The Queen

Chapter 27:

"Good morning, dear." I sat up in bed and Maxon gave me a kiss.

I broke the kiss. "I'm not your dear." I smiled. I lay back down in bed and traced Maxon's face. The creases by his eyes, his eyebrows, his nose, and his lips. I kissed him, soft and slow. He tangled his fingers in my hair and I laughed. He broke the kiss and started tracing my face.

"You're so beautiful." he whispered. His lips met mine, and he gave me the faintest whisper of a kiss.

I pulled away."You are too." I giggled. Maxon sat up and flexed his muscles.

"Oh, I know." he kissed his biceps. I laughed and grabbed his arm.

"We'd better go eat breakfast, beautiful." I said, getting up out of bed. I was happy. The sun was shining in through the windows, I could hear the birds chirping, and I had all the people I loved with me. It was good to be alive. Maxon got up and started getting dressed.

"Are you excited to see how the caste eliminating is going?" he asked me.

I nodded. "Of course! I hope we didn't do it too fast, though. I didn't want to overwhelm-"

Maxon walked over to me and put two reassuring hands on my shoulders. "We left periods of time in between for people to get used to it. There have been parties every night when the castes are eliminated. The people are happy."

I let out a sigh of relief and turned to my closet. "What do you think I should wear, Maxon?" I didn't like maids helping me, so usually I picked something by myself.

Maxon strode over to the closet, half dressed."This one." he pulled out a sky blue day dress with a grand flourish of his arms.

"Thank you." I kissed him on the cheek and took the dress. I got dressed behind my Chinese room divider, then walked to the bathroom. I put on a touch of makeup and did my hair. I walked out of the bathroom and Maxon was standing there with his arm out.

"Shall we?"

I walked closer to him. "We shall."

I giggled and grabbed his arm. We walked down the palace halls, getting greeted by guards and maids and butlers along the way. We were the first ones in the dining room, so we sat down and waited for Mom, May, and Gerad to come. Kenna and James went back to their house the morning before, because Astra was upset and wanted to be at home. The rest of my family was leaving in the afternoon. They got to the dining hall shortly after Maxon and I arrived, and they sat down happily.

"I'm going to miss the food here." May said, taking a bite of a tart.

"Does it make you want to..... cry?" I asked, smiling at Maxon.

He laughed. "Ah, yes. I remember our bet. Do you still have those pants that I gave you, even when you lost?" I laughed too.

"They're in the back of my closet. And May, I still haven't forgiven you for not crying." I teased her.

"I'm sorry, Ames!" May giggled. "I didn't know you were betting on it! But really, you should be thanking me." she looked over at Maxon, and then to me.

"You're right." I said, laughing. "If it weren't for that first date, I wouldn't have kicked him."

"I still can't believe you did that." Mom said, looking at her plate."And you didn't eliminate her!" she looked over at Maxon and he smiled.

"The aide that came to your house to help her get ready gave her some... irrelevant information." he said. I nodded silently. We finished eating, talking and laughing. Once we were all done, Mom, May, and Gerad went to their rooms to pack up, while Maxon and I went to the office to work on our project.

Maxon shuffled through the papers on the desk. "We've got a pretty solid plan here."

I nodded and looked at the papers over Maxon's shoulder. "Yeah. The first thing we have to do is organize the fundraisers. When can we have them?" I grabbed a pen and sat down.

"We could do it while we're visiting the provinces." Maxon suggested.

"Yes! And we could see which province raises the most money for the charity!"

Maxon started scribbling something on a piece of paper. "We're leaving tomorrow, so this is going to be tough to plan. We can have a place to make donations at the Offices and people can go there."

"We need to contact all of the province representatives and organize this in less than a day?" I asked. We had just got back from our honeymoon, and I wasn't really up to a lot of work.

"Not all of the provinces. Just Carolina and the province we're visiting after that." he put a hand on my shoulder and I let out a sigh of relief. "Don't be stressed out. We'll do this together."

"You're right." I said, taking in a deep breath. "We can do this." we got to work and contacted the province representative and told her what we were doing. She was welcome to the idea and said she would start organizing and getting the word out. We came up with a schedule of the provinces we were visiting; starting with Carolina and ending with Angeles. We would visit one province for two days each week, so it would take us thirty-five weeks. The first day of the stay would be dedicated to seeing how the elimination of the castes was going, and the second day was visiting hospitals and visiting sick kids.

"I think we're done." I said, sighing. We'd worked nonstop since eleven o'clock. It was five o'clock.

"For now." Maxon said, organizing the papers. "But it should be easier with a week in between visits."

"All that working has made me tired." I yawned. Maxon laughed and grabbed my hands. He pulled me out of my chair and danced me across the room.

"What are you doing?" I asked, confused.

He kept spinning me around. "I'm waking you up, my dear."

"I'm not your dear." I said, for the second time today. "Are you ever going to stop calling me that?"

He smiled."I will never stop calling you my dear as long as you are dear to me. And that would be forever, so no, I won't stop." I rolled my eyes and suddenly stopped dancing. A bout of nausea had come to me and I ran for the bathroom, just to be safe. It went away and I didn't throw up, but Maxon was freaking out.

"Are you ok? Do I need to call the doctor? Is it-"

"I'm fine, Maxon; calm down." I stood up and placed my hands on his shoulders. He sighed and we walked out of the bathroom. I sat down by the fireplace and a butler came in.

"Sorry to interrupt, Your Highnesses, but dinner is ready."

"Thank you." Maxon dismissed the butler and we made our way to the dining room. Once  we got there, I noticed that my family was absent.

"We didn't get to say goodbye to Mom and May and Gerad." I sighed, sitting down. Just then, Mom, May, and Gerad walked into the dining room.

"I hope we're not late." Mom said, taking a seat.

"I thought you were leaving this afternoon!" I said, pleasantly surprised.

"We decided to stay for supper." May replied, smiling. "If thats ok, Your Majesties." she added.

I smiled. "Any time." we ate dinner and then it was time for my family to go. Maxon and I stood at the palace doors while they got into the car.

"Goodbye!" I said as the car started moving. May waved out the window and both Maxon and I waved back. We went back into the palace and made our way to the library, where we usually spent our evenings.

"You are very good at solitaire." Maxon said after I'd beaten him for the third time.

I laughed. "You're good at chess, I'm good at cards." I said, shuffling the deck. We played cards in the library until we were both very tired. We got ready for bed and turned off the lights. I moved over to Maxon and he wrapped his arms around me. Today was a good day.

Hey guys! Thanks for reading! I know this chapter looks a little different from the others and that's because I'm going to go back and fix my grammar and spelling mistakes; starting with this one. So if you get stuff in your notifications that say I've updated a chapter, it's just me making it better. Thanks again!

~Emily