know no bounds

“That sounds nice,” Mimi nodded along, “though I;m not sure I’m much of a puncher. I worry about my manicure too much…I’d just spread mean rumours about them behind their backs.” She tried for a smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. “Who taught you to box? I was never allowed to play proper sports…”

“Did you bring a minder with you?” She glanced around, as though one might be hiding in a locker. She’d given her own the slip on the stairs. They were probably looking for her now, but they’d go to the bar and the rooftop pool before they checked the men’s locker room. “It’s about, well, money….” Mimi’s face was serious, but when she realised how what she’d said sounded, she snorted, and clarified, “I’m not hitting you up for cash. The situation’s not that dire, yet.”

                                                                              “Yeah well I can curse them to all hell but that still won’t make my son wake up. It does still feel kinda good to call them pieces of shit though. Ain’t gonna lie about that.” Val already had a reputation for being rather crude for a royal but he didn’t give a shit about what other people thought about him. As long as he did his job at the end of the day that’s all that mattered to him. “Eh I learned a bit from when I trained in the Swiss Guard and then improved here and there by watching YouTube videos. Nothing super fancy. You should give it a try sometime. You can wear gloves to protect those pretty little hands of yours. ...I don’t know about you but it’d be nice to have an actual sparring partner for a change besides the punching bag.” He suggested before looking behind him to see where she was staring at. “Huh? Nah I don’t have a minder. Do I look like a fucking child to you? Is that supposed to be some kind of compliment?” He laughed a bit. It was the first time he laughed in the past couple of weeks. But he stopped laughing when he heard her talk about money. “Whoa there. Shit’s gotta be hitting the fan soon if Monaco is asking the Swiss for money... but obviously I’m missing something here. Is something going down I don’t know about yet?” Maybe his lack of attention to politics was finally going to bite him in the ass.

“You look like my father have a fight with the bank. Which signals to all of us to keep to ourselves for at least two hours.” She stepped through the door and nodded her thanks, starting down the street towards the Metro station she had noticed nearby. “What happened on the island. I mean, I know what happened but what happened to you. Why are you so…” She gestured to him in general. 

“I’m trying to be a good person right now, but I’m finding it difficult to not punch you in the face.” He could say these things if he was truly handing off the crown to his sister. He didn’t have to be diplomatic. “Your kid had some misplaced admiration in me and even though I didn’t think I deserve it, he did and now I feel bad that he’s like that. I’m really do hope for the best because I don’t think he’ll get up from that the same anymore. So I’m here to make sure Vik gets the support she needs and to show that I give a fuck what happens to your son.” He sounded too harsh. “Let me know if you need doctors or something… or if you see any in Russia you like. He shouldn’t be here.”

Longfeng’s stride was graceful, her shoulder’s relaxed as she approached her cousin-in-law. “Val, I just wanted to thank you, Yunmi, and the kids for showing me what it’s like to really be a family. You inspired me to be there for my family like you are there for yours. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you all.” She then went in and gave him a huge hug. It was perhaps uncharacteristic for Longfeng to outwardly showcase so much affection, especially supposedly from one male to another, but as Mingli, she was totally open about it. No more secrets — that’s how she vowed to finally live her life.

( @tessieri )

Rebeka raised an eyebrow, “You don’t have to come,” she said though she supposed a grumpy companion was better than no companion. “This designer is supposed to be the best in the country, it should be amazing. Come on, we’ll take the Metro, you…seem like you need some air and a walk.” She eyed the man and nodded to the door, starting to walk.

“Valentino.” He greeted the other man and then looked away. “I don’t expect you to have much of an opinion on me,” and if he did, he didn’t expect it to be very good, “but I need to know if my sister will have your support.” Evgeni put his hands together as he stared at the other man. “I don’t know if she’s already visited, but I’ve sent flowers to your son’s room.”

@tessieri

“Thank you, but, “ Mimi dismissed his condolences with a wave of her manicured hand, “it is what it is. And I hop your son’s faring well, of course.” There was nothing else to be said. They’d all lost things to this war. Territory, troops, titles, family…They’d be able to grieve itt when the war was over. There was no time, now. All they could do now was drink, or smoke, or, In the Swiss King’s case, punch things, and try to forget.

“Does boxing help?” She wasn’t exactly dressed for it, in a silk slip and a hotel dressing gown, but the bar was closed for the night, and she was out of smokes.

“You know, I’d been meaning to speak with you, anyway,” she admitted, voice automatically lowering, although they were the only people in the room –probably the only people awake in the entire hotel, actually. “I just meant for us to be dressed more…formally, when I did.”

