Every year. Every single year, it happened. Amidst her birthday celebrations, congratulations from all directions, partying with cakes and money and everything, someone kicks down the door to the dining room with swords in their hands, screaming her name.

Nishikino Maki had, for her entire life, never understood why some people had such a different air around them.

Her royal family, her bodyguards, her friends, they all seemed so happy and genuinely caring.

Then those people who would barge into her parties, who she assumed was angry over not being invited or something, they always seemed like... they seemed like dangerous people. She felt like if left to their own devices, they'd do something fatal by mistake, which wouldn't be very nice.

She was still young, so she didn't really understand much about such things.

But she was getting a bit tired of the same gimmick, that was certain. Again and again, ruffians with brandished swords come in, and get repelled by the bodyguards. Sometimes they come in huge groups, and half of her birthday would be spent on her royal family fighting a small-scale war of sort against these bad people.

Something happened, however.

On her thirteenth birthday, two significant things happened. The first was that she'd decided that she had had enough with this repetitive cycle.

The second was that, for once, someone had successfully kidnapped the Nishikino royal family's only daughter.

"Hey! Let me go!" Maki screamed, legs dangling in the air.

Her abductor, a girl looking equally young as her, frowned. "Are you sure? We're several stories high in the sky."

The heiress looked down once more and gulped. The thought of her landing... no, she knew there was no way she could land safely. "Get down and put me down!" she decided to say instead.

"Hmm... nope!" The girl holding her laughed as she resumed flying towards an abandoned tower far away.

Turning pale, Maki wondered what would happen to her. Who was this girl who kidnapped her? Why did she have dragon wings and horns? Why was she even taking her? And what- or who- was awaiting her at the abandoned tower she had only heard bad rumors of? The girl started trembling, something that didn't go unnoticed.

Her captor frowned. "Hey, hey, stop shaking. It's a bit hard to hold you if you start trembling now," she said.

Maki slowly nodded and tried to calm herself.

Eventually, when they neared, the duo flew through an open window and safely landed inside in a dusty room.

More specifically, the not-human let go of Maki, who was still nervous, and plopped her onto the ground. "Alrighty! We're here at my house now! God, that was thrilling, wasn't it?"

"...srill...?" Maki wasn't sure what that word meant, but nevertheless, her thoughts subsided as her rage returned. "Who are you!? Why did you bring me here!?" she yelled. "Bring me back right now! Papa wouldn't like it if you kept me away from him, and you'll regret ever thinking about taking me away!"

The girl blinked, before laughing. "Yeah, right! Your dad can't do anything to me. I'm terrifying!" she said and spread her wings again.

Maki stared. "...you're not scary to Papa! He's the king, he's not afraid of anyone!"

"But... I'm scary."

"No you're not!"

"Am too!"

"You're not!"

"I am!"

The two growled at each other. Then, pouting, they faced away. "Jerk!" Maki hissed.

"You're the jerk!" the dragoness replied.

"No, you! Stupid!" Maki then grabbed the dragoness and spun her around to face herself. "Now take me back home!"

The girl jolted in surprise, but growled. "No! You'll never make me!"

Her fist clenched tightly, hurting the girl's shoulder a bit. "If not, I'll tell Papa to punish you!" Maki said. "I'm sick of people always coming for me on my birthday! ll those mean men always have to carry swords, it feels like they would hurt me! And now people like you are here to take me away and make Papa do bad things!" She began shaking the dragoness back and forth. "If you hurt me, Papa will never forgive you! And, and, and if you hurt Papa! I! Won't! Forgive! You!"

"S-stop! Stop!" the girl wailed. Maki regained her senses and let her go, watching as the dragoness fell. "Jeez! I get it! You're a spoiled brat!"

"What!?" Maki yelled. "You're the bat, you weird human!"

"I said brat!" the girl replied. "And I'm a dragoness!" Before Maki could respond, she got up and pointed a finger at her. "Who cares if you're sick of that!?" she said. "I'm sick of it too! I'm sick of your stupid royal family celebrating every year! You were born on this day years ago, so what!? Nobody does that for me!" She got closer to the crimson haired girl. "It's always you, you, you! You're a spoiled brat! And because you get all those good things and I don't, I decided to take you here! So now we both can't have it!"

