A/N: I remember when I first posted this, someone asked me why I had to do Fem!Ryo rather than write a regular Royale. I don't know either, but I felt more comfortable writing this het-style. I could blame As Fate but Ryoma in that fic is Atobe's cousin soooo... I'm not sure either. It's just personal preference, I guess. In all honestly, this one of the easier ones to write. Do let me know what you think! -iirse

Warnings: Fem!Ryo, so not quite slash – but still.

Disclaimer: Original names, characters and places don't belong to me. I don't own anything except the general ridiculous plot-less plot and OC(s), if any. Yadablah.

Royale "Firsts"

ONE. First Conversation

The first conversation Atobe remembers with Ryoma is one with the latter agreeing wholeheartedly to his self-centered speeches. Ryoma, however, recalls it as her dozing off less than 5 minutes into the conversation – she was no Kabaji – and whacking him soundly on the head when she woke up, asking if he were done yet. He obviously furiously denies that ever happened. Especially since rumor has it that her precise wording was 'Done yet, Monkey King?' and people knowing he responded to that nonchalantly without protest would be preposterous.

TWO. First Heartbreak

Atobe never really understood the meaning of heartbreak until he felt that sharp unending wrenching in him as he watched Ryoma walk away, not once turning back.

Ryoma always thought of heartbreak as a stupid weak thing until she found tears flowing as she turned away from the person who meant the most to her.

The first, they say, is always the most painful.

But the only question that they ask is 'when will it cease to hurt.'

THREE. First Phone Call

The first time Atobe called Ryoma is an event no one of sense would bring up with either party. For one, Atobe called at the obscene hour of 9 am on a Saturday. Did he not know that it was sacrilege to awaken the Princess that early on a weekend?

Second, he spent a good ten minutes going on about how "honored" she should be, just to cover for his nervousness.

By the time he had regained his nerve, she had fallen asleep, the phone in her loose grasp fallen to the ground.

FOUR. First Illness

"Get me the best doctor of the best hospital. Internationally. Stat!" The young CEO of Atobe Corp was frantically demanding of his assistant personal assistant – seeing how his never-ill personal assistant was puking her guts out in the toilet.

Unnerved, his mother approached him. "Kei, calm down! Ryo-chan is fine!"

"But he's not going to be." A dangerously twitching Ryoma glared. "I'm not ready to have kids, damn it, Kei!"

Atobe blinked, his mind slowly connecting the dots between his wife's puking, his mother's smile and excitement, and then his wife's simmering temper.

He fainted.

Mother and daughter-in-law glanced at each other. "We might need a doctor after all. He did fall on his head pretty hard…"

FIVE. First Kiss

As a result of mistletoe and a lost bed, the glowering (and blushing) greenette had leaned over, pressing dry lips to his briefly. Keigo would have never thought he would like plebian Christmas traditions so much, for all that Kevin teased him for days.