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lizzybeth1986 · 2 days ago

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Tagging @kingliamappreciationweek and @sazanes for KLAW Day 1: Throwback

1. What about this character inspired you to create this piece?

Many different things - but the two most important were to truly acknowledge Liam's trauma esp post his father's death, and to respect his (and the Therons') ideology in a way canon never did. The canon narrative fawns over the overly militaristic-minded characters so much that they often throw others like Liam, Hana and the Theron family under the bus. I wanted to highlight the value of that kind of ideology through Liam in this chapter especially.

2. What was your process like?

Mostly linear, but there were several aspects where I needed to do a lot more research. Especially for funeral practices in the British Royal Family. This was written maybe a year after QEII's funeral, so I definitely borrowed a few elements from that - such as the Vigil of the Princes (and I modelled the Vigil of the Great Houses on the vigil her grandchildren were supposed to keep, I think).

3. What part of creating this piece sparked the most joy/satisfaction?

In terms of joy - definitely the slow thawing of the ice between Hakim and Liam. Hakim has a right to be wary, and it is on Liam in this story to prove to him that he is on Hakim's side. I did love writing their dynamic together - Hakim's desire to trust and talk to Liam interspersed with his hurt at what Constantine (and unknowingly, the royal family) caused in barely acknowledging him and his family. Liam has a long way to go, but he has made inroads in this chapter.

In terms of satisfaction - I feel the sequence with the statues because that was a way of showing the value of art and more peaceful pursuits, but also the funeral scenes themselves.

Canon neatly skipped that part of the story and went straight to visiting Lythikos, and allowed Liam to only shed a single tear (by option!) at the end of the book. My Liam's way of coping tends to be to block memories, and I show a glimpse of that with his thoughts on the funeral. I also wanted to acknowledge how difficult a time it would be for my MC Esther, who suffered greatly at Constantine's hands and would still likely have to listen to eulogies that praised this man. I wanted to acknowledge these difficult things and truly center those characters in those conflicts rather than brush them over.

4. What was your playlist for this piece of work?

I listened to a lot of Queen II, the second album of Queen. Particularly the "Side White" which had some lovely pieces by Brian May. I particularly listened a LOT to "Father to Son". I just thought that idea of a father believing that one day eventually his son will understand his choices fitted this, even in an ironic way.

Take this letter that I give you

Take it, sonny, hold it high

You won't understand a word that's in it

But you'll write it all again before you die

Legacies

Book: The Royal Romance, Book 3

Pairing: None - mostly Liam and Hakim bonding, mentions of Hakim and Constantine's friendship

Rating: G

Word Count: 4, 813 words

Summary: In the aftermath of his father's death, Liam struggles with the lionizing of Constantine's rule, and wonders at the legacy he wants to leave behind. Answers emerge from an unlikely source.

Tagging @kingliamappreciationweek and @sazanes for KLAW Day 2: Historian theme, @choicesficwriterscreations for FoTW, and @aprilchallenge for the prompt "Garden".

Music: "Father to Son" by Queen.

Chapter 1: The Statues

(Faceclaims:

King Liam - Daniel Henney

Hakim Thorne: M’Barek Bouhchichi)

There is a gaping emptiness in Liam's chest, from the minute his father died right before his eyes. No overwhelming grief, no soul-ripping pain, not even anger. Just a void where a beating heart should be.

Father is lying in state now at the Queen Kendra Hall - not too far from Bossina Cathedral - where he will remain for the next twelve days. Liam almost hates himself for having far clearer memories of his father's cleaned, lavishly-decorated (in every medal he'd recieved since the age of 18) corpse, than of the moment he died - before reminding himself that at least with Father he remembers something. With Mum he doesn't even have that.

Liam keeps his eyes down, his head bent and his face studiously blank as the current crowd of mourners disperse, making way for more. The Vigil of the Princes is only twenty minutes...but in that time he can see, from the corner of his eye, a wide range of people come and go - most of them from the military and the coastal communities. As Liam had suspected, the people who benefited most from Father's rule were the most invested in soaking in that one last glimpse of him.

Leo is at the other end of Father's casket, also dressed in military garb, the torchlight from the walls making both his and Liam's medals sparkle. Liam cannot see his elder brother now but he knows, instinctively, that the struggle on his face to hold himself together must show. In the past this struggle had baffled him. There had been times when he pitied Leo his inability to uphold the family propensity towards being stoic. Over the years there have been times he was grateful Leo didn't have to worry about the consequences of his emotions showing on his face anymore.

But not today. Today, Liam envies his brother for the luxury of feeling.

Five minutes before Bastien - from his vantage point on one of the smaller balconies - taps his staff five times to signal the end of their vigil. A brief flash of Father in his last seconds blazes behind Liam's closed eyes, before disintegrating into an image of his gnarled, faintly-discoloured hands this morning. Clutching a book in his right hand, his left barely touching a blue flower placed on his chest.

Every member of the royal family is buried with at least 3 items that were either close to their hearts, or that acted as symbols for their reign. Father was one of the... dubiously fortunate few in recent times, who could draw up a will that included this (and other) details: a fresh blue Aster - their national blossom - plucked the day they prepared his casket, a small decanter of the calvados that had been made almost 62 years ago in celebration of his birth, and a copy of An Insighte Into The Great Apple War of 1244 by Artemisia Fierro and Sofonisba Vescovi, two scholars of the Renaissance who had once held connections to Cordonian nobility.

Liam takes in a deep breath as memories of his father's love for that book flood him. It had been only the second tome ever written on one of the last and most successful war campaigns in Cordonia, he'd whispered almost conspirationally to Liam once, and was considered the better-researched text of the two.

Father had always had a fascination with studying past wars. Almost as if to gear himself up for some sort of battle.

Was any of that ever worth it? Liam wants to ask his father one last time. The fear, the paranoia, the frowns that deepened almost to permanence on his skin in his final years, the forever impulse to look over his shoulder for the knife in his back...did any of it do any of them any good in the end??

As if in answer to his questions, Bastien's staff hits the floor five times. Without even looking around, Liam's footsteps move on instinct alone towards the area where Esther stands patiently with the Queen Mother, waiting. Her eyes are sheilded by the half-veil from her black box-hat, and the rest of her face is the very portrait of serenity. But as she places a hand over the crook of his elbow, he notices how they tremble.

They both nod in Mother's direction, their hearts turning over at the sight of her pale, pinched face, and move away.

This week cannot possibly have been easy for Esther. All week she has had to give interviews - as the last person outside of the King Father's family to speak to him before he died. All week the press has been badgering her to wear the medallion he had bequeathed to her, if only in his honour. She has been listening to every kind word, every eulogy, every speech with studied calm - only the rise-and-fall movement in her throat giving her away.

Brilliant strategist. Ruthless towards his enemies and devoted to his people. A truth pioneer of his times. The lifeblood of this land, a lion among men. A man who devoted his life in pursuit of ensuring the safety of all under his reign.

Liam's eyes were trained towards the dias when that speech was being given. On his arm, the light sting of Esther's manicured nails digging into his flesh grew sharper. He pressed his lips together and bore the pain, shaking his head and smiling weakly as she fretted over the half-moons left behind on his hand an hour later. It's nothing.

And that isn't a lie.

The truth of her feelings towards the father he had once loved and hero-worshipped...the father he still catches himself admiring sometimes...settles on Liam's chest like an unbearable weight. It is one he is prepared to carry - their whole lives if need be. Because as much as it hurts him to see the woman he loves lose all respect for his childhood hero, it is nothing compared to the hours and hours she has spent sitting through a thousand emotional tributes to the man who had so coldly planned such a complete violation of her space. A space that, as a foreigner in King Constantine's land, she had trusted him to keep safe for her...at the very least.

As he turns away from Esther to watch The Vigil of The Great Houses - their observance half the time of the Princes' - Liam steals a glance towards Olivia, the ruby on her brooch the only spot of colour against her black attire and pale visage. Her countenance is solemn until the moment her eyes rest on her aunt - the sight of the woman making her lock her jaw in such defiance that he can almost hear the message she is sending.

I am the Duchess of Lythikos. I will make sure we do our duty and pay our respects to the man who was once our king. Yes, auntie, Lythikos' king. Fight me.

Standing a few feet away is Bertrand, his senses strangely attuned nowadays to the cries of babies and toddlers...the mental calculations of what his little son sounds like now writ large on his face.

The Duchesses Emmeline and Adeleide, of Portavira and Krona respectively, fold their hands in front and bow their heads solemnly. Liam supposes he can only be grateful that Countess Madeleine's mother chose the sheer dreariness of sobriety today rather than her usually unflappable high spirits; for besides a few furtive glances in her determinedly stoic daughter's direction she shows nothing but a muted (but perhaps not entirely sincere) sorrow.

But it is the Duke of Castelserraillan - standing directly in line with Liam's field of vision - that captures Liam's attention. Jaw set, eyes dark and glittering, his face such a tapestry of restrained grief and resignation that Liam is certain he juat imagined the flicker of bleak anger in the older man's eyes.

The last time he had seen Duke Hakim was at the Costume Gala. Amid the festivities, Liam spotted him with Father, their heads leaning slightly in each other's direction, as if exchanging long-repressed confidences...the Duke on occasion placing a hand on Father's arm with a familiarity that Liam had only heard of secondhand. There was even a point in the conversation where Duke Hakim looked directly at his father, eyebrows raised, a subdued delight glimmering in their dark depths.

Esther would inform him later on that the two had fought over Father's repeated snubs and Duke Hakim's fraying patience at the beginning of the ball, but patched up in seconds.

Looking at Duke Hakim's face now, he wonders which sentiment haunts the older man the most - relief over that one second chance they got, or an unhealed hurt. Unhealed hurt over the the fact that King Constantine didn't have a chance to make good on the promises he'd broken, long ago.

Promises, perhaps, that the Duke may not even be sure his best friend intended to keep.

For as long as Liam can remember, he has always associated the moonlight with the Capitol Square. Walks around the city were a luxury the little prince could ill-afford with his Father's packed schedule. When these little excursions did happen, they happened at night, in the light of the moon and the street lamps, the air fragrant with the scent of wildflowers. He would take Liam alone. Mum would often find reasons to demur...although in later years Liam suspected she made them up so her husband and youngest son would have their own time together to spend.

He would look up at the strong, chiseled features of his father's beloved face, admiring the way the moonlight emphasized its sharp, decisive angles. Father loved to show strength and control, even on a casual outing with his children. His was a jawline that seemed carved out of marble, softened only by full lips that dazzled when he offered the rare smile. A smile Liam saw most often when they stood at the Capitol Square.

Look at these statues, young man. Father would say, his hand gesturing vaguely towards the sword on famed Captain Guard Valentina Greaves raised left hand. At the age of 5 the statues - with their weapons and their fierce gazes - terrified him, at age 12 they intimidated him. Look at these faces, look at the resolve in them. To better their country. To fight for it. To keep it safe. Cordonia has always depended on the best of us to take her forward into the future - and these indeed represent the best of us.

He hasn't come here since his Coronation. Indeed - one could always put it down to the amount of travelling the new King had to undertake since...but Liam knows better. He has been hesitant to visit this place since the night he had confronted his father on his hospital bed in Shanghai.

