Celestia sighed, gazing longingly at her bed for a second before she trotted over toward her bean bag chair.

They thought I was crazy for ordering this, she thought with a wry smile, plopping down onto it with a happy groan, but who’s laughing now? I’m here sitting comfy while everypony else is breaking their backs on their silly office chairs.

She absentmindedly levitated a small stack of papers, envelopes, and documents toward the little table next to her, her smile turning into a small frown. “I hope all of this is only mail this time,” she muttered, also levitating a quill and a jar of ink for safety’s sake. “I don’t know if I’m ready for anything else, especially with the emotional trauma that I just suffered…”

She looked out her balcony window with a little pout. “Why couldn’t my student stay in the city for a while longer?” Steeling herself, she took the plunge and opened the first envelope. “Now I have an empty nest with nopony to baby or cuddle; there’s just Luna and I.”

She couldn’t help but growl when she thought of her sister, who could be compared with a steel wall as of late. Like she had told Cadence, she had spent almost all of her free time with her sister, trying to sway her from the path she was dead-set on.

Incognito trips through the city to scour the city’s nightclubs, ‘casual’ trips to restaurants where a hunky stallion ‘happened’ to worked, even one or two blind dates had done nothing other than irritate Luna and exhaust her.

It’s not even that I disapprove of the whole herding fiasco, she thought, balling up a spam letter and tossing it toward the fireplace-- and missing-- but when she’s trying to court two people that don’t want to be courted AND the disaster that could follow it, that’s when I get a little nervous.

Celestia snorted. “Maybe I could see if she’s interested in something other than a pony,” she mused, putting down the papers, getting up, and starting to pace. “That may be the problem. A gryphon might work; they look fuzzy and warm and snuggable at a distance…”

She stopped at that thought, casting one last glance at her big, comfortable, and lonely bed. Oh horseapples… I’m so spoiled rotten sleeping with everypony else! It’s going to take Months to get used to sleeping alone! She sat in the middle of her room, tapping her hoof against her chin in deep thought, I’m sure I can ask one of the servants if they’d like to—

Tap Tap!

She turned toward the door, her head cocked to the side. “Who could that be at this hour?” she muttered, trotting toward the door and using a simple spell to open it, revealing a determined-looking Shining, who hoofed her a white box.

“It’s good to see you, Princess,” Shining said with a bow, while she opened the box and peered inside. “Could you and I talk? I’ve been in the city for a while, running around like a chicken with my head off, and it hasn’t gotten me anywhere.” He brushed past her with a frown. “I got you a box of donuts, the ones that you like.”

Celestia nodded slowly, trying to process everything that had just been presented to her all at once. “…These are from Pony Joe’s, are they not?”

“Yep.”

Shining watched as the princess licked her lips, spread her wings, and smiled. “Well then, Shining Armor, why don’t you sit down and tell me why you’re at my doorstep. Just let me call a servant so we can get some milk; these babies here deserve more than simple water.”

$@!~~##~~$@!

“AND THE WINNER IS… SHIELD SLASHER!”

I tried my best to smile when the crowd roared in approval as a batter but beaming stallion raised his hoof into thee air. How can you be this happy when all this stallion did was win an eating contest? I thought, leaning back in my chair with a small shudder of disgust.

Sure, seeing somepony eat their weight in hay burgers and fries in under ten minutes is impressive, I guess, but I can honestly say that I could go without seeing it happen again for a few… hundred years. Not that I had been paying particular attention to that horrific event; all I had been doing for the last hour or so was wonder where the hay my human had gotten off to.

Hopefully Flash is with him, I thought, giving a pony a smile when they hoofed me a glass of water, I don’t want Ares breaking anything…

My frown deepened when I realized that I had just pretty much compared my colt friend with a dangerous child—which, in my defense, was pretty close to the mark—and that nopony should think their special someone like that.

“He might just be looking around the city,” I muttered to myself, while the tables and chairs from the eating event were carried off to start the day's main event: the beginning of the jousting tournament, “I did tell him that he could go and look for a job, so he might be getting a head start on—“

“Did I miss the pony joust?”

Before I could turn I felt a pair of lips press against mine, Ares’ face flashing in front of mine. Before I could reply, he was already sitting beside me, a big smile on his face. Well, he looks cheery, I thought with a smile before my mouth twitched. Sweet Faust, please don’t let him be smiling because he--no, NO, Cadence, your Ares is an adult; he doesn’t go around breaking stuff when you’re not looking, so stop thinking like that!

