#the game tried so hard to bring everyone else back during queendom

[zukoandtheoc]

I'm just a lil birthday boyyyy

today's concert was so much fun, even tho it did bug out in the middle

[yourdeepestfathoms]

Love For Love By Love Of Love

Kinda short- only 2106 words but!! Enjoy some soft Nana Boleyn!

(As in- Read Anne as Courtney!Anne, not Millie!Anne because Millie!Anne would never do any of this)

———————

Anne could hear the roars of laughter in the dressing room all the way from the bathroom she was walking out of, which made her pick up her pace so she wouldn’t miss what was going on. She couldn’t even imagine what the others were giggling about- right before she left they were trying to recover from Cathy’s beautiful comment, “Don’t fist my hoop” after Anne herself tried to fit her entire fist in the blue queen’s hoop earring, but they could have moved onto something entirely different by then. Anything could happen on a Live, especially when it was Anne, Kitty, and Cleves there. Cathy was supposed to be leveling them out, but she got roped into their antics almost instantly.

On her way back to the Live, however, something caught Anne’s attention. She stopped and peeked her head into one of the dressing rooms to see a blonde girl sitting at a desk against the far wall. Her head kept sagging downwards in the motion people did when they were nodding off but kept jerking awake, but it was clear she wasn’t all too there in reality at the moment. She was shaking, too, which made a deep maternal instinct spark inside of Anne.

Some people were surprised to find that she had such a thing, what with her gremlin-like stage persona and wild attitude that came with it, but they forgot that she had been a mother herself. Even if it was for a short time, a motherly instinct formed and the urge to care for the younger and inferior still lingered after reincarnation. Usually it only came out for Kitty, but this time felt different. When she cared for Kitty, she viewed her as a sister, but when she was looking at this girl...

It felt like she was looking at a lost child without their mother.

A child that she wanted to help.

Anne quietly stepped into the room and approached the girl- Joan, the show’s music director. Upon getting a closer look, she saw that she was, in fact, not really conscious, despite her eyelids still fluttering slightly. She was leaning over some paperwork, head bobbing in an effort to stay away that wasn’t really working for her. She didn’t come to when Anne gently nudges her side.

Anne pursed her lips, thinking. Then, without a second thought, she takes off her soft pink robe and wrapped it around Joan’s trembling shoulders.

With a small smile, Anne quietly walks out and returns to the dressing room where the Live is happening.

“What happened to your robe?” Kitty asked curiously as her cousin sat back down beside her.

“I got hot so I took it off,” Anne replied, despite it being rather chilly inside the theater. The others didn’t pay it much attention, though, and went back to their shenanigans, which apparently was now a question and answer session.

“Okay, Annie, what’s a weird fear you have?” Kitty suddenly asked, probing her cousin in the side with a bright pink nail.

“What brought this on?” Anne laughed.

“We’re doing a Q&A!” Cathy said, readjusting the phone.

“And when did that start?”

“Just now! Now answer the question!” Kitty prodded the green queen again, making her squirm away with a small laugh.

“Okay, okay! Hmm...” She thought for a moment. “I don’t think I have a fear that’s considered weird. Does not liking the texture of soggy bread count?”

“How often do you run into a situation where soggy bread is your main problem?” Cathy laughed.

“You’d be surprised!”

“Bessie is afraid of mannequins.”

All heads turned to Cleves. Question marks and laughing emojis flashed through the chat, among the huge barrage of comments from the many viewers. Kitty tilted her head while Cathy and Anne both snorted.

“Really?” Kitty giggled.

“Yeah!” Cleves nodded. “She said they made her uncomfortable. Gave her weird vibes. She doesn’t like when they’re behind her.” She tittered.

Laughter rebounded through the room at that.

“Yeah, you’re really exposing your girlfriend here, Anna,” Anne said, referencing a comment that pointed that out.

Cleves merely shrugged. “It’s my job! I’ll pay her back for it later.” She smirked and Kitty squealed, swatting at her knee, while Cathy and Anne groaned.

“Keep it PG, Anna!” Cathy barked playfully. “We have children watching!”

“Oh, shut up! We don’t do anything!”

“Oh my god,” Anne said to the side, amazed that they were actually yelling over the possibility of a couple doing a very normal thing like sex on a live with hundreds of people watching. She laughed.

And that’s when she noticed something.

Someone standing in the doorway.

It was Joan!

The girl had one hand on the doorframe, presumably to keep her balance because she was swaying slightly. Her hair was a completely mess, frizzled up like she had rubbed a balloon on her head just before walking into the room, and her eyes were half open and looked very tired. In her free hand she was holding Anne’s robe.

“Hey, Joan,” Anne greeted with a smile.

The other three turned to face the music director. The phone wasn’t angled to where the door could be seen, so confused comments were made in the chat, some even asking who “Joan” was.

“I— Hi.” Joan said after a moment. She blinked several times, probably trying to clear up her hazy vision of wake herself up a little more. “I just— I wanted to return this.” She held out the robe.

Kitty looked at her cousin confusedly. “I thought you put it away?”

Anne ignored her comment and got up to take the robe from Joan.

“I don’t know how I got it...” The girl said as she did so.

“You looked cold, so I put it around you.” Anne clarified.

Upon hearing that, Joan’s cheeks flashed pink and she looked away shyly.

“Oh. Th-thank you.” She mumbled.

“It’s no problem,” Anne glanced back at the other three. “Hey, why don’t you come sit with us?”

Joan looked surprised at the offer. Her head snapped up and her mouth opened and closed stupidly for a moment before she just nodded sheepishly. Anne grinned at her agreement and took her smaller, colder hand in her own, leading her over to where she had been sitting on the floor.

