This fic contains shounen ai, so if the idea of
Yamato and Taichi together makes you wanna go 'bleugh!' Don't read this!
This fic is AU, I'm not sure if it's been done
before or not cos I been outta the loop… but this is my Digimon inspired adaptation
of Cinderella… Sappiness, fluffiness, cross-dressing, shounen ai, general
fairytale-ness, implied yuri and mild angst warnings! Err… and apologies to the 'evil step-siblings.' Someone had to be the bad guys! I like him,
really I do! Her… I could do without!
~
Cinder-boy ~
Once upon a time there was a man with two beautiful
sons and a beloved wife. Sadly, the
love died between his wife and him and she left him, taking the younger son
with her. The older son, Yamato, stayed
and with each passing day he grew more beautiful.
After a few years of loneliness the man finally met
someone whom he could love, and who would care for his son. His new wife was beautiful but she was
cruel. The man didn't see this and so
he married her, and adopted her two children into his family. The wife hid her cruelty from the man, but
she treated the poor motherless boy badly, forcing him to do all the work of a
servant, while her own children lazed about.
After the man unexpectedly died, things became even
worse for the poor boy. His stepmother
made him move out of his room and sleep on the hearth instead. So poor Yamato curled up at night amidst the
cinders. This made his stepsiblings'
laugh, and one of them dubbed him "Cinder-boy" and soon everyone called him
that.
~
* ~
"Cinder-boy!
Have you finished the laundry yet?"
"N-no, ma'am, I was scrubbing the hearth…"
His stepmother glared at him. "That should have been done hours ago!
You're a lazy undisciplined boy!"
"Please, ma'am, the hearth was so filthy after Cook
roasted the whole boar – "
"Silence! I will not be contradicted in my own
house!"
Once this was my house,
Yamato thought – but he didn't dare say it out loud.
Yamato tried his best to work hard and keep out of
trouble, but his stepmother and his stepbrothers were constantly picking on him
and making life difficult.
He missed his younger brother Takeru, and his
mother awfully, but he hadn't seen them in years. He probably doesn't even remember that he used to have a big
brother… he thought miserably. He
would remember the way his mother used to smile, and how Takeru used to cry all
the time. He even thought about his
dad, and how much he missed him. Why
did you leave me with her? he thought bitterly. Even
his memories were tinged by the sorrow of his present circumstances.
"Cinder-boy!"
Daisuke's voice broke through his reverie.
"Yes, Daisuke," he replied quickly. It wasn't a good idea to keep his 'brother'
waiting. He turned to see what Daisuke
wanted and realised his mistake.
Daisuke was standing there with an angry expression on his face.
"Aren't you forgetting something, Cinder-boy?" He
asked snidely as Yamato apologised.
"I'm sorry, Daisuke-sama," he said, whilst
trying his best to look repentant.
Daisuke liked to lord it over him that it was his house now and Yamato
was little more than a servant. An
unpaid servant.
"That's right, Cinder-boy! I'm your lord."
Yamato rolled his eyes. Discretely. "What would
you like me to do for you, Daisuke… sama," he asked, deliberately pausing
before the honorific.
Daisuke's eyes narrowed. "Look at you," he sneered instead of answering, "All covered in
cinders, you're hideous!" He laughed,
even as Yamato sighed. His hair, once
shining and golden was now dull and matted.
Even his skin, remarkably unmarred by adolescent acne, was grimy and
blackened. Daisuke is right… I'm
hideous!
Daisuke grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled his
face close. "Mother is taking Jun and I
to the Prince's Ball tomorrow, Cinder-boy. You can't come!" He spat
the words out, wetting Yamato's face with his saliva. Yamato flinched back, but Daisuke's grip kept him from pulling
away fully.
Daisuke seemed to find something fascinating about
his face. He stared deep into his eyes
and then suddenly, unpredictably he shoved him away. Shuddering in disgust?
He almost hated his family. He couldn't hate them though, it would give
them power over him. So he held
desperately to not hating them.
But it hurt, when Daisuke looked at him like he was something
particularly offensive, like gum on the bottom of your shoe.
"Now iron all my clothes! And do it quickly," Daisuke couldn't leave with out a parting
shot. It wasn't enough that Yamato
couldn't go to the ball; he had to prepare things so that his siblings could.
