France, 1789.
The roar of enraged commoners met the King and Queen's ears quite clearly from inside the Bastille. The two sat at a grand table solemnly eating their meal. The crowd was drawing closer and closer. And as each moment passed, the furious screams and chants become increasingly distinct. They knew their fate as they ate what would be their last meal in their beloved home. The brown haired Queen turned to her husband.
"Shall I gather the children?" She asked softly.
The King held his fork at a stand still upon hearing his wife's voice. He shook his head, "No, let them finish napping." The man stood up slowly and the Queen followed in suit.
The two ventured gravely into their chambers, each silenced by their own thoughts. Shizuru, the Queen, sat on the edge of her bed. Her King, Reito, propped himself against the wall, arms crossed in deep thought. They remained that way for nearly twenty minutes.
"Reito…" Shizuru whispered, not able to find her voice.
The man looked up in acknowledgement, "Hm?"
"What are we to do?" The Queen asked, hoping her husband would have the answers.
He said nothing.
There was a pregnant silence.
"Reito…" She demanded quietly, her eyes filled with worry.
He let out a long sigh, "Face our people." He replied.
Shizuru let out a shaky breath as she stood up. Her husband watched her slow, hesitant movements towards the balcony. It did not occur to him what she was doing until she was out there and the crowd abruptly silenced. He quickly followed her out the doors to find her bowing her head to the angry mob. Reito's jaw hung open slightly at the gesture the Queen was making to commoners. He was too shocked to act, he could only watch as she spoke.
"I understand, you all must be hungry. I apologize for being an un-attentive Queen, you see, inside my palace, it is like a shelter. It seems life for everyone is as splendid as mine when I am inside my palace. I rarely ventu-" Shizuru's speech was cut off by Reito roughly grabbing her arm and pulling her towards the doorway where he stood.
"What are you doing!" He hissed.
"Facing our people! Telling them what happened!" The Queen snapped, attempting in vain to pull away from the King's grasp.
"With a long sugarcoated explanation?" He replied, keeping a hold on her.
"What should I say? 'Sorry, we spent all your food money on parties, jewels and helping the colonies with their war.'?" She ridiculed.
"I'm saying to not give them an explanation!" Reito informed, side glancing at the curious crowd.
"And why not!" Shizuru replied in indignance, shoulders back, head up.
"We already have some bad blood among some nobles after firing their families who served the palace in attempts to conserve money, it would only take a little propaganda from them, discrediting you and then we have just made things worse!" He explained.
"My people would believe some propaganda before me?" She inquired incredulously.
"With the way things are now, yes!" He replied.
The crowd started making some noise, they wanted to know what was going on. More so, they wanted revenge, they wanted bloodshed. It only took one rock hitting the railing of the balcony to alert the King and Queen that something was to be done. More rocks were thrown, each time coming closer and closer to the two. Finally, the King dragged the Queen inside against her will.
"They need to know!" Shizuru exclaimed, throwing her hands out in exaggeration.
"Not like this!" Reito shouted, causing Shizuru to flinch. "How dare you bow your head to commoners! No self-respecting Queen would ever do such! You are not fit to be the Queen of France! Why don't you go back to your little bumpkin country!"
Shizuru opened her mouth to speak, but her vocals were too frightened to come out. Never had the King's anger been directed towards her, it was a bit startling.
Shizuru took in a long breath, "I will not leave."
Reito let out a irritated breath, "What do you have to stay for?" He asked quietly.
"You! My country! My children! My people! My-" Shizuru ranted, her list might have taken all night long had Reito not cut her off.
"Country? The one that you failed? Your children? Who must suffer because of your failure? Your people? The ones that hate you?" Reito went on, his face became disgusted as he finished, "Me? Why are you staying for me? I do not love you. So why not go back to your own country?"
Shizuru looked taken aback, her eyes became watery, "But you-" She started, but was cut off again by the King's shout.
"But I? But I said I did love you? HA!" He laughed. "You can not be so naïve to think that I didn't have women other besides you?"
Tears sprung to her eyes, her eyebrows creased, "How could you! You said you wouldn't ! You said I was the only one! You said that-" She screamed, more than likely causing alarm outside their room.
"I said? No, I lied." He replied calmly.
"I hate you! I hate you!" The Queen yelled, tears freely flowing down her face.
Reito smiled.
The woman ran to her jewelery box, grabbed a few meaningful items and rushed to the door, as she opened it, she screamed once more, "I hate you!" Just for good measure, in case he hadn't heard her the first time then slammed the door and no doubt ordered a maid for her things and her children.
When he was sure she was gone, Reito sat down at his desk. He pulled out his journal and began writing, once he was done with that, he ripped out a page and wrote a separate message. He folded it and put his seal on it.
