Princesa (gxg)

5: Lie in Wait

I watch her breathe as she sleeps.

It's morn, and the sheets are strewn about her wrapping around her waist. One leg is curled out, the sun warming it through the open window. An arm is down at one side, resting on my thigh as the other pours over the side of the bed. Her stomach and chest are exposed, and it's now in the light that I take in the dark bruises that riddle her body.

An array of colors is splayed over her, deep blues and radiant purples. They cross at her stomach, stab at her chest, twirl around her sides and into her back.

I trace the outline of a dark red one on her lower abdomen, fingertips barely grazing her. She takes a deep breath and I flatten my palm against her stomach, feeling her air swirl inside her.

The hand on my thigh tightens as she wakes, the arm that falls over the side of the bed returning to her body and covering my hand that rests on her stomach. Her head turns over on the pillow, looking at me lazily. 

"Good morn, Princesa," she smiles softly.

"Good morn, great warrior," I smile back.

She sighs, lacing her fingers with mine and looking around the room. "This is my first time sleeping in a bed."

"But hopefully not your last..." I say, fearful she didn't enjoy it.

She turns to me sharply, grinning. "Definitely not the last."

I smile, and she seals our lips together.

"As much as I'd like to overstay this delicious welcome, I should go."

I snake my arms tighter around her. "No, don't leave me." Then a thought occurs. "Do you have to go into battle?"

"No, but I-"

I spring out of bed, padding over nude to the door.

"Devolt," I gasp, making my voice weak.

"Your Highness?" he answers.

"Keep people away from my chambers, I'm feeling rather ill."

Kiley smiles at me from the bed, sitting up against the headboard and putting an arm behind her head.

"Should I call a doctor, Your Highness?"

"No, no. I should be alright. Just need to get my bearings."

I shrug my shoulders at her, teetering back to bed under the covers. Her arm comes around me.

"You are dangerous, you know that, Princesa?"

"I try."

She's silent a moment, fingers trailing over my shoulder, before she says, "Tell me, Princesa. Do you truly want to be Queen?"

I melt into her, understanding that she completely knows my mind.

"No."

"Then why do you work so hard to get it?"

"Because there must be someone better to take over. There has to be a way to resolve the war, to gather and train warriors morally. Someone needs to make it right."

"And that someone has to be you?"

"Who else would it be?"

She shrugs, and my body lifts with her shoulders. "Your brother?"

"It can't be him," I say quickly. 

She knows she's hit a sensitive spot, but she presses.

"Why not?"