cut a diamond, break it down

Prompt: Edchel, 6, Lily of the Valley (You've my life complete)
Song: The One That Got Away- Katy Perry

( lily of the valley )

Prompt: Rachel: rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, 70
Song: Fame (I'm Gonna Live Forever)- Irene Cara
Summary: Getting more than what she wants simply means she does even more of what she believes she's meant to.

She doesn't want to be Queen, that's the thing.

If she had her way, Ophelia would have lived forever and Rachel could have always been her Ace. Or if the inevitable had to have happened, Lindsey wouldn't have chosen her to take on the role. He would have chosen Säde or some other equally capable Ten. Anyone else but her.

But the fact of the matter is that Rachel is the Diamond Queen, now, and that means a great many things. Chief among them? The fact that it is now her sworn duty to ensure that the Diamonds succeeded.

She is Rachel, Queen of Diamonds, and she has been a child of Ambition since the day someone cut her mother down before her very eyes. Once she knows what she wants, she takes it. So now that she knows she wants her Diamonds to be the best Suit, she's going to make damned sure that it happens. Her Diamonds will be perfect cuts, be hard and calm and exactly what everyone always wanted to be. Her Diamonds will shine.

And if she has to ensure she shines with them in order to achieve that? Well, that's just a plus.

Prompt: The Quartet, 22, teach me how to be sensible
Song: You Found Me- The Fray
Summary: Rachel always had her best friends to pull her back into the world again.

( simple and simpler )

Prompt: Rachel, 8, Sweet William (Grant me one smile)
Song: Astonishing- Little Women OST
Summary: Rachel on the morning of her switch to the Diamonds.

( sweet william- grant me one smile )

Prompt: Edgar/Rachel, 6, Lily of the Valley (You've made my life complete)
Song: The One That Got Away- Katy Perry
Summary: Edgar and Rachel: Life and love in moments.

( lily of the valley )

 Prompt: Rachel, to bow or to break, 37
Song: King of the World- Songs for a New World OST
Summary: The duty of a Queen is to know when to bow and how not to break.

When she was an Ace, she never yielded to anyone but her Queen. Everyone else was met with a diamond-hard determination that seemed to exhibit that she should have always been a part of the Suit. She used the ambition she had fostered to gain the position to continuously make herself better, and all who knew she was being sent after them feared her. It was a life that pleased her.

Then she became Queen and supposedly there was no one to yield to. Those who believed as much, she soon realized, were being fooled. As an Ace, you answered to almost no one. As a Queen, you answered to everyone. She had to yield, or be seen as tyrannical, face an end like Medea.

So she was forced to soften, forced to become less diamond-hard, forced to bow mentally while she bowed to no one physically. Sometimes she thought it would be easier to just let herself shatter, leave someone else to pick up the pieces of the Suit. But then she sees the faces of the people she's sworn her life to, and she knows she needs to carry on.

The duty of a Queen was to know when to bow and how not to break, and she had always made sure she did her duty.