Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews last time, SSBTMM, Eddie Camp, Luthien Eriol, Naivette, and Kate7950. I have a reason for the last chapter being full of Disney references, but mostly I thought it'd be fun to do a shout-out to all the Disney princess movies. I didn't mean for Steph to come off Rapunzel-ish by having never left the castle, but oh well. :P Take things however you want; I do want you guys digging deep in the story and analyzing a lot. Analyze who you think the villains may be or who Steph's strongest allies will be. No, we're not that deep in the story yet, but the pace from here is going to pick up a little as we get launched into the main plot. (:

Yes, this chapter is coming out earlier than I expected it to. I'm so far ahead I can't resist posting it. So be sure to thank me with tons of reviews! :P

Chapter Three: Birthday

I laughed at a joke my mother told me as we entered the castle, shopping bags on our arms as we were greeted by the castle guards. The two of us had just gotten back from shopping in town, and I had to say that it was incredible. We didn't even have guards with us to keep us safe; not even Riku came along. It seemed risky at first, but then my mom explained that we were going to a district that had the shops closed off to normal customers so that we could shop in peace.

"Sneaking into that one shop was amazing," I said, giggling at the memory. We didn't let any townspeople recognize us, so we were sneaking around the area. One time, we were almost caught, but then we hid behind a dumpster. And after that, we crawled to get to the store unseen! It was hilarious.

"I don't remember the last time I did something so reckless!" my mother, Queen Andrea, laughed. "I know that everyone was against us going out on our own, but we'll have to do this again sometime."

"We will, if they let us," I agreed.

"Hey. I'm the Queen! I can find a way to make it happen," she said, sending a wink my way. I grinned and nodded at her expression, the forty year old mother looking like an excited child to me. She looked good for her age, and she was gorgeous with her long blonde hair and slim figure. And those bright blue eyes…I had the same ones. I was proud to have the same features as somebody I looked up to so much.

"Good evening, Highnesses."

My mom and I both stopped walking, seeing the man who was standing a few feet away. "Hey Gregory," I greeted with a smile. It had been a while since I saw him, even if he lived in this castle as a part of the security detail. Riku tried to keep it that way, but he didn't have to try too hard since my schedule was so busy anyway. But despite Riku's impression of Gregory, I liked the man. He truly was a friend.

"Happy Birthday, Your Majesty," Gregory said warmly to me.

"Aw, thank you!"

"Eighteen, huh? It must be fun, having an excuse to leave the castle without any guard."

"Well, that's the only reason they let us go," I said sweetly. Normally, everyone was so suffocating. Especially-

"Not without hesitation," Gregory said, interrupting my thoughts. "Especially Riku. He's been pacing around the castle all afternoon. You should go let him know you're back."

Riku…He would worry like that. He had been on edge ever since that day we went to town and were confronted by those punks. But at least he didn't tell anybody about what happened; I was grateful for that. "You know where he is? I'll go find him now."

"I believe he's in your suite."

"That's good," Queen Andrea said, speaking for the first time in a while. "You need to head back and get ready for the rest of the night anyway. Do you want me to send Susana to do your hair?"

At the thought of the maidservant, I shook my head. "No thanks; I'll do it myself." I was perfectly capable, and besides, I didn't want to waste Susana's time. Surely she had plenty of other things to do, even if she was always checking up on me to see if I needed anything. She was incredibly sweet.

"Okay. I'll see you later tonight. Don't be late!" my mom said lovingly, leaning over and giving me a kiss on the top of my brunette hair before she looked to the man who was still standing with us. "Bye, Gregory."

"Farewell, Majesty."

She walked down the hall to go to her suite, and I looked over at Gregory briefly. "I gotta go too. See ya!"

I heard Gregory call his farewell as I started off at a quick walk, the heavy shopping bags still over my arms. I had a few accessories in the bags that I would wear later tonight, but mostly it was clothes that I could wear on casual days. I had too many formal outfits and not enough jeans, sweats, and shorts. I was an eighteen year old princess as of today, but that didn't mean I didn't get days to wear whatever I wanted.

