A/N: Hey AB section! Today is a TEDOU Saturday. Speaking of which, bonus points if you recognize where I got the fic title from. Thanks to Zain for the review and Silver-Tritium-Protractinium for the follow/fave!

ZainR: If anyone's gonna be doing the Fukuda slapping around here it's Yuri! *insert musical montage of classic violent Yurippe here* But you know, in the original BatB fairytale, Belle asked her dad for a single rose, so you're probably onto this trope. Plus (I mentioned this in DMs but I want to publicly point out) there's much to be said about Danielle being as much of a Belle as she is a Cinderella. Books, libraries, selfish prince, that blue dress... France.

Well, I digress. This is an Angel Beats story - let's get to it! Hope you enjoy.


[Chapter 2]: The Prince and the Servant Girl


Ten years later…


It was the middle of the night, but that did not matter to the king as he marched steadfast down a stone hallway with his path lit only by two flickering torches. The irresponsibility and insubordination he saw in his son day in and day out had ultimately led up to this, a royal frustration causing a severe case of insomnia that he refused to deal with alone. And thus he was leading his wife the queen and two of his torch-wielding men towards his son's chambers for a good old-fashioned midnight chew-out.

"I signed a marriage contract with the King of Toba and by God, that boy will obey my command or there will be hell to pay!"

"But he does not love her, my lord!" Queen Ayame pleaded, tightening her robe as she rushed to keep up with his stride.

"It's not about love."

"Perhaps it should be!"

The king's scowl deepened at his wife's far too tender heart. She was completely missing the point, as always. "If he is to become king, he must learn to accept his responsibility."

"A sapling cannot grow in the shadow of a mighty oak, Kimito," the Queen reminded him as they rounded the corner of the corridor. "He needs sunlight!"

"He needs a good whipping," King Kimito argued tersely.

Ayame scoffed in exasperation, but followed him up the winding castle stairs anyway. Nothing could stop the king when he was on one of his tirades, and yet she knew nothing good could come of tonight. Ever since her sweet, mild-mannered boy became their only heir, Kimito had been grinding him down and chipping away at his spirit. In his adolescence the boy had grown golden thorns, and was bound to brandish them tonight if met with a rude awakening.

But Kimito never learned, and never softened his touch, so she found herself climbing the spiral steps to her son's tower in the wee hours of the night on one of her husband's angry whims. She couldn't tell if his huffing and puffing came from anger or exertion; neither of them were young enough for an uphill battle.

"Really, Kimito, can't this wait until morning?" Ayame sighed once they reached the top.

"If I can't sleep, neither shall he!" said the king with a decisive nod. As soon as the door was opened for him, he burst into the prince's bedchambers with an impassioned flourish of his robes. "Ayato, wake up!"

There was no stirring sounds, no grumbling, no sleepy rumple of the bedsheets. His words had fallen upon an empty room. And an abandoned bed.

Ayame knowingly raised her tired eyes, and sat upon the covers with a sigh. "Oh no, not again."

The king followed her gaze to the open window, where a makeshift bedsheet rope draped over the sill and down towards the ground. His idiot son had made another daring escape.

To think! A grown prince, running away from home like a child! He clearly enjoyed making his parents look like fools.

Kimito's face paled with fury in the flickering light. He beat his fist against the wall, startling Ayame, and retreated to the staircase as he growled under his breath.

"Call out the guard!" the king bellowed, storming down the stairs. "Bring him back!"

Amidst the chorus of "yes, my lord," Ayame picked up the skirts of her nightgown and hurried after him. And she worried with every step. Yes, the guard would bring their prince home in a matter of time. Then the king would berate him endlessly for his insolence, and he would snap back with defensive sass, and she would watch the two men butt heads like little goats for a few days before he was gone again. And she would lose more hours of sleep, worrying and worrying.

And so the cycle went.


Beside the still smoldering coals of a fireplace, a young woman slept peacefully in a bed of hay and old blankets. A book with a love-worn cover lay draped over her heart where it belonged, caressed in sleep by soot-kissed fingers.

A rooster sang to the rising sun, and emerald green eyes opened as the light poured in through the cracks of the door. She closed Utopia and sat up with a small groan. The morning was here already. Yuri Nakamura knew each night she stayed up late reading that she'd pay for it when dawn came, but she was her father's daughter. Stubborn as her hungry mind was, she never learned her lesson.

And yet, being her father's daughter, she endured her tiredness and began her work nonetheless. That was what was expected of her, anyway, if she was to remain at Nakamura Manor under her stepmother's roof. Meanwhile Hinami and her daughters would be tucked in the sheets of their warm beds for another good hour or so. But she digressed.