~
* ~
Yamato pressed the iron carefully over Daisuke's
shirt. He toyed with the idea of just
holding it there until the fabric singed.
It wasn't a good idea to annoy his brother. His mother would make sure I regret it… He had very
unpleasant memories of what she deemed 'suitable punishments'
He wanted to go to the Ball, he wanted to dress up
and meet people, and most of all he wanted to meet the Prince. Yamato had a dream that one day he'd meet a handsome
Prince who'd sweep him off his feet and take him away from the drudgery of his
life.
Where are you my Prince, why don't you rescue me? He even had an image of the Prince in his
mind. He'd never seen the real
Prince, because he wasn't allowed out of the house - his stepmother didn't want
the neighbours to see how poorly he was dressed and how skinny he was. The Prince in his mind was beautiful. He wasn't sure if that was the right word to
use for a boy but it fit. He was tanned
and toned and he had kind, laughing brown eyes.
~
* ~
Yamato spent all day preparing Daisuke's clothes,
then, Jun came in and demanded that he do hers as well.
"No one irons quite like you, Cinder-boy," she
said, insincerity dripping with sugary sweet sappiness from her voice. Jun scared him. Daisuke was fairly transparent with his cruelty, random acts of
violence and such. Jun however, was
sneaky. He never knew what she was
planning. Sometimes she'd be nice to
him. Too nice. Then, he'd know that she was planning
something particularly cruel.
"Are you coming to the Ball with us, Cinder-boy?"
she asked. Her tone was one of pleasant
inquiry, but there was a malicious glint in her eye that unnerved him.
"No," he replied shortly. It was a calculated insult, Daisuke would have beaten him for it,
but Jun was unpredictable. It gave him
power over her when he made her act irrationally.
"I guess not," she answered herself, "after all
look at yourself, the Prince would be disgusted if something like you
turned up at his Ball."
The insult shouldn't hurt him. He knew that he wasn't much to look at - his
'family' told him that often, and the mirror didn't say any different – but the
thought of the Prince, his Prince, looking at him like Daisuke had
earlier upset him.
He finished the ironing in silence. Ignoring the jibes - Daisuke's physical ones
and Jun's verbal ones. The temptation
to just hold the iron there until the material began to singe was almost
overwhelming. If I can't go to the
Ball why should they? Instinct kept
the long sweeping strokes continuing for in his mind the shirt, the board, the
house and himself were burning… burning.
~
* ~
Yamato sat in the dusty cellar and wept. His back ached from the beating his
stepmother had given to his for "working deliberately slowly, so that Jun and
Daisuke would be late." That wasn't
what he was crying about though. The
image of a handsome Prince rescuing him had been shattered into thousands of
pieces… and with it went his hope.
"Why're you crying?" a voice asked.
Yamato looked up in shock, almost shouting in his
surprise. A little old man was floating
in the air in front of him. The old man
had beautiful shimmery wings and was wearing a pink tutu.
"Who are you?" Yamato asked more interested in the strange
old man then his own problems. The old
man grinned, and for the first time Yamato noticed that his bulbous eyelids
completely obscured his eyes. How
can he even see me? he wondered.
"I'm your fairy godfather," the old man said
self-importantly, "my name is Gennai."
"Fairy godfather…?" Yamato repeated sceptically,
even his dreams didn't included cross-dressing old fairy godfathers.
"Yes," Gennai confirmed, "I've come to make sure
you get to the Ball." Yamato felt one
brief moment of elation before reality came crashing down.
"I have no clothes," he protested, "and besides,
the Prince wouldn't want someone like me at his Ball." Gennai looked puzzled.
"What do you mean, Yamato?" he asked. Reluctant to state the obvious Yamato
gestured towards his face. Gennai
looked at him in bewilderment, taking in the appealing cornflower blue eyes,
the grubby but still very attractive face and the matted gold hair. "What?"
Yamato looked at him as if he were an idiot. "I'm hideous!" he almost shouted. Gennai looked taken aback. "No you're not," he assured him, "you're
dirty… but you're not ugly."
He waved his hand and a washbasin appeared, a
charming wee mirror lay next to it and the basin itself was full of sweet
smelling water.
