The Answer (Original Work)

[badass_tiger]

Title: The Answer
Fandom: Original Work
Characters: Marinus of Sterella/Athena of Ludor (King/Princess of Enemy Kingdom He Forced to Marry Him)
Summary: The war has ended, Marinus has ordered his wife Athena to stay in her home kingdom, and Athena finds a letter.
Notes: I usually try to include more exposition in ficlets for original universes where I haven't published the full story buuuut I don't think that's ever going to happen for this universe. The setting of the story is that the two kingdoms are at war, when Marinus' soldiers kidnap a princess of Ludor, thinking it will please him. He is furious, but his advisors convince him that the best course of action is to marry her in order to force a peace treaty with Ludor, as they are expecting enemy forces from a different kingdom. None of this is particularly relevant in this story.

'I will always consider myself your husband. - Marinus' was the simple adieu of the letter.

Athena's head was spinning. Her chest was tight and it was a few moments before she could come to herself enough to realise that she was trembling.

The letter was snatched out of her hands and Marinus' snarling face came into view. She took an involuntary step back.

'That's not for you to read,' he growled.

'It has my name on it!'

'I meant to leave it for you to read later,' he said imperiously. 'You're not meant to be here right now.'

'I think I have the right to be here when my husband is about to leave.'

To her horror, Marinus began to rip up the letter. She lunged forward in an attempt to seize it from him. He held it up out of her reach, staring at her in amazement.

'What are you doing?' he said.

'Don't do that!'

'Why not? You've already read it.'

'Because this is the only time you've ever been honest with me about the way you feel.'

Marinus scowled darkly. He started to tear it up again until, unheeding of his injuries, Athena leapt forward, causing him to fall backwards onto the bed. The letter fell out of his hand as he lay back, groaning in pain.

'I'm sorry,' she said, leaning over him. She picked up the letter and pushed it down the front of her dress where she was sure Marinus would be hesitant to take it from her. 'Does it hurt?'

'Of course it bloody hurts,' he muttered. He had screwed his eyes shut and had not yet opened them.

'Then stay a little longer - until you're recovered.'

'No. I've been away from Sterella long enough.'

'I don't understand,' Athena said exasperatedly, 'why you've told me to stay here if you want me to go home with you. Or do you hate me after all? Is everything in this letter just a consolation for me? Let me tell you now that it doesn't make me feel any better at all!'

'Take from it whatever you wish,' he said.

She shifted until their chests were pressed together, careful to avoid his injured abdomen. Marinus remained with his eyes closed, and she was sure that he was avoiding looking at her now. All the same, face to face, the same tenderness that rose within her whenever she looked at the face of her husband as of late resurfaced, and she reached out to stroke his face, the hair at his temples, down to his beard. Athena thought that his face appeared more lined, more tired now, not only compared to the time just before they had left for Ludor, but compared to the time they had first been married. Now that the war was over, she hoped that those lines would ease. Unmistakably, Marinus relaxed.

'Just tell me,' she said softly, 'why you've told me to stay in Ludor.'

It was a few long moments before he replied. 'Because you aren't happy in Sterella, and you are happy in Ludor.'

'What on Earth -!' Athena checked her rising voice when Marinus flinched. He would withdraw all the more if she wasn't gentle with him. 'Do you really think that there hasn't been a single moment that I've been happy while I was with you? Do you think I hated it whenever we laugh together or whenever you held me?'

He said nothing.

'Perhaps I never told you, but I didn't think I had to,' she said. 'I don't hate you.'

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards in a smile. She was relieved when he opened his eyes to look at her.

'Should I be grateful for that?' he said lightly.

'That's all I'm letting you have until you give me something to believe.'

'Like what?'

She glared. 'I understand it's difficult for you to speak what you feel, but I must know to decide to stay with you.'

'You are not to stay with me.'

'Why not? You love me!'

Again, he said nothing. At least he didn't deny it. That was something, for Marinus. Athena began to get up, ready to give up, and then Marinus wrapped an arm around her waist.

'It is enough,' he said, without looking at her. 'What you have given me is enough.'

'So you are satisfied with the relationship we have had thus far, and as such have no need for any more?' she said incredulously.

'My intention in marrying you - or the intention of my friends when they made me marry you - was to force your father into a peace treaty with the kingdom. Of the latter few months before we came to Ludor, however ... I realised that my intention in forcing a peace treaty with your kingdom was for your safety and comfort. I do not want you to become estranged from your family. You were not happy in Sterella, and you wished to come back here. That is all.'

He was speaking so formally to her, as if she was one of the guests of his court, as if she required his explanation on a matter of business than on a matter of personal interest.

'I don't understand what you're saying,' she said.

'I would do anything to make you happy,' he said, and even though it wasn't the declaration of love she had been seeking from him, even though he still didn't look at her, the weight of his words and the arm around her waist were all that was necessary for Athena's assurance.

'You ridiculous man.' She lay down once again with her head next to his. 'Was that so hard to say?'

'Yes.'

She laughed and kissed his cheek. At last, he turned to look at her.

'Your father,' he said, surprising her again, 'persuaded me that you couldn't be happy in Sterella. That any kindness you'd ever shown me was out of self-defence, that you'd convinced yourself to love me because you would be forever miserable otherwise.'

'My father?' It dawned on her. 'Marinus, did my father order you to make me stay here?'

'He persuaded me.'

Yes, she could imagine her father 'persuading' Marinus. It was easy enough to picture the king of Ludor demanding that Marinus release Athena as his wife, citing all the improprieties of their marriage, and Marinus, though never one to give in to an argument, having always feared that his wife had never stopped hating him, telling himself that he was right.

'My father,' Athena said, suddenly angry, 'is not the person you should ask about my happiness. The only person who can judge my happiness is me!'

'As you say.'

'Are you telling me that you were prepared to leave me here because of what my father told you?'

He made no answer, but he didn't have to. Yet for all of his stubbornness, was it so easy to cow him? Marinus was not the type of person to bend to anyone's will, as often out of spite as propriety, and it must be especially so for someone he had once considered an enemy. Then Athena's thoughts came full circle as she realised that it was for her sake that Marinus had given in. He had thought her unhappy, and that had been enough for him to submit.

'Ridiculous man,' she murmured again, a swell of affection rising within her chest. She hugged him. 'You and I are to go to my father at once and tell him that he is wrong.'

'Very well.'

'And you will stay here until you are recovered.'

'I can't do that.'

Oh well. It was good enough for now.