Disclaimer: Do not own Tsubasa; do own the plotline of this story

This is just an idea I couldn't get out of my head. It's a fairytale… sort of… All Tsubasa characters will make an appearance at some point. This is the setting up chapter, the more exciting stuff ill come later.

FYI: Fai is the Fai we all know and love from the show and the manga, Yuui is the real fai, just because I found it difficult to write Yuui instead of Fai for the main character.

The Epic Fairytale

bml hillen-keene

In the Kingdom of Celes there stood a great city called Valeria, a city made of tall buildings and sweeping roofs that gathered around the tallest of all the buildings in the city, the Palace, where the King and Queen of Valeria were joyously awaiting the coming of a child. Everyone in the Palace, the city and indeed the entire Kingdom awaited the birth of the child who would continue the royal line, the child that would go on to be the next King, or Queen of Celes.

They did not have long to wait.

Soon the echoes f a newborns cries could be heard across the city, and the people rejoiced, their cheers so loud, and their music so cheerful that none heard the lone cry of a second child; none in the streets could see the fear in the faces of the King and Queen as they beheld a second child; born mere minutes after the first.

In the Kingdom of Celes it was considered to be bad luck to have twins at the Queen's first birthing, because as the firstborn children they could both lay claim to the throne when their parents passed, and throughout history twins had nearly torn the entire land to ruin fighting for the crown. However, the royal family could not keep the birth of the second child to themselves and they could not bring themselves to kill it as many rulers had done before them. Instead, they chose to bare the stigma of having firstborn twins.

The Advisors were unhappy with this decision, but could not go against the Kings final words.

For eight years the twin princes grew up together in the Palace, unaware of the strain they cause the rest of the Kingdom, who were awaiting the day the two began to argue over who would be ruler. They were delightful children, and often could be found playing in the gardens, or hatching great elaborate plans to escape their lessons, they were completely identical, which meant no one could tell which was the elder twin and which was the younger. They enjoyed using their looks to confuse others, and would often play tricks on their parents or on the staff and advisors.

However, one of the advisors, Ashura, had watched the two closely all their lives, and had come up with a plan to save the Kingdom the inevitable war that would come. He decided that in order to save the Kingdom one of the twins must be disposed of. Not killed, as that would be going against the King's decree, but removed from the Palace, and perhaps even the Kingdom. This way should something happen to the twin who remained he could always be returned and the Royal line could continue.

He watched them closely, and finally he chose the twin called Fai, who appeared to be much more of a dreamer and an airhead than his twin was; it was only coincidence that Fai was actually the second twin. Yuui was by far the better choice for King, much more practical and given to quiet, deep thought; he would grow up to be a much calmer and wiser ruler than the energetic Fai. He waited patiently until he could catch Fai playing alone before he approached him.

"Prince Fai."

Fai, who had been playing a quiet game involving a princess doll and a dragon, with many whooshing sound effects and girlish cries looked up, surprised. Usually Advisor Ashura did not speak to him or his brother. "How did you know I was Fai?" he asked, always curios to know how people told them apart.

"A secret your highness." Ashura told him with a kind smile, hiding his true motivations.

"A secret!" Fai grinned, his blue eyes sparkling. "Please tell me! I promise not to tell anyone else!"

"Not even Prince Yuui?" Ashura asked, pretending to consider it.

Fai nodded. "Even Yuui! Please!"

After a long time Ashura nodded, reaching down a hand to help Fai to his feet. "All right Prince Fai, I shall tell you, but I cannot tell you here, too many people might hear me. So will you come to me to a secret place?"

Fai took Ashura's hand unhesitatingly, grinning, thinking that this would be a great thing to tease Yuui with. Ashura lead him to one of the unused rooms of the Palace, where he whispered a strong sleeping spell that made Fai very tired. When Fai was fully asleep Ashura laid him on the floor and wrapping him in some old cloth and left him there so he could complete his duties.

That evening, as it was growing dark, and Prince Yuui was telling his parents that he could not find Fai anywhere, Ashura slipped from the Palace and the city and gave Prince Fai to a shadowy stranger who carried Prince Fai far away from the city of Valeria, past the borders of the Kingdom of Celes and into the Demon Forest, where he was placed into a room at the very top of a tall tower, a room with a door that could be opened by none save the serving girl who would care for the Prince in his captivity.

When Fai woke in this strange room with no way out, he was understandably and naturally terrified. He cried at first, then grew angry and broke some of the things in the room. He would sit by the window for days watching hopefully to see his father and mother arrive to take him home, but no one ever came, and as days turned to months and months bled into years, Fai began to lose hope.

The serving girl, Chi, was very nice to him, but she never stayed long, so Fai grew to be very lonely in his tower. He began to make up stories about princesses trapped in towers, and the brave knights who would come to rescue them. He would tell these stories aloud to himself, making up wild adventures involving witches and curses, magic swords and dragons; but even these stories could not make him feel any less alone.

The demons of the forest ignored the tower, walking around it as if they did not hear Fai's greetings, as did the few knights who passed by. Not once did any of them look up to see Fai leaning out the small window, waving and calling to them, hoping that one of them would notice him and help him get out so he could return home, but none did.

They probably had their own princess's to think about. After all, what noble knight would stop to save a Prince from his lonely tower when the beautiful princess he would marry would be waiting for him elsewhere? Though he could understand this, after all, even in his own stories, the knight searched for his princess and saved her, and after so very long waiting, he did not think there would be anyone coming to find him.

He often tried to draw Chi into staying for longer, but the girl would quickly make her excuses and leave him, though there was always a sad look in her eye as she did, as if she did not like to leave him by himself so often. He was by no means left with nothing to do, Chi often brought him a book every week, most of them were books on politics, courtly behaviour and other things he thought his brother must be learning from the Palace tutors. There were however a rare few that were story books, telling of great deeds, which fuelled his daydreams.

He would imagine himself to be a great swordfighter, perhaps a pirate, or a powerful mage. He would imagine himself as such because if he did not then he would begin to think of his home and his family, of all the things that could be happening there; and if he began to think about those things the pain in his heart would grow, and the hurt would stay with him forever, and he did not want to start hating his family.

However, he was resigned to remaining in the tower, he had tried many different ways to escape, slipping out the door when Chi came to bring him his food, but the stairs seemed to wind on forever and no matter how many he walked down the door to his little tower room was right behind him. He had tried climbing out the window, but a great force would grasp his hand or foot and pull him back into the room. He had tried to break through the roof by climbing upon piles of furniture, but the roof just seemed to get higher and higher until he could not reach.

He was well and truly trapped, more like the princesses in his stories than the noble saviour. He could only gaze out the window and daydream, or watch the knights pass below his prison, his heart growing heavier everyday that one did not come for him.

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