Tonight is different. Tonight he needs answers. Tonight he needs to understand, for himself, if in refusing to play in the shadow of his father he is making a mistake - or circumventing another tragedy.

Both he and his future Queen have been sitting through three days straight of eulogies. Of stump speeches that have been lightly modified to suit the gravity of the moment, of stories and anecdotes that lionized and whitewashed the man King Constantine was. Not just from nobles but from businessmen, fisherfolk, soldiers and generals.

Liam has long determined that he will never follow the route his father swore by. It is not who he is as a man; it will never be who he wants to become as a king. But on nights like tonight those words of praise for his predecessor haunt him. If the ghost of his father were to ever take shape, it would do so in just one question.

You have become so stubborn in your need to be the antithesis of me. Will Cordonia end up paying price for that?

So tonight he takes that walk to the square alone. In anticipation and in dread.

Until he finds himself at the foot of the statue of Valentina Greaves, and discovers he isn't alone, after all.

"Your Majesty," the voice behind him is deep and rumbling, its sound resembling the depths of a pounding waterfall. Duke Hakim has discarded his jacket this warm night, the waistcoat and shirt registering the straightening of his shoulders. In his right hand, an ornate gold pocketwatch.

Liam smiles briefly in welcome, letting the older man know he isn't intruding in on a private moment of mourning.

"Good evening, Duke Hakim," he straightens his own shoulders. There was once a time - a time that has faded into blurred memory - that he took joy in calling this man "Uncle". When did that stop? It has been so long he cannot even recall.

The two keep silent for a time. There is, after all, far too little and far too much to say. Stripped of their titles and reduced to the basics, Liam is the son of the Duke's best friend. He is also the son of the man that had his friendship and loyalty in the palm of his hand for years, and never understood or appreciated it. So much of what Liam knows of Father's friendship with Duke Hakim, he knows in bits and pieces: in the exchange of disappointed glances between his mother and Kiara's parents, in piling-up of invitation cards to events on Father's desk that went unanswered. In the too-long pauses Queen Regina would take every time she returned from an event at Castelserraillan, where she went as the King's representative. Even in the rare moments Father remembered his university days. There isn't a single second in those memories that Duke Hakim didn't play a starring role in.

It is in silence that they move from the statue of Val Greaves to the next. The night breeze brings with it the scents of orange blossom and french lavender - gifts from Duke Hakim's great-great-grandparents to an ancestor of his. The next figure of marble glares defiantly to his right, a spear in one hand and an apple cupped in the palm of the other.

"King Aithan." Is it his own imagination or is Duke Hakim's smile truly trembling on his lips? "who won the Great Apple War of 1244 in the most decisive victory since his grandmother united the Five Kingdoms."

Queen Kenna, the aforementioned ancestor, is right behind them, her legs standing apart and an array of weapons from all over the Five Kingdoms at the base of her statue. If you took in the sight of both figures together, Father had told him once, you could almost convince yourself that she seemed to stare directly at Aithan, imparting her blessings and her wisdom. More than the words, it is the shine in Father's blue eyes that Liam remembers most.

Duke Hakim's eyes glitter oddly in the moonlight. There is a moist sheen to them now that Liam is almost afraid to ask about for fear of intruding. The next words that come from his mouth are uttered softly, so softly that it's as if he is saying them to himself, as if he has forgotten that the man next to him exists.

"I've lost count of the times we used to played tag here." Absently, he runs a tender finger along the back of the watch fob he is holding, staring at it with a gaze soaked in muted grief. "It wasn't very hard to find Kontos. He always chose King Aithan's statue to hide behind."

Liam offers a sad smile of his own. "My father was nothing if not predictable."

The two men share halting, reluctant chuckles over this shared image. An image neither of them expected the other to recognise. It unravels some tightened cord between them - one that made it impossible for them to speak as if they knew each other.

"I didn't realize you and Father knew each other so well as children," Liam whispers as they pass other statues. Queen Ilona, 1346, who staged several successful attacks on the more hostile of their neighbours. King Calix, 1420, who thwarted at least three coups in his lifetime and finally managed to keep the Nevrakis family in a stronghold that they found impossible to wriggle out of until two centuries later. Queen Flora, 1492, who held her two year old child in one hand and slashed down the traitors who had entered her bedchambers with the other. The sword on her right hand is sculpted to appear as if it's still in midair, perhaps to complement the fire and brimstone in her eyes. "All the stories Mum told me of the two of you seemed to happen in university. I always assumed you weren't close till then."

A small frown pierces the skin between the Duke's eyebrows. When he speaks, his words are suddenly clipped, as if they are strangers again. Liam bites his tongue, chiding himself on his uncharacteristic carelessness.

"We weren't close until University. Just playmates whenever my mother brought me down to the Capitol. Duchess Emmeline and Duke Barthelemy could have boasted of the same." His voice is a hoarse rasp, his nails scraping lightly over the watch. "I'm more surprised you heard those stories from Ellie's mouth, not his." As if she were the only one who cared enough to keep them alive, Liam can imagine him thinking, and on an instinct fostered by years of now-destroyed blind worship, he leaps to his father's defence.

"I did hear a few from him. Just not as many. You'd know when he was the happiest because those were the stories he'd tell."

Duke Hakim respectfully appraises his King in a speculative glance, not entirely convinced. Liam cannot find it in him to blame the elder man. For years, Queen Regina - and then himself - had been the mouthpieces Father used to deliver excuses for his rejections of Castelserraillan's overtures. Each time the Duke would briefly glance over their shoulders as if expecting someone else - each time the glow of hope would dim from his eyes when he saw no one. Over the years it has made him wary not only of his old friend, but of them too.

The distance between the men has undoubtedly created a chasm amongst the families - one Liam doesn't know yet how to break through. There is no real reason for Duke Hakim, or his wife, or his daughter (who he had befriended himself over the course of the social season, and who has been around less and less since the Gala. It's gone long enough for him to begin worrying. Should he change the subject and ask the Duke about her?)...no reason at all to believe that Liam is different, that he is a man who will not abandon his well-wishers. Or even that he is a king who shares their goals, their dreams for this country.

There may come a time when Duke Hakim will believe Liam cares about what he thinks. Today is not that day.

As if to encourage a change in the subject, Liam looks around at the many statues dotting the Square. "Every single figure here is that of a warrior."

Duke Hakim grants him a weak, resigned smile. "I hear there used to be more. It was your grandmother who had them removed."

Yiayia Cassandra. Whose intimidating, terrifying countenance made his own father appear like a lamb in comparison - a statement both mother and son would've loathed to hear. Who hated the Nevrakises but kept tomes and tomes of their ancient books on war strategy. Who scoffed at art as being a useless, ego-fuelled and far too fanciful exercise.

Father would often speak of her with the same blind worship Liam had once reserved for him. It isn't surprising then his politics turned out the way it did, that despite his disdain for Olivia and her lack of courtliness, a part of King Constantine wouldn't wholly disagree with a lot of what she could propose.

Strength and authority. Those were the qualities the Royal Family wanted above all others in their heirs; anything different would spell failure.

Already, as Liam poses the question to the man beside him, he realises with a lump in his throat that he knows what the answer will be. "Which statues were those?"

"Artists. Scribes. Inventors. Scientists. People who advanced the nation in times of peace."

Liam smiles sadly. "And who are often overlooked in favour of the drama and glamour bloodshed brings." He responds with a shiver.

He is rewarded for this admission with a sharp, shocked look from Duke Hakim. An emotion, a memory, seems to flicker in his eyes before it swiftly disappears in the neutral game-face he has been showing around Liam all this time.

"I don't have the most trustworthy memory on the ones I did manage to see; it's been too long." The watch fob disappears into his fisted hands. "One of our own was part of this esteemed gathering. Dominique Lavigne, a master sculptor of her own time, who dressed as a man to get recognition. Yusuf Hadid from Domvallier, who combined Arabic calligraphy with our own Cordonian arts in handwriting. Saengdao Adair from Krysanthe, a pioneer in herbal medicine and the reason Krysanthans excel in both traditional and allopathic medicinal fields even today."

Liam freezes. "That last name? Could you repeat that again?" It's a name he's read about, vaguely, in obscure texts...but the fact that there's a statue...

"Saengdao Adair," the Duke says, locking his companion in a quizzical gaze. "Her statue -"

" - was mentioned in my father's will. Among others." Liam whispers, almost to himself.

Hakim's eyes widen. The contents of a passing monarch's will - even one who had passed on his throne to the next in line before his death - would be jealously guarded by the Palace, only released to the public years or maybe decades later. This is clearly information the King wouldn't impart so arbitrarily to just anyone.

More than once he has tried to stop himself from wondering if the boy had more of his mother in him. It was a hope he'd always held to his chest in the early years of Constantine's withdrawal...one that died when it became clear that he wanted little - if at all - to do with the Thornes. Against all wisdom, this small exchange is beginning to allow that hope to flare up within him again. Belatedly, he loosens his grip on his old, trusted watch fob - a gift from Kontos the year they graduated.

Liam rubs the space between his brows, trying to remember. "His will mentioned the King Fabian Alcove," he whispers, "that arrangements were to be made to shift it there from the Stirling Halls."

"Stirling Halls," Duke Hakim repeats, his voice suddenly hollow. Liam knows he must be remembering it as the place that was open to no one barring the Royal Family - not even members of the Great Houses. That was where all art went to die?

"The date on the will is from two and a half weeks before the Costume Gala," Liam says softly, his eyes searching Duke Hakim's face, then the hands that have dropped to his sides. The pocket watch is still there, his thumb running distractedly over it. "They only transfer artifacts to the alcove when they -"

"...when permission is granted to reveal those works to the public."

The two men stand still, soaking in their collective memories of the man whose body now lies in wait, to be descended into the Royal Family Vaults. To be buried beside men and women he'd read about in textbooks, loved, idolized. Who embodied his favourite words: Bravery. Valour. Strength. Warriors.

But he would also be buried next to men and women who understood the value of times of peace. Who - as he had often heard in Duke Hakim and Duchess Joëlle's speeches - advocated that a country gave you its best when its environment made you feel safe enough to create. And that was a safety that went far beyond border protection and weaponry.

People that Father would regularly dismiss when he and Leo were growing up. People that Cordonia wouldn't give a second thought to, nowadays. Because the value of their advancements were seeped so deep into public consciousness that they were often taken for granted.

Here in Cordonia, the mindset of the reigning monarch and the collective mindsets of their people often fed on each other. Yesterday's history books could hail one man a hero one minute, and a weakling the next. And for at least two centuries - perhaps bored from decades and decades of peace and good diplomacy, who knows? - the popular view seemed to favour a fondness for the most dramatic and bloodthirsty of their ancestors. Father was no different in holding that view.

When had that changed?

The moonlight casts the Duke's face into a fascinating interplay of light and shadow. The lines of his jaw are softer than Father's, but signify its own unique brand of strength. The air around them is scented and heavy, almost as if this moment promises a watershed of sorts, and that very air is drawing a bated breath.

"I haven't visited that alcove in a long time," Liam admits, looking away, "I don't remember where it is."

