In the universe, there are a variety of different dimensions. However, there are three that are most prominent. Earth, Travail and Solace. They used to all live in peace together, since they were the closest dimensions from each other. Yet, something happened, ruining the peace between Travail and Solace.
War, pain, destruction, hate, betrayal, loss and so on and so forth. Because of all this, their peace treaty dissolved, and they decided that they will not disturb each other, and to not associate with each other ever again. Poor Earth was stuck in the middle of everything, and so the leaders decided to remove Solace and Travail from it's history.
In the present day and age, Solace and Travail still hate each other, while citizens of Earth know nothing of the existance of other dimensions out in the vast universe.
~(OwO)~
"He has to be on Earth, there is no other way!" I shouted. As the portal opened up, the wind pressure increased, blowing my hair everywhere. I tried to push it down, but it was no use. Sumire was on the other side, glaring daggers at me.
"What if he's here?" she shouted over the roar of wind.
"He's not! I tried! He has to be on Earth!" I shouted back.
"What if he's not?"
"Then I'll come back to Solace and marry whoever my uncle picks out for me!"
"What if he's from Travail?" Sumire shrieked with a horrified expression. I smirked at her in return.
"I'd rather die then let my true love turn out to be a Travail-ion..." And with that, I jumped into the portal.
"Mikan!" was the last thing I heard Sumire shout before being transported to Earth.
~(OwO)~
"How long are you staying over for this time?" Anna asked, grabbing the bowl of popcorn I brought up with me to accompany our movie marathon. Yes, I had friends on Earth. I come to Earth more then I care to admit, mostly without my parents' permission.
They weren't even really my parents anyways. My mother Yuka died giving birth to me and then my father Izumi, the late King, died in war so my uncle Kazumi took his position with his wife Serina. They didn't really care much for what I did, since I didn't really care to listen to whatever they tell me anyways. I was the one who would have succeeded the throne after my parents, but it passed down to my Uncle's son, my fifteen year old cousin, Youichi. He might be younger then me, but I'm sure he'll be a great ruler of Solace one day.
Oh right, Anna is one of my Earth friends who is the only one who knows about Solace and all the details, but is still a student so she lives with her family. Her mom likes me, so she lets me stay over whenever and however long I want to. They're both such sweethearts.
Indirectly, even though I already completely my education on Solace and was of marriageable age, I was technically a student as well on Earth. That was my cover-up though. Earth school is so less advance from Solace, but the humans interaction with one another is so fascinating that I take part in it for the experience and fun of it.
I smiled at the memory of how I met Anna, when I landed on Earth for the first time. I wanted to see if all the history and rumors of Earth were true, and went through a portal by myself. Incidentally, I landed in the lake of a park that was near her house. Anna was walking past there and helped me out. She let me stay at her house, and sooner or later, when he became close friends, I told her all about Solace.
"As long as it takes for me to find my true love," I answered as she made a face. Humans don't believe in the concept of 'true love' considering that they were dying for it in the olden days. I guess they think they are so advance nowadays that the concept of 'true love' is overrated sounding for them.
"How do you plan on finding him?" she asked me.
"Who said it was a him?" I joked as she shivered in disgust.
"Don't even joke about that kind of stuff."
"Well, the answer is quite obvious. Whoever I feel is the right one."
"That's weird."
"To you, perhaps."
"You're weird."
"I love you, too."
~(OwO)~
"I don't feel him in this education facility," I stated as Nonoko snorted.
"Education facility? What are you from, Mars?" Nonoko asked sarcastically.
"Martians do not speak the English language," I countered as she rolled her eyes at me.
"You've only been here for, what, four periods? How can you tell?" Anna asked.
"Easy, I can't feel him anywhere."
"You haven't even looked anywhere for this 'true love' bastard," Nonoko stated with a quirked brow. Nonoko was another Earth friend, but she didn't know about Solace. It's not like I don't trust her, it's just that it was better for her not to know. I was already putting Anna in a lot of risk for knowing and violating the rules of letting humans know of our existence, I didn't want to double it up. She just thinks I'm some foreign rich girl looking for a guy to marry, who I was referring to as my 'true love'.
"Trust me, if he was here, I'd have felt his presence by now."
