Be very happy that I'm updating for I'm forsaking my precious read Harry Potter 7 time. Anyways, oh yes, finally a long chapter that didn't take to long to write! …Well, okay, maybe it kind of did. But it felt like a short time because of how rushed my past week was. Anyways, hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Kingdom Hearts series.
WALTZ OF THE DAMNED: Chapter Seven
X.o.X
'Was I dreaming?' I asked myself as I eyed my chamber with a tired stare. Rolling up my pants legs and catching sight of the scratches from Kairi's fencing, I grinned. "It was real…" Looking upward and closing my eyes, I murmured, "I really am a father…"
"What, young master? I didn't quite hear you." A maid asked, diverting my attention and quickening my heartbeat by several paces.
With a bit of a nervous laugh, I answered, "Oh, it's nothing. Just ranting out loud about my father; don't mind me."
Managing to fool her, she replied, "Ah; I see. Well, make sure you get up soon. You don't want to be late to lunch or else there will be even more reason for ranting."
Jumping out of bed, I replied, "I will." With a nod she left the room. Exhaling deeply in relief, I collapsed back onto the bed. 'Thank God she didn't hear me.' I stated; this time mentally so that I did not allow another mishap.
By the time I was done dressing and walked down to the entrance hall, it was time for lunch. While the kings chatted about recent events in the kingdom and the queens babbled about the latest fashions, Naminè and I did not speak a single word to each other. Instead we gave occasional awkward smiles to each other across the table. Seeing the servants walk in with plates of food caused us both to give sighs of relief. With the food, there was no excuse to not have a conversation.
Only allowing everyone several bites into their meals, Naminè's mother commented on her daughter's actions of picking at the food instead of eating it, "Eat up, dear. You don't want to lose weight; you've got to fit into that wedding gown on Saturday."
A piece of meat then managed to lodge itself in my throat. Throwing a bit of a coughing fit, I then repeated, "Saturday?" Squinting slightly at both of my parents, I asked, "And when were you planning on telling me this?"
"Today, dear." My mother answered in a firm tone, asking with a questioning stare, "You don't have a problem with the arrangements, do you?"
Feeling everyone's stares bore into me, I raised my hands up and exclaimed, "No, no! It's just that I would like to know the date of something as important as my own wedding ahead of time. I was only saying it seems a bit sudden."
Naminè then spoke quietly, "If you want to push the date back a little, it's fine with me."
Giving a grateful smile, I turned to her, "It's fine." She gave a small grin back, a flush upon her cheeks. I had to turn away from the guilt I felt. I was using her; there was no other way of putting it. I was using her to cover up my real romance from my parents and it was simply unfair. I loved her as a friend but she adored me in a way that I cannot return. That time our lips touched; I felt nothing at all, even though, in a way, I kind of wished that I would have. With Kairi, I got that tingling sensation before our lips manage to touch at all. I knew from the beginning that I could not love Naminè, but I hoped there at least would have been some sort of attraction. I mean, she's beautiful; angelic, even. But she just was not Kairi.
'Today's Monday…' I trailed off mentally, continuing to eat absentmindedly while the others chatted amongst themselves, 'So I'll plan for Kairi and me to be married on Wednesday. Then hopefully I'll find some way out of Saturday's event…' Occasionally nibbling on my food while I made plans in my head, I finally came to a decision.
Pushing the chair out, standing, and pushing it back in, I declared, "Excuse me, but I'm going to go into town."
Naminè's silverware immediately dropped from her hand, exclaiming, "Oh! Can I come, too?"
"Sorry, but I want it to be a surprise," I lied with a fake grin plastered upon my face. Then I moved towards my parents, asking them in a whisper, "You did purchase the rings already, I presume?"
Nodding, my mother replied, "It's taken care of."
"Good." I commented, then stood straight up again to announce, "Well, I'm off then." Exiting with a small wave to everyone, and seeing the pleasure on my parents' faces from how 'decent' I was acting brought a small scowl to my face once I turned around. The one time they're happy for me is the time where I'm telling lies.
I was going into town, yes, but certainly not for something to buy for Naminè. Instead, I was going to find the friar to make arrangements for my and Kairi's wedding. Then I'd return home for dinner, wait a couple of hours after dark, then I'd have to sneak into Kairi's room and walk back home again. 'Phew, the things I do for Kairi.' I sighed with a smile, 'I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow.' Walking into town did not take long nor feel tiring, but I knew by the time I made it back to the castle the exercise would start to take it's toll.
