This is a continuation of Chapter 6- go read that to refresh your memory! I'm almost certain this will end up getting another part to it. I try to do one-shots for the instant gratification of it all, but the truth is, I'm a longfic girly, and a happy ending just ISN'T AS SATISFYING when you don't take 250 pages building up to it.

Tis the season where my life sucks so anticipate me throwing myself into Selection fanfic even more aggressively than I already have. Suggestions welcome; if I want to keep updating this every week, I'm going to need more than my own brainpower!

The staff gave me a haircut and dressed me in a gray suit that was tight in the shoulders. Apparently that was how it was actually supposed to fit, and I'd been doing it wrong my entire life. A crushing blow, obviously, but I was a lot more concerned about meeting the princess as a member of the Selection for the first time.

I wasn't sure what she would think, wasn't really expecting it to be positive. When she read my name for Angeles, she'd faltered, her face going blank for a moment before she drew the next envelope. I'd laid low ever since- scared, I guess, but could you blame me? This was Eadlyn we were talking about. A deadly combination of ferocious and so beautiful there would probably be wars fought over her hand someday, she was not the kind of person you wanted to piss off, and the fact that I'd thrown her off her game for even a moment most likely made her pretty upset with me.

I shrugged my shoulders a couple more times, trying to get used to the new suit before Silvia sent me into the foyer. I got my first glimpse of the princess in weeks, in a silver strapless gown with her hair half-up and curled. Us mere Selected had needed makeovers, but I happened to know Eadlyn looked this stunning every day, even when she was most likely plotting my death.

She regarded me with caution. When I applied for the Selection, I'd done something she hadn't expected me to do, and now she couldn't trust me, because Eadlyn so hated surprises. I took a deep breath. "Good evening, Your Highness."

"Oh, stop that," she snapped. "It doesn't sound right coming from you."

I'd known Eadlyn since long before either of us could pronounce her title. We weren't friends, but that type of formality still didn't exist between us. Eady. The Royal Pain in the Ass. A variety of unpleasant nicknames she'd invented for me. That was who we were.

She glared at me suspiciously. "Are you here as a joke?"

At least she was starting with an easy question. I shook my head. "No. I'm here for the same reason everyone else is here."

"You can't be."

I raised an eyebrow. She went on. "They're here for the novelty of it. A vacation in the castle, courting the princess. There's no novelty for you; this is your life, so why are you here?"

Letting the words leave my mouth felt like an out of body experience. "That's not fair. I live here, yeah, but I haven't once courted you."

There was that look again, that same blank stare she'd worn on the Report when she pulled Kile Woodwork out of the envelope from Angeles. "And you'd like to?" she asked in a higher voice than normal.

I nodded shortly.

"You like me," Eadlyn realized. She had to repeat it a couple times- to process it, I guess, but it was agony on my end. "Really?"

I hadn't really wanted that out there in plain words, at least not so early in the game when I had no idea what she really thought, but it wasn't like I could deny it. "Yes."

"But you know me."

I'd daydreamed this meeting a number of times. The ending had varied from Eadlyn sending me to the gallows to us jetting off to Mykonos for our honeymoon. The words but you know me had never come into play.

I tried not to sound so surprised. "Well, yeah. Don't knowing someone and liking them usually go together?"

"Not when it's me. Not when…Kile, I haven't exactly been nice to you."

It didn't matter. I didn't care that she had a temper and this was our first civil conversation in years, because she was magnetic in every way that mattered. I'd known her for too long; her short fuse didn't scare me. It just made those rare soft moments even more meaningful. Hugging Osten after he skinned his knee. Scrunching up her nose at Ahren's terrible jokes. The lightness in her step after she said exactly the right thing in a cabinet meeting, a secret smile when she was just so goddamn pleased with herself she could hardly stand it. I could hardly stand it either, and I'd spent a long time trying to talk myself out of it- talk myself out of her, really- because there was nothing convenient about wanting Her Royal Highness Eadlyn Schreave, but it wasn't the kind of feeling you could just walk away from, either. So there I was, the closest I'd ever been to putting it all on the line, wondering where the hell I got my nerve from.

"I haven't been that nice to you either," I reasoned. "We just…I don't know."

It was weird, my heart pounding and her dumbfounded expression. Eadlyn was the most confident person I knew- she carried herself like she was already queen- but she acted so shocked that I liked her, knew her fully and wanted her anyway, that I suddenly wondered if I didn't actually know her as well as I thought I did.

"I just never thought of you that way," she said eventually- and honestly, fair. She was so far above me, the future queen; I had comparatively little to offer. That was the reason these thoughts had stayed securely inside my head all these years, and the only reason they were coming out at all was the unsettling idea of her choosing someone else before I said my piece. I was more scared of losing her forever than her wrath.

Not that she seemed all that wrathful at the moment. Actually, she was as flustered as I'd ever seen her.

"Does that mean I need to leave?" I asked tentatively. I'd expected that, prepared for it.

She shook her head. "No. It means more than any of the others, you need to stay."

I was trying so hard to play it cool, but that statement threatened to send me into cardiac arrest. "Of course, Your Highness."

She frowned. "I told you not to call me that."

"You don't need to give me special treatment. I'm fine being just like everybody else," I insisted. The rest of the Selected had figured out I was raised in the palace almost instantly, and the majority of them did not like that. I'd tried to explain that my position wasn't all that advantageous, that knowing the princess in advance had only made sure she didn't like me, but in the interest of not getting run out of town, I would have to make an effort to fit in.

Her lips twitched at the corners, the closest to a smile I was going to get with her. "You're not like everybody else."

She probably didn't mean it as a compliment. If she'd said it two weeks ago, I would have been certain she didn't, but now I let myself hope, because obviously this was going far better than I'd expected it to. There were still plenty of opportunities for this to go up in flames, but what if it didn't? I might have only had half a chance, but I was going to make the most of it, whether or not it worked out for me in the end.