Author note: The reason why this story line is going down this path is because the Prince honestly has little idea or no idea of what normal people go through. As Sarah, he earning money through playing video games. As an AI, all he had to do was think and it would happen, there was no reason to get a proper job let alone eat and as a Prince, he has been waited on hand and foot his entire life. Anything that didn't evolve, breathing, walking or going to toilet was done for him.

However, because of the bits and pieces from his life as Sarah, he isn't completely lost on how to survive without the luxurious he grow up with and as time goes on, he will settle in even if at the beginning he appears a bit awkward and clumsy with trying to fit in.

I do not own Skip Beat.

Enjoy!

King Raykatt sighed on his thrown, his mind was solely focused on the biggest problem, he was currently facing.

No, not the problem with looking after a country.

His problem was his oldest child Tabu.

Qotia had been born five years ago, the youngest child had been born as a spitting image of her mother while Tabu was more of a spitting image of himself and even though his only son outranked him in every way, the child, no entity, never used his power or authority over him and just seemed content with letting things happen and giving others a choice of their own.

He had never thought that his own creator could act so human, he was sure, he wasn't the only one stunned when the child asked to go and play outside, like any normal child would or ask someone to play with him.

He himself, would have believed him to be a regular child if he didn't know what was behind that smile and know full well that the entity would step in if it became clear that the country as a whole was going downhill, the child had adopted an almost lazy attitude to the things around him, which wouldn't have been a problem if the body the entity was in, wasn't the next in line to the throne.

And he honestly feared for the country when he became too old to rule and had to step down so that his only son could step up because recently the child had gotten that arrogant vibe about him and didn't seem to actually care about his duties as the next in line.

He couldn't give fault to the fact that being waited on hand and foot for your whole life would have some effect on a person but this was just ridiculous.

His son is always skipping his duties, avoiding his class in favour of goofing off, disguising himself and going out clubbing, always being surrounded been surrounded by women or men and recently he had stared purchasing things from the surrounding countries that had him shaking his head wondering, why?

He had seen things in his son room that he wished he had gone his whole life without seeing and was wondering why such a thing existed in this world.

He himself had no problem with son being attracted to guys but he personally would have liked to have at least one grandchild of blood to spoil rotten one day.

His wife, Sauna kept on insisting it was just a faze, that he would come out of it on his own.

But he highly doubted that, if the drool and nosebleeds were anything to go by.

If something wasn't done about his son, then the future of the country was looking extremely troubling at the moment and he didn't know if the entity in his son would ever become the King the country needs him to be.

He left his throne and made his way to his son room, hoping that his son was already up and with his private tutor taking his duties serious but something in his gut told him otherwise.

"Oh, Ren-Sampai"

"Prince, not there!"

The door slammed open.

His father was at the door.

Tabu froze, in his arms was a body pillow of an anime character from a popular swimming anime.

They both stared at each other in shock.

Tabu tried to discretely hide his body pillow of shame from his father, even though the man had already seen it.

"..."

"..."

"U-um dad, this isn't what it looks like"

"Tabu, pack your stuff, you're going to Japan"

Ch 4: From Riches to rags

How did I get here? He couldn't help but wonder as he stared at the ceiling that was so much lower than the one in the palace.

The last thing he remembered was his father shouting about something, about how lazy he was getting and that he needed to be outside in the real world, that he needed to learn responsibility and before he know it, someone had slapped a brown wig on his head, insert fake contact lenses into his eyes and placed fake glasses onto his nose, his luxurious royal bathrobe had become a commoners jacket, shirt and jeans.

The golden rimmed headband he always wore that had the Royal family crest on it, was gone and he felt bare without it.

He didn't even have time to say goodbye to his mother or little sister before he was handed a suitcase full of regular commoners clothes and wallet full of cash, nowhere near his monthly allowance but enough to rent a place for a month before being shipped off on a boat leaving the docks.

He had spent 6 hours in a daze and almost got trampled by a heard of people leaving the boat.

For the first time in his extreme privileged life he had been yelled at by a commoner to leave the boat!

And it wasn't until he had checked into a motel of all things instead of a high class hotel because he could no longer afford it, did he realise what just happened to him.

He had been kicked out of his high and mighty life, brandished to live as a normal person in Japan of all places.

It wouldn't have been so bad if he had been banished to another part Oclela because it really wasn't that huge of a different to his old one since the country itself was prospering with trades and was much better off than other countries so to him, Japan was both haven and a death sentence for him.

And for one thing, he didn't why his own father would send him here of all place with only enough money for rent and about two days, worth money to spend on food and it wasn't even the nice kind.

Using his shut in know from Sarah, he estimated that he could probably stretch it out more if he only ate pot noodle despite it being extremely unhealthy to do so.

Pot Noodle!

A word he thought he would never think about in his life ever again but now he was being forced to consider it when before his diet was full of all different types of rich meat, fruit, vegetables and amazing deserts that would make anyone mouth water.

