He cuddled up to her back as she had suspected he would; it had become the staple for how they slept together, unless they finished the evening with a particularly exhausting round of lovemaking and fell asleep before they could get more comfortable. It was relaxing to have Théadan so close, his thighs pressed to hers, his abdomen against her rear. She had made it all the better for herself by using his hand as a pillow, but he was also making himself more comfortable with the way she felt his nose in her hair and his body pressed tight to her own. They would settle in and talk for a little while, then drift off together, and likely dream of each other until it was time to wake. It was a routine that she looked forward to every night. The only thing that didn’t come as expected was Théadan not answering her question right away. Instead he commented on how her family was going to react when they saw her walk into the throne room in Mandira.<br/><br/>A smile bloomed across Navia’s lips while she also thought of how happy her siblings would probably be to see her. She had already been missing them when Théadan had taken her from her home, but being away so far away from them and thinking she would never see them again for so long only made her miss them more. In truth, she had been so focused on seeing her brothers again and how they might feel about Théadan that she had not given anyone else who lived in the palace much thought. Théadan was right to say there would be looks of disbelief, and not just from her family. There were many people who lived in the palace that were of no relation to her and would be shocked to see her. Advisors and nobles, some of her friends. She was returning to a life where not only had she often been one of the main focuses, but would come back with a wealth of stories people would want to hear.<br/><br/>Even as Théadan teased her and enticingly moved his lips along her neck, Navia knew how right he was that people were going to want to hear her story. They were going to want to know how she’d been taken, how she survived, why she had Théadan with her. There would be no easy way to return to her life without telling others about the past few months. Navia was confident that not only would the interest in Théadan and her story die down eventually, but that she could get through it all with him by her side. All of that was likely to flare back up again when it became known that she was also pregnant. “That won’t be hard to do,” Navia chuckled, Théadan’s tease bringing her attention back to him as she rubbed her cheek against his hand affectionately, her own hand reaching behind her to rest on thigh just for some added contact with him.<br/><br/>“I also think we need to have a tour of the palace,” Navia agreed, though it was down with a distracted thoughtfulness as she considered what else he wanted to do, “But I think it best if we change our clothes first, so you’ll be able to see one of my dresses right away. Kazim prefers nobility to be well-dressed in the palace, so we’ll need to change into better clothing before we go exploring.” That meant finding clothing for Théadan to wear, but she wasn’t concerned about it. He was similar in size to her brothers; if any, they could lend him a couple outfits until they got him to a tailor for clothing of his own. “They’re going to think me so different when I come home,” Navia added quietly, “Never would I have worn dresses as plain as the ones I have, or without any jewelry. Mind you, I have never been excessive with wearing jewels, but I did enjoy it…” She hesitated, eyebrows knitting together while she tried her best to come up with how she wanted to describe her thoughts to Théadan. “Maybe they’ll think me different because I do feel different than before. Maybe it’s because we’ve spent so much time traveling and scraping by with what we have that thinking how I was living in Khlurios just seems so…frivolous. And then for you…to come from a country that does not enjoy the same expenses as Khlurios, I worry you will be uncomfortable…or think us excessive…or you might not like me in Mandira the way you’ve enjoyed me away from it.” Goofing around in the dark, then making love had proven to be a good distraction, but with them winding down, those doubts were beginning to creep back in, causing Navia to deeply sigh her worries.