Time Spent Together

Ayman takes Sophia's hand, happy, but nervous. Sophia rubs her thumb on Ayman's hand to calm him down, when Ayman finally started to calm down, Sophia began to guide Ayman out of the Throne Room. But before she could, the King walked towards the two with a warm smile. Ayman held onto Sophia's hand tightly, not wanting to let her go, but Sophia softly pushed away from him. Ayman, being still new at this was confused and was thinking about how he came off to clingy, planning to apologize for his actions,

"You're seem clingy Prince Ayman. I'll keep note of that," Sophia says, standing before the King with a smile, the two beginning to start up a conversation, 'they seem close', Ayman notes to himself.

Ayman walks up to the two,

"Is there something wrong?" Ayman asks nervously.

  Sophia looks at Ayman, "Hmm? Oh, no nothing wrong Prince Ayman."

"You know, you don't have to be formal with me, since," Ayman pauses his words, his brain scattered at what to say, but knowing what to say.

Sophia grabs his cheeks which have turned beet red, "I know, I assumed something like that would mess with you," she says with a sinister smile.

At that moment of looking at Sophia's smile, Ayman began to question the choice he made and looked at his Father, who only laughed at his son's confusion of his current situation. As Ayman was trying to adjust to the sporadic nature of Sophia, he soon realized that Sophia was dragging him by the  hand out of the Throne Room, again to the pleasure of  Ayman's  Father.

"Mind telling me where you are taking me," Ayman asked as he struggled to keep up with the gazelle that was Sophia.

"I want you to show me around the Kingdom you call home," Sophia says cheerfully.

Ayman, not wanting to disappoint, simply gave as clear an answer as a near winded person could, "S-sure." Sadly the answer only enthralled Sophia even further causing her to increase her speed from a gazelle to a cheetah, most to the dissatisfaction of Ayman's lunges and legs who were unfamiliar to this speed.

When Ayman and Sophia made it down to the Kingdom's town square, they had to take a break because Ayman was on the verge of passing out due to exhaustion. As Ayman was focusing on his breathing, Sophia wandered off for a short while bringing back with her a bowl of water, to the gratitude of the exhausted man. Ayman drank the of water with great delight, feeling life coming back to his body.

"You don't run much, do you?" Sophia says as she looks at Ayman drinking the water.

Ayman, trying to calm down his breathing, still can't believe that such a woman could run that terrifyingly fast. 

"I do, you're just faster, way faster," Ayman says as he finally starts to catch his breath.

Sophia seemed a little shocked to hear this, as if this is the first time she was told of her speed and stamina, "Oh, sorry, I just got carried away, would you prefer for me to tone it down?" 

"Could you, my legs feel like rubber," Ayman says with an awkward smile.

Sophia chuckles, "Sorry, I'll keep that in mind," Sophia says as she offers her hand towards Ayman, Ayman takes her hand and the two begin to adventure around to the town.

As Ayman and Sophia were looking at the various shops, each of the shop showing a variety of culture and many people of various races. Ayman was about to try and start a conversation, but as he was going to start speaking, Ayman noticed Sophia taking him towards a flower shop. When Ayman and Sophia made their way to the Flower shop,  Ayman noticed a wide variety of interesting flowers, some had the faces of monkeys, other flowers had petals looking like naked men, and the last flower, had Ayman start questioning if this flower shop, was an actual flower shop, for the last group Ayman saw, where flowers that were in the shape of a lip.

Ayman was not an expert in knowing all the types of flowers there were, so looking at these flowers caused Ayman to think that these flowers were just artificially made.

"You don't seem to know what these flowers are?" Sophia asked.

Ayman quickly responded, not finding much reason to lie, 

"Yeah, to be honest,  I get common flowers such as roses, sunflowers, and poppy flowers confused from time to time, Ayman says to the humor of Sophia and the flower shopkeeper. Growing embarrassed and irritated from not knowing much Ayman expected to be laughed at, but instead of hearing laughter, he heard Sophia giving the names of each flower and a brief history of each flower, to the surprise of Ayman and the shopkeeper.

"Sir Ayman, it would appear that you have a mighty intelligent woman. It's hard to find many who know not just the names of these flowers, but also know of their history." The flower shopkeeper says, as gives them a bundle of flowers to celebrate their time together. They all looked the same, but they all were in different colors of white, red, and yellow. "I hope you two will prosper just like these healthy honeysuckle flowers." the shopkeeper says with a smile.

"Oh thank you good sir," Sophia replies with a smile.

As Ayman and Sophia continued on their tour of the kingdom, Ayman couldn't stop glancing at Sophia as they walked. Throughout the tour Ayman and Sophia had gone to many shops, and to each shop, Sophia would give out knowledge that would be something that Ayman knew nothing about, and the more he saw her knowledge being displayed, the more he wanted to know more about her. For although Ayman was still trying to understand who Sophia is, it seemed to him that every time she presented the knowledge she had, her personality seems to want to seep out and show itself in full to Ayman and if that assumption was correct it would be mutual then.

While Ayman and Sophia were still cruising throughout the Kingdom, Ayman noticed that it was becoming night quickly. "It would be simple to go to the castle, but," Ayman lets out an exhausted yawn. Sophia notices the and asks him is he okay?

"Yes I'm fine. But it appears to be getting dark and I'm feeling exhausted. There's a hotel nearby, do you want to rest there for the night."

