A/N: A messy, not-at-all-proportionally-accurate floor plan for your viewing/imagining pleasure ^^^

Doe's POV:

I stared motionless in front of the double doors while Xander gathered up the instruments that must have been dropped off prior from in front of it.

The doors themselves had to be at least 12 feet tall, curving in an arch at the top.

"Are the size of these things really necessary?" I voiced.

If anything, it made it look like they were hard to open.

Xander snickered, hoisting my guitar over his shoulder, "Nothing on this floor is 'necessary' per se, just for the added flair of housing royals."

Right... I was gonna have to get used to this rather quick then.

I took a step back as he approached the silver handles with the familiar black box sitting atop the lock.

"Remind me to add yours into the system after we get settled," he said, placing his thumb upon it.

The click signifying its unlock sounded smoother here than it did in the old room.

My anticipation for wanting to know what the room I was about to live in for the next while built as he pushed the door open into it, and stepped back, gesturing for me to enter first.

"Welcome home," he spoke as I made my way in.

The words pulled at something in me but didn't hinder my need to take in the new environment.

This room was absolutely huge, as was the bed that sat across from me against the back wall.

It looked like the bed had been made perfect, the deep blue velvet comforter laying without a single wrinkle.

A wide variety of sizes and shapes of pillows piles neatly at the head of it.

And here I thought our old one was stupidly large...

Another door sat right beside the nightstand on either side of the bed, leading to what looked like an outside balcony

And from there, two identical L-shaped bookshelves were pushed into back corners, absolutely filled with books.

I hadn't realized that I had been slowly walking over the dark wooden floor until I forced myself to stop at the center of the room, silently drinking in everything that I could.

A sudden pop from wood crackling from fire made me do a full 180 to face the wall I had come in from.

The source of the noise came from the right of the door with how I was facing it, stemming from the low-burning fireplace that jutted into the room

A dark leather couch sat a bit back facing it, with two cushioned rocking chairs facing each other, all creating a nice little square area around the fire.

Right in the middle of it, where I thought a coffee table would be nice, instead sat what looked to be a chaise lounge, except it had no legs and instead just sat right on the floor.

He mentioned that he enjoyed reading on the floor by the fire... I guess I'd always just imagined him laying directly on it.

So I guess instead of a table to set things there, he had a small table on either side of the couch, already decorated with coasters and what had to be a fake plant.

To the left of the door was a long desk pushed into the corner, office supplies, and organizational setups all placed nice and neat, with the wheeled chair pushed into its designated area.

Which I imagine won't last long after Xander gets settled in.

Two more doors faced each other from the sidewalls, and I knew from the previous way he described this room that one was a bathroom and the other a closet.

He did mention having an entire bathhouse that extended off of his bathroom as well.

I gave the entire room another full lookover, staring up at the assortment of lights on the high roof it took to light this place up, and the intricate chandelier that hung right above me in the center.

Even with all of this, there was still so much unused space.

Which was nice in its own right.

"Wow," I breathed.

Finally had an area to fit into the spaces I'd imagined while he'd tell me stories about his childhood.

Another short laugh as he passed me, "So? Do you like it so far?"

This was just one room... and he shared this entire floor with Nico.

"It's a lot to take in but... yeah," I replied, my eyes following him as he walked past me and to the right of his bed.

There sat a relatively large, patterned, black and white rug with nothing but a metal music stand and a round wooden stool chair placed on it.

He gently placed our instruments down onto the carpet, removing my music books from the tote and stacking them down there as well.

His own little music spot then.

I knew there was a room on this floor designated to that kind of thing, but this must be where he practiced.

There was so much of this place I wanted to explore and discover, but maybe I shouldn't try to do it all at once.

After meeting the Lord and Lady of this territory on top of what I've seen so far of the royal floors, it felt like this room alone was going to be enough to sate my curiosity today.

My eyes fell back onto the bed and my legs moved accordingly.

Once I could, I jumped face-first onto it, the soft velvet agreeing with my skin immediately

This bed was stiffer than the old one, but in a way that had my body sinking deeper into it as the seconds passed until it felt perfect.

I let out a breath and let my eyes flutter shut, releasing the tension I think I'd been unknowingly holding since this morning now that we were here, and got here without a hitch.

Marcus got his own stuff figured out with the boy whose job he was apparently taking, and Nico and Khloe had set off to the complete opposite side of the floor where his room was.

And soon I was going to have dinner with the whole royal family.

What a day...

"Hey now, don't go falling asleep on me before dinner," I felt the bed dip at his arrival beside me, the calm tone of his voice only adding to my want to do just that.

