb smooth along the edge of the 'pad. "It was never supposed to be more than princess. I hear 'empress' more and more these days, and I always think people are talking about Mama."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial doesn't really know what to say. So he just nods, and squeezes her hand.

He was never really supposed to be emperor.

[fighting_mad]

Plourr snaps the datapad shut and leans against her husband.

She rests her head on his shoulder.

[eiattu_pride]

He slips his arm around her shoulder, sighing quietly.

"It'll be okay."

[fighting_mad]

She smiles very faintly.

"Never said it wouldn't be."

[eiattu_pride]

He smiles too, just a little.

"But it's still nice to hear."

[fighting_mad]

She nods, though her cheek is pressed against his shoulder, so it's really more of a slight bob of her chin.

"We're going to do well."

'We.' She has no idea what she'd do if she were doing this alone, the way she thought she would be when she first returned to Eiattu. No idea how she'd get through.

[eiattu_pride]

Well, Rial's here, now, and he's going to stay here. They can get through it together, laughter, tears, and all.

He smiles, and it's a little more real this time.

"The best ever."

[fighting_mad]

She snorts, but despite uncertainty, that statement appeals to her natural arrogance pride. She doesn't naysay. In fact, she smiles.

"But of course."

[eiattu_pride]

Rial smiles.

"Of course."

And, he thinks, they will be. Just because.

[fighting_mad]

The silence, this time, is easier.

Plourr eventually breaks it.

"Hey," she says, and she glances at the closed datapad, resting on her knee, "following tradition once in a while can't be too bad, right?"

[eiattu_pride]

"I'm sure the sun won't come crashing down."

Against his better instincts, he glances up.

Just to check.

[fighting_mad]

She laughs softly, setting the datapad on the desk and sitting up (but not moving away), leaning back on her hands. And if one of her hands happens to be flat on the desk all the way around on the other side of him, so that her arm brushes his back, well, that's just too bad, isn't it?

"I hope not," she says, grinning at him.

[eiattu_pride]

Not too bad, really, because he likes being close to her, touching her. Smiling. Happy.

It's a nice feeling.

"If it does, we'll just have to complain."

[fighting_mad]

"Vigorously," she agrees, voice low and grin morphing into a different sort of smile altogether, and she leans in the necessary slow inch or two and kisses him, her other hand rising to his face.

[eiattu_pride]

And that's all she needs to say or do, really, because Rial's happy just to kiss back.

Perfect.

[fighting_mad]

Sometimes, Rial is annoyingly gentlemanly.

But that's okay. Plourr doesn't mind being forward. (It's a personality quirk.)

She kisses him harder, leaning into him, and if that weren't subtle enough, she breaks away a moment to gauge her balance, then swings a leg over. Very quickly, she is less straddling and more simply sitting on him, stretching her legs across the desk behind them, her knees bent, feet planted, and her arms around him.

And if, before they are planted, her boots should happen to kick a few piles of reports, her datapad, and some datacards onto the floor, she certainly isn't grinning against his mouth in satisfaction.

[eiattu_pride]

Oh, well then. Rial's perfectly happy to be gentlemanly if this is what it gets him.

He grins back, then returns to kissing her, hands creaaping up her back, tangling in her hair even as he leans backwards slightly.

He'd forgotten how nice it is to have a wife with two working arms.

[fighting_mad]

Rial is already leaning backward; it's but the work of a second to push him onto his back, made especially easy when he's laughing and not resisting in the slightest.

Plourr is, she has decided, never, ever taking her limbs for granted again. And for now, she is going to start on that promise by doing some private celebrating.



They do think to lock the door.

Eventually.