Title: "Happily Ever After"

Author: Wish Wielder

Fandom: Puchi Puri Yucie

Claim / Pairing / Character Focus: Arc/Yucie

Challenge: 33 Proposals

Theme / Prompt: #28 (I don't think life is quite that simple.)

Word Count: 2,819

Rating: T-M / PG-13

Summary: Happy ever afters are simple, right? Somehow he just couldn't believe that anymore.

Notes: This is a what-if fic, in which Yucie regained her memories but not her friends. That's about all the warning you need. Along with one for some mature themes.

Disclaimer: "Puchi Puri Yucie" and all respective properties are © Takami Akai. Meg D. (Wish Wielder) does not, has never, nor will ever own "Puchi Puri Yucie".

"Happily Ever After"

He would never forget this day, no matter how old he lived to be. Even if every other memory of his youth faded, he would never forget this one day, this one moment, this one feeling. He would never let it go, because to do so would be to let her go. And that was something he refused to ever do.

"Arc? Wh-what are you looking at?"

He smiled at her question, not minding in the least that she had caught him staring. She was gorgeous, even in her simple crimson tunic and brown slacks. Her long hair - straight, despite how much she wished it curled - was tied back with a red elastic, but that lone curl still hung over that forehead he loved so much. He walked over to her and put his hands on her waist, lifting her up off the stump she stood upon and placing her before him. His hands didn't move; he didn't want to release her just yet.

"You," he said, and that lovely pink stained her cheeks, just as he knew it would. It wasn't as bright or severe as it used to be, now that she was used to his forward affections, but it was still there. Some things, he had realized a long time ago, would truly never change.

"I-it's rude to stare, y'know," she said, looking down to avoid his gaze and trying her best to look indignant - but in the end, the best look she could manage was flustered.

"But I wasn't staring," he said, pulling her closer. She looked up with her eyes alone, a frown turning her lips.

"You weren't?" she asked, unconvinced. He leaned down, kissing her long and slow and sweet, before pulling back barely a breath away from her face. Her eyes were wide and shy, shocked at his almost forceful actions.

"I was admiring," he said. Her frown deepened, and he grinned. "What did I say now?"

"N-nothing, just…admiring what?" she asked, voice wary. He laughed at this, and he pulled her into a hug, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Isn't it obvious, Princess?" he asked, whispering to her ear. He saw her, out of the corner of his eye, turn as red as an octopus as she glanced at him. She shook her head slightly, and he kissed her cheek.

"You," he said. "You're beautiful, Yucie."

"St-stop teasing!" she said, looking away, and it was his turn to shake his head.

"Not teasing," he said, pulling back just enough to look at her. "I mean every word."

"Arc…" she whispered, looking up at him, and he grinned.

"Hey, Forehead…" he started, and she blinked.

"Yeah?" she asked, and he took a breath before continuing.

"A year ago, you asked me something…" he started, and she frowned.

"To wait for me, yeah," she said, her frown turning up suddenly. "And you did."

"Yeah, I did," he said, smiling slightly at that, "but…it wasn't just because you asked. You know that, right?"

"Huh?" she asked, blinking again as the smile vanished. He pushed her back a bit, keeping her hands in a comforting grip between them. "Arc, what's going on? Why do you look like your dog just died?"

"Do I?" he asked, looking up at her in surprise. She frowned and nodded.

"Well, yeah," she said, and he shook his head.

"No, nobody died," he said. "I…I have to ask you something."

"Ok," she said, and he shook his head.

"Stop talking - please? I'm having enough trouble here…" he said, and he winced at her hurt look. He could tell she had some kind of reply to that, but she bit it back. He looked up at her, and for a moment he swore a chill raced down his spine at the look in her eyes. Or maybe, just maybe, it was just her eyes.

"Yucie, I…I love you. You know that, right?" he asked, and after rolling her eyes she nodded. Again, there was the sign of a comment she was forcing back. "I can't imagine never having another day like this, just with you. Not even on some forest picnic - just with you. You've got me transfixed under some kind of spell or something - you -"

"Arc, as much as I love the flattery…your point?" she asked, and he laughed. She blushed and looked down, mumbling about how he had been rambling.

"My point is, I've waited for you. For a year and longer," he said, and he tilted her chin up to look him in the eye. "And I don't think I can wait any more, Yucie. Marry me."

"Wh-what?!" she gasped, eyes shooting open, and he laughed.

"You can't tell me this surprised you that much," he said, though she didn't reply right away. She just looked at him, and if it was even possible, her eyes seemed to grow larger as he held up his mother's engagement ring. "It's yours, Yucie. I'm yours. Please, say you'll marry me."