I knew I shouldn't.

I'd gotten a few hours of sleep during the drive, but not enough to completely replace what I'd missed out on the night before.

A full-body stretch overtook me before I let myself open my eyes with a soft groan of protest.

That smile lit up his face, a hand lifting to trail fingers through my hair.

"I take it you at least like the bed then," he noted.

I then found myself blurting out the first thing that came to mind, stemming from the thought constantly ringing in the back of my mind recently.

"It's certainly comfy," I began, my heart thumping an extra herd beat before causally stating the next part, "I could see myself losing my virginity here."

The fingers in my hair stopped for a second, followed by a swift clearing of his throat.

"On the bed then. Got it." He stated as if he was making some sort of checklist.

I lifted my head at his tone, trying to ignore the strange rushing sensation in my body that had only gotten more prominent every time this topic came up.

...or just whenever I started to think about it.

We'd made it to his territory, and that was really the only thing I was waiting to happen before considering it any further.

The book I'd been reading hadn't yet given me any insight into this specifically, so I was still completely in the dark about it.

"Did you have somewhere else in mind?" I questioned genuinely.

I was told the floor or against something verticle would be what we should expect, but a bed was defined to us as a rare possibility.

Maybe I shouldn't have assumed-

His shrug ceased my thoughts, "Not at all. Your rules, remember? We would have talked about it regardless, but I'm just planning ahead while I can."

Your rules...

'My way, your rules.'

Right...

Goosebumps crawled up my skin at the memory of that conversation followed by what followed a day later.

And how I've craved his presence... differently ever since.

A heat- or blushing as the book defined this kind of reaction took over my face through it all.

He was planning...?

Part of me wanted to question further or dig for more details of understanding, but my reaction to this alone on top of everything else today was already so much.

I settled to drop it for my own sanity. At least until after dinner.

I rolled onto my side to face him, catching myself reaching for his shirt now that we were away from public view again.

Even if I was putting a raincheck on my questioning, I couldn't ignore the want to be close.

Or... I didn't want to.

The feel of the fabric in my grasp brought back the last time it was there.

"What happened out there with Nico and that guard?"

And that all-consuming fear and dread that came out of nowhere, knocking me onto my knees.

I saw tension that sprung through his body at the question more than I felt it.

"Yeah um...," his words were much less relaxed than they were previously, "It's a pheromone thing us royals can do. We can use it in a variety of different ways but typically, like we experienced, it's a way to show dominance,"

There was a pause as I maneuvered my way closer to him.

"In Nico's defense, it is difficult to aim when used like that especially since we just re-gained our ability to do this, so the second I felt what was going on, I tried to use mine as some sort of makeshift barrier."

I remembered feeling it for a split second before getting pulled behind him.

His first instinct was to grab me.

Huh...

"It didn't work as long as I wanted to, and in hindsight, I should have known that it wasn't going to," There was an almost... forlorn regret peaking through his words, "As the youngest royal amongst my family, my advances can never win over theirs, so all I ended up doing was holding it back a few seconds just for it all to hit us at full force once it broke through."

I thought this over for a second, adding part of his words to the 'new things Xander can do' list I was working on finalizing since being here.

From what he said, it would have happened regardless, so there was nothing to get mad over.

The attempt honestly meant more to me than the fact that it didn't work how he wanted it to.

"I'm sorry, I can't imagine what that felt like for you. At that point, I should have even tried to-"

A firm tug on his shirt and he ceased, lifting my head to face him with a stern expression.

At the odd ire his last sentence sparked through me.

For no other reason than it sounded identical to how he had to apologize to Layla every time he did something she didn't 100% agree with.

The apology followed by a rambling of reasoning as he convinced himself that his thoughts were foolish all along, and how he was wrong to even consider such a thing.

The panicked edge behind it, like I would never speak to him again if his apology wasn't deemed believable or just overall good enough.

It showed me that even though we had left that territory behind, that alone couldn't repair the deeply rooted damages she'd planted in him.

And I wanted it gone.

Every single semblance of her.

"Don't apologize. Not when you meant well." I celebrated the fact that the angry default my voice had didn't show. Instead came the gentle comfort I'd been aiming for.

The tension that built diminished significantly, blowing out a breath of relief himself.

I hoped that he was having a similar thought process, but I wasn't willing to make any bets.

It was easier to see these kinds of things from the outside.

"Right... thank you," he sighed. It

A few more seconds and the awkwardness had dissipated completely.

"Well," he began again, "The tour isn't over yet, there are a few more rooms in here I need to show you."