Straw Into Gold

Disclaimer: Don't own Skip Beat as much as I'd love to own Ren/Kuon.

Once upon a time...

There was a handsome, powerful, kind, intelligent..

Enough they have the idea!

...and charismatic fairy king and queen. The magical royal couple was respected and loved by all their subjects and allies. Even their enemies feared their power too much to act against them, so their kingdom was prosperous and peaceful. All the couple lacked was an heir to complete their happiness. But because the couple was so blessed not many years into their marriage the beautiful living jewel of a queen gave birth to a smart, humble, cute, masculine, warmhearted, athletic, beautiful...

He was a baby...how could you tell he was any of those things other than maybe cute or beautiful yet?

...baby boy. The kingdom was ecstatic and welcomed their new crown prince with celebrations and luxurious gifts. The prince grew quickly, but while he was a sweet and happy child as he grew his gentle smile gradually faded. Unknowingly the beautiful king and queen became the cause of their son's unhappiness. They were busy ruling their country and did not notice the oppression the prince fell under. They loved him from the bottom of their hearts and believed they were making him happy not knowing that being their son was causing his unhappiness. The young prince labored under the unrealistic expectations of the kingdom until he was no longer able to move...

"Such a disappointment..."

"He may be beautiful like his mother but he's so weak unlike his father."

"He can't even fly properly..."

"His parents are so powerful...how can their son be so weak?"

"The kingdom will be in trouble if someone like him inherits the throne."

The malicious whispers of the court beat around the flaxen-haired boy as he tried to ignore them and walk through the hallways after having again failed to meet the expectations of his tutors. He was never good enough. He never had enough control of his magic, he was never able to disarm his fencing instructors, and could not answer his political tutors fast enough.

Kuon Hizuri was not fit to be the son of the awe-inspiring King and Queen of the fairies, Kuu and Juliena Hizuri. His parents loved him, of that he had little doubt, but they were too busy to tend to him themselves so he was shuffled around to various tutors. Kuon tried hard to live up to the court's expectations of him, but no matter how hard he tried he always seemed to fail. He wanted his parents to be proud of him. He wanted to be worthy of being their only son. Because the fae were long-lived they tended to not reproduce often. Kuon was his parents' only child and the heir to the throne. The future of the kingdom rested on his shoulders and when he failed to perform the whispers and dark looks swept through the court.

His parents tried to reassure him that he was still young and the expectations that were put upon him were unrealistic. His father and mother had hundreds of years to grow into their power and skills and he was remarkably talented for being no more than ten-years-old. As much as Kuon wanted to believe his parents he knew they were perhaps too doting of him and he could not trust their words as being truth rather than just the words of overly-loving parents. He loved his parents but he knew their love of him could blind them to the truth. He was a disappointment.

Disappointment or not Kuon had enough pride to not let the vultures of the fairy court see how their words hurt him. He walked through the corridors with swift but determined strides with his head held high and his shoulders arrogantly thrown back. His challenging stance irked several older boys from the various noble families that were sick of all the attention the crown prince received due purely to his elevated station. They surreptitiously followed him as he left the castle with plans to ambush the boy.

Despite what he and the court thought of him and his abilities Kuon was talented, smart, observant, fast and strong for his age. His parents were correct that too much was expected from someone of his young age. Kuon noticed the group of boys following him and he knew exactly what they wanted with him. As soon as he got out of the palace he took off running, crossing meadows and into a set of woods, nimbly jumping over obstacles like tree roots and dodging around bushes and trees. He easily left his pursuers behind. Panting with exhaustion he looked around to see where he was and noticed he managed to find his way near one of the shifting borders between the fairy world and the human world. The hazy wavering air looked like seeing a landscape reflected upon water marked the border just as well as the tingling of the magic in the atmosphere.

Looking up to mark the position of the sun Kuon noticed that it was still only mid-morning, there was still plenty of time before dusk when the border between the two realms would close. Kuon knew that if he missed his lessons he would be scolded for it but he was tired of the stifling atmosphere of the court and the thought of crossing over to explore the human world a bit appealed to the young prince. With a grin of excitement me concentrated on stepping over the border. It was harder than he expected to walk past the enchantments that kept people from accidentally wandering between the two worlds too easily. It felt like he was walking through a thick viscous mud but once he managed to push through he found himself in a set of woods similar to the ones he just left but the thrum of magic that was constantly in the air of fairy was conspicuously absent.

He wandered aimlessly through the woods for a while enjoying the silence of the woods that was only ever interrupted by the occasional call of a bird or the rustling of some small creature making its way through the underbrush. After about an hour Kuon found himself in a pretty sunlit clearing. A clear stream ran through the middle of it and smooth white rocks lined either side of it. The stream appeared to be fairly shallow. Grinning to himself he rushed to the water and stripped down to his undergarments and wadded into the water. It was refreshing and cool and he found it came up to about the middle of his chest at its deepest. He allowed himself to swim around in it for a while until he got tired of the activity. He found a large flat rock in the middle of the stream and laid on it, blissfully closing his eyes and enjoying the silence.

The young fairy prince drifted off to sleep laying on the rock. It was a while later that he heard some loud thrashing and noises that sounded like a child crying coming from the bushes towards one side of the clearing. Quickly finding his clothes and putting them on, he proceeded to cautiously walk towards the noises. He finally saw her crouched in the shadow of a large oak tree. It was a little black haired girl, no more than five or six years old, curled upon herself and crying like her world was ending. Her clothes were slightly dirty presumably from running through the woods.

Being a kindhearted boy Kuon could not stand to see the child crying so painfully and do nothing. He walked closer to her and frowned when he noticed dark bruises scattered along pale skin of the girl's arms. Those bruises looked like they weren't from bumping into things or from any innocuous accidents but rather from an adult hand gripping that tiny arm too tightly and violently. He called out to the child, "What's wrong little one?"

Startled by the voice addressing her, the girl's head jerked up and Kuon's green eyes met large, innocent, startlingly golden, tear-filled eyes.

A/N: So this story has been rattling around in my head for a few months now and I'm going to try to slowly get it written out. Unfortunately for me I discovered after starting this story that Vivian Vande Velde has already written a short story with the same name and startlingly similar plot already. Maybe I read the story a long time ago and forgot. Regardless I'll continue on because after reading her story (bought it off Amazon after realizing it might be similar to my own in order to double check), I think my story will be enough different thanks to my attempts to incorporate Skip Beat into it, even if some of the plot elements will be the same. BTW I'm sure you can all guess who the narrator at the start of the story is.

Second I'd like to propose a story challenge. Like Kyoko I love fairytales, however unlike Kyoko I like it for the oftentimes dark themes and realize that a lot of the plot elements in fairytales makes no sense (like in Rumpelstiltskin, why is he a bad guy?). I also love reading fairytale retellings with Robin McKinley being one of my favorite authors. So I'd like to propose the Kyoko's Fairytale Challenge.

Rules:

1) Take a classic fairytale and adapt it for Skip Beat.

2) Because it's Kyoko's Fairytale Challenge, there must be at least one of these three: a fairy, a prince, or a princess

3) Main pairing should be Ren/Kyoko (because I really can't read any other pairing).

4) Must start with Once upon a time...or A long, long time ago...and end with happily ever after.