Boring

Everything was just so...boring. The commoners always dream of being in the royal family. Of being rich and getting to travel everywhere. Wearing crowns and going to balls. Being royalty was nothing like that though.

The actual day-to-day activities went something like: Wake up at too early a time. Get dressed in the worst type of clothing possible. Go to breakfast with the rest of the family. Get asked by almost every person alive if there's a 'special guy'. Do work and more work. A few snacks between, dinner, and bed. Wash, rinse, and repeat.

Should we dissect that? Get up before the sun is even seen. Spend way too much time with unneeded makeup, hair styling, picking out a dress and getting trapped in a corset, not by choice any of it. Breakfast with the rest of the family meant getting the 'have you found a prince yet?' talk in depth. Work was basically learning history and books, stuff that was already known on repeat. 'A few snacks' meant whole-wheat stuff or things for people that needed to watch their weight. Like what the hell?

Akamori was currently the first princess of Clarines. Daughter to Zen and Shirayuki Wisteria. Her opinion on these matters? Buried. As a princess, her job was to look pretty and to stand in the shadows, awaiting her prince. What kind of role was that? Most of the time, she didn't follow any of this. When her teacher left her for more than five minutes, she ran. Atop the castle pillars, the walls, the streets.

When dressed up, the people knew her as 'Princess Akamori', but when she ran away, she was 'The tomboy in a hood'. She always wore a hood, using hair pins to keep it up. Sometimes she would even bring a bag for when she went exploring and found cool stuff.

The only thing that ever hindered her explorations, was her advisor. Her name was Miyako. They had known each other for a few years, the actual number being like 4 or something. Most of the time, Miyako got mad at her for running away and would tell her off. Sometimes she would tag along, but mostly she was just there. If her and Kiki were anywhere near each other, Akamori had to make sure they weren't twins.

So, running away had obviously been her solution to the terrible work. Zen thought it was funny at least. Shirayuki was a little less...understanding.

"AKAMORI!"

Akamori looked up to see her hag of a teacher standing over her. She may have fell asleep for the seventh time today and so...her teacher was not in the best mood.

"Sorry."

"You're a princess of this kingdom for heaven's sake! Pay attention. You are too much like Lord Zen." Wow, definitely hadn't heard that before.

Akamori was about to reply with a wisecrack when the doors slammed open suddenly and she turned to see Miyako there. She had the same calm exterior, broadened by her short hair.

"His Majesty has requested Lady Akamori's presence."

The teacher looked aghast and all but threw Akamori out of the room, shutting and locking the door. The princess stood up, brushing off some dust on her skirt and used the wall for something to lean against.

She turned to Miyako and asked, "What does my uncle want now? Is he planning on shoving a suitor list down my throat?"

"No, but i knew you needed to get out of there before you run out another teacher. So i made it up."

It didn't really surprise Akamori but it was still interesting. Did Miyako just know that Akamori wanted to escape? Or was she just there at the right time?

"Alright, well what are we gonna do now then?"

"Correction, what are you going to do? I merely am to follow you and make sure you don't get in trouble."

"Stalker."

"I will take that with pride if I'm doing my job correctly."

"Hmm..."

This was the other issue Akamori had. It was the answer to her received questions of 'where's your prince?' or 'have a special man in mind? even if he's a commoner, that doesn't matter'.

No, she didn't have a prince in mind. Or you know...a man in general. She had thought about it before and she just, found the male body to be charmless. It was just not something her mind cared for. Miyako though? God how she wished stabbing her own brain might dial it down. So, maybe she wasn't after a prince. That of course brought up issues of it's own and lead her to not telling anyone, even just mentioning her preferences to Miyako.

"Alright then...last one to the balcony is a rotten apple!" She said as she ran for her room. The bedroom she lived in was one of the only rooms with a balcony, and luckily for her, it gave a great view of the town far off. So, Akamori and Miyako would sit up there often.

Akamori evaded guards, palace workers, and even just barely missed her mom. She was turning into the corridor leading to her room when she slammed into someone. She looked up and cringed when she saw who it was.

"Hey...Obi...what's...uh...what's up?" She stood and brushed off her skirt, trying not to look suspicious.

"I know that look. If you got out of work successfully, Zen would be proud. Go on, I won't say a word." He smirked and walked by. She was gonna turn around and ask what he meant, but remembered Miyako. Akamori sprinted in the direction of her room without a second thought. Opening and closing the door, she ran to the balcony. No Miyako in sight.

"Haha! I made i-"

"Wow, you sure were slow today."

