sunset waltz.
a field of flowers born from the sun embrace you with nothing but warmth and you wish this moment could last forever; aka, three reasons why you should never have an engagement of convenience with xavier. feat. prince!xavier & f!reader genre : fluff, slight angst but happy ending. w.c : 4.1k note : a celebration for xavie myth and also !! my bday!
The plan was simple; go through with the engagement to the Crown Prince of Philos to help him secure the spot for the throne until it was certain that the role of King was guaranteed to him. Only until then would you stay by his side before announcing the cancellation of your engagement and going your separate ways. It was beneficial for the both of you — the marriage candidates cease for the hand of Prince Xavier so he could focus on becoming king and changing the wrongdoings of his father and the elder nobles before the kingdom of Philos falls into despair and you spend your days living in the imperial palace of Philos and away from your overbearing and greedy family who only view you as an object to sell.
This was nothing more than an engagement of convenience; you would be nothing but fiancés in name and appearance for only a year.
And yet, you find it getting increasingly difficult to keep your heart at bay the longer you spend time with Prince Xavier.
For one, His Highness is a handsome man; you would be lying to yourself and others if you tried to disagree. Fitting his title of the Young Sun of Philos, Crown Prince Xavier is made of the stars. With hair as white as the brightest light found only in the night sky and blue eyes reminiscent of the sky during the day, he was the epitome of perfection in Philos. He’s handsome, dashing, the most eligible bachelor of the entire kingdom until the announced engagement between the two of you. No one could compare to his swordsmanship either; top of the military academy with the highest scores and reflexes only the future king would have.
You’ve witnessed it firsthand. You couldn't deny ever being curious of the Crown Prince's prowess on the battlefield, so curiosity guides you to the training grounds of the Imperial Palace.
The sound of steel swords clanging against one another and the eager shouts of men as they counter each other's attacks and guide one another on how to improve fill the air; it's loud and quite noisy, but necessary for the training of the Imperial Guard. As you approach the commotion, your eyes immediately flit over to the ashen blond that belonged to no one other than your fiancé.
He's fast, moving at the speed of light. Your eyes can barely keep up with him and when you catch a mere glimpse of his position, he has already moved from that spot and landed an attack on the poor soldier sparring with him. Prince Xavier's great-sword is only parried with enough strength from Lord Jeremiah, the commander of the Imperial Guard.
"You're slacking, Your Highness," Lord Jeremiah's teasing words cause Prince Xavier's brow to arch in response. "To think you're letting me easily parry your attacks when we've got an audience."
For a second, you see a glimpse of azure. It's fleeting, but your eyes meet the gaze of an endless sky for merely a moment before-
Lord Jeremiah grunts as his body lands on the floor, Prince Xavier's great-sword stabbed into the ground beside his head. You open your lips to call out to the young lord to ensure his wellbeing, but a familiar face interrupts your view of the fallen knight.
Despite the sweat dripping off of his face and body and the slight dirt covering his cheeks from the grime of the training grounds, Prince Xavier is still as radiant as ever. His features are soft and boyish with ash blond hair framing his face perfectly and the purest blue eyes you have ever seen directed at you.
Only you.
It's a contrast from the stoic glare given to his knights just seconds ago—wide eyes that soften at your appearance and seek attention from you.
"Greetings, Your Highness. How's your training?" You greet the Crown Prince, pulling your handkerchief from the pocket of your dress. As if on instinct, the blond prince leans forward, against the railing separating the two of you as your hand gently wipes away the sweat rolling off of his pretty face.
"Busy as always, My Lady," Prince Xavier responds to you immediately, azure eyes never leaving yours for even a moment as you clean his face. If anything, the Crown Prince leans into your touch as if persuading you to stay for a while longer. "What brings you here, My Lady? This is no place for the Princess Consort to be. What if you get hurt?"
You laugh softly, pulling your handkerchief away and folding it. Before you're able to put it back in your pocket, Prince Xavier's hand moves faster to snatch it from you. "It's dirty; I'll keep it for now." is his excuse.
"I'm not so weak as to collapse in pain as soon as I step foot on the training grounds, Your Highness." You give the prince a smile that seemingly brightens up his whole demeanor. To anyone else, you two looked like the perfect couple; the fiancée visiting her dear lover midday because she missed him so dearly.
But you know the truth, you both do.
"Besides, do you not trust your knights to not fling a sword in my general direction?" Your question is stated with teasing words and eyes filled with nothing but mirth, but the Crown Prince shakes his head.
"Absolutely not. If anything, my Imperial Guard is being led by a man whose intelligence is that of a potato plant," Prince Xavier answers you with a deadpan tone loud enough for Lord Jeremiah to hear and shout in defiance.
