#patremformosus

Relaxation.

It had been the number one thing prescribed to her by the palace physician, the young Queen of Sina entering into what the medical expert believed to be her eighth month of pregnancy. 

She was nervous, naturally; on edge since the discovery of her conception, a mere two months after the loss of what would have been the Imperator’s first born son.

The shame still weighed heavy within her heart; that despite the reassurance from physicians, from family, from her own husband that it was not her fault, she could not shake the guilt, not when the customs of her own home had been so very deeply scarred into her being. 

So it was not easy for her to relax, yet she knew an effort must be made; for the sake of the baby, for the sake of the potential heir to the Sinian throne. After all, she did not believe she could handle not only a second loss, but shaming her husband a second time.

Petra had been advised to take frequent baths, as soaking in sweet, warm water had been known to aid in the relaxation needed for the mother to be to prepare for her upcoming delivery. But prescribed or not, the young woman would be lying if she did not admit to enjoying them, as it not only soothed her weariness, but truly brought about the tranquility she needed. 

“Your bath is ready, your Highness.” 

Petra looked up to the servant that had addressed her, their head bowed as though apologetic in disrupting the queen from the game of mancala she had been playing with her nieces. 

She nodded, a soft smile on her lips in gratitude. 

“Very well; I will be in shortly,” she spoke, before setting to finishing the game with the children.

“We’ll have another match later,” she promised them as she slowly stood from her seat, resting a hand atop her belly, and excusing herself from the company of her family. 

Send an “Ѡ” for my muse’s reaction to being sent accidental nudes.

It was not a surprise to see a new message appear on her screen from the man; after all they had been texting back and forth that afternoon, geeking out over an old mafia series he had recommended to her that for some reason she had never seen until now. Though Levi was entertained enough to sit and watch it with her, he wasn’t exactly like Erwin, who would sympathize, understand, and get equally as excited as she about their favorite genre of entertainment. 

However, the image of Erwin’s bare chest, toned abs, and that oh so beautiful V leading down to and stopping just before what would turn this slight nude into a complete dick pic. 

A hybrid between a shriek and a laugh sounded form Petra, her phone dropping from her hands into her lap as she clapped them over her reddening face. The sound startled her boyfriend, who pulled his arm from around her and quickly turned to face her, eyes wide, confused and questioning why she had made such a noise.

“What? What’s wrong?” 

She shook her head, still hidden in her hands, unable to find the words to tell him. However, and regrettably, he glanced down to her lap, the phone screen still on and displaying the picture the blond had sent her.

His brows furrowed, a look of disgust coming to his features.

He closed out of the picture, tapping the phone a few more times and bringing it to his ear.

Petra finally peeked from between her fingers, and upon seeing Levi with her phone to his ear, immediately pulled them away from her face.

The magic of her first date with Erwin lingered for the rest of the week, long past Halloween and up until the day they had chosen to meet again for their second.

 It had been almost a week, and though it felt like an eternity, she still had his morning coffee visits to look forward to. That, and of course the Halloween pictures he had promised to send (and though she did not dress for the occasion, she did send him a picture of her carved up jack-o'-lantern. 

 But there was one thing that had caused her trouble: where they would be having their next date. He had told her to pick what she wanted to do, and all honesty, she really had no idea. Dinner seemed to be the usual go to, but seeing as how that was their first, she was not keen on asking him to take her to yet another 'fancy' restaurant. 

 But as if by some grace of God, as the titian haired young woman voiced her frustrations to her roommate, she was presented with the perfect idea. 

A winery, Auruo had suggested as he flipped through the pages of a magazine, spotting a wine tasting and tour event advertisement for one just outside the city limits. It was ideal; something new, something different, and definitely something she liked. And after posing the idea to him, she was happy to see that he too was up for such an event. 

But there was one little problem...

She knew nothing of wine.

@patremformosus

Erwin of Sina sighed, taking a seat in his tent, then rising again. He shouldn’t be sitting, not when there was so much to be done.