"That's weird," Nonoko commented.
"I know, right?" Anna asked as I sighed.
"Carvel at the front gate!" someone shouted and everyone ran to the window to witness something that was happening outside.
"Who is Carvel?" I asked as Nonoko sighed, face-palming as Anna put her hand on her arm patiently.
"Carvel is the school next to our school, Marvel. You could say we're at a kind of rivalry with each other," Anna explained with a easy shrug.
'Like Solace and Travail?'I asked myself, but doubted it went to the extent of war and bloodshed. "So what is all this excitement about them coming here?"
"When Marvel and Carvel meet, nothing good ever comes out of it. There's bound to always be a ninety-five percent chance that a fight will break out, and we like to watch it for the entertainment of it," Nonoko explained, trying to get a better look down the window.
"I fail to see what all the fuss is about rivals fighting-" I broke off as I looked out the window to see them, or more like one that caught my eye. He was tall with dark raven colored hair and piercing red eyes, pale skin and wearing the Carvel uniform. While Marvel had blue pants/skirts, white shirts and a red tie/bow tie; Carvel had black pants/skirts, a white shirt and a black tie/bow tie. He looked bored and unamused by having to come to Marvel, while the rest of his crew were in a heated argument with our students. My eyes stayed on his figure and I didn't even realize I was holding my breath. My heart pulled toward him, and I smiled.
'I knew it! He is from Earth! My true love!' I shouted in my head, suddenly running out the classroom and down to the front gate.
"Mikan?" Anna shouted out for me, but my legs kept running on, getting ever so closer to him. I had to meet him, had to know his name, had to know more about him, had to drink up more of him, I needed all of him. He didn't even know it, but he was about to become my everything.
I saw the teacher lecture the students and dismissed the Carvel students away, dragging the Marvel students back to the building. I ran as fast as I could and called out for him to stop. His friends looked weirdly at me as he twirled around, and then stared at me with shocked and surprised eyes. I smiled up at him and was about to introduce myself, but my face fell when I saw it.
"Solace-ion..." he hissed and glared down hatefully at me.
"You're a... Travail-ion...?" I asked, horrified at this strange twist of fate.
~(OwO)~
"That's so... dramatic..." Anna commented, trying to find the right word, as I finished telling her about my encounter with my so-called 'true love'.
"You can say that again," I whispered in dismay and then sighed.
"Did you even find out what his name was?" Anna asked as I shook my head. "Well, I took a picture of him when you tried to approach him, as a way to blackmail you into doing my chores if you suddenly went on your knee and proposed to him, completely embarrassing yourself in front of everyone. Maybe we can ask around about him," Anna explained, and then smiled at my glare. "I said if."
"How would you ask around?" I asked with a tired sigh.
"Easy. Gossip. Rumors. Texting," she said. Her fingers quickly glided over her phone keyboard and sent a couple of text messages, and got instant replies a couple of seconds later. "Well, quite a few people actually know who he is..."
"He must have been on Earth for quite a while for that to happen," I stated mostly to myself.
"Natsume Hyuuga. Senior. Eighteen. Got accepted into a law major school to become a... lawyer? Ew. He's also on the basketball team. Need to check that off my list of where to find my type of hot bachelors. He's usually the quiet, mysterious, reserved type and doesn't associate with others much, but still very popular. He hangs around with the basketball team, but would like to be alone most of the time, and his best friend is rumored to be a vet in training. That's all I got," Anna said, reading from her phone, and looked up to see my blushing face.
"He sounds wonderful," I commented as she took her pillow at threw it at me.
"You're gross! What has this 'true love' thing done to you?" Anna asked dramatically as I laughed, throwing the pillow back at her, and we had an all out pillow war.
~(OwO)~
"I'm so tired," I whispered low enough for only Anna to hear. Her mother dragged us around to go shopping with her. We bought some nice things, but the way Anna's mom shops was just so tiring.
"Sorry," she whispered back as I waved it off. I looked to the direction of the park and suddenly saw someone sitting on a bench reading. It was him.
"I'll... catch up with you guys later," I excused myself as her mom shouted back to be home before eight. I ran and stopped in front of him, panting slowly as he didn't even spare me a glance from his book.
