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#trr fan fic
ao719 · 3 months
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What's Already Mine
A/N: This is a part of my Us Again series. Submission for @choicesflashfics using prompt #2. Not beta’d. Please excuse any errors.
Title Inspiration: Already Mine - Us The Duo
Book/Pairing: TRR; Liam x MC (Katherine)
Rating: G • Warnings: None.
Word count: 2500
Catch up here
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Both my suit jacket and arm are draped over Katherine’s shoulders as we walk back towards the hotel from her old bar where I found her. 
We’ve walked in silence for a few blocks and it’s deafening despite the bustling city around us. We’ve seemed to have only a silent understanding of the situation; neither of us has said a word. 
My mind is too muddled to speak. I don’t know what to say because there’s so much to be said but nothing all at once. I don’t want to ask if she’s alright because obviously she isn’t. I don’t need to ask what’s wrong because I know. I know why she was there. I know why she broke down when she saw me. 
Despite knowing, I don’t know what to say … and I hate myself for it. 
I glance down at her when I hear a sniffle; she’s staring at the ground as she walks holding my jacket securely around herself. I watch her hand poke up from beneath the lapels to wipe a tear from her cheek and I feel my heart break a little more. 
I want to tell her it’s ok, that it’ll be ok, that we’ll be ok. I want her to tell me the same. But I know that neither of us can say that right now with certainty. 
So we continue to walk … in silence. 
****
Once back at the hotel, Katherine and I step inside our suite. I shut the door behind me and start to follow her as she walks into the bedroom; now that my arm isn’t around her, I notice that she’s a little wobbly on her feet thanks to her slightly tipsy state. She didn’t have much to drink, only a couple of glasses of wine at the gala, and based on the tab I paid at the bar before leading her out, I’d surmise no more than two drinks there, but I know she’s barely eaten anything today which is doing her no favors and she’s always been a bit of a lightweight as it is. 
When I enter the bedroom steps after Katherine, I see her draping my suit jacket on a chair. She then reaches back, attempting to grab the zipper of her gown, but she can’t quite reach it. When she becomes frustrated, evident by the small huffs of breath she keeps releasing, I step up behind her and gently cover my hand with hers. She goes completely still. After a moment, she glances over her shoulder; her eyes are rimmed red and still misty when she meets my gaze. I give a soft nod, and she slowly lowers her hand as she looks straight ahead again. 
As I lower the zipper of her gown, I let my thumb graze her spine, and I swallow thickly. When was the last time I touched my wife like this? The last time that my fingers brushed against her bare skin? I think back … it’s been a year. We were in Ramsford for the Beaumont Bash and we both had a lot to drink that night. I vaguely remember stumbling into our room, my hands tugging at the fabric of her dress and her arms wrapping around my neck as I kicked the door shut. Before that night, it had been months since we’d last been intimate, and before that, even more months. When we woke the next morning, we showered and dressed without a word, and when we arrived back at the palace, she went to the east wing while I headed to my study. It was awkward in a way and treated like it never happened. I think that’s when the deteriorating state of our marriage started to slowly consume my thoughts. 
Once her zipper is lowered enough, Katherine takes a step away and turns to face me, holding the front of her gown against her chest so it doesn’t fall. I slip my hands into my pockets to stop myself from reaching for her because I don’t know if that’s something I’m allowed to do anymore. We stare at one another, and my eyes are silently pleading with her. Talk to me. Please. Talk. To. Me. I can swear I see a similar plea in her own eyes. I open my mouth to speak but quickly snap it shut because I still have no idea what to say. 
“Thank you,” she whispers. 
“Of course,” I nod in reply. After staring at me almost expectantly, she lets out a soft breath and turns. “Katherine, I …” 
She stops and looks back at me; I see a flicker of something … of what I think is hope mixed with desperation and worry. “Yeah …?”
I hold my breath and her gaze for a moment before shaking my head. “Nothing …” 
Her breath subtly hitches in her throat as she drops my gaze and nods. When she disappears into the bathroom, I hang my head, squeezing my eyes shut in disappointment. 
Disappointment with myself, where we are, and my inability to grasp how to fix it. 
I begin to loosen my tie, but I freeze as my eyes shift to the bathroom door when I swear I hear a muffled cry from behind it. 
Where did it go? The love I once knew? It’s lost in the dark The light can’t shine through Where did we go? I can’t see it now I’m fighting the night To find you somehow…
*******
My fingers are steepled over my lips as I stare out the window of my study. My mind is in the same place as it has been for the past week since returning home: my marriage. Hell, my mind was here before our trip, but now, it’s all I can think about morning, noon, and night.
Katherine and I have yet to speak about what happened in New York. The morning after finding her in the bar, we sat through a silent breakfast followed by a few appearances that were scheduled before heading to the airport for our flight home. On the jet, I almost said something but decided against trying to have that conversation 35,000 feet in the air with no escape if we needed one. 
In hindsight … maybe that wouldn’t have been the worst idea. 
Since we’ve returned home, things have gone back to exactly how they’ve been. I work through the day and go to the east wing for our nighttime routine with the children. But instead of leaving the moment they go to sleep to go back to my study or the west wing … I’ve lingered. I think she believes I’m just waiting to be sure the children are asleep before slipping out, not realizing I’m there for her. I’m trying to give myself the courage to bring it up, but I find an excuse every damn time. It’s not good timing. It’s late. The kids are there. Whatever my mind can conjure up, it does. My fight or flight has turned to strictly flight; I flee every time. And either she’s having the same thoughts and coming up with the same excuses to not bring it up herself … or she’s completely given up, which after what happened in New York, it’s plausible. 
The bottom line is this: I know we’ve reached our limit. I know, one way or another, a very difficult conversation is eventually coming. 
At this point, it’s inevitable … and it fucking terrifies me. 
I’m so lost in thought that I don’t even register the knock on my study door. It’s not until I feel a shove against my arm and hear my name that I finally snap out of it and glance up to see Drake staring at me questioningly. 
“I’m sorry,” I say, shaking my head as I straighten in my chair. “I didn’t hear you come in.” 
“No shit,” Drake playfully scoffs. “I knocked a few times … called your name when I came inside, but you were zoned out.” 
I release a breath and nod, rubbing my eyes with the pads of my fingers. “Yeah … sorry. It’s been a long week.” I blink a few times to focus my vision and when I do, I see Drake now sitting across from me. His arms are folded across his chest and his brow is arched. “What?”
“Seriously, Li … what’s been going on with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve caught you like this over the last few months. You seem like you have a lot more than just the stress of running a kingdom on your mind.”
I look away, unable to hold his gaze. Neither Katherine nor I have ever mentioned anything to our friends pertaining to the state of our marriage. We’ve put on the same show in front of them that we have in front of everyone else. 
“Liam … talk to me.” 
I look at my best friend again, trying to rein in the sadness I feel. If I can’t talk to Katherine, maybe talking to someone will help. I clasp my hands together and lean forward against my desk as I let out a heavy sigh.
And I end up breaking down as I tell him everything. 
Drake listens without interruption, but he doesn’t hide the surprise in his expression. When I finish, I can see him still trying to process everything I’ve just told him. 
“I never would have guessed … any of that,” Drake finally says. 
“We’re good at hiding it,” I say. Too good. “It’s just … it’s become our norm. It’s like second nature now … putting on the front.” 
“Why haven’t you guys ever said anything?”
I can hear the hint of hurt in his tone. “I don’t … I don’t know,” I reply truthfully. “I can’t speak for her, but for me … I guess it’s … I feel like I’ve already let her down … and the kids. I didn’t want to let my friends down, too.” 
“Liam, you’re not letting any of us down.” 
“I’m supposed to maintain this image of my life. Acknowledging that my marriage had completely fallen apart to myself was hard enough. Saying it out loud to someone else …” I shake my head. 
“So what the hell are you going to do?” Drake asks. “I mean, you’re going to fix it, right?”
“I don’t know,” I scoff with a shrug. “I don’t know if it can be fixed.” 
Drake’s brow furrows. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that …” I trail off, chewing the inside of my cheek, not wanting to say my next words, but they come anyway. “I’m saying that perhaps this is the end of our story.”
“What the fuck, Li?” Drake barks as he abruptly stands from his chair. The reaction startles me, and I look at him, unable to hide my surprise. “How could you even say that?”
“Do you think that’s what I want?” I snap. “Because it’s not! But I can’t force us to get back to where we once were!”
“That’s bullshit and you know it,” Drake chides, and when I open my mouth to retort, he leans forward, getting right in my face. “It’s bullshit. And. You. Know. It.” He stands upright. “To just accept defeat is not only the easy, coward’s way out, it’s not you!”
“Drake—”
“No, I don’t want to hear it,” Drake interrupts. “What you and Katherine have … it’s the fucking dream, Li. And I’m not talking about the literal fairytale crap,” he says, waving his hands dismissively. “I’m talking about the real shit. I watched you two; I had a front-row fucking seat. I watched your story unfold. I watched you both fight like hell to be together. And here you are now, a decade later, and you’re ready to wave the white flag because you two hit a rough patch that you won’t acknowledge to each other? Fuck. That.”
As I stare up at him, I feel a tear slip down my cheek … because I know he’s right. I clear my throat and snap my gaze toward the window, trying to fight back my emotions.
“I know you both, Li, and neither of you would keep putting yourself through this if you truly wanted to walk away. That’s gotta stand for something.” 
My gaze shifts up to his again. “I don’t want to walk away,” I say through a cracked whisper.
“Then you fight.”
Where did it go? The passionate fire? We can’t find the flame And now we’re both tired What do we do When all we have left Is dying for life But on its last breath?
****
That evening, as I’m finishing up my work for the day and finalizing some plans I’ve set into motion, I hear a knock on my study door and call for them to enter. When I look up, Katherine steps inside. “Hi,” I greet her as I rise from my chair.
“Hello,” Katherine responds. She quietly closes the door behind her. “I’m sorry to bother—”
“You’re not bothering me,” I interrupt as I walk around my desk. 
Katherine swallows, holding my gaze as she subtly nods. “I, uh … I was just trying to get things in order with my schedule for next week, but it’s … did you have it cleared?”
“I did,” I answer, and my heart is pounding in my chest as I watch the confusion fill her expression while I try to keep mine impassive. 
“Why?”
“Because we’re going on a trip.”
Katherine’s brows raise. “We?”
“Yes,” I nod. “We … as in you and me.” 
“A trip for what?”
“That’s still to be determined,” I say cryptically. 
Katherine furrows her brow. “Is it a work-related thing?” 
Even though I expected her to think that, it still hurts when she asks. “No,” I shake my head. “It’s not.”
“I’m confused …” 
“About?”
“We … we haven’t gone on a trip that wasn’t duty-related in a long time,” Katherine says. “At least … not together.”
“I think it’s safe to say we’re a bit overdue,” I quip. 
“But what about—”
“Eleanor and Lucas are going to have some quality time with their Uncle Drake,” I interrupt again, knowing what she’s wondering. “I spoke with him and made all of the arrangements already.” 
Katherine lets out a sigh as she continues to stare at me. “I …” She trails off, shaking her head. “I don’t understand …”
My impassive wall drops and I sigh as I let the emotion I’ve been trying to conceal fill my features. “Katherine …” I speak just above a whisper. “You and I … we’re lost.” 
I see her eyes slightly widen as she lets out a breath before she drops my gaze, but not before I see the pain fill her expression. It’s as if hearing me finally acknowledge the truth we’ve both known but have remained silent about out loud has gravely wounded her. 
“We’re lost and we both know it. And we can’t keep running from it. We need to face it. We need to … to talk about it and figure out if we’re going to find ourselves again — find us again — or …” I trail off, struggling to say the next words out loud. “Or if we’re going to walk away from this … from each other … because we can’t keep living this way.” 
When Katherine looks back up at me, tears trickle down her cheeks. She parts her lips to speak but stops as she lifts a hand and rests it against her throat to where I assume the lump is that’s stolen her voice. More tears fall and more confusion crosses her expression as she continues to hold my gaze. 
“I cleared both of our schedules for the next two weeks,” I continue to explain, “and made arrangements for this trip … just for us.” 
Katherine’s breath hitches. “Where … where are we going?”
“To the private island …” 
I hear the soft breath of acknowledgment Katherine releases. 
We can’t run there; we can’t hide or avoid each other. And she knows it. We’ll be left with no other choice but to face this … to face one another. 
We stare at each other, and I’m certain the worry and fear of the unknown of what this trip will bring that I’m feeling is the same thing she’s feeling. 
We both know we’re going into this completely broken. And we both know that we’re either going to come out pieced back together and on the mend to being whole again … or we’re going to come out irreparably shattered.
I can’t control you Or what your heart will decide But I’ll never stop Trying to fall back in love with what’s already mine…
***************************************
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sfb123 · 1 year
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I love how you iron out the creases in PB's narrative of TRR. Can you rewrite the first chapter of book 2? I remember Liam sent a message to meet him. When I was playing that chapter I was so angry, I (MC) refused to meet him and then finally he comes down to meet the MC.
How do you think their first meeting should be? After all MC has been through or may be even Liam has been through.
I am making it my personal writing resolution, to try to clear out some of the asks in my inbox this year. I have some really great ones that I'm excited about. This one from @twinkleallnight is a great example of that. Thank you for sending it!
My inbox is always open! I can't promise a particularly timely response, but I promise, anything that has been sent is still there, and I've got them all in the back of my mind.
Never Really Over
Book: The Royal Romance Book 2
Pairing: Liam x Riley (past) Liam x Madeleine
All characters, and some of the dialogue, belong to Pixelberry.
Summary: It's the first night of Liam and Madeleine's engagement tour, and Riley receives a late night visitor.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2,335
A/N: I am participating in @choicesflashfics, using the prompt “Nothing about any moment I’ve spent with you will ever be a regret.” it will be in bold below.
A/N 2: Thank you always to @txemrn for pre-reading, and all your super sweet and supportive feedback.
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As soon as Riley crossed the threshold to her room, she kicked off her shoes, leaving them where they landed. She had used up all of her energy at dinner, pretending she didn’t notice everyone staring and whispering as she passed by. Acting as if she was happy for the newly engaged king as he paraded around with Madeleine on his arm, even though she could feel her heart crumbling every time her eyes traveled in their direction. 
She fell back on the bed, trying to convince herself to take her makeup off before she started crying. Despite her intentions, she remained rooted in place. Her self-loathing was interrupted by a knock at the door. She groaned before begrudgingly standing from the bed and answering it. 
Maxwell greeted her with a wide smile and a bouquet of two dozen roses. “Special delivery! Housekeeping sent over a new centerpiece for your end table.”
Riley took the flowers from him, leaning in to smell them. When she got closer, she noticed a piece of paper wrapped around one of the stems. She brought the flowers over to the table, setting them down and unwrapping the paper. 
I wouldn’t blame you if you’re furious with me, but please meet me so I can at least explain. I’ll be on the balcony outside my room in twenty minutes.
“That’s Liam’s handwriting!” Maxwell exclaimed as he read over her shoulder. 
Riley’s heart began to speed up. “He wants me to meet him? But why?” 
Maxwell wrapped his arm around Riley’s shoulder, pulling her close. “Because he loves you. He probably wants to explain why he picked Madeleine, and how he’s made a terrible, horrible mistake.” 
“Or he wants to tell me off for hurting him and making him look like a fool on the biggest night of his life.” She went to her dresser, pulling out a pair of pajamas and stepping into the bathroom. 
“Riley, you have to go!” Maxwell called through the door. “You don’t really believe that he thinks that, do you?” 
Riley opened the bathroom door and walked back to the sink. “What other reason could there be?” She began wiping the makeup off of her face. “He told me he loved me, we… you know. And then twenty minutes later, he was engaged to Madeleine, and I was being dragged out of the palace.” 
“All I’m saying,” Maxwell approached her, meeting her gaze through the mirror as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Is that you should at least hear him out.”
“He had three weeks, Max.” 
“But Riley -”
“I’m not doing it. It’s going to be hard enough seeing him at all these events. I’m not about to start looking for an extracurricular heartbreak.” She exited the bathroom going to her bed and turning it down. “I’ll see you in the morning, Maxwell.”
Maxwell’s expression fell as he came to terms with the fact that he wasn’t going to win this fight. He said goodnight to Riley and headed to his room.
Riley sank between the sheets, trying to calm her mind so that she could get some sleep. Her thoughts were racing, replaying the events of the evening, and now wondering what Liam wanted to see her about. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t curious about what he had wanted to say to her. She pictured him standing on the balcony waiting for her. Would he be hurt that she didn’t come? 
She lost track of how long it took, but eventually she did drift off to sleep. Which was cut short with a firm, yet soft knock on her door. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she slowly rolled out of bed. Reaching for her robe, she slipped it on and tied it as she approached the door. 
Her breath caught in her throat when she locked onto the blue eyes that were waiting for her on the other side. She quickly fixed her face, hiding her surprise, and her sadness. “Your majesty.” She dipped into a formal curtsy unsure of how she should address him, as this was the first time she had been alone with him since he became king. 
Liam examined Riley for a moment. She looked so beautiful, but he could see the pain in her eyes, despite her attempts to hide it. It broke his heart to see her like this. “Lady Riley,” he nodded, “may I?” 
Riley stepped aside, allowing Liam to enter, closing the door behind him. They stood in silence for a moment, looking in each other's eyes, trying to figure out what the other was thinking.
“Did you get my note?” Liam broke the silence. He was hoping she simply didn’t notice it when she received the flowers. Riley nodded, and his heart sank. 
“Forgive me, your majesty,” Liam winced slightly, this was the second time she had used his title. He missed the way his name sounded when it fell from her lips. “Dinner was more tiring than I anticipated. I decided to stay in this evening.” 
“Riley, you know there is no need for formalities when we’re alone.” He stepped forward, reaching out for her hand, but she stepped out of his grasp.
“You’re engaged now, I’d assume it’s frowned upon for you to be alone with the court whore.” 
“Riley…” 
“What? That’s why you’re here, right? To tell me off, to tell me how much I hurt you? How you regret everything you said to me that night?” She turned her back to Liam, wiping away the tears that had escaped. 
His eyes went wide at her outburst. This whole time, he thought she was avoiding him because she was angry with him for the Coronation, he never expected her to think that he believed the pictures. “Riley, I know you didn’t do anything. You were set up.” 
“You… you do?” Her head slowly turned, and Liam saw the tears streaming down her face. 
“Of course,” he stepped up to her as she turned fully. He tentatively lifted a hand to wipe her tears. “Riley, I meant every single thing I said to you at my Coronation. I still mean them. Nothing about any moment I’ve spent with you will ever be a regret. The only regret I have is choosing Madeleine over you.”
“Then why did you?” Her pain was quickly replaced with anger and confusion as she backed away from him again.
“Can we sit?” He asked, tilting his head toward the bench at the foot of her bed. 
She nodded, and they sat down next to each other. Riley kept as much distance as possible between her and Liam. 
“Riley, someone is determined to prevent you from becoming queen. They were willing to go to great lengths to set you up. To put you in a compromising position, to invade your privacy. I know about the lock on your door. Whoever this was was willing to put your safety at risk, and they have considerable resources and access to court.” He took a deep breath, reaching over and resting a hand on her knee. “If I had stood up there and chosen you, from then on, you’d be in danger.” 
“But I would have had you to protect me. I know you wouldn’t let anything happen to me. And you have guards and all that,” Riley said, still not understanding how he could pick someone else, after everything they had shared. 
“Yes, but I’ve already failed to protect you once.” Liam’s gaze dropped to his feet, internally chastising himself again for not being there for her that night. “And after what happened at Applewood, the guards can’t be trusted either. The only way to truly keep you safe was to act as if I believed the pictures.”
There was a brief silence in the room, both of them letting the gravity of their current situation sink in.
“Do you remember the night of the masquerade? When I told you about my mother?” Liam finally spoke up. 
Riley looked at him curiously. “Yeah, you said you lost her when you were a kid.”
“Yes, but I didn’t tell you how.” His eyes locked on hers, and she could see the tears trying to break free. “She was poisoned.” 
“Oh my god, Liam. I’m so sorry.” She put a comforting hand on his shoulder. 
Liam cleared his throat and stood from his seat. “Yes, well that’s exactly why I couldn’t choose you. She was the queen, yet there was someone that wanted her out of the way, and they had the means to make it happen.” He walked back over to her, kneeling in front of her and taking her hands. “If I had lost you, Riley…”
Riley studied Liam’s expression. She saw the pain and fear in his eyes and understood that he truly believed this to be the right decision, even if she didn’t agree with it. “So what does this mean for us?” 
“Madeleine and I have… an understanding,” he sighed, “she knows that I’m not in love with her.” 
“Okay, but you’re engaged to her.” 
“Because I needed to make a choice. On paper, she was the best option.” Riley’s gaze dropped, but Liam placed his finger under her chin lifting it to look her in the eyes. “But she offered me an arrangement the night before the Coronation.” 
“What kind of arrangement?” RIley asked with a slight sniffle. 
Liam wiped another stray tear from Riley’s cheek before taking her hands in his. “She told me it was obvious that I was in love with you. But regardless of my feelings, she would be the best Queen for Cordonia. If I were to choose her, she would allow us to continue our relationship.” 
Riley stood abruptly, pulling her hands from his and rolling her eyes. “How incredibly generous of her.” She started moving towards the door. 
“Riley,” Liam rushed after her, placing his hand on top of hers when she reached for the doorknob. “All I could think about in that moment was finding a way to keep you in my life.” 
“So your solution to all of this is to be the good little king, marry Madeleine, and make me your mistress?” She backed away, placing her hands on her hips. “What kind of life is that?” 
“A temporary one,” he assured her. “I have no intentions of marrying her. It was simply a play to buy us time. Her hope is that nothing changes, and I simply end up marrying her.” He took a step closer to Riley, brushing a stray hair behind her ear. “But my hope is that we’re able to uncover the traitor plotting against you, and then…” He lifts her hand to his lips, kissing it softly. 
“Happily ever after?” Riley sighed, getting lost in the feel of her hand in his, the brush of his lips against her skin. 
Liam smiled as he used their still joined hands to tug her closer, wrapping his free arm around her waist. “Precisely.” He paused for a moment, relishing in the closeness he had been so desperate for over the last few weeks. “But we need to be careful… very careful.” 
Riley kept her eyes locked on his as his expression shifted to concern. “For your safety, it must still appear that we’re no longer involved.” 
His words snapped her out of her daze, and reminded her of their current situation. She instantly pulled away, stepping out of his embrace. “That shouldn't be a problem. We aren’t involved anymore, Liam.” 
“But Riley, I -”
“No,” she cut him off. “I understand that you and Madeleine have an arrangement. But it’s an arrangement that I have not agreed to.” Liam looked at her in confusion as she, again, moved toward the door. “I am here to clear my name. If I’m successful in that, then we can have a conversation about what that means for us. But for now, you’re engaged. It may be political, and there may not be feelings involved, but I’m not getting in the middle of it. I’m trying to stop the rumors, not give them more things to use against me.” 
Liam dropped his gaze to the ground as tears began to well in his eyes. “I understand,” he replied quietly. 
“Hey,” she said, her voice softening, his glistening eyes lifted to meet hers. “I still mean everything I said that night too. But I sat alone for three weeks without so much as a word from you. I spent all that time in my head, playing out scenarios, worrying about seeing you again, wondering if I would see you again. A lot has happened since the garden maze; I can’t just act like it didn’t.” 
“You’re right.” Liam nodded as he stepped toward the door, clearing his throat to try to compose himself. “My availability will be limited during the tour, but if there is anything I can do to help you clear your name, I will.” He lifted her hand one more time, his lips lingering on the back of it, not wanting to break contact. 
“Thank you,” Riley replied. 
Liam reluctantly let go of her hand and opened the door, turning once more to look at her over his shoulder. “Goodnight, Lady Riley.” 
“Goodnight, your majesty,” she curtsied. As she stood, her eyes stayed trained on the floor, not wanting to watch him leave. 
He exited her room, closing the door behind him. Riley quickly locked it, and returned to her bed, collapsing onto the plush mattress.  As difficult as this evening was, things had been so much easier when she thought Liam hated her. Now he wanted to continue their relationship, secretly, while he was engaged to Madeleine. Sure, she had held her ground tonight, but it was going to be a long engagement tour. Would her resolve be strong enough to stick to her principals? More importantly, would any of this even be worth it in the end?
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queenrileyrose · 1 year
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In the Moment We’re Lost and Found
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Catch Up Here
Miniseries Premise: During one last trip around the world before focusing on his crown prince duties, Leo meets Riley. The pair travel together for six months before Leo reveals that he’s royalty and plans to abdicate. Riley panics and leaves without a trace; Leo returns to Cordonia, only to be injured in a terrorist attack a year later. Riley races to Leo’s side as Liam is crowned king.
A/N: This is the end, finally! I honestly didn’t see this going past a one-shot at first, but I have loved writing this little miniseries. When it wasn’t making me pull my hair out. Huge shout out to Mood Music Monday for matching me with the song that inspired the angsty AF first part 🖤
Thank you @burnsoslow for pre-reading and helping me get this figured out 😘❤️
TW: Language, terrorism (mention), sensuality
Word Count: 6446
Music Inspo: Wings-Birdy
Thank you to everyone who reads, likes, comments, and/or reblogs this. I appreciate you all so much. ❤️
The moon lights the rough dirt path, the crunching footsteps muffled by the sound of the sea.
“Whoa,” Riley says in an awed gasp as the grey lantern dome of the structure comes into view. “It’s smaller than I thought. You say lighthouse; I think giant ass ones in Maine.”
“Size doesn’t matter,” Leo steps over a large rock in the path. “So long as it gets the job done.”
“Says the guy with a grande cazzo.” 
“Il tuo Italiano è perfetto.” Leo compliments her before covering his mouth to muffle his laughter. The lighthouse is active, occupied by the Italian military now, and while it’s not off limits, it’s 6 am. They shouldn’t get too close. 
“It’s the second brightest lighthouse in Italy,” Leo tugs Riley’s arm gently. She stops beside him, taking in the structure slowly, beginning at the painted red and white vertical stripes that decorate the sides. “The British built it in 1862 to protect Capri from invasion.”
The light spins in their direction, white glare washing over the ocean. 
“The top bit,” Leo gestures to the dome. “It wasn’t installed until 1874.”
“Wow,” Riley’s eyes widen as she takes in the glistening bluer-than-blue water. “I never made it here before. I forgot how beautiful the sea in Italy is.”
Leo wishes he could see her face better in the dim glow of the dawn beginning to break. He’s missing the look she gets, the awe, and the excitement. 
“The sunset is supposed to be one of the most romantic sights.” Leo laces his fingers through hers and begins the walk to the edge of the cliff. 
“And you brought me here for sunrise?” A ray of sunlight reflects the playfulness in Riley’s eyes; the gold in the deep brown gleams. 
“What we were doing at sunset was pretty romantic,” Leo’s mouth turns up before he brushes his lips against her nose. “I wanted to start the day with you here.”
Leo sits at the edge of the smooth rocks, the lighthouse looming behind them. Riley lowers beside him; her gaze flits back to the ocean. 
“You’ve really seen everything,” Riley says in a curious whisper, cocking her head to one side. “How?”
“You know my family travels a lot,” Leo tries to be nonchalant. At first, the omission felt necessary. Now, it feels deliberate, weighing on him. “I found ways to sneak off and do what I wanted. I haven’t seen everything.”
“Name one place you haven’t been to,” Riley lifts her bare wrist theatrically, pretending to time Leo. “I’ll give you thirty seconds.”
“I’ve never watched the sunrise in Capri with a woman I love.” Leo leans forward, bracing his arms against the rock. “Or gone to any of the places we’ve been with someone I cared about. Everything is brand new.”
Although Riley has to remind him to actually take in the sights, watching her experience the world he’s seen and taken for granted for the first time evokes strong feelings he didn’t know he was capable of.
Riley blushes and shakes her head. “That was smooth, hotshot. Like butter.”
“It’s the truth,” Leo squints as light begins to peek over the horizon. He’ll tell her before they leave Italy. He has to.
“I’ll find a place you haven’t seen first,” Riley struggles to her feet. “I don’t care how long it takes.”
Leo grins at the horizon. He hasn’t been to more countries than she realizes. 
“For now,” Riley slips her t-shirt over her head, wriggling out of her jean shorts. Leo’s focus shifts from the rising sun to the woman beside him, clad in a pair of black lace panties and bra. “I’m jumping in.”
Before Leo can protest, she’s gone. 
Leo hurriedly sheds his clothes and leaps off the rock, plunging into the cool water below. He resurfaces, not surprised when Riley is treading water in front of him. 
“Little warning might have been nice,” Leo scolds, his breath coming in short bursts. 
“Carpe diem,” Riley’s smile puts the sunrise to shame. “You taught me that.”
Leo aims a splash at Riley. It covers her head, and she’s quick to turn around and kick her feet, water streaming into his face. 
———
Leo blinks his eyes open as the bump of wheels on the runway jolts him from his dream. He breathes slowly for a few moments, coming back to reality.
He dreams of her often. It’s always Italy. 
“We’re here!” Liam announces beside him. Leo turns to look across the aircraft at Drake, who’s already unfastening his seatbelt.
“I see that,” Leo yawns. “Remind me why we didn’t take the jet?”
“Global warming,” Liam peers out of the window. “I want to learn about the world, and I’m not going to do that from a gilded chair.”
“Tell me you aren’t going to be like this the whole time,” Drake groans across the aisle as the plane rolls to a slow stop. 
“Do you miss the jet, Drake?” Leo jokes. “I thought you hated that shit.”
“That was one comfort I didn’t mind.”
“Ready?” Liam asks, getting to his feet. Leo gives his brother an appreciative grin and nods.
“Finally ready, Leo?” Olivia doesn’t look up from the large desk as Leo strides across the room.
“Majesty?” Leo furrows his brow.
“Don’t call me that,” Olivia snaps, her piercing green eyes fix on Leo. “Olivia the Great is more than acceptable.”
Leo salutes with a chuckle. “Glad it hasn’t gone to your head.”
Oliva smiles at Leo, her usual catlike grin. She gestures to the leather wingback chairs in front of her desk.
Leo drops into one, his earlier mood replaced by nervousness; the reason he’s there has his stomach twisted. “Ready for what?”
“To go to your beloved,” Olivia sighs as if he’s just asked her the dumbest question possible. “I hoped you would come to your senses sooner. I assume you need assistance finding her?”
Since the weight of the crown has been officially removed, Leo feels as though he can breathe again. He was positively giddy at Olivia’s coronation. 
The last time he spoke to Riley repeats on a loop in his head. He feels sick that he was able to push her away, to break her heart. Leo isn’t sure how he managed to let her leave.
Leo didn’t see a way out. He was trying to protect her the only way he knew how. He panicked.
“Yes,” Leo nervously runs a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure where she would go. I did look on my own-”
“One moment,” Olivia taps a message on her phone, the device buzzes almost immediately. She squints before placing her phone on the desk. “You don’t know what to look for. Amalas does.”
“What if she doesn’t forgive me?”
“Women have an enormous capacity for forgiveness,” Olivia allows a small smile to pass over her lips. “Don’t decide for her. Again.”
“Right,” Leo stands, brushing the wrinkles from his slacks. “You’ll let me know if you find her?”
“She’s in New York City,” Olivia picks up the scarlet Mont Blanc, back to business. “Amalas will send you her work address.”
“How-”
“I tracked her once she left,” Olivia sighs, signing her name on a document with a flourish. “She went to Sweden, then to New York. She’s been there ever since.”
