This took so long to write but I love this ship so it was worth it. It's also a lot longer than others because I've had a lot more free time, and I wrote like 5,000 of the words at like 3 am.

The thorns faded away like they were nothing but the ash of his cigarette. Something about his words struck her. She didn't want to say like an arrow to the heart; it was too cliche a saying, but she couldn't stop looking at him. Her eyes were wide, a mix of fears still raced through her veins as he helped her to her feet. She glanced at his hand holding hers once she was standing. The touch lingered for just a moment as he gripped her hand and squeezed. She didn't want him to let go, a feeling which in itself made her blood run cold.

Once she was steady on her feet though, it was over. He dropped her hand like it was nothing, sheathing the sword he had used to cut through the vines, all the way to her heart.

"Well. Now that that's done. See ya."

He walked away, his attention no longer on her, but rather the wet spot of spilled soup on his shirt. She could hear him muttering to himself. She should do something, but she was rooted to the spot. She should at least offer to buy him lunch, but she could not move. So she stood there and watched him walk away, his cloak whipping in the wind behind him.

She stood there still, long after he had disappeared, watching where he had been.She could not move. She wondered if he had indeed broken the curse, for she felt as if she were trapped in the moment still. Slowly the people of the town began to emerge and go about their tasks, their lives. But she could not move. The curse was indeed broken; the time cage had failed to entrap them.

However, her heart, she felt had been entrapped by something else entirely. She placed her hand on her chest only to feel it racing. She took a deep breath, surprised by the unsteadiness of it. She took a step, hesitating as she moved forward, then another, and another until she was running to the home of her parents as fast as she could. She had hoped to run from the tightness in her chest, hoped the burning in her lungs would overcome the feeling in her heart. She couldn't name the feeling, but it scared her. The feeling scared her more than the curse, more than disappointing her parents, more than her failure.

"Oh, Charlotte!" Her mother's voice cut through her contemplation. "You did it! You beat the curse, my darling!" She was crushed to her mother's chest in a rare outburst of emotion. Her mother was weeping with joy as she kissed her head. "You did it!"

Her father came running as well and embraced her.

"We are so proud of you. We were skeptical of your desire to join the Magic Knights, but after you did, with how strong you've grown, we knew, both of us, that you would be able to overcome the curse."

She didn't have the heart to tell them, but she needed to. She looked at their smiling faces and met them with a weak smile of her own.

"I, I didn't." She could feel tears on her cheeks, hot shameful tears. Their eyes did not accuse her of weakness as she had feared. They embraced her once more.

"No matter. It's broken. How it got broken doesn't matter." Her father said as he stroked her long blond hair.

"Who was it, Charlotte?" Her mother wiped the tears from her cheeks as they continued to fall. She shook her head. She didn't want to say; she couldn't say.

"Just, just some guy." She muttered through a new wave of tears. They would never understand. She wasn't sure she understood it herself, but something he had said, something in the way he looked at her with both admiration and an offering of friendship had melted her cold shell and exposed her.

"Some random guy stole your heart? I find that hard to believe." Her father had slipped into his role as Lord Roselei, firm-voiced, demanding, and immovable.

"No, not some random guy."

"So, tell me." Her mother took her hands and led her to a chair in the sitting room. "Who was it? Some dashing young noble? It's alright if he's not quite as high in status as our own house." Her mother grinned at her. She could see plans and arrangements being made behind her mother's cool blue eyes. She couldn't tell them.

"I, I don't know his name. He's another Magic Knight though."

"A moment ago you sounded like you knew him." Her father pushed. She looked up at him, terror rising within her once more. She couldn't tell them; they would not understand and would never accept it. She could not believe she had lost her heart to one such as him herself.

Who was she kidding, she was still upset she could not break the curse on her own. Anger broiled within her over losing her mind over some guy, any guy. The fact the guy she lost her heart to was Yami Sukehiro only added fuel to the fire.