"Go ahead, wash," he said, waving Yamato toward the
basin. Yamato stood there for a second,
unsure what to do. The cinders that had
gained him his hateful nickname were also his protective shield, no one could
see how ugly he truly was.
"Wash, Yamato," his fairly godfather had a fairly
commanding voice when he wanted to, and Yamato was used to following orders, so
he found himself dunking his head under the water and scrubbing his face and
hair.
Finally he felt clean enough to face his
reflection. Fully prepared to see a
visage of Quasimodo proportions, Yamato was pleasantly surprised to come face
to face with a cute guy. A really
cute guy. He took his time getting to
know the contours of his face. "I'm not
ugly," he said finally, not wanting to appear immodest. Gennai laughed
"You're a good deal better than 'not ugly,'" he
said, "now we have to find you something to wear." Yamato was only half listening; he was still busy drinking in his
reflection. I'm not hideous!
he thought exultantly.
Suddenly the secure, familiar feeling of his
rags disappeared. "Waah!" he squawked,
the shock was sufficient to tear his gaze away from his reflection. He wasn't wearing rags anymore; he was
wearing a very pink, very frilly, very puffy dress.
"Gennai?"
he thought his tone was fairly calm considering the circumstances. "Why
am I wearing… this?" No words could
adequately describe the monstrosity that he was encased in. The old man had the decency to blush, but
his grin was more amused than sheepish.
"Sorry, son," he said, not very regretfully, "I'm a
wee bit outta practice. Normally it's
girls who want to go to the ball."
Yamato thought over this for a minute, and then decided he didn't really
care. "Can you please fix it?" he asked
politely. He was unaccustomed to making
requests, nowadays he took what was given to him – asking was not a permissible
pastime for 'Cinder-boy.'
Gennai's face took upon a look of extreme
concentration, sparks began to flare over his head and smoke started to pour
out of his ears. He waved his hand and
again Yamato felt that uncomfortable feeling of being in something new and
unfamiliar. He looked down. The pink was gone, the frills were gone; he
was now wearing a very simple, very elegant black… dress.
"Best I can do.
Now, for transportation…" Gennai seemed ready to completely skim over
the fact the Yamato was dressed like a girl… like Jun! I'd rather be dressed like Daisuke than
her, he thought.
"Excuse me, but I can't go like this," he
said. Gennai looked resigned. "I'll deal with it later," he said and waved
his hand. In a flash of smoke and
sparks and other magical substances a swan-shaped boat, a weird looking dog and
a pair of large shoes appeared.
The dog shook itself and glanced around. "Yamato?" it asked. Yamato blinked. Did that dog… thing just talk? "Um…" he stuttered, he didn't want to answer in case he had
imagined the thing talking but he didn't want to appear rude.
"I'm your friend, my name's Gabumon," the thing
said. It obviously wasn't a dog he
could see that now, it had a horn and it was blue. Gennai smiled down at them, "Gabumon is your Digimon," he said,
explaining nothing.
Yamato sat down.
"…Digimon?" he asked. He had
heard the legends when he was little, tales of mystical, magical protectors…
children's tales. Gennai nodded, "Yes,
he's your Digimon." he confirmed the madness.
Gennai glanced at his wrist and then picked up the
oversized shoes. "Yamato! The Ball will be over before you get
there!" he shouted, throwing the shoes
in Yamato's direction.
Yamato pulled the shoes on in a daze. Perfect fit, he thought. He did have feet that were a trifle large,
and since his stepmother wouldn't buy him new clothes it had been years
since he'd had shoes that actually fit him.
"All aboard!" Gennai called, indicating that they
should hop into the swan-boat. Gabumon
jumped in right away, Yamato followed more slowly. He was scared that the Prince of reality wouldn't match the
Prince of his dreams. And there was something else… I'm still wearing a dress!
"Gen-!" Before his exclamation could fully emerge
Gennai was waving his hand, reality was blurring and, abruptly, he was outside
the Prince's palace.
~
* ~
"I can't get out."
Yamato wasn't budging. Gabumon
sighed, "It's a very pretty dress," he
reassured Yamato, who simply glared at him.
"I wasn't really going to make you," a disembodied
voice claimed. Then with an all to
familiar feeling Yamato was wearing a green… suit. He looked at it for a couple of seconds, and then shrugged. A suit, even a green suit, is better than
a dress, he thought.
