aaron romain-selene
"Why did you call me here?" Ruby frowns as she stands in front of my desk, glancing around my massive office, consisting of shelves full of books in all kinds of languages.
She's only been here a few times. Every time she would enter this room, more piles of documents would be placed on this desk.
"Come here, Ruby." I drop the pen and lean back on my chair. To my surprise, she says nothing and walks towards me. I could smell her scent. Roses.
"Yes?" She stands next to me and crosses her arms, waiting for me to say something.
"I need to go through some stuff based on the ceremony but I'll do that once this pile of work is done," I point to the huge pile, watching her eyes widen slightly.
"That's a lot of work, Aaron," she frowns, "Can I come back later?"
"No." I shake my head. "Stay here and read something. I'll be done in fifteen minutes. If you leave, you'll take more than thirty minutes to come back here. You're slower than a snail. I called you here an hour ago. An hour, Ruby." I narrow my eyes.
She narrows her eyes. "I am not slow. You have an obsession with time and speed."
"I can't afford to waste my time. It's too precious," I shrug. "I have way too many duties."
Unexpectedly, Ruby places her hands on my shoulders and leans forward until our faces are inches apart. "I should be more precious than all of that, Aaron. I am the most precious thing in your life as of now."
I think I forgot how to breathe.
I stare into her brown eyes.
"You fell for it, Aaron," she laughs, taking her hands off me and taking a step back. "I'm too good at this, aren't I?"
I fell for that and I fell for her. I can't even seem to get up now, I've fallen on my knees for her.
"Mhm," I nod slowly. "Go sit there. I need to finish this quickly."
She stays silent as if she can sense that I wasn't in the mood to talk to her. I watch her take a seat on the sofa and stare outside the balcony. The sunlight falls on her and I had to force myself to stop looking at her.
Honestly, I could stare at her all day and never get bored. Who would?
I hear three knocks on the door. I tell the person to enter and I lean back on the chair as I watch one of the ministers walk in.
"Your Highness," he bows, "There's an important message that I need to pass to you."
I nod and wave my hand, gesturing him to start talking.
"It's a highly important, confidential matter, your highness. The Lady should leave." The minister seems hesitant. I notice him glancing at Ruby and I let out a frustrated sigh.
Ruby sighs. "Oh, apologies," she murmurs, standing, "I'll leave now."
No one tells her to leave.
Nothing is more important than her. She has every right to know everything.
"She'll stay right here," I narrow my eyes at the minister as I gesture Ruby to sit down. "She is my soon-to-be wife, the future Empress and she has every right to know about everything."
The minister seems confused. "The engagement did really happen?" he gasps. "I thought it was just a rumour."
Ruby lets out a chuckle. "It's surprisingly true," she smiles at him as she takes a seat.
"Now, go on. What is the matter?" I arch an eyebrow.
"It seems like the Austrians are on the verge to start war with us."
I'm getting a headache.
Why did they hard to start a war the moment I began planning my wedding? I'm going to wipe their existence out of the world. All I wanted to do was plan the wedding. The wedding I've been waiting all my life.
"Call the council at the court tomorrow. We need to be prepared."
The minister nods, "Yes, your highness," he bows at me before walking out of the room.
"Should I get you some pain killers for that headache?" Ruby frowns at me. She's staring at me in...pity. I don't need pity. Dealing with all of this is my duty. Peace wasn't a thing in my life.
"I don't have a headache." I grumble, narrowing my eyes at him.
"You look uglier than you did a few minutes ago. I can tell that you're suffering a headache, Aaron," she throws me a small smile.
Everyone might think that she's being rude to me. However, this is the nicest my Ruby can get and this was more than enough for me.
"You know what would be the best pain killer?" I look up at her with a small smile.
"A bullet right through your head," she smiles proudly.
She's definitely going to murder me someday but I'll happily die if she's going to be cause of my death.
"God, you need to improve on pretending that you care about me," I frown in disappointment. "I was going to say a kiss."
"Kiss?" She looks disgusted. "You?"
"No. The wall behind you." I roll my eyes at her.
"Good. I rather kiss that hundred-year-old wall than your nasty face," she scoffs.
"I'm the best looking man in this empire, love," I scoff, "The one with the nasty face was your ex-fiancé."
"I hate to say this but you're right," she frowns, "I really thought I found a good husband."
"Now, you did."
She doesn't disagree.
