Underwater

Prologue

"Reina," he called her name through a smiling mouth.

"Delwyn?" Reina stood slightly crouched in the carriage door, one of her guards holding his hand out to her to help her out of the vehicle. He moved until he was right in front of her, intercepting her before the guard could touch his wife. He stretched his arms out towards her but instead of just pulling her out of the carriage, he drew her right into his arms. "Is something wrong?"

"...No," he replied.

A long, lingering moment later, he released her and nearly laughed as he took in her quizzical expression. Her stoic face muscles had barely changed, but he could see the confusion in the slight quirk of her eyebrows and the partially parted lips.

"How long have you been waiting here?" she asked.

He couldn't answer. He hadn't been keeping track of how long he had been waiting for his wife outside the palace entrance, nervously tapping his caudal fins against the ground in anticipation of her return.

"Is there something urgent that you had to tell me?" she asked.

There was. There absolutely had been. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it. He then opened it again, before closing it once more.

"Yes?" his wife prompted, her head tilted to one side and he couldn't stop his mouth going dry as his thoughts flickered to how adorable she was, with her gray eyes slightly squinted as she looked up at him. With her head angled as it was, the parting of colors in her right eye, the usually diagonal gold portion of her eyes, was almost vertical.

He cupped her cheek with one hand, his fingers softly stroking the skin of her face.

There was so much he wanted to tell her. He'd made such a profound discovery that day and he wanted to tell her all about it.

But he just couldn't voice out the confession that was on the tip of his tongue. "...I was just worried," he said instead and was instantly overwhelmed with the urge to slap himself for being a coward.

One corner of her lips twitched upwards. "You worry too much."

Reina nodded at her guards and handmaid, then walked into the castle at his side. Her dejected husband accompanied her, his shoulders slightly slumped. He watched his wife from the corner of his eye, taking in her carefree, ignorant expression.

She seemed to have no clue at all about what he had been trying to say to her.

Alright, let's try again. "Reina." He caught her elbow and Reina halted in her step, before turning to him, a question in her eyes.

"Yes?"

"I..." Come on. You can do this. You're the crown prince of this proud empire. You can do this. "Reina, I..."

I love you.

"Del!" He was concentrating so hard on trying to confess his feelings to Reina that he hadn't sensed her approach at all. It shocked him so much that he flinched rather violently, causing his wife to blink in surprise.

Sylvia smiled at him, even as her eyes flickered to Reina, narrowing as they took in the human's presence.

"Why didn't you come to greet me earlier? You just waved and left," his lover said, her plump lower lip jutting out slightly in a pout. She crossed her arms over her chest, emphasizing her large assets and the sizable cleavage.

"I was... busy," he muttered the excuse.

An awkward silence descended on them. Reina cleared her throat, interrupting it.

"I shall excuse myself first," she told her husband and his lover, leaving them to their conversation. As Reina's handmaid and servants passed them by, they shot cold looks in the direction of the prince and his mistress.

Delwyn watched Reina leave, his arm partially outstretched in an attempt to stop her, but Reina had already left. Unlike her servants, Reina seemed completely unperturbed about leaving her lawful husband and his lover together.

He sighed deeply, running his hand over his face.

The prince stiffened as he felt an arm slip around his. He looked down at the pink-haired siren, who was smiling sweetly up at him. Goosebumps rose where Sylvia was touching him. He had to fight against forcefully removing his arm from her grasp.

...How do I get myself out of this mess? He wondered, resisting the urge to run his hand over his face again.