Title: A Princess' Dream
Author: doctorfemur (life's lush lips)
Theme: #1 once upon a time
Fandom: The World Ends With You
Pairing: Joshua/Rhyme, eventually
Disclaimer: The World Ends With You belongs to Square Enix and is not mine. Unfortunately.
Author's Note: I didn't really ship these two before I wrote this. Then I started writing and gwtbenvrj. I want to write a bunch of silly fics where Rhyme likes to pretend she is the prettiest princess in the whole wide world and Joshua is her pretty prince who loves her. It would be very cute and very silly and we would all giggle at how adorable it is.

At the very least, I'd like to write a companion-y sort of Joshua-centric fic.

I obviously worked a lot harder on this fic than I did the first one. There is also way less romance in this one. And the ending is somewhat cheesy. Hehe. I wish I knew how to stick to the point and not babble. Hopefully the theme shows up enough to count...

Once upon a time, Raimu Bito lost her hopes and dreams, and Yoshiya Kiryu brought them back, sort of.

Rhyme is a princess.

Rhyme is very young, and she likes to pretend that she is a princess and Beat is a loyal knight, always there to protect her.

Okay, so Rhyme doesn't know much about how the whole thing works, but she imagines it's something like that.

Beat humors her, boasting about how he'll help keep her safe from dragons and monsters, safe from their enemies. He is only half-joking; loyal knight or not, he wants his sister to be safe and happy.

Rhyme wants to be a princess.

This is before she grows up and realizes there are greater things to dream of, things that might actually come true one day.

Still, this is her first dream, and Rhyme dreams that she will be a princess one day.

Rhyme doesn't want to be a princess anymore. She wants to be a singer.

She doesn't nescessarily have a great voice, but she is still a young child; no one expects her to be the best. They only expect her to have fun. Her parents and brother are happy she has a dream. They applaud her when she sings, encourage her to sing some more.

She especially loves to sing to Beat. He is so supportive of her every dream, and he looks so happy when she sings in her sweet, childish voice.

He can see her face light up when she sings; he can see how much fun she is having and how important it is to her.

He doesn't have a dream of his own yet. This isn't important to either of them at the moment, because they are both happy that one of them has something to hope for.

Once upon a time, Princess Rhyme wondered if she would find a handsome prince one day.

"Why can't you be more like your sister?"

They've had this argument more times than Rhyme can remember. Their parents wish Beat were more ambitious, more hard working.

At the very least, they wish he had something to care about. They wish he had hopes and dreams, too.

Beat doesn't see that, though. He doesn't see parents who worry that he won't get anywheren life. He sees disappointment and disapproval. He is sick of it.

He wishes Rhyme didn't know but these arguments. It stresses her out to hear her brother and parents fight, their shouting matches sometimes loud enough to be heard outside the house.

Right now, Beat is not happy with his life. Rhyme is happy with hers, for the most part, and he wants to keep it that way.

If he could stop fighting with their parents, he would. Just for her.

Somewhere deep down, Rhyme wishes she was a princess again.

Rhyme has so many hopes and so many dreams. It's hard to keep track.

She wants to be a singer, she wants to be a vet. She wants to be multi-talented. She wants her brother to be happy. She wants to do something for the world, somehow.

Rhyme dreams that one day, they will be the best they can be.

Beat is secretly jealous of her ambition, of the fact that their parents shower her with love and encouragement and never do the same for him.

Rhyme dreams that one day, Beat will find his dream.

He just wishes she would give up on him, too.

"Why can't you be more like your sister?"

"I don' wanna hear dat crap anymore."

Just like always, Beat storms out of the house; and just like always, Rhyme runs after him.

But this time, something changes.

This time a car is running straight toward her and she doesn't see it; she doesn't even know what's happening until Beat grabs her, tries to get her out of the way but he isn't fast enough, isn't strong enough to stop a car before

Once upon a time, Rhyme was a princess.

They wake up in Scramble Crossing.

Rhyme sits up and looks beside her. A blonde, muscular boy is laying nearby, a skateboard next to him. He sits up and scratches the back of his head.

He looks over at her and says, "Hey!"

"Hi! It's nice to meet you." Rhyme holds out her hand. "I'm Rhyme. Will you make a pact with me?"

