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She may not be as naive as her daughter but she holds the same compassion, which is the main reason she sitting a mere six feet from the moody teenager who kidnapped her not five months ago.
It had taken quite a lot of arguing to get him a room in the castle but, her husband knew nothing would stop her maternal instincts, it was more about if she was going to be mad at him or not.
It was a small spare room with its own bathroom in the upper levels of castle, guards were stationed outside at all times although, the raven haired boy didn’t seem to keen on leaving just yet. Not that Arianna would let him.
He was ignoring her as usual. Even when she visited him in the dungeons he never said much, on good days she’d get a hum of acknowledgement or maybe even a witty remark. But nowadays he didn’t even look at her, it didn’t deter her but that hollow look in those sunken baby blue eyes would haunt her for years.
She was the first to notice his change in behavior, she always thought prison was a bit extreme for a fourteen year old but she should have put her foot down at him being placed with a cellmate. If anything this was proof of that. A medic would come to do their periodic rounds through the dungeon in a few weeks time, so she didn’t say anything.
That was until he pronounced fifteen weeks pregnant.
She’d known of his unique anatomy for years, after Fredrick’s old friend stopped talking about his daughter and started mentioning his son. Although the ramifications of this dawned on her a few weeks too late.
She honestly had no idea if varian was listening but it had become their routine in the days he’d been up here, Arianna would come and tell him about her week, what ever boring diplomat she had to meet, documents to sign, or official ball she’d attend and he’d sit there staring out the window with a raccoon in his lap.
“Why are you still here?”
The question caught her off guard. She stared at him for a moment before regaining her royal composure. he still hadn’t looked away from the window. His voice was hushed and a bit gravelly, his tone was calm but held an edge of bitterness and genuine confusion. he hadn’t spoken a word since they removed him from his cell. Not even when they told him of his pregnancy.
“Pardon?”
“Don’t you have some royal duties to attend or something?”
“I suppose, but then who would come to see you?” She countered.
“A judge, or maybe they’ll skip to fun part take me straight to the gallows”
“You aren’t being executed, varian.” She stated plainly, allowing the concern to creep into her voice. “You’re far too young for something so extreme. Besides rapunzel would never allow it”
“I don’t the princess would agree with you” he stressed her title, disgust painting his youthful features. “She’s the reason I’m here, remember?” He said with more venom than a boy his age should be able to muster. He finally pulled his eyes away from the window but still refused to meet her eyes.
“I might have done things differently but I agree with my daughter’s choices”
He looked up to meet her eyes. He looked surprised for a moment before his face darkened.
“you’re just like her” raccoon sensing the shift in his owner jumped off the boy’s lap.
“She made her choices and so did you” she said trying to remain mostly impartial.
“She threw me out in a snowstorm!” He was starting to don the rage he had all those months ago.
“It was a state of emergency-“
“Yeah, yeah, I know. You think I haven’t heard that excuse before?” She faltered.
“Oh honestly, do you think there wasn’t anything she could do? Keep me out of the blizzard? Come look for me after? Come and help me- us?” His gloveless hands balled up into fists.
“Varian, your father was already encased by then, she couldn’t do anythi-“
“She promised! That- that’s not fair! I didn’t do anything wrong” interrupting the queen. his hands flew up to pull at fistfuls of raven hair.
“She did all she could” she held her ground.
“But I didn’t- I-, it wasn’t my fault. “She promised, s- she promised me” he defenses crumbled as he sobbed.
Her face softened watching the alchemist break down.
“he promised, he said he would help me. H-he lied to me” it clear he wasn’t talking to Arianna anymore, nor was he talking about her daughter anymore.
They sat like for some time, “I agree” varian’s head snapped up to look at her, fingers still tangled in his unkempt hair.
“It isn’t fair, I’m not justifying your actions, but you’re right, you didn’t deserve that.”
He stared at her bewildered through glassy eyes.
“But we can’t do anything about that, it’s not good for you to wallow in the past, either of you.”
He chose to look at the floor rather than face the honesty of her eyes.
Taking his hands out of his hair in favor of wrapping his arms around his stomach.
“sorry” he mumbled
She cupped the sides of his face making him look at her
“you’re allowed to be angry, varian, just don’t let it consume you” she said gently letting her motherly tendencies take over. His eyes searched hers looking for lies, he looked away from her upon finding none.
There was a beat of silence between them before varian threw himself into her arms.
Brushing away her initial surprise she returned the hug.
She wasn’t even surprised when he had cried himself to sleep in her embrace.
It didn’t matter if he was a traitor to the crown, at the end of the day he was still just a child, effectively an orphan, and Arianna would be damned if life tried to wrong him again. Whilst his actions were extreme, he didn’t deserve all that had happened to him.
But,
Maybe things will be okay. Not now but, they will be.