“Sit, brother,” came the slightly annoyed voice of one of three men who sat with him, his brother by law, and one of the great generals of Sina.

“There’s too much to be done, Nile,” Erwin stated, rubbing the back of his neck, sore from battle. He was no longer the young soldier he’d once been, “we need to think about the people.”

“Nothing can be done about the people tonight,” another one of his generals clipped, this one the shortest of the the four men, “let them mourn their dead.”

The fourth man, easily the largest of them, nodded in agreement and Erwin pursed his lips.

“You can’t do everything all at once,” Nile reminded him, “sit and celebrate your victory. Lead the people tomorrow.”

Erwin had half a mind to agree to this, when a soldier was let into the grandiose dwelling, kneeling prostrate before him and offering up a young woman.

A princess.

Caught off guard, Erwin stepped back. It wasn’t often this happened, but those under his command knew better than to bring women to him. He wasn’t the type to revel in the spoils of war, releasing his desire quietly and privately. Still, the status of this woman was beyond that of a mere citizen and there were many paths he could take to dictate her fate. This soldier, Erd, knew this and Erwin acknowledged the choice he made in gold before dismissing him.

“Leave us,” he said to his generals, casting his sights down to the woman on the floor before him. There were no jeers from his great commanders as he knew there wouldn’t have been.

They were good men.

It took a while for the conqueror king to speak to her, taking his time observing her torn clothes and the dust that robbed the shine from her hair. She must have had jewelry at some point in the day. Had it been taken from her?

She was crying. It was quiet, something he was thankful for, and he understood. While he was sure she mustn’t have been looking forward to marrying the emperor he had slain, she was a young thing, maybe not any older than fifteen or sixteen if he were to hazard a guess, and war was never gentle.

It was growing cold, the night coming steadily and he unclasped his cape, draping it around her near-naked body in a single flourish. It was bloody, and he thought to apologize for it, but as the man who had just uprooted her entire life, he doubted it would make much difference.

“I won’t kill you,” he said, beginning to pace the room, “so you needn’t worry.”

He thought for a few more moments, concentrating on his own footsteps, feeling the tired dull pain in his feet catching up to him. He should sit.

“I don’t have any interest in slavery either,” he added, “and no use for it.”

Still, he couldn’t simply release her. It wasn’t as if she had anyplace to go, but she was a citizen of Karanese. She was a princess. By rules of war, he was the leader now, even if he would leave one of his generals to oversee when he went back to Sina. He could not risk leaving a royal in the city, not even a young girl. He was far too keen to underestimate anyone.

Then an idea struck him. It wasn’t unreasonable or unfathomable. In fact, it was quite practical. He stopped his pacing and with a stern sort of curiosity, looked down to her as he addressed her.

“Have you bled yet?” he wondered, “are you a girl or are you a woman?”

Petra kept quiet, huddled as best as she could for the sake of her own dignity. She refused to look up at the men within the tent, her head down as though a beaten hound being reprimanded for not following its master’s orders. She heard voices, though did not listen, feeling the rush of air go past her as the king’s men were dismissed from the tent.

The sound of her sniffing filled the tent, her hands wiping away the tears that spilled from her eyes. Had she a sword, she’d have no hesitation running into it, wishing to end her life now rather than become subjective to whatever the Sinian Emperor chose to do with her. 

She felt something drape over her shoulders, the cloth, though bloodied, providing her cover and warmth from the night chill that began to come in. She hesitated a few moments, before bending her sore writs to grab hold of the cloth. Petra looked up to the man, now pacing, as he spoke, assuring her that he was not going to kill her. She supposed that wasn’t much of a relief. But as he continued, a frown of confusion came to lips; if neither death nor slavery were to come to her, then what? 

She had half a mind to tell him he should let her go, but she too knew that not to be an option. 

But it was his next line of questioning that had taken her off guard, the man before her inquiring as to whether she had become a woman yet or not. It was not a topic she was unfamiliar with; Balthazar would not have chosen her for his bride had she not entered into womanhood. She wondered if this may be why Emperor of Sina had been asking; perhaps he planned to betroth her off to someone else.

