Important: My King Liam is called King Istvan. My MC is Viktoria Petit
Outline: A short one-piece set the June following Istvan’s wedding to Viktoria, the newlywed royals have a little heart-to-heart about their different life experiences regarding their respective fathers over Sunday morning coffees in bed.
Rating: No smut. I suppose it’s quite sad though. No bad language (I know – you’re shocked!) but I guess you could say some of it’s for a more mature audience because of the subject matter – ie Constantine’s illness / estranged parents – if that has the potential to upset you, please don’t read on.
Hope you enjoy, VP 💖
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“Mmmmm…”
Istvan also sipping at his coffee smiled back at her,
“Thank you my love, my turn next weekend?”
Viktoria nodded, running her hand absent-mindedly over his forearm,
“Ist are you remembering it’s Fathers’ Day a week from now?”
Istvan grimaced,
“No. Honestly we’ve been so busy with the European summit coming up, and with my father being so poorly, it slipped my mind… I’ll have one of the PA’s arrange something tomorrow… In fact, they’ve probably remembered…”
Viktoria leaned her head back against the plush headboard, her face crinkled slightly as she sighed,
“Istvan, don’t leave it to the staff. Not this year, my darling… I know it’s a silly commercialised thing, but your dad… His last tests weren’t so good, the doctor said-”
Istvan held his hand up, cutting her off, his voice strained,
“I know. I know, Vik. I heard what they said.”
Viktoria reached across and took his large hand into hers, squeezing it tightly, she hadn’t intended to upset him. She raised it to her lips and placed a gentle kiss into his beautiful dark skin,
“I’m sorry sweetheart.”
Istvan turned to look at his wife. They hadn’t been married for quite a year yet, but God knows, she’d changed everything for him. Istvan had never dreamed to hope that he could be married for anything more than a political alliance, certainly not for love, and definitely not to someone he met working as a waitress in New York. He’d never met anyone quite like her – he was convinced that was because no one else was quite like Viktoria – and Istvan was so happy and proud to have her as his wife. Vik cared so deeply for him, she knew how to make him smile even when he was feeling low or filled with self-doubt. She challenged him to look at things from different perspectives and she drove him crazy some days! But his life was so much richer for her presence in it… Istvan swallowed and blinked hard. He knew what his little wife was getting at, and that she was saying it thinking of him, but just he didn’t need to hear the words. His father was terminally ill and it was pretty much a certainty at this point that there wouldn’t be anymore Fathers’ Days to share with him.
Viktoria hadn’t meant to push him. She berated herself for starting the morning like this, because she ‘got it’: she’d lost her mom a few years ago and understood the denial, the living in hope that the doctors had got it all wrong, the certainty that there must be another drug out there that could ‘fix’ this, the silent prayers and bargaining with God for a cure, for just a little longer… It was a living grief watching someone fade as the days passed by… Istvan was full of emotions and going through the motions, because what else could he do in his position? He had to be strong for Cordonia. Viktoria knew she had to be brave and there for Istvan on the days that he wasn’t able to be strong for himself. She understood that he didn’t want to think about the inevitable which was now quickly approaching for Constantine, but she wanted to make sure that there wasn’t anything he could say ‘if only’ about, when that day arrived… Viktoria gently cupped his face in her hands, searching his piercing blue eyes, her heart swelled as she gazed into them; he was blinking back tears. She smiled, determined to make him smile back at her,
“Istvan, why don’t you let me organise something really nice? You can help me with a gift for the old boy?”
It worked. A smirk played across his lips as he chuckled,
“He’d banish you if he heard you call him that…”
Viktoria clutched her chest as though wounded,
“Uhhh! And you’d let him??”
Istvan grinned at her; he didn’t know how she did it, but she’d eased his heavy heart once again,
“Never my Queen.”
He pulled her into a warm hug, pressing a kiss into her long dark hair. Viktoria sighed as she learned against his chest, breathing in the scent of him; she could stay here snuggled up in bed with Istvan forever. She looked up at him,
“I think it would be really nice to have a family meal together next Sunday, do you think if you called Leo he would come? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy…”
Istvan looked thoughtful as he twirled her silky hair around his fingers,
“Ok, I’ll call him… I think it would be best to have something here at the palace though, I don’t think Father is feeling well enough to go out to a restaurant Vik…”
Viktoria nodded,
“Of course, why don’t you speak to Regina, do whatever she thinks is best – lunch, dinner, a little tea, whatever?”
Istvan agreed with her – it would be nice to spend some time together with both his father and brother.
Vik reached into the bedside table, pulling out her dinky little notebook, pressing the power button making it whirl into life. Istvan raised an eyebrow,
“I know we don’t have any formal engagements today, but there are things I want to do this afternoon Vik… So as much as it’s a very, very appealing proposition my love, I’m not spending all day Chilling with Netflix…”
His wife burst out laughing,
“You mean Netflix and Chill?”
He shrugged, pondering,
‘Isn’t it the same thing??’
She waved her hand dismissively at him,
“No no no… As fun as that sounds, totally not what I was going for… I want to show you something, I think it would be a really nice gift for your father, look.”
Istvan shifted closer to her, deciding to avoid highlighting the fact that she actually seemed to be spurning his advances… He wrapped his strong arm around her as she moved the little screen to let him see better. Viktoria tapped the keys and clicked as she scrolled around various pages letting him see the design options,
“See? It’s a photobook. You can personalise it for your father, put in some nice photos of you and Leo when you were kids, ones of you all together… You can put in verses that mean something, poems or lyrics from songs? You can basically customise it to look however you like. I’ll help you, tell me what you want and I’ll put it all together for you my darling?”
