Scott and Crystal decided to stop and stay at a small cabin in the middle of the woods for the night. They had been riding all night. Well the decision was up to Scott alone to make, because Crystal was sleeping.

She had fallen asleep on his back, where she had buried her face and cried for a long time. He had made sure she didn't fall off, even though she almost did a couple times.

He eventually had to wake her. He wasn't one for physical contact, and letting her hug him was pretty hard for him. He only let her because he felt it was the only way to comfort her.

Sometimes a shoulder (or a back, in this case) to cry on, is all one needs and all a friend can offer. Not that he considered Crystal his friend; he didn't have any of those.

She had her cheek on his back, and he was pretty sure she was drooling, so his shirt wasn't only wet from tears and snot, there was also saliva on it.

“Hey...”, he told her as softly as he could. He didn't want her to fall of the horse now that they weren't even moving, that would be really unlucky. “Princess, wake up.”, he furrowed his eyebrows.

Crystal mumbled some incoherent stuff in her sleep and ignored him.

“Princess. Come on, I ain't spending the night on a horse!”, he complained. Her arms were still wrapped tightly around his waist, so he couldn't really get off the horse. He didn't want to wake her, it had been a long day for both of them, but he had no choice. “Crystal!”, he hissed.

This time, she looked up, half asleep, and started rubbing her eyes.

“What happened?”, she frowned. Her eyes were red and her voice was sore, both from the sleep and the crying.

“I'll tell you in the morning.”, he sighed, shaking his head. “Come on. Let's get you to bed.”, he told her and got off the horse. He helped do the same without falling on her face, then kicked the abandoned cabin's door open and helped her in. There were two single beds, a small couch, a table with three chairs and a tiny fireplace with some firewood inside. Everything was dusty.

It had been a long time since he last went there. He got some sheets from a cupboard and laid one of the beds for Crystal, but when he turned around she was already sleeping on the couch.

He sighed again and went outside to get their stuff. He glared at Ash and told him to not go anywhere.

“Seriously. I don't wanna tie you up all night, Crystal will kill me. Don't go, because she'll kill me if you do that too.”, he told the horse.

The horse whinnied as if saying: “Fine by me...”. Scott glared at him one last time before heading inside.

He was about to go to sleep, when he noticed Crystal shivering in her sleep.

“Dammit, princess.”, he muttered under his breath. He lit a fire with the little firewood that was left in the house and threw a blanket over her.

As he did that, she grabbed his wrist, scaring the hell out of him. “Thank you and- and I'm sorry...”, she sobbed in her sleep.

“Calm down... It's okay. Just go back to sleep.”, he reassured her as well as he could. He wasn't good with feelings.

“Sleep... That sounds good...”, she muttered and fell back asleep.

He shook his head again, and finally went to sleep himself, which was good and all, until he started dreaming.

The sound of glass bottles and locked doors still haunted him. Glass shards and the cold atmosphere of his old house gave him shivers. His neighbors' unwelcoming glares whenever he was locked outside were one of the main reasons he didn't trust people anymore.

When he woke up, the sunlight was burning his face from the window. He got up and looked around at the cabin. It was far more welcoming in daylight.

The fire had, naturally, died out. That's when he noticed that Crystal wasn't on the couch.

“Dammit.”, he muttered and got up. He picked up a shirt and a clean pair of pants from his luggage, changed, and ran outside.

He squinted at the sudden sunlight and wasn't surprised at all when he found Crystal sitting by the lake, her feet splashing water around.

“What are you doing?”, he raised an eyebrow.

“Good morning to you too.”, she rolled her eyes, smiling. This was much different than what had happened the night before. He furrowed his eyebrows.

“Are you okay?”, he asked her suspiciously.

“Of course I'm okay! Look at the fish!”, she changed the subject.

He gave her a look that said he wasn't buying any of it, but she ignored it. Again.

“Alright then. What's for breakfast?”, he asked.

She shrugged. “I don't know. I've got some stuff for emergencies somewhere in my luggage bags, but we could go find fruit from the woods to save on that.”

“Okay. You stay here, I'll go.”

“Why are you the one going?”, she crossed her arms.

“Because I know what stuff is edible and what is poisonous around here.”, he rolled his eyes as he walked away.

Crystal pondered on that, but soon went back to staring at her feet and playing with the fish. She wanted to get her mind off what had happened the day before.

Things had gotten pretty weird and she still wasn't sure if she trusted Scott enough to tell him what was going on.