“Sweden?” Leo lowers back to the chair, his legs suddenly weak. Riley went to the place they confessed their love for each other, he’s certain. Leo’s eyes fall shut as he realizes she wanted to be close to him, to feel that moment again. 
It’s why he would go.
“Yes,” Olivia watches Leo shrewdly as he opens his eyes, the emotion in the blues a mixture of regret and something else. Olivia realizes she hasn’t seen that look in the former king’s eyes since Riley left abruptly.
Hope.
Leo winces as he steps down the stairway, his body aches from the long flight. Pain still twinges his chest, even after all this time. 
Leo doesn’t know if it’s his heart or old wounds. Aren’t they the same?
“Rental cars …” Liam studies a map on the wall. “This way!”
After a brief conversation with customer service, Leo tosses a set of keys to a black sedan from hand to hand, following his brother and Drake to a small lot. 
“Why isn’t Bas here?” Drake tosses his duffel into the backseat and sits beside it. “I thought he had to come with.”
“We aren’t telling anyone who we are,” Leo adjusts the driver's seat, pushing it back as far as it can go without crushing Drake. “Cordonia isn’t well known on this side of the world; we should be good. Bas has security on standby, though, just in case.”
Liam pops his head into the open passenger door. “Why can’t I drive?”
“Have you ever driven in a city before?” Leo slips the key into the ignition.
“No.”
“That’s why.”
Liam grumbles but slides into the seat beside Leo. 
“You two are going out tonight?” Leo rests his hand on the back of Liam’s headrest as he checks behind the car before backing out of the parking space. 
“Yes,” Liam ducks his head to peer out the windshield. “We’re going to investigate the nightlife.” 
“If Riley isn’t at the bar, you can meet us. Or get drunk in the hotel,” Drake calls out mid-yawn.“I’ll leave my whiskey just in case.” 
Leo shakes his head and chuckles. “I’m glad you thought of me.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, most likely,” Liam sobers. “You’ll find her, and she’ll forgive you. I believe it with all my heart.”
“How are you so sure?” Leo slows, the traffic light switches red. “She might not even speak to me.”
Liam strides down the stairs to the kitchen, wondering if there’s baklava left over from dinner.
As he passes a library, he notices the door ajar. Liam halts his steps and peeks around the corner. 
His brother reclines on a large velvet sofa, Riley’s back resting against his side. She flips a page, enthralled with whatever she’s reading. Leo sets the file he was perusing aside and starts to scoot to the end of the cushion, about to stand when her head whips around. 
“What’s up?” Riley’s brows knit together.
“Nothing serious,” Leo smiles fondly at her. “I’m a little cold; I was going to get a blanket.”
“Uh uh,” Riley swivels, her legs on the side of the couch, removing the blanket from around her shoulders and draping it over both of them. “I got you.”
“Thanks,” Leo presses a kiss to her head, and she snuggles into his chest. “How’s the book?”
“Interesting,” Riley smiles up at Leo. “I’m at the part where the prince finally admits who he is.”
Leo frowns and tries to skim the pages over Riley’s shoulder. “I thought you were reading some horror novel?”
“Who says it’s not?” Riley’s grin widens, and he chuckles. 
 “Are you warm enough?” Leo strokes her hair before kissing her head again. “I can grab another blanket.”
The soft look on Leo’s face makes Liam smile, and he hears Riley’s reply as he continues down the hall. 
“If you try to get up, I’ll tackle you.”
“The love you share,” Liam grins. “It gives me hope for my own future.”
Leo playfully elbows his brother in the side. “Learn from my mistakes, all right?”
“I’m a quick study,” Liam elbows Leo back.
———
The frigid air bites at Riley’s face. She pulls the hood of the heavy parka forward, attempting to shield herself. 
The boulders arranged in front of her look exactly the same. She isn’t sure why she thought it would be any different. 
It’s overcast; no sun today. No warmth. 
“It’s something a king would do, I guess. Erect some ridiculous shrine so everyone would remember him.”
Riley hugs her arms to her chest as the words echo in her ears. What will Leo do to be remembered? Does he even want to be?
His face the last time she saw him refuses to leave her mind. The tortured expression in his eyes, the reason why she agreed to leave at all. 
Riley wonders how long he’ll be able to stay himself. How long until the sparkle in his eye is gone forever, until his smile is nothing more than a sad attempt to lift his vacant face?
“Have you been here before?”
A woman in a blue down jacket appears in her periphery. She’s tall and regal, her dark blonde curls peppered with grey are cut into an angular bob. 
“Yes,” Riley’s voice is hoarse. She clears her throat. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Spectacular,” The woman agrees, seeming to roll over something in her mind before finally voicing it. “It’s all for nothing.”
Riley’s head snaps up, surprised. “How so?”
“It’s only stones,” The woman waves at the formation with a delicate hand. Riley spies a small strip of pale skin where a ring used to be. “This king desperately wanted to be remembered, but we know nothing of his life.”
Riley feels goosebumps rise on her arms and studies the woman. Her eyes are a sharp blue.
“That’s true,” Riley looks across the expanse of green grass, the sea beyond it. “I hope it’s only a legend. Otherwise, it’s depressing.”
“We shall pretend it is not true for your sake,” The woman smiles kindly. “I’ll stop boring you, my dear.”
Riley offers a polite grin as the woman begins to move away, ignoring the sudden familiarity. She has never seen her before, so why does it feel like she has?
“True love,” The woman steps back mid-turn. “Messy, inconvenient, can’t live without one another love. That’s what is important.”
Before Riley can reply, she’s gone. She sees her wander through the other tourists before disappearing.
Riley takes one last look at the sea, the rock formation. Even if Leo is wrong, these grounds are a different kind of shrine. She never expected to find someone like Leo, to love him so profoundly, for that love to be returned. 
Riley lifts her chin as tears cloud her eyes. “I love you,” she whispers. “Always will.”
Riley feels her knees weaken and carefully lowers herself to the frozen ground. 
———
“Last box!” Riley calls from the back of the bar, her voice echoing through the empty room.
Marena shuffles over slowly; the dragging sounds of her sneakers set Riley’s teeth on edge. She eyes the large carton warily. “That might be a two-person job.”
“Maybe,” Riley wipes the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. “Break?”
Marena collapses onto the worn leather stool, splaying her arms on the bar and dropping her head to the scarred counter with a bang.
“Ouch!” Riley laughs and pats Marena’s messy blonde bun. “Okay, drama queen.”
“Why are we doing this before opening?” Marena lifts her head, resting her chin on the worn wooden surface. “Not at the end of the night?”
“So we can be closed by 2 am,” Riley sets a cold bottle of water in front of her friend before uncapping her own. “I’m trying to have a life or something. Wanna come out with me?”
“You’re going out?” Marena claps, bouncing in her seat. “Yes!”
Riley has plans to go dancing. She loves it and hasn't been since her travels with Leo. She can’t live as if she’s waiting for him. Despite her irrational inclination to break any promise she made to him, she needs to try. 
Once the sadness mostly left, rage replaced the feeling. Riley channeled it into exercise; running, boxing, whatever keeps her moving. Whatever keeps her mind off Leo. Even if it only lasts for an hour.
“I thought Flynn did inventory in exchange for free drinks?” Marena slurps the icy water, sighing happily. “Where is he tonight?”
“He has a date,” Riley attempts a smile, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. She coughs to attempt to dislodge the lump from her throat, but she only succeeds in making her eyes fill with tears. 
Flynn follows her to the kitchen as she pulls a water pitcher from the refrigerator. She pours two glasses, taking a large gulp from the green beveled glass.
“It’s not every day I come up to a woman’s apartment at the promise of water,” Flynn jokes.
Riley cracks a smile, his blue eyes glinting in the overhead light. 
Not as blue as Leo’s.
Riley keeps the smile on her face. No one’s eyes are as blue as Leo’s. His face is constantly in her thoughts, his laugh, his voice. 
The flutter from earlier is gone. Riley’s back to feeling nothing.
Riley's fingers find the bull pendant, running her fingers over the smooth surface. Leo’s eyes, crinkling at the corners, his cedar cologne she can almost smell, the gentleness of his touch. Will she ever be able to forget them?
Flynn sets his glass down, taking the identical vessel from Riley’s hand. “Where’d you go just now?”
Riley blinks, forcing a smile, willing Leo to leave her mind just for one night. “Nowhere.”
“Flynn’s fine,” Marena hops off her stool and comes around the bar to wrap comforting arms around her friend. “You weren’t ready.”
Riley nods, her throat too tight to form words. 
“You can cry into my shirt. Perk of an all-black uniform. No spots.”
Riley laughs thickly, the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I thought my heavy emotional days were over.”
“It’s okay,” Marena pats her back. “You were due. It’s been weeks since the last good cry.”
“It’s not easy,” Riley admits. “I half hoped-”
Riley breaks off. 
Flynn’s confident lips meet her hesitant pout. Riley’s eyes snap closed.
Every kiss with Leo slams into her consciousness. 
On beaches, trains, in hotel rooms, and restaurants. His hand tangling in her hair. Everything blurring around them, unsure where she ended, and Leo began.
This doesn’t come close. 
A sob clogs Riley’s throat, and she presses her palms against Flynn’s firm chest, swiveling her head away so he can’t see her tears.
His hand rests on her shoulder, gently turning her to face him. 
“I’m sorry,” Riley can’t bring herself to lift her chin. It’s not Flynn’s fault. “I don’t think I can do this.”
“Okay,” Flynn begins, dropping his arm and sliding his hands into his back pocket. “I don’t know what to say here, Ri. You’re distant some of …” Flynn trails off, a rueful smile crosses his lips. “Most of the time. I sensed there was a bad breakup.”
Riley curses Leo. She’ll never be as happy. Lord knows she’s tried. 
“Bad doesn’t come close,” Riley covers her face as she tries to suppress the sobs working their way out of her. “He...he didn’t give me a choice.”
“Who didn’t?” Flynn lifts Riley’s chin with one finger, forcing her to meet his eyes. He raises an eyebrow, his curious expression letting her know she can confide in him. If she wants to. 
Riley tells Flynn everything. 
Marena grips her tighter. “That Leo’d come charging into the bar one night and beg for you to come back to him?”
“I know he won’t, I know,” Riley sighs and shakes her head. “In my loneliest moments, I can’t help it.”
“Leo’s an idiot,” Marena steps back and holds Riley by the shoulders, forcing her to make eye contact. “An idiot! Stop being so hard on yourself. You’ll get there when you get there. No sense in forcing it.”
“Damn. I didn’t expect that,” Flynn pulls her into a hug. “A man only does something that stupid when he’s in love. You know that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Riley is all too aware.“But it doesn’t change anything, does it?”
The hurt in her eyes is so raw Flynn wants to punch this Leo right in the face. King or not. He holds her tighter.
“I’m not switching bars.” Flynn rubs her back in slow circles. “You have to put up with my friendly ass.”
“Would never expect you to.” Riley feels a little better, despite the uncomfortable situation. “I’m so sorry; I never should have-”
“Shut up,” Flynn interrupts tenderly. “We’re good.”
The worst part of everything is that Riley understands. Leo wanted to protect her. He was miserable and didn’t want to drag her down with him. Riley has to believe on some level he knows that she’ll never forget him.
She’s almost booked flights to Cordonia more times than she can count, but she knows she won’t be allowed on palace grounds. Leo wouldn’t let her come back to him. He’s married by now, with an heir on the way. 
Riley tries not to think about that.
“Right,” Riley manages a weak smile. “Come on, let’s finish up so we can open.”
Marena lifts one side of the box, and Riley heaves the other.
It’s gotten easier, little by little. She never thought it would. 
———
“We’re going straight to the hotel?” Liam turns disbelieving eyes on his older brother. “Why?”
“Because we have luggage and need to check in,” Leo replies calmly, merging into the next lane. “I’m not going to the bar until almost closing.”
Leo glances in the rearview mirror at an unusually silent Drake. His head is resting against the leather seat; a soft snore fills the silence. 
“That’s hours from now!” Liam exclaims, pausing to watch New York pass by as they travel across a bridge. “Are you sure?”
“I don’t want to ambush her in a bar full of people,” Leo explains. “Hey, did you want to see the Statue of Liberty after we drop our shit?”
Leo’s heart is racing; he’s finding it challenging to sit still. He booked a hotel less than two blocks from the bar. Amalas couldn’t find Riley’s home address; she is most likely subletting and not on the lease. Amalas insisted she could, with a little more time. Leo was done waiting.
“You must be joking,” Liam almost sounds offended. “There’s time for all that later.”
Leo’s not sure what he hopes for. Riley ran, and he was happy to see her. Of course, Riley didn’t purposely push him away and tell him to leave the country.
Is this a mistake? Leo pulls at the collar of his heathered blue t-shirt. Will he only hurt her again?
No. He won’t. If anything, this has shed light on how badly Riley must have felt after leaving him in Italy. How she must have tried to convince herself over and over that it was right. 
She came back for him when she could have stayed away. Leo will spend the rest of his life making it up to her. 
If she’ll let him.
“What’s your favorite memory of Riley?” Liam’s voice stills his chaotic thoughts. 
A broad smile works its way over Leo’s face, and Liam quickly adds a caveat; “The PG version, please.”
“It’s not dirty,” Leo chuckles. He’d gotten drunk one night and told Liam that Riley had the most perfect ass he’d ever seen, describing it in far more detail than Liam wanted. “I promise.”
Riley rests her arms on the iron balcony of the opulent hotel Leo chose, the green glow of the Aurora Borealis painting the night sky over the formidable Suomenlinna.
“How’s the view?” Riley looks over as Leo stops beside her, not even giving the scene before them a cursory glance.
“Breathtaking,” Riley turns her face back to the fortress. “You’d know if you actually looked.”
Leo laughs and raises his face to the sky. “Gorgeous. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the Northern Lights.”
“I never have,” Riley’s eyes follow the trails of jade. “It’s almost like a scary movie.”
A burst of surprised laughter erupts from Leo’s chest. “A scary movie?”
Riley tears her eyes from the sky and clasps her hands, elbows propping her up. “Yeah, like the buildup of some apocalyptic event. The sun doesn’t come out, or the sky is grey. This one’s all green and swirly. It’d be a bad omen.”
“You said it was breathtaking,” Leo leans against the railing, helplessly intrigued.
“It is,” Riley argues. “Sometimes beauty is scary. Sometimes it can feel like something is going to end badly, but that doesn’t mean it will. You have to appreciate the good and take the bad with it too.”
“I thought we were talking about horror movies.”
Riley laughs, her mouth lifting in a wry smile. “I got carried away.”
“Don’t stop,” Leo can’t shake how he feels, the way he’s felt since they met. Every word is music to his ears. “I love it.”
“This place doesn’t seem like your style,” Riley lifts her brows. “It’s a little fancy.”
Leo smiles; the words mean more than she knows. 
“I only chose it because of the view,” Leo gestures at the sky and the fortress in the distance. “You mentioned you've been before, but I wanted to make sure you saw it the best way possible.”
“That’s incredibly sweet,” Riley looks back at the sky. Leo watches her lips lift in a smile. “You’re definitely not going to try to kill me.”
“I would never.” Leo steps closer, deliberately resting his hand next to hers, so close their pinkies brush. “But, they might help me cover it up here.”
“You’re right,” Riley gasps. “Fuck it. It’s an interesting way to go. Think of the news stories.”
Leo’s chest rumbles with laughter; Riley casts a sidelong glance in his direction before joining in. 
———
Leo feels as though he’s moving through impossibly thick air, but his steps are fast, purposeful. He’s surprised at the deserted streets; this is supposed to be the city that never sleeps. A fine drizzle mists him, but he’s thankful for the icy drops. A light fog has settled in over the Manhattan bridge, obscuring the bright lights. 
Leo stops short outside the door, peering in the grimy windows.
Riley.
She’s alone behind the dark wood bar, using a white and blue rag to dry a pint glass.
Leo’s eyes move rapidly, over her face, her hair, the curves of her hips. He takes her in hungrily; the familiarity of her smell, taste, and skin washes over him. Her hair is longer, falling over her shoulders. She’s wearing a black sleeveless top, low cut. 
The bull necklace glints in the overhead light, and Leo can’t help but take it as a sign. She never took it off.
A blonde woman stomps into view, and Leo hears her complain about rats. Riley laughs, but Leo notices her eyes don’t crinkle the way he remembers. She’s not happy.
The woman says something about meeting Riley and disappears. Leo turns his head as the side door slams and watches the woman jog down the sidewalk and disappear down the subway stairs.
Leo takes a deep breath and wraps his fingers around the knob.
——
The clang of the bell shifts Riley’s attention to the entrance. She raises her head, ready to call out that they’re closed; she’s about to lock the door. 
Suddenly, she can’t breathe.
Everything goes silent except a slight ringing in her ears. A wave of dizziness crashes over her, and she white knuckles the bar for support.
“Hi, Riley,” Leo gazes at her so affectionately that her cheeks flush. He’s gone over what to say when he saw her again, yet all the words vanish from his thoughts. 
Riley closes her eyes and slowly counts to ten. She opens them. He’s still here. 
Leo’s sun-kissed hair is longer; he has a few days' worth of stubble. Those blue eyes almost sparkle, the desperate expression she last remembers gone.
“Leo?” Her voice is a choked whisper.
Leo takes two hesitant steps toward the bar. He remembers each way she said his name. In annoyance, in the midst of passion, in comfort. 
This version surpasses them all. Because she’s saying it right now. She’s here, in front of him. It’s not some memory he clings to. 
Riley dreamed of Leo appearing often. She’d run to him; he’d lift her off the ground. The words he whispered in her ear would be apologies, declarations of love. 
Riley always woke before she said she loved him back. 
“Are you real?” Riley’s voice breaks. She covers her mouth with one hand, tears pooling in her eyes.
“I’m real,” Leo strides across the room and around the bar. He gathers Riley in his arms, feeling her tightly embrace him back. 
“Please forgive me,” Leo says into Riley’s hair. “Please. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Riley steps back from the embrace. Leo’s arms fall from her waist, but he grasps her hands with his. 
Riley automatically looks at his fingers; the familiar gold signet ring is gone, no wedding band. She frowns, confused. 
“What are you doing here?” Riley finds her voice, shifting her weight on more sure legs. 
“I wanted to see you,” Leo feels Riley’s hands slip in his and tightens his grip. “I’m sorry it took me so goddamn long.”
“I don’t understand,” Riley glances at his hands again, entwined with hers. 
Leo tries to will back the words he wanted to say, everything he meant to tell her, but his brain refuses to remember any of it. 
“I abdicated,” Leo begins. “I saw a path out, finally. A way not to drop the crown on Liam and for me to live life the way I wanted.”
“What?” Riley’s voice is a whisper. “How?”
Leo brings her hands to his lips, unable to help himself, needing the sensation of his lips against her fingers to ground him. “Olivia‘s in charge. Liam and Drake are touring colleges. Liam plans on returning in a few years to help Olivia rule.”
Riley nods, her mind spinning. She can’t think of an appropriate response. Leo never wanted to be king. He’s free, and he took care of Liam. 
Riley recalls the messages Liam left her months ago. She couldn’t return them; it hurt too much. 
Riley’s heart is full, and there’s nothing more she wants than to jump back into Leo’s arms. 
If she could only will her legs to move. She’s frozen.
“I’m sorry,” Leo waits until Riley’s eyes clash with his. He doesn’t miss the sharp intake of breath, the tears that spring to her eyes. His eyes fill, and he clears them quickly with the heel of his hand. “I was cruel. I didn’t give you a choice. I-”
The apology awakens the fury she’s lived with since leaving Cordonia at the unfairness of it all. 
Riley drops his hand and turns back to the glass she was drying, halting his words. “I came back to you, Leo. I was fully aware of who you were.”
“I’m-”
Riley continues, undeterred. “You acted as though I didn't understand how different your life was, how different mine would potentially be. I wanted to fight for us. You gave up.”
Riley’s voice breaks on the last word, and she takes another glass from the sink, drying it angrily. 
“You told me to live for both of us, and I have been fucking trying,” Riley feels tears rising and swallows them down. “You show up out of the blue, expecting to pick up where we left off?”
Riley’s breathing heavily, though her anger has almost evaporated. She didn’t know she could hurt in the agonizing way she has been for the past year. She’s reminded that she’s done this to him, leaving with little explanation and so much unsaid. 
Knowing hurts more. Riley wishes she was aware of less.
“No,” Leo insists, a wave of guilt and jealousy running through him at the thought of Riley with someone else. It’s not fair, but he feels it all the same. “I wanted to see you. I wanted to tell you how sorry I was. I was an asshole.”
Riley doesn’t answer, her knees are trembling, and she hopes Leo doesn't notice. “You made a decision for me. You told me to find someone to give me what you couldn’t.”
Leo’s head bobs in agreement. “The promises were too much to ask. I deluded myself into thinking you would be happier away from me, that life. I don’t know how I got through that conversation, I look back, and it’s not me. I-”
“What do you think it’s been like?” Riley interrupts. Tears are rolling down her cheeks, and she doesn’t care.  “Knowing where you were, wanting desperately to go back, even though I promised I wouldn’t? I didn’t keep track of Cordonian news because I couldn’t see that fucking terrible look on your face the day I left.”
Leo waits for Riley to take a breath. He wants to dry her tears, but he’s holding himself back. He isn’t sure why. 
“I’ve been trying,” Riley wipes her cheeks with her palms. “It was finally getting easier. I was even seeing someone. He was nice, but he wasn’t-”
Riley breaks off, breathing deeply to compose herself. 
“I knew I’d never see you again,” Riley says shakily. “Those memories were enough for me.”
“You didn’t listen,” Leo’s eyebrows raise at her voicing a thought he often had that got him through empty days and sleepless nights. 
“You shouldn’t be surprised,” Riley wipes her eyes on the back of her hand. “Fuck the rules, right?”
Leo can’t help but grin. “Fuck ‘em all.”
Riley’s phone buzzes in her pocket, and she’s grateful for the distraction. She moves under Leo’s arm and leans against the bar, reading the message from Marena, realizing she forgot to meet her for dancing. Why does Marena need a boat to the Statue of Liberty? 
Leo tilts his head to the side, taking in a slow breath and letting it out in a rush. She’s texting? Now?
Riley forwards the message to Flynn, hoping he’s on his boat by now. Flynn quickly shoots back a thumbs-up emoji.
“Fuck this,” Leo growls and spins her to face him. “I’m done trying to play it cool. I love you. I came here for you. I don’t care that it isn’t fair. I want you, and I’m going to die if I don’t kiss you.”
Riley’s eyes widen as she backs up a few steps. “That was you playing it cool?”
“I’ve been playing it cool for a year,” Leo courses a hand through his hair. “Don’t tease me. I can’t handle it.”
“YOU can’t handle it!” Riley balls her hands into fists.
“This, us. It was never over for me,” Leo steps closer. “I never tried to live or move on. I’m too goddamn in love with you.”
Riley can feel the heat from his skin; she longs to fall into his arms. She left, and he didn’t hesitate to hold her, to make her his again when she came back to him. 
The pain is too fresh. 
Leo sees the sadness pass over her features and closes the remaining distance between them. He slides his hands in her hair, the scent of lilies waft past his nose.
“It’s too late,” Riley whispers, grief threatening to overwhelm her. “Not in this life, remember?”
“I should have fought for us,” Leo swallows over a lump in his throat. “I should have let you in and never made you leave. If I’d told you how badly I was doing, you would’ve helped me come up with a way out sooner, I am so fucking sure. I love you. Please don’t let it be too late.“
Riley doesn’t speak, her eyes not quite meeting his. Leo won’t let her go, not without giving it all he has.
“I wish I could take it all back; every word I hurt you by saying,” Leo kisses her forehead, her cheeks, her nose. Riley softens under his touch. “Every word I shouldn’t have said. I know I can’t. I’m so sorry, love.”
Leo’s head droops, before a thought finally hits him. A half smile lifts his lips, and he rests his forehead against Riley’s cool skin.
“I said maybe in another life,” Leo says in a low murmur, their breath mixing as Riley’s pulse quickens. The silence in the bar seems to deepen, the soft patter of rain taps against the window panes. “This is a brand new one.”
Riley chokes out a half sob, half chuckle. “What?”
“It took me a fucking long time to start it, but here we are.” Leo tilts her chin gently. “No bullshit holding us back.”
“I tried to push you out of my head,” Riley casts her eyes downward. “Believe me, I tried.”
“Are you in love with me?” Leo holds his breath. 
“I never stopped loving you,” Riley’s eyes flit back to his. “I-”
Leo’s lips are on hers; the words are lost in a hungry kiss. 
Riley knew what he would feel like; his mouth has pressed against hers so many times. She’s memorized the curve of his lips, the small scar on the left side of his mouth.
She isn’t prepared for the shockwave that travels through her, for the way her body immediately draws him closer. Her arms loop around his shoulders, and her hands tangle in the hair at the nape of his neck.
Her legs wobble, and Leo’s arm comes around her waist to steady her. He’s overcome with familiarity, his chest warming. He clutches her tighter against him; everything he’s wanted to say since Riley left pours into the kiss. I’m sorry. I hate myself for hurting you. I love you. 
Riley leans against Leo’s chest, his heart beating against her temple. She can’t deny that she feels more at peace than she has in months. He’s here. He’s the Leo she remembers. 
“Can I tell you something?” Leo murmurs into her hair. “I’ve never been to New York.”
Riley laughs quietly, lifting her head to see if he's joking. Leo laces their fingers together, bringing their hands to his heart. “You’re lying.”
“Hand to god,” Leo promises. “What are the odds of you living somewhere I’ve never seen?”
Riley’s face is impassive. Leo’s eyes study hers, desperate for a sign. “Maybe you can show me your favorite place in the city?”
Riley worries her bottom lip between her teeth, her eyes moving around the dim bar behind Leo.
Five words repeat through her head in that smooth amused voice of his. 
Riley has been sure of a few things since Paris, since the kiss on top of the Eiffel Tower. 
Her life without Leo is like being in a room with half the lights on. She can see, she can get by, but she’s missing so much. She’s missing adventures and passion she knows she’ll never find with anyone else. 
“True love. Messy, inconvenient, can’t live without one another love. That’s what is important.”
Riley looks up at Leo, a slow smile spreading across her face. “What are we waiting for?”
———
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angelasscribbles · 8 months
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Art for Dark Elf
You guys!! You guys!!! I am soooo excited about this art commission from @bayleedrawsx that I won from @storyofmychoices for her Shadows and Deception murder mystery event!!
Shout out to @karahalloway for suggesting Dark Elf when I asked for opinions on what to get!!
It's cute but evil Elven Liam!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩
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leelee10898 · 9 months
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Hurricane chapter 13: Skinny Love
Jenna Mahoney came to Cordonia for love. A cruel and unforgiving court cast her aside after the scandal, sending her on a downwards spirl fueld by alcohol. She comes back to clear her name, but life at court can be a dangerous place. catch up here. If you'd like to be tagged, drop a line. 🤗
Pairing: Liam × Jenna
Word count: 1,845
Warnings: violence, language, alcoholism and mentions of alcoholism, car accident.
A/N: This chapter will double as my submission for @choicesflashfics using the prompt: "Not everything can be butterflies and rainbows. Things get hard sometimes. that's just how it is."  which will be highlighted in red.
Liam paced the floor of his quarters,  a group of guards stood around the dining table looking over maps of the area Drake and Jenn were in. The confirmation that something was wrong setting in after they failed to arrive in Lythikos.  It had been nearly three hours since Jenna's last text, Liam's stomach knotted more with each passing minute. 
"I need an update," Liam spoke up, turning his attention towards the activity to the side of him. 
"We have guards combing the areas around where they were said to be. Duchess Olivia has a team out as well, we will find them, sir." 
Liam pinched the bridge of his nose, he should have been with her, he should have gone to Ramsford and talked to her. Now the two people who mean the most to him in this world are unaccounted for and Liam being the most powerful man in the country,  felt completely powerless. The nagging feeling that Hana had something to do with them being followed gnawed at him like a dog would a bone. He crossed the room, staring out his window playing everything over again in his mind…
A few hours ago…..
Liam marched down the long corridor of the bottom floor of the palace that housed the royal guard's security room and housing. It also housed the dungeon or as they called it these days, the palace jail. Hana was still on his tail, he wanted nothing more than to tell her to get lost, but his focus was on finding the head of the royal guard and getting someone to Drake and Jenna immediately. 
He reached the security room and tossed the door open. Three guards stood immediately upon seeing him,  it wasn't a normal occurrence for the King to be on this level of the palace and the look on his face told them something was wrong. 
" Your majesty," one of the guards spoke as they bowed before him. "We weren't expecting you." 
"Where's Bastien? Get me Bastien Now!" He shouted, making Hana jump next to him. 
One of the guards known as James immediately radioed over calling Bastien down to the security room.
A few minutes later Bastien entered the door Laim who had been pacing stopped, turning to Bastien.  "Drake and Jenna are in danger. They were being followed by an SUV in the Flintlock area, I can not get in contact with either now " 
 "On it sir." Bastien nodded, springing into action. He called a group of guards down, briefing them on the situation, grouping them into teams, and assigning them each area to search. 
"Is there anything I can do?" Hana spoke up, Liam forgetting she had followed him into the guard's wing. He spun on his heels as soon as he heard her voice, "Did you have something to do with this?" He seethed crossing the room in a flash. 
"What? No, Liam I-" 
"Did you have them followed? I swear on everything holy,  Hana I will have your head on a pike." Liam backed her into a corner, hanas face paled, the fear visible in her eyes as the fire raged within his. 
"N, no Liam, I didn't do anything. I have been here at the palace with you. I swear." 
"Sir. Sir," Liam felt Bastien's hand on his shoulder, " You need to remain calm, we will find Drake and Jenna." 
Liam inched back, and Hana stood against the wall, frozen. "Get her out of here," Liam ordered,  as one of the guards escorted her out of the room. "She doesn't leave the palace, keep an eye on her Bastien,  I don't trust her," Liam ordered. 
"Understood, " Bastien nodded, before exiting the room. 
Liam picked up his phone, dialing her number again, but still it kept going to voicemail. He had to find her, he had to find Drake, He was going to find them both and they were going to be ok, they had to be. 
The phone ringing in his hand pulled him from his thoughts. "Hello." He lifted the phone to his ear. 
"Sir, we have an update." 
Drake awoke with a groan, his body throbbing in pain, where the hell was he? He blinked his eyes trying to shake the fog from his brain and it started to come back to him in pieces. He was driving,  there was an SUV behind him, and then another came out of nowhere in front of them. He swerved to avoid it and ended up going down an embankment and that was all he remembered.  The smell of smoke, coolant and blood filled his senses,  he hit a tree. "Jenna." He spoke aloud,  remembering he wasn't alone. Drake lifted his left arm easily enough, nothing broke there,  his right arm was not as fortunate. A sharp pain hit him like a million knives jabbing into his flesh and he hissed out in pain. He looked over into the passenger seat, Jenna's crumpled body lay slumped to the side. "Mahoney," he mumbled.  "Mahoney talk to me, Mahoney, Jenna, are you ok? Please tell me you're ok. Please talk to me." He pleaded but she didn't utter a word.  
********
Drake managed to un-do his seatbelt and wiggle his way to her. Careful not to move her much he reached out with his good arm and felt for a pulse, it was weak but she had one. "Mahoney, please, please hang on," Drake groaned, the pain he was in began to overtake him. "Liam's gonna find us, he, he has to." He whispered before losing consciousness again. 
