His Royal Majesty

Dorian Ellington-Aragona

The King of Italy

Samantha's appointment had been distinctly unexpected. Dorian had, for several moments, stared at her name entered so neatly within the schedule upon his ipad (a device he had come to decide was marvelous). Surely it was not the Samantha he believed it to be? The young Fae woman had veritably disappeared once more after their last meeting. Dorian so having come to believe that, perhaps, she wished to maintain their friendship....from a distance of sorts. Especially after her relationship with his own brother had gone awry. She would hardly be the first to find discomfort in his status or role within the world so much so as to wish to pull back from their friendship and yet it had been wholly disheartening to hear from the woman only sporadically over those past few months. After all, Dorian had, once, owed Samantha a very great deal for all she had done for him those years ago. The Monarch was uninclined to forget her kindness towards him even if their paths had taken far more distant routes. Their friendship, it seemed, was destined to remain a distant one. Her sudden desire to see him, in person, had been unanticipated. The Monarch had been quick to approve that meeting all the same. After all, there was surely some reason for her visit after all this time, was there not? Then again, perhaps she merely desired to have tea. Although such a notion seemed distinctly unlikely.

Dorian had made every effort in that hour before his companion arrived to select a more...casual outfit. Those suits and ties and formal trimmings had seemed to distress Samantha upon her last visit and indeed the Fae King found himself hardly inclined to make her feel uncomfortable. Dorian, this evening, merely settled for a neatly pressed collared shirt and those more casual jeans- even if they had been ironed into neatened perfection. Charles' insistence that Samantha had arrived prompted the Monarch to add those touches of his favoured cologne before making his way from his bedroom and down the stairs toward the living room the younger Fae waited within. Dorian paused but briefly to glance within Sebastian's office. His husband was still within the midst of his conference call. Both dogs settled comfortably at his feet. The Monarch strode down those final stairs and across the entrance way before, at last, stepping into the living room. The polite smile upon his features however so hardly lasted terribly long. Dorian distinctly aware of some sense of...unbalance within that room. His silver gaze shifted near hurriedly from Samantha within her flowery dress and towards those shadows that seemed the slither about the floor and surrounded the Fae woman. How...worrisome.

Yet- it was so hardly those shadows alone that captivated the Monarch's attention. That very...life that surrounded his companion had shifted distinctly so. Samantha was near...surrounded in a beaming brightness far more golden then Dorian was assured he remembered! For several moments the Monarch found himself at a near loss for words. Dorian's own affinities, after all, were nothing short of....sensitive to each of those subtle changes in Samantha in turn. The Fae King at a veritable loss as to which to comment on first before so readily deciding those slinking shadows were, perhaps, the most pressing of the issues.

"Samantha..."

Dorian took several steps toward his companion then before pausing once more in clear uncertainty, his hand gesturing near worriedly towards those shadows that lingered about her figure.

"There is something...amiss. Are those...harmful to you? They appear to be surrounding you in a frightful fashion."

That sense of power within the room could so hardly be denied. Dorian assured those very shadows were her doing even if she remained distinctly unaware of it. His very presence so surely surprised her in that moment, breaking her from whatever thoughts had captivated her very attention. Dorian, in those precarious few seconds, so becoming even more aware of that very sensation of life that permeated from her frame with a striking vigor. His gaze, at last, drifted to that faint swell at her stomach. How very uncertain Dorian was as to which alarmed him more in that moment. Those swirling shadows or her clearly....pregnant state. That surprise and bafflement upon his features was nothing short of clear.

"Heavens, but when did you get married?"