Once upon a time there was a king. And this king was currently absolutely, positively bored, listening to dull petition after petition.

Susan said there were special guests arriving after the last petition was heard. Peter seriously could not care less at this point. It's not like he disliked being king, but it was so freaking tedious.

"Peter!" Susan hissed. Peter blinked. Oops, the petitioner was waiting for an answer. And Peter had missed most of the petition.

"My eldest royal sister will make the final decision," Peter fumbled. Susan glared at him, but spoke to the petitioners anyways. Peter thought he was off the hook, but then Susan took advantage of the commotion made by them leaving and the new petitioners entering to lean over to Peter and pinch him.

"Ow!" Peter complained.

"Pay attention!" she whispered. "We don't want to offend anyone!"

"I know! I know! It's just so boring," Peter complained in her ear.

"Well, the special guests today will perk you up," Susan whispered. She leaned back into her throne and grinned at him with a devious look. The four of them listened to a few more petitions, Peter actually attempting (with only a little success) to pay attention now.

"That's the final petition, your majesties. And your guests await outside to greet you," Mr. Tumnus said.

Lucy giggled and looked at Peter. Even Edmund straightened up in his throne. Great, so Susan told everyone but me who these "special guests" are, Peter thought. Well, I guess they must be pretty good if even Ed's interested.

"Greetings, Kings and Queens of Narnia," the leader of the group exclaimed, reaching her arms out. Pete suddenly straightened up and grinned. It was his dearest friend, Aiyanna.

"It gladdens our hearts that you will be staying with us for a year," Susan said, peeking over towards Peter to see his reaction. Peter's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Susan continued with a smile, "Mr. Tumnus! Call the attendants to show our guests to their rooms."

"If you do not mind, I would like to stay and speak with High King Peter," Aiyanna said with a small smile.

Susan blinked in surprise. She hoped that perhaps Aiyanna was returning Peter's feelings for her. "Of course. We will leave."

"I would be delighted to speak with you!" Peter exclaimed. Aiyanna smiled calmly. After everyone else had left, he hugged her. After a moment's hesitation she hugged him back. Dryads rarely hugged as friends.

"I am very glad to stay at Cair Paravel," Aiyanna said shyly.

"I'm so glad too! Susan just told me 'special guests' were coming! I had no clue it would be, you know, someone I might actually want around," Peter said with a grin. "And this means you'll be here for the ball next week! Have you ever been to a human ball before? Coronation doesn't count."

"Nay, just woodland dances," Aiyanna lied. She had been before, but she needed Peter to pity her so he would be sure to offer to escort her. "I heard that the balls require escorts, so hopefully I can find an escort who would be helpful and kind enough to explain to me anything I'm unfamiliar with. Although I'm a bit worried. What if no one asks to escort me?"

"I'm sure you'll have the opposite problem of way too many men asking you," Peter said taking her hand and comfortingly rubbing it.

"What makes you say that, your majesty?" Aiyanna said flirtatiously.

"Well, um… well. You're rather um… tall," Peter stuttered, taken aback by her question. It wasn't like Aiyanna to ask such things.

"Tall?" she said a bit crossly. Seriously?

"Um… yeah. Tall is pretty, right?" Peter stammered, trying to correct himself.

"Are you saying you think I'm pretty?" Aiyanna said, shyly pulling her fingers through her hair.

"No, that would be an insult. You are beautiful," Peter said. Aiyanna blushed, genuinely taken aback by his compliment. "Every man is likely to ask you to the ball."

Aiyanna tried the opposite approach, since this was going in circles. "Do you know who you are planning to ask?"

"If I had my way, no one," Peter said. "Sometimes I really wish it was possible to challenge ladies to a duel and then just be done with them that way."

"Well, you'll just have to find someone who doesn't annoy you," she said suggestively. "And I do hope whoever it is that escorts me will not be someone I find annoying either."

"Hey, Ana," Peter suddenly said. "Let's go to the ball together! I mean, if that is pleasing to your highness."

Aiyanna feigned surprise and said, "If your majesty wishes it." Her plans were in motion.

"We're to start off the dancing," Peter said at the beginning of the ball, leading her out onto the dance floor where his siblings and their escorts joined them.

"I think I rather enjoy this ball," Aiyanna said after a few minutes. "Are you at least finding it bearable?"

Peter smirked. "More than bearable. Can't I just dance with you all night?"

"Truly? The monotony of dancing with only one girl would not bore you?" Aiyanna said with the edge of her lips curling into a smile. Peter couldn't resist smiling back.

"Not if she is you."

"Well, dancing with you, milord, is never monotonous. I never know at what point you may step on my toes," Aiyanna teased. They bantered as they danced together for a few more songs.

