This is an alternate ending of The Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa from the moment on when Meghan wants to follow Ash through the trod into the mortal world because he got exiled for being in love with her, of course I don't own the series and none of the characters, but it's so much fun to write about them :) For those of you who love Chasefellow (Puck x Meghan)

I turn around and look at Puck once more. The trod into the mortal world will close soon and this might be the last time I'll see him, because I am sure he won't want to see me after I do this. Leaving the Nevernever behind while it's threatened by the iron faeries. The courts will fight and I am leaving, because I don't care. But actually I do! I do care about this fascinating world and of course I care about Puck!

His head is lowered and he hides his face but I don't need to see it to know he's holding back tears.

Is this the right choice?

Isn't it rushed to leave everything I fought for in the last months behind, for a boy I can hardly figure out and who already changed his mind and left me once?

Should I really leave my best friend, whom I know since forever, behind?

He could die.

He could die and I'd might not find out and if I did I'd blame myself for it because I wouldn't have been there.

Suddenly I feel a pain in my chest. As if I can't breathe. The thought of losing him is unbearable.

How can I be so ignorant? This is a serious matter and I got so far by now. I killed the Iron King, and by doing it I became part of the events here. I refuse to give up. And I refuse to hurt my best friend like that.

Ash is important to me, but this is bigger than him. Everything that happens in the Nevernever has effects on the human world and I can't follow him while the chaos breaks loose. It's crazy to run off into the sunset with him while everything breaks apart.

Puck said he couldn't follow me this time and I understand it. He stands his ground, he would fight for his home and he was by my side whenever I needed it, so I can't leave him either.

My best friend who loves me, who fights - like it's a matter of course - by my side against every crazy thing in this world and kept me safe for so many years, hoping the day would come when I'd find out about this world and he could tell me who he was. The day he could be honest with me, because he didn't want our love to be a lie.

My Puck, my Robbie. The one person who had been there for me from the start. The person who broke Oberon's rules and agreed to help me to find my brother, because he loves me so much. Not because I was the summer princess and of use for his mother, a certain other fey's reasons.

I remember the night I lost it over a riddle and Puck encouraged me and comforted me. The night he kissed me and I didn't refused to kiss him back.

By the memory I imagine the heat as he kissed my neck and how I craved for more but we got interrupted.

Oh, how many times have I thought back to this moment?

Way too many times to go through the trod.

I'm sorry Ash. But my eyes are open now and the one person who will always be there, who I can call my love and my closest friend is no one else than Robin Goodfellow.

I love him. I even loved him before I knew it.

I'm smiling at the thought, but also feel the guilt while watching the trod close. Ash left his home for me, but I'm unsure if he ever considered a place home after I visited the unseelie court once. He knew how much Puck meant for me when he left. He knew the risk of thinking I'd leave it all so easily.

The choice is made and I'm starting to walk back to the summer army, with Oberon at the front and his jester behind him, with closed eyes.

He doesn't want to watch me leave.

I start to go faster until I run and hear a hiss-like noise from Mab's direction.

"Knew he did it for nothing."

Then she starts to lead her army back to the winter court.

"We'll meet later to plan how to overcome the iron monstrosities.", her ice-cold voice growls to Oberon's direction, as I pass him.

I can feel his look on me, and catch a glimpse of a smile.

Then I reach Puck and take his hands. He shudders and opens his amazing, but confused green eyes and looks at me surprised, then there appears a spark I've been missing since the night he kissed me. The light which bobbed up when he realized I love him.

"Thought you'd lose the only girl you can annoy by legitimately calling her princess?", I tease him and the widest Robin-Goodfellow-grin I've ever seen shows up on his face - didn't know that was possible! Even though he's a thousand-year old legend, he's the cutest cheeky boy I've ever seen, in that moment and before he can reply to me I crush my lips to his.

Finally, after remembering our last kiss so many times I'm allowed to feel this buzzing sensation again. I can feel how his heart beats faster and faster, while losing the awareness of where's up and where's down.

At a point I realize I really can't feel the ground under my feet anymore and then Puck's warm breath brushes against my ear with the words:

"Surprise princess!"

I open my eyes. We are really floating 5 feet over the ground!

Amazed I first want to ask him how he did this, then I understand how stupid that would be. Well, he's a fey and the infamous trickster of the seelie court, there's nothing you can't expect from him.

Abruptly we fall down and I shriek, but of course we land softly, with Puck carrying me in his arms, winking before giving me another mind-blowing kiss and there's nothing in this moment that worries me.

Everything that counts is that I'm happily in love with my best friend, Robin Goodfellow. With him I fear nothing, not even the war against the iron fey.