"Tell me something." says the queen softly as they fly.

"What should I tell you, your majesty?"

"Explain, how you made the sewer system in the Frontera country, maybe we could apply it here"

I just want to hear his voice.

"Of course." He looks at her attentively.

She looks tired.

Lloyd begins to tell her the story behind the sewer, the history of Venezia, and how he made the construction project possible through the winter, he can feel the queen dozing off against his chest.

When they finally arrive in the state, queen Alice is asleep, Lloyd decides to carry her to the guest room for now and sends a message to the imperial palace about what happened, lest they start looking for the Queen to no avail. Lloyd writes a message to the Queen's aid and the Royal Guard and sends them via Gyouming.

"Take these to the imperial palace, Gyouming, please"

"...Gyouming"

"What? Um yes, I'll give you some fresh worms for your hard work, now off you go"

"Gyouming!"

He checks up on the queen who is still sleeping and goes to look for Javier to sing him his lullaby.

"Javier, are you here?"

"..."

"Javier?"

"Yes, master Lloyd, I'm here"

"Good now... what, are you doing?

"Just reading a book I found in your cabinet, I'm honestly surprised it's not an engineering this time, but, a social one"

Lloyd becomes nervous and attempts to take the book away from Javier's hands

"Give it! why are you going through other people's stuff!"

"It's just a book about learning to be kind and having conversations with people. Isn't it? What's so wrong with me reading it?"

"Noo! Give it back"

Javier turns the next page while avoiding Lloyd's attempts, and his eyes widen. There were small notes regarding advice from the book and how to apply with casual conversation.The notes would sometimes contain cute drawings and other times they were written in korean.

"Were you learning how to speak kindly? But you're good enough already"

"Well, it's always better to learn how to improve..." Lloyd tried sneaking up behind Javier

"But, why did you write some of your notes in your original language?"

"...."

Lloyd throws the first thing he can get his hands on at the grand swordmaster instead of answering, while the latter flips another page easily avoiding his attempts, Javier finds Queen Alicia's name written beside a note, very tiny but visible for him.

He looks up at Lloyd intrigued.

"Master Lloyd, are you perhaps, in lov-"

"-manufactured through a closely controlled chemical combination of calcium, silicon, aluminum, iron and other ingredients -materials used to manufacture-"

"No, wait, Maste-" Javier tries

"-cement include limestone, shells -chalk or marl combined with shale, clay, slate, blast furnace slag, silica sand, and iron ore. These ingredients, when heated at high temperatures form... secured to manufacture"

Lloyd recites the lullaby the fastest way he's ever recited it, refusing to even hear the end of that sentence.

Javier tries to fight it but ultimately fails to stay awake, when Javier falls asleep he puts him on the bed, covers him and takes the book away, he brings out Bangul.

"Bangul, do you want to taste something new?"

"Bangul?"

"Yes, it's called paper, it's made from wood, you know?"

"Bangul!"

"Here, eat this"

Bangul eats the book without hesitation and hops inside Lloyd's clothes while smirking. He sighs and goes to the guest room to check up on the Queen again.

He finds Alicia still sleeping and covers her with warm blankets puts a glass of water next to the bed and relaxes on the couch, he falls asleep to the sound of her tranquil breathing.

_____

Queen Alice wakes up to an unfamiliar ceiling, but before she has time to worry, she hears Lloyd's cute snoring. His sleeping, relaxed and defenseless frame looks precious in her eyes.

She gets up, takes note of everything in the room and approaches him while crouching down. His brown hair is all messily falling off his face.

This is my chance hehe.

Alicia puts her hand on his head and slowly ruffles it, caressing from the top of his head to his neck as if patting his head, she passes her fingers through it, unravels it and curls it.

One hand becomes two and she's pinching his cheeks very softly with no intention of waking him up.

Unfortunately, for her, he does wake up, but, does not notice what she was doing.

"You were sleeping so well, your hair looks nice." She says amused.

Lloyd quickly gets up and combs his hair with his fingers, finding it more unkempt than usual.

I'm not a messy sleeper though, weird.

"Erm. Good morning your majesty, I'm sorry for not waking you up last night, you looked tired. After all, you can't work efficiently if you're tired"

"I don't want to hear that from you, I've heard of how you become when planning and surveying"

She chuckles.

"..."

"You also carried me to this room, and decided to sleep on the couch?"

"I couldn't leave you alone, even if not many people know you were here, it could still be dangerous"

"Then surely, Sir Asharam must be guarding me as well?"

"Please punish me, your majesty"

"No. This was the best sleep I've gotten since becoming a swordmaster, I'm even tempted to make you do this for me every so often~"

That, sounded oddly like an invitation, no way...

Sweat drips down Lloyd's back for multiple reasons, he can't know which one makes him more uneasy.

"I jest, stop freaking out" sigh " Since I missed dinner yesterday, surely you will make breakfast?"

"Yes, of course, I'll get the servants to-"

"You could make something light. I have to go, this time for sure"

He's unsure for a moment before getting up and walking to the door.

"I'll make something light, as fast as possible, and then, take you to the palace, your majesty. Please wait in the dining room"

"No, thank you. I want to see more of you, maybe I'll learn a thing or two"

Don't push me away now.

He smiles gently "Yes, your majesty"

It's still 'your majesty' huh?

Lloyd and queen Alicia are in the kitchen after having asked for all the servants to leave the kitchen, Lloyd goes around thinking until he remembers something similar to cereal, so he takes some strawberries, grapes and blueberries, takes two bowls, adds the cereal, the chopped fruit and milk, he grabs a chair and invites the queen, she takes her bowl and a spoon and watches him sit on the table. They eat in comfortable silence and some giggles.

Draggy is flying up in the sky, this time faster than the night before but not nearly as fast as he could. Lloyd hugs the Queen while she talks about the work she has to do and how busy she's going to be. Lloyd promises himself to come and help her out a bit.

_____

It's been two weeks since the last time they had a picnic, but Lloyd sometimes comes to the queen's office bringing spicy cookies and milk. Today he leaned over and spotted a ledger with some calculation mistakes.

"Your majesty, I'm terribly sorry to say this, but, there is a mistake in the document"

"Why are you looking through them? You came to visit, not to work"

"They were in front of my eyes, your majesty. Just took a quick look and noticed a miscalculation, just barely"

"Your point being"

"If your majesty agrees, I could take this pile and check them, I'm fairly fast when it comes to numbers"

"You dislike working, what's your motive here?"

"I'll be lounging on the couch and checking them, it could barely count as working"

"Do as you please." She says with a small smile.

"Thank you, your majesty"

"You too"