Disclaimer: Oh, yeah, I'm reaaally Holly Black. -rolls eyes-
Kaye was scared.
Now, generally, this was not a very rare occurrence; although she prided herself on being brave, how many times during the past week or so had she been faced with something terrifying? No, this was a completely alien feeling.
It had started just after Roiben had seized the throne. That first day had been everything the pixie had dreamed of. She had sat beside Roiben on his birch throne, chattering happily to keep him company. The casualness as he had brushed her hand with his, a small smile alight on his face.
But now, sitting in her too-small room, the garish pink comforter draped around her shoulders, she began to worry. What if he soon realizes that there's someone better out there for him than me? Thoughts plagued her mind, sending her into a fit of insomnia. She sat perfectly awake, catlike eyes wide in the dark as self-doubt continued to attack at her confidence, her happiness, sending it to shreds.
After all, Kaye knew that compared to her, there were prettier and lovelier girls in the Unseelie Court. She had realized that from her first encounter under the hill, new charcoal black eyes scanning the room with unaccustomed sharpness.
Curled up in her childhood bed, she finally let her glamour fall like water off of her, exposing soft green skin and ears that forked through her hair. Her wings beat once before settling against her back. Being in her true form, glamour gone, made her more comfortable, although her condition was still far from pleasant.
She wrapped her arms around her legs, resting one cheek against the stability of her knees. This wasn't at all like her, and the new actions rather frightened Kaye; since when did she allow herself to become so negative?
With a new resolution in mind, she made to climb out her window, only to fall back in surprise as a figure emerged from the windowsill, back hunched over to fit through the narrow space. When he straightened, she stifled a soft intake of breath.
Roiben stood straight, his back cracking slightly as his pewter hair fell back into place around his face and shoulders. His silver gaze found hers in the darkness, and this was all Kaye needed to walk up to him and hug him tightly around the waist, feeling his ribs softly through the thin cotton of the shirt he had glamoured on.
His arms readily embraced her shoulders, his long fingers winding through her hair with a strange sense of familiarity. A content smile played across his lips as he looked down at her. "Have you something to say?"
She nodded once. "Actually, yeah, I do. And I'd better say it now before I lose my nerve." Standing on tiptoe, she kissed him once, softly, before murmuring in a soft-as-ash voice, "Roiben, even if you don't feel the same, even if there are tons of prettier and nicer and better girls out there than me…" She took one soft, deep breath. "Rath Roiben Rye, I love you."
His face was a mirror of ecstatic shock as his face slowly broke out into an almost idiotic grin (if it were at all possible for Roiben to look idiotic in any sense) and he replied in a pleasant, low-pitched voice, "I am not sure where you got the notion that I may leave you, but wherever you got it from does not change anything; I love you as well."
It took a moment for his words to sink in before Kaye's expression became identical, a giddy happiness clearing the doubt and apprehension that had clouded it just moments before. With a wide smile on her face, she hugged him tightly. Talking into his chest, muffling her voice, she asked, "So I'm good enough for you?"
He looked down at her. "I could never picture anyone better."
-Fin.-
Gah. This was… unexpected, to say the least. Came out of nowhere, I suppose…
Review, be nice, please?