A/N: It was requested that I make this as heartbreaking as possible so fair warning for that. I did my best to break everyone's hearts with this one. Tell me whether it worked. ;)

"Stella, come on. We're going to be late," Brandon urged as he went back into the bedroom. Stella had thrown him out nearly twenty minutes ago to add the finishing touches to her outfit in peace and he'd thought she'd be ready by now but they were really cutting it close. They needed to go.

"No, I can't find my ring," Stella said, her voice alarmed and a whiff of frantic energy carrying from her. It was subtle but just unsettling enough to tell him she was getting upset at her inability to find the trinket which wasn't quite the usual for her. Sure, she was hung up on fashion and the way she looked but she was good at improvising, too, and replacing whatever she couldn't find with something that wouldn't let anyone notice the absence.

"You look stunning," Brandon said, knowing the power his compliments had and also because it was true. She was always beautiful but there was something about her that evening that brought out her origins, the auras of both the moon and the sun radiating from her and giving a celestial feeling to her. She looked… ethereal. "Surely your outfit won't suffer from the lack of it?" he made sure to form it as a question. He didn't really understand fashion and its laws even after all the time they'd been together and he didn't want to sound like he was downplaying her concerns. She was perfect to him either way but if she was worried about her outfit, then he was there to help quell those concerns, not diminish them.

"I need the ring, Brandon," Stella huffed and he did his best not to take it personally since she was just irritated. Perhaps more with herself rather than with him. "I am the princess of Solaria. I can't go out there without the ring," she said, her voice quieter now, barely hanging together as she was trying to do the same.

Oh. That ring. That certainly complicated things. Especially if she'd left it at his apartment. There was no time to go and get it as they were already getting into the fashionably late territory and headed towards disaster which didn't even leave him enough time to try to help her calm down. They had to go. Stella had an important role in that ball and he'd just been introduced in the high society as her fiance. It would hurt both their image to be late.

"Yes, you are the princess of Solaria," Brandon said as he took her hand. He would've cupped her cheek but he didn't want to mess with her makeup accidentally. That would send them both spiraling and there was no need for it. "Everyone's come to see you, not the ring," he tried but was met with a frown.

"But the ring is the symbol of the royal family and I am supposed to be looking after it," she said, her eyes glossy when the tears were only held back by the knowledge that they would ruin her makeup. She couldn't even cry no matter how much she wanted to and Brandon didn't know how to help her. He would take her sadness in him if he could. There was too much burden on her shoulders and he'd gladly take it on for her but he couldn't. He wasn't royalty and he could never be a part of her world fully.

"The ring is safe, Stella," he tried to soothe the budding guilt he could feel in her slackened fingers when she wouldn't close them around his as if she'd resigned to her failure as a princess. "We'll find it when we get back. You don't need it," he squeezed her hand for support and to give her his faith in her. She was amazing and he'd seen all her efforts to be a better princess. He knew the trouble she'd already gone through when it came to the ring. She'd been ready to sacrifice her life to keep it safe and that was all the proof he needed to know she would do great as a queen when the time came. She had all the qualities for it and they were right there, inside her. Ring or no ring.

"I do need it, Brandon," Stella said, an edge to her voice that would have cut him if she hadn't pulled her hand out of his. "But I'll have to go without it," she whispered, her thumb rubbing over the base of her finger where the ring should have been. "Let's go." She barely spared him a glance before pushing past him and that hurt so much more than it would have if she'd screamed at him or even sobbed out her heart as she broke down.

For the first time she looked at him like he didn't understand. And for the first time he was afraid he didn't.