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Tina always wondered why her boss never talked about his feelings. All their talks were about their work or what expectations he had of her, but never about him, never about how he felt, what he liked, anything.
Then Tina realized her boss had deeper feelings than she had ever thought of.
Everything started when she was demoted, she made a mistake and Aldo, to keep the King in peace, had to give her a punishment so she became Molly's personal guard, not because protecting Princess Molly was a shame, but because the Princess didn't need any protection so Tina practically became "useless".
Tina was mad about that, she wasn't allowed to train or to upgrade her gear for a few weeks and because the Princess spent most of her time inside doors talking with guests or organizing her things, Tina was always dismissed so she started wandering around the Palace.
That's when she discovered it.
It was a coincidence that she went to that isolated place that day, it was a hidden garden that not many people were allowed to enter outside of Royal Knights or members of the Royal Family so she expected no one to be there. To her surprise, two people were there.
The relationship between the Captain of the Royal Knights and the Crown Prince wasn't that well-known, people knew they were "acquaintances" of years, since they were children basically but they always acted like strangers in public so the people assumed they had a strictly professional relationship.
What Tina was watching was different.
The Crown Prince, Roier, and Aldo, the Captain of the Royal Knights, were talking and joking together as if they were the best of friends in the entire world. They touched not minding the difference between their ranks and the way Aldo expressed was something Tina had never seen before.
In front of Tina, Aldo was a serious but capable man, he always knew what to do, when to do it and how to react to it failing or succeeding, he never smiled without reason and he never allowed her to become more than just a subordinate. So Tina naturally assumed he was like that with everyone but now she was staring at that same man smiling so warm at the son of the man they swore loyalty to.
Tina understood love, she had loved someone once before becoming a knight but now that woman was gone forever and Tina had to change so she didn't talk about her as much as she did in the past, she also knew Prince Roier once had someone dear to him, they were even promised to be wed but the man that swore his life to Roier one day vanished leaving behind nothing but a broken heart.
Unfortunately, those two people that vanished were siblings and Tina and Roier had to share the sorrow of having their loved ones abandon them.
A few years had passed since then and the two of them seem to have got over them. Tina doesn't mention her at all and Roier barely even acknowledges that man existed.
And with all that experience, Tina knew that kind of look, the kind of look that makes your face squeeze in pleasure, the kind of look that makes you want to blink a lot but to not blink at all at the same time because of the fear of missing a simple second of that person, the kind of look that makes you forget about everything else but the person in front of you.
That was love.
Pure love.
Tina couldn't believe at first so the first time she saw them she ended up running away with a confused mind. She thought about it the whole day and night barely sleeping so she decided to eliminate any kind of doubts and go check if what she thinks she saw was right.
The next day, Princess Molly had a gathering with the leader of a faction neighbor to their Kingdom, Supreme Leader Ashswag, so she dismissed Tina saying that Ash would never hurt her and would even protect her if they were to be in danger. Tina wanted to refuse but after Molly insisted for 30 minutes straight, Tina understood she wasn't needed there, so she ran, she sprinted until she was in front of the gate to that garden again and slowly went inside to avoid being caught by the men there.
Aldo and Roier were there again, talking and laughing like the day before but now they were walking along a small pond. The one that talked more was the Prince, he said a million things while Aldo only listened adding little comments now and then making the Prince laugh.
That looked so intimate, Tina felt like she was invaiding but she needed to know, she had never seen those people act that way but she knew something else was there, she knew that look, and she knew those men.
Tina spent the rest of her days for the next three months of her probation period doing just that, when Molly dismissed her (almost everyday) she would go to that garden to spy on her boss and the Crown Prince to try and understand their relationship.
The moment she confirmed she was right about her suspicions was during a Party held by the King, it was to celebrate the birthday of the youngest royal, Prince Spider.
She was still assigned as Molly's guard but in a moment when she was with Prince Spider and the two Kings, she sneaked out to follow Aldo and Roier that she had seen leave the ballroom a few moments ago hiding themselves.
She walked through the garden around the building until she found them sitting on a bench next to a fountain, no one else was there so she was sure they thought they were alone.
That moment, the moment when Roier's hair freed itself from the Prince's bandana and Aldo tucked it behind Roier's ear without any doubt and the Prince only smiled slightly blushing, Tina understood.
Roier yawned and leaned himself on Aldo's shoulder closing his eyes still talking but not expecting any answer, a few minutes later, Roier was asleep and Aldo without any kind of doubt in his body took the Prince in his arms and started walking back to the Palace.
Tina was stunned, that confirmed a lot of things and she also saw her boss in a new light.
