Once upon time in the kingdom of Rose in the village of Trost there lived a beautiful young maiden named Petra. She had silky hair the color of copper wires and eyes that looked like fresh caramel. All of the men in her village both adored and feared her in equal measure. She was sweeter than sugar but if you got on her bad side, well, let's just say it was not a good place to be. Her family had the occupation of being farmers and although it was a good occupation to have, Petra wanted more. She longed to live in a beautiful castle, wearing the most gorgeous and elaborate gowns, eating the most expensive food, and never having to lift a finger again. She knew it was silly to dream of such things and she knew she had to keep her head grounded if she was going to be successful. But every so often her head wandered into the clouds and she daydreamed of a better life.

One day she was in the village square talking with her friend Nifa, the blacksmith's daughter, as a group of pure white horses gallivanted into the square.

"Oh my, what's this about?" Nifa wondered. The girls and other townsfolk watched as a finely-dressed man stepped down from his horse

"Come on, come all. The prince is having a ball," he said, cringing at the words written on his scroll. "Tonight at sunset the prince will be holding a ball in order to find himself a wife."

"What, why? Shouldn't he be marrying a princess and securing a strong political alliance for his family?" the baker asked.

"Yeah, well the Black Plague killed all the princesses so his marriage pool's pretty slim," the messenger commented. He cleared his throat. "The prince has invited all of the young maidens in the village to his ball and he hopes to see all of you there." He casted a look at Nifa and Petra before getting back onto his horse. The group headed out, leaving a buzz of excitement behind them.

"I can't believe it! We've been invited to a ball!" Nifa squealed. "And we have a chance at marrying a prince!"

"I know! This is so exciting!" Petra replied, joy bubbling in her stomach like an overcooked stew.

"I must return home at once and get ready! Sunset is only an hour away! I'll see you at the ball, Petra!" Nifa said, glancing down the street towards her home.

"I should too! I'll see you then, Nifa!"

And so Petra rushed home to ask her parents' permission to go to the ball. But when she broached the subject with them, they seemed unhappy and reluctant to let her go.

"You're so young, Petra. You shouldn't be worrying about marriage," her father told her as he chopped up some meat for their dinner.

"But Dad, I could become a princess!" she argued.

"No excuses. You're but a child, my dear. You still have a lot left to experience in life before you get married." Overcome with grief at her parents' refusal to let her go, Petra burst into tears and ran to her garden in their backyard, sobbing over a potted plant.

"Why won't they let me go?!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. "I'm of marrying age and I could get a better life by going to this ball. Why won't they let me go?" She gazed up at the darkening sky. The first star was already out for the night, shining down on her. "I want nothing more than to go to this ball. I wish I could go!" Another sob welled up in her throat and she continued crying. With her eyes closed she missed the large burst of light in the garden. With a few beams of light and the odd scent of lemon, a man appeared in front of her.

"The fuck are you crying for?" he asked. Petra jumped to her feet, screaming at the sight of this strange man. "I'm here to- Ow, what the fuck?!" he demanded as Petra grabbed a rake and starting beating him with it.

"GET OUT OF MY GARDEN, THIEF!" she screeched.

"I'm not a thief! I'm here to grant you your wish!" he shouted, trying to grab the rake from her. She paused and gave him a confused look.

"Wait, what?" she asked.

"I heard you wish for something and now I'm here to grant it. That's just how these things work," he explained. His hands reached out and grabbed the rake, slowly prying it from her hands before making it vanish.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" she apologized. "I had no idea!"

"Yeah. Sure. You're nice to look at so I'm going to forget this happened," he said. "So yeah. I'm here to grant you your wish."

"So, you're my fairy godfather?" she asked for clarification.

"I'm not into the whole daddy kink thing so no," he replied. "Listen, I'm a busy man and I have a lot of other wishes to fulfill tonight. What do you want?"

