Work Text:
It was fairly usual for Geo to be donated through the donation fountain, but occasionally other things were donated. They were most often King’s Idols, always inaccurate in some way to the real monarch, but it’s the thought that counts. Even still, the Pale King would just prefer that bugs donated their Geo, it was useful for funding kingdom expansions and the like. The King’s Idols that got donated were probably only donated in an attempt to appease the monarch, not out of genuine kindness, he assumed. It had been quite a while since the Pale King had been given a gift in earnest. Regardless, after a while of receiving donations, the king elected to entrust the counting of the Geo to a group of royal retainers, and whenever a donation of another kind was received they would just drop it off at his office.
The king was sitting next to his Root, going over stagway renovations in the Queen’s Gardens when a timid knock came from the door to his office.
“You may come in.” the king spoke, and the door creaked open, revealing a royal retainer holding a rectangular object wrapped in silk paper.
“Your majesty.” the worker said, “I have a gift that was donated to you.”
The Pale King eyed the gift. It clearly wasn’t a King’s Idol, it didn’t even look like any kind of sculpture altogether. He could only assume it was a painting. Likely a painting of him looking majestic and royal, or some nonsense like that. The silent moment that consisted of him harshly staring at the gift was broken by his Root.
“Thank you. You may put it on the table here.” she said gazing warmly, tapping the table with one of her roots.
The royal retainer hastily placed the gift on the table, right over the blueprints that the king had just been looking at a moment before this interruption, then bowed and turned around to walk out of the office. Lightly shutting the door behind herself, the royal retainer made her exit. A tense silence overtook the room before the White Lady broke the silence again.
“Well? Why don’t you open it?” she gently coaxed, and the Pale King huffed.
“Probably another work of worship. I’ll just put it with the others.” he coldly replied
The king then put his hands on the gift and forcefully pushed it off of the table to the side of the White Lady, and it landed on the ground with a loud thud, which caused her to grimace. The king let out a loud, overexaggerated sigh and got back to studying the blueprints before him, as the queen looked at him with disappointment. As he was distracted with the plans, she leaned over to the side and used one of her roots to pick up the discarded gift. Grabbing it gingerly, she inspected the wrapping that covered it. It was a deep blue, and clearly very high quality, whoever sent this gift must’ve paid a hefty bit of Geo for the wrapping alone. Bringing up more of her roots to the gift, the White Lady gently pulled the ends of the wrapping and took it out of its casing, revealing the back of a painting. As she carefully turned it around, she let out a gasp as she saw the contents of the painting itself. This finally got the Pale King’s attention, and noticing the gift in her roots he let out a growl.
“I told you, it’s likely nothing of n… note…” he began to say, but his words left him as he finally saw what was on the painting.
It depicted him and his Root in an embrace, looking fondly at each other, faces touching, with many hearts painted around them. All set in front of a beautiful garden filled with wonderful white flowers. The frame was custom made with many beautiful flower designs etched into the vibrant steel. It was a true work of art.
“It’s… it’s beautiful.” the White Lady quietly said. All the Pale King could do was simply nod as he admired the painting more.
His Root took notice of the awe on his face and gave him a teasing look.
“Nothing of note, hmm?” she teased, and the king looked away bashfully, a blush creeping on his face.
‘B-be quiet, my Root. I just get so many lifeless works of worship that I just assumed…” he retorted. The White Lady just chuckled in return and went back to looking at the painting.
As they both stared at the painting, they found themselves inching closer together before they were finally leaning on each other. Both surprised at this sudden contact, they stared into each other's eyes with shock before the looks mellowed into that of fondness. Their faces began to inch closer to each other, before they were just about replicating the appearance of the painting, just without the garden backdrop. In a moment, they had fully leaned in and begun kissing passionately, overcome with love for each other. The Pale King rested his hands on the White Lady’s shoulders as she wrapped her roots around his thorax, deepening their embrace, and then they pulled away from the kiss, staring into each other's eyes. The White Lady giggled to herself at the look of blind love in the Pale King’s eyes.
“Heehee, you are so adorable, my Wyrm.” she said, and the Pale King’s blush deepened.
“As are you, my Root.” he replied. “Remind me to find out who painted this work, as I would like to thank them.”