A/N: Let's go forward a little bit, and meet the other love of her life.

I'm not sure how to write Allen as a young man - when we first meet him in the series, he does seem to be rather jovial. It's only when his past confronts him in all sorts of unfortunate ways (ie: omg I'm a father; I'm still mad my father left me; this little girl looks like my dead lover, etc) that he starts to be Captain BroodyPants. So I compromised. He's still a bit stiff upper lip with the duty and chivalry, but he's more playful. Let's see if it works...

Marlene had hardly cared to meet him at all, and so was not fazed when he disappeared, and was assumed dead.

My father was disappointed – he had hoped that Fanelia's rich farmland would be part of a particularly pleasing treaty that he would barter with Marlene's marriage to Folken.

And on the heels of Folken's disappearance and presumed death, I overheard people talking about how his mother went looking for him, and had never returned.

I remembered the little boy, Van, now without any parents or brothers. A little tear pricked the corner of my eye, thinking about what if my parents and my sisters were all gone?

And I was sad for Folken. I couldn't quite figure out why – I hardly knew him. But he was nice to me, and he smiled at me.

And I was twelve, and just starting to figure out that I liked it when boys smiled at me.

Even when those boys were potential Caeli Knights, who were my best friends.

# # # #

"Allen, we should run away."

He laughed. "No. Definitely not. Balgus said I was to stay put. No more running off."

"But he's not here anymore."

"Exactly. When he comes back from Fanelia," he waved his hand as though Fanelia was nothing to leave Asturia for, "I'm going to be a Caeli, and I can't run away and let him down."

I frowned, sitting on the fountain, while Allen sat next to me, his sword across his lap, concentrating on getting just the right gleam.

"Allen, what if I ran away?"

He was quiet for a moment. "I wouldn't recommend it."

"Why?"

"Because you wouldn't like sleeping rough, is why. The forest makes all sorts of noises at night," he said distractedly, but my eyes were as big as saucers. He hardly ever talked about it, about when Balgus found him. I knew it was a sensitive subject, and just let it lie. "And you're nearly fifteen. If you were going to run away, you should have done it before now."

"Why?"

"You're too old to run away."

"Who says?"

He shrugged. "You just are. You're a Princess, and you're expected to be a certain way."

"Augh!" I leaned backwards, my hands gripping the fountain the only thing that kept me from dousing myself. "Why do you always bring that up? I know I'm a Princess, dunderhead. And the expectations, well," this time it was my turn to wave my hand distractedly through the air. "Well, Marlene is going to be Queen anyway, so I don't have to be that special."

"But you'll still get married off to some Duke or Prince and have to be the ruler of something, even if it's not Asturia."

I rolled my eyes. "Nope. Not doing it. All her life, Marlene's been told that her marriage will be this great merging of peoples or something, and she's so whiny about it. It drives me bonkers."

Allen let out a small laugh. "Well that's what princesses do – they get married and become Queens or Duchesses and they lead their people."

I gave him a narrow look. "Why are we friends again? Because I seem to think that I'm voting for me not having to be someone's floozy and be the background to someone else's big to-do, and here you are, telling me it's my duty."

He smiled, but did not look at me. "Because you love me?" He joked. "I know I can get away with it."

I let out a sigh, but didn't argue. Yes, I love you, you jerk. And yes, I will let you get away with it.

Or not. I leaned back and scooped up water from the fountain and splashed him.

"Augh! Eries! This is my uniform!"

"Maybe you shouldn't wear it so close to water."

"I was fine, til someone splashed me," he gave me a look that threatened revenge. Then he sheathed his sword and leaned back and with both hands, shoved water in my direction.

I let out a shocked breath. It was much colder on my torso than it had been on my hand when I splished him.

"Why you! You keep saying I outrank you, well! How dare you do that to your princess?!"

He just grinned. "Because she was asking for it, and it's only fair that I retaliate so she knows that her actions have consequences."

He had me there.

"A very important lesson for a princess."

That got him my own two-handed splash.

Eventually, we both ended up in the fountain, thoroughly drenched, even though it only came to our ankles.

He pinned me down, holding my shoulders down in the water.

"I win."

"Nope. I refuse to concede. If there is no loser, there is no winner."

"I am the clear winner here. Diplomacy suggests that you give in to my defeat, head held high, and admit that you were wrong."

"Wrong? How?" I was very tempted to spit the water that was running from my forehead into my mouth into his face.

He shrugged. "Can't remember." Then he grinned at me. "I still win." Then he leaned down close, and I could feel the heat of his body radiating through his wet shirt and my wet dress. I was going to get in real trouble for this, I knew it. "Say it. Say I win," he said quietly.

"I win," I answered defiantly.

He released one shoulder to splash more water on my face. I spluttered, but did not give in.

"Say it."

"It."

He splashed me again.

This time the water went down the wrong way, and I coughed. He loosened his hold on me, to let me up, to cough the water out.

"Ok, ok! You win. Whatever it was that you won at."

He grinned, and slapped me on the back, the rest of the water spurting forth into my hands.

"You fight dirty," I said sideways to him.

He shrugged, and stood, offering me his hand. "Some habits are hard to break."

I smiled at him, and took his hand, standing out of the water, my dress sopping wet. I liked that he could talk about it now. It took me several weeks of wheedling to get him to tell me where he was, why he ran away, why Balgus brought him back to my father's court, why he was to train to become a Caeli.

But he was my first close friend that I never thought wanted anything from me except for me to listen. And so I listened, even when it meant I had to almost force him to talk.

He confided in me about his father leaving, about his sister disappearing, about his mother wasting away with grief. Personally, I thought it was rather selfish of her – leaving her other child all alone, when he still needed her. But I never said any such thing. Allen loved his mother, and hated his father for leaving her and him and his sister. He did blame her for leaving him in a way, but not in the sort of way he would have recognized, much less admitted.

And I told him about being trapped in the tower with my two sisters, the whiny and the whinier. He laughed, and was appropriately supportive, but just like I never condemned his mother to his face, neither did he condemn my sisters. He said they were princesses too, and maybe if we talked more, I could find out why they were like they were. I just rolled my eyes at that. Marlene was spoilt and so was Millerna. Being the middle child, I missed out on the "ooh, she's our oldest" and "aww, she's our youngest".

My parents didn't exactly ignore me, but neither were they particularly concerned with me.

The day my mother died, it was Allen I went to, even though there were three people so much closer who had just lost a mother, and a wife.