Smashing Expectations

1.15.2014

Summary: They always seemed to miss each other by minutes but one email changed all of that.

PG-13 for language and leading situations

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AN: Welcome to the month of story ideas. You've probably only gotten one or two stories by the time you read this but as per usual when an idea strikes it isn't alone and its only when the steam blows out of the others that I realize which ones I'm really excited about. This one I know I am because I've finally gotten a handle on a story that's been kicking around in the back of my brain for years now and I got the start that I didn't realize I needed. (Originally I always start it half way through but then there's loads of back story and dealing with it and the story at hand always bogs it down. Now I'm recovering from that idea and got a whole new twist I can spin on it).

AN2: Please bear with my 'chapters' I know that the first few/several should probably be prologues but I'm going to treat them as chapters and they're the ages of the main characters. And we're going to use 'ancient' names here because it's taking place sort of in England/Europe/America. Forgive me for slipping in and out of the British/American slang, some of them I think are universal and probably aren't, some of them are British words I can't get out of my head and with some of them the American slang is just so spot on in my mind that I have to use it and I'm sure there are slang words that would be perfect from either dialect that'd be great in some spots but I don't know them/or don't want to use them wrong/or frankly don't like them and so haven't.

Also I know "centuries" is the wrong word below, it should be "decades" but it's poetic the way I wrote it and that's why I didn't change it.

AN3: I personally just love this story. It's one that's near and dear to my heart. I have a few that are, others I just like well enough. There's something about this one that makes me smile. I know it's not cool to toot my own horn, but I write these stories for myself and then share them with you and hope you like them as much as I do, hoping that it answers some question or thought that's entered your head/heart and yet have not been able to put words on paper or had forgotten to do so, and then we can all share in the pleasure of the story that wanted/needed to be told and read.

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Chapter 1: 12-13 abouts

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Endymion snagged an apple from the tree that was always in contention between his property and the one next door. Each generation claimed it was theirs and that they were allowed to do with it as they pleased. A long time ago someone wanted to cut it down, he couldn't remember which side had argued for that but he had lost and the tree had remained. Through the centuries it had grown and the families who had occupied the neighboring homes had shrunk. All manner of things changed on the properties but this tree remained consistent as did the households that resided in the homes it connected.

A rustle sounded above him and at first he didn't think anything of it. He figured it was either a bird or a squirrel and when an apple dropped onto his shoulder he looked up trying to find the squirrel in question and shoo it away. Instead he found himself looking into a very blue set of eyes. Eyes that were not too far from his own.

It took him a long moment to find his breath and the words to speak. "I didn't know princesses climbed trees."

"Well it's a good job I'm not a princess then, isn't it?" She dangled upside down above his head on a limb looking very much not a princess. She was wearing knee length jeans and a halter top and in fact looked very country in it. However even he could tell that those clothes while deceptively simple and normal were Expensive with the capital E and perhaps an italic to go along with it.

He didn't move much, just leaned back onto his hands and tilted his head so he could get a better look at her while they talked. "Even so, what are you doing up there?"

She wrapped her legs around the branch she was holding onto and released her hands so she was hanging on by only her legs. She reached down for the apple that had hit him and he handed it to her without a thought. She bit into the red flesh and he wondered how she was going to manage to swallow it like that. She managed somehow because a moment later she answered his question. "I'm exploring."

Endymion laughed. "I hate to be the one to tell you that you're wrong but explorers generally go to different countries and travel great distances, they don't go up into a tree."

A huge smile split her face and she poked him in the nose. "Shows what you know." She had great control over her stomach muscles because she pulled herself back onto the branch without any visual effort and sprawled over the top of it like a cat, a knee and arm hanging loose with the other arm propping her head up. "There are many ways to explore and not just the lands or the directions but how you do it too." Her voice changed slightly as if she were waxing poetry. "I have been out there, I've traveled those dusty roads that lead only in two directions almost a hundred times a month. I have gone as far as my feet can take me and then came back and while it is nice, I have seen it all. I want to go to great new heights and dip far below the ocean's surface. Eventually I might tromp my way onto foreign lands but that's only one way to look at things."

