Disclaimer: I own no one of the characters mentioned in this story.

What do you say to taking chances?
What do you say to jumping off the edge?
Never knowing if there's solid ground below, or hand to hold, or hell to pay
What do you say?
~Taking Chances, Celine Dion

It was that same time of the year again, and he would deal with it differently every year. There was a year when he would be angry at whoever crosses his path. There was a year when he locked himself up in his bedchamber all day long. There was a year when no one but the Queen could get a calm reply from him, and there was a year when he spent the whole day in the gardens playing with the Princess, and sitting beside the Queen. It was the day his mother died. It was the day a boy called Prince Harry lost his beloved mother.

The previous year, on that very same day, he finally decided that having a female heir wasn't going to do any good for his kingdom. So on that very day, he told Cardinal Wolsey that he wanted a divorce.

That morning King Henry VIII woke up with flushed face. You can tell that he didn't want that day to come. Before Mass, he treated everyone like how a king must, but those around him knew that with one wrong action, the King of England would tear them apart.

He sat with his wife at Mass, but usually, right after, he would turn his attention to Lady Anne Boleyn, the girl he would replace the Queen with, right after he gets his way. "Your Majesties," Lady Anne swept a low curtsey as their Majesties passed by, but unlike every other usual day, the King didn't look at her with such passion, and such desire. He didn't even look at her at all.

Queen Katherine noticed that and looked over at her husband. "I see you forgot to acknowledge your whore," she whispered to the King.

At those words, the King stopped walking. "Halt," he said, stopping everyone in their paths. "I wish to be alone with my wife, the Queen." He turned to everyone, stressing out on his courtiers and to the Queen's ladies. "And I do mean alone."

From another part of the chapel Anne complained to her father, horror taking over her as she smelled the first scent of defeat. "What is he doing father? Am I not worthy to accompany him in this very day of sadness for him?"

Tomas Boleyn's face was calm, seeing no problem as this was just another one of the King's unconventional ways of commemorating his mother's death. "Not unless he begins to visit the Queen's bedchamber again, I see no worry. Besides, daughter, she is barren. She can no longer provide the King what he wants."

Anne could not smile at this thought. There was no telling of what the King wants and it would not be surprising if the King wanted the Queen, the beautiful Infanta he fell in love with when she was about to be his brother's bride.

The Queen's apartments were empty without the ladies in waiting lingering. It was certainly not made for only two people – it was made for the Queen's household. The King and Queen sat quietly by the window, each holding a cup of ale, neither one drinking. It was cold outside and the coldness was seeping in through the little gaps on the window. Rich tapestries inside the room didn't help either, as there was an unusual coldness inside the room.

"Isn't this lovely?" Henry spoke after the long silence. "You and me not being the King and Queen of England, just being Henry and Katherine."

Katherine smiled a little. "Of course."

Henry's face lit up when he was his wife's smile. It has been long since he last saw that, and he knows it he is the cause of that absence. He has caused her so much pain. "I suppose you no longer want to consume your cup of ale?" he said, offering to take her cup.

She obliged, handing her cup over. "Thank you, husband." When Henry stood up, she rubbed her hands a little; they were cold from sitting so long by the window. She folded her hands on her lap, not wanting to ruin this moment she has with Henry. Maybe this was the start of him turning back to her, and her complaining from the cold would not help at all. She flinched a little at the touch if his husband's warm hands. Where could that body heat come from? She thought, realizing that she was very cold.

"You didn't say you were very cold," Henry said, thinking how foolish he was to stay so long by the window. "Let's stay by the fire." He led his wife, placing his hand on the small of her back, the other one taking her hand. "You could have just told me you were cold."

"Why are you doing this?" Katherine asked, her face demanding. "We are in the middle of the annulment of our marriage, one that you wanted. You shamelessly display your mistress in front of the whole court. You wanted me out of your life and yet here you are with me, alone. What are you doing, Henry?" she didn't want to push him away. She could never push away the man that she loves – the only man that she loved. "Do you really wish to hurt me? Why do you go to me for comfort, instead of that Anne Boleyn?"

Henry breathed hard. He asked himself the same questions. Why Katherine and not Anne? Why not the girl who promised him a male heir? The very reason of the annulment of his marriage. He need not think hard. The answer would come off easily from his lips. "Because with you I can be Harry, and you are my Catalina."

