Francis half stumbled into the room after his dear mother effectively shoved him inside, he turned only in time to see the familiar door pulled shut in his face. He stood in somewhat stunned silence, taking a brief moment to comprehend the events of the past hour. It appeared that the prince to whom he was to be married had arrived slightly earlier than expected, leading to Francis being 'rudely' awoken from his beauty sleep, prepared, and forced into a room to meet and entertain his husband to be. When he stopped to contemplate his situation, Francis almost entertained the thought that he was in fact being unreasonable with his blatant refusal to meet the foreign prince. This thought however never surfaced as it was blocked by the images which plagued Francis whenever the subject of his impending marriage surfaced, the portraits. Circumstances would have it that the two princes had in fact never been able to enjoy each other's company until this moment, thus meaning that Francis had only ever seen portraits taken of the prince, and suffice to say the portraits were hardly flattering. Francis would like to imagine that he was not in the least part vain or superficial, but even he had to admit on occasion that saying he was not would be a complete lie. And thus, despite never having met his fiancé, Francis had developed an incredibly negative opinion of the man whom he was sure was indeed rather nice and in possession of a personality to counteract his lack of aesthetic appeal. At least, this is what Francis hoped was the case given he had not been fortunate enough to win a partner with both aesthetic appeal and entertaining personality, however he supposed that to be a good thing as that person would almost be able to rival himself, not that he was egotistical in the slightest, at least, that is what he liked to imagine. Francis breathed deeply, mentally calming himself before turning to face the room, his thoughts reaching a grinding halt as his eyes fell upon Arthur.

Arthur. Arthur was everything his portraits were not. His sandy hair was messy, that was true, but in a way which completed him, bangs styled to just hide the less than flattering eyebrows he possessed, which in person seemed far less unappealing. Long eyelashes framed stunning eyes, their colour seeming to reflect the forest at which they were so captivated by on the other side of the window. As Francis moved closer he noted a light splash of freckles across Arthur's pale skin which seemed to glow in the soft sunlight pouring through the window.

"Bonjour," Francis almost whispered, as if he wished to not startle the other. Green eyes flickered to Francis's blue, almost losing themselves in their depths.

"Hello," Arthur responded almost shyly as he held out his hand by way of greeting. Francis smiled, noting the slight blush that appeared as he brought Arthur's hand to his lips.

"You are nearly as beautiful as me." The words were out of Francis's mouth before he registered what he had said.

"What?" The light blush and smile replaced with rapidly building anger.

"I mean to say…" Francis stumbled over his words, "Je suis vraiment désolé. I mean, your portraits truly understate your beauty; they do not do it justice at all."

"Oh really? I was going to say something similar of yours," Arthur smirked, "But it seems they captured the decrease in your appeal upon discovering your vanity." He walked past Francis and towards the door, "Shall we leave now to confirm to our families the success of our meeting?" A still somewhat stunned Francis found himself only able to nod in response, taking Arthur's hand to lead him to the room which contained their respective families.

Thank you so much for reading! Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated as I am always looking to improve. This story was written for my friend any-dae on tumblr. It is also available on my tumblr (humanitys-strongest-penguin) and Ao3 (loonylizlovegood)