"My Lady! Do not listen to His Highness, I am fully capable of protecting you and ensuring your safety especially within these training grounds!" Lord Jeremiah interjects, bowing in greeting before you. You laugh at his response and raise your hand to ease his stiffness at your appearance.
"No worries, Lord Jeremiah. I trust you even if His Highness the Crown Prince does not." Your words cause the young lord to smile and thank you for your reverence for the Imperial Guard. "I know he is merely jesting with you."
"I have never jested in my entire life, My Lady," Prince Xavier states curtly. At this point, his eyes are no longer softly gazing at you but rather glaring daggers into the poor lord who had come to speak his piece. "Shouldn't you be training the other knights, Lord Jeremiah? Or should I go and train you myself since you have so much free time to stay and chat with the Princess Consort?"
As if a nightmare flashed before Lord Jeremiah's eyes, the Commander of the Imperial Guard politely excuses himself before dashing off to join the others. You laugh once more at the relationship of the Crown Prince and his Commander but your giggles cease seeing the look of the prince — head downturned with blue eyes peering up at you and brows turned upward akin to that of a young puppy.
Prince Xavier, Crown Prince of Philos, is pouting right before your very eyes, and he looks mighty adorable doing it.
"Do you find Lord Jeremiah that amusing, My Lady? More so than I?" Prince Xavier asks you, his tone returning to the warmth held for you, his princess consort.
"How dare I, Your Highness?" you coo in response, cupping his face into your palm. Your heart skips a beat as the prince leans into your touch; azure eyes close for a breath as if seeking solace in your touch before opening them again to gaze deeply into yours. They're looking for an answer you don't know the question of, and you wonder what exactly is running through his mind.
"Won't you join me for dinner, My Lady?" Prince Xavier asks you as his hand gently pries yours from his face to hold. He brings your hand to his lips where he grazes the skin of your knuckles with the most gentle kiss. "I would appreciate the company of my dear fiancée for the evening."
It's moments like these where you truly wonder if this is all an act or if the Crown Prince is sincere in how he treats you, with the gentleness of a man who truly loves his betrothed. He looks at you with such tenderness and warmth, as if you yourself hung up the millions of stars that litter the night sky of Philos to guide those lost on their way back home.
You do not know, and you quell your beating heart in hopes that it will cease in these ridiculous thoughts.
Secondly, Prince Xavier is too kind and understanding. Despite his stoic and cold demeanor, the Crown Prince is truly a man with a heart too large for his body to handle. He is purehearted, wanting nothing but the best for the Kingdom of Philos and its people regardless of status.
Even as a seemingly standoffish prince, there have been many times he demanded his knights take time off for the sake of their health or family members, with the exception of Lord Jeremiah.
Unfortunately, that geniality does not exclude you.
The ballroom is shimmering with candlelit, golden chandeliers and sparkling with tiles cleaned and waxed enough times to see one's own reflection. It is nothing but beautiful and luxurious; a room fitting for the Royal Family and other nobles celebrating the debut of a young noblewoman you couldn't remember the name of.
And yet, with numerous people to greet and countless people requesting a dance from you, you've become stifled and overwhelmed with the attention. The room is spinning with your hearing beginning to deafen as your thoughts fill your head; you need to get out of this room at once.
But with one person interjecting with another, you find it hard to excuse yourself without sounding rude.
A hand wraps around your own, guiding it up to hold and, from the familiar grasp and the scent of clean linen and musk surrounding you, you recognize who it is immediately.
"Pardon me, ladies, but it seems I've been away from my fiancé for too long. Do you mind if I take her from you?" Prince Xavier asks the noblewomen surrounding you. With hushed excitement, they quickly disperse and allow your fiancé to guide you away from the crowd and out on one of the balconies where the two of you could be alone.
Once the large French doors have shut behind you and the curtain is drawn, the pressure that pounds in your head begins to dwindle away and your lungs can finally exhale the breath of air you didn't know you've been holding.
"Are you alright, My Lady?" Prince Xavier asks you, a gloved hand rests on your shoulder and you look up from the floor to meet his gaze. Eyes of azure shine with worry, flitting back and forth for any signs of pain on your visage. Ashen blond eyebrows furrow and you can't help but exhale softly in a short laugh at how distraught he looks over you, a mere fiancé in name only.
"I just needed to escape that social battlefield for a moment, Your Highness," you reassure the doting Crown Prince with a hand over his own. A gentle squeeze to persuade him, but his eyes never leave your gaze. Not for a second. "It's overwhelming in there, I was worried the nobles would start to see how disheveled I looked from the attention."
You try to make light of your overstimulation but the prince pays it no mind.
"Let's head back to the Imperial Palace," Prince Xavier suggests, adjusting his hand so he could firmly hold yours. He's warm, a comforting warmth like the heart of a newborn star. It wraps around you, hugging you and easing your senses with his mere presence—funny how accustomed you've grown to the Crown Prince who you're meant to leave in a few months.
