A sadistic Princess should have a sadistic knight.

Security.

Sougo couldn't remember a moment in which he felt more frustrated. Failing in tracking down the Pirates, he and Shinpachi were forced to return to the kingdom empty-handed. This left an enormous hole in his pride. It especially didn't help since the barrage of teasing produced by the king and his daughter upon his return was unrelenting. His final strand of sanity was thinning.
     "Okita-dono, I've brought tea."
     Not turning to the door, Sougo replied: "I'm not in the mood, Zura."
     "I'm not "Zura", I'm Katsura! And Leader wants you to stop hiding in your room."
     "Fine, come in."
Katsura entered and set the tea down on the floor. Beckoning Sougo to join him. Sougo sat across from him and gulped the tea down, ignoring its burning sensations on his tongue. His throat was too dry for him to care.
     "What did you come here for?" He asked gruffly.
     "To drink tea," Katsura responded simply.
     "I don't have time for this. Just say-"
     "You do have the time, you're just not allowing it."
Slightly alarmed by his words, Sougo conceded, settling into a more comfortable position.
     "How much longer are you planning on brooding over this?" Katsura inquired.
Long enough that I can see that no harm will be inflicted upon the princess. He resented allowing such pitiful words to be disclosed. He merely shook his head.
     "Okita-dono, I too understand your worry. It's only natural. You really do care a great deal about Leader, yes?"
Something about the way his voice was pitched perturbed Sougo. With a hard slam on the tea stand, he said emphatically:
     "I'm just doing my job. I dislike what you're insinuating."
     As if he had not displayed his protest at all, Katsura chuckled to himself. "I wasn't insinuating anything, Okita-dono. You're doing the insinuating."
He could feel the final strand snap, and this brought him dangerously close to throwing the man before him out the window to his perilous demise.
Katsura laughed, almost haughtily, and brushed his long raven hair over his shoulder.
     "Okita-dono, I'll be leaving now. And because you're very tense today, I'll share a few words Leader said."
     "Just say it and leave."
     "I believe it was, 'That stupid sadist. Life's no fun with him hiding.'"
He tensed as that final syllable met his ears.
...
Kagura was leaned over her desk, writing laboriously and thoughtfully-as if whatever the completed product of her work would be, it'd be forever encased in gold. It was a letter. To her supposed brother.
Why am I so set on doing this? She thought suddenly, I don't believe I even have a brother. She thought this, and continued writing.
Dear Captor,
Who I am planning on addressing this to is beyond me. I suppose every one of you. I have questions. Many questions. I have no doubt we will meet again. Whether at my bedroom window, heaven, or hell. I'm thoroughly repulsed by you, yes, but I want to know why you were insistent on forcing the notion that I have a brother. I am an only child. I have much more that demand to be answered.
Sincerely, Princess Kagura.
She eyed her paper intently, revising its contents meticulously. She didn't know how she was planning on transferring this to those malicious pirates and returning unharmed. Even if this didn't get to them, she needed her thoughts on paper. For her own sanity. She was losing it. Her knight won't talk to her, her parents are always in meetings, and she has her own lessons.
"If he just would stop locking himself up and ignoring me, I'd feel-"
"Better?"
With a startled gasp, she turned to the snide voice. Behold, her sadistic knight. One no walked in just as she admitted with her own voice that she yearned for his company. She internally groaned. Whatever happens next is her fault. What she didn't expect was him to firmly wrap his arms around her and rest his well-structured chin on her head. In fact, she was appalled.
    "I heard from Zura that you missed me."
Eerily relaxing in his embrace, she looked up at him, eyes full of wonder and unbelievably keen solicitude.
"I was... More disturbed than worried."
Unconvinced but humbly satisfied, he withdrew his arms and caught glance of the literacy on her desk. She noticed his gaze, but failed in pushing the paper out of his reach before he swiftly snatched it and read each word aloud with a prolonged, mock tone. But his voice was promptly devoid of its initial satire.
"Hime..."
"I know it's a good idea, but did you really have to read it? It's a personal piece of writing, no-"
"What is this idiocy?" He demanded sharply. She was too flabbergasted to respond. "Have you lost your mind? How could you subject your kingdom to such danger with your prudent actions?" He chuckled bitterly and combed his fingers through his locks which were dampened with sweat. He ripped up the paper and glared at the remains with hateful eyes. Then, not changing those eyes, he turned to her. "You want to meet them a second time?! All those hours of excruciating struggle just for you to be taken again?! Are you serious?! Think of other people for once you damn princess!"
He's never risen his voice at her like this. And he's never witnessed his princess make the face she's making. Her eyes looked hallow, as if lost in her conscience, and her mouth hung agape, a subtle, imperceptible twitching occasionally stretching the corners.
The regret came fast and in waves of heart-wrenching hell. She was still facing him, she was still looking at him. But it was as if she didn't recognize him. Her hands were trembling, and she looked at them with those hallow, absent eyes.
"Never," she spoke, her voice reaching him in delicate tremors. "Never, did I ever ask you to feel obligated to save me. If you didn't want to associate with me, then why did you stay my knight? I'm sorry I do not meet the specifications of a proper princess, and I thought that you accepted the fact that I could be foolish. But I was wrong. So..." She swallowed hard, "I discharge you from your position as my knight."
His eyes widened. She began to collect the remnants of her letter.
"Wait. Wait, no. No, this isn't what you want," he said incredulously, as he caught hold of her wrist.
She tore away from his grasp.
"You are not my knight. Since you are not of the proper status to touch someone of my nobility, please refrain from doing so."
Her voice was hideously cold. Her head was angled down, picking up every bit of the shredded paper.
But you brought this upon yourself. A voice murmured to him. You hurt her first. What rule says she can't do the same to you?
"Exit immediately. I'll inform my father and I'll hire Hijikata to replace you. If you wish to stay in the castle as either a butler or a member of the army, you must go through a series of training-"
"I've had enough of your lies, Hime. You are not firing me. I mean, you can't."
"I'm not lying, and I absolutely can." He could detect the falter in her words. "Leave."
She lifted her head. Her cerulean eyes, glimmering with tears and breathtaking beauty, her lips so pink and soft, her pert nose and her long silky tresses of that conflagration of vermillion; when would he see this ethereal scenery again?
"Never," he rasped finally. His lips pressed together firmly as he clenched the hilt of his sword. "Goodbye, Hime."
"...Goodbye, Sougo."