I DO NOT OWN SKIP BEAT
Thank you so much for the reviews! And so many of your guesses were right, I can't pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Lol but I left a very large hint in the last chapter that probably helped.
Chapter three w
Kyoko sighed as she, Kuu, Julia (Ren's mother), and Rin approached the castle of Yuuyake. Something told her that tonight would change her life, but to be truthful, she wasn't sure if she could handle something big tonight, today had enough drama already. Normally she was thrilled to go to a ball, it filled her with joy to be in a room full of cheer and people who made her feel like a true princess and not some spoiled rich girl. When she was younger she used to parade around the castle telling everyone how many days were left until the next ball.
As she entered the castle, the servants quickly ushered Kyoko away before she could take three steps in the door. The servants took Kyoko upstairs, after all since this was her 17th birthday ball she would have to make a grand entrance after almost all guests arrived. One of the female servants looked to Kyoko sympathetically. This just filled Kyoko with worry and confusion. Did something happen while she was gone?
"What is it?" Kyoko asked the servant, the concern in her voice clearly showed. The servant quickly shook her head as if to say that nothing was wrong. Kyoko noticed Jerry walking to her, with a hair brush in one hand and two maids following her. Jerry smiled at Kyoko and pulled her away to sit in a chair in front of a mirror. As Jerry started to brush Kyoko's long black hair Kyoko started to think about how Rin was badgering her about her hair when they were leaving, saying that she should do something with it. Kyoko never did anything to her hair, well not since the neon-green-super-glue hairspray incident, besides Jerry loved to do Kyoko's hair. Kyoko smiled, she was sure that if Jerry wasn't the queen, she would be a hair and makeup artist.
"How are you feeling Kyoko-Chan? Better than when you left I suppose? Usually when you come back from seeing Kuu-kun you're bright and happy," Jerry questioned.
"I guess…wait, how did you know that I was with Kuu-san? I didn't even know where I was going when I left," Kyoko responded. Kyoko so was unsure about everything when she left. She was just running away in her mind. For all she knew, the sky could have turned red and the grass could have been neon orange. She wouldn't have noticed.
"Whenever you get upset, you always end up at Kuu-kun's house," Jerry explained as she carefully placed a bobby pin in Kyoko's hair, making sure it would stay but it wouldn't be digging into Kyoko's scalp. "Kyoko-Chan… tonight you will meet some new… people… something about one of them you will be meeting near the end tonight will probably be….upsetting…" Kyoko noticed how long it was taking Jerry to speak, it was quite obvious she was trying to prepare Kyoko for what might happen and Jerry was having trouble with finding just the right words. "But Kyoko, promise me, that when you two speak, before you question and/or yell at them let them speak. Let them explain everything before you decide anything about them. Do you promise?" Jerry asked hesitantly. Kyoko nodded.
"What about them could actually be so upsetting that I would yell at them?" Kyoko asked. It took a hell lot to get Kyoko to get angry enough to yell. Not even what Rin did made her angry enough to yell. Her anger was usually a quiet vengeful anger, but if she was upset enough she would scream and yell. After all, even though Kyoko did understand how childish she would be to yell and scream, she was a bit spoiled; after all she was a princess. Although, she didn't act nearly as spoiled as some of the noble children. Jerry sighed and shook her head.
"Please, do listen to everything they say, if you don't hear them out they can't do what's best for their…. People and our people,"
"I promise," Kyoko told Jerry with a smile, and held out her pinky. Jerry hooked her pinky with Kyoko's and that sealed their pinky promise.
"There, it's finished. You look beautiful Kyoko-Chan," Jerry told her with a smile.
"Thank you Oka-san (1)," Kyoko who also had a smile on her face replied.
"I think it's time for your entrances Jerry-sama and Kyoko-sama," one of the near-by maids informed them. Kyoko stood up from her chair and the two women went to the top of the stair case. Kyoko chuckled.
"What is it?" Jerry asked.
"There never is anything quite as classy as a stair entrance to a ballroom," Kyoko replied. Jerry's smile got wider, not only was Kyoko acting like herself again, but she was in fact already happy enough to be thinking about the princesses in all of her stories.
"Ready?" she asked, Kyoko nodded.
Sho smirked as he fiddled with the thick box shaped item wrapped in green wrapping paper with pink ribbons. Not only would Sho's gift be Kyoko's most favorite of all that she had ever received, but it would cheer her up from her lately sadness and there was no way that Ren could out do him this year! Every year Ren gave Kyoko his present first and it always seemed to outdo Sho's.