Tonight, though, I would have to be formal. Extremely so, actually. Tonight, there was going to be a large dinner for all the people in the castle, other royal guests we invited from other provinces, and then a dance. The dance was a set up for me to find my prince charming. Yeah, you heard me right. Nobody knew that I was with Riku, and even if they did, it wouldn't matter.

A princess needed to marry royalty.

So, dukes and people from royal bloodlines were all being invited to come to the event tonight, and I would have to dance with each of them at least once. And my mom hoped that I would find somebody I would be interested in. But I wouldn't, because I wasn't searching for a boyfriend. I was happy with Riku, even if he was grumpy lately and way overprotective since what happened in town the other day. Nobody else knew about that, but even they could see that he was suffocating me a little by not giving me more space. Despite all that extreme concern, he was a sincere guy. Brave, kind, intelligent, wise…He was a terrific guy.

I think…I may have loved him.

"Finally, you're back," Riku said as I entered the bedroom. I looked up and saw him standing there, staring in the direction of me and the door. It seemed like he had been there staring for a long time, waiting. Didn't he have anything better to do? I thought he could get ready for tonight, but he was already dressed in a suit even if it was over an hour before we needed to be ready.

"Yeah, well, shopping takes a while," I said with a cheesy smile. "Especially with unlimited money. Gosh do I love this place…"

"Anything happen?"

"Yeah, we got mugged," I said sarcastically. Riku clearly didn't buy it, even if he had been concerned something like that would happen. "Nothing bad happened, Riku. We were almost caught a few times, but we had fun sneaking around like secret agents and crawling into stores."

"You can't be serious."

"I am!" I exclaimed with a smile. "Okay, so it was crawling into a store—singular. But it was still a ton of fun."

"I can't believe they let you out unsupervised," Riku murmured.

"We're big girls; we can take care of ourselves," I said as I approached my bed. I set down the heavy bags and then walked over to the closet to look for the beautiful red dress that I would wear for the evening. "Ah, here it is," I murmured after looking through the closet. I pulled out the full-length dress, looking it over with excited blue eyes. It had gems on the upper part of the dress that fit my torso, and then a few more selectively placed gems on the bottom half that wasn't so tight against my skin. I had to wear a dress that I could dance in, even if I was a terrible dancer.

Riku let the conversation drop, but he still spoke to me as I headed to the bathroom to get changed. "You are going to be so late."

"Am not!" I called from the bathroom, starting to do my hair. I wouldn't be late, because I was doing my hair in a simple, elegant way. I was going to put it up in a smooth bun. And then makeup would take me fifteen minutes, and getting into the dress and shoes and accessories would take another twenty. I had plenty of time.

"It takes you, like, three hours to get ready for this type of thing. It's your birthday, so obviously it's going to take you even longer than usual…"

"I have a plan to get this done; don't you worry. Twenty minutes for hair, fifteen for makeup, and another twenty to get dressed and accessorized. I'll be fine."

"You forgot you have to go through a quick rehearsal for walking into the ball, aren't you?"

I peeked my head out of the bathroom, hairbrush still in my hand as I looked at Riku. "…You're lying." I didn't remember ever hearing anything like that.

Riku smirked. "Yeah, I am."

"Jerk!" I heard him laugh at the comment as I returned to my hair, remembering the other morning when he taunted me in a similar way with not waking me up for class. "You need to get a hobby that doesn't involve scaring me senseless. It's so not cool!"

"Why give up a hobby that's so much fun?" Riku responded coolly.

"Um, because it's torture for me?"

"You always smile about it in the end and you know it."

"Ah, shut up," I said, a small smile appearing on my lips. He was right, though, because he always got me to smile in the end, no matter what his antics were. I could never be angry at him too long, since he was so sweet. Sweet…That was something I never thought I would describe Riku as. He seemed too tough for that at first, but he proved me wrong.

"You're smiling right now, aren't you?"

I didn't bother responding, continuing to work on my hair. The answer was obvious, and that was probably one reason Riku didn't come into the bathroom to check. The other was to give me privacy. Even if we lived in the same suite, he knew his boundaries, and he wouldn't risk seeing me indecent. He was a gentleman when he wanted to be.

