Short were the hours which were so gayly passed,
When, Love, in thee my trust I fondly placed;
Possessed of all my soul desired to taste,
I careless deemed they would for ever last.

- Cláudio Manoel da Costa

The Thing about Fairytales

The thing about fairytales was, Auden was living one.

She used to not believe in all that nonsense about Prince Charmings and true love and happily ever afters, which seemed like exactly the kind of thing a girl like her would be into. But no, even from a young age her practical mind always saw the logistical side of things, always saw how much work went into maintaining her parent's and sister's relationships and how even the best of intentions could lead to the most disastrous of results. Going into her arrangement, Auden did not expect to be swept off her feet and fall head over heels for a man she had never met.

Which was why it was so surprising it was happening to her now.

Dorian was...perfect. She was loathe to say it as they had only been acquainted the better part of a week, but Auden knew she was falling hopelessly in love with this adorkable mess of a prince. If Hayden could see Auden now, she would not recognize her twin. Between all the moony-eyed looks and rendez-vous by the fountain where they first stumbled into each other, Hayden would be positively sickened by Auden's behavior. Auden was sickened by herself at times, catching herself blushing at something Dorian said or remembering something endearing he had done. It was all like something out of a dream.

But every fairytale needed a good, old-fashioned villain, and Auden's fairytale's villain was none other than Queen Amantia herself.

That was not a kind thing to say. Queen Amantia was not a villain, but she was doing her damnedest to make Auden feel like an outsider at all times. As much as Dorian told her that his mother would eventually warm up to her, Auden could not bring herself to believe it. Queen Amantia was cold on her best days and downright austere on her worst. Nothing Auden did was impressive; nothing Auden said was welcome. The few dinners Queen Amantia deigned to attend had quickly become painfully quiet, tense affairs, while Dorian remained blissfully unaware of what was unfolding between the women in his life.

Auden had no idea how a woman like the queen had produced such a blissfully happy son. The two were night and day.

For example, the meeting they were at now. What was supposed to be a simple conversation regarding the engagement announcement had quickly turned hostile. Apparently Queen Amantia had arranged an entire parade to happen after the announcement, complete with a military procession and stagecoach pulled by four white horses. Like this was the middle ages. And only Auden seemed to have a problem with this.

"Wouldn't it be a better use of resources if we held off on the pomp and circumstance, at least until the wedding?"

Wide eyes of a dozen council members fixed Auden with appalled looks. She might as well have insulted everyone's mother.

Queen Amantia's scowl deepened further than usual. "The parade is tradition. The people will expect it."

"Yes, but - " Auden bit down hard on her bottom lip, thinking of the best way to explain how the country's economy had been slowly taking a turn for the worse, and that any and all frivolous expenditures would turn that slope into a freefall into the red. Somehow, Auden knew that Queen Amantia would not take an explanation of her country's financial woes any better than Auden spitting in the face of tradition. "Surely I'm not worth all that."

"We would not want the King of Illéa to think that his daughter did not receive the warmest of welcomes to our humble country."

The word humble came out more like a curse, and Auden had to remind herself that the queen was not a mind reader even if her glare was deathly enough to make Auden think so.

"There is no need to impress me further. I already feel like Cinderella with her Prince Charming."

Auden hoped the reference would please the queen. She hoped in vain.

"All the more reason to proceed with the parade then."

Queen Amantia was a proud woman. She was not going to give an inch on the matter, and that was final. And so, Auden sighed and resigned herself to a parade that probably cost more than what it took to power the capital for a day.

Back home, her father would have taken her request seriously. He would have listened, or at least Elodie would have. Her opinion mattered. What she wanted mattered. And usually, her opinion was a good one. Usually, when she had her say in things, things turned out for the better.

This is not your country, Auden reminded herself, trying not to get frustrated at her lack of say over anything. Not yet.

Maybe, once she and Dorian were married and she was a Princess of Portugal and not a Princess of Illéa, Queen Amanita might take her seriously.

Maybe.

The way the queen refused to look in Auden's direction for the rest of the meeting told a different story. And when the meeting finally released, Queen Amantia did not even give Auden a perfunctory nod before she stormed out of the room in a cloud of black skirts. Auden tried not to let that get to her, or let herself believe that this was a bad omen for the rest of her life. It would be a terrible fate to love a man with her entire heart but have that love ruined by his bitch of a mother.

Unfortunately, that was looking to be her future unless something drastic changed. And quickly.

"I don't understand why she would agree to our arrangement if she hates me so much," Auden lamented as soon as Dorian was within earshot. Dorian had spent most of the meeting silently nodding and humming along...and never vocally speaking out against his mother even when his face grew pinched at the word parade. It was part of the reason Auden chose to bring it up in the first place.