"Hello?" I called out as I entered the Friar's building. Walking a little farther and finding him at his desk, engulfed in the world of a book, I gave a light tap on the wall, "Erm, excuse me?"
Jumping a little, the friar closed his book and looked up at me, "I apologize for not being more alert."
"It's alright." With a small pause, I added, "You're Friar Ansem, correct?"
"Indeed," He nodded, then stood and asked, "And what may I do for you, young prince?"
Biting my lip for a moment, I replied, "Wedding arrangements, actually."
With a laugh at my nervous actions, he stated, "You needn't worry about that. The King and Queen have already visited here."
"I'm talking about a different wedding." I looked away, embarrassed because now I was going to have to admit all my sins to a holy man, "I don't love Princess Naminè; the wedding is merely a plan devised my parents. I can't live a lie for the rest of my life. I need arrangements for Wednesday so that I can marry the girl I truly love before it's too late."
Squinting his eyes a bit at my confession, he asked, "And who would this girl be?"
"…Princess Kairi." I held my breath.
His eyes widened in surprise first, but then he gave a small smirk, "Princess Kairi. Interesting, how very interesting that two born enemies would be come lovers."
Blinking, taken back by his reaction, I replied, "Y-yes. Ironic, isn't it?"
"Very much so." He closed his eyes in thought for a moment before walking back towards his desk. Sitting down and dipping a quill in ink, he looked up at me again, "You are sure you are ready to sacrifice your whole life to be with this princess?"
"Y-yes." I stuttered again; with each new subject, the words out of Friar Ansem's mouth would become more and more surprising.
Scratching something down on parchment, he stated, "The arrangements are made."
Watching him open up his book and begin to read again, I exclaimed, "Thank you!" Merely raising his hand in reply, I took that as a sign to leave. 'That was easier than I expected.' I commented mentally as I walked out into the daylight.
Wincing for a moment from the brightness, I continued on my way back home; a wide smile upon my face. During dinner no one questioned my jubilant attitude, assuming it was about the arranged wedding. Naminè even spoke quite a bit, overjoyed at my supposed reaction. Of course, that caused another pang of guilt to surface but nothing could bring me down at the moment. In fact, I was in so much of a daze that I almost simply strolled across the courtyard of Kairi's castle without looking for any signs of guards. Thank God I caught myself after a few steps.
Finally making it through the window without managing to kill myself, I found her to be sleeping. Kneeling beside her bed, I surveyed her crimson hair splayed across the pillow and the soft rise and fall of her breathing. I held in a gasp and blushed; silently thanking God for having her. Shaking off my thoughts, I remembered my goal to talk to her and reached out my hand to wake her. An inch away, I quietly retreated my hand.
'How can she look even more beautiful when she's sleeping?' I questioned with an amused smirk. Knowing I needed to talk to her, I finally began to try and wake her up. "Kairi," I called softly as I lightly shook her.
Closing her eyes tighter, she muttered, "Hmm…"
"Kairi, it's Sora."
Eyes shooting open, but squinting at my shadow red figure, she replied, "…Sora? What are you doing here?"
"Our wedding's going to be on this Wednesday…" I gave a pause, seeming like I was done with my explanation.
"Oh, that's nice…" Kairi smiled, closing her eyes and quickly drifting back to sleep.
Shaking her again, I asked, "Kairi. Did you hear what I just said?"
"Yes, our wedding is to--" She started in a groan, but quickly bolted upward as her mind comprehended the statement, "Wait. This Wednesday?"
I nodded, "Yes. My parents finally told me that Naminè and I are to be wed on Saturday. Well, it was really Naminè's parents that told me…But that's besides the point."
"What are you going to do about Saturday?" She asked worriedly, clutching her blanket with both hands.
"That's another thing I need to talk to you about…" I dragged out for as long as possible, "You see, I don't really intend of returning to my castle after Wednesday."
Her eyes widened immensely at this, "Sora, you can't possibly be planning on hiding in here--"
"I'm not." I interrupted.
"Then what--"
"That shack." I interjected yet again.
Kairi's eyes shone with worry in the moonlight, "But that man that saw us there…What if he still checks for us?"
