Love, Tears, and Second Chances II

Posted on Thu Aug 18th, 2022 @ 1:50am by Giuseppe Orsini & Princess Royal Giana Orsini & Major Sacha Lavigne & Emperor Antonius VI & Crown Prince Paolo Orsini
Edited on on Thu Jul 13th, 2023 @ 7:08pm

Mission: Historiae Terrae Et Imperii
Location: Mars
Timeline: Date 2371-06-13 at 1215
4384 words - 8.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Without even a second's thought, Sacha walked around to the other side of the car, nodded to the guard that stood there, pulled open the door, and slipped in next to Giana. As soon as his door closed, the car started to roll. He turned and looked at Giana, the mildest of frowns on his handsome features.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You just said you love me, so I'm coming with you." he said, not seeming even the remotest bit sorry. He seemed like he was preparing for a big revelation. "You're all I think about. I watch the news to see you...I have a picture of you in my wallet. I dream about you at night mon coeur. I love you more than I love anyone. But I'm not your fucking slave and I'd rather leave than be one. If you want servile devotion from your husband, then go with Edward. With me, I expect to be treated like a man. The choice is yours."

"'Treated like a man'. What does that even mean, Sacha?" Giana asked, not looking at him and leaning against the door to stay as far away from him as possible. "Just drive." She snapped at the driver when he stopped in confusion about the interloping passenger.

"A man wants to be esteemed, Giana. We want respect. We want our women to think we're strong, and competent, and we want them to be confident of our love for them." Sacha said, his voice raising slightly. He felt she was repeatedly, perhaps pathologically missing the point. The fact she hadn't acknowledged he said he loved her for the first time in their lives only solidified his fear from earlier; that Giana Orsini was incapable of recognizing love when she saw it.

"You don't think I think those things of you? And how am I supposed to be confident in something you just said to me, Sacha?" She asked but this time did look at him, obviously still hurt and now even confused. She didn't know what he expected or wanted. He said he loved her and then demanded she treat him like a man. She didn't know how. He didn't want to be treated like Edward, but what was the other option? Like her father? Constantly living in fear of him?

"I have showed you I've loved you since the first time I saw you.'' he said, urgently, though without anger. "I show you all the time. But you don't see it. You're father has got you so screwed up about how to be that I feel like I could quite literally jump in front of a phaser blast for you and the thing you'd say at my funeral is 'poor Sacha, I sure wish he had loved me.'"

He paused, giving his words some time to settle in before speaking again. "I know you respect me. But the simple fact that you're even considering these other guys...well I fucking hate it and it makes me want to walk. If you love me like I love you, then there are no questions to ask. Since you're dating that damn Edward...it gives me doubts. Makes me....afraid to tell you how much I care about you. Because if, in the end, you chose him or Lord Sibiya, or anyone else under the sun...what was the point of spilling my guts out?"

Giana fell quiet then, pensive which was rare for her. She was trying to figure it out from some sort of objectivity she had only gained from fantasies of family and love. "Edward and I aren't dating really but.... but I guess that isn't the point you were trying to make." She stopped in a moment of self awareness.

He watched her process, actually trying not to get in the way. He spoke more quietly now with an understanding tone. "He took you out for a meal, and I assume after that...if that isn't a date, then what is?"

“Are you dating the girls you entertain, or just going on a date with them?” Giana asked, her voice lacking jealousy or venom for once. “To me, there’s a difference between actually dating and going on a date.”

"Yes, but there's a difference between a night of amusement and thinking about who you will spend your life with." he responded, his tone still subdued and understanding. He knew that Giana was now trying to understand. "But now we're in semantics. The point is he and I get the same thing from you at this point. Are we dating?"

"Well, no... you haven't been around. Neither has he." Giana pointed out, frowning and looking down at her hands like a child trying to concentrate on something and really understand it.

Sacha reached over and placed a hand on her knee. It wasn't suggestive and was clearly meant to console her. He moved his hand back and forth gently, and lowered his voice to a much more tender volume than even before.

