AN: Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police is obviously the inspiration for this drabble. I feel so delightfully dirty...

Cedric knew how it looked. It looked bad. It looked so damn bad and it had already lost him his job once.

Roland had been furious when he'd caught the two of them in each other's arms and Cedric was certain it meant a beheading but the king had shown him mercy, if only to appease his youngest daughter and end her wretched sobs. Unfortunately the king's indulgence didn't extend so far as to grant Cedric too much clemency. He'd been relieved of his position as royal sorcerer and banished from the castle.

If Roland had been a wise man he'd have banished Cedric from the entire kingdom. Simply kicking him out wasn't going to keep him away from his beloved.

He was thankful that the king seemed more concerned with appearances than anything else. Roland didn't dare tell anyone that the reason he'd fired the sorcerer was because he'd caught Cedric canoodling with his teenage daughter. It would be too scandalous and the royal family would never live it down.

Instead he'd sent Cedric off with a fistful of gold coins; hush money or stay-the-hell-away-from-my-daughter money. Whichever.

It was with those gold coins that Cedric had purchased himself a cottage only a short walk from Royal Advanced Academy where his beautiful princess attended secondary education courses. Then it was a simple matter of putting on his finest robe, combing his hair and waltzing up to the headmaster to ask for a teaching position. Given his glittering resume as Enchancia's royal sorcerer for umpteen years he had no difficulty securing a job as the school's magic arts professor.

This was where he would see her every day.

He knew he had to be cautious now. Their brazen acts had gotten them torn apart once already. The king had been willing to look the other way once for the sake of keeping everything hush hush but if they got caught out in the open there would be no saving grace.

But it was so terribly hard and he knew how it looked. Asking her to stay after class on perhaps too many occasions and treating her as a pet student made it obvious enough. There were rumors as well, amongst the students and faculty alike, though nothing that could really be proven.

How was he to help it? She could make him weak in the knees with a simple look and he wanted to be near her so badly. It was practically impossible not to take things too far.

She herself was no help at all. She would always stand so close to him and he'd catch her scent and it'd damn near kill him every time. How could anybody expect him to keep his hands off of her when she looked at him that way and she stood so near? Could he really be faulted if she wanted it just as badly as he did?

He was only a man, after all.

But no... he couldn't risk them getting caught again. He'd have to put a stop to their conspicuous behavior and do his best to keep her at arms length. It was practically torture but that was how it had to be. After all, he knew how it looked.

"Tone it down." He would whisper when necessary. "And don't stand so close to me."