Chapter Text
The kingdom adored beautiful things.
Beautiful music. Beautiful roses. Beautiful daughters who smiled quietly and married obediently.
It adored knights even more.
Knights were meant to be fearless creatures forged from steel and sunlight, broad shouldered heroes who carried banners into battle and returned home bathed in glory.
So Tsukasa Suou learned very young that she could never become one.
Not as herself.
The first time she stole a sword, she was nine years old.
The weapon had been taller than her, its polished blade trembling violently in her tiny hands while the boys training in the courtyard laughed loud enough for the entire estate to hear.
“Lady Tsukasa wishes to play knight!”
“Careful,” one of them sneered. “She’ll cry when it gets heavy.”
Tsukasa remembered the heat crawling up her neck more vividly than the insults themselves. Embarrassment had always burned hotter than anger.
But she had not dropped the sword.
Even as her arms shook. Even as her gloves slipped. Even as her mother watched silently from the balcony above with an expression colder than winter marble.
That night, her sword was confiscated.
The next day, Tsukasa stole another.
And another after that.
Until eventually, years sharpened humiliation into resolve.
If the kingdom refused to allow women to become knights, then the kingdom simply would not know she was one.
So Tsukasa cut her hair.
Bound her chest until breathing became an ache she carried daily beneath her ribs. Learned how to deepen her voice. Learned how to walk without swaying her hips. Learned how to sleep lightly whenever she shared barracks with other knights.
Learned how to survive.
By nineteen, she had become one of the youngest knights to earn direct service beneath the royal family.
By twenty, she deeply regretted it.
Because serving Princess Leo Tsukinaga was less an honorable assignment and more a divine punishment crafted specifically for her patience.
“Suouuuu! Hurry!”
The shout echoed somewhere above her.
Tsukasa stopped in the middle of the palace corridor, eye twitching beneath perfect composure.
Slowly, she looked upward.
There, balanced recklessly on the edge of a high stone archway three stories above the marble floor, stood the princess herself.
Radiant.
Disastrous.
Princess Leo grinned down at her like sunlight spilling through shattered stained glass.
Orange hair tumbled wildly around her shoulders, tangled with flower petals and ribbons that had probably once belonged to expensive royal decorations. Her ceremonial cape hung halfway off one shoulder. One boot was unlaced.
Tsukasa felt a migraine forming instantly.
“Your Highness,” she called carefully, already exhausted, “why are you on the ceiling.”
“I was inspired!”
“That does not answer the question.”
“It answers the spiritual question.”
“There should not BE a spiritual question!”
Several horrified servants lingered nearby, too terrified to interfere. One elderly maid looked moments away from fainting.
Leo beamed brighter upon spotting Tsukasa beneath her.
“My gorgeous knight has arrived to rescue me.”
Tsukasa nearly walked directly into a pillar.
The servants giggled nervously.
Unfortunately, Leo noticed.
Even more unfortunately, Leo delighted in her embarrassment the way cats delighted in knocking fragile objects off tables.
“Did you blush?” Leo gasped dramatically. “Suou, are you blushing?”
“I am not.”
“You are! Your ears turned red!”
“I am begging Your Highness to descend safely.”
“No.”
Tsukasa inhaled slowly through her nose.
The gods, she thought, were cruel.
Because Princess Leo was impossible.
Impossible in the way storms were impossible. Impossible in the way music was impossible. Loud and beautiful and untamed in ways the royal court despised.
Nobles called her difficult behind silk fans.
Too emotional. Too strange. Too improper to rule.
But Tsukasa had seen the truth hidden beneath those whispers.
Leo remembered every servant’s name. Played piano for sick children in the lower district. Secretly paid dowries for girls whose families could not afford marriages. Composed songs about freedom no noble ever understood.
And when she smiled, truly smiled, the entire world felt briefly less cruel.
Which was precisely the problem.
Tsukasa was her knight.
Not a fool in love with a princess she could never have.
Above her, Leo spread her arms dramatically across the archway.
“Catch me!”
Tsukasa’s soul left her body.
“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
Leo jumped anyway.
The scream that escaped Tsukasa would haunt her ancestors for generations.
She lunged forward just in time, catching Leo against her chest with enough force to stagger backward across the marble floor. Flower petals exploded around them.
For one suspended moment, the corridor fell silent.
Leo’s laughter softened.
Tsukasa realized, with horrifying awareness, how close they were.
One arm beneath Leo’s knees. The other around her waist. Leo’s hands curled loosely against the front of Tsukasa’s uniform.
And Leo was looking at her.
Not playfully. Not teasingly.
Just… looking.
As though Tsukasa were something precious.
“You caught me,” Leo murmured.
Tsukasa forgot how breathing worked.
Then nearby servants began whispering frantically again, shattering the moment like thin ice.
Tsukasa quickly set the princess back onto her feet.
“You could have been injured, Your Highness.”
“But I knew you’d catch me.”
“That is not an excuse for throwing yourself from royal architecture!”
Leo tilted her head slightly.
A smile curled slowly onto her lips.
“You always do, though.”
The incident became known throughout the palace as *The Archway Disaster.*
Mostly because Leo proudly named it that herself.
By evening, three servants had nearly resigned, the royal tutor developed a stress headache, and Tsukasa had received an official warning from the captain of the knights for “encouraging the princess’s dangerous tendencies.”
Encouraging.
As though Tsukasa had personally tossed Leo from the ceiling.
She stood now outside the grand council chamber with all the rigid dignity expected of a royal knight, hands clasped behind her back while muffled arguing thundered from the room beyond the doors.
Unfortunately, one of the voices belonged to Leo.
“Marriage alliances are boring!”
“Your Highness,” sighed an elderly noble, “kingdoms are not governed by entertainment.”
“Well perhaps they should be! Everyone here looks miserable.”
Another voice snapped sharply.
“You will learn to behave as a proper future queen.”
Silence followed.
Tsukasa’s shoulders stiffened instinctively.
That silence was dangerous.
Leo’s playful moods moved like summer storms, quick and bright. But sometimes the court cornered her too tightly. Sometimes they pushed until something shuttered behind her eyes.
And then Leo stopped sounding like herself at all.
The chamber doors burst open.
Leo stormed out in a flurry of velvet, ribbons, and royal outrage.
Several nobles flinched as she passed.
Tsukasa immediately straightened. “Your Highness.”
Leo pointed dramatically down the hallway.
“Suou. We’re leaving.”
“…Leaving?”
“Yes.”
“For where?”
“I don’t know yet. Somewhere with less talking.”
“That could be anywhere in the kingdom.”
“Excellent. Then we have options.”
Before Tsukasa could protest, Leo grabbed her wrist and marched down the corridor at alarming speed.
“Y-Your Highness! Please slow down!”
“No.”
“Please stop kidnapping your own knight!”
“You belong to me legally.”
“That is NOT how knighthood works!”
“It should be.”
The guards stationed near the palace gates wisely pretended not to notice the princess sneaking out wrapped in a traveling cloak twenty minutes later.
Mostly because Tsukasa’s expression suggested she had already suffered enough.
The capital stretched below the palace hill in rivers of gold evening light.
Market lanterns flickered awake one by one as the sun melted into dusk. Musicians played in crowded streets. Children darted between vendors selling flowers and roasted chestnuts. The scent of rain lingered faintly against old stone.
Leo immediately looked happier.
Not “princess happy.”
Actually happy.
She pulled back her hood slightly, eyes glittering while she spun slowly in the middle of the street.
“See? The city sounds different at night.”
Tsukasa followed a few steps behind automatically scanning the crowds.
“It sounds loud.”
“It sounds alive.”
Leo grinned before suddenly darting toward a nearby food stall.
“Your Highness!”
Too late.
The princess was already leaning over the counter enthusiastically while an overwhelmed vendor stared at her.
“I’ll take three honey pastries and whatever that glowing thing is.”
“That is melted sugar, Your Highness.”
“Perfect. I want it.”
Tsukasa sighed deeply and reached for her coin pouch.
The vendor blinked between them nervously. “Should I… bow?”
“No,” Leo said immediately. “If you bow I’ll feel guilty and Tsukasa will start apologizing to everyone again.”
“I do NOT apologize excessively.”
The vendor hesitated.
Tsukasa realized with horror that he was trying not to laugh.
Leo noticed too.
And just like that, she laughed first.
Bright. Unrestrained.
The kind of laugh that made strangers smile without understanding why.
Tsukasa looked away quickly before her expression softened too much.
Dangerous.
Everything about this was dangerous.
A princess wandering the capital without proper escort. A knight growing too attached. Rumors already swirling through palace halls like poison perfume.
And yet.
Watching Leo here among ordinary people felt strangely sacred.
No silk mask. No rehearsed royal smile. No nobles suffocating her beneath expectations.
Just Leo.
Alive in every possible direction at once.
The moment shattered when shouting erupted nearby.
A drunken nobleman staggered from an alley accompanied by two equally intoxicated companions. Their expensive clothing reeked of wine and arrogance.
One of them squinted toward Leo.
“Well now,” he slurred. “Pretty little thing wandering around alone?”
Tsukasa stepped forward instantly.
“She is not alone.”
The men barely glanced at her.
Wrong decision.
Leo quietly lowered her hood.
Recognition flashed across the nobleman’s face.
Then delight.
“Princess Leo.”
Tsukasa’s stomach dropped.