“Everyone! We have a new friend!” She announced, sitting back down at her spot. Joan kneels next to her, then fully sat down after she wasn’t told by anyone to leave.

A few comments were made about the new girl’s arrival- “Who is that?” “That’s Joan, right?” “she’s kinda cute no cap,,” “Whoaaaa she looks like Jane!!” “Why her hair so yellow tho” “is she even awake??”- but none were barking at her to leave and stop ruining the queen’s Live, which was good. Anne didn’t expect anyone to say such a thing, but you never know with the queendom.

The game of questions and answers quickly resumed. One viewer asked what everyone’s favorite animals were and after all the queens answered (“Snake!” “Owl!” “Dog!” “Also dog!”) Anne gently patted Joan’s knee, rousing her from her half asleep state.

“Huh?” Joan blinked, looking around.

“What’s your favorite animal?” Anne asked. She picked up on the girl’s obvious exhaustion and made a mental note to keep checking on her in case she got worse.

“My favorite-? Oh!” Joan finally understood. Her ears, which are adorably poking out from her unruly hair, flame red from how long it took her to process something so simple. “Umm... I like sheep.” She admitted shyly. Her hands fidget anxiously in her lap. “Hedgehogs, too.”

Anne nodded with a smile. Her heart was fluttering in a way that hadn’t happened since Elizabeth...

She thought back to when she first met Joan. The girl was so young, so thin, and so very tiny. It was a wonder she even got the job as a maid in waiting, and everyone assumed she would either end up quitting or getting removed for bad work, but she stuck around for the full three years of Anne’s reign. She was a clumsy little thing, yes. Not really good at most things- her sewing was a mess, she always managed to overcomplicate the laces on Anne’s dress when she helped her get changed, she dropped things and stumbled over her own two feet, stuttered, couldn’t really dance, and she had a hard time staying awake during court, but she was absolutely brilliant with music. Anne still remembered the first time she heard her play the harpsichord.

Ten minutes of giggles and silly questions pass. Joan is no longer answering, although her answers were sparse and whispered, so they usually went unheard. Anne turned to the girl after seeing a brief comment that said “is she asleep??” and saw that Joan had, in fact, nodded off.

In her current position, Joan was either going to slump forward and smack into the ground (which is something the poor thing would NEVER be able to live down, especially when the caught on a Live), lean back and fall over (which is something else her self esteem would drill itself into the ground for), or have really had neck and back pain when she woke up, so, without really thinking it through, Anne coiled her arms around the girl’s waist and slowly and subtly began pulling her into her grasp.

“Yikes, you’re light,” She muttered, finding it much easier to secure the music director in her lap than she was expecting. She made a second mental note to invite Joan over for dinner later so she can get something in her stomach.

Her action of moving Joan didn’t go unnoticed- the comments were blowing up with curious observations: “What is she doing??” “Anne, why are you doing that?” “whats going on?” “i just got here. what’s the tea?” “Awww!” “Mama Anne Boleyn????”

They were stupid and silly little things that people couldn’t keep to themselves. Anne just ignored them and hauled Joan completely into her lap, then began adjusting her position.

Joan was at an angle where her legs slung over one of Anne’s thighs, since she was sitting crisscross. Anne cups the back of her skull and brings her head down to rest on her chest, which is immediately nuzzled into like a kitten seeking warmth. After a momentary glance at the phone, Anne grabs her robe and wraps it around Joan, making sure her face was covered so she couldn’t be gawked at while dozing.

“So,” Anne said after her work was done. “What’s the next question?”

The other three had definitely been staring at her through the whole process, but she didn’t really care. They didn’t say anything about it, so it was fine.

“Uhh— Oh! Here’s one!” Cathy said, getting back into the swing of things. “Funniest things to happen while onstage?”

“Oh!” Cleves perked up. “That one time Bessie couldn’t stop sneezing during Heart of Stone and Jane actually stopped singing to wait for her to finish!”

“Is every answer you say going to be about her?” Kitty teased.

“Hsst!” Cleves hissed with a playful glare. “I love my girlfriend, alright! And it was funny!”

“It was,” Anne agreed. She felt something and looked down as Cathy went on to tell the story of when Maria accidentally launched one of her drumsticks across the stage. Joan was nuzzling closer to her, making adorable sleepy noises that melted her heart.

She’s just a little cuddlebug, She thought. Cuddle...sheep? Cuddlesheep? Cuddlelamb!

She slowly reached a hand under the robe to brush Joan’s cheek and the girl presses into it.

She’s so touch starved...

Anne wrapped her arms around Joan, slowly and comfortingly rubbing her back with one hand, and continued the Q&A like that.

“Secretariat was a good movie!” Cleves was arguing.

“How am I supposed to enjoy a movie that I can’t even spell the name of?!” Kitty snapped back.

“You’re just dumb!”

Kitty gasped.

“You take that back!!”

“Mmmm-!!”

The muffled noise comes from below Anne and she looks down, peeking slightly beneath the robe to see Joan’s eyes were shut tighter and she was trying to completely burrow her face into her chest. She appeared to be disturbed by all the noise.

“Hey, guys,” She said. “Can you lower your voices, please?”

The other three once again blink at her, but nod and continued the playful argument quietly. She smiled in thanks and went back to observing the sleeping girl in her arms, now rocking slowly, noting the way she was gripping the robe with one of her small, bony hands.

Anne had a feeling she wasn’t going to get the robe back, but, honestly, she didn’t really care.