Throwing caution to the wind, I leaned over, rubbing my side against his. “Where did you run off to?” I asked, giggling when he wrapped an arm around me, giving my side a tickle.

“Me and Flash were just running around, looking at this and that,” he said, looking around. “So since no one’s been trying to kill me I guess that your subjects are okay with me making out with you.”

My smile almost turned into a frown. “We’ll see about that in a week or two,” I said, neutrally. “A few of the city’s clan-head’s might have a thing or two to say about it, so we’ll have to keep our eyes open.”

They were also the main reason that I had been more than a little nervous about telling my subjects about Ares. The four great clans of the Crystal Empire: the Grounders, Diamond Smashers, High Riders, and the Smelters. Families that had been with the empire since its founding, families that had helped the city flourish and grow and had once turned this little city into one of the biggest empires in the history of the world. Obviously ponies that you needed to pay attention to.

I had met the heads of the families a few times—they made a point to come to every royal declaration, law passing; pretty much anything that was considered political—and they might be some of the nicest, yet terrifying, ponies I had ever met. If they wanted Ares, or me for that matter, hurt all they’d have to do was stamp their hooves and we’d wake up with some ponies fixing some diamond shoes to our feet so we could take a ‘swim’ in some lake.

My human must have noticed my sour mood because he pressed me closer against his side. “So how’s this gonna go down?” he asked. “Do you flip a coin to start this whole ‘ponies-hitting-each-other-with-sticks’ thing to see who goes first?”

I snorted, placing my hoof on his thigh. “They already have a list of who’s jousting against who,” I told him, “and this is just the opening, so don’t expect anypony to do anything crazy today.”

There was no way in Tartarus that I was going to tell just how crazy it was going to get the next day or two. Ares had talked about his people’s love for horrible violence and I had no intention of him hooting and hollering and demanding that he see some really bloodsport.

Seriously, he said that humans loved this kind of stuff, and have been perfecting it over the years. He even told me that they have this sport where stallions drive really, really fast in these metal boxes called cars so everypony can watch them crash while they drank and ate horrible food. I think it was call Nascar or something like that...

I felt Ares shrug. “I just think it’s gonna be adorable seeing those little guys running around with a pole strapped to their sides so I could care less if they’re pulling off any tricks or anything,” he said, awing when he saw a few of the knights make their way into the field. “Aw, look how silly they look!”

“Didn’t you said that they used to have something like this back where you’re from?” I asked, closing my eyes and blowing my mane out of my face.

“Trust me, Candy, I’m sure that my ye’ oldie joust is a whole lot different from yours is.”

“How so?”

“Is there a chance that anyone where will die from doing this?”

See? Horribly violent; just like my subjects…. I’d really hate to see what a human and a crystal pony would to when they were put in a room together...

I froze, tensing at the thought of that before I felt my human pat my side. “You know, I really don’t think I want to know that particular part of your people’s history,” I muttered, snuggling against my human as best as I could in my seat.

“Alright, Candy.” Ares snapped his fingers. “Hey waiter, could you do me a favor and bring us a couple of glasses of something with a little kick? You’re supposed to get smashed at these things and I plan on continuing that glorious tradition!”

$~@@~$

Most ponies, when standing in front of Celestia: Lady of the Sun and one of the proud rulers of Equestria, would have had to exert quite a bit of self-control to keep from flipping out and groveling before her. Shining, having known the princess for many, many years really wasn’t fazed by the big alicorn anymore. More often than not, she was actually a lot more childish than most ponies, so that helped a bit. Like right now for instance he had the almost hysterical view of her with her muzzle buried in the donut box with about five donuts on her horn; obviously to keep somepony else from taking them.

This is a ruler of a kingdom that has prospered for over two thousand years, the stallion thought, trying to keep himself from laughing when the princesses’ head popped out from the box with a sugary treat in her mouth.

“Um, Princess, should I leave or?...”

Celestia took a massive bite of the donut before putting the box down on the table. “Oh excuse me,” she apologized, “It’s just been a while since I’ve sent anypony out to get me a baker’s dozen.” With all of the grace that a pony with donuts on her horn could produce, she turned toward him and sat down. “Now, why don’t you say what’s on your mind?”

Shining awkwardly cleared his throat. “Oh, of course.” Getting out of his chair, he started pacing, Celestia intently watching him while she finished off her donut with another big bite and pulled another off of her horn.

