RULED Part 2: A Fairy Tale Reform School Short Story

Perfectly Imperfect

It doesn't take long for me to get all my things together, and it goes even quicker with Trixie's help. She gets Elie ready and hands her off to me as we stand by the doorway. "Thank you for everything, Trixie. Tell everyone else that I say bye."

"Will do," Trixie responds, giving me a hug with Elie in my arms between us. "Good luck."

With not another word spoken, I open up the doors with every intention on heading straight out, finding a Pegasus coach to quickly fly me back to the castle, and begin making things right. But I'm quickly stopped by something–someone–I was not expecting to see.

Standing there in the broad daylight, I see Jax at the end of the stone path leading to the doorway, looking back at me. He's still dressed in a royal, double-breasted blue suit lined with gold buttons, but it appears to have a few stains on it, and I haven't seen his corn blond hair this messy in a long time. But even still, he looks like a perfect royal. A perfect king. And here I am, in my blue pocketed pants, dark purple T-shirt with orange patches, and knit sleeve jean jacket, holding our princess daughter close to my chest.

We hold a stare on each other for the longest time before he drops his black duffle bag on the street and begins walking toward me. I drop my bag the same way and rush towards him, picking up the pace a little, so he does as well. We meet in the middle with a giant hug, with him wrapping his arms around me and me holding on to Elie in between us. He has his hands wrapped around my waist and back and I have fallen into his shoulders, trying my best not to cry.

When we both finally pull back after forever in a moment, he still has one arm and the other hand on the back of Elie's head, who is now awake and staring at us. He gives her a kiss on the forehead and looks back at me. "I'm sorry–" We both say at the same time and cut each other off in the process, resulting in us both laughing.

The sound of my laughter next to his is one that I haven't heard in a long time, and one that I've missed. We fall into a silence as I fall into his deep violet eyes that have met my plain brown ones. I have so much that I want to say, and I'm sure he does as well, but I also have absolutely no words for the moment. So instead, I let myself come closer to him as the gaze drags on and turns into an even deeper kiss. All those feelings of pain and anger are replaced by love. Who cares about our differences? At the end of the day, we have love, and that's what matters.

We only pull apart when I hear Elie let out a small whine that I fear could turn into a tantrum, but thankfully doesn't. Instead, Jax and I both start laughing again. I'm still holding her tight, and he's still holding the both of us.

"Okay, all that aside," I begin, "how are you back in Enchantasia? Weren't you supposed to get back tonight?"

"Technically, yeah," he responds, a bit drawn out, "but Lord Sorensen sent out to me that you had left the castle. I knew you came here. So I sped things up a bit and came here as fast as I could." I place my hand on some of the mess in his hair that shows that as proof and he smirks. "I don't think I've slept in two days."

My eyes wander to the sloppily packed bag he dropped on the floor, and then to some of the stains on his coat. Trixie was right about most things, but she did get one thing wrong: this is the same kid I met at reform school swinging on a chandelier. No matter how much he's changed, he's still the same somehow. He has the same determined, passionate heart. No matter how royal he acts, or how royal I can pretend to be, we're both still rebellious in our own way. It doesn't matter that everyone in our life now calls him "Jaxon", I will always call him Jax. We're partners in crime, which probably isn't what most kings and queens should consider themselves, but that's just how it is.

"Come on," I say quietly. "Let's go home."

✶✶✶

For far too long, the Royal Manor has been my house, but my boot has been my home. It can't go on like that anymore. The boot will always be a part of me, but if I want to go on to become a successful queen, a successful wife, and a successful mother, I need to find a way to make this stuffy castle my home. No matter how stuffy it may be. Jax and I worked out all of our issues on the way back to Royal Manor, and of course, he had to take up a meeting with other Enchantasia officials about whatever this meeting was about. (As a queen, I should probably be more invested in this, but I guess my time will come for that. Eventually.) I get that. That's just the way it has to be. Meanwhile, I've been working on calming Elie down again. (Seriously, what causes a baby to cry this much?)