Marinette-

Bardengrad is a hideous depressing country, at least, that was my first impression when we entered the country and saw nothing but miles of land with nothing but a few scarce ugly trees, miles of weeds, and cows. Actual cows just roaming about wherever they went.

Then after three days of travel through the empty dusty wilderness passing through hideous town after hideous town, we finally laid our eyes on our future home, the capital of Bardengrad, Heilstrom.

It was... underwhelming. We had heard tales of it's grand glistening architecture and lively bustling streets but it was just a large tightly packed conglomeration of cold stone buildings.

"Oh." Rose said in a low surprised voice.

Rose had been the one most enthusiastic to see the glorious city Heilstrom, and she was probably now the most disappointed.

"It could be worse." Alya said, "At least they probably have running water."

"It's so... sad." Mylene commented.

It was sad. Nothing like the warmth and joy of Aristol. There was no color, no decoration just bleak stone walls and rusty metal.

"I like it." Juleka said and we all chuckled.

We approached the city gates and we all moved out horses into formation, Juleka and rose on the left side, Alix and I on the right with Mylene bringing up the rear and Alya in the front.

Alya turned to us just before we hit the gates.

"Alright ladies, put up your guard, be on the look out, we're almost there."

We all in unison brought down our hoods and brought up our scarves to be sure that our faces were covered. I was behind Alix, watching her twitch nervously towards the throwing knives that were sheathed in her legs.

I sighed deeply, everyone was on edge, we've trained our whole lives to protect one person and here we are marching her into enemy territory.

They lowered the gate for us and we crossed over it slowly in silence as the people stopped their busy lives to stare at us, The foreign princess and her guard.

I scanned the streets looking for potential threats, my eyes catching on the faces of the people who looked terrified of us. Our pace was maddeningly slow compared to the last three days of hard travel, we were finally at our destination and here we are, crawling down the streets towards the castle.

I stared, interests in these foreigners who lived different lives and had different interests. Their clothing was pretty but formal, no color, just shades of grey and beige. Just like the city itself, the people looked lifeless.

Staring into the crowds I saw nothing suspicious, nothing that felt dangerous until I found myself staring into a pair of green eyes. A man, tucked back a ways behind the crowd leaning into the shadows, his face was masked and his clothing was black, nothing stuck out to me except for his stark green eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

He was staring at me, just as intently as I was staring at him and I felt my hand go to my scabbard at my side and he smirked in a way that seemed to say "do it, I dare you."

I rolled my eyes and tightened my hand on my reigns and looked back to the crowds and when I looked back to the spot I had seen those green eyes earlier, I found that they were gone.

Adrien

-.-

Today was the day Adrien Agreste would meet his future wife, the future mother of his children. Today is the day he would meet his partner in life, his future queen, but no matter how he phrased those words in his head, they couldn't erase the sickening feeling in his stomach.

"Adrien, I want you to wash up and prepare yourself for their arrival, I have just received words that they are approaching the gates."

he nodded, grateful that he was being given a chance to escape. Adrien stood up from his lunch and left without another word, heading towards his rooms. Trying to restrain himself from breaking into a sprint.

Adrien entered his rooms and wasted no time heading across the room to enter the servants door. he went down the hall a little then through a small door on the left.

"Ugh where are we going?" Plagg asked in an annoyed voice. "All the Camembert is back in your room!"

"Sorry buddy, I just can't help myself, have to see her, I have to see what she's like."

"She probably just like all Princesses, you've seen one, you've seen them all."

Adrien pushed aside the wooden beams that blocked the entrance to the catacombs and entered, hugging the wall closely in the dark.

"I've never seen any Princesses."

"And I'm starting to feel as though I've never seen my pillow, my cheese. I can't remember the taste anymore, it's all fading fast. Too fast! I think I'm dying!"

The kwami twirled in the air dramatically and landed on Adrien shoulder giving off a few pathetic coughs to get his point across.

"Plagg will you stop being so dramatic? We'll be back there in no time and I'll see if the kitchen can't arrange anything special for you."

Plagg puffed up his chest, considering his options.

"Fine, but you owe me."

Adrien smiled broadly, "Plagg, Transform me!"

He followed the quick way out that led out and into an old funeral home that had been out of business for several years, he climbed up to the broken second story window and he leapt out.

Staying mostly in dark alleyways, trying to find the most subtle way to size up his Princess.

He perched himself in an alleyway over the crowds of people who were watching in awe as these foreign people traveled by.

He was hoping to catch a glimpse of the Princess herself but it seemed as though she was in the carriage with the countries seal on it.

The most of the foreigners all wore bright and ornate robes. Adrien scanned the marching caravan looking for signs of anything positive, anything that would make himself feel better about the union, but being here did nothing but discourage him. That is, until his eyes fell on a pair of blue eyes.

The face was hidden beneath a black mask and the hood came over hiding everything except those Blue eyes that were glued to his.

Those blue eyes that seemed intelligent, honest, and determined.

These blue eyes were the one thing that finally soothed his nerves but created even more at the same time. When they had finally broken eye contact, Cat Noir retreated further back into the alley way, feeling as though there was a spotlight on him.

Even half way home, he was unable to shake the butterflies that those blue eyes had stirred, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to.

Marinette-

We continued the rest of the walk towards the castle those eyes, seared into my brain. One thing was certain, that man was trouble and I didn't need any trouble.

When we finally rode into the courtyard we all stopped in front of the greeting party, lined ourselves in two rows leading to the door of the carriage and kneeled silently as the footman opened the door.

Sabrina stepped out first, lending her hand to her Lady who stepped out in the same loud annoying way that she did everything.

"Oh look Sabrina, a welcome party, for me!"