Yuri did not carry her spite with her as she tended to the farm. Only buckets of apple cores, which she unloaded in the pig pen for their breakfast. Her father's land didn't deserve her nastiness, just love, which it would never get from the Fukudas.

Hinami's love was reserved for riches they couldn't afford, or gaining the status she thought she deserved. It was Yuri's responsibility to maintain the manor while her stepmother ceaselessly groomed her eldest daughter Hisako as a lady fit for marriage. And while Yuri accepted the role and knew her family's land was safer in her hands, she struggled not to laugh whenever Hinami spoke so seriously of her dreams that Hisako would wed the prince.

Even now it made her grin as she headed into the orchard for apples. Hisako, a true princess?

It sounded like a nightmare, but hey – whatever whisked them out of her life.

Willing the thoughts out of her mind, Yuri allowed herself a few minutes of peace in the soft grass while she tested the freshness of the fallen apples. The morning was still quiet and her troubles were far away in their beds. Yes, Hinami was sleeping soundly even after she'd sold an entire human person. Somehow she could do that with no qualms.

Though Yuri missed Matsushita the Fifth with all her heart, she closed her eyes, breathed through the grief, and dropped another apple in her apron. She would not let Hinami follow her out here. At this hour, her only company was the birds twittering in the trees.

But presently a yell rang out in the world, followed by a barrage of heavy hoofbeats kicking up dirt. Yuri glanced up, startled, just in time to see a surge of royal guards galloping past her on the road.

With their great speed, it was only a brief disturbance to her solitary silence. And yet she wondered for a while afterwards just who or what they were after.

Her imagination carried her through the rest of the apple-picking on autopilot, dreaming up all sorts of possibilities. A man who'd broken into the castle in the middle of the night and made off with the queen's favorite vase. The only mystical healer who might know how to cure the king's secret illness. The location of a lost underground cavern with all the weapons and supplies the king's army could ever want.

No, those were just the dreams and stories running through her head. But they sure as hell killed some time.

Once her apron had filled to the brim with fruit, Yuri tied the ends and headed back to the manor. She'd killed too much time and the Fukudas would be sitting down to breakfast very soon. Masami and Shiina shouldn't have to endure Hinami or Hisako alone. Quickening her step, she was rounding a corner with her bounty when another horse's familiar indignant whinnies and snorts stopped her right in her tracks.

"Come on, you stupid beast! Come on!"

She caught her breath as her fright transitioned to recognition and pure outrage. That was her father's favorite stallion! Who was this black-cloaked bastard clumsily trying to ride him?! The stranger kicked at his sides and the horse leaped over the hedges into the open hayfield.

This must be the criminal that the royal guards were looking for. And he thought he could make such an accomplice?!

"Oh no you don't," Yuri hissed. Whirling around in a haste, the girl sprinted back into the field to make his acquaintance. More and more apples tumbled out of her apron until she finally just let go, but she didn't care. The apples would be there when she came back for them.

After all, right now she only needed one.

Her timing was perfect. As he came galloping towards her, she wound her arm back and hurled her weapon straight at his stupid burgling forehead. The man yelped in surprise and fell backwards off the horse, his feet flying over his head before he tumbled to the ground and rolled himself into a disgraceful coat of hay.

If she weren't so furious, Yuri might've burst out laughing in triumph. But there was just enough time and a few discarded apples nearby and she'd decided one simply wasn't enough.

"Thief!" she snarled, diving for her weapons and pelting him with another when he tried to get to his feet. "This'll teach you to steal my father's horse!"

The coward adjusted his cloak as he stood, clutching it tight to disguise his face. "My own has slipped his shoe! I had no choice!"

"And our choice is what?" Yuri sneered, pelting him with more apples. "To let you?!"

"Wait!" he yelped, and truly had the audacity to hide behind the horse he'd tried to steal. "I was only borrowing—"

"Get out!" She aimed perfectly and lobbed another apple at his exposed legs. "I'll wake the house!"

He emerged from behind the horse – big mistake. As soon as his head passed the horse's, she flung a good ripe apple at it. It smacked against his skull and knocked him on his ass with another feeble yelp.

Yuri paused her onslaught and took a moment to revel in her victory. A moment that lasted for all of two seconds, and then the man pushed himself up from the ground and battered at his twisted cloak in a fit of anger. His hood had come away in the process, revealing his face.

Or, more specifically, a mess of dark green hair.

Yuri's breath hitched in fear. Her heart pounded terribly in her chest as his sharp features and disdainful golden eyes became clear to her. Oh God, she'd made a terrible mistake. She fell to her hands and knees in respect, hoping pitifully for mercy.

