By popular (not) demand, I post this CS AU as a multi-chapter fic. Enjoy! Also, don't forget to tell me what you think.
"Once upon a time in a land far, far away... there was a very unruly, very rude princess-
"Daddy, I know you're talking about me!"
King David of the Enchanted Forest is known for his patience, along with his absolute kindness in governing his people, alongside his wife, Queen Snow White. The kingdom admires them both because of the prosperity and goodwill their reign has brought. His patience had prevented wars from waging, had mediated and ended long rivalries, and even solved small townspeople problems. King David was most definitely known for his patience.
But lately, King David's patience has been tested by a young girl, roughly the age of seven. This young girl, their daughter, Princess Emma, with her long golden curls, and her bright sea green eyes, was known for walking around the palace with mischief in tow. When a plate is filled with snails and leaves, or an armor display is positioned like a horse, everyone knows. Everyone. Just. Knows. Today, in particular, was one of the hardest days with Princess Emma's antics seemingly taking on a new light.
The king looked at his daughter who was lying on her bed, her blanket tucked under her chin as her eyes looked up at him hopefully. "That was a bad thing you did, Emma. You know that."
"Yes, daddy," she replied, looking away. He can see the frown on her lips, but her eyes held something else entirely. King David knows his daughter better than anyone, and this face that she's making, it just tells him one thing: she might be apologizing, but she is not regretting what she had done. "Can we just please continue on another story? One that's not about me?"
King David, in all his eternal patience and fondness of her daughter, smiled, shook his head, and said, "How 'bout you tell me a story instead? One that's about a stubborn princess running away from the palace and into the ogre-infested forest to hunt for ogres herself, but found a grubby young boy instead? I hate hearing it from the royal guards. They leave details."
Emma deadpans her father with a glare. "Daddy!" she whines, burrowing deeper into her blanket.
"Come on, baby," he coaxes, giving her a smile. "Tell me what happened."
She sat up on her bed, gave her father some space to sit upon, and sighed. "Fine," she replied, defeated.
It was a wonder how she got to the forest without any guide, but if she says so herself, she was quite proud about it. Now, her only problem was how to meet an ogre. She caressed the handle of the dagger she kept strapped around her waist as she surveyed her surroundings. Well, there was only one things she knows about ogres: that they are blind. Maybe they're not deaf, so she tried her chances.
"Hey! Ugly ogres! I've come to kill you!"
Crickets. At this time of day. But no, the crickets weren't the only weird sound that came with the wind gusting around her. There was a giggle. A small snicker not far from her.
She listened quietly, if there was more, but there were none. So she called for the ogres again, extracting the dagger from its hilt and waving it around.
And there it was again! The laughter, this time, was louder and more hearty. It was as if someone was laughing at her vain efforts. She tried to locate the sound, looking around her, but all she could see were tall trees. When she thought she had failed on locating the sound, it seemed like it had located her.
And it wasn't an it, apparently. It was a young boy, roughly the age of nine, with bright blue eyes, dark hair, and dirty face. He appears to be wearing rags. He's a bit lanky, and unkempt, but his eyes held life in them as if he had just been having the time of his life. Emma has seen lots of peasants when her parents take her to parade and survey around the kingdom, but this was the first one she has ever encountered face to face. Well, if being high on top of a tree branch while she was on the ground can be considered face to face.
"Are you lost?" he asks, but there was little concern in his voice, but more teasing in it. "You were calling for your mummy a few seconds ago."
"My... oh you!" she fumes, realizing what he meant by his words. "For your information, I was hunting ogres!"
A spark of amusement filled his eyes as a slow smile crept up his face. "Ogres, then? You think you stand a chance against them? Oh, brave, you are! You'd make a hell of a pirate, princess."
He drops from the tree he was hanging from and lands with cat-like finesse in front of the little princess, still wearing that smirk. "And what're you going to kill them with? That toothpick? That looks like a hair plucked from their noses!"
This boy had just started getting on her nerves, and she quietly seethes as he circled her, seemingly looking her from head to toe, probably judging her by the way she was dressed.
"How dare you speak to royalty like that, peasant?" she said, trying to catch his eye. But he seemed too engrossed with looking at her dress.
"So I wasn't wrong," he mused. "You are a princess. Slims your chances against an ogre."
"I have formal training!"
"Not against a real one," he answered quickly, stopping in front of her, merely a meter away from her. His eyes focused on her dagger, and seemed to be taking in its details. He locked his hands behind his back as he rocked back on the balls of his feet, his eyes returning to hers. "And you're lying. I doubt the king and queen would let their girly princess come near anything pointier than their golden forks."
She gave him her best death glare, one she so fondly sends towards Ruby when she's exceptionally infuriating. This kid, apparently, has surpassed her friend. "And what's your proof, huh, boy?"
The nerve! The boy tilted his head with his smirk widening. "The insignia on your dagger is outdated. It belongs to King Arthur's reign a few hundred years ago. You hardly see that anywhere now, but I bet you see that quite often... on the halls of your castle. On display. I bet that was stolen, huh... princess?"
Princess Emma knows that a princess must be well-mannered, polite, must smile even at their enemies, and must not attack them with a hundred-year old dagger. But she has already broken three of those rules already. Why not break the last one? She swings her dagger at him, but he was far too quick, moving out of the way, and snatching her wrist with one of his hands, and disarming her with the other. She followed the dagger skittering on the dirt ground with her eyes, and then looked at the boy with anger in her eyes. He, on the other hand, seemed to have enjoyed what he had done.
"Who are you?" she hissed at him, squirming her wrist, trying to pry his hand away.
"Killian Jones," he replied cheekily. "And you are?"
She sends him a tight smile. "Not telling-
"Princess Emma! There you are-hey!"
She groaned as she heard the clanks of metal armor running through thick undergrowth towards where she was.
"Seems like they found you, Emma," he smiled, "time to go."
And just like that, he was releasing her wrist and scampering off further into the forest.
King David's eyes widened as she finished her story. "What did you say was his name again?"
"Killian Jones-why daddy?"
But the king didn't give her any answers. Instead, he got up from her bed, his feet thumping on the stone floor hurriedly, as she heard him call for one of his guards. "...tell him we found his son, we found the lost prince. He's here."