A/N I only recently started watching and reading Magus Bride. All I can say is that, as a Brit, it has very quickly become one of my favourite series ever. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and utterly realistic, to the point that I had to pause episodes frequently just to stare at it. This idea is a gift of sorts for my sister, EmiKougamine, who said there wasn't nearly enough for this series on this site. So here you go, sis. Enjoy.

A Gift For My Love

"Little robin?"

"Gaaaah!"

Chise almost dropped the carefully-sorted basket of herbs and flowers she was carrying. Staring at her, hanging upside down in mid-air, was none other than Oberon himself, the king of the fairies.

"Oh, I'm sorry, little robin, did I scare you?"

Righting himself with a smile, Oberon dropped down to stand in front of her, his hooves hitting the stones of the patio with a tiny click.

The girl struggled to gather her thoughts. With a little mental prodding from Ruth, her familiar, she managed to stutter out, "uh-uh, no, your majesty. Um, to what do we owe the pleasure?"

She had no idea if that was the correct thing to say, but he didn't seem to mind.

"Aww, so polite! You're so cute, Chise!" Oberon smiled at her.

Still unnerved, Chise simply stared back at him. "Um," she began, immediately biting back whatever she was going to say.

Oberon kept smiling at her, encouragingly.

"Um, i-is it ok for you to be here?" she asked tentatively. "In the human world, I mean. Out of Tίr-na-nOg. Is the kingdom ok without you?"

She knew she was babbling, as usual whenever she was nervous, but she was still so woefully unsure how to act around people, human or otherwise.

The king merely waved a hand at her, shooing it off. "Oh, sure. The kingdom does fine without me. For a while, at least. I can't go back just yet anyway."

His expression suddenly sobered, his eyes boring into her intently.

"Anyway, that's why I came here! I really need your help, little robin! You'll do it, won't you? I won't even ask anything in return!" He bowed deeply, sinking his head in supplication.

Utterly stunned, Chise had no idea how to react to that. The king of the fairies, a being of immense power and influence, ruler of an entire realm, asking for her help? Whatever could he mean?

"U-um, I don't, what, why…" she stammered, trying to find the words to ask.

Oberon looked up at her, rising to his full height again.

Somehow, he managed to look sheepish. Chise had a glimmer of understanding. Elias had many books lying around the house, both magical and mundane. Many of them detailed the relationship between the fae and humans.

And no few of them mentioned that of the king and queen, too.

"Um," she began again. How best to word this, she thought?

She stared down at the ground, wondering.

To her mortification, her mouth once again ran faster than her brain.

"Did you have a fight with the Queen again?" she blurted. She felt her face heat up until it surely matched her wonderfully flame-bright hair, and cursed herself again.

To her surprise, the king burst out into laughter, ringing gaily across the garden.

"Our little robin sure is perceptive!" he declared.

Chise dared to glance up at him from beneath her hair.

"I'm sorry! It's just, you seem to fight a lot. Wait, no, that's not what I meant, um, I mean, Elias had this book and I couldn't really read it but it was about you, or, well, not you exactly, but it had you as a person and it seemed like people kind of think you fight a lot and I'm sorry, I-" she cut herself off with a snap, ducking her head down again and wishing fervently that she knew a spell to make herself disappear.

From their mental bond, she felt Ruth snicker quietly, although whether at her or Oberon she couldn't quite tell.

Oberon kept laughing. Blinking in surprise, Chise raised her head again to see him wiping a tear away from his eye.

"Yes, the humans do seem to know a lot about us," he said.

"Anyway, it is true. My darling queen and I have come to a disagreement, and as punishment she has banished me from her side once again. I cannot return to her presence until she is in a better temper, which I fear will be hard to break. So I find myself stuck here, to wait out the hours and bide my time."

It had to be said, he did not seem particularly apologetic, Chise thought. Ruth echoed the thought, adding words that had Chise trying very hard not to let show on her face.

"So, why did you come here? Do you want me to speak to her, or something?"

Truth be told, Chise had no idea why Oberon thought she could possibly help reconcile the warring spouses, but he obviously did, unless this was just another trick to lure her into the fairy realm for good.

That did seem far more likely. Chise was just about to ask Ruth to go into the house and find Elias when Oberon answered her.

"To find a gift, of course!"

Startled, Chise simply stared at him.