Continued from X

@patremformosus

Erwin let an amused smile grace his lips as he took a sip of his brandy, a pretentious, unnecessary motion. He didn’t like brandy.

“You think I don’t notice?” he wondered softly, coming to stand behind the couch, to rake his fingers lightly through Levi’s hair, brushing it back and out of his face, “she adores you.”

Of course she adored Levi. She adored him. And he adored Levi. It was a wonderful system. Still, it was a system Erwin himself had put into place and the pieces were beginning to have minds of their own.

He couldn’t have that.

He bent at the waist, holding his drink up in the air, a dramatic effort not to spill any on the stark white of the fabric, or the cashmere throw beneath it.

“I see the way you look at her,” he breathed, voice low in Levi’s ear before he pressed his lips to his pulse, a reminder of Levi’s current situation.

He owned them both.

Levi pressed a button on his controller, causing the repeating start screen to fade into the beginning of the area he had just been playing in. It was his attempt to blow off the  conversation the blond had brought up, as well as some steam by killing a few of the humanoid monsters that came stampeding towards his avatar.

It wasn’t so easy, however, as he felt the mans fingers run through his raven locks, triggering a light tingle to travel down his spine. Levi swallowed, missing the target and attempting to go back at it again.

“So what of it? She adores most anything. You could give her a used fucking coloring book and a box of broken crayons and she’ll adore that.”

But Levi’s distraction proved to be futile as he felt the hot breath of his caregiver, followed by the touch of his lips against his skin. His head tilted slightly, the avatar on the television screen falling from mid air only to be caught by one of the monsters he was about to attack. 

There was truth behind Erwin’s words. Despite the carnal relationship the three of them shared, it was not lust that Levi looked to the young woman with. He had always loved her, and it was his very love for her caused him to be involved in this- whatever fucked up label belonged on it. 

Jealousy Starter Sentence || Accepting

Levi glanced up from the television screen, Erwin’s distraction causing him his avatar’s life in the game he had been playing. 

He could feel a fiery rage building up in the pit of his stomach as he replayed the man’s words in his mind. Of course Levi never expected her to be exclusively his, but the delivery of Erwin’s statement stuck quite a few negative chords; particularly how he spoke as if she were simply an object. Had it been anyone else saying this to him, he would have had no qualms about taking the very controller he held and shoving it down their throat; but fortunately, Levi was smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds him. 

There was nothing worse than a heatwave in the middle of the Summer. Actually, that’s what everyone had thought, until a city wide power outage during the night caused the electricity in all of Sina to go out. So then it had become that there was nothing worse than a heatwave in the middle of the Summer with no electricity. 

Of course, power outages seemed to only be a problem for the lower classes, as it was not uncommon for the wealthier citizens to keep generators to continue their lives of luxury even in times of emergency.

Levi, of course, fell into this category, his own generator kicking in within seconds the power going out in his mansion.

So it was as if it were a normal day in his home, the raven haired CEO rising before the sun began beating its unbearable rays upon his part of the world. He set a kettle on the stove, and while waiting for the water to come to a boil for his tea, took the opportunity to check the chlorine and ph levels within his pool.

The first thing he had noticed was the lack of lighting within the pool. He frowned, realizing that the only thing that could mean was that the generator for the pool area had not turned on.

The second thing he had noticed was the sound of movement from within the pool, pulling out his cell phone to direct its light upon a few unwanted guests swimming in the currently unfiltered water.

He stared, eyes half lidded, at the fowl fouling up his pool. Of all the pools that a mother goose had to take a dip in with her children, it just had to be his. Levi blinked, not bothering to chase the geese away, and turned back towards the path to his home. Perhaps Kenny was right; having a second pool built couldn’t hurt.

Coming back inside, Levi turned the burner of the kettle off, dumping the water instead of having his early morning tea.

While his pool may have been out of commission, he knew of someone else who not only had one, but had mentioned he would be spending the night elsewhere…

She smiles, bumping her shoulder into him.