{-Henriette-}

"You mean he actually liked you?" Zenas was practically on top of her, her determination likely just as strong as her curiosity. "You're a farm girl! That kinda stuff only works in bedtime stories, and that's not even considering the part where he liked you!"

"I-isn't that a good thing..?" Takane asked, watching them from her spot at the table. "I mean, I don't know about y-you but I'd rather not have a friend g-go through a tragic love story. I definitely don't want anyone t-to die…"

"All I'm saying is that I find it really hard to believe! First, the prince comes and falls madly in love with our fair Hen. Then, he shows her to his father and the old dude on the throne actually likes her! Like he didn't just go 'oh sorry-not-sorry son, this woman is not from a noble house,' or lied, but he genuinely truly liked her." Zenas got down to the floor to hug her, still intent on not allowing her to stand up.

Henriette tried her best to pry the older girl off of her, even if she knew she'd fail. "I'm just as surprised as you are! He told me I was the first girl Gustav actually showed an interest to. Turns out love's more important than social standing! I feel like I'm dreaming…"

"Oh! Have you made out yet?" Zenas moved to make Henriette on top of her. "My advice to you: if he's not a good kisser then he's not worth your time."

There wasn't any time for the conversation to go further.

"Ki! Help me get your sister off of me, I want to tell you what happened today!" Henriette called right as Kiraat entered the room.

"Zenas, stop tackling Hen. She's fragile," he teased with a smirk as he walked over. He effortlessly pulled her out, twirled her around a couple of times, and kissed both of her cheeks as he put her back down again. "If it isn't the lovely Hen, gracing us yet again with her presence," he whispered to her.

She was the first to step away. "You know we can't do… this. I'm not going to be apart of something I'm not devoted to, especially not now that there's someone I do feel that way for."

That didn't keep him from brushing a bit of her out of her face. "You've known him for, what, two months? I'm just trying to keep you from getting hurt. This whole situation sounds too good to be true." He sighed. "If there's something you want to tell me, can we do it in private?"

"You know, you have a tendency to take a good thing and make it bad." Still, she was stepping past him and gesturing for him to follow. "Will the garden do?"

"I suppose," he sighed. He waited until they were outside before he continued. "You know he's more trouble than he's worth, right?"

"That's coming from someone who doesn't even know him. Really, out of everyone, I thought you'd be the most considerable about it. You've heard the news, haven't you? Surely you can't be that mad at him?"

"So some rich kid lost his mum. You don't hear me or Zenas complaining, do you?" He paused. "All I'm saying is that I don't think you're thinking ahead. Let's say for a moment that this works out, and you become queen. The throne practically attracts all kinds of bad stuff, and I don't think that's something you want to get mixed up in."

"Please don't put words in my mouth, Ki."

"HEN! KI! I didn't think I'd find you!" Umber bound up to them, putting an arm around either one of them. "I came to tell you I think someone was messing with the horse stalls earlier. Lani's brittle was a smidge closer to the left than I'd put it yesterday. Wait… did I interrupt something important?"

…

She should've listened to Kiraat a little more. And she knew for certain he was going to tell her that once they were done—if they got that far.

"You step the hell away from her!" Zenas was struggling to break through her brother's grasp, which was the only reason she hadn't completely thrown herself into a fight yet.

"My, don't you talk a lot." The voice sounded so bored as she—Gustav had called her Loki a couple minutes ago—circled around Henriette. "Don't you like this one? Keep talking and you'll find out just how much patience I have."

Why did this happen? They'd all just gone out for a pleasant walk. Then this woman showed up, wasting little time separating her from the others. Takane and Umber hadn't been apart of the trip; both of them had been too busy to come. She couldn't tell if it going by quickly or if each moment seemed to last an hour. All she was certain of was her definite feeling of being trapped and the horrifying realization that she couldn't breathe.

At least Gustav was getting to the point. "What do you want?"

"I thought you were smarter than that," Loki remarked. "What do you think I want, you idiot?"

No one answered.

"Tch. I can't believe she doesn't expect me to kill you. But alas, I can't… not yet, anyway." Loki gave Henriette a hard shove towards the others.

Her short moment of being able to breathe was cut off when she started coughing. It wasn't until after Gustav had caught her that she realized she was coughing up blood.

Zenas had already been ticked off before; now, she was shoving Kiraat out of the way and pulling out her daggers. "Okay, you asked for it! You're going down, whoever the hell you think you are!"

