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The first time Apo meets the princess is in the summer. The training grounds are in the direct sunlight and Apo is sweltering in their armor. They can feel sweat pricking their hairline from the heat alone, not even accounting for the exercise.
Pyro swings his blunted practice sword, and she deflects with reflexes that have been earned. Her muscles are burning after nearly four hours of this, but she’s a member of the Royal Guard. Not even that, she’s a bodyguard to the royal family, shadowing them at all times, constantly alert for threats. She has to be ready to fight those threats off as well.
Apo’s eyes catch on a flicker of movement from the shaded corridor that runs along the training grounds. She parries Pyro’s offense, sends him back a few steps, and tilts her head to see.
The King and the crown princess stand there, watching the knights as they train and talking with the Captain of the Guard. The crown princess is wearing a pale pink dress today, glints of gold from the circlet in her hair catching the sun. She stares out at the soldiers with an impassive look on her face. Something in Apo’s chest twists oddly; it must be the heat finally succeeding in boiling her alive.
Pyro thrusts for her face and she barely manages to get her sword up in time to block. As she stumbles back, she swears she can feel the princess’s eyes on her.
“Are you alright?” he asks, caught in a half defensive position like he expects it to be a trick. “You don’t often miss me like that.”
“I’m fine,” Apo says, lunging for him. They’re off kilter, they can feel it. They don’t perform well under pressure and the stupid sun isn’t helping things. If they end up with heatstroke, they might just quit and move back in with their parents. Anything is better than a four hour practice in a Soluna summer.
Pyro blocks their attack and glances off to the side. “You’re distracted.”
“Am not.”
He opens his mouth to say something else but gets cut off by the Captain of the Guard shouting, “Apokuna!” Apo straightens up quickly, glancing over. She turns back to Pyro, face scrunched in confusion; he shrugs and waves her away.
Smoothing out her face into calm neutrality, Apo walks over to the Captain of the Guard where she stands with the king and the crown princess. She’s suddenly extremely aware of how sweaty and undoubtedly gross she is from the sun, and silently curses out the lack of a shaded training center. Preferably with magical cooling.
“Yes, Captain?”
The Captain of the Guard, Pearl, smiles brightly at her. “King Ren has requested you be permanently assigned as a member of his personal guard.”
Apo blinks in shock. To already be a member of the royal family’s guard is more than she could’ve imagined for herself when she first enlisted. A personal guard to the King is a different matter altogether. The personal guard are among the most trusted members of the royal staff; they stay with the King and the princess at all times, following them throughout the day and standing guard in their rooms at night.
Before, Apo had simply shadowed from a distance, insurance in case the personal guard was detained in some way. This requires a level of skill she hadn’t been aware the King or the Captain thought she possessed.
Still surprised, Apo sketches a quick bow. “I live to serve the crown, Your Majesty.”
King Ren smiles. “You are one of our best knights, Lady Apo. You are well deserving of this position.”
Pearl lays a hand on their shoulder. “There is no one more dedicated or alert when it comes to the Crown, Your Majesty.”
“I trust your judgement, Captain.”
Pearl nods, and the two continue discussing matters of security. Apo hasn’t been dismissed, isn’t even sure what she’s supposed to do now. Does she return to training with the rest of the knights? Does she move out of the guardhouse to the quarters of the personal guard? She knows they sleep closer to the royal family than the rest of the Royal Guard, the better to defend them, but she doesn’t know where it is.
Apo turns away from Pearl and King Ren’s discussion and catches the princess’s stare. She watches them with the bluest eyes they’ve ever seen, face carefully blank. Something catches in her chest again; she pushes it away and gives the princess a polite nod.
The princess’s face doesn’t change, but she shifts her eyes away, pink tinging her cheeks. Closer, Apo can see the golden sun clips in her hair, the upturned tip of her nose. She has a stray curl resting across her forehead. They resist the impulse to reach out and tuck it away, flushing as she returns to Pyro on the training grounds.
He raises his eyebrows at her. “What was that about?”
Apo looks back to the shaded corridor, Pearl and the King still talking, the princess watching the knights as they swing at each other with blunted weapons. She can still feel the weight of that clearwater blue on her. Her face burns, from the heat and no other reason. “Nothing. I’ll tell you later.” Apo picks up her sword again and raises it. “Ready?”
He shifts into an offensive stance, posed to rush her. “Looked like you and the princess had a moment.”
Apo groans. “Shut up, seriously. Just try to stab me already.”
He laughs and charges her. She lifts her blade to parry, swinging out to catch his attack, and tries to push the shine of gold in brown curls out of her head.