A Phoenix With No Wings

41- For Her

Seeing the one you love be happy, it's enough.

The crown prince sits alone under the tree, his nightmare wakes him up. It is almost dawn but the stars still shine brightly.

He remembers the first time he saw her; It was autumn, the leaves fall so naturally just like when he first saw her. The empress is the one who gives color to his monochrome life. And after that, the crown prince just fall for every single thing about her.

But this beautiful love may not meant to be.

He took a deep breath.

Just like what he said, he will make sure the empress only walks on flower path.

The crown prince stands and walks back to Zhang's forbidden city.

______

Few days passes by, the emperor finally asks the empress to go on a date. The crown prince knows that he shouldn't follow them because it will hurt himself but he.. he..

At the end he does follow them. Seeing the empress wearing that clothes really is weird. Why isn't the emperor wears his royal robe? If they want to disguise as a normal person, then why is the empress wearing her full outfit? This couple is so weird.

And when ZHANG GUARD couldn't recognize his own emperor, the crown prince want to slap himself. To make it worse, the emperor forgets to bring his jade. Wow.

The crown prince really couldn't understand the emperor. What kind of date is this? Washing a horse? And he completely ignores the empress for the whole date. Even the crown prince could see the disappointment on the empress's face. BUT THE EMPEROR CANT!

After a long hour of washing the horse they finally decided to get back.

___
"Huh! I'm so tired, good thing I did a great job on washing.. she must thinks I am a hardworking person, hehehe." The emperor thinks then laughs by himself.

"Your majesty, why don't we go back now as we finished our agenda." The empress smiles because it's finally done. Actually she internally celebrating.

"Sure!"

They rode slowly back to the palace. Not talking to each other. The atmosphere is so distant and awkward.

All of sudden, it is raining. And not a small one, the empress clothes is all soaked and her hair is wet.

"Empress, are you okay?" The emperor asks

"Uhh.." she looks at herself, drenched because of the hard rain.

Seeing her reaction, the emperor knows that she's not okay. It must be so cold. Damn this is a bad day to wash the horses.

" Wait here" The emperor instructed and then gets down from his horse.

The emperor is thinking that maybe somewhere not far away, there is a hut where they can stay for a while.

The Empress also gets down from her horse and shelters under the biggest tree.

Right after she gets down, a big lightning strikes. The horses shock and run away to different directions.

The Emperor and Empress look at Each other in unison. Dont know what to do. Because the river is quite far away from the forbidden city there is no way that they will walk home with drench clothes under the heavy rains unless they want to get sick and won't be able to attend The morning assembly.

"Umm.. I will look around, stay here.." The emperor says.

The emperor runs and hope to find a place to stay for the night. He gets angry to himself because of his poor choice and now the Empress needs to suffer because of it.

He saw a big leaf and took it with him. Not far from there, There is an abandoned hut.

"This is it!" He runs back in full speed to the empress.

The empress is still waiting there. She hugs herself because it's cold. The emperor walks closer and realizes that the empress is shivering. He pulls her into a hug and rest his head on hers.

"I'm sorry." He whispers. "I'm sorry for today.." The emperor hugs her tighter, it's not written on the book but something inside him is telling him to do it.

"Let's go, I found a place to shelter until the rain stops."

Walking there took longer than expected. Especially because the empress's heavy and wet robe.

When they finally arrived, the emperor feels relieved. It is an old hut but it's quite nice.

The emperor saw a robe on the bed, so he quickly takes it and gives it to the empress.

"Here, wear this."

"..." it's a man robe so the empress hesitates.

But the emperor doesn't get why the empress is hesitant. All he thinks about is that the empress is cold, and he doesn't want her to get sick.

"Y-you can change, I..I won't s-see." The emperor thinks that's why the empress hesitates.

"..uh, okay." She takes off her outer robe and the emperor turns away.

The empress gulps, she is stripping herself in a room only the two of them but the emperor is not looking at her. She frowns and quickly changes.

"A-are you d-done?" The emperor who has his hands closing his eyes asks.

"Yes."

"Let's stay here for tonight.."

The empress exhale. She won't expect anything because all of her expectations crushed.

While the empress sits on the bed, the emperor founds thatch and light them up so it won't be too cold.

"You can go to sleep."

"O-okay.." before sleeping, the empress sees the emperor's wet clothes. She smiles knowing that he lets her stay warm even though he needs it too. At least today is not that bad. She smiles and goes to sleep.

______

Oh no! It's raining. If this date can go even worse, he swears! The crown prince already rolls his eyes until the back of his head.

And then a lighting strikes and their horses runs away.

It seems like the world doesn't give its permission.

The crown prince sees The empress's clothes is all wet and she seems to be shivering. Because the crown prince is spying from the trees his clothes is not wet. He must find a way to give his clothes to the Empress.

When the emperor founds the hut, the crown Prince knows that this is a good chance for him. He quickly cleans up the place so the Empress will have a tidy place to stay he also takes off his dry robes and places it on the bed.

But the crown prince is not satisfied even though the empress changes her wet robe, she might still be cold. So he decided to takes some thatch and place it around the hut so they can light them and stay warm.

They are finally arriving at the hut. The crown prince takes a last look at the place that he just cleaned and hides outside.

When he sees the empress changed her clothes and the emperor light the thatch, he smiles. Just like that. He wants to protect her like that.

The crown prince shivers as he only wears his inner robe. The cold wind makes his situation even worse. But his heart is warm. As long as the empress is happy, it's enough for him.

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