“I’ve been wondering, after the… news that I got that related to me and Cadence, what I was supposed to do.” Sweet Faust, if she doesn’t get those donuts off her horn… “I thought about going back to the guard,” he said, trying to keep focused on the conversation, “but then I got a letter from Princess Luna…”

Celestia groaned. “Of course she sent you something.” She grumbled, finishing her donut in three big bites. “Why can’t she just go and date that cute pizza colt that I tried to set her up with last week?”

“…What was that, Princess?” Shining asked, confused.

Celestia waved him away with a donut. “Forgive me, I was just mumbling to myself,” she told him. “Please continue.”

Still more than a little unsure about how seriously the princess was taking this, the stallion continued pacing. “She said that she was sure that Cadence needed somepony to help train her guard.” Shining flinched when he noticed how intently Celestia was staring at him now.

“I was in Trottingham, as happy as someone in my situation could be, and even considering getting a job there, when your sister sent me that letter.” With a sigh, Shining sat in front of her, his head held low, “And now I’m here not knowing what I should do. Should I go and help Cadence? Should I stay here? Should I go somewhere else and think about what I want to do with my life a little more?” He snorted. “ If I decided to go to the empire, could or would I know what to say to her, or, Faust forbid, Ares, or be able to properly do my job there?”

“I’ve imagined more scenarios that I can count about what I’d do if I ever saw them again.” Shining shook away oncoming tears, not noticing that Celestia had gotten out of her seat and had draped a wing over him until her feather tickled his coat.

“I lost my wife, princess. I watched her slip from my hooves and did nothing about it while a shaven monkey took her away from me!” Celestia leaned down and nuzzled his cheek as he continued. “I don’t know what to feel lately, I really don’t. I’ve lost all of this to Ares, and I should HATE him, but I don’t even know if I’m angry or sad or happy or…”

It almost broke Celestia’ heart when Shining looked up at her with tear-filled eyes. “..I just don’t know about anything anymore, Princess…”

@~~!#$~~@

I told Ares that I wasn’t going to drink during the joust—a princess shouldn’t get tipsy in front of her subjects; the drunk silly I mean—but after they had to carry the third knight out on a stretcher I decided to have a few glasses of wine; just a little something to steady the nerves.

Ares, on the other hand, looked like he was having the time of his life, cheering with my subjects whenever somepony was horribly knocked down or beaten over the head with a lance. He drank a little less than me—I had no desire to deal with drunk Ares; once was enough—but I could tell he was a heck of a lot looser than he had been after our… incident.

I should go ask Flash where the two of them went, I thought, raising my head off of Ares’ lap to take a small sip of my wine, Ares seems REALLY excited; despite what happened before…

I stifled a yawn, wishing for this silly thing to be over so I could go back to the castle and hit the hay. For hours we had been watching this, and, since this was the most popular event of the day, there were no other vendors open, so I couldn’t go and do something else even if I wanted to.

“Ares,” I murmured, nuzzling my head in his lap. “Do you know where Flash ran off to?”

He looked down at me, a bag of popcorn in one hand and a little glass of beer in the other. I cracked open an eye to look at him, frowning slightly when I saw a big grin on his face. “Oh, I’m sure he’s around.” he told me, putting his drink down next to him and patting me on the head. “In fact, we’ll be seeing him in a minute or two.”

“What do you—“

“LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS!” the announcer of the joust roared, cutting me off. “WE’VE SEEN SOME OF THE GREATEST KNIGHTS OF THE KINGDOM DUKE IT OUT IN THE AREA, BUT TODAY WE HAVE A STALLION HERE THAT WANTS TO TEST THE EMPIRES METTLE!”

All of the tiredness drained out of my body as I sat up and looked at Ares. “Please tell me you didn’—“

“COMING ALL THE WAY FROM EQUESTRIA, THE PERSONAL GUARD TO OUR FAIR LADY, PRINCESS CADENCE, PLEASE STOMP YOUR HOOVES TOGETHER FOR PRIVATE FLASH SENTRY!”

My jaw dropped when Flash trotted into the arena, his head held high while he held his lance in a hoof, the crowd roaring and jeering when he put on his helmet. Raising the lance that he had in between his forelegs, he turned toward where Ares and I here seated and gave us a little salute.

“Flash was bugging the officials to let him in the tournament this morning.” Ares told me, that big smile still glued onto his face. “Some of ‘em didn’t want him to join since it was at the last minute and he wasn’t a noble and some other stupid stuff but I worked my charm and got his furry little ass in!”

Ares leaned back in his chair. “I even got one of the knights to let Flashy borrow one of his spare suits of armor.”

