Date Written: June 20, 2007
Kurogane: … Oi, wasn't this-?
Flo: Yes, now shut up.
Fai: But you promised your readers-
Flo: I'm still giving it to them, just in a different story.
Syaoran: But-
Flo: JUST SHUT UP AND READ!
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Rumpelstiltskin
There once was a miller, Fai, who was very poor, yet his daughter, Sakura, was more beautiful than any maiden in the land (of course). One day it happened that the miller met the king, Kurogane. In complete awe of the man's sexiness, Fai struck up a conversation with him. "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold," the miller said, trying to get the king's attention as he chased after him.
"Is that so?" said the king, stopping. Suddenly finding a way to maybe get this miller to stop stalking him, he continued, "Such a skill interests me greatly. Bring your daughter to the castle tomorrow and then we shall see what we shall see."
Once home, Fai told his daughter exactly what had happened with the king, or "Kuro-king" as he was known in that household, along with a few exaggerated details. However, they were no where near as bad as what he said he told Kuro-king Sakura could do.
"What?!" she squeaked. "B-But I can't spin straw into gold!"
"You can't?" Fai asked, completely shocked. "… Oh yeah, I adopted you so you don't have my magic genes… well, crap."
After a failed attempt at selflessly trying to give up his body for the king's own pleasure in exchange for his daughter's freedom, Sakura was led away from her father to a little room filled with straw by the king's son, Syaoran. He gave her a spinning wheel and a winder and said, "Now you must set to work quickly. If by dawn tomorrow this straw has not been spun into gold you will have to die." Right before he closed the door, he sadly gazed at the girl and prayed that she would be able to do it.
The girl heard a key turn in the lock. She was entirely alone and terrified, for she had not the least idea how straw could be spun into gold. The hours passed and it grew darker and darker, and at last she threw herself upon the straw, weeping for her life. Suddenly the door sprang open. Before her stood a tiny… thing. It was not even as tall as her waist. Well, more like mid-calf. Not even that high, actually. Anyway!
"Are you from the suicide hotline?" Sakura asked.
"No, even better!" the white ball of fluff answered. "I am from the Do Everything Manjuu Service! We provide our 108 secret techniques to others in need for a small price! My card." It proceeded to spit out a small card with the company's logo and owner (a lady with a large chest giving a thumbs up, approving the service). "So what is your problem, young girl? Why are you weeping?"
"I was told to spin gold out of straw and I don't know how to do it."
"What will you give me if I spin it for you?"
"You shall have my necklace," she said.
At this time, the little manjuu seated itself before the spinning wheel and began to work. The wheel whirred and sang all through the night and one by one the spools piled near it were filled with gold.
When the prince unlocked the door and saw the glittering gold, his mouth fell open in astonishment. "You… You did it!" he said and quickly went to hug the girl in congratulations. When taken in Prince Syaoran's arms, Sakura couldn't stop the blush creeping up her face and her stomach filled with butterflies. After a short while, Prince Syaoran realized how forward he was being and quickly (but reluctantly) backed away sputtering his apologies.
"N-No, it's okay!" Sakura told him. "I… I didn't mind at all."
Sadly, this moment was ruined by the girl's father rushing in and nearly tackling her with his hug. "Sakura!" he was wailing. "I am so sorry for all of this! They can kill... me?" When Fai had opened his eyes, he was more than shocked to see the room filled with gold.
The same went for the king standing in the doorway. He could have sworn that the idiot miller had been lying to him, yet it seemed he was wrong. However, he sensed a very strong magic coming from the miller himself and was suspicious of the blonde. It was possible that he had cast a spell to change the straw into the gold he saw before him. If that was the case, then he had to fix that and try it again.
"You did well," King Kurogane said. "Now let us see how much more gold you can spin for me tonight." He led her (his son and the miller following) to another room filled with straw and this one was much larger than the first. "If you value your life, you will spin it all by morning. And you!" He whirled around and pointed at a slightly panicking Fai.
"Yes?!" he quickly said, eyes darting around the straw filled room, obviously trying to think of something to get his daughter and himself out of this.
"You are to stay with me tonight in order to prevent you from doing any magic for your daughter."
Silence. Fai looked at his daughter, then to the king, back to his daughter, back to the king. He then grabbed his head and let out a frustrated cry. The perfect opportunity to get with the king of sexiness had just been lain out before him, but because he had stupidly put his daughter was in peril, he could in no way enjoy it. Life wasn't fair!
As the king dragged the miller away (to the miller's mixed delight), the prince stayed behind for a while with the miller's daughter.
"I'm sure you can do it," Syaoran said, a kind smile on his face. "You were able to last night, tonight shouldn't be any different, right?"
Sakura could only give a weak nod before he left her again, locking the door behind him. The prince's kind words gave Sakura a bit of strength and confidence, but she still had no more idea how to spin the straw into gold than she did the first time. That was when she remembered the card the little manjuu had given her the night before. She took it out of her apron pocket and found that there was writing on the back.
