"...She's hanging all her hopes on the stars
What a pleasant dream..."

She placed a delicate palm against the cool glass and sighed as she watched the dark haired boy drag himself into his house after a morning jog.

"Princess," her companion warned, seeing the far away look in his mistress' eye.

She turned to floating, twinkling creature, not suppressing her disappointment in having to turn away her gaze as her object of affection turned on the shower.  She hung her head.

"You hold false hope, Princess," he told her bluntly.

"If it is a sin to hope then I'll surely be condemned to hell," the delicate young maiden frowned, drawing her attention back to the handsome boy behind glass, sleeping peacefully.

He twinkled around her.  "T'is not a sin to hope, m'Lady.  T'is a tragedy to hold hope when all it leads to is pain."

She focused her dark eyes on the handsome young man.  "An inevitable tragedy then.  To love is to hope, even if it is in vain."

"You love him then?"  He desperately tried to keep from sounding condescending.

She placed both palms on the glass.  "You disapprove."

"No, my lady."

"Then you disbelieve," she turned to him then, catching him off guard  He blushed.

"The Prince --"

"The Prince has needs I cannot fulfill," her voice sounded more bitter than she would have hoped.  

"I... I see."

"Do not think I love this boy because I cannot love the Prince," she brushed a lock of light hair away from her face.  "It is, in fact, that I cannot love the Prince because I love the boy."

"You cannot lie to me, my lady.  It's obvious you feel for both."  He flew around to her and landed squarely on her shoulder.

"What else is obvious then?" The eloquent royal asked, brushing her fingertips upon the glass.

"You love the boy because he can't see you; he knows only of you in his dreams.  You love him because you cannot see him; you know only of him through a simple looking glass.  You speak to him and say you know him, yet your paths seems fated not to cross.  You love him, my lady, because you dream of him, and in your dreams he is perfect, young and wise, intelligent and spontaneous.  Mostly, my lady, you love him because you do not know him, and you never truly will."

A tear slowly traced its way down the Princess' delicate cheek, forming a puddle on the glass that covered the floor.

"My apologies, my lady," her companion said, sheepishly.  "T'was not my intention to upset you."

"I love him," she stated, as if she had never cried.  "I love him, and he may love me, but I will never be the one he loves the most.  And although I hold in my heart this false hope that fate will send him to me, deep down inside I know the truth."

She watched as he smiled in his sleep.

"Somewhere close to him someone loves him as much as I do.  More, perhaps, if that is possible.  And because I love him this much, I want him to be with this person," she heaved a great sigh and turned away from the glass. "He deserves hugs when he is sad, and good-bye kisses, and a shoulder to cry on."

She turned to her companion.

"He deserves much more than I could ever give him."

"My Princess..."

"And even though I know all this, I watch him through this glass.  I will watch him and I will love him until the day I die. I will love him knowing all the while that I can never love him beyond the looking glass."

Her companion's shining light dimmed.

"It may not ever be, but that does not mean it is not just as real, my Princess."

"I know," she said, as she turned to leave. "I know, and that is what hurts the most, I'm afraid." She cast one last look at the boy. A look filled with sadness, her companion noticed, and longing, but also determination.

"Good-bye, my love. It is only my fondest wish that you grow up to be happy," she allowed one more tear to slide down her cheek. "I must let you go."

"Please," he whispered, in a dreamlike state, "Do not go."

But she never heard him.

She was already gone.