Yay, first chapter! With fluffy!Ivan. And the introduction of our main villain. :D
Ameripangled
Chapter 1—The Legend of the Blue Chrysanthemum
Yanmei did not want to admit it, but Ivan was not quite the same after Natalia's execution. At first Yanmei believed it was the Ivan harbored feelings for his cousin, but Ivan swore that not to be the case.
"It was because she was going to murder the love of my life," Ivan simply said, taking the Queen's face in his hands. "And without you, this precious gift could not be conceived." His hands wandered down to Yanmei's steadily growing stomach. She was only three months along, but evidence was starting to show through her clothes.
When Yanmei first heard the news, she could scarcely believe it. So soon in her marriage…! But she was ecstatic. One of her lifelong dreams was to start a family. Her hopes and expectations kept growing.
If she had a boy, she wanted him to be a splitting image of his father, with platinum hair and that distinguishable nose. He'd be the handsomest child in the kingdom, and she and Ivan would raise him to be a great king.
Secretly though, Yanmei longed more for a girl. Any father could dream for a strapping young man, but girls were pretty and delicate. Yanmei wanted a child she could dote upon quite fondly, a child she could dress and spend every waking moment with.
As the months passed, she longed for the day when her child was born. Yanmei sensed Ivan's excitement, but something was still holding him back. What could it possibly be?
"Are you scared?" she asked, taking his hands. "I know, this is all happening so fast."
"That is not it." Ivan shook his head, but that clouded look in his violet eyes was still shielding something.
"Tell me," she urged. "You know you can trust me."
He sighed, not quite looking his queen in her eyes. "I cannot help…" he started, "but think that Natalia's words… mean something. Her supposed 'curse.'"
Yanmei met his gaze lovingly. "Those are empty words," she reassured, "said in the heat of the moment. There is no curse, or I would be experiencing it as we speak."
Nothing to fear. How he wished that were true. But Yanmei did not know Natalia nearly as well as Ivan did. She might be able to affect them from beyond the grave, she was that scary.
But oh, how he wanted everything to be perfect, especially now. He needed to be strong for both Yanmei and his unborn child. He was a king now, a monarch for his people. He could never show weakness.
Then, late in her pregnancy, tragedy struck the beloved Queen. She fell with an illness that no doctor could cure without possible damage done to her unborn child. Yanmei refused their help. No matter what happened to her, the child had to be safe.
Ivan could not let this happen. He had to fight for both his wife and his unborn child.
Panic struck him. What could he possibly do to save them? What could he do to stop Natalia's curse?
He needed a miracle in the form of a flower.
Now, once upon another time, just a hop, skip, and a boat ride away from the castle, something renowned grew. Legend had it, a drop of magic from a faraway blue star dropped to the soil just beyond the Kingdom of Hetalia's capital. From this magic, a rare cobalt chrysanthemum grew, and it was said it had the power to heal the sick and injured.
Ivan knew retrieving the flower would be near impossible, since it was nothing more than a legend. But all legends had to come from somewhere. The crest of the Kingdom of Hetalia was a chrysanthemum, was it not? The flower had to exist. And he was running out of time.
Word spread that the person who found the flower would receive a reward beyond their wildest dreams. Each citizen in the kingdom began searching, not caring if they did not know where to look. They loved the Queen, who was an excellent ruler alongside her husband.
Unbeknownst to the kingdom, however, the chrysanthemum did exist, but it was horded by a greedy woman from the eastern kingdom for centuries. Mother Kim was frightened to dig up the flower, so every few years she trekked to the Kingdom of Hetalia and used the chrysanthemum's power. But one could not simply use the chrysanthemum. Mother Kim had to sing a special song that would activate the magic of the rare, blue flower.
"Flower, gleam and glow.
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse; bring back what once was mine.
Heal what has been hurt.
Change the fate's design.
Save what has been lost; bring back what once was mine.
What once was mine."
With this song, Mother Kim would have the ability to make herself young again. Creepy, right?
But Mother Kim made a mistake. She had heard the guards from the castle edging closer, and she hid herself rather than the flower. Within seconds, the guards shouted that they had found the legendary chrysanthemum, and soon the flower was dug up to bring back to the castle.
Mother Kim had heard of the Queen's condition. What the flower would do to Yanmei she had no idea, but without the song, the flower was useless.
And that was Ivan's very dilemma. He had no idea how the legendary flower could heal his queen. It looked the part, from its pristine blue petals and faint glow that reeked of magic, but something had to make this magic work.
"Perhaps a spell?" he guessed, crossing his arms. He was running out of time…
"If I may, my lord?" asked a timid page that had assisted the royal guards in finding the flower.
"What is your name, page?" Ivan demanded as the boy stepped forward.
He bowed. "Toris Laurinautis, your Excellency," he said from behind a head of brown curls. "I heard a woman singing to the flower. It seemed to activate its mystical powers."
Ivan's violet eyes widened. "Quick boy, tell me so that I may heal the Queen."
Toris did, and Ivan placed the flower in a bowl. When he sang the song to Yanmei, the chrysanthemum enchanted the water he had poured inside. Yanmei drank the magical water, and she was instantly healed.