A little while later Drake stirred awake at the sound of rustling nearby. "I think I found something," he heard the voice say close by. He tried to shout but the only thing that came out was a strained, quiet help. He reached over putting his hand on the steering wheel, trying to give it a push but no sound came out, must have been damaged on impact. The rustling sounds grew closer, "I found the truck. Requesting backup," 
"We're in here." He managed to get out in a strained, hoarse voice. Jenna was still unconscious next to him. A few minutes later a group of guards and EMTs surrounded the truck, making strides in freeing the two. 
They pulled Drake out first as he was slightly mobile and placed him on the stretcher.  An emt attempted to assess him and he shook his head, "No. I'm fine," he lied. "Take care of Jenna, she's in bad shape." 
"You are most certainly not fine, Mr Walker. Miss Mahoney is in good hands and will be handled by the best hands Cordonia has to offer." The EMT was stern but held back a smirk, as Drake huffed and rolled his eyes. 
"Your reputation precedes you, Drake. The rumor is that the king's best friend is a stubborn,  cranky ass, but loyal." The EMT known as Lucy smirked, trying to distract Drake from what was going on in the truck, they had finally extracted Jenna and rushed her to the awaiting ambulance. 
"Yeah well, I will be less of a cranky ass when I know Mahoney is ok. I should go with her." He tried to climb down from the gurney. 
"Whoa, there Walker. You are in no shape to walk. Duchess Olivia would have my head on a pike if anything more happened to you." Lucy snapped. 
"You're from Lythikos, I take it." Drake groaned as his sudden movements sent waves of pain throughout his body. 
The smirk Lucy wore told him she indeed was from Lythikos, he threw his good arm up in surrender. Drake was thick headed but he wasn't an idiot. People from Lythikos were scary. 
After a short ride to the hospital and a few hours at the hospital, and much arguing on his part, Drake was treated for his injuries and released. He had a broken arm, a hairline ankle fracture,  two broken fingers,  a black eye, and lacerations to the face, arms, and hands. A guard rolled his wheelchair into the private waiting area of the hospital and closed the door behind him. Liam paced the floors, in anticipation. 
"You're gonna wear a hole in the floor." Drake chuckled
"I don't know if I can sit still,  all this wondering." Liam sighed, flopping into the chair next to where Drake's wheelchair was parked. " But I'll try." He gave a half smile before letting out a frustrated breath. "How has it been three hours and no updates?" 
"She's gonna be ok, Li. Mahoney is a fighter. She's gotta be." Drake tried to reassure Liam, but even he wasn't sure what the outcome would be. 
"I hope so. I don't," He paused. " I don't know what I will do if I lose her, Drake. I don't know what I would do if I lost either of you." Liam reached out, patting Drake's good hand. 
"I'm alright, Li. A little banged up but, I'm ok. And Jenna, she's gonna be ok too." 
"I'm serious Drake, you are my best friend,  you're my brother. I'm really glad you're ok. Did you speak to Bastien yet? Do you have any description of the driver of the other SUV?" 
"I spoke to Bas and told him everything that happened.  It happened so fast that all I know is it was a silver SUV and the driver was wearing a mask. No plate information,  nothing distinctive." 
Liam stood pacing again. "I think Hana had something to do with this." 
"You sure Li? Did you find anything on her?"  Drake perked up. He had a short list of suspects in the setup case, and ever since the garden party when he placed that envelope in that waiters hand, Hana was at the top of the list. 
"No, nothing. I can't explain it but, It's a nagging feeling. She was a great friend when Jenna left. I leaned on her for comfort and guidance, I thought she thought of that pact to protect me but, I don't know.  Seeing that footage from Jenna's apple pin has me questioning everything." 
"We will get to the bottom of this Li. I promise you." Drake balled his fist, slamming the one he could down on the wheelchair. 
"Heads will roll!" A voice came from outside the door and both men snapped their heads towards that direction just as Olivia barged inside. 
"What?" She shrugged her shoulders as the two men stared at her. "Not everything can be butterflies and rainbows. Things get hard sometimes. that's just how it is." 
Liam gave her a pointed look, with a hint of amusement. 
"I just needed to give the fine staff of Cordonia General Hospital and your royal guard a little reminder that nobody messes with Lythikos or their friends," Olivia smirked, dropping in the seat next to Drake. "Glad to see you made it out ok, Walker." 
"Well, I'd hate for you to have to break in a new bickering partner." He smiled,  taking her hand. 
Liam arched his brow and Olivia rolled her eyes. "Don't read into it too much Liam."
Before Liam could say a word a knock came at the door and Doctor Farley walked in. "I'm here with an update on Miss Mahoney." 
@kingliam2019 @ao719 @emichelle @annabellewynter @twinkleallnight @riseandshinelittleblossom @blackcatkita @katedrakeohd @tinkie1973 @ownworldresident @cordoniaqueensworld @lovingchoices14 @indiana-jr @txemrn @bascmve01 @queenwalton @sfb123 @umccall71 @choicesficwriterscreations @emersyn-in-cordonia @belencha77
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fictionangyl · 10 months
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A little one-shot I wrote earlier this week. Available to read on both AO3 & Wattpad.
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I am considering running a second Quote me on this challenge. Would anyone be interested?
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queenmiarys · 2 years
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Song inspiration
Thanks to everyone for reading liking and sharing I really appreciate it.
Thank you for pre reading and your advice @lilyoffandoms
@lilyoffandoms @angelasscribbles @honey358luv @harleybeaumont @luvquit @kingliam2019 @mom2000aggie @yolandawalker @socalwriterbee @shewillreadyou @karahalloway @21-wishes @bebepac @queenrileyrose @staff @yaniradolton @choiceskatie @lovingchoices14
Book: The Royal Romance/Royal Heir.
Series summary:  This book starts off in book two before the engagement tour, the Beaumont’s don’t have financial issuesBertrand and Savannah are already married their son is three, this Maxwell is not canon
Paring: Maxwell x Juliana, Liam x Madeline.
🍋🍋🍋
Chapter Summary: Madeleine finds out rumors are true 😉, Juliana in bad situation, Liam suspects Juliana hiding something.
Crossed
Chapter 3 Only time will tell
Everyone arrived at Applewood and settled accept Juliana, She sit in the room for about an hour, then she got up and made her way to Max room, she knocked on the door him and Bertrand stood talking. “if I’m interrupting I can come back?
“ Juliana you are most definitely not how may we help you?
“They put me in the same room can one of you switch please?"
 
Maxwell wanted to hug her and tell her there was no way he was letting her stay there alone after what happened. “ Jewel I'll take your room, unless Bertrand want to."
 “I think she’ll feel safe in your room, just make sure the locks are secured and I've also asked king Liam to put extra guards on the grounds. your safety is important to us, we don’t want nothing happening to you are our family "
She  gave Max a look. “thank you both I came here to find happiness and I truly have, okay guys enough of that before I start crying, they left and she got a Message from max.
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“ I’m glad you came I needed some privacy with you. His lips crashed  into hers and his tongue slide into her mouth it felt like weeks of not being able to touch her, he caught his breath and got serious. " look this wasn’t the only reason I invited you to come, I know you said you had to think but honestly I don’t know about this, I mean hiding us; if I’m going to be your man then I want to be your only man,  its also time we talked to Liam too."
“You’re right but first we need to talk about something."
“Jewel, you tell me anything okay."
" I been sick for last few days, I think I may be pregnant."
“What! “you mean I’m going to  be a father?"
“That’s what I wanted to talk about, I was with Liam twice it depends how far along I am , if I’m pregnant."
“I don’t want you stressed out baby, have you took a test yet, you wanted chocolate milkshake my favorite so that gives me hope, before we return we go pick up some test, we may be able to walk in, hopefully my doctor can run a DNA test."
“I just want to focus on us right now its been 6 days since we been alone. "  I miss you." He was very gentle he ran his hand between her legs and they fell apart, he licked her till she came, then enter her.
“ You feel incredible, come for me again, that’s my girl , I don’t think I can hold much longer but I want you come once more."
I rubbed my click while he was inside of me we both came,
We ate the rest of the food, I quickly fall asleep.
Liam knocked on Juliana door but no answer. He had a lot on his mind, especially if  O’Dell was right. He made his way to the  bar and called O’Dell.
Maxwell laid on the bed thinking what if Liam is the father, I promise to keep both of you safe, he thought before kissing her forehead and falling asleep.
_______
“Your Majesty, this what we have for you on Ms.Rodriguez." Once she arrived at Applewood she met with  the Beaumont brothers, she then left an hour later to met with Maxwell beaumont at the bakery about 2 blocks away, they picked up some food then went to the Apple spa hotel, my men say they are still there now
“ Thank you, that will be all, he called his driver to pick him up, he had way to many drinks.
It’s now almost 2am, Madeline been sitting waiting on Liam for the  last hour.
“Sorry I must be in the wrong room?"
“No you’re not, this is your room, look we are to be married why not , tell me you never ever thought how it’ll be?"
"Madeline I told you before." by this time she had unbutton his pants and her mouth was wrapped around his length
She liked how he felt in her mouth, she was surprised at how big he was , he pulled her up and bent her over.
He licked her wet center until she came, she never experienced a man taking their  time with her, even drunk Liam was full aware of what he was doing.
He flipped her over and entered her, she felt every inch of him, he give her a minute to adjust to him he asked if she was okay, he made her come twice more before his own release, he got up and cleaned up himself and passed out.
Madeline was still on fire From what just happened, the guy told her those pills would help her give in to her wildest desires and make her feel free to be more sexual and do things she wanted,  she got up and flashed her face with water, she got in bed and wrapped her arms around him. She haven’t been so confused in her life more then now.
A few hours later, Liam woke up with a hangover and wondering what the hell did he do, he didn’t remember much after the bar, not even calling a car.
"Madeleine what the hell are you doing here?"
“I was here when you returned and wow it was really good sex."
“Sex with you?"
“Yes, you wasn’t complaining last night and neither was I."
"I wasn’t in my right mind, did you drug me or something?"
"I would never do something like that, look you will grow to like maybe even love me,  we can  try this when you’re sober and it’ll be better." she winked,  the truth was she definitely wanted more of him.
 ---------------------
I was the next morning, Maxwell woke up it was 7am
“ Jewel baby wake up we got to get back, we’ll stop and pick up a few test and something to eat, they arrived back she took 2 of the test both positive
“it's just 8, let me see if I can call Dr. Morgan ."
“Hello, Doctor Morgan this is Maxwell Beaumont, my friend needs to see a doctor can you see her ?" Oh thank you Doctor Morgan." They arrived at the doctor’s office.
This was the second time she noticed the same guy. she quickly send Max a text
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“Hello I am doctor Morgan." She recognized her right away.
" Mr. Beaumont please step into my office, tell me how may I help?"
She took 2 pregnancy test and both was positive, we need an DNA test ran
“Okay are you the potential father
“Yes I am.
“ There’s your baby you are indeed pregnant, I say by my measurements you're about 8 weeks, I will stat you on prenatal vitamins, do you know what your weight was or you lost or gained ?
“ Well when I was in NY the last time I was weighed I was 115 the last I got weighed
"Maxwell a word please."
“Okay we want to see where you are ok; shoes off wait for double zero Okay you are 121 you gain 6lbs not bad, you want to eat healthy sex is fine, nothing to rough dad, reduce stress as much as possible and get as much rest as you can, you are pregnant and will be more tired then usual."
" Yes Doctor. Morgan? "
With the press all over this I think its best if you two left the country, until things came down, she already been part of one scandal, and since she’s small she probably will start showing soon she already 2months, I give you this advice because  I delivered you and your brother, I know if this is your baby you will be a great father, give me a hug congratulations, about the DNA that will take about a week or so, and Max you two must inform our king he might be a father as well."
"How did you know this."
"Max I’m old not blind, I've seen the way king Liam looks at her even if it was on camera, you walked in and I saw you look at her the same way."
They left out, there was that guy behind them, he dropped her off and asked her to go to his old room, and called Drake, hey this dude been following me around or jewel.
Okay man be there shortly
 
It’s lunch time and Juliana is sitting in the maze on the swing in deep thought she didn’t hear Liam enter.
“This is a nice surprise, its hard to track you down lately, can we talk a minute please?"
She nodded .
I can’t do this now Liam please but I promise we’ll talk."
“I know that things didn’t  turn out right and we have a long way to go, I want to know until we get this situation settled, "were do we stand?"
" Is there a future with us ? or have you really moved on with Maxwell?"
"Why can’t you be honest with me?" I’m not stupid."
"Liam please I got to go."
 
It’s now 5pm their all out front to  await their rides to take them to  the train in a neighboring city.
 
“Hello to all, Thank you all for coming along to celebrate our engagement with us, we hope that you all enjoy the tour and tonight’s dinner, once everyone is settled please meet us in the dining cart."
The smell of the food hit Juliana, and made her feel queasy, she quickly made up an excuse not to stay.
But Drake noticed and went to find her, but Maxwell beat him to it.
Baby the doctor give you a list of things you could take I stopped and got these see if they help, I want you to rest and I brought you this across the street its for the baby, I say boy chocolate milkshake
Drake eyes went wide.
"Liam asked about us, so we need to talk to him about us."
Baby I’m ready for that, just not about the baby yet."
 "Can I ask you something?"
“Sure baby whatever you like."
“I don’t want  to lose you Max I need to know where we stand if this is Liam child?"
There was a knock on the door, did you forget something? Oh Drake how can I help you? "
“ baby I’m not leaving you never, but I better get back out, rest baby.
Drake hide so Max wouldn't see him
I saw you earlier how sick you got back there. Just checking on you."
"Thank you for checking on me but I’m fine."
Okay remember we were once where friends  Rodriguez, if you ever need to talk I am here.
Drake we still are friends, I would like to believe we are, I hear Hana really likes you and I hear you have a new house so why haven’t you invited me out there?"
“Sorry only Hanna has  been there but you and Max are welcomed to come "
"How much did you hear? You overheard us didn’t you?"
“Yes but it wasn’t Intentionally honestly I was coming to check on you and there were the two of you talking; so how long have you been together?"
"We started hooking up a week after Liam Coronation, I felt broken and weak and like a no body cared but Maxwell." He was there in so many ways and plus I already had a crush on him, so I wanted him and didn’t stop until I got him, now I could probably lose him, Liam moved on too I heard.
“ What do you mean, how have he moved on?
“ I saw Madeleine coming from his room at Applewood,  they slept together and I don’t believe she was lying, I been going through some stuff to even focus on what Liam got going on, if she makes him happy why shouldn’t he."
“Thanks for talk but I am so tired and sleepy." was only 8:15 but she couldn’t keep her eyes open.
“Rodriguez I don’t believe that he would, I know he still loves you, and from what I just seen so do Max, you must pick and let one go and you may be carrying a prince or princess, even if you want Max, you and Liam would need be Co parents if that baby is his, and from what I've seen Max  not not going anywhere. "
It’s 11pm Maxwell was worried so he went to check on her and had the cook to cook her something, ‘ Jewel baby I hate to bother you but you need to eat something, its chicken Parmesan."
She ate half and drink water.
“That’s my girl."
 Stay with me I need you next to me.
They showered and got in bed both fill asleep
 
------------------------ -----------
 
It’s the next day, Max has planed to show her around, he had the  day planned just the two of them.
 
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They got back to train around 8pm. “ Baby I had fun, I want this type of thing with you for life I want you be my wife one day
"What the hell did you  Just say Maxwell Beaumont ?"
“ Bertrand you heard me right, we are in love and I want her to  be my wife.
“Maxwell we need to talk about this, she’s King Liam girlfriend and you know how important she is to him."
“ If she was so important to him why didn’t he fight for her?" where was he when she was crying in my arm broken because of his decision?" I won’t let anything happen to them, his hand flu over his mouth, god dammit." he mumbled under his breath.
 "Wait what do you mean them? Please tell me you didn’t get her pregnant?"
"Can we not talk about this now."
“Oh Dear God Maxwell. We need to  sit down and talk this  out,  here is not the Proper place, but this conversation is far from over."
 
“We have a dinner to attend come on you two and please behave and stop looking at her like you’re a love sick puppy."
"She headed to the boutique where Olivia was waiting on her, “Hello Juliana I have a dress for you That’s lovely and it should fit you perfectly."
"I have put on a few pounds Liv so that size  is to small."
She had to make an excuse, she knew her usual size 4 wouldn't fit."
"What the hell have  you been eating?" I’ve seen you eat which is hardly anything at all and the last few days you haven’t been eating the food that’s prepared here."
"Liv please I ate out and was to full to eat ."
"Hmm you are hiding something I’ve gotten to know you pretty well, something is off and I will figure it out; I’m pretty sure its not about your boy toy Max
Her eyes went wide, “why do you say that?"
“I see what other’s look over, Maxwell is in love with you and how you look at him you love him too. “look in my eyes and lie, because I seen how he gets when you’re around Liam.
“Liv please I need to be alone."
She walked out without saying anything.
Maxwell picked out 2 dresses that she would be comfortable in and a pair of flats.
 
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"You look beautiful baby."
She changed and walked out to see Hana, they greeted each other and  talked a little, then parted ways.
Maxwell walked up behind her kissing her neck, she was so tuned on by his touch. She gave a sad face.
She linked her arm through his arm and he escorted her out.
Liam sit watching them he paid close attention to how they were acting around each other, the way Maxwell looked at her said it all, yep he's definitely  in love with her, he could see he was trying hard to hide how he felt.
Maxwell looked up at Liam starring at him and wonder what’s his issue, he watched as he stood to ask Juliana to dance, he watched as they danced.
A voice called out, “Penny for your thoughts?"
He looked at Madeline in disbelief. Are you really falling for your king? I can see hope in your eyes if he’s free of her then you believe you two could have a real chance?" he laughed. " I got to see this.
“He still care for her, you two need be honest with him, he needs to know so he can finally move on."
" I got him into bed, but to keep him there when he thinks Juliana is still available is impossible, you need to get caught that way no odd conversations, and once he finds out I can be there to comfort him."
“ I am good why are you acting strange?"
She stormed off because she knew he was right, she wanted something real with him now she really started to care for him since their night together a few days ago, she was scared of these feelings it was all so new for her, she had plenty of boyfriends, but Liam was different and there’s no way in hell I’m letting him go she thought, she went over to him. “excuse me lady Juliana my I cut in? they danced.
“So how have you been?
She smiled. “ I am just happy to see you that’s all nothing else, look I had fun the other night and was wondering if we could have casual sex, we are grown, and we  both have needs.
“This is not you; why are you trying to get me to sleep with you again?"
“Can we talk in private?"
“Sure."
“ What’s so urgent?" She locked lips with him
“Liam I really want you, I know you don’t love me but can we try.
“Lady Madeline please conduct yourself, I don't think now is the time excuse me. "
She sit crying, Penelope come in and hugged her
“What ever it is will be okay."
“How did you get here?"
"My dad brought me he has some business with king Liam."
 
 “Yes I been so tried lately, but what did you want to show me?
Liam had a hard day, he left a note for Juliana to meet him, she came but seem very tired it was close to midnight, she disappeared right after dinner Maxwell stayed around , “ Did you just wake up?" He asked
 
 
It’s beautiful Liam , how did you find this place?
“ My family use to visit when I was younger, look I am sorry about yesterday, but you really never answered me.
“Liam it’s complicated I promise we’ll talk
“Complicated how?" all I want to know is where we stand?"
“Liam I believe we both got things to think about you are engaged and unavailable, you have been for a long time I just didn’t know it., its cold out and I am still sleepy can we return?"
"Okay."
 
We arrived back the train, I enter my room and Maxwell is sitting on my bed waiting on me, he’s not happy
“What did you tell Liam?"
“Nothing yet, I was going to but I couldn’t."
I give him a smile and close my eyes.
“I want us to wait  at least for  the test results come back, I don’t need you stressed.
“I want you to rest  don’t overload yourself ..You and our baby must stay healthy.
 
 
“Can you meet me in my room?"
“I am your future Queen, I am not your lapdog Maxwell."
“Just keep your future husband away from Juliana, they went off together tonight."
“Why would that concern me?  I offered an agreement,  her  as his mistress and to my understanding she didn’t accept."
"Just keep him busy, go do things as a royal couple, meet me tomorrow? we going to work on you Madi.
Don’t worry little one,  mine  or not I’m going to take care of both of you, I’m praying Liam is not your father."
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lizzybeth1986 · 2 months
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Drake and Kiara: When You're Fucking Racist
Series - TRR's Alternative LIs - The "Romances" that Didn't Happen
Previous - Hana and Madeleine: When You Reward Your Favourite Bully with One of Her Victims
A/N: Again, apologies for the length. There was a LOT to unpack in this one!! I'm really, really not going to be nice to Drake here. It was harrowing to go through a lot of these scenes again and I honestly don't have the patience or inclination to sugarcoat any of it.
CW: Mentions of gun violence and minimization of trauma. Mentions of racist fan vitriol towards a black character. Examination of the Jezebel stereotype.
Whenever I think about how unhinged the hatred towards Kiara (and especially towards Kiara's attraction to Drake) was, a specific edit comes to mind.
On the surface, it looks quite simple. Kiara in a white wedding dress, Drake right next to her in his blue formal suit. Both of them are smiling at the viewer. The background is a beautiful forest, and the entire picture is bathed in a lovely, muted sepia tone. A sweet, simple wedding scene.
The caption underneath this edit?
Classify under things no one asked for.
Kiara's dream come true!
The tags read "#i barf a little looking at this" and "#i must post to share the suffering". You find out in the comments that the OP created this edit inspired by one of the many fics where Kiara was Drake's stalker, and intended to make her creepy and deranged (but ultimately failed).
The comments are...tbh, things that this fandom has long since normalized and shrugged at when it comes to Drake stans. Multiple puke-face emojis. Multiple gifs signaling disgust. One stan even equates the ship name (Driara) to the word diarrhoea.
"She looks very stalkeresque and white "I drugged Drake so he's marrying me" wedding ready!"
"Well it's close to Halloween so we should expect scary shit"
"THAT is why I made that bitch my Maid of Honor...so she got the message LOUD AND CLEAR...it ain't NEVER gonna happen honey" (right below a barfing gif)
I wish I could say this example of Kiara hatred was the worst of the lot, or even the only one. It wasn't. I'm not sure even an entire essay would be adequate space to explore the sheer levels of vitriol, hatred and double standards dumped on this one character.
Until now, we've seen examples of alternative LIs that were treated with respect. With adulation. Often with kid gloves in case we hurt their poor lill fee-fees. Up until now, no matter what an alternative LI may have done, the LI matched with them wasn't allowed to treat them badly, nor was the MC able to get away with hurting them without punishment.
But in this series, Kiara was, is, and will always be an anomaly.
The Jezebel Stereotype
In most media, black women in particular tend to be subjected to a variety of stereotypes that often have serious, real-world implications. The Mammy, the Sapphire (that over time evolved to what we now know as the "Angry Black Woman" stereotype) and the Jezebel, being the most prominent ones among them. In this essay, I will be focusing specifically on the last.
An article in the Black Then website explains the definition and history of the trope this: "The portrayal of black women as lascivious by nature is an enduring stereotype. The descriptive words associated with this stereotype are singular in their focus: seductive, alluring, worldly, beguiling, tempting, and lewd. Historically, white women, as a category, were portrayed as models of self-respect, self-control, and modesty – even sexual purity, but black women were often portrayed as innately promiscuous, even predatory. This depiction of black women is signified by the name Jezebel."
So it isn't altogether uncommon to see stories where black women are juxtaposed against "pure", "innocent" white/white-passing women, and viewed as lesser. PB hasn't exactly escaped these stereotypes in their stories either - though there are a variety of characters and character types, we can't deny that there was a time when a black woman was made the antagonist, often in ways that were meant to measure her up to the MC/another white woman to her detriment.
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(VoS screenshots from the HIMEME YouTube channel, ACOR screenshots from Vika Avey's YouTube channel)
Two very prominent examples of PB using this trope are Scarlett from VoS, and Xanthe from ACOR. There are other black women who serve as antagonists but in a more professional space, but these two particularly are measured on their attractiveness, sex appeal and "purity" in the narrative in comparison to either the MC, or someone close to them.
In VoS, Scarlett Emerson and Kate O'Malley are the sisters of the two male LIs (Grant and Flynn), but their treatment couldn't be any more different. Scarlett's role in the book is pretty short-lived. She's very prominent in the first half of the book as Kate's potential MOH who secretly hates her, before it's revealed in Ch 5 that Tanner was cheating on Kate with her (and that she'd loved him since she was a child). Notably, in that very scene, the MC places most of the blame on Scarlett (rather than on Tanner for choosing to betray his fiancée) by labelling the act as her seduction of him.
Thereafter she is either only mentioned, or has blink-and-you-miss-it appearances in one or two chapters. We see her in the "memory" portion of the bonus scene, but we are never shown what her future is like (even as minor characters like Miss Harleney get one!). Her bonus scene shows us how her bracelet ended up on Tanner's boat, and it is an uncomfortable scene to get through. Tanner berates Scarlett for having sex with him a week before his wedding, but it is she who points out that he asked her to come there! Yet the MC and others view her as the temptress who "seduced" Tanner, as if the man had no mind of his own.
The narrative often juxtaposes her with Kate, the pure, innocent, sweet fiancée (and she actually is! No pretence there) and the fandom lapped it up. There were many demands for Kate to be upgraded to LI status, which eventually resulted in PB allowing us to marry her if we chose. As I mentioned earlier, both Scarlett and Kate are sisters to two of our LIs - but one is made an LI, while no one bothers to even imagine what the other's future entails.
An even worse fate greets that of Xanthe, the sole female antagonist in ACOR. The slut-shaming and disgust over her overt sexuality is far more blatant here. And it is extremely ironic for Xanthe to be viewed in this way, because the MC herself is a courtesan and uses wiles to get men to do her bidding. While Xanthe herself is not perfect by any means - she is depicted as xenophobic and callous, going as far as to mock Syphax when he is sent away to a possible death as a gladiator - the MC's targeting of her goes beyond just her "righteous indignation" and develops into a form of hypocrisy. She has no qualms mocking Xanthe for her direct approach or her skimpy red dress (even though the MC herself wears a skimpy red dress and can seduce a man in a temple not too long after).
The end Xanthe meets is horrific in its implications - the black matron of her scholae (who began by promising the MC herself that "you need do nothing against your will") sends her away to sexual slavery in Sicily, while the black man who was one of the few bastions of morality in the book, escorts her, smiling, to the ship that will take her there. As far as the narrative is concerned, the end was well-deserved...even though PB has had no issues allowing white women to do far worse without any punishment.
We cannot view what ACOR did with Xanthe in isolation. They had built up to it early on - from the MC's reactions towards her, her patrons' dismissiveness of her, the MC's LIs' viewing her with derision and zero respect. The MC - despite her own unscrupulousness - is viewed as the "noble whore" to Xanthe, yet it is clear on even a surface read that there is not much difference between the two women.
The Jezebel stereotype, ultimately, is about dehumanizing the black woman it focuses on, so that her actions and choices are viewed as deviant from what is "normal" - feeding into either responses of disgust and derision, or a desire to objectify her. To some readers, it makes whatever awful or comparatively unfair end they meet, more palatable. Scarlett and Xanthe are not viewed as people by the narrative - especially not the way the MC of their books or even white female antagonists are. No one cares for their backstories, coos over their losses, wonders if they are okay. When they meet their inevitable end, the characters and so many in the fandom alike just shrug and move along.
How does a character like Kiara fit into this? Her smarts and linguistic talents are her most prominent traits, and while she does have feelings for Drake, she never really acts out-of-pocket towards him (more on this later). So at least from what we see in canon, there's very little about her that seems to apply to the Jezebel stereotype. Yet, the fandom is not only inclined, but eager, to view her as one. Kiara's feelings have been viewed in a far more predatory light, perhaps more often than any other female character in the series. Why is this so?
A response I have often seen - on reddit, on Kiara's wiki page, at times on Tumblr too - is how there is a "certain something" about Kiara that people "just don't like". Many players who prefer Penelope to her are often very aware of what she has done, but still insist they like her far more than they do Kiara. On a reddit thread about questioning the logic of having Kiara and Penelope as options for the MC's MOH in TRR3, certain players commented thus:
"I don't know why, I just dislike her a lot. Penelope is fine to me, but Kiara irritates me." (said commenter is an Aerin stan)
"I liked Penelope, I thought she was nice. But Kiara got on my nerves."
In her book, The Sisters Are Alright, Tamara Winfrey Harris makes an eye-opening (to me at least!) observation about how misogynoir works:
"Misogynoir, abetted by dehumanizing caricature, is like water. It fills its vessel, taking many forms, and then overflows, creeping unnoticed into the cracks of things, rotting the foundation. It spreads a belief in Black women’s inherent wrongness." (Italics mine).
Now of course, if I were to ask the current fandom, they would come up with a range of reasons. Some that emerged from fandom myths and became more popular than the truth in time, some from PB's excessive pandering to players that hated her. But the root of it all is in a certain "je ne sais quoi" that makes her automatically unappealing, resulting in those readers leaning towards misreading or misremembering her scenes, misrepresenting her motives, or watering down the impact of worse actions from whiter women. It results in a group of writers (who have thus far gone to the extent of retconning the worst of a white woman's actions just to make her look good) leaning into such readings, even when they're not true.
TRR1 Kiara: Pragmatic Courtier or Backstabbing Snake?
"Kiara is fake", "Kiara is a snob", "Kiara is self-serving", "Kiara promised to be friends with us but dropped us like a hot potato the moment we became unpopular". These are some of the most enduring takes about Kiara in the past few years, and readers who say this usually bring up a vague recollection of TRR1 and 2 as proof. Mostly that "Kiara was our friend" in the first book, and left us hanging at the beginning of TRR2.
Is that reading based in fact, though? Let's take a look at TRR1!Kiara and find out.
We are introduced to Kiara (along with Penelope, and standing next to Hana) in TRR3 when we meet Liam's other suitors. Olivia introduces each woman differently, and the descriptor she uses for Kiara is that she is the "daughter of a diplomat and fluent in ten languages" (note: Kiara never boasts of her linguistic skill, Olivia does. Nor are there any scenes of her looking down on anyone who doesn't speak her mother tongue French, unless of course you accidentally ask her to sleep with you).
Both she and Penelope note immediately that the MC doesn't quite fit in - if the MC questions the women about being allies with Olivia, a woman who calls them "harpies", they view that as an overreaction. When the MC tells the ladies at the Derby about getting lost, Kiara finds her tardiness and inability to fit in, a sign that she cannot keep up with the competition. Until the chapters in Lythikos, Kiara's and Penelope's characterizations are almost interchangeable, personality-wise. It is likely the team envisioned them more as European nobility rather than specifically Cordonian (based on Olivia's introductions), and they are both depicted as poised, refined and aware of their place in court.
It's in Lythikos that Kiara, at least, begins to show a more distinct personality (for Penelope it's after the Regatta). Unlike the rest of the court, who watches Olivia's unwanted kiss on Liam with either mild shock or disinterest, Kiara is angered by what she sees as a very obvious power-play - which gives the MC the opening she needs to gain an alliance.
Now this "alliance" scene of Kiara's is interesting, for two reasons. One is that fandom often uses this scene to establish her "double standards" in TRR2, claiming that Kiara opted to be friends with the MC. Yet nowhere in the scene does the MC or Kiara ever suggest a friendship with each other - they both agree to an alliance. Furthermore, this is an arrangement that benefits the MC more - there isn't exactly anything she contributes (or is expected to contribute) to Kiara from her end. Kiara's promise is that she will put in a good word in the MC's favour, and she upholds that promise throughout the social season.
