Sweet Dreams

Butterflies started bouncing around in Maria's stomach as she made her way over to Julien's room in the guest's quarters.

There was just something about the prince that made Maria feel safe yet somehow nervous at the same time.

Julien had first met Maria at the market in a setting where no one else knew who she truly was, so that was something intimate that they already shared together; but at the same time, she still got those nervous butterflies that you get around someone you are starting to have a romantic interest in.

He was mysterious and Maria was still trying to fully understand him, but she could feel that the two of them were kindred spirits.

They both seemed to want more for themselves than just being royalty, and they both enjoyed being among the everyday people in their countries.

Just seconds after she knocked on his door, Julien appeared as if he had had his hand on the doorknob, ready to go at a moment's notice.

"Good afternoon, Maria," he said with a soft smile and bright eyes.

"Shall we?" she asked.

He offered his arm and they silently made their way to the kitchen, both a little stiff and unsure what to say.

When they arrived, the head chef, Dimitris, was finishing laying out all of the ingredients and everything they would need in order to create their desserts.

George had informed him earlier in the day that the prince and princess would be using his kitchen.

"Ah, my Lady!" Dimitris started as they approached, "I have everything you will need here for you to create amazing sweets! Thank you for volunteering to do half my job tonight," he finished with a wink.

Maria laughed and thanked him; Dimitris had been the royal chef since the King was a boy, so he was basically family as he had watched two generations grow up in the palace.

Julien dropped the arm that Maria was holding and walked over to inspect everything that was on the counter for them. "What are we making?" he asked as his emerald eyes found Maria's again.

"Baklava-- It's a Greek pastry made with lots of nuts and honey so it's incredibly sweet and delicious. It also happens to be Jason's favorite so if we mess this up, we will have him to answer to," she said with a soft laugh.

Julien laughed too before he said, "Well, where do we start?"

Maria grabbed the ingredients and read the instructions that Dimitris left for them, instructing them on how much honey and nuts needed to be between each double layer of the phyllo dough.

It looked easy enough, but Maria immediately realized that she was in for a rude awakening when she broke the fragile phyllo dough and accidentally stuck her elbow in the honey within the first two minutes of her first attempt at a single layer.

Julien looked at the princess who was now flustered and covered in honey and laughed at her before he said, "Here, let me help you".

"This is harder than it looks," she giggled as Julien wiped the honey off of her arm, "Thank goodness I didn't wear long sleeves, could you imagine?" she questioned with another laugh as she wrinkled her nose.

Maria felt herself starting to loosen up before she remembered the questions she had for Julien.

She felt the nerves come back and decided that she better ask him now before she lost the courage to, because after all, it was something that had been on her mind the last couple of days.

She cleared her throat before she asked, "Julien? Did you by chance tell your brother about our meeting in the kitchen that first night?"

Julien's eyebrows furrowed and he placed the spoonful of nuts he had in his hand down before he placed both hands on the edge of the counter and looked across at her. "I did, actually. Should I not have?"

"No," she quickly answered with a forced smile, "It's fine, I just was taken aback when he mentioned it, I guess". He studied her face to see if he could find extra meaning behind her words, and Maria, noticing this, decided to continue, "Did you also tell him about how we had met in the market before we officially knew each other?"

He looked at her for a couple of seconds, trying to formulate the best way to respond, before he said, "Arthur and I tell each other everything".

"I see," was all she said before she picked up two more sheets of phyllo dough to place them on top of the layer of nuts Julien had put down prior to their quick conversation.

She felt disappointment at the fact that something intimate they shared had made its way to Arthur. He always seemed to have the upper hand when it came to Maria, and sometimes when she was around him it felt as though he knew her better than she knew herself, and she did not like that.

But Maria did not want to think about Arthur right now when she was with his brother, so she tried to focus on not dipping her elbow in honey again.

The tension in the room had grown after that, and they worked in silence for a while.

Maria thought those were the only questions she had for Julien, but she soon realized that she had more that she wanted to know about the mysterious prince who loved to spend his time in the kitchen.

Still a little upset about the fact that he shared their secret, she braved herself to ask, "Does it bother you at all, knowing that you and your brother are courting the same person?"

After all, this was something she was curious about; 'Just because the brothers shared everything did not mean that they were alright with sharing the same woman, right?' Maria thought to herself.

Julien didn't bother to look up upon hearing her question, and instead sighed and offered a half smile before he said, "I'm used to being in Arthur's shadow, so this is no different for me. Usually if we both want the same thing, which thankfully is rare, he's the one to win it. He's the oldest so his needs come first, and he's more cunning and willing to chase after what he wants. I've never been one to fight him on things, so I'm more willing to accept him getting his way".

"And then you lose out on what you want most," Maria said as a statement and not a question because she completely understood what he meant.

Even though she was the oldest sibling, her whole life she had to watch Jason get to experience the things that she wanted for herself but couldn't have because she had to prepare to be the next Queen.

She did not resent him at all for it, it was what it was, but she had always wondered how her life would be different if Jason were the older sibling.

Julien met her eyes and slowly nodded his head, "I take it you understand?"

"My brother got to be care-free and travel the world with no worries about the responsibility of being the heir to the throne, while I had to attend official royal court meetings and learn about war strategy," she replied, "It seems like I will never get to choose my way and my happiness, sometimes".

"Do you ever just dream about running away and starting new?" he asked her, now completely facing her.

"All the time," she said with a sigh.

"Let's do it then."

Maria's eyes widened and she took a step back. "What?!" she asked.

"Let's just run away and go explore the world. Just you and me. No responsibilities, no people to answer to, and nothing to worry about. Why shouldn't we choose our own happiness for once?"

She stared at Julien, speechless and frozen, before he took two steps forward to close the gap between them.

He picked up her hand and kissed the back of it like he had done so many times before in the few days they had known each other and then met her eyes before he slowly leaned down towards her face.

Just as he was about to kiss her, one of the people who was cooking dinner on the other side of the kitchen dropped a pot.

It clanked on the ground and caused both Julien and Maria to jump and look away from each other.

Maria cleared her throat and moved away from Julien quickly as she tried to say something coherent, "I, um, we should, uh...I-- I think this is ready for the oven," she finally managed to choke out.

Maria tried to pick up the baking sheet the layers of phyllo dough and honey were on, but she kept fumbling it from how her hands were now shaking.

"Allow me," Julien said, and he picked up the pan in one swift motion and took it over to the oven so that it could bake.

Dimitris, seeing that the dessert was now in the oven, walked over to the pair and said, "Dinner is almost ready so why don't you two go join the others and we will watch over the baklava for you".

"Thank you, Dimitris," Maria said before she started out of the kitchen without looking back to see if Julien was following her.