Yet another fairy tale story in the works...I've been working on it for a while, and I just recently decided that it's really too long to have as a one-shot. So...chapters. It'll probably wind up being three or four, if I ever finish it. Stay optimistic, Celtic-chan!

I suppose there should be warnings...like tiny bits of violence and man-love, as well as hetero-love that would be man-love if not for the fact that Alex has female chromosomes. Oh, and any muse who doesn't belong to me belongs to Seirei.

--

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...this cliche was shot several times and then buried. Alas, it was resurrected shortly afterwards and has yet to enjoy the peace that should come with being dead.

And so we continue, regardless of things that are better off left in their graves. There's nothing quite as nasty as a zombified cliche, as they have a particularly nasty bite that makes people grimace and hit the back button before getting more than a sentance or two into whatever work of prose they had expected to read.

Again. Back to the main point.

Life for the prince wasn't...horrible, per se, but it wasn't as splendid as it should have been either. For starters, he had been raised as a servant from birth because the untimely death of his mother and the resulting murder of his father had left behind a power-hungry steward. Said steward didn't like the idea of raising a prince who would someday steal his throne, but he didn't particularly want to kill the poor kid either. While making it a publicly known 'fact' that all traces of royalty had been eradicated, the steward--who's name was Set, since typing that over and over is getting kind of redundant--tossed the poor babe into the hands of a crone who worked in the kitchens. She forgot rather quickly that he was of nobility, being so old and everything, so that seemingly solved the problem of people finding the truth.

Unfortunately for Set (who decided that going by 'king' was a lot better than being called 'steward'), he had mistakenly angered a couple of people who had been on the previous king's payroll. One was named Alex--she was bitchy, her temper was legendary, and she excelled at killing people. However, she was also rather female (though most concluded that she had been a man in a previous life and hadn't been willing to give that up entirely) and Set didn't think she'd be competent when it came to getting rid of people. Technically, she had been fired years ago, but Alex never got around to leaving because she could cause all sorts of trouble and thanks to the unfortunate stereotype that had been affixed to her gender, she didn't get blamed for any of it.

The second person responsible for the prince finding out who his parents were was named Blake. He was about as easy to irritate as Alex, and even better at killing and maiming--he had been doing so for several more years than Alex, since he was really kind of old. Dragon, ya know. He was slightly less upset with Set, as he had been able to keep his job, but he considered the prince to be a friend.

Finally, getting onto the subject of the prince himself. Before being born, his mother had imagined a beautiful daughter with hair black as ebony, lips red as blood, and skin white as snow. However, most of her wishes hadn't come true. Orion, as her son had been named shortly before she died, was gifted with the snow-white skin, but that was it. His hair was also white as snow--though it took on a more silvery sheen as the years passed--and his lips were...well, describing that would be kinda creepy. They were lip-coloured, and we're going to leave it at that.

The years had definately been kind to him, to say the least. The typical dark blue eyes most babies seemed to be born with had changed to a bright green color, and his hair had grown past his hips. The paleness never seemed to go away no matter how much time he spent outside shirtless, and he was no longer surprised when women tried to use their feminine wiles to get him into their beds.

Too bad the fairer sex had no appeal to him, huh?

That's right. He batted for the other team. Rode the other bus, if you will--not that they had busses back then or anything. It's just a term. He rated a six on the Kinsey scale, though that wasn't in existence, either. Orion wasn't exactly your stereotypical gay man, though; the dual prospects of fighting and sex took up the largest portions of his brain.

Alas, few men in--or out--of the court interested him, as they were all intensely closeted or freakishly attached to someone who didn't pussyfoot around the subject. The last person he'd been involved in had been of the posessive sort, and had attacked the prince upon finding that he didn't want to continue their special little relationship, but he had been clocked over the head quite roughly with the counterweight of Orion's practice staff and he wasn't overly sure of his identity at the moment.

Once more, moving on to something slightly more interesting, not to mention more important to the plot of this wonderful story.