"Thanks, Gennai," he said, "Now, let's go to the
Ball!" Without waiting for an answer he
jumped out of the boat and began to run up the stairs. "You gotta leave by midnight!" Gennai's
voice halted him in his tracks.
"Midnight? But-!" he began to protest. "I'm only on a restricted fairy godfather
license," Gennai admitted, "I'm not allowed to do magic after midnight."
"So?"
Yamato didn't see the connection.
"So, if you're not outta there by midnight than you will end up back in
your rags with no transport home!"
"Oh." Yamato really didn't want any Prince seeing
him in his rags, and since he hadn't been out of the house in years he
had not idea how to get home. "You can
keep the shoes," Gennai assured him, "they wouldn't fit anyone else."
"OK, I'll be back here before midnight," he said,
then returned to running up the stairs.
"Aren't you forgetting something?"
Gennai's voice stopped him, again.
Yamato glanced around. "Nope."
Gabumon coughed pointedly. "He's referring to me," he said. Yamato looked confused, "What am I meant to
do with you?" he asked. Gennai's voice
answered him, "He's your friend, your protector, your Digimon."
"I'm coming with you!" Gabumon explained. "Whatever."
Yamato was at the Ball; he didn't care if a weird dog-thing came with
him.
~
* ~
He stood outside the room, just looking in. Now he was here, watching couples dance,
seeing finely dressed men and women interact, he wasn't ure if he could go
through with it. I don't know how to
dance… For some reason this loomed in his mind as the greatest
problem. But before he had time to
freak out any more he felt a shove against his lower back and he was inside.
"Gabumon!" he shouted, and then realised that
everyone was looking at him. He
blushed, this was not the best of entrances.
"Hello," a familiar sickly sweet voice was greeting
him. Jun! "H-Hello…" he stuttered with fright, silently
praying that somehow she wouldn't recognize him. Around him people were returning to the conversations that he'd
interrupted. It had only been those
directly in front of the door who'd noticed him, he realised with relief.
An arm slipped through his own and Jun's happy face
was smiling up at him with predatory interest.
"I'm Jun!" she exclaimed happily, "What's your name?" Yamato looked at her in shock, She
doesn't recognize me?
"Uh… Takeru?" he answered using the first name he
thought of. Jun looked puzzled for a
second, wondering where she'd heard it before.
"Let's dance!" she said, losing interest in the name's familiarity.
Yamato looked panicked. "Uh… um…" I can't say 'no'… that'd be a major insult but I
can't dance… and I don't want to dance with her! Jun was looking at him expectantly, waiting for his
acquiescence. He searched desperately
for an escape, his stepsister – who hated him – was hitting on him!
"Jun, who's this?" Yamato could almost have kissed
his saviour… if it hadn't been Daisuke.
Now both his stepsiblings were looking at him. "I'm Takeru," he said, repeating his lie.
"We're going to dance," Jun said, pulling on his
arm. Daisuke looked disappointed,
"Can't you stay awhile?" he purred, looking at Yamato through half-lidded
eyes. Aaagh! How do I get out of
this… with my virtue intact?
"I have to find my… friend," he said, looking
desperately for Gabumon. He's
supposed to protect me! As if on
cue the Digimon appeared. Jun screamed,
"Takeru! There's a monster!"
Even Daisuke went a little pale, and hid behind
Yamato.
Yamato extracted his arm from Jun's and walked
forward, "Thankyou," he mouthed. "This
is my friend Gabumon," he said, indicating the blue wolf thing to his siblings.
Then, before they ha time to get over the shock, he
walked off. Gabumon trailed behind, a
wolfish grin on his furry face. Next
stop: the Prince. Yamato wandered
the great hall, desperately looking for someone Prince-like, whilst doing his
best to avoid Jun and Daisuke.
Gradually he made his way over to the most crowded
corner of the room. Everybody else
must want to meet the Prince too, he thought. Suddenly someone tapped him on his shoulder, he spun around,
expecting to see Daisuke or Jun, instead he was looking into a pair of dancing
brown eyes.
"Hello, I'm Taichi," the stranger said cheerfully,
offering his hand. Yamato shook it in a
daze, those eyes… they belong to my dream-Prince. He was so surprised to meet his dream-prince
– in the flesh – that he didn't hear him speaking.
