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It was a fleeting impulse of cleanliness drilled into him from years of strict Galra upbringing.
The Galra Prince reached a hand to the collarbone of the Altean Princess. He picked a stray feather caught in the split of the Princess’s armour and flicked it away without a second thought. Probably from the mission before. Why had their companions not voice it out to the Princess? He refocused on the briefing by the General Trordam.
Commander Faho’s eyes flew open from her sleepy daze. Beside her Meri and Lefa held back indignant sputters. Commander Lerlas’s mouth gaped. He probably could not physically close it without external help.
Other commanders whose names the Princess couldn't recall spared her dignity by looking away, but not before straining out a cough or the unnecessary (and loud) shuffle of their feet. The stunned faces, and (embarrassing) reactions of the Altean Commanders standing around the two royals were totally lost on the Prince. The Princess, however, was all too aware of them.
She realised no one was listening to General Trordam any longer. Apart from the blissfully ignorant Prince.
A shared air of stiff awkwardness descended upon the full-blooded Alteans – which were really everyone there except for the half-Galra Prince – replacing the comfortable silence from not a moment ago.
The self-conscious Princess feigned ignorance to the company’s plain-as-day astonishment. She also tried to ignore the growing flutter in her chest and the blooming heat in her cheeks.
She cleared her throat. Nonchalantly, she lifted her chin in the direction of the speaking General. Hoping to remind the Commanders that there were more important matters at hand than the strikingly outward gesture of intimacy demonstrated by the Prince. That was all but the joint understanding between them.
Ancients – the Prince's pure-intentioned action certainly was sending lots of signals to their unexpected onlookers. Unbeknownst to him or not.
She would have to enlighten him on the sensibilities of affinity of the Altean people later.
Her attempt to dismiss the attention on herself and the Prince, thank Sages, granted the desired result. The Commanders recalled themselves; they alternated between looking to the floor, at each other, shifting the weight on their feet, adjusting their helms at their sides... before finally directing their sights and ears to the still droning on – sorry, briefing – General. The Prince, graces to him, seemed oblivious to all this.
But to resolve the spiking tension had yet to avail. If she perked her ears and listened closely enough, the Princess could hear the cogs turning in her unwanted audience’s heads. Drawing conclusions, formulating sensationals, igniting embers.
The Princess could already hear the hush-hush talks that will surely circulate the barracks as soon as this meeting was over.
Unbelievable. She closed her eyes.
If there was anything she can put her trust in, it was that word will spread even to the tiniest wormhole in regards to herself and the Galra Prince. Not that she minded a rumour between the two of them. But please, allow a Princess some tact.
"Picking fluff off a woman’s armour,” a seasoned Commander Meri started. She turned her head around to make sure the two royals were out of earshot. The meeting adjourned and the Commanders left together as a group. Done for the day, a merry band headed for drinks. “That’s a gesture as intimate as a kiss–”
“More intimate,” the young officer Lerlas interrupted. It was he who urged for drinks. “Since it suggests the kiss has already happened," he sing-songed.
Hm.
Royal Commanding officers weren’t one to gossip, but surely their common friends would appreciate a sort of news different from the usual mundane routine.
They’d simply tell their friends not to tell their other friends. Or their other friends’ other friends. Or their other friends’ other friends’ other friends.
Sorry, Princess. Alteans just love their gossip.
So off the group went to their merry-making till late into the night, getting in a word or two at the local taphouses about their new-found observations of the royal couple.