Adira helplessly sighed as she watched her husband sulk from her little joke and swiped a little bit of the melted chocolate she was working on and smeared it on the man's smooth face-that which caught him off guard.
"Yes, you're a lot more handsome like that." She crooned and kissed the man on the chocolate smear on his face.
"Tasty too."
"You really shouldn't be doing that on broad daylight, my wife, or I will whisk you away and lock you up in the room."
Casimir sexily suggested and kissed the woman on her lips-and of course, he delved deeper in to taste her thoroughly.
Sweet.
"Ehem." A man, who walked into them, cleared his throat to snatch the couples' attention.
Casimir let out an exasperated sigh before conducting himself properly and coldly and addressed the newcomer that interrupted him. Yet again.
"Father." He nodded.
While Adira curtseyed and flashed the old man a lovely and warm smile before greeting him sheepishly, "Father."
Anastasius surprised and happy to see his son getting along so well with his wife, chuckled softly at the imperfect image of this empire's first prince.
"Look at you, playing and acting spoiled around your little wife like a boy. Why did I not have a cute daughter instead?"
The king lamented and hugged the girl, who only giggled at his words.
"Well, I doubt you would have married me off had I been your daughter, your majesty."
"Of course! Anyway, Casimir have you thought about it yet?"
Anastasius suddenly shifted and turned to his son gently wiping the chocolate stains off his face and pulled his wife back into his arms to also wipe her off-eheem, truly. It wasn't because he was jealous or possessive or anything.
"Mm. I'll go." He answered briefly that piqued Adira's curiosity.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"I'm going to go visit a neighbor."
"Alynthi Kingdom?" Adira asked, although the tone she used wasn't as calm as it used to be.
And, call him crazy or whatever you want but, it made Casimir happy to hear her so bothered about one particular princess.
"Don't worry, my wife, my eyes cannot see anyone but you."
"It better be, Casimir. Or, so help me God, but I will break the two of you in half and feed you to the dogs."
Adira darkly threatened the man after grabbing his collars and pulled him down so he knew how serious she was.
So he better be careful about how he acts around women especially now that he's a married man.
"I'd rather be fed to you though." Casimir chuckled before planting a kiss on the woman's lips and caught her off guard-instantly dissipating her earlier furor.
"And I'm not going to the Alynthi Kingdom. Our alliance ended when they chose to attack us. So now, they are no longer under the empire's protection. They're on their own now.
In fact, they were attacked by another kingdom after what happened here and they lost miserably. So the Princess Thea was taken as a token."
He informed his wife while keeping her caged inside his embrace-completely ignoring his father who only rolled his eyes at this man that liked to show off and unnecessarily feed people with dog food.
Adira, although relieved that she wouldn't have to worry about Thea anymore, also felt sad about her current circumstance.
No matter how she tried to take Casimir away from her, as she heard after waking up from her coma, it was very sad to end up being offered to another kingdom as a token.
"Don't be sad, my wife. That is how this game is played. You win, you get to keep your spoils of war. You lose and that's it."
"I know. I know that very well."
Adira spoke with a voice that suggested to the man that she knew what it was like to stand in Thea's shoes and this caused a little bit of panic to rise in his stomach as he hurriedly reassured her that she won't ever be in such a situation.
He even swore that as long as she was there and she loved the empire and the people in it, he will do his best to protect this kingdom that they will soon rule together.
"I won't ever allow any other man hold my dearest treasures."
...
After the issue about Casimir's departure was settled and all, Adira gave the cakes and cookies she baked, with the help of her husband who refused to go back to his office, to Heise.
"Do you like it, baby?" The woman asked her precious little sweetie pie.
"Of course, Mommy! Anything you make is delicious!" The child happily replied to his mother with sparkling little sapphire eyes.
"Daddy helped Mommy make those, you know?" Casimir inserted before settling down on the child's other side.
"I know which cookies Mommy made because you don't know how to make anything!" Heise replied to Casimir with a snob before wolfing down the sweets his parents made for him.
Daddy made the ones you are happily munching on though, baby?
The mother sweat-dropped as she watched this father and son's love-hate relationship.
...
Finally convincing her husband to go and finish his work, Adira took Heise out to shop and play-of course, escorted by Alexander as always.
"Look at that, baby. There's that cotton candy that you loved so much!"
Adira beamed upon seeing the same man she used to buy cotton candies from. Back when she couldn't take Heise out yet and it was only her and Casimir.
But this time, she had a little lover holding her hands.
She walked close to the shopkeeper and the man immediately recognized her as the pretty lady who shamelessly demanded a handsome man to annul his engagement with his fiancee.
And now as the Phoenix Queen. Although she was still that shameless pretty girl in his eyes.
"Yo! Pretty lady! Did you finally break that man and his fiancee apart?"
The shopkeeper, although aware that she was also that fiancee she was talking about, went along with her craziness and asked.
"You bet, mister! He's my husband now! And we even have a son! Aren't I great?" Adira winked and flaunted her handsome and adorable son to the man.
Not only are you a shameless fiancee-turned-wife, you're even a very doting mother, huh?
"You really are the greatest, pretty lady! You even snagged a man as great as that one! You're not the greatest-You're almighty!"
The man corrected himself and guffawed loudly before giving Heise a big blue cotton candy for free-and that was because his mother was pretty and he was cute.
"Thank you, mister!" Heise adorably, with pinkish tints in his cheeks, thanked the man and quite successfully added another heart into his sack.
The way this mother and son pair easily capture hearts is scary!
Alexander mentally cried.