Since she was young, she had had many rules imposed on her. As a princess, rules came as a hard and fast package. Rules on how to speak, rules on how to act, rules on how to eat, rules on how to greet. Rules on how well she had to do in her education, and rules on how well she had to do at social occasions. Everyone from the scullery maid up to her mother had set a veritable bouquet of rules on her. From her father though, she had received only one rule. One rule in a vague memory that, if for not of her utter belief in the fact that it had occurred- that she had stood, a dripping girl of five, as her father hugged her close regardless of how wet she was getting him- she would have thought a lie.

"You must not go into The Forest."

There was no question as to what forest was being referred to. The Forest was the forest that stood on the edge of the castle, an arboreal moat that divided the palace from the mountains that surrounded it on three sides. Legends of it had been prominent for as long as there had been people to know of its existence. But of course, these rumours were far to coarse for the ears of royalty, and thus, that was about as much about The Forest that Kyouko ever knew. Her gilded prison never gave her a chance to explore The Forest, and being out of sight, it stayed out of mind, much to the pleasure of everyone around her.

But then came the announcement. The proclamation had informed not only the country, but also her, that she was to betrothed to the neighbouring little prince. Once upon a time she would have been amazed, ecstatic, but she had been around the prince far too long to feel any of those emotions.

It wasn't exactly that he was bad. It wasn't even that she couldn't see herself with him. She could if she squinted hard enough, and god knew that if there was one thing that had been instilled into her from her lessons it was that marriages were rarely borne out of love. She knew the kingdom was barely eking out an existence, tiny as it was, and that a political marriage would be manna from heaven.

No. It was the sheer discourtesy of it all.

She had expected to hear of her own marriage from her handmaiden. Mayhaps catch clips of whispers amongst the housekeeping. Not have it blurted out by a breathless man carrying a bugle while addressing the entire nation.

She had barely managed to keep her expression unchanged. She kept smiling as she smiled and waved to the gathered audience. She kept smiling as various members of peerage bustled to her to congratulate her on her happiness. She kept smiling as she was handed from handmaiden to handmaiden back to her own cramped quarters. She kept smiling as she requested for some time alone to nap. She kept smiling as she shucked off the fancy gown she put on for public appearances, one that the kingdom could barely afford. She kept smiling as she threw a ragged nightdress that by all rights she shouldn't have and one that was far too small for her. She kept smiling as she shimmied out the window and down the rose vines that drooped with the weight of their scented burdens, breathing in the scent as she repeatedly told herself that it would be fine, just fine.

She stopped smiling at the first prick. Even though she had miraculously managed to avoid being stung by the myriad thorns protecting their blossoming charges, somehow, once she had one foot safely on the ground, a lone thorn had pricked the sole of her foot.

The tears came unbidden, even though she did not stop moving. She ran, eyes blinded, until she was out of breath and her knees knocked and folded under her, and she realised that she could use her hands to wipe away her tears. It was only then that she saw that she was at the edge of a lake, and that she had broken the only rule her father had ever set to her.

And then she blinked, and when she opened her eyes again, he was there.

He reached out and brushed away stray tears, and she had the strange, strange feeling that he had done this before, that they had done this before.

He quirked his lips and cocked his head, an unspoken question. What happened this time?

She shook her head from side to side, but her body betrayed her, and she found herself recounting whatever had happened, start to finish, without leaving out anything. His hand had progressed from wiping her tears to patting her head, his large, delicate wings fanning cold air with a small spray of water onto his face. Once she had finished, he had only looked down on her with a smile, but somehow it was as if that smile was magic, healing every cut her grievances had dug into her.

"Did they say whom to?"

"Who-?" Then she caught his meaning, and shook his head. "No. They simply said that a royal wedding was to take place for me."

He held out a hand, helping her to her feet as he himself got up, pulling her close to him in the process. "Well then, things can still be fixed."

Once again, she shook her head. "No, the kingdom needs a political marriage, an alliance. And alliances are useless if not made with the correct parties." She quoted from memory the gist of many lessons.

"That's exactly what we'll be counting on, won't we?" He smiled at her, the expression even more dazzling at this small a distance, and his sentence ended abruptly, almost as if he had caught himself short of calling her something. "This time," he said, voice fanning her ear, "I save you." He took in a deep breath, as if he wanted to inhale her whole form. "And I think it would be the perfect way to make good on our promise."


A/N: Thank you for reading thus far! I've written this as a gift for the-solitaire-flamingo over at tumblr for the 2015 skip beat secret santa~ I have this issue where I don't know how or where to stop, and thus no story every stays short. Everything becomes nothing short of an epic to rival the ring cycle, and really, putting that to paper would take me far beyond the deadline.

But, if you think you would like to see a continuation of this, let me know. I will endeavour to add to it if inspiration does strike~~ For now, I just wanted to make Kyouko the princess he is, and let Ren be fairy boy that heals all (although tbh I'm quite put off by some recent antics of his).

As usual, the thirst for pretty comments is quite real~~~