And being the "gentleman" that he was, he let me focus on getting ready for the next hour without many interruptions. He even turned on the music that I loved so that I could enjoy getting ready. He was terrific for doing something so small for me. To me, it was the small things that mattered most.

I finished putting on the tiara that was my crown, looking in the tall mirror in my bedroom. I was fully dressed now in the gorgeous red dress, a silver necklace and bracelet, and silver shoes that were almost hidden completely under the dress. But I still felt like a princess. Even if I actually was one, it was a feeling I had to get used to.

"You look beautiful," Riku commented softly, stepping behind me and setting a hand on my bare shoulder.

And, of course, I instantly blushed at the comment. "You're looking good yourself, handsome," I stated, looking over the figure that was reflected in the mirror. It was a simple black suit, but the aqua shirt Riku had on underneath matched his eyes perfectly. I would have to insist that he bought more shirts that color, because he looked stunning.

"Thanks," Riku said with a small smile. "Let's get going to dinner. It's time for everyone to see the beautiful princess."

*…*…*…*…*…*

The night continued without a hitch, starting with a wonderful dinner in the formal dining hall in the castle. I sat at the same table as my mother, and other dignitaries sat at the same table as us as the "less important" people sat and mingled at the other tables. By the time dinner ended, I already knew the name of every prince and duke I was to speak to later. And I caught a glimpse at some of their faces, too. Some of them were actually fairly attractive.

Not that I was checking any of them out or anything! But…if things didn't work out between me and Riku, then I would be marrying one of these young men. The ages of the eligible men ranged from fourteen to thirty five, but thankfully quite a few of them were closer to my age. So I would try to stay closer to them than the creepy thirty-five year old that believed a seventeen year age difference didn't mean anything.

As soon as dinner was over, there was some mingling in the dining hall while others started towards the ball room. I slipped away in that time and walked to another area of the castle; I couldn't just walk in like the rest of the people were doing—I was the princess, the reason why everyone was here! My entrance would be a little bit more grand, whether I wanted it to be or not.

There was a staircase on the second floor that I would be walking down to reach the ball room that was on the first floor. The stairs let out right in the room, and the top was almost like an indoor balcony that everyone could see me from. I quietly slipped into the room and saw my escort standing there waiting. He would lead me down the stairs and then keep an eye on me for the rest of the night, for my escort wasn't just anybody. It was Riku. And the irony of it was that he was going to show me off to the guys here by helping me make my entrance. If he had his choice, he would kick them all out and tell them I was taken. But he couldn't do that.

I nodded to Riku, and he nodded to me in return, taking my arm as one of the other guards standing in the area tapped a staff on the ground loudly several times. The room hushed after a few moments, and much to my dismay, everyone's eyes went to me.

"Ladies and gentleman, may I present to you the Princess, Stephanie Hope and her escort, Riku, knight of Cadia."

That's our cue, I thought, gently lifting my dress a few inches as Riku led me down the stairs that had a slight curve to them. I felt everyone's gaze on us as the quiet music continued, and I blushed despite myself. I could practically hear Mr. Bottomsworth's voice in my ear, telling me to stand tall and confident like a princess and not to be shy. Princesses weren't shy.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, everyone went back to their own mingling. And because of that, I couldn't help but sigh softly in relief. The attention was off of me…for now. As soon as I walked onto the dance floor, I was sure to be bombarded by boys.

"Don't lead anybody on," Riku said in my ear.

"I'll try my best," I whispered, giving him a weak smile.

"Hmph," he hummed with a small smirk, releasing my arm and stepping back to stand in his post for the night. I suddenly felt alone because of that, but I knew that I wouldn't be alone for long. Exhaling a soft breath in preparation, I looked back at the dance floor in front of me and started towards it, noticing quite a few eyes on me.

I looked around the area and stopped in the middle, where three boys nearly ran into each other trying to get to me to ask me to dance. Another one managed to sneak past the chaos and get to me, and so he was the first person that I danced with the entire night.