As she was sighing over what she no doubt was imagining, Endymion was trying to figure this girl out. She was obviously a dreamer and a hundred times a month? She would have had to go at least a few times a day to do it. She must not be able to walk very far. "Why not just stick to a path and continue until you can't, take a break and then keep going in the same direction?"

A lazy smile greeted his question. "I have but I've been brought back before I reach anything of interest. Most of the time I will get as far as the next town over by the end of the day but it only takes my parents an hour by car to collect me again. By foot I can only go so far and it is to things I have seen before. But by tree I have a whole new perspective. Up there it is only the clouds and the sky to greet me and I feel like flying." She rolled over onto her back as if she was at the top even now or on the grass by his feet. "The clouds tell me stories even more than others might imagine. If it is full and dark I know it has come from our South-West, collecting water vapors as its comes, the whiter, fluffier ones from our East and I wonder what lies out there." Her hands rose above her and she made interesting motions with them, fluid and intricate.

"You can see the clouds from anywhere." Endymion reminded her.

"True but I've never felt closer to them." She turned and looked down at him again. "It's more than just the clouds. It's everything else too. I see things differently when I'm here, I see the limbs of the tree, its branches, each individual leaf, it's no longer just a tree but my tree. Sometimes there is fruit and sometimes there aren't any leaves at all. It becomes real and particular and interesting. Then there are the dirt roads, when I walk along them I see each pebble and stone beneath me and each blade of grass and small budding flower, but when I am here, those are no longer individual. I see the rolling hills and patterns missed by being too close and I know it is useless to try and walk the winding road, with the bends that I would have followed without realizing were there otherwise. It only goes in two directions and both directions lead nowhere. No, it is better to think outside the two dimensional realm. I want to go up and I want to go down and I want to go... sideways!" Her hands exploded out in front of her. "Perhaps that's not the real word for it but I am going to go, mark my words. I'll never be stuck here again once I'm released."

Endymion laughed and reached up to the branch next to her, pulling his body upwards to rest his chest onto it and so he could look her in those big beautiful anime eyes. "I hope you'll at least come back and visit us commoners in your pursuit of more."

A slight frown marred her face and he almost felt guilty before her unease cleared. "I never said I wouldn't come back. I have always had every intention of returning on occasion, it is the things you know that help you process and understand the things out there. If you don't come back every once in awhile then you're not exploring, you're running. It's coming back and telling people of your adventures that makes it real."

"Just so you can make them jealous?" He asked slowly and released himself back onto the ground beneath them.

"Oh no, so I can push their minds and their imaginations, encourage them to expand from their little world and see just how big and vast and different everything is." She pressed herself to her feet and walked the length of the branch she was on before returning to the base as if it were no trouble at all then returning to the middle and looking down at him. He wondered if she did gymnastics.

"I can tell you that your view of the world has certainly sparked my drive to see it for myself."

"I hope you will." She told him honestly and sat where her feet were moments ago.

There was a noise and then some shouting from the direction of her home and he held up his hands for her. "Come now Princess, I think it's time for you to go home, people are looking for you."

She took his hands and dropped down next to him without needing his help but using it because he'd offered. "I told you, I'm no princess."

"You're as good as one." He tapped her on the nose this time. "I'll be seeing you around Serenity."

Her lips quirked up into another smile and he felt an answering one on his. "You'll see. You might not believe me now but I will do everything I told you I would."

"I believe you, I believe you." He held up his hands in defense. "Though it is hard for me to imagine you going deep under water or going up high into the sky. The rest of it is a lot easier for me to grasp though I'm sure you'll find a way."

She nodded and then heard her name being called. She sighed miserably. "Lessons." He hoped that she'd never be taught out of her dreamer-like personality it was quite refreshing from the usual prattle he heard and hoped she got to do all she wanted. Serenity turned towards her property but paused a moment and tossed one last comment back at him. "And I'm not a princess."

It took many more meeting and many years but eventually he had to conclude she was right all along, but he refused to see her in any other light. But she most certainty was not a princess.

EAN: This is probably my favorite story that I've ever written and there have been some strong contenders for that title. I'm not finished with it but I am releasing it for your consumption. Please be kind. I know it's been awhile since I've uploaded but I realized it would be a shame not to publish this one, so I'm updating it weekly.