"A-a gift? For who?"

Oberon rolled his eyes fondly at her.

"For my darling, silly little robin!" he stated. "Tis true, I am to remain apart from her until her temper has calmed, but she is almost always swayed if I return bearing a token of appeasement."

His face fell, his next words hanging sadly. "The trouble, then, is that I am at a loss. My queen has everything she could desire, and there is scarcely anything she could want. And so, I come to you, our most precious robin. Surely you know of something for my love?"

Chise shook her head dumbly. "I'm really bad at gifts," she said bluntly.

"Uh-um, I mean, I don't have much experience with it," she continued. "I'd never bought anyone a gift before last Christmas. The only reason I bought Elias the necktie is because I was helped out by someone."

Oberon didn't seem fazed by this. "But you must know something," he pressed. "What do the humans do when they argue? Your lives are so short, you surely don't have time to wait out the ages as I do. Is there not a way you find to bring joy back to your loves and earn the sweet forgiveness you desire?"

At a loss, Chise turned to Ruth, tugging on the link.

Help.

She could sense the familiar thinking.

Flowers, he sent back a moment later.

That's no good. There's thousands of flowers in the fairy realm. That wouldn't do. It needs to be something that means something.

She tried to remember anything of the few precious years of her life before her father left and her life came crashing down around her.

She cast her eyes around the garden, wondering if there was anything that could help.

An idea came to her suddenly.

Flowers themselves might not do, but how about...?

Shyly, she set the basket down. Looking down, she said, "I really don't know much about this, but, I'm pretty sure this is something people do when they want to show someone they care about them."

She decided to let her hands do the thinking for her, trying to remember how this worked. Drawing out a few long-stemmed flowers from the basket, she began weaving them together until she held a rough circle.

"Um, this really isn't good, but I've heard that one of the best kinds of gifts is something you make," she said.

Still looking down, she said "I bought Elias the necktie because I was told that you buy someone a gift because you think it's something they would like, or that they would use. To buy someone something, you have to think of who they are as a person, what things they like and what they're interested in. It shows that you care about them because you know them well enough to be able to choose something for them.

But Elias said he didn't know what to buy me, either, because we barely knew each other. So as well as gifts, he gave me a teddy bear. He said it was only the same thing as he had given Angelica and Althea every year because he had no idea what else to give them. But instead of buying one, he had made it himself."

She couldn't stop the smile rising to her face as she remembered, although she kept looking down at the wreath taking shape in her hands.

"That meant more to me than anything on earth he could have bought me, because he did it himself. Anyone can go out and buy someone something, because it's just an object. But when you make something for someone yourself, it means so much more, because they spent their own time and energy into making something that no-one else could do, because they did it for you. It doesn't matter how good it ends up, because it's the thought behind it. They did something for you because they love you, and I get to hold that every night and be reminded of that. So even if one day he decides he doesn't want me any more, I'd be ok with it, because I'd have something that showed me that for one moment in my life, he cared about me when no-one else did."

Beside her, Oberon was silent, a small smile playing on his lips.

Chise came back to herself, mortified.

"I-I'm sorry!" she cried. "I didn't mean to say that. I- I just thought that maybe that would be ok. I guess it was a stupid idea. I'll shut up now."

"No, little robin. That was a brilliant idea. Look." Oberon motioned to the wreathe in her hands.

"Waah!"

Chise almost shoved it from her lap. The wreath was glowing faintly with a soft blue light, the flowers transformed into the beautiful crystals that were the tangible form of her magic.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to use magic, now Elias will be mad at me," she lamented.

"I don't think so," Oberon said gently. "Your emotions were heightened when you thought of him, weren't they?"

Chise nodded hesitantly, still blushing.

"Exactly. You managed to siphon off that magic and turn it into this. You've done very well, little robin."

Chise glanced up at him, sideways. "Really?"

Oberon chuckled. "Still so unsure. Really, robin. Thorn could never be angered with you for this. But just in case, how about I take if off your hands for you, alright?"

So saying, he snatched it from her, albeit gently. Ignoring her soft yelp of protest, he jumped backwards, his cloven legs carrying him out of range.

"Yes, I think my queen will love this most dearly," he said gaily.

"I think the idea is to make it yourself, your majesty," Ruth said suddenly, having materialised out of Chise's shadow in case of danger.

