The thing about being king is that it's hard.
Ez doesn't know why this surprises him so much, but every day is something else. It's always some new treaty to negotiate, some new budget proposal to review, some lord causing trouble for the peasants working his land, and that doesn't even touch on any the Aaravos stuff. Now there's this.
There were six of them this morning. Six! Ez has been seventeen for all of two weeks and the letters are already coming in droves, each more insistent and presumptuous than the last.
"I don't know how you've been dealing with it," he whines to Aanya. He is in Duren today. If he's honest, he's in Duren every other day these days, and when he's not, she's in Katolis because, Duren-Katolis alliance aside, they're friends. Ez likes her company, not just because she's fun to be around, but also because she's the only other person who really gets it, y'know? The complexities of being a monarch. The weight of being a child.
"I've been burning them," says Aanya frankly. She is peeling an orange over her desk and the smell of citrus wafts pleasantly over Ez's nose. "I've been getting them for months and I gave up sending responses after the first couple of weeks. Every suitor bold enough to try is an automatic no from me."
Ez snorts a little at that. "No one's been on your case about it?"
She shrugs without looking up. "A couple of my advisors disapprove but what are they gonna do, really? Why? Is Opeli giving you grief about it?"
Ez barks out a laugh. "Yes... No. I don't know. She just keeps saying it's something I should consider, which feels kind of like a double standard because Callum and Rayla only got married when they were both twenty-one and Soren's almost thirty and I don't see her bothering him."
"Mm." Aanya clucks her tongue and dusts the peels into the bin under her desk. "To be fair, Callum and Rayla were basically betrothed by the time they were our age and I think we both know why Soren doesn't get any trouble from her." She snorts a little and proffers half the orange at him. "Just say no."
"What, you think I've been saying yes?"
Aanya laughs. "I'm just saying, you're the king. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
"That's a lie and you know it."
"About getting married, I mean," she chuckles. "It's low priority and there's other stuff we have to deal with right now. Other problems on the horizon."
Ez grimaces, and she doesn't have to say it but he knows she's talking about Aaravos and his impending return. Their seven years of peace and prosperity are almost up. It makes Ez's stomach roil with dread.
"Do you think we've done enough?" he asks quietly after a moment.
"We've done what we can," says Aanya. "I don't know that anyone can promise more than that. Our alliance feels pretty secure and we've got all the Fire Rubies on standby, you've got the Nova Blade, Callum's been researching the whole time... We're as united a front as we can be. There's no point worrying more about it until it's a problem."
Ez lets out a sigh. "You're probably right," he mumbles. "The only way we could be more united is if you and I—"
He stops. He flushes. Aanya looks up and Ez finds himself infinitely grateful that the darkness of his skin doesn't let him visibly blush.
Ez flushes more and looks away. "You can forget I said that."
"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting, Your Majesty?"
"Are you adding yourself to my list suitors, Ezran?"
Ez tosses an orange segment at her, and Aanya laughs in an uncharacteristic display of her age. "What would be the point?" he says, his cheeks warm. "Any suitor bold enough to try is an automatic no, isn't it?"
"I mean." Aanya looks away this time, and Ez thinks he can almost see pink in her cheeks. "I'd think about it. If it was you."
A pause. A breath. Ez presses his lips together and wills his breathing and his heartbeat stay even. "You wouldn't burn my proposal if I sent it?"
"I wouldn't burn any letter from you, Ez."
The silence that settles over them borders on awkward, but Ez lets himself chuckle and reaches across the desk for her hand. "That's something worth considering, I guess," he says.
Aanya chuckles shyly and takes it. "Indeed."
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