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life as Giana Fredriksson?" he asked simply, and he stopped there, holding his tongue on the rest of his question.

"My father would never allow it." She said and looked at him. "And Edward might try to kill you." Now she looked away and outside through the window. "But... I don't want to be without you."

“I don’t want to be without you, either. Ever.” He said, now moving and grabbing a hand. “So what are you going to do?

"What do you mean what am I going to do?" Giana frowned and looked back to him, seemingly genuinely confused by his question. She was vulnerable. She didn't like it, it didn't feel safe.

“I mean are you looking to be with me for ever, or are you hoping I can stick around in the background no matter whom you end up with and drop into your life for sudden spontaneous experiences and great sex before leaving again.” He asked. He was wondering if she really didn’t understand what he was getting at or if she just wanted him to do the work of choosing a man for her. Either way, he was happy to oblige.

“Well… well not if you don’t ask correctly.” Giana sighed, a bit of that pout coming back though disappearing. “But Sacha, what about you? Is it something that you even want? Your life spent in the public eye? Because that’s where it would be… and you’d have to be good. My father wouldn’t be above disposing of you if you became an embarrassment.” She frowned and considered this then looked at Sacha again. “Have you thought about that? Would you be able to live like that?” Sure he could fake it for a little while, but being together it would become near constant, and it wouldn’t just be when she was with him.

Had he considered the question much? No, not really. But he considered it a bit now. His response was quickly given.

“I want you, Gigi. If that means paparazzi and Princedom, that means I’ll take that too.” He said, looking at her seriously, still holding her hand though it was a one way connection. “Just tell me your heart is mine…and we’ll figure out the rest. We can convince your father I’m a changed man. He might be in a good mood on the day he has me arrested.” Sacha smiled. He knew no fear at any point it seemed.

Giana looked skeptical at best. She crossed her ankles together and angled her body toward Sacha now. “Sacha, this is serious. I really want you to think about this. You’ll hardly ever have a moment’s peace in your life again. Is that really something you are going to be alright with? Because it’s not like you can change your mind either.”

“I am serious!” He exclaimed, chuckling. “I’m as serious as I need to be. I’m serious about you, Giana. I want to marry you and make lots of babies.”

He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed them slowly. His eyes fell on hers.

“Mon cher, I can handle adoring fans. Don’t worry. Just fall into my arms like in the stories, hmm?” He said with a grin. “I’ll take care of us.”

“Then… then ask me, Sacha.” She prompted him again. “Ask me for real and don’t beat around the bush about it.” Giana did love him, at least she was pretty sure that’s what she felt. It made sense that’s what she felt. It was different than with Edward. She cared about Edward, but over time that blind devotion and need to make his whole world about her and her alone had grown… boring.

He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the question. “Giana Maria Pia Pietra Orsini, I love you with all my heart. Will you marry me?”

Giana swallowed hard and brought her eyes up to look into Sacha’s. She didn’t know if he would make a good husband to her and she had trouble picturing a life with him. It had been so long since they had been together; but those moments of fantasy she had conjured up in her mind of love and happiness were too hard to ignore and always ended with the theme of love will conquer all. They loved each other, right?

“Y-yes. I will marry you.” She finally replied softly and smiled at him.

He leaned in then and kissed her, his lips soft against hers and his hand moving to the small of her back. There was nothing left to say for him. He felt an incredible rush of passion, and this was the only way to show it.

Giana returned his kiss with seemingly equal passion, but she truly felt no rush of joy like she had hoped. She was happy, yes, but also nervous and afraid of what the consequences of this decision were going to be. For both of them. She was also still quite sure her father was not going to accept this. Perhaps she could convince her mother to intercede on her behalf. Though that generally required the other person to like the one asking for intervention.

He ended the kiss when he detected something was wrong. He looked into her gorgeous eyes.