Your heart aches at the thought of never being this close to Prince Xavier anymore; if you leave early tonight... would you spend the next banquet alone with no one by your side? Would you have to witness another woman more fitting for the role of Philos' Queen clinging to Prince Xavier's arm, a position you used to hesitate with but now comes to you like it's second nature?
You want to push him away, tell the prince that you should keep your distance and stop treating you like you're someone precious to him; like you're his fiancée.
But you can't, not when he's looking at you so perturbed at the mere thought of you unwell. It fills you with the false hope of being an important person to the Crown Prince—a false hope that you grasp onto so desperately, praying that if you hold on tight enough his feelings for you will change.
He'll find your feelings disgusting; this is all an act as your fiancé in title only. Know your place and cease your idiocy—you are no Princess of Philos.
You silence the rumble within your chest, but it only grows stronger the more this engagement continues.
"Walk with me, Your Highness? We should stay a little bit longer, for the sake of the debutante."
The night is quiet, the heart of the party bustling in the ballroom of the duchy. Only distant sounds of chatter from the party and the life of nature—cricket chirps, the trickling of water from the small pond in the back gardens, and the quiet hoots of owls—fill the atmosphere as you walk beside Prince Xavier with your arm comfortably wrapped around his own.
Although he towers over you, the prince matches his pace with yours as to not distress you.
"I must have looked so distraught in there to have you come to me so quickly," you break the peaceful silence between the two of you. Prince Xavier turns his head, but you don't meet his gaze. "How horrid did I seem for you to rush to my side?"
"You were not horrid, My Lady. Do not say that about yourself," Xavier chides you playfully, though his tone is soft; it always is when it comes to you, you've realized.
"If anything, you're the most radiant of them all tonight. No one in the banquet hall could compare to your elegance, not even the debutante herself," the prince continues to compliment you and you gently shove His Royal Highness to get him to cease with his words. You can hear him laugh softly, almost blending in with the night but loud enough for you to hear.
The prince slows down in his steps, pulling you with him. This time... his smile is filled with nothing but adoration and affection and it nearly takes your breath away. He shouldn't be looking at you like this, and yet he is for a reason you don't know why.
Prince Xavier's hand reaches up to gently caress your face, holding your jaw as if you would break or run away from his mere touch. His eyes, endless seas of azure with starlight dancing in them as he gazes down at you in the peaceful back gardens of someone's duchy and you feel your heart hammer against your chest.
You try to quell it once more, but his words only aggravate your heart even more.
"Truthfully, I couldn't keep my eyes off of you, both in fear of Marquis Charlie requesting you to dance with him for the nth time and in awe of how beautiful you are tonight. That is how I knew you needed my help."
Perhaps it's the atmosphere if being at a party or maybe it's the way the Crown Prince of Philos is looking at you as if you truly are the most beloved jewel of the ball, but you don't move away when Philos' brightest star leans in closer to you. His presence embraces your entire being, and you feel at ease as his familiar warmth washes over you.
"Can I kiss you, my betrothed?" He asks in a soothing whisper. A gloved thumb brushes over your lips and you intake a shaky breath at his touch and he takes it as your answer, pressing into you with a soft kiss.
His lips gently move against yours, moving with such careful movements as if you would crumble at the mere act of loving you. And yet, with each movement of his lips against yours in this sweet, but shaky kiss.
You want to deny this, you want to so desperately silence your eager heart for beating so loudly against your chest. But this is a powerful and frightening feeling, and you can no longer let your helpless heart yearn for someone so unattainable.
The third and final reason... you love Prince Xavier, and that alone sends dread throughout your entire body. You want to remain by his side, you want to be the person who receives all of these affections given to you because he loves you. You want to be the one he dotes on endlessly, the one he comes home to with a worn but lovelorn smile as he greets you with a kiss on the cheek.
But you remember your place, your reason as to why you're still beside him.
You cannot love the prince because why would he ever love someone like you.
"Call me by my name, please?" Prince Xavier whispers to you when you pull away from him, his voice soft as if scared the sound would scare you away. His hands hold you to his body in a grip tight enough to ensure you won't run away, loose enough to not hurt you. His eyes, your favorite shade of blue, gaze into yours with a fragility you've never seen before and it twists your heart in both glee and guilt knowing you're the cause of it.
He's vulnerable because of you.
"Please, I want to hear you call my name."
You can't, you shouldn't say his name. You have to stop this before it gets any further—before your heart inevitably breaks into a million pieces. Your lips part, excuses on the tip of your tongue as to why you cannot, and yet...