Akamori jumped at the sight of, sure enough, Miyako sitting atop one of the balcony pillars in a way the just made Akamori's brain blow up. Her short, slate-colored comb over hair was flowing in the breeze like a painting in a book. The sun shined on her golden skin in a way that she glowed like, well gold. The tear-drop beauty mark under her right eye made her even look hotter and her silver eyes haunted Akamori. Her mind was racing with thoughts before she could stop it and then she was just hitting herself, stomping on that train of thought before it choked her.

Miyako looked unimpressed at her antics and merely raised and eyebrow, "You...alright?"

"I'm perfectly fine." She replied as her mind panicked with the thought 'Akamori, your lesbian is showing'.

"So, rotten apple, what now?" Miyako brushed over the subject and gave no interest in Akamori's odd behavior. So she went along with it.

"We cou-" She didn't get far as there was a knock at her bedroom door. She turned around and went in, opening the door and met the eyes of a palace guard.

"I've been asked to escort you to Lady Shirayuki's office." He said and side stepped to allow Akamori through. She looked back to the balcony and saw Miyako waving her off. The princess went with the guard and arrived at her mother's room. There, she met her mother and father talking, but they stopped when they saw she had walked in.

"Akamori, good to see you." Shirayuki got up and hugged her, calming Akamori's nerves a bit more. Her mom was still wearing her uniform, meaning she was overworking herself again. Her apple hair was tied in a long braid on her right shoulder. Akamori glanced at her dad, who was smiling at her and she felt relaxed. It was probably just them wanting to talk about some trip they were going on or something.

Her mom let go and returned to her seat, putting some papers and other items away, clearing her desk, but not before taking out a single sheet of paper from the bunch and leaving it.

"Your father and i will be going on a trip to Tanbarun, and we just wanted to let you know. Keep this on the down low, but Raj's 2-year-old twin daughters, Lily and Lunaria, are sick and he wants me to come check on them. We shouldn't be gone longer than 5 days at most, but we'll send a message if anything happens. Don't get into too much trouble while we're gone. We'll be leaving tonight."

'Knew it'

"Alright, well I hope things go well for Mr. Raj. Tell him I said hi." And with that, Akamori left. She returned to her room. There were two hours left until her parents were off. She changed out of her dress and into her street clothes as she thought about other things.

She stepped out to her balcony, her hood on and cloth over her mouth, and jumped over the fence, landing on a tree that was just tall enough. Same route as usual. When she landed, she climbed down, and landed on her hands and feet. No one had noticed. She looked around, not seeing any of the guards, and made a quick run the the gate. She picked it, went through, and locked it again.

She checked her pocket watch. Akamori had one hour to explore the town and the rest of the time to get back. She turned around, and it took everything she had not to shriek. In front of her was Miyako, who looked severely unimpressed.

"Yeah no, this isn't happening. Your parents are leaving tonight and as such the guards are a bit more spread out. Normally i might concede that we can go, but not tonight. Maybe tomorrow." Miyako said as she grasped Akamori's bicep, pulling her back through the gate and to the path most of the guards left alone.

"We'll go through here so they don't know what you wear when you go out, but next time i won't be so nice." She pulled Akamori up the steps and when they made it to her room, she shoved her in and shut the door behind her.

"Get changed into a dress again, and then I'll escort you to your parents to see them off. Now go."

There was no time for argument so Akamori relented and went behind her changing board and decided to just put her previous dress on. She used to get embarrassed at the fact that Miyako would sometimes stay in the room when she got dressed, even though there was a board, but Akamori decided that it was a bigger pain to continue her embarrassment because Miyako just didn't get it.

She was done changing a few minutes later and they left. They took a detour to waste time and chatted about nothing more than castle rumors. They arrived in time to see her parents off, and they waited till the last carriage was out of sight before they left. Akamori caught a kitchen worker in the hall and requested her dinner be brought to her room, and that if her family asked where she was, to say she 'wasn't feeling well'.

The night went on and when her dinner arrived she shared it with Miyako. These were the nice nights, when she didn't have to worry about the rest of her family or her parents or her princess duties. On these nights with Miyako, She was just Akamori, a seventeen-year-old girl.


Notes: Hey guys, first chapter of the new story, ik, it's been a while. Anyways, in the story, there are oc's of mine that have names with special meanings. i will post down here what they mean. Stay tuned. Thx.

Name Meanings:

Akamori - Red Forest

Miyako - 美 (mi) meaning "beautiful", 夜 (ya) meaning "night" and 子 (ko) meaning "child".