“You’re worried. Why?” He asked, placing a hand on her face. “Talk to me.”

“My father.” Giana replied honestly as she looked into his eyes. “He’s going to kill you. Hell, he’ll maybe even kill us both. I think he’s tired of me enough to do that.” Frowning, she looked away. “He’s not exactly your biggest fan, you know.” This time, she managed just a slight smile. This entire thing was absurd.

“Then let’s put our heads together and figure out a scheme like we used to.”he said, loving to see her smile. “He wants you to marry and I’m not a stupid teenager anymore. I mean, I’m a Major in the Imperial Marines. Let’s charm the old man’s pants off.”

“Ew. Ewwww!” Giana immediately covered her face that had turned red. “Oh my gods, why would you say that?!” That was absolutely not the mental image she needed right now.

He chuckled immediately.

"In a metaphorical sense, of course." he said with a wave of his hand.

“No, no I really don’t think it was.” She replied and laughed, this time genuine, and lowered her hands. “Not coming from you.”

"Not to be weird, but I'll roll around in the hay a bit with the old man if it means I get to marry you." he said, smiling broadly now, joking as he so often did. "Just as long as it wouldn't make you too jealous."

“Sacha!“ Giana objected and swatted his arm though she was laughing. “Stop it. You shouldn’t be talking like that.” She was right, he really shouldn’t be, and even Giana’s humor had its limits before she would start to grow concerned.

He reached over and rolled up the privacy partition between them and the two guards in the front seat. They should have done so earlier.

"Alright alright." he said, seeming to calm down. He lowered his voice so it would be barely audible. "Just a bit of a handy then, no big deal."

“You are so weird. I can’t believe I’m going to marry your weirdness.” She crossed her arms at him now, a sure sign that their play on this topic was about to end. Truthfully though she was testing the reality with the words of her mouth. Married. To Sacha. It wasn’t a revolting idea.

Sacha had so much fun pushing her to this point. It made for a bit of a rocky interaction pattern, but it was never ever boring. He wondered if that was one of the reasons she never seemed to be pushed away by his habit of breaking the rules. She wanted to break the rules too, but she wasn't nearly as brave as she needed to be to do such a thing in her life. He had always been able to charm her off the beaten path, at least for a few hours; remind her she was just a woman; give her a taste of what's real.

"I can believe it." he said with a smile. "We're going to be great, you and me. We'll have so much fun and...your people are going to love us."

The last part hadn't been some signal of a grab for attention. He knew what she cared about. He understood where she got her sense of value and purpose.

The car pulled up to the main entrance of the Martian Complex, but didn't pull onto the huge drive leading up to the gate because there were already tons of cars there. All of them were black and identical to the one they were in. Outside Giana's door, men and women in suits, ties, and power-dresses stood, mingled, and talked as if they had nothing to do. It was a telltale sign of a post meeting hour hosted by Antonius. He preferred to do the business of Governing one on one with Imperial Secretaries and military officials. Even his Chancellor's power was curtailed by his annoying habit of reading every government paper he was given and remembering every detail. With one word to the right person at these gatherings, he could realign the stars; it was more important than the meeting itself so everyone stayed. Everyone. Oftentimes minor government officials would just mingle outside meeting chambers until it was over so that they could be a part of the real meeting.

Currently the Emperor was standing in a duck neck mandarin-collar suit with a lemon chiffon pocket square talking to a number of media officials and Camilla Zajak.

“Oh gods. Oh no.” Giana’s body tensed immediately as she looked outside the window, real feel and desperation appearing on her beautiful face. She looked to Sacha. “I… you-you should stay in the car. You can get out of here when the driver parks.” Now was not the time to trot Sacha out in the open.

Sacha frowned, but made no sound or shake of the head. He didn't say anything actually, but instead just seemed to process. When their doors were opened, he waved the man away on his side, instead looking to her.

