AN: Thanks for the reviews y'all; I appreciate it

Words: 2,437

In this chapter we've got one more bizarre, cracky family relationships, so I hope you enjoy that.

Disclaimer: I do not own KND or Ella Enchanted.

Numbah1999 won the disclaimer contest, so here is hers: If KND was mine, I would have made a T.V series about Kuki & Wally!

I had not realized how long I had been crying by that willow tree. As soon as we arrived at our manor, I had to hurry to change into a new outfit so I could join our guests downstairs for a banquet in Father's honor. I literally had to hurry because Mother barked the instruction at me as I raced up the stairs to my bedroom.

I spent as much time as the spell would let me just sitting in my room, enjoying the familiarity of the decorations I had picked out, the silence, and the peace. My purple stuffed rainbow centaur that I had named Mr. Huggykins, from the Rainbow Centaurs collection, sat on my bed while my other crowded my shelves and the corners of my room. I love the Rainbow Centaurs and have almost all of them. I sat down on my green plush bed and hugged Mr. Huggingkins close to me, he had been a gift from Father when I was born. I could feel the curse pulling on my legs, like an anchor being thrown into the sea. I felt like the room was tilting and I would slide off of my bed. But I prevailed, by moving a little closer to my wardrobe, which calmed my symptoms for a short while.

Soon enough, I was in too much pain to further delay the inevitable, but as soon as I stood and walked to my wardrobe, my symptoms were gone. I put on a new outfit and went downstairs to greet our guests.

When Mother saw me, she fixed me with a particularly malevolent glare. "Kukihana, what is that bile-inducing monstrosity that you're wearing?"

I simply smoothed my bangs to the side. Rather than donning more traditional black mourning garb, I had chosen Father's favorite ensemble of mine. It was a blue dress that had ruffles at my knees and around my waist was a pink belt. My hair was held up in an elegant pink bow, my bangs hanging loosely. I did not see why Mother hated the garment so, Father had always grinned in approval when he saw me wearing it. Blue was Father's favorite color, and he had hated black.

"People are going to think you have no respect for your father," Mother scolded, "Now –"

I smirked when her order was cut off by a strange, bellowing wail, but my triumph faded quickly as a pair of plaid-clad arms encircled my waist from behind and crushed me against an unfamiliar body.

"You poor thing; does it hurt much? And Lady Josephine, it's devastating to see you under such awful circumstances," a gruff voice moaned near my right ear. I pulled away and turned to face a balding, rotund man dressed in an unsavory arrange of plaid. I suppressed a cringe at the sight and shifted my eyes to the left. Standing just behind him were two rather large boys. The taller of the two was quite handsome, with dopey dark green eyes that hid behind a pair of tinted glasses and dark hair that stood up every which way. The shorter was a bit stouter as well, clearly powerfully built, he wore dark glasses behind his eyes like his brother. But by looking at his pose and the way he carried himself, I could tell he was the cleverer of the two. He had blonde and brown hair and a symmetrical face with brown eyes. They both wore tinted glasses on their faces.

"Please, call me Joy." Mother said, she directed her gaze at me, "This is Sir Monty," Mother said as she reached out to touch the older man's plaid-encased forearm. Apparently she saw no need to scold him for his lack of black attire. "We knew each other when we were young."

I greeted him awkwardly, stumbling over my curtsey, accidently banging into the taller of the two boys.

"Beg pardon." I said as he just gave me a blank look.

Mother enquired after the young men who accompanied Sir Monty, and he proceeded to introduce his two sons. The taller of the two was named Nigel, and the shorter, Jaceon.

"Boys, comfort poor Kuki in her hour of need," Sir Monty commanded as he offered Mother his arm and escorted her into the dining hall.

The three of us stared around in silence. Nigel and I caught each other's eye and he offered me a small half-smile, extending his hand.

"Hello, I'm Nigel." Introduced the boy who I had knocked into earlier.

