Disclaimer- much of the dialogue in this one shot is taken directly from The Crown! This one HURT, but did anyone else read the banishment scene and think we were ONE IMPASSIONED SPEECH away from The Keadlyn Ending? God I hate that book so much.

Thanks to delicateAnchor on Ao3 for commenting on every chapter and inspiring to write again! Your vibes are incredible.

I do need some ideas for future chapters other than "dunking on Erik because I hate him" so feel free to supply prompts!

"Can I come in?"

I whipped my head around. Eadlyn, hovering in the doorway. It wasn't like her to be shy, but everything had turned upside down lately. I shoved my sketches and sandpaper aside, wiping my hands on my pants. "Hey, there. I was hoping I'd get to see you today."

"Oh, yeah?"

I wrapped an arm around her and pulled her into the room, messy as it was. "I was watching some TV this morning, and I kept seeing all that stuff about Marid."

It took all my self-control to not pretend to puke after saying his name or even just do the cuckoo sign. That was the kind of thing Eadlyn would describe as "uncouth".

She rolled her eyes, which was basically the princess equivalent of the cuckoo sign anyway. "I know. He's a bit of a problem right now."

Understatement of the year. Marid Illea was a huge problem, and he had been for a long time. He'd just been sneaky enough to prevent anyone from realizing it until he'd effectively backed the crown into a corner.

"Can he really propose?" I asked, even though I had a feeling I already knew the answer.

"He can, but I won't say yes," she sighed. The relief I felt was palpable, almost embarrassingly so. I had decided how I felt about her ages ago, but she had that pesky fear of commitment and emotional vulnerability, so I had to wait for the right time to tell her. "Turns out, Marid is not the ally I thought he was." Also understatement of the year. "He's been threatening to sway public opinion, and at first I wasn't sure he could do it. Then the way he got into everyone's house today…it's brilliant, really. Just like Lady Brice said, it's an instant, battle-free invasion."

"Invasion?" I repeated, alarmed. I wanted to think Marid was just a jackass, or maybe on some twisted level he actually had feelings for Eadlyn, but deep down I knew it was worse than that. "Like what? Is he suddenly vying for the crown?"

Eadlyn ran her fingers over some of my old sketches, like she didn't want to meet my eyes. "I don't think it's sudden. I think he and his family have been looking to make a move for quite a while. The inept young queen was a perfect opportunity."

Inept. She should give herself a lot more credit, as should the general population. It was unfortunate that none of them saw what I saw.

"…now he wants to be my consort and use my name to make his plans happen. My only hope is to get engaged before he can try to propose, because I'm sure the press would just gobble it up if I reject him."

"So let's do it," I said without thinking, but honestly, what was there to think about? Maybe we were moving a little fast, but if Eadlyn needed a fiancée, I wanted it to be me.

"Do what?" she asked, eyes wide, but wasn't it obvious?

"Get married. Eadlyn, I'd marry you tonight," I told her, ignoring the fact that my heart was beating out of my chest. "I'd marry you tonight. Between the two of us and our families, there's no way he'd survive. People have been pulling for us from the start. Marry me, Eadlyn."

I grabbed both her hands in mine, which was maybe just as crazy as proposing to someone I'd literally hated the guts of two months ago, but I didn't care. I scanned her face earnestly, watching her hazel eyes go from hopeful to hesitant to heartbroken all in a span of two seconds. "I will confess, I came here just now to make that very proposal. But…I can't."

Ignore the fact that felt like a dagger to the heart. "Why? Is it because I didn't get down on one knee?" I rectified that instantly, a little clumsy on the landing. "Or wait, is it because you're supposed to ask?"

Her pained expression was dagger number two. "No. It's not because of any of that."

That left one option, and I had to say it out loud, even as it twisted in my gut. "You don't love me. It's someone else."

She shook her head, and I could tell from the way her lips pursed she was holding back tears. Even though we'd hated each other for half our lives, I'd picked up on all her little mannerisms, and these past few months were just us making up for lost time. Or at least, that's how I saw that. "No, it's not that either. In fact, I think I might love you a little too much."

Then marry me! I wanted to shout, but unfortunately I had about a zero-percent success rate for telling Eadlyn Schreave what to do. "Then why?"

"Because of this." She gestured to my desk, the heaps of sketches dating all the way back to middle school. "Kile, I'll never be able to tell you how much it means to me that you would take me for life just to save me from one person. Considering what a pain I've been, that's a miracle, but all you ever wanted was to get away from these walls. All you want to do is build. I think that's a beautiful thing. So many people in the world want to tear things apart. How wonderful is it that you'd do the opposite?"

"But I'd give it up. I wouldn't mind." I meant every word. I hadn't said it out loud, how much I cared for her; I'd just always assumed she knew, the same way she knew she could ask me to stage a kiss with her because as obnoxious as she was (she didn't annoy me anymore, at least not in the same way) I had yet to meet a more beautiful girl. She had to know.

"I would. I would mind," Eadlyn insisted, sounding almost desperate. This had to hurt her too, didn't it? "And eventually, when the scary side of my life dies down, you would too. You'd die a little from the ache of it. You'd resent me." She started to cry. Oh no. "I can't do that to you. To us."

I staggered to my feet (I'd been kneeling for too long; I was a little unsteady) and wrapped my arms around her. Ignore the fact that I was close to tears myself. I wasn't used to seeing the Royal Pain in the Ass get all weepy, and I was kind of about to lose my shit. "Eadlyn, as much as I love you-" Okay, we were putting that out there, I guess. "You don't get to make that choice for me. It's my life too! Ask me what I want!"

She stepped back from me and gave me a reproachful look, like, really? You're talking to me that way? Still, she humored me, which was honestly more than I expected from her. "Fine. What do you want, Kile?"

I took a deep breath, already in way over my head. "I want to stay here. With you. I want to wear a stupid little crown and hear your unsolicited opinions on every tie I wear and make you laugh every single day. I've been happier these past two months than I've been my entire life, and that's not because of any diagram or prototype. That's because of you."

I saw it in real time. The way her eyes widened, then softened. Oh, thank god, she believes me.

"I still couldn't possibly ask that of you," she murmured, and my heart ached on her behalf. I should have told her sooner. I just thought she knew.

"If I get a choice, I'm choosing you," I promised. "I want you. And everything that comes with you. Don't make me leave. I'd do anything to stay."

Eadlyn pulled me in again, sighing into my shoulder. "I want you to stay. I want it to be you so badly, but I've spent my whole life being selfish. I'm trying so hard- I wanted to make the selfless choice, just once in my life."

"I think the real selfish choice would be marrying someone you don't really love, because you don't think you deserve to be happy," I told her, and maybe this was my selfish choice too, because I didn't think I could possibly live without her.

"I messed up, Kile. It's my fault we're in this situation in the first place."

"It's not too late. I'm here. Now, come on, let's get married."