Serendipity

Pretty as a prince

Naida's pov

A few days after showing Prince Eret my Dad's treasure room I found him sitting on the balcony by my Dad and I's room.

"Good evening. What are you doing out here?" I asked.

"Just watching, you did say that this balcony has the best view. I sent a raven for my father this morning, hopefully he'll like the deal we're being offered." Prince Eret said.

"Hopefully. Then you can go home. Do you miss home?" I asked.

"Not really, this place is so much nicer than home. I want to try some things that I wouldn't be allowed to, things my father would deem outlandish that seem almost normal here." Prince Eret replied.

"Like what?" I asked.

"It's stupid." Prince Eret said.

"If it means something to you then it's not stupid at all. Why don't you make a list of everything you want to do and I'll take you to do it all. That way you get to enjoy whatever left of your time here! Maybe you can still stay for my Dad's birthday celebrations, it's really soon now." I said.

"I'd like that." Prince Eret said.

"So what kind of things do you want to do?" I asked.

"Uhhhh... try on a dress and bake cookies with rainbow sprinkles." Prince Eret said, his cheeks going red and his voice getting quite.

"We can do that right now! I have plenty of dresses that I used to make Sam, Ant, Skeppy and my dad wear. I'm sure one of them will fit. My dad and I also bake together all the time, we can definitely manage rainbow cookies." I said. "Why aren't you allowed to do that stuff at home?"

"It breaks gender roles and ruins the masculine image a king is supposed to have." Prince Eret replied. "My father would loose it If he knew I wanted to try that kind of stuff."

"Quisling is so outdated! Men can wear and do whatever they want, same for women! Baking cookies and wearing dresses doesn't make you any less masculine or give you a bad image. My dad bakes all the time and used to let me put him in dresses and yet he's respected and loved by the kingdom, there'snothing wrong with it." I said.

Prince Eret smiled as I went on about dresses and gender roles.

"Now come on! Let's get you a nice dress." I said.

Prince Eret got up from his seat and followed me to my room. I threw open my closet and pulled out the dresses that technically belonged to Sam, Skeppy, Ant and Bad. I threw them down on my bed and then turned to Prince Eret.

"You can have any of these. Feel free to keep them too. That red one there would go nice with your nail polish." I said.

"I have no idea how to put a dress on." Prince Eret said awkwardly.

"Just put it on how you think and i'll help you fix it once it's on." I said.

With that Prince Eret took the red dress and headed into my bathroom to change. I waited for about twenty minutes before Prince Eret came out I the red dress. I immediately approached him to adjust the off the shoulder straps and fix his hair.

"How do you work these things?" Prince Eret asked, motioning to the corset front of the dress.

"It's pretty easy, its like tying your shoe laces." I explained as I took the black ribbon into my hands and began lacing up the front. "There's a tiara that goes with this dress as well if you want it. It's gold with rubies and obsidian shards."

"If you don't mind." Prince Eret said before gasping as I tightened the corset.

"Of course." I said, tying the ribbon in a bow.

I went to my vanity and grabbed the tiara before moving back to Prince Eret. I climbed up onto my bed to then replace his crown with the tiara. Once I was done fixing things Prince Eret stepped out infront of the mirror and began twirling.

"Is it everything you hoped it would be?" I asked.

"Yeah, I feel so pretty. I wish I could wear a dress all the time." Prince Eret said.

"You can if you want, we could definitely get you some made." I said. "*gasps* You could get a dress to match your cape! You could wear it to my Dad's birthday celebration."

"I'd get looked at weird." Prince Eret said.

"No you wouldn't. Over 60% of the Badlands consists of non-humans. All of them have their own traditions and for a lot of them it's completely normal for men to wear dresses. You'll fit right in, you and your cool sunglasses. Now let me change into a dress and then we can go bake cookies!" I cheered.

I grabbed the first dress I saw which was dark green and white before heading to my bathroom. When I entered I saw Prince Eret's clothes folded on the counter and decided to steal his Cape to complete the look. Prince Eret and I were starting to become friends and it was a lot of fun.