+1+

I woke up the next morning to singing and crying.

After talking to Isobel, I’d stuck around with some other officers; sharing revolution stories and just talking shit.  On my way out of the ceremony I’d come across Paris and Seraphina sitting in the back of a heavily guarded Escalade ESV. I nodded to Sera’s guardsmen and he let me in.

The car had been modified like a limo so the seats faced each other. Paris was reading a Founding Fathers biography. Sera was in the seat opposite him and to the right. She was smiling and laughing to herself rolling on some party drug, it looked like MDMA powder on her fingertips.

She kicked off her shoes and put them in the seat next to Paris. The white gold filigree around the heel shined in the light. Then she started pulling off her tights.

“Can I catch a ride ?”, I asked settling into the car.

“Your apartment ? “, Paris asked not looking up from his book.

“Nah. I’ll head to Queen Anne’s. Do some visiting.”

I sat next to Sera as she successfully pulled off the tights along with a black thong and put them in the seat with her shoes.

“What are you doing ?”, I asked her

“Try putting them on and I think it will become obvious.”

Without looking up from his book Paris tapped on the sound proof partition separating us from the driver and the car started. The guardsmen started driving and two New Aeterna military police motorcycles joined us.

We pulled in the back of the residential park, right by their house.  They could have pulled up the front of Queen Anne’s and walked the neighborhood for optics, but it would do no good to see the queen who never smiled smiling in public. Paris and the guardsmen seemed capable of helping Sera inside, so I said my good-byes.

I made my way to the small row of  apartments over by Helios’ mansion. I jogged  to apartment C9 and knocked once. Aria had a crown of flowers around her head when she answered her door. It was almost midnight but she hadn’t been sleeping. Aria was another thing Helios had ruined. She’d married and consented to Helios so her younger sisters wouldn’t have to. She hoped to get on his good side. After a few months Helios had Aria imprisoned in a luxury suite for weeks at a time because he couldn’t get her pregnant, he isolated her in that room for years. Well fed, alone, and bored for nearly a decade. Pulling her out for photo ops or to feed the prisoners. She had nightmares about imprisoned people begging for more food. Helios was one sick son of a bitch.

After the revolution Aria was imprisoned as a war criminal, but a decent lawyer argued for her status as a prisoner not consort of Helios. She was given full immunity. Aria was real pretty with dark long hair and this unreal overflowing hourglass figure. Nice thick thighs and tits so big it made me think twice about that rumor about Helios putting hormones in the women’s rations. She'd been given housing and tried to avoid the public at any cost.

Until Aria I’d only ever slept with hookers. I wasn’t a smooth talker, not as good with words like Helios or Paris.  I took up to much space, never knew what to say and I couldn’t even kiss real well.  I liked hookers cause there was no pressure,  I didn’t have to get anxious about messing up or touching the wrong thing. Sex was something you scheduled with a trained professional just like a physical. Why the hell are we all settling for amateurs anyway ?

As an NADF officer I didn’t want to been seen dealing with legal escorts. The process at a brothel was to regulated and sterile for me, the waiting room chairs were to tiny. The places I could afford were always crowded and those fucking color coded forms told everyone what you are getting done. The adult massage parlors were worse. They were filled with freshly minted 18-year old American kids.

Just before I left for my first tour in Iraq I’d asked Aria for sex. I didn’t know how to ask. I'd just said

“Do you want to. . .”,

Then sort of pointed at her tits like a fucking idiot, but I had been horny and with prostitution being illegal in the states I’d been through a very bad dry spell. I think she did it cause she'd felt bad for me. There was nothing like fucking a pretty Angel, nothing in the goddamn world feels as good. I didn’t have to kiss her or get her off (although sometimes I did by accident). She'd just wanted company and I'd wanted pussy.

I woke up to her signing. I rubbed my eyes and  saw my uniform jacket from last night was hanging up. My shirt was wrinkled and on the floor. I hadn't mean to spend the night.

Aria was at the pale pink bassinet in the corner of the living room  singing to baby Helena. I rubbed my eyes and grabbed the wrinkled shirt from the floor.

“You got an iron ?” I whispered getting off the fold out couch and looking for my pants. I couldn't even remember if I'd worn boxers.

Aria put the yawning seven month old  down on a blanket and pulled a small iron and ironing board out from under the fold out couch. She took my rumbled shirt and started to press it. The refurbished homes were mostly made of shipping containers and  It was so fucking narrow in here I had to squeeze the galley kitchen and the  tiny bedroom to reach the shower at the back of the unit.