Duke Hakim swallows, then motions his hand vaguely to their left. "It's this way."

The alcove is inside a garden - a fairly large one, made of old red brick and surrounded by an array of beautiful creepers. The two men stop short of going inside, halting their steps and drawing a gasp at the sight in front of them.

"... Saengdao Adair?" Liam whispers, drinking in the sight of this pioneer with his eyes. Her hair is long, her voluminous folds of her robe billowing almost realistically as if they were real linen, not marble. A mortar and pestle rests in one hand; her other is raised, delicately holding a sprig of stinging nettle.

There are others. So many others. A woman with a map and a compass, staring ahead into horizons not yet explored. A man with a richly-feathered quill in his hand, a book in the other. A woman holding a jewel-embellished half-mask. A simple sculpture of a man dressed in the garb of the ancient Technocrats, his eyes glowing at the sight of the nails and bolts in his hand, ready to invent something new.

A woman seated on her heels, hammer and chisel in hand, lips pursed and eyebrows scrunched together as she worked at transforming stone to a work of art.

Liam lets out a small, watery laugh. "A sculpture for a sculptor."

The Duke responds with a smile, shaking his head. "Fali Kraine from the Blackspine Mountains."

Liam nods. "They say she had this precise look on her face and sat exactly this way while sculpting this piece. What I wouldn't give to witness that."

But the centerpiece of the alcove is a woman. A scribe. Hunched over - in the rough cotton garb of a scribe from the Renaissance - books and parchment. Transcribing - letter for letter and word for word - the history of her nation so that her descendants could share it with their children. His ancestor. Queen Lisabetta.

"King Fabian commissioned this," Hakim's voice is a hoarse, shaky whisper, "to remind his beloved wife of the value of the work she had once done."

Liam swallows a painful lump in his throat. Back in the palace, an hour ago - he had stayed in Esther's room, knowing she would need him more these next few nights if she were to preserve an ounce of her sanity.

"You're a good man, Liam," she had murmured against his throat.

He held her tighter, smiling slightly against her hair. "That won't always translate into becoming a great king, my love."

Against her own will, she let out a long yawn. Her fingers ran lightly over his chest before resting against his heart. "But it certainly helps."

He had held her until he was sure her body was resting softly and heavily against his, her breathing slow and deep...and then quietly slipped out of her arms to walk to the Capitol Square.

He looks at the Duke too. Both he and his children took this trip without Duchess Joëlle, who chose to go to Switzerland. He remembers every account of how attached the couple are and how much they dislike being apart - including his own mother's. Liam winces; he never recognized until now the sacrifice Duke Hakim made in coming here without her.

Yet here he is. For a country that will not always respect him. For a friend who would not always accept him. For a King he isn't entirely sure he can trust.

For an ideology that won't capture the country's imagination, the way valiant heroes on horseback do. But if these commemorations had been shifted to this alcove, with the intention of placing them around the Capitol Square...that must mean some change was underway. Within his father, and with Liam's help perhaps within the rest of the country too.

"It's getting late," Liam says, straightening up and getting ready to leave the alcove. "We'd better head back to the palace."

"In a minute, Your Majesty," Duke Hakim says, giving him a brief bow, then turning to the statue of Queen Lisabetta.

As Liam leaves the alcove, he hears a voice so soft he wonders if he had imagined it.

"Kontos," the voice said, a sigh released from deep inside a man's chest, "Kontos, you listened."

A/N: This mini series takes place in the Petals and Thornes universe, that revolves around a romance between Hana and Kiara. While a lot of the story beats follow canon, I do make a lot of deviations from the text, including with other characters who aren't central to the story but whose stories have a definite influence on the larger plot. I'm hoping to make Legacies one of them. At present I plan for it to be a four part series.

A/N2: In canon, Constantine's funeral and burial arrangements lasts just a week, all of which was skipped entirely to the Lythikos leg of the Unity Tour. I have increased that time to 12 days.

The Vigil of the Princes is based on the British tradition (of the same name) in royal funerals - esp that of the monarch - where the family members stay vigil for 10-15 minutes near the casket of the deceased. Family who has served in the military perform this ritual in their military uniform.

The Great Houses' Vigil is my own creation but with elements borrowed from the above tradition. My HC is that it is shorter and unlike the surviving royals, the members of the Great Houses are not required to wear military uniform.

Kontos is a playful nickname that Constantine's close ones were allowed to use for him, as long as they didn't use it in public (because apparently the meaning in Greek is "short")

Krysanthe is the modern-day Aurelia, with Hana being their current Duchess/Head of House. Saengdao is indeed Annelyse's descendant. Here is my HC on the duchy and Hana's rise to Duchess.

Characters from my playthrough of TRM in this story:

Artemisia Fierro - Hunter (f!Asian)

Sofonisba Vescovi - Kayden (f!Black)

Lisabetta Rosario - MC, who fell for Artemisia initially but married Fabian later on. Artemisia and Sofonisba keep in touch with the royal couple and are protected by the Crown.

#king liam #liam rys #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #kingliamappreciationweek #KLAW #KLAW 2024 #KLAW Day 1: Throwback #lizzybeth1986 #content: fanfic

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choices-binglebonkus · 7 months ago

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a-cloud-for-dreams · 1 year ago

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Cordonia and Drakovia fr

#jk jk i didn't finish the ridiculously long TRR/TRH series so this might not be super accurate but the vibes are so different it's hilarious #playchoices #the royal romance #the royal heir #crimes of passion #crimes of passion 2 #choices book club

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storyofmychoices · 3 months ago

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Geometric Maxwell Beaumont

For @fictionangyl

There are 150 shapes (not including the squid...I merged those layers before counting them)

[Geometric Art Masterlist]

#maxwell beaumont #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #choices #playchoices #choices game #playchoices game #art #choices art #my art #geometric art #my geometric art #my attempt to art #my art attempts #lovealexhunt #storyofmychoices #august2024

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kiaratheronappreciationweek · 7 months ago

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(this incredible poster is the handiwork of our lovely host @sazanes!!)

Welcome to our third Kiara Theron Appreciation Week! That time of the year when we get together and celebrate this wonderful character (though to be honest, every day is a great day to celebrate Kiara).

This year, we will be holding this event around May 21st, which is World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development! Basically, a day specially meant to celebrate all cultures and diversities. And which estate is best known for its rich culture, art and literature? Castelserraillan, of course!

Here are our themes for this year:

Day 1 - May 21st - Culture/Festivals

Day 2 - May 22nd - Character Appreciation/Throwback

Day 3 - May 23rd - Languages/Wine

Day 4 - May 24th - Diplomacy/Nature

Day 5 - May 25th - Family/Friendships/Romance

Any content is welcome - art, fanfic, edits, essays, moodboards, interactive media, headcanons...even short appreciation posts and screencaps! Our only requirement is that the content should be Kiara-focused and depict her positively.

Each day has a theme, and some will have two. For those days, you can choose whichever theme you prefer or you can even combine them! It isn't completely necessary to post the content exactly on the day it's meant for...just make sure you tag it with the day and theme even if you're submitting it on a later day.

We also will be accepting pieces after the event is over, and all year round until the next KTAW! So even if you have your post ready much later, please don't hesitate to tag us! 🤗

Blogs to Tag: @hanaleeappreciationweek, and hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes

Tags to Use: #kiaratheronappreciationweek, #KTAW, #KTAW 2024

There are some incredible fan-community blogs that work tirelessly both to promote creative fandom works and make the experience fun for their writers! Do check them out!!

@choicesficwriterscreations, @choicesmonthlychallenge, @choicespride, @choicesflashfics, @choicesholidays, @choicesprompts, @wordwarriors, @choicescommunityevents

If you know any others who would like to be tagged, please let me know! Here are the amazing works sent in for 2023 and '22 if you'd like to get more inspired!

KTAW 2022 | KTAW 2023

Can't wait to see all our fellow Kiara fans next month!!

✅✅signal boosts are always appreciated!✅✅

#kiara theron #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #kiaratheronappreciationweek #KTAW #KTAW 2024

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bryceslahela · 10 months ago

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i’ve been thinking about how the royal heir makes no sense if you’re romancing drake…. cause wtf u mean a professional bum and his random new york girlfriend have birthed the next cordonian queen?

#this shit make no sense #playchoices #pixelberry #the royal heir #the royal romance #drake wtf his last name is

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choicesoutofcontext · 5 months ago

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the royal heir | book 1, ch 2

#playchoices #the royal romance series #the royal heir #the royal heir book 1 #drake walker #liam rys #maxwell beaumont #choicesoutofcontext

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hanaleeappreciationweek · 2 years ago

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(this gorgeous poster is the work of our wonderful co-host @sazanes!!)

Welcome to our second edition of the Hana Lee Appreciation Week!! We celebrated it in the first week of October last year, but this time - such World Music Day falls on 21st June - we've decided to shift our appreciation week to a slightly earlier date. After all, music is one of Hana's first great loves! 💞💞💞

Last year, we held our first ever HLAW, and every single entry we received for it was a sheer slice of perfection!! We just can't wait to see what Hana stans have in store for us this year!!

As always, this week is about celebrating Hana Lee in all her glory and her complexity - her passions, her kindness, her confusions, her own journey to healing and confidence. We love every facet of her, and this week is dedicated to showcasing ALL of them!

Certain days will have two themes - you can choose either one for your content, or even do a combination of both! Any content is welcome - fanfic, fanart, edits, moodboards, meta, playlists, icons...even screenshots of your favourite scenes of Hana!! We also accept WIPs so if you're not able to complete the piece on time, you can always show us a WIP of the piece you were working on! As long as the content is focused on Hana and shows a positive depiction of her, the sky's the limit!

These are the themes we have in store for HLAW 2023:

19th June - Throwback

20th June - Skills vs Passions/Chocolate!

21st June - Music/AU

22nd June - Relationships*/Homes

23rd June - Hana's Perfect Wedding! (Small note about this theme here)

For Throwback typically, we accept old pieces on Hana, and invite the creators to briefly tell us about the process of creating their piece. Here's a throwback questionnaire you can use if you like!

The themes are meant to be inspirations for your writing - it isn't completely essential for you to send content for a particular day only specifically for that day. You can always send it later as long as you tag it with the day you meant the work for!

Make sure you tag @hanaleeappreciationweek in your content as well as co-hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes. Tag your posts with #hanaleeappreciationweek and #HLAW (along with days #HLAW Day 1, #HLAW Day 2, etc) as well so we don't miss any of your pieces!

For inspiration, take a look at our HLAW 2022 masterlist!!

Various fan content blogs also enthusiastically promote our events and have tons of fun events of their own during these months, so we highly recommend you check them out: @choicesficwriterscreations, @choicesflashfics, @choicesholidays, @choicespride, @choicesprompts, @choicesmonthlychallenge, @drake-walker-appreciation, @maxwell-beaumont-appreciation.

Once the week officially ends on 23rd June, we will keep the blog open for a bonus week, for anyone who struggles to finish their content during the week itself.

More than a month is left before HLAW begins, and we are SO excited to see what Hana fans will come up with!! See you all in June!

