Author's Note: Okay... so it's not as long as I hoped it would be... but whatever. I kind of like it.

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When the princess finally let go, the guard now known as Ciosa looked down at her hand in curiosity. For a moment, she had thought she had felt a spark run up her arm, but it had happened so quickly that all she could do was stare at her fingers, so much smaller than Willa's long, thin ones, and try to figure out what she had felt. She wondered if the princess had felt it as well. She highly doubted it. Mentally shaking herself from those thoughts, Ciosa looked back up from her hands and found the princess staring at her, one pale hand tucked under her chin as she studied the new addition to her royal guard.

"I've never had another girl guarding me before," Willa commented as she lowered her arm back to her side and began circling the brown haired guard. Ciosa looked indignant at the 'girl' remark, her eyes narrowing in anger. If the princess had noticed, she didn't give any outward indication that she had. Instead, she continued to talk, as if she believed that the guard was even remotely interested in anything she had to say. She was sorely mistaken. While the princess rambled on, Ciosa found herself tuning her out while she examined the princess’ room.

The first thing she noticed was how big it was. She could probably fit her whole house into the princess’ room! She knew she shouldn’t have been surprised by that fact, considering that she was in a castle, but she couldn’t help but wonder who would have so many possessions that they would need such a large amount of space. She herself knew that if she had such a large room she would feel incredibly alone.

‘Well, more alone than usual,’ she absently added on as she continued to survey her surroundings. For one fleeting moment, Ciosa found herself wondering if the princess ever felt loneliness. She mentally shook the thought away, reminding herself that it was the princess she was thinking about. She doubted that the woman even knew what loneliness was. ‘And if she ever did find herself feeling that way, she could just hire someone to keep her company,’ Ciosa thought bitterly, a wave of jealousy washing over her. Not wanting to dwell on thoughts better left alone, she began looking the room over once more.

It wasn't as majestic and decorated as the foyer, hardly having any paintings or rugs, but there was still something that made it scream royalty at any visitors. Ciosa thought it might have been the bed. It was covered with a blanket, which was dyed in a deep shade of blue that she had never seen before. Perhaps that was why it drew her attention. She thought of the bed she had back home and felt herself aching to be back there with her mother. She desperately wanted to go back to her small village by the sea, with familiar faces.

"Over all though, I think it will be a nice change of pace. I'll finally have someone guarding me that can understand where I'm coming from." That comment brought Ciosa out of her wandering thoughts and back to the princess, whom she found standing in front of her. She raised her eyebrow in question, wondering what, exactly, she was supposed to understand. Again, the princess ignored the look and continued to talk. This time, however, the guard was listening intently, trying to figure out just what the princess expected her to understand. “Those other guards, all they can think about is keeping me safe. But you... you’re different from them. You’re like me.”

If Ciosa could laugh, she would have. She was nothing like the princess. The princess would soon be more powerful than any woman in the kingdom, she was richer than she could imagine, and she was so beautiful that she probably had more suitors than she needed. Ciosa was most definitely nothing like the princess, but because she couldn’t laugh, she simply crossed her arms and shook her head.

“Oh, don’t give me that look,” the princess pouted, reminding Ciosa of the chatty, blonde seamstress. Of course, when the princess pouted, it looked a bit more dignified than when Lilly did it. At least, it seemed that way to Ciosa. “Surely you know what it feels like to be cooped up somewhere you don’t want to be?”

‘I’m stuck here, aren’t I?’ she thought to herself as she hesitantly nodded, glad that the princess couldn’t hear her thoughts.

“Of course you do,” the princess continued. “Daddy and the other guards simply don’t understand that by keeping me locked up in my room, they are only stopping me from living the life I know I was meant to,” the princess explained vehemently as she began pacing, Ciosa’s eyes following her every movement. “They don’t know what it’s like to be treated as an ornament that could break at any moment. They don’t know how it feels to be treated like an object that is theirs to do with as they please,” she vented, her hands balling up into angry fists before she suddenly stopped pacing.

Ciosa watched as the princess let out a calming breath and began flexing her hands. To the guard, it looked as if she was trying to get her emotions back in control. Before she had more time to analyze the princess’ behavior any longer, she found herself the target of stormy green eyes. She resisted the urge to gulp, knowing that it probably wouldn’t do well for her status as a guard, or her reputation for that matter, if the princess thought that she was slightly afraid of her.

“Please forgive me for the outburst. I really shouldn’t be making you listen to me. You’re my guard, not my confidant,” the princess apologized once she calmed down, giving her a contrite smile. “You do understand where I’m coming from, though? I’m not meant to be kept here. You can see that, can’t you?” she asked as she stepped closer to the brown haired girl. Ciosa found herself fighting the urge to take a step back from the taller woman as she hesitantly nodded her answer. “Good,” the princess said with a smile, her mood suddenly shifting from sad to happy, “Then you won’t stop me from doing this!”