Kyoko loved faery tales, in fact she had a whole library, and it had every faery tale book ever made, except for two. There were two stories that they knew to be real, but no one had ever found a copy. There were in fact 4 of each these story books in existence. Sho had searched high and low for both of these books, and he had finally found one exactly a week before he had come to Yuuyake. He had found it in the one place he never once thought of searching, the rundown art studio in Taiyoo. He had wandered in there out of curiosity, after all in was one of the very few abandoned buildings in the kingdom. He walked through the art studio; for the most part it was pretty empty, with the exception of a few pencils and papers.
As he entered the last room in the back he found an easel. On the easel laid a thick and dusty book. He walked up to the book, picked it up and dusted it off. It was grey book which was fairly plain except for a butterfly, at first it seemed to be a monarch butterfly except it was blue instead of orange. Sho's eyes drifted to the title. There was no way. He read the title over several times but it didn't change. He had finally found it, The Butterfly by Shiki Mora.
Sho smirked. In his mind, there was just no way in hell Ren could win this year.
"Like I mentioned last year, and every year before, this isn't a competition, we are simply both giving Kyoko-Chan gifts that she will most likely enjoy. The only thing that matters is if Kyoko-Chan is happy or not," Ren explained to Sho, causing Sho's face to turn from confidence to shock. Was Ren a mind reader? "No I am not; you're saying your thoughts out loud again."
"Oh, but anyways that's what the loser says, to make his loss sound like it wasn't really one," Sho accused. Ren sighed and rolled his eyes. When he and Sho first met, for some reason Sho hated Ren. It's not as if Ren didn't try to get along with Sho; Sho just refused to get along with Ren or even believe that there was any way that Ren could possibly be just a nice guy who wanted to be friends.
"If this was in fact a competition, I can guarantee that I would win this year," Ren calmly answered Sho's quiet challenge. Sho's smirk got wider.
"Trust me, there is no possible way you could win this year," Sho proclaimed. Ren sighed, remembering arguing with Sho was just a lost cause; Sho was just too stubborn. The two men put on their masks, this year the theme to Kyoko's birthday was masquerade. Ren's dark grey mask went from the top of his forehead to just underneath his nose, mean while Sho's pale yellow mask was about two inch long with his eyes in the middle and the corners were rounded off. Finally both entered the ball room as a servant began to speak.
"Everyone," all eyes turned to the servant, "I present His and her majesty, Takarada Lory-sama and Jerry-sama," the servant announced, and on queue they descended the stairs. All eyes were on the king and queen as they slowly and gracefully walked down the stair case. A complete silence fell over the room, excluding the few whispers of admiration.
"I would like to thank you all for coming, especially those from other kingdoms, to celebrate our daughter, princess of Yuuyake, and future queen's 17th birthday. Now I present to you, your princess and our daughter, Takarada Kyoko-Chan,"
Kyoko began to walk down the stairs hastily but shockingly still gracefully. Kyoko was worried that she might trip down the stairs; she doubted that she would be seriously injured but it would make quite the embarrassing memory of her seventeenth birthday. On the outside she seemed perfectly fine to most, just like the happy little girl she used to be, but to those close to her it was as obvious as a rainbow and polka dotted angry owl that tried to eat your head that she was nervous about falling. After what felt to be a century to Kyoko, she finally reached the bottom of the stair case. She made a speech, thanking everyone for coming even though it possibly troubled some of them and so on.
Soon the ball got back to everyone either dancing or chatting and Kyoko put on her mask when no one was looking at her. Her purple mask was feathery and it simply went just around her eye then went across the top of the bridge of her nose to the other eye. A couple times from noble men to even young civilian children asked Kyoko to dance; to which she always happily accepted. Kyoko sighed leaning against the wall; it was a sigh of relief. She had a chance to not only take a break from dancing, but luckily enough her feeling about something big and dramatic feeling had not been proved correct.
Kyoko felt a tap on her shoulder, causing her to look up. It was Sho and Ren. Most people couldn't recognize
"Hey, I have your gift," Sho told her, handing her his large box. "You should open it, I'm sure Ren has a present for you too."
"Thanks," Kyoko thanked him with a smile.