Another is that among the courtiers, Kiara herself is the first person to identify and respond to the MC's potential if she shows it at the Derby and the tea party (though Hana is also a courtier, I view her strictly as an LI in this context - since her support is by default and is founded on a more emotional basis). Not many nay notice this, but there is a distinction between how Kiara responds to an MC in a successful play vs a failplay...in a way that none of the other suitors do. Take note of the screenshots below:
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The top two pictures in this collage are dialogues that feature by default. The bottom two, however, are dependent on branch-coding. They only appear IF the MC has managed to win the approval of the King, the Queen and the press. If you don't succeed in the same, she will not mention your performance in the social season at all, nor will she say anything about the value of your alliance.
That is a far bigger deal than most players of this series realize. It means that Kiara has been watching us closely, and has understood our potential over the course of just three court events. Only two other characters are shown tracking our progress this way: Bertrand (who is our sponsor, so he has to keep track) and Queen Regina (who can guess already her stepson's feelings for the MC, which automatically makes her a person of interest). For Kiara to understand the MC's capabilities, and to openly admit she has potential this early in the competition - it takes a high level of rationality, honesty and pragmatism to come to such a conclusion. Unlike Olivia (who lashes out in jealousy at the MC), Penelope (who has to be told why exactly it's good to have allies), and Madeleine (who dismisses us as competition until it's too late), Kiara actually views the MC with a discerning, impartial eye and an objective approach.
So on the surface, it appears as if Kiara is written by a team that likes her! You could almost be convinced that they thought she was cool but were forced to pander to "crazy Drake stans" in their writing later (which is an argument I have heard often). After all, she's established as beautiful, skilled, smart and observant. You wouldn't do that for a character you don't like, right?
But even as early as TRR1, a disdain for Kiara creeps in from the writing that you rarely see for any of the others.
This is especially apparent when you look at how Kiara's proficiency with language is spoken about. It is supposed to be her most visible skill - Olivia identifies her by it, we see her peppering her English sentences with French words (of course, many may argue that she doesn't exactly sound like an actual French person...but let's remember that her writers aren't exactly very used to the language themselves or interested in doing extra research for authenticity!). As we approach the end of the first book, there are at least two dialogue options that result in people doubting her abilities or mocking her for speaking only English and French most of the time.
In TRR1 Ch 16, Madeleine optionally speaks to the MC over phone (believing her to be a reporter taking her interview) about her thoughts on Kiara. Kiara's tendency to speak mostly in French and English is supposed to be a sign that she "exaggerates her accomplishments". Mind you, this is from the same woman who claims to be the best choice for Cordonia despite her poor strategies and her antagonizing potential allies during the engagement tour (TRR2); who complains if the MC doesn't compliment her for mediocre work as a press sec (TRR3). The MC can also choose to diss Kiara in a similar way, treating Kiara like she is a circus performer and her skills as if they are meant for the MC's entertainment. The only solace I could derive from this dumpster fire of a dialogue option, was that Kiara managed to shut the MC up with her multilingual response.
No other time are we allowed to call a courtier's abilities and skills into question. The MC accepts on faith that Olivia is a badass with great fighting skills. Same with Penelope's ability as a seamstress. The MC is never even allowed to have legitimate complaints about Madeleine's work as press sec, besides maybe that she could "be a little nicer". So the fact that the writers not only have other characters doubt Kiara's talent, but also allow people to mock her about it in all three books...is really something.
Another possible indicator of this disdain is the fact that Kiara is the only suitor who never gets a chance to actually interact with Liam on-screen. Even Penelope, a fellow minor character, can approach and talk to him twice...and her gift to him is shown in Ch 18 whereas Kiara's and Hana's aren't. Despite the fact that Kiara is a potential suitor, the story never allows her to interact with Liam. She doesn't exactly have any interactions with Drake in this book either, but honestly nor does any other couple have much time together besides Liam and Olivia.
Drake and Kiara hardly seemed to be a possibility back in TRR1. Drake himself didn't seem to associate with anyone besides the MC and the group in the first book (and even with the group his interactions were infrequent). Kiara herself doesn't have many scenes that aren't related to the court or to the competition, even once she is no longer participating. The closest she comes to any sort of association besides Penelope, is a friendship with Hana that begins sometime before the Fox Hunt. Drake and Kiara never actually have any scenes together, or interactions, or references. It is likely that the idea to pair them up was entirely a Book 2 thing.
On a fandom level, neither Kiara or Penelope garnered much attention or fan reactions. They weren't noticed much, nor did you see their scenes too often. Probably that is why it was so damn easy to remember Kiara's entire equation with the MC wrong. Why certain stans of the book were able to get away with misrepresenting the relationship between her and the MC in TRR1, to hate on her in TRR2. I will not deny, though, that certain dialogue choices from PB (like "I thought we were friends!" in the Fydelia scene) may have had a hand in those beliefs becoming the "truth".
TRR2 Kiara - Pragmatic Courtier or Backstabbing Snake (Part 2)
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I plan to get into the way the Drake and Kiara angle is framed in canon, but before that it's important to tackle that one elephant in the room - Kiara telling the MC the alliance is over. Because very often, people used this scene (coupled with their misinterpretations of Book 1) as their "justification" to hate her. Often, people would choose the ruder options (such as the Christmas card dialogue) and assume that Kiara was rude by default, rather than as a consequence of the MC's behaviour towards her.
Kiara and Penelope are the first to express surprise at the MC's return (and their reactions are shown as representative of the rest of the court). Kiara in fact is shocked that the MC dared to return (which is kinda warranted! Several people in these early chapters view that as a risky move, a gamble that could backfire on her. That's why Bertrand gets her a press secretary). Their scene with the MC immediately follows the MC's conversation with Liam and Madeleine (and mind you, in the option where the MC can tell her she was set up, Madeleine herself voices disbelief of the same. Conveniently, this is never used as a reason to hate her). Both women let the MC know of their change in status, and therefore the change in their relationship with her.
What gets missed overall, is that Kiara is a lady-in-waiting (which is an actual role with specific duties) to Madeleine, which means her loyalty now has to lie with this woman whether she likes it or not. For her to even agree to approach the MC and explain the situation, is a risk. In at least two dialogue options in this scene, she tells the MC straight-up that they will be in trouble if they're even seen talking to her (this becomes a moot point by Ch4, mostly because Madeleine herself is shown talking to the MC and allowing her into conversations in public, once Hana arrives).
Penelope is often viewed in a better light in this scene because of her obvious friendliness and her sadness at no longer being the MC's friend, but once you have the reveal of her being a traitor, her behaviour in this scene seems wildly disingenuous, and I'm surprised more people didn't call her a fake when the reveal came out. She had to know the allegations against the MC were fake when she rushed to hug her, having been an integral part of that fabrication. It makes her lament when she's caught, in the failplay, ("I can't do anything right. You were never supposed to find out!") that much more chilling. She is eager to have the benefit of the MC's friendship and emotional support, without ever being honest about her role in smearing her reputation.
The other was that - no matter what you may choose to think of this scene - Kiara was placing herself at risk to let the MC know it was over. Approaching the MC was the right thing to do, but what is never spoken about is the fact that it was also a brave thing to do. Rather than ghost the pariah of the court and never give an explanation, she tells her honestly what the situation is, and strives to protect her impulsive friend (who could get both of them in trouble) at the same time.
When you view Kiara's actions from that lens - when you look at the facts - suddenly the claims that Kiara was "fake", "a flip-flopper", "a backstabber", "unscrupulous and self-serving", sound pretty hollow.
TRR2: The Drake x Kiara "Romance" Begins...and So Does the Vitriol
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So...an interesting thing about the general reaction to Kiara in the early chapters of TRR2. I was new to the fandom when this book was released. There was an annoyance at Kiara when the first chapter came out, but to my surprise it didn't exactly become full-blown hatred until she started showing an interest in Drake in Ch 3.
This book is often used as a reference by Drake stans when they speak of Kiara as an obsessed, stalker-type, sex-hungry woman - often in contrast to their "pure", "innocent" MCs. Basically...the Jezebel. But the five scenes we see of this ship in the book itself tell a completely different story:
1. Drake Helps Kiara Lift A Heavy Beam (TRR2 Ch 3)
Chapter 3 is perhaps the first time we see an indication of Kiara's attraction to Drake on a physical level. The scene takes place at the barn raising, but only if we choose to stay with Drake over Hana for the barn raising activities. Kiara shows up in a rather pitiable state - her friend Penelope abandoned her for thirty whole minutes, leaving her to lift incredibly heavy beams alone. Drake helps Kiara and mildly chides her for not asking for his help, and Kiara stares at his bare chest, mesmerized.
She isn't exactly alone in this - the MC herself ogles at his bare chest at one point (if we go by the lines in the narrative that read "his muscles glisten in the sunlight" which is def from the MC's PoV). This scene was meant as fanservice for stans who wanted to drool over Drake's physique for a bit, and belatedly build up an alternative (at least for all three male LIs, they were trying to do this in TRR2).
The MC can either point out Kiara's obvious attraction towards Drake, or suspect her of being part of the plot. This will not be the last time the MC or the group will view her with suspicion, with little to no basis in fact. In the option that calls attention to Kiara's attraction to Drake, she is shown covertly sneaking a second look at him. Drake is shown with a visible discomfort at even the idea that Kiara could like him, one that only the MC notices considering she is working in proximity with him.
The reaction to this was instantaneous from several Drake x MC shippers. One or two glances at Drake's chest was enough for Drake stans to begin typing posts in capslock, screaming "BACK OFF KIARA HE'S MINE". The excuses given at the time were that the MC didn't get much opportunity to romance him (Drake was trying to refrain from kissing her in Ch 2 because he felt guilty), and largely-inaccurate judgements of Kiara's character. Jealousy of this kind is sometimes seen as the norm when you have a popular ship and a third angle is created, but this was about to take form in some...very disturbing ways in later chapters.
2. Kiara was Once Savannah's Friend/Kiara's long-standing crush on Drake (Ch 4)
A misconception I often see in the fandom (particularly in relation to how Kiara's feelings for Drake aren't given the same level of consideration that Olivia's for Liam is) is that Olivia's are "more genuine", and Kiara's are "mere lust" or "only physical" and this is probably why she's not given as much respect as Olivia was. Even though, tbh, Kiara was far, far more respectful of Drake and his personal space, than Olivia was of Liam in TRR1.
Leaving aside the obvious problems with that train of thought (viewing sexual feelings as "lesser" just because they're not rooted in some intense emotion), this is not even true, and the first part of the Driara garden party scene is proof enough. Kiara says, straight up, that Drake had been "such a good friend to [Liam]. It's part of why I always liked you." (Bold mine). If the MC voices doubts about this (likely incorporated for readers who would question it as a retcon...and it was a retcon since they didn't interact in TRR1), Kiara tells her that she doesn't wear her heart on her sleeve, which actually matches her practical approach to most things. In fact just a few scenes earlier, when the MC questioned her about wanting a husband (when she'd mentioned earlier about wanting to join the ministry), Kiara informs her that it would never hurt to have both. So it makes sense for her character if she's someone who kept her feelings for Drake a secret, especially while in a competition for winning the Crown Prince's hand. But we cannot, in any honest capacity, claim that Kiara's feelings for Drake weren't deep enough, or lasting enough, or genuine enough. At least based on the evidence we have.
Another point this scene brings up is Kiara's friendship towards Savannah. Up until this point, the only people who did reference her were Olivia, Drake and Maxwell - and Olivia's mockery of especially seemed to imply that the ladies of the court weren't very nice to her. Kiara's account is very different from this, and actually quite affectionate ("she was one of us", "she was coming along so well in learning French"). It's not the closest friendship, but Kiara did care enough to tutor her in the language and clearly missed her. It is possible that this scene was positioned to both build up to the alternative romance and foreshadow Savannah's presence in Paris. There is a lot more that could have been done with this angle, but perhaps that is a discussion for another section.
3. Never-Have-I-Ever (Ch 9)
This is a small option in a drinking game - the MC can get to say "never have I ever had a crush on Kiara", and loses, because Drake says she isn't his type (ironically he claims he isn't her type in the next chapter). It's interesting that he does consider her as not as bad as some of the others in that group.
3. Flirting with Drake in Paris (Ch 10)
For five chapters, we don't see any more hints of this romance. We see Drake in plenty, and we see quite a bit of Kiara. But none of it shows them together.
Kiara's scene with Drake at the tea party, is in some ways a continuation of his diamond scene with Savannah. He knows now where his sister is and what her big secret was, but this scene is where he realises how little he actually knew about her, if even her "noblewoman friend" knew she had intentions to go to Paris and he, her brother, didn't. This scene also takes place at what I call a "rest period" in the story - the group has just come out of a high-intensity altercation with Bastien, and it is one chapter before the major reveal about Constantine. So the MC can relax a little, some of the loose ends of previous stories can be tied up, and we get a vibe check on at least two alternative ships.
Drake is rather civil to Kiara in this conversation, mostly because he's trying to get information about his sister out of her. There isn't much he contributes besides this - it doesn't seem to matter much to him that Kiara was a rare friend among the court to Savannah (tho TRR3 would later retcon this), and when she talks about herself he doesn't pay much attention. Kiara does make an attempt at a light flirtation which goes largely unnoticed.
The MC's response when she first sees them goes three ways - a neutral comment about the petit-fours, a "matchmake-y" comment that points to them that they "look cozy", and a "jealous" comment about interrupting them. The third one especially results in Drake inadvertently confirming he doesn't think of Kiara in a romantic light, and Kiara appearing disappointed. Remember, at this point she doesn't see much evidence that Drake and the MC romancing him are an item.
The follow-up conversation with Drake, too, follows along similar lines. The neutral comment just asks him about the information he gathered from Kiara, the "matchmake-y" one points out she has feelings for Drake and the "jealous" one is... something.
The third response is very obviously crafted for the more possessive Drake stans to get satisfaction from dissing Kiara, perhaps in a more aggressive way than the Maxwell stans could. While the Maxwell MC can pass an insult or two to discourage Penelope, the Drake MC will go as far as to tell him he belongs only to her, and can threaten to "push her into the petit-fours".
Ironically, this scene follows a scene with Olivia about her lingering feelings for Liam - and Olivia's grief, the MC's clear sympathy and Liam's concern for Olivia are all by default. There is a certain level of sensitivity the Liam MC is required to have for Olivia that is never once expected of the Drake MC, and that plays out in very dangerous ways in the next book.
This scene, again, brought forth rather violent reactions, and in fact the language of the MC's responses itself seemed to encourage that kind of response. A poster later compiled an entire set of these responses ranging from mocking, to "back off, Kiara!" to straight up demands for murder (I couldn't link to this post because the names of the people involved were included in it, but I do have quite a few of those screenshots for reference).
After this point, you don't see any more scenes where Kiara actively flirts. In fact for most of the second half you see her and Penelope very rarely. So it does feel really wild in retrospect that "obsessed Kiara" became such a popular interpretation, after one checking-out scene, one flirtation and one rather sweet and genuine compliment of him as a person.
4. Pranking Kiara (Ch 17)
A pattern you would have noticed by now is that there is a bit of a mean streak in Drake for Kiara that is either very dominant or latent, based on whether the MC tries to encourage him, or shows jealousy towards her.
And this isn't necessarily an indicator that he can never be interested in Kiara. A distrust for nobility is almost a norm for him at this point, and let's not forget that Drake's first few interactions with the MC too didn't exactly leave her with the best impression of him either. Kiara initially being on Madeleine's side at the beginning of the story could be a factor in some level of disdain too. Such complications could - in a good story - add layers to a potential romance in the future if that was the direction the writing was going for.
Around the MC who doesn't mind them as a pair, he shows a small sliver of an inclination towards Kiara herself. His response if the MC points out that Kiara was flirting with him (Ch 10) is that he doesn't believe he is Kiara's type, not the other way around. In this scene, a drunk Drake who is encouraged to write a "nice note" to her as a prank, can write "your hair is pretty and your French is totally not stupid". Both of these lines present a sign of a possibility that a romance could happen. His behaviour when an MC casually hints at this possibility, is of someone who may like this woman deep down, but show it in very strange ways (akin to the age-old metaphor of the "boy who pulls the pigtails of the girl he has a crush on"). They wouldn't have even needed to show his responses in this way if they weren't trying to hint at a possibility.
His response to a "jealous" MC is to delightedly bask in her possessiveness of him, and to go hand-in-glove with her as she insults or suggests violence on Kiara in any way. Now one could perhaps headcanon this as a behaviour that comes from being unused to female attention focused on him, coupled with his affection for the MC - but when you take into account his behaviour towards Kiara herself in TRR3 as well, there seems to be a blatant lack of consideration or compassion towards her as a human being. Compare this, again, to the way Liam's behaviour towards Olivia is written in canon, and interpreted by the fandom. Liam is expected to be kind to her, even if he's clueless about her feelings or if she is harming him (eg. Even when she kisses him, he cares enough to opt for a reaction that will not publicly humiliate Olivia).
Not so for Drake. He is very happy to follow in the MC's lead, even in hurting Kiara. And in this scene, he pretty much kickstarts it with the suggestion of a prank.
Drake knows where Kiara's room is (thanks to a nameplate on the door, and the familiarity of the hallway, which he likes for the view outside) and wants to prank her. The MC can either accept or refuse. If she accepts, there is one nice option, and two distinctly mean-spirited ones. The first proposes to mess up her book organizational system, and the narrative describes the attempt as "ruining any semblance of order to Kiara's bookshelves". These are materials she likely requires for her career as an aspiring diplomat, or even books she uses to update herself on the world. But to this MC and Drake, her work and interests are little more than a joke.
The second one is not only aggressively mean - it also is an attempt to ruin her personal space with her personal items. Going by the array of haircare the narrative mentions, maintaining her hair is very important to Kiara (I am not equipped enough to speak about black women and their relationship with their hair, but this option did make me very uncomfortable, because of the little I've seen on how essential regular haircare and good products can be for many black women). Not only does the MC suggest using all that product to render Kiara's bed practically unusable, she also insists Drake waste the full bottle of said product. Because, yknow. "It's a prank. Go big or go home". Drake has one moment where he tries to be less mean in this option (when he attempts to use less of her hairspray), but the moment the MC encourages him towards a crueller direction he does not hesitate. In fact, when the MC first suggests this option, he regards her with something approaching awe, and praises her as "an evil genius".
There's a mean streak in Drake here no matter which option you choose. If you do go for the nicer one, he complains at first that it's not exactly a prank and in fact does claim that they "could still put glitter in her cupboard" as an alternative prank. But the other two options encourage the player to give full vent to whatever underlying frustration/enmity/hatred one could possibly have against Kiara, goading a drunk Drake to be merciless towards the things in her room, in her absence.
Maybe, perhaps, one could just view this as a "fun vent" for the "possessive stans". It allowed the Drake MC and her LI the chance to gang up on her, mock her and cause her discomfort through things that were clearly important to her, treat her like the butt of their joke, and get away with it. When you encourage that kind of hatred with your writing, it can go into some very dark, disturbing places. And it did, especially in TRR3.
The overall response to this scene didn't show much, since it was just one small sequence in a larger scene - and most of the focus was on the heartfelt bonding between Drake and the MC when he takes her to his "special hideout" and his reveal about his motives behind calling the MC by her surname.
Many Drake stans, however, took note of this specific section, and took their interpretations in a completely different direction. Questions were asked about why Drake knew about Kiara's room - completely ignoring that he frequented the hallway regardless for its view and her nameplate is literally placed outside her door - and several fans suspected the two to be involved in an affair just on the basis of him knowing where her room was. These suspicions, again, would crop up from the fandom in a more dramatic way in TRR3.
5. Drinks at Homecoming Ball (Ch 19)
This scene takes place in the finale, just before Kiara and Penelope apologize jointly to the MC for their comments in the beer garden.
Drake is, quite predictably, at the bar in this scene. In some ways one could draw a parallel between this one and the "bar" scene between him and the MC in TRR1 - the only differences being that the two were alone in the first, and that he and the MC are free to romance each other now. However this time, the two ladies of the court could also communicate with him about drinks, and he could use his knowledge of alcohol to guess their preferences.
The scene with Kiara is, again, written to be both a possible sign of familiarity and a diss (mostly the second, I think). With Penelope he just vaguely mentions cocktails and focuses on the decoration for the drink - with Kiara he is able to name the specific wine even though in TRR3 he has no idea what tannins are. There are ways one could envision that as a sign that he notices more about Kiara than he lets on.
The diss, of course, comes with his claim that no matter how top-shelf the wine is, it will still always be "old grape juice" (which is a very strange thing to say because most alcohols are fermented from basic ingredients be it fruit or grains - where did he think his high-quality whiskey that he regularly carries around in his personal flask came from??).
Kiara's attempt to impress him is pretty obvious, but the diss isn't something that weighs too much on her mind. There are less indicators here of a dejection if he brushes her aside, unlike the scene in Ch 10 - she just looks a bit surprised he could guess the exact drink she wanted. Kiara in this scene is more likely to shift gears to something more important. In this case, that is apologizing to the MC for what she views as poor behaviour that sprung up under the influence of alcohol, and offering her an olive branch (the specific apology is for her asking the MC if she came to gloat, not for telling her the alliance was over at the beginning of the tour. In that scene specifically she feels she has nothing to apologise for, and I'm inclined to agree for the reasons I stated in that section).
The overall pattern for this ship seems to indicate that it's...kinda there in case the MC doesn't want to pick Drake, but I always feel like they focused a lot more on the jealousy options and didn't spend enough time to see what a possible relationship could look like. They do claim later that Kiara's affections were supposed to be one-sided, but the buildup at least seemed to indicate some small baseline of interest from Drake's end, even if shown in some rather bizarre ways. However, because there seems to be very little respect for this character already, having the MC threaten violence and having her and Drake overreact over what were essentially harmless interactions from Kiara's end really does indicate that the writers didn't mind taking potshots at her whenever they felt like it. Like I've said before, the trashfire that was Kiara's treatment in TRR3 didn't develop overnight.
Smart, Skilled...Disliked?: Kiara and the Writing Team in TRR3
On 25th Sept 2023, PB released a two-chapter series on Storyloom called "Choices Secrets", which involved at least three writers (Andrew, Kara and Chelsa) talking about ideas and plots and backstories that didn't make it to the released book. In one section, Kara Loo speaks specifically about the ending of TRR2:
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According to this account, the original idea was to kill off Olivia and possibly use that as a segue into the Nevrakis plot of the book, since her aunt and Justin were the real villains at the end of the series. When they decided to keep her alive in the series, Kara mentions finding "more members of your group get injured, like Drake".
Interestingly, Kara referred to "members" in the plural, and Drake is the only person from the core group to get shot. So it's just as possible that the choice to have Bastien, Justin/Anton and Kiara sustain injuries, was made once they decided to do away with the storyline about Olivia's death.
Olivia got spared because her writers cared for her. Kiara was likely one of the people injured in her stead, and probably the only one out of them (except for the one who was the main villain) who wasn't getting a prominent scene that focused on her being a survivor of the attack until some readers protested (the entire intro of TRR3 was dedicated to Drake recieving tender care from the MC, Bastien gets showered with concern and care from Constantine, Liam and optionally the MC. The MC comes to the estate, makes a perfunctory mention of the injury once and proceeds to emotionally blackmail Kiara into joining the tour. Let's not even talk about Lythikos. That shit warranted its own essay). No matter how much you downplay the situation, the truth is that Kiara got grievously hurt in a terrorist attack and her writers didn't think it was important enough to address.
I often wondered in the beginning, why Kiara was chosen for this. A close friend at the time theorized that perhaps it was done to ensure Madeleine would become our press secretary, because there was no way the MC would be considering her for this position if someone less hostile (like Kiara) was around. Another wondered if we might get opportunities to address palace security through the experiences of the survivors. Being a Drake x Kiara supporter at least by the end of TRR2, I wondered whether it was a coincidence that they both were injured at the same ball, and the possibility of the two bonding over such a painful experience.
Well. Boy was I about to be disappointed.
Because why did Kiara have to be so badly injured, if it was going to amount to nothing? If they weren't even going to address it in her own home? If - after even players who didn't care much for her, noticed the silence around that attack - the best you could offer was a scene that followed the MC and her friends suspecting the victim of this attack??
Had I looked at Kiara's narrative treatment (from TRR1 onwards) closer back then, perhaps I wouldn't have expected so much. It would have occurred to me that maybe they hurt Kiara the most, because they cared for her the least. Kiara is viewed as smart, poised, talented. Madeleine even calls her "one of the more competant courtiers" at some point. But that doesn't always mean that the team that writes her deems her worthy of respect.
For one, the writers tend to lean more into fandom perceptions of her in this book, rather than looking at their own canon. Kiara being a snob is not canon - that is ridiculous considering that she was such good friends with Savannah, and her support of the MC when she fits in well. Kiara acting like her linguistic skill makes her better than anyone else isn't canon either - nor is she obliged to speak in all ten languages on a loop just for the MC's or Maxwell Beaumont's entertainment. Kiara being perpetually mean to her best friend is inaccurate at best - she is often frustrated by Penelope, sure, but she spends far time and energy helping her than anyone else in that court.
Yet the narrative gives both these statements as dialogue options for the MC, where she can bitch about Kiara...but somehow only ever allows the same MC to be nice and caring and loving to Penelope - never once reminding her of the hell she'd put the MC through in the past. And because the fandom expected the Kiara-Penelope friendship to focus only on Penelope, PB got away with having Kiara's "best friend" stay conveniently silent as the MC berated her in her own home. The narrative even threw Kiara under the bus in TRR3 Ch 16, in order to make Madeleine look better in Hana's memories of the TRR2 bachelorette, claiming falsely that Kiara shouted at Penelope so much while drunk, that the latter was brought to tears. There is way more energy spent in painting an inaccurate and negative portrait of Kiara, than there is in showing the truth.
For another, the way the courtiers' and their parents' agreement to join the tour is coded...is extremely suspicious. When you compare both a successful and a failplay, you will find that all the parents have the chance to reject the MC's proposal to join the tour...except for one. Kiara's father, Hakim. In a failplay where you purposely do all the wrong things...out of the entire group of people who are still doubtful about supporting you, only Kiara and Hakim join your tour by default, without any expectation of a reward (Madeleine demands her own department after the wedding). They will be a part of it no matter what you do, no matter your failures, no matter how badly you treat them.
Hakim may have joined mainly to confront his old friend the King, but he still stays on even after Constantine dies. The writers made sure to branch-code things in a way that Kiara and Hakim could never drop out even if the MC was awful to Kiara, and never once acknowledged what it must take for them to do that. After Kiara herself had been fucking stabbed!!!!
Joelle, Kiara's mother, and Ezekiel, Kiara's brother, can reject the offer if they aren't impressed with the MC, but out of these two characters only one is viewed with respect - the one they were going to pair up with Penelope.
The narrative doesn't mind letting the MC mock Joelle for her passionate support of the arts if she doesn't win her approval, and her insistence that it is the sign of a thriving kingdom...and they make her sound petulant and churlish in response to that mockery. This despite the fact that in a successful route, she says one of the most profound political statements in the books:
"Hakim and I don't just want Cordonia to remain stable and peaceful. Those are blessings, naturallement, but our kingdom can do so much more than just survive."
In contrast, when you look at the same failplay, Emmeline and Landon are treated with far more respect from the narrative, even though Hakim and Joelle's plans for the country would benefit Cordonia as a whole. Drake looks up to Penelope's parents as an inspiration, especially if he's going to become a duke. Meanwhile Hakim actually acknowledges Drake and his bravery in a way that none of the other dukes and duchesses did, and Drake never gives a shit.
Emmeline can accuse the MC of not taking their situation seriously, if she does a bad job at the polo match, and the MC only has the grace to look contrite rather than lash out at her. Landon himself is never judged for coddling his daughter the way he does. Their focus on Portavira rather than the country is respected, and the MC not meeting their demands is viewed as her weakness, not an overreaction from their end. They never get the snarky responses Joelle gets, where the MC can outright call her "a handful" in front of her own husband.
And then there is the matter of how PB deals with the problems of all the court ladies.
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(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel)
The period of the Unity Tour isn't exactly an easy time for anyone. The LIs each deal with their own shit, and the ladies of the court themselves have their own reasons for being reluctant to return. The entire point of this tour is to address their specific concerns as well as that of their families', because without the courtiers themselves we wouldn't have as strong a court.
In Madeleine's case, we have to talk to her through a diamond scene and then educate her mother on her ways of mourning lost opportunities, among other things. In Penelope's case we are required to give her complete protection and emotional security, for her to even bother joining the tour (there is branch coding where she can refuse to be a part of the tour at all). Even for Olivia - who is already an ally - the diamond scene encourages us to stand up to her aunt, by letting Olivia know that it is valid for her to lean on others for support without being considered weak.
But for Kiara? The best we can come up with, while in her duchy, is some version of - "You're smart. You'd know that if you left now, people will say bad things about Cordonia and then it would be your fault". You either manipulate her, or insult her as being a useless excuse of a diplomat. As I mentioned in another essay, Kiara's comfort is a non-factor. The gap between the care we were expected to give to Madeleine and Penelope, and what we deign to give Kiara in Castelserraillan (which is...well...nothing), is massive. And this gap would only increase - not reduce - in the books to come.
It might seem a bit irrelevant to talk about this, especially when this essay is about Drake and Kiara. But it's important to take note of this inherent disdain the writers had towards this one character - and people close to her. Because it is only too easy to pretend that the writers "got scared of the crazy stans".
Of course the stans had a huge, huge role in this. Of course their vitriol and racism succeeded in bringing about (what I consider) one of the most disgusting dialogue options in this series...or perhaps in any series. But I doubt those "crazy stans" would have gotten this far, without a team that didn't mind being cruel to Kiara.
When the Fandom and Canon are both Heartless: Drake and Kiara in TRR3
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As I've mentioned in previous essays in this series, playthrough divergences truly begin in TRR3 (eg. While the playthroughs acknowledge who you chose as endgame by end-TRR2, you can still access diamond scenes through a small tweak that allows you to romance other LIs). And whichever LI didn't get engaged with the MC had indications of a new romantic possibility coming up. These were scenes you wouldn't find in your own playthrough with that LI as your fiancé/e.
Kiara doesn't appear in TRR3 until Ch 7, when the entourage comes to her estate Castelserraillan. There aren't a lot of Drake and Kiara scenes themselves, and I will get into why, section by section.
1. Kiara Greets the Group at Castelserraillan (TRR3 Ch 7)
Many Drake stans - once they found their MCs engaged to Drake in TRR2 - seemed to be practically giddy at the prospect of showing off their newly-engaged status to Kiara, and hurting her through the news. They were perhaps more excited about this than their upcoming wedding.
Well, they got that chance in Ch 7. In every other playthrough, she still holds the same feelings for Drake, and compliments his suit as Drake awkwardly fails to meet her eye. In his specific playthrough, Drake defiantly shows off his relationship with the MC, and Kiara shows a slight wistfulness before she forces herself to be normal then wishes the happy couple well. You'd think that would be enough to satisfy the stans who had been baying for her blood all of the previous book.