“Are you busy?”Rebeka asked, leaning over the banister of the main hotel staircase. She didn’t wait for the person in the lobby to reply before she started down the rest of the stairs. “Good, I need someone to go with me. There’s a trunk show downtown for one of those fancy, modern Norwegian designers and my father just mailed me my credit card from home.” She got down to the floor, shouldering her bag. “Come on then.” 

She turned to look at him and gave him an attempt at a small smile. “Hospitals beds, no matter how well they’re made up are never comfortable enough for me. They weren’t comfortable back them, even before I was a queen.” She didn’t want to talk about the state of their son, but she did want to talk about finding the people responsible for the invasion and what they have done. “No one has news?” She asked. “About the terrorist, I mean.”

Femke shook her head and closed her eyes again. The thought of food made her sick. “I’m fine, perhaps later.” She looked at the fragile body that lay on the bed next to hers. The sight was enough to make her heart break for the king. “It’s quite alright. It’s been a stressful few days. How is your wife?”

                                                                            “Hey babe... How you holding up?” Val asked gently as he sat on the bed next to his wife. “You shouldn’t worry too much. I can’t have you in the hospital again. And sure there hasn’t been any changes with Remo but that can also be a good thing.” This was his attempt at making her feel better. “Besides we’ve been through worse and we’ve always made it through. We can do the same this time around.” 

Mimi wasn’t sure of the time, but it had to be very late –or, rather, very early. It was dark out, and Femke had said that, during Norwegian summers, that only happened a few hours in the dead of night…Mimi hadn’t noticed. Ever since she’d arrived in from Monaco, from the funeral, she’d been in a bit of a fog. 

–She was in a literal fog, now. She was smoking out the window, but the summer was close and airless, and the small room was filling with smoke. Mimi had snuck away from her minders and downstairs, in her slippers, to the gym, to the changing rooms. It was in the back of the hotel, and the only place she could look out a window without being blinded by camera flashes. They hadn’t left her alone since her brother died. When she heard someone come up behind her, she quickly stubbed her cigarette out on the windowsill, in case it was Jules…Although the smoke and the stink of cigarettes had her caught out already.

“Sorry, sorry,” she turned to them, waving smoke away, “I quit. But I’m feeling sentimental, recently…Why are you up?”

“What time is it?” Femke asked softly turning her head towards the visitor. The pain medication made her drowsy and it was far too easy to drift into sleep in the quiet hotel room. She had been barely able to move the past few days, her whole abdomen was tinted with blue and purple bruises and she had a fresh surgical scar on her stomach — apparently something had ripped inside of her. Not the worst case in their scenario but serious enough to get her admitted to the hospital as quickly as possibly. 

Of course, she had pushed her children out as soon as she could. She wasn’t the type of woman to keep her children in danger. At first, she followed after the Russian Grand Duchess, believing that she knew what she was doing, but in the chaos she lost her and her husband. Panic set in and for longer than she would have like she was frozen in fear and distress. Her children pulled her along until they were seemingly alone in one of the complex’s many hallways. Believing that they were safe, her daughter stayed with her while the boys looked for a room, looking for safety  to hide in. Even though they had lost Valentino somewhere, the family knew that he would find them. 

The queen was nearly catatonic, but the next event happened so quickly that she was kicked out of her stupor. Gunshots rang. She couldn’t tell where they were coming from or who was shooting, since all she saw was her son falling, looking at her in horror as red started to soak his clothes. Yunmi ran and pulled her son into her arms. “Remo! God, no, please!” She collapsed with him. One hand remained behind his neck as her other grasped at his clothes. Yunmi placed herself over him, but she knew it was too late. The bullets had found their mark. She ignored the rest of the gunshots. Frantically, she pressed her hands over her son’s wounds. “Remo, my darling boy, please, please, keep your eyes open. Remo…. No, no, no, no. Don’t, don’t close your eyes.”

                                                                         Taking advantage of the confusion Val ran through the corridors as fast as he could in a fit of rage. Throwing all the intruders he came across against the wall he started desperately looking for his family. “YUNMI!” He yelled eyes searching for his wife. “REGINA! REMO! ROMOLO!” He then yelled for his children. His fear increased every second he didn’t hear a reply. They all had to still be alive. They just had to be.

“ i suppose. ” she had finally come across a person who was even more cynical than she was. she had never been in a situation as dire as she was in now but when it came to hopeless situations, she wanted to believe the best — otherwise she would have ended up in a pit of desperation that she would have never climbed out of. “ don’t — ” she shrunk in her spot and tried to move a bit away from the king. she did not want to be associated with someone who was practically begging for more trouble. complacency. it was the key.