Author's note: This is inspired by Flame of Recca. I am merely borrowing its characters so STANDARD DISCLAIMERS APPLY.

Dedication: For Bernadette, my love, my life.

I've found a love that I would risk my life to keep. I finally know why I had to live a life tainted with loneliness. --Cross my heart

=== Prinsesa ===

I looked at her from afar. She was sitting by the classroom corridor when I heard someone call her name. Ah. Recca. He came up close and held her face as he kissed her cheeks. I could see her smile from where I was. I could see the redness of her cheeks.

She was Recca's princess. Someone to please, to honor, to love.

I was still looking at her when she glanced at my direction and waved. "FUU- CHAN!" I blushed. I didn't know if I was just ashamed, or embarrassed because she saw me staring at her, or maybe I felt happy because at least she noticed me and waved at me even for just a while.

Oh yes, just a while. She gazed back at Recca and they talked, I don't know, for hours, I think. She stood up and took hold of Recca's hands. She didn't say goodbye. They just walked away, without even looking back.

One Saturday, I practiced my skills with Toki-sama. We fought, of course, not meaning to hurt each other. It was just for the sake of training our elements, air and water. Toki-sama was good, and I mean really good. Everything was going fine actually, until I saw them together at the picnic grounds near the fountain, Toki-sama's water source for his amazing sword.

Recca was... well, holding her in an embrace. Toki-sama took me by the arm and led me to where they were sitting, and talking, and just being affectionate. Toki-sama began talking to them but I just stood there, stared at them both, until I couldn't hold my emotions intact and I ran away as fast as I could before I burst into tears.

Maybe they thought that I was pretty weird even from the start. Or maybe, they didn't care because they thought something just came up and I had to run without saying goodbye. I'm sure worry didn't come to their minds because they thought I'm strong. So strong that pain could not bother me anymore.

But they were so wrong.

Let me get back to the story. Yanagi came up to me one morning when I was walking across the school grounds. Her face looked swollen, and her cheerful face wasn't there anymore. Her eyes were puffed and she looked so destroyed. Suddenly, she hugged me and cried to my shoulders. I grabbed her shoulders and led her to sit on the grass.

"Hey, what's the matter?" I asked. She was still crying and I was just holding her without anything to do. I tried to hush her, asking the soft breeze to calm her down.

"Fuu-chan," she began to speak, heaving a deep sigh. "Recca has..has.."

I couldn't understand her when she started to cry again, sobbing in my arms. I knew her eyes were sore from weeping but she just couldn't stop. I waited for her to say the whole issue. I waited for her to just stop crying and talk things over.

"Recca has another girl."

My eyes went wide. I almost lost my temper, almost threw Yanagi on the ground and just walk over to Recca who could have been busy on his new other princess.

Princess!? That's bull! Nobody treats a princess like that! Especially if this princess is Sakoshita Yanagi.

Yanagi~ my love.

After their break up, Yanagi and I became closer. Closer than close, really. She would come over to my house and we would share the bathtub, without minding each other's nakedness.

And then I confessed my love.

"I love you, my princess." I acknowledged her with a bow. And she smiled. That sweet, sweet smile.

I held her close, whispering how much I've waited for that moment. I cried on her shoulder by just telling her that I loved her, and still does. I kissed her cheeks, her lips, her hand and god, that was the happiest time in my life. That time when everything beautiful in the world focused themselves on creating her, for me and mine alone.

Of course misunderstandings couldn't be avoided. Trust was actually the worst issue. Because my mind couldn't stay away from the fact that she had loved Recca too much then. And she would just keep her thoughts inside, without me knowing that she was in great pain.

"Fuuko?" She asked me when we were lying on my bed. "Are you still thinking that I am not over him?" She pertained to Recca.

"No." I said. I thought my answer would make her happy, would make her relieved.

But she cried. She cried so hard, sobbing on my chest and she was hugging me so tight.

"Do you trust me?" She asked within her sobs.

I nodded.

She hugged me tighter, her head placed on my shoulder, and she whispered with so much sincerity.

"Thank you."