It was a bright, sunny day with a cool breeze just barely helping against the heat of the sun. It was nothing new, since the country was located on a coastline and high temperatures coupled with spastic rainfall were the norm. Orion was lounging in the garden, ignoring his duties as a 'servant' since there was little to do and he had no problems with arguing against Set. The king still didn't know that certain secrets had been revealed, and he didn't look down on the rebellious punk all too well, but he also knew that the servants would revolt if the object their lust was suddenly found exsanguinated. The idea of killing him at this point wasn't nearly as bothersome, since he was no longer a helpless little baby, but he only contemplated wringing the pale man's neck when particularly angry.

Anyway, the prince was enjoying the warmth as well as his inability to sunburn; Orion had been practicing with his polearm a little while ago and the shirt he had laid aside mysteriously disappeared. He suspected it was one servant girl who had been particularly friendly in the creepiest of ways, but getting it back wasn't high on his to-do list because she scared him.

However, he was also very bored. Sparring with Blake would have been interesting if it weren't for the fact that the dragon was nowhere to be found, and returning to the stupid chores he was expected to do didn't seem particularly entertaining. Besides, it would require entering the palace sans a shirt and women twittered enough. Stupid bleedin' women. They were utterly and completely crazy and he couldn't figure out why for the life of him.

And with that, Orion meandered over to the large fountain that was home to several lazy koi. They were so lazy, in fact, that they couldn't be bothered to move when someone approached, be they predator or not. Because of that, one could pet them quite easily, and the cats that roamed the palace were often seen wandering around with one hanging from their jaws. It was amazing that they had managed to survive so long.

He sat down on the edge of the fountain and leaned over, peering at the fish that kind of moved when they deemed it necessary. A small smile flitted across his lips and he broke the surface of the water with the tips of his fingers. It was only then that the ribbon holding his hair back decided to loosen itself completely, as it had been working towards the goal since he noticed his shirt had gone missing. The result was the lower six inches or so of his hair winding up in the water with fish nipping at what they thought was an easy meal.

Orion sighed with faint displeasure and straightened, but before he could reach back to fix the annoyance, he felt a mysterious pair of hands start the job for him. His eyes narrowed faintly and he stiffened, though the newcomer attempted to calm his fears and keep from being mauled at the same time.

"Hold still," came an unfamiliar, definately male voice. "I'm not going to attack or anything," the man added as an afterthought, sounding faintly amused.

For some ungodly reason, the prince did as he was commanded. As soon as he felt the hands remove themselves he turned around to question the stranger, though he wound up trying not to gape too obviously.

The man looked to be in his early twenties, with black-streaked brown hair and oddly bright grey eyes. He had a dark tan and an odd black streak under each eye, which reminded the prince strongly of the markings on Set's face. It didn't seem possible that they could be related, though; the king had crimson hair and eyes of the same color, and his skin was only a shade or two darker than Orion's.

Before coming up with something that sounded even halfway intelligent, the prince was quite surprised to find a pair of lips covering his own; it was even more surprising to realize that he was responding to the sudden kiss in a positive manner. One itty bitty portion of his brain was yelling at him for playing a rousing game of tonsil hockey with someone he hadn't even met yet, but it felt so nice...on more than just a sexual level, to be honest. There was something...different about the man. Something strange, but rather comforting...

And that was when the fairy tale aspect of the whole situation kicked in and he backed up unexpectedly. Of course, since Orion had been right next to the fountain and his movements had been rather rapid, a splash and a yelp of shock echoed throughout the courtyard simultaneously. It was a relatively deep fountain at that, since the bench of sorts that surrounded it was knee-high and the water stopped scant inches below that.

So, naturally, the prince found himself in water that was quite icy. He hoped he hadn't fallen on one of the fish, but his concerns were then replaced by the fact that he was cold at the moment and would probably be even colder upon getting out, thanks to the breeze. So, Orion sat there, shivering visibly and trying not to look at the man because he felt a bit like a fool.

"...I suppose I should have introduced myself first," the stranger said after a few moments, that tone of amusement still in his voice. "Do you need help getting out?"

"Nah," Orion replied, shaking his head a bit. "S'cold. And an introduction would'a been nice, but...whatever. I'm Orion," he added as an afterthought, figuring he might as well move the conversation along and try to distract himself from the feeling of ice that was slowly creeping through his veins.

