Hand of the Heart | S. Rogers x Reader - Royal AU

Ch. 12 - To Be King

"It was a long time ago." He smiled reassuringly, wanting you to keep going.

"If there's no male relative of mine to walk me down, I'm allowed to choose whomever I please to do the honors."

"So who would you like to walk you?"

"I've had it planned for a while, and I'm going to go with Lord Eamon Cedar. He's on the council and has been a dear friend of mine for years."

"Is he the one who was always next to you during the games? Curly hair?"

You laughed a little, "Yes, that's him."

"He didn't speak while I was in the room, but I'd be glad to meet him soon. Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

"You're already in his favor, so I'm sure you'll get along fine."

He nodded. "What else is there?"

"Well, we're supposed to fast the day before and the day of the wedding. Being on an empty stomach while the ceremony is taking place is a personal symbol of dedication. It shows that you're truly committing to the marriage. Um, during the ceremony and after we put the rings on, the priest ties our left hands together with white silk to signify the bond between two lives and the purity of the wife as she stands. It's supposed to bring good fortune throughout the marriage."

"I like that, it sounds really sweet."

"It is, I remember going to my first wedding and seeing the tie. It truly set my standards for marriage then, because I could practically feel the love between the couple coming off of them from where I sat."

"How lovely of a tradition. I am more than honored to take part in it with you. What happens," he cleared his throat uncomfortably, "after the ceremony?"

Awkwardness settled in your stomach against your will with the reluctance of telling him just what happens on wedding night.

Your head lowers, abashed. "You no doubt already know what happens on wedding night, Captain."

"I do, but you must forgive me. For I am short-handed when it comes to royal affairs."

He was going to keep prying until you told him, so you did.

"In the case of the husband, the best-men will escort him to the bed chambers that the newlyweds now share. He will be almost completely undressed, save for his braies." You took a deep breath after that, trying to cool your heated cheeks and getting over the uncomfortableness of talking about a topic that was known to you as taboo. "In the case of the wife, she will be mostly undressed in a different room by her ladies and then escorted to the same chambers in which the husband resides. The best men and the ladies leave, and the only people left in the room are the husband, wife, and Witnesses."

Steve's jaw clenched. "Who do the Witnesses consist of in this country?"

"Only the top five members of the Kingdom's council, the priest who married the couple, and the husband's best man."

"Oh. That is indeed more than I realized."

"I believe that once it gets to a particular point they leave. I am not certain of this, however. And I am not aware at what point." Your face flushes again at your own ignorance.

"Why are you not informed of that?"

"In normal circumstances, it is the mother that tells the daughter of such things, but unfortunately mine passed on before getting to that. My father never bothered to have anyone else teach me."

"So... you do not know what happens between the husband and wife after they've been undressed, completely undressed?"

"I know that the husband takes away the wife's virtue."

"Do you know what that is?"

"It is what makes a woman pure before marriage, of course. And taking it away paves the way for a child."

"Well yes, but do you know how it is taken away? How the child is conceived?" Steve insists.

Your eyebrows furrowed with utmost innocence and confusion, but you thought about it. You truly did not know how your virtue was to be taken. You had not a clue how a child was to appear in your stomach.

You shook your head.

Steve sighed exasperatedly, not in an annoyed way but in a nervous way. He asked in a low voice, "Do you wish for me to explain?"

"I do, actually."

Steve looked at you pointedly, then got up to shut the door and lock it. While he did that, you dragged a chair next to his and sat down. He sat back down next to you.

You were preparing yourself to hear anything, to be ready to have to do anything that night to come.

He began, "The husband then undresses himself and helps the wife undress the rest of the way so that they both lay completely bare to one other, vulnerable. It is a privilege that the husband would be most grateful for, knowing that his wife had not yet been that way for anyone else." Now his own cheeks got a little red. "They both lay down on the bed."

"Side by side?"

"No... the wife is on her back and the husband is on top of her. And then..."

"And then?"

"They make love."

You gave a frustrated huff at his lack of clarity. "Please just tell me what happens, Steve."

He bit his lip before uttering out, "I... put my cock inside you."

You let out an audible gasp at the brash words and at the idea of such an intimate, carnal act. Never in your wildest imagination could you have thought that a man's most private area would be inside of yours.

~~~~~~

Sorry I haven't been posting much, I've just been extremely busy these past few weeks. Truthfully, this chapter was way too long and so I put it into two parts.

Moon Knight comes out tonight! I'm excited for new content, but I don't know what to think of the character yet.