Author's Note: Dedicated to the person who sees beauty in the unexpected.

Ms. Amber Nightingale:

"I will carry you to the ends of the earth, Amber."

"No, you won't. You're just being silly." she stated as she looked up at him.

"Amber, I would never jest about being with you forever. Would you do me the honor of joining me in matrimony?", he asked with an expectant look in his eyes.

"..."

Oh, the good old days. She remembered his unexpected marriage proposal and how it had confused her at the time. Were they not simply good friends, she had thought at the time? Seeing as he was relentless, she agreed to his courting and refrained from telling her parents at the time due to the fact that he was from the Capitol and she was from the North.

What a starry-eyed fool she'd been. It had taken her months, but after seeing his kindness and his warmth towards her, she had...well, her family treated her like a precious doll, so she could not say it was love at first.

Looking back on it now, it had been love. True love.

The worse part about this whole ordeal was that even now, she found herself inexplicably drawn to the man with the wide eyes and dark oiled hair.

Even after her arrangement with family's suitor had come out, she had defended this man and told them she loved him. Her love for him at that time knew no bounds; to be truthful about this whole incident, she found out about her arranged marriage the very day the couple had announced their engagement.

Her father had marched into the room and clarified her on the matter.

"Daughter, you are arranged to be married. You cannot marry this man. Even if you love him."

His words had been a stab to the heart and caused her extreme pain.

Of course, her fiancee had been outraged and pleaded for a duel with her promised to-be.

However, her mother had dealt the final blow in this situation with her words.

"Amber, you have been engaged since birth."

Her heart tore open in two and she was left bleeding on the floor. Her dreams meant nothing as her future was predetermined.

Then her mother tried to explain that the day she was born, another lady from the Capitol had encountered her on the street and complimented her on her gorgeous baby.

She had plugged her ears in by now, but she could still hear the story coming out from her mother's mouth.

The short of it was that the lady asked her if her son, who was from a well-off family by the way, would be able to be promised to the newborn baby. They were both of the same age and born on the same day.

"They'll share birthdays, won't that be cute?", her mother recounted.

His face had become pale and he lowered himself gently unto his knees while staring at Amber on the floor. Suddenly, he appeared to be determined and picked her up off the ground. He carried her over his shoulder, bridal style, and left the house in a huff.

So great was her shock that Amber let this continue on for a few minutes until she began to sob and berate the man. Punching his shoulder and letting her tears fly, she treated him as if he was the man that would eventually take her away from her home.

When they arrived at the edge of the city, he let her go. She dropped and rolled to be free from his now icy grasp. There was no fire at the outskirts of the North and she felt herself instinctively rub her hands over her arms. No doubt that she was shivering from not only the cold, but thoughts of the near future. The only reason she was even in the North was that her family had a vacation home here away from the Capitol where they ruled with an iron fist.

The man stared at her, disbelief in his eyes. He believed that somewhere he had gone wrong. Amber was sure of it. He was a man that blamed himself for many things and had a nervous tick sometimes. She still didn't know why he loved her as she was no one special in her eyes.

However, he saw something different than she did, obviously.

Her response right then and there had been to spare him pain. As a result, she looked at him head on and told him to leave her.

"What?" he said, probably astounded she could still speak at all.

"I said, Leave. And never come back," she told him as well as herself with the most amount of dignity she could muster.

"You must never come back. Ever. I am to be married after all. I am betrothed to someone else."

He resisted and pledged his undying love as well as loyalty to her....and only her forever.

"Stop it. I meant what I said. Never shall I lay my eyes upon you again. You got it? Leave me alone and let me be!" The last part she shouted out loud and implored him through her eyes to let it be.

Surprisingly, he looked at her and turned away, sprinting quickly away from her.

Dropping to her knees herself, she let herself grieve and raged at him for being so apt at letting her go.

Seeing it now as it had been several years since this parting, she saw now he had never stopped loving her. It was his love that propelled him to accept her request and leave her. And it was that same love that years later united them on a tryst across the Capitol.

She had lied that very day when she encountered him saying she had been widowed from her abusive husband who had no love for her that day. They had married right away and when he found out about her lie, he had been the one to bring her back home.

"Our marriage is a sham," he had barked and left similar to how he had left her initially in the snow. Not looking back over his shoulder to see her cry.

Her first husband, not the nicest man, had beaten her for it and made her life ten times worse, especially when she found out that she was pregnant with the other's child.

In the middle of the night, she had woken up and gotten a midwife to see the child be properly delivered. After the delivery, she did not have time properly to hold her boy as the midwife snatched him from her hands and run to the baby's father. It was explained to her that it was better if the child was raised with the father than executed by her current husband.

That was the last she saw of her firstborn. She did not even know his name.

Thus, her descent into madness occurred and her vanity grew. Only the most expensive makeup would satisfy her, the most decadent deserts famish her, the...By the time, she looked in the mirror again, she had transformed into a woman only concerned with beauty and her children. Her husband was never around anymore and she was all the better for it.

Only one question lay on her mind as she lay in the darkness.

What had she let herself become?