(I know most of you skip to the story without reading this, but I'll write it anyway)

So I woke up this morning, checked my email, and saw three reviews came into my inbox, in just a few hours! Honestly, I was and still am blown away by it, I've been writing on here for a couple of years, but never has it happened before, so much enthusiasm and appreciation for a story I was working on. Which, of course makes me very, very happy, but at the same time, I am afraid I'll end up disappointing you, if this doesn't go the way y'all expecting it to!

Oh, and not to mention, I didn't get any death threats for hooking Michael up with some chick! ;)

Anyway, THANKS everyone for reading and enjoying! Since writing is something I want to do full-time some day, this encourages me to no end.

Now to the story ... this chapter takes place in November, and as some of you might know, there's a Mia fic centered around the same time - The Autumn Princess. Those of you that have read it (ok, I know not many like it, but still) will notice that these stories overlap - basically, Michael will be finding about the events Mia encounters in The Autumn Princess.

But enough of my ramblings, enjoy!

Kisses, w.

NOVEMBER

(1)

I didn't skip sending Mia the email the third time around, though.

SkinnerBx: Hey, Mia, hope everything is well.

Things here are fine, thanks for asking, Charlie is coming along great – well, for this stage, anyway.

We are having great weather over here, so a few days ago I went sightseeing with some of my colleagues. They took me to this great statue of Buddha called 'Ushiku Daibutsu'. It's actually authorized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest standing Buddha figure in the world. There is also a flower garden on the site and apparently the flowers change with seasons – I will have to go there in spring to see it by myself.

I had gone to Buddha with Renata, but despite my rationality dropping drastically since taking a job in Tsukuba, I was still sane enough not to mention it to Mia. It seemed like Renata could remain a hidden secret – for now. I was planning on telling Mia about Renata one day, though – if our relationship improved enough for the information to be valid. I wasn't going to repeat the mistake I had done with Judith.

And even though Renata would most likely be gone by the time seasons changed, I still promised myself to go check out the flowers, even if it meant going all by myself.

Oh, and they promised to take me to Tsukuba Space Center some time! I heard there's the exhibit hall which features models of the H-II Transfer Vehicle and a full-sized mock-up of the KIBO module on the International Space Station. Can you believe how cool that must be?

Of course I am still waiting for them to take me to the Geological museum here!

Renata didn't think it was cool, neither of the suggestions, at all. It looked like I wouldn't get to go till her departure, but it was fine with me.

Anyway, I hope you are doing alright. How did the midterms go? You doing anything special for Thanksgiving? Are you once again going to visit Mr G's family in the morning and attend your grandmother's dinner in the evening? Or are even your relatives from Indiana showing up?

Michael

It was friendly enough, but still showed I cared about her. I knew the chances of her mentioning grades were slim, but I could still ask Boris later.

After clicking send I realized Renata was looking at me the entire time I type. The smile she wore hinted she had just discovered something of interest and joy. I didn't dwell on it. I tried to let go of Mia the moment I emailed her.

I am not a fan of social networks, yet alone an enthusiastic user, but with my ex being a royal, it was still impossible for me to lose track of her life completely.

On Saturday morning I had seen pictures of her and the Tennessee Williams wannabe out on a date again. They were coming out of Ray's, a place Mia and I used to frequent. Needless to say, the choice of restaurant hurt, but, looking over my shoulder and seeing Renata in my bed, I guess made it even.

But in the upcoming hours and days I kept bumping into her.

Over the years we had been dating, I was always on the lookout to learn more about Genovia. I borrowed every book from the library that had Genovia mentioned. I browsed the internet, reading even obscure articles about celebrities visiting Genovia. I watched every documentary I could find online, though most of them being in French presented a challenge, since I didn't speak a word of the language. By now, I probably knew more of Genovia's history, economy, government, legislation than Mia. I even took up learning French in that little free time I had in my first year in college, knowing the chances were I'd be on day living in Genovia.

I also signed up for the newsletter on the official webpage of Genovian Royal Family, making sure I was up to date with any happenings in the palace, though I usually heard about them from Mia.

Obviously I forgot to unsubscribed after we broke up. Now I found an email in my inbox, announcing the latest visit to the Genovian Palace. Apparently the queen of England was coming over to dine with Genovian Royal Family, in hopes to improve the transnational relations.

I wondered if that meant Mia too would be forced to attend. I knew she disliked flying to Genovia for the weekend, but a dinner with Kate might be just enough to change her mind. I smiled at the memory of Mia admiring Kate pretty much every time the latter appeared in newspapers, not realized she could easily be just as 'graceful' and 'elegant' as Kate, if she only had a bit of faith in herself.

For a moment I was tempted to ask Mia about it, send her another email, even though I wasn't due to write her for over week. Though it seemed a friendly thing to do, I felt it was still too friendly for the level of communication we were currently on. It pained me until I remembered that not too long ago we hadn't been talking at all. What we had wasn't much, but at least was something. And I would take anything over the screaming silence of my first weeks in Tsukuba.

In the following days, I made sure to know everything I possibly could about Genovia. Some reports indicated Mia too was coming. However, nobody seemed sure of this until she hit the front covers of every newspapers and breaking news of every news and celebrity channel.

When I first looked at the headline, it made me spill the morning coffee all over me. It was ruining my shirt and felt so hot against my skin, but I couldn't care less. My eyes were fixated on the headline as I tried to comprehend what it said. I knew English just fine, but the words were dancing in front of my eyes like ballerinas.

I hoped that pictures would make more sense, so I focused on them. My mind was a mess, but I couldn't help but to start laughing.

And so I went back to reading the article.

