Total Eclipse of the Heart (Royal AU Wally x reader)

Chapter Eleven

Until now, Lady (Y/n) wasn't sure what to feel about the King of Hearts.
When they met after the sword incident, she believed he was simply being a gentleman and a good host. But with how often he would chuckle at her words, she suspected him to also thought of her as 'entertaining', like most of the nobility did at the time. During the hunt, the met again, but it was because circumstances brought them together, it wasn't because either of them wanted to. His and Frank's declaration after that did shock her, but she didn't know whose idea it actually was. Every time they were talking – alone, or within a group – there was always some doubt in her mind about his intensions and the way he regarded her.

However, right now, she didn't really care.
Ever since she became a member of the High Council of Spades, she has been doing research on potential government/social/economic/etc programs, only a handful of people knew about them and only a couple of them would keep up with her rambling (at least within the first hour). The King of Hearts was different however, never averting his gaze, nodding along, even asking questions from time to time, so she knew he was indeed paying attention. She kept going from pitch to pitch. And for the first time in two years, the passing of time felt pleasant, since she couldn't feel it anymore.

There was a knock at the door.
"Lady (L/n)?"
"(L/n)?! (L/n)'s in there?!"
Said lady looked back to see the King of Diamonds and the Queen of Clubs, looking at her with big eyes.
"Frank, Julie." Wally leaned to the side since the black board blocked his view of the doorway. "Good morning."
"It's past lunchtime."
"What?!" (Y/n) exclaimed. "Oh no! I'm so sorry for taking so much of your time, my King!" she bowed to Wally, blushing. "I shall leave you to your meeting."
"Well that's the thing." Frank folded his arms as him and Julie walked in. "Today's meeting was supposed to include you."
"Huh?" she looked at him with big eyes.

"But his Majesty Mr. Insomniac over here." he glared at Wally, who just kept smiling. "Seems to be too impatient to follow an agreed upon schedule!"
Wally just kept smiling, carefree.
"All three of you...?" (Y/n) pointed at them, then at herself. "A meeting with me?"
"Yeah!" Julie enthusiastically nodded. "The weekend is where business happens! And I wanna know in which order that art passing thing is gonna be!"
"You have... More than one business plan with you." Frank flipped through the documents on the desk.
"Um... I don't mind starting from the beginning but..." (Y/n) looked at Wally.
"You can just move on to your next proposition." he gestured her to go ahead.
"Hey! What about us?!" Julie whined.
"I can see you already went halfway too!" Frank gestured to the two piles of documents.
"I don't want Lady (L/n) to repeat herself." he leaned back in his seat with an 'innocent' smile.

Frank huffed, frowning.
"Either way, we should all go get lunch before starting this meeting." he said.
"But, didn't you say it was past lunchtime?" (Y/n) asked.
"We were waiting for Wally." Julie said. "But he never showed up, that's why we came here."
"Awww." she let out and quickly regretted it.
But Julie giggled.
"Yeaaaah we're best frieeeends!" she shook her hands.

"You will join us, I hope." Wally said as he stood up.
"O-Oh, it's okay." she shook her head. "I had a big breakfast, I'm not that hung-"
Her stomach rumbled. As Julie laughed and Wally chuckled, she covered her red face with her hands. Frank sighed.
"Come on guys." he said and walked out, the others following him.
(Y/n) stayed at the back of the group, still embarrassed. As they walked through the castle, she could feel people's stare on her back.
"(Y/n)!" Julie suddenly linked her arm with hers.
"Aaah!" she let out, surprised.
"We're finally having lunch together!" she beamed, leaning towards her. "Happened way sooner than expected! Isn't it cool?"
"Y-Yeah. It is." she leaned back.

"Julie." Frank spoke. "Remember what we said about personal space?"
"Right!" she stood straight. "Sorry (Y/n)." she smiled, her eyebrows furrowed.
"I-It's alright." she nodded.
She heard Wally chuckle beside her and she realized. The four of them were walking side by side. Everyone could see them. And it made her conflicted.
She trusted that the three royals wanted to be friends with her. The thing was however that, with her being from the Spades Kingdom, from an outside point of view, it could only be seen as four representatives of the Four Kingdoms. Even she had a hard time not regarding the situation as such.
She wanted to relax. She wanted to have fun. But being with people of such titles and responsibilities, it was very difficult. Especially when she had responsibilities of her own in this moment. She was this close to her goal – her Kingdom's goal – she must make a good impression on them. After all, if they didn't want to be friends with her, would they have even bothered to hear her out?
That question made her stomach twist.