It was early morning in the castle.  The King sat enthroned in the throne room, birds twittered outside, and the many maids and servants rushed about attending to their masters and mistresses.
Well, all except one servant.
Rai Akira yawned loudly, cupping a hand over his mouth in an attempt to stifle the sound while using his other hand to rub the remnants of sleep from his eyes.  He was not a morning person, and could happily sleep for another three hours at least.  However, being the Princess’s personal servant, that was not an option.  He had to be up at this ungodly hour every morning to wake the Princess and ensure she was presentable to appear at breakfast.
Lowering one hand from his mouth, he knocked on the Princess’s bedroom door sharply, five times as normal, so she would know it was Rai as soon as she heard his knock.  However, instead of the usual “Yes” or “Just a moment” he usually got as a reply, there was a strange silence.
“Princess?” Rai called through the door.  “Princess Ruby?”  Still no answer.  Maybe she was still asleep.  He called “Princess, I’m coming in” as a warning of sorts before unlocking the door (he had been trusted with keys) and entering, closing it behind him.
Princess Ruby’s luxurious four poster bed with the red satin covers... was empty.  He scanned the room for her, then quickly glanced into the large en-suite bathroom, in case she was in the shower or something.  Nothing.  Retreating back into the bedroom, a chilly morning breeze caught his attention and his eyes flicked over to the open window.  That’s strange, the Princess never usually sleeps with her window open, especially not in winter, he thought as he leant out said window.  Everything was crisp and white outside, as it had snowed heavily the night before.  There were no gardeners busily pruning plants at this time of year, as most of the plants were suffocated by the snow.  There were however a few winter plants which had just recently burst into bloom, their bright cheerfulness adding some splashes of colour to the otherwise plain, cold landscape.
Something just below the window caught Rai’s eye, and he glanced down.  Squinting a bit, he could just make out something shining golden, half-buried in the snow.  He swung his legs over the windowsill and jumped to the ground (it was only the second floor up, he had jumped from higher things before), landing gracefully.  Bending down, he scooped up the object.  On closer inspection, it was a locket on a chain.  The name “Ruby” was carved expertly into the front.  So it’s the Princess’s then.  He flicked it open to discover a picture of a young man with ebony hair and eyes of the same colour.  It was Prince Jet, Ruby’s fiancé and the son of the neighbouring kingdom’s ruler.  Closing the locket and pocketing it, Rai quickly scanned the area for any sign of Ruby’s trademark crimson curls.  However, everywhere he looked there was only the cold white harshness of the snow.  Where is she?  Has she been... no, she couldn’t have... but...

One of the side doors of the castle flew open, the force making it slam against the wall as it opened.  A maid who had happened to be walking past jumped at the sound, almost dropping the tray she was carrying.  As Rai re-entered the warm castle from said door, he ran past the startled maid, calling a quick “sorry” over his shoulder as he headed, full speed, towards the throne room.
“Hey, Rai.  What’cha doin’?”  Rai skidded to a halt as a short girl appeared in front of him.
“Ack!  Amethyst!”  He spluttered, almost crashing into her.  “What the hell are you doing?”
“I should be asking you that,” she replied coyly, crossing her arms with a smirk.  “Why are you sprinting through the corridors?  Shouldn’t you be waking the Princess up?”
Rai sighed, knowing that there was no way to get past her unless he answered her.  Amethyst was a young girl, only fifteen, employed as a maid in the castle.  She was an orphan, had no family apart from her brother, but she had decided she didn’t need looking after, she wasn’t a child, and so had ended up working for the King.  She was short for her age, with violet hair tied into cute bunches and eyes of a slightly lighter shade.  She wore the regulation maid uniform, however she wore it messily.  Her skirt was shorter than it was meant to be, her apron was skewiff and not tied properly, and instead of the formal black tights they had been supplied with, hers were bright red.  Not to mention the black baseball boots she wore on her feet, where other maids wore dainty pumps or small-heeled boots.
“Listen,” Rai whispered, leaning in close to her.  “Don’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, okay?”
She made a zipping motion across her lips, a silent promise to keep this secret.  Rai sighed again, not sure if he could trust her to keep quiet.  Still, he could hardly back out now.  “I think the Princess has been kidnapped.”
“WHAAAAT!?” Amethyst squealed, eyes wide as saucers.  “The Princess has been kidnapped!?”
The blonde resisted the sudden urge to facepalm as the surrounding butlers and maids tuned in to the girl’s outburst.  “Yeah...” he replied, exasperatedly.  “Well done.  Now the whole castle knows.”
Amethyst’s hands flew to her mouth as she realised her mistake, but Rai just grabbed her by the wrist, hauling her along.  “Come on,” he mumbled as he continued on his previous path, walking briskly with the purple-haired girl in tow and ignoring the stares and mutters from the surrounding people.  “We’re going to tell the King.”

“We’re what!?”
“Going to look for her.”
“Why!?”
“Because she’s lost.”
“But that’s --”
“I think it’s a splendid idea!”
Both Rai and Amethyst (who had been arguing) turned to look at the other person in shock (well, in Rai’s case it was shock, in Amethyst’s it was a mixture of surprise and happiness that they were agreeing with her).
Prince Jet smiled back confidently.  He had been immediately summoned from the neighbouring kingdom as soon as the King had received the news from Rai and Amethyst.  Now they stood outside the ‘scene of the crime’ (as Amethyst wouldn’t stop calling it), Princess Ruby’s bedroom.
“But why can’t you get a professional search party to look for her?”  Rai argued back.  “It’s their job, isn’t it!?  It says so in the name – ‘search party’!”
“But, but, Rai~” Amethyst piped up.  “I wanna go search!  Please~?”
“Well go by yourself, then,” the blonde replied dismissively.
Jet spoke.  “But this girl is a minor; a child.  She requires an adult to go with her.  And you, Rai Akira, are the only available adult.  As the Princess is missing, and it is your duty to serve her, I will hold you responsible if she is not returned safe and sound.  Now, both of you are dismissed.”  He turned and left.
“Great,” Rai thought.  “Well, I walked into that one.  And it’s true that, as long as the Princess is missing, I don’t have a job to do around here.”
“Right, let’s go then, Amethyst,” he said aloud, causing the younger girl to squeal and jump with joy.

