Aramina hummed happily as she walked into the apartment that she and the other three shared and dropped a large blank-pages book on her desk. She sat down, opened the front cover, dipped her pen in ink and started writing:

-It's been two years since my friends and I have fulfilled our dreams to become the first female musketeers!

Our adventures are never ending and our friendship grows stronger with each mission... or each chore. Yes, we still clean in the castle. Puts us close to the King should something come up and also keeps us close to the passageways where we still meet Helene to train.

But as of right now, it's a beautiful spring morning. The air is blowing gently and the sun will soon be shining brightly. It's like barely six right now so... yeah.

Corinne walked into the room, twisting her long blond hair up into a bun "What are you doing, Aramina?"

"I'm writing." I answered, continuing to scribble quickly.

She walked over to me and leaned over my chair "Okay. Why are you writing every word we say?"

"Because it's a story about us." I responded.

Renee snorted from where she was restringing her violin... again "Well at least we' know it'll be interesting."

Corinne laughed and patted my shoulder "Alright Miss Author. We need to go or we'll be late."

"But the story's off to such a great start!" I complained.

"Aramina."

"Fine." but I wasn't happy about it.

She closed the book and looked back at the blond "There. I stopped."

Corinne smiled "Good. Now get ready to go." she motioned down to the red head's maid uniform that she had undoubtedly thrown on to go get her book "We're on patrol first today. Not cleaning."

"O-oh." Aramina nodded "Be right back. Then she jumped up and ran into the dressing room."

Viveca shook her head "Sometimes I wonder how she remembers all those romance novels but can never remember her own schedule."

"It's just Aramina." Corinne and Renee said in unison.

A few minutes later the four left the apartment.

"So, what's the title of your story?" Corinne asked as they walked down the stairs.

"I don't know yet." Aramina answered "I haven't thought of one yet."

"How about All for One?" Viveca suggested "Or Girl Power. Ooh! How about, Don't Mess with the Dress!"

"I'll think about it."

Renee shook her head "At least we know it won't be a Romance."

"Says who?" Aramina retorted "It very well could be, we're all dating."

"I'm not." Corinne said as she stepped to the ground and started towards the stables.

"Right." the other three echoed.

"What, I'm not."

"Speaking of which! Look!" Aramina pointed towards the castle where Louis was standing on the front steps looking around.

"What is he doing up this early?" Corinne mumbled "And what is he looking for?" she waved to get his attention.

A smile crossed the young king's face and he jogged down the steps and hurried towards them.

"Oh, I think he was looking for you." Renee whispered loudly.

Corinne didn't respond because he reached them just then "Can I help you, Your Highness?"

He raised an eyebrow and stared at her blankly.

She sighed "Louis."

He smiled "Yeah. I know you're about to leave, but... I've made some adjustments to the balloon for landing and was wondering if you'd like to try them out when you got back."

Her face lit up, but she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow "It's my job to make sure you don't kill yourself on that thing."

He stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged "Well, if you don't want to go up in it, I'm not going to make you."

Her arms dropped to her sides and she smiled "I'd love to."

"Okay. I'll see you at...?"

"About two."

"Alright. See you then... Corinne." then he turned and shuffled off.

"Ooooooh." The three girls teased.

"Stop it."

"He was up before dawn to ask you to go up with him!" Aramina gushed. When Corinne glared at her she shrugged "I said 'go up' not 'go out'."

"Come on." Corinne mumbled, continuing the trek to the stables.

"Why don't you just admit that it's a date?" Viveca asked "I mean, you spend so much time together everyone sees you as an item."

Aramina elbowed her "Sh! She doesn't need to know that!"

"Louis and I are not an item." Corinne shook her head "Not until he makes it that way."

"What?" the other three echoed.

She smiled slightly "If he does someday ask me out... or up, officially I will accept. It's just waiting for him to go it."

"So you do like him?" Renee stated more than asked.

Corinne rolled her eyes "I've already said too much. And we are really late."

They ran the rest of the way to the stables, mounted their waiting horses and rode out to where all the others were waiting.

"Ladies." Treville said when he spotted them "Running a little late?"

Viveca glanced at the giant town clock and squinted to see it's large numbers "Nope. We're still in the 'fashionably late' quota."

"We were detained by the king." Corinne added.

"So I see." he then started calling out their assignments for the day.

"Hey, Beautiful." Harvey Jacobs, Aramina's date said as he pulled his horse up next to the red head. Yves, Viveca's date and Terence, Renee's date were right behind him.

Corinne wasn't sure why she found it funny that her three friends were all dating musketeers.

"Hi, Harvey!" Aramina leaned over and kissed his cheek.

Aramina had been smitten by the young, blond haired, blue eyed musketeer the first time she'd laid eyes on him riding into the courtyard on his silver stallion. As it turned out, he was a hopeless flirt and romantic.

Renee had fallen for Terence the fifth time she'd beat him in hand to hand combat and had slammed him into the dirt. After the fifteenth time, he asked her out and she agreed, despite the fact that he was five years older than her.

Viveca had hated Yves when he first arrived a little over a year ago... he laughed at their outfits. But he came around when he saw what happened when someone hurts one of those dresses. He couldn't stop smiling at her after that. They'd started dating about six months ago.

A few minutes later, Treville was done with the musketeers and sent them on their way.

"Meet you at Frazolli's later?" Yves asked.

Viveca nodded "Like usual. We'll meet you there."

Treville walked over to them just then and nodded at Corinne "When you get a chance, we need to talk."

"Yes, Captain." she nodded, then he walked away.

"I wonder what he wants." Renee mumbled "Generally you're in trouble."

"If I was in trouble he would have talked to me right then and there." she shrugged "Guess I'll find out later."

"Well, while you're out, I'm in charge of the king." Yves ran a hand through his jet black hair.

Corinne sent him a warning look "Don't you dare fall asleep again."

"How was I supposed to know that maniac was going to break in?"

"You're supposed to be prepared, Rookie."

"Hey, I've been here for a year. I'm not a Rookie anymore."

"Prove it... Rookie."

"Guys!" Renee interrupted "Yves, just do your job. This is one of Corinne's two days on town patrol and we want to enjoy it."

After the girls had become musketeers, Louis had chosen Corinne to be his personal bodyguard. But she was allowed two days a week to go on town patrol with her friends.

"See you guys later." Aramina waved at them and the girls rode towards the gate "I still can't decide if Yves's eyes are blue or green."

"They're turquoise, Aramina." Viveca corrected "Turquoise."

Corinne chuckled "Whatever you say, Viveca."

(Okay, I know you people saw 'As History Repeats Itself' as the next story but... I had tragedy strike... literally. The Flash Drive containing 98 percent of my stories... is broken D': SO... I'm sorry people who are reading 'Ashes and Gold', it may be awhile til there's an update. I did have the next chapter completed BUT... it's on my broken flashdrive. So until I get up the nerve to try and rewrite that chapter and hope it's as good as the original... there won't be an update :( sorry.

I've been on the verge of tears for three days... literally.

So... anyhoo... I hope you enjoy. Thank you Tilly0006 (my sister) for helping inspire this story and for the title!

Laterz!)