"You're stupid!" Maki yelled back, before she frowned. "...wait, did you say today's your birthday too?"

"I... uh, yes," the dragoness replied, half surprised that their argument was cut short by something so trivial. "I was also born today. But anyways, you get everything! And I don't! So now you don't get to get them, along with me!"

Maki seemed to ignore that immediately, though. "Why don't you get anyone to celebrate with you?" she suddenly asked, her voice almost genuinely caring. It was almost like this was a completely different person, not the spoiled child the dragoness thought she had kidnapped.

She frowned. "How would I do that!? Nobody likes me, and they're all scared of me, so I don't get anyone."

"Then don't kidnap me!" Maki said as if it was the most obvious solution.

"It's the first time, you jerk!" the dragoness yelled back. The two glared at each other again, before the dragoness looked away, annoyed. "Jeez, I should never return you or something," she mumbled.

Suddenly, Maki held something to her. "...here."

"...?" The dragoness looked back, and noticed something in her hand. It was a small, clear... something, with something hard-looking and bright green inside. "What's that?"

"It's candy," Maki said. "...it's your birthday, so here's your gift from me," she said.

Speechless, the dragoness slowly accepted it. "...um. Thanks." She examined the candy closely. "...so what is this?"

"You eat it, stupid," the captive replied. "You haven't ever had candy before?"

"I, I knew that!" She glared at Maki once more, before looking at the candy again. Still unsure, she then plopped it into her mouth. Maki's eyes widened at the same time as hers did. "Ack! It's tasteless!"

"A-are you stupid!?" Maki hissed. "Take off the wrapper!"

The girl spat out the candy in the wrapper into her hands, and stared at it. "The what?"

"The wrapper!" Met with a confused look, Maki growled. "Fine, I'll do it!" She hesitantly took the now-wet wrapper and, with some difficulty, ripped it open. Then she put the bright piece of candy in her captive's hands. "Here. Keep this in your mouth, don't chew or swallow it."

"What's the point of that?" the girl wondered, but did as she was told. The moment she closed her mouth, a familiar taste of apples erupted from within her mouth. Her eyes widened and sparkled with fascination as, when she swirled her tongue around the delightful thing known as a 'candy', a mix of sweet and sour spread everywhere. She moaned with delight, hands happily clutching both her cheeks. "Mmnn! Whatsh isth dith ting!?" she exclaimed.

"H-hey, careful, you might choke on it," Maki said and sighed. "It's candy, like I said. This one is apple-flavored." The girl looked at her captor, quite amazed. "I can't believe you've never had that... it's the craze in Papa's kingdom right now."

The other girl properly shifted her candy to the side of her mouth so she could talk more clearly. "I've never seen nor had something like this before! This is really amazing!" She then looked to Maki happily. "D-do you have anymore of... candy?"

Maki smiled helplessly. "Of course I do! I get them all the time!"

"T-that's awesome!" The dragoness gave the girl an affectionate hug. "You're the best! This is something I'd never ever taste if I didn't know any better! I'm so glad I kidnapped you!"

"..." The princess wasn't sure how to respond to that.

Nevertheless, she felt like maybe the two can get along now.

"So, uh," Maki started again and scratched her head, "who are you? You're a weird human, with wings and horns, and you've never had a birthday party or even candy." Then, looking around the room, she realized how lonely it seemed. It was exactly as she imagined the abandoned tower to be- an abandoned mess. The room looked like someone just came inside and lived here without cleaning up. "Where's your family? Or bodyguards? Or, or anyone else?"

"Oh, I don't have a family," the other girl replied, to her shock. "I've always been here alone. Don't you know?"

Maki shook her head in disbelief. "...no. No, I didn't no. I'm sorry." She looked down.

"...you're the princess, right?" the girl asked once more. "Princess Maki of the Nishikino family. Right? ...just to make sure."

Her captive nodded. "...yeah. I'm Princess Maki. Who... who are you?"

Then, grinning, the dragoness patted herself. "I'm the terrifying dragoness from the Yuuki tribe, Anju!"