"We should dance with others soon," Aiyanna said. "But by midnight our duties to dance with any others will have been fulfilled. Let us meet again then?" Aiyanna said, wanting to be sure that Peter would return to her.

"Yes!" Peter said eagerly. "Meet me on the terrace."

A few dances later, one of the young dryad lords, Lord Nahele asked her to dance. Aiyanna gladly accepted. She and Nahele had grown up together and more than a few dryads had gossiped about the likelihood of him asking to court her, especially since none of his line had been royal in generations and were causing arguments. But then again, they would gossip forever about any noble dryad who as much as looked at her. And Nahele seemed to simply see her as a friend.

"Princess, we heard your conversation. Wait until a bit after midnight. Make him wait for you. And you are to make your move tonight. After hearing the reports of how he has responded to your advances thus far, Lady Zitkala believes that you will be able to move forward faster than we anticipated," he informed me. Aiyanna sighed. She should've known Nahele had only asked her to dance to inform her of Zitkala's instructions.

"And by moving forward she means….?" Aiyanna asked dutifully.

"Less subtle hints of your fake intentions towards him. Try to naturally slip it into a conversation," Nahele said. "Indeed, I agree with her; the time is ripe. See how the High King glares at me for dancing with you." Surely enough, Peter was looking over at them, annoyed.

"Should we make him jealous?" Aiyanna said with a hint of amusement in her voice.

"If your highness wishes it," Nahele said agreeably, a small smile tugging the edge of his lips. He tended to be more fun than most noble dryads. He deftly danced her over towards being within earshot of Peter, being careful to not be too obvious. They instantly made up some story about some supposed woodlands celebration, Peter getting more upset by the second.

Ten minutes after midnight, Aiyanna walked to the terrace, pretending to be hurrying when she got close.

"Your majesty, please pardon my lateness," she said calmly with a curtsy, but her heart was pounding inside from anticipation.

"I'm just glad you made it, princess. For a moment I thought you were going to ditch me for Nahele," he said, smoothly taking her hand into his and bowing to kiss it, linger just a second longer than was appropriate.

"And I thought you might not be here and rather spend the night with Lady Emelina," Aiyanna teased.

"I'd completely avoid that one if I could," Peter disagreed. "She's the type of girl I could never be even friends with. But I can't afford to offend her father."

"You categorize girls as ones you could be friends with and ones you can't?" Aiyanna asked seemingly innocently.

"I guess you could say so," Peter said ruefully.

"And I, my lord?" Aiyanna asked, inching towards him.

"You...um… what was the question?" Peter said, suddenly distracted by how close they were, despite having been just as close with every girl he had danced with earlier.

"I assume I fall in the category of girls you could be friends with?" she said sweetly, leaning her head in.

"Um... no... I mean… you have a special third category, all to yourself," Peter said, grabbing her hand to pull her in towards him again.

"And what would that be, my lord?" Aiyanna asked in a demure manner.

"How about you guess?" Peter said a twinkle in his eye. Aiyanna had a fairly good guess, based on it being the very reason she had been sent there. But she was unsure why he was playing games. Perhaps he wanted to be sure of her feelings before revealing his?

"I'll give you a hint, Ana" Peter said hesitantly after Aiyanna's silence. "It's better than either of the other two categories."

"I think I'd like to wager a guess, your majesty," Aiyanna said slowly.

"Yeah?"

Aiyanna leaned in and kissed Peter on the lips..

Edmund saw Peter sneak out of the ball, and then a little while after, Aiyanna snuck out the same direction. Well, this is a new development, he thought with a smirk. The two biggest good two shoes I know sneaking out? Ok, maybe it was a coincidence, but Edmund just had to go spy on them. Normally Peter getting the girl would annoy him, but this was Ana. Sure, he liked her a lot better than the annoying girls who threw themselves at him because of his title, but too be honest, he found her boring. And too much of a goody-two-shoes. So in short, perfect for Peter. Although he saw her and Peter laughing earlier, which was also quite a new development. Usually when Ana laughed it seemed uncertain, like she was unaccustomed to laughing. Come to think of it, she probably wasn't used to laughing. The regular dryads were fun, but the nobles? Forget it.

Edmund finally found them and his jaw fell open. Kissing? Heck, he could barely believe the two of them would spend time alone together. He'd expect Ana to be all upset over the breach of propriety by being alone with a man. Kissing without being in a courtship? That was scandalous by any Narnian's standards. He leaned in to see better, wanting to get more information to tease Peter with.

