Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl, as is the way of fairy tales.
In a faraway land of snow and ice, she was raised in the darkness of a dungeon, wrapped in chains. A child of fire and ash, rebuilt from her innocence into a monster of death and destruction. So twisted had they made her that, underneath hair of burning spirals, she opened her eyes to a world hazed by blood.
The king of the Land of Secrets called upon his trusty warrior to tame this beast of legend, to eliminate the threat she posed to the balance of the universe. He was no hero, living so long in the shadows that his armor no longer shined, but he mounted a gallant steed of brick and stone an awaited his moment to strike. But his weary eyes saw too much, a fatal flaw, and when he looked into the gaze of the monster- empty pits of hypnotizing emerald- he could no longer tell if she was the dragon, requiring defeat, or the damsel in distress, pleading for rescue. Maybe, he thought, she was a little bit of both.
The weapon he offered on her direction was neither the tip of a sword or the point of an arrow, but a hand suspended in space: freedom. She took this lifeline, the warmth tickling her frozen fingertips, and together they broke her chains and ran, never to stop.
And so the years went by.
"Once upon a time," he whispers, as he reclaims his spot on the couch. A movie hums low as white noise, and she curls back into his side.
"Once upon a time, a man in armor of dust and blood set off to save the universe."
Her eyes slide closed and he wraps his arms around her, resting his chin atop her curls.
"A great and terrible beast was terrorizing the land-"
She shivers and he holds her tighter.
"-but the man did not believe in monsters, and knew the dragon of legend was simply misunderstood. At her feet he laid down his weapon and removed his mask, determined to show her that this evil form was simply a projection: she had been a princess all along. She needed to remember, though the forgetting was never a fault of her own.
"The man held the talons of the beast and watched as they shrunk from scales to skin, porcelain in color and connected to a woman of unmatched beauty, with a scarlet halo atop her head and the depths of the ocean in her eyes- when she opened them, finally, she found she could see. As he walked her from the shadows into the light, she smiled and his armor, washed clean of red, shone true for the first time."
He places his lips on the top of her head, breathing deeply: she smells of vodka and fire. Her heart beat echoes through his bones, and he falls asleep to the rhythm of its warmth.
Once upon a time, there was a boy and a girl. Hand in hand, they lived on.