✅✅ signal boosts will be greatly appreciated!! ✅✅

*(Relationships in this context could refer to romantic, platonic or filial relationships!)

#hana lee #hanaleeappreciationweek #HLAW #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale

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tessa-liam · 3 months ago

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Turning the Page

Make You Mine - Chapter 14

Choices, The Royal Romance, The Royal Heir AU

Series Premise: As Riley Brooks journeys through life as a single parent in New York City, an epiphany strikes as she contemplates the future for herself and her two-year-old son.

Turning the Page Series Masterlist, My Complete Masterlist

Main pairing: Liam Rys x F!OC Riley Brooks

All characters belong to Pixelberry Studios, except William Brooks (Rys) and Matteo Magro, who both belong to this series.

Category: On-going series, contains angst/fluff/depression. Cross-over fic with Choices, Perfect Match.

Rating: M 🔞 - Warnings – Series will have crude language, weapons, NSFW material – not Beta’d - please excuse all errors.

Words: 4816

Make You Mine - Chapter 14

Chapter Summary: Daniel & Matteo get married in Greece

Music Inspiration:

Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers

A/N1: In this alternate universe, after King Constantine orchestrates two individual scandals to humiliate and entrap Riley Brooks and Olivia Nevrakis in shame, Madeleine Amaranth secures her position as the Queen of Cordonia. Riley, as the King’s mistress and Olivia, in self-imposed exile. Tariq is never found.

A/N2: Damien Nazario has been assigned as William’s personal bodyguard. (Series cross-over with ‘Perfect Match’)

A/N3: My submission for @choicesaugustchallenge , prompt "Summer Wedding"

"What an amazing wedding venue!" Riley gushed as she and Liam leisurely strolled, hand-in hand along the pristine beach with William. "This white sand ... the turquoise water ... it's absolutely breathtaking!"

Liam smiled tenderly as he admired her elation and innocent amazement of the seaside in front of the hotel. Arriving on the island of Santorini, the weeklong pre wedding festivities began as wedding guests arrived to join the celebration.

“It truly is," Liam agreed as he also took in the beauty of the scenery." I can definitely see why Daniel and Matteo chose this location. However, I must say that Cordonian bea --"

Interrupting his father, William tugged his hand and pulled, "Daddy, I wanna play in the water. Pleeaaase?!"

“Is that so?”

William squealed when Liam at once picked him up and twirled him around, giggling and clapping his hands in delight.

"He's getting so big!" Riley cooed, reaching out to tickle William's belly. "You're such a big boy now, aren't you?"

William grinned and nodded. "I'm three now, mama!" Grinning and patting his chest proudly.

"That's right, Will," Liam chuckled, giving him a high-five. "You're growing up so fast!"

They continued their walk along the beach, taking in the sights and sounds of the ocean waves crashing against the shore. Riley slipped her arm through Liam's and leaned her head against his shoulder. William began to pull away from them to follow a seagull that flew up from the water's edge.

"William, don't run too far ahead," Riley called after him.

"I won't mama," William called back, slowing his pace. Damien, who followed close behind, kept an eye on the prince. As they continued their walk along the beach, Riley and Liam enjoyed the feeling of the warm sun on their skin and the gentle breeze blowing through their hair.

"What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon," Liam smiled joyfully. "This is what I have always dreamed of -- you by my side, with children underfoot ...enjoying life with my family."

"I couldn't imagine being anywhere else," Riley said, returning his smile.

"Nor I, Riley," Liam said, placing his arm around her waist pulling her closer.

"I'm so happy for Daniel and Matteo," she sighed. "They're perfect for each other."

"And so are we."

"We are," Riley murmured, tilting her head as she leaned up and captured his lips. The kiss was slow and deep; savoring the taste of him.

Liam's tongue brushed against hers, sending a thrill of desire throughout her body. He pulled her even closer, his hand splayed on the small of her back. She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, tugging gently as she kissed him harder.

They were so caught up in each other that they did not even notice when Maxwell, Bertrand, Savannah and Bartie strolled alongside.

"Hey, lovebirds," Savannah called, breaking them out of their passionate embrace quickly.

"Sorry," Riley giggled, her cheeks flushing.

"It's okay, you're just young and in love," Savannah smiled, giving her a knowing wink. "But don't forget, there are little eyes around, too."

"Yes, save some of that for later, you two," Bertrand chimed in, indignantly.

"You're one to talk, Bertrand," Maxwell guffawed. "I've seen the way you and Savannah can't keep your hands off of each other."

"I suppose you have a point," Bertrand conceded, looking pleased with himself. Liam acknowledged, "Duke Beaumont, you are correct. It is good to relax and spend time with the people we care about. It's what we all need."

"Indeed," Bertrand said, his eyes sparkling.

"We'll try to keep our hands off each other, just for you," Riley laughed, teasing the elder Beaumont.

"Good, thank you," Bertrand huffed.

Maxwell chuckled, "Yeah, I'll make sure Bertrand behaves himself in public, too. For Bartie's sake, of course."

"What are you talking about?" Savannah asked, her brows furrowing.

Bertrand’s eyebrows shot up in annoyance. "Nothing," Maxwell and Bertrand said in unison.

Bartie, seeing William up ahead, tugs his mother's hand wanting to join his friend.

"Bartie, don't go too far," Savannah called as he sped off to join William.

"Please excuse me, your majesty," Bertrand quickly followed the chase.

Liam and Riley exchanged an amused look and continued their stroll along the beach, hand in hand. “Hey, Max, how did you convince your brother to come to the beach, anyway?" Riley grinned mischievously.

“Ha,” I had to bribe him,” Maxwell shook his head, chuckling. “I told him if he would come out here that I would look after Bartie during the wedding. He was reluctant at first, but eventually, he caved.”

"That's sweet of you, Maxwell," Riley said.

"Yes, Maxwell, that's noble of you. It is good that you are looking after your nephew. You're a great uncle."

"Thanks, Liam. I appreciate that."

"Of course," Liam smiled. "What on Earth--"

Up ahead, as Bertrand pursued his son, the chase ended when he tripped and landed face first, with a splash, into the water.

"Bert!" Savannah called out, "Bartie, what did I tell you?"

"Sorry, mommy," Bartie said sheepishly.

"Bertrand, are you okay?" Maxwell asked, rushing to his brother's side.

Bertrand grunted, pulling himself up and wiping his face. "I think that's enough for today," he said, looking annoyed.

Savannah giggled, "It's okay, Bertrand. Accidents happen."

"Right," he nodded, with a look of disgust at his wet clothing.

"Let's get out of here before something else happens." Maxwell chimed in, trying, but failing not to laugh.

"I think that's a good idea," Liam said, suppressing his amusement.

"Yes, I'm fine," Bertrand grunted as he stood up, soaking wet.

"Let me help you with that, Bert," Savannah offered, handing him a towel.

"Thank you, Savannah," Bertrand said, taking the towel.

Maxwell helped his brother dry off while Bartie looked on, a look of concern on his face. "Father, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you fall into the water."

"It's alright, Bartie. Accidents happen," Bertrand replied, giving the boy a small smile.

"Come on, let's get you back to the hotel so you can change into some dry clothes," Savannah said, taking Bartie's hand.

"Yes, good idea. Let's go," Maxwell followed behind, shaking his head with a smirk.

As they walked, Bertrand turned his head back to Maxwell. "Did you see what happened? I could have sworn that there was a shark fin in the water. It looked like it was heading straight for Bartie!"

"A shark? Really?" Maxwell burst out laughing uncontrollably.

Damien, overhearing their conversation, grinned as he turned with William and walked towards Liam and Riley.

"That was quite the scene, huh?" Damien quietly commented and snickered.

"It was something," Liam nodded, as he bit the inside of his cheek, successfully holding his laughter.

"It was quite entertaining," Riley chuckled. "Bertrand needs to come out here more often, especially with Bartie. He is so sweet."

"Having his son and Savannah with him at House Beaumont has been a positive influence on him." Liam replied. "Bartie is just curious and adventurous. He's a good kid."

"He's a little rascal," Damien laughed.

"Maybe, but he's a cute one," Riley added.

Damien stopped walking as he noticed Olivia and Drake up ahead at the hotel entrance.

"I'll be right back," Damien said, making his way towards the entrance.

Riley watched him leave; her brow furrowed in question. "What's going on?"

"Well, I think Duchess Olivia has an admirer."

"Is that so?" Riley asked, her interest piqued.

"It would appear that way," Liam said, his lips curving into a knowing smile.

As Damien approached closer, he saw Olivia and Drake locked in an intense discussion. He could not make out what they were saying, but he had a feeling that things were getting heated.

"We should keep walking," Riley said, smiling coyly at Liam. "Yes, let's get out of here." Liam agreed, taking her hand and leading her further down the beach.

"This is the perfect place for a honeymoon," Riley mused. "Greece is so romantic."

"Do you see that temple over there, Riley?" Liam asked, motioning to a magnificent structure that rose up from the shore of the main island.

"That's the Temple of Apollo," he continued. "It's one of the most famous monuments in Greece."

"Wow, it's gorgeous," Riley breathed, awestruck. "It looks like something out of a movie."

"The ancient Greeks were known for their exquisite architecture," Liam explained. "They used materials like marble and limestone to create these stunning monuments."

"It's incredible to think that something so beautiful has lasted for thousands of years," Riley pondered. "I wish I could have seen the world back then, when these temples were still new."

"Me too," Liam chuckled. "Although I'm not sure how I would have adjusted to a time without modern technology."

"True," Riley laughed. "I can barely manage going without my phone for a few hours, let alone a lifetime."

As they continued to walk along the beach, Liam regaled her with stories about the Greek gods and goddesses, and how their myths had inspired the Greeks to create some of the most iconic art and literature in the world. Riley listened with rapt attention, enthralled by the stories of love, betrayal, and heroism.

"So, which god do you think would be the best fit for you, Liam?" she asked teasingly.

"Hmm, that's a tough question," he chuckled. "But I think I would have to say, Hermes, the god of travel and trade."

"A good choice," Riley nodded. "What about me?"

"Definitely Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty," he replied without hesitation.

"Wow, high praise indeed," she blushed.

"It's no less than you deserve, my love," he murmured, kissing her cheek softly.

The sun was beginning to set over the sea, casting a warm, golden glow over the beach. The breeze ruffled Riley's hair as she leaned against Liam's chest, her heart filled with joy and contentment.

"Thank you for coming here with me, Liam," she whispered. "This means so much to me."

"It is my pleasure, Riley," he murmured, holding her close. "I'll never get tired of seeing the world with you."

He leaned in and moved a lock of hair behind her ear, and kissed her lips, as she melted into his arms.

Daniel and Matteo’s wedding day...

The setting was stunning, with the Aegean Sea providing a breathtaking backdrop. The guests were greeted with glasses of champagne, and Riley and Liam mingled with their friends and Matteo's family.

As the sun started to set, Riley noticed that Daniel and Matteo had not arrived yet. She began to wonder if there had been any delays, but as she was about to text them, the guests heard a motorboat approaching the shore.

Riley gasped as she saw the two grooms arrive on the boat, looking dashing in their tuxedos. The guests cheered as the two men disembarked and made their way towards the ceremony venue.

