Over on the Renruki discord server, we've been having a lot of fun brainrotting over this Princess - Knight that fluffnflightillustrations came up with. She has made many lovely illustrations, and I recommend you check her out on Tumblr to see them!
The main gist of the AU is that Princess Rukia and Prince Ichigo are betrothed to each other, but they're only using it as an excuse to buy themselves some time until they can figure out a way to be with their actual true loves (in Rukia's case, her childhood friend Renji, who is now the captain of the castle guard, and in Ichigo's case, sweet serving maid Orihime).
Anyway, there was a desire for fanfiction, which is, conveniently a thing that I do. Credit for the general scenario goes to Fluff, I just put some words to it. This is actually really more Ichihime than Renruki, but Renruki are certainly there.
Warning! Extremely fluffy, will probably rot your teeth.
None of this would have happened if Orihime didn't take her dusting so seriously.
It was a beautiful spring day, you see, all sunbeams and birds singing and fresh scents drifting in from the garden. It just made sense to open the window, so that the dust would get carried out on the breeze instead of floating around Prince Ichigo's room and making him sneeze. Not that there was really all that much dust in Prince Ichigo's room, because he was really a very neat and tidy person and also Orihime dusted twice a week. Also, Prince Ichigo was very cute when he sneezed.
Prince Ichigo was very cute most of the time, if you asked Orihime. He was very cute right now, Orihime thought as she leaned wistfully against the window sill, watching him as he scribbled in his journal down in the garden below.
Orihime wondered if he was writing a thrilling adventure story or a proposal for a new law that would improve the conditions of the kingdom or a touching poem about the symbolism of a ladybug he had just seen. Probably, Orihime thought with a twinge in her chest, he was writing a lovely and heartfelt letter to his betrothed, the elegant and gracious Princess Rukia.
Orihime probably ought to be jealous of Rukia. The Kuchiki princess was beautiful, of course, but she was also graceful and gentle and knew the correct and polite thing to say in every situation. She had a thousand gorgeous dresses and a pure white horse and a brawny knight who escorted her everywhere and made very serious faces so everyone knew how important Rukia was, even though Orihime had met Sir Renji a few times and he wasn't actually a very serious person. He just pretended for Rukia's sake, that's how wonderful she was. And, of course, Rukia had to be wonderful, because she was going to marry Ichigo.
They would make such a beautiful couple that Orihime was sure she was just going to be in tears for their entire wedding. Not that she was going to be invited to the wedding, but maybe it would be in a place that she could sneak in and get just a teeny tiny glimpse. Maybe they would even hold it in the gardens. Rukia would look so perfect among all the flowers. Ichigo was an outdoor sort of prince, too, in Orihime's opinion. He always looked so heroic when the sunlight caught his hair just so, just the way it was catching right now, because he wasn't…wearing…
Orihime straightened up suddenly, glancing madly around the room. Sure enough, there it was, on its special stand on the dresser, right where he always left it. Orihime snatched it up, and ran back to the window.
"ICHIGO!" she hollered out the window, waving his royal crown frantically. "YOU FORGOT YOUR CROWN AGAIN!"
Ichigo looked up from his notebook, blinked a few times, and then felt around on top of his head blankly for a moment. "Oh! I guess so!"
"Do you want me to bring it down to you?" she shouted down.
Ichigo opened his mouth and rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh…well… if you've got the time. I don't want to cause you any trouble, but if you're not busy it is awfully nice outside today."
Orihime leaned down, eyeing the trellis of morning glories mounted to the wall below Ichigo's window. "I'll take a shortcut!" she declared.
Ichigo's widened as she realized what she was about to do. He waved his hands frantically. "No no no no no!"
"It's fine!" Orihime declared, swinging herself out the window and onto the trellis, Ichigo's circlet slung over her wrist like an oversized bracelet. "I am a great climber!" Carefully, she took a step down, and then, more confidently, a second.
"I'm not worried about your skills, I'm worried about–"
As Orihime settled her weight on the next rung of the trellis, there was an ominous creak.
"-the trellis," Ichigo groaned.
There was a sudden crack, and Orihime's foot dropped out from under her. She grabbed desperately at her handholds, but the sudden weight was too much for the flimsy wood structure. Orihime squeezed her eyes closed and tried to remember what kind of bushes were planted directly below Prince Ichigo's window as the trellis gave way completely. Whatever they were, she hoped they were soft.
The scrape of branches and harsh landing never came, however. The whistle of wind past her face ended abruptly with a male shout of "I've got you!" and a pair of warm hands supporting her knees and back.
Oh, oh, oh! Orihime couldn't open her eyes, she couldn't. Every muscle in her body was squeezed painfully tight. Prince Ichigo had caught her. She was in his arms right at this very moment. Was he looking down at her right at this moment, his gentle eyes filled with concern for– for–
"Orihime, are you alright?"