"I love you. And I promise it will be okay." he said, then he looked up out of her open door and made momentary contact with the only person who seemed to be paying attention enough to see him: Giuseppe Angelo. He sighed and blew her a kiss, and then leaned back in his seat and turned his eyes toward the window next to him. He was sulking almost like her.

Giuseppe had truly been following through on his word to his father, following his father’s word and lead without protest and truthfully? It seemed to be working in his favor. His attention had been wandering slightly from the conversation he had been having in the moment (he still wasn’t quite able to focus on political drivel for long periods) and went to the sedan as it pulled up. His brows raised and he realized that it was likely his sister returning from her outing. He and Giana were never particularly close and likely never would be, but he was the older brother, and when he saw the door open to reveal that she wasn’t alone his jaw visibly set.

“Excuse me.” He said in a gruff apology that toed the line of inappropriate as he quickly swept down toward the car. He shoulder checked the attendant out of the way and leaned down to look past his sister at Sacha. “Do you have some sort of death wish?” He asked quietly to the sulking Sacha while offering his hand to Giana in a way that wasn’t going to make escorting her out optional.

Sacha looked over at Giuseppe then, his eyebrows raising. He was unperturbed by that particular question; Paolo had asked a similar one.

"Giuseppe! It's been years." he said with a grin. "As always, I'm much more afraid of never living than dying. And some things are worth dying for. Your sister, for me, is one of them." He paused then, watching Giuseppe standing there in a suit. He didn't understand why he was deployed on some assignment for their newly conquered territories. "Shouldn't you be in uniform?"

“No.” Was the only answer Giuseppe gave as he now fished the reluctant Giana out of the car. He had enough practice in dealing with his own wife in this way that he managed to make it not look forced.

“Sacha, please.” Giana implored him before Giuseppe took her out of the car. She didn’t get the chance to finish whatever she was going to say before Giuseppe closed the door with force behind her and tapped on the hood of the car to get it rolling. He pulled Giana’s arm into his and walked her up the steps.

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you but get a hold of yourself.” He warned his sister in a low, dangerous voice.

“Fuck you, Giuseppe.” Giana replied just as quietly with a sweet smile as she began to offer nods of greeting to those gathered around.

Paolo was standing nearby, having an extremely engaged conversation with the Imperial Treasurer, a tall young blonde woman in a hot pink skirt and blazer with a body so shapely one couldn't be blamed for thinking she'd had several surgeries to make it that way. She was a daughter of one of the Empire's wealthiest financier families, the Penningtons, but her intellect matched her assets and her bank account in impressiveness. Flashy, ostentatious, arrogant, and dazzlingly beautiful, anyone might think Paolo Orsini was flirting with her in some sort of puppy love. But, as they drew closer, it was clear he was only interested in discussing the finer points of Imperial taxation practices. They talked to each other with quick working minds and smiles, but when he saw Giuseppe and Giana walking by, he put up a hand to her quickly and walked away without a word, stepping beside their path.

"What's wrong?" he asked, cool faced but very perceptive. He could tell she was upset. Their whole family knew what a fake smile looked like.

“Nothing.” Both Giana and Giuseppe answered at once then immediately looked at each other with familial matching sour expressions. Giana was the quicker one to dismiss hers and she looked down at Paolo. “Nothing to worry about, baby brother.”

Paolo paid no attention to that answer at all. That was the answer they always gave him. Instead, he fell in line behind them and simply followed them wherever they were going.

CJ's eyes wandered to the three of them and a hint of fear glimpsed over her normally inscrutable features. She hoped the Emperor was so busy talking about Giana that he failed to notice Giana and that she could buy a few more hours.

“I want to go inside.” Giana insisted to Giuseppe, testing his hold on her and finding it unbreakable. “I’m tired from my walk.”

“Fine. Fine.” Giuseppe gave a sigh of frustration as he began to guide her through the clots of people with Paolo in tow. Giuseppe wasn’t intentionally trying to avoid his father’s gaze, but mercifully for CJ it was working out that way.