"Forgive me, Your Highness, I did not see you," she managed, struggling to compose herself before she hyperventilated into the grass. She dared not make eye contact again, but her curiosity begged her to sneak a few glances.

Prince Ayato looked skeptical, nursing a slight bump on his temple. "Your aim would suggest otherwise."

Yuri closed her eyes in horror. The prince. She'd just attacked the crown prince. "And for that I know I must die."

His riding boots stopped just in front of the horse, and he hesitated for a moment.

"Then, speak of this to no one, and… I shall be lenient," Prince Ayato said at last, and climbed back onto the saddle like it was nothing. Her father's horse snorted uncertainly at him, unaware of his rider's royal status.

So he really was the one that the guards were after. What was he running from? Not that it mattered, but she was willing to do whatever to avoid his ire getting back to Hinami.

"We have other horses, highness," Yuri said meekly, watching him try to wrangle her father's stubborn old steed. "Younger, if that's what you want."

His shadow fell over her, towering like a god in the glow of the early sunlight that shone through the trees.

"What I want?" the prince repeated with a scoff. "What I want is to be free of my gilded cage." Procuring a small bag, he untied it and dumped out its contents. Gold coins rained down unceremoniously in front of her. "For your silence."

And with that, he was off.

Yuri watched until her father's horse was out of sight, her mind tingling with numb disbelief at what had just transpired. Then her gaze fell to the coins, which to the touch seemed very real. As she counted each coin, her furrowed brow smoothed with a dizzy, joyous hope.

Maybe… just maybe this wasn't the last miracle that would come of today.


In the dining room of Nakamura manor, twenty-year-old Hisako was behaving like the ten years had not in fact aged her one bit. She stared in disgust at her bowl before shoving it to the side so she wouldn't have to look at the travesty a second longer.

"I said I wanted four-minute eggs, not four one-minute eggs," Hisako scowled, and threw a disdainful glare over her shoulder as she shouted, "and where in God's name is our bread?!"

Shiina swiftly appeared and whisked the eggs away. "It's just coming out of the oven, my lady," she answered, disappearing into the kitchen once more.

"Hisako, precious," Hinami said gently, "what do I always say about tone?"

Yui perked up almost immediately, raising her hand as she recited, "'A lady of breeding should never raise her voice any louder than the—" she paused, noting her mother's and sister's unimpressed frowns, and corrected her tone as appropriate, "gentle hum of a whispering wind."

Hisako glared at her younger sister, shaking her head in thinly veiled condescension. She'd be damned if she got a lecture about "ladies of breeding" from a lady of screaming and eating.

Seeming to share this viewpoint, Hinami fixed her younger daughter with a frown of annoyance.

"Yui, dear, do not speak unless you can improve the silence," she said coldly.

A pouting Yui returned to her eggs, which she herself had no problem with, while Hisako was quick to get back on the defensive.

"I was not shrill, I was resonant," Hisako corrected. Rolling her eyes, she muttered, "A courtier knows the difference."

"I don't believe your style of resonance would be permitted in the royal court," Hinami warned.

A scoff from Hisako. "But I'm not going to the royal court in the first place," she reminded her mother. "No one is. Except some Toban pig they have the nerve to call a princess."

"Darling, nothing is final until you're dead," said Hinami, tapping at her egg with a knife. "And even then I'm sure God negotiates."

Both daughters awkwardly averted their eyes to their plates. For some reason that didn't sound right.

The clicking and clinking of dishes and silverware took hold of the room, until a dissatisfied Hinami broke the silence a few moments later.

"Why is there no salt on this table?" the baroness demanded. Turning towards the kitchen, she hollered out, "YURI!"

"Coming!" Yuri sang in reply, hurrying into the kitchen to empty the contents of her apron into a basket. A massive grin lit up her face; not even her stepmother's impatience mattered to her right now.

Masami looked up from plating the bread, catching Yuri's contagious smile with a knowing gleam in her eyes. "Oh, she's in one of her moods!"

Though she kept a watchful gaze over the boiling eggs, Shiina managed a soft chuckle over her shoulder. "Did the sun rise in the east?"

"It sure did," Yuri chirped, pulling out the coin purse and letting her good fortune clatter majestically onto the table, "and it's going to be a beautiful day!"

Masami nearly fainted on the spot, clutching the edge of the table as her just-as-wide-eyed mother appeared beside her.

"Look at all that gold!" she wheezed. "Yuri, where on earth did you get this?!"

"From an angel of mercy." Returning with the salt shaker, Yuri flashed her old friend a cheeky grin, then let it fade in favor of a gentle smile when she turned to Shiina. "And I know just what to do with them."

Shiina studied Yuri's face, her own composure betraying her with a trembling lip.

"Matsushita?" she said softly.

