Chapter Text
Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away, there lived a Prince named Finn. Finn was gentle and gracious, clever and cunning. He was wise beyond his years and a thoughtful statesman, too. He was everything that the people of D’Qar could want in a leader, and all the people of the kingdom adored him.
This shouldn’t have come as a surprise: the King and Queen had been equally adored during their reign, and under them, D’Qar had achieved a level of peace and prosperity none had ever dreamed of. It was truly a Golden Era.
But even in the midst of all of this, there was a sadness to Prince Finn. His parents had died when he was eight years old, and while he dearly loved the Regent, Lord Skywalker, into whose care he—and his kingdom—had been entrusted, Finn missed his parents.
And with every coming year, he felt the weight of the responsibilities of ruling his kingdom more and more acutely.
It wasn’t that Prince Finn wasn’t fit to rule the kingdom. In reality, since he was a teenager, the Regent had been handing over more and more responsibilities to him, so that now, Finn was the King in all but name. And Finn was good at ruling, but it was a rather lonely job.
Finn remembered the partnership his parents had shared, the way that they had helped each other, and complimented each other. Watching the two of them work together had been like watching two masters in a complicated dance—it was thrilling to see two bodies so well coordinated that they could have been one.
It was that partnership that he wanted to pattern his own rule on. Prince Finn desperately wanted to share his life, and his kingdom, with his beloved.
And that was his problem.
The Regent would technically rule until Prince Finn’s twenty-fifth year, at which time the Prince would officially become King Finn. After his coronation, Finn wanted nothing more than to announce the person who would be his consort and rule beside him.
But, he couldn’t.
Prince Finn had a secret that he’d been carrying around for years: he knew who he wanted to be his consort (had known since his tenth birthday when a certain someone had been appointed head of the Prince’s Guard), but alas, his beloved didn’t share his feelings. Finn couldn’t imagine sharing his life with anyone else, but it simply wasn’t meant to be.
Finn knew he could rule on his own—he’d still have the support of his people and the Regent, after all. But this yearning for his love simply wasn’t going away.
And as he got closer and closer to his twenty-fifth birthday and his coronation, he became more and more despondent.
Finn felt guilty—for someone who had so much to be upset because one thing was denied to him… It seemed selfish and immature.
And Finn had seen what damage unrequited love could do to a being. He saw it every day when the Regent didn’t think anyone was watching.
Prince Finn didn’t know the details, but he knew that Lord Skywalker had not started out life as an advisor in D’Qar. Long ago, he’d hailed from the tiny desert kingdom of Tatooine. Rumors told of adventures with smugglers and swashbucklers and Skywalker’s role in stopping the evil Empire of the North. Those stories painted Lord Skywalker as a dashing young man with a quick temper and a kind heart, and Finn had often wondered what that Luke Skywalker had been like.
Because the man he grew up with was so different—he was still kind and brave, but there was a sadness to the Regent that seemed to cast a shadow over his life, like a cloud that hung around him wherever he went.
Castle gossip said that the Lord’s true love had married another and that that was why Lord Skywalker, one of the most venerated scholars (and if the rumors were to be believed, sorcerers) in all the kingdoms had traveled to D’Qar to serve Finn’s parents.
He was running away from his heart.
Prince Finn respected Lord Skywalker, but he did not want to turn out like him.
If his love couldn’t love him in return, he had to find a way to fall out of love. He had to find a way past this. He didn’t want a cloud hanging over his head for the rest of his life.
Which was why, on a cool May evening a few months before his coronation, he was sitting in his study staring at a pile of papers without really seeing them. He knew if something didn’t change soon, he was facing a lonely future. So he needed to find a way to harden his heart and stop his foolish pining…
“You’re fretting,” Rose said as she crossed through the study.
“I’m thinking,” Prince Finn replied without lifting his head from the papers. He heard her shut the window and pull the curtains. “And I’m perfectly capable of closing a window, Rose.”
She smiled. “Really?” She shook her head and walked to his desk. “Why don’t you talk to him?”
“Who?”
Rose closed her eyes, trying hard not to roll them at the future King. “You know who. The same person you're pining for.”
“I’m not pining. I’m reading.”
Rose laughed. “You’re pining.”
“Reading.”
Rose snatched the paper from the top of the pile on his desk. “Then tell me what this is about.”
“Well…” Finn couldn’t remember one word of it. “Fine, I’m pining.”