"Pardon?" he asked, when he finally realised he was
being spoken to, Taichi laughed, "I asked if you wanted to dance," he
said. Yamato blushed, he had noticed as
he was searching the dance floor that men didn't dance with men, so it was
rather odd that this stranger was asking him to. He shrugged inwardly, he was never going to meet any of these
people again so it didn't matter what they thought of him but…
"I don't know how," he blurted out. Taichi laughed happily, "Neither do I," he
confessed, "But we could always shuffle along in front of each other and
pretend to dance."
Taichi's good-humour was infectious, so Yamato
found himself agreeing. The odd couple
attracted many stares as they shambled around the dance floor, but they were
too wrapped up in each other to even notice.
"You didn't tell me your name," Taichi pointed
out. Yamato nodded, "Sorry," he said,
"People call me… Tak-Yamato." For some
reason he felt he could trust this stranger with his real name. "Takyamato?" Taichi asked. Yamato shook his head, "Just Yamato."
Although the pair talked easily there were many
evasive glances and hesitant pauses that revealed they were both hiding
things. But conversation flowed and
before Yamato realised it the clock was striking midnight.
"Aaagh!" he cried in shock and disappointment, "I
have to go now." He fled without even
saying goodbye, but in his hurry he didn't notice his shoelace coming
undone. "Gabumon?!" he called as he
ran, "We're leaving!" Then he was
outside and fleeing down the stairs.
Unfortunately (or fortunately as the case maybe) in his frantic race
against time one of his over-sized shoes fell off, and it was only through
Gabumon's efforts that he even made it into the boat.
"Wait!" Taichi yelled, but already Yamato, Gabumon
and the Swan boat were gone.
~
* ~
Prince Taichi sat forlornly on his throne. He was bored, through and through. His father had already had a go at him for
'making an unseemly scene' at the Ball, and his mother had sat right through it
and shook her head sadly. Why does
it matter to them anyway? It's not like
I asked to be Prince… and Hakari can carry on the family line so they don't
need me to reproduce. Although the
Ball was meant to be for him, his father had been trying to use it to find a
suitable daughter-in-law, something Taichi wasn't keen on.
"I have to find him," he said, not realising that
he spoke aloud. "Find who?" The voice surprised him, but he didn't let
that show. "Hakari," he said, "What are
you doing here?" He loved his little
sister, but it was odd to see her up and about this early. She had been sick recently and needed her
rest.
"Takeru wants to go fishing," she explained, "Who
do you want to find?" Taichi smiled at
his younger sister, he was glad she was feeling well enough to go outside and
he knew that Takeru – a friend from childhood – would take care of her. "A man I met last night," he explained,
Hakari accepted him for who he was. She
nodded, "The guy in the green suit."
Taichi wasn't really surprised, she had always been
very observant. "Yamato," he
confirmed. Hakari looked thoughtful,
"Takeru has an older brother called Yamato," she said, "he told me about him
once, one of his earliest memories is of his brother taking care of him when he
was hurt."
Taichi smiled, "Perhaps Takeru's brother and my…
friend are the same person," he suggested.
Hakari smiled in response, "That would be just perfect."
~
* ~
Yamato could almost have cried in frustration, he
ha been sitting through hours of Jun arguing with Daisuke over 'who
Takeru liked best.' He wanted some
privacy to think over his meeting with Taichi, to remember the feel of his
skin, the smile in his eyes. He found
himself wishing that he'd been more honest with his dream-Prince, that they hadn't
discussed such trivial things. It
didn't help that he'd been forced to lock Gabumon in the basement. For some reason Gennai had left the blue
Digimon. Gabumon said it was because
they were meant to stay together and protect each other.
"I have to clean the basement," he said suddenly,
if he ha to listen to another minute of their bickering he'd go crazy! Jun nodded, "Do a good job!" she
ordered. "I danced with Princess Hakari
anyway," Daisuke said, ignoring Yamato, "She likes me, and if I marry her I'll
be a Prince."
Yamato breathed a sigh of relief as he escaped
them, now he could visit Gabumon. He
found himself liking the creature more and more. Gabumon had known exactly what to say last night, Gabumon
understood him.