"Arc…" she breathed, and she stopped gawking as a smile that reached her tear-filled eyes split her face. "You…you idiot!"

Any doubt at the insult vanished as she launched herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and laughing.

"Yu-"

"You're such an idiot, Arc!" she said, and she pulled away to smile up at him. "Fool. Of course I'll marry you."

He said nothing, just wrapped her in his arms and kissed her, and he reached behind him to slip the ring on her finger. Her laughter broke the kiss, and he grinned as she raised her arm to get a look at her hand. Her smile widened, a gasp slipping out as she saw the ring shining in the autumn sun.

"Arc, it's beautiful!" she said. He shook his head, kissing her again.

"No," he said. "You are. I love you, Yucie."

She smiled, once again wrapping her arms 'round his neck in a hug. She laid her head on his chest, sighing contentedly as he pulled her closer. Her eyes slipped closed as she whispered to him, "I love you, too, Arc. I love you, too."

-W-

But life is never that simple, is it?

You can't spend an incredible afternoon in a forest clearing by a stream, laughing and talking as you share a picnic lunch. You can't hold the woman you love and kiss her and tell her you love her, or propose and expect her to say yes. You can't be happy. You can't have "happily ever after".

When she's before you - a rope tied crudely about her pale neck, dangling from the ceiling of an empty classroom in the Princess Academy - you can't be forever.

He didn't want to see her like this. He didn't want to stand there, staring at her dead body like he was. He didn't want to feel like he shouldn't be surprised.

He loved her either way, but this wasn't the Yucie he remembered - the one he first met, the one that had first captured his heart. That Yucie was always laughing and smiling. That Yucie was snippy when agitated and gentle when caring. That Yucie was always bashful around him, as if she was afraid the slightest thing she did or said could make him love her less. That Yucie was always surrounded by friends, people who cared about her no matter what. That Yucie was a princess long before any tiara deemed her so. That Yucie was full of life.

That Yucie was not the Yucie he had seen struggle through life this past year, and maybe that was why this didn't surprise him nearly as much as it should. That Yucie had died the day they entered the Magical World. That Yucie was dead the moment the seal had broken. The moment the Great Magician looked at her and told her she was better off not knowing.

"Remembering isn't going to change anything - you'll just suffer more as a result…"

Yucie had died the moment Magazerent had told her that her friends would never come back.

And she had screamed. She had screamed and shouted and cried until she was hoarse, but in the end it had done no good. Magazerent returned them to the Human World, and he had sat with her on the cold ground of the gardens as she crumbled against him, crying for so many hours. And when she had finally calmed - when she had finally torn herself away from him to look around her and realize her surroundings - she had seen them, the fathers and stewards of her friends, and the fragments that were his Yucie broke all the more.

He hadn't seen her for months after that day, though it wasn't because he didn't try. When she refused to leave her home, he would sit outside her door, talking to her through the wooden frame. Apologizing. Pleading. Talking. Anything that he thought would get her to come out, to come back to him.

"I'm so sorry, Yucie. I thought…if I had known they wouldn't be returned, I never would have taken you…"

"Please, Yucie, don't remember them like this. They wouldn't want you to live this way! They wouldn't want you to feel this pain!"

"Gaga and the Demon King came by yesterday. They were asking about you, Forehead. The king…he wants you to know he doesn't blame you. None of us do."

And when she had finally opened that door, he had almost wished she hadn't. Fully-grown but a ghost, she looked nothing like the vision he had seen the night of the ball. She looked nothing like a person at all, but as much as it tore him to see her in such a state he had wrapped his arms around her, crushing her limp frame to his chest. It was hazy now, but he remembered crying. Crying in joy to see her out of her room, and in sadness to see the wraith she had withered away to.

It had been like that ever since that day. She was always there and not there. She was Yucie, and every now and then a spark would light in her eyes and she would say something that showed life, but those times were rare. She drifted through life a pale reflection of her former self, rarely talking and almost always crying.

She had told him, one day around a month before, to move on. She had told him to leave her, that he owed her nothing and should no longer have to wait for a murderer like her. When she said it, it took everything he had to keep from slapping her. He had grabbed her shoulders, shaking her furiously enough to cause that spark to light in her muted eyes.

"Will you wake up?! Stop talking about yourself like that - you are not a murderer! Damn it, Yucie, stop being so stupid! You didn't kill them - they chose to give their lives to keep the worlds safe! And don't ever tell me that I owe you nothing. Ever! I love you, whether you want me to or not, and I will not leave you to waste away like no one cares!"

And then he had kissed her, throwing all of his frustration and longing and love into that single gesture, and for a moment she had come back. For a moment, she had started to lean into him, her hands hovering at the elbows of the arms whose hands held her face, but then she was gone, stepping back and watching him with those blank, dead eyes.