"Xavier," your voice is barely above a whisper. Azure eyes widen as he catches the timbre of your voice, small and timid but surely there and saying what he desperately wanted to hear. If Xavier was any further away from you, he would have missed it and thank the heavens he did not.
"Say it again, I'm begging you."
"Xavier," you say it louder this time, and there's a shaky breath from your prince before he's kissing you again. His lips are warm to the touch, a contrast to the chill of the night. This kiss is vastly different to his first one with you; he's desperate to feel you against his skin, pouring every inch of his feelings that he cannot convey into words into this simple act.
Xavier kisses like he's greedy for you, like a man dying of thirst in a dry desert and you are his oasis quenching his need and the sole reason he continues to live.
A hand is on the back of your head, holding you delicately against him so he could kiss you with fervor without any discomfort on your part; Xavier would sheathe his own great-sword into his chest if you ever were hurt because of him.
As you pull away from your prince, you meet nothing but endless blue as Xavier peers into your eyes. He glances back down to your lips, but you press your hands against his chest to prevent him for going for his third kiss of the night. You take a shaky breath, preparing yourself for what's to come.
"The contract," you begin with a voice that wavers and avert your eyes away from his, "I can't keep doing this knowing that we will separate by the end of this." Your vision begins to blur and the familiar stinging in your eyes prepares you for the tears building up. You blink them away, but it's inevitable.
"Please, let's end this now before I regret ever loving you."
Xavier's lips part at your words, both in shock at your confession and at knowing that you're crying because of him. His eyes never leave your gaze, even as his hand comes up to wipe away the tears that begin to trickle down your face. Your expression, everything that you're experiencing because of him and this contract between you two, he takes it all in and refuses to look away.
His dear fiancée...
He says your name, a murmur but yet clear as day for you and your eyes snap back up to meet his gaze; soft and filled with nothing but sympathy and a glimmer of something you can't quite decipher.
"I apologize for hurting you like this. Had I known this turmoil was brewing in you, I would have called this contract off ages ago," Xavier tells you with a soft tone. Your heart lurches at his statement, but you continue to listen as his thumb comfortingly rubs circles along your cheek as you brace yourself for the rejection you've been waiting for all this time.
"And asked you to marry me outside the contract."
...What?
Seemingly reading your mind, Xavier chuckles softly. His caresses have ceased as rough hands drop to your own to hold and bring to his lips. He kisses each of your knuckles before the back of your hand, giving you time to process what he meant.
"I don't have my official ring to give you," Xavier begins with a soft smile, "but do accept my date request later so I can propose to you properly this time, won't you?"
Your eyes are wide as they follow Xavier's movements, as they watch your prince smile and interlock your fingers together. This... this couldn't be real could it? Many thoughts race through your mind, most of them questioning Xavier's sanity, when things have begun to change for him in regards to his feelings for you, and your own foolishness for not noticing any signs of his genuine affection towards you.
"Wouldn't the elders fight against our marriage? I was only a stand-in anyways, I have no influence; I was only chosen because of that and-"
"No one will oppose the King," Xavier says with such certainty that you almost want to believe him. Sensing the concern written all over your face, he continues with a firm voice. "And if they do, I will strike them down and hang their heads above the Imperial Gates as a warning to anyone else who dares deny you as my wife."
"Xavier!" You hiss at your prince, reaching up to cover his mouth with your hands. "Cease with your nonsense! I don't want anyone to die because of me!"
Mirth dances in your ashen blond prince's eyes and you can feel his smile beneath your palm. Blood rushes to your cheeks as you feel his soft lips press against your palm, his hand coming up to hold your hand against his face before pulling it from his mouth. He's still smiling, but this time it's radiating with warmth that rivals the sun and you're trapped in his gravitational pull.
"I love you, my starlight. Though I am to be the Sun of the Kingdom of Philos, you are the one whose radiance beside me as the Moon outshines me. You're blessed by the stars in both beauty and wit, I could not bear it if you loved someone else other than me. Please, believe me when I tell you that my love for you is endless.”
Your prince leans down once more and captures your lips in another kiss, one that he has been yearning for since he kissed you last mere moments ago. Though, you've got an inkling that this greed for your affections will only continue to grow now that your heart has been bared to him and his heart to you.
"Trust in me, you will be the greatest Queen Philos has ever known. I know this in my heart, my dearest."
Xavier's confession settles deep within your bones, lifting the weight on your heart and at this moment you feel weightless. You're scared for the future, of how the public will receive the news of Xavier's marriage to a poor noble. You know there will be backlash from the corrupt elders selling their own daughters to be his wife over you. Your anxieties will not cease to exist just because you've accepted the love of the Crown Prince into your own heart.
However, with your fiancé by your side and leading you with his light that has shown you nothing but devotion and benevolence, you'll shine brighter than any star in Philos' sky.