“Flash is going to get himself hurt,” I heard myself say as Flash dropped his lance, which earned him some more jeering and laughing from the crowd.

Ares scoffed. “I’m sure that they’ll go easy on—“

“WE HAVE A VERY SPECIAL CHALLENGER FOR THE EQUESTRIAN!” The announcer pointed toward the opposite end of the arena, where a very big pony was slowly making his way toward its center. “I GIVE YOU THE SHINING EXAMPLE OF KNIGHTHOOD! HE WHO HAS BEEN CALLED THE TEETH OF THE EMPIRE! LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS, I PRESENT TO YOU: LORD GREY SKULL!”

I facehoofed when the giant pony, who suddenly looked familiar, pulled off his black helm, revealing the scarred and battle-weary face of the head of the Diamond Smasher clan, who gave me a wink with his good eye before bowing.

“Good evening, Princess, cuddle monkey,” he said in that deep, rumbling voice of his.

I tried to smile. “It’s nice to see you again, Lord Skull.” I said, giving him a little bow of my own. “It’s nice to see that you feel well enough to attend another tourney this year.”

The stallion frowned, thumping his chest with a hoof. “I may be getting along in years, Princess, but that doesn’t mean I’m too old to crack a few skulls,” he said with a huff.

My eye twitched. “I was speaking about the head wound you received in the last tourney,” I told him apologetically. “I heard that you wouldn’t be able to attend anything like this for much, much longer because the doctor was worried that you might have seriously hurt yourself.”

Grey Skull laughed. “Oh, I’m sure that I’ll be able to put this colt through his paces just fine, Princess; hurt head or not.” It was then I remembered that the Diamond Smasher clan was renowned for their skill at close-quarter combat and Lord Skull didn’t fight in the joust.

“I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THIS IS THE LAST FIGHT TODAY, LADIES AND GENTLECOLTS, AND YOU ALL KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, DON’T YOU?!”

I glared at Ares as the crowd roared, “ONE-ONE FIGHT! ONE-ONE FIGHT!”

One-one, a absolutely horrible one on one close-quarters fight where usually only one pony would be able to walk out of the area unaided; and even that was rare. I’m sure I don’t have to explain to you how angry hearing that made me.

“Ares,” I hissed, “You go down there right now and make sure that Flash doesn’t get hurt!”

Ares looked toward Flash, who was suddenly looking a lot smaller in that shiny armor of his. Nodding, he said, “Alright, just met me—“

“And I swear to Faust if he gets really hurt I’ll kick you so hard that you’ll be walking funny for a week, Mister; do you understand?”

Sure, that might have been a little harsh, but it was Ares’ fault that Flash was now in this situation; I wasn’t really going to kick him where the sun don’t shine…. probably. And that would be nothing compared to what I’m sure Twilight would do to him if she found out that he had helped Flash put himself in the hospital.

Saluting, my human trotted toward the railing and hopped over it, the entire crowd watching as he landed and pointed at my guard.

Even from that distance, since the arena was built to carry any type of sound and it was dead silent, I heard him tell Flash, “Flashy, do me a favor and not die, will ya? I don’t want Candy knocking my boys off.”

I facehoofed again while I heard snickering all around me. “Just start the Faust-damned fight already.” I muttered. “I want to go home and take a nice, long bubble bath.

….

It had taken a few ponies about ten minutes to set everything up for the one-one. A smaller ring had to be set up, doctor Stitch had to be called, and Flash had to borrow a tourney sword from a laughing knight before they set up stool for the fighters to sit on so they could wait until they found a proper referee.

Flash was doing his best not to panic while Ares was rubbing his shoulder. “I don’t think I can do this, Ares,” Flash said with a whimper, looking over at the towering stallion, who was giving his mace a few practice swings. “He looks a lot tougher than me…”

Not being much of a fighter himself, Ares tried to think up of something to say to his friend to give him the courage to get out there and win. But, since the only fighting that he knew absolutely anything was a few old fighting games, and ‘lameing it out’ was going to help in this situation, the human decided to just wing it.

“You can do this, Flash,” he said, grabbing the privates helm and placing it on his head. “You’re just the underdog and--”

“Fighters!” A referee-looking pony said front the middle of the ring. “Let’s get this started!”

“Aw come on!” Ares complained, throwing his hands up into the air. “I was going to give Flash an awesome speech about winning against insurmountable odds, ref pony!”

“I’m just doing my job, cuddly monkey. Private, you need to meet you opponent in the center of the ring before the fight starts, so could you please come here so we can stare this?”