Sophia gives a smirk towards Ayman, "My, my Ayman, what a question to ask."

"What do you mean?" Ayman's voice wavering in asking the question.

"In some cultures that I have seen, when your date asks you to go to a hotel it usually means a whole number of things. I wonder what it could be?"

"You want to elaborate," Ayman replies, trying to find some ground to stand on in this conversation.

Sophia simply places her index finger under her chin, seeming to be in thought while answering Ayman's question, "Well it doesn't seem like you're the prideful type because if you were, you would take me to your place to flaunt how rich you are as a prince. Then there's you being either a slob or a killer. Slob is out since your actions have pointed to a well organized person, I saw how you organized those flowers by color and also how you gave advice for that craftsman on how he can help improve his business. A killer," Sophia gave a swift pause to look at Ayman,

"Unless you hate humans, that's far-fetched, especially how you treated those stray animals with such kindness, so definitely not a killer."

Ayman just stood there not understanding what Sophia was going on about, all he knew was that the sun had already left and the moon was blooming, but he chose to focus on Sophia.

"Is that all Sophia?' Ayman asked expecting nothing more to come out

"Well no, but, but the thought of it seems so forward."

"How can it be forward? Just speak your mind."

"Ayman, do you intend to have your heir in these next coming months?"

Ayman's mind went blank for a second, not understanding what Sophia meant, but when his heart and mind understood what Sophia was implying, both heart and mind went through a meltdown in their own way. The heart caused Ayman to glow bright red, while his brain made it seem like every small detail he did had to be noticed by his eyes, which only made him more of a mess, and the only sound that came from the two of them was Sophia laughing her heart out. 

"You should really see how embarrassed you look right now," Sophia says with tears flowing out, as if the blue sky has sent forth a rain of joy at the embarrassment of Ayman. 

Ayman had no words to say to Sophia for the mere thought of "that" being brought up, it caught him off guard. The only thing Ayman could do that seemed rational to him was to take Sophia by the hand and take her to the closest hotel he could find. Once Ayman had paid for a room for the night, he took Sophia to the room at the curious watchful eye of the Hotelier. Once the two made it to their room, Sophia went immediately to the bed when Ayman opened the door. When Ayman went to the bed where Sophia was at he was making a deep eye contact with her, knowing the question that loomed in her mind,

"So, you gonna do it?" Sophia asked with a smile.

"No," Ayman responded sharply.

"Why not?"

"We may be engaged, but I would prefer to wait until it is official."

Sophia chuckles, "I see."

"Does that bother you," Ayman says as he walks to the bed.

"No, I'm actually happy."

"That's good" Ayman says as he drops his body weight onto the bed.

A pause came upon the room as the two just took in the silence.

"Ayman, what do you think about the thought of being wise and knowledgeable?"  Sophia asked as she still had her head facing towards the ceiling.

"I believe that those who seek wisdom and higher knowledge, do good. For having wisdom and knowledge is not just a great benefit towards the individual who seeks it, but also the people surrounding him." Ayman responds, "Why do you ask?"

"There are many rulers who pray for great riches, glory, and fame. But the times these people actually seek wisdom and knowledge, it's only for the benefit of themselves, never for others, corrupt people will seek something good, just to benefit their evil deeds." Sophia answers.

"I've seen many kingdoms and nations where the rulers use their knowledge and wisdom to control and harass their people, it truly was a detestable sight." Sophia says. Sophia soon turned her head towards Ayman with a smile, "You are one of the few to give me that answer," she says.

Ayman stared at Sophia, "What do you mean I'm one of the few?" he asked.

"Throughout my journey I have met a great many people, some sought wisdom, most sought ignorance, some sought a righteous path, and others sought a wicked path. Ayman, you are one of the few to give me  answer or a man seeking a righteous path, and that greatly makes me happy."

"The ones who had a similar answer to me, how were they?" Ayman asked out of curiosity.

Sophia sat up, "They were all unique in their own way, some of them were loud, some cheerful, others were cold, and some others were silent. They all were different from one another in their own way. But the relationships I had with them were all the same in one way or another."

"What do you mean?"

Sophia crawled closer to Ayman,  resting her head on Ayman's hand, "For some of them, I was a mother, others a sister, or a dear friend. I was something plantonic to them. But you Ayman, you are the first I dared to ever call my beloved."

Ayman was flushed with emotions, "Surely there was someone who was better than me?"

"Does it matter, I chose you and you chose me," Sophia says as she holds Ayman's hand caressing it.

Sophia  looked up into Ayman's eyes, "My beloved, Ayman, The Protector, whenever you need me, seek me out like you would any treasure and I will show myself," she says.

This saying greatly confused Ayman, not understanding why he had to "seek" her. "I don't understand Sophia," he says.

Sophia smiles at the confused young man responding, "You will in time understand this saying." 

Sophia soon got up and rested her head on Ayman's chest forcing Ayman to lie on the bed. Ayman's heart began to race faster as Sophia just laid there listening to his heart beat.

"Ayman?" Sophia whispers. Ayman looks at her, "I promise you no matter where you are, I will always be with you," Ayman sensed there was a sadness when Sophia said those words, so he held her closer to his heart. As the two laid in bed, they spoke no other words to each other, just allowing themselves to be comforted by one another.