The music changed to a slower, more romantic song as Daniel and Matteo walked down the aisle, arm in arm.

"Welcome, family and friends, to the wedding of Daniel and Matteo," the officiant began. "We are gathered here today to witness the union of these two wonderful people in marriage.

“Daniel and Matteo have chosen to write their own vows, which they will now recite to each other."

Matteo nodded and took Daniel’s hand.

"Daniel, when I first met you, I knew you were someone special. You are intelligent, kind, and incredibly generous. You have brought so much joy into my life, and I am so grateful that I get to spend the rest of my life with you."

Matteo paused and took a deep breath, his eyes glistening with tears. "Danny, I promise to love and support you, to be by your side through good times and bad, and to share in your dreams and ambitions. I will love you and cherish you for all the days of my life."

With tears in his eyes, Daniel takes a deep, shuddered breath.

"Matteo, When I first met you, I never imagined that we would end up together. But every moment we have shared since that day has made me realize that you are the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. You are kind, funny, and so very dear to me. Thank you for making me a better person and for loving me unconditionally. I vow to be your partner in all things, to stand by your side through the ups and downs of life and to love you forever and always.”

After the exchange of rings, the officiant asks, "Matteo, do you take Daniel to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do," Matteo replied, his voice thick with emotion.

“And Daniel, do you take Matteo as your lawfully wedded husband?”

“Yes, yes, I do.” Daniel smiled through his tears.

"Then by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and husband. You may now kiss the groom!"

Daniel and Matteo wasted no time embracing and kissing each other passionately. The guests applauded and cheered.

"Congratulations, Daniel and Matteo!" the officiant announced.

"I love you, husband," Matteo said, cupping Daniel's face.

"And I love you, husband," Daniel replied, kissing him again.

The newlyweds made their way down the aisle, surrounded by their friends and family. As they walked, they could hear the guests chanting "kiss, kiss, kiss!"

Finally, Daniel and Matteo obliged, stopping to give each other a long, loving kiss. Matteo lifted Daniel's hand in thew air and with the other he lifted a glass. Grinning, he smashed it down and yelled, "Opa!"

Matteo chuckled. "I can't wait for our honeymoon."

"Same," Daniel grinned.

Riley smiled as she watched the two men walk off hand in hand. She turned to Liam, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

"That was so beautiful," she said, her voice full of emotion. "They are truly in love."

"They are," Liam agreed, his voice tinged with sadness.

Riley turned to him; a questioning look in her eyes. "Are you okay, Liam?"

Liam nodded; his expression somber. "I'm just thinking about the past. How could my life have been different if I had chosen you from the start."

"But you did choose me," Riley reminded him, her tone gentle.

"Yes, but at my coronation --," Liam began, his tone regretful. "If I had given you that ring, things would be so different."

Riley placing her hand on his cheek, “we're together now, and that's all that matters. I'm so glad you came with me here," she said softly.

"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," he replied, his voice low and husky.

He leaned in and captured her lips, and she happily responded.

Amidst the cheers and applause, the guests were gathering for the traditional Greek wedding dance. Riley and Liam were swept up in the moment, as Maxwell and Savannah linked arms with them as they joined in the dance.

The music changed to a slower, more romantic song, and the guests formed a circle around the newlyweds.

"This is called a Syrtos," the band leader explained. "It's a traditional Greek dance that symbolizes the union of two souls. Daniel and Matteo, if you will please take the center of the circle."

"Now, everyone, join hands and begin the Kalamatianos," the band leader instructed.

The guests joined hands and began to dance, circling around the newlyweds.

"Great! Now, the bride and groom will walk around the inside of the circle, holding hands. Opa!!!"

Daniel and Matteo danced around the inside of the circle, their arms linked. As they passed their friends and family, they shared smiles and hugs.

"This is a wonderful tradition," Liam whispered in Riley's ear.

"I know, it's beautiful," she agreed, smiling.

The dance came to an end, and the guests broke into applause.

"Thank you all for joining us on this special day," Matteo called out, his smile beaming. "We are so happy that you could share in our celebration. We hope you have a wonderful time and that you will join us for the reception." The reception was a beautiful blend of traditional and modern, with delicious Greek cuisine and a lively dance floor.

"Congratulations, Daniel and Matteo," Riley said, giving them both hugs.

"Thank you, Riley," Matteo replied, smiling.

"We're so happy for you both," Liam added, shaking Daniel's hand.

"Thanks, Liam," Daniel said. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have a reception to get to!"

With that, Daniel and Matteo made their way to the wedding feast, hand in hand. The guests followed, ready to continue the celebration.

The newlyweds were soon swept away by the joy and excitement of their reception, and the party began in earnest. Loud music played and the guests danced and celebrated well into the night.

Riley and Liam spent the evening talking and laughing with their friends, and when it was time to cut the cake, the couple fed each other a slice, much to the delight of the guests and then snuck off to take some photos.

William pointed to the wedding cake displayed on a nearby table. "Look, Mama! Big cake."

"That's right, sweetie. That’s a wedding cake."

“Mama, you and daddy married, too?" Riley’s eyes snapped up to meet Liam’s gaze as he smiled tenderly, raising his eyebrows.

"Maybe someday," she said, winking at Liam.

"Can I have cake now, pleeaase?"

"Of course," Riley smiled.

"Come on," William said, getting up from his chair, grabbing Liam's hand.

"Okay," Liam chuckled, as he started to stand up to follow his son. “Oh Liam, no worries. I can take him.”

As Riley started to rise from her chair, Liam tenderly put his hand on her shoulder, urging her to still be seated. Liam bent down and placed a sweet kiss on her cheek.

William led his father over to the wedding cake, where they were greeted by an older woman.

"Ah, King Liam." The woman bowed her head and dropped down to curtsy. "How can I help you, Your Majesty?"

Liam graciously bowed his head in respect and placed his hands on William's shoulders. “My son would love to try some of the wedding cake, thank you."

"Of course, Your Majesty. Would you like a small or large piece?"

"Wait ... is the cake made of baklava?" Astounded by his favorite dessert in the world made into a wedding cake. He was ecstatic.

Matteo overheard his question and leaned over, a grin on his face. "It is, actually. It’s my favorite."

"Wow," Liam breathed. "This is amazing."

"My yia yia [grandmother] made it herself." Matteo said.

"So, would you like a slice, Your Majesty? She smiled warmly.

"Please," Liam nodded, his eyes sparkled happily.

Matteo 's grandmother first cut a slice for William and then cut a generous slice and placed it on a plate for Liam.

"Here you go." She smiled proudly.

"Thank you," he said, his tone sincere.

"You're welcome, Your Majesty."

Liam took a bite of the cake and sighed contentedly. "αυτό είναι απίστευτο" ["This is incredible"].

"Χαίρομαι που σου αρέσει" ["I'm glad you like it"], Matteo smiled.

"ο Βασιλιάς είναι ένας σοφός άνθρωπος" ["The King is a wise man!"] Matteo's grandmother exclaimed.

"μιλάς ελληνικά;" ["You speak Greek?"]

"Έκανα μερικά μαθήματα" ["I took a few lessons," Liam admitted.

"Λοιπόν, τότε είναι διπλή τιμή που σας έχω εδώ! [""Well, then I'm doubly honored to have you here."]

"παρακαλώ η τιμή είναι δική μου!" ["Please, the honor is all mine."]

***

After the desserts were served, the band began playing a lively tune. Maxwell grabbed Savannah's hand and dragged her to the dance floor. Bertrand contentedly remained seated with Bartie.

"Come on, Daddy," William said, pulling at Liam's sleeve.

The woman's eyes went wide as she realized the little boy was his son.

"Θεέ μου ο Μάτι ο βασιλιάς έχει έναν γιο!" ["Oh, my goodness, Matty ... the king has a son?"]

***

Later in the evening, Matteo's grandmother approached Liam, as he enjoyed a drink with Drake and Olivia.

"Your Majesty, please give this to your bride. It's a family heirloom, and I want her to have it," the elderly woman said, pressing a small, ornate necklace into Liam's hands.

"Yia yia, With respect, I can't accept this. It's too much," Liam protested, but the old woman was adamant.

"Nonsense," she insisted. "It's a gift from me to your bride, for more healthy babies.

Liam felt his face flush at her words and the thought of having more children with Riley. He swallowed hard and nodded. "Thank you, Yia yia. But I must ask why."

The old woman smiled, her eyes twinkling. "Because I see the love between you two, and it reminds me of my late husband and me. You are a lucky man, Your Majesty. I hope you cherish each other always."

Touched by her words, Liam gave her a hug and thanked her again.

As Liam sat back down, he could feel the intense gazes of his friends look straight through him.

***

Laughing, and out of breath, Riley and Maxwell sat down from dancing at the table. "This was so much fun. I am so thirsty ..."

"Say no more, Ri. I'll be right back with refreshments," Maxwell stood up and saluted, in jest, and went to the bar.

"It's lovely to see you celebrate Daniel and Matteo's wedding." Liam squeezed her hand.

"They are so happy together."

"They are," Liam said, a slight wistfulness in his tone.

Riley caught his gaze and held it for a moment, reading the look in his eyes.

"We're going to get our happy ending too, you know," she lowered her voice, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze.

"I know," Liam replied, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"And even if we have to wait a little longer, it'll be worth it," Riley continued, her tone firm and confident.

"I couldn't agree more," Liam said, his expression softening, making a mental note to send Olivia a 'thank you so much' gift for helping Riley find her spark again.

"Besides," Riley added, a mischievous glint in her eye, "I can think of a few ways to pass the time until then."

Liam laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "You're incorrigible," he said, his tone playful.

"You know you love it," Riley teased, leaning in closer.

"I do," Liam said, his gaze fixed intently on hers.

Their faces were only inches apart, and Riley could feel her heart racing. She knew she could pull away, but she couldn't seem to make herself do it.

Liam leaned in and kissed her soundly, the taste of scotch lingering on his lips. Riley closed her eyes and kissed him back, savoring the moment.

When they finally broke apart, their faces were flushed, and their breathing was ragged.

"Come on," Riley said, her voice low and husky. "Let's go back to our room."

"Gladly," Liam replied, his voice matching hers.

They slipped out of the reception, their hands intertwined. As they walked back to the hotel, they knew that, no matter what challenges lay ahead, they would always have each other.

***

Later that night, Liam and Riley were getting ready for bed in their hotel room. Riley had just finished washing her face and was brushing her teeth when she noticed Liam staring at her from across the bedroom.

"What?" she asked, toothbrush still in her mouth.

"Nothing," he chuckled. "You're just so beautiful."

She grinned, her cheeks turning pink. "Charmer," she mumbled.

Liam walked over to her and gently took the toothbrush from her. "Matteo's grandmother gave me something for you," he said, pulling the necklace from his pocket.

Riley's eyes widened as she saw the beautiful piece of jewelry. "Liam, it's gorgeous," she breathed.

"Here, let me put it on you," he said, his voice soft and husky.

He reached around her neck and fastened the clasp, his fingers brushing against her skin. Riley shivered at his touch, her body responding to his closeness once again.

