Series: Suikoden V
Prompt/Theme: Prince
Summary: AU, Young Gizel meets the so called Prince of Falena.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize.
Rating: T
Genre: Romance/Tragedy.
Pairings: Gizel Godwin x HeroPrince of Falena - sort of.
Warnings: Part of a series, can anyone tell what's different?

They referred to the Queen's oldest child as the Prince. Some even called the child Prince. They didn't think about it much because they always referred to the royal family as His/Her Majesty/Highness etc. No one really bothered to study the Prince more because Falenan male royals were really nothing to them. All that mattered was the Princess and the Queen.

Drowned in their delusions and illusions of their perfect kingdom, the people never saw who the royal family's oldest child. But he did.

Even at the age of twelve, he was a brilliant child. Well, after the death of his mother, he wasn't as brilliant anymore; gloomy, sad and raging, hating everything and everyone, refusing to anyone including his father until the man personally hauled him out of his room, deciding to take the young boy to Sol-Falena for a vacation as per Her Majesty's orders.

Gizel rarely ever left his room until his father decided to kick him out. Grumbling, the young boy kicked a pebble from his path. He didn't expect to hear a soft cry of pain. A child stumbled out from the bushes, overgrown and in sore need of trimming—he was going to blab about the gardeners' incompetence. Gizel gulped when the child raised teary eyes to him.

Messily chopped silver hair framed the child's androgynous face, the child's looks and small stature made it hard for the older boy to tell whether the young one was a boy or girl. He looked further down and surmised the child before him was a boy. What, with such messy state of clothing, the child couldn't be a girl much less a noble one.

"I'm sorry I hit you," Gizel grumbled. Had the child been a girl or a noble, he would've been much more courteous. "Run along, now."

"But I live here!" the young boy insisted. "And I'm hiding," he added in a dramatic whisper. Following that, he tucked himself into a curl and hid under the bushes, placing a finger to his lips and looking glaringly at Gizel.

"Prince! Your Highness, come out now! It's going to rain soon and you shouldn't stay out long—you'll catch a cold! Prince!" Gizel stared at the hidden boy then at the bodyguards rushing his way. He took a step back and nearly fled when they all rushed to a stop before him. He gulped but decided to face the threats like a man. Besides, if he did die... he can be with his mother again. "Hey, kid—"

"Kid my ass," the female bodyguard hissed, elbowing the male guard. "He's a noble's kid. Do you want your head off?" Gizel's eyes darted between them wildly, growing more and more alarmed—were they assassins in disguise? Were they going to kidnap him?

"Um, young sir?" the female boyguard tried in a much nicer voice. "Can you tell us, have you seen a silver haired boy around here? Younger and smaller than you, probably about this, er, tall?"

It suited the hiding child's description but spotting the said child's vigorous head shake, Gizel followed his example. When the guards left, the Prince crawled out, covered with leaves and mud more than ever.

Gizel wondered what he should do; apologize? He didn't think so, after hitting him (however incidentally) and apologizing in a rude manner, he doubted he'd be off the hook. If he pretended they'd never met, who'd stop the Prince from pointing at him if they passed one another in the palace and yelling that he had hurt him?

Man, he was doomed.

"Hey, thanks—what's your name?" The Prince held out his hand for Gizel to shake, which the latter shook. "I'm Freya—erk, I mean, -jadour, Freyjadour, yeah! I know it's a mouthful so just call me Prince."

"All right," the noble boy said. "Prince, a pleasure to meet you, my name is Gizel Godwin."

The Prince opened his mouth to say something but abruptly, from behind both boys, an intimidating shadow loomed over them. In a blink of an eye, the Prince was scooped in into the arms of a man wearing majestic clothes, the boy yelled, struggling but he didn't seem angry.

"Dad! Stop it!" Gizel wondered what sort of father would headlock his five-year-old son before he realized it was His Majesty.

"Haha," the King—though it didn't mean much in the Queendom—laughed. "My little princess can't take it?"

"Stop it, and I'm not a girl!"

"What was that?"

"I said: I'm not a girl!" Exasperation, begrudgingly.

Had Gizel knew more, observed more, he would've noticed what an odd conversation it was for father-son to have. Sure, the Prince looked girly but to call him a princess...

If he'd just noticed, perhaps his family would've won the war.