The two of them soon managed to get out of the valley and reunited with their respective camps, albeit, with a secret this time.
Despite the two being in love and wanting to affirm that love for the whole world to hear, familial circumstances and politics have a way of making such actions nearly impossible. So they made a promise with each other. Despite the time they spent together that they would go back to being rivals when they returned to civilization. They both knew that they were both young and that such feelings tend to disappear with time, however, that turned out to not be the case.
As if by some twist of fate, no matter how much they attempted to avoid each other they always seemed to be forced into interacting with one another. Whatever spark of attraction that started in that valley soon grew to a flame, their love for each other growing stronger and stronger.
At first, they limited their interactions to social events such as parties ran by other Noble houses, knightly meetings with the Emperor, auctions, etc. It was very cordial and, as my mother recalls, "Enough double talk that people couldn't tell if we were flirting or wanted to kill each other". I was inclined to believe it was both.
As time went on, it soon turned into secret messages sent to each other via sneaky majimonsters like my mother's karatsune or this little hummingbird majimonster my father called a Hummingbolt. This worked to satiate their desires for a time, but love has this habit of growing in unexpected ways.
These secret messages soon became secret meetings. Outings under the moonlight, midday meetings with "friends" and "independent" training sessions outside the city's defenses. It seemed like life was going to be like this forever. They were going to be rivals under public eyes,but lovers in the dark and no one would know....up until my father learned he was to be married next month to a woman that his grandfather arranged. My mother was shocked and my father moreso, because his bride-to-be was his actual lifelong nemesis.
He didn't give me specifics or a name but said, "All you need to know, is that she was a two-faced witch that would put most monsters to shame". The seriousness in his voice was enough to believe him despite how strange it sounded. Needless to say, neither he or my mother were happy about their situation.
The logical thing would've been for the two of them to go their separate ways and pretend that nothing ever happened between them....which they didn't do. Instead, they planned to run away together and start life anew under new names and with none of their familial baggage. But now they had to figure out just how they were going to disappear?