For the past twenty minutes, give or take, Soul had been trailing behind the royal advisor with a small group of his fellow guardsmen as they went over what was to be expected of them in the following weeks. In exactly three weeks from now, the young Princess would be turning 22. Royal birthdays were always a big thing in their kingdom; a celebration that would take weeks in advance to prepare for.

"Most of your posts have not changed," the royal advisor announces from ahead of him, taking an abrupt stop at the end of the hallway they had been going down. "Rosters will be posted in your living quarters for this month by sundown. As for Soul and Kilik, your posts have been changed until further notice."

There was a quick nudge at his side, the feeling of an elbow grazing his ribcage. At his left, Kilik looked up at him with raised eyebrows and a half-amused smile. The two of them had been posted at the kingdom's gates since they became royal guards, making this their first post change.

"Kilik, you'll be stationed in the left wing with the cooks." That station was manageable; all you had to do was make sure none of the cooks stole any food rations and make sure rations were brought in. While Kilik seemed dissatisfied with the change, it was definitely a step-up from gate duty.

"As for you, Soul, you will be posted with the young Princess."

There's an audible intake of breath at his side and Soul finds that Kilik has the same amount of confusion written on his face as he felt. Turning back to the royal advisor, he raised his shoulders defensively as if to say that statement didn't sound right.

The advisor simply shrugged, tearing his eyes away from him.

"You can be dismissed now."

Soul watched in frozen silence as the fellow guards dispersed into the hallway behind him, making their way back to the guard's living quarters. Kilik shoots him a look he can't quite decipher before following them in a rush.

"What happened to her other personal guard?" Soul can't help but ask, a nervous chuckle escaping him before he can really notice it. "Was it too much for him?"

"Not too sure," The royal advisor answers earnestly. "We were informed he just stopped showing up. Probably ran away, it wouldn't be the first time a personal guard has done such a thing."

For a second, he really wonders if he heard the man in front of him right. He knew that most of the royals were stuck up and hard to deal with, but had the young Princess been too much for the guard that he needed to just run away without a word?

He decided not to dwell on that thought when the advisor began walking again, and instead, wondered how in the world he of all the guards was chosen to become the Princess's new guard. Personal guards were usually picked by the royals themselves, but there hadn't been a time when Soul remembered coming face to face with the Princess.

While he'd been a royal guard since he turned eighteen, Soul had not had the pleasure of meeting the King, Queen nor Princess in person. Most of his time as a guard was spent outside the castle walls, out in the village and out beyond the walls that kept their kingdom safe.

"The Princess requests your presence immediately," The royal advisor says as if Soul didn't get the notice when he started following him again down the long castle hallways.

"Right, right," Soul replies, rolling his eyes out of habit.

When they finally reached their destination, Soul had all but walked the entirety of the castle. The royal advisor had stopped them in front of two large glass doors that were distorted enough that you couldn't make out what was on the other side.

"Good luck," The advisor chuckles, clasping a hand onto his armored shoulder in a sympathetic gesture. "You're going to need it." The advisor taps on the side of his shoulder twice before turning on his heel and hustling down the hallway; leaving Soul standing dumbfoundedly at the towering doors in front of him.

perfect . Just great.

With the smallest bit of hesitation, Soul makes his way towards the doors, reaching a hand to the handle only to pause mid movement.

Through the distorted glass, he's able to make out a figure of someone standing on the other side. They're standing stiffly in front of what looked like a window, hands tucked behind the curve of their back. He takes a moment to appreciate the quiet and stillness that comes from the image before pushing open the doors.

The first thing he's greeted with is light- an absurd amount of light. The room is lined from floor to ceiling with large windows that overlook the castle gardens, a beautiful sight all in all. The second thing he is greeted with is a soft, yet confused glance from the Princess.

Frankly; she is nowhere close to what he expected her to look like.

She had tousled ash blonde hair that had been tossed over her shoulder. Her eyes were as mesmerizing as the sun itself with the emerald flecks of light dancing through them. Her brows were slightly darker than her hair and sloped downwards in a serious expression. Her lips were pink, nose slender, rounded, with a soft jaw that curved gracefully.

Soul watched as the light blue silk cape around her small shoulders swayed behind her effortlessly- studied the slender hands that were wrapped in white gloves- took notice in the pearls that were strung around her neck and the color matched belt around her waist that clung to her slim waist- and choked.

