"The place hasn't changed a bit," Ryan said as he and London stood on the dirt road in front of his old house. They'd finally decided to take that trip to Ireland they'd been talking about for months and London had been dying to see the farm where her boyfriend grew up.
"Someone must've bought the house since it looks too well kept to be empty," she pointed out. "The owners must not be home right now."
Ryan offered to show her around the outside of the place while they were there. As they walked the rolling acres of Irish countryside where every spot seemed to hold an important memory, the absurdity of the situation began to hit.
"You know it's quite funny when you think about it," Ryan said. "You're the reigning monarch of an entire fairytale world and living in the castle with you and getting swept up in everything has almost made me forget that two years ago, I was living the life as a farm boy. Even if we hadn't discovered the other world, people would still find us an odd pairing, the Irish country boy and the California city girl."
London laughed as she understood what he was getting at. "I don't know Ry, I dated the high school quarterback which is the equivalent of prince charming in California, but it was the Irish country boy who truly swept me off my feet."
Ryan blushed at this comment.
"Besides," London continued, "hearing you describe your life on the farm right now is making me go weak in the knees. Picturing you carrying bales of hay, fixing a tractor, probably removing your shirt as it was getting all sweaty while you worked…"
Ryan swatted her playfully. "Well now we know the story behind every royal who had an affair with a commoner," he teased.
London laughed in response. "It is kind of funny actually," she said. "Artasians have a heavy belief in soul mates so a relationship like ours is celebrated. If I were royalty on the Human World side of the barrier, we'd be considered a major scandal."
Ryan laughed at the knowledge. "At least we'd just get some harsh criticism at the most," he said, "imagine being back in a more archaic time. I'd likely be jailed or executed if someone saw us holding hands right now and your family would find some way to get you removed from power."
London was relieved to be in modern times she had to admit. "Even though the council and my parents are completely okay with us, there is something extremely hot about the fact that our relationship would be considered a forbidden love affair in a different time."
Ryan nodded in agreement, the insecurity that had risen up earlier fading. "We'd have to hide all our interactions, only being able to carry on our relationship in secret."
London grinned at her boyfriend. "I'd probably be betrothed to a prince, but the person I'd be in love with would be the farm boy I was always having secret meetings with."
Ryan leaned in to kiss her as he started getting in to the scenario. "And just like in that Titanic movie you girls made the rest of us sit through, you'd grow detached from your high class lifestyle and start feeling more at ease around my simple peasant life."
"Eventually I'd realize I could never be happy without you and we would run away together, to start a life of our own," London said.
Ryan grinned at the notion. "Really?" he asked, touched by how much London really loved him.
London nodded. "I know if it were really like that, I'd choose love over everything else," she said.
Ryan grinned and kissed her deeply. "But first we'd have our secret trysts all over the kingdom," he said. "We'd find places to meet in secret to carry on our forbidden love affair."
"Like that barn," London said, pointing to an old barn on Ryan's old property. "Imagine me sneaking out to meet you and us carrying out the meeting in the hayloft, hoping no one would come by and hear us."
The couple shared a look as the same idea came to them.
"Quick, into the barn m'lady," Ryan said. "We mustn't be seen during our rendezvous."
London giggled as he scooped her up and ran to the barn with her.
"Oh I do hope no one heard us my love," London said as they lay naked in the hayloft twenty minutes later.
"Indeed," Ryan said, putting his arms behind his head as London rolled over to sprawl across his chest. A grin spread across his face as he took in what they'd done. "Hey all role playing aside, if someone told my teenage self I'd end up making love to a member of a royal family in my barn in Ireland, I'd have thought they were crazy."
London laughed at this.
The sound of tires coming up the dirt road caught their attention. The family who'd purchased Ryan's old farm was home.
"It's the guards, they must be searching for me," London said in mock worry.
"We must go," Ryan said as they scrambled to get their clothes back on. Together they slipped out the back of the barn without being seen.
Weeks later, back in Artasia, the council wondered why the couple had developed a new fascination with working down at the griffin paddock and going for long walks in the woods.