It was the first day of summer, and the sky was an endless pale blue. High tea was set out on a table in the garden, positioned between the lilies and daises so their flowery perfumes drifted across with the breeze. Off in the distance, the nearby pond glistened in the sunlight, the sun turning the water into diamonds.

'Thank you,' Aurora said as her favourite maid finished pouring tea. 'We can take care of ourselves from here. Feel free to wander around the garden.'

The maid looked surprised, but she did not protest; instead, she dropped into a low curtsey before backing away and starting down a nearby path.

As the young girl left, Aurora felt the tension fade from her shoulders. Surrounded by such idyll and nobody but her newest but dearest friends, it felt like she could finally let her guard down. The moment Philip told her that he was planning on inviting some of the neighbouring princes to the palace to discuss the upcoming fencing tournament, she had made sure that he was going to invite Ella and Snow as well. More than anybody, they understood the complicated mess of feelings that came from going from a commoner to a princess in what felt like the blink of an eye.

'Please help yourselves,' Aurora said, placing one of the mini-quiches on her plate to break the ice before reaching out to take a sip of her tea.

It was odd not to have a maid or bodyguard nearby. Ever since Philip had lifted the curse and she had moved, first to her palace and then to his, there had always been somebody within a few metres of her, ready to rush to her aid at a moment's notice. While it felt a little ridiculous, she appreciated the gesture, knowing that it was grounded in their concern for her. Still, she knew that gold could loosen even the tightest of tongues, and she didn't want her private time with her friends to be overheard.

'How have you both been since we last talked?' Snow asked, taking a sandwich. 'There's so much that we just can't say in letters.'

'I'm happy,' Ella said with a soft smile. 'Henry is wonderful, as always, and I fall more in love with him every day. The kingdom is flourishing, and everybody is so kind to me.'

'But?' Aurora prompted, knowing that her friend was so used to searching for the good in everything that she sometimes struggled to articulate things that bothered her. Whenever the three of them met, she and Snow made a point of making sure Ella had the opportunity to express negative things as well.

Ella sighed. 'I really am happy. It's only… Henry makes sure I want for nothing, and while I'm grateful, it makes me feel guilty. There are so many people getting by on so little, yet no matter where I look, I always see more. The opulence feels so excessive. But as much as Henry tries to understand, it's all he's ever known. And since it's part of his heritage, it feels odd to criticise it too harshly.'

Aurora nodded. She, like Ella, had been raised as a peasant, so she understood how surreal it felt to move from a cottage to a palace. But Ella gave so much to the people around her that it felt odd for her to feel guilty about what she herself had. 'Your kingdom has the lowest homelessness rate on the continent.'

'There's no reason there should be any homelessness,' Ella retorted. 'We have more than enough beds across the kingdom for everyone. But there's not much I can do about it. Henry's father is sympathetic, but he has other priorities.'

Nodding, Snow said, 'There are always "other priorities".'

'Even when you try to talk about one of those other priorities, there are other priorities,' Aurora added, feeling a touch of bitterness enter her words and trying to tamp down on it. This was about Ella, not her.

'According to the protocol books I've been assigned to read, it's a normal part of royal rule,' Ella said. 'And I understand it. Yet every time I walk down the street and see all the people in need, I see judgement in their eyes because while I may be helping them, I'm not doing enough. How can I possibly look them in the eyes and tell them I'm doing all I can and then turn around and go back to sleep in a palace with beds to spare?'

Snow made a noise of understanding.

Ella shook her head, her blue eyes clouded. 'Henry says it'll be different when he's king, but will it really? He listens to me more than his father does, but there will still be other issues, other considerations, and I will still be expected to support royal decrees wholeheartedly even when I disagree with them. I went from being expected to do all of the work without credit to being expected to do very little of the work while being held accountable for all of it.'

'Do you ever regret marrying Prince Henry?' Aurora asked hesitantly.

'Of course not,' she said without hesitation, and Aurora felt a traitorous wave of disappointment flood through her. 'No matter what we do, there are going to be roses, and there are going to be thorns. I'm fortunate in that my thorns are all minor. I just need to learn how to prune them better.'

Waving her hand dismissively, Ella reached out and took a scone, cutting it open and spreading preserves across it. 'But enough about me and my little grievances. What about the two of you?'

Glancing over at Snow, Aurora met the other woman's gaze and gestured for her to go ahead and answer first, wanting to put off her own turn for as long as possible.

Snow set down her teacup. 'I've been well. Florian's good to me, even if his duties take him away too often for my liking.' She frowned. 'I have my own responsibilities, of course, but it would be nice if he could be around more often.'

'Philip is always in and out as well,' Aurora said as she topped up their teacups. 'It can be lonely sometimes.'

'Exactly!' Snow exclaimed, leaning forward in her seat. 'While there are always people around who are willing to talk to me, it isn't the same. I never know if they're just pretending to like me because of Florian, and whenever I try to ask them for advice, they insist that whatever I decide will be just perfect. No, it won't – or have they forgotten about the cursed apple?'

Ella nodded. 'They hold royalty up on such a high pedestal that they assume that by marrying into a royal family, we must be perfect, too.'

'Yet at the same time, whenever I do try to do things on my own, like help around the palace, they refuse, insisting that it's inappropriate.' There was a trill of birdsong, and Snow tore a bit of bread into pieces and tossed it onto the grass. A bird swooped down and picked up one of the pieces in its beak before flying back up to its nest, where three chicks could just be seen peeking out over the twigs.