The nobleman bowed mockingly, nearly tripping over himself.
“Shouldn’t Your Highness be at the palace pretending to enjoy politics?”
Leo’s expression cooled immediately.
“We were leaving.”
But the man moved sideways, blocking the path.
“You know,” he said lazily, eyes dragging over Leo in a way that made Tsukasa’s blood run cold, “I heard the council’s finally looking for a husband desperate enough to tolerate you.”
One companion laughed.
Another added cruelly, “Though perhaps a foreign prince would accept if the dowry’s large enough.”
Leo said nothing.
And somehow that was worse.
Tsukasa felt something sharp and furious rise beneath her ribs.
The nobleman leaned closer toward Leo.
“Then again, maybe you’d behave better if someone finally taught you your place.”
Tsukasa moved before thinking.
Steel flashed.
Her sword slammed against the alley wall beside the nobleman’s head with a crack loud enough to silence the street instantly.
The blade stopped less than an inch from his throat.
Tsukasa’s voice emerged terrifyingly calm.
“You will apologize to the princess.”
The men froze.
For the first time all evening, they truly looked at her.
At the cold precision of her stance. At the royal crest on her uniform. At the fury burning beneath controlled elegance.
The nobleman swallowed hard.
Tsukasa stepped closer.
“You will kneel,” she said softly, “or I will forget mercy entirely.”
The street had gone silent around them.
Even the musicians stopped playing.
Then slowly, shakily, the nobleman dropped to his knees.
His companions followed immediately.
“I apologize, Your Highness.”
Leo stared at Tsukasa quietly.
Not surprised.
Not frightened.
Something else.
Something warmer. Deeper.
Tsukasa finally lowered her sword with measured control, though rage still coiled beneath her skin like lightning.
“Leave,” she ordered.
The men fled instantly.
Silence lingered after them.
Then Leo spoke very softly.
“My gorgeous knight.”
Tsukasa nearly dropped the sword.
“Y-Your Highness, please do not say things like that in public.”
“But you looked so cool.”
“That is not the issue.”
“You threatened murder for me.”
“I threatened discipline.”
“You threatened poetry with a weapon.”
“That sentence means nothing.”
Leo stepped closer.
Lantern light flickered gold across her face.
“You were angry,” she murmured.
“Of course I was.”
“No one’s ever gotten angry for me before.”
That hit Tsukasa harder than any blade ever could.
Because suddenly she could see it perfectly:
A kingdom that adored Leo’s beauty while devouring her spirit piece by piece.
People who loved the idea of a princess more than the girl herself.
Tsukasa tightened her grip on the sword hilt.
Without thinking, she said quietly:
“I will always protect you.”
Leo looked at her as though the world had stopped turning.
The rest of the city seemed to exhale after the noblemen disappeared.
Music slowly returned to the streets. Conversations resumed in uncertain murmurs. Lanterns swayed overhead like tiny captive moons.
But something between Leo and Tsukasa had changed.
Or perhaps it had always been there, hidden beneath etiquette and armor and titles, quietly waiting for the wrong moment to bloom.
Unfortunately, that moment appeared to be now.
Leo walked beside her unusually quietly afterward.
Not upset.
Worse.
Thoughtful.
Tsukasa could practically feel the princess staring at her every few seconds.
Finally:
“You really meant it, didn’t you?”
Tsukasa kept her eyes ahead. “Meant what.”
“That you’ll always protect me.”
“…It is my duty.”
“Hm.”
The sound carried obvious dissatisfaction.
Tsukasa resisted the urge to panic.
They crossed deeper into the evening crowds together. Vendors called out cheerfully from glowing stalls. A violinist played somewhere nearby, the melody soft and aching beneath the pulse of the city.
Leo suddenly stopped walking.
Tsukasa halted immediately. “What is it?”
Leo pointed dramatically toward a tiny flower shop squeezed between two cafés.
“Emergency.”
Tsukasa stared. “That is a florist.”
“Exactly.”
“That does not explain the emergency.”
“We require flowers.”
“For what purpose?”
Leo blinked slowly.
“Suou,” she said with immense patience, “pretty things do not require justification.”
And somehow, against all reason, Tsukasa followed her inside.
The florist nearly fainted upon realizing who her customer was.
Leo, meanwhile, behaved like a delighted child unleashed into chaos.
“These ones look like tiny stars!”
“Your Highness,” the florist stammered, “those are baby’s breath flowers.”
“They should rename them immediately. Tiny stars is much cuter.”
Tsukasa stood nearby trying very hard not to smile.
Failing catastrophically.
Leo wandered through the shop humming softly under her breath while candlelight painted gold across her hair.
Then she abruptly turned.
“These remind me of you.”
Before Tsukasa could react, Leo tucked a deep red rose into the front of her uniform.
Tsukasa froze instantly.
The florist made a tiny strangled sound.
Leo tilted her head, admiring her work.
“There,” she said softly. “Now you look appropriately romantic.”
Tsukasa forgot every known language.
“Y-Your Highness…”
“You’re blushing again.”
Leo smiled.
Not her usual dazzling theatrical grin.
Something smaller.
Gentler.
And infinitely more dangerous.
The florist quietly turned around and pretended to reorganize flowers several meters away.
Coward.
Absolute coward.
Eventually they left the shop carrying wrapped pastries, stolen moments, and a silence that no longer felt comfortable enough to survive.
The city had deepened into full night by then.
Rain began softly.
Not enough to send people running. Just enough to silver the streets and turn lanternlight molten against wet stone.
Leo laughed quietly and lifted her face toward the sky.
Tsukasa instinctively moved closer, shielding her with part of her cape.
“You’ll get sick.”
“And you’ll lecture me.”
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll definitely survive.”
Tsukasa sighed.
Leo stepped nearer beneath the shared cover of the cloak until their shoulders brushed.
Far too close.
Every nerve in Tsukasa’s body became catastrophically aware of it.
“You smell like roses now,” Leo murmured.
“That is because you attacked me with a flower.”
“It suits you.”
The violin music drifted through the rain again somewhere distant.
Slow. Elegant. Almost unbearably romantic.
Tsukasa wanted to personally arrest whoever was responsible.
Leo’s gaze lifted toward her face.
“You know,” she said softly, “this feels suspiciously like a date.”
Tsukasa nearly tripped over air itself.
“It does NOT.”
“We walked through lantern-lit streets.”
“That proves nothing.”
“You bought me pastries.”
“You stole half of them.”
“You threatened arrogant men for insulting me.”
“They deserved it.”
“We shared a cloak in the rain.”
“…Your Highness.”
Leo smiled faintly.
Then quieter:
“And you looked at me like I was someone precious.”
Tsukasa’s heartbeat stumbled violently.
The rain softened around them into silver mist.
Nobody nearby seemed to exist anymore.
Just Leo standing impossibly close beneath dim lanternlight, eyes warm and searching and far too earnest for Tsukasa’s survival.
Slowly, Leo reached upward.
Her fingers brushed lightly against Tsukasa’s cheek.
Gentle.
Careful.
As though asking permission.
Tsukasa stopped breathing entirely.
“You can stop looking at me like I’ll disappear,” Leo whispered.
The world narrowed.
To rainwater slipping down stone. To roses tucked against her chest. To Leo’s hand against her skin.
And then Leo leaned closer.
Tsukasa felt it instantly.
That terrible magnetic pull.
The dangerous kind.
The kind that destroyed kingdoms.
Their faces hovered inches apart now. Close enough for Tsukasa to feel Leo’s breath. Close enough that one more movement would ruin both of them forever.
Tsukasa wanted it.
God.
She wanted it so badly her chest hurt.
But all she could see was the future waiting beyond this moment.
The court. The laws. The executioner’s block. Leo losing everything because of her.
Tsukasa stepped backward abruptly.
The absence of warmth felt immediate.
Leo blinked in surprise.
“Suou…?”
“We should return to the palace.”
The words came out too sharp.
Too rehearsed.
Leo’s expression dimmed slightly.
“You’re pulling away.”
“I am being rational.”
“That sounds miserable.”
“Your Highness,” Tsukasa said quietly, almost pleading now, “please.”
Rain dripped silently from the edges of her cape.
Leo stared at her for a long moment.
Then slowly lowered her hand.
“…Right.”
That single word hurt more than the sword ever could.
Tsukasa looked away immediately.
Coward.
Coward coward coward.
Because if she looked at Leo any longer, she feared she would kiss her anyway.
And if she kissed Princess Leo beneath the lanterns of this country…
She would never recover from it.
Tsukasa could still feel the almost-kiss hours later.
That was the humiliating part.
Not the memory itself. Not Leo’s hand against her cheek. Not even the unbearable softness in the princess’s voice.
No.
The humiliating part was how her body remembered it.
Like a wound.
Like a brand pressed carefully beneath her skin.
Moonlight spilled through the narrow barracks window in pale silver lines while the rest of the knights slept. Somewhere outside, distant rain still whispered against palace rooftops.
Tsukasa sat alone on the edge of her bed.
Armor discarded piece by piece around the room like the remains of a battle.
Her gloves rested beside her sword.
Her cape hung carefully folded over a chair.
And the rose Leo had tucked against her uniform earlier now lay in her hands.
Still fragrant.
Still alive.
Tsukasa stared at it as though it had personally betrayed her.
“This is ridiculous,” she muttered softly.
A knight should not tremble because of a flower.
And yet.
