The lounge was in the same wing of the palace as my father's study. It wasn't a far walk, only down a few halls. The room was guarded, two guards on either side of the door and a servant present, likely waiting for our arrival. Upon seeing us approach he smiled and ushered us over, greeting my father and I with a short bow and a respectful nod to Dacian, who returned it.

"Welcome, Your Highnesses and Captain." The servant said. "All the guests have arrived, and Captain Cronin is already inside. Shall I announce your arrival?"

"Any sign of Eli?" Dacian asked, seeming hopeful.

The guards shook their heads as well as the servant, who raked the back of his brain for a moment before shaking his head.

"No, your son has not arrived, nor was I expecting him. Shall we wait for him?"

Dacian shook his head. "No, I wasn't expecting him either, but he can sometimes surprise us and will show up when we least expect it. I guess I was hoping that would happen today."

The servant smiled awkwardly. "Are we ready then?"

My father gave the gesture to continue. The servant nodded and turned to the door. I let out a bit of a sigh, trying to be quiet about my distaste for this part. My father noticed, but didn't say anything or make a face like he usually did. Was I really so special I needed the whole room to bow to me upon my entrance? My father was as modest as I was and hated it too, but it was custom and tradition. Though we felt it was unnecessary considering we were human like everybody else, most of the country enjoyed the customs! They looked up to their royals and enjoyed celebrating us as the founders of their homeland. They wanted to express their respect and admiration for us. In return it meant we were to uphold their standards as royalty.

The guards opened the doors for us, the servant entered, and he announced each of us by our titles. It was over within seconds, of which I hated every bit of. The lounge was a longer room than it was deep with three tall windows lining the opposite wall. Bookshelves lined the spaces in between with a few cabinets of historical objects spotted throughout. There were three couches in the center of the room facing each other in a square with an extravagant rug centering them in the room. A few sets of chairs and a table sat along the edges of the room. This lounge was one of the larger ones meant for a group of people. At a glance, it seemed to be at full capacity.

The room was abuzz with conversation. I wasn't sure how many guests would be present other than the six Arranged, but it would have been reasonable to expect a mother and father for each Arranged in retrospect. A few groups were scattered in the room of people ranging in all heights and sizes, as well as outfits and ages. My eyes, however, were looking for the youngest of the groups: The Arranged themselves.

As much as I hated the introduction, I hated the bowing more. The whole room bowed gently upon our arrival, and those who had been sitting stood so they could. I was sure of the burning embarrassment on my face, cursing how uncomfortable the whole act made me. I kept my eyes away from anyone watching me and waited for the whole ordeal to end. My father, thankfully, handled any announcements.

"Thank you all for coming!" He said, seemingly genuinely excited about everything. "I hope your travels were safe and you didn't have to travel from terribly far away. We'll be having lunch around one in the dining room but for now, we will spend the hour in the lounge for a bit of conversing! If you need anything to drink the servers will be around. Don't hesitate to ask for anything, we're happy to serve."

There were murmurs of agreement and appreciation from the room. Only once everyone had taken their seats again or returned to their conversations was the ordeal finally over. I was free to move on, although I didn't move immediately, deciding to study the room and watch my father and Dacian for their actions first. They were doing something similar, the gears turning in their heads as they analyzed where their presence would be most beneficial. Looking back to the room I decided maybe seeing Cronin first would break my nerves—he was always good at sparking my confidence and snapping me out of a funk. I found him in the corner discussing with a familiar face.

I patted my dad on the shoulder, whispered to him good luck, and made my way to Cronin. I heard him scoff behind me and mutter something about Cronin had also been his initial intent. I laughed loudly, catching attention, and smirked at him over my shoulder. He rolled his eyes playfully and chose a different conversation, Dacian in tow.

Cronin was my height, but he was built a bit differently. Though I had a masculine frame, it was smaller than my father's or the Nobles (with the exception of Eli). Cronin had broader shoulders, a bigger chest, and more square hips. His facial features matched that of Dacian with a defined brow, cheek bones, and jaw. His skin, eye, and hair color were the same as his father's, and even his hair was styled similarly. It was partially slicked back and held more style in its cut and length, his bangs being a bit longer and blending with the sides. And much like his father, he also had a face scar, though less severe and merely a small white line through his right eyebrow, leaving the patch bear. It had been a minor training accident during his time at bootcamp training.

He was five years older than me, but a brotherly like cousin nonetheless. We didn't spend much time together in our childhood due to the age difference (much like Eli and him), but we bonded dearly in our adolescent/adult years due to our training together. He started training me well before he was captain, but became my sole trainer with the role as part of his duties was to train the royals in their combat skills, while it was Dacian's duty to teach them in military strategy and knowledge. For this reason, I was very close to Cronin, as I had spent many hours and painful lessons with him as he whipped me into a soldier. Even so, we found great console in each other, despite the main reason for our interactions being for training. We tried to spend time together outside of it when we had time to spare.

"What was that laugh for, huh?" I heard Cronin's charming, deep and familiar voice.

I smiled at him, standing beside him and greeting him with a forceful nudge of my elbow to his ribs, making him wince and whine playfully for a bit of a show. I shrugged in response.

"Oh, you know, teasing my father like I usually do." I told him. He raised his scarred eyebrow, asking for more details. I smirked. "I beat my father to jumping into your conversation." I said smugly.

He laughed his typical boisterous laugh. He nudged me in return like I had to him, making me huff in pain and whine playfully as well. He grinned his signature grin at me.