It was just then that he noticed that a tear escaped Katherine's eyes. He wiped the tear with his thumb and noted that her Queen still had a smooth face. She became old through the years but it did minimal things to her physical appearance. "Do not weep my love." He took her hand and placed it on his chest. "My heart still beats for you."

Katherine did the least likely thing to do – she believed him. She believed him because she still loves him, despite all his actions. The emotion they shared at that very moment was rare and she wished not to throw it away. "I love you Henry. I always have and always will."

Henry looked into her eyes longingly. "I love you so much." She was his Catalina, and he was just plain Harry. He knew he wanted Catalina as his wife the moment he first saw her, but it could not be done. And so, he did what he could not do the first time they met, he kissed her passionately, surprising Katherine and surprising himself, for he does not feel any guilt at his dishonesty to Anne. It felt like Anne was never in the picture in the first place.

"Lady Salisbury?" Princess Mary asked as she put the book she just finished reading on the small table. "Do you think my father would ever invite me to court again?"

Lady Salisbury looked at the young Princess. "Why yes, of course. You are his daughter, are you not?"

"Yes but…" Mary wondered, would she ever go to court again as a princess? Would she not be disinherited when her parent's marriage is annulled? "I know things and I know it is about me not being a boy."

"Do not ever think of that Princess!" Lady Salisbury said, surprised. "Your parents love you, you are the greatest pearl in – "

"the kingdom, I know perfectly well Lady Salisbury," Mary said, continuing her father's constant praise. But she also knows that being the greatest pearl in the kingdom isn't enough, there has to be an England's heir, and it seems like she wasn't the one who's going to carry out that title. "I wish sometimes my father trusted me a little more, that I can be like my grandmother, Isabella of Castile. I wish that sometimes, being a girl is enough."

"What are they doing in there?" Anne asked impatiently, as if someone knew the answer to her question, and they were keeping it from her. "I want to know what's going on."

"Control your temper, child," her father said to him. "The King is madly in love with you. Nothing is going to happen to a sad man and an old woman. You are the one he wants, not the Queen."

"How can you be so sure? The King goes to her during sad times and not to me. He finds her company more comfortable than mine! He still loves her despite her inability to produce a male heir!" Anne screamed. It now dawned to her, she could never replace Katherine, and she could never be Katherine to Henry.

Her father's temper was going out of control too. "Well instead of complaining like a little girl who would not be given a new dress for Christmastime, why don't you contemplate on what you did wrong or on what you did not do?"

Anne calmed down a little. "I'm sorry papa. It's just that I could see my future, and it's slipping away because of his majesties mood swings. I cannot bear to loose it all."

There was never a day alone with the King of England. Eventually, the servants would have to come in and serve dinner. But at the King's orders, they left the Queen's apartments after doing so. Not even a musician stayed to play.

"I am surprised you did not want a musician to play," Katherine said.

Henry took a small piece of meat. "I wanted to be alone with you remember?"

They ate quietly, Katherine relished the moment for the next morning when she wakes up, she may not be able to have her husband's attention. He may want to be with Anne, and he would forget that she is his wife.

"What was it like to be Isabella's favorite daughter?" Henry asked out of nowhere. Finally, he spoke up about what was really troubling him all day, the very reason he acts surprisingly. "What was it like to have both your parents a sovereign in their own right? What was it like losing a mother and being in a foreign land at that very moment?"

"It was heartbreaking," Katherine said softly. "But there is nothing more I can do about it but pray, and remember her words to me when I was young. She was a very great Queen." And she knew Mary could be like her grandmother, a Queen regnant.

"She thought me how to write," Henry said. "It was me, with my sister Mary, who would cheer her up."

"You used to cheer me up too…" Katherine said, herself surprised at her own words. "I'm sorry, your majesty, I didn't mean – "

"May I have this dance?" Henry stood up, offering his hand to Katherine.

"Do you wish me to summon the – "

"May I have this dance, my lady?" Henry asked again. "It seems to me you are forgetting that the man in front of you is a skilled musician," he smiled, and she took his hand.

You lift my feet off the ground, you spin me around, you make me crazier. They danced around the room, Henry humming a tune he composed himself to Katherine. Feels like I'm falling and I'm lost in your eyes, you make me crazier. They ended their dance with a low curtsy, and Henry kissed Katherine's hand. "If it pleases my Queen, I would like to stay the night."

My first Tudor fanfic! A product of my brain which for the first time saw a man with ¼ of his head missing, literally. Reviews are very much appreciated! Thanks!