Deal

A wolf suddenly jumped out at them as they were sharing a heartfelt moment.

Ava braced herself, ready to wrestle the wolf if need be, when suddenly a swift gust of wind passed her face. The wolf that had just been coming at them a second ago, stopped dead in it's tracks and fell to the ground. Ava got up and slowly approached the unmoving animal, unsure if it would get up at any moment and rush at them again. To her relief a knife had landed square in the beast's head, a direct strike to the brain. Alex came up right next to her and leaned down to retrieve the knife from the wolf's forehead, wiping it clean on the wolf's fur before slipping it back into the holster around his ankle.

"Eight months camping in the mountains really hones your survival skills," Alex grinned at Ava as he then continued to inspect the wolf. "I suspect it was mad with rabies. Luckily, I killed it in one hit or that could've been real bad."

'It could've been bad,' Ava repeated in her mind, thinking to herself for a moment. "Yes! It could've been bad!" she voiced out excitedly, the perfect plan brewing in her head. "Alex you saved me!" she acted out a swooning motion dramatically, bringing a hand across her forehead to mimic a damsel in distress.

"It was really just luck, Ava. My knife skills definitely aren't good enough to get a strike like that every time." He was used to her being over the top, and didn't pay much mind to the scene being acted out before him.

"Shh, no Alex," Ava put a finger against his lip her eyebrows raised and a wily glint flashed across her eyes. "Alex, I think I just solved our problems. Boy, do I have a deal for you," a suspicious smirk planted on her face. He just stared at her dumbfounded, "a deal?".

"Yes, this is brilliant! Alex, how do you think about marrying me? Not a marriage like what others have between a man and a woman, but a marriage between friends. Purely platonic, and it would solve both of our problems!" Ava's eyes beamed with giddiness at her foolproof idea, she just needed to persuade Alex to accept her proposal.

Dumbstruck at what just came out of his friend's mouth, Alex replied "Ava, I don't think we can get married, for many reasons I believe, but the most obvious being that you are the daughter of one of the most powerful nobleman in the entire kingdom and I am just the son of a soldier."

"Behrllan's commander it not just a simple soldier," Ava corrected, "and I'm sure I can persuade my father to accept you as my husband once he knows you saved me from a certain grizzly death by the teeth of a maddened beast!" Alex just continued to stare, one eyebrow raised in disbelief, as his friend continued on with her crazy idea.

"I know it sounds crazy, but listen. If we can get married it puts us both in much better positions than we are in now. I can take over managing the province once the titles are passed onto us, without some power hungry Noble in-laws to kick me to the side as some obedient lowly wife. Meanwhile, you can escape from your father's awfulness, while living life however you please as future Duke of Behrllan! You won't even have to do any of the boring work, I want to take care of that, you'd just need to be present for important events and ceremonies."

Ava noticed Alex begin to understand and process what she had just proposed. Confident she could get him to accept, she continued with her pitch, "Plus, I have complete trust in you and know we'd never get tired of each other. Just look at our past seventeen years of friendship, you know I'll always be here to support you and I know you'd do the same. You'll be free to love whoever you want and I'll be free to live however I want. Don't think of it as an impossible inconvenience, but as the shiny golden ring to our freedom. Freedom from the painful shackles that our fathers have placed upon us!"

Hearing all these words left Alex feeling overwhelmed. 'Marriage, Love, Freedom.' Since he had been caught with the Baker, Alex's world had quickly turned dark and grey, full of fear everyday, fear of being exposed, fear of his father's blind rage, fear that he'd let his mother down. But here was his closest friend, dangling a beacon of hope, to lead him out of his grey world, wrapped inside this insane idea she just spouted out for him to hear.

His heart was full, and he knew it was selfish, but he wanted to grasp onto this hope, this chance at freedom that Ava just excitedly handed him on a silver platter. He thought hard for another long minute, considering the proposal. "This brilliant friend of mine!" he called out. "You're the most amazing person ever! I accept your proposal for a marriage of friendship, so long as your father allows it."

Ava grinned her widest grin and took Alex's hands in hers, squeezing them hard and jumping up and down in excitement. Alex followed suit and began jumping too, smiles and laughter broke through the forest calm and they set off back to the Grethyll castle to notify the Duke of their "unbreakable love".

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The Duke of Behrllan was shocked by his daughter's wishes to get married to her childhood friend, Alex. But in the end he gave in, believing in Alex's strong and trustworthy character.

Alex's father was especially pleased with the news, thinking that his son had finally gotten over his nonsense and even managed to win the heart of the Dukes daughter. He had just needed to be guided in the right direction.

Alex and Ava were wed two months later, pleased that their unlikely plan came through. Everyone in attendance was awestruck by how wonderful the two looked together, beaming with an infectious happiness that spread to anyone around them. But what they didn't know was that it wasn't the happiness of being with their "one true love" that they felt, but the immense joy of being as close as they could to their self defined version of freedom.