"Thank you," she whispered, her heart fluttering. "But I don't understand why--"

"She told me it was for more healthy babies," he interrupted, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Oh," Riley said, her blush deepening.

"Well, we should probably get started then," Liam said, his eyes darkening with desire.

He pulled her close and kissed her, his tongue brushing against hers. Riley melted into his arms, her body pressed against his.

"Yes, Your Majesty," she murmured, her lips curving into a smile. "We should definitely get started."

Thank you for reading, tags are in the comments. Please let me know if you would like to be added or removed.

@choicesficwriterscreations @thosehallowedhalls

#tessa liam writes #the royal romance #liam rys #trr fanfic #trr #riley brooks #liam x riley #the royal heir #turning the page #choices fanfiction #choices fic writers creations

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kingliamappreciationweek · 1 month ago

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(This incredible poster is the handiwork of our wonderful co-host @sazanes!! You guys, she made a freaking VIDEO POSTER!!! Love so much how this turned out 😍😍)

Welcome to our third edition of King Liam Appreciation Week!! Last year saw a record-breaking turnout of stories, art, headcanons and all kinds of creative work - all celebrating this amazing character.

And while the fandom may not be what it used to be in the past years, we still hold out hope that there will be plenty of people who still love Liam and want to show that through their creative work!

November 17th is World Baklava Day, and can you think of a bigger fan of this irresistible sweet than Liam? 😃

This year, the event will run from 17th - 21st November. The themes for the days are as follows:

Day 1 - Nov 17th - Baklava/Throwback

Day 2 - Nov 18th - Character Appreciation/Vanilla

Day 3 - Nov 19th - Roses/Monuments

Day 4 - Nov 20th - Relationships/Coffee

Day 5 - Nov 21st - Healing*

(*Healing can be interpreted any way the reader wishes, both physical and mental healthwise - though we tend to lean a bit more to the latter because of how stoicism is such a central aspect of his growth)

Keep in mind that you don't have to send the content on the exact day of the theme - if you give it a little later as well, it's still fine as long as you tag the piece with the day it was meant for (#KLAW Day 1, #KLAW Day 2, etc).

Any content is welcome! Fanfic, fanart, edits, moodboards, meta, interactive media, headcanons, character appreciation... anything! As long as it celebrates Liam as a character, focuses on him and shows positive depictions of him. We also accept WIPs and a specific day (Throwback) is set aside just for past pieces on Liam. If you like, you can even tell us about the process of creating that piece!

Make sure you tag @kingliamappreciationweek in your posts, as well as the hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes in your content so we don't miss it! It would also make it easier to track if you use the tags #kingliamappreciationweek and #KLAW in your posts as an extra precaution.

Various fan content blogs have helped in promoting our weeks and also run great events on a weekly/monthly basis. We would definitely love for our participants to check them out in case they'd like to be part of those too: @choicesficwriterscreations, @choicesmonthlychallenge, @choicespride, @choicesprompts, @choicesholidays, @choicescommunityevents).

Once the week is officially over, we will keep a bonus week for participants who have trouble sending content during the week itself. Additionally, this blog will be open for entries all year round!

We have about a month to get ready for KLAW, and we're super excited to see what our fellow Liam fans might have in store! See you all in November!!

✅✅signal boosts will be highly appreciated!!✅✅

Previous Years' Masterlists:

KLAW 2022 | KLAW 2023 Part 1, 2, 3

#king liam #liam rys #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #kingliamappreciationweek #KLAW #KLAW 2024 #signal boost #one month left!!

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lizzybeth1986 · 2 days ago

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Tagging @kingliamappreciationweek and @sazanes for KLAW Day 1: Throwback

1. What about this character inspired you to write this piece?

Definitely Liam's relationship with his elder brother, which was barely explored tbh. It was striking to me that in the TRH childhood flashbacks, the narrative was massively erasing Leo's presence even though he was legitimately considered the heir to the throne during that time period. Also, since the Capitol was situated near the sea, I wanted to explore their seafood, so I took inspiration from Greek seafood for the same!

2. What was your process like?

As with most EK chapters, most of the research went in reading and listening to various recipes with this dish, and exploring that aspect of the culture. I also looked through RoE's depiction of Leo and Damien (in Leo's own words). The sequence that opens the chapter (Liam at the beach with his friends) came to me at a later stage, and it was the perfect way to hint at Liam's dynamics with his closest friends while also capturing the drifting apart of the brothers and the budding romance between Leo and Damien.

3. What part of creating this piece gave you the most joy!

Hands down, Liam baking bread while his mother cooks shrimp saganaki beside him 😃 Also the childlike exchanges between Liam and Jason. They're so close to the truth and yet so far from it.

4. Are there differences between the way you write Liam and the way canon/fandom writes him?

Sure there are. This series is about Liam's childhood, but I do want to explore him as a kid who is growing into his own person, in a slow, gradual way.

Eleanor's Kitchen

Books: The Royal Romance/Heir, Rules of Engagement

Pairing: Queen Eleanor & Prince Leo + Liam (mother-sons/siblings), Leo x Damien (mentioned in RoE) (romantic), Liam & Jason (OC) (platonic).

Rating: PG

Summary: Liam notices Leo's friendship with Damien, their gardener's eldest son, becoming stronger.

Series: Eleanor's Kitchen

Note: Damien (not Nazario from PM!) has been mentioned in this scene in Rules of Engagement, Book 2. I played fast and loose with the timelines for this backstory, and have given Damien a younger brother who was Liam's age.

This chapter takes place almost a year following Ch 3. Liam is now 8 years old, Leo is 14.

Word Count: 3, 718 words

Tagging @kingliamappreciationweek for KLAW Day 4: Childhood, @aprilchallenge for the prompt "just want to be with you", @choicesholidays for National Sibling Appreciation Day (April 10th) and @choicesficwriterscreations for FoTW.

Chapter 4: Garídes Saganáki

(Photo from this recipe)

Liam greets the salt air that briefly kisses his face, and the sand that pools around his toes at the beach, with a sense of homecoming. This beach has felt as much like his home as the palace he was born in, suffused with memories of sandcastles and uniquely-shaped seashells and the rush of excitement that came every time a wave crashed against the shore.

And most of all, it feels like home for the moments long past. For the rare times both he and Leo did things together, back when Leo actually liked taking him along for things. When his talk was actually more talk and less eyerolling and "oh you're too young to understand". The love is still there, and so is the need to protect each other (especially against Father's acid remarks, usually aimed at Leo) - just...the companionship isn't, any longer.

The sad, sinking feeling that used to emerge from realizing that is, thankfully, rare now - Liam much prefers the company of his own friends - but when he was four and hanging on to his big brother's every word, it had stung.

"Every big brother does that," his newest friend, Jason, shrugged. Jason is the palace gardner Giorgos Vasilakis' youngest son, accompanying his father since last year on visits to the Queen to discuss the plans surrounding her dream project: the palace hedge maze, that was to echo the one in Château de Villandry in France. Jason's older brother Damien had always been the one at Kýrios Vasilakis' side before that, but of late Liam has begun to associate his presence more with his own elder brother.

Jason is lonely. Unlike Liam, who has managed to bring together his own motley band of merry playmates, Jason has only the one older brother and has never gotten the chance to venture beyond the palace and his father's cottage. Liam has experienced only a fraction of that kind of loneliness and it had felt like hell. He and Jason may not know each other well, but he'll be damned if he let the other boy he has no one. And so he brings Jason along to meet all his friends.

Both Liam's and Jason's older brothers accompany the group of exhilarated children to the beach, but slip away in another direction before the group can notice. Liam notes the direction Leo and Damien are headed - their heads leaning towards each other as they walk - but says nothing. More friends, Liam reminds himself of his purpose here, first make sure we give Jason more friends.

Liam isn't disappointed. Before long, Jason's name has been shortened to Jase, his shorts and shirt have been drenched from jumping over the crashing waves with Maxwell, and he's snacking happily over pine nuts with Drake and Olivia. He even enjoys collecting seashells with Tariq, even if he did find him a little odd at first.

"I can understand not wanting to get your shoes wet but why would he want to keep them 30 feet away from the sea??"

Liam giggles a little. "They're not just shoes! They're...uh... Salvatore Ferra-somethings!" he says, already forgetting the Italian names that slip so easily from Tariq's tongue when he's talking about a shoe brand. Liam would too, if his father spoke his ears off about shoes as much as Tariq's did.

"If you say so," Jason replies doubtfully. What a funny bunch of people these nobles and royals are, he must be thinking, "but what if they get stolen?"

"Then Tariq will sniff and say he hopes they were stolen by someone who truly understands the value and beauty of Italian shoes."

Just before they leave, the children build a sandcastle. Liam and Jason deem themselves the architects of the main structure, Drake and Olivia choose to build a fortress. Maxwell ropes in a skeptical Tariq to help him construct a fantastic "Tower of Fun and Parties" right next to the castle itself. They are almost done when Jason stands up, declares the castle incomplete without a good garden, and pokes dots into the sand to form imaginary flowers.

For a moment all they can hear is the shriek of the gulls and the buffeting crash of the waves. They are all silent, and smiling, and very, very proud of themselves.

This structure is the biggest sandcastle the children have ever built themselves thus far, and by the time Leo and Damien return (hair damp, skin glistening, breathing hard as if they'd jumped down the steep cliffs of the Forgotten Falls and climbed back up, hands very close but not really touching) they are all convinced it is the biggest castle they ever will conceive of building. Even if it is one built in sand, soon to be a victim to the crashing waves.

Liam puts on his baking gloves, balancing himself on the balls of his feet as he waits to take his freshly-baked bread out of the oven. It's a moment he likes to gear himself up for - there's just something, some magic, about that first, comforting, soul-filling whiff. He'd experienced that feeling the first time he actually watched Chef Anais bake, and he's felt it ever since.

His version of Greek village-style bread is perfect today - the crust a lovely brown with little cracks and ridges to show off how crisp its outside is, and he is certain the inside will be soft and a light shade of yellow from the semolina he added to it. The aroma is good enough to make his mother stop in the middle of her own cooking just to breathe it in.

Her face covered in a fine sheen of sweat today from the heat in the kitchen, her hair bunched into a wrap and her hands waving away steam and smoke from her face. Liam can't quite tell whether it is excitement he sees on her face or exhaustion. But from the corner of his eye as he carries the bread to the table to rest, he can tell it is more of the former.

There are two pots boiling away at once on the stove: one a creamy, garlicy, peppery fish broth; the other a beautifully silky tomato-based sauce that he knows from experience will become even silkier and creamier when Mum adds a sinfully liberal amount of feta chesse to it.

He almost reaches out for it with a spoon when his mother stops him.

"Ah-ah-ah!" Mum says, playfully wagging her finger, "Not yours, thisavré mou. This is for your brother and his friend only. That's why I'm making something with your favourite Stone Bass fish as well. For you and your friend."

Liam frowns. "But I've had shrimp saganaki before. You know I like it too. Why couldn't you just make a bigger batch?"

Mum lets out a sigh suffused with embarrassed laughter. Her hand inadvertently motions itself towards a bottle of alcohol on the table titled Ouzo. "This one is... different. Not for children."