"What do you want, Solace-ion?" he asked, disgust edging his tone.
"I'm... sorry," I said, and then he finally looked up at me. I winced as I saw it again, the mark that displayed his identity as a Travail-ion. While Solace was subtler, Travail liked to proudly show off themselves. It was a mark on his right collarbone that illustrated a black burning star. Travail was known for their strength, it was their gift. They were born warriors, and damn proud of the fact as well.
"It doesn't seem like you are sorry for what happened before," he countered back as I gulped.
"It's not my fault, it's..." I trailed off as he narrowed his eyes, growing tired of my presence.
"What?" he asked in an agitated manner.
"It's that... you're my..."
"Your? I'm your what?"
"My... true... love..." I said, combing my bangs back as tears welled up in my eyes. He looked up wide-eyed at me, and then scowled, realization dawning on him.
"Solace Sight," he whispered under his breath. While Travail was gifted with strength, Solace was gifted with our wisdom from our Sight. We saw things and felt it more then others. That was how we knew who our true loves were before we even met them, and that's how we became more advance then Earth. It was recognizably by the way our eyes shine blue. Humans cannot see it, but if they did, they would just think it was a trick of the light. "Forget about it now, it won't do you any good," he suddenly said, standing up as if he was going to walk away.
"You think I can do that even if I wanted to?" I asked as he narrowed his eyes down at me.
"How could you even think such a thing like a Solace and a Travail being 'true loves' when we can't even touch each other?" he asked coldly as my eyes widened. He was right, we couldn't. I tried reaching my hand out to him, only to be stopped by an invisible force, a rippling white glow keeping my fingers away. "See? Don't even try, it won't work." When the elders decided Solace and Travail would never associate with each other again, they really did mean it.
"But..." I whispered, looking up sadly at him.
"What do you want from me? To say I love you and that we would get through this together? I was brought up to hate Solace and all who were associated with them, and don't deny you weren't brought up the same way but about my people. I saw the look on your face when you found out I was a Travail-ion. It was written all over your face that you despised the realization of what I really was."
"But..." I still said as he looked angrily down at me.
"Look!" he suddenly shouted, and then started banging his fight on the barrier between us. The light glowed and vanished for a split second every time his fist collided with it's surface, white cracks were his fist bashed, but it was no use. The barrier between us was infinite. "There is no point for you to even try getting any closer to me! It won't ever work out! Just give up while it only just begun."
"But..."
"For the love of God, but what?" he shouted in my face, throwing his hands up exasperatedly as a few people near by looked at our direction to see the scene.
"I love you..." And a single teardrop betrayed me.
~(OwO)~
"You actually met up with that creep again?" Nonoko asked as I nodded solemnly. "What happened?"
"I confessed," I stated as Nonoko quirked a brow.
"You don't even know him."
"Yeah, but I just... I have a feeling... that he could be-"
"The one?" she asked amusedly as I nodded. "What was his reply."
"Let's just say... I got rejected..."
"What a dic-"
"Mikan!" someone I didn't recognized called me from the door. I looked at her as she looked worriedly at me. "There's someone... at the gate... waiting for... you..." Immediately everyone ran to the window to look down. So did I. And you could have imagined that I was more then shocked to see Natsume standing down there, leaning against the gate, waiting for me. Yeah, I ran. I felt so pathetic and desperate after what happened the day before, but I didn't run to him over my own free will. It was another force eager to be by his side, something I couldn't myself even figure out.
He looked up as I approached and started walking away. I stopped in my tracks, cocking my head to the side in confusion. Wasn't he the one who called for me? He looked back and indicated for me to follow him. We walked in complete and utter silence until we reached a little distance away from the school and the prying eyes of the nosy students.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted yesterday. Even though I hate Solace, my parents brought me up better then that. You just caught me off guard," Natsume apologized as I blushed, my heart picking up speed.
"Oh, uh! It's ok! Really!" I tried to say but he silenced me with a raised hand.
"If I could shake your hand, even against my better judgment, I would. I am Natsume Hyuuga, third prince to the Travail Dimension Kingdom."
"Mikan, only child to the late King of the Solace Dimension Kingdom and stripped from the right to throne."