Last night two royal families attended a dinner organized to improve the relationship … however, the diplomacy was over-shone when the youngest members of the families sneaked out of the palace to play midnight badminton in the magnificent Genovian Royal Gardens … seen pictured is young Harry, crashing into one of the beautifully sculptured fountains and young princess Amelia, smiling as she sees her friend taking a bath. What could this getaway mean? Our experts on everything royalty related suggest that this could be a new royal romance springing! It certainly has a potential to become the most popular royal romance, even surpassing William and Kate's! Both young royals are reportedly single – Harry has broken up with his girlfriend of four months, German model Nastassja Böhler, while Amelia's love life has taken a wild turn this September after she split up with her longtime steady boyfriend of nearly two years, Michael Moscovitz, when he reportedly left for Japan to attend University in Tsukuba. The Princess was later seen numerous times in the company of her classmate, a son of respected Broadway producer, John Paul Abernethy-Reynolds IV. Though undisclosed sources said the two of them were indeed a couple, no official confirmation has ever been given. Last night's rendezvous with Harry, though, raises more questions than it gives answers. This is certainly unusual for a Princess who was, until this September, known for keeping a low profile, not sharing many details of her personal life with the media. Has this changed and is the world about to see a new all-royal romance? We shall see in the upcoming weeks …

I couldn't stop laughing. What was happening to Mia? This was nothing like her. Playing badminton? Hanging out with another royal? I had always thought she find the majority of them to be obnoxious and snobbish. Sneaking out while official royal business was happening? She was always taking it so seriously, freaking out about the possibility of messing something up, not to mention her reactions if something didn't go as planned. The Mia I knew would rather die than do something as careless as the girl on the photograph was doing.

But I couldn't deny I liked this new Mia. Maybe now she'd finally realize that, despite having many cons, being a princess could also bring her great things. What Mia wanted most of all was to do good. I could still recall her wild dreams of go saving whales and baby seals with Greenpeace – hell, she even wanted to drag me along. Yeah, I might not have told her directly that there was no way I would spend weeks on a ship to save whales, but I always thought she'd grow out of it. Besides, the exposure she has as a princess, could help her raise awareness of many, many good causes all over the world.

I had always been sure she would see things from this perspective, sooner or later. Maybe then she'd stop being so upset about the royal events she had to attend, the rules she had to follow, and the invasions of privacy she had to suffer.

I always thought I'd be there to witness this change in her, but according to the pictures I was looking it now, I would only get to observe it from afar.

Then another aspect of the photographs caught my eyes. She was smiling, widely, that smile I knew so well. Her smile was bigger than the world when she let the worries go. It didn't happen too often – that girl was always worried about something, no exception, no matter how small the problem was. Sometimes it felt like she was making big deals out of things just so that she could have something to worry about, Little Miss Worrier. But when she did smile, it felt like the smile brightened up the whole world. It enchanted me every time, making it impossible for me to move my eyes off her. I fell in love with her all over again every time she smiled like this.

It reminded me of something. I went to the archive of articles about her, opening a random report of her night out with JP. I looked at her in the picture and the glee overwhelmed me. How could I not have noticed it earlier?

She wasn't smiling as brightly. Her smile was faint, barely visible, the smile she usually put on when the situation was getting to her, but she didn't want to show it.

It was weird, not at all objective coming from me, but she never looked this miserable when we had gone out. She had always been smiling brightly, I somehow managed to make her laugh no matter the made up issues she was having. Obviously JP wasn't as skilled at making her happy as I was. I refused to believe the paparazzi had anything to do with it. It was a small win for me. Maybe everything wasn't as hopeless as I had thought after all.

I didn't even hear Renata entering the kitchen, sitting next to me.

"I thought I recognized her from somewhere," she said, smiling at me. There was no point in closing the article; I knew she had seen what I was reading, doing. "Princess of Genovia, huh? Well, that explains so much. And you are screwed, really screwed," she laughed.

I didn't respond. I couldn't even look at her. I felt like my deepest secret had been uncovered, that weak part of me. As powerful as loving he made me, it was my Achilles heel, somehow always getting to me in the end.

"Is that why you're here?" she then gently asked. "Are you inventing that surgical device to prove everyone you are not some random commoner?"

I again didn't respond. I didn't need to hear how impossible my plan was. Sometimes even I felt it was completely unrealistic. Royalty was a completely different kind of people. Why would they care about something like medical equipment?

She took my hand.

"You can invent a hundred different surgical arms, Michael, but none of them will not make you feel worthy of her, if you won't believe you deserve her. Success will not make you worthy of anything - only your love for her can do that."

"I wish it was enough, but it isn't."

"No matter what you do, there will always be people thinking she could do better," she nodded, "but you have to remember, in the end, the only person that matters is her. As long as she accepts you, you're out of the woods. So don't think too much about others. It will eat you alive."

"It has been killing me for a long time," I surprised myself by admitting.

"Well, what good will it do, inventing robotic arm, for you, if it will destroy you in the process? Stop driving yourself crazy with what the media thinks, what her family thinks, what you think about yourself, even. This is your shot, Michael. Trust me, if you finish what you are working on, the whole world will think of you as a hero. What's you're doing is amazing. She is bound to understand it one day. It wouldn't be very princessy of her to overlook it, don't you think so?"

I had to laugh at her words. She realized why.

"Yeah, those pictures are not exactly proving my words, but still," she winked at me.

"Thank you," I said with a voice that displayed my feelings.

She just shrugged.

"You're rewriting medical history, you deserve some assistance here and there."

To Be Continued.

Broughttoyouby:::winter.