#rgxcain

[rghikari]

“Just once.”

RG Prompts 1

[ 1481, The Palace of Elv ]

“Why do you like these books so much?” Hikari almost lets herself pretend that she could ignore his question but only for a little while. The memory of their last afternoon in the library is still a very effective reminder of the prince’s temper when he does not get what he wants. Half a beat and then she turns to the next page; lets the words saturate in her consciousness before she turns around to face them. 

“Is there something wrong with happy endings, your highness?” There is no animosity or ill feelings in her question; despite everything that happened, she would never find it in herself to hate him. Cain, she thinks, is just someone who needed a little more love and though she really does not have much of it herself; she figures, there’s nothing wrong with giving him some of the little she has. 

She closes the book and gives him her undivided attention; she remembers how he likes it when she only has eyes for him. There is a mischievous glint in his eyes that is almost too familiar but for a nine year old like Hikari, it passes of as happiness-- and she likes seeing the older boy happy for he never seemed happy when he was with her sister. 

“If you like them so much, do you believe in true love’s kisses and handsome princes coming to sweep you away?” His tone is challenging but she picks it up as curiosity so she answers him with nothing but the truth. After all, at age nine, love seems to be the thing that made the world go round. 

She nods and answers him then with a clear “Yes, your highness.” and though she is prepared to answer more of his queries, they only sit in silence. He seems to be lost in thought, she thinks to herself and decides that perhaps it is time to resume her reading.  

The library is sparse of any other presence aside from theirs and if anyone were to come finding them, they would have to go past a series of bookshelves to locate the two royals seated side by side in front of the fire place. 

“Hikari, I’m a prince, right?” Again, he is the first to break the silence and this time, when she turns around, his face is closer to hers than she remembers. “And you like it when I’m happy, right?” 

She nods and the book is forgotten on her lap. “Of course, your highness.” Her words are tinged with all the sincere innocence a young girl like herself could possess. “Then would you give me a kiss like what those princesses in your stories do for the princes?” 

He spots the hesitation and when she realizes it, she braces herself for his wrath but all that comes out of his lips is an encouraging, “Just once.” 

When she leans forward and presses her lips against his to give him something that was never rightfully his to take from the very beginning, she only thinks of how happy her obedience might make him and she finds herself not regretting it at all. 

[rghikari]

“Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”

RG Prompts 1

[ Winter of 1496, AU Verse ] Part 3 of a 3 Part AU Series

Winters are an almost foreign concept to Hikari; they are a thing of the life she had lead in Surya and no longer part of her present. 

The room, their room, is bathed in silence as she waits for his arrival. It is late and deep into the night but finds herself still successful in her attempt at evading sleep. To stay up and wait for him is not something he explicitly required her but she thinks that it is the least she could do for him who comes home tired and worn out from his day to day activities. Though the war is now only remembered as thing of the past and his skills are no longer required in the battlefield, he is still a prince with duties and responsibilities. 

Footsteps echo in the empty hallway outside; she almost second guesses her actions and is half a second away from pulling the blanket over herself when the mahogany doors are pushed open. He pauses and she gulps; her body’s reactions are immediate to his gaze and she knows that the warmth that spreads over her skin is not due to the many candles that decorated almost every open space.  

“Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” 

Amusement laces his voice and it does help with the matters relating to her confidence, rather, it is the fatigued undertone that does. From he stood, he could easily fool someone to believing that he isn’t physically exhausted and that he is not fighting a  fever but she is not just anyone so she knows all of this even before he speaks to her about it. 

In response to his question, she speaks not a single word and only offers him the movement of her rising from the bed. Her hair cascades in waves of ebony over her form but it does not succeed in hiding her flushed skin. She has stood before him like this many times before but they both know that this moment is unlike all the other for what will happen next is a result of her own initiative. Her lower lip is caught between her tiers as she erases the distance between them with her steps and she admires the way he is able to keep his gaze level with hers, his question still hanging in the air. 

“I read somewhere,” she begins, her confidence growing as she focuses on why she did this in first place. “That medicine is not the best way to cure a fever but rather it is the warmth of another person that does.” Even before she finishes her sentence, she knows that he understands what he means as if it isn’t already obvious with the way her fingers toy with the buttons of his garment. She leaves herself amazed at how she is able to act so coy around him and she tells herself that all of this is needed if she wanted him to be healed from his fever. 

A different kind of heat then spreads over her body when he wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her close but her little is far from over, she hopes he knows this. “Really now?” He asks as his lips place kisses-that-are-not-kisses on the expanse of her neck and it takes her full concentration to reply to him. She nods in response; letting him do as he pleased, after all, this night is about him and no one else. 

She erases the remaining centimeters between them with the question she whispers in his ear and she offers a silent prayer that he’d say yes. “Therefore, I was wondering if his highness would like to test that claim with me?” 

