One Shots

Vanity (MxF) *SFW* Part 2

*Don't start if you don't have time because it's long, long, long. Like, the longest one-shot I've ever written, long.*

She had once promised herself that she would never come back here, back to this village, back to his rule, back to the memories she tried for so long to forget.

She had left with nothing and when she finally settled down as a waitress at a tavern a few days ride from the only home she had ever known, an older gentleman started coming in regularly. She hadn't thought he was the most handsome, but he did tip very well and he made her laugh, and after several times of him asking, she finally accompanied him to dinner at his manor house.

He was nice, a good man, could and wanted to spoil her, and promised her a decent life. He was the Baron Lavorel, after all. He knew her heart had been broken so he never pushed for love, all he wanted was a friendship that could turn into something more when she was ready.

A few months after meeting Percival Lemois, Sydney decided she didn't want to wait for her heart to piece itself back together and thus, they got married. And two years later, after just turning 19, she found out she was pregnant. That first child was one of five children she would share with Percival.

Kinnedy and Riella, aged 23 and 21 now, were both married into families of wealth thanks to their father, may he now rest in peace.

Jameson, 17, was serving as a knight to the Prince of Greed in the war between his kingdom and Lusts'.

That left Joslyn, 13, and little Nellie, who was only seven, in the care of only their mother. Percival had fallen ill with age and now, at 42, Sydney was a widow.

Percival left everything to Sydney and their children. He promised to always take care of her and he did so even in death and Sydney knew that even though she never grew to truly love him, she did love the friend she found in him. She loved the man, but she was not and never would've been in love with him.

When Sydney was alone in the house with only the staff and Joslyn and Nellie... All she wanted was her mother. She wanted to be held and told that, though she was without a companion again, life would still go on. That everything would be okay with time.

Sydney wished for her children to know her parents more. They came to visit Lavorel during the holidays, sure, but it wasn't the same and she couldn't take the chance of going back there, of running into him. Of hearing all that he had been up to since her departure from his realm.

Of hearing who he would've married and started his own family with.

But...as fate would have it, 25 years after she'd fled this quaint little place, her mother had become ill in her old age and, with her father being elderly as well and barely capable of taking care of himself, it was up to Sydney to come back and take care of the both of them.

Sydney was tasked with drafting wills and getting the necessary paperwork in order so that when the time came, there would be no doubt who the lands would go to--her younger sister.

Sydney, Joslyn, and Nellie already had a home a few days horse ride from here and besides, there was no way Sydney would get stuck here again. She intended to be in town for however long was necessary without a certain princes' knowledge of her presence.

It had been two weeks since her arrival and her childhood bedroom was how she remembered it though the maids that had been tasked with taking care of her had made the bed. It seemed as though the room was closed off to anyone after she left.

She couldn't say she blamed them. She ran away from the prince, from one of the greatest possible marriages she could've ever acquired. She, undoubtedly, brought shame to her family... Until she married the Baron.