"Okay, you can be the princess and I can be the knight."

"What? I don't want to be a princess!"

"Well, you're the girl. You have to be. And I'm the boy so I get to be the knight."

"Says who?"

"Well, that's what it's always like in fairy tales. It's the rules."

"But fairy tales aren't true, you ninny. They're just stories."

"But—

"And so that means that the rules aren't true, too. So you can be the princess and I can be the dragon!"

"But I can't be the princess! I'm a boy!"

"…Fine. You be the knight, and I'll be the dragon. Deal?"

"Deal."


Actually a while ago I started writing a commoner AU that was totally abandoned where Deryn and Alek grow up together as best friends and when I saw the prompt I thought, 'Hey, what about little Alek and Deryn fighting over who has to be the princess when they're playing?' And then of course Deryn doesn't want to be the helpless princess, so she ends up being the dragon. Typical Deryn.