-The-Prince-and-the-Pauper-
...The truth will set you free...
by TaylorTheGleek
~~ Chapter One ~~
Hear ye! Hear ye!
A message from the royal Kingdom;
In comendation of the royal engagement of Prince Roxas Elwen of Twilight and Princess Namine Reeve of Radiant Kingdom, a Royal Ball will be held in the Castle this coming Thursday, commencing at sundown in celebration. All are welcome.
A further notice from the King, no entry will be given to those who arrive unaccompanied.
That is all
The villagers buzzed excitedly, discussing their evening wear and companions for the up-coming event. I turned towards Kairi who was looking at me expectantly, as if I had something to say about the news.
I didnt say anything of course.
She continued to stare at me, her innocent eyes burning holes through the side of my head. I knew she was waiting.. Still I stayed quiet. She sighed deeply, and turned to Sora on my left.
"Sora, would you like to accompany me to the Ball tommorow evening?"
she asked sweetly. I could see out of the corner of my eye, her fingers crossed at her side. I smiled at her slight desperation. Sora snapped out of his thoughts and turned to Kairi, "W-Huh?" he asked, flushed in the face, a dazed look in his eye. Kairi and I laughed at his reaction, he scratched the back of his neck laughing along with us. Its a reaction you get use to after a few years.
"Hmph, what are you pipsqueaks giggling about?"
The three of us turned to see a smug looking Seifer, his arms folded across his chest, looking down on us with some sort of superiority. Pfft... as if.
"None of your business Seif, last time I checked"
Seifer smirked at my retort and shrugged his shoulders.
Turning towards Kairi, he smiled cheesily and winked, "Hey Kairi. You going with anyone to the ball tommorrow?". Sora and I tried our best to keep a straight face, but failed terribly, bursting out laughing. Kairi rolled her eyes, trying to hide her smile.
"Im sorry Seifer, but Sora will be accompanying me to the ball"
Sora stopped laughing and starting choking on his words, going red in the face.
Seifer growled at me, which made me laugh even harder, and turned around, staunching off.
Kairi watched amusedly as we tried to catch our breaths,
"Oh come on you two.. lets go find Hayner and the Gang"
Wiping the remaining tears from my face, I stood straighter and looked over at Sora, the red still visible on his cheeks. I patted him solemnly on the shoulder and followed after Kairi.
I dont know if its obvious.. but Soras kind of got a thing for my sister.
I dont mind, but he really ought to tell her...
We arrived at our hangout a few minutes later, making sure nobody, especially Seifer and his gang saw where it was.
Our friends were already there, chatting amongst themselves.
"Kairi! Ven! Sora!" Pences chirpy voice greeted us.
He shifted along his worn out sofa and beckoned for me to sit next to him. I gave everyone a warm smile, ruffling Pences wild hair before sitting down.
Kairi sat next to Olette, chatting away about how some cute royal guard was looking at her, while Sora had returned to his usual perky self and started telling us about the woman who worked at the Bakery gave him free buiscuits just for smiling. We laughed at his big actions and enthusiasm during his story-telling, reminding me of the good old times...
"She Iiterally gave me a dozen sugar cookies just for smiling. I wouldnt even consider it smiling, I was glowing really... or grinning, but she gave me cookies for it, so it mustve been an amazing smile! I tried smiling at the Butcher, he just threw a sausage at me! It didnt even taste good! Im telling you, next time.."
You get the idea.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"Prince Roxas, please be present within an hours time for Princess Namines arrival"
"Yes Tidus, I'll be there"
...God,
in the name of Kingdom Hearts and all things holy, please do something to stop this stupid excuse of a wedding. Its not like I have anything against the Princess.. but its not like we're great friends either..
If my father heard this, he'd say to man up, thats its my duty as Prince of Twilight to take the throne when my time comes. When my time comes... why does that mean I have to marry some stranger. Again with the father thing, 'Radiant Kingdom has been without a king for 10 years now, this arrangement is for their benefit. Ties with another kingdom will also help us in an emergency...'
