I sit up straight the moment someone storms into my room, looking around me like there might be some invasion happening.

"Markus didn't show up to work today and you're late!" Henderson shouts as he rips open the curtains and make the sun shine in to the point where I bring my hands up to my eyes in an order to block the light, but not before I draw the sheets up to my chin, covering Markus next to me.

"Is there someone in the bed next to you?" Henderson asks.

When my eyes have finally adjusted to the light I look at him, dressed in his palace uniform and ready to get the day started.

"Yes," I mumble as I reach for the glass of water next to my bed.

"Oh my dear lord," Henderson sighs. "Please tell me you're hiding Prince Dominik underneath those covers, or so help me I will have a stroke right here and now."

I feel Markus moving next to me in bed, but I gently put my hand on his head underneath the covers, stroking his cheek with my fingers, making sure he knows that he will be okay.

"No. It's actually someone I'm in love with," I answer. "If you could just give us a moment, I will be ready in a bit."

"Give you a few moments? For what? Another quicky?" Henderson says, his face red with anger.

Henderson starts walking up and down the room, pacing back and forth and finally he makes a decision. He draws the curtains shut, turns on the lights instead and comes and sits next to me on the bed.

"I need to know who is underneath the covers," he says, his voice remaining calm.

"Please Henderson... Can't we just forget this ever happened?" I ask, feeling a flush go over my face remembering last night when I told Markus I was in love with him and he kissed me in what I image must be the most gentle manner a guy has ever kissed another guy.

"I can't Nico. I just can't. This is big. It's huge! You are supposed to be betrothed to the Prince of Angeland after today, not running around and having casual sex with other people, claiming above all that you love them," he says. "If you want me to protect you I think you should be honest at this point. It's the only way I can make sure a scandal doesn't start."

I start going through my mind of ways to get Markus out of here before Henderson gets wind of what's going on, but before I can say another word I feel Markus moving next to me, pulling the sheets off his face and revealing himself to Henderson.

"Oh sweet..." Henderson says as Markus flushes bright red. "Please tell me this isn't real."

"We didn't have sex," Markus chimes, his voice childlike like always. "Nico just didn't want to be alone, that's all. I offered to stay with him. Rather me than him getting himself into some scandal."

"And you say you're in love with..." Henderson keeps quiet for a while, almost like he is searching for the correct pronoun before he continues his sentence; "...him?"

"Nico was just joking, weren't you?" Markus says. I catch his golden eyes, seeing a smile in there, telling me that what happened last night will stay only between the two of us.

"So you climb into a royal bed? What is the excuse for that?" Henderson says, looking at Markus with his wrinkled up palace uniform, waiting for an explanation.

"I was feeling vulnerable. I needed emotional support. Markus was the only person giving that too me, giving me what I needed at that moment. Being an ear and a shoulder to me. I asked him to stay the night, and in rightful protocol he did not refuse his Prince," I answer for Markus, getting out of bed myself. "Now if you don't mind Henderson, I really need to get dressed."

Henderson looks from Markus to me and then back to Markus again, his eyes narrowing with every passing second. For a moment it looks like he's going to say something, but then he gets up from the bed.

"I'll let you to it then," Henderson says. "We are expecting Prince Dominik and his great-grandmother, the Duchess of Bert in an hour. Her Majesty would like to have a word with you before then."

With that said Henderson marches out of the room, pulling the door shut behind him.

"He didn't believe a single word we said," I mutter to Markus who is already getting clothing ready for me to dress in to. "Henderson is many things, but stupid isn't one of them."

"But he can't tell you that you lied," Markus said as he busies himself unbuttoning my shirt as fast as he can.

"Nobody can know about this for now. Everything will change Markus. I will ask Dominik to marry me, but I am pretty sure he'll say no. He is already first in line for his own throne. He is ready to take over his own country, and I don't even think he's gay. And if he is, his dad would never allow it," I say. "Apparently the King of Angeland isn't very fond of same sex relationships."

"That doesn't matter now Nico. Just get through today. We can figure out the rest as we go," Markus says, still helping me to dress.

"Damn. My hair," I mutter, looking at my untamed main in the mirror, wishing there was actually time to get a stylist in to make me look like a movie star. For some reason I don't want to look anything than second best in front of Dominik. I want him to understand he is looking at the future King of Susax and that under no circumstances will I allow him to dominate me ever again.

Luckily for me, Markus doesn't seem to be a bad hairdresser, and within what I think would be ten minutes, I walk out of my room with my hair done, and dressed in a black shirt that opens up just a little bit to look sexy but still conservative, with black trousers and shoes to match.

"That was fast," Henderson says, looking me up and down. "Maybe we should go with a tie?"

"I'm supposed to get a guy to marry me, not look like I am in chastity," I say with just a little bit of irritation in my voice.

"That's probably also true," Henderson answers. "Now let's go. Michael has just informed me that Her Majesty is on her way to the formal sitting room on the ground floor. If we hurry we should be able to get there without keeping her waiting."

Markus winks at me as I follow Henderson through the door and I smile back. Off course I wish I could have kissed him goodbye, but sometimes a smile and a wink just has to be enough.

***

There's no announcement as Michael opens the doors to allow me into the sitting room, which used to actually be the old throne room where court came together. Now it was covered in paintings, artefacts given to the Queen over her long reign, and tokens of appreciation from other countries and nations. Almost like a display room of such with somewhere to sit to the side.

