Princess Lilya

“Almost as beautiful as their mother.” If they had a child before they took the throne they would have time to build their family before his responsibility list grew three feet. An idea that made him want to have children more as he thought about it. His arms found their way around her, enclosing her to him and squeezing tight. “Are you okay, my love?”

“They will be more beautiful than their mother,” Lilya corrected him as she moved to nuzzle against him. She wanted to make sure that they at least started their family so he had time to just be a husband and dad for awhile before he also had to be king. She smiled against him feeling a sense of relief knowing that she had his support. “I’m the best that I could be, my love. I can’t be better with Sasha’s health, but I’m doing so much better than I was because of you. Your support has done so much for me.”

“Our tiny human.” He repeated, leading her away to the sand. “They are going to be beautiful.” Valentine stopped at the edge of the beach to kick off his shoes. The feeling of the cool sand between his toes causing a relaxed sigh to leave him. “I am oh so in love with you Lilya.”

“And let myself be replaced? Never.” It was intended as a joke but her words left her mouth in a more serious tone than anticipated, she quickly worked to remedy them before Lilya were to get the wrong idea. “What I mean is, I love my job, and I would never want to leave you or your husband. I know that you don’t take what I do for granted, especially Val. The man would be lost without me, I don’t think he even knows his own mobile number.”

“Ariana, there is no one in this world that could replace you to me and my husband,” Lilya assured her as she reached out resting a hand on her arm tenderly. “Both of us would be lost without you if we’re being completely honest. I don’t know who to contact if I need something, but you do. As for Valentine though you’re right he doesn’t even known his own mobile number much less which drawer has his underwear. You’re vital to his survival.”

“Your secret is safe with me, I’ll make sure he never finds out.” The blonde teased, laughter coating her words. “That’s true. That’s why people had them a thousand or so years ago. I don’t believe you can ever replace dogs.”

Lilya didn’t hold back on her laughter as she looked over at her, “Thank you for keeping my most guarded secrets. I appreciate it. But as humans we’ll always need our protective best friends.”

sasha wrapped his arms around his sister, pressing his nose into her hair for a moment, grounding himself for a moment. he pulled back and looked to her. “there is another thing,” he whispered to her, his thumb running itself under her eye. “it involves illyana.”

“What about her?” She asked him quietly trying to keep her emotions from her voice. “If you want to change your bride to be there’s no return policy once I’m attached to them. I love her already and you can’t take her from me.” It was mostly a joke but she was glad to have someone that loved her brother almost as much as she did.”

“I’m ready.” Valentine said finally. His hand squeezed that of his wife and pulled her into his side, his arm slipping around her. “I’m thinking that you’re the most beautiful woman in the world, and that I can’t wait to see how lovely you are carrying our children.” It was a thought he kept to himself, when looking over her sleeping form beside him at night. How lovely any child of hers would be.

“I’m not going to be lovely in the slightest. I’m going to be swollen and grumpy and not able to sleep. But it’s going to be the best thing in the entire world when we’re curled up in our bed with our tiny little human that we made,” she knew as much as she wasn’t looking forward to the discomfort of pregnancy, she couldn’t wait to see the way he would interact with her pregnant bump and even more so with their child.

“That’s a good thing, and they seem like they could be amazing cuddle buddies. Yeah, they look quite big.” Her own eyes were lit with amusement, especially as she pictured the other princess next to her large dog.

“Alexei specifically is the best cuddle buddy, just don’t tell my husband that I said that,” She told her leaning in as if she was telling her a secret. “But dogs are man’s best friend after all. They’re the best.”

“Apparently so Duchess.” Ariana only ever called Lilya by her official title when they were in public, close to listening ears who would love to either cause bad PR for the family, or worse, to get her fired. She turned around slowly to face the woman as she was suddenly bombarded with a series of questions that were fired too quickly for Ari to answer a single one of them on her one. But she understood the general message, Lilya was still slightly uncomfortable at having her around, which she understood and respected entirely. 

“I’m fine Duchess. I sleep like a baby every night and you’re never asking too much of me. This is my job.”

Lilya knew that a flinch could be detected in her features when Ariana used her title but it was because it still felt so wrong to her to be called by it rather than her name. She knew why it was critical that she used her title, but she wished that the universe was different. “If it does become too much just tell us we need to hire a second lady. I know there is a lot that we rely on you for, I never want you to think that we take it for granted.”

Illyana stayed where she was until the duchess returned with the cream. She relaxed into the touch, listening to the story with a smile on her face. “That’s so sweet. I wish I was that close with my brothers.” Truthfully she was close with them, but neither in the way that Lilya seemed to be with Sasha. “How do you manage now? It must be awful knowing you won’t be living together–” Illyana paused. “You’ll visit often, yes?”