To put it short and sweet; she was attractive. The type of attractive that had Soul losing his grasp on the doors behind him, causing them to slam shut with a sound that echoed around the room.

"Do you not know how to knock?"

Soul freezes, noticing no change in the Princess's facial expression. Was she being serious? Was she actually mad that he didn't knock? Hadn't she been the one to request his presence in the first place?

"I-" he pauses, licking his lips. Why did his throat feel so dry?

"Don't hurt yourself thinking there," And the Princess laughs- a bubbly laugh that has Souls stomach soaring. A smile pulls on her lips, a smile that leaves slight dimples imprinting into her cheeks. "I was kidding. It's a pleasure to meet you, Soul."

In a swift motion, the Princess is making her way towards him; her cape blowing being her elegantly as she plucks the glove of her left hand. Suddenly, there is a slim hand shoved in his face and finally Soul notices that her fingers are painted a dark blue color.

Having not worn his own gloves today, Soul takes her hand softly. Their hands slot together nicely and Soul can't help but notice how warm she is when he firmly shakes her hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, your highness."

The Princess rolls her eyes, dropping his hand at the formality. "You don't need to stick to the formalities, honestly. Maka is just fine."

Unsure whether this was the Princess baiting him into breaking guard code or not, Soul sighs.

"The Princess's name isn't supposed to be spoken informally," he points out, "It's one of the first things we all learn."

"Boring," Maka comments, poking an accusing finger at his armored chest, "Don't tell me you'll be a stick in the mud like everyone else around here."

Soul can't help the amused smile that takes over him and eyes her hand at his chest. "I'm a pretty fun person once you get to know me."

"Is that so?" Princess Maka all but challenges as she tosses her head over her shoulder, her eyes landing back on the large window at her side. "I guess we'll have to see about that then."

Soul only hums in reply, watching as the Princess makes her way to one of the comfortable looking loveseats in the middle of the room.

"Would you like to take a seat?" Maka offers, but he politely declines.

"I'm okay with standing," He answers, making his way further into the room. He stands a few feet away in front of Maka, feeling a bit uneasy when he notices the Princess taking a once over of him before turning away with a scoff.

"If you don't mind me asking- what's with the whole white hair and teeth?"

Out of pure habit, Soul stiffens. He's usually worn a hood to hide such a beacon since he became a guard for a reason he'd rather not spill to someone he'd just met. In all honesty, he hasn't spilled the truth to anyone about the strange features. It wasn't like anyone really asked about it anymore, especially since the only people he came into contact with were fellow guardsmen who knew who he was.

Testing the waters, and pushing his own damn luck, Soul throws a snarky comment back to the Princess.

"If you don't mind me asking, what's with you picking me as your personal guard?"

The question clearly throws Maka off. Looking at him from the corner of her eye, Soul catches the way her smile dips into a small frown.

"Touché."

"Really though," Soul starts, a sarcastic smile forming on his face, "We've never met before, your highness. It's a rare occasion that I come into the actual castle. What made you choose me?"

Maka shrugs, still avoiding making eye contact with him. "Curiosity. It's hard to miss seeing you around, you stick out like a sore thumb. I've caught a few glances at you walking with the other guards before so I asked around about you."

He can't help the snicker that escapes him at that. "You're admitting to stalking me, eh?"

"I-I never said that," Maka gasped, and Soul watches all of her composure break. That stony cold expression she'd been wearing when Soul had first walked into the room had been replaced with something he could only explain as pure embarrassment. The Princess's cheeks were growing a rosy red, and Soul would be lying if he didn't feel a little bit proud.

"It sure sounds like that. That, or, you're admitting you're actually my secret admirer, either-or."

This time, Maka does make eye contact with him. Her eyebrows are raised, her mouth agape.

"That's not it," Maka exclaims, rolling her eyes. "You know, you're something else. I like that about you. I really like that about you."

And now it's Souls turn to be embarrassed.

"Well, now that we've gotten introductions out of the way," Maka begins to stand, wiping her gloved palms together, "You said you barely come into the castle right? Let me show you around."

After barely walking around the castle for twenty minutes, and only seeing a handful of rooms, Soul decides very quickly that he already hates being a personal guard. It wasn't that the Princess was annoying or anything, at least she wasn't being annoying yet, but the sheer amount of hallways and stairs they've walked already has his calves and thighs burning.

