#cuddle request

You much preferred your room; quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. The window sill in your room at the palace was big enough for you to sit in, perched on the precipice between the inside and outside worlds, with only a thin veil of glass separating you. Sometimes, like in the current winter chill, you breached the wall of glass and pushed one side open, letting the crisp breeze of the night air reach your legs under the blanket. It was snowing, everything was frozen, even you. But that didn’t stop you from letting the fine, ephemeral flakes swirl into your bedroom before hitting your blanket; the carpet; the bed; and sticking, then slowly melting into nonexistence. Snow was a beauty you didn’t get to see often, and if getting to see its beauty up close meant freezing your limbs, so be it. 

A soft knock at your door pulled you from your reverence and you padded, sock-footed, over to the door and opened it to reveal a certain plum-haired prince in your doorway. “Good evening, Clavis.” you gathered him in your gaze, searching for any obvious clues as to why he had arrived here like a lost puppy at some poor unwitting woman’s doorstep.

“I couldn’t help but notice, my lady, that you have your window open despite it being unbearably cold outside.” Mischief glinted in his eyes and you stepped back involuntarily. 

“I do, yes.” you replied hesitantly. “Were you watching me from the garden?”

“Mhm,” he hummed, taking the space between you as a sudden invitation to cross the threshold, and strolled over to said open window. “But what’s the point if you can’t sprawl out in it, am I right? Tsk tsk.” he chided, the ghost of a smile haunting the faux disappointment on his face. 

Whereas normally yours and Clavis’s ideas of fun were vastly different, you couldn’t help but agree with him here, and let out a soft sigh. “Sariel would kill me. It’d be too easy for me to get sick and fall behind in my studies.” 

“Well then, little kitten.” Clavis turned abruptly to face you. “Isn’t it just perfect that Sariel isn’t here right now?” 

“You know he has eyes everywhere, Clavis.” you admonished.

The 3rd Prince’s grin widened into that Cheshire smile you were so used to seeing blooming on his lips. “Not in the places I know about. Come on! We’re gonna have some fun tonight, and Mr. Grumpypants will be none the wiser.” Before you could even consider disagreeing, your hand was folded in Clavis’s and he was tugging you out the door. 

You should have been rolling your eyes; you should have been concerned about what Clavis was up to; you should have missed the novel you had left discarded on your window sill. But all you could think about, as a blush crawled its way up your neck and face, is how soft Clavis’s hand felt as he laced his fingers with yours, and how your heart lurched at the idea of him letting go. 

Squeezing through a cabinet in the kitchens, down back stairs that had no flames to light their descent, through a small alleyway between two of the palace towers, and down into the courtyard below, Clavis led you, taking care to keep you upright and unharmed. “It would ruin the fun if we had a blood trail,” he had said, but a small piece of you hoped he simply wanted to keep you from getting hurt. You yelped in surprise when he lifted you off your feet and settled you into his arms, bridle-style. 

“Shhh!” he chuckled softly. “Don’t wake the guards. The Devil will really have our heads then!” he was chastising you, but there was mirth in his gaze, and you tucked your head in his neck to keep from giggling foolishly. 

“So why are you carrying me?” you whispered into the warm skin of his neck.

“This way, there’s only one set of footsteps leading out of the castle, not two. No incriminating evidence of you disobeying orders, milady. Just me.” you could feel his triumphant grin without even looking at him, and snuggled closer to his chest. 

“And you’re okay with that?” you whispered again.

“Of course!” he replied under his breath. “I am an expert at evading the Devil’s wrath.” 

“And what of your secret passageway? It’s practically ruined now.” you murmured, almost feeling guilty at the absurd notion.

“I have plenty.” came his simple reply, and your guilt vanished instantaneously. Of course he did. After several moments where you heard nothing but the crunch of Clavis’s shoes in the snow and the consistent beat of his heart against your ear, you reached a secluded part of the garden that he had shown you once before, in the spring. The wrought iron gate was decorated in a collection of icy flakes, making it sparkle and shimmer in the pale moonlight. Even in the winter, this tiny corner was ripped straight from the pages of a fairytale. You had every intention of walking in yourself, but Clavis made no moves to put you down as he fiddled with the key in the lock to the gate, merely shifting you so he could hold you with one arm instead of two. 

Your giggle finally escaped your lips and you clapped your hands over your mouth, until you looked down at Clavis, who had ceased in his war with the gate and was gazing up at you with- no, it couldn’t be, could it? Your hands lowered from your face absentmindedly, gravity returning them to where they belonged. Clavis’s smile was no longer that of an unruly wildcat, but of an arduous lover, and suddenly this rendezvous felt forbidden in a different way entirely. A clank beside you pulled his gaze from you at last, and he cast his eyes down at the lock that had haplessly fallen from the gate. “Shoddy piece of rubbish,” he mused, shaking his head. 

