The Love of a Dragon

Disclaimer: Do Not Own Rave… unfortunately…

Summary: Haru is a young princess who's always trying to help and protect her older sister, the queen. But how will she feel when she's handed over to the King of the Dragons as a bride in order to protect her kingdom? AU,Fem!Haru, Let/Haru, minor Catt/Shuda and Sieg/Haru. One sided Musica/Haru.

Chapter 1 :: Princess

"Princess, we must hurry."

"Shh! Remember, we're supposed to be decoys," Haru whispered, to her guard and best friend, Musica. She adjusted the black wig on her head to cover her silver hair, but it just wouldn't sit right. "We'll be back home soon enough."

"Ugh, I know that but at this pace they'll realize you aren't her," Musica replied, steadying his horse. The were sent along the main road, versus through the dark part of the woods like the real queen and her guard was going, but his horse still scared easily at night.

"With your loud voice they'll realize it, stupid head. Come on, we'll speed up just a bit."

Musica rolled his eyes and urged his horse into a trot. Sometimes dealing with her was so difficult. She was a sweet girl, and by no means a spoiled brat, but she was too relaxed, too reckless at times. Not that he was much better. He supposed that's one of the things that made them such good friends.

They were disguised for a reason; there were dangerous men from the neighboring country trying to capture the queen. While Musica thought it cruel to use Haru as the decoy, he knew Catt did it because facial-wise they were quite similar and because Haru was a good fighter (despite being a princess and not supposed to be able to fight.) He just got irritated because she was used so often and because Haru was so willing. She never argued, fought back or tried to get out of her duties.

It was only another mile to the castle when he realized they were being followed. "We have guests," he murmured, just loud enough for the princess to hear. She nodded. "I noticed them, just keep going. Once we get inside the castle gates they can't touch us, and if we run they'll know and attack."

"So what we just wait until they attack and then run?"

"Exactly."

"Why do I get myself into these things?"

"Because you get paid really nicely and it makes you look sexy and brave to all your fan girls?" Haru grinned at him. "At least that's what you told Shuda last week when he asked."

Musica gave a sheepish grin. "You heard than, huh?"

"So did Elie and Catt. They think it's funny."

He sighed as they continued on, trying to keep a casual conversation going so whoever was following them didn't get suspicious. It was hard when he was getting tense and preparing for an attack at any moment. Luckily for his poor nerves, he didn't have to wait long.

An arrow went flying past his head, startling his horse and missing him by mere centimeters . "Fuck!" he swore, calming his horse and urging it to go faster now. Haru followed suit, pulling out her sword just in case. "Now we can run?"

"Now we can run," Haru agreed and they hurried. The castle walls were in sight, as long as they didn't stop or slow down they could make it. They didn't realize just how many people were following them though. When Haru looked back she gasped, seeing three men on horses with swords and another two with bows and arrows. "Our problem's a little bigger than I expected."

She let out a yelp with an arrow went soaring over her head, hitting the black wig and taking it right off her. Her long silver hair fell out of the tie she had it in to keep it hidden.

"Shit! That's not the queen! Fucking decoys!" a man behind her yelled.

"It's the pretty princess! She'll still fetch a fair price, try not to hurt her too badly!" another called back.

"They're gaining on us!" Musica swore. The gate was still a quarter mile away and he had a feeling they would have to stand and fight because they wouldn't make it.

"MUSICA!" Haru screamed as her horse reared up, throwing her to the ground. An arrow stuck out of the stallion's right shoulder. Musica turned his horse around and ran back to get her. Haru looked dazed after hitting her head on the ground, but otherwise seemed unharmed. He climbed off, pulling out his sword. Now there was not choice but to attack.

The men grinned at them. "If you're smart, pretty boy, you'll drop the sword and give us the girl."

"Fuck you," Musica spat as Haru stood, using a tree to help her. She picked up the sword she had dropped and stood in a fighting position. It would be hard to fight in the dress she was wearing, but then again she had more experience than most fighting in dresses.

One of the swordsmen hopped off his steed and rushed Musica, giving a battle cry. Musica parried his attack and managed to elbow him in the nose. "I'm not in the habit of handing over my charges, and I don't plan to ever get into it."

The other two with swords attacked, one going for Musica, another for Haru. Haru merely sidestepped hers; he was clumsy and tripped, almost falling flat on his face. This would be an easy fight, she thought. At that moment, though the other two pulled out swords and came after them.

"Shit!" Musica cursed and tried taking two at once. It wasn't easy by any means, and he knew Haru had no experience fighting two-to-one.

"AHHH!" one of the men cried out as a ball of fire hit him square in the chest. Another one got hit by lightning and in a flash the other three men were running as fast as they could after their horses. Musica blinked, turning to look at the kingdom's head mage, Sieg Hart.

"Thank the gods, I thought we were going to die there!" he said. As much as he hated Sieg's holier-than-thou attitude, he had an appreciation for Sieg's magic and sword skills. Sieg nodded to them.