That night, Aldo saw her, he turned around before leaving the garden completely staring straight at where she was hiding, he spelled something with his mouth and then continued his path.
The next days Tina expected him to approach her to talk about what happened but he didn't, she was left confused and scared but she hoped he would let it pass.
It came to her a week later.
Princess Molly organized a tea party were she invited multiple nobles from their Kingdom but also from neighboring nations so it was a big scale event, even the Kings attended so all the available knights in the Palace had to participate in the guarding of the event.
Tina ended up stationed next to her boss, the knights were distributed in pairs to protect any kind of entrances and they happened to be appointed to the interior of the garden where Princess Molly was hosting her party to supervise that everything was safe in there
The two of them were standing next to each other in the traditional stance of a knight just watching, supervising, until Aldo started speaking.
"Did you enjoy spying on me and on His Highness The Prince?"
Tina went stiff, she was scared to answer but if he still hadn't done anything about it then he must have something to say.
"I apologize, Commander, it was never my intention to meddle in the lifes of my superior and His Highness The Prince"
"You don't sound that apologetic to me"
"I'm simply stating my truth but I can't assure you it won't happen again"
"And why would that be? You could be stripped of your knighthood for daring to disobey your Master"
"My Master is his Majesty the King"
"How exactly do you think he's going to react when he receives the news that you were meddling with the life of his favorite son?"
Tina stayed quiet, she didn't know if she should ask about it or not. She made up her mind when she peeked to her side where Prince Roier was sitting next to the delegates from one of the neighboring nations, four men with very particular characteristics all chatting and occasionally laughing, but Roier was straight up looking at Aldo and even occasionally waving at him.
"The same way he will react when he discovers the Commander he trusts with his soul is involving himself romantically with his favorite son"
She turned to look at him, he only barely glanzed keeping his eyes on Roier.
"Except I can prove you're wrong"
"How?"
"Because we're nothing more than a guard and a Prince"
Tina scoffed, she couldn't believe Aldo was actually saying that with a confident face.
"Yeah, right"
"It's true, Tina"
She looked at him, he was finally looking at her but with the saddest eyes she could remember.
He looked in pain, he looked like he was trying to express something he couldn't, something that carried way more emotion than he could handle.
"What do you mean?"
Aldo paused for a moment, he glanzed at Roier that was laughing and chatting with the foreign men, he sighed a bit and opened his mouth trying to organize what he would say in his mind.
"Did you know him? The man that he loved so much but ended up leaving forever?"
Tina breathed hard when she remembered that man that came tied to her own past partner.
"I knew him, why?"
"So you know, you understand just how much he loved him"
Tina looked at Aldo.
His eyes, the ones that sparkled whenever he looked at the Prince now were dull, they carried an inexplicable amount of sorrow and longing that never seemed to end. His expression wasn't that different, he smiled, but it was like he was comforting himself about not being able to achieve something.
"Yes...?"
"Did you were close?"
"Yes... He and I were close"
Tina remembered the moments he spent with that man, she wasn't a knight there, he was a simple noble lady for a small house that happened to enter the Palace as training for young ladies. She met them there, two twin siblings from another nation that settled in the Palace after engaging with the Kings without knowing they were Royalty.
That man and her became friends, their friendship came before she got interested in his sister and that interest eventually became a relationship, the same with Roier, at first they were even afraid of each other in some way but after a few flirtious jokes they became lovers, the engagement came rather quick and the weeding would do as well, at least that was what Tina knew.
"They got married, you know that?"
Tina almost broke her neck turning to look back at Aldo. That wasn't part of the information she knew.
"They made a deal with His Majesty because by the date they would get married according to Imperial Laws, His Majesty wouldn't be available so they got married on a small ceremony with only their family members, only his sister and Their Majesties were there, a few friends they had but not enough to even fill a chapel"
"How...? She– No one told me that"
"They didn't, and will never do, how do you think the people will react to their next King marrying in secret and then being abandoned by his spouse?"
"Not good I suppose..."
"Of course, so they kept it a secret, that man is now presumed death so His Highness can marry again but... Does he seem willing to you?"
Tina remembered how he saw Roier after he left. The Prince was the kind of person that got along with everyone so when he suddenly shut himself in the Palace it caused some kind of outrage, the nobles that tried to grow connections with him during parties or gatherings now looked to visit him in his Palace but were always refused, the common people that were used to seeing him throlling through the city and engaging with them not as a noble, but as someone that deeply cared for them and wished for their every best, didn't dare to visit His Highness so they left letters with small bouquets outside the Palace to show their support.