"I want a beautiful gown and a way to get to the ball and back," she told him. He nodded slowly and from under his coat he pulled out his magic wand, a beautiful thick stick of wood with the finest feathers decorating one end.

"Is that a feather duster?" she inquired, pointing to the wand.

"I like things to have more than one purpose," he defended himself. "Do you want your pimped out dress or not?"

"Yes!" she cried.

"Then shut the fuck up and stop questioning me." And with a wave of his magical feather duster, Petra's simple dress turned into a beautiful purple ballgown, complete with lace, bows, jewels, and other assorted notions that were associated with femininity. "Huh. I thought purple would be your color but apparently not. Hold on." He waved his wand again and the purple shifted into a beautiful gold color that accented her hair and eyes perfectly.

"This is amazing. I love it!" Petra squeaked, pulling at the dress and inspecting every element of it. Levi said nothing, fishing something out of his drawstring bag. It was a small crystal orb, not unlike a Christmas ornament, and put it on the ground. He pulled out a few miniature horses made of the same material and placed them in front of the orb.

"I'd stand back if I were you," he said as he backed up. Petra took a few steps back and was once again amazed as the orb turned into a jeweled carriage and the horses into living, breathing horses.

"This is absolutely incredible," she breathed as Levi magically hitched the horses to the carriage.

"I guess," he shrugged, putting his wand back in his pocket and pulling another drawstring bag out of his coat and handing it to her. "There's some flats, some hair pins, and a few condoms in there. Take it."

"Wow, you really thought of everything," she breathed, peering inside the bag.

"I've been doing this my whole life. I know what I'm doing," he replied. "I'll drive you into town and find someone from there to take you to the castle."

"You're not taking me?" she asked, a frown on her lips.

"No. I'm backlogged on wishes. Every single girl in the village is making wishes and I have to oblige them," he explained. He offered her his hand. "Come on, you don't want to be late, do you?" She shook her head and took his hand.

"You know, I didn't catch your name," she said as he helped her into the carriage.

"It's Levi," he answered.

"It's nice to meet you, Levi. I'm Petra." He nodded and climbed into the driver's seat and they were off, riding towards the village.

"So, Levi, you said you'd been doing this your whole life," she asked, turning back in her seat to look at him.

"Whoa there, let's not do some shitty heart-to-heart. We're doing that on page five; let's not jump to anything," he told her. She gave him an odd look but said nothing, turning back and letting the rest of the ride go by without any speaking. Levi found the doctor's son Eren and bribed him to drive her to the ball before disappearing.

Petra felt excitement swirl in her body as she and Eren approached the castle. She had never seen such a large building before; it must've been the size of Trost, maybe even larger. Lights shone beautifully in the windows and lush green ivy climbed up the grey stone walls. Gold fountains dotted the landscape and the faint strains of a waltz danced through the air.

"Wow, I've never seen something so fancy," she breathed in wonder. Eren pulled up to the grand staircase leading up to the castle and let Petra join the party. As she walked up the steps on the fancy purple outdoor rug covering the stairs, she realized this may be her new home and the thought excited her to no end. If she became a princess, this would be the entrance to her home and with a large grin on her face, she joined the party.

The ballroom wasn't very full. Petra recognized several of the other girls in the village, all dressed in very elaborate gowns, but several strangers that she had to assume were members of the court were mixed among them. It was beautiful, not just aesthetically, but socially the classes were mixing and Petra found it amazing.

She wandered around the large room, trying to find the prince. It was always so easy in storybooks and fairy tales. The heroine always found the prince within minutes and they'd dance the night away and get married the next day. Worry was tearing at Petra's stomach. How was she supposed to know what the prince looked like? Would he even want to dance with her? There were so many other women here, surely she had a lot of competition for the prince's affection?

"So like, you guys are lesbians? That's so awesome; girl love is so hot." Petra cringed as she saw a tall guy conversing with Ymir and Historia. Both looked incredibly uncomfortable and from the anger on Ymir's face Petra knew this guy was going to get it. Historia's blue eyes locked with Petra's honey-colored ones and her face lit up.