"I highly doubt that. If he even did check on that shack, he would have given up by now; it's been quite a few months." I reassured her, adding, "And he was obviously drunk. He probably has no memory of where that was at all."
"I suppose…" She agreed, but still bit her lip.
Kissing her forehead, I apologized, "I'm sorry everything's happening so fast; I didn't want it to be like this." Placing a hand on her stomach, I continued, "And the shack is only temporary. You don't really think I was planning on raising a family in that thing, do you?"
Giggling, she replied, "No, not really."
Giving a smile and retreating my hand, I recited my plan, "I'll go into town tomorrow and buy some things to make the shack more comfortable. Give Riku some of your things in a knapsack or something like that and tell him to meet me."
"Alright." She answered, then gave a yawn.
Laughing as I stood, I commented, "Well, I guess I'd better go if I want to get anything accomplished tomorrow." I then whined, "Lucky you; you get to sleep in."
"Haha," She stuck her tongue out at me in response.
Swooping down to kiss her for a quick moment, I broke away with the comment, "You should know better than to do that around me." She rolled her eyes at me but still smiled. "You know you love it." I flashed a grin, kissing her cheek and adding, "Goodnight."
Lifting her head, she stared at me expectantly; I taking a moment before I realized I was suppose to lower my head back towards hers. Sharing another kiss, she repeated, "Goodnight." With a final wave, I retreated out and down the window.
After making my way back to my own castle, I was so exhausted that as soon as my head touched the pillow I was fast asleep. The next day I woke up near noon and decided I would just buy a snack in town instead of bothering to sit down and eat with my family and my supposed soon-to-be family. They held no objection of me going into town again; obviously expecting me to shower Naminè in gifts the day of the wedding. Their clueless-ness of the real situation almost made me laugh every time they mentioned Saturday.
On my way out the door towards town, my father hurried past me with a harsh whisper, "You are going to shatter that poor girl's heart."
Freezing in place and my mouth agape, by the time I had enough courage to face him he was already out of sight. 'So he knows…' I clenched my fists and let out a loud groan, 'But how?' Ignoring the various curious looks that the guards gave me, I continued on my way and on my thoughts, 'The only people that know are the friar, Riku, and most likely that friend of Kairi's. I would have noticed one of them arriving at our castle. Unless they came while I was talking to the friar, which would rule him out, or the during the time I was in Kairi's chamber, which was highly possible for anyone to have done.' I gave another sigh and kicked up dirt; a could of dust in my wake as I attempted to brighten my own mood, "Oh well, it won't matter in two days."
However, my mood stayed about the same as I traveled throughout the town to buy things for the old shack. Obviously I couldn't buy a mattress because I would have to drag it along the forest, so I had to buy soft material to create a make-shift bed. The merchants seemed to also think that I was going on a shopping spree for Naminè, which was fine with me because there was mostly no questioning.
Arriving at the shack with my supply of things, I could finally breathe air of relief when I spotted Riku. Dropping the last bags to the floor, I asked, "So, how've you been?"
"Fine," Beginning with his arms crossed and a serious expression, his lips cracked a smirk as he finished, "Except for I'm losing my swordsmanship skills due to lack of someone to challenge."
Laughing, I replied, "I'm sorry. I promise to challenge you sometime after all this attention is off me."
"Alright," He stood up straight and walked over to me, commenting as he place a hand on my shoulder, "Lucky man, you are."
Giving a small grin, I replied, "About as much as I can be." First pondering whether I should continue or not, I finally decided to keep talking, "For Kairi, I'm the luckiest man in the world. Every other aspect of my life, not so much."
Riku tilted his head with a raise of his eyebrow, "The baby?"
Eyes widening in shock that I forgot, I immediately threw up my hands and replied, "Oh, no! I'm lucky for the baby, too." I sighed and laughed a little too before replying, "It's still so new to me, you know?"
"I know how you feel." Riku nodded, crossing his arms again and closing his eyes as he laughed, "I'm still having trouble believing it myself." Receiving a raised eyebrow from me, he continued, "Kairi has always been like a younger sister to me. At first it was just a title from her father so that she wouldn't be paranoid of me following her around all the time but after all these years it feels like I actually am her older brother."
Nodding in response, I said, "Ah, I see."
