What If... A Keadlyn Alternate Ending to the Crown

Butter Luck Next Time

We slowly made our way down to the kitchen, Kile's arm still flung around my shoulder.

"Mademoiselle," he offered as he held the door open.

"Please. It's Her Royal Highness, Princess Eadlyn Helena Margarete Schreave, to you, sir."

Kile grinned. "Ah, of course, Princess Shining Pearl, your wish is my command." 

(Please don't hate me for ripping off Eadlyn and Erik's conversation!)

I raised my brow and pursed my lips in my best judgmental smirk. "How do you know that?" I demanded. "That was a classified secret!"

"Ahren. I found out that 'Ahren Zephyr Shalom' meant 'Eagle West Wind Prosperity' and he insisted yours was worse."

I rolled my eyes. Of course Ahren had to go blabbing that I had the most pretentious name in the universe. "Let's just say, my parents gave me a fantastic gift when they named me."

"It suits you," he said, walking into the massive kitchen.

"Really? How? Is it because it's completely feminine and meek, just like me?"

He took his time on the answer, first raiding one of the gigantic fridges for provisions.

Kile held up a package. "Do you like salami?"

"No, I don't. And why exactly does my name suit me?" I swore, if Kile Woodwork teased me again about my name, I'd have him hanged.

"First of all, you had your birthright set up for you. The world was gonna know that Eadlyn Schreave would be one hell of a princess. Secondly, you're not at all meek or submissive. You stand up for yourself, Eady, and those around you. Thirdly, you think that being feminine is a bad thing, because you've been raised in a world dominated by men. That isn't a measure of your strength, and being feminine isn't a bad thing, not by a long shot." He stared at me, forcing me to  mimic his gaze. 

That wasn't at all what I expected, but I was glad to hear it.

"Kile Woodwork, I could kiss you." 

And I did, in the middle of the kitchen, even as the pastry chef awkwardly worked behind us. Kile smiled against me.

"I like us, Princess Shining Pearl."

"Don't start now," I warned.

************************************************************

"I thought you said we weren't cooking for ourselves again!" I folded my arms across my chest, and glared at Kile as he pulled out various ingredients.

"But Eady, c'mon, don't you feel bad? They're all working on stuff for tomorrow, and we didn't give them any warning."

I glanced around the kitchen. Although I hated to admit I was wrong, the chefs were all busy preparing the next days' meals, and none of them seemed to have a spare minute to whip up a gourmet meal for their princess. "Fine. We cook for ourselves."

Kile beamed and tugged at my hand. "Don't worry. It'll be fun."

After deciding to cobble together some imitation of penne a la vodka, Kile set me to work chopping tomatoes while he poured questionable amounts of vodka and oil into a saucepan. 

'Reveal your secrets," he said dramatically as he tried to figure out the stovetop. If using the oven for our saffron chicken had been hard, figuring out what dials went where on the stove was rocket science. I couldn't help him in the slightest.

"Maybe the one back there ignites that burner?" He muttered, more to himself than to me. He had spent the past 5ish minutes contemplating the stove, and I had had enough.  I reached over him, and twisted the knob to "High". Fire flickered to life beneath the pan. Not too, shabby, for a girl who didn't cook.

"Voilà. Stove's o-"

BOOM.

A massive flame leaped up from the saucepan, creating a sound loud enough to wake the dead, and singing some of my hair off.

"AHHHH!" I screeched, hands flying to my burned locks. 

"Eady! Are you okay!?" Kile asked, rushing me over to a (thankfully) uncomplicated sink. He ran my hair under the freezing water as I stared in shock at my singed ends.

By then, the entire kitchen staff had moved closer, turning the stove off and crowding around me.

"Your Highness, are you alright?"

"I'm... I'm fine, thank you."

After insisting that I really was okay, and no, I didn't need to go see the physician, Kile escorted me upstairs to my room.

"I really am so sorry," he said, gripping my hands.

I inspected my hair. The flames had really only gotten to a few strands in the front, thanks to Kile's quick thinking. I'd have to get it properly trimmed, but hey, maybe I'd end up with some cute bangs by the end.

"It really is okay," I laughed. "I'm fine, you're fine, my hair's okay. All the important things are covered."

"Are you sure you don't want me hanged? Because honestly, I wouldn't blame you at this point." 

I slumped onto my bed, and Kile followed suit.

"Really, it's fine, I'm more concerned about the fact we didn't get any food out of that whole production."

Kile grinned and reached into his pocket. "Luckily for you, I snatched some cookies from the pastry chef for us."

I pulled him in for a kiss, and we spent the night eating sugar and laughing about our mistakes

First real chapter done! I'm really excited about writing this fic, and hope you enjoyed it! Is it too short? Future chapters will probably be longer, but this is what I have to start 😄