forum 𝐀 𝐑𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝// OxO // OPEN

Started March 03, 2022 by @EtherealDreamer

tune

Farah sighed and watched as he wrote. "That sounds good," she remarked. "And I hope you remember I was trained for combat roles, not to be a consort." She crossed her arms over her chest and looked out Adrien's window.

Adrien frowned slightly. "I was never trained for any of this," he sighed "honestly, my father thought he would live far longer than he did and once he did die, my sister would have this kingdom conjoined with her husbands"

He cracked his knuckles lightly.
"He always hoped I would never rule, i'm sure he's rolling over in his grave" he muttered.

Farah laughed shortly. "Well, his opinion doesn't matter anymore. Yours does. Your rules will set precedents for years to come, Adrien. Other monarchs have abused that power, but I think it's safe to say that I know you best of anyone here, correct? I have full confidence in you, Your Majesty." She winked knowingly.

Adrien sighed lightly, smiling up at her.
He quickly finished the treaty and rolled it up, tying it with a white ribbon.
"That should do" he said, relaxing slightly.

"Lovely," Farah remarked with a smile back. As she smiled and saw him relax, everything about her rigid and programmed demeanor softened. She looked much more like herself now.

"And at last we can do something about the ghastly condition of your room." She flashed him a playful smirk.

"go ahead," Adrien teased "but i'm sure it'll just go right back to the way it is now once you clean it up"

He stood up, grasping the sheets on his bed and begin to make his bed slowly, he still was slower at doing housework and such, seeing as he has servants do it for him his entire life. But he was trying to fix that.

Farah moved to assist him with tucking the sheets around his mattress. Her hand accidentally brushed over his, and she quickly moved further away to readjust some more of his blankets and ignore what had just happened.

She eventually began to make light small talk as they went about their tasks. "So… when was the last time you went riding, Adrien?"

"mmm," Adrien said, looking up at the ceiling and scrunching his brows together in thought. "I don't know, maybe a month or so ago." He responded, finishing by tucking the last of the sheet in and then throwing another, thicker sheet on top and beginning to tuck it in.

Farah caught the thick sheet and tucked it in on her side. When she was done, she straightened and looked at him with arched eyebrows. "A month? That seems like a long time to go without riding. What do you say we take a break from royal declarations and go for a ride around the grounds?"

Adrien straightened up and stared at her.
"Right now?" He asked nervously. "You know just as well as I do that I have a million things to do."
He then took a thicker sheet, which he covered up with and threw it into the air until it finally straightened enough for Farah to catch the other side, and began tucking it under the mattress on his side.

"That's precisely the idea," Farah countered easily. "Clear your mind first, that way the other things will simply fall into line afterward. It's impossible to focus on work if it's the only thing you're ever doing. Take a break, Adrien. Relax. You have your father's throne, but you aren't your father."

Adrien shrugged.
"Well," he said. "We best get going if you insist. I have business to attend to when I get back."

Farah dipped her head. "I insist if it pleases His Highness," she remarked teasingly.

Adrien threw a feather filled pillow at her, grinning.
"Don't call me that," he said breathlessly. "I already get it enough, it's very infuriating."

Farah cried out in surprise, taking Adrien's pillow to her face. "I'm sorry," she said, smiling and preparing to throw it back. "My etiquette needs work. I should've been more considerate of your title, Your Majesty!" She threw the pillow back at him with a wide grin on her face.

Adrien gasped dramatically as the pillow hit him in the chest and paused, staring at her, then he quickly picked up another, picking it up by the corner and launching it at Farah.
"Take that!" He said as it hit her in the chin, and he whooped in a celebratory fashion.

Farah's mouth dropped open in shock. "Hey!" she exclaimed, reaching down to pick up the pillow that just hit her. "You have no idea what you started!"

Adrien threw another pillow then another, in rapid succession.
He then ducked and ran for the door, pulling open and then slamming it after him, her ran down the hall until finally her stopped. He hid behind a suit of armour.

Farah ducked to avoid the other pillows flying at her while throwing the one in her own hands. She cursed under her breath when it missed hitting Adrien, but she was grinning all the while.

“Get back here!” she cried out through laughter. She armed herself with two pillows and hurried to follow the king crowned out the door. Her eyes narrowed as she headed down the hall. “Adrien!”

Adrien quieted his breathing, something he had been good at since he was a child. To the point where it had to be completely silent for you to hear the slow sound of his breathing, but even then you could miss it.

He saw Farah coming down the hall and he smiled to himself, waiting for her to come closer.

Farah was by all means ready as she strode down the hallway. She had two pillows in her grip, and her eyes darted around for any sight of Adrien as she kept going. “Adrien,” she called again.

Adrien retreated further, accidentally hitting the metal of the armor with his foot, sending a small metallic sound into the air. He then took a gold coin out of his pocket and threw it at a suit of armor way ahead of him, where it hit another suit with a loud clang. He hoped she would run further, so he could retreat behind her as she looked. He noticed a door right across from him, most likely, he'd only have enough time to make it there, not all the way around the corridor behind them.

