WARNING: Nothing in this story is consisted with anything in the Real World. This is blatantly obvious as there is no Royalty in America (at least not one with Princes or Kings & Queens). Neither is this fanfiction meant to insult any nationality. Everything is made up. I'm not an American Citizen, neither am I Japanese.

I wrote this at 2014, I'm recently trying to clean it up as I realized how all over the place everything is.

Anyway, it's safe to say that you can turn off your brain's logical thinking while reading this. Thank you.

Chapter 1. What was that?

The first thing Rima noticed when she arrived in California was that it was hot. Really hot that her body started sweating ugly. The second she noticed when she saw her ride waiting for her, casually dressed in black punk skirt and wearing a carefree smile, was that Amu's hair was neon pink.

It's too neon that it actually glowed.

It looked ridiculous.

"Rima! Rima!" Amu yelled, waving her arms back and forth aggressively, almost slapping a passerby in the face. "Over here!"

"Amu, were you under the impression I wouldn't see you?" Rima replied when she reached her friend, dropping her suitcase on the floor ungracefully to give her friend a hug. "Because I totally see you. Anyone who was still two kilometers away will, you know, with a hair like that."

"Hey! I'm trying here!" Amu retorted and pushed Rima from arm-length and posed. "What do you think?"

"It's unique," Rima said as she felt her sweat drop onto her chest. "Tell me your car has air-conditioning."

"It has," Amu said and Rima instantly sighed at the thought of cold air, "but baby, I own a convertible so we're not using it."

Rima glared at her friend, "I hate you Hinamori."

"Hey! You could at least pretend to love me," Amu teased, "It's been a year since I left."

Amu's English was fluent, which was only natural because that it is her language. Her Japanese, though, sucks, it sucks but she can speak it. Rima, on the other hand, can't speak enough English to save her life, on top of the heavy Asian accent too.

"Well I'm here, aren't I?" Rima said and hold her heavy luggage up again. It had wheels, so even a petite girl like her can drag it around. "Though I'd like to be somewhere else; somewhere with air conditioning. And possibly ice cream, but just the aircon would be a start."

Amu saved her tiny friend from her torture and carried her luggage onto the backseat with an ugly grunt. "What's in that?"

Rima opened her mouth to answer but Amu changed her mind. "Never mind. You'd better not be thinking any smartass comments about my Japanese right now either, or I will make you try to speak English, and then where will you be?"

"I love you," Rima grinned speaking in English, "You love me."

"I don't know what you're trying to say," Amu followed it up with a cheeky wink, "but whatever noise you just made, it wasn't English."

"I'll smother you in your sleep," Rima said with a smile, and it's almost as if it's only been a little while since she and Amu were last sitting next to each other, fondly insulting each other as a way of saying hello.

- Line Break -

"I'm really glad you came to visit," Amu said over dinner. "You sound so bored on the phone and I was under the impression of you dying on your couch, must have been lonely without a boyfriend."

Rima kicked her friend under the table and Amu tried kicking back, but failed when Rima dodged it.

"I'm really excited about the place you've always talked about over the phone." Rima picked up the thick noodles with the disposable chopsticks Amu had handed her when the take-out arrived. "Minus the weather."

"California is a wonderful place." Amu said, gazing outside at the beach view the window gave. "If there's anything I got used to in Japan, it's that it's nothing compared to in here. Everyone loves the sun."

Rima tapped her chopsticks against her bowl, she followed Amu's gaze.

"It seems okay here," Rima said. "Except for the weather. I never imagined that it got worse than Japan in July but I was so wrong."

"You'll get used to it."

"Did you?"

Amu laughed.

"No," she said. "It sucks forever. But the beaches make up for it and the boys distracts you completely from the heat with their tanned chests."

"That's the most depressing advice you've ever given me," Rima said. She set her chopsticks down, full, and stretched. "I'm going to sleep an eternity. I'm sorry if you had plans for my vacation because I'm going to be channeling my inner Utau and sleep like a body in a morgue for the next three days."

"You'll be staying in my guest room." Amu's face lit up like the lights during Christmas, "My very first guest!"

Rima looked one more time out the window as she stood. Something jumped, and it startled her into banging her knee on Amu's low-sitting table. She clutched her leg and scowled in the direction of the window. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Amu was laughing at her and Rima doesn't get what's so funny when she'd seen Amu walk head-on into so many doors she's surprised Amu's nose hasn't gone flat to accommodate her.

"I saw something moving outside your window!" Rima narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, "Something fast."

"It's most likely a mosquito or something, Mashiro, nothing worth destroying your shins over."

"It was way bigger than a mosquito." Rima continued to rub absently at her shin. "Way, way bigger."

"We're on the sixteenth floor, Rima."

"I'm telling you, I saw something!" It's true that it looked way too huge to be hovering outside a window, but Rima was sure she saw it.