"Sonjay, meet one of the families of the Arranged." He said, gesturing to familiar faces I had seen before. "I'm sure you've meet Eric Robinson before," he said, gesturing to the familiar blond bearded fellow I had seen Friday afternoon, "and his wife Abigail Robinson." Mrs. Robinson was also blond with longer hair in a stylized bun. She wore a long red dress covering her feet and had an arm tucked under her husband's. I smiled at her, knowing her face very well.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Eric." I nodded, acknowledging him before turning my attention to his wife. "It's a pleasure to see you again, Mrs. Abigail. You may not believe me when I say this, but I miss your lessons! They were way more enjoyable and easier than what I'm doing with father, Dacian, or Cronin here." I shoved him into the wall this time, getting an exclaim from him.

She and her husband laughed at our banter. "Oh, it's a pleasure to see you again too, Sonjay!" She said. "You're right I don't believe you! You were such a distracted student. That being said, yes, I'm sure algebra, language, and history are much simpler than military strategy or your royal duties. I know I would prefer one over the other," she teased.

Mrs. Robinson had been my first teacher. Being the son of the king, I didn't go to a typical school like other children. I had a personal teacher that taught me the basics of education. From elementary school to early high school she was my teacher. Typically, the education of the kingdom's heir fell to the spouse of the royal and extended to teachers if the spouse didn't have the knowledge. But my mother... I didn't let myself fall down that rabbit hole.

I didn't get to answer when it was Cronin's turn to shove me. I yelped and caught my footing just before running into a poor woman. Catching myself I avoided her and turned quickly to scold Cronin, but her laughter distracted me. I chuckled nervously and stepped around her back to the conversation, amused by the Robinson's laughter as well as Cronin's smoldering smirk.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Alright, greetings aside, I think that's enough. I almost ran into..." I turned to the woman beside me who had joined our little circle. "Mind if I ask your name, ma'am?"

"Ma'am?" She scoffed, alarming me I had misspoken. From her slight smirk, however, I saw she was only teasing. "Ma'am is my mother. I'm Julia." She said, offering to shake her hand, which I accepted. "These are my parents, if you couldn't tell." She said.

I glanced between the three and immediately saw the resemblance. Julia was as blond as her parents and styled her hair similarly to her mother in a stylish ponytail with purposeful, curled strands left around her ears. She had warm brown eyes that her sparse make up helped to compliment. Her feminine frame was shown in the dress she wore. The chest and skirt portion of her dress were different, with the skirt being a knee-length vibrant red satin (her high heels matching) and the chest being a speckled pattern. From what I could see, the style of the dress left her shoulders exposed and likely some of her back as well.

"Ah, yes, I can see the resemblance." I smiled. "Pleasure to meet you, Julia."

"And you as well, Your Highness." She curtsied again, showing respect with a slight smirk.

I didn't blush at her gesture and expression, but I didn't quite react normally either. Thankfully, Cronin spared me any further embarrassing interactions by continuing his conversation with the Robinson's.

"Well, before you so rudely interrupted, Sonjay," Cronin began, teasing of course, "Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were just telling me a bit about their involvement in the Arranged. You said it was your idea, Eric?"

He shrugged it away, being modest. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit pissed off seeing it. The audacity of this man interfering with the life of the prince, whom he had no relation to or previous interaction with! How dare he interject into my life like this...

"Only partly." He explained. "I formed the thought with Mr. Clark, my close business partner and friend. We both had single daughters and close dealings with the king. Enough to know that the prince was also single. With our daughters consent and input in mind, we decided it would be unfair to us, as well as Your Highness," he gestured to me, "to keep this idea to ourselves. After reaching out to the king for permission for such an idea, we then reached out to other families that we were close with who also had single children. And here we are," he smiled, "eager to see who His Highness chooses for a bride. Or, groom, actually. I believe Lee is participating..."

I smiled tightly, a smile only Cronin would see the truth behind, which he did. Consent? I thought. You asked for the consent of my father, your children, and the other families here, but you didn't ask the only person that it mattered to. Me! Needless to say, I was bitter hearing Eric's story. Anger was my worst emotion if I let it get ahold of me, and I refused to let any anger or sourness climb into my voice today.

"It's an interesting concept, that's for sure." I said, truthfully. "Makes me wonder if this sort of thing will be done in the future for future heirs of the kingdom that aren't as fortunate to find their spouse on their own like my father and his."

"What will be Lee's title if you marry him, may I ask?" Julia piped in.

"We aren't one-hundred percent sure what we'd like to do yet, but it's likely he will use the title of king as well."

"It's quite exciting, actually! I know Whitebridge isn't the first country to embrace same sex couples, but to have same sex rulers? It would be the first that I've heard of, especially in Whitebridge! I'm thankful we are such an accepting country. The public is actually excited to see if it may come true someday."

I smiled nervously. "Well, I'm the first openly bisexual heir to Whitebridge. I hope I don't disappoint."

She laughed. "There's no pressure on you, Your Highness! I'm sure as long as your chosen spouse is fitting for Whitebridge then nobody will care the gender of them."

"Nah, they won't care." Cronin said to my side, surprising me when he wrapped a gruff arm around my shoulder, grinning at me. I blushed seeing it, making him chuckle. "The public is obsessed with royal affairs and gossip. Even so, they are quite accepting. Hell if I know! When Kasey and I announced our engagement and soon marriage, the public was ecstatic. So long as they can be a part of it, they won't care."

"I-I don't know if we'll be able to fit all of Whitebridge at my wedding..."

Everyone laughed, making me smile shyly. I caught a glimpse of my father glancing over, a glimmer of pride in his eyes to see I was being social. I winked at him. Being social wasn't difficult for me, it was this particular subject and meeting that I found complicated.