Orihime's eyes snapped open at the sound of Princess Rukia's worried voice. Her heart leapt into her throat. For a brief moment, Orihime panicked, before she realized that Rukia didn't look even the least bit mad at seeing her brave and heroic fiance with his arms full of clumsy serving maid. In fact, Rukia looked rather out of breath, in fact, and there were a number of leaves stuck in her hair. Her own tiara was on a bit sideways. Rukia must have dashed halfway across the gardens to make sure Orihime was all right, that's just the kind of princess she was.
"Orihime! Is anything broken? I am so sorry! I don't even need to wear that stupid crown except for state occasions! If anything has happened, to you I swear, I'll… I'll…give up my throne!"
Orihime blinked owlishly at Ichigo, who had just run up and was now looking over her like he very much wanted to check for broken ankles, but was too afraid to touch her.
"She's fine, you dramatic dope, she just got the wind knocked out of her," Princess Rukia muttered.
Orihime looked at Ichigo. Then she looked at Rukia. Then she looked up into the face of the person who had caught her, who was evidently very much not Prince Ichigo.
Sir Renji grinned sheepishly back at her.
Orihime frowned. She…supposed that Sir Renji must have been guarding Princess Rukia, as he usually did, except that he wasn't wearing his guard uniform. Well, he was wearing the pants, but his jacket was missing, although Orihime had noticed that he often took it off when he was training (she especially liked it when he and Prince Ichigo practiced their swordplay together, although Ichigo didn't take his jacket off nearly so often, unfortunately). Even his undershirt seemed to be mostly unbuttoned, and Orihime self-consciously tore her eyes away from the significant amount of black ink on display. Maybe he had been training with Princess Rukia at swords, when they noticed Orihime's predicament? His face was certainly pretty flushed, and most of his hair had fallen out of his usual ponytail. There seemed to be a bunch of red marks on his face. Orihime glanced back at Princess Rukia, who was, of course, an accomplished swordswoman in her own right.
Princess Rukia was adjusting the neckline of her very pretty day gown, a dress that definitely would not be very practical for swordfighting.
"Do you have to do that?" Ichigo hollered, shading his eyes with one hand.
"I don't want them to fall out."
"Is that even a thing you have to worry about?"
"That was unnecessary, Ichigo." Rukia looked up. Her lipstick looked a bit smeared.
"Speaking of unnecessary, do you really have to use the bushes directly under my window?"
"Byakuya never comes over to this side of the castle. Anyway, good thing we did, eh? Who would have caught Orihime, otherwise?"
"I would have been faster and caught her!"
"Pbbt! Would it kill you to be grateful to Renji?"
"It was really nothing," Renji mumbled.
"It was not nothing, and I am grateful!" Ichigo protested. "You have probably been holding her long enough, though!"
"Ah, right!" Renji agreed, and leaned over to set Orihime down on the grass outside of the bushes. "Sorry about that."
"Oh, no, don't be!" Orihime waved him off. "Thank you for saving me from my own clumsiness." Before he could straighten up again, she leaned forward and squinted at him. "You've got something on your face. Hold still a moment, I have a handkerchief. Take your crown, Prince Ichigo!"
"That's, really not–" Renji stuttered, but Orihime was a quick draw with a handkerchief.
"What is this?" Orihime frowned, rubbing vigorously at his jaw. "At first I thought it was blood, but it looks more…like…" Orihime felt her face suddenly go hot. "...lipstick."
"This isn't what it looks like," Sir Renji said very quickly. He paused for a thoughtful moment. "No, it pretty much is. But we have a very good explanation."
"Do you?" Ichigo asked dryly, crossing his arms. "I'd love to hear it."
"We were practicing," Rukia replied loftily.
"I changed my mind, I don't want to hear it."
"For a play?" Orihime asked in a tiny, hopeful voice.
"Let's take a walk, okay, Orihime?" Ichigo said suddenly. "You two just… I don't care what you do. Thank you for catching Orihime, Renji. I mean that sincerely."
"It was my honor and duty, Your Highness!" Renji boomed, seemingly happy to be back on more solid ground.
Orihime's thoughts raced as Ichigo led her down one the beautiful manicured path of the royal gardens. She just couldn't believe it. One on hand, it was true that in addition to her perfect manners and courtly graces, Princess Rukia did possess a number of very un-princess-y skills, such as climbing trees and arm wrestling. Orihime was pretty sure she had seen Rukia pick a lock once. Rukia was certainly capable of being sneaky, but only in the sense that she was just so talented at so many things. On the other hand, Orihime knew in her heart what a good person Rukia was, kind and loyal and fiercely protective of her friends. She couldn't possibly imagine–
"Oh, Prince Ichigo, I'm so sorry!" she cried. "You must be just devastated. There must be some misunderstanding! I can't believe that Princess Rukia would… would…" She felt tears welling up in her eyes.
