Disclaimer: I do not own, claim to own, or pretend to own the characters involved in this work of fiction. I doubt Drosselmeyer would stand it, anyways.
Enjoy, su!
Prince Und Rabe
Once upon a time, a man died.
The man was a spinner of tales who was of well refute, so nobles and monarchs travelled from all over just to request he write a story for them. However, his stories started becoming real, often times ending in tragedy, and these people had the man's hands cut off to keep him from spinning anymore tales. They were afraid of his dangerous power, and rightly so.
Sensing death knocking at his door, the man used his own blood as ink to write one final story, thus binding his spirit to this earth, and died soon after, laughing scornfully as madness consumed him
However, upon his death, another story, thought to truly be his last, was still not finished; its characters became frustrated and leapt from its pages to continue their fight in the real world, only to have the Prince seal his enemy away by shattering his own heart. With the Monster Raven sealed away and the Prince without a heart, the story could not be moved to its tragic ending, and the man was left frustrated. It was then he decided to seek outside help.
In life, the man had been loathe to seek out a Witch's help, but after the removal of his hands and his descent into madness, he was more inclined to seek one out in death. Only, most witches didn't deal with the dead if they could not pay, and the man was one such as those.
He might have wandered for eternity had he not stumbled across the shop of the most powerful Witch he would ever meet.
She was beautiful and mysterious, surrounded by plumes of smoke and two small children who catered to her every need, and definitely not the usual stereotype most often seen in fairytales. This Witch was cunning and ruthless, sure, but there was also a dangerous intelligence hidden in her deep red eyes; eyes the color of blood. They had seen him coming, and her servants welcomed warmly before dancing off, leaving him with a look of distaste at their childish antics.
"You have a wish," the Witch noted, smoke billowing out of her pale lips. "I can grant it."
The man recounted his story to her woefully, and she listened attentively, seemingly unsurprised and unsympathetic to his tale. Finally, after he had inquired, she declared that he could indeed pay the price required, and ordered her servants to fetch the necessary elements.
"You will need these," the Witch informed him, placing a pair of gloved hands on the table between them (he let out a cry of joy as he grabbed them and screwed them back onto their respective stubs) followed by a puppet with glass blue eyes and green pigtailed hair. "You must take care not to use the same puppet for too long, or it will grow an attachment to people and their emotions. It will become increasingly difficult to end your story should that happen."
He accepted the doll with a sniff, offended that she believed him some ignorant novice, but without complaint. It wasn't until she held out her hand with a chain dangling from her slender fingers did he raise his voice. For there, resting in the palm of her pale hand, was a blood-red and egg-shaped shard of the Prince's heart.
She smiled at him mysteriously when he demanded to know where she had acquired it. Instead of answering, the Witch explained that this stone would be given to the Tragic Princess of his story, but the condition was that she be willing to take on the role for the sake of the Prince. With the stone's power, the Princess would be able to locate its brothers and return them to their home, and thus move the story forward. The final thing she gave to him was an old clock that would stop time and allow him to move between worlds.
All these, the man accepted with a wicked sort of glee, and had almost gotten to his feet to leave when the Witch stopped him. You must listen to your price, she told him, or you will not be able to leave with those items.
"Your price is to not interfere with the flow of your story unless it becomes necessary, and you may only do that once. Any more, and there will be consequences," she explained simply, annoying him.
Frustrated, the man asked what that meant, but the Witch just smiled at him and sent him on his way.
Finally, the man could finish his story and set things down the path predetermined, and set about setting the stage for its characters. The only thing missing was a willing Tragic Princess.
However, cruel as it is to leave a story unfinished, was it really worth it when the characters defied fate and ended it happily?
The Witch laughed at him from somewhere faraway, and he wished he had asked just what those consequences were as he slunk off with a rebellious child instead of an obedient puppet after it ended.
End
And with this, I demonstrate that I have my hands in everything. Looking at my list of things I've written or attempted to write, the list of fandoms is pretty diverse; Yu-Gi-Oh!, Demon Diary, Fruits Basket…obscure and mainstream, I'm into it. Anyways, my excuse for this…Wish Shop is obviously going to be one of THOSE xxx-Holic crossovers (you know, the ones where anything and EVERYTHING that can walk through that door, will), but I'd been a bit curious about how far I could go, and so I have four chapters to upload. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited about this one; I'm even going to take requests after the first four are up. But I'll wait a bit this time, you know, to see how the reception will go. If enough people like it and they review me, I'll keep going after four chapters. In any case, for those of you who aren't quite sure by now who Yuuko's customer this was, it was Drosslemeyer from Princess TuTu. I've been into the series for a almost a year now, and I highly recommend it if you can handle an anime about ballet and ducks who turn into dancing princesses, then you'll love it. Anyways, the next chapter, in case you're all wondering, is going to be Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, another equally good and underrated anime. Go watch it. ^-^
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