She passed us all and walked straight up to the welcoming party and started making introductions sending all of us off our knees and standing behind the princess protectively.

She was supposed to wait for the Heilstrom ambassador to introduce her first, but when it came to the princess, nothing is ever done right.

"Your grace, the crown Princess Chloe Bourgeois, you cannot tell how happy we are to be welcoming you here. If you would come inside, I can show you where your rooms are, our servants will bring your bags up to your room and our stable hands can take care of your horses."

Chloe took the hand of the woman who was welcoming her and started walking up the stairs and Alya turned to us,

"I will accompany her grace, through the castle Juleka, Rose, you two accompany the servants and ensure that the luggage goes where it belongs, unharmed and untampered. Alix, ascertain where we will be staying and start take our things there, Mylene, Marinette, you two take care of the horses. When you are all done, report to your rooms and wait for me. Understood?"

We all nodded in agreement and we all separated according to Alya's commands. Mylene and I, both of us holding three horses each, followed the stable hands towards the stables.

The stable hands could handle the four docile horses that pulled the carriage, but we didn't want them handling our horses.

"Alya, just assigned me to the horses because she knows that I'm allergic" Mylene said while trying not to sneeze.

"No." I said, "Alya, assigned you to the horses because she knows that you think they hate you. She thinks you need to spend more time with them."

Mylene stared suspiciously and Rose's horse, "I don't think they hate me, I know they hate me."

I laughed and started unsaddling as fast as I could, excited to see where I would be rooming for the foreseeable future.

Once they were all unsaddled and brushed off, we led them into their stalls and fed them.

"They're going to have to get used to this." Mylene said, looking around the boring stables. "It's going to be a lot more different than the green pastures that they're used to."

"Something tells me that there's going to be a lot that we all have to get used to." I said while putting away the tack in the room that the stable hands showed us.

"Some more than others." I muttered under my breath.

"It's going to be harder here, isn't it?" Mylene asked in a soft tone.

"What's going to be harder?" I asked.

"Everything."

I nodded softly

"Yeah." I grabbed her shoulder an brought her outside the stables towards the castle. "Let's go."

we walked up the stairs but we were stopped when we were about to walk through the grand doors but we were stopped by a guard.

"What do you think you're doing?" he asked us.

"trying to get inside." I said, "Why?"

"Yeah, I don't think so, use the servants entrance."

I smiled sweetly under my scarf, and tried to look as intimidating as I could.

"What makes you think that we're servants?"

He laughed, "You're women."

"We are part of the royal guard from Aristol, we are not servants."

"You are all housed in the servant quarters, so I suggest you hop off your high horse Miss high and mighty."

I clenched my fists, I wanted to hit this rude person but Mylene pulled on my arm,

"Marinette, let's go."

I backed away and let go of the anger I was holding.

"We are NOT servants." I fumed to Mylene after we had gone down the stairs and headed in the direction that the man had pointed towards.

"No, we are not." she agreed, "But things are done differently here, we may have to adapt."

I sighed, she was right.

We found the door easily as there were several people walking in and out, going about their chores. We walked in and asked where we were to be housed and we were pointed down a hallway.

We followed the directions and ended up in a huge room with several beds.

"Great." I said aloud. It was much less grand than the quarters back at Aristol, there was no privacy, I did not like this.

"Mylene!" Alix shouted from across the room. "Here, you can take care of your things, you have no idea how long it took me to get your trunk here, what did you pack in it?"

Mylene smiled, "Oh, you know, the necessities."

I laughed and found my own trunk at the foot of a bed next to a window. I opened it and peeled off my cloak and scarf setting them inside the trunk.

"That feels good. I hate the uniform, it's so... confining."

Alix threw Rose's bag onto her bed, "Well get used to it Marinette, we're going to be wearing it for a long time now."

I sighed and sat on my bed and watched Mylene gleefully unpack all of her things

"Did you pack the entire armory?" asked Alix.

"No, like I said, just the essentials, you never know what you might need."

"Did you need to bring the mini cannon?" I asked watching her push the heavy thing under her bed.

"Of course, what if I need it?"

Alix and I laughed and Alya came through the door.

She threw her cloak down on the bed closest to the door sat down sighing loudly.

I smiled, "Having fun Alya?" I asked an she threw herself back onto the bed.

"great fun." she murmured. "How about you."

"We were just discussing the uses of Mylene's mini canon."

Alya sat up, "Well I hope she brought it, we might need it."

This sent Alix and I into a fit of laughter and Mylene blushed slightly.

"Where are Rose and Juleka?" Alix asked

"Oh, they're searching her grace's rooms and when their done they'll be down here. the princess declared that she was fatigued and she will be napping for the next few hours as will I be."

"And I will be following your lead captain." Alix said before collapsing onto her own bed.

"We had all better get some sleep." Ala said, "The king said that he was throwing a feast tonight to celebrate our arrival, so tonight we will be very busy."

Alix groaned and turned over in her bed using her cape as a blanket, "Please wake me and tell me that this has all been a nightmare."

I ignored her and turned to Alya,

"So, you met the king? What's he like?"

She made a weird face and shook her head. "He's... exactly what I expected the king of this country to be like, cold."

I laid back trying to image a stern faces king sitting on a lone throne.

"His son though...," Alya continued, "Well let's just say that I think I heard her grace let out a scream when he came into the room... he's very, pretty."

"Ooh, someone's got a crush." I said mockingly

"No, trust me, he's not really my type, but he sure is something to look at."

"Hm, we'll see." I said doubtfully, I couldn't imagine that he'd be much different than the joyless bland people we'd passed on the way in.

I turned over in my bed and closed my eyes exhausted from the hard travel and unenthusiastic for the future.