"I'm trusting you to bring Hen someplace safe," Kiraat said coolly, glancing at Gustav. "Let us handle this."

…

"Do you even think they're out there? I mean, it's been a year… Gods, I could be older than Zenas right now…" Umber paused. "That's not saying there isn't a chance, of course, but…"

"P-people just don't go m-missing for that long," Takane agreed quietly. She blankly observed her newest wooden figurine, turning it over in her hands and occasionally lifting it up to blow wood chips off of it. "Especially n-not people like Ki and Zenas. We're lucky e-enough that people want what I m-make and Hen's b-boyfriend is the prince… then again we m-might just get tons of t-tax debt later…"

Henriette shook her head slowly. "He wouldn't." She didn't want to believe that he would. Maybe if she said and thought it enough, she could keep herself from doubting it; she didn't want to doubt it, but with the kind of year they'd had, she couldn't help it.

They'd encountered Loki one other time—she and Gustav had, at least. She hadn't coughed up blood like the first, but that didn't mean it still wasn't without its surprises. Takane and Umber knew little of it.

Umber got up. "I've got it. Why don't the three of us get out of here for a while? Hen's gotta leave for that fancy royal ball thing tomorrow anyway, right? Let's just walk around town like we used to."

There was a mutual—but pretty quiet—agreement between the two girls, and without much more thought, they got ready and headed out.

Whatever peacefulness had settled between them when they were talking was gone when they came across two familiar faces. One was Loki, the other was Kiraat… the latter explaining in a calm, cold tone what he'd done in the past year. How he'd been working with Loki—and how Zenas was dead.

And it wasn't longer after that they'd gotten thrown into a fight, though it was more avoiding getting hit than anything. Takane was the only one out of the three of them who had a weapon; but even in her dragon form she was weak, wasting more of her energy than she'd hurt the enemy. Henriette could only stand there, horrified, watching her old friend fight for the person he'd just admitted to killing his sister moments before.

"Get out of the way before you get shot in the head!" Umber shoved her out of the way and nearly dodged the arrow himself. "I'm going to disarm Ki and beat him up until he gives a good reason for why he's working with this creep. You just worry about not getting killed, okay?"

"Can I ask the same of you?"

Umber gave her a bright smile, dodging another arrow as he said, "I do dumb stuff all the time, you know that. This isn't my last trick."

It wasn't five minutes after that he was dead.

…

Somehow, a year after that, they'd talked with Kiraat and he explained the situation better. It had been an effort to keep them safe, even if it failed; neither Henriette nor Takane could hold that against him. Gustav, on the other hand, had gone to considerable measures to make sure they'd never need to interact again. That included keeping her from writing letters or visiting, but often enough Takane was willing to share what was happening. And two years after that, she was sitting with her little boy, returning his bright smile with a smaller one of her own.

The door opened slowly. "I've got news…" Gustav announced grimly.

Henriette allowed herself another moment of blissful unawareness, gesturing to her husband but saying to her son, "Look, Alfonse, it's your father. Say hi."

He stared at her with wide eyes, and blinked. "Hi," he repeated.

"Good job," she said softly. She then looked up at Gustav. "Go on. I doubt your father would be very happy to see you're in here spending time with us."

"It's not good news…"

"Dear, we're being invaded by death herself and she wants our son. I'm not expecting good news."

"You know that Takane had gotten sick by one of the border villages, right?"

She already dreaded where this was going. Takane had always been bad at traveling; it wouldn't had done any good to bring her someplace safer.

"A part of Hel's army took advantage of the lack of defense around it. Takane fought well, though—according to the reports, no one had even gotten hurt by the time actual soldiers appeared to help. But by a mix of her wounds and pushing herself a little too hard…"

"You don't have to finish." In a way, she felt like she'd been expecting it. At least she could say her friend had died protecting the people. Henriette gave him a faltering, weak smile in her attempt to cover up the sadness. "It's fine."

Even Alfonse—not only one year old yet—saw through her. He clumsily turned around to face her, put his tiny hands on hers, and uttered stubbornly, "No sad!"

She only choked on more tears when she heard it.

((A/N: Baby Alfonse! As in, actual baby Alfonse! Normally I use that to refer to him back when he was, like, 13 or younger… I understand the pain of having precious little kids growing up now. Alfonse was so cute before he decided he needed to be responsible for everyone. I would say "you're welcome for a little bit of preciousness," but you had to read about people dying before you got to that part…

Why is this entire thing in Henriette's view when it makes more sense to be in Kiraat's? Because I wanted to, obviously.))