#but he BELIEVES shirayuki in a way that is so unshakeable because of how consistent she is

[purgatoryandme]

Thinking about ObiYuki AUs and what events could ever possibly drive Shirayuki away from the castle and the Wisteria family. She loves Zen and she loves Clarines, but I genuinely believe Shirayuki loves medicine and kindness too much to be a true royal. If she ever does marry Zen, she’d have to still be allowed to work and research or else things would break off fairly quickly no matter how stubborn she is. So how could you ever have her get married with a slower build towards a true conflict of interests that is well-suited to canon? Especially one that suits Obi equally well?

Slow boiling tensions between Clarines and another poorer country that only ever end in small skirmishes but still make everyone nervous. Diplomatic relations are absolutely awful with the smaller border country laying claim to Clarinese land they just don’t have the firepower to actually fight for. Izana would never succeed land, so they’ll never get what they want, but he also won’t go out of his way to antagonize them further because war is the thing he wants to avoid most. When a chance to avoid war and further fighting comes up, though, well...he’d take it. Even if involved passively ignoring a health crisis.

A plague is spreading by the border. It’s weak - only striking down the malnourished or vulnerable. But in poor areas it is spreading like wildfire. No petitions come to the Clarinese court for aid, though concerns are raised in Clarinese villages near the border country. There’s no diplomatic need to assist. It gets under Shirayuki’s skin because she’s absolutely sure she knows researchers well-equipped to help, but these people don’t want Clarinese citizens crossing their border anyway. She’s sure she could help herself, but the risk is high. She could do it, though. She could. She knows with Obi by her side it would be nothing to get in and out. Damn it.

Zen talks her gently down time and again. Obi does too when he returns from the scouting missions he’s been taking more and more often - ones she know don’t require the amount of supplies he’s taking or the trips he takes to the pharmacy. Shirayuki’s still got her fire, however years spent under Izana have taught her to wait for the right moment to strike. At least that’s what she thinks she learned. But the plague grows stronger as winter approaches and she’s not so sure anymore. They “can’t send researchers as it would be a waste of resources” and when she brings up herself...well.

She’s locked in her room. Admittedly she hadn’t been the most friendly. She’d picked a fight. She may or may not have thrown Izana’s drink on the ground when he suggested her life was too valuable to lose when there was nothing equal in value to be gained. He’d had that look in his eyes - one she remembered well from before she got married. He was challenging her. He was challenging her like he hadn’t in years, as if she’d grown passive and she wasn’t worth his time if she wasn’t willing to spend months arguing with him in HIS court. As if she couldn’t surprise him anymore (or as if he knew this would be her breaking point and was setting her free).

He was gambling people on that. And Shirayuki is sick of it. Of having so little personal power, of having to bend her head to avoid risking Zen’s reputation, of having to ignore the pain of people for something as petty as diplomacy.

Cue a grand escape at night, one she makes without Obi because she’s been by his side for enough years to learn some tricks herself and he had tried to talk her out of this, with a pharmacist’s bag full of supplies and relevant notes. Dyeing her hair with black walnut, trying to keep ahead of Obi because she KNOWS he’ll be the one sent after her, and finally confronting him on the border. Him trying to convince her to go back and her tearing open his bag because she’s not the only one who learned from the other - she knows he has herbs in there. She knows he has his own notes, one he’s been working on with Ryuu, as he tries to keep people he’s supposed to be spying on healthy.

The two of them being somehow completely at odds and on the same page. They both want to help - they both NEED to help. But..Obi always thought he’d be the one to leave, either by choice or because he’d be forced out, not the one trying to convince Shirayuki to stay (to be safe, to keep the happiness they’ve both worked so hard to build). He’s supposed to be the one in enemy territory, the one who would chafe against the royal leash, who would get the drop on everyone when he finally escaped. She was always supposed to be the one who slipped his leash to aid her in following her morals, to help, and then would put it back on him. Who could turn hearts and stubbornly go her way no matter what, always leading back to Zen.

Everything is wrong. Now Obi is the one who can follow his heart and provide aid without consequences. And she’s been left to chafe with nothing but drastic measures to set her loose and enemies in every corner.

The only thing that’s unchanged? There’s no way Obi will let her do this alone, no matter what he thinks is best for her.