"Don't you have a last name?" he asked with a quirked brow, seemingly interested in the part where I was stripped from my rights to rule.
"When my parents died and my uncle took me in, I lost the right to have a last name."
"I don't understand," he asked, narrowing his eyes in confusion.
"When a child's parents die before giving you away to marriage, you have no last name or heritage until the child get married and inherit our partners name. It's a Solace tradition." He nodded slightly, seeming to learn something new.
"Good luck with that." Damn it, I was hoping he would say something romantic like 'Let's get married and I'll give you my last name' or something along those lines. "You must be thinking why I'm trying to make amends, correct?"
"The thought occurred to me."
"You might seem annoying, but I don't exactly hate you, just what you are-"
"Thanks a lot for that."
"-but I am willing to help you get through this 'true love' thing you seem to think applies to the both of us. I'll take responsibility, even though I have no idea how, and try to make you stop feeling that way about me."
"O...k...?" I replied uncertainly as he smiled, and my heart ran a marathon. I tried to hide my blush as he waved and walked away.
~(OwO)~
"I might have said I'd somehow find a way to make you stop feeling the way you feel about me, but that does not mean youfollow me around everywhere I go! You little pest!" Natsume shouted as I just smiled up at him. He sighed and rubbed his temples, cursing under his breath. "Your impossible..."
"I guess," I said playfully, while sticking my tongue out at him.
"How the hell am I supposed to deal with you?" he asked suddenly as I smiled broadly up at him.
"Just be yourself, that's what I love about you!" I exclaimed. For a split second, he looked uncertain and taken aback by what I said, but then quickly covered it up and grunted.
"Whatever."
I still saw it, and hoped for even a bit, that I could have caused some type of effect on him.
~(OwO)~
"So how do we break this... 'True Love' bond thing?" Natsume asked as I shrugged. "You're useless."
"It's never been heard of, what do you expect me to do then?" I countered as he sighed. "How about we see how far the barrier would go to keep us apart, first of all..." I suggested.
"Sure," he said, getting up from his relaxed position to stand in front of me. I put my hand on the barrier, and he put his hand on the other side. "Alright, so we just push against it?"
"I guess..." I whispered, blushing by our somewhat close proximity. I took a deep breath before pushing against it, watching as the white glow rippled between our hands. He actually looked like he wanted to see if the barrier would break, and so took this seriously and pushed on.
After a few seconds, suddenly, the white light grew pinkish at out fingertips. We pushed on, and suddenly, his fingers went past the barrier, caressing my fingers with the lightest of a feather touch. I gasped as his eyes widened, and he retracted his hand away and fell back. He looked at me with disbelieving eyes, panting as I blushed.
'We actually... touched...'
"I-I've got to go," he quickly said, stumbling up as he ran away. I watched him run away and pressed my fingertips to my lips, blushing as I still felt his touch. That was probably the single most amazing moment of my life.
~(OwO)~
"Why are you dragging us to Carvel with you again?" Nonoko groaned as I smiled.
"I'm going to surprise him by walking home with him today," I exclaimed with a giddy smile.
"Why punish us then?" Nonoko asked and I just chuckled at her.
"It's nice to see you all happy Mikan but-" Kelzt started, but Nonoko interrupted her.
"-it's disgusting..."
"It's nice to see you both happy for me-" I was about to say, but stopped mid-sentence. We were at Carvel, and what I saw in front of me shocked me to no end.
"Hey? Mikan? Hello~? Is anyone in there?" Nonoko asked, snapping her fingers in front of me, but I was focused on something else other then her.
"What happened, Mikan?" Anna asked, directing her attention to what I was staring at and gasped. Natsume sat on the side with his friends, a beautiful blonde girl in Carvel uniform sitting on hit lap, wrapping her arms around his neck, pressing her body to his and keeping her face hovering close to his, whispering stuff into his ear.
He looked up, as if sensing our presence and stared me down. He quirked a brow at my frozen stated, and I couldn't take it.
"That little-!" Nonoko tried to say, but I ran off before I could hear which of her colorful words she used on him. Everything about that scene upset me, but what the most was that she could touch him freely whenever she wanted. She took it for granted, while I cherished ever moment I was even with him.
