January 22nd, 2018.

A week exactly since the passing of the late King Gabriel. Victoria wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her sweatshirt, which she had been sleeping in for just about a week now as well. Speaking of which, sleep had not come easy, and the people had been asking for their princess for days now. But Victoria had no strength in her body to even change her clothes, let alone to make a formal statement in front of thousands of people. There was a knock at her door, a small sigh escaping her lips before she brought herself to sit up properly.

"Enter." She croaked, not hearing her own voice in what felt like months.

"Glad to see you're up." Her mother the Queen was fully dressed and fresh faced as she entered the depths of her daughters' quarters.

"Good morning, mum." Victoria forced a half smile, her eyes following her mother as she made her way across the room to fling open her heavy curtains. Victoria let out a hiss before shielding her eyes.

"I know how difficult these last few days have been on you, sweetheart. But we musthave a formal statement from you now. People are practically camping over night outside of the gates waiting for you." The princess rolled her eyes at the queen's dramatics. Although, small part of her still felt that she may have been serious.

"I haven't prepare anything." Victoria insisted, anxiety began to bubble in her chest at the thought of facing the public.

"Speak from your heart, you'll find the words come easier that way." Her mother reached for her hands, calm green eyes meeting blood-shot brown ones. One thing was always certain: Victoria had her father's eyes.

After a heavy sigh, she relented.

"I'll do it, then. Today if possible." She swallowed thickly with a defeated nod.

"That's my girl," the Queen smiled before leaning forward to place a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "Be sure to eat, if you need me I'll be in the throne room with the press."

Victoria waited until her mother had left her quarters before forcing herself from the plush, emerald green comforter of her bed. Reality set in once she spotted her garment she had worn on the night of her father's death strewn across the dark, hardwood floor of her bedroom. Her throat closed up as her eyes welled with tears once again. Victoria reached down with trembling hands to pick up the beaded dress and stared at it numbly, a shudder running through her as she spotted dried blood stains splattered across one side.

King Gabriel had been assassinated.

And Victoria had been with him at the time of the attack.

The strawberry blond shook her head firmly before crumpling up the dress and threw it across the room before making her way to her bathroom, in hopes of washing away whatever nightmare she was having.

Two hours later, after forcing herself together, Victoria stared at her reflection in her full length mirror. She had worn black, a color she usually enjoyed to sport, now worn with sorrow. She slowly buttoned up her knee-length petticoat jacket- that she wore over a charcoal turtleneck sweater dress- with shaky fingers. She felt as if she were dressing herself for war.

Once she slipped on her black ankle boots, she stood again and took a deep breath before making her way to her door, and stepped back out into the world. Her security detail, Robert Ash, was waiting for her on the other side. Robert had been with the family for several years, and was assigned to her father before she was even born. She blinked back tears as she ducked her head, avoiding his gaze.

"Permission to speak candidly, your highness." Robert's voice was soft, clearly looking to comfort the princess. Victoria nodded at this, unable to speak.

"Your father would have been so proud of you. You are so strong, you are going to make your family so proud." he sighed as he embraced the trembling girl, rubbing her upper back in an attempt to soothe her. "You got this, kid. You know you do."

Victoria sniffled and patted away her tears, careful to not disturb her makeup. Her mother had always stressed the importance of keeping up her appearance in the public eye, especially if the focus was going to be on her.

"Are you ready?" Robert spoke up after giving the princess a moment to collect herself. Victoria nodded and raised her chin, taking a deep breath, and carrying on to her destination.

--------------------

Meanwhile, in an ally behind a popular music venue, sat a large glossy tour bus with dark windows. Inside, a raven-haired man was tapping his pen against the top of his thigh while concentrating on a sheet of paper in front of him, lyrics crossed out and rewritten again and again. With a huff, he sat back and tossed the pen onto the table in front of him. He'd given himself a migraine.

A few feet away sat his security guard, Yanni. His head turned slightly towards the musician with his brows raised. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." he sighed before tipping his head back and shutting his eyes.

No, he most certainly was not fine.

Not only was he suffering from fatigue, kennel fever and writer's block, but he was also in the middle of a divorce. One he never saw coming.

"I'm gonna get some air." Andy grumbled as he stood, fetching a pair of shades from his jacket and headed for the door of the bus, Yanni following close behind.

Since leaving Juliet, his creative flow seemed to have slowed down. Not that he was solely inspired by his wife, but the situation was all he seemed to think about. It all started when American Satan finally premiered. Andy had been exceptionally busy for months leading up to the release. Working on his Andy Black project, the pre-production process of BVB5, hosting the APMAS, The Andy Show, coming down from the Warped Tour high and promoting American Satan left Andy with little to no free time. And Juliet had grown impatient, resentful, and cold towards her husband. She was lonely. And what was her resolve?

Cheating.

Not once, not twice... But three times.

When Andy had approached Juliet with the news that he would be doing a tour in the UK to promote Andy Black, she had finally snapped and confessed that she was no longer in love with him. And he couldn't blame her.

"Hey, there's a pub down the street. Do you wanna grab some grub and a couple of pints?" Yanni cut through Andy's thoughts as he tucked his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

"Sure, man." he half-shrugged as they made their way down the ally and slid his sunglasses onto his face. Sure it wasn't the best disguise, and it wasn't even remotely sunny out, but it did make him feel like he blended in a bit more.

The interior of the pub was dark and quiet, a few lonely souls sitting at the bar watching one of the three large monitors. There was a large crowd outside of what seemed to be Buckingham Palace, a reporter was going about the princess addressing the public. Andy rolled his eyes, tuning out the noise. The concept of a monarchy didn't exactly pique his interest.

He snapped out of his thoughts as the bar tender came around to Yanni and himself. She was pretty; fair skinned with warm brown hair and green eyes. She smiled at him, exposing a smiley piercing. Andy smirked at this.

"What can I getcha'?" her Scottish accent took him by surprise.

"Two pints of Guinness to start." Yanni spoke up as he reached for the beer nuts in front of him, eyes glued to the t.v monitor ahead.

"Coming right up." she gave Andy a bashful smile before turning to fetch a couple of pint glasses.

And in that moment, he couldn't help but notice the purple dragonfly tattoo on her lower back.

Notes

Well hello there! Looks like you've made it this far!
Firstly, I'd like to say my name is Brianna and welcome to my Andy Biersack fanfic! I'm not by any means a seasoned writer, so bare with me if my writing isn't as smooth as some. The idea for this fic is something I've been playing with for a while, and I'm hoping it's a hit with some of you! As of this time I don't have a schedule for updates, seeing as I don't know if this first story will be well received and I'm a pretty busy bee! I do enjoy talking to new people so don't be shy!

Thank you for reading! Hoping to update soon. <3