"Oh, I'll think of a way to personalise it," the king replied. "But I'm sure my Titania would love such a perfect example of our robin's power, even if it does reek of Thorn. Goodbye, little robin! Please do visit us soon, my queen does miss you terribly. Until we meet again!"

Waving the wreath above his head merrily, he bounded into the forest, disappearing into the trees towards the portal.

Chise was left with her hand raised out towards him, her protest dying on her lips even as he disappeared.

"Well, that was typical," Ruth muttered. "I wouldn't say it to their face, but those two give me the creeps, especially him."

Chise was inclined to agree with him. "Yeah, you may be right," she sighed, sinking back down to sit on the ledge. Now that Oberon had gone, she felt her body sag slightly with exhaustion. Even with the bracelet around her wrist blocking her power, that had still taken a lot out of her, although how much of that was the shock of Oberon's visit she couldn't say.

As always, Ruth was innately tuned to his mistress' feelings. Catching her as she slumped sideways, he drew her up towards him, steering them both to the door. Silver opened it just as they approached, wordlessly turning and making her way into the lounge, where a spread of tea and food awaited.

"I'm fine," Chise protested weakly as she was made to sit down on the sofa. "I was just startled by him, that's all. The bracelet stopped me from using too much magic."

"Yes, I will have to look into how that was possible," a deep voice said.

"Oh, hi, Elias," Chise said tiredly. "I'm sorry, I didn't sense him coming, and I really didn't mean to use magic at all, it just happened. I'll do better next time, I promise."

"Don't be mistaken. I am not upset with you at all," the mage said placatingly. "The fault lies entirely with that flighty king. I have no doubt Titania will indeed find it a kingly gift. But it was not his to take."

Chise couldn't stop a faint giggle rising from her chest.

"Elias, are you…jealous?" she asked, wonderingly.

With his skeleton head, Elias was, of course, incapable of blushing. "Well, I do not know. I am still unfamiliar with the range of human feelings, and I do not care what the king and queen do with their time," he stated, unconvincingly.

Then, quieter, he said, "did you mean what you said, about the bear I gave you? Does it really mean that much to you?"

Now it was Chise's turn to blush, deeply. "Y-you heard that, huh?" she asked weakly.

"Wait, how did you hear us anyway?" she demanded.

"I was in my study. I could see you from the window," he replied calmly. "I was not about to let you alone with someone of the fairy world, let along their king."

"Oh. That makes sense," Chise agreed. She held her mug up to her face, hoping he would forget the rest of her words.

She sensed he required an answer, though. Setting her cup down, she laced her hands together, not looking up at him.

"I- I did mean it," she murmured. "It meant so much to me, really. So please, even if you don't want me one day, could I keep it? I won't ask for anything else ever again, so please, can I still have it?"

Instead of answering, Elias stepped over to her, standing in front of her in his full height. When she dared to look up at him, she saw the pinpoints of his flaming pupils staring down at her.

Then, amazingly, he knelt in front of her, dropping to his knees on the soft carpet.

"Of course, Chise. I will never stop caring about you, or abandon you. I will make you as many bears as you could wish for. Anything you desire, simply say the word and it will be yours. You are my bride, my precious apprentice, and I would see the world utterly destroyed before I let a single hair of your head come to harm. That, I promise you."

Chise stared down at him.

"Lindel cut my hair to put in my staff," she blurted out. "Does that count?"

To her surprise, laughter filled the room, deep and throaty.

"Oh, Chise, you are simply perfect," Elias said. He stood up, drawing Chise carefully into his arms and holding her close. Lifting her up, he pressed his jaw to her cheek in their own version of a kiss.

Returning the gesture, she dropped a kiss on the smooth bone. They stood there in the lounge, wrapped up in each other's breath, in the peaceful quiet of the home. Ruth lay on the floor below them, Silver no doubt pottering around the house in her quiet enjoyment of the chores.

Just like Titania and Oberon, they too would have their arguments from time to time. And just like them, they would always find a way to make their peace afterwards, and for every petty fight and harshly spoken word, there would be many more moments like this.

A/N That's it, folks. Beware of the Fae, they are temperamental and capricious at the best of times. That said, Oberon is too cute not to write for.

As always, thank you for reading, and if you feel like leaving a review, I'd love to hear what you thought of this! Thanks!