"Hello, Petra!" she waved, beckoning the ginger girl over to them. "Have you met the prince yet?"

"Whoa, hot babe alert!" the prince said in his odd drawl as he offered his hand to her. "'Sup, cutie? I'm the prince, what's your name?"

"Petra. I'm Petra, Your Highness," she informed him, giving him her hand. He shook it hard and made her flinch from the strength.

"Sick name, babe! Hotties with bitchin' names is my thing!" he said enthusiastically. "How about we go do some dancing?" She was too shocked for words as he dragged her onto the dancefloor. This wasn't what she expected and the shock of it seemed to hinder her from even thinking straight.

"So, what do your parents do for a job?" he asked.

"I, uh, we're all farmers," she told him. In any other case she would be ashamed to tell such a high-ranking society member of her lowly status but for some reason she didn't feel bad at all.

"No way! I love food!" he exclaimed. "That's such a wicked job, babe!"

"Yeah, it's something," she said. He wasn't even the exact opposite of what she expected the prince to be like: never in a million years would she expect someone like him to be royalty.

"Not to get all serious on you, but Petra, you are by far the hottest chick here," he told her, a grin that was supposed to be seductive on his face.

"Um, thank you," she replied, unsure of what to feel besides dislike for him. He was annoying, yes, but he had an air of cluelessness to him. Either way, she didn't like it and she didn't want to dance with him any longer. "I, um, it's rather stuffy in here. I'm just going to step outside for a moment."

"Yeah, yeah, sure! Come find me when you come back inside. You seem like a rad chick and I totes wanna hang more," he replied. She grimaced and left, leaving the ball quickly and hurrying into the hedge maze right outside. Part of her wished she'd stay lost in it forever. Tonight was feeling like a huge failure.

"I should have stayed home tonight," she muttered under her breath. "I should have listened to my father and didn't come to this."

"Do you always talk under your breath or do you just do it to be dramatic?" Petra jumped as Levi appeared in front of her.

"Levi! What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be granting wishes right now?" she asked.

"I got done early so I thought I'd see how you were doing," he replied. The two started walking deeper into the maze. "So how's the ball?"

"It's very pretty and it's quite the experience," she replied carefully. She didn't want to seem ungrateful in front of the man who granted her wish.

"What, you don't like it?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow at her. She bit her lip and shrugged, refusing to meet his eyes.

"I don't know. The prince is just . . . different from what I expect," she sighed. "I guess I just had this set image in my mind of what tonight was going to be like and the ball was like it, but the prince . . . well . . ."

"He's a fuckboy?"

"Yeah."

"I could probably change him for the better but that'd be going against several moral codes," he told her.

"No, that's unnecessary. I just wish he wasn't like this. I really came here hoping I'd become a princess," she confided in him.

"Why would you want to be a princess? That seems like a lot of political work, but . . . then again we're living in a misogynistic patriarchal society, so maybe not."

"You have an odd way of talking, Levi," she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't worry about it."

"But, to answer your question, I guess I wanted to be a princess because of the luxury and the fact I wouldn't have to work for the rest of my life. I could just enjoy the pleasures in life and not have to work the land for a living. And . . . I guess I could still do that. The prince is terrible but I mean, I could have everything else, right?"

"Is that really what you want, Petra? You'd rather have a loveless marriage but the good things in life?"

"I-I . . . I don't know, I -"

"I'm fucking with you. I'd do a marriage just for the rich life," he told her bluntly. "But then again, I'm just that kind of person. You don't seem like the kind of girl that'd sacrifice love for the rich life."

"You don't really seem like the guy that'd sacrifice love for money either," she replied.

"We met two hours ago. You can't know someone's life story after only knowing them for two hours."

"I don't know, Levi. Sometimes people hit it off really well," she argued. Kind of like we are, she finished her sentence silently.

