A/N: I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN FOREVER ;_;

So have these two themes 8D

Okay I actually had these finished a week ago but didn't have the time (motivation) to post them up...sorry.

Theme number sixteen - Side. I actually like this one a lot.

Enjoy.

Despite what it looked like from the outside, Ling Yao was a loud, happy person with a ridiculously large appetite. He was smart and educated, but often pushed aside the clever words and dialects he had learned for choppy, casual talk. And half of the time he didn't take things seriously, much to his guards' horror.

When he wasn't disturbing the cooks in the kitchen and causing Lan Fan and Fu pain, he was sitting quietly in the study, listening (or at least pretending to) intently to the wars between the Clans. Whenever he was forced to meet noblemen, he was an obedient and sweet child that didn't complain about his heavy robes or get distracted by trivial things.

On the outside, Ling Yao was truly a prince. And the entire Yao Clan saw Ling Yao only as "the prince". None of them knew what his real personality was.

Being his personal guards, Fu and Lan Fan hadn't taken long to figure out all of his quirks. Whenever he was missing, they always checked the kitchen before searching around the rest of the palace grounds. They knew how many meals he ate per day, and his favorite hiding places. Both of them understood him more than anyone had ever done.

He loved both Fu and Lan Fan for that. He didn't treat them as simply "guards", as they insisted they were, but friends. Family. And maybe in her case, just a little bit more.

He hadn't wanted to admit it at first. Ling was, after all, a prince. He had been taught over and over that a girl below his social rank was unacceptable. He had been told that he would receive wives that would exceed the charm and beauty of others. He was told that he would be given everything he wanted, whatever he wanted.

But whenever he saw her smile, whenever he saw the look she reserved just for him, he couldn't help but feel that that was all he wanted. He didn't want anything more, didn't need anything more. He was invincible, as long as Lan Fan was next to him. And, he added as an afterthought, Fu too. Ling needed the old man to keep him on the right track.

Nobody knew that side of him. That was the side of him he wanted to keep to himself, until maybe the day he felt that he could share it. And when he did, he hoped that others would see him as "Ling Yao", and accept him.

And when that happened, they'd have to accept her too.

Words: 433

Additional Notes: None

Reviews are love :]