Flash gave his friend one pleading look before he rose from his stool and trotted to the center of the ring, not noticing that Ares was eyeing a stick that was nearby. There was just something about that stick, it wasn’t too thick, wasn’t too thin; you could almost say that it was the perfect whacking stick in the right hands….

Sometimes scum-bag tactics are needed to win the day, he thought, trying to be sneaky as he got up and made his way over to the weapon. Don’t worry, Flash, if you can’t beat that fucker I’m sure the two of us can… probably….”

@~!!~@

Celestia looked down at Shining with a mixture of worry and concern. This wasn’t the once confident and brave captain of the guard the she had come to know over the years, he was more like a colt that had just set out in the big, scary world and needed someone to guide him.

And the one he’s looking to for answers has half a dozen donuts on her horn, she thought, almost cracking a smile.

“You wish me to tell you what to do, my little pony?” she asked him, Shining leaning into her half-wing hug.

“I just want some advice,” Shining said quietly, still staring at the floor. “Should I stay here? Should I go someplace else? Should I suck it up and go up to the empire? Should I up and do something else?”

“It sounds like you want me to tell you what to do, Shining, not give you advice,” the princess said gently, her wing tightening around him.

The stallion shrugged half-heartedly. “I’ll take either advice or an order, princess.”

Celestia hummed, looking away from him. “You could stay here,” she said with nod, “that would be the easiest and least painful thing to do. I’ll give you back your old guard position, you’ll be able to see your mother and father anytime you want and Twilight—“

“But I don’t think I want to do that,” Shining interrupted.

Celestia nodded to herself. “You could try another profession if that’s the road that you’d like to take.”

Shining snorted. “I’m sure I could get a job at Joe’s in a heartbeat if I wanted…”

“Or I could pull some strings and get you a job as a guard anywhere in Equestria.”

Shining finally looked up at her. “Even?...”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably. “That’s would be Cadence’s call, dear, not mine,” she said with a wave of a hoof, “and I wouldn’t worry about the guard’s training, if that’s what makes you want to return to the empire. A very capable guardspony has been reassigned to fill that position.”

Celestia took her wing off Shining and walked toward the little table in the center of her room, grabbing a little glass of milk and taking a sip of it. “You’re going to have to confront Cadence sooner or later, Shining, but it doesn’t have to be now.”

Smiling, she spread a wing and tapped him on the muzzle with it. “There’s the advice you were asking for, I hope that it’ll help you with whatever you decide.”

Shining watched her levitate a donut from her horn and take a bite out of it, humming and nodding to himself. “Princess?”

“Hmm?”

“Princess Luna wouldn’t happen to be around, would she? I’d like to talk to her about the letter she sent me.”

“She’s three doors down from the left,” Celestia said without missing a beat, “but I have to insist that you stay the night, Shining. You look exhausted.

“You don’t need to do that, Princess,” Shining protested, “I’m—“

Celestia shushed him, taking another bite out of her donut. “My sister’s not going anywhere,” she told him. “You go and get a good night’s sleep, think on what I’ve said, and talk to my sister in the morning.”

Shining was about to open his mouth but the princesses’ raised eyebrow snapped it shut. “If you insist, Princess,” he finally said. “I’ll just go and hit the hay in my old room.”

“Remember not to tell anypony that you brought me donuts,” Celestia called before he left. “I’m supposed to be on a diet!”

@#`#$!`%$

“You two should be ashamed of yourselves,” I chastised, not looking back at the bruised and battered forms of Ares and Flash. “Especially you, Ares. You’re lucky that Grey Skull couldn’t stop laughing when you walked up behind him and hit him with that stick!”

Ares, who I was sure was leaning on Flash for support, whined, “You told me to make sure Flashy here got out of out that fight alright! What, did you want me to just stand there while the big scary horse beat him with that hammer of his?”

“You could have used something other than that,” I retorted.

“How was I supposed to know it was made out of freaking balsa wood?”

“Neither or you should have been out there fighting in the first place,” I growled. “Just wait until I tell Twilight that you almost got yourself killed, Flash.”

I could hear Flash gulp as we turned the corner and made our way toward the castle. It was a good thing that the Diamond Smashers had decided to invite the whole city to Grey Skull’s victory feast after he beat the heck out of my human and guard. Otherwise, there would’ve been many, many ponies either poking fun at Flash or just plain laughing at Ares.

“Come on, Candy, you can’t be mad at me for trying to make sure a friend didn’t get fucked up.”

