A/N: what has gotten into me?! I never do AU fics! ¬¬ I hope you like it anyways… as always to Ale-CHAN! Ehehehe *evil laughter* por que no te gusta el Chan?! Ehhhh???

Thanks to Sushigirl07: mou! Stop calling me Miss! *blush* I should be the one calling you that!! Hahaha! Will do! Arigatou for the review Sushigirl-sama!!! Ohohohoho!

Re-o-ko: uuuuy! You're so sweet! And sorry about the character descriptions…. I kinda did that on purpose but now I think it was not such a good idea… -_-' *sigh* anywho, arigatou for the comment!

Anima Mouse: *sigh* no I guess I'll just have to accept that I have no talent… *sob* ¬¬o oh well… I'm used to it! Hahahaha! I hope you still enjoy the story though! Thanks for the review!  

Chapter Two

"Well it's not much, and you'll forgive the mess but it's my home." Said Ferio entering the cabin.

"It's nice, seems cozy." She said exploring the inside.

It did seem a bit smaller to her compared to where she had lived all her life, but it did seem more welcoming than the intimidating halls of the palace. And she had seen worse houses than this, actually compared to all the others this house was pretty big. It had 2 rooms. He went over to the only bed there was and sat her down.

"You can borrow this for now." Said the man handing her a white dress which was beside the bed.

"By the way… I don't even know your name." Said Fuu

"Oh, me? You can call me Ferio. What's your name?"

"uh…" Fuu thought, she couldn't tell him her real name, he would know who she was… "My name is… Anais…" she lied

"Anais? That's an odd name." Said Ferio

Fuu chuckled nervously. Ferio smiled and left the room with his own pair of clothes. Fuu also used the time to change. The dress was simple but she liked it very much, the fabric was really soft and she wondered who's it was. She took her own dress and ripped off a piece from the bottom bandaging her cut so she wouldn't stain the new white dress. She had never worn a sleeveless dress, it was almost all white except for the forest green lining at the bottom and around the neck. It laced up in the back also with a shiny green lace. The problem was, she couldn't lace it up.

Ferio returned to the room and chuckled finding Anais struggling with the laces of the dress.

"May I help you?" he asked surprising her

"Um… I could use a little help…" she admitted.          

He went to sit on the bed behind her and laced up the dress making a bow with the ending ribbons.

"Thank you…" said Fuu when he finished "It's a very pretty dress."

"It was my sisters…" he responded

"Oh,"

Ferio took out some pieces of cloth along with various bottles and water, he kneeled next to the bed and went to work on her leg.

"She died a couple years back." he continued

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"Don't be. She was happy. Ran off with some guy… Zagato I think his name was. Some sort of important guy, and his parents wouldn't let him marry my sister. Actually we used to live in the palace, as servants of course, but. He came to visit the King and Queen on some sort of trip or something, stayed for a couple of weeks and my sister was his personal servant… said it was love at first sight. I wouldn't know… I said she should go for it. She didn't want to leave me behind, but I convinced her. So the prince, my sister and I escaped from the palace and came to live out here, unfortunately, they found us. I was told to hide in the cellar and that's when… well the guards say it was because of betrayal or something, they only killed my sister… Zagato took his own life. Told the guard that if he didn't kill him he would have the worst of deaths. Can you imagine? Killed because you love somebody?"

She listened carefully. She knew about this Zagato, heard that he was killed for breaking the law, along with some woman, but she didn't know this.

"But like I said she was happy."

"mmm, um… if you want something to bandage it with feel free to use my dress… so, you used to work in the palace?" she asked curious

"I'm going to take you up to that… and yeah, since I was born to the age of nine when we ran away, I never knew my mother or father. Emeraude says they were sold to another king. " he said reaching over to the pile next to him.

"Emeraude?"

"Yeah she's my sister…"

"Oh…"

"You know when I worked back there, there was always this little girl who used to hide all the time. There were two actually, one with long blond hair and another with short brown hair. Both had pretty green eyes, like yours, that's why I remembered…"

Fuu gasped and hoped he didn't put two and two together…

"The older one, the one with brown hair used to talk to me a lot… she was nice but sometimes I just wanted her to be quiet. She followed me around a lot. But not the other one. I really wanted to meet her, I guess because every time I would catch her looking at me she would run away."

Fuu's jaw dropped.

"It was a big ugly mole! The size of a mouse I tell you!! And he kissed my hand! I didn't want him to but mama would punish me if I wasn't good so I let the ugly man kiss me…"

The boy only nodded and smiled as Kuu went on and on about last night. I didn't think he was so bad, he was poor but he was very nice to me. Does he like listening to Kuu? I know I don't, she's too loud.

He nodded some more getting the water bucket out of the well and heading for the roses. He never talks back to her… I wonder why. Maybe she doesn't let him.