Her fingers brushed carefully across the petals.
Immediately, she remembered Leo smiling beneath lanternlight.
Now you look appropriately romantic.
Tsukasa covered her face with one hand.
Disaster.
Complete disaster.
For years she had survived through discipline.
Every breath controlled. Every movement rehearsed. Every expression monitored.
She had hidden herself so carefully for so long that sometimes even she forgot where the performance ended.
She remembered binding her chest for the first time at thirteen, clumsy trembling fingers pulling linen tight enough to hurt because she thought pain was simply the price of becoming strong.
She remembered lowering her voice in front of mirrors until her throat ached.
Remembered the terror of shared barracks. The fear of someone noticing too-soft skin, too-delicate wrists, the shape beneath bandages and armor.
One mistake could destroy everything.
Women did not become knights.
Women became wives. Decorations. Bargaining pieces dressed in silk.
Tsukasa had refused.
She had clawed her way into knighthood with bleeding hands and iron determination. Endured years of scrutiny. Mockery. Isolation.
And she succeeded.
She actually succeeded.
She became a knight.
A respected one.
Trusted by the royal family itself.
All because she never allowed herself weakness.
So naturally the universe punished her by placing Princess Leo directly in her path.
Tsukasa let out a strangled groan and fell backward onto the bed.
The rose remained clutched against her chest.
“This is your fault,” she informed it bitterly.
The rose offered no defense.
Outside, thunder rumbled softly.
Tsukasa closed her eyes.
Immediately Leo appeared behind them.
Leo laughing in the marketplace. Leo calling her my gorgeous knight. Leo looking at her tonight as though Tsukasa were something worth longing for.
That last one frightened her most.
Because Tsukasa knew desire.
She understood physical attraction in the abstract, hidden thing she buried beneath duty.
But this?
This terrible tenderness?
That was different.
Leo noticed things.
Small things.
The way Tsukasa avoided being touched unexpectedly. The way she stiffened whenever other knights crowded too close. The exhaustion hidden beneath her composure.
Leo looked at her like she was trying to solve a secret no one else realized existed.
And the worst part?
Some selfish, starving part of Tsukasa wanted to let her.
A quiet knock interrupted her spiraling thoughts.
Tsukasa sat upright instantly, pulse spiking.
No one visited this late.
Her hand flew toward the sword beside the bed.
“Who is it?”
A familiar voice answered softly through the door.
“It’s me.”
Tsukasa’s soul nearly escaped her body.
“Y-Your Highness?!”
“You sound alarmed.”
“Because you are in the knights’ quarters!”
“Yes. I climbed through a window. It was very romantic.”
“THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE.”
A pause.
Then:
“May I come in?”
Tsukasa stared at the door like it had become a wild animal.
This was dangerous.
Catastrophically dangerous.
Which was precisely why she crossed the room and opened it anyway.
Leo slipped inside immediately wrapped in a dark cloak, moonlight tangled through her hair. She looked unfairly beautiful standing there in the dim candlelight.
Tsukasa shut the door at once.
“If someone sees you here, we are both dead.”
“I was careful.”
“You climbed through a window.”
“I was quietly careful.”
Tsukasa pressed fingers against her temple.
Leo’s gaze drifted downward suddenly.
Toward the rose still resting on the bed.
Her expression softened almost immediately.
“You kept it.”
Tsukasa froze.
“…Of course I kept it.”
The admission came out quieter than intended.
Leo smiled faintly.
For a moment neither spoke.
The room suddenly felt too small. Too warm.
Leo stepped closer slowly, eyes wandering across the discarded armor nearby.
“I never realized how heavy it all was,” she murmured.
Tsukasa instinctively crossed her arms.
“It is manageable.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Tsukasa’s heartbeat faltered.
Leo’s voice gentled further.
“You wear armor even when nobody’s attacking you.”
Silence.
The words landed too accurately.
Tsukasa looked away first.
“I do not know what you mean.”
“You do.”
The candle flickered softly between them.
Leo moved closer again until only a breath separated them.
Not enough.
Far too much.
“You looked sad tonight after you pulled away,” Leo whispered.
Tsukasa swallowed hard.
“I was being realistic.”
“No.” Leo shook her head lightly. “You were afraid.”
Tsukasa’s chest tightened painfully.
Because yes.
She was terrified.
Not of being discovered.
Not entirely.
She was terrified of wanting something impossible badly enough to destroy herself over it.
Leo reached out carefully this time.
Slow enough for Tsukasa to stop her.
But Tsukasa didn’t move.
Leo’s fingers brushed lightly against the linen wrapping visible beneath Tsukasa’s partially opened undershirt near her collarbone.
The knight flinched instinctively.
Immediately Leo withdrew.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
Tsukasa shook her head quickly.
“No… I…”
She stopped.
Could not finish.
No one touched her gently.
Not anymore.
Everything in her life had become practical. Guarded. Controlled.
Even her own body felt less like something belonging to her and more like a secret she maintained.
But Leo looked at her with unbearable softness instead of curiosity.
Not demanding explanation.
Just waiting.
Tsukasa’s voice emerged fragile despite all attempts otherwise.
“Sometimes it hurts.”
Leo’s expression changed instantly.
Not pity.
Something quieter.
Heartbreak.
“The bindings?” Leo asked softly.
Tsukasa nodded once.
The silence afterward felt intimate in a way that frightened her more than kisses ever could.
Then Leo stepped even closer.
Carefully.
As though approaching an injured animal.
“My poor knight,” she murmured.
And before Tsukasa could react, Leo rested her forehead gently against hers.
No teasing. No dramatics. No games.
Just warmth.
Tsukasa shut her eyes immediately.
Something inside her unraveled at the edges.
Because suddenly she was not a knight. Not a disguise. Not a weapon forged through exhaustion.
Just a girl, tired beyond words, being held with tenderness she did not know how to survive.
Tsukasa did not know how long they remained like that.
Forehead against forehead. Breathing the same air. The candlelight trembling softly around them as though even the room understood this moment was fragile.
She could feel Leo’s warmth through layers of linen and fear and carefully constructed distance.
It terrified her.
Not because it was wrong.
Because it felt too right.
Tsukasa had spent years convincing herself that loneliness was necessary. Noble, even. A knight was meant to endure. To sacrifice. To remain untouched by selfish desires.
But Leo touched her like loneliness itself was an injury.
And Tsukasa was beginning to realize how badly she wanted to heal.
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Leo was already looking at her.
Of course she was.
The princess always looked directly at things everyone else avoided.
Tsukasa tried desperately to gather the shattered remains of her composure.
“You should not be here,” she whispered weakly.
Leo smiled faintly. “Probably not.”
“If someone discovers this…”
“They won’t.”
“You cannot know that.”
“I know you,” Leo corrected softly.
That was somehow worse.
Tsukasa looked away immediately.
Dangerous. Dangerous. Dangerous.
But Leo gently touched her jaw, guiding her attention back.
“No running this time.”
Tsukasa’s pulse stumbled.
“Leo…”
The princess blinked once.
Very softly:
“You said my name.”
Tsukasa realized her mistake instantly.
Princesses were Your Highness. Royalty. Distance. Safety.
Not Leo.
Never Leo.
Except the name had slipped out naturally.
Like her heart already knew it by instinct.
Leo looked delighted by this discovery.
Tsukasa, meanwhile, looked moments away from cardiac arrest.
“Forget I said that.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Please.”
“No.”
Tsukasa covered her face with one hand in agony.
Leo laughed quietly.
The sound was softer tonight. Not the bright theatrical laughter she gave the court or the city.
This one belonged only here.
Only to Tsukasa.
And that realization settled warmly and terribly inside her chest.
Leo’s fingers lightly caught around Tsukasa’s wrist, gently lowering her hand away from her face.
“You hide too much,” she murmured.
Tsukasa’s throat tightened.
“I have to.”
“No,” Leo whispered. “You were forced to.”
The distinction nearly shattered her.
Because no one had ever said it like that before.
People spoke of her determination. Her discipline. Her ambition.
Never the cost.
Never the fear.
Never the girl beneath the armor desperately trying to survive a kingdom that would reject her if it knew the truth.
Leo knew.
Maybe not every detail.
But enough.
Enough to see how tired Tsukasa truly was.
The knight’s voice emerged strained and quiet.
“You should hate me.”
Leo blinked in confusion. “What?”
“I lied to the kingdom. To the knights. To everyone.” Tsukasa’s hands trembled slightly now despite herself. “If they discover what I am, they will call me a fraud.”
Leo’s expression hardened instantly.
“No.”
“It is true.”
“It isn’t.”
“Leo…”
“You ARE a knight.”
The force in her voice stunned Tsukasa silent.
Leo stepped closer again until their knees nearly touched.
“You protected people before anyone gave you permission to,” she said fiercely. “You worked harder than everyone around you. You chose kindness even after this kingdom treated you cruelly.” Her eyes shimmered faintly in the candlelight. “What part of that is false?”
Tsukasa felt her vision blur unexpectedly.
No.
Absolutely not.
She was not going to cry.
Knights did not cry because beautiful princesses defended them in tiny candlelit rooms at midnight.
That would be humiliating.
Leo noticed anyway.
Of course she did.
Her expression softened instantly.
“Oh,” she whispered.
Tsukasa turned her face away sharply.
“Do not look at me.”
“But you’re hurting.”
“I am fine.”
“You say that like a dying soldier.”