"Nicolas," she says formally, gesturing for me to sit down without even looking up from a pack of papers in her hands.

"Good morning grandmother," I greet as I take a seat opposite hers.

"I gather you slept well," she says making me relive the previous night all over again. Holding Markus in my arms all night. Listening to him humming songs he learned in primary school. Looking at the way he looked at me with adoration without me even having to have a crown on my head.

"Very well," I say with a smile.

"Now Nicolas," she says, putting down the stack of papers and taking off her glasses. "How well do you know the family tree?"

Again I am caught off guard. I wish I could have known before she asks questions like these. To be honest I could not care less about the family tree.

"Not that much," I admit. "I know all the major kings and queens and what they're famous for, but I don't really know all the extended royals."

"Well they won't matter in this moment. All you'll need right now is the last few generations and off course remember how Sussax became Great Susax," she answers.

"Well I know a little bit about it. There used to be seven kingdoms and King Teague I brought them all together a thousand years ago," I say trying my best to remember the history of a thousand years ago that I vaguely remember some tutor trying to get into my head.

"You have the basics right," Queen Nicola says. "We don't have much time, so I will give you a quick history lesson."

She pulls out a few pieces of paper from the stack she was holding and puts them in front of me, showing family trees and maps dating back centuries.

"Now if you look at this map over here you will see Sussax, or what was called The Isle of Sussax before the 7th century," she says pointing at the first of the maps.

"And surrounding it is all the other islands which now makes part of Great Sussax," I interrupt her, earning myself a raised eyebrow.

"In what we call Great Susax now, there were originally eleven kingdoms, the biggest being Angeland and Sussax. Henderstraven, Leon, Meck, Sonnestraten, Saxa, Simbré, Brackten, Bert, and off course, Lyon. By the time of King Nocolai the First, he had successfully brought them all together in what was known as Sussax in the year 899. All the old kings were given titles as dukes, and everybody bowed to the King of the Isle of Sussax. Now if we skip forth to Halfok the Great, a just leader, he first marries a noble lady named Serena. She bares him an heir, but she dies in giving birth at the age of thirteen if court records are correct. The court physician advises the King that he should take another bride as soon as possible because the Prince must have weak blood since his mother died in childbirth while she should have rather lived, seeing that she was so young. Halfok obviously didn't wait long. A few months after the death of Serena he marries Heidi of Leon, the granddaughter of the old king of the Isle of Leon. She bares him four children. When Halfok dies in 1016, he leaves the Crown to his youngest son, Nicolai the Third, or as we know him today, Nicolai the United. Off course, all four of his older brothers starts fighting over the crown. Nicolai being the smart one, goes into exile, rumor having it that he lives on an old undiscovered island, but today we know he was on one of the Simbré islands all along, just waint for the battle to finish. By 1035, three of the brothers were dead and the fourth one, was deathly ill, so ill that he could not be corronated. It would however take Nicolai the Third seven long years to claim the throne, after which he would have united all the various armies his brothers raised up against one another. Nocolai the Third however dies a bachelor, no heirs to the throne and again a huge dispute starts. There were two heirs to the throne at this point. If the official line of succession was followed, it should have passed down through the oldest son, Henry, but since the crown passed through another four of his siblings and only one of the others had a living heir, there were now two options. Henry only had a daughter, but he had a grandson, but this grandson was younger than the son of Teague of Leon's son. And that is how both Teague the First and Eberhardt the First both proclaimed themselves to be king of Susax. The country was called in to avoid yet another war. The subjects would decide who the next King would be. When Teague the First won the election, Eberhardt proclaimed war, stating that his father was King first, and therefore he should wear the crown. Teague decided that there would not be another war and decided that a different route should be followed. He went back and looked at all the elections by each separate isle. The ones where Eberhardt had the majority vote was given to him, and where Teague had the majority vote, he kept as Sussax. So Eberhardt became the first King of Angeland, a country on its own, along with the isles of Leon, Helta, and Bert. Off course he tried to fight for more, since the isles he got, with the exception of Angeland were the smallest of all eleven of the original kingdoms."

Queen Nicola looks up at me to make sure I am still with her as she shows out each name and date on the family trees as she speaks.

"So, let's go forth to my father, King Nicolas the Second. At the time, King Heinrich the Second of Angeland proclaimed war, wanting to this time conquer the entire Sussax and all the isles for the kingdom of Angeland, stating that going up the tree, Eberhardt should have gotten it all and not just three small islands along with Angeland. My father came up with an idea of keeping the peace. He had my sister, Princess Catherine marry the Duke of Bert from Angeland which seemed to temporarily create a cease fire. After that, their daughter, Susanna married the current King Heinrich who is the father of Crown Prince Dominik," she says and then all at once takes all the papers and pushes them together, returning them to the pile next to her.

"So do you understand what I am trying to accomplish with the union between you and Dominik?" she asks.

"Incest?" I ask with a nervous smile. After hearing that story all I want is to run in the opposite direction and to leave the Crown far behind me.

"Seriously Nico," she says with a stern voice, her left eyebrow almost reaching her hairline.

"You want to marry the heir apparent of Great Susax to the heir apparent of Angeland, in that manner melding the countries as one, never to be separated again," I say with a dry mouth, my chest tightening up, realising that if I go into this there will be no escape for me. This marriage would have to be for life, no matter what.

"Now you're thinking as a King," she answers.