"So you know what that means, do you?" Riku smirked again at my confused expression. Gripping the hilt of his word, he stated, "It means that if I ever hear anything about you hurting Kairi in any way, I'll have to kill you."
Giving a nervous laugh, I then replied, "Like I would want either to happen."
Laughing, he replied, "I know you wouldn't."
Glancing around the room for a moment and noticing the many unpacked bags, I commented, "Oh. I guess I need to start working on this."
Looking around the room himself, he replied, "I suppose I'd better be getting back, too. I left Kairi's things over there." His pointed finger diverted my eyes towards the corner to my right.
"Thank you," I answered as I walked past him towards the bags.
"And Sora," I whirled around to face him, he holding the door open to give his farewell, "Take care of her." With that, the door closed and cut-off any chance of me answering him.
Instead, I just replied to myself, "I will."
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful; I spent a few hours making the make-shift bed and chairs. The chairs were actually just logs piled up, so most likely I would be the only one using those and Kairi would just sit on the bed. Dinner was uneventful except for both sets of parents telling me that wedding planning was suppose to be tomorrow morning.
Getting little amount of sleep, I barely managed to make it through the wedding planning. With the rest of the day creeping by, I decided to attempt a nap and told a maid to wake me shortly before dinner. I of course ended up not getting any sleep. I was staring at the ceiling in thought when the maid had walked in, and I had thought I had several more hours to sleep. Then I was so anxious during dinner that I had to purposely eat very slow to not seem in a rush.
Finally, after all those years of waiting, it was time to sneak out of the castle and never return. I had the slightest guilt of betraying my parents but that was soon forgotten as I replayed my memories with them in my head. But most of all I felt guilty for making Kairi's life this way. I knew she wanted a big wedding with extravagant decorations and endless amounts of guests; or at least that's what she said a few years ago. Even if it wasn't the same now, I felt bad for being the one to ruin that dream.
I felt a little better after I saw her face; a glimmer of happiness in her eyes and smile that was obvious even in the poorly lit room. I didn't even notice the friar was there until he began talking, and even that was all a low rumble that I could not comprehend. And yet, somehow I managed to repeat the words that I was told. I also had to fight back the urge when I wanted to reach out and comfort Kairi so bad when she was tearing up as she read her words even though I knew they were tears of happiness. Friar Ansem finishing his speech and closing his book, I enveloped Kairi in a tight embrace; kissing her until I could breathe no more.
Taking a few moments to fix our cloaks and thank the friar, he warned, "Be careful."
"We will." I replied simply; giving Kairi a light push to continue forward. Studying Friar Ansem for a moment, it seemed impossible that he would possibly want to cause harm to either of us, but people would do anything for money and that included holy men.
"What was that about?" Kairi whispered curiously.
I shook my head, "It's nothing."
Placing my hand lightly at her back and leading her as we walked, she replied, "Okay…" With only the torch I held for light, the trip through the forest was very slow paced and caused both of us to jump from noises around us. After a few minutes of silence, Kairi started quietly, "Sora, you know how most wedding nights--"
"I know, it's fine." I looked back at her with a grin, "I've technically already had mine."
"And many times over." She added with a laugh and a shove, "You naughty boy."
Opening the door for her to go in the shack, I replied, "I'm a married man, now; you can't still call me a boy."
"Married to me," She replied, poking my chest, "which means I can call you whatever I like."
Raising an eyebrow and leaning closer to her face, I questioned, "Oh, really?"
Leaning towards me too, she retorted with a serious expression, "Yes, really." Staring each other in the eyes for a moment, we then both burst into laughter. I swiftly interrupted and took her lips for another kiss. Trailing down to her jaw line, I breathed against her neck, "I love you."
"I love you, too." She giggled her reply.
"We should probably get some sleep, now." I commented, raising my head up to look her in the eyes. She nodded, walking over to the bed and getting comfortable. Getting onto it myself, I noticed a slight discomfort of my back, "Sorry about the bed…I had to make it from scratch."
"It'll be fine." She answered, pressing her back against me; making me forget any discomfort I had before.
"Mm…" I sighed in pleasure and hoped she was as comfortable as I was, or else she would be complaining of back problems in the morning. Turning over to face me, she then buried her face in my chest. In return, I wrapped an arm around my new wife and held her tightly against me until I fell asleep.
