Once upon a time, Alex had heard a tale about how a great relationship started off like a great idea until eventually it ended with stupid attempts at threesomes or infidelity.

Back then, he had been terrified of such stories.

“What a boring day.”

Alex sighed.  

Now, he had been looking forward to a new romantic beginning.

Instead of being at the exciting start of a new relationship, he found himself trapped in the dullest of routines.

“Calm down buddy.” He mumbled to himself, his voice filled with frustration.

He leaned back in his chair, unable to shake off the images that had lingered in his mind since that morning. The sight of his wife, bare and beautiful, changing her clothes had ignited a fire within him.

“I can't believe Ashlyn didn't agree to help me with my little 'predicament'!”

He complained, his eyes looking through his holographic documents with unfocused documents.

Such was the day of this world’s king. With many women willing to accompany him, yet spending his morning reading boring reports about kids damaging a bench or the odd request of a woman wanting an artificial insemination of her dead husband.

“Marco.” Alex began, looking up from the reports at his loyal guard. “Do you think Astra and the others are avoiding me?”

Marco, the ever-loyal, big-eyed mechanical fish called "Boy" among the Astraliths, tilted his body slightly, analyzing Alex's expression before responding.

“Without a doubt my king. They can feel your arousal pheromones from their rooms. It's making them feel a tad uncomfortable, you know, as mother figures.”

Alex slumped into his desk, the damage caused by Marco’s honesty hitting him hard enough, like a blow to the chest.

“Life can’t be so bad!” Alex grumbled to himself. 

But just as his discontentment began to build, his communicator started ringing, and Ashlyn's name lit up the screen.

Immediately, he sat up straight, his eyes lighting up with a glimmer of hope. 

His hand trembled slightly with anticipation as he eagerly accepted the call.

“Hello!”

His voice held a higher pitch than usual.

“Hello, Alex.” Ashlyn's voice, in stark contrast, remained composed but hurried. “Sorry, I don’t have that much time.”

Alex’s brow furrowed, his smile thinning.

“What's going on? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

Ashlyn's response came swift and determined.

“No, there is a group protesting against your rule.” She explained quickly. “I don’t have time to explain it… Novel and I are handling the situation as we speak.”

Alex bit his lower lip, knowing where this was heading to.

“So, you won't be able to join me for the visit to the church, will you?”

Through the communicator, Ashlyn's voice crackled, the background filled with the chaotic sounds of conflict, people shouting and clashing.

There were even some noises of people groaning and dropping to the floor.

The situation seemed far from being controlled. 

“I'm sorry, Alex.” She said amidst the chaos. “I promise I'll find a way to make it up to you.”

With that, Ashlyn's last words reached him before the call was abruptly cut off.

A sense of disappointment washed over Alex, making his chest sting weirdly.

He understood her commitment to her duties, he had been busy learning all about her, but it still stung to be left hanging.

It filled him with anger to be left a secondary concern.

He scratched his hair in frustration, feeling an inexplicable itch building up on his skin.

“Ugh, the darn universal translator is acting up again.” Alex muttered, reaching up to scratch behind his ear where a thin, paper-like device was implanted.

Looking at his guard, he couldn't help but vent his irritation.

“Marco, can we do something to fix this?”

Marco rotated his big, funny eyes to look at him again with a faint sparkle.

“King Alex.” He began, his metallic fangs gleaming. “According to Mother Aqua’s readings, that itching sensation is linked to psychological unease. It's not a problem with the translator behind your right ear or its backup on your left.”

Alex waved his hands upward, seemingly annoyed.

“I can’t believe Aqua implanted it from the moment you guys kidnapped me!”

He pointed an accusatory finger at Marco.

“And you guys didn't even bother to tell me!”

The metallic guard’s maw formed an arc, contrasting to his menacing fangs.

“Well.” He admitted with a deep, electronic chuckle. “We actually had a little bet going among us Boys about how long it would take for you to notice.”

