The Crown's Entrapment

As morning came aboard the Lucian, Xenia smiled as she woke up beside her ever loving mate. Darius rose just as soon as she did, giving her a radiant smile as she greeted her.

“Good morning, my love,” he smiled.

“Good morning too, my king,” she replied with a smile of her own. “I’m assuming that I’ll be swimming as soon as we’re done with breakfast?”

“That is correct,” Darius chuckled. “I’m sure you can handle it now, however. You’ve done it before. You can do it again.”

And wasn’t that the truth? Xenia was sure that swimming through the ocean wouldn’t be as hard as the last time she did it. Besides, it was only one day of swimming again. What else was there for her to do except to do it?

“Of course,” Xenia proudly smiled. “It’s gonna be pretty easy this time too. What with me having already done it.”

Granted, there might be a few sharks again, but that was a given, she supposed.

Sitting up, the princess went about her day with her usual rituals. With her training over and this last swim being her proverbial victory lap, she didn’t see any reason to not give Darius his celibacy potion. Not that she had any of it left anyway. They only had enough of it to last the entire week, and they were already well past the seventh day.

With a small smile, Xenia prepared Darius’s tea, her eyes absently wandering to her ever present mate. Blinking, she noticed something amiss in him.

He looked tired for some reason…

“How was your sleep?” she found herself asking.

“It was fine,” Darius stoically replied, the bags under his eyes a stark contrast to what he just said. “I just slept late, is all.”

Late? “What kept you up then?”

As if to ignore her question, the king simply stood up and went towards her. Without any warning whatsoever, Darius gave her a surprise hug, making her stutter as she struggled under his grasp.

“It was nothing, Xen,” he insisted, nuzzling his nose onto her skin. “Or perhaps you want to know more about this ship? I could always add more to your training if you want to.”

“A-Alright, fine,” she breathed out, barely managing to catch her breath as she finally felt him let go of her. “It’s just that you look bothered.”

“Like I said, it was nothing more than me doing a few rounds throughout the ship,” Darius casually shrugged. “For old time’s sake, I suppose.”

Xenia blinked as she watched him take the cup of tea she prepared for him and take a sip from it. Somehow, a part of her felt like there was more to what he told her, but she decided that she should trust him on this. It wasn’t like he had given her any reason to not trust him so far.

“If you insist,” she shrugged with a smile. “I do hope that your evening stroll didn’t take too much out of you.”

“It was… enlightening,” he wistfully stated. “This ship holds so many memories that I can see myself getting lost just wandering about its hull.”

“I can see that,” Xenia hummed. “It’s named after your father, after all.”

“That, it is.”

Seeing him smile, the princess decided that it was more than enough for her to drop the nagging feeling still present at the back of her head. She had better things to do than to pry on Darius’s casual strolls. If it was important, he surely would’ve shared it with her.

Maybe in due time then.

***

The rest of the morning came and went without too much fanfare. Breakfast was had, and a few more extra ‘activities’ of encouragement almost happened before Xenia managed to break off with a knowing smile. There was a time for them to do the deed, and now wasn’t the time for it.

Besides, they’ve stalled for long enough.

“You finally showed up, Princess,” Osman chuckled as she walked across the deck. “And here I was thinking that you’re escaping the last part of your training.”

“This technically isn’t even a part of training anymore,” she chuckled. “The seven days are up, after all.”

“Yes, but you can use all the help you can get anyway,” Osman seriously nodded. “If I thought you didn’t need some remedial training, I would’ve let you and Your Majesty go at it for the rest of our trip.”

Xenia blushed at those words. Behind her, she heard Darius let out a small cough, but he kept his quiet as if to simply observe. Not that she would’ve minded a small protest from him. To be honest, they probably would’ve just gone at each other if she didn’t have to swim alongside the Lucian that day. That, she couldn’t deny.

“Nevertheless, you’ll be building up some more endurance by swimming alongside the Lucian for the day. Not even throughout the night. By sundown, you can come up,” Osman smiled. “We wouldn’t want you looking like a dried fish by the time we get to Valcrez, after all.”

“See to that, Osman,” Darius hummed. “I wouldn’t like Xen to look unpresentable in front of her own sister.”

“That’s true,” the admiral chuckled. “Like I said, think of this just as a sort of remedial training. It’s not much, but it can help.”

“Yes, I get it,” Xenia waved the admiral off with a cheeky smile. “So, when do I start?”

“You can start as soon as you want,” Osman smirked, gesturing towards the nearest ledge with a wave of his hand. “The ocean’s already waiting for you to grace it with your ever radiant presence.”

Xenia smirked. Looking around, a part of her wanted to do something different with this one. With the stakes not being particularly high, she wanted to do her own prank for a change.

“My king?”

“Yes, Xen?”

Walking to where her mate was leaning out on the edge of the boat, she flashed him a smirk as she positioned her hand at the hem of her dress. “Want to see a magic trick?”

Darius frowned, “What’re you planning?”

“Think fast!”

Without so much as a word, Xen proceeded to strip herself of her clothes, throwing them right at Darius’s face before quickly jumping overboard. With how fast she went about it, nobody could’ve seen her naked body before she jumped off.

It was the perfect prank… right until she hit the ice-cold water.