Tsukasa let out a weak sound somewhere between a laugh and despair.
Then suddenly Leo’s arms wrapped carefully around her.
Gentle.
Tentative.
Giving Tsukasa every opportunity to pull away.
She didn’t.
Couldn’t.
The moment Leo held her, something inside Tsukasa finally broke open quietly at the seams.
Years of restraint. Years of isolation. Years of carrying herself like a drawn sword.
Leo held her like none of that made her difficult to love.
Tsukasa’s hands slowly tightened against the fabric of Leo’s cloak.
The princess rested her cheek lightly against her shoulder.
And then, so softly it almost disappeared into the candlelight:
“I love you.”
The world stopped.
Actually stopped.
Tsukasa forgot how breathing worked.
Her entire body went perfectly still inside Leo’s arms.
Because she had imagined those words before.
Late at night. In moments of weakness. In impossible fantasies she immediately buried in shame afterward.
But imagination had not prepared her for reality.
For Leo saying it so simply.
So honestly.
Like it was the easiest truth in the world.
Tsukasa’s voice cracked slightly when she finally spoke.
“…You should not say things like that.”
Leo pulled back just enough to look at her.
“But it’s true.”
“You do not understand what this means.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No,” Tsukasa whispered, panic beginning to rise now, “you are a princess and I am…”
Mine, Leo almost said.
Tsukasa saw it in her eyes.
That frightened her even more.
“I am ruining you,” Tsukasa said quietly.
Leo looked genuinely offended.
“You think loving you would ruin me?”
Tsukasa couldn’t answer.
Because yes.
Yes, she did.
The kingdom would destroy them for this.
A princess in love with another woman was already scandal enough.
But a princess in love with a female knight pretending to be a man?
It would become catastrophe.
Leo touched her face again carefully.
“Suou,” she whispered, “look at me.”
Reluctantly, she did.
Leo smiled sadly.
“You are the first person who has ever loved me more than my crown.”
Tsukasa’s heart cracked cleanly in two.
“And I think,” Leo continued softly, “I fell in love with you the moment I realized you would burn the entire world before letting someone hurt me.”
Silence.
Warmth.
Rain against the windows.
Tsukasa stared at her like someone standing at the edge of a cliff knowing the fall would kill her.
And wanting it anyway.
Leo kissed her like someone crossing a border she had already decided was worth the war.
Slowly at first.
Carefully.
Giving Tsukasa every possible chance to stop her.
Tsukasa did not.
The moment Leo’s lips touched hers, the last fragile thread of restraint inside her snapped cleanly apart.
Warmth flooded through her so suddenly it almost hurt.
For years Tsukasa had lived like a drawn blade, sharp edges held rigidly together through discipline alone. But Leo kissed her with unbearable tenderness, and suddenly she was unraveling everywhere at once.
Her hands shook.
Leo noticed immediately.
Not fearfully.
Lovingly.
The princess cupped Tsukasa’s face more securely, thumb brushing softly against her cheek while deepening the kiss just enough to make Tsukasa dizzy.
It was nothing like the romances described in noble poetry.
There was no elegance to it.
Only hunger buried beneath years of denial.
Only two lonely girls reaching for each other in the quiet dark.
Tsukasa made a soft broken sound against Leo’s mouth before she could stop herself.
Leo smiled into the kiss.
That tiny smile nearly destroyed her completely.
“Suou~,” she whispered breathlessly.
The way Leo said her name should have been illegal.
Tsukasa rested her forehead weakly against Leo’s for a moment, trying desperately to remember how to think.
This was wrong.
Dangerous.
Irreversible.
And yet every part of her ached for more.
Leo’s fingers brushed carefully along the edge of the bindings beneath Tsukasa’s shirt again, hesitant this time.
Questioning.
Tsukasa understood immediately.
Her breath caught.
The bindings.
The thing she hated most.
The thing that hurt.
The thing she never let anyone see.
Shame curled instinctively through her chest.
But Leo looked at her with such patience. Such unbearable softness.
No mockery. No disgust. No curiosity sharpened into cruelty.
Only love.
Tsukasa swallowed hard.
Then quietly, voice trembling:
“You may touch me.”
Leo’s expression changed instantly.
Not triumphant.
Reverent.
As though Tsukasa had handed her something infinitely precious.
Very gently, Leo loosened the fabric.
Tsukasa shut her eyes immediately, breath uneven with terror and vulnerability and the strange aching relief of no longer hiding.
For a moment, neither spoke.
Then Leo’s fingertips skimmed softly across skin bruised by years of binding.
The tenderness of the gesture nearly shattered Tsukasa apart.
“My poor knight,” Leo whispered again, heartbreak threading through the words.
Tsukasa felt tears sting unexpectedly behind her eyes.
Because no one had ever touched her like this before.
Not carefully.
Not lovingly.
Not as though her body deserved kindness after everything she had put it through.
Leo pressed featherlight kisses across the marks left by the bindings.
Tsukasa let out a fragile gasp and instinctively clutched at Leo’s cloak.
“You don’t have to hide from me,” Leo murmured against her skin.
That did it.
Completely.
Tsukasa kissed her again with sudden desperate intensity, years of restraint collapsing all at once beneath the weight of longing.
Leo melted into her immediately.
The candlelight flickered gold across tangled shadows as armor and titles and fear slowly disappeared piece by piece onto the floor beside the bed.
And for the first time in years, Tsukasa allowed herself to be held without armor between them.
The night unfolded softly after that.
Not rushed.
Not greedy.
Every touch carried discovery within it.
Leo traced every scar and bruise like she was memorizing sacred scripture. Tsukasa learned the warmth of Leo’s laughter dissolving into quiet sighs against her throat. They kissed until words blurred uselessly together.
Outside, rain continued falling over the sleeping kingdom.
Inside the small barracks room, Princess Leo held her knight like something beloved beyond reason.
And sometime deep in the quiet hours of night, with Leo tangled safely in her arms and moonlight silver across bare skin, Tsukasa finally whispered the truth she had been trying to outrun for months.
“I will give my princess everything she wants.”
Leo lifted her head sleepily against Tsukasa’s chest.
Even exhausted, she smiled like dawn itself.
“I know,” she whispered softly.
That was the terrifying thing.
She really did.
Sunlight was evil.
That was Tsukasa’s first coherent thought upon waking.
Her second was:
Why is there hair in my mouth.
Slowly, painfully, consciousness returned.
Warm blankets. Soft breathing. The scent of roses.
…Roses.
Tsukasa’s eyes snapped open instantly.
Catastrophic mistake.
Princess Leo was asleep directly on top of her.
One leg tangled shamelessly with Tsukasa’s beneath the blankets, golden hair sprawled across the pillow in total chaos. Leo had somehow stolen nearly the entire blanket during the night while still clinging possessively to Tsukasa’s waist.
Tsukasa stopped functioning immediately.
Memory crashed into her all at once.
The kiss.
Leo saying I love you.
The night spent tangled together in candlelight and whispered confessions and tenderness so overwhelming Tsukasa still felt emotionally disassembled.
And now the princess was drooling slightly onto her shoulder.
Tsukasa stared at the ceiling in complete spiritual devastation.
“…I am going to die.”
Leo made a sleepy noise against her collarbone.
“No you’re noooot,” she mumbled.
Tsukasa nearly ascended directly into the heavens.
“You’re awake?!”
“Mhm.”
“You should have announced that immediately!”
“That sounds tiring.”
Leo burrowed closer instead.
Tsukasa’s soul attempted escape a second time.
“L-Leo.”
“Mhm?”
“You are still attached to me.”
“Yes.”
“That was not permission to continue.”
Leo opened one eye lazily.
“You’re very warm.”
Tsukasa’s face burst into flames.
This was unbearable.
She had spent years maintaining perfect composure beneath impossible conditions. She had survived military training, noble politics, sword duels, and constant fear of discovery.
And yet one sleepy princess cuddling her had reduced her into a malfunctioning disaster by sunrise.
Leo suddenly blinked upward thoughtfully.
“…Did we miss breakfast?”
Tsukasa froze.
Then horror dawned.
The morning drills.
The knight assembly.
The fact she was currently absent from her duties while the princess herself had vanished from her chambers entirely.
Tsukasa sat upright so violently Leo bounced.
“OH NO.”
Leo rolled slightly across the bed with all the grace of a sleepy cat.
“That sounds serious.”
“IT IS SERIOUS.”
Tsukasa scrambled frantically for her discarded uniform somewhere across the room.
Unfortunately, this required standing up.
Unfortunately, standing up revealed the numerous suspicious marks scattered across her skin.
Leo noticed immediately.
Her expression lit up with criminal delight.
“Ohhhhh.”
Tsukasa grabbed the nearest blanket and wrapped herself in it like a scandalized ghost.
“DO NOT LOOK.”
“But those are mine.”
“THAT IS NOT BETTER.”
Leo burst into laughter.
Bright. Breathless. Completely unrepentant.
Tsukasa pointed accusingly at her while still wrapped dramatically in blankets.
“You are far too calm about this entire situation.”
“I had a wonderful evening.”
“That is not the issue!”
“It’s definitely an issue for me. I’m having an excellent time.”
Tsukasa made a strangled sound of suffering and resumed searching for clothing.
Somewhere beneath the bed she located one glove.
Near the candle she found her sword belt.
One boot had somehow ended up beside the window.
