Disclaimer: I have no rights at all to the Lunar Chronicles. I just write fanfic for it.

"Oh, Prince Kaito! We simply must stop meeting like this!" She fluttered her lashes, giggling like a school girl might.

Kai rolled his eyes, noting that the corridor he had been heading down was practically deserted. She had a knack for 'running into him' when he was alone. "This is getting old, Selene."

"Whatever do you mean?" she asked, her bottom lip jutting out in feigned ignorance.

He glared at her. "Do you ever get sick of following me around the palace like a lost puppy every time you visit?"

"Puppies are quite adorable, aren't they?" she tittered.

He cleared his throat. "Well, sorry to cut this short, but I'm looking for my father."

Kai turned to leave and with the slightest bend in one of his bioelectric waves in her favor, he froze mid-step. "Don't you want to do something with me?"

The look he gave her could've killed if it'd had the chance. "Only if that something involves us throwing ourselves into a fire."

Princess Selene clucked her tongue, "My, my, my, Your Highness. If my dear, poor aunt were here, she wouldn't be so appreciative of your jokes! You know how she hates fires."

"I apologize, Selene," said Kai, a frustrated edge to his voice. "It was not meant to be taken as a jab at Her Highness, but I can understand why you felt that it was."

She took a step towards him, her heels giving her enough height to put them at eye-level. Her gaze was hard, though she kept her charming smile plastered to her face. "Why do you always only address me as Selene? It's not very polite of you. Especially not when I've always addressed you as 'Your Highness" and 'Prince'."

"I apologize again." Kai would have walked away if she hadn't been holding him there. "I will do my best to address you properly in the future."

Her smirk became almost mocking. "Such a charming, sweet prince. Come, let's do something together. We could… tour the gardens – you know how I love the gardens here – or you could take me to the marketplace! The pictures and vids make it look rather bland, but surely there must be something appealing about it."

"It's a nice atmosphere." He felt compelled to answer, though he couldn't convince himself it was because she was making him want to. "Everyone's happy and laughing. Makes everything feel a bit more worth it."

"Adorable," said Selene in her sweet saccharine voice that iced Kai's veins every time. "You should take me. Show me what it's all about."

"All right, fine. However, the point of it all might completely escape you, Princess."

"Only one way to find out! Would you like me to glamour us as an uninteresting couple?"

He leveled a glare at her. "No. I have my own means of disguising myself and it doesn't involve manipulation. I will have to go to my room, but I'll only be gone a moment."

Selene took a step away from him again and put her hands on her hips. "And you won't let me accompany you?"

"You can wait here. I won't be long." He could feel his fingernails digging crescent moons into the hands clasped so tightly behind his back.

She released her hold on his legs, though grabbed at another wave of bioelectricity. She twisted this one in her favor, too. "If we're going to be married one day, we really should spend as much time as we can together."

He gestured toward an elevator at the end of the corridor and, despite not wanting her to come, she was forcing him to let her; that much he knew. "My father will not agree to a marriage alliance. Queen Channary will have to achieve it some other way."

They stepped into the elevator and she pursed her lips, her hands folded politely in front of her, "At this point, I'd hoped that you would be begging to marry me. You mean to say you don't love me yet, Prince Kaito?"

"Love you?" His eyes slid to her. "I don't even like you."

She laughed loudly. "I do love how honest you are when that wretched Torin isn't around. But, honestly, do you feel nothing for me?"

"Burning hatred, mostly." He was sure he was drawing blood from his palm at this point. "Whatever I feel when you're around never lingers after you're gone, so it makes it easier to resist your manipulation when you are around. To remind myself that none of it is ever real."

"Well, you can't blame me for trying." She tittered again. Kai would gouge out his own ear drums if it meant he never had to hear the sound. "I don't need love, anyway. Just loyalty. My mother always says that love is a conquest, a war. Who needs that? I just need your time. And an heir." With the last word, she winked at him. His stomach turned.

"How sad that the lovely princess has doomed herself to a loveless life," he said emotionlessly.