"Open it,"
"Okay okay I'll open it." Kyoko began carefully ripping off the wrapping paper. Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "I-It's The Butterfly thank you Sho-kun!" She happily exclaimed and hugged Sho. Sho's smirk spread throughout his face.
"It's Your turn Ren," Sho said, trying to poke at Ren's pride, his tone saying that he just won. Ren put on a light smile, clearly telling Sho 'think again'.
"Here, I hope you like it," Ren told Kyoko handing her a box slightly thicker than Sho's gift and it had a red ribbon around the gift. Once again Kyoko carefully unwrapped the gift. Sho glared at Ren. Whatever Ren's gift was it was great enough to get a slightly better ration from Kyoko.
"Wow… Thank you Ren-kun! I can't believe it… wow… both of these, on one birthday… Immortal is the child by Yan Kau!" Kyoko exclaimed before hugging Ren. You guys are the best friends ever!" For some reason, when Kyoko said friends, both Ren in Sho had a sinking feeling in their stomach.
"Can I have this dance?" Sho and Ren asked in unison, and then glared at each other, both turned their heads back to where Kyoko was standing to try and ask again, only to notice that Kyoko was gone. Sho turned his head and began scanning the crowd.
"Looks like we both lost," Ren commented, motioning towards Kyoko dancing with Lory, then her next dance was with Kuu. The two men sighed, and then both walked off in separate directions, realizing they had no reason that forced them to stay within five feet of each other.
"Kyoko-Chan, I would like to introduce you to Yashiro Yukihito -san, he is the queen of the Yoosei Ōkoku's (Faery Kingdom) representative," Lory introduced Kyoko. The brown haired man seemed to be about 23, his brown eyes were hidden behind his glasses with oval shaped lenses and he wore a tuxedo. Kyoko's eyes widened.
"I-it's n-nice to meet you," Kyoko said bowing her head. "I'm T-
"Takarada Kyoko-san, It's a pleasure to meet you," The Man replied also bowing her head. "So Takarada-san or may I call you Kyoko-san? I've heard you are quite interested in faeries,"
"Kyoko is fine, and yes I am, there just so…" Kyoko began explaining and her eyes lit up as if- no it was- what was happening was her dream come true. She was speaking to a real faery! In her mind this was clearly the best birthday she had ever had by far. Yukihito smiled.
"I've heard that we can be interesting to most humans, but I've never really understood the fascination, although you humans are also very interesting to lots of faeries." Soon the two of them were chatting as if they had known each other their whole lives, explaining the ways of humans and the ways of faeries to the other.
"Um, Kyoko-san, Lory-sama told me that they told you about them not being your parents… I was wondering... are you interested in meeting your real mother? I know her, and she wanted to come here very badly, but some business got in the way… but if you want to hear my opinion on the matter, she's very nervous to meet you," he explained. Kyoko sighed.
"I… I guess I kind of would like to meet her, and I have things I would like to ask her but… "Kyoko trailed off, and then she shook her head. "No, she got rid of me, why would she want me back now?" she asked. Yukihito sighed.
"She wasn't trying to getting rid of you. She…"she was protecting you; he finished his sentence in his mind. "Listen, if you just meet her and speak with her you will understand, you should ask her yourself," he told her. Kyoko sighed once more then nodded.
"I guess I will meet her..."
"Yukihito-san, why is it that I am the one who always has to explain what you decide on your own to the Queen?" A tall male with black hair in a similar style to Yukihito's and he had red eyes and he also had glasses.
"Because it's part of your job Sebastian-san," he replied, just causing Sebastian to sigh. "Come on, I know that the queen is supposed to be asked beforehand if someone can come before they are invited, but you know that it will be a good think for Kyoko-san to meet her mother,"
"I hate you for making me do all of this extra paper work," he told Yukihito with a glare, only causing the other to smile.
"I knew you were curious to meet her,"
"No I am not interested in meeting a Kyoko, but I am interested in meeting someone raised by humans,"
"Liar, anyways I guess I will inform Saena- san about her daughter coming," he said.
"I knew it; you want to see the look on her face when you say her daughter is coming. Oh well, your lessening my work load. Go ahead."
To be continued
(1) Ok, the reason she calls Jerry her mother is because she was her mother figure for as long as she could remember. Also, from what I have noticed when someone is adopted after they are like 5 or 6 they usually call their guardians by name, but if it is before that usually they call them mother or father.
Nanami: Feel free to yell and scream at me for me taking so damn long to update. I checked; it has almost been four months since my last update.