So far.

The conversation lulled and Antonius turned slightly, likely looking for any sign of the culprits involved.

"Sir, one more thing before we get to that stage." CJ said, stepping forward and breaking the circle of advisers, engaging the Emperor one on one. Her voice lowered and could no longer be heard except between the two of them. It effectively caught his attention, but not only that, everyone around who wanted to eavesdrop. It seemed like one of those moments where stars were realigning.

Giuseppe made it to the door and opened it for his sister, finally releasing her and giving her a not so gentle nudge inside. Giana thankfully was used to being jostled so she didn’t stumble and merely walked on while glaring daggers ahead of her. Giuseppe then turned his attention to Paolo and raised an eyebrow questioning if he was going inside to harass Giana or if he was going to remain outside.

"I'm just going to see if she's okay." Paolo said, and then moved straight past Giuseppe after his sister. He didn't bother to disturb her as she trudged along, but merely took up position alongside her as she walked. She would talk when she was ready, he knew. But she was too fired up to talk to now anyway.

Giana heard Paolo’s footsteps coming quickly after her. He hadn’t really hit his growth spurt yet so he lacked the stride of a man that could have easily been powerful and intimidating. As he came to her side, she looked down at him with a mildly sour expression, but not one that communicated she wanted him to get lost. “You’re going to miss chatting with all the important people.”

"Family is more important than anything. We're a class of ourselves, and as much as those people seem to love us, they resent us for being higher than they. So, it's like Benjamin Franklin once said: 'we must hang together or we will surely hang separately'." He said quietly, and then resumed his silent walking with her.

For some reason, this quote coming from her brother struck Giana and she laughed - actually laughed. She covered her mouth politely of course, but it was a rare genuine moment with Paolo. "You really are probably the most well read kid in the Empire, you know?" She looked down at him and gave him a smile.

"There's a lot I don't know." he said simply, smiling awkwardly. He was uncomfortable with praise and he always had been. When he was handed to him, he seemed to have no idea what to do with it. Oftentimes he seemed to just put it down and leave it.

Giana stopped suddenly and let out an exasperated sigh. She turned to Paolo and put her hands on his shoulders. "Paolo," she began, looking down at him, "you really need to work on taking compliments from other people. Like, really bad. If you can't take praise in stride people will start questioning if you are deserving of it."

“Well, I don’t.” He said, raising his brows in a matter-of-fact way. “None of us are. We’re just people. So it’s awkward and I don’t know what to say.”

"We aren't just people though, Paolo. Not to them." She sighed and leaned on his shoulders a bit. "You can't think of yourself like that. Not in front of people. We are above them. We have to be."

He took several seconds and then he nodded. She was right, and he was one for doing what he found to be right.

“Okay.” He said. “Well then yes, I’m a genius.”

Giana smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder. "There you go. Now, why don't you go back to the meeting? I know how much you like it and I promise, I'm really alright."

“But you might not be when Father gets to you.”he said, the slightest concern in his voice. “He’s seen the pictures and so has everyone else. He still has the same impression he had of Sacha when the two of you were just a bit older than me.”

"Already?" Giana asked, crestfallen immediately in front of her brother which was a rare look indeed for her. Her hands slid from his shoulders and she took a slow, deep breath. "It... it isn't like that anymore, though." She insisted to no one in particular.

He turned his head to the side slightly, trying to read her. Her crestfallen was, though it made him sad too, didn’t change his face to anything but analytical concern.

“What is it like now?”

“It’s… different.” She struggled to explain what she barely understood herself. “We love each other. We have for a long time, I think maybe. But at the same time I don’t think father will care and I’m afraid of what he might do to Sacha especially after seeing those pictures and not having the entire context behind them.”

“Father will want to understand before he acts.” Paolo said. “He won't care about the love very much. But, I assume you mention that because…do you want to marry him?”

Giana was quiet for a moment but looked to Paolo again. “He asked. I said yes.”


TBC