A few days later, Maya finishes up her maid work for the day.

She puts the cleaning supplies away, excited to go meet with Rio once again and kiss her. 

Every time she has had spare time, she has been spending it with Princess Rio. Is it too much? Maya thinks not. It's not bad for her to want to spend time with her girlfriend every chance she can.

But as she steps into Rio's bedroom, something just seems different.

"Hello, my love," Maya greets her with a smile, shutting the door behind her. 

The way it has switched from 'your highness' to 'my love' in such a short amount of time is shocking.

"Hello," Rio greets her right back. 

Recently, Rio has started a new book. She is sitting on her bed reading it at the moment.

Rio has been teaching Maya how to read a little bit at a time too. Maya is very grateful for this and it has only made her love her even more. 

Maya smiles and makes her way over to Rio. 

However, to her surprise, when she leans down to kiss her, Rio moves away.

Rio puts her book down and glares up at Maya grumpily. 

"Maya," Rio sighs. "You need to stop. Tone it down a bit. If you keep visiting me just to kiss me all the time, we're going to start to look suspicious," she seems very serious. "I really don't want us to get caught, so we really need to be more secretive and meet up less, as much as I hate to say it."

"But what if I don't want to tone it down?" Maya responds, sounding confused and frustrated. "I want to continue to love on you as much as I can, in case there will be a time where I can no longer love you anymore."

"There won't be a time where you can no longer love me if we just tone it down a bit," Rio tries to explain, holding Maya's hand in her own to try to calm her. "I don't want to lose you like my father lost my mother," she continues. "So, if we need to make sacrifices now so we can love each other for longer, so be it."

Maya is starting to understand. Rio is right, they have been meeting up and spending the night together in secret way too often. They more times they do it, the more they are risking being caught by someone. 

"Sometimes I can't help myself, Rio," Maya admits, tightening her own grip around Rio's hand. "My desire for you is so strong. I want to love you as much as I can. I could never love someone else the way I love you."

Rio lets out a sigh... and nods.

"I feel the same way," she admits. "Though, something you need to learn is self-control. As a princess, I need to have a ton of self-control. You seem to have very little. That's okay though, that means you just need to work on it," Rio gives Maya an assuring smile. "I'm... just starting to get worried. That's all. I've noticed Mako giving you looks."

"Really?" Maya questions. "Do you think she suspects anything?"

"I'm not sure, but just... be careful. Please," Rio starts to sound desperate. "I don't think I could stand losing you."

"Okay, I will," Ma