Rabi & Allen: LW3 1/10 Title: The Prince and the Roses Authors:tyltyl & mytyl Characters: Rabi & Allen Walker Fandom: D.Gray-man Theme Set: LW3 Theme(s): 4. Silly Warnings and Notes: An AU in which Allen and Rabi are trapped in a fairytale setting with Rabi believing himself to be a Prince and Allen to be his Princess.
Where the roses grow in the vale, there the infant Jesus will speak to us.
There was nothing especially sacred or chatty about the flowers outside of Allen's window. If anything they looked humble growing in the window box that he'd set over the rain drain. The words simply came to him like a memory, a story someone told him.
Allen hummed softly to himself, feeling at peace simply tending the makeshift garden. He stroked the puckered petals lightly with just the tips of his finger. Maybe there was some truth in the faded words in his memory. The roses, deep blood red in colour, were strong and sturdy despite the storms that had passed through. Despite the cold the blossoms didn't die or hide, opening even in the chill.
"Well, shall we read my lines?" Allen asked the roses cheerfully, people always said that speaking to plants made them grow better. This way he could nurture the flowers and get some work done, seemed like a good enough idea to him even if reading lines with roses seemed odd to say the least.
"…they're ornaments mostly! Most of them are little animals made out of glass, the tiniest little animals in the world. Mother calls them a glass menagerie! Here's an example of one, if you'd like to see it! . . . Oh, be careful—if you breathe, it breaks! . . . You see how the light shines through him?" Allen looked intently at the swaying blossoms, as if hearing them respond to his delivery.
The sky was certainly nice today in its nice today in its crisp blue, though when was the sky not such a delicate color? Everything always seemed to be so perfect. Perfect weather. Perfect peacefulness. There was even a sweet tune that drifted on the wind's currents. Just simply prefect, it would have almost bothered him. Was that anything that anyone would ever trade in place for this slice of paradise? For this moment of utopian bliss?
The tune changed its note and a gentle voice spoke in its place. Such lines of a false sweetness. He had all but heard this story once before; the girl with the glass unicorn and the boy she fell in love with. If anyone had to play his part, he wanted to be the one even if he'd never end the story in such a manner. "It sure does shine! What kind of thing is this one suppose to be?" a voice chimed in. "The Glass Menagerie? Why is it that my dear Princess always happens to learn the lines to the most unfitting stories?
Red hair poked out from under the window's ledge as Rabi ascended from his seat. His ever apparent blissfully unaware smile on his face as well as the eye patch that covered his right eye, this prince could never be found too far from his beloved. Whether he was in sight or far off in the distance, he'd keep an eye over his princess. His tragic beauty.
"I think my Princess should speak sweeter words."
"I'm not—" Allen stopped. He was getting used to this prince of his, almost to the point that he expected him around every corner with that easy smile and…lines. No matter, he knew well enough that he probably needed to approach him differently. Simply telling Rabi flatly that he was not his princess has had no effect so far.
He gave a dramatic sigh even as a grin twitched at the corners of his mouth. "I think you should speak truer words," Allen retorted in a false feminine tone. "Since when did you live here, Rabi?"
Allen was quite certain that the apartment across from his had been vacant. The rain drain had been rusty and unkempt not so many days ago and the window sadly lonely. Allen looked at Rabi through the window frame, the gap between the windows was small. With rose box sitting in the rain drain the gap was made even smaller, small enough to cross. Allen shook his head slightly, if he were any kind of maiden he'd be scandalized by how Rabi followed him around. He fell back into his role easily enough, a laughing smile and delicate tilt of his head. "Haven't you noticed the single horn on his forehead?"
He dared Rabi to say that unicorns existed.
Rabi gave a soft chuckle as Allen stopped himself from denying his existence as his Princess. He almost wondered if all princesses acted in such an endearing behavior, and if so, it was no wonder that other princes were unable to resist their sweet charms. Though Rabi swore that his princess must have been the fairest of them all, despite being male. Gender was such a petty thing any who.