[rghikari]

“You heard me. Take. It. Off.”

RG Prompts 1

[ 1496, The Suryan Deserts, AU Verse ] Part 2 of a 3 Part AU Series

A day into their togetherness, she does not find any regret nor longing in herself for the life she left behind when he walked back into hers. 

The carriage moves swiftly as it traverses the Suryan deserts and travels up north, or what she feels like is the direction pointing north. The distance she puts between herself and her home increases with each horse’s gallop but her care for it lessens twice as much. What care for the the world is there to give when the one who gives her world meaning is seated right beside her? 

They are quiet as they sit side by side in the enclosed space but she does not find anything unusual or uncomfortable about it. Instead, she finds comfort in the silence that fills the space because it reminds her of how things between them used to be. She remembers a lot about him, that much is true, but what she remembers most is not the many nights he claimed her as his or the scars he left her with but rather, she remembers the silence the most. 

When she thinks of him, she thinks of the aftermath when she lies in his bed and he holds her close. He probably does not know of the many nights she has spent watching him sleep and how she prays for the morning not to come for it marks another end for them. She tells him not about how her heart finds peace in the rhythmic lull of his breathing and how for each night she spends away from him, it is the sound of his heartbeat and the feel of his arms around her that she longs for the most. 

“I do not like it when you don’t listen to me, princess.” 

His voice though tinged with annoyance only succeeds in breaking her train of thought and rousing her out of her musings but not in instilling fear in her. She turns her gaze away from the blurring landscape outside the carriage window to face him and she realizes then that a different kind of fear settles in when she looks at him now. “Forgive me, my prince.” She speaks, filled with sincerity to soothe his temper.  

 “You heard me. Take. It. Off.” 

For a moment, she does not comprehend what he means but he follows it up by squeezing her hand that is encased in his. Her gaze lowers to it and there she spots the lone piece of jewelry that adorned her glove covered fingers. She understands then what he wants and all the unspoken things he means with his words; the ring symbolizes a life she left behind when she chose to start anew with him therefore the ring, and the promise it once held, is now meaningless. 

She slips her hand out of his, then, and slides the ring off her finger. He is watching, she knows, but her gaze lingers on it for a second or two as she lets the finality of her choice saturate within her. When she lifts her eyes to meet his again, her eyes holds a new fear that she hopes he sees. 

My biggest fear is not you but losing you. 

[rghikari]

“Please, don’t leave.”

RG Prompts 1

[ 1496, The Suryan Palace, AU Verse ] Part 1 of a 3 Part AU Series

Wedding days are momentous and joyous occasions but this one in particular seems to be even more special due to the fact that it marks the first gathering of all four nations since the end of the war. 

Hikari sits in the one of the palace’s parlor rooms as she waits for the ceremony to begin. Outside her door, the unmistakable sounds of excited whispers and footsteps fill the silence that blankets the air inside the room. The guests had already all come and gone to pay their congratulations to her, the blushing bride and the center of everyone’s attention today. 

Her fingers trace over the intricate lace patterns of her white ballgown and she feels her heart skip a beat at the thought of her wedding. It should not be too long now, she thinks to herself and on cue, a knock sounds at her door and rouses her out of her inner monologues. Fully expecting to see one of her ladies-in-waiting at the door, she is floored by the face that greets her instead. Words fail her as she stares at him and surprised is an obvious understatement to how she feels after seeing him again. 

“Princess.” He greets and it seems as though his voice reverberates in her heart more so than it did in the quiet room. Her eyes are unable to look anywhere else but as his form as he walks into the room (and ultimately into her life again) dressed in his military uniform and with his hair coiffed just the way she remembers. Their eyes meet and the whole world comes to a stand still; he approaches even closer and takes her hand in his in such gentleness that she almost forgot he possesses. His eyes are clouded with so many things but there is an obvious undertone of something left unspoken– as if he had something to tell her – but what comes out of his lips is, “You look beautiful. You have grown up even more beautifully.” 

Though it is a compliment, all she ends up feeling in her heart is a painful rush of longing and she knows that he sees and feels it too. After all, she never forgets how easy it is for him to read her. “What are you doing here?” she asks but what she really wanted to ask is, why did you come back only know? And of course, in his true fashion, he does not give her a direct answer and chooses instead to plant a kiss on her lips. There is nothing gentle about it; it is the exact opposite of the kisses she received in his absence and of the kiss she was supposed to receive today as the symbol of her new married life. Yet in his almost violent ways and the painful way presses his lips against hers, she finds the answer to a question she did not even know she was asking herself and where she hears all of his unspoken pleads. 

When they finally pull apart for air, the bells are ringing loudly but at the same time they seem so far away. His fingers cradle her cheek as their breaths mingle and become one in the space between their lips. Her heart is pounding almost deafeningly in her ears but it isn’t because of her excitement but rather because she is reminded of something. 

