Princesses

Pairing: PauliexIceburg

Rating: PG-13

Summary: One-shot. Not only we sometimes question Paulie's heritage.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece and characters.

Thanks: To my wonderful beta-er, Susan.

Paulie had always been a sucker for fairy-tales.

Where brave knights defeated ugly witches and strong dragons; where beautiful princesses were always waiting to be saved; where horses were always white and where animals came to dance with peasant-girls in the woods.

Paulie liked heroic stories most; where princes asked for the hands of princesses, but their fathers forbade them, unless they did something dangerous and heroic.

And after doing just that, the prince returned to her, and was then allowed to marry the beautiful princess.

Oh yes, those princesses were beautiful. Fairy-tale princesses always wore beautiful long dresses, and long skirts and long shirts, and Paulie liked that a lot. Princesses had a lot of manners, and always talked about really interesting things, like ships. And probably riggings too.

Princesses were always nice, and they were always really important for their country, because without princesses, there would only be misery and despair among the people.

Princesses were really flexible too! They came in a lot of sizes: they were small or big, tanned or not, with or without suit, and sometimes, princesses were male.

In short; princesses were everything.

Paulie didn't like princes. Princes usually were brave and cool, just like he was, and they could be really nice as well (just like Paulie). No, Paulie didn't mind princes' characters.

But that one thing that made Paulie differ from princes, was that one thing that Paulie wanted most.

Paulie grew up on his own, and he never needed someone to mother him. He named himself, and he decided to become a shipwright on his own too.

But who Paulie's parents were, he did not know.

They might have been a couple of nice but poor fishermen, who didn't have any money to raise a sweet child like him. Or he might have had the sweetest mother, but he was stolen by a thief one night, and they never found each other back. Or he might have been a love-child between a pirate and a citizen.. or perhaps between a pirate and someone from the government!

Yes, that might have been the case, but Paulie would never be sure.

He hated princes, because they knew who their parents were. Paulie hated princes, because he knew that princes' parents were important people.

He hated princes, because they married princesses.

And utterly detested princes, because princesses only married princes.

Princesses didn't marry people who didn't know if they were a prince or not. Princesses never married people who didn't even know where they came from.

"Nma, Paulie, are you day-dreaming again?"

I looked up from a random blue-print, the last memory of strong dragons and stupid princes fading away quickly.

"Eh, yeah. Sorry about that." I said meekly.

Iceburg smiled at me, a second longer than was necessary which made my chest do a flip-flop, before turning around and walking away. He walked with so much grace and power in each step; with his hair neatly combed and his suit flawless as always and he said 'hello' to every passer-by. You could easily see Iceburg was someone special.

A real princess he was.

And I? After countless hours of helping this city bloom, together with him; after a nerve-wrecking quest to Enies Lobby to defeat the evil dragon (Well.. Luffy did that, but I didn't care for details) like true princes would; after countless hours of research and asking around and even paying dark and shady figures to find out something -anything!- about my parents --

I still didn't know who I really was.

Sometimes I hoped that it was true - that I was an important person, and that my parents had been important people, and that I could simply walk up to Iceburg and ask him to marry me, and then he would say 'yes' and we would kiss and hug and touch and-

But then again, that was only hope.

And even though I was willing to bet everything I had, and then some more, to make my hope come true, I had always been a bad gambler.