originally, this story had a lot of font and space effects to emphasize the transformation. I can't figure out how to get them back in on here, though; freaking . Please try to enjoy it, regardless!
I really enjoyed the idea of Larxene's Somebody being a princess - since Squisney has a history with princesses-of-this-and-that, I thought it would be neat to look at how she changed. This was unprompted, unlike the rest of the drabbles.
KH and all affiliated characters do not belong to me.
[once, life was simple.]
Lumaria loved flowers.
That was all Aerlen knew about him, so she went to a meadow and laid down among the plants that waved slowly with the breeze and breathed deeply in the odor of meadowsweet.
She imagined that it would smell like him and pretended that she was lying next to him. Aerlen. His voice sounded like the wind between the grass. Aerlen. His eyes were the cool blue of the sky. Aerlen. His hair was as soft and fragrant as the petals of nearby blossoms. Aerlen!
She woke to twilight with her maid and a groom waiting with horses.
"Does milady wish us to pitch a tent?"
"…I'll return tomorrow."
0
Aerlen loved everything. Unconditionally.
Her kingdom (which was never to be hers) loved her back. It loved her smooth gold hair and her affinity for little children and how perfect she was.
Aerlen loved being perfect. She stitched herself up into lacy dresses and broke her feet into crystal slippers and danced with the best. The belle of the ball. Her mother was so proud, really, watching her mince words with a gentleman at a table for two off the dance floor.
Aerlen loved this boy she was talking to, too. No… man. Curious, really. Their kingdoms were small and neighborly so they grew up side-by-side and she loved this man-child dearly and it made her heart flutter to think of him… but Lumaria, he was there. Lumaria…
She couldn't help him that she loved her prince so much, despite how clearly he was not there, with her, no written word or messenger or even a sign that he acknowledged their soon-to-be marriage…
She excused herself away from her dear dear friend, her fluttering heart constricted (so against its will) and allowed another dancer to sweep her away.
0
His messenger arrived in shockingly bright robes with even brighter hair. "The messenger Axel, your majesty," said the page, before exiting the hall and closing the door behind him.
"Lumaria sent me."
Aerlen stepped back reflexively at the man's voice, heels clicking against the stone floor. Uncultured and rough. Sly and mocking. Like… a cat. "Is something wrong, your majesty?"
His eyebrows twitched just a little at "majesty" and she knew at once that he was laughing at her. Aerlen pursed her lips for a split second – to allow a messenger to set her at such unease … Unthinkable! -and walked over to one of the stone ledges that sat between columns and settled herself partially in the afternoon sunlight. She looked at Axel. "Tell me what he said, please."
"Does everybody from your kingdom have such… exotic hair?" asked Aerlen, nodding to Axel's shockingly bright spikes.
"No need to be so polite with me, milady," he said, smiling – not so poisonously as before. "I know it's strange here. This was the fashion before I left."
"And does the prince follow the fashions?"
"To some degree. He is meticulous about keeping clean and presentable… which is good because he spends so much time grubbing around in the gardens…but never to fashion as devotedly as I." The grin turned a little smug. "Here, it is the women who dress gaily, but in our kingdom, only boys and cocky young men are allowed frivolous clothing."
"Is your hair dyed, then?" Aerlen looked very interested. "I prefer 'enhanced'," said Axel, turning his roguish smile on her at full force.
Aerlen found herself looking away for the first time.
0
He grew warmer every day, the more time she spent with him, so she came to love contact with him. Her friend and her parents and her maid, they all fell away and there was only Axel.
"I love you," she told him.
"Yeah."
"Yeah?"
"It doesn't matter, Aerlen," he said, rolling over onto his stomach and propping his chin on his fists. "You're engaged to Lumaria."
"I… I can have that nullified if I want."
"Can you?" He didn't look convinced. "You seem pretty bound."
"Ohh." She squeezed her eyelids shut. "Can't we just… leave this place?"
"I could take you away."
"Could you?"
"Yeah."
"You wouldn't like it, though." He closed his own eyes.
"I would like it," said Aerlen. "If I were with you."
"I don't think you would feel that way," said Axel.
"I would!"
"Can you swear that?"
"Yes." Axel held out his hand. Aerlen took it. "Are you ready?"
"Of course."
He laughed at her and let go. "Go to sleep, Aerlen."
She pouted and rolled over, too disappointed to let him see.
0
Axel eased out of the bed and summoned a Shadow; he set the bobbing and weaving creature where he had been lying and it went to Aerlen immediately, sniffing at the darkness he had planted in her heart. Axel opened a portal and stepped in, but not before casting one last look back at the sleeping princess.
0
Aerlen Aerlen aerlen
THIS IS MY NAME no I WON'T CHANGE IT (for you) or ANYBODY GET AWAY YOU'RE DEAD? BUT YOUR HEART (MY HEART)WHERE IS IT! AND oh god I CAN'T BEAR I CAN'T—
0
Dark flowers for Lumaria.
0
… bear. . . ?
0
She woke up in some other place with another man in front of her and he was telling her a name and it was
larxene larxene Larxene.
So she was no longer Aerlen and Lumaria and her dear dear friend were gone and she had a new life now and she felt good and there were no heels or frothy dresses to wear and she felt no regret.
Nothing. Nobody. Ha! She was grateful to Axel. She was her own person now, unreliant on princes like Lumaria and protections like servants and parents and none of these people could control her!
She was the storm.