He certainly wasn't the last, though. All night, as soon as one song ended, another guy would come up and take off where the person before him left off. And through dancing, I could see their personalities. A lot of them were show-offs. Some were shy. And others were klutzy, just like the guy I was stuck dancing with right now.

Now, I had to realize that I wasn't the best dancer in the world either. I couldn't keep a beat, even if I listened to music all the time. And I was light on my feet, but I wasn't graceful. I was working on it with the few dance lessons I got so I wouldn't make a fool of myself in public. It helped, but this poor guy who was dancing with me should have received some of those lessons too.

"Ouch," I said softly, feeling his foot step on mine before he quickly withdrew it.

"S-sorry, princess," he stuttered.

"Mind if I cut in?" I looked over to the side at the new voice, and I felt my shoulders slump in relief. It wasn't some prince who was trying to show off for my sake; it was a friend that I made since I moved to Cadia. Nathaniel. He was just an inch or two taller than me, and his green eyes shone like nothing I had ever seen before. He was thin, but he was clearly strong enough to fight if the time came. But the youthful haircut with his shaggy brown hair almost in his eyes showed his peaceful, fun-loving nature.

"No, of course not," the other boy muttered, letting me go. He bowed to me briefly before he turned and started away, probably humiliated. But…It happened. There wasn't really anything I could do about it.

"My lady?" my friend said, bowing slightly to me and stretching out his hand for me to take. And with a smile, I gladly took it, my hand finding his shoulder as his other one found my waist.

"Thanks, Nathaniel. You're my hero."

"Eh. No big deal. I just didn't want your feet to have blisters at the end of the night because of all the guys stepping on you."

"While I appreciate the thought, I think I'll still get blisters from the heels," I said, making a face and glancing down at my shoes. I couldn't see them because of the dress, obviously, but still. The shoes were getting uncomfortable now since I was on my feet for a long time, constantly moving.

"Nothing much I can do about that," Nathaniel stated with a shrug. "But, uh…do you think you can do me a favor?"

This is what I like about you, Nathaniel, I thought. You're not afraid to talk to me like I'm a normal person. "Sure, what's up?"

"Can you tell your body guard to stop giving me the death glare?" Nathaniel asked while looking over my shoulder. Apparently Riku hadn't left his spot, and he was still staring at me and whoever I danced with. "I mean, I know he doesn't like me, but he seriously looks like he could kill me right now."

I sighed, shaking my head as me and Nathaniel turned on our feet. Now, I was the one facing Riku and seeing his "death glare". And it was quite deadly. "Riku, stop," I silently mouthed to him. Nathaniel wasn't flirting with me or anything; he never did. He was just being a good friend and saving me from dancing with another person of nobility.

Riku continued to stare, and I looked down at the ground in sadness. "Sorry," I apologized softly to Nathaniel. It wasn't right for Riku to treat him like this, especially since he was a nice guy. He didn't come from such a nice background, though.

As I heard Nathaniel hum and say that it was alright, I remembered who this person was that I was dancing with. Nathaniel was Gregory's nephew. And since Riku hated Gregory and his family so much, his hatred even bled into the next generation. But he had no reason to hate either of them! Gregory changed, and Nathaniel was nice from the get-go. I wished Riku didn't hold a grudge, but he did. And I just couldn't get him to let it go no matter what I tried to do.

He didn't understand why I didn't hold a grudge. Tristan, Gregory's brother and Nathaniel's father, kidnapped me and tried to kill me. And "King" Olaf had tried to do the same. Riku insisted that all people in that family were evil, but I couldn't believe it. Unlike him, I had hope that people could change, and that people could defy their genes. If evil was in a person's genes, they could still defy it. I just knew it.

"So, how many more people do you have to dance with?" Nathaniel asked in my ear, close because of the dance. Too close for Riku's tastes, surely.

"I dunno. It can't be too many, since it's almost the end of the day."

"Yeah, I think this is the first ball that I've gone to that ends right at midnight," Nathaniel stated with a smirk. "But it's understandable, considering how big your eighteenth birthday is. Gotta do something special for every moment of the day, right?"

