once upon a time
clerith : ankosune

×××

Once upon a time, in a magical far-away land, there was a magnificent marble castle that sat atop a grassy hill. In this castle lived a beautiful princess who had everything she could ever want. Bracelets, necklaces, jewelry — she had it all. Then one day she met a prince who was as handsome as she was pretty. They got married soon after & they lived happily ever after.

Ugh. How you hate those words. Ever since you were little, you couldn't stand ( absolutely couldn't stand ) the phrase once upon a time because you always see it at the beginning of a fairy tale, and fairy tales are one of the of the stupidest things ever invented. Seriously, what idiot came up with them anyway?

But if there's one thing you hate more than once upon a time, it's happily ever after, because you know there's no such thing as a happily ever after, and you know that from experience. Happily ever afters just. Don't. Exist. And you've always kept that in mind ( alwaysalwaysalways ).

At least, until you met her.

When you first saw her, you thought she was the same as any other girl : brown hair, pink dress — nothing special, right? But then you crashed through the roof of her church ( nice going ) & you fell on her flowers ( once or twice ) & you told her your name ( kind of a stupid one, too, don't you think? ).

You never really wanted to be her bodyguard at first, did you? Face it — you were fine with it at the beginning, but then you kept trying to shake her off "for her own good" you claimed ( yeah right ).

Looking at her now, perched upon that tree stump in the field of flowers, you start to wonder how you could ever think of her like that in the first place ( gee, can't help you there ). She looks so innocent, so damn happy, & you can't help but want to get rid of anything ( anything & everything ) that might take that away.

She turns toward you suddenly, with sparkling eyes & a radiant smile, and your breath catches in your throat, but you don't know why since you're only supposed to be her bodyguard, remember?

She's walking toward you now ( oh crap ) with that same smile on her face ( run away ) & that same gleam in her eye, and before you can ask her what she's doing ( what the heck is she doing? ) she opens her mouth, those full pink lips, & says "Thanks for bringing me here."

& then she hugs you.

holy. crap.

You do nothing — just stand there like an idiot — breathing in her scent ( is that gardenia shampoo? ) and wondering just what in the name of the Planet you're supposed to do now. It's not like you can just hug her back ( remember — bodyguard ) but you can't do nothing and stay there frozen like a caveman, right?

But still ; even through that misty haze of senselessness that clouds your mind, you can't help ( a lot of that going on lately, huh? ) but think that this kind of nice. Maybe you and she can do this again another time . . .

Wait — what?

Suddenly, her shoulders start shaking, & you realize she's laughing ( but it's a really cute laugh ) — probably because you haven't been doing or saying anything for the pastfive minutes, but what are you supposed to do? You're supposed to protect her, and as such, you can't—

Oh, what the heck. It can't hurt if you return her embrace — just this one time. Besides, it's not like she's going to fire you ( hopefully ) if you accept her thanks and tell her You're Welcome, Aeris, is it?

Slowly, with just the tiniest bit of hesitation, you wrap your arms around her & hug her back.

If having her hug you feels nice, this is like floating on a cloud ( no pun intended ). & maybe she thinks so too, because you can feel her smiling against you, and as you two stand there, in the middle of the flower field, you can feel yourself smiling too ( like you've never smiled before ).

She pulls away & smiles at you again. Then she reaches out, offering you her hand, and opens her mouth one more time.

"Let's go, Cloud."

& as she takes your hand, and starts to pull you along, you start to think that maybe, just maybe, happily ever afters really do exist ; and that maybe, just maybe, you can have one of your own.

With her.

owari. ×

an & now you know i suck at writing fairy tales. xD
ch.1 of artificial splendor will be up soon, i swear.
ded for kelsey, since i don't give her enough
presents. xD