As they neared the lake, Lewis watched her start to skip rocks in the pond. What she had said made sense. His own Simone had talked to him about it, and it was here that he was starting to realize that, for all of their differences, they were both still a facet of Simone. Their experiences had been different, but the core of who they were had never changed. It wasn’t his Simone, but it was still Simone.

Lewis scoffed, “Simone is Simone.” That was something he hadn’t said or thought about in quite some time, but even now it still rang true. “You want your freedom to choose?” he asked with a half smirk as he perfectly skipped a rock clean across the pond. “What do you want, then? Right now? What would you choose?”

Simone skipped another rock, and frowned when it didn’t go quite as far as his did.

“Here…” He showed her how to skip the rock like he did; the angle, the spin…it was all reminiscent of throwing a knife through the air. Lewis touched her hand, showing her how to hold it differently. “Try it now…”

Simone tossed the rock, and it sank immediately. She frowned.

Lewis couldn’t help but laugh, and when he did, Simone started to get annoyed. “You know what I want to do right now!?” she said.

“What?” Lewis asked with a half smirk.

“THIS!” She shoved Lewis hard into the pond, where he flailed for a moment before he righted himself and started to swim around.

“Damn it, Mone, now I’m soaked!” Lewis complained.

“To go back… Pin Llywellyn to the wall and tell him exactly how I feel and what I want to change.” Simone tried to skip a rock again. “That I’m not helpless and that when I start to feel like myself… Like I do now… That I can be fierce.”

After she pushed him into the pond she started to laugh hard. “Isn’t that the point of pushing you into the pond?”

Lewis gave her a look before he swam over to her and grabbed her hand dragging her in. She let out a scream as she fell into the pond. There were some guards were came over and she shoved him into the water with her into the thick cattails to hide. She had her hand over his mouth.

Once the guards were gone looking for where the scream came from she tossed off the cloak and looked at him, “Now we’re both soaked. I guess that’s the point of a pond.” She chuckled at him and swam on the top of the water. “Does your Simone like to swim?”

“She hates the water?”

“I guess drowning for that long would do that to a person…” She thought about it and she sighed. “All well… You should get her to like it again. That much trauma in your life isn’t good for you. You said it yourself. Does… she get help? Like how you are helping me?”

When she let out a scream, Lewis’s eyes went wide, but Simone already had a plan, and pulled him into the cattails, keeping her hand over his mouth. When the guards came to investigate, she tightened her grip, just a little, tensing. Lewis could feel her heartbeat, almost hear it. This was fun for her, this excitement of almost getting caught, of getting away with something she knew very well she shouldn’t be doing.

Finally, the guards left, and Simone released her grip, and the two went back to the center of the pond.

“No,” Lewis responded, answering her question about his Simone. “She hates the water. Three hundred someodd years of drowning will do that to a person,” he replied sorrowfully. When this Simone said he should help her, he thought for a moment. “I never really…thought of it that way. She’s always trying to do things on her own, so I offer to take on things for her but…” He had never tried to help her with the trauma of it all.

“I guess she needs more than just her own strength to get through it all…” Lewis laid back in the water, letting himself float. This lasted for a moment, and when he righted himself again, he noticed that Simone’s nightgown was floating.

“Er…” He glanced away. It was hard not to look, though. Simone was his wife in his own world. That made things complicated. “Your nightgown is floating up. You might want to get out of the pond….”

“That’s what a husband should be. The rock and the broom and dustpan. You’ve done well being the rock but now you need to clean up whatever the hell I’ve been through in your time. I’m not invincible Lewis… Now should have shown you that. I hate myself and I hate this life but when I’m with you I feel alive. Which is weird considering my whole two interactions with you.”

Simone gave him a weird look. “I’m literally your wife in another world. You fuck me in your world. You are concerned about,” she took her dress off and let it float away. “About these tiny little breasts of mine?” They weren’t actually that small any more thanks to pregnancy. “Are you kidding me? You are really worried about my modesty?” She started to splash him.

"Are you scared of me seducing you? If I were me and I am, by the way, all I would give a shit about is if it were me."

Lewis glanced away when she stripped, his eyes wide. This was both just like his Simone, and nothing like his Simone. It was this crazy mix of her and not her that was so alluring. “Er…my Simone’s…breasts are a tad…smaller.” He couldn’t help but smirk, but kept his gaze averted.

Simone swam closer, threatening Lewis with her words. “I’m not scared,” Lewis replied as he turned to meet her gaze with a flustered look. He realized that she was practically on top of him now, her face close to his. “And I know…Simone is Simone…I get it…it’s just…” He smirked.

“You said it yourself…you’re tired of being told what you want. I’m just…worried you’re going to do something you regret. You love Llywellyn…but not in the way he loves you. I know that. I love my Simone more than anything…and even if you’re not her, I can’t help but feel that towards you as well…it’s always been simple in my mind.”

He took a breath. “But this isn’t about me. It never was, and never has been. It’s about you. Everything is about you…” Lewis smiled, staring into her grey eyes. “What do you want, Simone? What is your heart's desire? Can you speak it aloud?”

Simone rolled her eyes. “All of that drama…all I want is you right now…” She pushed forward and kissed him, pressing herself against him. Lewis was shocked, but wrapped his arms around her, holding her as the two floated, briefly sharing a passionate kiss. When they broke apart, breathless, Lewis stared into her eyes.

“Fine…you can have me,” Lewis responded.