Leo watched the entire process like live theater.
Then:
“My gorgeous knight.”
Tsukasa froze instantly.
Leo smiled sweetly from the bed.
“You’re wearing the blanket upside down.”
Silence.
Tsukasa looked down slowly.
The blanket had indeed become twisted around her like a tragic fabric cocoon.
Leo finally lost control entirely and collapsed into hysterical laughter.
Tsukasa considered exile.
Permanent exile.
Possibly death.
Then came knocking at the barracks door.
Both women froze.
Immediately.
“Sir Suou?” called another knight from outside. “Captain says if you’re still unconscious from drinking with the guards last night, he wants proof of life.”
Tsukasa’s spirit left her body.
Leo looked thrilled.
Tsukasa lunged across the room and clamped a hand over Leo’s mouth before she could make a sound.
The princess’s eyes sparkled with absolute menace.
“Sir Suou?” the knight repeated suspiciously.
Tsukasa tried desperately to sound normal while half naked and spiritually collapsing.
“I-I am awake!”
A pause.
“…Why do you sound like that?”
Because the princess was currently kissing Tsukasa’s palm on purpose.
Tsukasa nearly blacked out.
“I am ill,” she croaked weakly.
Behind her hand, Leo was visibly shaking with silent laughter.
The knight outside sighed dramatically.
“Fine. Don’t die before drills.”
Footsteps retreated down the hallway.
Silence.
Tsukasa slowly turned toward Leo.
Leo grinned against her hand.
Then very deliberately kissed the center of her palm again.
Tsukasa removed her hand immediately like she’d touched fire.
“…You are trying to kill me.”
Leo beamed.
“And yet,” she said smugly, “you promised to give your princess everything she wants.”
Tsukasa stared at her in utter despair.
The worst part?
Leo was completely correct.
Keeping a secret inside a palace was like trying to hide candlelight beneath water.
At first, it seemed possible.
Then slowly, disastrously, cracks appeared everywhere.
It began with little things.
Princess Leo smiling too brightly whenever Tsukasa entered a room.
Tsukasa unconsciously stepping between Leo and anyone who raised their voice at her.
The way Leo’s fingers brushed against Tsukasa’s wrist during dances.
The way Tsukasa looked at Leo when she thought nobody noticed.
Unfortunately, people always noticed.
Especially in court.
The palace thrived on whispers. Rumors moved through noble halls like perfume smoke, curling through silk curtains and jeweled smiles.
And Princess Leo had become increasingly difficult to control.
She skipped political dinners.
Refused suitors.
Argued openly with ministers.
Worse still, she had developed a terrible habit of disappearing with her knight for hours at a time.
The court was beginning to connect dots.
Tsukasa felt it constantly now.
Lingering stares. Half-finished conversations when she entered rooms. The captain watching her too carefully.
Even the other knights had started noticing.
Well.
Mostly Izumi.
“Honestly,” Izumi sighed one evening while polishing his sword, “you two are about as subtle as fireworks in a church.”
Tsukasa nearly choked to death.
Beside him, Ritsu barely lifted his head from where he lounged half asleep across the couch.
“Mhm. Tsukipi stares at you like she wants to eat you alive.”
Tsukasa dropped an entire stack of reports.
From the corner, Arashi clicked her tongue sympathetically.
“Oh sweetheart, your face turned completely red.”
“I AM EXPERIENCING HELL.”
“You’re experiencing romance,” Arashi corrected gently.
“That’s worse.”
Izumi snorted.
Tsukasa buried her face in her hands.
Still none of them seemed upset.
Concerned, yes.
Terrified for her safety, absolutely.
But not cruel.
Arashi especially had begun looking at Tsukasa differently after quietly discovering the truth months earlier.
Not shocked.
Just sad.
Sad that Tsukasa had been forced to carve pieces of herself away merely to survive.
One night, while helping Tsukasa rewrap bruised ribs after training, Arashi had murmured softly:
“You know… you shouldn’t have had to suffer this much just to become yourself.”
Tsukasa almost cried right there.
Which was humiliating.
Naturally.
But even friendship could not stop the kingdom closing around them.
Because the council had finally reached its limit with Leo.
The announcement arrived during a royal banquet.
Every noble family attended. Gold chandeliers blazed overhead while music drifted elegantly through the massive ballroom.
Tsukasa stood beside the throne platform in ceremonial armor, posture perfect despite the dread already curling in her stomach.
Leo looked miserable.
Which meant trouble was imminent.
A senior minister stepped forward grandly.
“Your Highness,” he announced, “after extensive discussion among the royal council, we have determined it is time to secure the country's future through marriage.”
Leo immediately looked ready to commit homicide.
Tsukasa sensed it instantly.
Danger. Extreme danger.
The minister continued obliviously.
“Prince Christopher has expressed strong interest in your hand.”
A portrait was unveiled dramatically nearby.
The prince looked exactly like someone named Christopher would look.
Smug. Blond. Deeply unpleasant.
Leo stared at the portrait.
Then at the council.
Then back at the portrait again.
“…That one?”
The minister smiled tightly. “A remarkable political match.”
“He looks like he moisturizes with arrogance.”
Several nobles gasped.
Tsukasa closed her eyes briefly.
Please survive this, she prayed vaguely to the universe.
The minister’s smile twitched violently.
“Princess Leo.”
“No, truly, look at him,” Leo continued. “He has the expression of a man who explains wine to women.”
Somewhere in the ballroom, Izumi audibly choked trying not to laugh.
Tsukasa wanted death.
The minister inhaled sharply through his nose.
“This marriage is not optional.”
Silence fell.
Dangerous silence.
Leo slowly rose from her seat.
Her expression changed.
Not playful now. Not dramatic.
Furious.
“You speak of my life,” she said quietly, “as though I am livestock being traded.”
“Your duty to the kingdom must come first.”
“And what of what I want?”
The minister’s answer came cold and immediate.
“A princess’s desires are irrelevant.”
Tsukasa felt her stomach drop.
Because that sentence hit Leo like a slap.
The ballroom quieted completely.
No music. No conversation.
Only Leo standing beneath golden chandelier light looking suddenly exhausted beyond her years.
Then the minister made the mistake that doomed them all.
“Once married,” he added, “perhaps Your Highness will finally abandon these childish attachments to certain knights.”
Every eye in the room shifted instantly.
Toward Tsukasa.
Cold terror shot through her body.
No.
No no no.
Leo saw it too.
Saw the fear flash across Tsukasa’s face.
And something inside the princess finally snapped.
“Enough.”
Her voice cracked across the ballroom sharp as shattered glass.
The minister stiffened. “Your Highness?”
“You want to know who I wish to marry?”
Tsukasa’s heart stopped.
Leo turned.
Directly toward her.
The entire court followed her gaze.
Every noble. Every knight. Every whispering vulture in silk.
Tsukasa felt suddenly unable to breathe.
Leo stepped down from the throne platform slowly, eyes never leaving her knight.
Then, before the entire kingdom:
“I want to marry my knight Tsukasa Suou.”
Silence.
Pure.
Absolute.
Catastrophic silence.
Someone dropped a wine glass.
It shattered loudly against marble.
Tsukasa stood frozen in horror beneath hundreds of stunned eyes while Leo reached her side.
Then gently, defiantly, intertwined their fingers together.
The ballroom never truly recovered after Leo’s declaration.
Not because she had exposed some scandalous affair.
Because she had said it out loud at all.
The words lingered over the royal court for weeks afterward like smoke after a fire.
No one dared address it directly.
Instead, the nobles transformed it into something safer.
A childish obsession. An embarrassing attachment. A princess confusing gratitude for affection.
Anything except the truth.
Because the truth was dangerous.
Princess Leo loved her knight with enough intensity to threaten the foundations of the kingdom itself.
And the council intended to crush that problem immediately.
Tsukasa could feel the shift everywhere.
The princess was no longer allowed outside the palace unescorted.
Meetings between them became heavily monitored.
Additional knights were assigned to Leo’s side constantly, a transparent attempt to separate them without openly provoking her fury.
It failed spectacularly.
Leo became unbearable.
Not toward Tsukasa.
Toward everyone else.
She skipped council meetings entirely. Snapped at ministers. Publicly insulted diplomats. Once, she composed an entire piano piece titled The Funeral March of Idiots in Wigs and performed it during dinner while staring directly at the royal advisors.
Tsukasa should have been horrified.
Instead she was desperately trying not to laugh herself to death.
Which made her equally doomed.
But underneath Leo’s rebellion, fear had begun settling heavily between them.
Because Tsukasa understood what the princess refused to accept.
Love was not enough against kingdoms.
One rainy evening, Tsukasa found Leo alone in the music room.
The princess sat at the grand piano beneath dim candlelight, fingers moving slowly across the keys without energy.
Not composing.
Just thinking.
The melody sounded lonely.
Tsukasa approached quietly.
“Your Highness.”
Leo immediately stopped playing.
“I hate when you call me that now.”
Tsukasa’s chest tightened painfully.
“It is safer.”
“I don’t care about safe anymore.”
“I do.”
Leo looked up sharply.
Moonlight painted silver across her tired expression.
“And if safety means losing you?”
Tsukasa could not answer.
Because every possible answer hurt.
Leo stood suddenly from the piano bench.
“They brought another prince today.”
Tsukasa froze.
“…Another?”
“Mhm.”
Leo’s mouth twisted bitterly.
