“Alright you, you're coming with me and we're ditching this get together. Ali!” Tor called waving her over gently.
“We're going to our room with Karina.”
The Princess shrugged.
“Whatever.” It was dark and moody. Worse than before. By far.
The walk was in silence, but he touched her the whole time and she didn't throw him off and walked with them without being pulled. They got to the room and Tor, without asking or waiting led her to the bath and tapped her clothing sigil, turning it off. She didn't start, or say anything, just stood, still looking down. Ali ran a bath, the tub a large ceramic thing, tan and long, but not as big as the ones at his house. When the tub was full he asked her to climb in, but she didn't move. Instead of fighting over it, he picked her up and stepped in himself, still clothed, then sat with her on his lap. His hands were tied up so he focused intently on his own clothing device and turned it off too, then started scrubbing the girl clean. His body reacted to the contact, his manhood stiffening, but he ignored it. This wasn't about him, it was about Karina.
It took time to get her clean, this being about as awkward a way of going about things as possible, if close and cozy, but over the course of about forty minutes they managed it well enough. They drained the tub and let it empty without moving. Karina grew chill, not wearing a temperature equalizer or anything else and didn't bother trying to dress herself for warmth. Great, Tor thought. She was clearly suicidal.
Oh, it wasn't “give me the cutter so I can end it now”, but for her to go without a shield was still courting death and was something that for her had to be on purpose. She knew better than that. A subtle thing, but serious. Using towels they dried her off and took her to bed, tucking her in naked.
“Alright silly, Stop this now. Pull yourself out of it and don't make me do something more drastic.” Tor looked at Ali, signaling for her to get her clothes off too. The girls had told him flat out that they'd been lovers, and had since Ali was twelve. Illegal, but then, not really. A Princess could do whatever she wanted and Ali had always looked older, even now at fourteen she looked closer to Karina's seventeen. Plus, back then she'd lied about her age and no one questioned her claim of fifteen. No one blinked at her being married to Tor even, not that nobles would. Naked she actually looked like the older and more developed girl, between the two of them, if shorter still. His wife was shooting up, and would end up nearly as tall as the Princess most likely. Her mom was tall at least. Tor didn't know for certain if Count Derring had been her biological father, but if so, he was pretty tall too. Or had been, before his mysterious death.
Karina glared.
“What drastic action? A bath? Some sex? You're just going to leave me again. Everyone always does.”
Tor kissed her, but she turned her face away, growing surly. He let her do it and kissed her cheek instead then took her chin gently so she'd look him in the eyes.
“What kind of thing is that to say when I just had a horrendous battle with your parents to get them to allow me to whisk you off to school with us? They were winning too, lots of hammer blows and logical reasons you couldn't go, until my begging and crying won them over. It was a close thing though. I think I won them over when I hammered my head against the floor begging on hands and knees.” Toe shook his head, eyes innocent and face blank, Karina glared at him for a bit, then tilted her head.
“Really?”
“Well the part about you coming back with us. I didn't cry though, I was quite manly and no one hit me. They really do want you to be happy you know. Now, you don't have to come if you don't want to, but if you don't, I'll have to come down here every day and tickle you from now on, which will absolutely destroy my grades. Barely passing as it is.” Tor grinned a little and hoped she'd come, since that really would just about end his schooling all together.
They didn't make love, just held each other all night and talked about things, mainly how lonely she'd been feeling.
Ali poked her, several times.
“You were supposed to come visit us! We have a house and everything, so you don't even have to share my little dorm room bed. No excuse. No excuse! If you feel lonely you should have done something about it. If nothing else you could have gone and visited with Box and Debbie, they'd have loved to see you and Box could probably use a little extra attention about now. I know he likes you too.”
Karina agreed, a mumbled thing that sounded more contented if still sad. Tor nudged her a little.
“I don't know for sure, but her own dorm bed will probably be just as little and uncomfortable. I suppose we should come up with a nickname for you too, so everyone at school doesn't instantly know who you are. Keep the hair like this, black and short.” It was a real point, Tor knew, especially if he didn't want to wake up one night with the Royal Guard beating him for making their job impossible.
“What? I'm going to school there?”
“Right. I said we were keeping you, didn't I? What did you think I meant, a two week stay? Nope, we're stealing you properly. Special school though, with Trice and Sara and their friend Ridley? I don't know what they learn, but even your dad thinks it will be useful for you. I'll try to get Kolb to take you on as fighting instructor. He can help teach you not to suck so bad at it.” Tor was teasing her, not that working with Kolb wouldn't help, but the Princess didn't suck at fighting. Not at all.
It was dark in the room, so she couldn't see his smile, but she inhaled suddenly, a real sounding thing.
“Do you think he'll be as hard on me as Rolph says he is on you?” It was half whining, and sounded a little worried.
Tor snorted.
“Of course not. He'll probably be two or three times tougher on you, since you have all that natural talent for it. Me, I have to practice running away all the time, more now even. Burks recently showed me how much I suck at it. And at fighting. But yeah, if you want someone to coddle your feelings and pat your fanny when you fall down, we could import someone maybe… but you won't find them at Lairdgren, Princess or not.”
It wasn't Karina that answered, but Ali who said something shocking.
“Can I try too, I mean, is it all right? If I learn to fight?”
Tor nearly said no, since she was his wife and he was supposed to be the one to protect her. Always. But that wasn't real, was it? He went places and left her alone for instance, and what if she ran in trouble when he was just in class or working, and she wasn't? The same was true of everyone else too, wasn't it? All the new kids at school, the builders. He was turning them into a real threat to Austra, making them valuable in their own right, including to some bad people and had left them defenseless, except for their building skills.
“Yes. In fact I'll see to it as soon as we go back tomorrow. It's mid-term, but it's a good idea, even if it's not a graded class. School isn't about grades, it's about learning. The grades are just there to make sure you keep trying.”
It rankled that he couldn't be there for her all the time, but it was the truth, wasn't it? Him trying to act the big tough man would leave her vulnerable to attack. That couldn't be allowed. Not at all.
He half crawled over Karina and kissed Ali deeply.
“I love you little wife.”
She told him she loved him too and seemed genuinely happy to hear it. Before Karina could sulk about it he kissed her too.
“I love you too, rather tall Princess.” It wasn't true, but like with Ali, it made her feel better to hear and he could live it, even if it wasn't his true feeling on the matter. It was better to lie and make them happy and secure than telling them the truth, that he really just liked them as friends and lovers, but didn't feel much more for them than that. It hurt to think about. He should love them after all. They were good people and worthy of it, but his feelings were what they were. Tor wouldn't let them down or hurt them, not if he had anything to say about the matter at all.