Made a post about why I'd love a Clay/Macy secret relationship au and said I'd love to ramble more about it. My ramble got a little long for a continuation on that post, so I decided I'd make this into a separate post. While the angst and whump potential for this in seasons 3 and 4 is beautiful, I decided to just go with something a little more fluffy here rather than soul-crushing heartbreak. Anyway, without further ado,
How To Hide a Relationship (When You Have Six Other Coworkers Who Are Also Your Roommates)
The amount of times Clay and Macy have almost accidentally spilled their secret would be astronomical, unless one takes into consideration they have routine training and sparring sessions that somehow very easily lead to flirting, and sometimes it's easy to forget that Merlock is integrated into every system in the Fortrex.
In light of this fact, even before she and Clay were together, Macy made it a goal to find every room in the Fortrex that wasn't connected to the computer systems, just as a matter of personal privacy. So far, all she's found is the closet in her room, the pantry in the kitchen, and the cleaning supplies closet. This was a fine when she was just looking for private places by herself, but later on when she needs to have any kind of moment alone with Clay, even just to talk without being overheard, her options are "suspiciously bring him to her room," "sneak past Axl through the kitchen" or "smell like bleach and toilet cleaner for the rest of the day." As such, any conversations about their secret relationship are kept to a minimum while on the Fortrex.
Fortunately, Clay has a very consistent rotation schedule for things like sentry duties and scouting patrols. No one bats an eye when these frequently involve him and Macy having assignments away from the Fortrex together. When these patrols end up being significantly longer than anyone else's patrol runs, the rest of the crew naturally assumes it's because they're both over-achievers and are going out of their way to do their duties meticulously and thoroughly. They would never expect sergeant stickler and little miss "we need to stop goofing off and get serious about saving my kingdom" to sneak off during patrol for a secret date. It's a perfect opportunity.
This tendency of theirs eventually leads to Aaron becoming the second member of the team to find out about Clay and Macy's secret relationship. When he takes over leading the team, he gets access to Clay's master schedule and sees "SECRET DATE WITH MACY" on the calendar on alternating Fridays, and pieces click together in his mind.
The first person to find out about them dating was Ava. Early on in Clay and Macy's relationship, they snuck out for a midnight stargazing session, unaware of Ava's propensity to stay up coding in the main room of the Fortrex. She chose to keep her knowledge of their secret to herself, though, because if they know she knows, they might try some funny business like coming to her for advice or getting her to cover for them, and there's no way she's involving herself in that drama.
One time Lance wanted to throw a party on the Fortrex but didn't want Clay to know about it because, let's face it, he's a total buzzkill. Macy found out about this and made a deal with Lance, promising to keep Clay away from the Fortrex for the evening in exchange for Lance taking over one of her chores for the next week. She knew full well that Lance had no intention on following through on that commitment, but any chance to sneak out with Clay for the evening without being suspicious was one that she'd gladly take.
Clay refuses to let Macy pay for any of their secret dates. It doesn't matter how little money he has; this is literally one of the number one rules in the Knight's Code. As such, their evenings out are usually something simple like a picnic lunch in the countryside, a trip to a local public library, or combat practice set against a romantic sunset. Macy doesn't mind, and after spending her whole life being told what she can and can't do as a princess, spending time with someone who doesn't expect so much of her is a breath of fresh air.
In fact, whenever Macy returns to the Fortrex from any kind of princess duties she has to attend to, she gets assigned a secret date patrol run with Clay immediately. The agenda for this always contains some kind of sparring to help her work out any aggression she might have pent-up during her princess-ing, whether by talking it out or fighting it out, or usually a mixture of both.
Clay and Macy are almost too careful about making sure no one knows about their feelings for each other, and nine times out of ten, this leads to overcompensating. They're constantly insulting each other. Macy complains about how overbearing a leader he is. Clay assigns her extra responsibilities and is especially critical of her during drills and evaluations so no one suspects favoritism. As soon as they're alone together, they spend at least five minutes apologizing for being mean to each other and saying "no don't worry I completely understand btw you looked really pretty when you called me a try-hard with delusions of granduer can we kiss now."
Because they have such little time to actually talk to each other, they're constantly slipping each other secret notes, usually tucked into armor or weapons or stuck on the back of armor or shields. Clay is also a big fan of slipping secret messages into her assignment binders for battle plans, and Macy will frequently slip her responses into his copy of the Knight's Code.
After a close call where one of their secret notes was almost intercepted (in retrospect, hiding a message in the wrapper of a cupcake, even one clearly labelled "MACY'S CUPCAKE: DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIFE," was not Clay's smartest move with Axl around) they decided to start writing messages in code. This actually made their note passing less suspicious, too, because they passed it off as "practice deciphering runes" as sort of an extra-curricular training regimen to keep their minds sharp.
They also have a few code phases that basically translate to something along the lines of "I know you're pretending to be mean right now to throw off suspicions, but that actually hurt my feelings; knock it off," and "okay I know our relationship is supposed to be secret but you're being super hot rn and I would like to acknowledge that fact."
Occasionally Macy's responsibilities as princess involve trips away from Knightonia, and the King insists that his daughter bring a security detail to protect her. After all the years she spent pitching a fit about how she "can handle herself," he finds himself pleasantly reileved relieved when she starts insisting that they bring the most noble and loyal of all the knights of the realm with them to help keep her safe.
Her mom, however, is not fooled for a second by Macy's sudden change of opinion, and now that the queen's tuned in on the matter, she notices more than a proper amount of stolen glances between the princess and her knight in shining armor. Fortunately, she's been in their shoes before and wholeheartedly approves.
Queen Halbert eventually ends up confronting Macy about her feelings, and somehow becomes the first person Macy can freely talk to about her relationship with Clay.
The queen also takes matters upon herself to discreetly send away any suitors that might come for her daughter's hand.
Oh, and Macy's smart enough to know when "trip to this neighboring country" is really a "trip to meet a potential suitor," and she makes sure to inform Clay of this well in advance, giving him permission to scare off any would-be admirerers "by any means necessary."
On other trips, bringing Clay along as her bodyguard actually makes making her rounds on display as princess of the kingdom kind of enjoyable. Despite Clay's reputation for being such a killjoy, he certainly knows how to help Macy have some fun and lighten up a bit when she needs to.
Plus, she's not going to turn down an opportunity for her secret boyfriend's entire duty to be to watch over her and spend every waking moment at her side, especially somewhere where the walls don't have ears.
This au ultimately ends with either everyone finding out about them, or a secret wedding. If it's the latter, the only ones invited to the wedding are her parents and the rest of the Fortrex gang.
Aaron tries to act surprised when he receives a secret royal wedding invitation. Lance tries to act like he's not surprised. Axl volunteers to bake the cake. Ava is glad that she can stop pretending to be oblivious. Robin is personally offended that he didn't know about them sooner (he's been low key trying to set them up for years by this point.) Merlock is excited to officiate.
The secret wedding is followed by Macy's coronation as queen. Queen Macy's first official proclamation is an announcement that she has elected not to marry. Her first act as queen is the formal promotion of and permanent assignment for Clay Moorington as the official royal protector and head of securities at the castle.
And, of course, as Chief Officer Of Royal Defense or some other nonsense made-up title she assigns him, Clay makes it his duty to ensure Knightonia's new Queen can protect herself too— and so continues their tradition of routine training and sparring sessions that most somehow always lead to flirting.