"Ugh, I came here to check up on you, not get into a debate," he groaned, making her laugh.

"Ay, Petra!" She jerked as the prince's low and weird drawl cut through the otherwise peaceful night air. "You've been gone for a while so I thought I'd come and find you. You're missing the party, babe!" His eyes met Levi's. "'Sup, bro? You enjoying the honey too?"

"What?" Levi demanded, his voice low and dangerous.

"I was just wondering if you and her were a thing. Cause if not I'm totally calling dibs," the prince said, lazily gesturing to Petra.

"Excuse you but I'm not something you can 'call dibs' on," she said angrily.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down babe. It's a compliment, like, you're a commodity that people can't get enough of," the prince said.

"It's not a compliment. You basically just said I'm an object," Petra told him. She may have wanted to be a princess but if that meant dealing with this jerk for the rest of her life, then she didn't want to be a princess.

"Whoa, just chill. Don't be such a bitch abo -" The prince didn't even have time to finish his sentence. Like a valiant knight of days not too far gone, Levi sucker punched the prince in the face. Petra watching in amused horror as Levi beat the living daylights out of the prince, kicking and punching the royal heir with a fury Petra couldn't have imagined.

"Don't treat her like that," Levi hissed, his words punctuated by each kick he made to the prince's torso. He made to kick the prince in the face but Petra stopped him, crying out for him to stop.

"Levi! This isn't going to solve anything!" she cried, grabbing his hands and pushing him away from the prince, who seemed to be coughing up blood.

"I'd disagree. I think he learned a good lesson," Levi replied. "And it's pretty satisfying. You should try it out, if you want."

"No, I don't want to hurt him! He's a jerk, but I just, ugh," she moaned, hiding her face in her hands. "I just want to get far, far away from here."

"That sounds like a good idea. I don't want to be in Rose when someone finds the prince and word gets out what we've done."

"We?! You're the one who beat him up!" Petra exclaimed.

"Well you didn't stop me until the last second, so I don't think you'd get spared either. But let's discuss this once we're away from here," he replied. He took Petra's hand in his and in a bright flash they were outside of the hedge maze. Levi tugged on her to keep her going as she was somewhat dazed from the sudden location change. How he could do it without fail and stay lucid was beyond her. They boarded the coach with Eren and fled back to Trost. They dropped Eren off at his home before Levi took over and drove them deep into the forest.

"What are we going to do? We can't stay hidden in Trost for very long," she pointed out to him as he had the horses stop.

"We're going to the kingdom of Sina and waiting a month or two before coming back. It should have brewed over by then," he replied. "Get out of the carriage, I'm going to shrink everything back down to size."

"Two months? Levi, I can't be gone for two months! I have a job, and my family! What about my parents?!"

"I'm not going to let you get in trouble for something I did. Your parents will be fine, I promise they'll be fine. I'll ask a friend to look after them. But we need to leave and we need to leave now." He waved his wand and the coach turned back into a glass orb and the horses into glass miniatures. His blue eyes caught Petra's brown ones. "You going to stay here or will you come with me?" he asked, offering her his hand. Steeling her nerves, she nodded and took his hand.

Despite the fact Levi said they would be gone for only two months, they stayed away from Trost for far longer: about two years, actually. But it wasn't out of fear of a vengeful prince. No, it was because of the vastness of the world and the thirst for adventure Levi and Petra had. With Levi's supernatural abilities, he and Petra were able to travel the world and visit anywhere their hearts desired. She didn't have jewels and she didn't have riches, but Petra was able to see the world and not work for her food and in the end, she could think of only one thing better than that: Levi. After traveling and spending day upon day with each other, the two fell in love and when they returned to Trost, they came to tell Petra's parents of their engagement. Her parents were slightly concerned but after being won over by the couple, they gave Levi and Petra their blessing and the next year they were married and continued to travel all over the globe.

In the end, they lived happily ever after, and that's all Petra could have ever wished for.