“I’m going to visit as often as I humanly can. If I had my way I wouldn’t be going to Italy, but I know I can’t cling to Sasha as much as I’d like to,” She knew that if the other woman looked closer she would notice the tears in her eyes and call her out on it, but when she thought about life away from her twin or even worse life without him it became too much. “But you’re going to take care of him and that has to be good enough for me.”

sasha gulped at his twin. “I may not have a lot of time,” he whispered…. after a few beats of his heart. it had been easy to tell everyone, his parents, his friends but not lilya. every syllable coming from his mouth tasted like vemon. stage two felt doable, but not that it was stage three and had grown into nearby tissues or lymph nodes tomorrow wasn’t a guarantee. never did he think he would need to put a will together at twenty three, but here he was. he wouldn’t tell her what he would leave her, or the others but he knew if it stopped beating that would be hard enough.

“I just need you to be my sister,” he whispered, finally letting her know what he needed. “and to not think about tomorrow when you’re with me, just right now in the moment.”

Lilya felt her heart completely stopping at his words. Of course since his diagnosis she had always known that there was a chance that each day she woke up would be the same day that the single person who had been by her side since literally day one was gone. Hearing him reminding her of it though never made it any easier. She knew though that they could be in their nineties and she still would never be okay with losing him. Whenever she thought about it all she could focus on was all the things in her life that Sasha would miss out on. Her children, her grandchildren, every single birthday that she got older and he wasn’t there. She needed him. 

She struggled to fight back the tears as she moved to wrap her arms around his waist. She wouldn’t cry in front of him but she wouldn’t make the same promises once she was alone. “I’m here. We can talk about Illyana if you want.”

Even though she was comforting he felt like a horrible man for not being able to respond in the way she deserved. “Your opinion is always going to be the most important, huh?” Valentine teased. His hands squeezed hers and brought it to his lips. “I love you.” He replied finally. “I love you and I want a family with you.”

“If you’re not ready though then we’re not ready,” She told him quietly knowing it wasn’t fair to force him to be ready for something. They would have to get there eventually it wasn’t something that she could make him ready. “Really just tell me what you really are thinking. I’m not going to get mad, but I do know I need to know what’s really going on.”

He laced his fingers through hers, a familiar feeling of comfort pulling him down from the excitement. He’d never tire of being near her. “I would have to disagree.” He teased, his gaze not leaving hers. Though at her sudden comment his jaw nearly dropped, eyes growing wider. He hadn’t expected her to be ready for a family. “I–I don’t know what to say.” His eyes began flickering over her face looking for any hint of possible teasing.

She brought his hand to her lips pressing a delicate kiss to his knuckles as she kept her gaze on him. “It’s a good thing my opinion is more important than yours when it comes to whether your special or not. And you don’t have to reply. If you’re not ready or don’t think we are that’s fine,” she assured him. She knew it had to be the right timing for them both, She could wait if it’s what it took.

“Just the answer I like to hear.” Valentine was more at ease when the smile appeared on Lilya’s face. He leaned into her touch, lips pressing gingerly to her palm. “Anything for you.” He replied, and though he didn’t want to move he stood, reaching his hand out to pull her up alongside himself. “Lead the way.”

“You are truly special,” She knew that she was a lucky woman when it came to how he treated her. There was never a request that she had that he brushed off. Anything that seemed to make her happy was never met with a no. “I was thinking I might be ready to have a child in the next year or so. But I wasn’t sure how you were feeling about it.”

“What kind of dog do you have? I know Pippa won’t be that much when she’s full grown, so I have a feeling you have a larger dog than her?” She wondered, brown hues soft as she looked at the brunette.

“He’s a Newfoundland which at least means if I’m ever drowning he’ll save me at least. But he’s easily the same size as I am if not bigger,” she admitted in amusement as she shook her head.

The searing burn was becoming numb and she locked her eyes on the woman. “Yes.” She nodded. “You’re the best.” She’d been worried that bonding with Lilya wouldn’t be easy, having not grown up around many girls, but she wanted to know her.

Lilya didn’t hesitate as she stood up and went to the bathroom to locate the cream she had in mind before returning to her soon to be sister in law as she sat back down tenderly taking her hands into her own. “So when we were children there was this story that was told around the palace. Supposedly me and Sasha could not sleep in different cribs. If we were even out of eyesight of each other we would scream at the top of our lungs until we were reunited,” she spoke as she rubbed the cream into the burned skin as cautiously as she could until she was certain her skin was covered.