Liam pouts in petulance. Of late reminders that he is still a child and his brother isn't have begun to annoy him. There is something so mythical about teenagehood, Liam is beginning to realise, something he wants to know more about but is too out of his reach to even begin to understand.

Don't be so eager to let go of your childhood, pet, then you'll spend the rest of your life wanting it back, Mum would often tell him. All that phrase does now is make him even more impatient.

The smell of ripened crushed tomatoes, mixing in with the garlic, onions, and chilis, makes for a heady combination. He secretly thanks Uncle Franci for sending them yet another carton of San Marzanos - Mum said he'd written in his last letter that his wife, Aunt Pari, would be making a trip down to her home province of Bethulia soon for the Navroze festival, and was hoping Mum would come celebrate it with her this year.

There is another aroma in the sauce Liam has never smelled before, and has a hard time identifying - it's slightly pungent and makes his eyes water a little. It must be from the bottle of Ouzo.

Mum tosses the feta into the small, two-handled heavy-bottomed frying pan at will - she has never really been one for measurements - and quickly places the pan beneath the broiler to melt the cheese. Liam watches in fascination as her hands crumble extra feta; there is no rubric for how much, she just stops when she feels like it. Just throw! she will tell him anytime he asks her for a measuring cup. Cooking for Mum has always been just a play of hands; trust your hands and give them their time with the ingredients - and the results may not always be consistent but over time they will be forever delicious.

Liam has timed his baking closely enough that by the time both his and Leo's dishes are ready, his bread will have rested long enough, and is ready to serve as a side.

They find Leo talking to Jason's brother at one of the more intimate drawing rooms of the palace, their heads so close they're almost touching. Both their hands are jammed into their pockets, as if they'd hurriedly put them there from whatever their original position was. Their eyes dart everywhere and both seem to turn a little pink. A curl from Damien's dark hair rests carelessnessly on his forehead, and Liam catches his brother looking at it at least twice.

Jason skips to Liam's side. "Where is everyone else?" he whispers.

"Drake and his sister have gone to Texas to stay with their aunt, Olivia's with one of the Elders in Lythikos, Maxwell and Tariq are back home. It's just me, I'm afraid." Liam shuffles his feet in uncharacteristic awkwardness. He knows that a lot of the things he likes to talk about can either bore or confuse his own friends.

"Good enough for me," Jason says, grinning. "Her Majesty says she's got us fish stew."

"Bianco. And shrimp saganaki for Leo and Damien." Liam lowers his voice in a conspiratorial whisper. "Don't tell your dad - Mum made those herself. Father built her her own kitchen two and a half years ago. Not many besides some of the kitchen staff know."

Jason's eyes widen at the bowl that's just arrived, and then brightens. Imagine that, being treated to the cooking of an actual queen!

Mum had wisely decided to seat the pairs of brothers in different areas, confident that they would be bored stiff if they were made to eat together. It's a lot better this way, Liam thinks, as Jason talks animatedly of the new toys his dad got him with the increase in his salary from last month onwards. Leo and Damien would perhaps find their chats rather silly, and a lot of the things they say fly like seagulls over Liam and Jason's heads.

The Bianco is as good as Liam and Jason had hoped: the sauce smooth and creamy, the fish mildly sweet and with flesh so soft it crumbles a little on the tongue. Liam can't help but puff his chest in pride as he and Jason use the bread he made to sop up the rest of the sauce, the heat from the pepper and garlic and the delightful tang from the lemon warming them all down to their toes. Jason tells Liam to tell Her Majesty to forgive his lack of manners but he is this close to licking his plate.

Normally, Liam would be ecstatic about getting to eat a Stone Bass, especially here where the catch is always today's, wild and fresh and soul-stirringly tasty..."not that garbage you get from the fish farms" as Grandmother used to say.

But his thoughts keep crawling back to the meal his and Jason's older brothers got. The dish that has been so familiar to him all these years, yet seems so alien now. All because of an added mysterious... thing that seems all the more exciting because he isn't allowed to touch it.

Liam goes and sneaks a look at where their brothers sit, enjoying their shrimp. Leo looks over to his friend's plate, notices his bread is over, breaks his own loaf apart and offers it to Damien, looking straight into his eyes as he dips it into his sauce and eats it. Damien's fingers lightly brush his as he takes the bread.

"You know who made that bread?" Leo's voice for some reason sounds different, warmer and deeper and a little more serious. Liam turns pink with forgotten filial pleasure at the note of pride in his words. "Liam. My baby brother."

Damien grins. "There's sauce near your lip."

Leo makes a great show of pretending not to know where. "Where?"

Damien looks left and right - and satisfied that they cannot be seen (Liam heaves a sigh of relief as he emerges from behind a corner Leo and Damien cannot clearly see) takes his napkin and dabs softly at the corner of his mouth. The two boys suddenly cannot look each other in the eye, and their smiles hold secrets that make Liam feel like an intruder on this little moment, for perhaps no reason. Damien's only cleaning Leo's face.

But when he returns and tells Jason what he saw, the other boy stays silent for a few minutes.

"Babás almost saw Prince Leo at our home once," Jason says quietly, "Mamá had to hide him in a cupboard."

"But why?" Liam asks back, puzzled, "I thought Kýrios Vasilakis liked him. Ever since he started attending his lessons regularly and actually -"

"I know. I thought so too. I'm not sure why Leo and Damien and Mamá look so scared these days. No one ever tells me." Jason finishes with a nonchalant shrug that belies his petulant frustration at not being told things he cannot fully understand.

Liam sighs, all thoughts of their brothers forgotten. "No one thinks I'm old enough to understand anything either."

As Liam watches Jason's older brother reluctantly take leave of his own, their gazes lingering more than their touches ever could...and realises how childishly enthusiastic their own goodbyes are, Liam goes to bed wondering what Leo's shrimp saganaki tastes like. Is it pungent? Is it sweet? Does it leave a bitter aftertaste?

That night, Liam lies in bed in his silk unicorn-and-rainbow pajamas, burningly aware of how like a child he looks in it. How unlike his older brother - in his leather jackets and carelessly tousled hair. He begins counting the months before his mother can properly deem him "of age", and falls asleep before he can even reach his pre-teen years.

Days later, Leo takes a walk around the Wishing Well with his mother.

It's amazing how much things have changed in the years Eleanor has been married to Constantine, and therefore into the Royal Family. His little son had only been four then, and he'd hidden behind his father the first few times she tried to come near. Constantine and his mother had fumed over this in the beginning, wanting to help ease him into trusting her but neither having a whole lot of patience - so it had been up to her to reassure him that they would only set his relationship with her at his pace.

And it had paid off. Little Leo had once seen the "new mother" outside, trying to stargaze, and sat beside her in silence, listening for half an hour as she pointed out constellations. She'd known he loved stargazing and knew he needed a companion of sorts The first ever times they talked were all about stars...until five months later when he lost interest and Eleanor found out whatever it was that captured his fancy next.

Still, because that night was the night they tentatively began to consider themselves mother and son, she often brings back memories of it by calling him astéri mou.

"Your tutors have been very pleased with you this year," Eleanor says, suppressing a little smile, "they've been seeing how hard you've been working at your studies lately." There's a mischievous glow in her eyes. "Any more efforts and you'll soon be surpassing Liam, they say."

Leo snorts. He knows, no matter how hard he tries, that he can never reach his kid brother's level in either interest or acumen for politics. That is a quality unique to just him and he's more than happy to let him bask in it, but ever since Damien....

A quick, intense memory of him flashes. Dark curls, full lips, skin smooth beneath Leo's fingertips. It had amazed him how they'd been playmates one minute, pretending to be pirates and running around the palace gardens, and he'd never in all that time noticed that kind of gut-capturing beauty. His voice deep and passionate at the Forgotten Falls two weeks ago, as Damien whispered into his hair, "Let me hold you for a bit. We don't have to talk...we don't have to do anything. I just want to be with you."

He knows becoming a good King will be a hundred times harder for him than it was for his father, than (he is beginning to realize) it could be for his brother. He had made his peace with that at some point this year. But being around Damien...knowing that in his future position a relationship like theirs could be both legally permitted and morally viewed as sheer irresponsibility (and this is in only the kindest of parallel universes) and still knowing it is a relationship he cannot ever conceive of giving up...

If he could just prove himself capable in every other area of his life, just please his father and bring pride to his mother in other ways, maybe both his father and Damien's may just not force what they could have together, to die.

Mamá sighs. "Leo...astèri mou. You don't understand. I am already proud of you."

Oh no. Had he just said the words aloud?

He responds to her answer with another question. "How did you find out about us, Mamá?"

She shakes her head. "Kyría Vasilikou." Damien's mother, who hid Leo in a cupboard that one time Kyríe Vasilikos almost caught them. She had been extraordinarily kind and very contrite - sending Leo with a box of melomakarona and begging him never to come to this house again for fear of what Damien's father may do to him next.

He remembers Mamá's words from that evening.

"Damien's father - and his father before him - are extraordinarily dedicated to the King. It was His father that ensured their family would be set for many, many years to come...and his gratitude towards them can make him blind to what could make his own son happy."

The mother who had birthed him, the one he had often called Mummy, is at best a faded memory now. He called Eleanor Mamá almost a year after she'd married his father, because he finally felt ready and because it suited her. That evening, he understood his Mamá's underlying message.

I will always support you. But until we can figure out a way, you must be careful.

And so he will be. Both Damien and he will try their darnedest not to be too obvious about their love for each other...and Leo will continue to work harder on his lessons.

Smiling, Mamá changes the subject. "Liam's very upset we won't let him have shrimp saganaki."

Leo bursts out laughing. "He's had it so many times already!"

She shrugs. "Oh no, not that way. He's demanding the "Leo and Damien special". Ouzo and all. I suspect the baby of our family wants to be seen as a baby no more."

He rolls his eyes. "He's going to be really disappointed. It's not going to be that different from regular saganaki. Just makes it taste a little bit more like anise."

If that isn't a fitting symbol of what adolescence feels like when you come out of your big impractical dreams of what adolescence might be, Eleanor doesn't know what is. It is a lesson they all learned the hard way, only to see their children struggle with it too. They can only sit back, knowing that nothing they can say will change the kids' minds.

Leo at age 14 is already bored of his teenage years and raising his eyes towards the glamour of adulthood. Liam at age 8 has a far too rosy picture of adolescence, and envies his brother for being the whole-body-manifestation of everything he now wants but knows he needs to wait to have.

And while Eleanor will be forever grateful Liam has inherited her vast capacity for patience and not his father's, she is also aware that that patience is beginning to wear thin.

Leo may be too focused on his feelings for Damien to see it, but a time will come when the brother he has always considered a kid will grow before his eyes, and he will be too surprised by the change to understand, or know how to communicate. She can only hope they'll find their little ways, as they once did before.

Sighing, she passes her eldest a coin, and takes a second in her own hand.

"Ready to make a wish?"

Leo nods. Eleanor smiles. She knows already what he's going to ask.

Eleanor tosses hers into the well, watching as it makes its rapid descent down.

Whatever else changes, just make sure these two never forget how much they need each other.

