Top Posts Tagged with #fcbfemeni

royal duties

pairings ━ socialite!alexia putellas x princess!heir!reader

synopsis ━ after a quiet five years with alexia, the palace is creating pressure for you to propose to her. you want to, but your girl has her fears surrounding marriage to a future queen.

warnings ━ royalty modern AU! some inaccurate themes of royalty since same gender marriage is normalized in this fic. one suggestive moment.

moonlight filtered softly through the tall arched windows and the ivory heavy curtains of the private salon in your sister’s castle perched above the rocky shore.

the light shines across all of the antique tapestries that whispered of centuries-old duty.

jasmine fills the air from waxy candles that you had lit earlier, an attempt to try and soften the mood between you, and your girlfriend alexia who sits on one of the plum purple velvet couches by the small television.

its been five years of this. five years of sitting together, talking all night from sunset to dawn, with more stolen intimacy, of laughter muffled behind your heavy oak doors, and of hands finding each other under dinner tables at galas where no one suspected a thing. unfortunately now, the secret had clawed its way into the daylight.

for the first two years, the relationship was a total secret. even then, alexia had a direct line to your phone, unlike others, but you justified it by saying that you needed alexia for her mother's designer tips.

the lie about alexia being your friend was believable for a while, at least until one of your mother's maids caught you in bed with alexia at the main castle.

your mother, the queen who had her suspicions, was forced to confront it after the maid's discovery. yet instead of fury there in your mother's kind features, since you were lazy enough to get caught by a non-royal member, there had only been calmness.

"are you certain this is what you want, or would you rather a match that keeps the bloodlines tidy?" your mother questioned, trusting your judgement but wanting to see things further.

"yes, I am certain, mother."

you had answered that without hesitation, naming alexia as the only future you could imagine, even if she carried no crown and only the legacy of being a daughter to a war-hero father and a mother whose designs dressed half the continent’s elite.

the prime minister, your younger siblings, the advisors... they had found out about the relationship after year three. all of them had the same suggestions.

propose before the tabloids sniff it out and turn your love into another royal crisis.

unfortunately every time you had tried, alexia had gently, fearfully, pulled back.

now alexia sits across from you on the purple velvet, with her legs tucked beneath her in an effortless way. as an heir, you've noticed how all socialites have mastered that sit down pose.

alexia's light brown hair sit loose and tumbling over one shoulder, catching the jasmine candlelight like she was on a portrait.

she wore a simple silk white blouse and tan trousers... nothing like the couture she usually wears thanks to her family's fortune, but her presence still filled the room, unlike yours, on very first evening you met at this same castle. when she had charmed you with a single raised eyebrow and a dry joke about how even princesses needed better champagne and delicacy.

alexia had a look in her eye during the first time you've talked to her. you had come to recognize that the look was uniquely hers.

“we cannot keep dancing around this,” you said quietly, voice steady despite the way your heart hammered against your ribs. you stood in a white satin nightdress, with a thicker pink open robe covering your arms, “the pressure from the palace is growing louder every week, especially from prime minster ingrid. everyone wants an engagement before someone leaks a photo or a servant talks.... but more than that, i want this, alexia. i want you as my wife, not just my secret, I think you deserve better than that.”

alexia exhaled a shaky laugh, setting the glass of wine down so her hands could find each other in her lap, “marriage is not a weekend in the south of france, cariño. it is not sneaking away to my mother’s atelier after hours or waking up in your arms before dawn and pretending the world does not exist.... once the ring is on, everything changes. my life does like my freedom, the parties, the late nights designing with mama, and the trips where no one knows who I am. i would have to set so much of it aside for royal duties and protocols with the press watching every single breath i take.... i am scared, yes, but not of loving you. i am scared of losing pieces of myself that make me… you know... me.”

you walked forward then, before sitting down facing her with your elbows on your knees, close enough that the faint scent of her perfume that is something warm and citrusy her mother had created just for her. it wrapped around your olfactory nerves like an embrace, “i know.... i have heard every word you have said about it these past months, and i have not pushed because i understand.... but hear me now. if we do this, if you say yes, i swear on every oath i have ever taken that i will protect you. as my wife, as my partner, you will never stand alone in front of the cameras or the courtiers. i will be your shield. when the advisors try to schedule your every hour, i will remind them whose name is on the marriage certificate... since you'd be in a rank higher than most people as the wife of an heir.... when the fashion world mourns the loss of your late nights at shows, i will make sure you still have a studio here, a space that is yours alone. you will not disappear into my title. i will not let that happen to you.”

alexia’s gaze dropped to her hands, with her dark lashes casting delicate shadows on her cheeks.

