The Princess did not know how to deal with this man, who had taken his brother’s ‘place’.

She had just left him to his own thoughts, his own way, thinking it wouldn’t be long before yet another would just leave…But he hadn’t…

She didn’t understand. There were few that didn’t leave, but she had forced them out, one reason was simply because she didn’t want people to care. If they weren’t here making a fuss over her, then she felt like it would be better…That over time she will be forgotten and she should just leave…Quietly, like she never existed in the first place.

But this man, it had nothing to do with her. He was just…

She knew exactly how he felt! Nothing!

Worthless! Meaningless! Undeserving!

Having taken him in, she was just being reminded upon what she felt all the time!

Why!? Why is he still here!? Why doesn’t he run away like everyone else!? And…Why can’t she then push him away like the rest of them!?

 

It was scary. Both of them were scared. If they thought for one second that life could change to be something other than meaningless, they’d have something to lose. If they felt like perhaps, they could just want just one thing…Just one thing…

A constant battle had been going on in the Princess head, since taking this man in. A battle to stay, just that little bit longer…

“Eat dinner with me tonight.”

She had the veil over her face and make up on, just in case it fell off.

Steven looked at the Princess, that he had not seen since he had been taken away from Commorda. “Your Highness?”

Don’t call me that! How am I royalty!? How is this place…

“…Eat with me tonight.”

 

Steven looked at the Princess’s attire, seeing an old but still somewhat pretty noble type of dress for a lady and bowed his head. “I’m just a servant here, Your Highness. How can someone such as I…”

The Princess clenched her hand and interrupted him, “You will eat with me tonight!”

Steven shook his head, “It isn’t proper.”

“What is proper!” The Princess was getting angry. She hadn’t felt angry…

“Please, will you eat with me tonight.” The Princess stated, now with manners.

Steven stopped and looked at her in confusion, “It wasn’t your manners that I was implying to, Your Highness.”

“Then what is it!” She yelled at him. What does she need to do or say to just get him to have dinner with her! She didn’t understand!

 

Steven bowed his head and said, “This lowly servant shouldn’t sit at the same table as…”

“As me?” The Princess stopped.

Was she really such a terrible person?

“Fine, if you don’t eat with me…Don’t bother eating at all!” With that, she angry stormed away.

Steven suddenly felt like things went completely in the wrong direction.

The Princess really thought she…

It seemed so stupid that she completely misunderstood that Steven could only let it go. She was a Princess, how could she think that it was her all the time?

Did she not know that it wasn’t normal for a servant to sit with a royal?

 

Steven finished sweeping the floor and went to the kitchen. Going through the kitchen, grabbing a basket, he went out the back door and walked towards the trees.

Just doing his normal chores, accepting his life the way it was, it took some time to see that there was something amiss.

Upon time to cook dinner, where he’d normally walk into the kitchen to find the food already started to get cooked, the kitchen was dark and empty, void of anything.

“Celeste?”

The maid that would hang around was nowhere to be seen.

“…Celeste!”

 

Could she be in trouble?

Where would she be?

Sometimes she would go do some other jobs, mostly to do upstairs. So, she would be on her own…

Was she ok?

The Princess, perhaps…What if she was in a bad mood and caught Celeste getting her laundry and maybe wanted to hurt her?

Steven paced the kitchen floor and got more and more worried…

Going towards the stairs, Steven didn’t hear any type of movement. He didn’t know whether to take the chance to go look for Celeste or not…

Maybe it was a test…For him?

Perhaps it was just his turn today to do the entirety of the cooking…

 

Turning, Steven went back to the kitchen and cooked.

He wasn’t very good at it, previously only having to put ingredients into bowls, putting them back away and stirring. He was cutting some of them up but was slow, so by the time he’d done one potato, Celeste had normally done three…

Making dinner took twice as long as usual and when Steven tried it, it didn’t taste very nice. Was he forgetting something?

Steven wasn’t sure what to do. He had vegetables, he had…Oh, maybe some herbs? But which ones?

Why were there so many of them?

The rack was full of stuff that he didn’t know the names off. Celeste had tried to teach him but now that he was looking at them, they were all foreign substances!

What if the Princess wouldn’t like this! Wouldn’t she do something!? Perhaps hang him up somewhere and whip him?

Steven went still suddenly and just thought of what he’d done in the past to Cid, any of those…Perhaps more…

Well, if the Princess doesn’t like it and decides to do something, it doesn’t matter…

 

It almost felt like he was going out of his way to hurt himself, but he couldn’t help himself.

Putting a plate of his bland, self-made…Dish…Steven put a lid over it and hoped he’d see Celeste come to pick it up to take it to the Princess.

But…He never did…

He had eaten his share, thinking the dish to be terrible, but Celeste had still yet to come.

Maybe she really did get into trouble!

The Princess had been mad when she had left him and…

Steven couldn’t wait much longer, he left the kitchen area and went towards the stairs.

“Celeste?”