“Right, where do we go first?” The purple-haired girl asked excitedly, glancing around the small town surrounding the castle as if she’d never seen it before.  She had changed out of her uniform before embarking on their ‘adventure’; she now wore a bright green pleated mini-skirt over her red tights, and a white T-shirt with some sort of picture on it.  It looked like a boy with cat ears, although Rai couldn’t be sure.  She also wore purple and white striped fingerless gloves which reached up to her elbows, and the same black baseball boots as before.  Honestly, the girl looked like a walking rainbow.
Rai, however, had not bothered to change clothes.  He still wore his black combat trousers tucked into white knee-high boots, and a white shirt with ¾ length sleeves under a black jacket with short sleeves.  His hands, clad in black leather fingerless gloves, ran through his short blonde hair as he glared disapprovingly at Amethyst.  “First,” he stated, trying to be patient with the girl, “we ask around town, to see if anyone saw or heard anything last night.  Got it?”  Amethyst nodded.  “Good.  You go that way -” He pointed left -“and I’ll go this way.”  He pointed right.  “Report back in front of the inn in an hour exactly.  Understood?”  Amethyst nodded again, quiet for once.  “Right.  Off you go.”  He dismissed her with a wave of his hand, and she scurried of busily.  He sighed as he watched her leave, before turning right and wandering off.

An hour later, and Rai stood outside the inn.  Alone.  Waiting.  Waiting for that idiot of a girl to show up.  He knew she’d be late.  He knew from the minute he’d set the task.  Still, that didn’t make him any less annoyed.
He leant back against the inn door.  However, luck was not on his side today, as just as he did so the door opened from the inside, making him lose balance and fall over backwards, landing flat on his back on the inn floor.
“Oh,” a voice said from somewhere above him, and a face popped into view.  And suddenly, Rai was staring up into the face of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“Oh, wow, I’m so sorry,” she apologised, walking around and extending a hand, which Rai took.  She pulled him up with relative ease, and now that he wasn’t viewing her from the floor, he got a better look at her.  She was taller than him by a few inches, with long, pretty milky-white hair, which reached all the way down to her ankles.  Somewhere in the back of his mind, which wasn’t filled with thoughts of “Gods she’s pretty”, Rai wondered if she ever tripped over her hair.  She wore flare jeans which were deep purple in colour, and smart black ankle boots.  His eyes travelled up and roamed over her black tank top under an open pale pink dress shirt.  However, the most interesting thing was her eyes.  They were pale green, but had an odd violet ring around the pupil.  Rai stared deeply into them, unable to form words as he lost himself...
“Hey!” the woman barked suddenly, catching Rai off guard.  He snapped out of his trance and looked at her again, blinking embarrassedly at being caught staring.  However, she didn’t look angry, only concerned.  “Are you okay, sweetie?” she asked, cocking her head to one side.  This made her hair fall away from her face, and Rai saw she had her ears pierced, both decorated with a small silver hoop each.
“Uh, yeah, I’m... fine,” the blonde replied, smiling sheepishly.  Somewhere behind him, he could hear a man shouting “Sir!  Sir!”  However, he paid it no mind, as the woman of his dreams smiled gently back at him...
A man suddenly appeared beside them.  “Sir!” he repeated.  Ah, so he was the one doing all the shouting.  Rai turned to him, irritated at being interrupted.
“What is it!?” he snapped.
However, the man only gave him a confused look.  “I wasn’t talkin’ to you.  I was talkin’ to ‘im.”  He gestured to the woman standing in front of Rai, before holding out his hand to her.  Something sparkled in the middle of it.  It was a small silver ring, with purple gems set into the band all the way around at regular intervals.  It was very pretty.  “You left this at reception, Sir.  I fought I should return it to ya.”
“Ahh, thank you very much,” The woman replied, taking the ring.  She smiled angelically at the man as he turned to walk away.  However, Rai tapped him on the shoulder and whispered urgently to him before he could escape.  “Why do you keep calling her ‘Sir’?”
The man laughed, seeming genuinely amused by the blonde’s question.  “Well, I ain’t gonna call ‘im ‘Miss’, am I?” he replied, chuckling.  And, as the man left, everything suddenly clicked into place.
Rai spun around to face the woman, eyes wide.  “You’re a man!?” he cried disbelievingly.
The woman – no, man – giggled.  “Yes, I am.  Didn’t the lack of breasts kinda give it away?”
Rai glanced at the man’s chest – sure enough, flat as a pancake.  He cursed himself for not noticing this sooner.  The man giggled again, before holding the ring he had received out to Rai.  “Here, sweetie,” he chirped.  “I think you should hold onto this for a while.”
Rai took it, absently examining it, before slipping it onto the ring finger of his left hand.  He didn’t know why, he just picked a finger at random.  He looked back up again, about to question the man’s motives, but he was gone.  Without a trace.  No “goodbye” or anything.  Leaving Rai alone, embarrassed and blushing in the warm foyer of the inn.

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