“Oh. . . thanks.” I said knowing she could hear me from the back.

I turned the water on as hot as I could get it and started scrubbing off the breast milk that had leaked on to me. I grabbed a towel and took a good look at my thick face in the mirror. The light blonde stubble was already on my face. Shit I needed to shave.  Couldn’t report for duty like this.

When I stepped out Aria was sitting on the bed with Athena in her lap. Athena was eighteen months old and like her baby sister. She had a splash of bright unusually blond hair. Unusual for Angels anyway. Luckily they had Aria’s giant eyes and round face.

“The shower is so loud, it woke Athena up too.”

“Sorry”, I mumbled pulling the towel tighter.

This one bedroom "apartment” was too fucking small for her and the girls, it was too bad real estate was still a bitch in this part of town.  I felt bad that they were all awake. I was the only one who needed to be up this early. I found my black undershirt and threw it on  covering the unnaturally folded and packed wings I had bandaged up on my back. I quickly put on the pants that Aria had also just pressed.

Two year-old Athena was technically our second kid, but we never talked about Tessa. Helios had taken her as her own and brainwashed her in his image. She’d been cruel and was exiled in Russia with her staff. She didn’t know us and if she did. . . she’d tried to kill us

Athena had been a big surprise after I made time with Aria before deploying for the first time. Aria hadn’t wanted me to know , but Seraphina let it slip a few days before we came back home. When I got off the plane I tried to play it cool and kept my shades on to hide my nerves.  Aria was standing in the hangar with the welcome party and holding my little girl with an arm around Paris for support. Aria let me hold me her (Sera had helped me practice) and I peered down at Athena sleeping and her curly soft blonde hair.

“Whose this little girl”, I’d said. Not even realizing it.

“Athena”, Aria had said fussing over the ruffled bonnet.

I swore no one would take this little one from me. No fucking way.  Eight months later Aria found out she was pregnant again but before Helena was born I’d been redeployed. Paris' assassination had kept me to busy to see her when she was born. We were still getting acquainted.

I put baby Helena in her bassinet and scoped Athena up in one arm. I pushed the small bassinet into Athena’s bedroom which was small by every standard. It  managed to fit a child size bed and the bassinet that baby Helena was growing out of. I dimmed the lights and waited by the door until they both seemed asleep.  There was a nightlight that splashed stars across the room. It made for a nice scene.

"Your shirt", Aria said.

Aria held the freshly ironed shirt, “Uh. . .Thanks . . .”, I said.

“No problem Captain. You. . . probably have a long day ahead of you.”

I did and I didn’t want to deal with any of that bullshit. The U.S military guys loved to give the rest of us shit for not being up to par.

I moved behind Aria and pushed her long dark hair from one shoulder to the other and put my hand on her ass. I should have kissed her but it seemed awkward. I checked the clock in the corner.  It was 4:17 am . I could make some time. I unzipped my pants and pushed her down on her hand and knees, and put my hand under her shirt. I could get my problems out of my head while I was fucking.  I deserved to feel good after the shit I’d been through. After all the lives I’ve lived. . .all the lives I’ve taken. Fuck did she feel good I liked how soft her body was, how good her thighs looked when they were apart.

Afterwards Aria cleaned up, while I got rid of the condom. She had on one of my NADF shirts, two big wet spots had formed where her breast were leaking. It made me hard again. Before I could do anything about it Aria pulled on a pair of very practical satin underwear that I for some reason couldn’t stop thinking about.

“I gotta go, bet I can borrow a shave from Paris.” I said.

“You spend to much time up there”, she said passively.

“Hey sweetheart, I live in a 300 square foot efficiency with a communal kitchen. I’ll take a decent palatial residence whenever I can”

“That’s not what I mean”, She said , “You need to be your own man Leon. You’re not just some henchman. . . You’re a military captain, a Father. Yet all you want to do is take orders.”

“I’m an enforcer”, I said. True as can be.

I took a couple bills out of my pocket and placed them on the table.  Aria needed to get out of the housing here. Explore and be more trusting.  Most of the Angels with kids took up in communal homes, but Aria said her sisters looked at her strange.

“Look—“

“Leon I’m pregnant.”

I slid on my military jacket and checked to make sure I had all my metals and badges in place.

“Shit.”

“Leon”, she said rubbing her tired eyes.

“I just… how? I was real careful. We use condoms.”

