Azkadellia awoke long before anyone else in the castle, forced to light the candle once again to read by its light until it was late enough to go downstairs to breakfast. Her mind wasn't on the faerie tales when she opened to the Frog Prince once more, instead constantly drifting toward Jeb Cain, her sister, and, strangely enough, Wyatt Cain.

In all honesty, she'd expected to lose her life last night when Jeb stood by her bed, especially after the way she'd fled from him several days before. Truth was, Azkadellia had expected something else. She'd pictured the resistance leaders as burly men interested in one thing: killing her. After some time, she couldn't find the line between what she'd seen to be the truth and the tales the witch had spun in her mind for those annuals. For her, Jeb had been a complete surprise.

He didn't want to kill her, and he hadn't been joking about it.

--

Several hours later, Azkadellia's candle had burned down to a stub, her eyes were heavy with sleep once again, but she forced the covers off herself and crawled out of bed. DG would worry if Az missed breakfast more than once a week, like she had the morning before.

Well. Darn.

Her guard held the door to the kitchens open for her, and she nodded thanks, sitting down at the small table DG and Azkadellia claimed as their own over the past month in the corner of the room. The cooks had already brought out tons of baked goods, fried pastries and fruits, but Azkadellia sat down in the corner, touching no more than a strawberry to wait for DG. She was more tired than hungry anyway.

"Hey Az!" The younger princess was surprisingly a morning person. No, she was a day person in general. DG always appeared so happy and carefree to Azkadellia, so… more of what she would have liked to become someday.

"Morning."

"Hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long…"

"Oh, no, I just got here."

"Sleep well?"

Azkadellia let out a soft laugh at the question, finally reaching for a blueberry muffin. It felt early in the morning, though the time escaped her, and she could not stomach much else.

"Nightmare again, sis?" DG was already eating, forcing words between mouthfuls of croissant topped with strawberry jam. There was another thing Azkadellia loved about her sister. The other girl ate whatever she wanted, when she wanted, and never seemed to run out of appetite. DG had gained quite a few pounds in her time at the castle, and no one but the seamstresses had complained.

"Same one, actually." She looked down at the food, wondering when to bring up Jeb coming to rescue her from the nightmare. "Same one as always…"

He'd been a little of something she'd always wished to find. A prince to rescue her from all of her troubles and whisk her away from this life to be happy in another with him. The first part had happened, at least… As for the second part though? Ha! That was as likely as Wyatt Cain running DG through with a fork at dinner. Jeb couldn't be her prince charming; he didn't even know the first thing about her.

"Jeb came to wake me up this time, though."

"Jeb? Jeb Cain?" DG gave a small laugh, almost choking down her orange juice. "What was he doing up there in the middle of the night? His rooms are on the second floor…"

The way she drawled out the last sentence made Az raise an eyebrow at her. Then again, they were friends, judging by some of the letters DG had shown Az.

"I think he said something about being lost," Azkadellia shrugged, tearing off a piece of the muffin's crust to chew on. "I guess it was a welcome change from the guards, even if one of them did have to come in and drag Jeb away." She paused making a face. "'It isn't proper for a man to be in a princess' bedchambers in the middle of the night.' He was just being helpful…" And she'd thought he'd come to kill her.

"So… What'd you think of him?" She could practically see some gears whirring in DG's mind, though had no idea what the small smile on DG's face meant.

"He's… alright I guess. To be quite honest, I thought—I thought he was going to kill me when he woke me up…" Az looked away from her sister, back toward the muffin, picking at it. "He had a gun… and looked… I don't know, Deege. It was silly."

At that, DG did burst out laughing, letting some of the orange juice leak from between her clamped lips. Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she turned a light shade of pink, looking over her sister as if expecting a 'just kidding.'

"Honestly? Oh, Az. It's alright," DG reached across the table to place her hand on her sister's, a smile broad on her face. "I mean, I can't see how you'd think Jeb would hurt you, but… I mean… he's so… Jeb!"

"I know Deege, it's so silly, stupid even, but… I don't know. It's not like those guards are there for fun and giggles. People could try to kill me, because of--" She broke off, remembering the past with a slightly haunted look on her face before wiping it off with another piece of muffin in her mouth.