A knock at the door sent him scurrying to the
basement even quicker; he wasn't allowed to let visitors see him. "Gabumon?" he called and was answered
instantly by a blue form glomping him.
"Heya!" he said cheerfully, honestly glad to see his new friend. Gabumon mumble an equally happy greeting but
then indicated he should be silent.
"The
Prince has requested that everyone in the land try to fit this shoe, he has
declared that he will marry the person who fits it."
Yamato started in surprise. I left my shoe on the stairs outside the
Palace he thought. Surely it
can't be my shoe…? Gabumon smiled
at him, "Go try it on," he whispered.
Yamato crept to the top of the stairs, he didn't
want his family to see him and get angry.
He peeked around the corner and saw Jun placing her shoe inside his
large blue sneaker. It is my shoe!
"Perfect fit!" Jun declared, but she tripped over
when she tried to take a step. "My
turn!" Daisuke shouted, ripping the shoe from her foot, but he too fell flat on
his face.
"Is there anyone else in this house?" The bored
looking messenger asked. Hi stepmother
shook her head. "No, there's just us
and Cinder-boy." The messenger
instantly looked alert.
"Cinder-boy?" he asked, "Where's he?" Jun looked taken aback, "Cinder-boy is just
a servant! He won't fit the shoe!" she
claimed, but the messenger look adamant, "Everyone must try on the shoe," he
said firmly.
Yamato slipped into the room, "Here I am," he said,
ignoring the glares his presence received.
He didn't want to marry the strange Prince he'd never met, but anything
was better than what he had now.
Much to the disgust of his family the shoe slipped
onto his foot easily, and he was able to work around with the greatest of
ease. The messenger looked shocked,
"What is your name?" he asked. Yamato
smiled, "I am Ishida Yamato," he said proudly.
The messenger smiled and bowed, "Congratulations, you will marry the
Prince."
~
* ~
Gabumon and Yamato were escorted to the Palace in a
horse-drawn carriage, it all happened so quickly that he didn't even have time
to be nervous. He had a vague vision of
Jun screeching, and of people waving as he drove past, then, he was back at the
Palace. This time the Ballroom was
bare, he was led through endless hallways until he reached a giant oak
door. His escort stopped, and indicate
he should do the same.
"His highness' betrothed, Ishida Yamato," the
herald announced loudly. Then he was
pushed through the doors. He was
standing in a huge room, the walls were hung with flags and a red carpet
stretched to the throne. Yamato finally
glanced up at the throne, prepared to see his future husband for the first
time. Instead, he saw the familiar and
welcome face of Taichi.
"Y-You're the Prince?" he asked, in complete breach
of Palace protocol, but Taichi was smiling at him and nodding. "Welcome to my Palace, Yamato" he said.
~
THE END ~
That's the end? But what happened?
Well, Yamato's family were extremely (albeit
insincerely) sorry, and of course Yamato was magnanimous enough to forgive
them.
Taichi's parents got used to the idea that he was
gay, and was going to marry Yamato.
(There was no problems with the law cos he's a Prince… and he made
homosexual marriages legal, mmkay?)
Takeru and Yamato were reunited, sadly Mrs Takaishi
had passed away, but the two brothers became very good friends.
Hakari and Takeru got hitched. Their son, Ryo,
eventually inherited the throne.
Despite protestations of eternal love for Hakari, and
a fierce rivalry with Takeru for her affections, Daisuke fell in love and
married a neighbouring ruler, Ken Ichijouji.
Jun joined the lesbian alliance run by the rich
young Duchess Mimi and her partner (in more ways that one) Sora, and eventually
hooked up with a pretty young girl called Miyako. It turns out that Jun's obsession with chasing males was an
elaborate cover because her mother was extremely homophobic.
Gabumon met Taichi's Digimon, Agumon, and they
formed The Mystical Beasts Protection and Exhibition Society with a few fellow
Digimon they found lying around.
And what about Yamato and Taichi? They lived happily ever after. ^.^
~
THE END (again) ~
Errr… did I mention that I haven't written Digimon
in awhile? * grins disarmingly * And honestly, I love Daisuke! He just sorta became evil… you should be
glad that I didn't write some of the stuff I was thinking! Please REVIEW! I
adore feedback and could really use it!!
Hope ya liked my wee ficcie!
~ Smeegee~