“Yeah, this time”, she said.

“Shit”, I said more to myself.   I was the reckless one. The condoms that were imported into New Aeterna were to small and they broke. I sure as hell wasn’t going to Jersey just to buy condoms. In a rush it was just easier to pull out, but she was always so fucking tight it was much easier said than done.

“But. . .uh. . .you just had a baby.”

“I’m getting dejavu, Leon.” She said.

“Shit”, I said again.

Ares and the others had given me shit when Aria had gotten pregnant the second time 8 months after having our first kid. Hell.

“I’m three months along. . . it’s a girl.”

Four months after Baby Helena, new record.

“Shit.” I  said more to myself.

I pulled a few more bills from the stack. Aria was a nice girl and I felt bad for her. I could marry her to get her some military benefits but marrying Helios’ former wife would be a bad move. It’d seem political or some shit. I was too close to Paris for the optics to look good.  Aria looked around empty faced.  She must of felt like a whore. She wasn’t though. I was the whore.

“Her name is  going to be H-hera”, her voice broke on the last words. I didn’t like the name but she let me name Athena so I kept my mouth shut.

“Hey”, I nudged Aria’s shoulder, “It’s a fucking fuck you to Helios, eh ? Got myself three sweet girls without even trying. Helios couldn’t even get one. Look, I gotta go.”

“You have to leave now?”, she asks

“Duty calls.”

 She shrugged her shoulder and wrapped herself up in a blanket. Aria was fine, she always would be. With or without me.

“Well I guess I can’t can compete with a queen.”

"Sure you could, sweetheart." I said on my way out.

+++

It was 4:55 am when I made it to the Princes palatial residence. One of the guardsmen let me in and I went around back and down the steps to the gym in the basement

From the glass door to the basement I can see Seraphina lifting weights. I knock twice and she takes her time letting me in. I’d caught her at the end of her morning workout. She was in a pair of old basketball shorts and a faded and fraying gray shirt. She’d had that exact outfit since before the resistance.

“Did you go home last night ?” she leaned against the door. Her muscles were tight and standing to attention. She had to be careful or she wouldn't fit in those frilly little dresses she had to wear.

“I need a shave and ride to work . . . if you don’t mind. Don’t have time to run home.”

She stepped back to let me in.

“Lift with me ?”, she asked

I hold out my arms to indicate my freshly pressed uniform, no way was I taking it off.

“You know you shouldn’t be lifting without a spotter.” I said following her up the steps to the house.

“Well, that bodyguard can barely lift his head and my husband gets dizzy walking down stairs. I don’t have many options.”

“Call me next time.  So, how about that shave ?”

“Well...I need to take a shower first.” She said.

“I'll wait.”

The house was modest to a fault.  Paris didn’t exactly pull a salary since his elevation from diplomat to king. Instead the house, utilities, cars and any healthcare cost were covered as a nice thank you from the government. Most of their fancy clothes were donated from designers looking for attention. Unless she was going out, Seraphina still wore her thrift store clothes from the old days.

Sera’s soldier salary only had to cover food and the maid service. Since Sera drank most of her meals and Paris was an anal neat freak, I'm pretty sure they had a pile of money somewhere around here.

While Seraphina showered I mixed up a protein shake in the fancy blender on the kitchen counter. I watched as the cloudy tint on the houses' glass walls begins to dissolve as the sun rose. The openness of it made me feel exposed. I glanced at the clock located on the corner of the wall. At exactly 5:30  Sera's shower cut off.

I tip-toed my 200 plus pounds across the bedroom and into the medium sized ensuite bathroom. Seraphina had a chair pulled up to the oversized vanity and was studying her reflection.  I stared down at the natural and organic shaving kit on the second sink. It smelled like peppermint and spice.

“Fuck, I’m going to smell like you husband now.”

“Then everyone will think you’re sleeping with the king... wouldn’t that be interesting.", She’d put something thick and pale under her eyes and pressed it into her skin.

The electronic whir of the make up airbrush machine put my teeth on edge.

“Did you get any sleep last night?” I asked knowing MDMA kept her up.

“No. Did Aria ?”

I stop and give her a look, she doesn’t return it.

“ . . . she’s pregnant”

“Shit”, she said dryly.

“It was an accident.”

“They were all accidents. I want to fuck her just to see what the big deal.”

“Yeah”, I started to shave, “She’s not the one with the big deal, sweetheart.”

Seraphina rolled her eyes.