Eleanor returns to the palace with her son, smiling. Between the Wishing Well and the official gardens, there are bits and pieces of a plan taking shape, a plan for a garden maze. Around it, she can see her youngest playing tag with his friends: one of whom is the youngest of their gardener, a little boy Liam seems to have taken under his wing.

Leo and his mother stop by to watch the children. Both sigh, and both realize it's for the same reason.

Liam will be thrust into his adolescent years before he even knows it. But at least they both can enjoy this sight of him enjoying his childhood completely, wholeheartedly, for what it is. If only for today.

Recipes:

Shrimp Saganaki

Corfoit Bianco

Horiatiko Psomi

A/N2: For Sibling Day I really wanted to do a fic that explored the dynamics of a sibling pair with a significant age gap. There is some amount of awe at older people - esp older kids- at their age, as well as a little envy and a desire to become them.

Meanings:

Kyríos/Kyría: Greek for Mr and Mrs usually.

Thisavré mou - my treasure

Ouzo - Ouzo is an anise-flavored liquor produced from grape must (the remnants of wine-making). It can only be made in Greece and Cyprus

Feta cheese - A brined, white cheese with a soft and creamy texture, often made from sheep's milk.

Navroze - Festival for Parsi New Year, often celebrated with Iranians around the world as well as other Zoroastrian communities.

Babás/Mamá - Greek for Dad and Mum.

Astéri mou - my star

#king liam #liam rys #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #kingliamappreciationweek #KLAW #KLAW 2024 #KLAW Day 1 #KLAW Day 1: Throwback #lizzybeth1986 #content: fanfic

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choices-binglebonkus · 4 months ago

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You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.

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amemixfan · 7 months ago

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Replaying The Royal Romance with a Maxwell route and I love the little build up to his romance with MC. Book 2 really kicks it off but even Book 1 had little moments where you could flirt and see that he was interested but shy about it. It’s a nice friends to lovers route in the background with cute little moments that point to the budding romance.

For example, at the beginning of Book 2, he establishes himself as MC’s confidant. He’s there when Bertrand can’t be and is always on her side. MC learns to rely on him.

When MC returns from the scandal, Adelaide (Madeline’s mother) mistakes Maxwell and MC for a couple since they arrive together. If MC plays along, Maxwell isn’t bothered and seems rather shy about it.

Ana de Luca (the reporter) even asks MC at one point what’s going on between her and Maxwell. She flat out states that they seem inseparable and thinks there’s something romantic going on between them.

Penelope asks MC later in the book if she thinks Maxwell would be interested in a political marriage with her. If MC says no, she proceeds to list out characteristics that Maxwell would prefer in a partner. It’s very obvious she’s listing herself. Even Penelope goes, “Oh, so like you?” The first time I read that without deciding to do his route I actually had a “oh-uh…” moment.

And then there’s the state dinner with the Italian diplomat. When MC needs a distraction to lure a photographer, one of the options presented is to have Maxwell fake propose to her. When this happens, the reporters believe it. It’s not far fetched for them to end up together.

It’s a cute little route that builds up in the background. By the time you “lock” it in, in Chapter 14, it makes sense. You see that there was something there if you were making those earlier choices. Even Maxwell admits he’s had a crush on MC for a while by then but didn’t want to get in the way of her and Liam and never thought she’d ever go for him.

If you’ve never played his route before, I’d recommend it. It’s a nice slow burn since he was added late but it’s a cute friends to lovers. It also really makes The Royal Heir make sense and be extra angsty. Maxwell loses his brother and his father in one series while trying to protect his wife and child. It clicks really well. Just a thought.

#playchoices #the royal romance #the royal heir #the royal finale #maxwell beaumont

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sfb123 · 2 years ago

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Leaping to Conclusions

Pairing: Liam x Riley

All characters belong to Pixelberry

Summary: The pressure to produce an heir is getting to Liam and Riley, leading them to turn to some unconventional methods.

Rating: PG, Adult Language

Word Count: 1,395

A/N: This fic is insanity guys, I'm not even going to pretend it's anything but. I learned the most absurd fun fact this week, and after sharing it with pretty much everyone I know, @ao719 convinced me that it needed to be a fic, and here we are.

For the record, this story doesn't take place in any of my timelines. My Liam and Riley can be weird, but never this weird. 😂

I am participating in @choicesflashfics, the prompt: “Wait a second. Pause and rewind �� what did you just say?” will appear in bold below.

And finally, nobody has pre-read this, so apologies in advance for my horrendous grammar, and anything else about it that sucks.

Riley’s eyes fluttered open as she felt Liam’s lips trailing slowly across her shoulder. She moaned softly and arched back into him.

“Good morning, love.” He whispered huskily into her ear.

“When it starts like this it is.” She replied, reveling in the attention she was receiving from her husband.

As his hand traveled up her body, her stomach started to lurch. Her hand flew to her mouth and she leapt out of his arms and rushed to the bathroom of their guest room in the Walker ranch. Liam sat up and watched with worry as the door slammed shut.

After a few moments, Liam stood and approached the door. He could hear his wife on the other end, and he knew exactly what was going on. He rapped gently on the door. “Riley, are you alright? Can I get you anything?”

The only response he received were a few more retching noises, followed by the toilet flushing. Soon after, the door opened, and Liam met Riley’s red, blotchy eyes. “Sorry.”

Liam wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against him. “You don’t have to apologize, it’s not your fault.” They stood there in silence as Liam held her. “Riley, do you think you may need to take a test?”

Since the royal couple had gotten married, they’d been facing pressure to produce an heir. While they did not take their positions as monarchs lightly, for them, it was more about building a family together.

“It wouldn’t hurt.” Riley shrugged before returning to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Liam took a seat at the end of the bed to wait for her.

“Oh no!” Liam stood and rushed back to the door at Riley’s cry. She came back into the bedroom, more distraught than she had been before. “I dropped the test in the toilet.” She buried her head in her hands.

Liam chuckled slightly, as he wrapped his arm around her. He had read that pregnancy hormones could cause overreactions; he assumed, hoped, that was why she was so upset. “It’s alright, just take another one.”

“Liam, it was the last one!” She snapped.

He stepped back, shocked by her aggression. “That’s alright, we can go into town and get more.”

“Are you kidding?!” Riley threw her hands up in frustration before moving to the bed and dropping down, burying her face in the pillow. “The press has been all over us, the last thing I need is for them to get a picture of me buying pregnancy tests!”

Liam sat beside her on the bed, rubbing her back gently as he racked his brain for a solution. “I’ve got it!”

Riley rolled over and sat up, leaning against the headboard. “What?”

“We’re in Texas, surely there is a frog around here somewhere.” He said as he moved to the dresser, pulling out a pair of jeans.

“Liam, this is no time to go wildlife gazing, I might be carrying the heir!” Riley chided him.

“Love calm down, the frog will be able to tell us.” He said matter of factly as he continued to get dressed.

Her face contorted into a confused expression. “Wait a second. Pause and rewind … what did you just say?”

He sat beside her on the bed and slid on his boots. “For about twenty years, starting in the nineteen forties, before the pregnancy tests we are familiar with today, there was the Hogben test. A British zoologist, Lancelot Hogben, discovered that when urine samples from pregnant women were injected into frogs, the frog would spawn eggs within eighteen hours. It was the most rapid and reliable pregnancy test of the time.”

Riley stared at her husband in stunned silence. “How the fuck do you even know that?”

“I like history.” He shrugged.

Still befuddled by her husband’s solution, Riley took a deep breath. “So you want to inject a frog with my pee, and then in 18 hours either nothing happens and I’m not pregnant, or I am pregnant and we also have a hundred and seventy two frog eggs?”

“They’re called frogspawn, love.” He corrected.

She slapped her palm against her forehead. “Yeah, because that’s the most crucial thing in this conversation.”

“I’m sorry, force of habit,” Liam smiled sheepishly. “Would you like to try it? It’s a fascinating concept, I would be interested to see it in action.”

“Liam, I don’t even want to touch a frog, let alone do science experiments on it.”

“I’ll take care of everything,” he insisted. “I’ll just need your… well, your um… sample.”

Riley chuckled when Liam started to get flustered. “Alright, if it’ll make you happy, and all I have to do is pee in a cup, then let’s give it a try.”

Liam grinned and leaned in, planting a quick kiss on Riley’s lips. “Excellent!”

“I guess Kermit was right, it’s not easy being green.” Riley said, shaking her head.

Liam made his way to a nearby pond in search of the perfect frog. His eyes roamed the banks in search of his test subject. “If I were a frog, where would I be?”

Finally, he noticed a slight movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a frog seated on a nearby rock. “Perfect.” He stalked toward his prey, making sure to stay as quiet as possible.

Liam was so laser focused that he didn’t notice Drake coming up behind him, curiously observing the actions of his best friend. “Li, what the fuck are you doing?”

Drake’s words startled Liam and before he had time to catch himself, he tumbled over into the pond as the frog lept away. Drake cackled as the King of Cordonia sat waist deep in the pond glaring at him.

“Sorry,” Drake apologized as he reached down, helping Liam out of the water. “But seriously, what are you doing?”

“Riley might be pregnant,” he answered.

Drake furrowed his brow, even more confused now that he had the explanation. “Okay, so you decided to go frog hunting to celebrate?”

“No, we lost the test,” he responded. When Drake continued to stare at him with a blank expression, Liam sighed and explained the Hogben test just as he had done for Riley earlier.

“And Brooks agreed to go along with this?” Drake chuckled.

“We would do anything for eachother.”

Drake rolled his eyes and moved toward the pond. A few moments later he returned with a frog.

“How did you do that?” Liam marveled.

“You had your training growing up, I had mine.” He shrugged in reply.

Liam took the frog from Drake, thanking him for his efforts and began walking back to the house.

“I’ve gotta see this.” Drake said to himself as he followed Liam.

Liam entered the house heading toward the stairs, until he saw Riley sitting with Madeleine on the living room couch. When he stepped up to them, he noticed the crestfallen expression on his wife’s face.

“Love, what’s wrong?”

“I’m not pregnant,” she responded, her eyes trained on the floor.

“But how do you know? I’ve got the frog right here.” He held it up to show her.

Madeleine stood from the couch, glaring in confusion and disgust at the sight in front of her. “When I was in town this morning, I bought some tests. I figured you would need them.”

“Oh Riley,” Liam moved to Riley, outstretching his arms.

“Liam,” she held a hand up to stop him from getting any closer. “You’re slimy, and wet… and holding a frog.”

“Oh, right.” Liam looked down at himself, and the frog in his hands. “I should shower. Care to join me?” He asked slyly.

“Um… maybe you should handle this one solo,” she cringed.

Liam handed the frog over to Madeleine, who grabbed it instinctively. He signaled for Riley to follow him, and they made their way up the stairs to the bedroom.

“So you’re not going to pee on a frog?” Drake called out as they exited the room.

“Ugh,” Madeleine groaned. “None of this would be happening if I were queen.” She turned to Drake, thrusting the frog in his direction. “Make yourself useful and deal with this thing.” She stormed out of the room, mumbling to herself, questioning where things went wrong for her.

Drake looked down at the frog with a grin. “God I love Texas.”

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