"It's not a matter of when did I start living here but that I do." Rabi replied ever casually, resting his arms on the window's ledge. The prince sniffed his princess's garden. Sweet. "Speak truer words you say, Princess? What words are not as true as the ones I speak? Do tell me."
Was it ungentlemanly to admire someone so frequently? Or even to follow them around as he did? Rabi began to ponder the thought for a while as he stared at the garden plants' finer details. Perhaps it was a bit... unnerving and his Princess did throw a fuss ever once in a while when he would magically appear at his side, but nothing that would mean that he'd hated it. Right? After all if his Princess had really and truly minded, he would have thrown a hissy fit and refused to see him ever again instead of throwing at him... these challenges.
"A unicorn, huh? —aren't they extinct in the modern world?" the prince replied with ease. Though he knew that there was no way that unicorns could have really existed in the world.
"Truer words to what's around us," Allen explained. Rabi felt like he'd appeared out of nowhere with declarations of affection and he'd slipped right into Allen's life as if there was a place there custom fitted for him. "For all your affections how can a commoner like me relate to your princely charm?" If he could get past the strangeness maybe they could be friends.
Allen fingered the green leaves that framed the roses. "Unicorns and Prince Charming, aren't they sort of in the same league?" Rabi didn't know that Allen believed in magic, happy endings and angels.
Rabi was taken back by his Princess's words. His Princess considered himself to be nothing but a commoner? How could he? What was this nonsense? From where did this strange idea breed from? Yet from within so much inner turmoil, Rabi carefully examined Allen. "Where is this commoner you speak of? I do not see one. All I see before me is someone who's far more graceful than this lowly prince."
Out of all the flowers one could grow, the choice of roses was an interesting one. The weather suited them well enough yet it was their story that entertained the prince the most. Allen spoke of Unicorns and Prince Charmings and then there were the flowers that he grew. "Such harsh words, dear Princess. How they wound me..." Rabi replied dramatically placing a hand over his chest. "Though Princess, there's a main different between Prince Charmings and Unicorns... A horse will never be able to become a Unicorn where as any man can become a Prince Charming."
"I really hope 'Princess' isn't my new nickname," Allen muttered with a slight roll of his eyes. He was almost faintly impressed by Rabi's reasoning for becoming Prince Charming.
"Are you saying you chose to become a Prince Charming? And then chose me as your Princess?" It was a rather unbelievable choice Allen thought. "Who were you before you became Prince Charming," Allen asked, leaning out his window slightly as if to examine Rabi more closely. It could be an explanation for that sensation of déjà vu when he saw Rabi. Maybe Allen had known him when he was…normal. Not that he disliked the self proclaimed Prince Charming. There was simply the sensation that something was off.
Rabi paused for a moment as to be in a sort of shock, dropping his smile for a brief moment. "Why fore, dear Princess? You don't expect me to address you by anything else, do you?" Surely his Princess didn't expect him to call him by name, did he? What sort of Princess goes by the name of 'Allen'?
"I can't answer if I did choose to become a Prince Charming for things get a little foggy the further I think back nor answer the one about what I was, but I can say for certain that I did choose you to be my Princess." Rabi replied with a piercing gaze. His solitary green eye stared intently and deeply at Allen's blue ones. Unwavering and serious. A hand stretched out and brushed past Allen's cheek before dropping back onto the window's ledge, "A tragic beauty that I could never get to smile for me." Yet even though Rabi had said that, the description didn't quite fit; the beauty from his mind cried much more openly.
"Why can't you just call me Allen?" Rabi hadn't called him by name, not since their introduction, it made him feel like they were simply playing roles assigned to them. Allen wasn't sure when he'd been cast as princess, he didn't feel like a princess at all.
A little foggy, it made Allen stare at Rabi, expecting to see something similar to himself reflected in him. Those dreams that clouded his nights and dissolved in daylight, the ones that always left him feeling as if something wasn't right. Was that what Rabi meant? It was ridiculous, desperate really, for him to be hoping to find someone that he could explain that sensation to. Allen leaned away unconsciously, shying away from the hand that reached out for him. "There's nothing tragic about me," he said with a certainty that would convince any audience even as he reached for his own hand beneath the window sill. The light laugh just sealed the act, "Actually, I'm not really beautiful or tragic. I really think you found the wrong person for your princess."