"Mou! I have to get cleaned up for tonight! Oooh your sister made me a beautiful dress and I want to wear it tonight! I have to go clean myself so I don't get it dirty. I'll be back soon! Don't move ok?"

The boy nodded and sighed a little as my sister ran of. He's always working… I wonder if he likes to do it. He leaned over to one of the roses and plucked of a small red bug putting it to the side. He threw the water over the roses and then put the small bug back on the stem.

Why would he do that? I wondered leaning to see him better. Are there really bugs on the roses? I asked myself looking down to the roses below me. Not on the roses! On me! A red bug was crawling up my big dress. I jumped and lost my balance. Uh oh… I fell on top of the roses. Owchi…

He looked over his shoulder and saw me on the floor. I gasped, he saw me and he's coming over.

"What are you doing down there?" he offered me a hand

I blushed too scared to accept it. I rose to my feet on my own and brushed myself of then I saw the red bug was still on me. I frantically began to wave my dress hoping it would fall of. He took my hand and stopped me placing his hand on the green fabric, letting the small bug crawl on his finger.

"It won't hurt you." He said boosting off the little bug "Are you ok?" he asked looking down at my hand

I looked down myself and found a trickle of blood on one of my fingers. He took my hand and examined my finger. With dirty but delicate fingers he pulled out a thorn. I winced because it hurt and was full of blood. He took my finger again and put it in his mouth! He was sucking on my finger! Eww!

When he took it out he turned to the side and spit out my blood along with a tiny green thing. he ripped a small portion of his shirt and bandaged my finger tightly.

"All set." He smiled

I blushed and did the first thing I could think of… kiss him and run…

Her eyes widened in recognition. It was him! The little kid she used to follow around everywhere but hid every time he looked at her. He did used to work in the palace, it was  him, a lot taller, a couple of scars that made her very curious but he still had the same way of working on a person. On her…

He didn't take long to finish. Although it was late.

"So um, why were you running like you were back there? It looked like wolves were on your track."

Fuu looked down "I was running away from home." She admitted

"Really?" he said moving up to a cut above her left brow "Why?"

"Well… they, were trying to make me marry some one I didn't want to."

"Oh… well that's not too odd" he said brushing her bangs out of the way

"No, it' not, but I believe that if you marry someone it should be because you love them and not because the parents think he is right for you. Love for my parent's doesn't exist, and I think that's just not fair!"

"Well your right. you should love the man you marry."

"And I definitely don't love that horrible man! He's like 30 years older than me! And pompous and selfish and…"

"Well you also have to know what love is… it's not easy to fall in love and when you finally do, you realise it's not all like the fairy tales say it is. When you love a person you have to truly love them… even if that means getting hurt."

Fuu watched the sad eyes of Ferio as he worked gently on her face. He probably missed his sister. She had heard about her eight or nine years back, Ferio was about the same age as her, maybe a year or two older than her, but if she left him, when, or even before that happened then he would have been around nine or ten years old.

She admired his strength. She had never known any kind of men except the pompous snobs at the palace. She was not a strong person and she wondered if she really would be willing to give up her own life for the person she loved. Fuu found herself starring up at Ferio watching his every move. She blushed.

"Do you… believe in love at first sight?" asked Fuu

"Well it depends, don't laugh at me but, that little girl I told you about, sometimes when I wake up late at night, she's the first thing that comes to my mind. I can't say I loved her because I was just a kid and she never let me get to know her well, but you know… the funny thing is, that I could never let myself fall in love with her… I would do everything in my power to try and stop myself.."

"Why?" Fuu frowned

"Because she was royalty. A princess, nothing good ever came out of two people who are not meant to be, loving each other. Besides she would never even look at some one like me."

Fuu looked up at him again, frowning and thinking what he had just said. Everything was true, except the last part.  Why should he be any different from any other man? She could look to him, and maybe even fall in love. But still nothing but pain would come of it. She never took her eyes of him all the while he was healing her.

"Well that about does it, we'll see how you wake up in the morning. I'll sleep on the ground with the blanket but if you get cold just wake me up and tell me ok." He gathered the remaining supplies and set them in their place, spread out the blanket and lay down, giving a big sigh and blowing out the candle.

"Oyasumi Anais"

