A Princess Back In Time

01

CHAPTER ONE

WMMAP FANFIC

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Athanasia, for all she was grateful for this chance that was given to her, would be lying if she said she was enjoying in being a baby. 

She wasn't.

For the first few months, she was enjoying it. Lilian York was her nanny, and Athanasia soaked every attention, care and love the older woman was giving to her. She enjoyed being held, being cradled and falling to sleep with sweet lullabies in her ears. She enjoyed the warmth, the gentleness of her eyes, and how she was kept praising Athanasia for no reason. 

This time, she could finally see that Lilian York truly cared for her, and wasn't trying to earn her trust just to stab her in the back. 

Athanasia had a lot of regrets, and one of them was driving away this gentle saint in front of her just because she had been afraid.

(of getting hurt, betrayed, and made fun for being stupid to fall for the same old trick—)

"Princess, look who it is" Athanasia, who was now a year and a month old, sits on Lilian York's lap with a book held open in front of her. She looks at where the older woman was pointing and stares at the figure on the paper "this is his majesty Emperor Claude de Alger Obelia, our reigning ruler and your father!" 

Athanasia was quiet.

Lilian was giving her a sweet smile, and if Athanasia hadn't known better, she would have also believed that this sweet, kind human being in front of her was right and believed that the man in the book was her father.

"There was never a day I considered you my daughter"

Athanasia stared at the man in the book, and reached her hand to touch the page. The paper was smooth to touch, and she lets her pudgy tiny hand trail over the face with very blue eyes in the picture that could not even compare to the real ones. 

Just as he said to her, he was not her father. 

Athanasia grabs the paper, clenching her hand with the paper, and tore it out of the book with all her baby-ish strength.

"Princess!" Lilian chastised, and normally, Athanasia would have listened and feel bad. Normally.

She pulled the other half of the torn paper with her other hand, and tore it in half. The man was torn in half, and as Athanasia dropped it and watched the pieces of paper fall to the floor without a sound, all she felt was petty satisfaction.

As much as she tried to forget it, she could still clearly remember the day she had first met him. 

She had snuck out of the cold, dark and cruel Ruby Palace on her ninth birthday. The distant music and warm, glowing lights calling her like a siren from her lonely bed. 

The naive and foolish Athanasia back then, had only known coldness and cruelty because the servants of the Ruby Palace had nothing but hate and dislike for her. She knew of hunger because she was being starved. She knew exhaustion because she was doing chores every day without rest. She knew of pain because the servants liked to hurt her and make her cry. She knew how to fake a smile, and hide everything from Lilian because she was threatened with a beating. She knew to be paranoid, to be wary, and to be distant to those she had trusted as she had experienced betrayal several times. That foolish girl she had been back then had suffered a lot, and shied away from any kindness and warmth Lilian York gave her because she was scared. She had thought she deserved to be treated like that, to live like that, because no one told her it wasn't.