This story is dedicated to my best friend in the whole world; Leiko. (Yes, the protagonist of the story.) Just to let you, the reader, know: My updates will vary. I tend to be random at the lengths. some may be extremely long, others extremely short. Just a warning...

This story was inspired by the song 'My Oh My' - by Aqua.

The name of the story derived from the song 'Roses are Red' - by Aqua.

This is a YYH fanfiction, and I am very proud of finally finishing one of my stories. All rights belong to the creators and the artists that inspired me. I thank them. All yyh characters rightfully belong to the creator.

The plot line, a few of the characters, and a few other things are mine.

All right, not wanting to bore anybody, I will now present to you the first chapter to As Red as a Rose!

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A princess sat, completely bored out of her mind, at her father's long table, sitting to his right. Being the King, he naturally sat at the head of the table. He sat there, laughing heartily, his bulging stomach bouncing as he did so. The princess rolled her eyes in disgust, wishing to be anywhere but there.

"Leiko, dear. Don't slouch; it's bad for your posture." Her mother said with a fake kind smile across the table.

Glaring briefly at her mother, Leiko sat up straight, inhaling her stomach slightly so that she looked even skinnier than she was. "Father?" She asked, having her eyes closed on purpose. "May I be excused?"

"But you've hardly touched your food, Leiko. You should eat more, like me!" The King replied, laughing heartily and loudly.

"I'm afraid that I don't have much of an appetite this evening. Please, excuse me." Bowing slightly, she left the room at a somewhat brisk pace, almost desperate to get away from the noise and fake laughter. She cringed slightly as she heard her father's voice echo, "You'll have to excuse her. She's not the best princess a king could ask for...", followed by his empty laughter.

With tears brimming her eyes, she ran down an empty passageway, her heels clicking against the polished floor. Her dress fluttered against the wind as she ran, showing how desperate she was to get away. She burst into her room and flung herself onto her bed, sobs convulsing her entire body as she cried. The pain and betrayal she felt felt more painful this night than any other, and she hated it. She hated her father, her mother, and all of the servants. They had always hated her. They never knew what she did, or what she had done to help the kingdom.

Roughly wipping the tears from her soft cheek, she walked out onto the elegant balcony, the wind gently caressing her tear-stained face. The sweet scent of the ocean seemed to swirl around her before disappearing. Sighing heavily, Leiko rested her arms against the marble railing as she gazed up into the heavens.

The castle was perched on a cliff, overlooking the harbor, and beyond that, the ocean. There was often a time when leiko needed tome to sort her thought and feelings, so she would walk along the beach bare-footed, enjoying the warm water washing over her delicate feet. She also had a vast collection of sea shells adorning her bedroom.

As the stars twinkled in the sky above, more tears welled up in her light brown eyes.

"Oh, little star... I swish to be taken away from here... I've had enough of this torture... Seeing worthless and abusing men try and ask for my hand in marriage, my parents not showing me any respect... I've had enough... I beg you, take me away! Far, far away! I can't stand it anymore..." She whispered, her head hung as tears dripped onto the hand railing, her hands tightly clenched. Sniffling, she wipped her tears away for the second time that night and looked down towards thew village, wondering about the nightlife down there. However, the princess noticed something that she knew was unusual.

"What is that...?" She murmured, leaning forward on the railing so that she could try and see better in the darkness.

What appeared to be a small spheres of fire were rapidly moving up the main street in the village and towards the castle. The sound of horses' hooves pounding into the river stone street reached the princess's ears. She heard wild cheering and such. Feeling a sudden panic rise in the pit of her stomach, she quickly looked to the harbor and saw a massive ship. At the top fluttered a flag. Using just a glimpse of moonlight, Leiko knew who those men were; pirates.

Reacting quickly, she gathered up the front of her dress and ran out of her room and towards the dining hall, needing to tell her parents that pirates were coming to raid the castle. Bursting throigh the doors, she skidded to a halt, surprised to find the hall entirely empty and clean.

"That's odd... I left just a few moments ago... How could it be this empty so suddenly?"

A distant boom caught her attention suddenly. There was a moments' silence after that, then something crashed into the side of the solid stone castle, knocking her off her feet and crashing into a wall, knocking her out.

when she came to, there were se rvants screaming and running to and fro. One of them came over to her and knelt down next to her.

"Princess! Are you okay? What happened?"

Leiko groaned, then somehow managed to get up with the servants' help. She swayed slightly on her foot, but managed to stay up. Glancing about, she saw the castle falling to pieces around her. Distant booms were followed by another black ball smashing into the castle.

"where's my father?" She asked, her right hand clutching her head, trying to get it to stop spinning.

"Unfortunately, I don't know where the King and Queen are... But, I do know that they are safe."

Another part of the ceiling came crashing down. leiko raised her arms and crossed them over her face to protect it from any debris.

"Princess, you've got to get out of here! it's not safe!"

Before she could say anything, the door leading into the dining hall fell to the floor with a blast. Through the smoke that suddenly filled the room, piraates rushed in, large swords and knives in their hands. Leiko protected her face with the same crossing motion to try and protect the debris of pieces of the door that had flown through the air, and also due to the think dark smoke.

One of the pirates, in cover of the smoke, ran over to the servant near the princess, punched him across the face with the golden hilt of his sword, knocked him out, then grabbed the princess's arms. Letting out a surprised gasp, she quickly glanced back at the man who had her wrists to see him give a wicked smile, before a burlap sack covered her head and blocked out any other sight. her hands were tied, as well as her ankles. Being thrown over a man's shoulders, she gasped slightly as she felt the man running now.

"Fall back! Head back to the ship!" A man yelled over the chaos.

The rapid footsteps of the pirates retreating followed until the castle was left in a deathly silence. In the harbor, the ship was pulling away and disappearing into the horizon as the sun began to rise. As everyone in the castle rejoiced that no one was harmed, they had yet to realize that the princess was gone.

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I hope you liked it, and will review. Please, read one chapter at a time and review. It helps me work on my writing better. Well, the next chapter will be up, hopefully, by the end of the day. Thank you for reading! ^_^