So this is the final installment of "my personal moon", and I just want to apologize for being snippy in the last author's note for those who saw it before it's removal. I'm afraid I've got a bad case of the the Yule tide grouchies (bah-humbug).I would humbly like to thank those who did comment and if you didn't that's fine too. I would also like to thank the anonymous poster for pointing out my snappishness in the first place. It really made me all warm and fuzzy and I saved the post in my email (in a non creepy way I swear!).
Any who, hope you enjoy and have a Happy New Year!
Following our passionate night, I found that the light of day was a very cruel thing, indeed. Washing away the dreams the night wove so lovingly. Breaking spells and revealing the cold, hard truth. Nothing remain of last night but her scent.
She had left before we could plan how to get around our inevitable separation. Did she have so little faith in me? Now I was left with the ghost of her presence and not a clue as to were she had gone. Fool that I was, I hadn't even asked her name in all the time we spent.
After a final search of the woods I begrudgingly went home to face my parents. From the looks on their faces they could smell her on me, so could everyone else for that matter, but I couldn't bring myself to care.
I locked myself in my rooms for a few days and refusing to come out or eat until mother threatened to break down the door and force feed me the nastiest medicine she could find, for I was obviously gravely ill.
I became very irritable and bitter toward other people. Even the my suitors had taken a hint after a few tongue lashings. Mother was not happy about this and I found myself arguing with her more and more often.
I visited our spot many times over the next month, hoping, praying I would see her bounding out of the trees with a bright smile from ear to ear. But she didn't. There was only the earth the sky and I.
Father came and hunted me down after mother threw a hissy fit about my absence from home. I was lethargic and disinterested in anything anyone had to say. I didn't smile or show any emotion for that matter. I pushed everyone away and wrapped myself in a cocoon of frosty indifference. Mother got tired of this very quickly, so she decided to arrange a marriage since she thought that that was the problem. I didn't care, and just followed through the motions so she'd leave me alone.
Since I had pretty much scared off all the petty females from before, mother had to search for another. She was pleased when the Eastern lord's brother-in-law sent a letter requesting that one of his youngest daughters be considered. They adamantly went about setting up a meeting between us and mother made me swear that I'd be polite to them. They weren't just court ladies or chieftain's daughter's, they were royalty aswell. It could cause civil unease if the western heir openly disrespected such close relatives of another lord.
Days passed and the dreaded day arrived. I sulked in the boughs of a sakura tree within the palace gardens while I watched the servants scurry this way and that. At about midday the hustle became an organized panic, meaning the house guests had arrived. Dignitaries didn't visit often, but when they did, mother all ways made sure to show our guests how powerful and prosperous the house of the moon still was. The proverbial red carpet was rolled out and the tiniest of details were seen to.
The sun wained in the sky and dinner time rolled around. A servant came to fetch me and I changed for dinner. I donned a white kimono with red patterning on the shoulders and sleaves. A yellow and blue sash belted it at my waist.
I strode to the formal dining area and paused outside the door, a familiar scent wafted from behind it, dragging with it the renewed hurt and confusion. It couldn't be, Could it?
My hand shook with the need to rip the door open and barge in, but I steadied myself and forced my agitated mood into submission. My mask encased my face and I was the picture of nobility once again.
I calmly opened the delicate, decorative rice paper door and stepped inside. My eyes swept the room and found its target. Sitting beside the girl I believed to be her younger sister, she sat with her head bowed and a resigned melancholy fouling her beautiful face. She looked like all the fire and spunk had been drained from her, leaving this hollow shell behind. A porcelain doll that would break with the slightest of touches.
I wanted to call to her, to get her attention, but I still didn't know her name. I just stood there, frozen with my jaw clenched, willing her to look up at me.
The others in the room seemed not to notice my inner turmoil. Mother introduced me with all the grandeur she could muster without sounding pretentious, and the woman stiffened.
Her nostrils flare as she scented the room and her eyes widened. She looked up slowly, as if she were afraid she'd be disappointed. Our eyes met and tears began to streak down her painted face.
On quiver lips she breathed my name so quietly it barely made a sound, like it was sticking in her stood and in a flurry of colored silks and leeped over the table, upsetting everyone's tea in the process.
I moved to meet her and caught her in my arms. She started to sink to the floor and my buckling knees made me follow her as well. She started to sob into my kimono, moistening the front. Her father spluttered angrily and roared at her to apologize for her actions while he made apologies of his own to his gaping hosts.
I would have been more concerned with what was going on had I not been preoccupied with getting the girl in my arms to stop crying. I gripped her to myself and tucked her head under my chin as I started to rock her. I felt a sense of calm wash over me as I clutched her to myself. She was right here, and nothing in this world was going to take her from me.
"I'm so sorry, Sesshomaru," she hiccuped, "I didn't know what else to do."
"It's alright," I said as I kissed her forehead, "we'll fix this."
With the new position, understanding dawned in the faces of our observers. Mother and father were taken aback, not sure whether to be happy or concerned with this development. Her sister had the most sour, shrew-like, pinched expression I'd ever seen, and I half wondered if it would stick. Her father's eyes were bulging out of his head and his face was starting to go from the red that he'd already built up to an interesting shade of purple.
"You," he hissed venomously, "You are the little scoundrel she's been running off to see, eh!? You ruffian. How dare you corrupt my daughter! How dare you defile her like some common whore!"
Anger burgeoned in my belly like a cauldron of fire, "I did nothing of the sort! I love her, and had every intention to make an honest woman out of her had she not fled."
"It doesn't change the fact of the matter," he sniffed, "you devalued her and there is nothing you can do to change that. She'll end up a useless old maid at this rate."
My eyes flashed and I held her tighter, "Is that all you think of your daughter as? A means to an end? You make me sick. And who says I don't want her still?"
"Who says I want you as a son-in-law," he growled back.
He really got to huffing and puffing now, and mother had to swoop in and take him aside to calm him down and sweet talk him. Father stayed and eyed us, a mixed look clouding his face. He let my anger simmer down before approaching us quietly.
"My son," he said seriously, "Is this what has fouled your temper as of late?"
"Yes, Sir," I answered.
"Hmm, she is quite beautiful," he mused, "But are you sure of this path? Is she someone to protect?"
He nodded to the figure nestled to my chest. Even with a clear mind I was resolute in where I stood.
"Yes," I answered, "with my life".
He flashed me a smile and clap a rough hand on my shoulder, "I am glad of this, Sesshomaru. Know that you have my blessing."
I held his eyes firmly, "Thank you, father."
Unsurprisingly, mother smoothed over things with her father and averted the civil calamity she'd so warned me about. I of course had to make amends with her father personally, who was a little too smug about the whole charade if you ask me, as well as pay her outrageous dowery. I didn't mind, I got what I wanted in the end. Once things were all said and done, we started to court properly and eventually wed.
It was an big outlandish affair with all the proper razzle dazzle befitting such an occasion, according to my dear mother. We sat and smiled and look the part through the mandatory bit, but we took off on a short holiday the moment we could. We spent a few months traveling Nippon before we decided it was time to come home. Mother was absolutely livid. I swore she was near the point where her skin would melt off her face and her hair would spontaneously combust. We got off fairly easy with a blustery conniption and temporary house arrest, but it was well worth it.
Many years have come and gone since then. We've raised a family, ruled a nation, fought, loved, laughed, and eventually grown old. I can't say we had a happily ever after, since my lovely wife enjoys nothing more than keeping me on my toes, but I'm glad for it. I wouldn't have it any other way.