~Author's Note - Lillian is a young, unhappy Princess and Harold is an unhappy Prince who was turned into a frog by an evil witch. (Harold is the Frog Prince). I'll tell you know, Lillian is a little different at first – I did try making her more like Fiona. I wanted to show that Lillian acted a lot like her daughter when she was younger, hence where Fiona gets it from. As the story goes on, we see the good old queen Lillian we know and love (I'm pretty sure I got Harold spot on...) Anyway, on with the story. Feel free to contact me with questions.~

The Reason For It All

Chapter 1: The Crown

A young princess sighs as she walks down the boring hallway in her castle. After the long talk with her father, she was tired and just wanted to go and rest. The talk had been a good two hours, two hours of her life she will never get back. He always talked to her about how she needs to find a good knight or prince to marry. Her older two sisters were already married and one of her sisters has a child and another on the way! Her father doesn't understand that she hasn't found a man that she loves. Does he really care if she is in love or not?

Lillian thought to herself, "Of course not… Father only cares about his kingdom. He doesn't care if I am in love with the man I marry or not, as long as I am to marry a husband to rule the kingdom after him."

She sighed as she passed a few knights and servants. They smiled at her sweetly, and she returned the gesture, but she feared they saw that her heart wasn't in the smile. She wanted to be the polite princess, the one who didn't bark orders and force them to work faster when they were working "too slow". Her father was a ruthless king, and everything fell short of his expectations. Especially his youngest daughter. Truly she wanted to run off with her horse far away from her home, but she knew she couldn't do that, in fear of being alone.

But she always felt alone…

She got to her bedroom and shut the door behind her, silently. She began walking toward her bed when something caught her eye. Lillian turned and found herself starring at in the mirror. Her beautiful long blonde hair was put up in a golden net, to keep it nice and tidy. Her blue eyes seemed to glisten like the sun coming over the sea in the morning. And her smile would light up a room, if smiles could do so. If when she smiled she truly meant the smile, her smile would make anyone's day. Sighing again, she noticed the thing that truly made her sad. A constant reminder of who her father was.

The golden crown on her head sparkled. It had beautiful, big diamonds and an even bigger one in the middle to tell everyone she is a princess. Lillian frowned.

She turns away and takes the family crown off of her head and sets it on her dresser. It took the entire young Princess' self control not to throw the expense crown at the wall and watch it break into a million pieces. "A constant reminder of my father…" Lillian laid down on her comfy bed and let her thoughts wonder. The satin sheets of light blue were soft and made her sleepy. However, thinking back to the talk with her father made her angry. The most critical man she knew.

"If I wasn't the next in line for the thrown, he wouldn't care about my future at all," She thought angrily and rolled on her side. "I wonder what it would be like to get away from the kingdom… Even for just a little while…" This thought has more than one time entered her thoughts. What would happen if she wasn't around for her father to yell at? What if she found a man she wanted to marry and he wasn't a prince or a knight?

In the kingdom, all the knights and men were only nice to her because she was the princess, not because of who she was or what was in her heart. Why did her father wonder why she wasn't married? It was obvious to her! Her father would like it if she just chose a random knight to marry... So he would finally be able to say he had a son to take over his kingdom. He was ashamed of her. He wouldn't want her to take over the kingdom by herself. Why did he want her to rule if he felt that way?

Lillian sits up and dries the tears sitting in her eyes with a towel sitting next to her on a small end table. "I wish I could find one person to call a friend… Only then would I not feel so alone." With another sigh, she walks over to her balcony doors and slowly opens them.

The minute she stepped outside, Lillian felt relieved. Cool air came all around her. The smell of fall lifts her spirits as she makes her way to the railing. She looks out beyond the trees and smiles again; the sun was setting - the best time of the day, in her opinion. All thoughts that made her angry were gone in the brief moment. Out further was the lily pond, it always looked so beautiful at this time of day.

There was a soft knock at the door, "Sweetie?" Lillian recognized, almost immediately, the voice belonged to her mother.

She cleared her throat and walked back into her room, shutting the big, brown doors to the balcony behind her, "Come in."

Her beautiful red haired mother smiled warmly as she walked through the doors and shut them softly behind her. She cleared her throat and started to walk toward her youngest daughter, "I just came to see how you were after the talk with your Father… Are you alright dear?"

Lillian sighed softly at her mother's question. Of course she wasn't alright, but she didn't want to worry her mother. She smiled at her, "I am alright mother, just a little tired is all." She sat down on her bed as her mother gave her a curious look.

The Queen went over to her daughter and sat down next to her on the bed, and undid the golden net in Lillian's hair, "I can always tell when you are lying to me dear," She set the net next the towel on the end table. "What did your father talk to you about?"

Lillian smiled at her mother weakly, "Same old same old… He wants me to find a husband by the end of the month." The Queen sighed softly as she moved a small portion of Lillian's hair behind her ear and kissed her forehead.

"I'm sorry sweetie… He just wants what's best for you."

Lillian shook her head, "That's not what's best for me," She sighed. "I want to fall in love mother and marry the man I love! I do not want to fake a marriage for the sake of the kingdom!"

The Queen nodded, "I wouldn't want you to marry a man you don't love, but-."

Lillian turned to her mother and put a hand on her arm, "Don't you believe that being true to yourself is best when wanting to be true to the kingdom?" She looked deep into her mother's blue eyes and searched for her answer there. She knew her mother had to be on her side about this. But at the same time… Both of them knew that what this king says goes. Even if the king is your husband or your father.

She sighed, "Lilly," Lilly was her nickname to only her mother. Ever since she was born, her mother has been calling her that. It made her feel even closer to her mother than she already was, and that made her smile. "Everything will work out for the best… I promise you that." The Queen finished her sentence with a smile. Lillian noted how happy her mother was and took what she said to heart. Her mother has tried to talk to her father about this before, but it had only made things worse. She still talked to her mother about everything, she just knew there was nothing she could do.

She gave her mother a small smile, "Thank you mother… I'll try with my whole heart to truly believe that," She gave her a small hug. "It's hard to be a princess sometimes…"

The Queen hugged her back and gave her another kiss on the forehead, "You're not alone dear," They stopped the hug as the Queen got up and walked toward the doors. She turned the lights off, leaving only the lamp on the end table to brighten the room. Turning toward the princess, she smiled. "I love you Lilly."

Lillian smiled back as she laid down on her soft sheets again, "I love you too." Smiling one last time, the Queen shut the door behind her and began to walk down the long hall to her bedroom.

Sighing again, she looked at herself in the mirror again. Her blue-grey eyes were misty, shadowed by her sorrow and anger. Her eyes seemed lifeless and weak, and her smile was always fake and hard. Would she ever be her happy self again?

She finally turned away from the mirror, and rolled over to lie on her stomach. Reaching up to turn off the small lamp, she tried to forget about what her father had said, and remember what her mother told her. "Everything will work out for the best…" Lillian just hoped that her mother knew what she was talking about.

~A/N – Read and Review please! I promise the chapters will get longer as I continue. Next Chapter: "The Lake". Let's go see what Harold's up to!~