Welcome to my first Lunar Chronicles Fanfiction.
This is made using Marissa's prompt to add a Grimm's Fairytales character in who has to encounter one of the main characters but I'll be adding "Little Briar Rose" or Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault instead and this will take place after Winter and before Something Old, Something New from Stars Above.
Let's start this fanfic.
Rose
A young Lunar Doctor smiled at Rose. He seemed to just be an intern who wasn't quite experienced in anything yet.
"Good morning," he glanced at a clipboard he held in his arms. "Rose Talia Briar."
Rose blinked until her eyes adjusted to the bright lights. She wasn't sure how long she'd been sleeping. The memory that resurfaced first was being 9 years old and Lunar guards breaking into her family's home in RM-9 and taking her away because she was a shell. That's why she knew that the Doctor's perfect chestnut hair and his pale skin with a stubble on his chin wasn't glamour. He was somehow naturally beautiful.
"Morning, Mr handsome." she mumbled in her still dreamy state. When she'd realized what she had said, she hoped it sounded like gibberish.
He smiled in a way that his skin crinkled beside his eyes and laughed so beautifully. "I'm just an intern. Please, call me Mani."
A lock of dirty blonde hair fell onto her eyes. She hated her hair. It was one of the things she would glamour away if she could. Another thing was her horribly big nose.
"Mani, hi. I'm Rose." Rose reached over to shake hands with him but her hand fell to her lap almost immediately.
"I do imagine it would be hard to do anything since you were kept in a comatose state for almost a decade." he smiled that beautiful smile again and Rose could feel her stomach flutter.
"Didja know you're like super hot?" Rose said without thinking. Does she ever stop talking? "Stars, I should shut up."
"Yes, you should." he said before he explained everything she'd missed in her time away. He explained things like Princess Selene being alive and defeating Queen Levana.
Rose started to feel her energy return to her and got off the bed. "Can you help me walk?" she blurted out.
"Sure." he shrugged. "but I'm going to have to go wake up the other shells soon."
"Other shells?" she said as Mani held her by her wrists. "Right. Mistress Sybil always said they were fixing us."
"You won't have to be 'fixed' anymore. The new government welcomes everyone." he smiled. "Okay. Through that door you'll meet people to help you rehabilitate." he pointed at a plain looking door.
"Will I ever see you again," she took a moment to remember his name. Stars, she was always bad with names. "Mani?"
He smiled with amusement. "Maybe."
Rose tried to lean over for a kiss but he gently pushed her away. "What? I thought we were star crossed lovers!"
"Stars above," he rolled his eyes. "Rose. Perhaps our paths will cross again someday but today isn't that day. You must go. I will try to find you again."
"I love you!" she called out before she went through the door. From then on, she met boring Doctors who told her boring information about what she missed when she was in the comatose. Boring, boring, boring, boring, and more boring. She was stuck in that stupid rehabilitation centre for about a week to help her get to the intelligence level of a regular 18 year old. She hated the place with a passion- sometimes just because it wasn't Mani's embrace.
She barely knew the guy and she knew she shouldn't be so in love with someone she just met but she couldn't help it. She even dreamt of him every night. They were always dancing. Rose had never ballroom danced in her short life but in her dreams, they were always dancing. Rose assumed she was crazy for being so obsessed with him but she couldn't help it.
She loved him.
"You're free to go." gestured for her to leave.
"Wait, really?" Rose said excitedly.
The Doctor rolled his eyes. Rose wasn't exactly popular around the rehabilitation centre. "Well," he sighed impatiently. "do you think you should stay longer?"
Rose shook her head. "No! Not at all!" wasn't exactly pleased when she hugged him tightly but he didn't fight her. Rose didn't think he could because she might have hugged him to the point that he couldn't breathe but she shrugged the thought off. She fixed her dress and ran to the doors.
Luna wasn't any prettier when Rose walked out the doors. It had the same, boring, white walls that it always had and the glass domes didn't look any different. The only new thing was that aristocrats looked a little angrier, something they probably hid with their glamour, and regular folk looked much happier.
"Excuse me," Rose tapped the shoulder of a blue haired woman with lovely dark skin. Stars, she was gorgeous. "Where do I go now?"
"I'm sorry. You can't touch a royal android." a handsome royal guard blocked her. Rose gasped. She'd only seen royal guards in bad situations.
"Please don't hurt me." Rose sniffled.
The blue haired android glared at the guard. "Kinney, stop it. Hello. I'm Iko. What's your name?"
"Rose." she small girl replied.
