Bingo Card Prompt: love
Pretty Little Lies
In the cool of the midsummer day, the turtleducks bobbed in their pond, snapping up the treats dropped into their domain. Slims hands dusted the few crumbs into the water. A contented sigh breathed past painted lips.
"Ozai," her voice was light and youthful, "Are you going to feed the poor things or hold their dinner hostage indefinitely?"
The Lady Ursa teased her betrothed in a way that none else would dare, not now or in the years to come. Now, they were young with less burden and tension on their lives.
The prince blinked, as if suddenly waking from a dream. He set the bread aside and looked at Ursa. His face was thoughtful, eyes searching. She waited silently, patiently for him to find whatever he was looking for.
"Do you love me?" his voice was almost a whisper, a question not meant for any other to hear.
"What a thing to ask!" she smiled. "Of course I do."
"Why?"
"Spirits only know."
"I am being serious. Do you love me because you have no choice? Since you are bound to be mine, you just might as well? What is it?"
Why do you love me? Why is it only you?
She laid her hand over his and tilted her head curiously.
"You are arrogant and insecure in the same breath. You can be the most terrible, beastly man on the planet then turn right around to do something unnervingly sweet. Despite how much you try, you aren't perfect, and I don't want you to be. I know you and your ways and faults, and I choose to love you. Do you think anything could force me to love you if I didn't wish to?"
He looked reluctant to believe her, and she was sure he'd taken offense at being called insecure and sweet.
"Prove it."
"I prove it, proud man, by being here. If I wanted, I could have run far away from her, and you would never hear a whisper of my adventures."
"Adventures?"
"Oh, yes. The stuff of legends. Fights with pirates, outsmarting bandits, and the like."
"What's to stop you from changing your mind? Suppose you decide to go have these adventures?"
"Well…you would have to do something very terrible. Something near unforgivable. Like when we were kids and you lit my doll on fire."
His laugh was unexpected to them both, but she was glad to hear the rare sound. In a false huff, she snatched her hand back and turned away from him slightly. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and she felt his chin rest on her shoulder.
"I promise," laughter still lingered in his voice, "to never give you cause to leave. Or light anything precious of yours on fire."
"I should hope not. Because if I recall correctly –"
"You don't."
"It didn't end well for you."
The promise was sealed with a kiss, and perhaps in one life, it was kept. Perhaps in one life, these two stayed true to that vow and love would ever be in their lives. But in the one history will come to know, they do not.
The best promises are the ones never made. The worst lies are the ones meant to be true.
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