Part II: Plans for a Ball
Queen Yûko and King Clow decided the easiest way for their adorable twin sons to find their soul mates was to host a week-long ball. The first day, the King and Queen had announced, the family would travel to North Tsubasa, to introduce their sons to the young ladies and young men from the northern part of Tsubasa. This also gave them a chance for a family reunion with Ashura, Yuui, and their twin daughters, Maru and Moro. Queen Yûko and King Clow were excited to see their almost-four-year-old granddaughters.
The second day would take the royal family, sans Ashura, Yuui, Maru, and Moro, to East Tsubasa. There would be a ball for Shizuka and Syaoran to meet the young ladies and young men of the eastern part of Tsubasa. From there, they would travel to South Tsubasa and hold a ball on the third day. It would also mean a family reunion with Kurogane, Fai, their son three-year-old Eriol, and their daughter, Tomoyo. The Queen and King were ecstatic to meet the newest member of their family, baby Tomoyo, who had born a mere six months ago (Kurogane, Fai, Eriol and baby Tomoyo were unable to travel due to a snow storm).
The fourth day would be spent in West Tsubasa, another ball for all the eligible young ladies and young men from the surrounding area. The fifth day would involve gathering all the eligible young ladies and young men to Paris, the capital of Tsubasa, as well as setting up the palace for the ball on the last day. The sixth and seventh days would be the balls and on the seventh day, Shizuka and Syaoran's birthday, the two Princes would be expected to announce their soul mates to the Kingdom of Tsubasa at four minutes midnight (when they were born).
On the outskirts of Central Tsubasa, lived a mismatched family that would be forever changed by the week-long ball for Prince Shizuka and Prince Syaoran.
Tôya Kinomoto and his husband, Yukito, owned the tiny house that housed them, as well as Tôya's little sister, Sakura, and Yukito's younger cousins, Himawari and Kimihiro, who were siblings. Tôya was an archeologist, taking after his late father, Fujitaka, while Yukito was a professor at the Central University of Paris, a well-known college for those interested in studying magic.
Because Yukito was unable to have children, unlike most uke male lovers in Tsubasa, Tôya and Yukito asked Himawari, Sakura, and Kimihiro if they would like to be 'adopted' by them. At the time, Kimihiro was attending first year school (for those children ages five to ten), while Sakura and Himawari were starting secondary school (for those ages eleven to sixteen), and they agreed, thus taking on the surname of Kinomoto (although Sakura already had it).
Several months before the ball was announced, Himawari turned nineteen, while Sakura had celebrated her eighteenth birthday the day before the week-long-ball would commence. Kimihiro, however, was still seventeen years of age and just finishing up secondary school, and thus would not be allowed to attend the ball.
Himawari and Sakura received invitations to the ball being held in Paris on the Princes' birthday and Yukito helped the girls pick out discarded dresses from a local dress maker's shop, which they fixed up with some extra material, ribbons, and other things.
Sakura's dress had been torn apart then reassembled, now it was a shoulder-less halter soft pink dress with black velvet designs gently covering the material and a one-inch wide black velvet ribbon was wrapped underneath her bosom. She had matching pink gloves and small pink pumps to match. Likewise, the dress Himawari would wear had been torn apart before being reassembled. When they were finished, it was an off-the-shoulder lavender dress with a built-in empire waist, a violet ribbon connecting the skirt to the rest of it. The full skirt gently fell straight to the floor instead of looking like a flower turned upside-down Sakura had gone for.
Unfortunately, just days before the ball, Himawari's tuberculosis began to act up. Her doctor put her on permanent bed rest. The day before the birthday ball for the Princes was to be held in Paris, Tôya, Yukito, Sakura, and Kimihiro gathered into the kitchen while Himawari slept peacefully, oblivious to their worries and concerns. Tôya, Yukito, and Sakura coaxed Kimihiro into going in Himawari's place for the ball.
Once the seventeen-year-old male agreed to dress up as his older sister, Sakura gave Kimihiro lessons about how to walk in high heels while Yukito made slight adjustments to the lavender dress (so it would be less noticeable that Kimihiro wasn't female), put make-up on him, and had his hair fixed to make it appear more feminine.
Typical of Kimihiro, he had flailed his arms and hissed threats throughout the adjustments; but he still went along with it because he secretly hoped that if he could make one of the princes fall in love with 'Himawari,' then she could get treatment for her tuberculosis. But a nagging voice in the back of his head whispered, 'Well, what if you fall in love with one of the princes? Are you willing to sacrifice your love to Himawari?' That left the seventeen-year-old with a gapping mouth and no decent rebuttal apart from, 'I'm only doing this to help Himawari-onee-chan!'
Kimihiro hadn't had a good response for the voice in the back of his head and that hadn't changed by the time of the ball.