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America sighed as she looked out at the snowstorm. The diverse weather was one of her favorite things about living in the palace, but it always made her reminiscent of her childhood home. The warm winters there were nice, no snow meant that they didn’t need to spend money to bundle up or heat the house. And winter had always held a special place in her heart.
America had been living in the palace for around 2 years now, and both she and Maxon seemed to be constantly busy ruling Illea. They were making progress, sure. Had even started to disintegrate the caste system. Still, America thought they earned a break. The world was bright with new snow, and she wanted to spend time with the love of her life. With that America set off to distract her overworked husband.
༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓
“America… Where are you leading me?” Maxon’s voice was nervous, though appropriately. America’s ‘ideas’ and random hijinks had gotten the both of them in trouble or hurt more times than he could count.
“Don’t worry you’re pretty little head about that.” America responded calmly, before exclaiming, “Wait, duck!” But it was too late, Maxon’s head hit whatever was in front of him, eliciting a grunt of surprise from him.
“Is the blindfold really necessary?” Maxon asked, rubbing his head, “Especially with the number of times I’ve hit my head with it on? You can’t give the king a concussion you know.”
“I know, I know. The blindfold just adds to the suspense, don’t you think?” America said, getting a chuckle from Maxon in response.
“Sure, America, sure.”
༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓༓☾ ☽༓
America smiled as she led Maxon around another pointless turn. Too many times he had guessed where they were going by the time they go there. But instead of reducing the times she brought him to mystery locations like Maxon and many of the guards had begged her to, America made the routes more confusing and pointless.
“We’re almost there. I promise.” America said, looking back at her blindfolded husband. And sure, the smile he gave her was more directed at the chair next to her. But she was glad she was doing this. It was important for them to get away from the constant work of running a country and relax. Together.
“Even though you said that 4 minutes ago, I believe you,” Maxon said, squeezing her hand. America squeezed it back and held back her laugh. She turned the final corner and stopped him. America took off his blindfold, leaning in close so that he couldn’t see anything but her face.
She kissed him quickly and whispered, “Race you!” before twirling and sprinting down the long hallway.
Maxon caught up to her quickly, despite the surprise competition. Still, though he could race ahead of her to the double doors, he kept in stride with her.
“It’s… The… Dress…” America huffed out, laughing again.
“Of course, my dear,” Maxon replied, and despite her dress, they continued to run down the hall. All the way to the doors. “Do you want to do the honors or should I?” He asked.
“If you insist,” she smirked, disguising how out of breath she was by taking a deep breath. She finally pulled the doors open, revealing a dark room, seemingly empty. America navigated her way through the darkness, lacking her usual clumsiness. She found the light switch and flicked it on to reveal a string of lights from the doorway to the fireplace, where a loveseat and several blankets sat. More lights were hung on the walls and around the fireplace.
“America, where did you find these lights? What are they?” Maxon asked, he’d never seen anything like them.
“I found them while wandering a few months back and the other day when I read that people used to put them up when it snowed. So as today is the first day it snowed this year, I set this up. We could use a break, you especially.” She walked over to the fireplace and started the fire easily (super unrealistic, I realize).
“I agree. It’s been a long year, makes me think there should be some sort of holiday in winter.” Maxon sat on the loveseat and spread a blanket over America once she sat down. “Thank you, America. This is the perfect way to spend the first snowstorm.”