Farah jerked her head at the sound, quickly followed by another. Damn it, Adrien. She admitted to herself that this was childish, but she decided that she didn’t care. It was good, especially in a position like hers and Adrien’s to have a little childish fun every once in a while. She continued down the hall, turning her head slightly to catch a glimpse of him.

Adrien watched her and booked it across the hall, yanking open the door he had seen and running up the stone spiral staircase.

Once he was at the top, clutching his ledt side which had a stitch in it, he rammed through another door and then another, finally landing in a sewing room, where the women at the looms looked at him with surprise.
"Your majesty—" one young woman said and he held up his hand to stop her.
"I'm giving you all a significant pay raise if you tell me where I can hide successfully." Adrien said quickly.
One older woman pointed to a door, which led to a small room holding different fabrics and he entered it, shutting the door behind him.

He crouched down against the wall and waited.

(OMG I DIED XD)

Farah whirled around at the sound of footsteps and proceeded to give chase. She sprinted after him, hearing the sound of the doors opening and closing in quick, subsequent patterns.

With a wide grin on her face and determined to catch him, Farah continued to follow the sounds until she burst into the sewing room. Unbeknownst to her, she entered only seconds after Adrien had shut the door to the fabric closet.

“Oh!” she exclaimed in surprise, seeing the women all at work at their looms. “Pardon me, but you wouldn’t happen to have seen His Majesty running through here, would you?”

She was sure she looked a sight, nearly out of breath from sprinting to follow him and holding the corners of two pillows, one in each hand.

One of the women pointed through the door next to the fabric closet.
"His majesty went that way," she said quietly. "He seemed very out of breath."

Farah nodded with acknowledgment. “Thank you.” She headed off quickly in the direction the woman had pointed in, looking for any sign of Adrien.

Adrien waited patiently until a woman who looked middle age opened the door.
"She has gone." She told Adrien, and helped him into a standing position.
"Thank you all, for your kind help and secret keeping abilities." He said to the room at large. "I will send extra gold to your home for payment. Or your rooms if you stay in the castle."
There were gasps of glee and Adrien smiled, waving goodbye to the women as he exited the room and went back down the staircase, out the door and back into his own quarters. Where he picked up the thrown pillows and resumed making his bed. He lay down, his hands resting on his stomach and his legs crossed at the ankles.

Unknown to Farah that Adrien had returned to his room and was relaxing in peace, she continued to stalk the halls in search of him. She had just turned a corner when a sharp voice from behind her caught her attention.

“Farah!”

She froze and turned around.

The man before her had short ash blonde hair and a chilling gray gaze. The commander of the kingsguard. Just the sight of him brought back an abundance of memories, each one painfully clear through her vision like it was the present moment. One rose above all the rest.

Her body hit the floor, and it took her a moment to push herself up onto all fours. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her blurring vision and spat on the ground. A red splatter appeared. Blood. A familiar iron taste in her mouth.

"Get up," a steely voice ordered.

She was panting, practically unable to draw in a breath.

"Get. Up," the voice repeated.

Slowly, painfully, she rose to her feet. There, across the floor from her, stood her least favorite trainer. Her father.

"You take hits like that in battle all the time." His cool voice rang in the sweat-stenched room. "If you take that long to get up, you're finished. Nothing more than a dull, unimpressive soldier."

She swallowed and set herself to defend against another of his attacks. Suddenly, the door opened behind him. In walked her mother, dressed in her absolute finest gown and makeup, the king and queen, and the crown prince – Adrien. She and Adrien locked eyes, and neither broke the gaze until a ruthless hit across the face caused Farah’s head to whip back, and she collapsed cold to the ground.

This time, when her body hit the floor, she didn't get up.

“What are you doing?” he asked, eyeing her demeanor and the pillows clutched tightly in her grip. His tone jerked her back to reality.

“Nothing,” she replied, trying to sound collected.

His eyes narrowed, and his next sentence sent chills down Farah’s spine. “Don’t lie to me.”

–

Farah eventually burst back into Adrien’s room, her eyes wide. She locked on the sight of him reclined on his bed and calmly relaxing.

“What the hell?” she demanded worriedly. “Where did you go?”

On her left cheek, a red blood blush was rising to the surface of her skin, and a shallow cut was edged near her right temple. And though Adrien couldn’t see it, her abdomen was patterned with old bruises, and a new one was beginning to emerge on her left side just under her ribcage.

(Wow… sorry, that's really long 😅 But… cue the angst and Farah's traumatic past)

Adrien looked at her lazily.
"Waiting for you, of course." He told her teasingly, speaking slowly. He sat up on his elbows and gazed at her.
"What happened to your face?" He asked and sat up fully, rushing on his knees and finally getting off the bed.

He stood a distance apart from her, then slowly closed it, until they were almost chest to chest.
He reached out a hand, his fingers outstretched then stopped. His fingers curled inwards as if they had been burned and he winced slightly at the up close view of her face.

Finally, he touched the skin around the cut on her temple and his face softened from anger and concern into sadness.
"What happened?" He whispered again and his eyebrows went up. "I want to know, right now."