“Good.” Simone said as they made love in the pond. It was something him and his Simone had never done before. She was fierce and in charge, not taking no for an answer from him but also asking for his opinion. In the morning, she was snuggled up to him under a tree near a bush. She only woke up when Llywellyn threw a cloak on them. He looked mad at her but she stood up and let the cloak fall.

“Don’t you have morals?”

“Don’t give me any of that shit,” Simone yelled back at him. “It’s always Simone, it’s time for our duties. Simone is going to do this. Simone is going to do that.” She pushed Llywellyn. “You know why I want to off myself half the time? YOU AREN’T EVER CONSIDERATE OF WHAT I ACTUALLY WANT!” She hollered at him. “Not now. Not when you forced us to get married. Not when you started to bring whores into our room. You are an inconsiderate asshole!”

Llywellyn looked shocked for a moment, “You need… Please just cover yourself? Can you do that?”

“I’m doing it because I want to do it. Just like I fucked him because I wanted to do it.” Simone pointed at Lewis and finally put her cloak on. “Why can’t you EVER just ask me what I want. You know I hate being told what to do and ALL this time that’s the only thing you’ve done.” She shook her head. "You are no better than those you try to save me from."

"I love you, Simone… I just want the best for you."

"Then fucking act like it! ASK ME WHAT I WANT!"

When Lewis awoke, it wasn’t to something sweet. If anything, he had half expected to wake up next to his own Simone, and for everything to have been just a bad dream, but no. He awoke to the King of the Elves, and he had just fucked the Queen. He was up in a flash, but his clothes were strewn about, and he was nowhere near a weapon. Yet, it seemed like Llywellyn wasn’t out for blood. At least, not yet.

Xeik was close by too, his eyes wide with surprise. Not that the two had slept together, but more surprised that Lewis was caught so off guard.

“Well…that explains why you never came back,” Xeik replied, throwing his friend a dry cloak. “Here…”

It was about now that Simone went off, yelling at Llywellyn. He had done the same as her, taken himself over lovers in order to satisfy the urges that he had. Simone had, evidently, never done that. At least, not until now. But that was the least of Llywellyn’s concerns. No, it was the outburst from Simone that shook him. It was slowly dawning on him that what she had accused him of was nothing but the truth.

Lewis stared at the two, unsure of what he needed to do, if anything in this situation.

“Well then, Simone,” Llywellyn responded with a look of defeat. “What is it that you even want?”

Simone threw up her hands and looked at Llywellyn, “You to give me the choices I want. Don’t just tell me Lly.”

Llywellyn was taken back. “You called me Lly.”

“Yes, yes I did. Because you are actually fucking listening to me for once. If you want me to love you…”

“I do.”

“THEN LISTEN TO ME. If you want me to love you… I want choices. I want freedoms. I want our daughter to grow up knowing she isn’t just some hostage to a fucked up system. My father fought it because my mother died and they didn’t mourn her. I hate it.”

Llywellyn looked at her, “Do… you want a lover?”

Simone gripped at her own hair, “NO, I WANT YOU TO FUCKING LISTEN TO ME. Drop the whores, start giving me choices, and let me do what I want to do when I want to do it. Llywellyn Celestina, you are not this much of a fucking moron.”

She looked at Lewis, “Tell him what I want. You know what I want. You know exactly what I want.”

“Because he… is married to a Simone. Isn’t he? It’s why this one knew what the issue was… Why he was able to bed you when I’ve hardly ever had the chance too.”

“Yes, see you aren’t dumb.”

Llywellyn struggled for a moment, “Tell me what I need to do.” He looked at Lewis. “Apparently, I suck as a husband.”

This was a very strange situation Lewis found himself in. Llywellyn was asking him for advice on how to please Simone, when they were both married to different versions of her. Furthermore, Llywellyn had guessed that Lewis was somehow from a different world that he was, and ascertain all of this, yet…

“You’re the smartest, dumb person I’ve ever met,” Lewis said, staring at the King in confusion. “She literally told you what she wanted. Just now. She wants her freedom. She wants the ability to make her own decisions. She wants to take ahold of her own future, not be guided into it by someone else’s hand.” He paused. “She wants to love you on her own terms, not on yours…”

Xeik was surprised at how well Lewis was doing on his own. Normally, the ex-assassin wasn’t good with words, but for the time being he was getting his point across in a rather impactful way.

“I think…you both need to realize that if this is going to work, you need to put effort into it. You pity her for what has happened, and you expect heirs as you were trained to. You haven’t realized that she hates being touched…that she can’t stand it. She tolerates it because she thinks she has to…or, well…she thought she had to.” He glanced at her. “Maybe you two were always meant to end up together,” Lewis said. “But you’ll never know, because you can’t see her for who she truly is…”

Llywellyn looked at Simone, “You hate being touched?”

“I hate being touched when I don’t want it… Because of what he did to me.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You never stopped to ask me…” Llywellyn moved to hug her and stopped. Simone nodded to him and they hugged finally. “Thank you Lewis…” She gave him a smile.

“I’m going to do better I swear… If I don’t… Lewis here can have you.”

“He can’t handle two of me.” Simone made a face.

“I think having two Simones would lead to Lewis being eaten alive…” Xeik made the comment and Lewis gave him a look before agreeing.

The world faded away showing images of Llywellyn and Simone doing better. Eventually, it showed images of their large family. They did much better. They were finally happy.

The world they were thrown into was much different. There was fire everywhere, a blazing inferno that didn’t stop. In front of them were bodies of men on pikes. Llywellyn, Jerome, and many others. A broken palace in the background that was Auclair.