"The guards spotted Haru's hair and I came out to retrieve you since I was the closest and fastest," Sieg said calmly, going over to Haru's wounded horse. He murmured to him, checking the wound. "I'll get Belnika out to heal this right away, we need to get you two back to the castle. Queen Cattleya's panicking, she arrived twenty minutes ago."

Haru sighed and pushed a bit of hair out of her face. "Come on, lets go back before they get reinforcements," she said, patting her horse's neck. "Someone will come help you soon."

Musica grabbed the reigns of his horse and started heading back towards the castle gate, Haru and Sieg following after him. Some days he wished he was strong enough to protect Haru on his own, maybe then she'd see him as more than the friend she always thought of him as.

"Are you okay, Princess?" Sieg asked her softly, a hand resting on her lower back as if he was guiding her.

"Yes, of course I am! Thanks to you of course," she smiled brightly at him, tilting her head cutely. "But you didn't just come because you were the closest person the could find, did you?"

"Actually I was waiting at the gates for you. If you two hadn't come within the next twenty minutes I would have gone out searching for you," Sieg replied, his voice laced with concern. "Haru, I know you want to help your sister, but this is getting a bit reckless. Things are getting worse, and there's no help for us. Please stay in the castle?"

"I'm sorry, Sieg, but I can't. Catt needs me, and I get so sick of being in the castle. I can fight too, you know!" Haru said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm useless otherwise. I can't do magic, Catt's already queen and all I am is a pretty face that just happens to be able to use a sword. I have to do this!"

"No you don't. We have magic that can create copies and decoys. You can help me, I'm always in need of an assistant. Please, I worry that you're going to get hurt without me there to protect you."

"That's what I'm here for, remember!" Musica called back, glaring. He turned his back to the two bickering lovers and went inside the gate.

Haru smiled and sighed. "He's right, Sieg. I have guards with me at all time, and I can fight just as well as they can. You have to trust me," she stopped and turned to look at him. "Catt's counting on me, and she's not going to let me stop just because her kingdom's head mage requests it."

Sieg turned and touched her cheek lightly. "I have no doubts that she would if I pointed out the past five times you've gone outside," he told her with a smile before leaning down to kiss her lightly. "Please, just think about it the next time you go out. Think about me the next time you go out."

He turned and walked away, heading into the castle to where he'd no doubt head to his library. Haru watched him leave sadly. "Sorry, Sieg, I just can't..." she shook her head, heading toward the throne room. She had to see Catt.

"HARU!" Catt ran to her. "Are you hurt? The guards told me what happened, where's Musica?"

"He went to put his horse in the stables, it's a bit scared after the attack. I'm fine, Sieg got there just in time," Haru smiled. "See, not a scratch on me!"

Musica came in just at that moment. "No, but trying to coax your horse back is being difficult. Bel's out there with a couple others trying to get it to come back before she does anything. Looks like he's going to be out of commission for a while," he told her before bowing to Catt. "I take it your party had no troubles?"

Catt shook her head. "No, we were fine and made it in good time. I should have sent more people with you, I didn't realize that so many would attack you all at once," she said, looking like she was on the verge of tears. Haru hugged her and smiled.

"We're fine, sister, we came back safe and generally unharmed."

"Good... you better get off to bed, Haru. Tomorrow's going to be a long day. The Dragonrace want to make a pact with us. They lost half their fields and cattle last week to fires and raids by the Raregrooves. Finally we'll have some allies to our cause, and maybe we'll finally get to do something about this," Cattleya seemed just a bit relieved by that as she bid her younger sister good night and headed back over to the throne where her husband was talking with some of their advisors.

"Good night, Musica. Don't get into any trouble," she teased as she headed off to the east wing, where her rooms were. She had a beautiful royal suite, with a living room, bedroom and bathroom. It was bigger than she ever had needed, but it was nice for times of peace where she'd have all her friends in the living room to have parties and such. She had a lot of leeway for a princess, mostly because of the risks she took on her sister's behalf.

She undressed and got into her favorite nightgown, exhausted from the journey and the fight. Not to mention her head ached from hitting the ground still. She lay in her bed for a bit, staring up at the ceiling that had stars painted on it.

Her parents had painted the ceiling for her when she was a child, making all sorts of constellations and patterns with the stars. That was back in the simple days when she was too young to understand war and loved to do nothing more than stargaze with her dad from her balcony. That was long before the war started and her parents were killed, before Catt became queen.

Despite Catt only having been queen for three years, she was a good queen, loved by all her subjects. And Haru was her little sister, the pretty princess with the same color hair as her late father. She was kind and sweet and innocent, everything expected of her. She hated it. All she wanted to do some days was fly away from the responsibility and the formalness of all of it; to go out adventuring and seeing the world with her friends. As children her and Musica had made plans to some day run away and travel the world with there other friends Elie and Belnika. Then the war started.

There was no one side to the war; all the neighboring kingdoms were fighting against each other, battling it out for land and money. A few had formed pacts, and all of them were enemies of Symphonia. Symphonia was the second largest kingdom in the land next to the Raregroove kingdom, and known for the fertile soil and beautiful landscapes. A land quite sought after for both as well.

