You're Late

Tianshi Xue moved her hand in a circular motion and her foot was poised, ready to kick someone off the bed. Strange… she thought. She was already stretching a lot but there was nothing.

She peeled her eyes open and found that there was nobody else in the room.

Huh.

She woke up alone.

She started to smile. She stretched fully, thinking that she wants to get back to sleep because of the cold air. The prince's spot was no longer even warm. He must've went out ages ago.

Tianshi Xue was about to get back to her slumber when there was a knock on the door. "Princess Yingyue?"

She groaned. "What?"

"Breakfast is ready. The emperor requests for your presence."

Tianshi Xue glared at the back of her eyelids. "Howin, is that you?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

"Come in then." She sat up from the bed, pushing hair away from her face. "Are you going to choose my outfit for today?"

"If you wish so, Your Highness," her handmaiden bowed. "Shall I prepare your bath?"

Tianshi Xue got up. "No, I'll be fine. I'll handle it."

It took about an hour before she got outside of her now shared bedroom. She was dressed in a blue short-sleeved dress. From now on she was supposed to wear the family color of her husband. She didn't have any qualms about it. She could carry any color. She could even pull off brown and orange.

When she arrived at the dining area, she found that the prince was waiting for her at the entrance. He was on his Linker, scrolling what looked like the morning news.

"Nice of you to wait for me," she snide, "when you didn't even wake me up when you woke."

"I didn't have to wake you up. You have a handmaiden for that. Besides, I didn't sleep so I didn't wake up."

Tianshi Xue only made a face and fixed the skirt of her dress. "You should've told me you were leaving."

"And why is that? Do you have any concern about my whereabouts?"

She threw him a disgusted look. "No, so I could use the entirety of the bed. I have back ache from keeping myself from moving all night."

The prince smirked at that. "Now that I know it's causing you pain, I might actually use my side of the bed every night."

She stepped closer to him. "You wouldn't dare."

The prince only gave her a teasing smile. He signalled for the doors to be opened and Tianshi Xue completely wiped the annoyed look on her face and replaced it with a smile.

The rest of the family was already inside and both Prince Qui and Tianshi Xue moved towards the right side of the table. She widened her eyes at the prince when he didn't even pull out the seat for her.

But then she saw that the second empress was eyeing her so she turned her eyes sweet again and waited until one of their attendants helped her.

Before she was fully seated, she made an effort to kick the prince's shin under the table. The prince didn't react.

"You're late," remarked the second prince, Xiaodan. "You made Father wait."

Tianshi Xue was about to apologize for it but then Prince Qui beat her to it. "Oh you know," he said. "Honeymoon. Long night."

It pained Tianshi Xue to have the second prince's feelings hurt… wait, she shouldn't be assuming that he was hurt… but the look on his face said otherwise.

"Enough of that," said the Emperor with a rare look on his face. He was smiling. He entered from the other door and went directly to his seat. "I want fat grandsons." He looked at Tianshi Xue, "I'm sure that's what your family wants as well."

Tianshi Xue only nodded her head. Forced her to marry, now forcing her to have grandsons. She prayed to whoever was out there that the emperor would be reborn as a woman.

"Let's eat," said the emperor.

She was starving. She barely got to eat a proper meal last night. Strangely enough, the prince was only spooning his soup, not touching anything.

"Aren't you hungry?" she asked quietly, she still had some food in her mouth.

"I already ate." The prince said and stopped midway a bite. "Now that you reminded me, I have something to show you later."

Tianshi Xue was surprised. Was the prince doing something nice to her. "Is this a trap?"

He chuckled lightly. "No, not really."

"Okay, I'm not coming."

He smirked. "We'll see."