“See!” Rose grabbed the Prince’s arm, trying to pull him up. “Go talk to him!”
“It’s not that simple.” Prince Finn adored Lady Rose. Her mother had been his mother’s closest friend in all the world, and he and Rose had grown up together. She was the nearest thing to a little sister he’d ever had.
In fact, sometimes, she was a bit too much like a meddling sister for Finn’s taste. “Rooooose,” he said, trying to squirm out of her grasp.
For her part, Rose had heard every imaginable excuse come out of the Prince’s mouth in the last few years. She’d figured out long ago that the Prince was desperately in love with the head of the Prince’s Guard. Why he insisted on pretending that the other man didn’t share those feelings was beyond her.
“Your highness,” she said. She only used formalities when she was trying to make a point. “While you can sit up here and imagine that he’s going to reject you, there’s no way to really know unless you talk to him.”
“Talk to who,” asked a voice from the doorway.
Finn spun so fast he nearly knocked poor Rose down.
“Uh,” Finn said, his eyes wide. “No one.”
Sir Poe Dameron, head of the Prince’s Guard, smiled, his eyes crinkling. “Ummmm-hmmmmm,” he hummed, clearly not believing the Prince. He looked to Rose and raised an eyebrow.
She looked from Poe to Finn, who was imploring her with his eyes not to say anything. “No one,” she finally said. “I was just teasing his royal stuffiness.”
Poe laughed and walked in. “It is stuffy in here. You should open a window, your highness.”
Finn shot a look at Rose, who said, “No, he shouldn’t. It’s time for dinner and it’s getting cold outside.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Finn said. He looked to Poe. “Did you need something?”
“Only to tell you that the delegation from Alderaan will be arriving the day after tomorrow. The staff have prepared the south wing for them and my guards are ready.”
Finn nodded.
“You could look a bit more excited about it,” Poe said.
Finn opened his mouth and then shut it. The delegation from Alderaan consisted of Queen Leia Organa, Prince Consort Han Solo, and their daughter Princess Rey. Finn had heard many wonderful things about the Princess, but as he suspected that this was an attempt on the part of Alderaan’s royal family to secure an alliance, he was a little less than thrilled that they were coming.
On one hand, an alliance with Alderaan could be a smart tactical move and marriage to the Princess might distract him from Poe, but on the other hand, the idea of marrying someone simply for political reasons went against everything Finn’s gut told him a marriage should be.
“It can’t be that bad,” Poe said, looking to Rose.
“He’s afraid that they’re going to push the Princess on him.”
“And?”
Finn rolled his eyes. “And I really don’t want to start that again.”
Four years ago, when Finn had turned twenty, the Regent had attempted to jump start the search for a suitable consort. There had been balls and parties and visitors from all sorts of kingdoms, both near and far—and after six months, the Prince had escaped to an old hunting lodge, refusing to come home until the forced courting stopped.
The Regent had promised no more matchmaking.
But now, with his twenty-fifth birthday fast approaching, Finn knew that more than one member of his court was worried.
Poe’s chuckle pulled Finn from his thoughts. “I don’t know,” Poe said, taking the Prince’s arm and leading him towards the dining room. “I thought some of the parties were fun.” He turned to Rose. “Remember the masquerade with the animal theme?”
Rose laughed. “Oh my goodness! I’d forgotten about all of the swans!”
Poe howled. “Every single woman in the kingdom—it was a sea of white feathers!”
Rose shook her head. “The feathers!”
Finn smiled. He’d forgotten about that fiasco. “The clean-up took forever,” he muttered.
“Or the garden party with the frogs,” Rose said.
Poe stopped, his eyes getting wide. “The frogs!”
Finn chuckled and nodded. “It was apparently mating season.”
Poe bumped his shoulder into the Prince’s. “And don’t forget when they started hopping out of the pools.”
Finn burst into a wide smile. Most of those attending the party had started screaming and scattered. It was a mess. But then, Poe had come to help the Prince to “safety,” which meant they’d snuck off to the far end of the garden with some stolen pastries and wine. They’d spent the rest of the afternoon toasting to the frogs.
Poe’s eyes were bright as he looked at the Prince. “See? It wasn’t all bad.”
“Fine. The frogs were good. Okay?”
“Well,” Poe said, with a quick wink to Rose. “I promise that if things get too serious with the Princess, I’ll release some frogs into the throne room.”
