The Runaway Princess

Chapter 1 : The Birthday Blast

Disclaimer : I don't own GS/GSD or any of the characters. I love Asucaga too much to make them fall apart.

This is my first attempt on AU. The background story had been on my mind lately. I was so in love with Minerva Cradle's ASUCAGA fic : Crusade and I recently read so many web-novels with this kind of background. So I really want to try one. I know I have bad grammar since English is not my first language, but I hope you can bear with my work. Thank you! Please enjoy it, I hope you like it. Happy Birthday Kira Cagalli!

Chapter 1 : The Birthday Blast

Today was a grand day for people in the east. The capital city of Eastern Kingdom, Onogoro, was celebrating their prince and princess' 25th birthday. Every high officials from all over the country were invited to celebrate the birthday party at the palace. Not only the high officials who would enjoy the celebration, but also the people of the eastern kingdom would have their own celebration, because every year on that day, the King would provide them fancy food free of charge for a feast on their own home. So, most of the people in the east were always looking forward to this day.

That evening, the birthday party at the palace started elegantly. The high ranking officials sat together on their assigned seat and talked a lot about matters from their own regions. The chattering was not too loud, but enough to lift up the spirit of celebration. Luxurious food was available on the tables around the room, also helping to enliven the atmosphere. The guests seemed so happy to attend the party.

From his seat, the eastern king was pleased to see that many of the officials had made it to the party, only one or two people had notified their absence. The reason why he had been so pleased was because today's celebration would be different from the past years. He was going to announce something so important and it would be a blast to enjoy it with as many people as possible.

"Kira, happy birthday." A blonde girl with her exquisite red dress approached her brother and sat beside him.

"Happy birthday to you too, Cagalli." He gave her a wan smile as he glanced at her. The two sat on a special round table assigned for VIPs, not far from the King's seat. The table was ample for 5 or 6 people, but no one has yet to join them.

"You know, I wonder why father had stopped nagging me about marriage. It has been a month now." She looked at her brother intensely, she was certain that her brother would know something she didn't know.

"Maybe he was just tired." He said it a bit too fast from his casual tone, he was trying to hide any hint of anxiousness.

"I don't know, I feel like something is coming, and I won't like it." She continued, now she was squinting her eyes toward her brother.

"Alright, don't do that." He finally gave in," I guess he did have a plan for you, actually I've heard about it, but not entirely. So don't ask me the details."

"What is it?"

"Erm, about an arranged marriage?"

Her eyes widened in shock. If she could scream, she would scream right now, but she held it back, she remembered that she was at a party. Her own birthday party to add. Not long after that, her shock turned into a frown.

"Why didn't you tell me anything?"

Kira paused for a moment, he didn't know what to say. Actually, he just heard a little, so he wasn't really sure about the validity of this news. He looked back at Cagalli, she was looking away now, it was clear that she felt disappointed, he could see it.

Since last year, the king had always nagged at Cagalli to get married ahead of Kira, just because she is a woman. He reasoned that he didn't want his lovely daughter, become an old maiden. Still, Cagalli thought the reason was a bit ridiculous. She was just 25 for god's sake. Despite her rejection, her father had set her blind dates several times. She was not too fond of blind dates, because the King was the one that had arranged it, the men she met at the blind dates never really cared about her. They were just a bunch of men who wanted power or seeking wealth from marrying her. Cagalli felt so disgusted every time she met them. So, she decided to make a hard time for the men she met at the blind dates. She would be very clingy and demanding on their dates. Sometimes she would throw in her 'anger issue', so they had to solve it immediately. She didn't really care about the rumors they spread about her after the dates, she just didn't want to get married that way.