"That's such a beautiful name. It's a very Earthern name." the android smiled. Iko seemed so human. Rose couldn't believe it was just a machine. "How can we help you?"
"Iko, Queen Selene expects us-" the guard tried to interrupt.
"I want to get to Earth." Rose didn't know where that came from. The last time she'd checked her priorites, she wanted to be with Mani and live happily ever after.
Iko grinned. "That's a great idea! Kinney, I'll be able to get back to the palace. Can you take her to the Emigration Control?"
The guard hesitated. "Are you sure? I've heard of android napping happening a lot lately." Rose found it absolutely adorable that the guard was so worried about Iko. She aspired to have Mani worry about her like that.
"Yes. I'll be fine. Good luck, Rose!" Iko waved.
The guard didn't speak a word until the very end of the walk.
"Do you have a thing for that Iko?" Rose broke the silence.
Kidney, Rose thought that was his name, didn't speak but his cheeks were tinted pink. "That's none of your business."
Rose grinned. "You like her." she teased.
"I am Her Majesty's guard. I'm civilized enough to not like a machine." his cheeks were verging on red.
"Okay," Rose said. "But if you like her, I can guarantee she likes you too."
"You're very immature. Well, here we are, Emigration Control." he stopped. Emigration Control was a small and ugly building. It hardly fit in the beauty of Artemisia and seemed to have been made in a rush. "Good luck." he muttered before he left.
Rose walked nervously into the building. There were desks set up and lines of Lunars trying to escape the moon. Rose joined one of the lines
"You're a little young to be emigrating," the aristocrat in front of her said. "Shell."
"You see, I'm going to Earth to escape Lunars like you, who hate shells like me." Rose smiled.
"What's your name?" he asked suspiciously.
Rose wondered if she should be telling this stranger her name. "Rose Briar."
The man seemed amused. "The Briars. Oh, they were the laughing stock of Artemisisa, no, they were the laughing stock of Luna!" he laughed.
"Huh?"
"Well, first they named their shell and Earthern name and introduced her to everybody as Talia from embarrassment," he chuckled. "Then they kept their shell hidden for years because it 'was their daughter'," he laughed harder. "Their execution was hilarious to laugh. Papa Briar was begging for mercy but Queen Levana laughed in their faces as they peeled their own skin off. Hilarious!"
Rose blinked away tears. "You're sick." She ignored him until she reached the front of the line.
A woman wearing glasses smiled at her. "Hello. What's your name?"
Rose cleared her throat. "Rose," she whispered her first name. "Talia Briar."
"Hmm? I didn't catch the first name, dear."
Rose said it a little louder. "Rose."
The woman found her files on a small device in her hand. "A shell. Good. You won't need the Bioelectricity Security System. We'll just check your records and then you'll be scheduled on the next spaceship available." she gestured to a door. "For now, go through there and you'll go through the mandatory process."
"Rose Briar." a robotic voice said her name over a speaker. She cringed at hearing her name but walked over to an Earthern device called a netscreen.
"Reason for travel?" another robotic voice asked.
"Uh... Because I wanted to?"
"No, vacation or permanent?" the voice clarified.
"Undecided." Rose said.
"You must decide."
"Can I come back to Luna if I decide to stay permanently?" Rose asked.
"Yes."
"Permanent."
She was in a spaceship, heading to Earth. With her was a guide, a young Lunar girl with beautiful dark hair, vibrant blue eyes and she was so flawless looking. When she wasn't pointing out important constellations, she was talking with Rose.
"Why are you going to Earth?" she asked.
"I've spent too long on Luna. But I'll come back. There's someone special I'm waiting for." she smiled remembering Mani's face.
"That's so adorable. My name is Hala. What's your name?"
"Talia."
"Lovely name." she smiled. "You know, I've got a special somebody too."
"Who?" Rose asked eagerly.
"My fiance. We're waiting until he gets a promotion to get married. Right now, he's just an intern." her cheeks were red.
An intern. Just like Mani. Rose's stomach lurched. "What's his name?"
Hala laughed. "My mother always told me to never tell someone the name of my fiance or the marriage is doomed. I was never sure if that was a real tradition or not but better safe than sorry."
Rose tried to avoid Hala after that. She didn't want to wonder if she was talking about Mani or not. The thought made her want to cry. Instead, she focused on Luna's docks getting farther and farther away as the blue planet got closer.
"Hey, Talia, did I say something?" Hala came near her.
"No. It's just you're so sure that you'll be happy with your somebody and I'm not even sure if mine loves me back." Sure. That was the problem.
Hala smiled. "I'm sure they love you."
"I hope so."