“They said if I continue refusing marriage proposals, the kingdom risks losing trade agreements.”
Of course.
Politics.
Treaties.
Borders stitched together through daughters sold like silk.
Tsukasa hated it.
Hated how helpless it made her feel.
Leo stepped closer.
“I told them no.”
Tsukasa shut her eyes briefly.
“Leo…”
“I meant it.”
“I know.”
“No.” Leo’s voice cracked slightly now. “I meant what I said before. I want to marry you.”
The ache in Tsukasa’s chest became unbearable.
She reached for Leo instinctively, fingertips brushing softly against her wrist.
“You deserve more than a life spent hiding,” Tsukasa whispered.
“I deserve to choose who I love.”
Before Tsukasa could answer, the music room doors burst open.
A servant bowed nervously.
“Your Highness… the council requests your presence immediately.”
Leo looked murderous instantly.
“Tell them I died.”
“Leo.”
“They deserve uncertainty.”
Tsukasa sighed softly.
The princess reluctantly allowed herself to be escorted away.
But before leaving, Leo squeezed Tsukasa’s hand once.
Secretly.
Quickly.
Like a promise.
Tsukasa watched her go with dread coiling heavily in her stomach.
And for good reason.
Because the next prince they presented was him.
The nobleman from the alley.
The one who had cornered Leo in the city months ago.
Tsukasa recognized him instantly upon entering the council chamber.
So did Leo.
The prince lounged near the throne platform dressed in expensive military attire, arrogance practically dripping from him like perfume.
Prince Cedric.
Apparently promoted from “drunken creep” to “political necessity.”
Tsukasa’s hand instinctively moved toward her sword.
Leo looked disgusted.
“You.”
Cedric smiled lazily. “Princess.”
The council members exchanged nervous glances.
One minister cleared his throat awkwardly.
“Prince Cedric has expressed strong personal interest in strengthening relations between our nations.”
Leo stared at them in disbelief.
“You cannot possibly be serious.”
Cedric stepped forward.
“Oh, I’m very serious.”
Tsukasa instantly moved beside Leo.
Subtle.
Protective.
The prince noticed immediately.
His expression darkened slightly.
“There’s that mutt again.”
Tsukasa’s eyes went cold.
Leo’s voice sharpened dangerously.
“Do not speak about my knight that way.”
Cedric smirked.
“How possessive.”
The tension in the room thickened immediately.
Ministers shifted nervously.
Tsukasa could feel disaster approaching like thunder.
Cedric continued casually:
“You know, Your Highness, people are beginning to talk. A princess clinging so desperately to her knight…” His smile turned cruel. “It creates unfortunate rumors.”
Leo lifted her chin.
“Perhaps I simply prefer my knight to insufferable men.”
Several council members nearly died on the spot.
Cedric’s expression snapped.
Ah.
There it was.
The ugly thing beneath the charm.
His pride.
“You should watch your tongue,” he said coldly.
“And you should stop speaking.”
“Leo,” warned a minister weakly.
“No,” she snapped without looking away from Cedric. “I am tired of this.”
Cedric stepped closer.
Too close.
Tsukasa immediately moved between them.
“Careful,” Cedric sneered. “Or people will start thinking you belong to her.”
Tsukasa’s jaw tightened.
“She belongs nowhere near you.”
Silence.
Wrong answer.
Cedric’s face twisted instantly with fury.
The prince grabbed Leo’s wrist suddenly.
Hard.
“You spoiled little bitch,” he hissed.
Everything happened at once after that.
Leo jerked backward violently.
Tsukasa moved faster than thought.
Her sword flashed from its sheath with a metallic scream just as Cedric lunged forward in rage.
Steel collided.
Someone screamed.
Then pain exploded through Tsukasa’s side.
Sharp.
Burning.
Wrong.
For one stunned second she did not understand what happened.
Then warmth spread rapidly beneath her uniform.
Blood.
The ballroom erupted into chaos.
Ministers shouting. Guards drawing weapons. Nobles panicking.
Leo’s face went white instantly.
“Suou?!”
Tsukasa staggered slightly but stayed between Leo and Cedric anyway.
The prince stared in shock at the dagger buried in Tsukasa’s side.
As though he himself had not expected to go that far.
Tsukasa’s grip tightened on her sword despite trembling fingers.
“If you touch her again,” she said hoarsely, “I will kill you.”
And somehow the terrifying part was that everyone in the room believed her.
Leo caught Tsukasa before she collapsed completely.
Blood stained the princess’s hands immediately.
“No no no no—”
Tsukasa tried to remain standing.
Failed.
The pain hit harder now.
Distantly, she heard guards restraining Cedric. Nobles screaming about diplomacy. Ministers shouting for physicians.
None of it mattered.
Because Leo looked terrified.
Tsukasa weakly reached toward her face despite blood slick across her gloves.
“…You’re safe,” she whispered.
Leo made a broken sound somewhere between anger and grief.
“You idiot,” she choked out. “You absolute idiot…”
Tsukasa tried very hard to smile.
Then the world tilted sideways into darkness while Leo screamed her name before the entire royal court.
Darkness returned in fragments.
Pain first.
Then voices.
Then the sensation of someone desperately holding her hand.
Tsukasa stirred weakly against soft sheets, breath catching sharply as agony flared through her side.
Immediately:
“Suou?”
Leo.
The princess’s voice sounded wrecked.
Tsukasa forced her eyes open slowly.
She was in Leo’s chambers.
Candlelight flickered dimly across velvet curtains. The scent of medicine and roses hung heavily in the air. Her side burned beneath tight bandages.
And Leo sat beside the bed looking like she had not slept in days.
Her hair was disheveled. Her eyes swollen red from crying.
Tsukasa’s heart hurt more than the wound.
“…You’re safe,” she whispered automatically.
Leo looked moments away from committing murder.
“You are bleeding to death and THAT is the first thing you say to me?”
Tsukasa considered this.
“…Yes?”
Leo burst into tears immediately.
Tsukasa panicked.
“No no no, please do not cry, I survived, see?”
“That’s not comforting!”
The princess grabbed Tsukasa’s hand fiercely against her face as though terrified she might disappear.
“You collapsed,” Leo whispered shakily. “You stopped responding for several minutes.”
Tsukasa’s chest tightened.
Slowly, she squeezed Leo’s hand back.
“I’m sorry.”
“I hate you.”
“You do not.”
“I hate how much you scare me.”
That one landed directly in Tsukasa’s ribs.
Before she could answer, the chamber doors opened quietly.
Arashi slipped inside carrying fresh linens and immediately stopped upon seeing Tsukasa awake.
“Oh thank heavens.”
Relief washed visibly across her expression.
Tsukasa blinked weakly. “Narukami-senpai…?”
Arashi approached quickly, lowering her voice.
“You lost a terrifying amount of blood, sweetheart.”
Leo’s fingers tightened instinctively around Tsukasa’s hand.
The memory returned all at once.
The dagger.
The ballroom.
The physicians.
Tsukasa went rigid instantly.
“The doctors,” she rasped.
Arashi exchanged a glance with Leo.
Then sighed dramatically.
“Yes. About that.”
Leo lifted her chin slightly.
“We handled it.”
Tsukasa stared at them both in horror.
“You WHAT.”
Arashi crossed her arms.
“Honestly, darling, you make it sound impossible.”
“It WAS impossible!”
“Please. I’ve hidden my own secrets from this kingdom for years.”
Tsukasa blinked.
Slowly.
Because yes.
Arashi understood exactly what this danger meant.
The royal physicians had been dismissed before they could fully examine Tsukasa. Leo had apparently thrown such a violent fit that the palace staff became too terrified to argue with her.
Arashi then took over personally.
Threatening servants.
Redirecting suspicion.
Helping rebind Tsukasa’s chest while she drifted unconscious from blood loss.
Tsukasa listened in stunned silence.
Finally:
“You committed treason for me.”
Arashi rolled her eyes.
“Darling, friendship is just treason with emotional attachment.”
Leo nodded seriously. “Exactly.”
Tsukasa nearly cried again from sheer exhaustion.
The following days passed in tense secrecy.
Leo refused to leave Tsukasa’s side.
Which became its own problem.
The court already suspected attachment between princess and knight. Now the princess had entirely abandoned royal duties to remain locked inside her chambers beside an injured knight.
Rumors spread like wildfire.
Servants whispered.
Ministers argued.
The captain of the knights requested entry three separate times and got thrown out by Leo each time.
By the fourth day, the palace atmosphere had become unbearable.
And Tsukasa knew it.
“You should return to court,” she said quietly one evening.
Leo looked offended instantly.
“No.”
“You are making the situation worse.”
“I don’t care.”
“I do.”
Leo stood abruptly from the bedside chair.
“I nearly lost you!”
“And if you continue this recklessness, you may lose your throne as well.”
“I don’t WANT the throne!”
Silence crashed between them.
Leo turned away sharply afterward, breathing unevenly.
Tsukasa’s chest ached.
Not from the wound.
From helplessness.
Because she knew Leo meant it.
The kingdom had become a cage around her.
And Tsukasa had become both the key and the chain.
That night, Leo finally allowed herself to sleep for the first time in nearly a week.
Curled beside Tsukasa carefully atop the blankets, one hand still loosely clutching her sleeve.
As though afraid to let go.
Tsukasa lay awake for hours watching moonlight spill across Leo’s sleeping face.