"I, We served together in some battles. I met him a couple of times, but there were so many people there, I don't, I don't remember exactly."

"Well, as long as he's not some common trash." Her mother smiled at her. "Oh, I had hoped you would have been able to break the curse on your own. I know how hard you worked to do so, Charlotte. But I would be lying if I said I had never thought of the other option, of you finding a good man, falling in love and getting married."

She sighed as her mother patted her arms and looked gleefully at her. She knew her mother would be sickened to learn the one who had broken the curse, who had stolen her heart was not only a commoner, but also a foreigner.

"I, I'm going to go to my room." She disentangled herself from her parents and tried to walk calmly up the stairs. She wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted to excise this feeling from her chest, these memories and thoughts from her mind.

"Don't forget about the party this evening, Charlotte dear!" Her mother called as she made her way up the grand staircase. "We should invite every Magic Knight in the area, just in case." She heard her mother say to her father. She sighed again as she hurried up the stairs.

She hadn't wanted the party, but her mother insisted. When she opened the door to her room, she was assaulted by several gowns her mother had picked out for her to wear. She wanted none of it. And she especially did not want to have to entertain whatever Magic Knights might be in the area in any of them. She picked up the gowns from her bed and deposited them in a heap on a settee across the room. She kicked off the boots she wore and collapsed onto the bed. It was plush and warm, more so than the rather austere accommodations she had at headquarters. She sank into the bed and closed her eyes, hoping to enjoy a moment of solitude before the inevitable madness her mother had planned.

But once her eyes slid shut, all she could think of was him.

His bourbon colored eyes haunted her and his voice reverberated through her soul.

"Ugh, why did it have to be him?" She cried out into the nothingness. Her voice echoed through the room and she shot a glance at the door, hoping no one had heard her. She held up the hand he had grabbed when he helped her up, the one he had squeezed. She could still feel the ghost of his touch. She wanted to cut off the hand, and she wanted him to hold it once again.

What would her colleagues say if they knew, if they found out? She grunted in frustration.

She pushed her sleeves up as far as they would go. She called forth her briars, winding them tightly around her arms. It was a trick she used sometimes as a sort of armor in battle.She looked at the vines snaking her wrists and forearms. The sharp thorns pricked the surface of her skin. With each thought of him, she wound them more tightly until the thorns punctured her arms and she cried out in the pain of it. Rivulets of blood ran down the thick vines and dripped onto her blouse and bed as she held her arms above her. Sunlight danced on her fingertips and made the droplets of blood collecting on the sharp thorns glisten like rubies.

And still his words haunted her.

She willed the briars tighter still, gasping in the pain, eyes welling with tears.

Her mother threw open the door.

"Charlotte, have you decided on your dress... What in the Demon's name are you doing?!" Her mother rushed over to her daughter's bedside. "Don't tell me it's the curse?"

She released shaky breath and the briars disappeared into nothing, fading away like ash once more. All that was left were the cuts in her porcelain skin and red trails of blood dripping down her arms.

"No. It's not the curse."

"Then what?"

She looked at her mother's worried eyes. They were the same eyes she saw in the mirror every day, only with far more emotion. She pushed herself up to sitting

"I just... It's just too much."

"You're angry you couldn't break the curse yourself, aren't you?" Her mother sat next to her. "Look, I know the reputation of Blue Rose. I know you have given most men a difficult time, because you were scared of the curse."

"It wasn't because I was scared of the curse." Her voice was tiny and her mother wasn't listening, as usual.

"But you don't have to worry about that now. And I'm sure the one who broke the curse is a wonderful man."

She snorted. She did not now Yami on a personal level, but they had served on several missions together in the past. And she had found him to be the rudest, most crude, most infuriating man she had ever met. He was a barbarian, a scoundrel through and through. His reputation as the God of Destruction preceded him.

Yet the Wizard King trusted him. One might even say the highest wizard in the land favored him over most other Magic Knights.

And what he had said to her... Asking her to trust others, to trust him... She wondered if everything she knew about him was wrong.