“I actually lost.” Marco explained. “As you took three weeks to notice.”

Alex's right eyebrow twitched as he crossed his arms.

“No of you guys won that bet.” He retorted between gritted teeth. “The one who noticed was Ashlyn on the night of the wedding!”

Hearing this revelation, the floating fish's eyes spun horizontally, giving it a peculiar analyzing expression. 

“Ah! I see, that’s a pity.” He finally remarked. “So, Julius won the bet then. That damn lucky doctor!”

Alex waved his hands upwards once again, tired of this talk.

“I swear, talking with you guys is almost the same as talking to a brick wall.”

It was then that the communicator on his left arm started vibrating.

And Alex couldn't help but grin.

“Oh, it's that time already!”

Alex pressed his thumb into the communicator to accept the call.

“How's it going, Xena?” He asked with a playful tone.

“It’s going just fine!” The Astralith replied, a faint buzzing sound in the background diminishing her voice. “We've got a few protesters complaining about the shields disrupting air traffic, but Marin handled them like a pro.”

The blue skinned woman appeared too tired, sporting a few dark circles around her eyes. Even her normally pristine, bright red hair was now disheveled. 

However, the most noticeable thing shown in the feed was her, a transparent green shield covering everything in sight behind her.

“We had to pull an all-nighter yesterday and today to make the Elysians return to the safety of their cities and deploy the shield against the cleaning nanobots.”

“I see.” Alex nodded thoughtfully. “Great work, Xena. You and Marin put in a lot of effort to get this plan to cleanse the world from contamination up and running.”

Alex paused, his gaze drifting upward as he remembered something. 

“Oh!” His eyes widened with realization. “Was the solution Astra designed effective against radiation in the Gemcrab’s former hives.”

Xena's fatigued expression transformed into a beaming smile, and her modest chest swelled with pride.

“It's been a resounding success!” She exclaimed with enthusiasm. “The nanobots are purifying the air and water even faster than we expected and the Astra’s liquid is turning into a mineral that's far more efficient at absorbing radiation than we could have hoped.”

Alex hummed with a soft smile.

“That’s good then. Now the world can return to being the shining blue ball it once was.”

Xena hummed pleasantly. 

Behind her, a random gray cloud of nanobots collided with the green shield protecting the city before dispersing into tiny dots.

Xena glanced back at the scene with worried eyes, her face rotating back to the camera slowly.

“Well, I should get going now, my King!” She waved her hand energetically. “I’ll see you later at dinner!”

Alex smiled, reclining into his chair.

“Goodbye, Xena. I'll see you then.”

With that, the projection of the Astralith diminished until the screen of  his communicator’s became black once again.

Alex glanced at the blank screen for a second , then rose to his feet with a sudden burst of energy, using the table for support.

However, his sweaty hands betrayed him, causing him to slip on the wooden desk. 

Alex stumbled, almost smacking his face onto the desk's surface.

But just in the nick of time, a subtle force enveloped him, preventing his fall.

“Thanks, Marco.” He said awkwardly as he used the telepathically push of Marco to regain his balance.

“Anytime” 

Marco replied in his usual unflappable manner, long accustomed to his king's occasional clumsiness.

Alex patted his clothes, avoiding to meet his guard’s gaze as he straightened his outfit..

Then, he walked around the desk and made his way to the door of his office.

“My king, are you really leaving your paperwork half-done?” Marco’s big eyes glanced at the projection of documents, none bearing Alex's firm of approval.

Alex gave a side-glance to the projections, his eyes catching the name "Ashlyn" written where his own should be.

“Forget it, I have already written Ashlyn instead of my name five times today.” Alex confessed with a scrunched nose. “JJust send them all to Astra to verify. I’m obviously not in my right mind.”

With those last words, Alex made his way out of the office. 

He could only hope that his meeting with the Keepers of the Flame would distract him from his cold marriage.

Marco followed him, worry etched across his mechanical face. 

His king, brilliant in many ways, seemed to be a sore loser when it came to love.