[OOM] Eiattu - Royal Apartments

[fighting_mad]

Plourr keeps her clothing loose, outside of the apartments (though there's really not much she can do to keep it between them much longer, not really), but inside -- not much need, is there? She's sprawled on her back across the sofa, her legs hanging over the armrest and her arm across her eyes. She got as far as removing her jewelry, changing her tunic (exchanging a flowing royal purple top for an old, fitted undershirt), and kicking off one shoe, before she flopped down on the sofa with an inarticulate noise of disgust, and stayed there.

State dinners are the pits.

Comments

[fighting_mad]

"It's a kriffing terrible thing to do to a child," she snaps, and then she shuts her mouth.

She looks at him a long moment, and then she glances down and brushes her fingers against the back of his hand. "I really don't want to do this, Rial," she says, voice low.

[eiattu_pride]

"Yeah." Yeah, he's getting that. She really doesn't want to do this. Maybe she's right. But even if she is - who's to say it won't be the wrong decision?

But he still tangles his fingers up in her's. "Well," he says, and looks down at their entwined hands. "Then we won't."

[fighting_mad]

She watches him quietly, holding his hand. "Because you agree with me, or because you don't want to fight?"

[eiattu_pride]

She's annoyingly perceptive sometimes.

"I don't want you to do something you consider wrong."

[fighting_mad]

She tucks a leg under herself, and says, reluctantly, "I don't want you to, either."

She just wants him to agree with her. Easier said than done, she's starting to think.

Doesn't mean she's giving up. Not by a long shot.

"What if we went your route?" She pulls her other foot onto the sofa. "We said, 'No choice, you're doing this,' and he said, 'No.' What then, Rial?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial clenches his jaw for a minute, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. "What if we went your route, and he said no anyway? Either way there's a chance we'll be left with an empty throne, and by offering him no choice, it's less likely that he'll refuse."

Glancing away for a second, forcing himself to relax at least a little, "Plourr, I know how this works. I've been groomed to be your consort since you were born, and that included lessons in how to rule a planet."

[fighting_mad]

Her mouth sets at the last. "So we come up with some alternative. We put it on the books years before the kid comes of age," she says.

Her chin rises, stubborn and mad. "I can't imagine that those were very thorough lessons, considering that the emperor and empress were in perfect health, and you were set to marry the youngest of three princesses, sweetheart."

[eiattu_pride]

"And then some overenthusiastic sniper decides to take us out, or there's a freak speeder accident, and then what?"

This time he digs his fingernails into his hands until his knuckles go white, and looks her straight in the eye.

"Funnily enough, dear, I seem to recall you, as the only one alive of the original three princesses, leaving us with no one on the throne. And while you were off kicking around the galaxy, I was still technically betrothed to you, and therefore considered a possible candidate for the throne. So yes, actually, they were rather thorough lessons."

[fighting_mad]

Her mouth opens and shuts.




"Kicking around the galaxy?"

[eiattu_pride]

Rial doesn't move, even though he knows he has most definitely overstepped his boundaries.

Doesn't say anything either, though.

[fighting_mad]

She remains silent for a moment, and her voice is not tight or controlled the way she has learned to be thanks to her duties, when she says, "I was running for my life. I was hiding, terrified that somebody was going to haul me out of my bed in the middle of the night again.

"I was a kid, Rial. The only thing that scared me more than the Priamsta possibly finding me, was the idea of coming back here and having to take charge of a world full of people."

[eiattu_pride]

"It won't be like that this time," he says, but stands and makes as if to leave. They're getting nowhere. This is pointless.

"I'm going out, I'll be back later."

[fighting_mad]

She catches his arm. "Don't." She exhales and repeats more decisively, "Don't." She runs her other hand through her hair. "We don't have to decide this right now." She runs her thumb back and forth over his forearm. "I'm tired, you're tired... Be stupid to leave at this hour."

[eiattu_pride]

"It would," he admits after a moment, but doesn't sit down quite yet.

"We'll leave this 'till later?"

[fighting_mad]

"Yeah." Plourr rises. "Later."

She squeezes his arm and lets go. She steps away from him, bending (carefully) to scoop up her wayward shoe.

[eiattu_pride]

"Later."

It's a good thing, they're not getting anywhere and it's far too late. So Rial just brushes a hand over her back on his way into the bedroom, leaving the door half-open behind him.

[fighting_mad]

Plourr follows a few minutes later, a plate in one hand and her shoes in the other. She bumps the door closed with her hip.

It's a quiet night in the royal apartments.