Summary: Decidedly, Ran has a thing for impossible fairy tales and young geniuses. Only that this time it's her turn to be the knight in shining armour, white horse and all.
A/N: I'm unapologetically bisexual so before you go any further please leave your homophobia at the door.
Slightly inspired on Breakeven by AnnieAltman88.
Warnings: Obviously NOT a coai fanfic. Wish I could tell you you can pretend it is but no, this is a Ran-centric fic. Girl on girl or wlw/slash/yuri/lesbian or however u want to call it lol. Fairy tale drabble format. Implied ShinRan & Shinshi. A LOT OF CHEESE (because this is a momo fic, i mean what were you expecting?).
One-sitter. Unbetaed. What is proofreading?
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To Ran, fairy tales are as far-fetched as you allow yourself to dream of, so she's never really dreamed big —no dragons to slay or thousand-year-old curses; no fish tail trade or magic carpet rides to the moon. Her three wishes are bland in simplicity: find prince charming, get married to him and live happily ever after. She needs no kingdom to rule other than a home to call her own and no magic beanstalks on her backyard. Brewing love potions would never be as satisfying as serving a homemade meal on her round table, after all.
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She meets prince charming at the age of five, except that he goes by the name of Kudo Shinichi and proves to be much of a conceited brat at the time. It takes a lot of love and kindness —and forgiveness— to shape him out of that, but she doesn't mind: princes are raised to be charming, not to be kind. That's a princess' duty, anyways. And so she makes it her responsibility to teach him kindness. He grows up well.
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They are seventeen and Ran thinks to herself that if life was a true fairy tale, prince charming would be asking for her hand in marriage and sweeping her off her feet to start a new life.
That's right before he suddenly disappears.
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She lies wide awake at nights wondering if this is the dramatic climax where her story takes a turning point for the best. And soon prince charming will be knocking on her door with a slain dragon and promises of the future she foresaw right when they were eight.
(He doesn't.)
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Ran stops wishing for happy endings and just wishes for prince charming to come back. He doesn't have to be wielding excalibur or be riding on his white horse. He doesn't even need an excuse. She'll walk by him through any dark forest anyway, no questions asked.
(He still doesn't.)
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One day, Ran stops wishing altogether.
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Prince charming comes back to her eventually, wearing a tired smile and many battle scars on his heart. But he's as charming as ever, so charming that she almost falls in love with him all over again.
(She doesn't.)
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Ran suspects that prince charming has found another damsel in distress to protect while he was out saving the world. She finds herself oddly at peace with that. Even happy, if you squint.
Except when she finally meets Miyano Shiho, and Ran gets to know what real life princesses are supposed to be. The damsel in distress is, as her name indicates, very much distressed to meet her. Her jade green eyes are filled with guilt and remorse as they meet hers, and Ran thinks to herself that the reddish hue on Miyano-san's cheeks resembles of blooming winter roses, just like those in the bedtime stories she used to love so much. Her pale hand is soft and warm at the touch.
After a brief handshake, Miyano pulls away as if burnt.
Ran doesn't know why her heart breaks a second time.
(Was it even whole again to start with?)
Regardless, the warmth of Miyano's grazing fingers linger way after they're gone.
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Miyano Shiho becomes a constant in prince charming's life, and by consequence she becomes inherently a part of Ran's life too. The damsel in distress, as Ran secretly thinks of her, puts on a defensive wall around her and locks everyone out of reach, prince charming included.
Ran finds herself squeezing through the cracks and gaps of Shiho's defenses, holding her hand out in times when she's drowning in her own fear. With practice, she learns to chase Shiho's past ghosts away, unsuspectingly shredding pieces of her own heart in the process.
It comes as a surprise to her that Shiho is kind enough to pick up every shattered fragment of the heart that Ran left lying on the floor at love's mercy.
This time, the scientist refuses to return them.
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The damsel in distress plants every remnant Ran's heart on soil and waters it every day.
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Love blossoms.
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Winter comes and Shiho's hands are soft on Ran's skin, but inside of her every touch burns with a kind of yearning that melts her heart away.
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To Ran, fairy tales as a real as you want them to be —a poisoned pill, a shape-shifting prince and a damsel in distress will meet ever so often. But princesses can't wait forever to be rescued and white horses sometimes just can't be tamed. Eventually, you have to write your own ending.
And so the knight in shiny armour rewrites her own fairytale with her fingertips tracing stories on her damsel's skin, making folklore of whispered tales on her lover's earlobes.
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A/N: I initially intended to write lesbian vague/poetic sex but this went on a whole different tangent. Nothing went according to my keikaru OTL. I'm leaving the fic open because PERHAPS I might still write a short cuddle scene if I feel like it or if it's of anyone's interest.