I shook it delicately. "Kuki."

"This is my brother, Ace," Nigel added needlessly.

"Why did you act like that earlier?" Ace asked abruptly, interrupting my soft "Hello."

I bristled. "I don't know what you're referring to."

Ace scowled, regarding me with a strange glint in his eyes. "Crying in public. You are the head of the house now because you have no brothers. It's a sign of weakness to be seen crying like a baby in public."

I fixed him with a pointed glare.

"Ace," Nigel said softly, "Her father just died."

Ace shrugged his shoulders and cast his gaze around, and Nigel followed his lead.

"This is a nice hall," Nigel commented hesitantly, glancing at Ace as if in confirmation, and seeming to relax when his brother gave a slight nod.

"Our father says your mother earns a lot of money in her trading business," Ace began, "I think it's kind of strange, a woman leaving her family's manor to travel and trade goods, but it looks like it's working."

He glared at me suddenly for no reason, and I simply narrowed my eyes at him in return. "We're rich, too," he added.

Nigel coughed awkwardly and cleared his throat. "Kuki, will you show us around the rest of the manor?"

I showed them the upstairs, and we looked in every room, Ace pausing once in a while to quip a thinly-veiled insult, while Nigel occasionally paid a sincere compliment. We made our way to the dining hall and found ourselves next to one of the side tables, which was straining under the weight of the pastries and meat pies piled on top of it.

"Do you want something –" Ace did not wait for me to finish my question before proceeding to shovel a disgusting amount of food down his throat. Nigel shrugged at me, but then joined his brother in the activity.

I was not hungry, despite having eaten nothing all day, and the sight of the two boys stuffing their faces was nauseating. I glanced down at the rug under the table, looking at the beautiful, curly haired centaurs that were woven into the material, and tried to imagine what notes they might like to play. As I stared down, it was as though I could actually hear their cheerful songs. My brow furrowed in concentration, and – was that a kick of a hoof? Yes! I watched in fascination as the centaur actually began to move, galloping about through the woven forest, jogging and chasing one another. Their pretty songs filled my ears, and I began to whistle along quietly.

"What are you doing?" Ace grunted. My head snapped up. Ace was glaring once more, and Nigel was looking at me in dull confusion. They had actually ceased inhaling food while waiting for my response. I glanced back down at the rug. There was no music now, and the centaurs were stationary once more.

"Nothing," I muttered.

"You were whistling," Ace shot back, his tone laced with accusation.

"What's wrong with that?" I snapped in reply.

"I-I like whistling!" Nigel offered hopefully, but then blanched when Ace sent him a dark look. "But, I mean, not at the dinner table."

I gave a very un-lady like snort at the sight of them. "I don't think I need lessons in table manners from you two."

Nigel frowned and looked down at his doublet, which was stained with gravy, but Ace actually rose to his feet and leaned across the table.

"You're weird," he hissed angrily, "When your father was alive he must've forgot to teach you how to act like a normal girl since your mother was never home."

The slight against Father left me speechless, and Nigel let out a surprised squeak. I was sure that what little color my face usually held had drained completely.

"Boys, boys!" Sir Monty's gruff voice filled the air as he swept over. "We must be going." He dragged me into another hug and I was enveloped in the bewildering stench of rotten fruit.

After Sir Monty and his sons had left, I was swept away by another hug, one I knew quite well.

"Oh Kuki…" The voice of Lady Marjorie, known to me as Aunt Morgan, my father's sister, said, as she hugged me close.

"Aunt Morgan." I said, hugging her in return, as she rubbed my back. She was wearing a navy blue gown, having remembered Father's hatred of black. Her mahogany hair lay in its soft, natural curls that framed her face. Her eyes, an exact copy of shape and shade of Father's hazel ones, we're red and blotched.