She swears she can see tears well up in the boy's eyes as she speaks.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"Yeah," the boy replies, sounding almost like he's choking. "Yeah, I'm cool." He takes her hand and shakes it. "The name's Beat."

Rhyme is always talking about how she doesn't need a second chance. She doesn't have a dream, nothing to come back to except her brother and his constant fights with their parents.

Beat is loud and lively. He tells her about his dream to be the world's best skateboarder. Rhyme loves to hear him talk about his deam; his happiness is infectious.

She can forget that she doesn't want her second chance and be happy he has a reason for one.

Once upon a time, Rhyme had something to live for. Hopes and dreams and a reason to keep going.

None of it matters anymore though because she sees the Noise, it's about to attack Beat and she can't let that happen, can't let him get erased. She is hit with the strangest sense of déjà vu as she pushes him out of the way, and the shocked look on his face is the last thing she sees before

Once upon a time, Rhyme and Beat were happy.

Rhyme wakes up, and she doesn't remember being Noise. She vaguely remembers how it feels but soon all those thoughts are blown away.

"There's no need to think about that anymore, dear."

Rhyme looks up to see a silver-haired boy, possibly around her brother's age. And suddenly, she remembers Beat.

"Beat!" she shouts, quickly sitting upright. "Where's Beat? Is he okay?"

"He's fine," the boy assures her. "You'll see him soon."

"Did he win the Game?"

"Yes." He has the nicest smile, Rhyme notices. "He won the game, as did Shiki and Neku."

"That's good." Rhyme smiles. There's something about him that's so...calming.

He giggles lightly. "Well, it's about time you went back home."

The boy kisses her cheek. "Welcome back to life, Raimu."

Rhyme dreams about him, sometimes. It's the only dream she has anymore.

Sometimes, Raimu Bito just doesn't feel like living.

Joshua comes back. After three years, he is finally back.

Rhyme's heart begins to flutter as he walks towards the group. Neku is scowling. He doesn't hide under headphones anymore, but he looks like he's trying to hide in the massive collar of his shirt.

"Howdy." Joshua waves, a smirk on his face. "Long time, no see."

"Hey, Josh," Neku mumbles. He clearly hasn't forgiven him yet.

Rhyme is wary of Joshua. She wants to ignore the way she feels about him; she wants to remind herself that he's a murderer and a manipulater, but she forgets about this when he tips her head up slightly, as though to get a better look at her. She turns bright red when she notices how close their faces are.

"Hello again, Rhyme. Did you miss me?"

Rhyme is about to answer his question when Beat shouts, "Keep your hands off my sister!"

Joshua steps back. He looks mildly irritated.

"Beat, it's okay," Rhyme protests. Beat interrupts her.

"No, Rhyme, I ain't gonna let a guy like that near you."

Beat is still her loyal knight, protecting her as always.

And Rhyme is still a princess.

She isn't very young, and she is wise beyond her years, but sometimes she still has those childish daydreams.

Sometimes, she thinks she might like to be a princess. It's the closest thing she has to a dream.

And sometimes, she dreams about her prince; sometimes, she hopes he is dreaming of her.

Rhyme's prince has silver hair.

Once upon a time, her silver-haired prince was lonely.

One day, Rhyme tells Joshua about her childhood dreams. She tells him about wishing to be a vet, a beautiful actress, a singer; and eventually, she tells him about her very first dream.

"It's funny," he says, smiling as he takes her hand and intertwines their fingers. "I used to dream of being a prince."

"Really?" Rhyme is surprised; he seems much too old to have ever dreamed something so silly.

"Mhm. I never had a such a loyal...guardian, however." He smirks. "Has he always been so important to you?"

Rhyme bobs her head. "He was the most important person in my life."

"Was?

Rhyme hesitates. She hadn't noticed her use of the past tense.

"Heh." Joshua doesn't ask her to elaborate. He has a feeling he knows what she means.

Rhyme kisses him lightly. One of the things she loves about him is that, selfish as he may be, he never forces himself on her.

Rhyme is a princess, after all, and Joshua is her prince.

Once upon a time, Princess Raimu and Prince Yoshiya forgot how to be happy.

Once upon a time...they finally remembered how.