"The hallucinations have started," Amu whispered sadly.

Frowning, Rima squinted one last time at the window before conceding defeat. "Maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me," she said, and tugged on the neck of her shirt uncomfortably as Amu kept laughing.

"A good three-day morgue nap and you'll be as good as new," Amu promised, and Rima allowed herself to be led to Amu's guest quarters. "You're here for three whole weeks, so sleep as much as you need to get ready for Amu's mega-foxy-hot tour of California, Baby!"

"Does the tour cater to the English-lacking participants?" Rima yawned wide enough her jaw cracks and Amu snickered.

"It was made especially for English-lacking participants."

"Sounds perfect." Rima started to close the door and Amu smiled again, still so bright and happy about… whatever she's so bright and happy about. Rima saw her look down at her phone.

"I'm really glad you came, Rima," Amu said, and Rima playfully patted her on the back.

"I'm glad I came too." Rima sighed, "Unless that massive thing I saw out your window really was a mosquito, in which case I should have stayed in Japan."

Amu rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. "Goodnight, Rima."

- Line Break -

Amu had especially taken a break from her part-time jobs exclusively to hang out with Rima, so Rima doesn't sleep the promised seventy-two hours. Instead she peeled herself out of bed, washed her face, and put on a simple sundress over a random bikini so that Amu can take her around the beach.

"You were right about the boys," Rima said taking a cold glass of something a star struck boy gave her for free. "It does distract from the heat."

Amu rolled her eyes, "You've always loved the attention."

"It's not my fault I'm that blessed." Rima flicked her golden wild excuse of a hair to her back and raised her sunglasses up to her hair. She was always something, wherever she went, boys would give her looks and she enjoyed it. "Aren't you something too?"

Amu giggled as one of the boys flexed his muscles to impress her and his lady-companion scowled at him and glared at them in return. Amu was tempted to raise her middle finger but she knew better so she winked at the guy and then turned back to a sweating Rima who looked absolutely stunning with her pose. "So, what else do you want to do?"

Rima lifted her head and dropped her shoulders in a shrug, scanning the beach with speculative eyes. When she looked across the street, near a vendor selling knock-off American shirts and hats, her gaze fell on a shadow on the sidewalk. "Is that a frog?"

It was a big frog; bigger than any frog that Rima had ever seen. It's not just the mosquitoes in California that are oversized, she thought. She rubbed her eyes with the back of her unoccupied hand, but it's still there when she dropped her hand; all slippery slimy skin and bulging eyes. It's most definitively a frog, and Rima has never heard of any frogs quite that large.

"What?" Amu placed her drink on the counter top while winking at the guy who took her glass away and then poked at Rima's cheek. "Why would there be a frog?"

"Over there," Rima insisted, pointing toward the vendor and Amu followed her finger skeptically, taking in the shirts with big off-color American flags and Los Angeles Dodgers hats. "It's right…" But it's gone. The frog is gone. "I didn't imagine it— there was definitely a frog there."

"Rima, that doesn't even make sense. A frog would get trampled so easily out here."

"It was the size of a small dog." Rima pushed her second glass into Amu's hands for her to finish. "It would be hard to trample a frog the size of a Jack Russell Terrier."

Amu set her hand on Rima's shoulder. "Do we need to talk? I think you need to get out of your illusions, Rima. They're tickling your already over-active imagination. You're turning into one of those people."

"What are you trying to say, huh?"

"If you start talking to me about how the frog has a stop watch and wants you to follow it to Wonderland—"

"That was a white rabbit, Amu, a white rabbit in a waistcoat. I'm talking about—"

"The moral of the story is that you're imagining weird creatures, Rima."

"I didn't imagine the frog, Amu. There was a huge frog, right there!"

"Sure," Amu said. "Maybe if you kiss him, he'll turn into a prince." She started to pull Rima away, into the flow of traffic down the beach. "Was he wearing a cute sweater? Frog boyfriends shouldn't be trusted unless they like European cut sweaters."

"Ha ha ha." Rima doesn't fight Amu's tug. "I'm not saying I believe in fairy tales, only that my eyes are not bad enough that I would imagine a huge frog like that."

"I distinctly remember you swearing you saw Daniel Radcliffe once when we went to your modeling tour," Amu said. "You yelled 'Harry Potter' off the balcony at the top of your lungs for minutes until Utau's boyfriend, Ku-what, carried you caveman style back inside."

"Kukai. I was drunk, Amu, give me a break." Rima quickened her pace to match Amu's stride as they weave through the throngs of people playing beach volleyball. "Things happen when you're drunk and I'm not drunk right now." She pouted, "I saw the frog, Amu."

"Sure you did, I totally believe you."

Rima gave up on convincing her friend. The boys' effect was starting to wear off, and Rima felt the most disgusting glaze of sweat rising to the surface of her skin in an unattractive way. "We could head toward a mall?"