“I told you Leon, Angel women were evolved to be domesticated. Two fucking periods a month—“

“No. No. To early for that.”

Paris’ razors are heavy and leave a nice clean line. No wonder he always looked like so baby faced.

“ . . . how about birth control.” Seraphina asked quietly while examining her eyelashes which I’d discovered were extensions. Her relationship with Aria was tenuous at best. The night Helios rose to power I was with Sera instead of Aria. Aria never forgot that. I was going to go back for her. I was.

“She forgets. The girls keep her busy.”

“What about an IUD ? Other than the pill It’s the only other thing that works-“

“Why does that sound like a WMD ?”

Seraphina laughed and put on a dark red lipstick that was . . . different from the usual color.

“Hey, how do you like your new job, Lieutenant ?”

She laughed again. Her laugh was cold, careful and slightly menacing.

He job was a bit of a joke and everyone in the NADF knew it. After the almost assassination of New Aeterna’s king ,the queen had to be kept safe. THE NADF, NA Legislators and US. Army wanted to keep the queen consort close, so they gave her a bogus commission to keep her home.

“Car will be here in thirty.” she said

I finished shaving and splash my face with hot water. I slipped out the bathroom and moved quietly through the bedroom. Paris still had the tall canvases that were made from a 1940’s portrait of Sera on the wall. It was the only decoration in the room. I went over to the bed and casually glanced at Paris sleeping.

He is naked and passed out cold, his nose had started bleeding sometime during the night. I grabbed a towel and cleaned up his face.  His clothes from last night were folded neatly in a hamper . . He’d fallen asleep with his book unfinished by his pillow. Lipstick marks were on his forehead, lips and smeared down his chest. Nowhere near  where his small dick lay useless and limp.

His body was slight, way to thin and pale. His skin is still scarred from the 2 years he spent as Helios’ special prisoner. I studied the blister pack of sleeping pills on his nightstand,  he'd taken twice the recommended dose. They must have been to strong for him. His phone has 13 meetings starting at Noon and ending at 4am. I

Texts popped in from the PR office and from his advisors in the Crown office whom Paris kept at a distance. They needed Paris to nominate a prime minister before the year's end.  Some alerts came in from the finance committee, followed by a slew of reminders to eat, take walks, and write to Cupcake. A text came in and I open it to see an intern had 'accidentally' texted him flirty picture of herself with an cute pajama set on and an artfully crafted breakfast.

Sera’s side of the bed looked untouched except for the smears of makeup on her pillow. Her dress and shoes from last night were on the bed, she must have passed out while teasing him.

The glass wall in the bedroom showed off the calming pool and hot tub in the backyard. The glass was so thin it felt like it wasn’t there. Then half the wall materialized into a photo slideshow of Mr. and Mrs. Prince. They were candids, selfies and wedding photos. Some from the vacation they took after the revolution, Isobel's birthday, Some that had probably been taken in this house for fun. Sera had shades on in all of them. Nothing from the past year.

“Fucking narcissist”, I said

“I heard that”, Sera called from the bathroom.

+2+

I stepped out the room and turned the PanelTv in the living room to INNA360 News, expanding the image to cover the entire glass wall.

All the news chatter was about the bullshit court.  Some  U.S Navy commanders in town for the event were being interviewed about starting a Naval Platoon within the NADF.  Highlights from the Bronze Heart ceremony last night played. The word HERO was placed under Vassey’s photo  She’d made the girl a fucking hero. I paused the TV on a clip of Vassey and Sera. Seraphina had looked stunning in red and Vassey seemed to believe the lie she was telling as much as anyone else.

By the time I got comfortable on the couch the car had pulled up, its New Aeterna flags at full attention. It was 6:32 on the dot when I hear Seraphina’s heels. The Captain in me zeroed in on every single thing out of regulation with her uniform.

To her credit her enlisted NADF and commission badges where in top shape. Her Inaugural Class, NADF coalition and Royal crest metals were perfectly aligned. Her revolution and liberation stripes were in order and her New Aeterna Pride Pin was perfectly placed.

Her hair was lose and in big curls that rested at her shoulder, out of regulation. Her skirt was a customized A-line midi skirt. She wore skin colored tights and her thin heels were at least 4 inches out of regulation. The skirt flowed  around her calves with each sharp decisive step she made. There were concessions made for a queen, she wanted to be a soldier but she had to be beautiful.