"It's fine, Az, really. You two ought to be friends or something. I mean, Wyatt and I get along well enough half the time," she laughed again, pushing a plate of pancakes toward Az. "Have a pancake."

"Thanks sis," Az took one, picking at it with a fork, but clearly more eager to continue the conversation. "I'm just afraid of what he thinks of me, what everyone does."

"You are way too self conscious, relax, and live a little. It's not like you're getting married to the boy tomorrow or something."

"No, I'm not. You're right. Maybe it's a change for the better…"

--

Jeb Cain was up at dawn through force of habit. His stomach notified him of hunger, though his mind was much more intent on remaining in the warm bed. No such luck for a guard unless it was a major holiday or a rare day off. Besides, Jeb wanted to catch his father before Wyatt was so buried in work his own son had to wait several days for an appointment.

After grabbing a piece of fruit from one of tables set up in the guards' general dining room, Jeb hurried off to Cain's office, finding the older man already busy.

"What the hell do you mean, they can't do it?" Cain's voice rang down the hall, making Jeb pause for a moment to listen.

"The-they were busy, said something about sick leave or below their position or something, but we're short three guards down by the kitchens…" The other man sounded obviously nervous, perhaps even frightened of the angry tones Cain used.

"Are you their commanding officer or are you not? They will do what you tell them, when you tell them to, as long as the request is reasonable. This. Is reasonable. Now make it work."

"Yes sir." A resigned tone, and the other man practically bowled Jeb over on his way out of the office, giving him a surprised glance. Clearly he thought no one wanted to walk in on Cain when the man was in this mood.

Perhaps it wasn't for the best, but Jeb took his chances knocking on the door twice before letting himself in.

"What no—Oh, good morning Jeb." His father's tone hadn't changed much between the two, besides in how loud it was. "I guess you heard what just happened…"

"Uh, yeah."

"It's not above you to guard the kitchens for an extra several hours on top of your shift, is it? I'm sorry to have to ask, but those three idiots are begging to be fired, and we're short men right now. The gardens are just outside of them… So it's not too far, just a bit longer."

"No problem, dad. You're the head of security. Must know what you're doing." He'd hoped to bring a smile to his father's face with the comment and failed. Ah, well, at least he got to be closer to the castle around dinnertime; perhaps he could pick up a plate of food from the back entrance. All it did was increase his shift by a bit.

"What're you here for, anyway? You're up early."

"Habit. I thought I'd get a little riding done in the morning, for practice, but I kind of wanted to talk to you first."

"Oh? Not about your guard shift, is it?"

"No, I'm fine with that," his father let out a visible breath, relaxing a bit and putting down the papers he'd been clutching. "It's actually about Azkadellia… She dropped something," a flower, "and I'd picked it up for her, but she ran as if I'd tried to shoot her about a week ago. Last night, she actually thought I was going to kill her."

"Last night…?" Cain raised an eyebrow, listening to his son explain the story from beginning to end, and noticing how Jeb made sure nothing could be taken the wrong way.

"…I don't know how to convince her that I'm not planning to kill her. The thought never crossed my mind after the witch was destroyed."

"Just give her time and space, perhaps get to know her. She's a bright woman, she just needs to figure it out by herself."

"Right."

"It took DG a while to convince herself she loved me," Cain paused, studying the boy for a reaction, and receiving none, continued. "But she got it in the end, accepted it, I guess. Took me a while too. I'd say we're both happy now."

"I'm not talking about a relationship or anything," Jeb actually looked slightly frightened for a moment, and this time, Cain did smile. "Just, you know, friends. Like DG and I are."

"Right. Friends. Talk to her a bit and let her figure it out. If she doesn't have something against you, she'll stop freaking out eventually."

"Thanks." He paused for another moment before adding, "dad. So… Would you like to get breakfast or something?" Jeb had missed out on the father-son bonding for most of his time growing up, now he would have rather liked to catch up.

Cain glanced over his paper one last time, sighing at it. "Sure, son. Might as well, before this work completely takes over." He hated the desk part of this job.

Author's Note:

I thought this chapter was kind of boring, honestly, for the most part, or at least the Jeb/Cain interaction. Sorry about that.

And last chapter? It was based on a role play a friend and I did. It was spiffy back then, and it's spiffy rewritten in fanfic form too.