"Well, that's what everyone seems to think," I said with a smirk of my own. "I wouldn't mind laying in bed and reading a book all day, but hey, I can't really complain. You do anything special for your eighteenth birthday?"

"Nah," the boy responded with a shake of his head. "It was just a normal day. Cadia wasn't like this when you weren't here, you know. There were no celebrations. I think that's why everyone is so into your party. Other than it being centered around you, the kingdom's lost princess," he added with a smirk.

"Of course," I agreed sarcastically. Like I was that big of a prize.

"Hey, believe it or not, but these people all adore you. You mean a lot to them, Steph. You give them hope."

I blushed at the compliment. "…I'm just a normal girl who happens to be a princess," I said modestly. "I've got a lot of work to do before I can make a real difference."

"Yeah, but you're on your way. Soon, you'll be able to help everyone and-"

"I need to cut in."

Riku. I mentally sighed at his tone, and Nathaniel and I both stopped dancing to look at the taller figure next to us. "It's time to go to the balcony to view the fireworks. It's nearly midnight."

"Ah, of course," Nathaniel said, taking a small step back and taking his hand off my waist. He did, however, keep a hold of my hand. He gently lifted it to his lips and winked at me before he released my hand. "Thanks for the dance, my lady."

I smiled weakly and nodded before I felt myself get dragged off by my over protective, and extremely jealous, boyfriend. "Riku, slow down," I hissed as he dragged me away from the people. "You're going to make me trip over my dress!"

"You weren't tripping over it when you were dancing."

"Would you rather I did, so that I fell into the arms of every boy I danced with?" I returned with an arched brow. When Riku was fuming too much to respond, I sighed and shook my head. "He didn't mean anything by it, okay? It's just who he is." Nathaniel wasn't a flirt.

"Bull. That creep did it just to tick me off…"

"In that case, I guess he did a good job," I piped with furrowed eyebrows. "How many times do I have to tell you this, Riku? Guys are going to try to get close to me, either as friends or as lovers. You can either be bitter about it or just trust that I like you, even if you're over protective and jealous."

Riku finally listened to me as we reached the top of the stairs, a sigh leaving his lips. "I do trust you, Steph. It's them that I don't trust."

"I know," I responded softly. "But let's just enjoy the rest of my birthday while we can, okay?"

"I'm not so sure we can."

I felt worried immediately. "Why?" What could have been wrong? I must have missed something while I was dancing with everyone…

"You know that you gain power when you turn eighteen," he stated as we headed to the balcony. I nodded in confirmation, and he continued. "Well, you were supposed to gain them the moment you turned eighteen. But nothing happened. Your mom can sense it."

"I...What does this mean?" I asked weakly.

"It probably means that the story got messed up somewhere along the line," Riku said with a laugh, easing my nerves. "It's still your birthday, so maybe you'll get your powers right before the clock strikes twelve. That's what we're trusting on now."

"Mm…okay." That made sense. It was true I didn't feel any different the exact moment I turned eighteen, but the day wasn't over yet. There was still time. I couldn't imagine not getting the powers I was destined to receive. It just wasn't a possibility.

We reached the balcony where my mother and two of her guard were, and she smiled at my presence. "Finally," she said in exasperation. "The fireworks are just starting!"

As if on cue, fireworks suddenly exploded in the sky. The colors swirled and then flew off in different directions, and my eyes widened at the show. I had never seen those before. Ever.

Looking down at the crowd that gathered outside the castle to watch, they clapped at the fireworks. They must have seen them before, but a long time ago. I couldn't keep my eyes off them for the next few minutes as more unique fireworks shot into the sky and dazzled me with their bright colors, design, and shapes.

"Fifteen seconds," Queen Andrea said softly.

"What? Till when?" I asked, looking over at my mom.

"Till the end of the day." Oh…I get it. I would receive my powers within fifteen seconds, then. I wondered how I would feel when they hit me. What kind of powers would they be? Would it give me wisdom to be the princess I was meant to be? Or physical strength? I would still be myself, wouldn't I? They wouldn't affect my nature; they'd help me strong enough to face the future. Whatever it held.

"Five seconds…Three…two…one…"

The day changed, but I did not.

Nothing happened.