Marriage over war [On Hold]

Chapter 3

In the dining room, the tension between the two Admins was not any better than earlier. As Romeo sat in his usual seat he glared over at Xara. Aneesah had given Xara her seat at the other head of the table, distancing them a bit to avoid a chance of them fighting but make sure they were able to communicate properly. They communicated alright, with faces that say if looks could kill, neither of them would live. Aneesah herself sat at the side, closer to her husband and right in front of her son. The silence began to kill her on the inside, if the two sides were going to cooperate, they had to start getting along. Her eyes moved over from her plate of food to Julius. He seemed idely bored, twirling his fork. She gave him a cold stare, 'What is the matter with this child of mine?' Her thoughts wondered as she glanced at Kiara, who sat next to him. She decided to sit on the side closer to her mother, for a sense of familiarity.

Aneesah sighed, she honestly wanted to do something to help out, but if she does all the talking it won't seem like the boys are truely in agreement on the whole thing. They needed to speak for themselves, it was the one thing she couldn't do for them. She coughed lightly into her hand, trying to grab attention carefully. "Julius, you seem quiet my dear, is everything alright?" She asked calmly, but there was also a certain aura in her voice. Julius recognized this of course, it was the same aura that indicated she was trying to get his attention, without directly saying what she wanted him to hear. He had to look at her. "Yes, I'm fine." He responded, looking up at his mother's face. At once, she gestured her eyes over to Kiara, who looked a lot more uncomfortable than SHE did. A bit confused, Julius closed his eyes with a sigh and concentrated on his telepathy, entering his mother's mind. 'What am I supposed to do with HER?' She heard him think. 'Talk to her' 'What do you mean? What do I even say?' Aneesah could swear if they did not have guests over, she would smack her own face. 'Just, say something'

Leaving her mindspace, Julius gulped nervously as he looked over to his left. What the heck does he even say? His mind wandered to normal conversations he'd have but those were either with friends, his parents or his sisters when they visit. Well, here goes nothing. "So um... Kiara..." He said, nervously. Kiara looked in his direction, curious to his next words. "What's it like? You know in The Oasis." She shrugged, "Well, It's my home. It makes me happy and feel like I belong." Her response seemed to have lifted some of the tension. Quite the opposite of Julius though, yes he honored his home but sometimes he'd prefer the freedom of being outside the kingdom. The prince let out a deep breath, feeling a bit more comfortable to keep talking. "I see." While he was still a little nervouse, at least there was progress being made.  "Well, I hope you feel somewhat at home here as well." He said awkwardly. "And if there is anything I can do to help alleviate any discomfort, feel free to let me know." She smiled a little bit, there was still some tension but a bit of it hat gone away. With a small bit of laughter she spoke up. "Thank you." You could hear she felt a bit more relaxed.

"So um, Prince Julius..." as Kiara spoke, Julius noted something that he'd hold onto when she was done. "...do you have any hobbies you enjoy?"

"Of course." He told her. "But before we continue, please feel free to call me Julius. And please whatever you do... don't call me 'Jules'."

The princess laughed at his little comment. Supposedly there was some kind of past with that nickname but she decided to not press the subject. He coughed into his hand as a nervous blush crept up to his cheeks.

"Anyways, I play the violin. And when I'm not, I'm combat training."

"Well... I guess we are not so different." Kiara commented. "Only, I play the piano instead."

"Oh..." Julius' curiosity was raised. "Perhaps we could perform a duet sometime?"

"That sounds wonderful." Kiara responded, seemingly interested in the idea.

Her demeanor had now changed, now he could see she was comfortably at ease as she smiled. "And you train in combat as well?" He asked. Kiara nodded proudly. "Yes, I trained alongside our amazon warriors." "Interesting..." Maybe a sparring match could be added to the agenda as well. "What about you?" Kiara questioned, "Do you train with yourself of do you train with others?" Julius put a finger to his cheek as he thought. "Both actually, alongside the Red End Knights and by myself." The Red End Knight's, being a special group of Knight's trained within the royal guards ranks. These were individuals personally picked by the King. Speaking of which. "I even beat my dad in a sparring match." He said proudly. Before Kiara spoke up, Romeo's head turned into the direction of their conversation. "Pardon?" He wondered, curious as to why he was mentioned. "Oh nothing, just..." Julius sent a small smirk of mischief "... just telling Kiara how I may or may not have used one of your old strategic attacks against you in our little training." Completely broken out of his death staring contest, Romeo sat upright.

"Yes but... you weren't playing fair, son."

"And what happened to your whole there are no rules in combat speech?"

Romeo widened his eyes as Julius gave him the look of 'got you cornered now do I?'. Aneesah let out a small laugh at the situation as her husband's cheeks dusted red. Things seemed to look up a bit. Julius and Kiara continued to converse a bit more casually, coming up with a few more questions, their favourite food, plant, drink, it seemed as if they had quite a good chemistry, whether as future king and queen or just allies. Aneesah too felt a bit calmer, watching g the two. It gave her hope, hope that their people could finally live in peace. Romeo, still a little flustered from his son's comment, focused on his food. Not sure how to process it. Having his own words used against him, maybe he thought him too well. There was one person however, who remained silent at the table, who chose to observe instead of act, that was Xara. The first thing she noticed about Julius was that he did seem nice enough, but she also cought on that he has his father's tendency to have a smart mouth. However, he was getting along with Kiara and she seemed calm enough, but she still decided to keep an eye out. While her expression seemed neutral, she was very much still aware.

[Hi! Finally finished published. With help from nanouille_and_co of course. Gonna need to wind down a bit before writing chapter 4. But thanks for reading everybody.]