“Please, don’t leave.” He says and even before he could open his mouth to speak again, she is nodding and lacing their fingers together. 

Then, in the next moment, her heart is frantic but oddly at ease as she presses a kiss on his lips and whispers, “We have to hurry.” before leading the two of them out of the room herself. 

[rghikari]

| locked out of heaven; au |

rgxcain

cain makes a point not to look at her. he had made that mistake briefly when she entered his study. the way his body reacted was instantaneous, and the nib of his quill did not cease in its delicate curves and learned insistence on paper. this was his assistant’s job, and he wasn’t even supposed to be here, yet having the princess enter made it (slightly) worth it.

“and how is that?” he asks, finishing one page of his report and starting on another, setting the paper aside to let the ink dry. he dips his quill into ink again, sets it onto paper so mechanically that the repetition is starting to grate on his nerves. he’d never been good at sitting still. “make it quick, lady dragonborn. wouldn’t your husband be wondering where you’ve gone off to?”

“Please do not make go into full detail, Lord Akulakrovi.” The way the both pretended that nothing was amiss grated her the wrong way. He was playing coy with her again because he knew full well the effect that he had on her and she was loathe to admit that he was succeeding. She doesn’t dare take a step further into the room than she stood in the threshold and simply watched him from the distance. 

“If my presence is of a disturbance to you then it would be best that I make my exit.” She swallowed the bitter taste of what seemed like rejection that settled in her mouth. What was she even doing here in the first place? To be alone with the presence of a man who was not family and not her husband was in itself calling for trouble but it had been years, she reasoned with herself, surely a peak at how he looked was something she could grant herself.

[rgseulgi-blog]

“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to a bed.”

“SO?”

the princess sees FIRE, sin dancing on her tastebuds & passion coursing through her veins like wild fire, setting her skin aflame & igniting every urge once forgotten. the two are a strange sight—prince & princess, hand in hand, mouth pressed against mouth as they stalked their way down the dark corridor, clothing disheveled and body hot.

in the moonlight, it’s easy to make out the compelling features of the suryan princess, dark locks cascading over lissome shoulders as smudged red lips part, another laugh slipping past while dark hooded eyes fixated on cain–a bird caged by war just like her–& slender fingers curl into the soft fabric of his robes. 

easily, she yanks, smashing lips upon lips in desperate fervidity as she steps forward, pressing him tight against the wall and her body—firm, supple, and sinful all in one.

in the moonlight, the vixen smiles between one shared breath and another, words tinged with bitter flippancy as her gaze meets his, barely able to slip out between yet another kiss.

“this world is burning down with or without us, cain.”

[rghikari]

| fine china; |

     (*) With the first week of her stay in Elv coming to an end with tonight’s dinner, Hikari found herself surprised to admit that she was enjoying her stay despite her hesitance about being sent to represent her father in the first place. Her childhood held reasons as to why the Water Nation had become such a thing of horror for the princess but it seemed that with her most recent visit, all of that went away. 

But try as hard as she could to deny it, the truth was that her enjoyment came from the absent presence of the second prince of Elv-- which she hoped would remain absent until her leave back for Surya the next week. 

Dressed in a burgundy dress her chamber maids had packed for her trip, she made her way to the dining hall in a pleasant mood. The dress’s hue was a stark contrast to the blackness of her long hair but it was oddly complementary to the tint of her lips; perhaps this was the reason why her chamber maids loved dressing her in similar colors. She was not to complain though since they usually made great choices when it came to styling her-- which she was thankful for. 

Arriving at the hall, the appetizing smell of the delicious buffet laid out the table succeeded in distracting her from the presence of someone new-- someone she has not seen in years and someone she actually hoped to never see again-- standing at the end of the table dressed to the nines.  

[ rgxcain ] 

[rghikari]

| skeletons in the closet; past |

     (*) After another successful attempt at escaping her nanny, the Suryan princess retreated deeper into the garden like she knew where she was going. All castles were the same, she thought to herself as she walked without paying much attention to the distance she was creating between her and where her other siblings were. They were not going to notice her disappearance until much later anyways and by then she would have already been done with her book, already on her way back to them. 

Though it was the palace of the Water nation, Hikari was sure that the courtyard where they had been playing would lead into a garden, just like how it was back home, and in that garden she would find a big old tree that would be the perfect place for her to read under. It was quiet all around her perhaps because everyone else was busy catering to the trade discussions her father had journeyed here for not that she minded though. Silence was music to her ears and she enjoyed it far more than she did the sounds of people talking about or any sound an instrument could produce.  Finally finding refuge underneath the shade of a willow tree, she settled against its trunk and opened her book to where she had left off.

[ rgxcain ]