Originally posted on comment_fic on LiveJournal.
Disclaimer: I don't own Adventure Time or any of its characters featured in this work of whim and fancy ;)
Once upon a time, there lived a princess.
Nothing else goes according to plan.
She starts out a spark of a child and grows and grows until she leaves scorch marks for footsteps behind her and the scent of charred earth in the air (whatever little remains after her often sudden appearances). She grows, glows bright and beautiful, she hurts to touch, she could destroy a kingdom with a careless flicker of her wrist, she is a monster gleaned from a bard-song.
And then she is swallowed by glass. Solid, see-through, a pretty cage for a pretty princess.
This is how the books go: there lived a princess, nothing more.
Once upon a time, there lived a prince.
This doesn't go according to plan either.
It has been a thing unheard for her to have a suitor. Not unless she counts the ones who stood in her path, long time ago, far away land, everyone knew the drill, armed with flame-proof armor, trembling, sweaty steeds, freeze spells, and vows to bring her to her knees (not the correct definition she was looking for). But three gifts and a song later, a while since the last couple of raging infernos and burnt cottages, she thinks she has it figured out.
And when her touch burns him, she flinches.
This is not how the stories were supposed to go.
Once upon a time, there lived a princess.
One who was exactly as she wished she could have been.
The pretty pink princess is the fairytale she'd always wanted and then some, with brains to match and bravado which has her head spinning. The pink princess does not devour men, beasts, and lands the way she does numbers, graphs, facts, and squiggles, and that is something which scares the other princess. Bubblegum princess has powers she has never been privy to and if that isn't enough to make anyone flee, then she is still in the wrong tower.
But sometimes, if she dares a glance, she sees the almost same shade of pink spotting his cheeks, twisting his belly, something relighting itself for the tiniest moment before he looks away from Bubblegum and back at her, eyes watering.
She has never heard a stranger tale than this.
Once upon a time, there lived a dragon.
This is the only part which does make sense.
She sees it every day in the glass cage, looking back at her, solid and see-through. She has seen it the mirrors of water in the land far away when she was barely candlelight feeding on scraps of wood and fallen leaves. She has seen on it shields, swords, and armor, before the glass, and even during it when the courtiers giggle at the play-fights in the play-acts with the play-dragon pretending to breathe fire which is the funniest thing of all. She sees it through her own laughter which sounds even louder in the lantern and sometimes it's hard to figure out if it's because of that or if it's just her own head.
When the story ends and the actors retire, it's her and the glass, the laughter an echo.
No one ever tells her what happens to the dragon.
And then he cries.
He spills water and that hurts her real bad and she doesn't know why.
She hugs him and it hurts her to hurt him and maybe this is why she's never heard this story before.
Once upon a time, there lived a boy.
Beneath the prince, there is, in fact, a boy and it surprises her that she had ever thought about the possibility.
She doesn't know or care how long ago it has been since the lantern and the truth is that she feels freer than she's ever known. And simmering with the possibility of raising a full-grown fire-storm for the first time in freakin' ever (though she thinks she'll have to work on that). They hug again and again and again and it feels good and she is careful and he is a knight in shining tinfoil and even when she does see the dragon, it doesn't matter as much anymore.
He tells her she is bright and beautiful and even though this is not the first time she's heard the words, she thinks that right now feel like the right time.
And if the story ends right here, right now, she knows she'd be okay with that.
But once upon a time, there was, and still is, a dragon.
And princes don't kiss dragons.
His mouth is wet and wobbles a little when it touches her own. The swell in her chest gushes sweetly, then good, better than good, until she can't quite contain it and then it erupts, bad, bad, bad. The earth swallows her up and it's the cage all over again, scorch marks and burnt soil in her wake. She immediately forgets the fairytales and listens to instincts, curling up against the cold, and then things go flat and dark. It's okay then, it's okay now. She closes her eyes and thinks of the plays.
Suddenly, she feels his lips on hers again and just like that, everything is right.
She's never read of anything like this before, but it doesn't really matter and all she wants is to kiss him until the lights go out.
Once upon a time, there lived a Flame Princess.
The rest of the story is still far from perfect.
Including him. It didn't matter at the beginning and it doesn't now, but it still isn't the end of things. Princes are boys and the books tell her boys will be boys. The books tell her nothing about a princess who is a girl who is fire who is passion and danger and born to consume. At the foot of her old prison, she realizes that fire only grows before it is doused. Time and again, once in every clear-skyed day, he tells her things haven't changed though she is now Queen and wondering if there is any room for a next chapter.
'Ever after…' is clearly only a place-holder.
But then he looks at her and she wonders.