See Me for Me

Once Upon a Time

"Halt, thief!"

Rupert pushed his legs faster, clutching the book to his chest underneath his cloak. The guards didn't know it was him yet-- maybe he could get away clean and go back to his room like nothing had happened.

"Hurry, men," one of the knights commanded. "He's in the east corridor."

This wasn't exactly the time to linger on the giddy feeling Rupert got from hearing the word he, but he couldn't help himself. Who would've thought that all he had to do to get gendered correctly in his own castle would be to break into his mother's private vault and steal what was possibly the most highly guarded object in the entire kingdom? Certainly not Rupert.

He was getting closer to the stairway. If he could just make it across one more hallway, he would be there, and he doubted the guards would think to look for him on the upper floors of the castle. He could make it back to his room, and no one would ever have to know it was him.

He heard a few guards not far behind him, so he picked up his pace, booking it across the hallway. He wasn't bothering to stay in the shadows anymore-- speed was more important than anything else.

"Stay where you are, thief! You're surrounded."

Rupert came to a halt, cursing mentally. Of course, it was just his luck that he would get caught now, when he was mere seconds from freedom.

"I believe this--" Sir Percy, the knight champion, snatched the book from Rupert's arms-- "belongs to the queen. And as for you, well, we'll let Her Royal Majesty decide your fate."

Rupert was just glad, however temporarily, that the knights didn't make him remove his hood as they walked the corridors to the throne room.

"Forgive the intrusion, Your Majesty," Sir Percy said as the guards opened the doors to let the small group inside, "but this is the fiend we captured trying to steal the Forbidden Book. Kneel before the queen, thief!" He pushed Rupert down onto his knees.

Rupert kept his eyes on the ground as Queen Lavinia addressed him. "Well, villain, you led my knights on quite the chase."

"Take off that cloak and uncover your face."

Rupert hardly had time to brace himself before the commander ripped the hood off his head. As expected, a collective gasp sounded throughout the room.

"Isadora?" the queen asked incredulously.

He grit his teeth at the sound of the name, but looked up to face her nonetheless. "Hi, Mom."

"Oh, you are in big trouble this time, missy." The queen dragged Rupert behind her through the castle's halls, towards his room.

"Ow! Mom, easy on the ear-- you're gonna pull it off!"

"You'll be lucky to have any ears when I'm through with you." They had reached Rupert's doors now. "How dare you embarrass me like that!"

"I'm sorry, okay?" He stood up straight to catch his breath once his mother let him go. "I know the Forbidden Book is, well, forbidden, but I have a thousand questions about the forest and no one will talk to me about it. And that book has answers."

"Maybe no one will talk to you about the forest because there's nothing worth talking about."

"Of course there is," he said. "It's taking over our kingdom!"

"That's a lie."

Rupert gave his mother his best I'm-having-none-of-your-bullshit face. "Mom."

"The forest is not taking over our kingdom," she said, sounding like she wasn't fully convinced of that herself.