"Come now, let's get you to the healer. We can't have these cuts showing tonight."

"I'll just wear one of my old dresses, one with sleeves."

Her mother looked at her in shock.

"No you will not. Besides none of those dresses being in a current style, I doubt any of them fit you anymore. You have grown a bit since you went to join the Knights."

She sighed and allowed her mother to lead her to the healer on staff. She let her mother dress her in some frilly sleeveless gown she would have never picked for herself. She blushed as she looked at the unrecognizable figure in the mirror.

"Come now, Charlotte. It's your birthday! Give us a smile." She forced a smile for her mother's sake. Her mother ran her hands over her bared shoulders as she looked at the image in the mirror. "You look so beautiful."

But all she could see was an impostor.

"How am I supposed to move in this?"

"Gracefully, my dear." An elderly lady swept into the room, her blue eyes blazing behind the fan she held over her face.

"Grandma." The smile one her face now was genuine.

"Oh, thank goodness you made it in time, Mother." Charlotte's mother addressed the elderly woman. "Can you see what you can do about her hair? I have to check with the chef."

"Of course, of course." The well-put together woman waved her daughter off to go about the rest of the business needed to prepare the celebration. She gestured to a nearby chair and Charlotte marched over and took a seat. The woman tutted and shook her head.

"You've been in armor too long, Charly."

"No one calls me that anymore, Grandma." She perched as best she could in the massive skirt.

"Humor an old woman. After this, I will teach you how to walk like a lady again." She pulled a brush with stiff bristles through her fine hair. Charlotte winced as she pulled her hair tightly.

"Yes, Grandma."

The old woman braided and twisted the birthday girl's long blond hair into an elaborate style to match the dress she wore.

"Your mother was right. You are beautiful." She kissed the young woman's head before sitting in a chair next to her. "Now, tell be about the curse."

Charlotte sank into her chair as best she could given the restrictive garments she wore.

"I saw the briars rising above the town from a distance. I know the curse triggered. So, will you tell me what stopped it?"

Charlotte blushed and clenched her fists in anger.

"It wasn't me."

"So who?"

She gripped her skirts and pressed her lips together. She squeezed her eyes shut, worried she would feel the splash of warm tears on her hands, but thankful she did not.

"I should have been enough, Grandma. I should have been stronger on my own."

"My dear child," The old woman's voice was calm and compassionate as she laid a hand on Charlotte's fists. "You are plenty strong in your own right, but that was not the condition of the curse and you know it. Just be thankful that condition was met before the curse took full effect." She took Charlotte's cheek in her hand and lifted the young woman's face. "Now, who is the man who has stolen my granddaughter's heart?"

Charlotte looked at her grandmother and took a deep breath.

"You know him, don't you?"

Charlotte nodded. Her grandmother's magic let her detect lies and truths. Because of it, she had worked for some years in the capital--not as a magic knight, but as an aid to the Wizard King himself, when she was younger, before she married and had her children. While her skills may have faded with age and lack of use, Charlotte knew it was pointless to try lying to the old woman.

"But you haven't told your parents."

She shook her head.

"I don't dare. Mother is now obsessed with finding him and working out some sort of marriage arrangements, but they... they wouldn't approve, or understand."

The old woman sat back and regarded her granddaughter for a long moment.

"He's a colleague of yours, another Magic Knight. Your father told me he knew that much. But he's also a commoner, isn't he."

Charlotte nodded.

"Not just that, Grandma. He's a foreigner too."

The old woman's eyes grew wide and then a sly grin spread over her face.

"It wouldn't be that young Yami Sukehiro, would it?" She leaned in conspiratorially. "Um, were I forty years younger, I wouldn't mind taking a bite out of that one."

"Grandma!" Charlotte blushed heavily.

"Your grandfather was a wonderful man, don't get me wrong, but he was shall we say, lacking on the physical side. Now that boy of yours... he looks like he could show a girl a real good time." The old woman chuckled and licked her lips.

