A ribbon would be an easier marker to all of this,

if a ribbon could be held accountable for the twists and turns of fate,

of life

Of course, a ribbon can't be held accountable,

and sometimes Tsukimi doubts that such a feminine symbol could cross boundaries

to explain all of this, emphasize the place where femininity and masculinity meet,

emphasize just how you could fall for someone,

that like you is as different from the growing tide of normalcy,

of how people expect others to be,

and yet, where passions intersect in this ocean, we call life,

none of it ever makes sense

Crossdressing is as different to jellyfish

as The Three Kingdoms is to trains,

nothing marks a clear, clean intersection,

and by now,

it seems almost pointless to find that marker,

but it feels like it needs one,

something clean, like how jellyfish appear to be dresses,

how girls become princesses,

and how Tsukimi now is left to design a promised wedding dress

without her mom,

and some days, she thinks it would be better if he wore it,

but words don't come near as easily as they sound,

and she wonders how an almost kiss that she would pretend didn't happen

is translated as a memory that comes to mind easily,

as 'what if' lives and breathes,

but she's engaged, well, sort of,

and yet she thought she knew love, a girl falls for the guy who will support her and not chase down every last whim of theirs,

but that almost kiss was with a boy that is a princess, a male princess,

not a prince, not the man of princesses' dreams,

but a man that blends in among them all

Tsukimi isn't a princess or at least wouldn't call herself one,

no matter the way that she looks 'transformed' by the power of the princess at hand,

A princess doesn't fall for her fairy godmother, doesn't dream where magic and joy intersect,

she dreams of a prince, tall and strong to protect her,

her fiancee is that prince, that is usually strong in the ways that seem to count,

but as if with a flicker of fairy light and dust, Kuranosuke becomes a sign of something else,

something beyond the wave and fault of what she'd thought she wanted

To be a jellyfish princess seems like a dream,

but Tsukimi likes when that dream becomes Kuranosuke's, when he appears like a beacon of hope and light

Tsukimi can't call herself a princess,

but she'd call him one

She isn't sure that she'd make a good prince at all either,

she is just a girl, a girl who loves jellyfish,

and eventually a designer that crafts beautiful dresses modeled after what she loves,

but what is love when you've never quite expected or wanted it

Tsukimi's not a princess,

then how'd she get a prince and why did she want to be with a male princess

Royalty didn't find its way to her,

but his family had her all screwed up,

and love didn't always follow that formula imagined and reimagined in fairytales,

sometimes it went its own way,

drove the car off the busy street and down nearly overgrown lanes

that few dared cross,

and love became a sign of breaking down the vines and finding something through them all,

something cherishable like a diamond where you don't expect one

or a hint of love marked by a sign of something more than just a guess, more than just a feeling,

a love made strong by something more than expected,

friendship undefined by what one expects

and something more personal than a distant engagement,

something just a bit more than the prince,

something that feels like it's own brand of crazy,

a girl who loves jellyfish falls for a male princess,

someone that should feel distant,

but never has.