"Don't."

And she had left, leaving him to watch her go. Leaving him to find her like this, after weeks of once again hiding in her room. Leaving him to find her body finally reflecting the mentality she had lived for a year.

And as much as he wanted to hate her for it, he couldn't. As much as he wanted to scream and yell and curse her for leaving him, he couldn't. All he could see was the smile on her face - the peaceful, serene smile that only Yucie could make. And without really thinking, he stepped towards her, letting the door creak shut behind him. He walked to her, putting a hand on her pale face while the other reached up to entwine with stiff fingers and press against a limp palm.

But before the question could leave him, before he could bring himself to ask, he saw her. There, in the late afternoon sunlight that streamed in through a glossy window, she was standing - and she wasn't alone.

She was laughing, practically dancing as she fell on the other four women with happy shouts and joyful hugs. And they smiled back, laughing and crying as they welcomed her, each a grown woman - each a shimmer of what should have been, had the Eternal Tiara never been formed.

He found himself stepping back, a part of him unable to believe what he was seeing. But then they froze, as if his movement had alerted them to his presence, and before he could protest all but one was gone.

Kokoru.

"Mr. Arc…" she whispered, her voice ethereal yet worried. His eyes widened, shocked for a moment that he could actually hear her. Was this real? No…it couldn't be. Impossible!

But…wasn't a woman trapped in a ten-year-old's body impossible, as well?

"K-Kokoru…" he breathed, and she smiled at him. Sad and melancholy, a look he had seen her wear too many times. "H-how…what…"

"She wants you to know something, Mr. Arc," Kokoru said, her eyes shifting to a determined, grieved stare. He faltered, looking from the…the what, ghost? Spirit? No…looking from Kokoru to Yucie, or the body that was Yucie, and back to Kokoru.

"Yes," Kokoru said, nodding, and she smiled at him. "Yucie wants you to know that it wasn't your fault."

Suddenly, he couldn't be scared. All he could do was smile, unafraid - happy, even - in the face of impossible.

"And why does she think I blame myself?" he asked, and Kokoru's look changed from grieved to confused.

"P…pardon?" she asked, and he smiled.

"She's happy now," he said, and he knew she understood. She glanced to her side for a moment before nodding.

"Yes, she is," she said. "She's sorry, though. She says she didn't mean to put you through any of this. She didn't mean to hurt you like this, but…what? Oh…she…she says she told you to leave. That she wanted to stop you from -"

"From what? From being hurt?" he asked, laughing slightly - but it wasn't cruel. His laugh was resigned, accepting. Never cruel. "She could never stop that, just like she could never convince me to leave her. I love her. You know I do, Kokoru."

"Can you feel her?" she asked, and she smiled as his eyes widened. Around him, against him, he felt her, arms wrapped 'bout him and cheek pressed to his chest. A ghostly touch, barely noticeable, but still identifiable. Or maybe it was just his mind wanting more impossible. He started to believe the former, when he hovered a hand over where her head would have rested and Kokoru nodded.

"She's sorry she made you wait for nothing," Kokoru said, but he shook his head.

"I told you, Kokoru," he said, looking down at the air between his hand and chest, "Yucie…I love you. Even if you had said you hated me, I would have waited, forever if need be. And I'll still wait, even if I can only be with you in an afterlife."

With that she was gone, and he looked back to Kokoru in confusion.

"We have to go now, Mr. Arc," she said, bowing at him. She paused as she turned, looking down to avoid seeing him. "I'm sorry."

He couldn't reply before they were gone, and he was left alone in a room with a corpse. Yucie? Yes and no. Her body, but he knew it wasn't her. He looked back to the window, smiling slightly as his hand slid over the silver ring in his pocket.

Forever, if he had to. He would wait forever, even if all it brought him was the tiniest moment with her in the life beyond.

He turned to leave, pausing as he opened the door to give the window a final look. The quickest flash, just long enough to see her smile, and then she was gone.

Life isn't simple, but even if he could never have the happy ending he so desperately wanted, he knew. He would rather live a thousand lives, each one with the same ending of finding her hung in an empty classroom, than live one where he had never met her.

And maybe, just maybe, that was ok.

A.n.: Oooh boy…this makes three times I've killed her. You guys are gonna kill me, aren't you?

Not your conventional idea for a proposal, but I once I had the idea I couldn't let it go. Now, I know Yucie's not the kind of girl to go suicidal, and I'm fairly sure that if the other candidates hadn't been returned Yucie would have lived her life to the fullest to honor their memories, but a part of me - the part that loves the dramatically depressing - can't help but wonder what would happen if she couldn't get past it.