Forbidden Love

A Royal Request

A week. He had a week.

One week get the jewels and get out of there. He needed to get his plans into succession if he was going to succeed with this, because at the moment she was taking every single moment of his thoughts. Both awake and asleep.

"Sir Chat Noir," Sir Luka called, motioning with his head for Adrien to come and join him.

Maybe the knight had come to his senses and was going to go back on the release of last night, or worse — he'd heard about the frollicking in the river and Adrien was about to meet his doom. They had made enough noise that someone must have overheard what was going on and it definitely wouldn't be in his favour to be seen swimming with the - naked - Princess.

Adrien had yet to see Princess Marinette on her usual morning walk with Lady Kagami, part of him wondering if she had freed herself the previous night, or was purposefully attempting to avoid him. His heart was unable to deal with the latter thought.

He bounded forward, lowered down onto one knee and bowed his head in respect to his senior. "Sir Luka."

"Come. Take a walk with me."

Looking up, Adrien watched as Luka turned and headed down the cherry tree pathway, Adrien quite sure he was about to be taken to the river and drowned.

He followed a couple of steps behind, before Sir Luka slowed for him to walk alongside. They stopped just under the cherry blossom, Sir Luka reaching up and plucking a couple of petals from the perfect pink flowers. Maybe his luck was kicking in and Sir Luka was going to proposition him for a late night skinny dip, instead of a severe drawn out death.

The knight twisted the petal over the metal fingers of his gauntlet.

"The Princess has requested you to walk beside her today. You will be expected to follow her orders and protect her at all costs. Do I make myself clear?" Sir Luka threw the delicate petal down before continuing towards the river edge, away from the castle and the safety of the rest of the guard. Adrien followed swiftly behind.

He stumbled a couple more steps until finally they were at the water's edge. Sir Luka moved closer and settled himself on one of the larger rocks indicating for Adrien to come and join.

"Come," he requested, Adrien, not brave enough to go against his superior, followed his request.

He moved down to the rocks, seating himself on a slightly lower one, and looked over to where he'd been the previous night. A smirk played on his lips as he remembered the situation himself and the Princess had ended up in.

They sat in silence for a while. The steady gush of the river, relaxing and consistent, something Adrien didn't know he needed until right now.

"I'm only going to ask you this once, and I expect the truth."

Adrien felt himself freeze. Had Sir Luka brought him here to murder him and deposit the body. It would be easy enough; just to stab him then throw him out into the river.

"I have no reason to lie."

"And there's the first one."

Unsure what was happening, Adrien turned to look at the knight sitting beside him. Sir Luka was looking out over the river, his face serene and unreadable. As a knight he was incredible, he was calm, authoritative and, Adrien hoped, fair — the anticipation of what was to come next caused the blood to speed through his veins.

"There's a story about this castle, and about the Lord who lives here. I'm guessing you don't come from far. Have you heard it before?"

"I don't believe I have, I didn't know there was a story of the Lord."