“But you promised...”, her inside voice reminded her. That settled it for her. She was going to explain what was going on. She owed him that, at least.

She had gotten him in lots of trouble and they hadn't even started yet. She did keep in the back of her mind, though, that he owed her some explanations too.

About an hour or so later, Scott returned with a bowl full of apples, berries and other fruit. Where he had found the bowl was a question that didn't bother her for long. She figured he had taken it from the cabin when she wasn't looking.

They started eating.

“Are you ready to tell me what the hell is going on with you?”, Scott got right to the point.

She bit her lip. “Do you want the whole story, or..?”, she trailed off.

“The whole story.”

“Fine!”, she raised both her hands in surrender and looked down at the bowl. “I grew up in a little village with Benny, my father. Life was pretty awesome, until a week ago.”, she gulped. “My dad's best friend came at our house late at night. Andy, my dad's friend, said some pretty weird stuff to Benny. Something along the lines that I wasn't Benny's kid. Benny managed to explain some stuff before I left. How my mom had given me to one of her handmaid ends and sent me away because she was scared and all that. He told me who my real father was.”, she gulped.

“Wait... You don't mean--”, Scott muttered. He'd figured out that Alastor had been her father, but he hadn't had the time to let it sink in.

“Alastor.”, she interrupted him bitterly. “Andy and a few more guards escorted me to the palace. I didn't really want to go... I'm more of an outdoorsy kind of person. Anyway, things got off to a rough start. I saw the way my "dad" was treating my siblings. The first night, Tristan didn't even come to dinner. Caroline got blamed for that. Things got a little out of hand when I stood up for her.”, she sighed. “I ran away from the table and all that. The same thing happened the next day too, pretty much.”, she shrugged.

“So you ran away.”, Scott looked away.

She nodded. “I asked Caroline for some help. Tristan tagged along too. Andy, his wife and his daughter helped. Alastor didn't seem to know what they did, so that's good. Caroline tried to warn me that he would never stop looking.”, she sighed again. “I obviously didn't listen to her... I just want to go back to my village, get Benny, and go off to see the world. I don't want anything to do with all that royal stuff. There's too much drama involved.”

“Understandable.”, Scott nodded in agreement. “I've only got one question.”

“What is it?”

“So you've been an actual princess the whole time?”, he tried to refrain himself from cracking a smile.

Crystal narrowed her eyes at him. “And here I thought that you were going to ask something serious.”

“I am serious!”

“I'll ignore that comment.”, she rolled her eyes.

“You've been doing that a lot, so it's not much of a surprise anymore.”

“I'll ignore that too.”, she glared at him. “What's your story?”, she frowned.

“You ain't getting that from me yet. If you think that your royal family has issues wait until you see my family's issues.”, he told her. She stared at him expectantly. “What?”

“I'm waiting.”, she shrugged.

“Nope. You're not there yet, princess.”, he shook his head.

“Oh, come on! I just told you my life story!”, she complained.

“Thats not my fault. Besides, you're the one that promised explanations. I didn't promise anything.”, he got up.

“Where are you going?”, she she narrowed her eyes at him.

“For a walk.”, he said in a "duh" tone.

“Seriously?”, she raised an eyebrow.

“Do I look like I'm joking?”

“No...”, she sighed. “Fine, but don't be late, because I'm not coming after you.”, she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, whatever.”, he waved her off and left.

He's so infuriating! She thought.

She was a little mad at Scott. Only a little.

She had told him everything she had promised she would. He said he would tell her too, but he had never really promised anything.

Crystal hated the fact that she had been tricked. She resisted the urge to go follow him and get on his nerves.

Instead, she calmed herself down by feeding Ash and brushing his mane. Turns out Ash had acted like the "conversation" with Scott hadn't taken place, and had done whatever he would have if Scott didn't exist altogether.

Scott wasn't sure whether he appreciated that or not.

Seeing as Scott was away, she decided to go for a short dive in the lake, to wash her hair a bit and pass her time.

She didn't stay in for long, because she didn't want any embarrassing surprises, like a specific someone returning early from his walk or a random traveler passing by.

Soon, she was out of the water, sitting on the grass and subconsciously ripping it out.

It didn't take long for Scott to return. By the time he did, though, Crystal had brought one of the chairs outside and was sitting in the shade, fiddling with a white rose.

“Where did you get that?”, he asked as he approached.

“I don't know... Somehow some roses have grown behind the cabin. They're beautiful! White roses have always been my favourite... They were the only flowers we grew in the garden back at my village.”, her eyes sparkled as she said that.