A throwaway line about Drake knowing where Kiara's room was, had already raised the heckles of a whole bunch of his stans. Kiara's "wistful look" in her first TRR3 scene somehow added fuel to that fire. Suddenly, you got to see a raging torrent of posts demanding to know if Drake had had an affair with Kiara. Fanfic had already been written about Drake cheating on the MC with Kiara by this point - and some of those headcanons and fanfic hinged on making Drake the innocent/vulnerable one, taken advantage of by this sexy, obsessed woman who would be either a danger to him or would be juxtaposed with the "pure", "virginal", "perfect" MC. Drake would never be the problem here, and none of the stans screaming over the possibility of Drake sleeping with Kiara would dream of blaming him for it. No, Kiara was predatory, Kiara was obsessed, if anything happened between them it would be likely Kiara's fault.
This is where it's important to note, again, that none of the more obvious signs of the "Jezebel" stereotype seem to be used in canon for Kiara. While cruel in her own way, the TRR MC doesn't exactly slut shame her or believe Drake will be unfaithful to her, Kiara isn't accused of seducing (or even trying to seduce) anyone, and she actually places respectful personal boundaries for herself in her attraction to Drake, that she never crosses. She may indulge in a light flirtation with him, try to impress him or simply talk to him - but you will never catch her forcing her sexual attention on him like Olivia did with Liam. Yet in popular fanlore, even Olivia's feelings were often cast in a far more noble light in contrast to Kiara's.
In her essay, The "Offending" Breast of Janet Jackson: Public Discourse Surrounding the Jackson/Timberlake Performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII, Dr Shannon. L Holland explores the historical and contemporary uses of the Jezebel stereotype in depictions of Black women in popular culture and discourse, especially in contrast to white masculinity (which in these contexts, is often viewed as innocent and blameless - and much of the blame lies with the Jezebel figure). The "Jezebel" stereotype "has come to symbolize both a malign, cunning sexual object and an autonomous, liberated sexual agent" - she is at once an independent sexual being making her own choices, and someone who is "incapable" of reining in her sexual appetite...and is therefore often depicted as not only a threat to the "purer" (and often "whiter" or "lighter skinned") woman, but also dangerous for whoever she is "obsessed" with. And we see this time and again in the discourse around Kiara - the fanfic that depicts her in a range of scenarios (stalker, obsessed lover, abusive girlfriend who will break a bottle over Drake's head, at times even descending into murderer to get the man she wants). Which is how we wound up in a position where Kiara even breathing the same air as Drake was viewed as a threat.
It didn't matter that he was flaunting his love for the Drake MC in that playthrough to send a message to Kiara, or that he stayed silent with the others as his wife badgered her into joining the tour. It didn't even matter that Kiara never got a diamond scene the way the two other women did, despite being the most harmed among the ladies. What mattered was that Kiara existed. Her damn existence was the threat.
2. Cheering for Drake's Victory (Ch 10)
Ch 9 of TRR3 was released to players on April 27th, 2018. Immediately after, a mid-book hiatus was announced, mostly to work on some new art (very possibly the red pandas), work on the wedding, and make changes (such as shifting diamond scenes from character-centric ones to LI specific - they'd already started making changes to LI diamond scenes). The book would return 2 months later, in June.
In a livestream before the hiatus ended, the writers had made it very painfully clear that Kiara's feelings for Drake was one-sided. And by that I mean they really emphasized on the one-sidedness of her affection, almost as if to reassure the panicking stans. This would manifest in any future interactions between the two - both in Drake's single and engaged playthroughs - and any hope that such a pairing would even be hinted at was over. But there was one variation that the team had perhaps neglected to edit out.
A small one-word depiction of Kiara cheering Drake when he wins his duel against Neville, joining his friends to praise him. It really isn't much - just Kiara saying "bravo!" before Savannah rushes up to hug him, which is replaced by a scene of Drake himself going up to the MC and passionately kissing her in his own playthrough. What is definitely striking about this depiction is that Kiara was clubbed with his close friends and his sister, rather than the second group of people that largely represented the larger court (Rashad and Queen Regina) who offer their congratulations.
Given the way the writers wrote any remaining interactions between Drake and Kiara, and the fact that this small appearance doesn't really amount to anything, it is possible that this variation was part of an earlier draft that involved other hints, that the writers failed to notice when they put up Ch 10. If they had, I'm pretty certain it wouldn't have stayed in the book.
3. Leaving Court + Wedding Conversations
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Remember how I kept stating in this essay that the narrative was going to take their enthusiastic pandering of the "possessive stans" end of the fandom, to some dark, disturbing places? Well, here we are.
Tbh, the writers could have just stopped showing any interactions between the two, or given Kiara another boyfriend if their aim was simply to show that Drake and Kiara would never be endgame. They had done that with Maxwell and Penelope already...oh. I forgot. They actually wanted us to care for Penelope.
Up until this point, Drake's mean streak re: Kiara was present, but not really as obvious as it gets here. PB takes that cruelty several steps further in these two chapters, starting with Ch 11. Ch 11 was fanservice to the people who shouted abuses and "joked" about killing Kiara in every chance they could get. Ch 12 showed this sentiment at its worst, covered it up with enough fluff so it would be harder for people who liked Kiara to notice...and let those players get away with it.
In Ch 11, Kiara approaches the MC and her group to inform them that she is withdrawing from the tour. Drake is the first to respond to this, remaking at the suddenness of the departure. The MC can speculate on a couple of things, ranging from sympathy (that she might be afraid), selfishness (that she is "bailing out" on the MC) and suspicion (that she is hiding something).
In all three options, a pensive Hana expresses sympathy and encourages the group to "reach out". In all three options, Drake will only view Kiara as a suspect.
Mind you - according to Ch 12, Drake is saying this knowing Kiara was injured at Homecoming Ball...and knowing exactly which weapon she was injured with. Aware that she has gone through an event as traumatic as that (if we go by his "just one step at a time" monologue to Kiara), better aware than most how it would feel...he still opts to act like her motives should be suspicious.
This is further emphasized in the Drake playthrough, through the armory scene that the MC takes with Maxwell.
As I've mentioned in the post on this scene, it is divided into three halves. The first half deals with whoever the MC rejected (either Liam, or Drake in Liam's playthrough). The third is buildup to Lucretia's plans to usurp the throne. The second is supposed to be about the excitement among the members of the court for the wedding, and of course as the only people who come for the tour by default (and Madeleine is already taken for the first scene), Kiara and Hakim are used for this scene!
I will only focus on the Drake version of this scene today. There are a few things you notice straight off the bat:
1. Since this is Drake's playthrough, the narrative seems to do away completely with any lingering feelings Kiara may have had are done away with. In this scene she is quite happy about Drake's wedding - in fact, practically chipper. Literally nothing about her behaviour here serves as a reminder that she once had feelings for him.
2. Drake's response to Kiara attending his wedding ties in pretty well with his earlier default suspicion of her. Unlike Hana who is surprised but also happy that Kiara is attending, he seems to voice it as a doubt or a question. While that makes sense and there is continuity, it's pretty awful that he is allowed to suspect her like this and feel no remorse when the truth about her is revealed.
3. Now as I said in the post, this scene is meant to be a buildup to Drake's ice-palace scene. He speaks about wanting a private, country-style wedding in a natural place there, and Kiara's gentle teasing in this scene is supposed to be an indicator of how much he dislikes the usual fanfare. Okay. Fair enough. You're uncomfortable with the fancy decorations and the insane planning, fine.
4. But it's Drake's attitude towards Kiara in this scene that leaves a bad taste in the mouth (unless you were one of those Drake stans that liked to threaten murder on this character ig). The narrative really went out of their way to make him sound uncommonly angry with her, just for asking about his wedding. He angrily hisses at her to keep her voice down the moment she asks about the wedding, and then lashes out the moment she teases him about his love for the MC and his reluctance to be very public about it in that context. Of course, people who either liked Drake or hated Kiara would downplay this scene - either blaming Kiara for not magically knowing his likes or dislikes, or acting like Drake's behaviour in this scene is no big deal.
And his explanation in the ice palace scene really doesn't cut it as a reason for why he should be this pissed off at Kiara's excitement. There is no real bitterness or resentment tied in with the fancy trappings that are mentioned in that specific scene - it's just that he likes simplicity better. If Kiara doesn't know him well enough to understand that - it's because he has never properly talked to her. She made attempts to converse whenever she could. You can claim he never owed her a conversation - but in that case she doesn't owe him a complete understanding of his wants either. He could have just politely answered the question and changed the subject, or quickly took his leave.
He is well-versed enough in court etiquette by this point that he could have managed to sound civil enough. That he could have made a quick, polite exit. But no, he gave her the kind of anger that one reserves for someone who is kicking a puppy or stealing candy from a child, instead. And it was Kiara's grace that allowed her to view that awful behaviour in a more positive light.
It's pretty clear this scene - and to some extent the framing of the next - was made specifically for those Drake stans who were screaming and throwing tantrums about a possible affair. It was to highlight that there was no way Drake could ever return Kiara's feelings - and the only way they could do that was by making sure he treated her as rudely and inhumanely as possible.
I didn't think it could get any worse than this, when I saw this version of the scene...but then I saw Ch 12.
The Talk
If you were to speak just about fandom reactions to this scene...the responses to Kiara chronicling her trauma after Homecoming Ball, were pretty positive. Plenty chose the middle option "You're suffering from the trauma of the event. You need help", and cooed over Drake's touching little monologue about "taking it one day at a time".
I admit at the time I was fooled too. But one thing did niggle at me as I played both this option, and the "understandably cautious" one (I would later understand that the latter was not very good either - it has a thin veneer of "validating" Kiara's feelings, but it still has the MC and Drake expecting her to put their needs before her own safety and sanity).
Drake was reassuring to an extent in both options, sure. But why were his responses so different? Why was his answer to Kiara so closely tied to whatever point the MC was making, rather than independent of it? After all, he was the one who should be able to better relate to Kiara - wouldn't he have thoughts of his own here? If the MC chose that horrible final option, Drake would correct her and comfort Kiara instead, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he???
It was only when I (reluctantly) pressed that third option ("not as driven as I thought you were") that I understood what Drake's role in this scene was.
He wasn't going to be there for Kiara. He wasn't even sympathetic to her! It wasn't even going to be about two traumatized people connecting over their trauma. Drake was a puppet. He was there to parrot whatever garbage came out of the MC's mouth.
Because in the third - and most horrific - option, the MC is allowed to minimize Kiara's trauma, and mock her ambitions in the face of what she has just gone through. Drake is allowed to agree with her ("sometimes ambassadors have to work in dangerous areas"). Kiara is forced by the same narrative to find value in these words.
And all of this, stems from a scenario where Drake and the MC go in suspecting this woman from the jump. Where Maxwell is happy to make jokes about her being a suspect. Where the only two decent people in this group - Liam and Hana - are conveniently written out of the scene, ensuring that these ghouls can act the way they want around Kiara, and get away with it.
Not once is Kiara herself ever allowed to know that the group suspected her by default, nor is she allowed to go through with her intention to leave court. The very roots of this scene are rotten.
Very often, when this scene in particular is addressed, not many people actually address Drake's behaviour here - or in the previous chapter. Stans will vaguely, and conveniently, blame the group as a whole rather than their favourites. Such a tactic allows them to never name the specific people or specific actions, and therefore the main people involved in speaking to Kiara the way they did never have to be held accountable. This is particularly relevant in the case of Drake.
It was Drake's idea to interrogate her. He was the one constantly harping about her "suspicious behaviour". He was the one aware of what happened to her yet chose to think of her as shady. He was the one who should have known better, yet was absolutely game to minimize her trauma or engage in emotional blackmail. And neither he nor the MC came out of this conversation feeling anything resembling remorse. Because, apparently, they never did anything wrong.
They got what they wanted. At best, Drake and the MC manipulated this woman (again) into returning to their court. At worst, they badgered and bullied her into that decision. Either way, she was going to return, and the narrative was going to pretend that the MC and Drake were great people for making it happen.
I have heard some justifications over the years for Drake's behaviour here. One is that he "tends to act like an asshole to everyone". Another is that Kiara is a noble so he was never going to see her in a positive light. Which is hilarious to me, honestly, because in the same book you have Drake reassure Penelope - the woman who had made the MC the target of a reputation-ending scandal - and comfort her when she sees Madeleine. If this was really about the chip on the shoulder he had for nobility, why was he so kind to Penelope? And if Penelope's mental health warranted a change in mindset and behaviour from Drake's end, why was Kiara not worthy of that as well?
The truth is this. Drake was allowed to express his mean streak to a black woman, bully a black woman (the pranks), lash out at a black woman (the conversation at the Lythikos Ball), suspect a black woman, and finally minimize her trauma if the Duchess he had a crush on wanted to. While being overly protective and chivalrous to the white woman who actually did harm her. No matter what way you spin it, that is what Drake's behaviour - especially in TRR3 - is.
The way the team trampled over this "pairing" post that miniscule hint in TRR3 Ch 7, would make a rampaging elephant look like a ballerina in comparison. They wanted to make it clear after the hiatus that Drake x Kiara would never happen, in any eventuality, in any future, in any universe. And no matter how much we pin this on "crazy stans" (who do hold some responsibility for sure, for their own veiled racism), it's a fact that the writing team was comfortable doing this. They had already found other ways to pile disrespect on their sole recurring black female character - what was a little more?
TRH and Beyond: Taking Away What Was Left of Kiara's Remaining Fanbase
Given all the narrative back-and-forth and shadiness, I'd have to say the end Kiara got in TRR3 was comparatively...decent. Not great...not exactly satisfying...decent.
Her fighting off the assassins at the boutique ("not again...not again!!") was the highlight of that scene. In Hana's playthrough, Kiara was her MOH by default, and the lines the MC could give if you chose her in other playthroughs was pretty sweet. At the end of the book, her father would make Kiara his heir, after her older brother Ezekiel abdicated. There were still things I was always going to hate (such as the fact that we could lie about "having Kiara's back" - we absolutely did not) about the aftermath, but all in all as a fan...I could maybe envision a fairly happy ending for her with what we got.
The next series, The Royal Heir, would debut on June 2019, almost a year after TRR3's own debut. This would be the first series that would go completely LI-divergent, spanning four books. It started out as an attempt to envision the future (and pasts) of the main characters, as well as tie loose ends...but descended into an incoherent, retconning mess with each book.
Kiara doesn't feature much in Book 1, but is pretty prominent in certain chapters like Ch 7 (Savannah's bachelorette), Savannah's wedding, and the Apple Ball in the finale. You'll often find a marked difference between the way she is looked at for most of the book, and how the MC speaks to her in TRH1's finale.
Savannah's bachelorette, for instance, features all the ladies of the court in Texas, with new "country" looks and engaging with Texan culture. Here, too, you see a sign of PB leaning into popular perceptions of Kiara rather than remembering their own writing, when we see how Savannah praises the MC by default but has very little to say about her former friend Kiara. Since Savannah's return to court in TRR3, the team seemed to have forgotten that other ladies of the court weren't very nice to her, and Kiara was the only one concerned for her. They have Olivia act sweet and caring towards Savannah in both TRR3 Ch 17 and TRH1 Ch 7, conveniently forgetting the insults she piled upon Drake's sister in the first book. Savannah never has to talk about Kiara's friendship at all, other than a teasing comment hinting at her French lessons. Savannah was never expected to have any gratitude or affection towards Kiara even though she was the only woman who cared about her in court before she left.
An interesting thing to note in the diamond scene of the bachelorette is the way the courtly ladies' previous/current "romances" are framed. Kiara's, in particular, warrants a lot of discussion. Unlike Olivia (who can address her feelings for Liam regardless of playthrough, if asked, and can actually show some level of resentment towards him for not picking her), Kiara's feelings are addressed only if the MC isn't married to Drake. If she is, Kiara mentions a fondness for "rugged, down-to-earth men" (which the MC and Penelope perceive to mean hunky and muscular), and avoids mentioning his name at all.
There are two very interesting things to note about this sequence. One is the pattern of how, and how far, are Olivia and Kiara are allowed to address their feelings for these men. Not only is Olivia allowed to be open about her feelings and her bitterness (despite Liam actually romancing her in TRR3!), the narrative demands our respect for her position and plight. The Liam MC lauds her honesty and her decision to move ahead, unfazed even by her anger for something Liam didn't even owe her. In contrast, in the Drake playthrough, the writing makes sure Kiara never mentions him by name. And not only that, when the MC and Penelope tease her about her romantic preference, she is shown to stammer and seems downright afraid of the MC.
The fact that there is such a gap in how Olivia and Kiara are allowed to act about the men they love, and the fact that this gap was normalized so much in fandom discourse that it didn't even warrant a discussion, tells us plenty about the fandom too. The fandom position has almost always been that Liam owes Olivia love, appreciation, kindness. And that Drake owes Kiara nothing, not even common human decency. Which is why the fandom wants Liam punished for the high crime of not loving Olivia back. Which is why Drake is allowed to treat Kiara like an irritating pest at his best, and like utter garbage at his worst...and almost no one so much as bats an eyelid.
Since most of the story of TRH1 seemed to revolve around the ranch, the ladies of the court made minimal appearances and most of those were in keeping with patterns established in TRR3 (except for maybe Olivia's spy scenes). Some of their parents - too - feature in Royal Council scenes: Godfrey and Landon are part of this council and are seen during the MC's announcement - no one from Kiara's family, besides her brother Ezekiel who is dating Penelope, make any appearances in this book. Towards the end of the book, however, you suddenly find a scene or two where the narrative is suddenly, and inexplicably, syrupy sweet to Kiara:
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(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube Channel. 1-5 are from Ch 18, during the council meeting. 7-10 are also from Ch 18, at the start of the ball. The last two are from the finale as buildup for the pregnancy photoshoot)
There are indications of Kiara's diplomacy and good advice in other parts of the book too (such as her suggestions for dealing with the foreign royals at the baby shower) but never were the praise and compliments as obvious as they were in the last two chapters of TRH1. Kiara was given a quippy dialogue to spout at Godfrey, who would later be revealed as the murderer of Queen Eleanor. All three of the MC's dialogue options in response would praise Kiara by default (a rarity). King Bradshaw would shower her with compliments too about her talent and expertise. And when Kiara approached us with an offer for a pregnancy photoshoot, the MC could cheerfully say "for you, Kiara? Of course!" as if they'd been bffs from the beginning.
There isn't any obvious reason why we saw this sudden change, but I can make an educated guess or two. A pattern that commonly emerges with attempts to address something that would benefit Kiara, is that the writers often only do it when enough people complain; that was how we got the horrible Lythikos sequence. Midway through TRH1, I managed to put up an essay exploring Kiara's treatment (centered around the Lythikos sequence in TRR3 Ch 12) in comparison to Penelope's and Madeleine's. It did not receive an immediate fandom wide response, but several readers did come away from that essay feeling like Kiara really got the short end of the stick, compared to all the other court ladies. I'm not sure whether that essay had a direct impact, but those three scenes PB added to the finale chapters do make me wonder. Was the team trying to prove to the fandom that they did like Kiara and wouldn't personally sabotage her, either for their own enjoyment or to pander to a section of the fandom?
If they did, then that plan didn't last beyond these two chapters.
Another possibility of course was to give Kiara something slightly positive before they did her dirty - again - in TRH2 and 3. Because in those two books, they managed to first make her - along with the rest of the council - party to a vote (that everyone was involved in, including the LIs!) that would later prove detrimental for the country. They would then have her be the only heir involved in the notorious Coventus Nobilis, which ensured that anyone who wanted to hate Kiara could tie her to her vote in favour of Bartie Sr, without ever asking any further questions. This was a far more successful attempt, because most of the fandom already believed the misconceptions of Kiara's characterization to be truth, and these storylines simply added fuel to the fire.
Kiara's biggest supporters tended to be a section of the Liam fandom, as well as wlw stans who tended to like most of the courtly women. Having her vote for Bartie at the end of TRH2, and her explanations in TRH3 about the "MC's ruling style" (which was really canon's way of making sure she did more a silent diss on Liam) was written specifically to place a serious dent among her fans who liked Liam. And sadly, it worked in part. Because even if one considered Kiara's thoughts on "reactive ruling" accurate, it was a fact that the nobility (she included) would have to be blaming Liam for something that the entire Council voted for, and that Liam and his friends fixed on their own.
Making Kiara the lone person to voice this argument, made her a target in this fandom. I mean, people were ready to praise Madeleine and speak of her as loyal (eagerly ignoring that she was actively involved in the child's kidnapping if you didn't coddle her enough), and badmouth Kiara in the same breath, claiming that Kiara wasn't worth forgiving and people should just get over Madeleine's deeds in the past.
This resurgence of hate didn't just erupt out of nowhere. Once they finished spending two chapters on two-second compliments to Kiara, PB reverted in the next two books to some of their usual patterns with her. For instance, remember how I mentioned that PB had an obsession with never letting Kiara and Liam interact? In TRH, they repeated this pattern, but with the Heir. The only scene Kiara has where she can so much as touch the heir is in the last part of TRH3, if you choose for Kiara to read to her. Penelope is regularly allowed to hold her even though she has often placed this child in dangerous situations (on one occasion, Kiara herself had to stop her) - even Madeleine is given an entire babysitting scene to win her favour. But Kiara is the only lady of the court who is made to stay away or care for the child from a distance.
Kiara's family (besides Zeke, and just because he is Penelope's fiance/husband) is subject to disrespect in this book too. Hakim and Joelle were both conspicuously absent from the pregnancy announcement presscon in TRH1 (where Landon, Godfrey and Bartie Sr somehow featured!!), and future books would either retcon the family or force them to do things the other families didn't have to do. In TRH2, the MC takes a tour of the Great Houses with her newborn daughter, and each house is expected to pledge loyalty to her and the crown in different ways. Hakim is written as "bending to his knees" for the child. This is something only Adeleide and Madeleine - whose house, might I remind you, are considered the house of traitors at this point - have to do. Landon and Emmeline are never expected to express their loyalty to this extent.
In TRH3, the narrative callously pushes the Therons under the bus to make the Ebrim family's reluctance to help the MC make sense - the Therons are now "traditionalists" who frown upon scandals and may not allow Zeke to marry Penelope on the account of her past annulled marriage (this makes no sense when you take a closer look at the Therons themselves in TRR3 - they're a far more balanced, far more progressive family than any of the other Great Houses. They even took Zeke's abdication well!). Furthermore, you'll notice that the framing of Penelope's past with Guy is worlds apart from the disdain the narrative shows for the Therons during the flower festival. It is notable that in the latter, the black women are depicted very negatively - Kiara is shown unable to manage her own competition, Joelle is depicted as pompous and incapable of losing gracefully, Drake gets to take sarcastic potshots at Lerato for trying to charm the MC into voting for her and Drake into convincing her to vote. Meanwhile white people like Landon and Marguerite are presented in a just as humourous but less mocking light (eg. Landon moving his table courteously before flipping it in the flashback).
Even into TRF (Ch12), the narrative gives us choices where we can stand up to people criticizing Landon and Emmeline's parenting ("Duke Landon and his wife raised a kind, generous daughter..."). We are allowed to be far less critical of the Ebrims overall, we are allowed to be more charitable even in the dialogue options for suspecting Landon than we are of Kiara (think of how Maxwell can suspect that Kiara was planning to betray us all along). At the end of the Flower Festival, Kiara is made to appear contrite as the MC can choose to either demand she make this right before the latter can forgive her, or indicate that she never will. Ironically, a Penelope who can choose her fancy wedding over the safety of the MC's child never has to face words that harsh.
You will also notice if you look more closely, that the narrative continues to frame events surrounding Penelope and Kiara in opposing ways. Penelope is perpetually viewed as a victim, and Kiara constantly as a suspect.
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We are expected to support Penelope, and to mistrust Kiara. And even though Kiara's feelings had long since become a thing of the past, Drake still maintains his animosity towards her and her family. And like everything else, it is so normalized at this point that you barely even notice it anymore.
In TRH2, Drake is allowed to tar all nobles with the same brush because of Godfrey's actions. Though his statement about the nobility ("We can't trust any of them to have Liam's back...not unless it's in their own selfish interests") is about the entire nobility, it is striking that he says this just before they go to Castelserraillan. The Therons are also the only noble family that Drake makes sarcastic comments about (in reference to Liam informing us that their province is a trade hub, Drake quips that "they are going to want to trade babies with us"). These snide comments he rarely makes about other noble families, and serves as a sharp contrast to how he treats the Ebrims (during Penelope's wedding festivities, he is unnaturally invested in Penelope getting a happy ending with Ezekiel). We can't even claim that his behaviour towards Kiara is in line with his disdain for nobles, because Penelope is proof that he is perfectly capable of showing compassion to most of them!
TRH3 ends with Kiara doing an apology tour of sorts - diplomatic missions aimed at improving Cordonia's international relations. TRF finds almost all the ladies of the court - even Olivia - in very minimal roles, as the focus shifts to the Via Imperii. Still, the narrative makes more references to Penelope than to Kiara, to the extent that the epilogue ends on both the MC and Penelope celebrating their pregnancies (Penelope's first and the MC's second) together.
Overall, you will find that the narrative repeated certain patterns with Kiara - the tendency to find her suspicious, purposely limiting scenes with important characters like Liam (TRR) and the heir (TRH) while the white courtiers get almost unlimited access, the discrepancies in expectations for her vs other ladies (eg. Madeleine is hailed for being "good" even though that is solely dependent on how you treat her. Kiara is largely ignored whenever she does help, and attacked when she is written to support the enemy). Drake - even as a former alternative to her, who should have gotten over whatever nonsense beef he'd had with her earlier - is allowed to make snide remarks about her home and family.
It's pretty clear they could do this because they could get away with it... because most of the fandom made it so easy for them to get away with it.
Fandom
When I look back at how the perception of Kiara in the fandom progressed over the years, I find it half-amusing, half-sad how much of it is rooted more in fanlore, and how little in actual fact. And this is something you couldn't just pin on "crazy Drake stans" - they were the biggest promoters of these lies and misconceptions, sure, but normally analytical, commonsense readers often believed that Kiara was fake and a snob and awful to Penelope too.
I get some of it, given the timing of Kiara and Penelope's scene at the beginning of TRR2. It takes place at a low point in the MC's story, a time when she isn't even sure the LIs want to support her. Coupled with that is the lasting image of Penelope hugging you and complaining about Madeleine, making you feel like she's more willing to give you a sliver of solidarity. Coupled with that, is Olivia's newfound popularity in the fandom - once she emerges in Ch 5 of that book, fans believed they found their wildcard who would stand by them in complete solidarity among the ladies of the court (did they ignore Hana's already massive contributions to the investigation? Yes they did. Yes they did). Madeleine herself is shown giving quotable quotes about female solidarity and Tariq's guilt in TRR2 Ch 7, which - coupled with Justin's high praise of her - made people want to find things to like about her too. Penelope's own betrayal was overshadowed by an expectation to support a person with serious mental health struggles.
Kiara's the only one who doesn't get such backstories or explanations. So at least in the heat of the moment, in reading those chapters between weekly gaps, it makes sense that a false impression of her got somewhat solidified.
But when you build your interpretations out of lies and misinterpretations, how does it become so valid that even the writers bend to it and prefer to show that?
Every fandom has its "crazy stans". And this instance wouldn't be the first or last time they are pandered to. But when the same stans get backed up by the "saner", more commonsense members of fandom; when even neutral readers promote versions of a story without actually looking at the scenes in question - that's when a fandom is in danger of turning a "headcanon" into canon.
Kiara being a horrible friend to Penelope wasn't canon. Kiara being a snob was not canon. Kiara being creepy towards Drake wasn't canon either. Especially when you take the fandom response to Olivia's forced kiss on Liam into account.
And that brings me to another point. I had been asked once why I felt the need to compare Kiara to the other ladies in my defenses of her. It's important, when we speak of the kind of hate Kiara received, to understand how a lot of flaws that the entire court has (eg classism) is often pinned onto a lone person, and how several white female characters could get away with worse behaviour while Kiara alone was slammed for harmless interactions.
This is most apparent when you look at how Olivia's violation of Liam's consent is perceived, vs Kiara's harmless flirtation with Drake in TRR2. Which woman had fans foaming at the mouth and wanting to kill her? Which woman was given dozens and dozens of fanfic and content that depicted her as creepy, desperate, downright obsessed with their man? Which woman got the "oh well, he doesn't owe her anything 🤷🏽‍♀️" vs a "he doesn't love her back?? WHAT AN INSENSITIVE ASSHOLE!!1111"?
Perhaps this Olivia/Kiara comparison is where the fandom's tendency to cast Kiara into the Jezebel stereotype is the most visible. Kiara's very act of talking to Drake sometimes is registered as a threat to those stans, and it reflects in the way they speak of her, the way they speak of their MC's own relationship with Drake in association with her (eg. the number of posts rejoicing at the thought of showing off their "engaged to Drake" status at Kiara's estate), the way they're allowed to dehumanize her and villify her (eg. The edit I mentioned at the beginning). This is often encouraged by their friends who are fans of other characters, and you can see that in sharp contrast, Olivia - despite her actions in Book 1 and her resentment of Liam for not loving her back in other books - is still often viewed with sympathy and respect. Her feelings - still viewed as genuine, even pure. To the point where PB eventually allows Olivia to constantly address her feelings about the MC's and Liam's relationship, while forcing Kiara to not even utter Drake's name in his playthrough.
But you see this with other characters, and in other contexts too. Particularly how Madeleine can be duplicitous, hypocritical, and power-hungry, and it's Kiara who is called these things despite her actual honesty in canon. Madeleine can get away with actually helping Bartie Sr kidnap the MC's daughter in TRH3 without a murmur, in the same fandom where people can curse Kiara for voting for Bartie Sr "to take the child away" (despite her telling the MC and spouse that she was promised they would have custody of the child, therefore the claim that she "voted to take the child away from their parent" is inaccurate).
You saw some of these discrepancies in how Penelope and Kiara were spoken about too - Penelope's crime in TRR2 was considered easily forgiveable, while Kiara's innocence is constantly called into question. Kiara was often viewed negatively for what the fandom perceived as "meanness" to Penelope (when it was in fact Kiara worrying about how Penelope would fare when she wasn't around) while Penelope herself was never expected to be a good friend to Kiara. An interesting thing to note about the fandom response to Penelope and Kiara showed that often when posters wanted to hate on Penelope, she and Kiara would be clubbed together, almost as a unit. This was especially prevalent in TRH3. It was easy to express hatred for Kiara independently, but most posts that showed a dislike for Penelope (besides from specific Kiara stans) would often tie her with Kiara, as if there wasn't much to hate about her otherwise.
It is important to line up whatever hate Kiara gets with the responses to the other women - especially in the face of what the latter are allowed to get away with. In doing so, you get a better sense of what is allowed for a certain subset of women, and what isn't allowed or permitted for black women specifically.
Often, the fans who would not hesitate to call her alone fake, opportunistic and creepy were WOC, and there have been cases where some would use their identity as WOC to shield themselves from the criticism concerning their vitriol. It would often descend into "I don't hate her because she is black, I hate her because {insert inaccurate/false/convoluted justification here}". It didn't matter that much of this information wasn't based in fact, or had a heavy bias that they never applied to anyone else. It only mattered that because they were WOC, somehow that meant that they couldn't possibly be racist. That their unfounded hatred for Kiara had to be legitimate. As if there was no chance that someone who was WOC couldn't be antiblack too. I mean, the ultimate proof of this could be found in TRR itself - the two head writers of the TRR/H/F series' are Asian women - who have a pattern of liking mean (white) women, and who didn't mind throwing the black woman and her black family in their story repeatedly under the bus, who didn't mind minimizing and retconning the abuse and childhood trauma that the darker-skinned Asian woman in their story went through.