"And I'm Osiris. Are you sure...? I think you'd dry off a bit faster if you got out of the fountain." Osiris arched an eyebrow and held his hand out, obviously offering his assistance in removing the prince from his watery position.

After a few moments of thought, the pale man came to the conclusion that the breeze could be handled; a fish was bumping against his side and they were probably chewing on his hair again. That, and he didn't want to smell like fish more than he had to. He accepted the help that had been offered and was soon standing once more, shivering even more violently than before.

Silence followed briefly, then they smiled at each other; and up in a window, going completely unnoticed by the pair, was a crimson-haired man who's fists were clenched hard enough to draw blood. With a growl and rapidly growing anger, he whipped around and stormed off with every intention of getting rid of the man he had made the mistake of saving.

--

"I want you to kill Orion. And...bring that damned ponytail back as proof. He'd have to be dead to give that up."

The orders--not to mention the smug smirk Set had been wearing at the time--had been reverberating through Blake's mind since they had been given to him. It wasn't a pleasing thought; he was rather fond of the prince, since Orion was pretty much the only one nearby who could easily match him in a fight, and he was a great deal less aggravating than most who could be found in the castle. Because of that, he would get a quick death. There would be no suffering.

He watched the man walking next to him out of the corner of his eye, his face expressionless. He had never failed before, and something as silly as friendship wasn't going to stop him. That made people weak, and the dragon was anything but weak. With that firmly in mind, Blake had asked Orion to assist him with something. He fabricated a story about a creature seen prowling nearby in the forest, and it had been enough to lure him out there.

In a flash, he slammed his fist into the younger man's jaw hard enough to stun him. With the precious few moments the attack had given him, the dragon swept Orion's legs out from under him and pinned him to the forest floor on his stomach. The dagger Blake always carried was drawn and pressed tightly against the prince's throat, drawing a thin line of blood.

"Set gave me orders to kill you," he explained shortly, wanting it to be known that this wasn't for personal reasons. "I don't want to, but it's my duty."

Surprisingly, Orion didn't struggle. It would have been pointless to do so. Instead, he sighed and shut his eyes with resignation. "I understand. It was only a matter of time...I guess this means you win, no?" A dry smile spread across his features at the mention of a challenge they still had going; no one could figure out which man was stronger.

He frowned and cracked one eye open curiously when the dagger was removed with an aggravated growl. Moments later, Blake jerked him to his feet and backed off. "Hmm?"

"For the record, this is only because I plan on winning fairly. You've got to get out of here," the dragon said with narrowed eyes, gesturing into the deeper portions of the forest. "He didn't mean for your body to be found, but..." He trailed off, not entire sure how to ask for the proof he had been ordered to collect.

Orion cocked his head, wondering what the 'but' was supposed to mean. He was immensely relieved, to be honest, so he couldn't find it in himself to care; dying hadn't been high on his to-do list, and had Blake wanted to, it would have been quite easy to slit his throat. "But?"

"Set requested I bring your ponytail back, as you'd 'have to be dead to give that up'."

Had it been physically possible for the prince to get any whiter, he would have paled dramatically. He opened his mouth to say something, but the shock prevented that. Finally, with another sigh, he unsheathed his own knife. Orion bit his lip, pressed the sharp blade to the area beneath the green ribbon, and sliced his hair off at shoulder-level without pausing to think the idea through. He handed over the mass of silvery hair over without a word.

"You didn't have to be so dramatic," Blake said with mild exasperation. It was incredibly odd to see Orion without the ponytail, though; it hung in his face and seemed a lot more open to movement now that it wasn't being weighed down as much. He didn't look bad, just different. "Be careful," he advised simply, turning around to walk off as he said the words.

"...Yeah," Orion replied numbly. He kind of stood there for a few moments, watching his friend walk off with his hair. Before too long, he came to the conclusion that cutting the ponytail off had been far more painful than finding that Set wanted to kill him. It was so trivial and silly that the prince was tempted to laugh.

And laugh he did, with the kind of hysteria one has when realizing that they're utterly and completely fucked and there's nothing that can be done.