Selene flourished one arm through the air. "No matter. Have you ever met a couple that was actually in love? It's so pathetic the way they make excuses saying that they are. I see right through all of them."

"My parents are-were," Kai said, dropping his gaze to the marble tiles of the elevator as they neared the 14th floor.

"Ah, right. The lovely empress and emperor. They were the most convincing, I believe. Not that it matters now." She stuck her chin up in the air and giggled, "You know, my mother used to say that the Empress was-"

"-Do you have any thoughts of your own, or do you just commit your mother's words to memories and regurgitate them when they fit?"

Her smile faded and Kai felt a hint of pride in knowing that he'd struck a nerve – she never let her glamour show her as anything other than a figure of ethereal happiness. His throat and tongue iced over as her hands fell to her sides, balling into fists. "How dare you speak to me like that. You do not interrupt me when I'm speaking, and you do not speak so ill of me in my presence!" She nudged his will and he was on a knee, a fist folded over his heart, his head down at a weird angle. "Now, apologize, Your Highness, or I will see to it that this will not go unpunished."

He clenched his jaw. She always told him how pathetic it was that earthens were so easy to control, that he should be ashamed that he wasn't better at resisting it. At resisting her. "I am deeply sorry for how I treated you, Your Highness. I spoke out of turn and my words were unkind. I hope you can forgive me." His words were even and doubtfully his own.

She released her hold on him and he pulled himself up using the bar along the elevator wall. "Such touching words," said Selene. "How could I deny a darling apology like that?"

Kai said nothing and pushed through the doors of the elevator as soon as they'd opened, keeping his eyes anywhere but on her. He disappeared into his room for a moment – leaving her standing in the corridor with her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently – before reappearing in a baggy grey sweatshirt that fell halfway to his knees.

"Well, it's about time," she said, though he hadn't even been gone a grand total of 45 seconds. "Good stars above, you look terrible." She swept her gaze over him, disgust evident in her well-glamoured features. "Usually, you're more like-" she fanned herself for a moment, emitting a low whistle, "but this is just... disappointing."

"That's the point," he replied. "No one ever recognizes me like this when I go out." He pulled his hood over his head and waved his hand at her. "What glamour will you go out in?"

The image of her wavered for a half-second and suddenly, she was a grungy teenage girl with fine, brown hair pulled into a messy ponytail, with gloves and boots, a tank top and baggy cargo pants.

Kai thought he felt his lungs hitch. She looked so… normal and plain and there was even a grease smudge on her cheek. He almost liked it. But, of course, it was Princess Selene. The girl before him was fake – a fake voice, a fake laugh, a fake, simplistic beauty.

"I'm a lowly mechanic." She smirked. "It fits perfectly with your look!"

"That's actually not a bad look on you."

She rolled her eyes as her glamour transitioned smoothly back into the one she always kept – tanned skin and thick, brown hair flawlessly curled, a long, silver dress, and striking lavender eyes.

"Right, well," he muttered, clearing his throat. "Let's get this over with."

Author's Note: This fic came to me in a dream…. No, not really. It came in the form of my friend Hamdi saying, "[A], listen to this TOTALLY COOL FIC IDEA," back in, like, November. I never knew what to do about it, until I was driving home from the Fairest event I attended and it was 12 AM and I was very tired and very hungry and it was very dark outside, and I was alone, and I just kind of started talking to myself to keep myself awake (it works; don't knock it 'til you try it). I said a few opening sentences and the rest is basically history.

And I can say that this fic would not be nearly as amazing as it turned out to be (and that's saying a lot coming from me, who wrote it) if it hadn't been for lovelunarchron being a critical and yet very loving beta reader (as all betas should be, which is why you should never ask me to beta your fic, because I am all love and no critique). She is the best, truly. The good news is that I might be a better writer now. The bad news is that my ego is currently lying in a heap of ashes in the corner of my campus apartment (not really) (like I said, she is very loving).

Anyway, I hope you liked it! The rest of it is completely written so just tell me how often you would like me to update it (and don't say all at once, I want to space it out for late-comers, but just know that I love you all, ok?).