"How are you, sweetie?" She asked in a motherly tone, Aunt Morgan was always good with kids, it baffled me that she wasn't married and had kids yet, I knew she would make an excellent mother. She told me many times that she never wished to marry, claiming her work as the country's coroner kept her very busy and she had no time for the distraction of having a boyfriend would provide for her.

"I'm okay, I guess." I said quietly, "I miss him terribly though." I said as more tears began to leak from my eyes.

"Shhh…. It'll be okay." She soothed and patted my back.

I decided to change the topic, "Where's Aunt Beckah, Athena, and Sophie?" I asked her, referring to my other aunts.

"Beckah is out of the country and couldn't leave, Athena just gave birth to twins and Sophie wanted to make sure that Athena could handle herself, but they send their love." She said, I nodded my head in understandment.

"Marjorie." Came the sound of Mother's stone cold voice, I looked up at my aunt, who's face had a slight grim to it upon being called Marjorie.

"Josephine." She said in return, nodding at her sister-in-law.

"Thank you for coming." Mother said.

"Well, he is my brother, despite our constant quarreling as children, I still love him." Aunt Morgan retorted, she was always quick with those.

"Yes, may I borrow Kuki for a moment please?" She said in a commanding tone. I knew that Mother did not like Aunt Morgan for reasons unknown, Father always said that he would tell me one day but he did not get a chance to.

"Go right ahead." Aunt Morgan said, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek as she went off to mingle with other guests.

"What is it, Mother?" I asked her once Aunt Morgan was out of earshot.

"Nothing, I just don't like you conversing with Marjorie." She said, quickly in response.

"But she's Father's sister." I argued, "She's my aunt."

"Correction, Kuki, she was your father's sister. She was your aunt." She said in defining tone, "And I don't want you speaking to her ever. And tell no one of why, the last thing I need is people asking questions about my parenting." She said, a command. I could feel myself crying as Mother left. Out of my preferable vision I could see Aunt Morgan making her way through the crowd back towards me, but she was quickly intercepted by Mother, and I quickly left and joined Kami in the kitchen.

"How are you feeling, Kuki?" She asked me, seeing the tear stains on my check.

"I'm holding up." I said as I went to join her in washing the dishes. I quickly changed the topic, "Your cooking was delicious, as always, Kami." I said to her.

She let out a musical laugh, "Those people must have been starving."

"Nobody can resist your cooking," I sent her a little smile and a wink. It was true; I had never tasted food quite as delicious as Kami's. I had often tried to follow her recipes, and Father would sometimes join me, admittedly often more a hindrance than a help, but we never managed to produce anything quite as tasty as her dishes, no matter how closely we adhered to the instructions.

I suddenly remembered the rug.

"You know the rug in the dining hall? The one with centaurs playing the flute? Something strange happened when I looked at it earlier this evening."

Kami laughed again, scouring a pan. "Oh, you needn't pay that old thing any attention."

"Why is that?"

"It's a faerie rug. Just an old practical joke."

I stopped drying the plate I was holding and faced her fully. "Really?" I asked, intrigued, "How do you know?"

"It belonged to Sir Buddy."

"Did my faerie godmother give it to him?"

"Many years ago." Kami let out a heavy sigh.

"Do you know who she is?"

"If your father wanted you to know, he would have told you himself."

"He promised he would after I turned fifteen, but he did not get the chance to. Please, Kami, tell me."

"I am."

I rolled my eyes in impatience. "No, you are not telling me. Who is she?"

"Me. I'm your faerie godmother. Now, here, taste this pudding I've made for Sonya. How is it?"

Oooo of course Kami would be hiding something. She's crafty, that one, very crafty. I know it seems weird when Nigel is basically under Ace's control, I might as well just had made him Legin, but I didn't!. But trust me, this is me being generous to Nigel, because his counterpart in the novel is much more pathetic (and mean!), and I didn't want that to happen! So I switched it around a bit!

Next Chapter: Kuki learns more about faeries from Kami, and Josephine and Kuki face off. I promise Wally will appear again soon, though!

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