"Actually," Amu said, her bubblegum pink hair bobbing thoughtfully as she pulled Rima towards a bus stop where it seemed like a million people were waiting, "I went to the library once—"

Rima laughed and Amu glared at her friend.

"Why the heck were you at the library?"

"It has really cool air-conditioning, there are a lot of hot geeky boys, plus the picture books were interesting," Amu said counting in her mind the reasons why and glared at her amused friend. "Shut up and let me finish, anyway there's the book—"

"Let me guess, it had beautiful illustrations?"

"Yes, now it's a classic fairy tale or a legend, I don't know." Amu said annoyed. "It's a really old book but it was interesting to read and I ended up reading the whole story, in the end, my butt ached from the hours of sitting."

"I like legends," Rima said. "Do tell."

"The legend, or fairy tale, was about the royal family," Amu said. "The boys, of the royal family."

Rima edged closer to her friend who seemed to lower her voice, which was pretty stupid since they were at an all-American filled place and as if person would suddenly pop up and say they understand Japanese. Rima fought to insult her friend, but decided she would do so later, after Amu finished her story.

"Well, I don't really remember much." Amu brushed her pink hair, "But it started from a long time ago. See, the prince was engaged to his first love and they were to marry soon. On their wedding day, his first love disappeared and he searched everywhere for her. After several years, he was getting old and he had no heir, so his mother told him to marry another princess." Amu shrugged, "They did, but a day after the wedding, his first love reappeared and she was furious. Apparently, she was kidnapped by some people who didn't want her as Queen. She felt betrayed because he gave up on her so quickly." Amu made wild gestures, "She was mad at the King."

"And then?" The bus pulled up, and Amu dragged Rima on. They're smashed between bodies, and if Rima had thought it was hot before, it was nothing compared to now.

"It turned out the first love girl was magic, from a witch heritage," Amu said as Rima was practically sprawled on her to rid herself of from the boy who was trying to touch her.

"A witch? Really?" Rima said flatly, unamused.

"It's a legend, or a fairy tale!"

"So? What did she do with her magical powers, then? Curse them?" Someone jostled Amu from behind, and she almost tripped, but she managed to steady herself with Rima's help.

A couple other passengers turn to look at them; possibly surprised to hear a foreign language on the bus. "Exactly," Amu said. "She cursed them. Something like a marriage curse."

"Like a what now?" Rima was pushed forward when the bus halted and called a bus stop. Amu folded her arms as if to let Rima now this wasn't their stop. Rima cursed, she really wanted out of this bus.

"Like, if the prince isn't married when he turns 25, he turns into a frog," Amu said. "That doesn't mean you become a frog on your twenty-fifth birthday though. It can happen anytime, just, bam, frog!"

Laughter bubbled onto Rima's throat, "A what?"

"A frog," Amu said, snickering. "The prince gets turned into a frog. And he can't return to being a prince until he finds someone to kiss him. Then he'll turn back into a prince and live happily ever after with whatever odd human being walks around kissing frogs."

"What kind of curse is that even?" Rima shook her head, "It sounds like some messed up Grimm's fairy tale."

"I think the moral of it was that if they were in such a hurry to marry and have kids, then she'd punish them for not being married at twenty-five? You know? Since you'd have expect to have kids already if you were that desperate." Amu has a single bead of sweat gracefully dripping down the side of her face, even though Rima might as well have jumped into a swimming pool of her own sweat at this point. "It's a really old legend. There's even an old movie version. We can watch it if you want, but it's a pretty dodgy quality."

"No one gets married at twenty-five anymore, these days," Rima said. "I feel sorry for your prince."

"It seems like Prince Ian is around that age," Amu said, finally nodding her head toward the exit of the bus, indicating they should get off at this stop. "All the princes before that have been married off at eighteen, but he was studying abroad. Still is, I think?" Amu produced a noise Rima thinks is supposed to be a thinking noise, but instead is a little more like the slow churn of a cement mixer. "He was in Europe, last I heard."

"How do you not know where the prince of your country is?"

"I don't do gossip," Amu shrugged. "I have a friend though."

"You?"

"I should shove you into traffic."

"But I came all this way to see you, Amu!" Rima said flirtatiously, and out of the corner of her eye, there it is again. "Amu, there's—"

"If you say you see a giant frog, nothing is going to stop me from pushing you in front of the bus we just got off of."

Rima turned her head all the way, and there it is again, standing at the bus stop like it had alighted off the vehicle just behind them. She blinked, and the frog is gone again, "Didn't you see it?"

"..."

"I think the heat is getting to me," Amu said. "I need more boys. Either that or your hallucinations are contagious."

"You did see it!" Rima said. Her long mane of hair was starting to stick on her neck.

"I didn't see anything," Amu replied. "It's very hot. I think we should both drink water and stop imagining giant amphibians."