Still.. Im only 17.. who in their right minds gets married at 17!
And to think.. the Princess is only 16...
What are they doing to us?.. honestly..
"Roxas, whats troubling you?"
How does she always do that, knows somethings up..
I look up at Xion, her eyes betraying her elegant posture, giving away how truly worried she was. She sits next to me on the garden swing, waiting patiently for me to tell her what exactly is on my mind. I take a deep breath, looking over the rose garden as I speak,
"I dont think im ready Xi.. this whole wedding thing... ive been betrothed to this girl for 16 years, and I dont even know her. Its hard enough as it is that im taking on more responsibilities around the castle, I hardly speak to girls other than you... how am I going to live with a complete stranger for the rest of my life?" .
I let out a long shaky breath I didnt even notice I was holding in, looking down at my hands. I can feel Xions eyes on me, watching with pity. She knows how I feel, shes betrothed to my god brother Axel. Lucky for her, the three of us are the best of friends.
It might be easier to love your bestfriend then to love a stranger.
Xion wraps her small delicate fingers around my slightly caloused ones.
"It wont be all as bad as it seems. Who knows, the two of you could fall in love at first sight.. Its possible, so ive heard... dont beat yourself up Rox. Just know, when this whole things over, whatever you choose, i'll always be one step behind you, whether I have to drag Axel along or not.. okay?" she leans her head against my shoulder, and for a moment, I feel content with where I was.
I guess im just over-reacting..
Yeah. Thats it..
Maybe I just need a break, yeah, a break!
"Have you seen Axe? I need to speak to him"
Xion lifted her head to look at me, then shook it softly. I excused myself after giving her a tight hug to find my git of a godbrother. I had to get out of the castle. It was that simple, all I needed was Axel..
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
"So... sneaking out of the castle eh? How does it feel dear brother of mine?"
Axel laughed heartily as we rode together in a carriage, towards the village. We managed to sneak out, and find some old riding cloaks too, you know, to blend with the peasants or whatever they call themselves...
"Honestly, it feels like a sin"
"We're not religious Rox" was his amazing retort. I laughed at him, which was practical since he is King (metaphorically speaking) of deadpanning. I dont even know how villagers put up with this guy when he sneaks out.
"You know what I mean. I feel like im gonna be recognised the moment I step out of this thing.. You sure no one will notice who I am?" I asked hesitantly, he mustve noticed because he laughed again.
"Roxas my man, just aslong as you keep that hood up, no one will recognise you, everyone around here wears cloaks so you'll blend. Just keep an eye on the clock tower, we need to head back by 3, meet you here" were the last words I heard from him as he lifted his hood and jumped out of the carriage.
I followed suit and gave him a nervous nod before heading off in the other direction. The streets were full of festivites, a band was playing in the courtyard infront of the clock tower, with villagers dancing around the centre. I tried to avoid eye contact with anyone who stared as I strolled through the vibrant streets. Twilight flags were flying everywhere, every shop window had the twilight symbol on it, and little children were drawing chalk drawings of Twilight Castle, and the symbol again.
I felt a strange feeling of release and freedom I had never experienced before, it felt.. strangely good..
I stolled around, admiring the way random people would greet the other as they passed by. People smiled at me, treated me differently, I bought a giant pretzel from the bakery and the lady gave me a dozen sugar cookies just for smiling! She called me Sora, so she mustve mistaken me for someone else, but man were those cookies good!
I kept my hood up the whole time, just like Axel said, and nobody, not one, even got a little suspicious... Some kid even waved at me, called me Ven or something, must be a greeting of some sort because a lot of people greeted me the same way;
Hello Ven, good to see you
Such a nice lad you are, Ven, if only my Seifer coulve turned out like you
Hey Ven, havent seen Yuffie have ya?
VEN! Whats with the hood man?