Raregroove was the biggest threat; they were large enough to take some of the small kingdoms down, which was how they got a majority of their land, and they would stop at nothing to take down Symphonia. There had been blood feuds there since long before Haru's grandparents were even born.

The Dragonrace were never much of a threat unless you attacked them, but they normally didn't work with other kingdoms unless in a dire situation. They didn't trust humans at all, and most humans felt the same. Which is why this was a big deal; for the Dragonrace to work together with a human kingdom was a landmark, not to mention both sides would benefit from it greatly.

The other kingdoms were quite small and numerous, and most would be trampled by Raregroove in good time. Catt wanted to form alliances with them for that reason, but they were more intent on trying to take down Symphonia first. It didn't help that Symphonia was in the center of everything, completely surrounded by other kingdoms on all sides. So far their only 'allies' was the magical country of Mildea, but even they were busy with their own problems to really be much use, especially since their only city was one extremely large one in the center of their lands.

Life was difficult these days, with the constant worry of being attacked and all that. Everyone was stressed, everyone was on constant vigilance.

"You know, thinking too much is bad for your health," a calm voice startled Haru. She looked over at Sieg, who was leaning against her doorframe, a smile on his face. "I came to check up on you, make sure you're okay."

"I'm fine, really. Just have a lot on my mind," Haru sat up, smiling at him. He came over and sat on her bed, looking a bit sad about something. She tilted her head and moved to sit next to him, leaning against him. "Sieg, what's wrong?"

"Haru... It's not possible for us to be together any longer," he replied in a defeated voice. Haru blinked up at him.

"What? Sieg, why-"

"Catt hasn't told you yet... I shouldn't even be telling you either, that's her right, but I think you deserve to know ahead of time. Tomorrow. This meeting with the Dragonrace. It's more than just a war alliance. Yes, there's an agreement to help each other protect our borders and take down our enemies, but more than that..." Sieg closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "You're to be married off to their king, Haru. We're not merging the kingdoms, necessarily, but the Dragonrace is willing to open up their borders to us and vice versa. They don't have enough lands to support their people since the civil war last year broke the kingdom up. Instead of starting another war though, they want to make a pact. To merge our cultures little by little."

"M-married?" Haru looked up at him with wide eyes. "No, Catt would never force me to marry someone I didn't want to!"

"No, she wouldn't. And she's not forcing you Haru, but she's asking you. She's just doing it in a way that she knows you won't refuse. It's the only way to protect the kingdom in her opinion. Yeah, there's the war alliance, but she feels that if we deny them this, they'll back out and we'll be stuck."

Haru looked at her lap. "B-but me... and you... what..." she buried her face in her hands.

"You'll be married off to their king. And I'll stay here acting as Head Mage... we'll part ways. Whether we see each other again or not is up to the fates. I don't want this either but... I'd rather it to him than anyone else. I've known him a long time, almost as long as I've known Shuda," Sieg said, standing up and resting a hand on her shoulder. "That's why I'm letting you go. While I know the king well enough to know he wouldn't back out of this alliance just because Catt didn't hand you over, I think it's best you go. They can protect you better there, you can go out whenever you want to and be safer than here. And, if it's any comfort at all, I think you'll learn to love him. He's a good man."

Haru sobbed and shook her head, wrapping her arms around him. "Don't you love me anymore? Why let me go so easily?" she cried, burying her face in his side. He shook his head and wrapped his arms around her, leaning down to kiss her head.

"I do love you Haru, but we both know once Catt asks you, you won't say no. And it's for the good of everyone, think of how many people you'll be helping, both ours and theirs. Maybe... just maybe you'll be happier there than you ever were here. I can never marry you because of our statuses, and I can't just leave my post because I want to marry you. We would never truly be able to be together, you know that just as well as I do. Eventually Catt would have to marry you off," Sieg said, caressing her cheek. She tried to turn her head away but he held it in between both of his hands. "I knew this would happen some day. You should have expected it as well... You're eighteen now, two years older than most girls when they married. Just be glad it's someone as strong and kindhearted as the king of the Dragonrace. I'll always love you, but this is for the sake of your kingdom... and it's what's best for you."

He didn't believe his words one bit. He loved her too much to let her go, but he couldn't disobey his queen either. It really was for her own good in many ways, and for the good of her kingdom, but he felt like he was just tearing her apart, not to mention himself.

"Get some rest. It'll be a long day tomorrow and then you'll be traveling to your new home in two days time," Sieg gave her a final kiss on the forehead before turning and leaving before he could change his mind. He had half the mind to just take her and run away. He wouldn't though. He was needed here, and she was needed elsewhere.

This was going to be the hardest three days of his life, he knew it, but if it meant she'd be safe from the real danger that she didn't even know about, was it really so horrible?

AN: YAY! =33 I've had this planned for almost a year, but I've changed it so much in the past 48 hours it's a total different story now. It's so much better really. So I hope you all like this. I love gender-bending Haru so much it's not even funny. I also have a big thing for Sieg/Haru anyways =3;; but I really wanted a Let/Haru story for once. I also have some other things I'm writing, but this is my main story right now with a couple oneshots. Read, Review and Receive teh Love of teh Vive!