# # # #
While there were many who would claim that Sir Dameron was the best rider in D’Qar, no one could deny that Lady Jessika Pava had a special gift when it came to horses. Not only was she a fantastic rider in her own right, but everyone in the castle knew that if your horse went lame or if you had a new horse that needed to be broken in, you should call for her. She just had a way with horses.
And even though she was a lady of noble birth, Jessika preferred to be near the horses—often claiming that she liked them more than people—so she kept a room at the back of the stables.
On this night, however, she wasn’t in her room, she was leaning against the stable door, her arms crossed in front of her. Poe was brushing down his horse, humming with a faraway look in his eyes. She smiled. “Thinking of anyone I know?”
Poe startled. “No.”
She walked over to pat his horse, Bee, on the muzzle. “Do you believe him, Bee?” The horse snorted and Jess cackled. “Want to try again, Poe?”
He sighed. “His highness and I were just reminiscing about the time with the frogs.”
“OOOOOOH,” Jess said, sharing a knowing look with the horse. “You mean that time when you and the Prince disappeared together for hours and the entire castle thought you’d eloped?”
“They did not think—”
Jess met Poe’s eyes. “We were ready to send guards to the cathedral.”
“Stars,” Poe muttered, refocusing on his work.
“Why don’t you just tell him?”
This time it was Poe who snorted. “Jess, he’s a Prince! He’s going to be king. He deserves someone…” He pointed at her.
“Who isn’t interested?”
“No,” Poe huffed. “Someone of noble blood.”
Jess rolled her eyes. “You can’t seriously be using that excuse?”
“Why not,” Poe said, hurt clear in his voice.
“The Queen’s consort was a farmer before she married him. If she didn’t need noble blood, why should her son?”
“But it’s different with him…”
“You aren’t trying to suggest that Finn worries about bloodlines are you, because—”
“No!” Poe stopped brushing Bee. “But he deserves…Stars, Jess, he deserves so much more than—”
“If you finish that thought, Poe, I will hit you.”
Poe sighed. “Fine.”
Jess gave Poe a sad smile. “You might be the partner he’s been waiting for, you know?”
Poe resumed brushing Bee’s coat. “I’m sure that Princess Rey will be a better fit that I’d ever be.”
“Oh yes, I’m sure a complete stranger who he’s never met is his perfect match.”
Poe shook his head. “Better than a soldier without two gold coins to his name.”
Jess growled, stomping out of the stall. “You are too stubborn and too stupid for your own good!”
“Good night to you too, mi’lady.”
“Grrrr,” Jess yelled back at him. She quickly made her way into the castle to a small room just outside the armory. There, she found several other members of the Prince’s Guard: Snap, Iolo, Karé, and Bastian. “Grrrrr,” she growled as she entered, falling into a chair.
“And hello to you too, Lady Pava,” Snap said. Technically, he was Lord Temmin Wexley, but ever since he was a child, members of the court had simply called him Snap.
“What did he do this time,” Sir Iolo Arana asked.
Jess shook her head. “It’s the same thing.”
The entire group groaned.
“I’m not worthy of the Prince’s love,” Sir Charles Bastian said, in his best impression of Sir Dameron.
“Exactly,” Jess said.
“We could lock them in a room together,” Lady Karé Kun said.
“I’m pretty sure that’s treason,” Snap said.
“And,” said a voice from the doorway, “it wouldn’t work. The Prince is just as bad as Sir Dameron.” Rose entered and sat in the remaining empty chair.
“Kriff,” Snap said. “What are we going to do with them?”
“Hire a sorcerer to give them both a truth potion,” Bastian asked.
“Perhaps an idea that doesn’t involve dabbling in the dark arts,” Karé said.
“My plan is to sabotage this meeting with the new Princess,” Jess said.
“Sabotage,” Rose asked, a smile already playing at her lips.
“Yes,” Jess said. “It’s time for action, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that her meeting with the Prince is disastrous.”
“Please tell me we don’t have to find a bunch of frogs again,” Iolo said. “Last time, I smelled like the swamp for a week.”
“It almost worked,” Jess said.
“Almost,” Snap said.
“I don’t hear any of the rest of you sharing ideas,” Jess said.
“I agree with Lady Jess. We need to do something big. The pining is getting to be too much,” Rose said.
“So, it’s settled,” Jess said. “When the Princess arrives, we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that her courtship with the Prince goes wrong.”
Iolo, Snap, and Karé shared worried looks, even as they heard themselves agreeing to Jess’ ridiculous plan.