“There were no roses last night. It's where we got off Ash.”, he told her.

She furrowed her eyebrows. “Maybe you didn't see them. It was pretty dark.”

“They're white. I would have seen them no matter what.”, he argued.

“So what are you saying? They can't have just popped up outbid nowhere!”

“Unless...”, he tried to get her to think about it.

Her eyes grew wide as she realised what he was talking about. “I didn't do it, if that's what you're implying!”

“Maybe not on purpose, but you were talking about your home a while ago!”, he reasoned.

“I didn't do it!”, she said aggressively.

“Are you really going to avoid that topic? Maybe your mother was a witch or something!”

“Only my aunt was a witch, as far as I know, and she was married into the family, so we're not blood related.”

“How do you know queen Olivia wasn't a witch?”, he shrugged.

“Because my father or, at least, Caroline would have known.”

“Fine! If you don't want to believe it, don't. You're the one that's staying behind on the whole magic thing. I'm gonna go for a dive.”, he rolled hie eyes and walked away from her.

She's so frustrating! He thought.

He took off his shirt and dived in the lake. Crystal noticed long scars across his back and frowned again. She was curious about where had gotten them. Some were more evident, but they were all clear.

As he returned a while later, she noticed another one, a little lower than his ribcage. It looked deeper than the others.

“What are you staring at?”, Scott glared at her.

“Nothing.”, she lied and got up. “I'm just gonna go inside for a while. I don't want to get a sunburn...”, she sighed and did as she said.

She walked in and sat on the rug between the couch and the fireplace. She didn't feel like sitting on the couch or any of the beds.

A while later the door opened and closed. Scott towered over her. She resisted the urge to gulp.

“You were looking at the scars, weren't you?”, his voice sounded sadder than she had expected. She nodded.

A lump formed on his throat. He really didn't want to talk about it, but Crystal didn't seem like the kind of person that would laugh at him or change her view of him.

She didn't look like the judging type.

He sat down on the floor next to her.

“Remember when I told you how my family has issues?”, he asked. Crystal nodded. “Well, my dad used to work for your... father. He was well known. One of the greatest soldiers. An even greater father.”, Scott bit his lip.

“You don't have to tell me, sorry if I pres--”, she started but he stopped her.

“No.”, he shook his head. “When I was nine years old, your father replaced him. He became more violent, both at work and at home.”, he gulped. “A year later he was fired, due to bad behavior. He started drinking a lot. Me and my younger sister, Phoebe, started working. She was seven at the time.

“The fact that we worked didn't make matters easier, though. Our father kept spending every single penny we made in getting more and more alcohol. He- he became more violent.”, Scott stammered. He blinked back some tears.

Crystal stayed silent. She felt ashamed for thinking she had problems. Scott had had it way worse.

“He whipped us all. My mom, my sister. He seemed to hate me more.”, his voice cracked. “Three years ago, I returned late at home. I had been working all day and was exhausted.

“I was furious at my dad. I walked in the house and saw him beating Phoebe harder than ever. I refused to give him the money I had made. I tried to stand up to him.”, Scott stifled a sob. “He got mad. He dropped a bottle and it shattered. We started fighting. At some point, he managed to push me to the ground. I landed on my stomach. One of the shards impaled me under the ribs.

“He started kicking me. My mother screamed at him to stop. Phoebe was crying. He yanked me by the collar and slammed me against the wall. I wasn't much of a fighter, so I didn't stand a chance. He eventually grew tired of my mom and sister shouting, so he threw me in the cellar and locked the door. About an hour later, he returned, pulled me up and kicked me out of the house. The last thing he did before slamming the door in my face, was throw my stuff at me. I haven't seen him since.

“Phoebe stood up to him a few months ago. We kept in touch. She got mom and they ran off. I haven't seen them yet.”, he stared at his hands.

Crystal tried to touch his shoulder, but he flinched away. She tried again, and he started sobbing.

“Calm down... It's okay. He can't hurt you anymore.”, she tried to comfort him. She pulled him into a tight hug. He buried his face in her shoulder, the same way she had done in his back the night before.


Her eyes stang too. She had been so selfish, thinking that she had it worse than everyone. She bit her lip and held Scott tighter.

“It's okay...”, her whispered at him. She had never imagined that the arrogant and sarcastic guy she had met the day before could be so broken. Before she talked to him, when she had only seen his eyes, she believed it. After she talked to him, though, she forgot all about that. He was such a good liar. He could be so persuasive.

He had tricked her again. He had tricked everyone.