Peter could hardly believe his luck. He had assumed she had no interest in him. Well, not that sort of interest. But now here she was, kissing him passionately, although a bit awkwardly. He realized she had probably never kissed a boy before, being a bit of a prude. He was kinda surprised she would put her hands around her neck, kissing her much more passionately than she had him. This kiss was much sweeter. Peter never wanted to stop.

Aiyanna was torn. On one hand, she was delighted that the dryads' plotting had worked so incredibly well. On the other hand, she now had absolutely no excuse for not going through with it. But… he was a rather good kisser. Aiyanna jealously wondered what other girls he had kissed before.

Suddenly Peter and Aiyanna heard a crash. They turned and saw Edmund standing up from the ground, a sheepish grin on his face.

"Um… hey….. I just… um… hi." Ed stammered awkwardly. He felt guilty when Aiyanna hide her face in her hands.

"Ed, just go," Peter said frustrated.

Edmund happily left the awkward scene.

"Lucy! Lucy!" he hissed when he saw his sister. He signaled for her to follow him and they snuck into a side room. "You won't believe what I just

"Sorry about that," Peter whispered, trying to pry Aiyanna's fingers off of her face. "Ed just… Ana, c'mon. Can't we just pretend him interrupting us never happened?"

Aiyanna stayed silent, having absolutely no clue what to do from here. She knew there was no way to keep a relationship with the High King secret for long, but she didn't think that it would be this short of a time before her reputation was ruined.

"Ana, please," Peter whispered, finally being able to pull her fingers off of her face.

"My apologies, I didn't mean to react so," Aiyanna said, taking a breath to steady herself.

"You're not upset over our kiss though?" Peter asked tentatively.

Aiyanna knew she had no choice but to reassure Peter that she was not upset over it, but she hesitated a moment anyways. "No, of course not, milord. It was… interesting."

Peter grimaced. Interesting? But hey, at least she had actually kissed him. "But you enjoyed it, right, princess?" He ran his fingers through her hair, looking over her face.

"Yes, of course, your majesty," Aiyanna said, smoothing the skirt of her dress to give her something other than the startling intensity of Peter's eyes to look at.

"Would…. Would you want to kiss again, your highness?" he asked.

Aiyanna repressed a sigh. "Yes, your majesty."

Peter leaned in and kissed her again. Aiyanna willingly kissed him back, but with much less passion than Peter. She did in fact enjoy it, but it was accompanied by pangs of guilt.

Peter finally pulled away from her, but only to move down to her neck and kiss her collarbone. Aiyanna ran her fingers through his hair. His warm breath on her neck was oddly comforting. His hands wandered about the sides of her body, tracing odd patterns on her leaves. He eventually pulled away, gasping for breath. After a moment, he looked as though he was about to go on with kissing her, but Aiyanna put her hands on his chest to stop him.

"Peter, I… I can't. This isn't right. We are not courting, so we should not do such things. I am sorry that I kissed you. I should not have acting such," she said. Since Edmund was obviously not going to be able to keep his mouth shut, they might as well have a public courtship. Aiyanna had hoped to not deal with such awkwardness, but it was better than having her spotless reputation on the line.

"Ana, you need to learn to have fun sometimes," Peter said, leaning in again for a kiss. She pushed him back again.

"Nonetheless, I must insist you cease," she said evenly.

"Or… we could officially court each other," Peter suggested. "Would you like that?"

Aiyanna faked a smile and snaked her arms around his neck. "Of course I would."

"I will ask you officially in the morning in the Throne Room," Peter stated.

"I worry about what the other dryads will think," she lied, knowing fully well that their reaction would be to congratulate her for accomplishing her mission so well.

"And the court at Cair Paravel," Peter agreed, a bit nervous. "But it's my choice and it's your choice, so each group will just have to go along with it."

"Indeed," Aiyanna said with a smile that did not meet her eyes. "Now, if you would excuse me, I should retire for the night. Therefore I will be well rested for our announcement in the morning."

Peter smiled and gave her one last kiss. "Farewell. I simply cannot wait."

As soon as she left, Aiyanna sought out Lady Zitkala to tell her of the latest developments. Aiyanna thought she would be pleased, but her frown only deepened.

"A public courtship would ruin the rest of our plan," she muttered a bit angrily.

"What do you mean by the rest of our plan?" she asked, confused. "There… there was more to the plan that I was not told of?"

"Indeed, your highness. We didn't tell it to you because we thought you might not agree to coming to Cair Paravel if you knew it was part of the plan. I was to tell you later, but your relationship with the High King moved much more swiftly than I had anticipated."

"What was the rest of the plan?!" Aiyanna exclaimed. "I demand you tell me of it this instant!"