Tyr (teer), the heir of the icelandic throne, refused to believe in fairy tales or "happily ever after"s. those stupid stories of princes and princesses hat his older brother, Lukas, the heir of the norwegian throne, forced upon him as a boy, was a part of his life that he could have lived without. even tragedies like "Romeo and Juliet" annoyed him. maybe it was just the fact that they had happiness even if it was short-lived. his life, even though he was royalty, was a miserable one to live. his father was power-hungry and would do anything to attain more power, even if it meant ruining his children's lives in order to do so. he was already pissed off enough at his father after he'd married his oldest brother, the heir to the finnish throne, Tino, to the prince of Sweden. not only was it a forced marriage, but his brother was forced to marry another man! He was planning to do the same with he and Lukas as well! it wasn't right, yet his brother had still tried to familiarize him with the kind of happy ending that he would never get the opportunity to have. that jerk.

Tyr sighed, deciding to actually do something other than lay in bed and gripe for once and promptly got lost in the numerous corridors of the palace. he frowned, finding himself standing outside Lukas's chambers. "I'd rather stay lost..." he grumbled to himself upsetedly before remembering his favorite garden was just down the hall from Lukas' room. he looked back briefly to make sure he hadn't passed the door while he was lost, but decided that he would have noticed earlier if that were the case and continued down the hall as if he'd never been lost. he threw open the door to the garden to find he wasn't the only one there. a boy around his age with dark brown hair that was longer than should be appropriate for a male also stood in the garden's paved pathways. Tyr frowned in disappointment. he hadn't seen this boy before, so he figured he wasn't one of the servants. 'why wasn't I told there was a visitor.' he thought pursing his lips into a thin line, "hello? who are you?" the boy looked up at him amusedly "were you not informed of my arrival?"

"my father does not inform me of things that do not concern me." Tyr said with a twinge of bitterness working into his voice.

the new boy looked puzzled for a moment, finally getting a better look at the platinum-haired prince, "are you one of the young Princes?"

Tyr visibly bristled, "just so you know, you don't look much older than me, but yes, i am prince Tyr." he scowled at the boy in front of him, "and you never answered my question."

"oh, how rude of me," he said turning to face Tyr, "Li Xiao, Heir of the Anglo-Chinese throne, you may call me Leon." he bowed to Tyr politely and Tyr bowed awkwardly in response.

"i assume my father requested your parent's presence?" Tyr said almost as a statement.

"how do you know he didn't request me?"

"he sees heirs as unuseful until they take throne." Tyr stated matter-of-factly.

"That was...Truthful."

"would you rather i lie to you?"

"No, but-"

"then, why are we still discussing this?" the violet eyed prince asked, annoyance filling his tone.

"someone's cranky today." the Chinese prince stated, amused with the icelandic boy again.

"I'm always like this!" the platinum blond yelled, losing his temper.

Leon smiled slightly, "that's too bad. you'd look cute if you smiled once and awhile."

Tyr blinked before flushing an unimmaginable shade of red, "th-the hell?"

Leon chuckled softly, "that's what your brother told me. he was here earlier."

"I. am. going. to. kill. him." the shorter prince growled trying to dissipate his blush.

the icelandic prince made his way over to his favorite spot in the garden. his father had planted the Holtasóley in his favorite garden on purpose, so that he would get more interested in the country he was to rule, and much to Tyr's disdain, it worked. he loved these flowers for some reason. they calmed him down. he hated that fact since he sounded like a girl when he said things like that, but he couldn't deny fact. he was unaware of the Chinese prince following him to the flowers he so loved.

"these look so plain, are they your national flower?" Leon asked tilting his head with a blank expression.

Tyr jumped "yes, if you must know, and they are not plain. they are pretty."

"suit yourself." Leon shrugged "Bauhinia Blakeana flowers are better in my opinion, though."

"yeah, yeah, I'm not really a fan of pink." Tyr grumbled softly

"they're not pink, they're purple. there's a difference." Leon insisted

"whatever.. they're just flowers." Tyr rolled his eyes

XxXxX

the two boys spent their time in the garden that they'd come to call Gè Yuán or Isolated Garden a lot of the time that Leon was there. he and his father, Yao, stayed for a while, while Tyr's father and Yao sorted out whatever was going on. and despite how infuriated Leon made him, he found himself dreading the day he'd leave for his own country. he'd never had a friend before, so this feeling was new to him. however, Leon didn't make the same mistake. he didn't know what it was exactly, but knew it wasn't as simple as friendship. During one of their many walks around the Gè Yuán, the Chinese prince spoke up.

"Tyr, I like you a lot."

However, Tyr, being as dense as he is, didn't quite grasp the meaning behind his friend's words and simply replied

"I like you a lot, too, but where'd that come from?"

the brunette felt a little crushed, and chose not to answer.

"I meant as more than a friend," Leon said, prompting Tyr further into confusion

"what do you mean?" Tyr asked, tilting his head at Leon

Leon sighed, not wanting to have to spell it out for the other, "Never mind."

Tyr, thought curious, dropped the topic there, thinking Leon was irritated that he hadn't understood, so he was very surprised when Leon held his hand. Tyr didn't pull away, but he did he was in for a Cinderella ending

A/N: word count is 1,111. that kicks ass. 'nuff said