I scoffed. “All you did was make it worse, Ares,” I told the thick man. “Grey Skull’s been fighting in tourneys all his life. And there you are, wearing no armor, swinging a stick around like a mad stallion. You’re lucky he put down his hammer to fight you, otherwise you’d be back at The Ward with the doctor right now.”

“Thanks for trying to help though, Ares,” I heard Flash say. “Even though I think you might have hit me more than you did him…”

“What do you want from me? I’ve never been in a fight before!”

“I would have liked somepony with more hoof-eye coordination than a foal to help me out,” Flash said with a giggle. “And—ouch! Don’t poke that!”

I shook my head. “Will you two stop it? We’re almost at the castle.” I looked over my shoulder. “Flash, go to the doctor, I’m sure she’ll be able to get the rest of that broken armor off you no problem. Ares, come over here and get on my back; I don’t want you limping back to our room.”

It almost looked like the two of them had been mauled by a tiger. Most of Flash’s tourney armor had been knocked off or ripped apart, leaving a bruised and battered stallion beneath. My human looked a little worse than him, with most of his shirt missed along with half of his pants, and he was almost covered from head to toe in small cuts and bruises. All in all they were okay, but I was sure that they were going to feel it in the morning.

I had no idea how the two had walked away from that beating with minimal injuries—I’m guessing that is was Grey Skull’s skill more than luck though—but I was quietly thanking Faust that they had walked away from that relatively intact.

Flash and Ares did as I ask, though my human did so with more than a little grumbling as he climbed into my back. Rolling my shoulders to get used to the new weight, I slowly made my way into the castle.

“…I was going to stop the fight right when you jumped in,” I finally said. “And no, I’m not mad at you; in fact I’m more than a little proud.”

Ares wrapped his arms around my neck, letting out a little groan. “I got my ass kicked,” he mumbled, making me giggle. “Like really, really hard, by a four foot tall furry horse in armor...”

“A nice warm bath will fix you right up,” I told him, opening our bedroom door and trotting through it.

“Hooves hurt when they hit you.”

I gently levitated my human into the bed.

“I’m sure,” I said, making my way toward the bathroom.

“It hurts worse when those hooves are covered in metal.”

Even though he couldn’t see me, I nodded. “You’re really lucky that Grey Skull didn’t want to hurt you, otherwise we’d still be scrapping you off the arena wall.”

Humming, I went to the tub and turned it on, throwing in a bit of bubble bath just for fun.

“Come on, Ares, its bath time!” I called, starting to take off my royal finery.

“…I don’t think I can get up,” Ares called, making me roll my eyes.

“I’ll come and get you then,” I sing-songed, placing my tiara on the bathroom counter before trotting back into the bedroom, where I was met with the amusing sight of my human trying to take his clothes off.

“Do you need some help?” I gently offered with a little smile.

Ares looked at me for a second before he just went limp on the bed. “Be gentle; everything’s starting to hurt.”

I guess I finally get to undress him, I thought, trying to curb my excitement as I slowly started to take off his shirt. He groaned. “Eh, it hurts!” He moaned.

“Quit being a baby,” I said with a smile, trying to unlace one of his shoes. “I have a nice hot bubble bath waiting for the two of us. And afterward, I can get the servants to whip us up something to eat.”

He nodded, fiddling with his pants while I took his other shoe and both of his socks off. “You’re gonna have to help me with these, Candy.”

I chuckled. “Aw, come on, I’m sure that you’re alright enough to take your own pants off,” I teased.

He shook his head, grumbling, “I’ll throw your pink ass out the window… never got in a fight before and you start poking fun at…” he sighed, looking over at the counter before looking at me hesitantly. “Candy, after we get that bath I wanna show you something.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And I going to like this something?” I asked, gently yanking on his pants.

If I had bothered to follow where Ares was looking I would have, in fact liked this something, but since I didn’t Ares chickened out.

“...Actually, nevermind, I’ll show you it later,” he mumbled, blushing slightly when I slowly started to pull his boxers down.

I just shrugged, too tired and ready to end the day to bother pressing him. “Alright, but I’ll want to see it eventually,” I teased, gently picking up his naked form and carrying him toward the bathroom. “Now, I hope you like bubble baths!”

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the late Ch. I've been busy getting ready for school.

This is the unedited version of this ch (my editors been very busy) so if you find any errors, please tell me.

Also, these chapters might come out a little later in the upcoming weeks; school's starting, etc, etc. So instead of these coming out every other monday, they might come out every other wed or fri or sometime around there.