He wanted to run back to the boat but he didn't have enough money to go back to home and what was worse was that his bank account had been temporarily frozen.

It has been so long since he had lived the life of an outcast, that he had become so used to his 'I want it, I get it' life that he hadn't prepared for this sort of thing to happen, he could barely remember how to survive on his own without any help.

Ever since this body was created for that meeting all those years ago, he had attempted to act just like a child, even if it was slowly killing himself inside because he acting like such an idiot who had never seen a normal coach in his whole life when he clearly had. He did this because Oclela was a country full of furniture that defied common sense and could floated around even the King throne could float a bit off the floor, he was supposed to act like five years who was naturally curious about the outside world beyond what he had been exposed to.

It also helped establish his foreign heritage and blended well with the happy perfect family he was trying to portray.

After that meeting, there had been several trips outside the country over the years to different foreign places, funny enough they never once stepped foot on America soil and whenever they appeared, his family always made front page news.

Personally, it has been eight years since he had been thrust in the lime light since preferred to be locked in his room than being stalked by the paparazzi 24-7.

At least one good thing came out this, he was in disguise so nobody could possible make the connection with how much he looked like the King of Oclela.

To everyone else he was just another person in the crowd, although slightly off but one of them.

Tabu looked around the tiny room and wince at what he saw, the room was less than six times smaller than his whole room back home.

A tiny fridge was in the corner that he was sure he had seen a fly go in there and die instantly from one wife, and he could have sworn he heard weird noises coming from it as well, that made him back away slightly.

A small pathetic excuse for a bed lay against a corner, it barely fit his whole frame and across it a small blanket that smelled like old socks.

A very tiny television sat in the corner on the left, he was sure he could get cable if he throw some money at the land lady way, at least the room had a bathroom, he tried to look on the bright side.

He made the mistake of opening the door and gagged instantly at the heavy scent of cigarettes and the previous owner not bothering to flush the toilet after doing their business.

The small bath had him questioning, where was the rest of it as he looked down and saw somebody hair clogging the drain.

Was this hell?

Had his father condemned him to hell on earth for some he did and what was worse, was that he couldn't find his body pillows in the suitcase that was provided for him.

He let despair sink in.

He was going to die in this place!

Not really but he felt like it.

But he had to calm down.

He figured that if he had lived like this before and survived, then surely he could do it again.

So what did he have to do first?

First he had to go and get lunch and that means stepping out of this hell hole that was his room and buy it.

He could do it this.

He would just have to buy noodles right, they were still common right?

He bravely took a step outside, hearing the noisy and busy streets below, the sound of cars honking was deafening and he almost jumped out of his skin at one let out a honk, getting weird looks from those he passed by.

Half an hour later, he had finally located a convenience store, making him vow to brush up on his Japanese because he was sure, he had walked passed the same store at least twice before he realised what he was walking passed.

He must have looked like some kind a weirdo to those inside.

He got out some money for his pocket, he had pretty much grabbed any money he could from the wallet before he left and walked into the store, half expecting everyone to turn around and greet him like back home.

But nobody looked at him twice and went on with their shopping.

Feeling slightly put off by the unwelcome entrance he got, he walked through the rows of food until he got to the pot noodle section and immediately noticed something.

Why were there so many brands!?

He counted fifteen at least! And some had weird translations to them.

And then he saw it.

The free samples bar.

From survival instincts from Sarah, he immediately rushed towards it.

The store was suddenly filled with the sound of him trying to stuff as much free candy and drinks as he could, like a person who didn't know when he last meal would come from before he had picked two cups of pot noodles and was about to walk out of the store before he remembered he actually had to pay for it and not paying was a crime.

The cashier lady, just had to sweet drop when a guy came up to her putting everything on the counter, most of it was from the free samples and he clearly didn't know money well and actually overpaid.

Clearly a foreigner or someone who was having money issues.

Before walking out of the store, asking for directions immediately to the place he was staying in

Tabu set in his run down motel room, congratulating himself for his first successful shopping experience where he didn't just grab everything he wanted without worrying about the price.

Luckily the instructions of how to make Pot noodle had stuck in his head and the tap was working somewhat, he had been dreading seeing green slime instead of clean water.

The three-minute wait was agonising, his stomach had never been so hungry before and it was made its intention know, mostly likely wondering why a leg of roasted turkey or fine wine hadn't come it's way yet, like usual and without any signal, he poured the water into the cup, bringing back memories of doing the same thing a dozen times before as he watched the stale pack of noodle stuck in the plastic cup, break and rise, becoming soft.

He got a fork and sniffed the pot, hopping it wouldn't poison him before bracing himself for it and taking one bit.

He wanted to throw up and immediately went to look for a bin.

His testbeds which had been honed to only taste foods bursting with rich flavour could not handle this bland thing.

He wanted to immediately toss it into the bin until he remembered this was exactly his dinner for the night so he had to force it down somehow or go to bed enduring his stomach crying out for food.