she was quiet for a long moment, with the ocean outside of your younger sister's castle rising and falling in rhythm with her breathing.

when she looked up again, minutes later, the woman's eyes glistened, “and when the day comes.... and it will come, no matter how much we pretend otherwise... when you become queen… will the crown sit heavier than i do? will i wake up one morning and realize i am second to a throne that has already taken so much from your family? your great-uncle’s abdication reshaped everything in this country. it placed your grandmother on the throne, then your mother, and someday you. i see how it weighs on you already, even from the sidelines of you not even being queen yet. i need to know, truly, if you would choose the crown over me when the moment demands it.”

you scoffed softly, with the sound gentle rather than dismissive, and reached across the small space to take ale's hands in yours.

the woman's fingers were cool, trembling just slightly, and you rubbed your thumbs across her knuckles the way you always did when words felt too big to describe the environment.

“my mother is in perfect health, alexia. you've met her once before, she is as stubborn as ever riding horses every morning, charming diplomats until they forget their own names. becoming queen is not on my horizon for maybe another twenty years, maybe more.... but even if the impossible happened tomorrow, even if i woke up wearing that weight… you would still come first. your comfort, your happiness, the way you laugh when we are alone and the world cannot touch us... that is my priority. the crown is an inheritance, a duty that my direct bloodline was never meant to carry but will if i must.... you are my choice. every single day, i choose you above the protocols and the expectations and the history books that want to write our story for us. i will fight the palace, the press, even my own blood if they try to make you feel lesser. you will be my wife, my equal, my home.... not some accessory to a monarchy.”

the words hung between you, and alexia takes a moment to process your words as she looks down at her mancured hands holding yours.

for the first time in weeks, you notice how her shoulders loosened and afterwards, she squeezed your hands back with a small smile breaking through the fear like sunlight after a storm.

“you really mean that, don’t you? all of it.”

“every syllable,” you answered, voice dropping lower which feels more charged with intimatcy than seconds before, “i have spent five years proving it in secret.... and now i want to spend the rest of my life proving it in the open. you do not have to give up who you are since we will reshape the role together and make it something that fits you, not the other way around. the fashion world can still have alexia putellas.. but with a new name... and the palace and me will simply learn to share.”

she studied your face for another endless beat, searching for any crack and any hesitation but she found none. there, she let out a breath that sounded like surrender and relief all at once.

“okay,” she whispered, the single word trembling but sure.

“yes. i will marry you. i am still terrified, but i trust you.... more than i have ever trusted anyone.”

the yes coming out of her mouth stole your breath for a second. you smiled, wide and unrestrained with the kind of smile that only appeared when the two of you were truly alone.

“thank god.... because i already spoke with my mother weeks ago. she gave her permission the night she first learned about us. she said she saw how you looked at me across that dinner table during her birthday dinner last year and knew this was never going to be just a small thing. so the only step left is the engagement announcement. we can do it gently, on our terms with a small statement with no grand press conference unless you want one.”

alexia laughed then, and it was so soft and melodic that it wrapped around your heart like the silk of her blouse. she rose from the settee in one graceful motion, pulling you up with her until you stood chest to chest, the candlelight painting gold across her features.

the woman's hands slid up your arms, over your shoulders, until her fingers threaded gently into the hair at the nape of your neck.

“so... what I am hearing is that you planned this whole conversation... and had the permission tucked away like some sort of secret weapon?”

“i hoped,” you admitted with your forehead resting against hers, “i hoped you would see that i am not asking you to choose between your life and mine. i am asking you to let me, with my power, build one that holds both.”

ale's eyes fluttered closed for a moment, then opened with a full of everything she had been holding back, “i see it now. clearly.” she tilted her head just slightly, lips brushing yours in the lightest tease before she closed the distance fully.

the kiss started slow, with her mouth soft yet certain against yours. then, once her mind fully processed the severity of the moment, it deepened with her fingers tightening on your body and pulling you closer as if the last remnants of fear were dissolving between you.

you tasted the faint salt of the sea air on her lips, and felt the way her body melted into yours with every curve familiar after five years.

alexia's free hand pressed flat against your back while your own arms wrapped around her waist, holding her like the treasure she had always been.

when you finally parted, breathless and smiling, alexia rested her forehead against yours once more, eyes shining.

“we are really doing this, we're going to get married!” she murmured, with a childlike happiness coming through her voice since the fear is gone.

“we are,” you answered, brushing a stray lock of hair from her cheek, “and it is going to be the most beautiful scandal the palace has ever seen.”

masterlist

Trending Tags

Last Seen Tags

#fcbfemeni

Trending Tags

Last Seen Tags

#fcbfemeni