Before her new bodyguard could comprehend what was going on, Willa took off in the opposite direction of the door, heading for the large, open window instead. She smiled triumphantly when she didn’t hear the smaller girl chasing after her. It seemed that she had actually convinced the guard to let her go.

‘That was much easier than seducing her,’ she thought with a wide grin before looking behind her, just to make sure the girl was still there. All she saw was an empty space, however. ‘That’s strange. Where’d she-’ Before she could finish her thoughts, Willa found herself crashing into a solid body much smaller than hers. “Found her,” she muttered to herself, closing her eyes tightly as she braced herself for the impact with the hard, stone floor.

She was surprised when, instead of hitting the floor, she found herself being caught by the very guard she had run into. Angry grey eyes bore into her green ones, and Willa was quickly trying to break free of her grasp so she could escape the intense gaze. The girl was stronger than she appeared, however, and it took the princess longer than she thought it would to get free.

“I apologize once more, Ciosa,” the princess said once she was standing on her own. “I was simply... testing you...” she explained, although by the look on her new bodyguard’s face, the girl wasn’t going to believe her. She sighed as she began to straighten out her dress, desperately trying to think of a believable lie that she could tell her as she smoothed out the fabric. “Look. I was merely seeing if you really have what it takes to be my bodyguard. Obviously, you do.” She added the last part on as quietly as she could so that the brown haired girl couldn‘t detect her annoyance. She could still sense that the guard didn’t believe her, however, so she decided to change the subject. “So how did you get over there without me seeing you?” she asked.

At first, Willa didn’t think that the girl was going to answer, but then the guard lifted her hand and made a twirling motion with her finger in the air. Willa was barely able to contain her surprise. All of her other guards were too bulky to even consider flipping through the air. She doubted any of them would even be able to jump that far.

“That’s incredible,” she told the girl. She wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the girl blush before turning her head and shrugging off the compliment. “No, really. Do you think you could teach me how to do that?” she asked, genuinely curious. If Ciosa taught her how to jump like that, she would be able to avoid the rest of her guards without a problem. She hopefully crossed her fingers as she watched the girl think it over, only to let out a disappointed sigh when the guard shook her head ‘no’. “Well why not?” she asked, just barely stopping herself from stamping her foot in irritation. Ciosa smiled at her before lifting both her hands. Willa watched as she made it appear as if two of her fingers were running on the upturned palm.

“I would not run away!” the princess objected indignantly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Like I told you before, I was simply testing to see if you were fit to serve as my bodyguard,” she reiterated before turning her head away so that she didn’t have to face the guard. After a few seconds, however, she turned her head back and found Ciosa smiling knowingly at her. It was a small, sympathetic smile, but a smile none-the-less. Perhaps this new guard did understand where she was coming from, after all. ‘Well then why won’t she let me leave?!’ she asked herself, frustrated that she hadn‘t even been able to reach the window.

“You know, it wouldn’t be considered running away from you if you just let me go,” she reasoned childishly. Before the guard could respond, however, a knock sounded on the door. Willa sighed before calling out that the visitor could come in. An elderly man, which Ciosa recognized as Henry, appeared in the room.

“Your Majesty, Prince Derek of Bartello has arrived. He wishes to see you as soon as he can,” the grey-haired escort informed the princess. Ciosa heard the princess give a soft sigh before she answered the man.

“Tell him that I will be with him shortly,” she ordered the escort, who nodded his understanding before giving a bow to the princess and leaving the room. The princess then turned back to Ciosa, her face an unreadable mask. “I’m sorry, but I must cut our meeting short. Unless, of course, you would like to escort me to meet with Prince Derek? I know you don’t officially start as my new bodyguard until next week, but I think it will do you some good to observe the others,” she told her. “Besides, I’m sure you’d like to see more of the castle.”

‘No, not really,’ the guard thought to herself. However, she nodded anyways. The princess was right; it would be beneficial to her if she observed how the other guards did their jobs. She may not have wanted the position of princess bodyguard, but now that she had it, she was going to be sure to do it right.

“We shouldn’t keep the prince waiting then,” the princess said before leading the way out of the room, her head held high and her stance proud; Ciosa didn’t like it. It was far too different from how the princess had been holding herself in her room. While in her room, the princess had still carried herself with pride, even when she had been making a run for it, but her head hadn’t been held up so high that she gave off the aura that everyone else was beneath her. She hoped, for her sanity, that the appearance she was showing now was just an act. Perhaps then the job she now had would be tolerable.