Luckily the candy helped a lot to keep it down and for the first time in his life, he had gone to bed on only candy and a single pot of noodle, he bed was nowhere near as soft as his own and he was pretty sure, something tried to crawl onto his body in the middle of the night.

There was no doubt that it was the worst night he had.

He had fully expected to wake up and find out it to all dream.

That he was back sleeping in his own comfortable massive bed, being served breakfast on a silver platter by one of the servant.

Instead, he woke up to this hell hole.

Cold and shivering, because there was a draft coming in through the door and for the first time he felt pain in his back when he tried to get up.

He was too disgusted to take a shower, what with that thing in there and plus he wasn't going to bath in a shower that many had, had before him so he had just got out a bucket, stood in it, under the shower head and just took a shower like that while scrubbing himself with soap that his thankfully from back home.

He emptied the bucket, down the toilet and wrapped his hands in a bin bag so that he could flush the toilet, finally getting rid of some of the smell in the room.

His memories came in handy for dressing himself, it felt so wrong, having his own skin touch cheap cloth instead of the finest of silk and fine fabric.

He had to suffer through another bowl of pot noodle and some more candy before he turned to his main problem.

Money.

He estimated he had enough money for a full day of pot noodle, then after that he would starve.

A reality he had never thought of until now.

And what was worse, his father was ignoring all his calls to unfreeze his account!

He couldn't even get through his kind and caring mother, knowing she would never let him starve and was probably giving her husband an ear full of sending one of her babies half way across the world with just the bare minimum of things to keep him alive.

So he had to earn money somehow, like everybody else and that meant getting a job.

That word 'job' would hunt him in his nightmares, the mere thought of job was so unappealing, he didn't want to get down and dirty just to earn minimum wage.

But he had no choice.

From what he remembered, a normal person wouldn't get paid until two weeks or a month had passed.

He would be long dead by then.

So what job guaranteed him money in his pocket every day without requiring to break the law?

He moved his arm and felt something stick to it.

He pulled it off and was stunned to see a flyer for a newly opened café, they were looking for workers.

He must have unconsciously picked it up at the convince store.

#The Next day#

Maria Takarada, age 17 looked at the shop in front of her with determination. She was a tall woman with brown curvy hair and pine forest green eyes, she was dressed in such a way that she could have easily blended in as a customer.

But today she wasn't here as a customer but was here looking for a job.

She wasn't poor in looking for a way to earn extra cash.

In fact, her family was one of the richest in Japan currently, she had enough money to spend her whole life not working a day in her life so why was she doing so, you ask?

There comes a time when a woman would want to stand one her own and Maria had reached that point a while ago.

She wanted to walk out of her family shadow and be her own women, no matter how much her own father tries to persuade her not to work.

It would have been a whole different story if she went to work at her grandfather company and become a model or an actor, but then people would think that the only reason she was successfully was because of who her grandfather was.

That people would link any success coming her way to being the president grandchild.

She didn't want that, she wanted to be seen as just Maria and not who she was related to.

Her attitude seemed to have caught everyone off guard, since they were all thinking she was still that little girl who needed to be spoon fed everything in her life.

She know that everyone secretly thought that she would quit and come running back to them within a day, once she tasted the working life but she would show them.

She would show them all.

With determination, she pushed the doors open, to see a small nice cafe, the tables were being set up.

Well the one guy who was trying to set them up, was falling miserable, in placing the chairs and the table but despite his frustration, he was clearly still trying and getting better with each one as if being out of practise.

Maria study the guy and noted how tall he was defiantly taller than her and clearly still growing she wondered who would be taller when he stopped, this guy or Koun but for some reason, she got the sneaking suspicion that his guy genes were ever crazier than Koun own and it would give him the unfair advantage. The guy had short brown hair and square rectangular glasses hiding most of his face, his skin had a faint tan to it like he had been in the sun for a long period of it, he was dressed in a butlers uniform from top to bottom and from what she could see from his face, he wasn't that much older than she was.

The male than went to place the Order Menus onto the tables but managed to paper cut himself seven times in the process.

Maria couldn't help but be amazed that someone could be so clumsy and accident prone to everything around them.

In the end, she took pity on him when he tried tripped over his own two feet for the hundredth time in a scramble to get everything ready.

"Do you need help?" She said, crouching down offering her hand.

"Do I look like I need help?" The guy snapped back, shocking her as he glared at her and he ignored her hand and got up by himself.

Talk about rude. Maria thought, regretting ever agreeing to help him up before she realised how his voice sounded like.

A foreigner?

His words were just barely understandable and it was heavily accented.

Is he from the West? She thought.

And why did in that moment when their eyes met.

Did she think, his eyes were all wrong?

And scene!

Finally, this is out. Next chapter, Tabu feels remorse for being rude to Maria earlier and tries to make amends, the café finally get's it grand opening and they are both hard at work. Maria is surprised that Tabu isn't completely useless like she first thought and he's actually raking in customers just by his smile alone. Review/ Fav and follow!