"Like I said," Yanmei smiled, "Natalia's 'curse' was nothing but empty words. It's going to take a lot more to kill a queen."
Ivan smiled and kissed his wife, amazed that she had braved through such an ordeal and still kept her wit.
Before Ivan knew it, Yanmei gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl with luscious raven hair so black it gleamed blue in the light. The King and Queen decided to name their new princess Kiku, which in Yanmei's native language from the eastern kingdom meant "chrysanthemum." She looked just like her mother, from her observant brown eyes, small nose, and pouting lips.
"She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen," Ivan gushed as he and Yanmei watched their little princess marvel at the spinning mobile above her head in her crib,
"Then what does that make me?" Yanmei joked, stealing a kiss from her husband.
Ivan chuckled. "Okay, second most beautiful."
Yanmei sighed. They were finally a family now. Never in her life had she felt more content and happy, and she had never seen Ivan sport a larger grin.
To celebrate Princess Kiku's birth, King Ivan and Queen Yanmei launched a floating paper lantern into the sky, hoping it would reach the bright blue star whose magic had helped to bring the beautiful princess into the world. The Kingdom of Hetalia rejoiced. A child from both kingdoms had been born, and each citizen knew their princess would one day make a fine ruler.
For those first few months of Kiku's life, everything was perfect. She had two loving parents and a kingdom that simply adored her.
Everything soon came to a crashing halt. One night during the summer, when all the doors in the castle were left ajar due to the hot weather, Mother Kim snuck into the palace. Lately she needed to use the chrysanthemum's power more frequently due to the fact that she was aging more rapidly as the years passed. She had a theory, and if that theory worked, she could stay young and beautiful forever without the flower.
Mother Kim silently approached the sleeping princess's crib and began to sing her special song softly. Kiku's hair began to glow the same cobalt as the flower, and Mother Kim felt herself grow young again. Yes! It was working!
She grasped the scissors she had brought along and snipped a few strands of Kiku's hair. But when this happened, that hair turned dull and black, and the magic stopped working. No! What would she do? As soon as that child received her first haircut, she'd lose all her magical abilities! Mother Kim supposed she could always visit the child, but what would happen when she wasn't there? No. She needed to keep a watchful eye on this child at all times, to keep the flower's magic safe. Besides, she was only a few months old. No child remembered anything from that long ago.
Quickly, Mother Kim snatched up the sleeping princess, but she easily woke and began to cry. She had to leave, now!
The King stirred. Once he could comprehend what was going on, it was too late. A cloaked woman had stolen his child, his only daughter. He shook Yanmei awake, just in time to see the woman vanish without a trace… with the little princess.
Yanmei let out a high-pitched scream as she noticed the empty crib. Someone had stolen her baby. Her precious little girl was gone.
Ivan immediately called for a kingdom wide search, offering a giant reward to anyone who could bring his daughter back to him.
Years passed. Each day, Ivan and Yanmei's hopes fell even further. It seemed like their little girl was never going to come home. Distraught, they could not bring themselves to even want to produce more children. Natalia's curse had come back to haunt them, and she was right: they really were miserable.
But the princess was alive and well. Deep within the forest on the outskirts of the kingdom, Mother Kim had hid Kiku in a tower where she could not escape and where no one could find her. She raised Kiku like her own daughter, caring for her and brushing her long, midnight blue hair. Mother Kim always sang the same song to Kiku every night, and when Kiku could talk, Mother Kim taught her the special song that could activate the magical chrysanthemum's power. Mother Kim had her flower, and she could keep staying young.
But Kiku was restless with each passing day. She wanted to know why she couldn't leave the tower, if Mother Kim could do it every day.
"Why can't I go outside?" she'd ask by the fireplace as Mother Kim's soothing brush ran through her long hair.
"Outside this tower are forces that will do anything to keep you unhappy," Mother Kim would always answer. "And not everyone has special hair like yours. People will want to cut it, and we can't let that happen. You must stay here, where you will always be safe. Do you understand, Flower?"
"Ye, Ohmohni."
But even in a tower, locked in for what seemed like eternity, the outside world found its way to Kiku. She could spot the grass below and the trees of the kingdom. Sometimes, on a clear day, she could even see a castle in the distance.
And every year on her birthday, there were the floating lights that seemed to light up the night sky just for her.
Of course, Kiku didn't know this, but the floating lights were really the paper lanterns from the capital of the kingdom, where King Ivan and Queen Yanmei hoped that maybe, just maybe, a wandering little girl would see these lights and find her way back to her parents where she belonged.
So now we're stating to get to the main story. So, does anyone else love fluffy!Ivan? I find him adorable.
Oh, and Mother Kim is really just fem!Korea. And we all know she's probably telling Kiku that everything originated in the eastern country.
"Ye, Ohmohni" just means "Yes, Mother" in Korean. YES, MOTHER KIM IS TEACHING KIKU HOW TO SPEAK KOREAN. I finally have a Korean to help me with my fail!Korean.
Next chapter: It is almost Kiku's eighteenth birthday, and she wonders if Mother Kim might let her see the floating lights.
Please review! I'd love to hear your feedback! (and so would Loozer-s! We love hearing that people are reading and looking at our stuff for our crossover!)