The more the word came up, the more I started to realise it wasnt a word, but a name. People were mistaking me for a rather popular villager, who looked like me? Weird...
Who is this Ven guy anyway?
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Slingshots plus Pence (this might be a good time to mention hes half blind) equals a bad cobination. Add Hayners spiteful commentary and Soras sugar cookies and you have a scenario set for disaster.
I will, however, take full blame for whatever mess we get into today since this was my idea to start with.
The four of us, Sora, Hayner, Pence and I, were crouched behind barrells across the street from Wakka's Fruit and Vegetable store. We were a good distance away, so he couldnt hear us. He was watering the melons on his stall so he would be outside for awhile.
"Okay, so all we have to do is aim for Wakkas puffy hat?" Pence asked cautiously, you could tell he wanted to back out of this, sweat was appearing on the bridge of his nose.
Sora laughed, taking one of the cookies and breaking it into four quarters. He passed one to each of us to load in our slingshots. "First to hit it gets 10 munny from each of us" I barter and they all seemed hesitant.
"I dunno Ven, dads having a rough time with the book store.. "
Hayner admitted sheepishly, Sora nodded in agreement, "Yeah Ven, I mean even dad wouldnt give us that much each.. ". I sighed tugging my hair in agitation, not with them of course, just the fact that.. well we're kind of poor...
"Okay I got it" I stated, motioning for them to huddle in close. "First to hit Wakkas hat off his head, gets to take Kairi to the ball tommorow" I smirked as each of their faces lit up. "But wait I thought I was taking her?" Sora questioned, "Well you never said you were, and she was just trying to get Seifer off her back, I mean come on, who would want to go with Seifer? I woulve made something up aswell..", Sora didnt seem to happy by this but went along with it anyway, he seemed determined to make sure that if anyone was to dance with Kairi, it would be him.
We all lined up along the barrells, loaded our slings and aimed for Wakkas hat, which kept moving because Wakka seemed to be humming to himself and so was nodding his head at the same time.
I didnt really want to go to the ball tommorow, but I didnt want to lose either.
"1... 2..." I started counting down, "...3!" I cried and all at once, four pieces of buiscit flew towards Wakka at agile speed.
We watched as Pences buiscut hit the stall, Hayners hit one of the melons off the stall smashing onto the pavement, mine knocked Wakkas hat swiftly off of his head while Soras soared right passed him and collided with the stores glass window shattering it to pieces.
Wakka stared with shock as broken glass fell to the ground with a soft chime. He hurried inside his store to see what had happen, forgetting about his hat and the broken melon lying on the street.
Sora Hayner and Pence gasped in shock and rushed to their feet, running off before Wakka could see them, muttering things like; "Buiscuts dont smash through glass!" and "Sora I blame your contagious smile!".
I couldnt move, I had to apoligize.
Did I mention something earlier about taking the blame if something were to go wrong?
Gee.. something had to go wrong.. damn Sora!
I climbed over the barrels and walked straight across the street, thinking up a good apology..
"Look out!" I random voice cried and I stopped to see who it belonged to when somebody tackled me to the ground. I heard the loud cry of a horse and a carriage driver cursing at us as it passed by, I heard a thudding noise that sounded like it had riden over something...
The person that pushed me! As in, pushed me out of the way of that carriage!
I sat up to see a hooded boy, lying on his stomach, crying out as the carriage ran over his leg.
The stupid driver didnt even bother to check if he was alright! He just kept on driving!
God the nerve of that guy!
I crawled over to him, helping him sit up.
He didnt say a word, just stared at his leg with complete horror.
"Are you okay? Does it hurt? What am I saying of course it hurts! You saved my life! That was heroic! I mean.."
I was pretty much talking to myself.. he was still silent, staring at his leg. When he looked up, his hood fell off and my eyes widened with shock... and how could you blame me when I was staring right into eyes I could've sworn I only ever see in my reflection...
END of Chapter One :)
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