And for one fragile moment, she allowed herself hope.
Maybe they could survive this.
Maybe they could run away before the court destroyed them.
Maybe love could be enough after all.
Then morning arrived.
And with it, disaster.
The knock at the chamber doors came before sunrise.
Sharp.
Authoritative.
Leo stirred sleepily beside her.
Tsukasa’s stomach dropped instantly.
Wrong.
Something felt wrong.
Before either could respond, the doors opened.
Not servants.
Not guards.
Three royal council members entered alongside an elderly physician Tsukasa recognized immediately.
The king’s personal doctor.
Behind them stood armed knights.
Too many.
Leo sat upright instantly, fury igniting across her face.
“What is the meaning of this?!”
The lead minister bowed stiffly.
“Forgive the intrusion, Your Highness. But concerning rumors surrounding Sir Suou’s condition have forced the council to request a proper medical examination.”
Ice flooded Tsukasa’s veins.
No.
No no no.
Leo moved immediately between them and the bed.
“You will leave.”
“I’m afraid we cannot.”
“You do not have authority over my chambers!”
“We do,” the minister said coldly, “when the integrity of the royal guard is potentially compromised.”
Arashi appeared in the doorway behind them seconds later.
And for the first time since Tsukasa met her…
Arashi looked afraid.
Not socially nervous.
Actually afraid.
The physician stepped forward carefully.
“Sir Suou,” he said quietly, “please cooperate.”
Tsukasa’s pulse thundered violently.
Leo drew herself up furiously.
“She is injured.”
The room froze.
Tiny mistake.
Tiny catastrophic mistake.
The minister’s eyes sharpened instantly.
“…She?”
Silence.
Leo realized it too late.
Tsukasa saw the exact moment panic flickered across her face.
The physician looked slowly between them.
Understanding dawned gradually.
Horribly.
Then one of the council members spoke in stunned disbelief.
“…Impossible.”
Tsukasa closed her eyes.
It was over.
Years of hiding. Years of sacrifice. Years spent carving herself into someone acceptable enough to survive this kingdom.
Gone.
Leo grabbed Tsukasa’s hand tightly beside the bed.
Defiant even now.
The minister’s voice trembled with outrage.
“A woman,” he whispered. “A woman infiltrated the royal knights.”
Tsukasa opened her eyes again slowly.
And met their horror head on.
No more armor left to hide behind.
The room dissolved into noise instantly.
Outrage. Disbelief. Voices crashing over each other like waves against stone.
“A disgrace—”
“This is treason—”
“How long has this deception continued?!”
Leo stepped forward furiously, still gripping Tsukasa’s hand.
“She nearly died protecting this kingdom and THIS is what you care about?!”
The minister ignored her completely.
“Remove Sir Suou from the princess’s chambers immediately.”
“No.”
Leo’s voice cracked through the room sharp enough to make several knights hesitate.
The princess looked incandescent with rage now, her hair disheveled around her shoulders, night robes tangled from sleep. She stood between Tsukasa and the entire council like something wild cornered too many times.
“You will not touch her.”
The older physician spoke gently, almost pityingly.
“Your Highness… if this accusation is false, then an examination will settle the matter peacefully.”
Leo’s stomach dropped.
Because there was no peaceful outcome left.
Tsukasa could already see it.
The way the knights avoided looking directly at her now.
The disgust spreading across several ministers’ faces.
Not because she had harmed anyone.
Because she existed incorrectly.
Leo lifted her chin desperately.
“She is injured. The physician already treated her wound. Perhaps he simply misunderstood.”
The physician’s expression shifted uncomfortably.
He had not misunderstood.
Everyone in the room knew it.
But Leo kept talking anyway, frantic now beneath the anger.
“She bound herself after the injury. Blood loss can distort appearances. You are all making assumptions based on nothing!”
The lead minister looked exhausted.
“Princess Leo.”
“She has served the kingdom faithfully for years!”
“She deceived the kingdom for years.”
“She became a knight because you gave her no other choice!”
Silence.
That landed too close to truth.
The minister’s face hardened instantly.
“Enough.”
Two royal knights stepped forward.
Tsukasa recognized both of them.
Men she had trained beside.
Men who once respected her.
Neither would meet her eyes now.
Leo moved instantly.
“No!”
One knight carefully caught the princess by the arms before she could reach the bed.
Not violently.
Which somehow made it worse.
“Your Highness,” he pleaded softly, “please do not make this harder.”
Leo struggled immediately.
“Do not touch me!”
Tsukasa’s heart twisted violently.
Because Leo looked terrified.
Not for herself.
For her.
Tsukasa forced herself upright despite the pain ripping through her side.
Immediately dizziness struck.
One of the physicians moved to steady her automatically before stopping awkwardly midway, as though suddenly uncertain whether touching her was appropriate anymore.
That hurt more than the wound.
Leo saw it too.
“You see?” she snapped at the room. “You already treat her differently.”
No one answered.
Because yes.
They did.
The minister gestured sharply toward the physicians.
“Proceed.”
Leo’s expression broke.
“No…”
Tsukasa had faced battlefields with steadier nerves than this.
Because this was not merely discovery.
It was humiliation.
Public. Clinical. Stripped of dignity.
The bindings around her chest suddenly felt unbearable beneath her skin.
One physician approached carefully.
“Sir Suou…”
Tsukasa laughed once quietly.
Bitter.
“You need not keep using the title now.”
The room fell silent again.
Even the physician looked stricken.
Slowly, Tsukasa lifted trembling hands toward the ties of her undershirt.
Leo made a shattered sound instantly.
“No. Suou, don’t.”
But what choice remained?
The kingdom demanded proof.
And kingdoms always took what they wanted.
Tsukasa’s fingers shook violently as she loosened the fabric at her collar.
The knights holding Leo stiffened visibly.
The princess struggled harder immediately.
“STOP LOOKING AT HER!”
No one listened.
Tsukasa stared downward numbly while layer after layer of carefully constructed identity unraveled beneath staring eyes.
Armor had always protected her.
Not just steel.
Routine. Distance. Control.
And now all of it was being peeled away under cold council scrutiny while wounded and exhausted and unable to defend herself.
The physician hesitated upon seeing the bruising from years of binding.
His expression shifted unexpectedly.
Not disgust.
Horror.
“You wore these continuously?” he asked quietly.
Tsukasa said nothing.
Another minister spoke sharply.
“Well?”
The physician swallowed.
“…Sir Suou is female.”
The words dropped into the room like an execution bell.
Final.
Absolute.
Leo stopped struggling entirely.
The silence afterward felt monstrous.
Then came the whispers.
“Disgusting—”
“She bathed among soldiers—”
“A fraud—”
“How close was she to the royal family?!”
Tsukasa lowered her gaze.
Not because she was ashamed.
Because if she looked at Leo right now, she thought she might completely fall apart.
Then suddenly:
“Enough.”
Leo’s voice trembled.
Not weak.
Furious enough to shake.
Everyone looked toward her.
The princess slowly pulled free from the stunned knight holding her arms.
Her eyes were wet now.
Not delicate tears.
Fury sharpened into grief.
“You humiliated her,” Leo whispered.
No one spoke.
“She protected this kingdom. She protected ME.” Leo’s breathing shook unevenly. “And you stripped her dignity away like she was some criminal animal.”
The minister stepped forward carefully.
“Your Highness, this woman infiltrated the royal guard under false pretenses.”
“This woman,” Leo snapped viciously, “is worth more than every man in this room combined.”
Tsukasa’s chest ached painfully.
The minister’s patience finally broke.
“Princess Leo Tsukinaga,” he said coldly, “you will cease this inappropriate attachment immediately.”
Leo laughed then.
A terrible sound.
Small. Broken. Furious.
“Inappropriate?”
Her gaze drifted toward Tsukasa again.
Softened instantly.
Even now.
Even here.
“I love her.”
The confession shattered through the chamber.
Several nobles recoiled outright.
The minister looked horrified.
And…
Tsukasa felt her entire world crack open quietly inside her ribs.
Because Leo said it so openly.
Without shame.
Without hesitation.
Like loving Tsukasa was the one thing in this kingdom she refused to surrender.
The sentence was delivered before sunset.
As though the kingdom feared hesitation might allow mercy to grow.
Tsukasa knelt in chains at the center of the royal court while ministers spoke about her life with the detached efficiency of merchants discussing spoiled grain.
Not a knight anymore.
Not Sir Suou.
Just a criminal.
A deception.
A woman who forgot her place.
Tsukasa listened silently.
There was dignity left in silence, at least.
But then came Leo’s punishment.
And suddenly dignity became difficult to hold onto.
The lead minister stood before the throne, expression carved from cold stone.
“Princess Leo Tsukinaga,” he declared, “your conduct has endangered diplomatic relations, destabilized the royal court, and brought disgrace upon the kingdom.”
Leo stood rigidly between armed guards.
Bruises darkened her wrists where they had restrained her earlier.
Tsukasa wanted to kill everyone in the room for that alone.
“To correct this behavior,” the minister continued, “your engagement to Prince Cedric will proceed immediately.”
Leo’s face went white with fury.
“No.”
“You will marry him within the month.”
“No.”
The minister’s voice sharpened.
“And as your future husband, Prince Cedric will possess full authority to discipline your conduct as necessary.”
The room chilled instantly.
Even several nobles looked uncomfortable at the implication.
Violence.
Sanctioned.