"Orihime, listen to me," Ichigo said very seriously. "Rukia is a very good person, one of the best people. She is a great friend and would never do anything to seriously hurt me. Annd…" He shrugged. "...she's been in love with Renji since before she ever met me, although I'm not sure she knew it at the time."
"I don't understand," Orihime snuffled.
"We have…an arrangement," Ichigo sighed. "Our betrothal keeps our kingdoms on good terms and more importantly, it keeps us from having to be betrothed to anyone else. It makes my folks and her brother and sister happy, and gives us an excuse to not dance with weirdos at royal 're going to keep putting off getting married until…well, indefinitely, hopefully, or until she can find some way to convince her brother to let her marry Renji." He regarded Orihime very seriously. "You won't tell anyone, will you? Those two knuckleheads should be more careful, but they really do deserve to be happy."
"You can trust me!" Orihime declared. "Oh, Prince Ichigo, you're such an amazing person!"
"Me?" Ichigo frowned suddenly. "What did I do?"
"Just that you could be engaged to such a beautiful and perfect person like Princess Rukia, but–" Orihime sniffled, trying to keep from becoming overcome with emotion, "but you (sniff) let her go so she can be with her true love!" It was hopeless. Fat tears were rolling down her cheeks now. She pulled out her handkerchief, but when she noticed that it was already smudged with Rukia's lipstick, she just started crying even harder.
"Hey, hey, don't get so upset! Here, I've got you!" Carefully, Ichigo wiped first her left cheek and then her right with his own handkerchief. It was honestly unfair, how warm and kind his eyes were.
"See, and now you're the one comforting me!" Orihime wailed. "Prince Ichigo, you're…you're too good!"
Ichigo barked out a laugh. "Oh, Orihime, you're the one who's too good to be real. Rukia's…something…alright, but she's…well, she's not the person I want to marry, you know? I get as much out of this arrangement as she does."
"But what if you did meet some new princess and fell in love with her?"
Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm not so sure that would ever happen. But that's sort of the beauty of the whole plan, you see? If I…if I wanted to marry someone else, I'm actually free to, we would just have to break up in a way that would keep our families on good terms. Rukia wouldn't want to stand in the way of my happiness any more than I want to stand in the way of hers."
"But then she would need to find a way to marry Sir Renji right away, so she didn't end up getting engaged to someone else!"
"Er…right. I…think they're working on that. I try not to ask too many questions."
"But what if they came up with a plan before you found a better princess! Then you might end up getting engaged to someone else! Ohhh, this isn't a very good plan at all, Prince Ichigo!"
"Ye-eah…I, uh. That would be okay, actually. I could deal with that."
Orihime blinked. "Oh," she said, not really understanding.
Ichigo blew out a big breath of air. "Because I care about them, obviously! Renji's just nuts for her, you know. She acts cool, but he's pretty far gone on him, too, it's, uh, pretty, um, sweet. If they could find a way to be together for real, that would be worth it. We were pretty young when we got into this arrangement, and at the time, I was pretty down on the whole idea of getting married, but, well, I've gotta do it eventually, right? It, uh…it doesn't seem so bad to me now." He took a deep breath. "I think I could find someone I could be happy with."
Orihime set her jaw. "Prince Ichigo, I still think you are too nice to be real! But if there is anything I can do, please allow me to help! I know all the servants in the castle and I am great at keeping secrets and I may not look it–" she lowered her voice to a whisper, "but I can be very sneaky if I need to!"
Ichigo chuckled. "I just may take you up on that. But for now, just keeping it a secret is good enough, okay?"
"You can count on me! Wild tigers couldn't drag it out of me! I'm not sure why they would try, but they would get nothing from me!" Orihime mimicked locking her mouth with an imaginary key, and then tossing the key over her shoulder.
Ichigo appeared to suddenly remember something. "Oh, er, I mean, as long as you're in on it, now…well, you should know. Sometimes Renji and Rukia almost get caught and I have to cover for them. So there might be a situation where it seems like I have been kissing Rukia. But I have not. I have never kissed Rukia. Well, I had to once, because people were watching, but neither of us liked it."
"I understand," Orihime said, scratching her nose. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Welllll…I just…didn't want you to think…"
"Oh!" Orihime exclaimed, realization dawning. "I see! If they almost get caught, should I try to make it look like I was the one making out with Sir Renji?"
"No," said Ichigo. "No, please don't do that." His eyes lingered on her for a moment. "Why are you smiling like that? Please tell me you aren't thinking about making out with Renji."
"Hmm?" Orihime looked up. "Oh, goodness, no, silly! I was just thinking that it was nice…that it was sort of fun…to have a secret with you, Prince Ichigo."
Ichigo's expression softened. "You know, I think so, too."