Overall, it is possible that the fandom did take some of their cues (for their impression of Kiara) from the inherent disdain found in canon itself. But many of them also misinterpreted several things about Kiara, then didn't bother to revisit those biases with a critical eye, or even try to see if they were wrong. And that baseless hatred fed the already-existing disdain that Kiara's own writers had towards her. Resulting in the kind of horrific, racist garbage that we got to see in TRR3, and the constant attempts in canon to pull her down in TRH.
Did Drake and Kiara Ever Have A Chance?
There have been various opinions - from both Kiara fans and haters - for why a Driara ship would never work. He hates nobles, she won't like his disdain for art and culture, he likes the simpler life, she's a snob...so on and so forth. Many people will agree it's not a great ship, but of course with differing opinions on why.
I, however, often wondered at possible scenarios where such a pairing could work. The magic of shipping is often that you can play around with personalities and pair almost anyone, and find enough reasons to explain why they would tick. And in Drake and Kiara's case, personally, I do feel like it's a complicated question to answer - primarily because I feel like the authorial intent at the beginning may have been very, very different to what finally happened in Drake's story.
A lot of Drake's early writing focused on the reasons behind his mistrust of the court and his tendency to view the people he loves who are part of it (eg. Liam and later the group) as anomalies. There are two ways you could take such a story in TRR2 - you could either get him to admit to the flaws in his own thinking (thereby providing a more nuanced insight) and allow him to grow from there, or you could just have him double down on his biases and never change beyond the superficial. The team of TRR - esp the head writers, Kara and Jen who were both v fond of him - definitely seemed to go in the latter direction.
Drake's prediction in Coney Island does indicate that he should let go of the past, and I honestly feel like the sequences where he learned about Maxwell straining House Beaumont's finances to help her, and Kiara and Savannah's friendship, could have been turning points for him if the writers weren't so obsessed with proving him right all the time - even when he was supposed to be wrong. Maxwell and Kiara, in their own ways, were proof that not every noble was the same, nor would every noble treat the commoners around them all the same way. However, the narrative trampled all over this possibility in TRR2 Ch 9, where Drake could optionally claim that the Beaumont brothers (among others) were "just looking out for themselves, no matter the consequences", or later when the narrative had Savannah be grateful to him for breaking her confidence to Bertrand, and have Maxwell try to earn his forgiveness in Ch 12 rather than the other way around. It allowed Drake to be selective about the nobles he admired or defended, while still free to treat certain others like garbage.
I could easily envision a Driara pairing for most of TRR2. I could even see it as potentially salvageable in certain parts of TRR3. But the moment they had Drake readily suspect her, the moment the team thought it would be okay for Drake to even suggest minimizing her trauma...that option was no longer worth seeing. Not for Drake, but for Kiara. Drake would have to be the worst possible guy I could find for her, in such a scenario.
But I could see potential in a storyline that had Drake understand that some of these people weren't the monsters he so desperately wanted them to be. In one where he could hear about Kiara's friendship with his sister, and learn about a whole new side of her. One where he maybe felt insecure ("I'm not her type") and could be reassured by a woman who had likely held a torch for him since they were teens/young adults. One where they could reach out to each other in their pain and trauma, and find solace. One where Drake knew that the family he may be marrying into would respect him, and his father too. There were possibilities there.
It would still take more work - his mean streak for one would need to be reduced by more than a half. A lot of it, of course, was kept for the Drake stans, but it really doesn't add much to Drake's character besides making him a mean-spirited, hypocritical bitch who only targets the lone black woman this way (and Olivia occasionally, if she goads him). If the narrative did want to keep a characterization where Drake acts weird around the girl he likes, they could - but that story would need a lot more work to be palatable.
All of this is to say that regardless of personal bias, there were possibilities there. There was a sliver of potential. And if they wanted to let go of that potential midway, they didn't have to go about that the way they finally did. They could have just worked on creating another love interest for her. They managed to create a brother for her overnight just so Penelope could have a boyfriend; they could have easily done the same for Kiara.
Multiple factors went down that explain why the Driara ship didn't take off. But many of them boil down to one specific root cause - the white women (whether they caused actual harm or not) needed to be protected, needed to be cherished. The black woman who dared to ask for the same things from their pet LI, would be viewed as a threat, a villain, a creep...just for breathing in his direction.
And her writers cared so little, that they took the fanon perception for her and stamped it onto their canon, like it was the truth.
They didn't do any of this for the woman who forced a kiss on a prominent LI. They didn't do this on the woman who betrayed the MC and set her up for assault. They didn't do this to the woman who bullied the lone female LI, and swore to continue doing so till she broke.
They did this for the one woman who was fairly innocent of most of these crimes, actually respected the LI and treated him well.
They did this because they could get away with it. Because they were confident that the fandom they wrote the story for, would let them get away with it. And tragically...they were right.
--
Resources I used to learn about the Jezebel stereotype:
The "Offending" Breast of Janet Jackson: Public Discourse Surrounding the Jackson/Timberlake Performance at Super Bowl XXXVIII by Dr Shannon Holland
Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, the Jezebel and white masculinity by Khadija Mbowe (I actually got the recommendation for the first paper from this video essay).
From Mammy to Jezebel: The Portrayal of Black Women in American Cinema from the BlackThen website
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peonierose · 6 months
Text
Masterlist
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☁️ (Fluff) | 🎭 (Angst) | Series 📚 | 📱 (Text Fic / Social Media) | 🔥 (NSFW) | Ⓜ️ (Mature) | 🃏 (Teen) | 🌈 (LGBTQ+)| 🎨 (Artwork)| 🎁 (Gifts from friends)
Open Heart
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Set after OH ended
Don‘t call me Angel | - Characters involved: Luna Auclair (F!OC - OH), Bryce Lahela (M!MC - OH), Tobias Carrick (M!MC - OH, Maxwell Beaumont (M!MC - TRR) and Bertrand Beaumont (M!MC - TRR)
Summary: Luna helps Tobias to polish his image. Will she be successful?
Losing Game (4/4) | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary:
Losing Game (3/4) 📚 🎭 | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce visited his dad in prison and now he and Luna are oceans apart, but after a scare during his surgery he can only think of one person to call.
Losing Game (2/4) 📚 🎭 | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce comes back from visiting his father in prison. Though he didn’t tell Luna. Will things work out between them? Or will they drift further apart?
Losing Game (1/4) 📚 🎭 | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary:  Bryce visits his dad in prison. How will that go? Will they reunite or will they stay apart forever? 
Summer‘s Kiss ☁️ | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna and Bryce enjoy a bit of alone time together by Manoa Falls.
I‘m a Sucker for You ☁️ | Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela
Summary: Bryce and Luna spend some time on Valentine‘s Day (even though they’re not the biggest Valentine’s Day fans). With one or two presents in between.
Rosé all Day ☁️ | Luna Auclair (F!OC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC), Evie Auclair (F!OC), Soraya Auclair (F!OC), Meilani Leahi (F!OC) and Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary:  It’s Maxines birthday on February 14th, but Luna knows that Maxine doesn’t like Valentine‘s day. So she and the girls spend some quality time together. Drinking eating, and playing some games.
Looks like Pizza to me ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Soraya Auclair (F!OC), Evie Auclair (FOC), Skyler Auclair (M!OC)
Summary: Luna, her cousins Soraya, Evie and Sky make pizza and debate if pineapple belong on pizza or not. Who will win the debate?
Cake by the Ocean ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Before Bryce and Luna get a special surprise before their cake testing. Are they ready for this next step in their relationship?
A Pinch of Pink and Blue...This one's for you ☁️🎭 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce and Luna have the talk about trying for kids. Are they ready for that yet?
Go Blonder ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce makes a bet with Jackie. What happens if he loses?
I Do ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Hayley. Valentine-Ramsey (F!MC)
Summary: Bryce, Luna and their friends and family were invited to attend Ethan and Hayley‘s wedding.
My Love won't let you down ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Soraya Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Skyler Auclair (M!OC) and Evie Auclair (F!OC)
Summary: Soraya is heartbroken. Luna, Bryce and Luna's cousin Sky and Evie help her go through it.
Paint Wars ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce and Luna turn painting into an afternoon of fun.
A new Chapter ☁️ 🎭 📱 | - Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC), Luna Auclair (F!OC) and Dylan Yu (M!OC)
Summary: It’s prom night for Keiki, but it’s not exactly how she pictured it would go.
'How were we ever strangers...' ☁️ 🎭 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna wants to ask Bryce to marry her, not knowing Bryce wants to ask her too. Will they get a chance to ask each other?
By a Landslide ☁️ 🎭 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce and Luna take a trip to Hawaii, though they have a tough decision to make.
'I'll love you through the Madness, babe' ☁️ 🎭 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: It’s Henry's anniversary, Bryce's best friend. Someone at work made some nasty comments and Bryce got into a fight. Luna tries to cheer him up a bit.
Go with the Flow ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce gets Luna to try out surfing. It doesn't go as planned.
Always & Forever ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna decides to get a tattoo. But she's scared to get one alone so Bryce goes with her.
Only Love ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce shows Luna how to french braid, since she can't do it.
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Cinnamon Sugar ☁️ | - Maxine Moore (F!OC) x Adam Sinclair (M!OC)
Summary: Maxine go out on their first date. How will it go? Will sparks fly or will it be a flop?
Bittersweet Symphony ☁️ | - Maxine Moore (F!OC) x Adam Sinclair (M!OC)
Summary: Maxine’s & Adams relationship goes a step further. Will they become official? Or will it take them more time?
Kintsugi ☁️ 🎭 Ⓜ️ | - Maxine Moore (F!OC) x Adam Sinclair (M!OC)
Summary: Maxine has trouble with anxiety and depression. Adam shows up to help her through it. As well as her best friend Luna.
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Wildflower ☁️ | - Keiki Lahela (F!MC) x Koa Haulani (M!OC)
Summary: Keiki who still struggles with trusting guys and entering a new relationship after Dylan broke her heart. That's when she meets Koa. Will she give him a chance or will she let her fear of getting hurt win and therefore miss out on a great connection with Koa?
Dear John ☁️ | - Keiki Lahela (F!MC) x Koa Haulani (M!OC)
Summary: Keiki and Koa find love letters on the beach and try to find who they belong to. Meanwhile they are exploring where they're relationship and feelings lie.
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Mona Lisa ☁️ 📱| - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna and Bryce have a fun tex t exchange between them, involving coffee.
Nightmare before Christmas ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Bryce and Luna have a debate if Nightmare before Christmas is a Halloween or Christmas movie.
Hau’oli la Heleui ☁️ 📱- Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC) and more
Summary: Luna, Bryce and their friends and family celebrate Halloween.
Viva Las Vegas ☁️ 📱 🌈 | - Soraya Auclair (F!OC) x Meilani Leihi (F!OC)
Summary: Two beautiful people are getting married and start a new chapter in their lives.
Pumpkin Spice ☁️ 📱 | - Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Luna Auclair (F!OC) and more
Summary: It’s fall time meaning Luna and Bryce celebrate Halloween with their friends and family.
Pink Champagne - Part 2 ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC) and more
Pink Champagne - Part 1 ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC) and more
Summary: Luna and her friends celebrate her birthday and her bachelorette party. Going away on a trip to Greece. 
Best asked question ☁️ 📱 | - Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC), Luna Auclair (F!OC), Maxine Moore (F!OC), Evie Auclair (F!OC), Soraya Auclair (F!OC)
Summary: Bryce and Luna have very important questions to ask.
My number One ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC)
Summary: If Luna and Bryce were a Disney couple which one would they be?
Sunshine ☀️ - ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair, Bryce Lahela, Keiki Lahela, Maxine Moore, Grace Auclair, Skylar Auclair, Soraya Auclair, Evie Auclair
Summary: Luna, Bryce, their family and friends celebrate Brian, Luna's dad's birthday.
Mother's Day - 📱| - Luna Auclair, Bryce Lahela, Keiki Lahela, Maxine Moore, Grace Auclair, Skylar Auclair, Soraya Auclair, Evie Auclair and more
Summary: Just a few picta edits for Mother‘s Day 💐 Enjoy 😊
Homecoming Part 2 📱 | - Luna Auclair, Bryce Lahela, Keiki Lahela and more
Summary: It’s Bryce’s Birthday. Meaning celebrating and opening presents.
Homecoming Part 1 - ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair, Bryce Lahela, Keiki Lahela and more
Summary: It’s not only Bryce and Luna moving back to Hawaii…it’s also Bryce’s Birthday on April, 16th (Yes, I took my own birthday and used it for Bryce’s as well)
Shamrock Kisses - ☁️ 📱 | - Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Luna Auclair (F!OC), Maxine Moore (F!OC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC) and Hayley Valentine (F!MC)
Summary: It’s Saint Patrick’s Day and the group‘s celebrating 🥳
L-O-V-E - ☁️ 📱 | - Luna Auclair (F!OC), Bryce Lahela (M!MC), Keiki Lahela (F!MC)
Summary: Bryce, Luna, Keiki and their friends celebrate valentines day.
Let them eat...healthy? 📱 | - Characters involved: Bryce Lahela, Luna Auclair, Keiki Lahela, Maxine, Dylan Yu.
Summary: Bryce tries to motivate everyone to eat more healthy.
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❗️On Hiatus ❗️
Nightbound vs. Hänsel & Gretel
Introduction Ⓜ️ | -Gretel van Andresen (F!OC) and Hänsel van Andresen (M!OC)
Chapter 1: Wake up Little Susie Ⓜ️ | - Gretel van Andresen (F!OC) and Hänsel van Andresen (M!OC)
Summary: Hänsel and Gretel two amazing supernatural hunters are working on a new case that leads them to New Orleans and to old friends. So let the good times roll.
Chapter 2: Strange Encounters Ⓜ️ | - Gretel van Andresen (F!OC), Hänsel van Andresen (M!OC), Nik (M!MC), Katherine (F!MC) and Garros (M!MC)
Summary: Hänsel and Gretel arrive in New Orleans and meet some old friends. Will they be able to help them with the case?
Chapter 3: Unexpected Ⓜ️ | - Gretel van Andresen (F!OC), Hänsel van Andresen (M!OC), Grey (M!OC), Vi (F!OC) and Vine (
Summary: Hänsel and Gretel are now in New Orleans. Looking for clues. They’ll encounter someone new. Friend or Foe?
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Once TNA & OH Crossover
Sam Dalton (M!MC), Addison Dalton (F!MC), Ethan Ramsey (M!MC) and Robin Flores (M!MC)
Summary: Addison has stage four ovarian cancer. So Sam and Addi seek a consultation with Dr. Ethan Ramsey at Edenbrook. Will they make it in time?
Part (1/5) Ⓜ️ 🎭 | - Sam Dalton (M!MC) x Addison Dalton (F!MC)
Part (2/5) Ⓜ️ 🎭 | - Sam Dalton (M!MC) x Addison Dalton (F!MC)
Part (3/5) Ⓜ️ 🎭 | - Sam Dalton (M!MC), Addison Dalton (F!MC) and Ethan Ramsey (M!MC)
Part (4/5) Ⓜ️ 🎭 | - Sam Dalton (M!MC), Robin Flores (M!MC), Ethan Ramsey (M!MC)
Part (5/5) Ⓜ️ 🎭 | - Sam Dalton (M!MC), and Addison Dalton (F!MC)
Girls Night
Sam Dalton (M!MC), Emma Anderson (F!MC) and more
Summary: The girls have a fun night together, but things don’t go as planned.
Chapter 1 - What's the Secret password - Ⓜ️ | - Emma Anderson (F!MC), Addison Dalton (F!MC) and more
Part 2 - Party like you mean it - Ⓜ️ | - Emma Anderson (F!MC), Addison Dalton (F!MC) and more
Part 3 - Streaking past your neighbors house Ⓜ️ | - Emma Anderson (F!MC), Addison Dalton (F!MC) and more
Part 4 - Epilogue - You & I Ⓜ️ | - Addison Dalton (F!MC) x Robin Flores (M!MC)
The Tell-All
Robin Flores (M!MC)
Summary: Robins Tell-All interview with Serena Knight. Told from his point of view.
Part 1 - Ⓜ️
Part 2 - Ⓜ️
Thankful
Summary: Robin spends thanksgiving with Sam, Emma, Jenny and Addison.
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Green Green Mystery Machine | Rose De Luca (F!MC) x Trystan Thorne (M!MC)
Moja Ruža - ☁️ | Rose De Luca (F!MC) x Trystan Thorne (M!MC)
Summary:
Peppermint Kisses | Rose De Luca (F!MC) x Trystan Thorne (M!MC)
Summary: It’s Christmas time and Rose and Trystan spend some time with their family and friends, when their quality time gets interrupted by a pickpocket. Can Rose and Trystan solve the case?
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Week 1: All Smiles and Giggles - Luna Auclair (F!OC - Open Heart)
Week 2: Picture this - Hänsel & Gretel (OC‘s - Nightbound)
Week 3: Kala Kala - Luna Auclair (F!OC - Open Heart)
Under Construction 🚧
Other Fics
Both are good 🌈 | - Bryce Lahela (M!MC) x Raleigh Carrera (M!MC)
Colab with @aallotarenunelma
Aallotar's A/N: This project started exactly a month ago, as my great friend Peonie and I were complaining about the lack of fictions about friendship. We discussed and chose a great pair of friends across the Choices universe. Since then, everything has fallen into place, so this fiction is an entry for the Let's Hear it for the Boys event by @choicesficwriterscreations , as well as for the Bi Awareness Week hosted by @choicespride ! This is a labour of love and a lot of fun. Hopefully you'll enjoy it! 💛
Peonie's A/N: I’ve worked on this project with one of my favorite friends, they’ve become one of my closest friends and this is our project. Hope you’ll enjoy this story as much fun as we had writing it 😍💚😚
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Set after Open Heart ended
Under the Mistletoe ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary:  Luna and Bryce spend some time with their friends Ethan and Hayley and the open heart gang in Boston. 
Neon Lights ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna, Bryce and the Open Heart gang go mini golfing. Who will win?
Home is where the heart is ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: It’s Christmas time. Luna and Bryce get visited by Ethan & Hayley. But it looks like Luna gets to fangirl a little first.
Last Christmas...I gave you my heart ☁️ | - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Summary: Luna and Bryce spend their first Christmas together.
Chapter 1 - It's getting...green and merry in here
Chapter 2 - Underneath the Christmas tree
Chapter 3 - Unwrapping Presents
Luna Auclair & Bryce Lahela
On the dance floor - Luna Auclair (F!OC) x Bryce Lahela (M!MC)
Asks about Luna Auclair (F!OC)
Luna‘s guilty pleasures
Auclair Family
Auclair Family Tree
My OC - Luna Auclair (F!OC) - @choicesficwriterscreations
Auclair Triplets
Gifts from friends - Edits & Art work
Secret Santa by @ladylamrian
Grey (M!OC - NB) @bayleedraws
April 16th (Another great birthday gift) - @annieruok94
Birthday Gift by @cariantha
Maxine & Adam by @loveliemadness
Luna Auclair 💚 Bryce Lahela by @cariantha and @bayleedraws-sometimesx
Bryce & Luna by @messprongs
Making Waves - @cariantha
My little artsy Luna Auclair (F!OC) - @inlocusmads
Beautiful Beige - by Linds
A beautiful birthday gift by my amazing friend @mysticalgalaxysstuff
Bryce Lahela (M!MC) - @weetlebeetle
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Drake's Birthday Celebration!
We have set Drake's birthday celebration for August and hope you'll join us with fics, drabbles, artwork and more! Special thanks to @aussiegurl1234 for the graphic!
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The event will take place from August 1st through August 12th of 2023.
RULES:
All mediums accepted! Fanfiction, fan art, mood boards, HC's, whatever you've got!
Must be themed/centered around Drake's birthday and present him positively.
You must tag @drake-walker-appreciation
The deadline is 11:59 p.m. CST on August 12th, 2023.
A couple of important points:
The event is in August, but you may place his birthday in whatever month you HC it is!
Throwbacks featuring Drake's birthday are more than welcome!
Please reach out to this blog, @angelasscribbles or @karahalloway with any questions or suggestions!
We know his birthday, much like most of the PB timeline is nebulous so for anyone interested, here's the thought process about its placement, under the cut:
I think it’s common knowledge that PB’s timeline is total crap.
MC is told that the social season is a “few months” long, but if you follow the actual time stops given in the stoy…. “the next day…”, “a few days later…” etc, then the timeline is two and half weeks-ish. It’s like day 11 by time stops when MC is told that the season is “more than half over” despite the season being several months long. The Apple Blossom Festival is immediately after this, and Drake’s birthday happens during it.
We obviously can’t depend on anything about this timeline to tell us when his birthday falls.
Instead, we can look at the timeline that the actual social season in England follows. There is ample proof that plenty of the details of how royalty and the social season work in TRR are based on England, so this feels like a good option.
Besides, they left us no choice but to figure it out on our own, so any method you chose to use is valid since this is fiction. I personally did a deep dive into the social season in England both historically and in modern times.
The social season is four months long, starting in early April and ending on the Twelfth of August aka the start of the shooting season.
Applewood and the Apple Blossom Festival happen just before the Beaumont Bash, which is canonically the last official event of the social season. Therefore, I place the bash in the first half of August. MC drives from the festival events at Applewood directly to Ramsford so we can assume those activities take place at the end of July or beginning of August.
The next clue comes with the very title of this festival: Apple Blossom Festival. It’s not a harvest festival, so it doesn’t take place in the fall. (Apples are typically harvested in the last week of August and September, some even later, which is after the social season concludes at any rate.)
Apples blossom from early spring to late summer depending on the variety of apple. Most blossom in April or May but since the festival takes place at the end of the season, we have to assume that the Cordonian Ruby is a late-blooming variety. A very late blooming variety. (This is possible because when they bloom has more to do with the temperature of the region than the time of year. Since there was skiing and ice skating in April, we can assume it stays cold there well into spring.)
In conclusion, based on all of the above, I feel confident that Drake’s birthday falls somewhere at the end of July or in the first half of August.
That said, I’m not here to gatekeep anyone's HC’s so with that in mind, even though the event is in August, you may place Drake’s birthday whenever you like in your story. Put it in February, put it in October. The important part is that you have fun with it. That’s it.
Happy writing!
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ao719 · 2 months
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Best Kept Secrets
Best Kept Secrets - Maybe We’ll Get It Right (Chapter 18)
Characters belong to Pixelberry.
Summary: An unforeseen encounter with the past proves that even the best-kept secrets eventually make their way into the light. 
Title inspiration: Hold On Tight - Forest Blakk
Book/Pairing: TRR; Liam x F!OC
A/N: Thank you to @burnsoslow for prereading most of this. Please excuse any errors. 
Rating: M • Warning: This series will contain NSFW material. If you read, you acknowledge you are 18+
Catch up here
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Standing in her bedroom inside the north wing, Amara stared at her reflection in the floor-length mirror. She scanned over her outfit before meeting her own anxious gaze; she took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, trying to settle her nerves. 
Today would be Amara’s and Liam’s first public outing with Sophia since the statement had been given. It would be the first time the press would not only catch a glimpse of the heir but see the three of them together … as a family. She knew that the purpose behind the outing was to show the public that their King had moved beyond her betrayal and that they were putting the past behind them for the sake of their child. It was all in hopes of shifting the negative attention she was receiving and showing her in a more favorable light. 
Amara was nervous, however. One would think she would find this to be fairly simple; working the press to change public perception was literally her job, but it was much different being the one whose image you’re trying to change their perception of. She wouldn’t be working her PR magic behind the scenes because she was the one under the microscope. She knew her every move was going to be picked apart, questioned, and, at times, manipulated to fit whatever narrative they were attempting to paint of her. Whatever they felt was going to sell a story was what they were going to try and sell, truth or not. 
Despite knowing this was something they needed to try, Amara had second-guessed the decision since Daniel suggested it; they’d given themselves an extra week behind the palace walls to prepare, but she felt anything but because she couldn’t get out of her own head. She didn’t want her presence during these planned outings to make things even more difficult for Liam than she’d already made them. 
However, when Amara subtly brought up the concern, Liam didn’t seem all too phased. They planned to spend the day on the private beach, and he reminded her that while, yes, the press was sure to be camped out nearby, they would still be far enough away so they’d be able to enjoy their day together with Sophia and that he was looking forward to spending the day out … with both of them. He seemed to be treating it as both a casual and normal outing and not one that was planned with a purpose.
Amara wasn’t reading too much into what he’d said, however, seeing his words for exactly what they were. She knew it was nothing more than his way of trying to make her feel more relaxed because he could sense that she was on edge about it. To think he meant anything beyond that was pointless. Despite her feelings for him, she’d forced herself to face reality over the last month and a half, a reality where she knew that any chance she might have had at continuing to rekindle things between them was long gone. After what she’d done, he’d never give her a second chance, and she didn’t deserve one. Her feelings for him didn’t matter and didn’t mean anything to anyone but her, so she shoved them into a box and pushed any notion of them being anything more than co-parents as far down as she could. It hurt, of course, but it was the consequences of her actions. And she’d suffer in silence because she wasn’t going to let those feelings get in the way of his and Sophia’s relationship. 
A knock on the door pulled Amara’s attention, and she gave herself one last glance in the mirror before turning and exiting her bedroom. When she opened the door, she smiled at Sophia, who was giving her signature toothy grin.
“Mama!”
“Hi, baby,” Amara chuckled as she took her from Liam’s arms when she leaned over to her. She kissed her cheek as she ran her hand over her head of blonde hair. 
“Morning,” Liam said. 
Amara offered him a tentative smile. “Morning.” She stepped aside to let him in, closing the door behind her. “I have her stuff ready. I’ll just go get her changed real quick.” 
Liam nodded and watched the two of them disappear down the hall, listening to Sophia babble and Amara laugh, smiling as he sat down in the living area to wait. He drummed his fingers against his thighs, wondering what the day was going to bring.
They would be spending the day at the private beach, and while he knew it would be accessible to the press, it would keep them far enough away so they wouldn’t be too overbearing. They couldn’t go out in public and make it obvious that they were putting on a show for the cameras. 
Truthfully … it wasn’t about the cameras for Liam nor was it a show. Yes, he was doing this as a way to hopefully shift the narrative surrounding Amara, and he was looking forward to finally taking Sophia beyond the palace walls, but it was more than that for him. He wanted to spend the day out with Amara, too. 
Over the last month and a half since everything had happened, one of the things he struggled with most was his feelings for Amara. At first, those feelings were suffocated by anger and resentment, but once he forced himself to let go of those emotions for the sake of moving forward, they came back tenfold. Now that he’d been spending every day with her the past two weeks, practically playing house inside the palace with her and Sophia … the three of them, together, as a family … everything he felt before seemed amplified. His feelings began to consume him, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to continue to shove them aside. And maybe he shouldn’t. He’d been trying to do what was best for Sophia, but perhaps what was best for her was the very thing he’d been trying to ignore. 
Liam had a couple of reservations, however, and they seemed to be the one thing holding him back. 
The first reservation was trust. No matter which way Liam looked at the situation, he’d been betrayed. Did he now understand the place in which Amara was coming from? A little. He’d allowed himself to see things from her perspective, and he understood her headspace at the time. It didn’t change the fact that he was still lied to and kept in the dark about something as important as the existence of his child. Were there other secrets she was keeping? He didn’t know. And he didn’t know if he could trust her to not keep more in the future. 
The second reservation was fear. Twice now Liam had tried to make things work between them, and he was left broken both times. They say the third time’s the charm, but this was something that now went beyond just him. If they tried again and they failed a third time, not only would it affect him but Sophia as well. He and Amara had a knack for being unable to get their stars to align. Could he really risk Sophia being collateral damage in a game he wasn’t sure he would ever win?
“Dada!” 
Sophia’s squeal pulled Liam from his thoughts. He glanced over and a laugh bubbled out of him at the sight of her toddling towards him in a white cover-up that concealed her bright pink bathing suit, tiny aviators, and a floppy white sun hat. “Look at you looking like a little beachy princess,” he chuckled as he scooped her into his arms. “Are you ready for our day at the beach?” Sophia nodded with a clap of her hands. “Is mommy ready?”
They both looked at Amara at the same time, and she forced a smile. “I’m ready.”
****
When Bastien pulled into the private parking lot of the beach, Amara turned her face away from the window, shielding her eyes from the flashes of the cameras. The press had been camped outside of the gate when they left the palace and had followed them. Having spent so much time tracking the royal family’s movements, it didn’t take them long to realize where they were headed; they raced ahead so they were there waiting when they arrived. 
When Liam exited the vehicle, the press, who were contained behind another gate where two more guards stood to ensure they didn’t cross, began shouting his name. He turned and tossed his hand up in a wave as they snapped photos before turning back toward the vehicle. 
Liam met Amara’s gaze as she finished unbuckling Sophia from her car seat. “Here we go …” 
Liam lifted Sophia from her seat and into the safety of his arms, and when he pulled her from the vehicle, the frenzy ensued. The press shouted louder as the shutters from their cameras went off. Sophia turned her head toward the clamor as her grip on his shirt tightened. “It’s ok, little love,” he whispered. 
Occupied by their first glimpses of the princess, the press almost missed the moment Amara came into view. Almost. The moment they noticed her, more shouts ensued as their cameras continued to snap photos. 
“Why is she with you, King Liam?”
“Anything to say about your betrayal to the King, Ms. Onasis?”
“Will she be leaving Cordonia soon?”
“Will the Princess be staying?”
Amara turned so her back was toward them and inhaled a deep breath. She felt Liam’s hand on her shoulder a moment later and looked up at him; he gestured toward the path that led to the beach and she nodded before starting toward it. 
Once down on the beach, Amara set the bag she’d packed beside one of the chairs that were set up beneath an umbrella. She glanced around, taking in the silence, feeling a little more at ease, but only for a moment before she saw the press hurrying toward the edge of the barrier. The guards were already in place, ensuring they stayed on the other side, and they were far enough away where they wouldn’t be a bother, but just knowing they were there at all had her right back on edge. 
“Did you hear me?”
Amara snapped her gaze to Liam. “No. I’m sorry … what did you say?”
“Sunscreen?” Liam pointed to Sophia.
“Yeah.” Amara shook her head and crouched down next to the bag, pulling out the sunscreen she’d packed for her.
Liam set Sophia down on the chair, and Amara removed her tiny cover-up before smothering her in sunscreen. Once she was finished, she stood and turned to see a now shirtless Liam setting up the toys he’d brought on the massive beach blanket that was laid out for them; he’d slipped inside the tent just behind their chairs to change. She turned away from him and closed her eyes; between the press and him, her mind was jumbled.
“Ready?” Liam’s voice sounded from behind her, and she turned, but he was speaking to Sophia. He scooped her up and set her on the edge of the blanket so she could reach the sand before laying on his side next to her. 
Amara stood and stared at the two of them as they played. Then her gaze flickered to the edge of the beach where the press remained, continuing to snap photos. She couldn’t help but wonder what story they were going to try and spin from this. 
“Are you going to join us?” Liam asked.
Amara looked back at him. “Uh … yeah.” She kicked off her flip-flops before reaching down and grabbing the hem of her cover-up to remove it but froze as her eyes lifted to the press again. She casually brushed her hand against the fabric of the cover-up as she moved toward the blanket and sat down on the other side of Sophia. 
Liam looked up at her, squinting against the bright sun. “Did you not bring a suit?” he asked, gesturing to her cover-up that was still on. 
“I’m … I’m fine right now,” Amara lied as she looked out at the water. She wasn’t fine. 
