Atlas (A Selection/Hat Films Fanfiction)

~ Forty Seven ~

Content Warning: Sex/intimacy. It's far from being smut, but I felt like it was important enough to their relationship development that I include a chapter dedicated to it. (And I wanted to try my hand at a tasteful love scene.) It's about the emotions, so there are no body part words or euphemisms because I would actually crawl out of my skin and die a fleshy bone pile if I ever put them into my writing.  

If sex/intimacy makes you uncomfy, feel free to skip the chapter, you won't be missing anything crucial. 

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I had no reason to be nervous. I knew what to expect.

But I couldn't calm my racing heart, despite my languid pace, as I approached Alex's room. The anxious fluttering in my stomach kept me wide awake, chasing away any exhaustion I had been feeling when I had left my room.

The tea party meeting had gone well into the early morning, and today was filled with a flurry of activity as Elite lessons resumed. We were going over more complicated politics in preparation for the debates, but I had a hard time concentrating after all that happened the past 24 hours. We had decided on a plan involving the capture of each state province building during the closing Selection ceremony, and I was to trigger those protests with my debate topic. I would argue for a constitutional monarchy and an end to the castes, somehow adding coded messages into it to tell the nation they had the go ahead.

Recounting those conversations clouded my mind and caused the stress to tighten my muscles until they ached from the stiffness. Tonight was supposed to be special, but I was struggling to separate our relationship from the grander scheme we were planning. I was having doubts. I was wracked with guilt. I was afraid of the consequences. I couldn't stop thinking about it.

I had made myself miserable by the time I softly knocked on Alex's bedroom door. I heard him call to me, so I let myself in without waiting for him.

I sighed when I saw the prince sitting at the end of the bed, looking casual in his sweatpants and tee-shirt. He grabbed a worn bookmark and set his reading material down next to him, looking up to give me a gentle smile. I forgot how easily he could calm me down, and I was already starting to relax.

I didn't move from where I stood, and he didn't stand up; we just looked at each other.

There was very little that needed to be said. We could have commented on the rebellion, the Selection, the events of the past few days, or how we weren't supposed to be doing this. . . but we didn't. The two of us knew the consequences, and we had accepted them long ago. We disregarded them every time we touched or kissed. We were already stealing moments that didn't belong to us.

There was no backing out. There never was.

Without a greeting, I slowly walked over to Alex. I climbed onto the bed to straddle his lap, shedding the thoughts of royalty and rebellion with every step. He looked up at me as he wrapped his arms around my waist, but our lips hovered over each other's as we closed our eyes, pausing.

What we were doing was against the rules, but with the feeling of Alex's breath on my face and the smell of his skin flooding my senses, I knew this was right. I hadn't ever been so sure of something in my life.

The limbo brought every memory of him to the forefront of my mind; all the turmoil and bitterness of our first exchanges mixed with the passionate declarations of love. Nothing had ever been easy for us, not until this moment when we closed the gap in that first kiss.

He reached his hands up, threading his fingers under the collar of my robe and pushing it aside to grip my bare shoulders. My skin was electrified from the touch, and it sent a wave of desire coursing through me. I moved to pull the ribbon around my waist, letting the entire thing fall away and sighing when two hands wrapped around the sides of my ribs. Alex broke away from me long enough to pull his shirt off before returning and leaving a trail of kisses down my neck.