 

There could be so many reasons why she couldn’t respond…The one that Steven couldn’t help but believe was that Celeste could be hanging there with whip marks…

Shaking his head, Steven had to remind himself that for one, he needed to get over this strange thought of hanging and being whipped and two, he’d never found proof that that was ever being done here!

Calm down, he told himself!

Taking a deep breath, Steven took that first step, then the next. He just had to go save her!

Walking with more and more determination as he got up the stairs, he picked up a torch, and lit it. It was becoming dark now and it just felt like upstairs seemed…Really, excessively dark…

Walking into one of two doors, one on each side of the stairs, Steven poked his head into the room, to see darkness until he put the torch into the room.

With small movements, he looked around to find a mess.

A broken table here, a broken chair there. Even the windows were broken.

Curtains were ripped…

There was also dust everywhere, like no one lived there.

 

Holding onto her legs, the Princess glared at the uninvited guest.

Why would he come here, knowing he would get into tro…

“Celeste? Are you alright?”

Holding back tears, the Princess couldn’t believe what she just heard!

“Celeste!”

He was here to help Celeste…

Braving a ‘broken bone’ he still came here…

Seeing the man stop, then mumble, “She’s not here.” The Princess saw him walk normally towards another door in the room…Closer to her.

 

Before he could catch her with the torch, she walked away from him in the dark and said, “Why are you here?”

Steven let out a loud yelp to the finding another person there.

“Scared? So, you should be!”

In the next second he was flipped over, on his back on the floor.

“Wait! I was just…”

The Princess stopped him, “You were told never to come here!”

Steven went to get up but as his feet were flat one the floor he was once again tripped. Dammit, he nearly dropped the torch twice! What is she doing! Does she want to burn up her own room!?

If he could see, Steven might have felt better but no, he couldn’t see much at all, and it really was a tad bit scary!

“I’m sorry!”

The Princess wiped at her face and then threw the torch through the window.

The shattering glass feel down, and she stepped on the glass accidentally.

 

Steven got up and, this time not getting tripped over and quickly left.

Oh, that was scary!

He hadn’t had time to do anything!

He went down the stairs and then stopped.

Really, why was he still here?

He didn’t have anything like chains on…He had just been doing chores like he…

Why was he still here!?

What about Celeste? He asked himself.

Celeste came across as someone that knew how to look after herself. She seemed to be tough. She was probably just going for a swim or something.

She’ll be fine…

With that thought, Steven ran out of the house!

 

***

 

Getting hit by another branch, Steven couldn’t help but think that he was lost!

He had been sure that he was traveling down that narrow path but…Was he really? It didn’t look like it!

He’d been walking now for what felt like hours, but it was only about fifteen minutes or so.

What stopped him next though was a growl…

It stopped Steven so drastically that he could hardly breath.

Hearing something in the distance, Steven turned towards it, but it was dark…He was getting over how dark it was!

Stepping backwards, he heard another growl and really started to panic…

Breathing heavily, Steven tried to slowly get away from the growl but hit a tree, only making him more scared.

“Oh, please…I’m not…I don’t have anything to offer you. I’m not an heir anymore…”

With random mumbling, Steven tried to control himself, as he continued to pass the tree and backed up, to finally see the wolf coming at him.

“I’m not plump. You won’t like me…”

Seeing a stick, Steven picked it up, to see his shivering hands. “I’m not plump. I’m skinny…”

 

The wolf came closer, and Steven moved his hands around randomly, trying to stop the wolf from coming closer.

“I’m skinny!” He yelled at the wolf, who then charged at him.

“Stop it!” Steven swung his hands around, surprised to have hit the thing. “See! Don’t mess with me!”

Steven stopped though when he heard another growl behind him.

Shaking like a leave, he turned to see exactly what he thought it would be, telling himself he got something right for a change…

It was another wolf.

He was so scared that his mouth just kept going and going, “Two, two is better than one. If there were only one, ah!”

Steven went to the other side of the tree and swung his hands randomly. “It’s just like having Christmas and birthday, that’s two…Two at a time…Stop!”

The wolf took his stick, to which Steven stated him as a thief but then both wolves were in front of him, as he slid down the tree in pure terror.

 

Finally, Steven was quiet…

The wolves however had indeed not just gone ahead and taken their meal because something else took their attention.

With what felt like magic, Steven watched as a rock hit one of the wolves and a person came to hit the other.

“You speak a lot of nonsense.”

Steven looked up and saw, “Celeste.”

“Get up!”

He noticed that she couldn’t help him get up because…She was fighting off the two wolves…

How…

Dammit! He didn’t want her to die for his sack! “Get out of here!”

“You first!”

Why was she here! Was she planting trees in the forest at night-time or something!?

 

Now on his feet, Steven got another stick and waved it around before the wolves.

Celeste looked at Steven briefly and pushed him out of the way, before he was going to get bitten.

“Dammit!” Steven got up and then pulled her over, to have finally done something right with a stick by impaling a small part of it into the wolf.

