It was a soft and gentle kiss.
Sebastian’s brain short circuited and all he could do was press against Edward’s lips. Some part of his brain kicked in to tell him to draw back to see if Edward was liking the kiss.
Edward looked as blank as he did, but he didn’t look like he had hated the kiss.
That was good.
He didn’t want Edward to regret anything and he didn’t want to make Edward unhappy either.
“...Can we talk about some things?” Edward asked hesitantly.
Sebastian was keen to kiss him again, but he knew there were some important things to talk about between them. Edward’s feelings towards him must have changed if he had been willing to kiss him.
The crown prince led him over to the bench in the centre of the rose garden. It felt proper to have the conversation sitting down.
“I’m surprised you wanted to kiss me,” he commented to begin the conversation.
Edward’s face was still red and he looked positively adora
Edward reached out and moved a stray hair on Sebastian's head back into place and looked around them in contentment.It was now June and the sun was shining in the sky. It felt everything had aligned for the perfect wedding. The gardens looked beautiful in the sunlight and it brought back his happy memories of frolicking around in the gardens with Sebastian during their courting days.“Let’s get married,” he said.They walked down the aisle slowly. The aisle was one of the stone pathways in the garden that had been lined with arches of flowers. Their guests were sitting on chairs on either side of the archways and there were not many of them.On Edward’s side there were his parents and his bodyguards. Sebastian’s side consisted of royal staff and the prime minister as he didn’t have any relations that would be invited to the wedding.They reached the archbishop as the music stopped. Unlike the heavy and tense mood in the cathedral, the mood was light in the gardens and Edward didn’t fe
Edward tried to hide his shock. He had never expected this to be Sebastian’s surprise for him.It added up with the clues he had been given. Abolishing the marriage match tradition was a major change as the tradition was so synonymous with Albion. It was no wonder Sebastian had needed to negotiate with the prime minister.“It’s a tradition that has become less necessary over the years,” Sebastian said. “After meeting my fiancé, I came to realise that the marriage tradition only benefits the royal family and it’s wholly unfair for the matched person to never have a say in the marriage.”Edward kept his face in check as there were cameras filming him at the moment. He wanted to smile widely, but he restrained himself. He could express his gratitude later on in private.“I understand that it is a tradition that has been going on for a long time and the country is proud of its traditions, but I think this
Their second holiday together considerably had less problems than the first one. Edward didn’t wear out Sebastian by dragging him out on exhausting hikes, he didn’t have enough stamina for a hike himself.Instead of long hikes, they went on short walks and watched the sunset every afternoon. It was a very serene holiday.They also didn’t get married in secret again.The days slowly drifted by and then it was their last night. Edward took the bowl of popcorn out of the microwave and carried it to the living room where Sebastian was waiting on the sofa.“What are we watching tonight?” Edward asked and sat down with the bowl of popcorn.Sebastian took a piece before answering.“I found this badly reviewed film about a prince marrying a normal citizen. It’s considered to be bad in a legendary way. I thought it would be fun for us to watch as we know how royal things work.”“It will als
The next week for Edward was mostly about his physiotherapy sessions in the morning and resting for the rest of the day.His bullet wound was healing up well and the royal doctor had told him that the scar would heal well.He enjoyed his peaceful time, but he was also aware that it was like living in a bubble. He had no idea what was going on outside of the palace.For all he knew the media was trashing the royal family. The arrests of the two princes would not have been good PR for the royal family. He wanted to know what was happening outside of the palace gates. Despite his desire to know, he was deliberately avoiding looking up anything on the internet in case his name was involved.Bernadette walked past the sitting room and he sprang up. She always had answers to all PR related questions.“You want to know about how the royal family is doing in the news?” she asked after he told her his troubles. “But you’re worried about seeing articles about yourself so you’re avoiding taking a
Edward stared at Sebastian in surprise. He hadn’t been expecting this at all.“Why are you giving me this choice?” he questioned.“I drew you into a dangerous and unfair world when I went to the government office to get my match last year,” Sebastian told him. “You’ve been threatened and have received serious injuries because of your association with me. I can’t sit here and let it happen again. You didn’t have a choice last year, but I will give you one now.”The silence between them was long.Edward didn’t know how to answer the question. When he had first been forced into the complicated world of the royal family, he would have loved to have a chance to step away from it. Now that he was much more deeply involved, he wasn’t as willing to leave.He appreciated that Sebastian wanted to give him the choice now. If the situation was reversed, he would have done the same for Sebastian.If he stepped away from royal matters now, he would be leaving Sebastian to steer through any future pr
Edward cleared his throat and managed to speak.“...Don’t cry…”He tried to move his hand and found that there was an IV in his arm that was preventing him from moving his hand without feeling pain.“I’ll stop in a moment,” Sebastian promised him. “I need to tell the doctors that you’ve woken up.”Sebastian pressed the button above his bed and Edward assessed the situation from what he could see. He was hooked up to a heart monitor, there was an IV in his arm and another tube that he was unsure about. He must be in intensive care. That made sense, he had been shot after all.A team of doctors quickly arrived and took control of the situation. Edward lost sight of Sebastian and was poked and prodded by the doctors and was asked a lot of questions that he did his best to answer with his croaky voice.Eventually the examination came to an end and Sebastian was able to sit at his