~(OwO)~
"Are you really going home already?" Anna asked with concern as I nodded solemnly, zipping my bag up.
"Tell your mom thanks for everything, and I'll try to visit again as soon as I can," I said, giving her a warm tight hug before walking away.
~(OwO)~
"Would you get out of bed already?" Sumire shrieked, pulling my blanket off of me and throwing the curtains open, blasting light into the room. My eyes stung as I tried to adjust my sight to the new brightness. It's been almost two weeks I've been back to Solace and I was still trying to get used to it being brighter here than on Earth.
"Someone is in a crabby mood..." I commented jokingly as she threw something on my bed.
"That is why," she said. I took it and realized it was a cream colored envelope.
"It's just a letter for me, what's the big deal?" I asked as she fumed.
"It has the Travail seal on the back!" she shouted in my face as if it was the end of the world. I flipped the letter around, and surprised, it was sealed with a grey liquid seal with the Travail mark of a burning star on it. I opened it carefully and read it.
How dare you leave me suddenly and make me miss you! Get your ass back on Earth before I really find a way to break the barrier and get you myself! Meet me at the park at eight, or else.
- Natsume
"Prince Natsume?" Sumire asked in an astonished tone, apparently reading the short letter over my shoulder. I smiled to myself, reading the letter over a few more times more, before hugging it to my chest.
"Your true love... is... that... Prince... Travail-ion... but... how...?" Sumire was at a lost for works as I jumped out of bed, grabbing some stuff before going back to Earth. "A Travail-ion and a Solace-ion together bonding from the 'true love' has never been heard of!" I turned back and smiled at her concern for me.
"Then I'll make history by making it so."
~(OwO)~
"Your back earlier then I expected," Anna said thoughtfully with a popsicle stick in her mouth. I waved to her, and then ran past her, not waiting to be able to see Natsume again. I ran straight to the park, at the bench where I confessed to him, and tried to catch my breath. I was a few minutes early, but I used that time to check myself if I looked presentable to him.
I looked around, expecting him to be here at the mark, but he wasn't yet. I sighed, thinking I was thinking too much into this. But I really can't think of any other way to explain what his letter might have meant. Sure, he had been a bit... forceful, but that was just his way of expression things. Maybe he could have...
Maybe be could have possibly fallen for me as well...? Can I at least hope for it?
I heard a rustle on the side, and twirled around, expecting to find Natsume. It wasn't him.
"Princess," the shady figure said in his cold tone, sending a shiver down my spine.
"Who are you?" I asked through gritted teeth as he suddenly raised a gun from behind him, and I realized that he bore the mark of Travail. Did Natsume set me up? How much more misery did he plan to put me through before he was thoroughly satisfied and done with me? Was this really...
"Your end." A loud shot reverberated throughout the silence of the darkness, making the birds in the nearby tree fly away in fear.
"SUMIRE!" I shouted out in horror and shock, crouching down to her and cradling her head in my arms.
"I'm sorry, I saw that you were... going to run into... something stupid and... Troublesome... so I followed... after you... and my sight was... right after... all..." Sumire panted out as tears fell down my face, dripping down and being absorbed by her clothes.
"No Sumire, no, please! Don't leave me!" I begged as she smiled up at me.
"Tell Koko I... loved him... and... Stop crying... idiot..." and with those final words, her eyes lost it's light, and she went limp in my arms.
"Tsk, I missed," the man stated, reloading his gun. "But I won't a second time..." I stood up, my hands balled up into fists. I glared up at him and held my hand out, my Solace Sight completely taking control over me.
"On the power of the Heaven, Universe, Stars and Sun; with the hands of justice and peace; with the mind of wisdom and knowledge; with the heart of love and care; with the fists of iron and rule-" I chanted, as he paled at me.
"No, don't!" he shouted, trying to run away, but he was already trapped.
"I summon all the powers, and curse thee into the bottomless pits of Hell's dungeons and prisons, where you shall rot for a millennium, until you have burned and atoned for all wrong-doings that you have done and have planned to do in the future! Die the death of a banished man who brought shame to his world!"
He suddenly burned up into flames, screaming and clawing at himself, cringing and writhing in pain and agony, until he burned to ash and vanished before my very eyes. I put my hand down, and took a calming breath before looking down at Sumire's lifeless body.