Maka had been in the middle of explaining something about the dining halls when Soul found himself cutting her off.

"Don't you get tired walking around here all the time?"

Maka pauses in her footsteps in front of him, slowly turning her head over her shoulder.

"What? Tired already? I thought you'd be used to walking so much since you, after all, were a gate guard."

The not annoying statement has been retracted. Just for that comment.

"It's a lot easier to walk around on flat land for long periods of time rather than going up and down a bunch of stairs," Soul points out.

"Okay, whatever you say, Soul."

Maka is back to walking at a fast pace in front of him quicker than he could snap his fingers. Rolling his eyes, he takes after her, trying to ignore how loud his armor sounded as he walked through the castle halls.

"Soul isn't your real name, right?" Maka questions from ahead of him after a few quiet minutes.

"Of course it isn't," Soul scoffs, lying. "If it was, I am pretty sure my parents could be jailed for child neglect."

Maka's bubbly laughter basically engulfs him.

"I guess you're right. Why do you go by Soul then? Is your real name worse or something?"

"You know, you ask a lot of questions," Soul replies, catching a servant's eyes from the corner of the room. They bowed slightly at the duo before scurrying down the hallway past them.

"I'm a curious person."

"I can tell. Most of the guards here use different names. Have you not noticed?"

For the second time that day, Maka is stopping in her tracks. This time, she turns her whole body towards Soul, her entire face dropping.

"What! No, I didn't notice. Barely any of the guards actually speak more than two words to me," She explains in a loud whisper, her hands moving around frantically. "So they could all be using absurd names?"

"I wouldn't call them absurd," Soul answers. "Most of the guards use them to protect their real identity. Off duty, guards tend to get targeted a lot… Other than that, It's mostly for fun. No one ever questions it, especially you know, the royals. It's just a guard thing."

Maka stares at him like he grew a second head.

"You guys use different names for… fun?"

"Why not?" Soul shrugs. "For me, I use Soul to hide my identity. Personal reasons."

Maka crinkles her nose at that. "What, are you on the run or something? Using a code name, kind of sus if you were to ask me."

Soul feels his blood run cold for a moment before he realizes Maka is most definitely smiling up at him.

"Kidding of course, just kidding."

Maka doesn't ask another question as they make their way up to the royal wing, and for that, Soul is thankful. If Maka asked him one more question within the same hour he may have just lost it.

At some point, Soul had found them walking up a staircase in one of the towers. There had to have been more than twenty flights of stairs and he was really starting to wonder if he was just out of shape or if Maka was just used to the stairs.

"Don't tell me your living quarters are all the way up there."

"Then I won't be saying anything," Maka laughed, her words echoing around them in the tower.

When they had finally reached the top of the stairs, they were greeted with another set of glass doors. Maka opened them gingerly, motioning for Soul to follow her. "As bad as the trek is to get up here, the view is amazing."

Walking into the Princess's room, he realized just how much she loved the color green. The tapestries hung to the wall were made of royal green and golden silks, the king-sized bed in the middle of the room fitted with olive green sheets. Hell, even the rug was a dark green.

"Are you obsessed with the color green or something?"

"My father chose the colors out without getting my opinion." She answers easily like she'd gotten the question thousands of times before.

Looking to his side, he watched as Maka threw open the glass doors to the balcony and steps outside. Soul follows after her, the feeling of the cool autumn air nipping at his exposed neck. True to her word, the view was amazing. From the balcony, you could see the entire kingdom. You could even see the kingdom gates, and Soul realizes very quickly how Maka knew about him.

Just barely, he could make out the two forms standing at the kingdom gate dressed in red and black capes. He knew one of them had to be Blake- or, as the other guards called him, Blackstar.

Weird.

Beyond the gates though, Soul took notice of the sloping mountains out in the distance that illuminated red with the rising sun.

"Oh, wow," Soul so eloquently gets out as he leans against the railing of the balcony.

"You've been out there, right?" Maka motions beside him towards the mountains. "Beyond the kingdom gates?"

Soul takes a moment to glance at Maka, who is looking almost longingly off the balcony.

"A handful of times," He answers truthfully- well, truthfully enough.

"Is it as pretty out there as people say it is?" There's a hint of desperateness lingering in her tone that has Souls stomach doing cartwheels.

"Yeah," He answers, tearing his eyes away from the Princess. "I think it is."