He could prove it too, if he just showed Rabi his strange arm. But maybe Rabi would take that as the tragic part. His arm was ugly but Allen didn't consider it a bad thing. It was because of his arm that… because of that…. Even if his parents had left him Mana had loved him unconditionally.
Rabi frowned as his princess questioned his namesake. In his voice there was something different than usual; had his princess really hated being addressed as so? "It's because I wish to address you as I see you. However if it makes you happier then I will." His princess's happiness was the most important thing after all.
His concern grew as his princess shifted away from him. The words he spoke were cleverly crafted in a way where it sounded like there was no pain, but from the word themselves... There was no mistake. It was just like before, when they had first met on the stage. Tragedy coated his darling princess and yet there was nothing he could do and brief were the moments where he did ask for some form of comfort. And the more that his princess spoke about how he was not really beautiful or tragic, the more Rabi felt the urge to just embrace him. "Prince--" Rabi stopped himself. "Allen." He raised a hand to Allen once again but hesitated before placing it on his shoulder. How could he say all of that all while claiming not to be tragic? It didn't make any sense.
"You are too beautiful...and tragic. You are my princess, Allen. I've known this ever since I first laid eyes on you, and if you don't believe me then I'll prove it to you." Rabi moved his hand from Allen's shoulder and took a firm hold of Allen's hand. He hadn't really thought about how he was exactly going to prove it to Allen, but he was determined to do so. Snow white hair and those blue eyes. The fact that Allen dressed so conservatively was little of any concern to him, with the other features he had, there was no way he could refute that Allen wasn't attractive. Not on his account.
Allen stared at their clasped hands for a moment. He flexed his fingers curiously as if he wasn't used to being touched. Or maybe a similar situation had played out in some far off point in his memory. Allen though he remembered faintly violet eyes and soft fingers grazing his cheek but all he saw was Rabi's earnest gaze.
Rabi was holding his ugly hand. Allen lifted the back of Rabi's hand to his cheek as if experimenting. No, this was new, brand new. He'd never had someone so desperate to be his prince, to save him from whatever unreal tragedy that threatened. "Well, it's not as if I can change your mind," Allen relented as he loosened his hold on Rabi's hand though Rabi was still holding on. He lowered their hands to the window sill, Rabi reaching across that makeshift garden. "Even if I'm not to keen on the idea of being a princess I want to be friends." Allen gave Rabi a wide earnest grin, he was sure he could become good friends with this silly prince. No, excellent friends, invaluable. He almost felt like they already were.
He turned away from the window as the thought sunk into his mind. "Just don't trample the roses. I'll make tea," Allen let the invitation hang for a moment, glancing over his shoulder, smiling easily as if nothing out of the ordinary had transpired.
Rabi smiled. Seeing Allen examining their interlaced hands made him feel more at ease and the fact that Allen was exploring every detail as if he were a newborn doubled as amusement. The prince never really noticed just how disfigured his princess's hand was until he was actually held it. It felt rough. However the warmth was the same as any other hand and that was all that really mattered.
"Just because I you are my princess doesn't mean we can't be friends." The air felt a little cooler and the sky a bit brighter. Rabi loved that grin, this grin that was different from the rest. He felt as if he had seen it so many times before. Though the more he admired it a softer face overlapped Allen's; a gentle face with a sweet warm smile and long black hair that danced around their lips. Rabi shook his head freeing himself from the daze and blinked again. The ghostly face was gone. It was such a weird sensation but not an uncommon one to have whenever he was around Allen. Actually the only thing that was odd about the sensation was his instinct to try not to further pursue the ghostly memories.
Fully recovered from his previous ordeal, Rabi examined the window. Now how was he supposed to get through that without damaging anything? It wasn't like he petite like his princess and diving into the window would be most ungraceful. "Don't trample the roses you say..." How troublesome.