Under the heat of the Mediterranean sun and the watchful eyes of the press, Amara was hot and flustered … but she didn’t want to take off the cover-up, afraid of what story the press would spin from it. Would they say she was trying to seduce him into forgiveness by flouncing around in a bikini? Would they criticize her for said bikini because she was the mother of the heir and not setting the example they thought she should? Hell, she was afraid to even look at Liam for a second too long, knowing what type of story one photo of that could paint. 
Liam stared at Amara as she gazed out at the water. He knew something was bothering her and he didn’t have to ask what it was. She’d been on edge the past week since they planned this first outing, and when he saw her this morning, he knew she hadn’t eased up. It was easy for him to ignore the presence of the press because he’d grown up with it and learned to drown them out a long time ago. Amara, however, wasn’t used to being on this side of things. On top of that, she was consumed by how her presence would rub off on him and Sophia and worried what stories would be in the papers the next morning. Because of that, she was being careful. Too careful, considering she wouldn’t even remove her cover-up. 
“Amara,” Liam said, and she glanced at him. “Relax.”
“I am relaxed.”
Liam snorted. “No, you’re not.” She dropped his gaze and bit her lip self-consciously. “Hey, look at me,” he whispered, but she shook her head. “Look at me.” She hesitated another moment before glancing up. “Don’t pay them any mind. It’s just you and me here, ok? Just us.”
Amara held his gaze. He knew exactly what was running through her mind without her having to say a word. And she felt the sincerity behind his words from the way he looked at her. But she needed to defuse the situation before her stupid heart took any of it to mean something more than it really did. “And Soph,” she quipped. 
“Yes,” Liam shook his head with a small smile. “But you know what I meant.” With Sophia occupied with filling her bucket full of sand one small scoop at a time, he laid on his back, tucking his arms under his head as he closed his eyes. “Take off the damn cover-up and enjoy yourself.” 
Liam heard her let out a quiet chuckle, and after another beat of silence, he could hear the quiet shift of the fabric against her skin. He opened one eye and inconspicuously slid it in her direction; his chest tightened at the sight of her body in the navy blue bikini before he quickly snapped the eye shut. 
****
That night, Liam and Amara put Sophia to bed inside her room in the north wing. They’d spent the entire day at the beach, playing in the water and lounging on the shore. Once they returned to the palace, she’d taken a bath, and barely made it through dinner before she passed out in Liam’s arms. 
The press had watched them the entire day, but Amara took Liam’s advice and ignored them as best as she could. She knew she had to come to terms with the fact that they were going to write what they wanted and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it except suck it up and deal with it. 
They quietly shut Sophia’s door behind them before creeping down the hall, stopping in front of the living area. “She racked out,” Liam quietly chuckled. 
Amara smiled as she leaned against the entryway, crossing her arms and tucking her hands beneath them. “She had fun today.”
“Minus the evil wave,” Liam quietly laughed. 
Amara jutted her lip out in a pout before bowing her head and covering her mouth with her hand to contain her laugh at the memory of the wave that washed away the sandcastle they’d helped Sophia build. She was not happy, and her extreme meltdown over the loss was when they knew it was probably time to pack it up and leave. 
“I thought she was going to try and kick that wave’s ass,” Liam chuckled. 
Amara snorted against her palm before looking back up at him, and when she did, a strand of her hair caught on her eyelashes. Instinctively, Liam reached up to brush it away. 
The air suddenly felt very thick as they stared at each other and both their smiles slowly faded. 
Snapping from his momentary daze, Liam quickly dropped his hand. “Uh … sorry. You had — your hair, I mean … it was …” He trailed off and blew out a breath. 
Amara continued to stare at him, feeling a bit bemused as her heart and mind argued over what just happened and what it meant. Nothing, she told herself. It was nothing. “Yeah … uh, thanks.”
“Well … I should probably …” Liam gestured over his shoulder to the door. “I have sand in places where there shouldn’t be sand and need to shower,” he chuckled, earning a laugh from her. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“Yeah. I’ll let you know when she’s up so we can meet for breakfast.” 
“Sounds good.” 
Liam leaned down and kissed her cheek, letting it linger a heartbeat longer than normal before he drew back; he met her gaze for a split second before he turned and opened the door, quickly disappearing into the hall.
*******
Sitting inside his study, Liam read over an article from Trend magazine, detailing his and Amara’s outing over the past weekend in Applewood; he was needed there to go over a proposal to expand the orchids and invited Amara to bring Sophia. The article had several photos printed beside it, each one from a distance; a few of him and Sophia as they walked through the orchids, some of just her, and a few of the three of them together.
It had been nearly a month since that first outing at the beach, and the many they had after seemed to be doing the job they were intended to do. Most of the press — Trend being one — had done exactly what Daniel had said and followed his lead, looking beyond the past and focusing on the here and now. A few remained skeptical, however, questioning Amara’s motives for remaining in Cordonia and her intentions going forward. They didn’t know that she’d already decided to stay because he had yet to make a public statement. He knew he would need to make one soon, though; he’d spoken to Daniel, who told him the next step would be for the people to hear directly from him since they hadn’t at all since Sophia’s existence had been made public nearly two months ago. 
Liam was happy to know that things with the press were starting to settle down. What wasn’t settling down were his feelings for Amara. Each night after they would put Sophia to bed, the length of time they lingered behind got longer. They went from a few moments of simple conversation to now talking over drinks or a late-night snack about their day and making plans for the next. They had gotten closer and had fallen back into a place where things didn’t feel so tense. 
It was comfortable. 
It was familiar. 
Every day they spent together chipped away at those reservations Liam had and drew out his feelings even more. And every day he came closer and closer to throwing caution to the wind and taking that leap. 
Hearing a knock on his study door, Liam called for them to enter; when it opened, he lifted his gaze from the magazine article just as Amara stepped inside with Sophia. 
“Dada!” 
“Hi, little love,” Liam grinned as he stood and walked around his desk; he crouched down as she toddled toward him and he scooped her into his arms, smothering a mix of playful kisses and raspberries against her cheeks as she giggled.
“Hope we’re not interrupting anything,” Amara said.
Liam situated Sophia on his hip. “Not at all,” he replied before leaning forward to kiss her cheek; his hand brushed down the length of her arm as he drew back. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” 
“I wanted to come talk to you.”
“About?”
“I’m going to have to make a trip to New York.” 
Liam looked at her. “Oh?”
“My lease is up at the end of the month,” Amara explained. “I’ve been putting it off, hoping to have found a place beforehand, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
Despite the surprise her words gave him, Liam kept his expression impassive. “I hadn’t realized you’d been looking.” 
“Well, I haven’t … not really, I mean. I’ve perused some listings, but I’m still weighing my options between renting or buying and haven’t made a decision yet. But I can’t put off packing up my apartment any longer since I only have a couple of weeks. And I’ll have to clear out my office space as well.” 
Liam nodded. “Ok. Are you thinking this weekend, or …?”
“I wanted to check with you first,” Amara said. “I didn’t know if you had anything going on, and I figured you’d want Soph to stay here with you.” 
Liam thought for a moment as he glanced at Sophia; he scrunched his nose with a smile when she offered him one of her toothy grins. “How about we go together?” 
Amara’s brows rose in surprise. “You … you want to go?”
“Sure,” Liam shrugged as he looked back at her. “Let Imogen know, and we can leave Friday and take the weekend … get it all done in one shot so you don’t have to worry about going back for anything. There’s plenty of room on the jet to store whatever you need to bring back with you.”
Amara stared at him for a moment. “If you’re sure …” 
“I am,” Liam smiled. “I’ll have Bastien make arrangements.” 
*******
A few mornings later, the SUV pulled up on the tarmac, stopping alongside the waiting jet. Liam glanced out the window at the press that were huddled together on the other side of a barrier.
“How did they know we would be here?” Amara asked.
Liam sighed with a shrug. “They always manage to find things out one way or another.” He looked over to where she sat on the other side of Sophia’s car seat. “Get her on the jet. I’ll handle them.” 
Amara nodded and unbuckled Sophia’s straps before lifting her out of the seat. A guard opened the door and she and Imogen slid out; she ignored the volley of shouted questions from the press as she carried Sophia up the stairs and disappeared inside the jet. 
“Sir?” Bastien said from the driver’s seat.
Liam looked up, meeting his gaze in the rearview mirror as the other two guards took their luggage and Sophia’s car seat to the jet. “I’ll talk to them.” 
Bastien nodded before getting out and opening Liam’s door. When the King came into view, the press shouted at him; he was a picture of calm as he buttoned his suit jacket and made his way toward the crowd. 
“King Liam, where are you headed?” Donnie Brine from the CBC asked as Liam neared. 
“I’ll be in New York for a few days,” Liam answered.
Another slew of shouted questions ensued, and they were all asking the same thing in various ways: is Amara leaving with Sophia? Thinking back on his several conversations with Daniel over the past couple of weeks, and knowing he could use this as an opportunity to put any more doubts about her intentions to rest, he decided to be transparent. 
Liam held up his hand to quiet them, and once he had their attention, he cleared his throat. “We’re headed to New York for the weekend to pack up Ms. Onasis’ belongings as she will be staying in Cordonia permanently so that I may continue to maintain a relationship with our daughter.”
More questions were immediately volleyed, but one in particular had caught his attention.
“Are you concerned she’ll try to leave again with the princess?”
Liam sighed, knowing they were referring to what was mentioned in Daniel’s statement. “The circumstances surrounding Ms. Onasis trying to leave in the past were entirely different.”
“Can you elaborate?” a reporter asked, holding their recorder out in front of him.
Transparency, he reminded himself. “Ms. Onasis had been spooked by the betrothal aspect of the alliance that Auvernal had been pushing for. When she learned of the blackmail threat, she became frightened of what that meant for our daughter, and in a moment of panic, yes, she tried to leave. But as a mother, she was trying to protect her child … and that’s not something I can or will fault her for. As for the move … she’s uprooting her entire life to ensure that the princess and I stay together, and I’m extremely grateful that she’s so willing to do that.” 
The reporters stared at Liam in a bout of awed silence, and a heartbeat later, they were shouting more questions.
“Will they be staying with you at the palace?”
“What’s the status of your relationship with Ms. Onasis?” 
“Are you rekindling your romance?” 
They’d changed their tune so fast, it gave Liam whiplash. He let out a breath, feeling a bit lighter, but decided he wasn’t answering any more questions. He didn’t really have the answers at the moment anyway. He threw his hand up in a wave before turning and heading towards the jet. 
****
After the long flight and traffic-jammed ride from the airport, Liam and Amara arrived at their hotel in New York that afternoon; they’d planned to arrive early enough to leave them time for Sophia to hopefully nap off the jet lag. 
Once Sophia was asleep in the guest room of the suite, Liam sent Imogen to her own room that was situated across the hall to rest. He plopped onto the sofa in the living area while Amara stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, taking in the view. 
“Have you missed it?” Liam asked. 
Amara shrugged. “Certain things, like pizza and breakfast bagels, yes,” she chuckled. “But other than that … not particularly, no.” 
Liam stood and came next to her. “Where’s your apartment from here?”
“About 15 minutes that way,” Amara pointed. “It’s in Tribeca.” They were at the Millennium in lower Manhattan. “And my office is only a block from there.” 
“Have you made any decisions regarding your company and what you plan to do?”
“Not yet,” Amara shook her head. “We’re on a bit of a pause at the moment until I figure things out. Daniel hasn’t decided whether he’s staying yet, but with both Riley and I now there and him not having anything tying him down here …” She shrugged. “But I could still run the company from there and set up an office … or I could sell it …”
“You’d really consider selling it?” 
“If that’s what needs to be done … yes,” Amara answered. And I know a couple of competitors that would probably be more than willing to take it off my hands.”
Liam leaned against the window frame as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. “You seem pretty content for someone giving up so much of themself on a whim.” 
Amara looked back out the window. “I wouldn’t say it’s on a whim.” 
Liam’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
“I mean …” Amara paused, taking in a breath and slowly letting it out. “I mean that all of this was stuff I’ve thought about from the moment I found out I was pregnant.” She tucked her hands beneath her arms as she fought against the urge to look at him. “I always thought about the what-ifs … and I planned out all these different scenarios in my head for the day I finally drummed up enough courage to … to tell you. And in all of those scenarios, the outcome was the same … I was leaving New York, and either running the company from where I was or selling it. Now that I think about it … it was never really a what-if, but more of a when.” 
Liam remained silent for a moment before speaking. “I just … I don’t want this move to be something you come to regret later on.” 
“It’s for you and Sophia.” Amara looked up at him again. “I would never regret it.” 
Liam stared at her, not having realized until that moment how close they’d shifted to one another, and he saw the moment she realized it, too. Her gaze was both hesitant and questioning, but then she looked away from him and took a step back. 
“Um … I think I’m going to nap while Sophia is.” 
“Yeah.” Liam cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I, uh … I’m actually not that tired, so I can listen for her if you want to go lay down in the master.” He’d already offered for her to take the bigger of the two rooms. 
“Ok,” Amara nodded.
Liam watched Amara turn and heard her let out a breath as she disappeared inside the room. 
*******
The following morning, Liam and Amara headed over to her apartment while Imogen stayed with Sophia at the hotel. Liam had arranged for a moving company to meet them there to take the boxes she would be bringing back and load them on the jet. From what she’d told him, most of it would consist of her and Sophia’s clothes. Anything she didn’t need, she planned to throw out or donate. 
When they pulled up outside of the tall brick building, Liam slid out before turning to help Amara out. They greeted the staff of the moving company that was already there waiting before heading inside. 
After riding the elevator up to the seventh floor, they stepped out, and Liam followed Amara down the hall. She paused in front of a door and unlocked it, and when she pushed it open and stepped inside, he followed. 
Liam glanced around as he moved further inside. He’d never seen her apartment, but it was exactly what he pictured her having. Casual with a touch of modern sophistication. “This is nice.”
Amara looked around fondly; she’d always loved her apartment. “Thanks.” 
“Where should we start, Miss?” a voice spoke from the doorway. 
Amara turned to the movers lingering in the hall. “Uh …” She glanced around. “Living room and kitchen.” She then looked at Liam. “We can get started on Sophia’s room and then mine.”
“Lead the way,” Liam gestured. 
****
Within a couple of hours, most of the apartment had been boxed up. While the movers carried boxes from the kitchen, living room, and Sophia’s room down to the truck, Liam and Amara finished up in her room. 
“I’m going to take this out,” Amara said when she finished taping the last box of her shoes shut. 
Liam nodded. “I’ll bring the nightstand out for you.”
“Thank you,” Amara replied before pushing the box out the door and down the hall.
Turning to the nightstand next to the bed, Liam reached down and hooked his fingers under the lip of the top. He lifted it, and when he realized it was heavier than he anticipated, he tilted it to adjust his hold; the movement caused the drawer to slide out of it and crash to the floor. 
“Shit.” 
Liam set the nightstand back down before kneeling to pick up the contents from the drawer now scattered on the floor. As he scooped up the items, something caught his eye, and he froze as he stared at it. A photo. He reached down and grabbed it, bringing it closer, only to notice another beneath it. And they weren’t just any photos, but ones of him and Amara. He remembered the night the one he held in his hand was taken. They were watching a movie in his quarters and were on the sofa; she was resting back against his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around her and his face was playfully nuzzling her neck with a grin as she smiled. He picked up the other from the floor. It was of them in the maze; she was on his back with her arms looped around his neck, both of them laughing. 
At that moment, at the sight of those photos, at the realization that she’d kept them all this time, Liam felt the last of the reservations he’d been holding onto crumble. He wanted to be the two people in those photos again. 
Two people who could make each other laugh and smile.
Two people who were better when they were together. 
Two people who were happy and in love.
“Liam?” Amara’s voice carried down the hall. 
Liam snapped from his daze and cleared his throat. ��Coming.” He placed the rest of the items back in the drawer but slipped the photos into his back pocket before standing and carrying the nightstand out. 
****
That night, Amara stood out on the balcony of the hotel suite while Liam put Sophia into bed. She stared out at the view of the city she’d called home all her life, but she couldn’t say she’d miss it all that much. 
“Penny for your thoughts?” Liam said behind her.
Amara glanced over her shoulder, and her eyes followed him as he came to stand beside her. “Nothing,” she said, “just … taking in the view. Did she go down ok?”
“Yeah,” Liam nodded as he leaned against the railing. “Out like a light.” He glanced out at the view, staying quiet for a moment before looking over at her. “Are you going to miss it?”
“No … not really,” Amara answered. “I think … I think I’m ready to start over somewhere else.” 
Liam stared at her for a moment before taking her answer for the opening it was. “Speaking of starting over …” He stood upright and reached back, pulling the two photos from his back pocket. “When we were packing … these fell out of your nightstand drawer.” 
Amara focused on the photos in his hand, fighting against looking at him as she blinked away the sting in her eyes. “Yeah …” 
“I didn’t realize you had them.” 
“I …” Amara let out a soft breath and cast her gaze to the ground.
Liam’s thumb slid under her chin and he lifted her eyes to his. “No more secrets.” 
Amara swallowed. “I would look at them … in hopes I could convince myself to reach out to you … to tell you about Sophia.” She fell quiet for a moment before speaking again, her next words coming out just above a whisper. “And on days when I missed you … which was all the time … I’d look at them to remind myself of what it felt like to be whole … because that’s what being with you made me feel. Whole and complete … and happy.”
Liam searched her eyes for a moment, and in the next, he leaned down, capturing her lips in his. Amara stiffened in surprise, needing to rest her hands against his chest to keep herself upright, but when his arm curled around her waist and pulled her closer, she went more than willingly. When her lips parted against his, she felt his tongue softly curl against hers, so slowly at first it was as if he were trying to savor the moment, but then he deepened the kiss, and she gripped his shirt to steady herself.
Forcing himself not to get too caught up, Liam drew back. It took her a moment to open her eyes, and they stared at each other in silence for a few heartbeats before she looked away from him. He could see the self-consciousness fill her expression and realized it was because she determined that he must have thought what just happened was a mistake … but she was wrong. 
“I want to go back to being the two people in these photos. I want this again.” Liam held up the pictures. When she looked at him again, he saw the surprise in her eyes, like she couldn’t believe what he was saying. “I want this … I want us. But I want to slow down because I want us to be sure when we go in, if not for our sakes, then for Sophia’s.” 
At his words, a tear trickled down Amara’s cheek, and he reached up, brushing it away with his thumb. “I didn’t think … after what I’d done—”
“When I told you I was leaving the past in the past, I meant it, Amara,” Liam interrupted. “I just need to know if you want the same … that you’re willing to try.”
Amara took in a shuddered breath as her tear-filled eyes searched his. And then she nodded. “I want the same,” she whispered. 
Liam dropped his hand from her face and curled his fingers around hers. “Then we take it day by day once we get back home … and we’ll see how things go.” 
***************************************
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sfb123 · 1 year
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Always
Book: The Royal Romance
Pairing: Liam x Riley
All characters, and some of the dialogue, belong to Pixelberry.
Summary: Liam finds a new way to express his feelings for Riley.
Rating: G
Word Count: 2,108
A/N: I am participating in @choicesflashfics, using the prompt "The word ‘love’ doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what I feel for you." It will be in bold below.
A/N 2: This is a HC I've had for my Liam and Riley for a long time, but it's not something I could just slip into stories without explaining it. I've told it to a couple of people, and @charlotteg234 pushed me to write a fic explaining it. I started it a few months ago, and it sat in that WIP black hole that is my Google Drive. Then this week's Flash Fic prompts came out and this one fit in too perfectly for me to not use.
A/N 3: I procrastinated real bad on this one, so I didn't finish in time to have anyone pre-read it, so please excuse (m)any spelling or grammar errors.
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“I think we have time for one more question.” Riley addressed the crowd before turning to Liam to confirm. He smiled at her, and nodded in agreement. 
He didn’t hear the question, or her answer, he was too transfixed by his new bride. She had only been his wife, and Cordonia’s queen for a few days, though you would never know it by the way she carried herself. She was so poised, so well spoken. Since she had arrived in Cordonia, she had surprised everyone with her ability to handle all aspects of noble life. 
As she continued to address the crowd he felt something inside of him. It was more than pride, it was more than love even. He had no words to express how strongly he felt for this amazing creature before him. 
Liam hadn’t even noticed that Riley was finished until he felt her arm linking through his. She looked at him questioningly, and all he could do was smile in return. They posed for a couple of pictures before moving inside and heading to Liam’s office. 
When they arrived in his office, he took a seat behind his desk as Riley took a seat on one of the chairs on the opposite side. He smirked and shook his head at her. She arched her brow in response, and he lifted his hand, crooking his index finger in a come hither motion. When she had made it to the other side of the desk, he took her hand and lowered her into his lap. 
“You were incredible out there, my love.” He cupped her face in his hand, stroking her cheek with his thumb. 
Riley shrugged in response. “I really didn’t do much. Just gave our statement and answered a couple of basic questions.”
Liam grinned, shaking his head in disbelief. “Riley, I wish you wouldn’t discredit yourself like that. Just a couple of months ago, you were working two jobs trying to get by in New York, and now you’re successfully ruling a country, and making my dreams come true on a daily basis.” 
She dropped her eyes to the floor, a blush coming across her cheeks. He responded by slipping a finger under her chin lifting her gaze to meet his. “I mean it Riley, I was watching you out there and trying to find the right words to describe how I was feeling. The word ‘love’ doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what I feel for you. Sometimes, I look at you, and all I want is to propose to you all over again.” 
She blinked quickly, trying to hold back the tears that were forming at her husband’s declaration. “You can ask me to marry you as many times as you want. I’ll always say yes.” She leaned in, kissing him softly. 
“Good to know.” He replied before pulling her lips back to his. 
***
“That’s correct,” Riley agreed solemnly. “I had been brought to the maze under the false pretense that my husband was looking for me. The next thing I remember is waking up, tied to a chair in a dungeon.” 
The courtroom was silent as the Queen of Cordonia recalled the events of the Unity Tour, culminating with the multiple attacks and inevitable showdown with the Sons of Earth that finally came to a head on her wedding day. Anton Severus was on trial for leading the charge against the crown, and Riley had been called to the stand to testify.
The news stories that followed the attacks spoke at a high level, and provided minimal detail about the events themselves, so most of the people in attendance were hearing the details for the first time. One person who was already intimately familiar with the attacks was Liam. As he watched his wife sit there, perfectly composed and poised, all he could think about was their wedding night, and her breakdown once they were behind closed doors.
From the time she arrived in Cordonia, Riley had faced an onslaught of obstacles, and she faced each one with the same grace that she was showing on the stand. And she went through all of it for him. 
She had always been good at masking her pain until she was behind closed doors, but Liam had picked up on her tells rather quickly. He noticed that the emotions she had felt back then were resurfacing, and that she was surprised by it. However, she was hiding it well, he was certain that no one else had caught on. 
“Thank you, your majesty, you may step down.” The judge’s voice pulled Liam from his thoughts. 
As Riley moved toward Liam, the judge dismissed everyone for the day. Liam stood, taking his wife’s hand in his before leading her out of the courtroom. They walked silently out of the courthouse where the press were waiting for the king and queen to make a statement. 
When they saw the royal couple emerge, flashbulbs started going off, and reporters started shouting questions. Liam squeezed Riley’s hand, when she looked up at him she saw the question in his eyes. She gave him a practiced smile and a nod before stepping up to the crowd. 
“Your majesties, how did things go today?” One of the reporters shouted out. 
Liam stepped forward to field the question, but Riley tugged on his arm as she moved beside him. “Well, of course we won’t know for sure until the trial is over, and the ruling has been announced, but I think it’s safe to say justice will prevail.” The crowd cheered, and the pair used the opportunity as a distraction to slip away, and into their SVU. 
“I’m sorry love, we should have gone out the back.” Liam apologized as the car pulled away. 
“It’s fine. We need to give the people what they want. It’s our job.” Riley responded as she watched the scenery pass by out the window. 
Liam placed his hand over Riley’s. “Are you alright?” Riley shrugged in reply, her eyes never leaving the window. “Riley, look at me.” She slowly turned, and he saw the sadness in her eyes. 
“Sorry,” she apologized immediately, wiping away a stray tear. “Today was a lot.” 
“Love, you have nothing to apologize for, you were amazing today.” He cupped her cheek and pressed his lips against hers softly. “I saw how hard that was for you, but I promise you nobody else did.” 
“You think?”
“I know.” He affirmed. “You are everything a country could ever want or need in a queen. You were strong, and confident. Then, you stepped right out in front of the press and, despite being drained from your testimony, gave the perfect statement.” He looked at her adoringly, as a small smile slowly spread across her face. “Marry me?” He said softly. 
“Always.” She whispered in response. 
***
Riley found a secluded clearing beside the Walker ranch and began pacing, her mind going far too fast to stand still. The music and laughter from Bertrand and Savannah’s wedding had faded, she didn’t know if it was because of the distance, or if she just had too much on her mind for the outside noise to register. 
She was going through what seemed like a never ending checklist of things that would need to get done in the coming month. She froze in place when she thought of the first, and most important thing she needed to do. She took a deep breath before reaching for her phone and sending a quick text. 
As she waited, she fidgeted with her phone, her toe tapping against the grass. She was nervous, but it was a good nervous. She heard a throat clearing and looked up to see Liam taking purposeful strides toward her with a flirtatious smirk on his face. 
“So, here we are, alone together…” He said in a smoky tone. 
Riley’s brow furrowed, too caught up in her announcement to comprehend his advancements. “Huh?”
Liam stopped in his tracks, noticing his wife’s confusion. “It sounded urgent, and you said there was a surprise… I assumed you wanted to…” 
“Oh… OH! No, actually, that;s not what I meant.” She stepped toward him, taking his hand in hers. “But I have some news that’s even better than that.” 
“Well, I don’t know if there’s anything that could be better than that,” he said with a wink. “But I’m all ears.” 
She took a deep breath and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. Liam, I wanted a moment alone… just the three of us.” 
“Three? What do you–” She watched his face as he listened to her words. Suddenly, a wave of understanding washed over him. “We’re having a baby?” His voice was barely above a whisper, still trying to fully process the information. 
Riley’s smile grew as she nodded in response. He pulled her to him, holding her close and placing a kiss on the crown of her head. 
“Riley, I’m the happiest man in the world right now. Just think, soon we’ll be holding a little baby… our baby…” His happy expression quickly turned to shock as he stepped away from Riley and began pacing back and forth. 
“There’s so much to do! We’re going to need a crib, and clothes, and a bassinet for the throne room.” He stops in his tracks and slaps his hand against his forehead. “The throne room! We’ll need to childproof it! As well as the foyer, the antechamber, the solarium…” He ticks off each room on a finger as he lists them. 
“Liam,” Riley placed her hands on either side of his face, halting his movements. “Relax, we’ll have time for all of that.”
They stood in silence for a moment, staring into eachothers eyes as they let the excitement of the moment wash over them. 
“We’re going to have a baby.” Liam said.
“We sure are.” 
Liam pulled Riley into a lingering kiss. “Marry me?” He said against her lips. 
“Always.” She responded before kissing him again. 
***
Liam entered the royal quarters quietly. He had been stuck in his office late, the children would be fast asleep by now. As much as he wanted to see them, he knew nothing good could come from waking Eleanor and David at this hour. 
Much to his surprise, when he got to his bedroom, Riley was nowhere to be found. “Love? I’m home.” He called quietly. 
“Be right out!” She called from her closet. 
He quirked a brow when he saw Riley emerged with a suitcase. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“Not me, we.” She chuckled at his confusion. “You’ve been so overextended lately, you’re getting burnt out. And I know, I know, King of Cordonia, it comes with the territory, blah blah blah.” She waived her hand, dismissing the objections she knew were coming. “But you’re not going to be an effective ruler if you don’t get time to reset and recharge.” 
“So will we be staying at Applewood or Valtoria?” He asked, knowing those were their usual getaways. 
“Nope, you’ll still sneak work there, like you always do.” He opened his mouth to protest, but she held up a hand to stop him, “I know you do, and you should know me better than to think I would believe any denial you’re about to give.” 
“Then where will we be going?” 
“The jet will be leaving first thing to take us to our island. We haven’t had a real vacation in far too long.” 
“But I have meetings and deadlines over the next week that can’t be missed.” He protested. 
“Taken care of.” She shrugged. “I spent my free time this week working with your staff to take care of things. You don’t have a single thing to worry about for a whole week.” 
“You mean to tell me, you’ve spent the last week going behind my back, working with my staff, and doing all of this without me.” He said flatly as he stepped toward his wife.
“Yeah… yes. I mean, I thought it would be a nice surprise, I just…” Riley began stuttering, this was not the reaction she was expecting. 
“You are the most thoughtful, considerate, amazing person I have ever met.” He placed his hands on her hips, pulling her close, before kissing the tip of her nose. “I can’t believe you went through all of that trouble for me.” 
“After everything we’ve been through, planning a surprise vacation was actually pretty simple.” Riley chuckled. 
“Marry me?” He said, brushing the backs of his fingers across her cheek.
“Always.” She answered, reaching up to press her lips to his. 
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queenrileyrose · 2 years
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🎶 🍁 @moodmusicmonday’s Fall Preview 🍁🎶
Future chapter of Irreplaceable (TRR/RoE AU Leo x MC; Liam x Drake)
Love You Like That—Dagny
Untitled Human Contact AU One Shot about Leo’s mom (TRR AU Leo x MC)
I’ll Be Good—James Young
Evermore (Exile follow up) (TRR AU Leo x MC; Liam x MC)
Evermore—Taylor Swift
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angelasscribbles · 1 year
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A Fervid Fixation Chapter 6: Conflagration
Series: A Fervid Fixation
Fandom: The Royal Romance
Pairings: Riley x Drake
Rating: MA
Warnings for this chapter: Language
Word Count: 4,159
A/N: This is me officially giving up on predicting the length of this story. 🤷🏻‍♀️
My other stuff: Master List.
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Riley jumped as the door slammed behind Liam. She turned back to Drake, “What do you mean I have no idea what I’ve just done?”
“I mean…you’ve only known the charming and polite Liam, the person he is when he’s getting his way.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that you don’t know what he’s capable of! Liam handles things…differently.”
“Differently how?”
“Okay, so take me for example. I’m a simple man, Riley. Straightforward. Nick pissed me off, I punched him. Tariq threatened you, I punched him. Simple. Out in the open. Resolved and moved on from. But Liam? He can destroy a person’s life from the ground up and they never see him coming until it’s too late.”
“Liam wouldn’t-
“Oh, he would, he can, and he has! I’m telling you…you don’t know him like I do! If I haven’t been fired, had my clearance revoked, and been shut out of all our systems by the time he makes it back to the office, I’ll eat my shoes.”
“But…you’re his best friend!”
“Who just betrayed him.”
“You didn’t-“
“As far as he’s concerned, I did and that’s all that matters. I told you, absolute monarchy.”
“What will you do if he fires you?”
“The job is the least of my concerns, Riley. I told you; I have money. I can get by without an income for a while. I can get another job, somewhere else, but…”
“But?”
“But I can almost guarantee he’ll have all my domestic assets frozen by nightfall. He can make it impossible for me to find another job, he can seize this property if he wants to and frankly if he decides to arrest me, I could spend the rest of my life in a prison cell.”
“But you’ve done nothing wrong or illegal!” She protested, “Surely a jury-“
“Doesn’t matter. There won’t be a trail. This isn’t America.”
“Why would he do any of that?”
“Because in his mind, I just took something that belonged to him. Liam Rys doesn’t do tit-for-tat. He goes for shock and awe. Slight him, he will raze your life to the ground.”
