Disclaimer: I do not own the Swan Princess or any of the characters.
Summary: She never did "the lip thing" but she could still make him feel guilty as hell none the less.
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She never did the lip thing or gave him the disappointed eyes or lectured him or used any of the guilt trip devices and feminine wiles that he was so familiar with when dealing with his mother. That wasn't to say that she wasn't as equally adept at making him feel just as bad as his mother, she just went about it in a different way.
She was more subtle about it.
Even when they were younger she'd always had an eerie way of unsettling him whenever he'd gone against her in any way. At first it was because she would follow he and Bromley endlessly no matter how they'd treated her.
How could he not have felt badly about whatever it was he'd done when they had been her only company the entire summer? That she had been so starved for attention and companionship that she would've forgiven any transgressions on their part, things that she would have never easily let slide had she not truly been desperate for human interaction?
On days when they'd been particularly antagonistic, he had usually ended up ditching Bromley for a few hours after dinner so he could do something with her, something she wanted to do. If that had involved playing dress up or allowing her to completely ravage him at cards or teaching her the basics of swordplay, then that was what he'd done.
Anything that would have brought the sparkle back to her eyes. A smile hadn't been necessary, just the sparkle.
Later, when they'd gotten a little older and she'd become a little more jaded about their situation as a whole, she'd stopped following them when the sniping and arguing had become too much and she'd simply disappeared. That had, of course, made him feel terrible as well because, once again, they'd been her only company the entire summer.
The guilt had lessened a bit, however, and transformed into something aiken to agitation when he'd found her flirting with castle guards.
He was supposed to have been her only company for the summer.
She wasn't supposed to have gone searching for someone else to keep her entertained.
He was supposed to have been her entertainment.
Somehow the times when she'd sought out other companionship didn't make him feel nearly as bad as when he'd gone searching to find her sitting alone in the library, draped over a chair, beautiful eyes locked on the pages of a book. The fact that she'd rather have been alone than be around him had made his insides twist uncomfortably.
Now, after the spell and the great animal, their unbearably long separation at the hands of Rothbart and almost losing her forever, all she had to do was submit to him and his insides felt hollow.
There had been a time when she would have stood her ground and argued with him; she would have battled it out with him all night if she'd had to but no more. She was so weary of the fight, of disagreements and discord. She wanted peace and she would bow to him with patience and heavily concealed irritation to achieve it and he couldn't stand it.
Her passive, docile approach to everything nowadays cut him deeper than the most vicious of words or the sharpest of swords so he always caved and it never took him very long either. Twenty, thirty minutes; an hour at the most.
On this particular occasion it had only taken him ten minutes for the hollow feeling in his gut to spread, infecting his system with a crippling guilt that prompted him to find her and make amends immediately.
He found her standing on their balcony, solemnly staring out at the lake.
"I'm sorry," he blurted unceremoniously.
Startled, she spun around quickly to face him. "For what?"
He could tell from the genuine confusion on her face that she'd not only not expected his apology but also that she truly didn't know why an apology was even needed in the first place.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he cautiously took a step toward her. "For being difficult."
She smiled and allowed him to close the distance between them, accepting the arms that embraced her and the face that found the crook of her neck with a comforting hand, tangling in his hair. "It's okay," she laughed lightly, nails gently scraping his scalp. "That's part of why I love you."
His arms tightened around her and he dropped a kiss to the side of her neck before lifting his head to meet her eyes. "And I love you just because."
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