It wasn't exactly like the fairy tales that parents tell their children. The knight's armor wasn't all that shiny, and the princess wasn't all that beautiful. But it was close. There was magic. There was love.
It seemed an odd combination to everyone around them. She was so smart. He was so...not. Well, that isn't completely true. He was smarter than he knew. Or maybe he did know and was just smarter than he let on. He was smart enough to know that she was the one. And that was long before she knew.
Neither realized right away, of course. It wasn't love at first sight, though it wasn't hate at first sight either- though others may say it was.
At the time they met he still thought girls were 'annoying.' Yet he was a bit in awe of her. The smartest ten year old he ever met. She knew the answers to questions he didn't even know existed. But she was also emotional. She taught him that girls have feeling too, and are quick to cry. Or at least she was.
At the time they met she still thought boys were 'uncivilized.' Yet she was a bit intrigued by him. The funniest eleven year old she ever met. He could make anyone laugh and break up the tension in a room with a joke. But he sometimes caused the tension. He taught her that boys defend their friends to no end, and they usually do it with their fists. Or at least he did.
But despite the differences that everyone else saw, they clung to each other.
She would go to her library.
He would play his games.
And they would always end up back together at the end of the day.
He didn't know until he was fourteen that he loved her. Not until he realized that there was someone else in the competition for her love. He didn't react to it the best way he could, but he was fourteen. Fourteen and in love- that was a scary thought. He didn't even want to admit it to himself.
She figured it out a year later even though she was always considered the brighter of the two. She kissed him on the cheek before a match and realized the turning in her stomach wasn't from anything she had eaten. But at that point she was still confused- love? At her age? She was far too logical for that. Yet there she was, in love.
The next step of course would be to admit it. It shouldn't have been that hard. They were both in love. Everyone else knew they were in love. They knew they were in love. But fear has ways of making what seems easy to some people, impossible to others.
"You know he likes you! You like him. Why don't you tell him?" her friends would ask.
"You know she likes you. And you like her. Why don't you just ask her out?" his friends would say.
Both met the statements with a shake of the head and blush as they repeated time after time, "It's not like that with us. We are just friends."
But no matter how many times they said it they never could figure out a way to believe it.
Then came the day when he turned seventeen. There was a war going on and they were both so young. So young. But they aged forty years in those six. They had grown old together before they were eighteen. He knew the risks. He knew what he had to do was fight. Never one to be seen as a weakling, she fought to, much to his chagrin.
Before they left, she moved to kiss him on the check but his lips intercepted. It was everything they had imagined it would be, their first kiss.
"I love you," they said, simultaneously after they had pulled apart.
Both grinned, knowing there would be many more kisses shared.
But things don't always turn out how we want them too, and there was not another kiss.
She waited for him to come around that night, and he didn't. His best friend did though. Her friend too. He was crying, and she knew why.
No, it wasn't exactly like the fairy tales that parent's tell their children, because the ending wasn't all that happy.
AN: Told ya :) please review! Reviews will most likely be reciprocated if asked.