Shut Up, Cinderella

The Prince and the Pauper

Gem was left on the stairs with one shoe in his hands, kneeling in the snow with no regard for the cold.

One shoe. That was all he had left from the mysterious stranger who had walked into this ball and run away with his heart. No name. No clues about his identity. Nothing.

And now what?

Should he wait for him until he magically returned to his doorstep? Should he hope against hope that their paths would cross again? Should he give up?

No. That wasn't how true love worked. That wasn't how he wanted it to end.

"You'll catch a cold."

Gem gave a start. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn't noticed Olive behind him at all.

"He's gone, Olly," he said, turning around with the shoe in his hands. "He ran away and I don't even know his name!"

She gave him a look that lay somewhere between amusement and pity. "He didn't seem that into you anyway, you know."

Gem shook his head. "You wouldn't get it," he answered. "He was just being mysterious. He probably has something to hide and now he's waiting for me to show up again." He clutched the shoe closer. "I can't just abandon him now!"

"Maybe you misunderstood. I really don't think he was interested."

"He's the one." Gem stared dreamily into the distance. "He has to be interested."

Olive sighed and shook her head, but made no comment. It was like she already knew that no matter what she said, Gem would not be persuaded.

"I'll find him."

Turning back towards the palace, he strode up the stairs, snowflakes beginning to fall again as he went. "I promise," he said, "no matter what happens, I will find him again. Even if I have to turn the whole kingdom upside-down."

Behind him Olive muttered something about him being an idiot, but he didn't listen.

~ ~ ~

Life had returned back to normal. Well, mostly.

At least Cinder was no longer being nagged about going to any potential balls, and he could go back to his usual work. The special orders for the ball were all done and completed, and it was much less hectic. The downside to it all was that the entire kingdom was gossiping about the mysterious masked stranger from the prince's ball, and his stepsisters were unbearably smug about him having missed the event.

If only you knew, he thought every time they bragged about the story again. Their accounts had nothing on what he might be able to tell them.

A few days passed, and then another subject of chatter emerged among the gossipers. Cinder didn't pay it much heed at first; he didn't care for gossip, and he had things to do. But when he walked into town on an errand he couldn't help but pause at the grand announcement pinned up on the marketplace, skimming over it in mild curiosity.

And paled.

The prince, it said, was offering a kingly reward to anyone who could help him find the runaway guest from the ball who had lost his shoe on the palace stairs.

Immediately his eyes darted around, as if fearing someone might recognize him and rat him out. No one noticed, of course. Nobody suspected him, and for that he was endlessly grateful. What in the world had he done wrong to make the obnoxious prince fall in love with him so hard that he was now searching for him all over the kingdom?

Oh well, he thought, nobody would figure him out anyway. By all accounts he had stayed home the night of the ball. His nice clothes were gone. No one would ever find him.