In the next instant, he saw Celeste do some weird kick at the other wolf’s head and it fell to the floor.

“Come on!” She stated, quickly taking his hand and leading him in a direction.

Steven suddenly heard her yell out as her leg got bitten by the other wolf, he then stepped on the wolf’s head.

“Dammit!” He heard her say through clenched teeth.

The wolf hadn’t been cleared of her leg and it seemed he had made things worse. “Sorry!”

The woman started to fall, but still pushed him, “Go! It’s that way!”

 

Shaking his head, he picked her up without a second thought and ran in the pointed direction.

He ran right back inside of the castle and then put her down to close the doors.

Breathing heavily, he saw her still on the floor looking at her wound.

“I’m sorry.”

Hang on, that was the Princess…

But when she looked up at him, no…It was Celeste…

He must be confused…

“There’s bandages in the kitchen, go get them for me.”

Steven nodded to Celeste’s familiar voice.

…But it was…Also…

Stopping, he turned towards the woman on the floor and blinked.

“Go and get it!” She yelled at the silly man!

 

Steven left and returned, having known where the bandages were through him having been in the kitchen before.

Leaving the bandages, he then left to get some water and wanted to ask for some liquor.

But there was none…Well none where he could see…So, he settled for some salt instead.

Tending to the wound, worse than any others he had tended to before now, it took a while to stop the bleeding.

Every now and again, he would curiously look at the quiet woman that had this wound, only to find her gritting her teeth…

So, she was most definitely in pain…And it was because of him.

“What were you doing out there at this time of night?” Steven asked.

“You are one to talk! Dammit! I…My foot hurts too! Stop touching it!”

Steven looked at her and then down at her feet, taking off the shoe and sock.

 

It was a small piece of glass…

When did she step in glass?

Actually, it was because of this small piece of glass that she found that he was gone…In the middle of the night.

She had gone downstairs to get bandages, to treat her small wound on her foot, only to find the plate in the kitchen.

…He had cooked for her!

Perhaps the dangerous black of night gave her enough reason to go out and try to find him, and she glad she had. If he was going to leave, why do it at the worst possible time? What an idiot!

He went to take the glass out of her foot, in turn she put her hand onto his arm and held it tight.

Since she was hurting him with her hand, he could only guess how much pain she was in right now.

“I’m sorry.”

“You shouldn’t have run away!”

“I…You scared the hell out of me!”

“Good! I told you not to go up there!”

“Celeste told me, not you!”

“I am Celeste you idiot!”

“…Celeste…Can’t wear that dress. She’s a maid.”

“Idiot!”

 

“I thought she was in trouble.” Steven said, mumbling while he was finally putting fabric around her bite wound.

“I was mad!” The Princess muttered back.

“Celeste doesn’t get mad.” Steven simply said.

The Princess took a deep breath and put her hands over her chest, “Oh, she gets mad! She’s mad, all the time!”

Steven laughed at her, “She’s sweet.”

Seeing the Princess loss her anger and laxed her arms, Steven frowned.

“Liar!”

Steven tied the knot to the bandage and looked directly at her, “I’m not!”

The Princess shook her head, “Celeste is me, so what you are saying is that I’m sweet…That…It doesn’t…”

Steven frowned again and suddenly it made sense, “So…That’s why I didn’t see you sometimes? You were the…Princess?”

The Princess, looked away and then nodded. “It never became much of an issue, when I’m alone I dress that way and act that way simply because it’s…Easier…”

 

“Then why didn’t you tell me that!?” Steven asked, his voice rising.

The Princess frowned, “Why should I!?”

Steven stood then, angrily, “I asked about the Princess, so you could have told me then!”

Picking her up, she let out a yelp, “You’re light as a feather.”

“What are you doing!?” Celeste yelled.

Steven looked at her quickly, before continuing to walk up the stairs. “What? You want to sleep on the floor?”

“No!”

He went up the stairs, both of them still grumbling.

“A Princess cooking her own dinners, whoever heard of such a thing!”

“It’s easier to just do everything myself!”

“Excuses!”

“It’s not an excuse!”

Holding onto her tighter, with one hand, Steven opened the door with the other.

“Where is it? I can’t see a thing.” Steven was talking about the bed.

“I wasn’t…” The Princess sighed…Suddenly, for the first time, she wished her room was cleaner…

 

Steven tripped, nearly losing the Princess!

Holding her closer to him, he sighed, “Uh…”

The Princess finally spoke, “Let me down, I’m ok…”

Honestly, she wasn’t broken, she would have been able to walk…Why hadn’t she thought of that until now!?

Steven put her down gently, staring at her.

Feeling self-conscious, Celeste slowly limped to her bed and put the cover over herself, wanting to disappear.

“Are you going to be ok until morning?”

“Go away…” She said through the cover.

Steven stood still for a moment, knowing now that the voice of both the Princess and Celeste was exactly the same.

Almost like someone who lost their soul, Steven walked away and wondered what stupid things he must have said to her.

 

***