a knight's promise | iwaizumi hajime

1

Sunlight peeks through your thick curtains and shines on your face, adding a warm glow and causing you to wake up. You slowly open your eyes and see a shirtless man still sleeping soundly beside you. You keep watching him, how his usually messy hair is somehow even messier, how his chest rises and falls with each breath, and how peaceful he looks.

The sunlight, which woke you up, shines in his eyes as well. Moments later, his eyes slowly open, revealing his green eyes.

"Good morning Hajime," you smile.

"Good morning Princess," he says, sitting up on your bed.

"Cmon, Iwa, we're alone, there's no need for formalities."

"You're still royalty though, I'm just your knight," he responds, pushing some hair out of your face.

"Yea but it still makes me feel weird, I don't want the person I love calling me 'princess' or 'your highness.'"

Iwaizumi doesn't say anything after that. He gets out from the bed and opens the curtains, letting in even more light than before. He turns around to let you change into something that is more than just your underwear. After you change, he turns around and gets his clothes.

Before leaving your room, he hesitates by the door and questions what he should say to you. Millions of thoughts flowed through his head, but none of them seemed right. In the end, he decides to leave silently and not disturb you further. Although he comes from an affluent family, and is one of the top knights in the kingdom, he still feels insecure about your love for him and his position in society compared to you. He constantly questioned whether or not it was okay for a knight to be in love with a princess.

You watch him silently exit, leaving you alone in your large bedroom. You remain seated in bed, until some of your maids enter your room and help you get dressed for the day. Your father, the king, told you there was going to be an important announcement today so you had to wear more formal clothes than usual.

With your hair and makeup all done, you head outside of your room and are greeted by Iwaizumi once again. A small smile and hint of blush appears when he sees you. He is dressed in his usual attire, a metal chest plate and matching trousers. His sword is attached firmly at his waist, ready to be used at any time. He holds his elbow out to escort you, and you wrap your arm around his.

"You look amazing today," he compliments you.

"Well I did have to get dressed up for that announcement today."

"Anyways, are we going to be meeting up your cousin today like usual?" he asks.

"We probably should, you know how he gets."

"Yea, he turns into a loser," Iwaizumi scoffs, "So annoying."

You let out a small laugh and reply, "He still is your best friend though, so obviously he can't be that bad."

"Well he does have a beautiful cousin, so I guess that makes up for his shortcomings," Iwaizumi smiles at you.

"Excuse you Iwa, I am the beautiful cousin," a voice calls out from behind you.

You both turn around and are greeted by familiar, perfectly styled brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Don't act all cocky just because you have marriage requests from all the surrounding kingdoms," Iwa tells him.

"Okay, anyways, Tooru, do you know what announcement is being made today?" You ask your cousin.

"No clue, I asked my dad, but he won't tell me anything, but whatever we'll find out in," he trails off and checks his pocket watch, "around 2 hours."

"Two hours?" Iwaizumi asks, shocked.

"Yea, the timing was changed. For a knight you should really know better," Oikawa teases, "Oh I just remembered, have you seen Mattsun, or Makki anywhere? They are supposed to be in the castle today but I can't find them anywhere."

"They're back!" you exclaim happily, "They haven't come to visit me yet."

"They got back last night, so there's a very good chance they're still sleeping in their chambers. If you go visit them, remind them to send me their report on the guards in the country," Iwaizumi replies.

"Guess I have to wake them up," Tooru sighs, "But whatever, I'm leaving now. I'll see you two lovebirds in two hours."

You wave goodbye to your cousin and continue walking with Iwaizumi. You didn't have any duties to attend to today, so you mostly walked around and checked on all the staff in the castle. You wanted to make sure they were okay and content. The entire time you walked around, Iwaizumi was one step behind you, making sure you stayed safe.

When the time came for the announcement, Iwaizumi escorted you to the throne room, and you took your seat. Iwaizumi stood farther away from you, at his position.

Minutes later, the king entered the room and everyone stood out of respect for him. Once he took a seat, everyone relaxed and went back to how they were before.

"Ahem, the King of this fine country will now make his announcement. Make sure to stay quiet," one of the guards announced.

"Thank you for that introduction," the king starts, "Now, as you all know, my beautiful daughter has finally become of marriageable age."

Marriageable age.

Those two words swirled in your head along with many others. You knew as a princess that getting married off to a royal in another kingdom was always a possibility, but you assumed that it wouldn't happen. Almost everyone in the castle knew about your relationship with Iwaizumi, so you never thought you would get an arranged marriage.

As the words of your father, keep going through you mind, you frantically look around the room for your love. You make eye contact with Tooru, his usual bright, playful eyes were darkened and filled with empathy.

"So, finally the big announcement is that we will now be closer to the nation of Fukurōdani, through the marriage of my daughter and the noble Prince Keiji," the king announces happily.

Everyone in the room starts clapping and smiling for your betrothal, but your mind keeps racing. You tried consoling yourself by saying that this was an extremely cruel joke, but as the congratulations kept pouring in from the other high ranking officers and officials, your hope diminished.

As your eyes start to cloud with tears, you fake a smile and accept the congratulations from everyone in the room. After thanking everyone, your eyes frantically search for the green eyes you've grown to love. When you finally find them, however, you see tears brimming, along with a pained smile.