Her voice melancholic, Snow continued: 'Every time I do so much as neaten my own chambers, my lady's maid tells the housekeeper, and she gives me a talking-to about how my time is better served elsewhere. They're trying to be accommodating, but it's like all of my instincts are wrong, and nobody is brave enough to tell me what my instincts should be until after I've already made a misstep. Sometimes, I wish I were back at the cottage again, only with Florian with me.'

Latching onto that final sentence, Aurora asked, 'Is Prince Florian any help?'

Snow paused, her eyebrows drawing together as she seemed to consider the question. 'He is when he's around. He's always willing to talk about my role and listen to me vent about how odd it feels to have others fawn over me. The problem comes when he's away because I don't have anyone to go to then.'

'It's lovely that you can rely on him when he is there.' Aurora patted her serviette against her mouth, hoping that her friends couldn't hear how hollow her words sounded.

From what she could gather, Ella and Snow were both satisfied with their husbands. They may be finding it difficult to adjust to the conditions that arose from being a prince's wife, but they were happy enough that they were willing to work through it. As glad as she was that her friends were content, she would have preferred it if at least one of them had something negative to say about their husband.

As selfish as it was, it would have made it easier for her.

'It is,' Snow said. 'There is so much that I have to unlearn from my time with my stepmother; if it weren't for Florian, I don't know how I would manage.'

'What about you, Aurora?' Ella asked, her eyes narrowing. 'How have you been?'

Aurora hesitated, biting her lip. As much as she'd wanted to talk about her problems – arranged this meeting to talk about them, even – now that it came down to it, she couldn't bring herself to do it. 'Oh, you know. I'm adjusting well. Even though I was raised as a peasant, my aunts taught me as much etiquette as they could without arousing suspicion, so it hasn't been as big of a culture shock as it has for the two of you.'

'But there's something that's wrong,' Snow said.

'Not wrong, exactly, just…' Before Aurora could change her mind again, she blurted out, 'Sometimes, I think I married Philip too soon.'

'What do you mean?'

It was like a weight that she didn't realise she was carrying was lifted off her chest. 'We didn't have much of a courtship,' she said. 'We met before I went to sleep, and I was besotted by him, but there's only so much that you can learn about a person from one meeting. And after he woke me, everything just moved so fast. We thought we were in love, and he risked his life to safe me; when we realised that we were already betrothed, it just felt like we were destined to be together, and neither of us saw any reason to wait.'

'And now?'

'Now, we're beginning to realise how little we know one another, but we're both so busy that we rarely have time to do anything about it.' Aurora gazed out over the pond, wishing everything could be as simple and perfect as the sparkling water. But just as there were rocks and spiders lurking beneath its crystalline surface, life was always more complicated than it looked from a distance. 'So many of my subjects envy me for my marriage, assuming that we're the perfect couple, yet I hardly even know him.'

Snow glanced over at Ella. 'I never would have guessed. You seem so comfortable together.'

'Oh, we're comfortable. It's just that it still feels so surface-level.'

'Could you take a second honeymoon?' Ella suggested. 'Go for a tour of your kingdom and use the time to get to know one another better.'

'Perhaps, except then I'll have to deal with everybody I meet swooning over him.'

'The jealousy can be tough sometimes,' Snow said. 'I just try to remember that Florian chose me, not them, and that they only know the public face he chooses to show them.' Snow's eyes widened, and Aurora suspected that she'd only just realised the implications of her words. 'Oh.'

'Precisely. Yes, they're infatuated with somebody they barely even know… but then that's essentially what happened with me, and I ended up married to him.'

'I think you need to speak to him,' Ella said.

Aurora shook her head. She could only wish it were that easy. 'There isn't anything he can do about it.'

'Perhaps not, but still, he would want to know.'

Her chest seemed to clench as fear gripped her at the thought of having that conversation. It could be the start of solving all their problems, allowing them to tackle them together rather than struggling through them separately. Alternatively, it could result in them realising that they weren't as compatible as they thought after all. Still, she knew she owed it to herself and to her marriage to try.

What a mess they were all in. Ella, more than anyone, deserved to have a fulfilling life; she was kind and generous, and she genuinely loved her people. But the very thing that made her beloved was also the thing that was getting in her way, making her feel like she could never do enough to warrant the status she had married into. Snow was an independent and responsible woman who was never happier than when she had something to do, but while she was always busy, she was never allowed to do the things that mattered to her most, such as looking after herself. Aurora was, all humility aside, elegant, dutiful, and caring, which made her well-suited for her role as a princess. But it felt like she had been sheltered since she was born, in one way or another, and it made it difficult for her to work out who she wanted to be when there was always somebody around, waiting to protect her at the first hint that something out of the ordinary was about to occur. And for someone who was as much of a hopeless romantic as her, realising that the very foundation of her marriage was shaky was heartbreaking.

To outsiders, it would seem like their lives were perfect. And in many ways, that was true; as Ella had said, their troubles were tiny. Still, Aurora couldn't help but think that being married to a prince wasn't at all what it was cracked up to be.

A/N: Written for the Small Fandoms Fest with the prompt 'Fairytales – Crossover; Cinderella & Snow White & Sleeping Beauty; being married to a prince isn't all it's cracked up to be'.