Yuri nodded, fierce in her resolve to make this happen. Matsushita the Fifth might not be Masami's father, but he'd been dear to the Iwasawas ever since she was a very young girl. Witnessing his and Shiina's marriage when she was eleven was the happiest memory she'd had in this house since her father died. For Hinami to part them the way she did… it was disgusting.

"If the baroness can sell your husband to pay her taxes, then these can certainly bring him home!" Yuri told her, emphatic. "The court will have to let him go!"

"But the king's already sold him," Shiina said dismally, the glimmer of hope already leaving her face. "He's bound for the Americas."

"This is our home," Yuri insisted, gathering up the bread platter, "and I will not see it fall apart."

"We are waiting!" Hinami singsonged from the dining room.

Getting into gear, she made a move for the door, but Masami hurriedly intercepted her in time while Shiina scooped the money into its purse.

"Be careful, Yuri," Masami said, readying Yuri's apron as Shiina handed off the purse as well as the eggs. "Or else that gold's as good as hers!" She and Shiina gave Yuri an encouraging swat into the hallway.

Yuri expertly balanced the bread, salt, and eggs as she joined the Fukudas in the dining room.

"Morning Madame, Hisako-san, Yui-san," she greeted them, minding her manners as she set the table. Yui had once said she could just call her "Yui," but Yuri wisely avoided that in front of the baroness. All the same, she acknowledged Yui's bright smile and happy hello with a nod. "I trust you slept well."

Yui looked nervously at her mother at first, then pursed her lips and gave a silent but bubbly nod.

"What kept you?" Hinami asked, cold and prim as ever.

"I… fell off the ladder in the orchard, but I'm better now," Yuri answered, with little to no hesitation. Good thing she'd learned to think on her feet over the years. It was adaptation borne of necessity: give a good story or get a good whipping.

"Someone's been reading in the fireplace again." Hisako looked her up and down, smirking into her cup. "Look at you, ash and soot everywhere."

Hinami carefully measured a teaspoon of salt onto her eggs. "Some people read because they cannot think for themselves."

Similarly unimpressed, her elder daughter raised an eyebrow at Yuri. "Why don't you sleep with the pigs, Cinder-soot, if you insist on smelling like one?"

"Ooh! That was harsh, Hisako," said her mother, though her tone spelled approval.

Yuri somehow managed to mute a glare. Only breakfast, and Hinami and Hisako were already being their nasty selves. It was too early for this. Unwilling to spoil her good mood and be put through this any longer than she had to, she dropped the salt lid and started to make a break for it.

Too late – Hinami had already snagged her sleeve.

"Yuri? Come here, child," she said, holding fast to her wrist until Yuri obediently stopped. Her stepmother regarded her with curiosity and a hint of repulsion. "Your appearance does reflect a certain… crudeness, you know. What can I do to make you try?"

Was that genuine care in her tone? Somehow Yuri felt she should know better, and yet hope kindled in her heart as she let herself fall for it.

"I do try, Stepmother," she said honestly. "I do wish to please you. Sometimes I sit on my own and try to think of what else I could do, how I should act—"

Rolling her eyes, Hinami became bored and turned away. "Oh, calm down, Yuri. Relax."

Yuri nodded and began to walk out of the room. Right, should have seen that coming a mile away. And yet... she slowed at the door, considering her options. If the baroness was truly taking recommendations for incentives, then – well, there was one thing. And she would need to know in advance: how would she react if Yuri's ideas were to pan out?

She took a deep breath and approached Hinami's chair once more, testing the waters. "Maybe if we brought back Matsushita the Fifth, I would not offend you so—"

"It is your manner that offends, Yuri," the baroness snapped, flicking stone cold eyes to her. "Throughout these hard times, I've cared for you, clothed you, and kept a roof over your head. All that I ask in return is that you help me here without complaint. Is that such an extraordinary request?"

Yuri shook her head, backing down. "No, my lady," she said, and pointedly ignored the pleasure on Hisako's face.

"Very well," Hinami said, giving a nod of dismissal. "Then we'll have no more talk of servants coming back. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, my lady." She bowed slightly, then escaped into the hallway to help the Iwasawas with the rest of their chores. Her stepmother's voice, further expressing her offended astonishment, followed her the entire way.

So much for an appeal to her stepmother's generosity. If she was going to save Matsushita the Fifth, she'd have to do it herself.


A/N: You might drag me for the MatsuShiina pairing which is completely fair but Matsushita the Fifth is without a doubt the Maurice to Yuri's Danielle. Simply couldn't be helped.

Anyways, thanks for reading this far! More fun casting surprises in the next chapter :D (whenever that is) (who said that)

~Caroline