Expected.
Tsukasa’s chains rattled violently as she surged halfway to her feet before nearby guards forced her back down.
“You touch her,” she hissed toward Cedric, “and I will carve your heart out.”
Cedric smiled.
That was the worst part.
He smiled.
“Well,” he drawled lazily, “you won’t be around long enough to object.”
The minister turned toward Tsukasa at last.
And delivered the final blow.
“Former knight Tsukasa Suou will be executed at dawn.”
Leo screamed.
Not cried.
Screamed.
The sound tore through the courtroom raw enough to make several guards flinch.
“No!”
She fought violently against the knights restraining her now.
“You can’t do this!”
Tsukasa looked at her desperately.
“Leo—”
“Suou protected your kingdom!” Leo’s voice cracked apart completely. “Suou gave EVERYTHING to this country!”
“It gave nothing back,” Cedric replied coolly.
Tsukasa memorized that sentence instantly.
If she survived somehow, Cedric would die first.
But survival was beginning to feel very far away.
Leo managed to break partially free before several guards caught her again.
She reached desperately toward Tsukasa anyway.
“Please—”
Tsukasa had never seen her look so afraid.
That hurt worse than death itself.
The guards dragged Tsukasa away before she could say goodbye properly.
And Leo kept screaming her name long after the courtroom doors closed between them.
The prison cell beneath the palace smelled like damp stone and rust.
Fitting.
Tsukasa sat alone against the wall hours later, chains still wrapped around bruised wrists while moonlight filtered weakly through the tiny barred window above.
Execution at dawn.
Strange.
She had imagined death before.
On battlefields. During training. Every time someone looked at her too closely.
But she never imagined this part.
The quiet.
No grand tragedy.
Just exhaustion settling heavily into her bones.
Tsukasa lowered her head against the wall slowly.
She should regret something.
The deception perhaps.
The years of lying.
Falling in love with a princess she could never keep.
And yet.
All she could think about was Leo.
Leo laughing beneath lanternlight.
Leo kissing the bruises left by bindings.
Leo saying I love you like it was the simplest truth in the world.
Tsukasa shut her eyes tightly.
She had failed.
Not as a knight.
As someone who promised protection.
Because tomorrow Leo would belong to Cedric.
And Tsukasa knew exactly what kind of man he was.
The thought made her physically ill.
A soft tap interrupted the silence.
Tsukasa frowned slightly.
Another tap.
From the window.
Slowly, she looked upward.
Then nearly died on the spot.
“…Leo?!”
The princess was halfway through the tiny prison window somehow.
Moonlight tangled through her hair while she struggled violently against the stone frame.
“This window is offensive,” she whispered furiously.
Tsukasa stared in complete spiritual collapse.
“How did you even GET here?!”
A second voice drifted from outside.
“Less talking, more escaping, please.”
Izumi.
Then another:
“I told you Tsukipi would get stuck.”
Ritsu.
Tsukasa blinked rapidly.
And finally Arashi’s whisper floated upward:
“If she tears that dress I’m going to kill her myself.”
Tsukasa’s brain stopped functioning.
Leo finally tumbled gracelessly into the cell with a muffled yelp directly onto the floor.
“…I meant to do that.”
Tsukasa immediately dropped beside her despite the chains.
“You should not BE here!”
Leo grabbed her face instantly.
“You’re alive.”
The words came out trembling.
Realization hit Tsukasa immediately.
Leo thought she might already be dead.
Something inside her chest cracked painfully apart.
“I’m here,” Tsukasa whispered softly.
Leo kissed her before she could say anything else.
Desperate.
Fierce.
Terrified.
Tsukasa melted into it instantly despite herself.
Then footsteps sounded outside the cell.
Izumi appeared first unlocking the prison door with deeply irritated elegance
"So annoying,” Izumi muttered, “do you two realize how exhausting you are?”
Behind him, Ritsu yawned sleepily while leaning against the corridor wall.
“I skipped three naps for this.”
Arashi entered last carrying a stolen guard uniform and immediately cupped Tsukasa’s face gently.
“Oh sweetheart…”
Tsukasa almost cried from seeing them.
Again.
Humiliating.
Leo stood abruptly.
“We’re leaving.”
Tsukasa froze.
“…What?”
“We’re running away.”
The words hung in the tiny prison cell like a struck match.
Tsukasa stared at her.
“Leo…”
“I refuse,” Leo said fiercely. “I refuse to stay in a kingdom that kills the people I love.”
Izumi tossed a key toward Tsukasa.
“Several knights support you quietly,” he admitted. “Enough to get you past the gates.”
Ritsu stretched lazily nearby.
“The horses are ready.”
Arashi smiled sadly.
“And frankly? I’m quite tired of this country myself.”
Tsukasa looked between all of them in stunned disbelief.
This was madness.
Treason.
Impossible.
Leo stepped closer.
Then gently took Tsukasa’s chained hands into her own.
“My gorgeous knight,” she whispered, eyes shining in the moonlight, “come steal a future with me.”
And for the first time in her life…
Tsukasa chose herself.
The kingdom told many stories after their disappearance.
Some claimed Princess Leo Tsukinaga had been kidnapped by traitorous knights.
Others insisted Tsukasa Suou seduced the princess into abandoning her royal duty.
The church called it corruption.
The royal court called it disgrace.
The people, however, preferred different versions.
They whispered of a princess who chose love over a crown. Of a knight who defied an entire kingdom simply to exist as herself. Of four fugitives vanishing into moonlight like the final verse of a forbidden song.
And somewhere along the years, the story stopped sounding scandalous.
And started sounding romantic.
Far from that kingdom, beyond the reach of royal banners and arranged marriages and execution orders, there was a small coastal town where nobody cared who had once been a princess.
The sea there was impossibly blue.
Salt lingered constantly in the air. Fishing boats rocked lazily against old wooden docks while music drifted through narrow streets at night.
Leo adored it immediately.
Mostly because nobody stopped her from climbing rooftops anymore.
“LEO.”
“I’m inspiring myself!”
“You are falling off a chimney!”
Tsukasa stood below with the exhausted expression of a woman personally betrayed by destiny.
Nearby, Izumi sighed dramatically from outside the tailor shop he now helped manage.
“She’s your wife now. This is your problem permanently.”
Tsukasa turned red instantly.
Leo nearly fell off the roof laughing.
Inside the bakery next door, Arashi leaned against the doorway smiling softly.
“You know,” she mused, “most married couples buy flowers or jewelry.”
Leo gasped dramatically from above.
“Suou gave me a stolen kingdom.”
“That was NOT intentional!”
From somewhere nearby, Ritsu sleepily raised a hand without opening his eyes.
“We also stole three horses.”
“Thank you, Ritsu-senpai,” Tsukasa muttered weakly.
Life became strange after freedom.
Beautiful.
But strange.
At first Tsukasa struggled constantly.
She still woke some nights expecting chains around her wrists. Still reached automatically for armor she no longer needed. Still flinched whenever strangers looked at her for too long.
Years of hiding did not disappear quickly.
But Leo remained patient through all of it.
Patient when Tsukasa panicked in crowded markets. Patient when old scars reopened quietly in the dark. Patient when Tsukasa apologized for taking up space she no longer needed permission to occupy.
And slowly, impossibly…
Tsukasa began learning how to live instead of merely survive.
The first time she wore a dress outside, she cried afterward.
Not because she hated it.
Because nobody screamed.
Nobody punished her.
An old woman simply smiled warmly and told her the color suited her eyes.
Tsukasa locked herself in the bedroom for twenty minutes afterward having a complete emotional collapse.
Leo found this adorable.
Infuriatingly adorable.
“You deserve softness,” she whispered afterward while holding her close beneath tangled blankets.
Tsukasa still didn’t entirely know how to believe that.
But she was trying.
For Leo, she tried.
And Leo?
Leo flourished.
Without court politics choking the air around her, she became radiant in entirely new ways.
She played piano in taverns. Composed songs for festivals. Filled their tiny home with unfinished sheet music and flowers and absolute chaos.
Children followed her through town constantly.
The locals called her *the sun princess* long before learning she had once truly been royalty.
Tsukasa loved watching it happen.
Loved seeing Leo become lighter year by year.
Sometimes at night they walked together along the shoreline after the town fell asleep.
No guards. No titles. No fear.
Just the sea and moonlight and each other.
One evening, years later, Leo rested her head against Tsukasa’s shoulder while waves curled softly against the rocks below.
“Do you regret it?” she asked quietly.
Tsukasa looked toward her immediately.
“Regret what?”
“Leaving everything behind.”
Tsukasa thought carefully.
About that kingdom.
About armor.
About years spent shrinking herself into survival.
Then she looked at Leo illuminated silver beneath the moon.
Her wife.
Still beautiful enough to ruin kingdoms.
Tsukasa smiled softly.
“I think,” she murmured, “I was never truly living there at all.”
Leo’s expression melted instantly.
“Suou…”
The knight leaned down, pressing a slow gentle kiss against her forehead.
Not desperate anymore.
Not frightened.
Just love.
Steady and certain after surviving everything meant to destroy them.
Then quietly, with the same devotion she once carried into battlefields:
“I told you once I would give my princess everything she wants.”
Leo smiled against her shoulder.
“You did.”
Tsukasa intertwined their fingers carefully.
“And now,” she whispered, watching the ocean glitter endlessly before them, “I finally can.”