Chapter 1: The Prince's Birthday

The Princess Bride

Sakura's a normal villager in a little village, like all other girls, adoring the king-to-be, wishing that they were the prince's bride… but then one day she finds herself trying to embrace the fact that she's a princess, she is the prince's bride. But while living in the castle… she begins to fall in love with, not the prince, but the prince's brother.

Quackquill's quilly notes: THIS IS NOT BASED ON WILLIAM GOLDMAN'S BOOK THE PRINCESS BRIDE, THIS IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT STORY WITH NOTHING TO DO WITH THAT BOOK besides a few things.

Enjoy. Cry. Laugh. Smile. Read.

"Happy Birthday…"

Sakura sighed, placing her bouquet of flowers in front of her carefully. Who was she giving this to, not like he would ever receive it anyways…

She looked up, gazing dreamily at the handsome face, studying his features and his brown hair, so perfectly ruffled up.

She quietly stood up and opened the door, letting her last words linger in the room, "Happy Birthday my beloved Prince Syaoran…"

Although the words clung onto it tightly, the picture on the wall did not respond. It was a hopeless love.

"Yuki!" Sakura beamed, running over to him, "Oh Yuki, I'm so glad you came!"

The little white-haired boy grinned, his child freckles smiling along, "I broke every rule there was, just to come with you sis."

"We're off to the fields," She said a bit dreamily, "Dance all the way through his birthday. Isn't it brilliant?"

Yuki rolled his eyes and snorted, "Oh yes. Brilliant. Who cares about the Prince anyways?"

Sakura clasped her hands together and squealed excitedly, "I do! All the girls here do! How could anyone not, he's so handsome! He's the prince!"

"But he'll totally stink as a ruler!"

Sakura waved her hand carelessly, "That doesn't matter. It's only a year before he's going to be crowned, when he gets his…" She stopped midway, her cheeks flushing.

"Bride." Yuki heaved a big sigh, "Yeah, yeah, everyone knows."

"Yes. A bride. And he can learn to be a very good ruler within a year. Besides, it's his seventeenth birthday, I'm sure he's a much wiser Prince. But he'll always be the handsome man I know."

"Arrogant."

"He is not. He is perfectly perfect. You don't know him."

"Neither do you."

"Oh yes I do, I have heard every single girl gossip about him and treasured it in my mind! But most of them I know are lies, and what those haughty men say about him all the time, they're just jealous that he's so good looking."

Yuki didn't say anymore, he knew he would never win if it was about 'Prince Syaoran', Sakura would not be persuaded that he was the opposite of what she believed he was.

He turned around, hearing footsteps, "The Mistress!" He whispered to Sakura, and then dove into the nearest bush.

Sakura was about to do the same, but then she heard the rapping behind her.

Sakura turned around slowly… a stiff lump in her throat.

"Miss Sakura." The shrewd woman tapped her stick upon the floor, "What are you doing, walking without an escort? You were supposed to leave the board houses a quarter of an hour ago."

"I… I… I was getting ready, and I… I was late…" Sakura's throat felt dry.

"I'll shall not let you go without a punishment. Being late is unacceptable. You shall head back to the boarding houses immediately and begin scrubbing the third floor and I—"

A deep voice interrupted, "Pardon me miss, but is there a problem?"

The Mistress turned around, "Yes there…" Her mouth opened like a fish, "Oh, ah… ah… Count sir," She stuttered, "I… um… this young lady…"

"She was late, I understand. Please give her the punishment tomorrow, today is the Prince's birthday. A day to be celebrated. Thank you for taking my advice." He stepped past her without needing her reply, taking Sakura's arm and winking at the hidden face in the bushes.

After they had walked away from the Mistress's sight, Sakura burst out laughing.

"Thank you for saving me again Touya!"

The Count grinned and gave her a pat on her head, "You'd better be careful, you and Yuki. I can't always be there."

Yuki, who had been crawling on the floor, stood up and joined them, "Phew, I thought that lady would eat sis's livers!"

Sakura laughed again, but then said gloomily, "She always likes to pick on me… I always get in trouble."

Touya only kept grinning, "One day she'll look up to you, no, she'll have to."

Sakura stared at him funny, what was he talking about? How would he know…? But she didn't say anything about it, or ask anything, just kept walking and laughing and talking with him.

Touya seemed like a big brother to her, he had always taken care of her since her mother died, he was too young to be a father, more like a brother. Big, strong, and nice, funny too, always protecting her. But that still didn't always stop the Mistress from snapping at her.

And Yuki, the most adorable little boy she had ever met. Her smaller brother that called her 'Sis', she loved it.

She loved her two brothers… she knew they weren't her real brothers, but she felt so happy with them and she felt like they were her own family.

Since Yuki was a foot shorter than Sakura, Touya gave him a piggyback ride, making Sakura laugh. "A Count giving a small boy a piggyback ride!"

The field wasn't a field anymore, it was brimming with excitement and drunk dancers, and lights. The lights were hung up, glowing bright through the glass colors, and scented with cinnamon and spice. There were kegs of beer, and pig wrestling, and rowdiness everywhere. It was a time to celebrate, it was the Prince's Birthday, a grand time to celebrate.

