Oneshots

Living, barely scraping by.

Begging on the street of the pleasure district during the day, while all the Misters were not too drunk.

I was dirty enough to not be touched by them, otherwise, I would have ended up in a brothel by now.

Sitting in a corner I begged, holding my scrawny arms that hadn’t grown enough to represent my seventeen years of living.

My clothes were all tattered and too small, making me look a bit deformed, but money for clothes, even used ones, was a luxury problem.

Scoring enough money for yet another day I felt happy as I skipped my way towards the commercial district where the bakers were located.

Luckily there was enough money early in the day, so the bakers had not yet thrown away their scraps.

I got to buy them in exchange for the little money I’d gathered.

Some days they were extra nice and gave me some nuts and some days when there were other people in the store, the shopkeeper hurled abusive words at me and wouldn’t let me have anything.

After getting some food, I sneaked towards my hideout, ensuring no one followed me.

Several twists and turns later, I finally got into my hideout where I had collected some pretty pebbles and trinkets people had thrown away. These were my treasures.

One day I came across another beggar different from those I usually meet. Something was off about him, maybe the fact that he was kind to everyone and that he was good-looking enough to be accepted by a brothel. But he chose to stay a beggar.

His name was Alexei and we quickly got to know each other, we spent the days begging together, but not stealing. We could get killed for that.

I introduced him to my hideout after he told me he would teach me how to read. We sat huddled together in the evenings, learning how to read from old newspapers. In return, I offered him to live at my place since it was safer than sleeping on the streets.

A year quickly passed by. During the year we depended heavily on each other and we became a family of sorts.

I knew the ins and outs of the street and he protected me from malicious people.

The beggars had a little community that was closely resembling a normal society where there were neighbors, bullies, traders and information brokers.

The day started, like any other day. We had just sat down on the side of the street, eyeing potential Misters, hoping one of them would be generous enough to spare a coin or two.

Ruby, one of the working girls of a nearby brothel went out and waved us over. We approached her and she told us to be careful as the slums had been infested with traffickers lately. And they seemed not too picky with whom they took.

We thanked her for the warning and started our work begging like before. Mister after Mister walked or staggered past us, some more generous than the other.

Having earned today’s coin, we decided to head back and as we stood up and started walking, a man came towards us. Assuming he was a Mister we bowed and begged as he walked past us. All of a sudden he stopped and walked back to us.

He asked, “Do you want to earn a pretty penny or maybe even be provided for?”

Thinking we’ve hit the jackpot I was just about to say yes, when Alexei held down my head that had sprung up in joy.

“We do honest work, don’t worry about us,sir.” He said and dragged me out of there as fast as he could.

“Oi! I’m not done talking with you guys yet!” The man shouted after us as Alexei dragged me further and further away.

When we came back to the hideout, Alexei stared me down.

“What were you thinking, he was bad news!”

“How would you know? It was the first offer I’ve ever got!” I complained, anger bubbling up inside me.

“Would he be dressed as a noble, I would understand. But he was in barely better shape than us. Don’t you remember Ruby warning us?” He questioned me.

“Gosh, you’re helpless. I can only move up my plans, it’s not safe for us here anymore.” He muttered.

I didn’t understand what he was grumbling about and just when I was going to ask, he continued.

“Well. We have earned our keep today, I want to show you something now.”

He took me by hand and dragged me around alleys that showed the fancier district of the town without us being seen.

“See? That’s how noble people dress.” He told me, who had no idea. I’ve never seen such fancy or glossy clothes before. Realising the spot we’d been in before, I was no longer angry, just glad we got out of there.

We saw vendors peddling goods, luxurious stores and people dressed differently all throughout the day.

On that evening he told me that he would show me the castle. I was a bit unwilling thinking that we would get kicked out or worse, put into a dungeon for defiling their castle with our presence.

But everything went well. We easily walked into the royal garden and watched the flowers bloom and saw the tiny streams that ran throughout the garden.

After finally getting relaxed enough to enjoy the feast for the eyes, Alexei decided that we should walk further into the gardens and we ended up in front of a big hall where there was a royal party going on in full swing.

Feeling reluctant to stay I started to drag him away but he held me in place and even forced me to get into the hall.

Getting panicked about our would-be fate if someone saw us, I started struggling. He tried to ease my worries by telling me he would protect me and continued to soothe me until I calmed down.

Having settled my mind, I started looking around once again and mesmerized, I followed him wherever he was going.

As I walked into the ballroom, it was sparkling just as they say in fairy tales. Lively music played from an orchestra, every note was in harmony with each other.

In front of me stood attendees in their brightly colored dresses decorated with sparkling stones.

And in the middle of all that were people dancing to the tunes of the music as if spellbound.

No one batted an eye as we walked in, dirty, scrawny and in tattered clothes.

This made me almost think that nothing was weird, but looking down on my own hands made me realize that we did not belong there.

We walked further and further into the room.

All of a sudden Alexei got down on one knee, asking:

“Xani, will you marry me?”

Confused, I closely looked at him and the surroundings, feeling a warmth in my heart that had since long frozen over, I answered yes.

“No matter what?”

“No matter what.”

A smile blossomed on his face, I had never seen such a bright expression on him before. In the background, I vaguely heard people applauding and murmuring as I was bewitched by him.

But I was soon brought back by the royal announcer’s declaration.

“His Highness the Crown Prince Alexei Cassian Gustavania has been engaged to Lady Xani.”

Turned out that Alexei saw me on the street one day and wanted to know more about the beggars’ lifestyle as he was to reign over the kingdom in the future and held a strong wish to improve the lives of all its residents.

And he chose to follow me to know more, as time passed we fell in love and now it was time to go back to the royal castle after a year-long sabbath.

The kingdom we lived in did not force its aristocracy to marry for the house but believed in love. And this was the story of how a simple beggar became the crown princess of a kingdom.