Chapter Text
Queen Alexandra was a wounded soldier limping along the corridor, heroically holding her guts in place to prevent them from metaphorically spilling across the soft carpets of her palace.
Behind her, Alex could feel her bodyguard, Agent Lucy Lane, rolling her eyes at the Queen’s theatrics.
“Perhaps if you had just spent hours entertaining the King of Elcorpia while on horseback, you might have some sympathy,” Alex grumbled at the shadow behind her. “My back is on fire and my legs are screaming for mercy.”
“Perhaps, Your Majesty,” Lane agreed, politely failing to remind the Queen that she had tailed the Queen throughout the entire mounted tour of Argo estate.
Alex stumbled up a flight of stairs, clutching the banister for dear life. A quiet scoff told her that her bodyguard’s patience was quickly fading.
“Tell Vasquez to forward my mail to my ice bath because once I get in, good luck trying to remove me.”
“That may make it difficult for Your Majesty to host the Elcorpian royal family for dinner.”
“Am I supposed to do that tonight? Why didn’t you remind me?”
“Do I look like your personal assistant, ma’am?”
The Queen raised an eyebrow as she glanced over her shoulder. Perhaps the bodyguard was more worn out that she appeared if she had abandoned her usually flawless professionalism. “No, Vasquez would never wear black with black.”
She took the silence that she received as a win. However, the victory was short lived as her aching legs caused her to stumble again.
“Is a break too much to ask for?” The Queen moaned. “I am sure that I see that family more than I see my own sister.”
“If it is any consolation, ma’am, Lady Lena will not be joining you.”
“That makes it worse! She is the only one in that family who can hold a conversation.”
Alex decided to interpret her bodyguard’s silence as agreement. “Where will she be anyway?”
“I believe she has already left to dine with Lord Smallville at a harbourside restaurant.”
Lane was spared the Queen’s snarky reply by the sight of said Queen almost somersaulting into a heap of cloth piled onto the carpet.
The heap yelped.
Before Alex’s eyes, the heap grew arms and feet and morphed into a preteen girl, sitting against the wall with her head in her hands.
Alexandra had been born in the palace and she fully expected to be buried in its chapel. She had shared it with princes and politicians and popstars but, to her knowledge, she had never shared it with a child who was not her blood relative. The palace was a workplace, not a playground.
Sometimes, in childhood, she had wished for a neighbour with whom she could terrorise the palace halls. However, her mother had assured her that two princesses were enough trouble without a gaggle of cronies.
Thus, she was startled to see a child huddled on her carpeted floors.
“Excuse me?” The Queen’s voice was barely a whisper. “Are you alright?”
The girl’s head snapped up, startled. Her red-rimmed eyes widened at the sight of the two women towering over her. “I’m lost,” she hiccupped, “and I’m in so much trouble.”
Alex ran her fingers through her red hair. This was most definitely not her area of expertise. Sure, she had kissed her fair share of babies, but usually the only children she saw presented her with flowers at her school visits. They were not bawling their eyes out in the halls of her home. Uncertainty, she turned towards the bodyguard behind her. However, one glance at Lane’s hand, resting on her taser, was enough for Alex to snap her head back towards the girl.
“Where were you trying to go?” She asked, her voice as soft as the carpet she crouched on.
The girl miserably tugged her knees into her chest. “Lady Lena,” she mumbled.
“Oh! You are part of the Elcorpian party!”
She was answered with a miniscule nod. “I convinced Mum to bring me at the last minute.”
“And who is your mother?”
“Lady Reignia. My name is Ruby Arias,” the girl whispered.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Arias,” the Queen offered with a warm smile. She extended a gentle hand towards the trembling colt. “Would you like help finding the Elcorpian rooms?”
With another nod, the girl allowed the Queen to pull her to her feet. Silently, she kept step with the Queen as they began solving the labyrinth of the palace.
“I haven’t seen you at any of the functions,” the Queen prompted curiously.
“Mum says they are for grownups. She said she would take me sightseeing on the weekend though…” the girl’s mumbled explanation tailed off.
“That will be exciting. Midvale has so much to see.”
“If I’m even still allowed to see it after this. Mum’s gonna murder me.”
“She will be angry that you got lost?”
A dark pink tinged Ruby’s cheeks. “She doesn’t know I left.”
“Oh.”
Alex quietly reflected on the last preteen to end up in hot water in the palace. Over a decade ago, Kara had wanted midnight pancakes and, according to Kara, had cooked them rather successfully. Unfortunately, neither cooking nor cleaning came naturally to Alex’s sister and thus, by all reports, the chef had opened the kitchen doors the following morning to find flour was still snowing from the ceiling. The bombsite in which Kara had left the kitchen could have been excusable if visiting nobility was not impatiently expecting breakfast within the hour. Not only did the pigsty require two dozen people to clean, but the palace had to be turned upside down to locate a cup of sugar, since Kara had apparently used up enough sugar to feed an army and their children.
Alex had not seen the catastrophe herself but one of the cooks had shown her a photo of the blue tiles, whitewashed in flour.
“It will be alright,” the Queen placated the child, “a runaway is nothing compared to some of the feats performed in this palace.”
Ruby’s eyes did not leave the carpet.
The silence stretched along the endless corridor, threating to swallow the trio whole. It wasn’t long before Alex couldn’t stand it.
“Do you spend much time with Lady Lena usually?”
Miraculously, a smile flickered momentarily across the girl’s face. “All the time! She came to my soccer final last month!”
“Soccer? Perhaps we should take a slight detour past the palace’s sporting award cabinet.”
Ruby’s smile grew wider.