Istvan shook his head,
“Viktoria… I love you. This is a wonderful idea. It’s so very personal. After everything that my father put you through, I can’t believe you’re still so kind and thoughtful when it comes to him… I’m not sure I would be in your shoes.”
Viktoria gave him a sad smile,
“You know why I am? Because he’s your dad and he’s important to you: I might not like what he did, and he really hurt me, but he did do it with your best interests and Cordonia’s best interests at heart… And he was a big enough man to apologise. And you absolutely would do the same in my shoes, because you’re the kindest person I know.”
Istvan pulled her closer to him, his eyes were tearing up again,
“The father I grew up with, I would never have believed he was capable of such a wicked act. He was always a strong ruler Vik, and in this position now, I can’t say that I agree with every policy he decided to make, it’s actually understandable why some have called him a tyrant… But I could never have imagined his involvement in something so cruel, especially not to hurt the woman I clearly loved, who had did nothing to him… It’s coloured my view of him Viktoria, it’s tainted so much of the relationship we had before, and I know he’s dying, my love, but there’s still a part of me that can’t forget what he did to us, to you…”
Viktoria curled against Istvan’s arm, stroking his bare chest,
“But you forgive him. Forgive and forget – the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Please don’t wait ’til he’s gone and it’s too late to put it behind you Istvan… You’d regret that. Let’s make a real effort for Father’s Day. Tell me some of the things you’d like to put in the book? Maybe those nice memories will help you remember the things you really love about your dad sweetheart?”
Istvan’s eyes twinkled as he cast his memory back,
“Well, I remember when I was six…”
—
An hour and a second cup of coffee later, the young couple had laughed at the recollections, they’d cried at some of them, Viktoria had looked at Istvan in disbelief because some of them just didn’t sound like the brusque Former King she’d always known… Viktoria grinned at Istvan, she truly meant every word she was saying,
“You have had a lovely dad. Please don’t let what happened with he and I change any of that Ist? You have some beautiful memories. I’d have thought you’d have had less, with your father, you know, running a kingdom… You were lucky darling, a lot of people don’t get that.”
Istvan’s expression shifted from a smile to a pensive, far-away look,
“Like you, my beautiful girl?”
It was Viktoria’s turn for her expression to change; she looked solemn as she spoke,
“I wasn’t talking about me, but yeah I suppose you could say that. You know that my dad wasn’t around, I don’t remember him at all really, just from some photos my mom had and the odd story she told me.”
Istvan thought about the memories he’d told his wife about his father as they lay huddled together, he couldn’t ever imagine not having had those experiences with a present father-figure in his life… He concentrated his gaze on her,
“I know he left when your parents separated, what age were you then, my love?”
Viktoria sighed softly,
“I wasn’t quite three yet… My mom and him hadn’t been getting along for a while. He went back to Canada, and that was the last time either of us saw him.”
Istvan’s brow furrowed. He hadn’t yet experienced the joy of becoming a father himself, it was something he’d thought a lot about and he couldn’t wait for that day to arrive. He’d rather it was sooner than later, but he knew that Viktoria wanted to wait for a bit, she wasn’t quite as ready for it as he was yet – and he was ok with that: it would be her carrying the child after all… But even without holding his own little baby in his arms, Istvan knew that he’d be so in love with and so drawn in by that precious tiny bundle that he would never be able to walk away, he’d never be able to let go of his son or daughter… To just leave the country? Never call? Never write? Never support them – financially or in any other way? To never see the child that was a part of him again? It blew his mind that someone would do that by choice.
Istvan reached out and stroked her cheek, he asked quietly, “Do you miss him?” Viktoria screwed her nose up as she answered,
“You can’t miss someone you didn’t know. I miss my mom every day; I miss her sense of humour, I miss her advice, I miss her cooking, I miss her hugs… I don’t miss any of these things about my dad because I never experienced them. Do you see what I’m saying Ist? I guess you feel like ‘I’ missed out because ‘you’ have some really nice childhood memories of your father, but I didn’t have those, so how can I miss what I didn’t have to begin with?”
He nodded his head thoughtfully. Istvan understood what she was saying, but it just seemed so very sad to him that her mom was dead, and her dad was out there somewhere,
“Do you ever think about him Vik? Trying to find him? I would help you? You just have to ask.”
Viktoria shook her head without hesitation,
“Sweetheart thank you, but no. I never think of looking for him. Mom heard he had married and had another couple of kids when I was maybe seven…? He made a new life for himself, I was only little, it wasn’t my responsibility to make sure I was part of that life Ist. He was the parent and made no attempt to be my dad. It’s not like he tried and my mom stopped him. I just don’t feel like it should be on me to chase after him now, even though I’m an adult.”
Istvan squeezed her hand tenderly as she continued,
“I spent a long time being angry at him in my teens… He made my mom’s life more difficult than it would have been if he had supported her the way he should have… But you can’t live a good life staying angry like that.”
Viktoria let out a big sigh,
“My mom was so completely amazing Istvan, God I wish you’d met her. You’d have loved her. Having her was like having a mom and a dad, she made sure I never went without, she was my biggest cheerleader, she always looked after me…”
Istvan wrapped her in his arms and held Viktoria tight,
“And now you’ve got me. And I promise to always look after you and support you, and protect you, and make you smile. My lovely, beautiful wife…”
She beamed at him as she pressed her lips to his cheek,
“And I will always take care of you Istvan. I love you so much. You know as long as I have you, I don’t need to search for anything or anyone else. You’re everything I could possibly want or need.”
—
End – VP 💖