"I, I am not hearing this." Charlotte covered her ears with her hands and caught her scarlet reflection in the mirror. The old woman cackled and wiped tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Oh, my dear. I'm sorry. Since your grandfather passed, all I have left are an old woman's fantasies." She leaned forward and grabbed Charlotte's hand. "I just hope that an old woman's fantasies aren't all you ever allow yourself. You are young; you are beautiful. You should enjoy your youth while you can. Before you allow yourself to be tied down." Charlotte nodded in understanding, though she had no intention of ever tying herself down to anyone or anything except her duty to the kingdom.

"But you're right." Her grandmother sat back in the chair once more and began fanning herself. "Your parents, they would never understand. They have their noses too far up their own asses to see past things like class or nationality."

"Is this another bit of wisdom from aging, Grandma?"

"What? Hell no! Your father and mother never had to work with commoners before. Your grandfather either. They never had their eyes opened to the ridiculousness of their own discrimination." She gripped Charlotte's hand once more. "I was so thrilled when you decided to join the Knights. It gave me hope for you, that you would see the world through a different set of eyes from your parents. My great shame is that I was not able to teach your mother to be more tolerant. I hope and pray every day you will learn the lessons she did not."

Charlotte smiled.

"Now, your mother is probably having a fit over the smallest details. We should probably go check on her."

"Yes, Ma'am." Charlotte stood and brushed her skirt down over the large undercarriage giving it shape. Her grandmother frowned at her.

"I hate the new styles. Young women today have no sense of elegance and simplicity."

"It is quite cumbersome, but Mother insisted." Charlotte looked at herself again in the mirror. The woman she saw still looked like a stranger, at least from the neck down. Her grandmother looked through the variety of rejected gowns piled on her bed and brought a simple pale blue dress. It was embellished with a delicate lace and beading.

"Try this one."

"Mother's not going to be happy." Charlotte beamed as she rid herself of the massive white gown.

"It's your birthday. The only happiness that matters, my dear, is yours."

The dress felt smooth and cool against her skin as she stepped into it and pulled it up to her chest. Her grandmother deftly laced the back of the gown, tightening it until it hugged her rib cage. She placed her hands on Charlotte's bare shoulders.

"Now you look stunning."

Charlotte blushed, wondering if her mother had indeed made the effort to invite any Magic Knight in the area. She wondered if he would be invited if she had. Her grandmother slipped a sheer overdress on to cover her shoulders and buttoned it around her waist. She wondered what he would think if he saw her like this.

The party was a complete bore. Charlotte's mother had indeed sent messengers to the various Magic Knights currently in the city and surrounding areas. Several of them, as well as several young men from the local noble houses were on hand to see her, to try and woo her. She smiled politely as was expected of her. She let them engage her in small talk, but she could not stop looking at the clock, wondering how much more she would have to endure, or the door, curious to see if he might walk through. She had danced and mingled and played her role. She looked over to her mother, who was grinning with pride.

She no longer had the excuse of the curse. She no longer could call out her suitors for their weakness and in ability to withstand the curse. But she also could not stand the sight of the men paraded before her. They exuded weakness and weak wills, even the other Magic Knights in attendance. None had his strength or quiet confidence; none appreciated her strength or her successes.

She wove her way through the crowd, silently thanking her grandmother for convincing her to change for what felt like the hundredth time. Her father called her over at the very moment she was about to step outside into the night air. The attention and pressure she felt in the air were oppressive. She needed a breath of freedom, but she dare not disobey her father.

"Where are you going, Charlotte?"

"I just need some air, Father."

He nodded, but did not release her.

"Is he here?" He asked looking over the gathered crowd. She followed his gaze and looked out across the tapestry of faces blending together. None stood out to her eye or her heart.

"No."

"A pity. Still, I'm sure you will find one of these suited to you. You need to start thinking about the future, Charlotte. The fate of this family rests on your shoulders, you know." He looked at her smiling.