Roier was unwell for a year straight, he ate a small meal every two or three days, he wouldn't bathe unless the attendants assisted him through all of it, he didn't change clothes unless he was changed by someone else and he didn't speak a word for 9 months to anyone, nothing could get him to speak.
He acted like a ghost, he didn't speak, he didn't go out, he didn't even make noise, it was like he didn't exist.
Then one day he started to go out again, he regained all the weight he lost during that year, he stopped doing as much social events as before but he showed his face now and then when he wanted.
Tina always wondered what was what made him changed and when she thought about the dates again, it matched when Aldo entered the Knight Order.
"N-no, he doesn't... But– Wasn't it yo–?"
"No" He interrupted her dry, he sounded even angry, not at her but at himself. "I didn't do anything, he got better on his own..."
"So you do know what happened..."
"I know, I even met him once you know? But it was so brief and at the time I thought it had nothing to do with me so I brushed it off at just a friend flirting with his partner. If I had known– If I–"
"You knew him...?"
"No, I didn't know him, I just simply encountered him one time and talked a bit but that was it, I continued my journey across the continent so the news about his dissapearing reached me late"
"You came here because of it?"
Aldo smiled, it looked like he was laughing at himself, his lips were smiling but his eyebrows furrowed like he was supressing his crying.
"I came to be with him, we're friends, I know that exceeds my limits as a knight but it was the only choice, I left my family a long time ago so, how can a man, not even a noble, stay by His Highness' side?"
"So you became a knight...?"
"Yes"
That seemed to be where their conversation ended, it was the first time Tina talked that much with her boss, she was his direct underling so people assumed they were close but they weren't at all, they didn't know that much about each other so everything Aldo said was news to Tina.
They stayed quiet for a while until Tina exploded.
"Why don't you say it to him?! You always look at him like he's your entire world! You say sweet things about him to everyone! Everyone knows how much you dote him! You don't hide anything so why have you said nothing to him?! You don't act like a couple but you're also not just friends, so what are you?!"
Tina spoke as fast as she could and when she finished he realized she had spoken rudely to not only his boss, but she had referred to the Crown Prince as just "him".
Tina expected a reprimand that never came, instead, Aldo looked at her in pain, tears threatened to leave his eyes at any moment but he kept a somewhat serene expression.
"How could I dare? I dare not intrude into his life that way, I wish to remain by his side for my whole life even if that means supressing my selfish feelings for the entirety of it"
"It's not selfish... How could love be selfish?"
He laughed, he patted her head when he saw her crying to the point her lips were trembling.
"It is selfish, I wish to keep him for myself and when I think about he marrying someone in the future to maintain the family, I get so anxious and can only think about asking him to run away with me"
"And why don't you? He isn't His Majesty's only son..."
"But he's the eldest, he has a sense of responsibility that no one can disturb, only that man did when he left"
"He... To this day I still don't know why he left... They– They looked so in love that they became the biggest couple in the Kingdom, so him leaving without any explanation one day was a shock to everyone..."
"I know"
They stayed quiet again, Tina sobbed quietly not wanting to let anyone see her tears, no one except the man next to him.
"He stills holds him in his heart"
Tina watched Aldo's expression change again, now it was resignated, he showed so much with only his furrowed eyebrows and twitching lips.
"He doesn't talk about him that much, but whenever he sees someone that looks slightly like him, he pauses dry and stays in that state for a while, he still has a flowerpoth with amaranths in his room that he changes every week, he even calls out the nickname they shared between them to the air while smiling"
Tina didn't know what to do, she herself still thought about her, she never forgot her but she tried to move on, at least that's what she says to herself fearing that if she looked too much into different women, she will find traces of her that don't even exist.
"I have no space there, he has the one he will love the rest of his life and I have mine, we will remain how we are right now and if I'm telling you this is to know you understand, you can judge me all you can, but I hope you understand"
Tina breathed in and out, she regained her stance and bowed to Aldo.
"Yes, Commander!"
Aldo laughed, he patted her head again but had to quickly leave because Roier called him.
The Prince made Aldo lean to whisper to his ear and then the two of them slightly nodded, it was those kind of interactions that made the public think they weren't closed because they didn't act as friends but mere master and servant.
Tina swallowed her tears looking at his boss, his soft expression that only her could recognize while next to the Prince now pained her, she was no expert, but she would support her boss her whole life.
Tina saw the rings, the ones Roier used together in one of his fingers, one being a perfect fit and the other one being just slightly bigger, the Prince used them everywhere and when he was anxious he would play with them like he was remembering something, now she knew what they were and she knew why her boss always looked away when Roier touched his right hand.