Work Text:
1. Karelia's Song, Lisa Theriot: lyrics
Julia didn't believe in letting other people choose her destiny. Rupert knew that, which was why he couldn't leave her to a marriage she didn't want with a brother he'd never loved. He knew that, which was why he had to leave her behind with a brother hailed far and wide as a hero.
Rupert didn't believe in choosing his destiny. Julia knew that, which was why she let him leave on a quest that he'd probably die on. She knew that, which was why when he decided that the best thing for the kingdom would be for him to leave it, she told him she was coming with.
If she let him choose, he'd want to choose her, but he wouldn't be able to. But she had no problem choosing him.
2. What If...I Were a Superhero?, Tom Smith: lyrics
Julia grew up knowing she could do anything. No one ever told her that, they told her that she had to be proper and prim and marry well and not throw knives at tapestries, no matter how badly woven the tapestries were.
She ran away because she still believed that she could be what she wanted.
She walked willingly into the dragon's cave because she knew that it didn't matter what other people wanted her to do, because they couldn't make her do anything.
And then she fell in love with Rupert, and she discovered that all she wanted to do was be with him and she couldn't. She could do anything, but she couldn't make him happy.
3. Lili Marlene: lyrics
He fell in love with her because she wasn't afraid to be in love with him. She wasn't afraid that he'd break her heart, she just trusted in him. He fell in love with her because she had options, and she still chose him. No one had ever done that before.
4. The Urge For Going, Lisa Theriot: lyrics
Rupert paced along the inner walls of the castle. Julia was off training an army, or making wedding arrangements with Harald, or being with people who weren't him. Which was fine, it was understandable, it showed that everything in the universe must be back to normal, because when things were normal no one would choose him. Not when she had options. Julia was smart enough to know that.
He'd so resigned himself to sticking around and watching the woman he loved become his sister-in-law that he was shocked when she told him she wanted him to come with her.
"I thought you wanted me to go?" he said, waiting for Harald to show up and congratulate Julia on how well she'd played out this practical joke.
"I do," Julia replied, and it looked like she couldn't stop laughing, but somehow Rupert knew she wasn't laughing at him. "But I want to go with you."
5. Scheherezade Sits, Terence Chua: lyrics
"What do you want me to do about it?" the dragon asked the human girl he'd been burdened with for far longer than his liking.
"I don't know!" Julia shouted. "Why don't you just eat me, like you're supposed to?"
"Eat you?" the dragon asked. "I have taste, you know. Plus, you eat enough for both of us."
Julia stomped away, but she couldn't go far, not without leaving the cave for the mountain, and that had gotten old after the first week. She hated waiting, and she hated being made to wait. She hated problems that she couldn't hack into little problems with her sword, but she highly doubted her family would appreciate her doing so. Even if it would solve their 'too many daughters' problem.
"Someone's coming," the dragon called to her. "Looks like a prince."
"Lovely," Julia said. "I'll be in my room. If he's here to rescue me, tell him I'm dead."
6. You! Me! Dancing!, Los Campesinos: lyrics
Harald genuinely liked Julia. She made him laugh, and she wasn't afraid to kick him. In many ways, he wished she'd been his sister, because he thought he could have used someone like her in his life to balance him, and because he hoped that she could lend him some of her joie de vivre.
But they weren't siblings, which might actually be for the best, given how Harald and Rupert's interactions usually went. Instead they were betrothed, and hurt though Harald was that Julia had run away from marrying him once, he could forgive her, because she hadn't met him yet.
And now that Rupert undeniably must be dead, Harald was regretful and Julia was devastated, and he wanted to help her out of her grief. He just didn't know how. So he showed her his favorite parts of the castle, and he told her stories he thought would amuse her. But he was making up the steps as they went along, and Julia knew it.
And she...she was beautiful and radiant and even with Rupert gone, she knew what she wanted. Harald wanted her to love him because he was selfish and because he'd glimpsed what it might be like to have someone love him, and he wanted that.
7. Captain Jack and the Mermaid, Meg Davis: lyrics
The Unicorn expected to survive when he left with Rupert the first time. Mostly because he figured on Rupert being a stupid, honourable young prince who would insist on hacking through Tanglewood Forest with bare hands and would believe having a unicorn would be cheating. If not, then the Unicorn could just leave when Rupert's back was turned.
The Unicorn expected to die when he left with Rupert the second time. It was a stupid journey; it was a journey even more suicidal than the first one the King had sent his youngest son on. But the Unicorn was out of options, his home was likely gone with the rest of the world, so he followed the only man who'd ever believed in him.
The Unicorn didn't care whether he would live or die when he left with Rupert the third time, because he intended to fight. He was backed into a corner, only the walls bracing him weren't walls, they were towers of fire, and the Unicorn wasn't going to be tricked into taking another step backwards.
The Unicorn left with Rupert for the last time because he still didn't have anywhere else to go, but he was no longer the trusted companion he had been. Rupert couldn't even ride him anymore, for goodness sake. But Breeze had learnt loyalty.
8. Small Mended Corners: lyrics
Julia knew that Rupert and Harald both painted a picture of her that she couldn't be, but the difference was that Rupert would love her as long as she remained true to whoever she wanted to be. That's why he had fallen in love with her in the first place.
Harald loved her because duty said he was going to marry her, and Harald made the most of his duty, because it meant he'd be ruling a country one day.
Rupert knew that she'd run away from her duty, and he never criticized her for it, but he was so desperate to fulfill his own duties that she knew he couldn't approve of her for it.
Harald knew that she'd run away from him, but he didn't think it mattered as long as she'd come back. He didn't know that she was already packing her bags to leave again, but he didn't need.
Rupert knew that she'd had partners before him, but he hadn't seemed to mind. Maybe because he really didn't love her yet then, or maybe because he accepted everything someone told him to do.
Harald was fine with her being who she was, because they matched. They didn't have the same implementations of them, but their ideals were a perfect pair.
Rupert challenged her to change without ever asking, simply by being him.
9. Hard On Equipment (Tool For The Job), Corb Lund: lyrics
John had wanted to do what was right, but it was so hard to tell what was right these days. He had one friend, two sons, and there was a girl who was going to be his daughter-in-law no matter what, but he wasn't sure on the specifics yet. He had goblins in his castle, and they were probably his most useful assets, apart from the Alchemist.
He thought a magical sword would help, mostly because it sounded so good, and half of being King was pretending that he knew what what he doing. But the barons weren't even happy with the thought of him acting, because they felt threatened by him.
And maybe they should, because he fully intended to beat back the Demon Prince, and if he could do that he was someone to be afraid of.
10. When Love Is Lost, Julia Ecklar
King John sent his youngest son off expecting for him to die, or at least to do the sensible thing and choose exile. He couldn't protect both of his sons, but he could keep Harald safe, and choose Harald over nothing.
But Rupert returns with a woman, and a plan to help with the defences. And John needs all the help he can get, so he tries to forget that one son is a danger to the other, and that Rupert believes in truth and justice more than is good for anyone who hangs around him. Perhaps especially Julia.