What About Us?

Chapter 1: Betroth

"Marinette, the King and Queen would like to see you in the dinning room." Tikki says.

Tikki has worked for the royal family for as long as I can remember and she's currently my lady in waiting. She's one of my only friends in this lonely castle.

"I'll be right down." I say as I fix my dress. She nods and walks out.

I walk downstairs, into the dinning room to see my parents sitting at the table. "Marinette please sit." My dad says. I nod and pull out my seat. "Not like that! You are a Princess! We have people to pull it out for you." "But father, I always pull out my own seat."

"Well not anymore. The new Queen mustn't do any of that on her own. It's not royal like." "The new Queen? What!" "Your father and I told you that once you turn 18 we'll step down from the throne. Well as you can see you are now 18." "But I'm not able to control France all on my own!"

"Of course you're not. You can not become Queen unless you're married." My dad says. "But I'm not married." "Not yet you're not. Prince Luka needs to marry as well before he can rule Weselton, so last month we made a deal with the King and Queen over there to betroth the two of you."

"What!"  I shout and stand up from my seat."Marinette calm down. It's not ladylike to yell." "I'm sorry." I say and sit back in my seat. "What I meant to say was, you've known for a month and didn't tell me?"

"Well everyone knows. It's everywhere honey." "You never let me out of this castle." I mumble. "Royalty never mumbles. You must speak loud and confident." "Sorry mother, but I'm not getting married to Prince Luka."

"Would you rather marry one of the other Princes you've dated?" "The only reason I dated them was simply because you forced me. I'm not letting you chose who I'm marrying as well."

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice, we scheduled an engagement ball for the two of you. We already invited the royal families from all over the world along with some of the important people of France."

"Mother, I want to get married to someone I have a connection with." "It's either you marry Luka, a different Prince, or you leave France without a ruler." "I never wanted to rule France." I sigh. "What did your mother say about the mumbling?"

"Sorry Father. We can't leave our people without a ruler." "Then we agree. You are to get married to Prince Luka. You're engagement ball is next week." My mom says as she gets up and walks away.

"I'm sorry Your Highness." Tikki says as she places the food in front of me. She usually calls me by my name, but since she's scared of getting fired she calls me Princess in front of the King and Queen.

"Thank you, Tikki." "Marinette, we don't socialize with the help." "But father, Tikki is my lady in waiting. She basically raised me." "She did not! Your mother and I did. I will not hear of such nonsense!" He says before he leaves the room. Alone again.

I sigh and get up from the table. "Marinette? Where are you going? You need to eat something." Tikki says. "There's no point in having dinner in this big room if I'm just going to be left alone once again."

~Adrien~
The door to the bakery slams open and Nino rushes inside. "Dude did you hear about next week?" "What about next week?" I ask as I hand the customer their order. "The Princess is getting married." I groan and roll my eyes. "What is it with you and the Princess?"