The King stood up, gingerly grabbing his journal and placed it inside a secret compartment that only himself and the builders of the palace knew about. Once he was sure everything was secure, he sent for his most loyal servant.
Once the servant was in the room, Reito gave him the folded up piece of paper, "Take this to the Queen on the day that I shall be excuted." He ordered calmly.
The servant gasped, "Ex-"
Reito hushed him, "Go." And with that, the man scurried off.
He let out a shaky breath and then sat down at his desk, awaiting his final moment.
Dear Journal,
This shall be my final entry, I am going to die. But I will die alone, I have sent my wife away. I did so in a way that she will not feel any loss when I am gone. I told her lies, I have told her I did not love her. I want her to leave from this with our children and start over. It hurt me to see her so upset, to see her cry because of me. I feel as if my heart is being ripped at, bit by bit. It is painful. However, it is for the best. She will hurt for a while, but she will get over me. Of this, I hope. What I did, the things I said to her, it was wrong, and if we meet in our next lives, I will be punished for it, of this I am sure.
As I sit here, I tremble. I tremble with fear. Not of my people, or what they will do to me, no. Of death, of where I will go after the guillotine severs my head from the rest of my body. This alone is enough to give me chills. Death. It is a fearful thing, indeed. I hope I shall go to a nice place…Actually, I simply hope I go somewhere. I would not like to cease to exist completely. I hope I can look over my love for the rest of her life, to keep her safe under my watchful eye.
Thinking about her hurts my heart. To think she may be in the arms of another man once I am gone. My children will be raised by this man. This…However, it is for the best….
"Now, dear journal, I must go. I must write a separate letter to my Queen to tell her, to maybe comfort her slightly, saying that I did not mean a word I said and to move on with another." Reito read off his history book, "Goodbye."
He sat down after his reading was complete and the teacher clap her hands together. "That was the last letter of the last King of France. What we get from this is…" The teacher kept talking, but her words started to fall deaf to Reito's ears.
The young man feigned paying attention, while in truth, his thoughts were occupied elsewhere.
The reading, it made him a bit emotional. He felt like he should be crying, but of course, how would it look if he began crying in the middle of class? It would ruin his reputation.
So wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't even hear the bell ring, signalling the end of class. It was only when a hand came in contact with his shoulder did he realize what was going on.
When he came out of his thoughts, a young woman was leaning over, hand on his shoulder and peering at him in curiosity.
"Reito, you can't be slacking off, we only have two weeks to graduate and this Student Council business is going to be busy." The woman lectured in a sweet accent.
Reito, enjoying the small, familiar distance between them, did not move, he simply crossed his arms, "Oh? And here I thought I could get you to take over all my work."
The woman laughed, "No, you'll have to get Haruka on that one."
He laughed with her and stood up, seeing that the rest of the class had already left. After the laughter subsided, "About that letter thing I read…" He brought up after a moment of silence.
"Did that make you sad too?" She asked.
He looked at her, almost surprised by her reply, "Y-Yeah…I felt like…" He stuttered, not a common occurrence.
"Crying?" She finished.
Reito nodded.
"Me too! Strange, isn't it?" The brunette girl told him. "I think we should stop watching romance movies for awhile." She joked.
Reito let out a pathetic chuckle, "Yeah…"
"Oi! Shizuru, c'mon! I don't have all day!" A gruff voice shouted from the doorway.
The girl turned around to see her addresser, "Coming, Natsuki!" She replied in a sing-songy voice. As she grabbed her bag and walked towards the other girl in the doorway, she stopped mid-way and addressed Reito, "Don't forget, we have a meeting for Student Council tomorrow right after lunch!" She informed.
He rolled his eyes and mockingly bowed, "Yes, Miss President."
She smirked, "I'll see you tomorrow, Mister Vice-President." With that she went back on her way.
Reito watched as the two girls exchanged greetings with a hug and then a light tease to make the younger girl turn red. He watched sadly, picking up on one or two words, but nothing considerably important. And then…they walked off.
He watched their retreating figures until he could see them no more.
He stood in the dim, lonely classroom alone.
Only one thought, one phrase, would come to his mind.
"….and if we meet in our next lives, I will be punished for it…of this… I am sure."
See, that's the reason Reito and Shizuru aren't together in the show. I've found the explaination, no need to thank me, just review.
But as a side note, for those of you who didn't get my refrence, I gave Shizuru and Reito the roles of Marie Antoinette and her King, Louis (I forget the number, 16th? Idk) Marie Antoinette's King was the only French King with no mistresses. Of course, in the end, history didn't happen quite like that, but for my purposes, I changed it, but it's based on them. Haha, Good times.