Meeting

From what Paloma knew of Princes (granted, she didn’t know much about them at all in the first place), they were SUPPOSED to be charming. 

Being a witch meant that from a young age, she’d been brought up on stories of stupid princes and princesses doing stupid lovey dovey things and said stupid princes being some sort of pinnacle of charisma. At least, that’s what her aunties told her. The three swamp witches who’d raised Turks Paloma had also made it perfectly clear that princes weren’t people that witches or really any supernatural beings could be close to, no matter what.

“Well, it seems I broke that rule…” She muttered, looking down at the body in front of her. 

Witches weren’t show offs by nature; anyone who flaunted their powers were usually seen as idiots and threatening their secrets to be exposed. Since their expulsion to the forest along with most other supernatural beings, witches had been even more sure to cut off ties with most humans.

Especially royalty.

The man in front of her was supposedly royalty, according to Nami. Speaking of her partner, the witch was nowhere in sight, even though this was her fault to begin with. Paloma blanched at remembering the reason she had had to knock a Prince of all things out with magic and drag him into the woods.

“Dammit Nami…!” She whispered, considering dragging him further. This was going to cause an outrage, she just knew it! She crossed her arms and huffed, once again glaring down at the man in front of her. In what universe had Nami felt it was smart to steal from THE royal family?! While she’d supported her friend up until this point, this was a move that could be detrimental. She sighed deeply and fought the temptation to fiddle with her hat.

“Now, what am I supposed to do with you…” She muttered, looking down upon the prince. His arrival had been unexpected; most humans didn’t go this far into the woods, and nobility even less so. Nami though, had managed to piss off enough nobles that the crown considered this actually a problem worth going into the “witch’s wood” for. Just remembering the name made her snort. Humans were, for the most part, very superstitious and really not that creative.

“At least you’re nice to look at, I suppose.” The man had to be around her age, and his golden hair made her heart feel a bit funny. She knew that the king had the same color though, and that made her deadpan. 

“At least the other princes didn’t get that horrible man’s hair…” She muttered, but still couldn’t deny that it suited him. He was, in all ways, very handsome. 

If only he hadn’t opened his mouth earlier.

“Oi, get back here!” Paloma was just finishing up laundry when she heard the commotion. It was her day to do it, so Nami had left as per usual with a grin and money on her mind. Paloma didn’t really care that her fellow witch stole from the nobles; the lot deserved it, and all other supernatural folk supported it.

Stealing from the royal family though, was another matter.

“PALOMA, I NEED HELP!” Speak of the devil-

“Nami?! What-“ She stepped outside of their hut to a standoff. Nami was nearest to her, arms clutching a sizable bag of what could only be something the woman had stolen. Across from her however…

“Damned witch, you’ve gone too far!” The man with a very obvious crown adorning his head was looking irate, and his horse was about ready to run her friend over. Paloma could feel instincts kicking in, and her magic humming in her veins. The man’s steed seemed to feel it as well, suddenly whinnying in fear and bucking.

“What are you-! Damnit All Blue!” The man did his best to calm the animal, but its primal instincts were taking charge; it knew Paloma was a predator and it was going to be her prey if the horse didn’t leave now. The stallion didn’t need to see the black engulfing Paloma’s fingers to know it was time to make its exit.

“ALL BLUE-“ The prince had brought his legs out to kick the horse forward, but he was caught off-guard when the horse reared and bucked, sending the man toppling off the back. The steed flew off into the forest as Paloma summoned a tar ball into her palm, watching the horse with a bored expression.

“At least one of you had some common sense, human.” The man staggered up, clearly off-kilter from his fall.  He however brushed off his red cape and moved to stare her down.

“Silence, Wi-….tch?” All the anger fell from his voice, and he looked at her with some level of surprise. Paloma blinked, confused by the change in the man’s demeanor. He was running his eyes across the witch’s form, and she suddenly felt very, very exposed.

“W-what?” She finally asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She was not a prude by any means, but something about this felt not okay-

“SINCE WHEN WERE WITCHES SUCH HOTTIES?!”

Now THAT got the man a tar ball to the face, effectively knocking him out.

Just thinking about that interaction made the woman shiver; what kind of idiot said things like that? Not that she didn’t find herself attractive; Paloma knew like all witches, she had a beauty to her that was beyond mortal understanding.’

She didn’t need some moron yelling that while blood was streaming from his nose like a fountain. 

The woman rang a finger through her ebony tresses in frustration, and looked back down to her victim. She’d cleaned his face of gunk and dragged him deeper into the forest to heal him with herbs from there, but she would eventually have to send him on his way. Despite his un-princely mannerisms… she did find him quite fetching-

“Didn’t know witches could be so beautiful, mademoiselle.” She dropped her hand from his face as if it burns her, feeling warmth in her cheeks. His eyes were trained on her, this time more serious than earlier. She had to fight the urge to find that look alluring and forced a frown onto her face.

“And I thought princes were supposed to be charming. The blood on your shirt says otherwise.” That seemed to surprise him, and Paloma decided at that moment she was going to drop him at the edge of the forest and be done with him. 

Unfortunately, Prince Sanji Vinsmoke ( oh how he hated that name- ) wasn’t going to give up so easily.