He was the knight and he was the prince and she was the princess.

At least, in the beginning, it was that simple.

The knight hated the prince because the knight saw in him all the things that had gone awry in his own life. He saw in the prince's eyes, which were the color of deep red roses, the deep red blood of his dead family. In the prince's stature he saw the rigid hypocrisy of royalty. And in his hands he saw the pawn that he had been turned into.

The prince, while he did not hate the knight as much as the knight hated him, felt perturbed by the knight's very presence. It wasn't as if he could not make him into a pawn –he had done this, already- but in the knight's vengeful gaze he saw his own desperation, and this would be a secret the prince would keep forever.

And the princess was the one who bound them together—she with her kind smile and her loving gaze, her pure affection and deep friendship. For her they would defeat all monsters and witches, for her they would give their lives, and, most importantly, their hearts.

But then things began to change.

The knight was still a loyal knight, to both prince and princess, but the spell a wicked witch had cast upon him had begun to takes its toll, and, seeing this, the prince decided to help him, forgetting, for that moment, that he was just a pawn, easily replaceable and surely of less worth than any other piece.

The prince was still a loving prince, but the prince had begun to lose his pieces, and soon, his side of the chess board would be bare—except for the princess, and the knight, the pawn whose fate he had yet to decide.

And she was still the princess-------- but did it matter anymore?

In the next plot twist, the knight would come to take the prince away--

--the prince would cast a spell upon the world and runaway with the knight

--they would be neither prince nor knight, simply existing as they are, complete with each other and needing nobody but the one beside them

In the next plot twist, the story would go like this:

Once upon a time, there was a knight and a prince, who loved each other deeply...

But for now, we must content ourselves with something else entirely:

Once upon a time, there lived a princess who had the hearts of a noble knight and a noble prince...

Let's wait for time to pass.

It's bound to move on, right?

...the end.

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fin

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Author's Notes: Fairytale-esque ditty from SACRIFICE, re-hashed and re-posted. This makes me wonder why there isn't a piece called the 'prince' in chess. :P Surely, it'd be of more use than a Queen? *is still sulking over a certain manga colored page* Though, and this is thanks to KA, the Queened Pawn is still my favorite piece/move.