Yuki and Sakura were dancing a little away from the field, with less music and shouts and laughter, they danced together for hours, and then fell into a pile of hay, laughing their heads off.

"It's so much funner here than there, it's so loud there, and these old guys try to pick dances with me." Sakura scrunched up her nose.

Yuki lay beside her, giggling, his own freckles smiling and glittering under the candlelight, "I like this, it feels like Halloween." He turned to lay on his tummy, "But Halloween is much more funner."

Sakura turned onto her belly immediately, "That's not true! The Prince's Birthday is much more important, much more enjoyable, much more—"

"How old will the Prince turn this year."

"Seventeen of course…" Sakura turned to see Touya again, standing there, not under the brightness of the candlelight but in the shade, in the moonlight, not far away, but he felt so far away…

"And you? How old will you turn this year?" He inquired, his voice not playful, but sober.

"Sixteen, the day following tomorrow." It felt strange, he was just asking birthdays and ages, but it just felt so weird.

"So soon…" He muttered, but she could hear him, but didn't understand, she didn't really want to understand.

Yuki was falling asleep, he moaned gently, "Halloween… has candy… and… pumpkins…" He snored and Sakura knew he had fallen asleep.

"It's late." Touya turned back to leave, "You should go home."

She protested, "It's not so late, everyone's going to stay up till midnight!"

"It's already midnight." He was farther away now, the moonlight didn't touch him anymore.

"It is?" She looked up, the moon was in the center of the sky, there were no stars, no clouds, a clear, moon in the dark, violet sky, lightened by the bonfires and the candles of the field. The spice was dying away… now she smelled the trees and the grass, the moon…

"Well, they're not going back." She directed her head to the merry dancers and fiddlers and drunksters.

"You need to go back." He was walking slowly, she couldn't even tell if he was walking or not, his feet didn't move very much, her vision was getting dizzy.

Her head began to hurt, she was tired, she had eaten so much, twirled around so much… talked so much… laughed so much… adored and thought and dreamt about the prince… it wouldn't hurt to dream now, would it?

"Could you… carry us back home?" Her last words floated out distantly in the air as she collapsed onto the hay again, right beside Yuki.

Prince… Syaoran…

"Keep scrubbing that floor, it's still so dusty! You worthless rag of dirt, hurry with it!"

The mistress was watching over the poor young girl, scrubbing against the wooden boards and wiping away the cobwebs and bugs that were awakened.

A few girls hurried by, gossiping in their high-pitched, whispery voices. Some laughed at the girl, some pitied her, but no one could do anything.

The Mistress scowled when the girl paused to rub her eyes, "I never gave you permission to pause!" She kicked the girl with her boot, "Get back to work!"

She was pushed again since she had kept rubbing her eye, and this time she screamed inside her throat and held out her hand to keep her from falling, pushing over the pail of water.

"You…" The mistress screeched, then pulled the girl's hair and yanked her up to her knees, glaring at her with hatred, "You just wasted another pail of water! You did that on purpose, didn't you!"

"No, I—"

The mistress slapped hard against the girl's cheek, "You nasty filth!"

The girl stumbled back, keeping her head down.

"Mistress!" A voice called from down below, "Someone has come to see you!"

The Mistress looked up with shock, straightened her skirt and tidied her hair, rubbing her eyes to lose the hatred in them, she gave a hiss at the girl, "Keep working."

The girl rubbed her eyes as she listened to the Mistress go down the stairs quickly, then exclaiming in surprise of who it was. She didn't care, she didn't care a shit about it. Why was the Mistress making her do this? Making her scrub the dirtiest floors of the entire boarding house, continuously picking on her. She had never seen the Mistress pick on anyone as much as her, she wished she could see Yuki, or Touya again, but Touya was the Count, out busy, and Yuki was in the boy boarding houses.

She sniffed, she wished the Prince's Birthday had never ended… she wished she could have stayed free for the whole day forever, she wished she could have danced and danced and danced with Yuki and Touya forever, and laughed merrily and cheerily forever.

Her heart began wandering off now, as she slowly scrubbed, deep in her dreams again. I wish I could see the Prince… for real. I have all the pictures of him, oh yes, I have them all… I know all the giggles and rumors about him, and I have memorized every detail of his face… I wish I could really meet him… I wish… I wish he loved me…

But she gave out a silent chuckle, "What silly, foolish dreams, no wonder the Mistress likes picking on me."

But then she began her silent sobbing once again, making sure that the Mistress, and everyone else in the world, wouldn't hear her cries of pain.

End of Chapter 1

haha, i know i suck. im doing terrible with two stories, and now its three. of course, all of them are for fun, so i hope you just have 'fun' reading all my fanfics as well. (plus review on ideas, concerns and etc are sooo helpful). i began this one a longg time ago. i reread it, liked the idea and hoped others might too. so hopefully ill keep this one continuing! this first chapter is extremely odd though.