"She does not hate you." Auden fixed Dorian with a disbelieving look, to which he only continued to smile and raised his hands in appeasement. "She just does not know you. And she is terribly suspicious of outsiders. Which is everyone who is not me."

Great. Her future mother-in-law was the paranoid type.

"To be fair, you don't really know me either."

"I know enough," Dorian replied, unbothered. "I know that you are a kind woman. A good woman. Exactly the kind of woman I will spend every day grateful to be married to."

Auden's heart did a little flip in her chest. Still, she had to know - "You don't think I'm pushy or annoying or filling Portugal with unwanted Illéan ideas?"

"I like your ideas. Mother never tells me hers. It is refreshing to be included," Dorian said, honest in his earnest. It made Auden sad for him, that his mother apparently kept him away from the boardroom, away from the politics and the day to day running of the country that would one day be his. Maybe her intentions weren't malicious, but could she not see that Dorian was eager and willing to get involved? "Besides, I agree with you, if that makes you feel any better."

"You do?"

"I hate parades. Any public function, really," he confessed, fiddling with his fingers, mouth twisted down as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. "They feel so fake, so staged. I do not want anything about us to be fake."

Auden took his fingers and laced them through hers, stilling them.

"Neither do I."

Dorian looked down at their hands and then at Auden, something soft and wondering in his eyes.

"Am I really?"

"Really what?"

"Your Prince Charming?"

Auden smiled wide and bright, nodding her head as she leaned up to press a kiss to Dorian's cheek. Dorian flushed a bright pink, ridiculously pleased.

"I have something to show you."

He tugged her wrist, moving Auden down the hall.

She arched a brow. "Oh?"

"This way."

Auden let herself be led down the hall, down many halls, and up stairs. It felt like they climbed at least four stories, higher than Auden thought the palace went. She had never been in these parts of the palace before, dimly lit places with layers of dust that felt older than the rest. There was a distinct feeling of trespassing, like this was a place she was firmly not supposed to be. But Dorian kept smiling like everything was find, leading them higher and higher still.

Then, there was light. Light pouring through windows large enough to be doors, casting the floors in the orange light of the sunset.

Dorian pushed the windows open, panes creaking from age, and climbed out. He beckoned for Auden to follow, hand outstretched. Despite the insanity of the situation, Auden trusted that hand implicitly. Dorian wouldn't lead her into anything dangerous. He wouldn't let her fall.

The roof here was flat enough to walk on without fear of slipping. However, the view was worth the risk of slipping. For a moment, Auden forgot how to breathe as she took in the wide expanse of lush forest spread out below her. And further in the distance, the lights of the city just beginning to flicker into existence.

"Your mother is going to kill us if she finds out."

"She never comes up here," Dorian said, his smile sad around the edges. "This used to be my father's favorite spot, or so mother tells me. He would come here to think, or to read, or just to be. I feel close to him here."

Dorian hadn't spoken of his father before now. Queen Amantia had failed to mention the king as well, both of them pretending he never existed. Auden knew how to read a room; she deduced the topic was a sore one, one that opened old wounds instead of soothed them. So she kept her curious questions to herself. And she would continue to keep the questions to herself, letting Dorian set the pace. She didn't have to know everything now. After all, she had their whole lives to find out.

Auden wove her fingers through Dorian's, her anchor as the wind tried to blow them away.

"I have never wanted to bring anyone else up here," he admitted quietly, like had not meant to say it.

Fingers tightened for a fraction of a second, a squeeze in support. Auden knew how much that meant. "Thank you."

There were lips on the crown of her head, on her temple, on her cheek. Dorian was so affectionate; it made Auden content in a way she had never felt before. She didn't even know this kind of casual intimacy was something she wanted until she had it. After only a week of having it, she didn't know if she could go back to a life without it.

"I was looking around the library and found some poems..." Dorian trailed off, reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small, ratty book. Auden shouldn't call it ratty. Well-loved was more like it, the spine cracked open to the point of showing the seams. "May I read them to you?"

Auden nodded. Dorian managed to find the most beautiful things to read to her, even if she did not yet have a grasp on the language. He opened to a random page, fingers tracing over the lines he wanted.

"Breves horas, Amor, há, que eu gozava, A glória, que minha alma apetecia; E sem desconfiar da aleivosia, Teu lisonjeiro obséquio acreditava..."

The poem went on for a few more stanzas, melodic words filling the space between them. One stuck out, the only word Auden had any confidence in recognizing: Amor. Love. Dorian was reading her love poems. Something warm spread through her chest, effervescent and light, filling her so completely she thought she would burst from it.

It was still too soon to say it plainly. A week was hardly a realistic amount of time to know what love was. But still, looking down at the concentrated furrow of Dorian's brow, the way his glasses slipped perilously close to the tip of his nose, the way his lips curved up into those beautiful words meant just for her, Auden knew.

Yes, I could love this man forever.