“I…I don’t believe you! He’s just hurt right now, he’ll calm down, you’ll see.”
Drake plucked his phone up from the coffee table where she had placed it and dialed. Putting it on speaker phone while it rang, he held it toward her so she could hear the conversation.
“Who are you calling?”
“Jason Toussaint, the Lieutenant in charge of cyber operations,” he answered.
The call connected, “Drake? What the hell is going on? I just got orders to lock you out of all systems.”
“Hey, Jason,” Drake spoke into the phone, “Has my employment been terminated?”
“Yes, and all security clearances revoked,” Jason answered, “What the hell is going on, cap?”
Drake gave Riley an I told you so look before answering, “Has the order been given to freeze my assets?”
“Yes, but I haven’t done it yet.”
“The assets don’t matter,” Drake answered, “but do that last.”
“All right. I’ll buy you as much time as I can, but be advised that your passport has been revoked.”
“Noted. Thanks, Jason.”
Drake hung up the phone and started pacing.
Riley watched him, anxiety spinning her mind in a million different directions. “What are we going to do?”        
Drake stopped pacing and turned to face her, “We need to go, now!”
“Where?”
“Anywhere that isn’t Cordonia or a country that has an extradition treaty with Cordonia. His reach ends at the border.”
“Okay, but how do we do that if you don’t have a passport?”
“We get creative!” He smiled reassuringly at her, “Don’t worry, I have a plan! Go pack your stuff!”
It didn’t take her long because she had barely unpacked. When she came back down the stairs, Drake was just hanging up the phone, “Who was that? Is everything okay?”  
“I just found out from my contact in MiSHI that the person Tariq was working with is Bastien.” He said grimly, “And there’s only one person he takes orders from.”
“Who’s that?”
“Constantine.”
Riley’s heart dropped, “Liam’s father?”
“Yes, the fucking bastard! This makes it even more imperative that we get out of the country as soon as possible. If Constantine has determined that you’re not suitable marriage material for his son, he will go to any lengths to ensure he stays away from you.”
“Okay,” she took a deep breath as she nodded, “I’m packed, we can go!”
“Me too,” He pointed to a duffle bag laying by the door, “I’ll go grab your bags, you go grab some snacks from the kitchen so we don’t have to stop any more than necessary.”
“On it!”
“There’s a cooler under the cabinet closest to the fridge!” He called over his shoulder as he bounded up the stairs.
Fifteen minutes later their stuff was loaded into the back of a nondescript range rover.
Confusion pulled through her, “Where did that come from and where’s your car?”
“My car is stashed in the garage around back where this was parked. It won’t be easily seen unless someone is looking for it. And they won’t be. They’ll be looking for it out on the road, but they won’t find it because we’ll be in this!” He grinned at her as he dangled the keys, “It was my sister’s. They won’t think to look for her car. I doubt Liam even remembers she had a car before she left!”
“Savannah, right?” she asked as she slid into the passenger seat, “You told me about her. You never told me why she left.”
“Because some fucking duke used her and threw her away like she was garbage!” he climbed into the driver’s seat and put the car in gear as he spoke, “Made a big deal about how she was good enough to fuck but not good enough to marry. Then she found out she was pregnant and was afraid the guy would take her to court and get custody of the kid. And he would have won because he had all the money and all the power. So I helped her move away before anyone here even knew she was pregnant.”
“Jesus…that…that sucks, I’m so sorry!”
“It’s okay,” he shrugged, “Fuck that guy. She dodged a bullet if you ask me.”
He navigated the vehicle down the rutted-out path and eventually onto a better, but still rough dirt road. It took twenty minutes before they hit pavement.
“So…an officer in the Royal Guard, huh?”
“Yes, the youngest Captain in the history of the guard!” he told her proudly.
“I’m sorry you’re giving that up.”
“What?” he pulled his eyes from the road briefly to look at her, “It’s fine. I did what had to be done. I have no regrets.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because, if titles and money were what you cared about, mine weren’t going to impress you. I’m a captain in the Cordonian Royal Guard, not a crown prince or even a duke. I make good money and I have a small inheritance from my grandmother, but I can’t compete with billionaires.”  
“I don’t care about your money, Drake.” She sighed, “I literally chose you over a crown prince, remember?”
That got a smile out of him, “You did, didn’t you?”
She smiled back, “I did.”
“I still can’t believe you did that!” his voice held a note of awe as his hand reached for hers.
She squeezed his back and smiled, “So where are we going?”
“To Hadley Airfield.”
“What is that and why are we going there?”
“It’s an old government-owned airstrip that’s still staffed by the guard, but used primarily for non-military purposes. Crop dusting, running supplies for research missions, shit like that. It’s a low priority for upgrades so it’s still pretty low-tech. I won’t need to swipe a key card to get in, just punch in a code that I’d bet money no one has thought to change, and even if they did, they’d have to physically send someone there to do it.”
“So…what? We’re going to steal a plane?”
He gave her a mischievous grin, “Yep.”
“Wait…seriously?”
“Seriously. An old one that can’t be controlled remotely. Then we’re going to fly right over the border into Auvernall. No extradition treaty and they have an international airport there.”
They would ditch the stolen plane and melt into the masses of people in Auvernall before hopping a flight to anywhere in the world and disappearing off Liam’s radar forever.
“And just who the hell is going to fly this plane?”
“I am!”
“You’re a pilot?”
His grin widened, it was downright cocksure as he answered, “Before I joined the guard, my prior service was in the Cordonian Royal Air Force, babe. Yes, I can fly a plane.”
Five hours later they pulled up to a rusted metal gate and stopped at an unmanned guard station. Drake rolled the window down and typed a code into the box. The gate made a loud buzzing sound and then slid open.
“Told you!” He gloated as they drove unimpeded into the airport.
“I never doubted you!”
He navigated the Range Rover through the airport to a row of metal aircraft hangers in the back. He pulled up next to a small office building and put the vehicle in park. “I have to go inside and check the logs.”
“Why?”
“I need to know which planes are fueled and ready to go. I need to know the flight schedule. The last thing we want is to take a plane with a mechanical issue, not enough fuel or to take off at the wrong time and crash into another aircraft.”
“Okay,” She nodded, “I’m coming with you!”
“No,” he shook his head, “You should stay in the car.”
“And what if someone comes to ask me what I’m going here?”
He rolled that around in his head for a few seconds before acquiescing, “All right. Let’s go!”
A bell tinkled as they entered the office. An air-conditioned blast hit them, a stark contrast to the heat and humidity outside.
A slender, blonde-haired man with a crew cut looked up from his seat at the desk, “Hey, you can’t be in here-“
Drake flashed his badge at the young corporal, “I need access to the flight schedule and maintenance records.”
“Yes, sir!” The corporal surged to his feet, stumbling over his own feet in his haste to produce the records.
After thrusting the requested documents into Drake’s hands, the young man glanced in Riley’s direction.
“Hey!” Drake snapped his fingers in the kid’s face, “She’s not your concern!”
“R-Right! Sorry!”
Drake flipped quickly through some pages on a clipboard before tossing them onto the desktop. He grabbed Riley’s arm and aimed her toward the door, “Come on, let’s go!”
The bell jingled as the door opened again and a lone figure strode through it, blocking the light so all Riley could make out was a silhouette.
Drake took several steps back, pulling Riley with him, “Bas? What are you doing here? How did you know-“
“You don’t think I remember Leo giving us the slip just like this when you were partnered with me during your training year?”
“Shit! Fuck!” Drake kicked at a pile of boxes, sending them toppling over. He pulled Riley closer and put his mouth to her ear so only she could hear, “When I tell you to go, you get in the car and go. Meet me at hanger forty-seven. Got it? Don’t talk. Just nod if you understand.”  
She nodded as he discreetly pressed his keys into the palm of her hand.
“This place is going to be swarming with King’s Guards any minute,” Bastien flashed his badge at the corporal and told him, “Go on kid, get out of here before you end up in the middle of a shootout.”
The kid scrambled out the door without a backward glance.
Why are you doing this, Bas?” Drake asked, “I thought you believed she wasn’t good enough to marry Liam.”
“What I believe doesn’t matter, I have my orders, I can’t let you leave,” Bastien reached for Riley’s arm.
Drake moved quickly, pulling her out of his reach, “God damn it, Bas! I wish you hadn’t done that.”
“I’m trying to help you-“
“Go!” Drake spun Riley toward the door with one arm as the other shot out to clothesline the older man.
Riley hit the door running and didn’t slow down until she skidded into the Range Rover. She yanked the door open, clambered up into the driver’s seat, and threw the car in gear, leaving rubber on the asphalt as she careened out of the parking area.
Her eyes scanned the dingy metal hangers as she drove. They each had a number painted on them in now faded yellow paint. When she found the correct one, she drove straight into it and slammed the brakes on.
Flinging the door open, she rushed back to push the sliding doors of the hangar shut.
Maybe that would slow them down. She ran back to the car and started transferring luggage to the plane.
When she was done, she began pacing back and forth across the hangar. Minutes ticked by as she considered going back.
She started talking to herself, “What if he got hurt? What if he got arrested? Fuck!”
She made up her mind to go back if he didn’t appear within the next two minutes. Out loud she said, “Come on, Drake! Where are you?”
Footsteps sounded near the rear of the hangar, and she whirled toward it, ready to run.
Drake stepped away from a small door she hadn’t noticed before. He grinned at her, “I’m right here, Brooks. Miss me?”
“Oh, thank God!” She rushed into his arms, “What happened?”
“I had to knock Bastien out,” he said grimly as he caught her, “he wasn’t going to let us leave.”  
“I’m sorry, I know you were close.”
“Yeah, well, he may have been my godfather and he may have loved my mother,” Drake said as he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head, “but his first loyalty was always to the crown.”
“Well, I’m still sorry you had to hurt him.”
“It’s okay, he’ll recover,” he told her as he released her, “But we have minutes to get out of here before soldiers are everywhere. Let’s go!”
He took her by the hand and headed for the plane. He made it to the steps when she pulled her hand away, “Wait! I forgot-“
“There’s no time!”
“Your phone! It’s in the console!”
Shit! He was going to need that to reach his contact in Auvenall. “I’ll get it, you get on the plane!” He reversed direction and pushed past her.
He scooped the phone out of the center console and didn’t bother closing the door as he hustled back to the plane.
Riley was still standing at the bottom of the steps, waiting for him, instead of on the plane like he’d told her.
“Freeze!” The doors of the hanger banged open as soldiers poured into the room, scattering and taking up tactical positions around the area.
Drake pushed her in front of him, “Get on the plane!”
“But-“ she stumbled as he guided her body forward while her head moved around to see behind them.
“Riley! Drake!” Liam’s voice rang out as he stepped past the guardsmen.
Drake spun around, yanking a nine-millimeter Baretta from the waistband of his pants. He leveled the firearm at Liam while making sure to keep himself situated in front of Riley, blocking her from any potential gunfire.
Every assault rifle in the place was suddenly aimed at them as the king’s life was threatened.
“It’s okay, hold your fire!” Liam yelled at them as he held his arms out to the side to indicate that he himself was unarmed. He couldn’t risk Riley getting shot when they took Drake down. “Are you going to shoot me, Drake? Your best friend? Your brother?”
“Is that what you are?”
“You know it is,” Liam replied calmly.
“Did you tell Riley that I was obsessed with her? That I was unhinged?” Drake demanded.
Liam’s eyes slid to Riley’s face then back to Drake, “You have been acting erratically, Drake. Nick…Tariq…coronation night…this! Stealing a plane? Really?”
“Borrowing it,” Drake corrected him, “You can have it back once we’re safely out of the country.”
“This is treason, Drake. Come on, man. Be reasonable!”
Drake’s back pressed against Riley, eyes still trained on Liam as he moved backward, nudging her up the first step. In a low voice, he told her, “Everything I did, I did for you! You understand that, right?”
“Don’t move!” One of the guardsmen yelled as Drake edged Riley up another step.
A rifle clicked.
Riley’s gaze swung around the room to take in the ridiculous number of guns pointed directly at Drake’s chest. “No!” she pushed around and in front of him, placing herself between him and the guns.
“Riley, don’t!” Both men yelled.
She spread both arms out in the air, “I won’t let you shoot him! Liam, please! He’s your best friend!”
“I don’t want to hurt him, Riley, but-“
An officer stepped up next to Liam and whispered something in his ear.
Drake kept the handgun grasped in one hand while the other landed on her shoulder, “Riley, get behind me and get on the plane!”
“No! They’ll shoot you!”
“Riley-“
Liam’s features hardened, “Riley, you don’t understand-“
“No, I don’t Liam! Why can’t we just leave?”
“Well for starters, Bastien is dead, and we have some questions,” Liam replied grimly.
“What?” Drake stumbled back like he’d been struck, shaking his head, “No! No!”
Liam’s face reddened, and his voice was laden with accusation, “You killed him!”
“No! I just disabled him! He was alive when I left!”
“Then who killed him, Drake?”
“I don’t know, Liam, you tell me!”
“Are you insinuating-“
“I’m not just insinuating, Li! You had him killed so he couldn’t reveal your father’s part in the plot against Riley!” Drake accused, then after a moment’s thought added, “And possibly so you could pin it on me!”
Liam’s eyes darted from Drake to Riley, “You’re not buying any of this, are you?”
“I don’t know, Liam.” Her eyes narrowed, “When I chose Drake, you told me I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life. That sure sounded like a threat.”
“When I said you’d made a mistake, I meant by trusting him!”
“But Drake’s been telling the truth about you, Liam, I heard it myself!”
“From whom?” Liam asked in astonishment.
“Jason.”
“Who’s Jason?”
Her confidence wavered, “The Lieutenant in charge of cyber security…”
“There’s no Lieutenant named Jason in the cyber division, Riley.” Liam shook his head sadly then extended his arm toward her, “Come on, Riley, just take a few steps forward and all this can be over.”
Drake’s fingers dug into her shoulder, as he moved up another step, pulling her after him, “He’s lying, Riley! Can’t you see that?”
“No, Riley,” Liam moved his fingers in a come hither motion, “He’s lying! Just take a few steps forward and come here.”
“So…you didn’t fire him and revoke his clearance?” Riley asked, uncertainty coloring her voice.
“Of course, I fired him and revoked his clearance!” Liam exploded, throwing both hands in the air, “he abused his position and literally kidnapped you!”
“I rescued you, Riley!” Drake protested, “He told you himself, he wanted you on that plane that night!”
Riley’s mind spun with indecision. She still had questions, “What about his assets?”
Liam’s brows furrowed, “What about them?”
“Did you have them frozen? Did you revoke his passport?”
“Yes! Because I was trying to stop him from doing exactly what he’s doing right now! Once he gets you out of Cordonia, I won’t be able to protect you! But it didn’t matter anyway.”
“What do you mean, it didn’t matter?”
“I mean…he had no assets to freeze. Why is that Drake?”
Drake shrugged as he adjusted the Barretta in his grip, “I moved all my assets out of Cordonia two days ago, Liam.”
“And why would you do that if you weren’t planning this little escapade all along?”
“Because I know how you operate! I had to protect myself, and her!” He lowered his voice so only Riley could hear, “That’s why I told Jason to do that part last. So it took longer for Liam to figure out I was a step ahead.”
“Me?” Liam scoffed, “I think you’re the tactical genius here.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Drake said evenly as he moved up another step, pulling Riley up with him.
“I mean….I’m beginning to think maybe you were behind the whole setup with Tariq!”
“You think I sent him to do the thing I beat the dog shit out of him for? I never pegged you as delusional, Li.”
“Maybe you didn’t know about that part. Maybe that was all Bas’s idea.”
“Bas?” Drake snorted, “You know he only took orders from one person…your father! And we all know how badly he wanted you married to Madeleine! Speaking of Madeleine, are we sure she wasn’t in on the whole thing?”
“My father is far too sick to be meddling in my affairs. We all know the person Bas would have done anything for was you!”
“What?” Riley froze, almost to the top step.
“Think about it, Riley!” Liam insisted, “He contrived the entire scandal precisely because he knew what the protocol would be, he’s a trained, high-ranking officer after all! And he knew precisely what my reaction would be. He likes pointing out how well he knows me. He’s right. He does! He knew I’d want you out of the country and out of harm’s way while I investigated and cleared your name. It was the perfect opportunity for him to swoop in and play the hero, paint me as the villain. Which is exactly what he did, isn’t it?”
Panic laced Drake’s voice, “Riley, you’re not buying this, are you? He’s twisting everything!”
“How convenient that Bastien is dead,” Liam continued, “He was the only person that could have connected you to the scandal.”
“The only person that could have exonerated me and implicated your father you mean! That is convenient, isn’t it?”
“Riley, come here!” Liam’s voice cracked, betraying signs of his rising desperation.
“Riley, get on the plane…” Drake pleaded.
She hesitated as everything they had both said swirled through her mind. They both made persuasive arguments. She was never going to know the truth either way. How well did she really know either of these men?
There was one thing she did know for sure though, “Liam, I know one thing...”
“What’s that?”
“I know you’re a liar!”
His arm dropped as shock coursed through him, “What?”
“You told me you loved me! You told me you were going to marry me! You fucked me in the hedge maze and then you turned around five minutes later and got engaged to another woman while letting me be drug out of the palace under armed guard!”
“That was different! I’ve explained why! I have to think about Cordonia, Riley!”
“I understand that Liam. I do.” She nodded.
His body sagged with relief, “Good. Okay, come here,” he held his arm out toward her again.
She stepped back, her body pushing Drake up another step, “But…”
All the stress rushed back into his body, “But?”
“But I need a man who puts me first and Drake has proven he’s more than up to that task.”
Liam’s mouth fell open, “Even if he’s a liar and a murderer?”
“He’s not, Liam. You’re wrong about him!”
Drake took one more step back, into the plane then dropped the gun as he yanked Riley inside and slammed the door.
“Goddamn it!” Liam kicked fruitlessly at the ground.
“Sir?” The officer in charge of the scene approached him as the plane’s engine roared to life, sending half the contents of the hangar flying through the air.
Shouts of “Cover! Cover!” pinged off the walls as Liam was yanked backward and drug to safety.
Men scattered and dove out of the way as the plane taxied out of the hangar and onto the runway.
“Sir!” The commander yelled, “We can still stop them! We can aim for the pilot or the fuel tank!”
Liam watched as the plane picked up speed. He shook his head, “No, if the pilot’s dead, the plane will crash, if it loses all its fuel, there’s a chance it gets airborne before it runs out and plummets to the ground.”
He still wasn’t willing to risk her life.
“But sir-“
“It doesn’t matter,” Liam sighed as he watched the plane climb into the air. He still had one play left, “Get me Isabella Achilles on the phone. Now!”
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leelee10898 · 9 months
Text
Hurricane: Getaway Car (12/?)
Pairing: Liam x Jenna
Book: TRR
Word count: 2,500
Warnings: violence, language, mentions of 🍋
A/N: this chapter is for @choicesflashfics weekly prompts, using the prompt: "I've been in love. It's painful,  pointless, and overrated."
Hurricane is an ongoing series, you can catch up HERE
"Is it true, Liam?" She asked again. 
"Jenna," Liam started to speak, reaching out for her." Let's jus-" 
 "No!" She cut him off, pulling away from him. "Do not touch me. I need to know if it's true." 
Liam hung his head in defeat, trying to find the right thing to say. "Can you? Will you just. Jenna, can we please talk about this inside?" He lifted his head giving her a  pleading look,  not wanting to have this conversation outside in the hall for every single person within earshot. 
She moved past him, pushing her way into his quarters. Her eyes wandered the room, his smell engulfed her senses. Nothing had changed since the last time she had been there, she pushed the thoughts from her mind and focused her attention on Liam who was standing cautiously by the now-closed door. 
"Well?" She spoke, arms folded across her chest. 
"I know you're upset but, you have to understand why I made that stupid pact in the first place." Liam started and she scoffed, rolling her eyes. 
"Upset? I'm more than upset Liam. How could you not tell me? Jesus Christ we had sex, you declared your love for me,  telling me you would wait for me. All the while you conveniently left out one HUGE detail." 
"I'm sorry. I should have told you, you shouldn't have found out from Hana." Liam reached out for her hand and Jenna snatched it away. 
"You think? What did you think was going to happen? Did you just think you would go through with things exactly like the last time? I can't do that again Liam. I refuse to be the woman you love in the dark while you fake it with someone else in the light." 
"That's not it, Jenna. I would never put you through that again. I love you, I want you and only you. I have no plans on going through with marrying Hana. Love, you have to believe me." 
"I am having a hard time believing anything coming from your mouth right now. To stand there and act stupid, like you had no idea what I was asking." She seethed, pacing the floor. So many things went through her mind but one thing stuck out in particular, she stopped and turned her attention back towards him. "How did you know Hana was the one who told me?" 
"Um. Well. About that." He chuckled nervously. 
"What did you do Liam?" 
"Listen, love, you have to know that everything I do is to protect you." 
"Liam."
"Ah," Liam nervously rubbed the back of his neck. He had managed to work himself into a gigantic mess. "The apple pendant is a camera." He finally admitted. 
Jenna's jaw dropped in shock. That's how the guards knew she was coming, they were ready for her and it was because Liam told them because he was watching her. "You. You're spying on me?" 
"No. No! it's not like that. Jenna please, can we just sit down and discuss all of this? I know it looks bad. Really, really bad." Liam approached her cautiously,  placing his hands on her shoulders.  "If you could just hear me out." 
"I. This is too much. This was a mistake. I  shouldn't have come here." Jenna shrugged his hands off her shoulders and pushed past him and out the door. 
Liam hung his head in defeat, he wanted to chase her down and explain everything to her but he didn't want to push her too far. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone dialing a number. 
"I need your help."
******
Jenna pulled up out front of Ramsford and killed the engine. She spent the whole ride in utter silence, with no radio, nothing to drown out a million things racing through her mind. It took every ounce of willpower to not break down during the drive, she could feel everything bubbling to the surface,  placing her hands back on top of the steering wheel she let out a shaky breath before the tears started to flow freely.  She didn't come to Cordonia to win Liam back, she came for herself, but the thought was always in the back of her mind. He confessed his love,  he told her he wanted to be with her, that he would wait. She should have known it was all a lie. 
The outside light flicked on and she pulled herself together, wiping her tears and checking her face in the mirror for running mascara.  She exited the car and walked inside, closing the door behind her. It was quiet, a little too quiet for her liking. The quiet led to thoughts and urges she didn't want to have. She made her way down the hall and into Bertrand's study approaching the bar cart. She stood in front of it, looking at the options, the bottle of whiskey seemed to be calling out to her. She reached her hand forward and then froze,  "No." She said, "You're stronger than this, you're stronger than all of this." Fresh tears now stung her eyes, threatening to spill over. 
"You ok Mahoney?" The gruff voice took her by surprise. 
"What are you doing here Drake?" She sniffled, spinning around. "Liam called you, didn't he?" 
 When he didn't answer she shook her head and let out a sigh.  "Of course he did. I'm going to bed." She turned and started up the stairs, Drake followed her. 
"Don't be like that Mahoney, come on." He called out but she ignored him, continuing her way up the stairs.  "Mahoney.  Mahoney.  Jenna,  stop!" He shouted. 
Jenna stopped at her door, twisted the knob, and walked inside. She left the door open and Drake followed her inside,  closing it behind him. 
"He lied to me, Drake. How could I have been so stupid? Why am I even here? Why do I care about clearing my name?" The tears flowed freely now. 
"Mahoney." Drake sighed pulling her into his chest. "Look I know you're angry, hurt, confused, and more but, you're here because you love Liam and he loves you. And before you argue with me about him lying, and whatever else you'd like to just know that everything he has done is to protect you." 
"Then why didn't he tell me about his pact to marry Hana?" 
"Hell Mahoney I don't know. Probably because he was drunk when he did it, he also told Hana that he couldn't go through with it afterward." 
"Wait, he did?" 
"Yup. But knowing you, you blew up. Shut down and leave before he could explain things, didn't you?" 
"Maybe.." Jenna stretched the word sitting on the side of the bed. "I'm still mad at him for lying and I'm not ready to talk to him." 
"Yeah. I figured as much." Drake stood from the bed. "Just sleep on it. I'll be down the hall if you need me " Drake walked to the door, turning back to look at her. "Oh and Mahoney," 
"Yeah?" 
"He was a mess when you left tonight,  he's got a lot on his plate, cut him a little slack." 
"I'll take that under advisement." Jenna gave him a weak smile, he nodded and closed the door behind him. 
Jenna collapsed onto the bed, the events of the past few weeks heavy on her mind. She closed her eyes, the exhaustion of the day's events taking over,  the next thing she knew she awoke to the sound of a loud pounding on the door. Still fully clothed she jumped up and grabbed the door.  
"Jesus, it's like trying to wake the dead in here " Drake grumbled. 
"Sorry. I crashed pretty hard last night." Jenna rubbed the sleep from her eyes. 
"I would say, it's 1:00."
"PM?!" She shouted. "Drake, why'd you let me sleep so long?" Jenna panicked, grabbing her phone. She had 37 text messages and 28 missed calls. Most from Olivia, a few from Liam begging her to call him. 
"Yeah, Liv has been blowing up my phone. She's back in Lythikos, sounds like she found something." 
"Then what are we still doing here?" Jenna threw her hands up in the air, before grabbing her suitcase and tossing the little bit of belongings she brought with her inside. 
"Don't you want to eat or shower?" Drake arched his brow as the luggage hit the floor. 
"Nope. I will worry about all that later." She stated, earning a Judgmental look from Drake.  "Fine, I'll grab something from the kitchen before we go, I'll shower later." 
"You're forgetting something." Drake walked over to the dresser, picking up the apple pendant Liam gave her. Jenna rolled her eyes. "Be mad all you want but, this is important Mahoney, if it wasn't for this we would have never seen Hana hand the waiter from Regina's party something." 
Jenna's eyes widened, since she just learned it was a camera she hadn't even thought that it might have picked things she wasn't paying attention to. "I didn't know." She whispered. Drake held it out and she plucked it from his hand, tossing it into her bag. "Fine. Let's just go. Lythikos is three hours away, you're driving." She smirked, pushing past him. 
Meanwhile at the Palace….
Liam had spent the majority of the day in and out of meetings. He had finished his last grueling meeting of the day with Neville who was petitioning the crown to invest more money into his family's golf course so the country could generate more revenue. It was a good idea, the pitch was even perfect except for the person delivering it. Liam poured himself a large glass of scotch and tossed himself into his chair. He picked up his phone, it was now 4 pm, and not a word from Jenna. Drake had texted him around 2 that he and Jenna were heading to Lythkios, but nothing after that. 
"Knock. Knock." A voice came from the door, Liam looked up to see Hana standing there. 
He tucked his phone into his pocket forcing a smile. Liam had grown close to Hana in the few months since he ended his engagement to Madeline and Jenna left. Now he questioned if he ever really knew her. "Hana, what a nice surprise. I wasn't expecting you today, what brings you by?" He feigned interest in her visit. 
"Don't tell me you forgot?" Hana walked further inside and sat down on the couch. "We had dinner plans." 
Liam looked down at his calendar realizing they had made plans weeks ago. "I'm so sorry Hana, it has been a busy couple of weeks, it completely slipped my mind." 
"It has been a busy couple of weeks, what with Jenna coming back and all," Hana leaned forward closer to Liam's desk. "I have to ask because we haven't spoken about it but, how are you doing with her back?" 
Liam reclined back in his chair in silence,  contemplating his words. Hana had been a friend before but how much of that was real? "It stirs some feelings up." He finally spoke.  
Hana let out a sigh. "You still love her don't you?" The look on Liam's face told her all she needed to know. "Liam, remember what happened before.  You're king, you have to think of your country, not some girl." 
"Spoken like someone who's never been in love before." He shook his head. 
"I've been in love. It's painful,  pointless, and overrated." Hana answered coldly.
"Well, I feel sorry for you then Hana. Because yes, love can be painful but it also brings joy, I like to think it gives life meaning." 
"Liam, I am going to be blunt with you.  I think you're wasting your time and energy on her. I know you loved her once, I know she broke your heart and made you a laughingstock of the court. Don't make the same mistakes again." Hana stood, walking to Liam's side. "You have the potential to become the best king this country has ever seen, you just need someone strong by your side." Hana trailed her fingertips along his arm. 
"Hana," Liam warned. 
"We made a pact Liam, I can help you be great." She smirked. 
*****
Drake and Jenna were about an hour and a half into their drive to Lythikos.  Stopping a few times for coffee and bathroom breaks. It was now inching closer to 5 pm, the sun had started to set making the twist and turns of the countryside a little darker. Drake kept glancing up in his mirror but kept a steady pace. Jenna stared out the window watching the trees and houses pass by, her mind on the events of the day before playing over and over again. 
"Everything ok?" She asked, noticing Drake's constant checking of his mirror and the worry etched on his face. 
"I think we're being followed." He finally spoke. 
"What!? How do you know?" 
"This SUV has been behind us for the past half hour, pretty sure it followed us out of that last stop." 
"Ok maybe they're also going to Lythkios, maybe it's a coincidence. Maybe it's one of the Royal Guard cars, maybe Liam sent one for protection you know since he is so hell-bent on it. " Jenna began to panic. 
"That doesn't look like one of their SUVs Mahoney." Drake stated, "Why don't you Text Liam and ask." 
"Can you? I'm not ready to reach out." Jenna whined. 
"Mahoney,  I'm driving here. We may be being followed, get your head out of your ass and text Liam!" Drake barked, Jenna flinched.  Drake usually kept his cool under most circumstances,  the fact he did just now told her he was genuinely worried. She put on her big girl panties and fired off a text asking Liam if he sent someone to tail them. The response came back almost immediately.  
"He didn't send anyone," Jenna answered quickly and a feeling of numbness came over her, fear, she was now afraid
Drake was familiar with the area, he knew there was a turn-off just up ahead, "hold on tight." He ordered and quickly took the turn,  picking up speed. A minute later the same SUV quickly rounded the turn and they knew they were being followed. 
At the palace… 
Liam picked up his phone, his heart raced when Jenna's name popped up on the screen. He stood quickly,  hiding his phone from Hanas view as he moved away from her. 
Drake wants to know if you sent someone to follow us.  The text read a slew of emotions filled him. 
No. Is everything ok? What's going on? Where are you now? 
He anxiously waited for a response. 
We are being followed. Drake says we are on a back road in Flintlock, close to the safe house. 
"Everything ok?" Hana pulled him from his thoughts. He looked up and then back down at the phone. "I. I'm not sure. Hana, I'm sorry but something has come up, I have to go." Liam gripped his phone tighter and headed down the hallway
"Maybe I can help?" Hana shouted after, her short legs struggling to keep up. But Liam kept walking. He dialed her number but it went straight to voicemail, he tried Drakes and the same thing.
******
Back in the truck Drake and Jenna were flying around curves and bends in the roads the suv tailing then was now maintaining speed. 
"How are we going to lose them, Drake?" 
"I'm trying Mahoney, they just won't let up," Drake growled. 
Jenna peered out the back window watching the silver SUV gain on them. Saying a silent prayer they make it out of this. The reception on the roads was spotty, her texts or calls weren't going through.  
"Hey. I think they're backing off." Jenna watched as the silver SUV slowed down, giving them space. She turned her head back towards the road "Drake look out!" She shouted as an SUV was headed straight for them. Drake swerved avoiding the other car but lost control,  his truck skidding out sending them straight into a wooded area, Jenna screamed just as the truck collided with a large tree and everything went silent.
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