“Get that. . . will you ?”, she asked putting on her standard issue hat and heading out to the car

I sighed and grabbed her rolling leather briefcase and handed it off to her guardsmen. I climbed in the back seat and take the seat facing her. She keeps her expression blank and  in a studied position. This was how the world saw her blank, cruel, unflinching and cold. . . bitchy.

After a while I noticed we drive right past Ft. Chelsea Piers where my tiny office was calling my name. I sat up as we got onto the Queens Bridge.

“The driver missed my stop. Have him turn around.”

Sera kept  looking at me with those cold blue eyes of hers and crossed her legs.  Instead of regulation tights she was wearing thigh high stockings that connected to a fragile looking garter belt. She wasn’t armed, she wasn’t allowed to be. Bad optics.

“Seraphina”, I warned. Using that voice to remind her that I technically outranked her, but we weren’t one to follow such banal protocol.

She kept looking at me as we got on the Riker’s Island Bridge.

“Sera. What’s going on. I need to get to work. If only to make an appearance. Where are you taking me ?"

She didn’t answer. Instead she lit up a cigarette and straightened her posture. I didn’t want to play her little game this morning, but I also didn’t really want to sit at my desk so I went along with it.

Once we reach Riker’s Island the driver pulls up to a retina scanner. Sera scans herself in and the gates to the prison Island unlock.

 We pull up to the New Aetrerna Military Detention Block. It housed both the jail and penitentiary for martial and national law offenders.The military had been given custody of anyone who commits crimes against the crown and country; former Helion officials, Helion Forces soldiers, MS soldiers and radical unification party members.

A crowd of families were outside waiting to visit the MS Soldiers who used to be their kids. Some family members had “Considerate Release” signs and were blowing bubbles, laughing and smiling. They were protesting with kindness.  Fucking hippies. They believed that many MS soldiers and Helion were just “following orders.” and should be released on goodwill. That they committed crimes under threat of death. Some were good bets like Aria others. . . not so much.

When the crowd saw the car pull up they made a run for us. I got out first and took Seraphina’s bag. Then banged on the driver’s window.

“Come on.”

The guardsmen gets out and follows me around to Sera’s side. I open the door and she gets out slowly. She’d lost the cigarette and put on a pair of shades. I tug the guardsmen to stand in front of her and I trail behind. Pushing the crowd away.

The prison guards stood to attention as we entered, they saluted to me and I had to remember to fucking salute back.The line of visitors inside were shouting about human rights and begging for their children and parents to be let out. She ignored them all.

She sighed

 “They really think their children are innocent, That I have the power to let them out.” Seraphina mused.

“Can you ?”

"Please Leon.”, she said as we entered the complex, “I’m the warden not a lawyer.”

 +++

Lils : Ummmm *shoves breadsticks into purse*

Muse : What ?

Lils : We stole this whole thing from SHV *Adds sugar packets*

Muse : How ?

Lils : Let’s see we took a genderqueer military character away from a job they were capable of doing and stuck them in a role of guarding prisoners. Did you read Compulsion ???!!

Muse : It’s different. . . this character is corrupt but thinks they are doing the right thing. Also I don't think you are doing this meme right

Lils : I think you just made it worse.

Okay, so I need to give Sera a military job she should do in New Aeterna. I choose this one for one very specific reason we will see later.

Lils : *eyeing new breadsticks*  Um.  . . . I think you stole more stuff

Muse : What ?

Lils : Well . . .

This from Compulsion

Cassia looked good behind his desk. He noted her uniform wasn't regulation; her hair was down, she wore a gold necklace above her collar and her jacket buttons were undone but she sat so purposefully behind his desk he knew no one would question her. He remembered why he'd so willingly submitted to her in bed. A part of him wanted that again. Power had  made him lose all control

And you wrote this

To her credit her enlisted NADF and commission badges where in top shape. Her Inaugural Class, NADF coalition and Royal crest metals were perfectly aligned. Her Revolution and liberation stirpes were in order and her New Aeterna Pride pin was perfectly placed.

Her  hair was lose and in big curls that rested at her shoulder, out of regulation. Her skirt was a customized A-line midi skirt. She wore skin colored tights and her thin heels were at least 4 inches out of regulation.. The skirt flowed  around her calves with each sharp decisive step she made. There were concessions made for a queen, she wanted to be a soldier but she had to be beautiful.

Muse : But. . . we wrote it first *runs away with breadsticks. . . . no purse*

Lils: THE PARADOX IS REAL !!!!.

Also, I feel like that segment from Compulsion could be a story on it's own. It's so great.