"Nothing was worth the death of a loved one..."
~(OwO)~
It was a month after Sumire's funeral, and still I felt the stinging pain in my heart. I wrote to Anna everyday, telling her of what was happening around here, and hearing from her on Earth. She had also been keeping tabs on Natsume for me, saying that he keeps coming up to her asking where I was. It reassured me a bit that maybe we could have been something more if we had the chance, and because of my 'true love' bound feelings, I will never stop loving him, unlike him. However, it could never work out at the moment. I just hope wherever he is and whatever he is doing, he is happy.
That was, until one of the guards started running around the castle screaming, "Travail has entered the castle, and Travail is on Solace dimension! Travail is here!" I whipped my head to the window to see people standing on the sides, leaving a pathway to the castle doors. I heard the large doors close and knew they were already inside before I could see who they were.
'How the heck did they manage to get into our dimension with the barrier up?'I thought and then ran out of my room, to the throne room where everyone had surely gathered. I hid behind a pillar and peaked in, trying to see who were here and what they wanted.
There were four men standing, and one lady, and they bowed before my uncle and aunt, who in return bowed back. They all took a seat and went into serious mode.
"I am King Kazumi and this is my wife, Queen Serina. What can we help you with? If you haven't forgotten, we are in a no association alliance," my uncle stated as I snorted. Obviously they know, but there must be something goddamn important for them to be visiting us on our land willingly.
"I am King Igarashi, my wife Queen Koaru, and my three sons Prince Akira, Prince Tsubasa, and Prince Natsume," the king of Travail introduced. I stiffened at this.'Natsume?'"We have for the girl named Mikan."
"What?" my uncle asked suspiciously, his eyes narrowed.
"You heard me."
"What do you want with my niece?"
"It is most unusual, but I approve of this. You niece has formed a bond in which your people calls 'true love' with my son, Natsume, and he wished to ask for her hand in marriage..." the king explained as Natsume looked seriously at my uncle and aunt, and nodded in confirmation at them. 'WHAT?'
"... How the blazing bits of Hell did this madness happen behind my back?" my uncle shouted as I sighed, shaking my head at him. 'Really uncle, really?'
"Well?" the Travail King asked a bit impatiently. 'Wow, I see where Natsume gets it from now...'
"Mikan!" my uncle shouted out desperately, and I tried not to laugh as I walked into the throne room. I tried as hard as I can to not burst out laughing at his expression. "What's going on? Please tell me this all isn't true and your just playing a horrible prank on us!"
"I can't..." I said in a small voice, biting the side of my mouth to keep from laughing. "Because it's true..."
"So you are Mikan, the one who has captured my cold son's heart?" King Igarashi asked, eying me closely.
"Apparently," I said with a quirked brow at Natsume, who blushed in embarrassment and shook his head disapprovingly at his father's choice of words.
"I approve," he repeated with a thumbs up.
"I don't?" my uncle shouted as I pouted at him.
"That's not really your choice, is it Uncle Kazumi?" I asked.
"I am your legal guardian! I have every right to say no!" he countered.
"Why say no?" I asked.
"Because they're Travail-ion!" he exclaimed as if that explained everything.
"And you're Solace-ions, you don't hear me shouted out the obvious," King Igarashi stated as I smirked.
"How could you have...? How did the Sight have bonded him as your 'true love'?" Uncle Kazumi tried to comprehend as I shrugged.
"So can I?" I asked.
"I think this is a wonderful idea," Aunt Serina suddenly stated as Uncle Kazumi looked disbelievingly at her.
"Serina!" he shouted as she pinched his cheek. "Ouchie~! Not in front of the Travail-ions~"
"Think about it. The two dimensions could finally be reunited through this marriage. It is a sign from the Sight. It wills it, it wants it. We must abide by its rule," Aunt Serina stated and then smiled down at the Travail-ions. "Of course we accept. Please take care of my cute little niece properly."
Cheers and celebration erupted throughout the two dimensions as the third prince of the Travail dimension and the former heiress to the throne of the Solace dimension joined themselves together forever, through the marriage and powers of Sight, Strength, and True Love.
The End