A moment later he had whisked you inside and closed the gate behind you, setting you down with a distinct crunch as your sock feet collided with the wet snow. “Ah!” you yelped at the stinging cold and hopped over to the bench in the center of the alcove, brushing the mound of snow away and sitting down, much preferring your rear to freeze than your feet. Clavis laughed, trudging over to you. 

“What a show you always give me,” he muttered, a tender smile on his face as he pulled a pair of slippers from his coat. 

“How did you-?” you muttered.

“I wasn’t planning on letting you say no.” he grinned up at you as he bent in front of you and took your foot into his hand, eliciting a surprised gasp from you. Winking, he slipped the shoes onto your feet and shrugged off his cloak, wrapping it around your shoulders instead and tying it at the base of your throat. It was warm, and smelled like him: lavender with a hint of cinnamon that drew you to close your eyes and absorb it without any other sensory distraction. When you opened your eyes, he was leveling you with that look again; the look that stoked a fire inside of you, hot enough to burn away the remnants of the chill.

“Clavis-”

“How do you like the snow?” His sudden and sharp change of pace threw you out of orbit and you sputtered for a moment, unsure of what to say. 

“I- uhm, it’s beautiful. Thank you for bringing me out here.” you replied, at last forming a coherent sentence. 

“Good, I’m glad you like it.” he turned away from you, as though he were admiring something within the bushes, then he bent low like he was examining something. 

“Clavis, what are you- ah!” you screeched as a splat of something distinctly cold and wet hit your cheek. Upon recovery, you realized that Clavis had flung a snowball at you, and was now grinning cheekily at you from where he stood. Once the shock wore off, you began to laugh; an unruly, unfettered laugh that very well could have carried on the wind to the palace guards. But you couldn’t find it in yourself to care, because you were already picking up a snowball of your own to hurl back at the 3rd Prince, who livened up immediately once he was sure the game was on. 

Snow was volleyed back and forth, defensive walls were made, and laughs exchanged. The snow had long since ceased its descent from the sky by the time the white flag was raised, and you were a mess of wet snow and incessant giggles. You met Clavis in the middle of the alcove and shook his hand in mutual surrender, then the prince burst into laughter too. “Alright, let’s get you inside before you catch your death - or I catch mine.” he said with a more serious tone. You nodded, remembering his weak constitution, and let him lead you back to the gate. But before he exited, he turned, holding his arms out. “No evidence, remember?” he smirked and you tittered, nodding. He hoisted you into his arms once more and you laid your head against his chest without even thinking. You heard his melodic chuckle above you and you realized what you had done. Despite the fact that your cheeks were burning, and not from the cold, you didn’t move. You laid against him willingly the whole way back to the castle, snuggling as close to his damp skin as his clothes would allow. 

Once you were back at the door to your room, he made a little mockish bow. “Milady,” he said curtly and turned to leave. But your hand shot out without warning even you, and your fingers curled around his bicep. He turned to look at you, surprise written in his shadow-cast features.

“Do- do you want to warm up?” you asked sheepishly. “I can light the fire in here. It gets warm pretty fast.” A beat of silence. Two. Perhaps you were mistaken? Perhaps the heat between you was yours alone. You loosened your grip on his arm and pulled your own back to your body, subconsciously curling into yourself. “I apologize. I crossed a line. Goodnight Pr-” but before you could even finish the word, he had pressed up against you, pushing you to step back until he stood in the room with you. 

“I’d love to.” he murmured softly, tracing your features with his perceptive gold eyes. “Warm up.” he added, his voice barely above a whisper, and your heart began to race.

“Okay,” you replied, a small smile catching your lips up in your heart’s erratic hoping.

That is how the night ended with a roaring fire in your fireplace, and two bodies tangled closely together under the covers of your bed, fingers tracing every available inch of skin with reverence and vulnerability, and lips gracing lips with unspoken words of ardor and desire. The cold had melted away in the arms of the man that never failed to make you smile, and you snuggled impossibly closer to him, your heart swelling when he beat the odds of pulling you in even more, his hand crawling under your nightshirt to splay his palm against your back, his touch as smoldering as his eyes before they closed so he could kiss you again. You sighed, relinquishing your will in the long battle against sleep, and drifted into a world where no number of beautiful dreams could possibly contend with your reality in Clavis’s arms.