"Oyasumi nasai, Ferio."

~~~~~~°*°~~~~~~

Fuu tossed in the bed, no matter how hard she tried she could not go to sleep. Too many things were going on right now. Complicated things. She sighed one last time and finally gave up, sitting up in bed. A walk would probably get her to calm down enough to sleep.

She stepped of the bed and immediately pulled her feet back up, she forgot Ferio was sleeping down there, yet getting a better look, she found that neither he or the blanket was there. Surprised and somewhat uneasy she made her way around the house to find it empty. She limped out the door getting nervous.

Fuu let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding back seeing a crouched figure against the reflection of the river. With clumsy steps she moved towards him still feeling a bit of pain when she used her left foot.

"You shouldn't be up little missy…"

She gave a small jump hearing his voice all of a sudden. He turned to look at her and smiled.

"That wound needs to heal and your not helping." He repeated

"I couldn't sleep…" she confessed

"well that's two of us."

He went over to help Fuu sit down on the cool grass. Then he took the blanket which he had been using to cover himself and placed it over her shoulders.

"What about you?" she asked

"I'll be fine…"

"Thank you… Why couldn't you sleep?"

"Remembering too much things."

"I'm sorry, that was my fault."

"Don't be. it's nice to remember. Actually I was thinking. See my sister used to make dresses. For the little princesses and the queen. Every time she would finish them I was the one who had to take them. I walked in on Kuu once… Kuu is the talkative one… and she was wearing only her undergarments. I got a good beating out of that one. But not by the guards, she didn't tell anyone, just by her, and her comb and her brush and her table and anything else within reach. When I arrived to Fuu's room, that's what the little shy one was called, she looked at me real weird and for a moment I thought she was actually going to talk and ask me what had happened." He laughed

Fuu's eyes widened. 'He still remembers my name…' she chuckled remembering the episode herself. He had bruises everywhere and was really worried about him. She never knew that part of the story.

He chuckled "Love hurts…"

"Why?" she asked

"Well you see, the only real contact I ever made with Fuu, was a short sweet one."

She smiled knowing what he was talking about. "And why do you say love hurts?"

"Well here's the deal… one day Fuu had a little accident and fell in the roses she got a thorn stuck in her forth finger and since she made no move to run away I got the chance to help her. When I was done she stood still with that adorable blush of hers and then just kissed me. It took me a minute or two to process the information and when I looked again she was gone."

Fuu chuckled.

"The bad part…" she looked up to him "was that a guard happened to see. And I don't know what his problem was but he took me and slapped the cheek she had kissed. He beat me pretty good saying something about royalty being with royalty and not scum like me. Actually that's how I got this." He pointed to his left cheek.

Fuu was shocked. She had not known anything about that. "How?"

"He didn't bother to take his sword out, his boot was enough, but since we were near the roses he kicked me in and well thorns are still thorns…"

She felt awful. It was all because of her. That he had gotten hurt like that. He sighed and looked over to her, frowning and lost in thought.

"Are you ok?" he asked

She looked up at him and put on a fake smile, nodding.

"You don't talk a lot…" he observed

"I like to listen…"

"oh… um, so… do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Me?" she asked. He nodded.

She put a hand to her chin and wrinkled her nose which seemed to amuse Ferio a lot. After a while of looking up to the sky she turned to him and smiled shrugging. He chuckled.

This girl was just like Fuu, only, she was actually within his reach. She had almost the exact same eyes and every time she looked to him he could feel his stomach getting queasy. And his body shiver. No that was just the wind.

"You're cold." She observed

"I'll be fine."

"But you were wet today, you could get sick."

She opened her arm with the blanket and scooted towards him.

"No really, I'm ok…" he objected

She gave him a don't-argue-with-me look and pulled him to her. He sighed in resignation and took the blanket, edging his way closer.

"I never got to thank you for what you did…" she said

"Huh? Oh that? Well you're very young and I couldn't just let you die on me now right?"

"Arigatou…" she said leaning on him feeling sleep seep in.

"um… you're welcome…"

"Tell me more about you when you were young…"

"you sure I won't bore you?"

"Onegai…" she said closing her eyes

"Well ok, if you insist…"

She mumbled something like mmhhm. He looked her way and raised an eyebrow.

"You're half asleep aren't you?" he asked

she mumbled.

"In that case you won't mind if I confess something will you?"

This time she smiled but didn't make a sound.

"I think I do believe in love at first sight Anais… I think I may be falling for you… will you fall for me too?"

Her response was to take in a deep breath and cuddle in closer. He couldn't help as the smile on his face grew. Careful to place the whole blanket on her, he slipped one hand behind her shoulders and the other under her knees careful not to touch the bandage. Rising slowly he made his way back into the cabin placing her gently on the bed. He moved a stray lock of golden hair that rested on her nose and watched as she crumpled it. She was even cuter than little Fuu. And so much more real. 'I could let myself fall in love with you.' And so he did just that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*°*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

mushy mushy!!!! Ewwwwwww! Get the fluff of me!!!!! It smothers me!!!!! Aggghhhhh! ¬¬' ok enough of that… what do you think?! Am I completely insane?! ¬¬ skip that question… anyway, some of you may already know that Anais is Fuu's name over here…. In Mexico that is… yup yup yup… that's why it's so weird… it's pronounced AnaIs, or written correctly Anaís … oki doki…. Don't forget to leave a review ok? -^^- arigatou!

Glossary of Japanese words I might use through out the story….

Onegai: please

Arigatou: thank you

Mou: kinda like geez!

Hai: yes

Iie: no

Demo: but

Ano: um…

¬¬ and that's all I could think of for now… I'll check it later…

ja ne!