To summon one of our top employees, simply toss card into air and repeat the words written below. Thank you for choosing Do Everything Manjuu Service! We value you, the customer, above all else!
With a shrug, Sakura tossed the card into the air as instructed, and shouted, "Do Everything Manjuu Service! Release and dispel!"
Suddenly the door opened and the little manjuu appeared. "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold?" it demanded.
"The ring from my finger," she said without hesitation.
And so it began to work again at the spinning wheel, and by morning it was done. Not a piece of straw remained in the room, only spools and spools of gold.
That morning, the miller, prince, and king were again surprised that she was able to complete her task once again. As Prince Syaoran and Fai praised her on a job well done, King Kurogane was beginning to think that the miller had actually been telling the truth and his daughter could in fact spin straw into gold. The man hadn't done anything suspicious that night (not counting the constant teasing and many other unmentionable things that the king really wasn't too objective of), so that only left the girl alone.
However, King Kurogane thought while seeing the way his son looked at the girl, my son has been the one entrusted with the key to the chambers. He wouldn't dare disobey me… but just to be on the safe side.
He led the miller's daughter to a third room, far bigger than the first two and filled to the top with straw. "Tonight you must spin all this into gold. If you succeed, you shall marry my son."
"F-Father!" Prince Syaoran stuttered, his face a bright red along with Sakura's. "I, uh, I! I! I!"
"You what?"
"Sh-Shouldn't we ask first?"
"… You don't want to marry her?"
"N-No! I mean, no I do want to-AH! I…"
Before he could continue, Fai covered his mouth and looked to Sakura. "What do you think of this?"
From the hallway, some random sexist pig scoffed and said, "A WOMAN cannot decide such things!" before a sniper shot him. King Kurogane's kingdom had equal rights for all and accepted everybody!
But back to Sakura. The girl looked to her father, eyes wide as saucers and somehow managed an, "I-It sounds wonderful!" to which Prince Syaoran seemed to literally wilt at. King Kurogane took that opportunity to take the key from him to keep watch over it himself and led his son and the miller out of the room after the miller kissed his daughter and wished her luck.
Once she thought it to be safe, Sakura took the card out again, tossed it in the air, and shouted, "Do Everything Manjuu Service! Release and dispel!"
The little manjuu came again and said for the third time, "What will you give me if I spin the straw into gold for you?"
"I have nothing more I can give you," she answered, head down.
"Promise me your first child if you should marry the prince," the little manjuu said. "Yuuko loves babies!"
The maiden hesitated for a while, but then thought of the consequences for her and her father. Perhaps it might not even happen, she thought. And so she agreed. Without another word the little manjuu set to work, and soon all the straw was spun into gold. When the king came in and saw it, he married Sakura off to his son at once. Despite the rush of it all, the two were obviously happy and after surprisingly little pleading from the now princess of the land, Fai was allowed to stay and act as court magician. Now they were all one big happy family (even though the kind would strongly deny it).
About a year later a beautiful child was born to her. She had forgotten all about the little manjuu and their company's policy for payment, but she had made her promise and the very next day it was there in her room. "Ooooh! What a cute baby!" it said. "Gimme!"
Sakura was horrified and told the little manjuu it could have all the wealth of the kingdom if it would let her keep the child. But it cared nothing for riches. "We've already signed the verbal contract-"
"But how can you sign a verbal-?"
"-and the Do Everything Manjuu Service doesn't 'do everything' for free, ya' know. Yuuko would be very unhappy to find out someone broke such a contract. Words are very powerful!"
At this, Sakura got an idea. "If words are really as powerful as you say, then wouldn't names be even more powerful?"
"Yup! Sakura-chan is very smart!"
"Thank you! Daddy says that, too! But since names are more powerful, how about we make a deal?" The little manjuu leaned in closer as the princess continued. "You give me three days to guess your name. If I guess correctly, I keep my child. But if I don't, then Watanuki is yours." (1)
During the night the princess remembered all the names she had ever known, wrote them down and even sent a messenger into the countryside to discover what other names there were. When the little manjuu appeared the next day, she began to call them out one by one. "Are you Caspar? Are you Melchior? Are you Balzer?"
But each time it only shook its head/entire body and said, "No, that is not my name."
On the second day, Fai told his daughter the most strange and unusual names from the farthest parts of the kingdom (to which King Kurogane began to wonder if he was making them up). "Perhaps your name is Cowribs?" she said to the little manjuu when it came. "Perhaps it is Spindleshanks? Perhaps it is Laclegs?"
"No, that is not my name," it said again and again, and now only one day remained. Sakura was beginning to panic.
The next morning, Prince Syaoran returned to the palace, riding hard. "I have found no more names," he told his wife. "But as I came to a high mountain at the end of the forest, I saw a little company building with a fire burning in front and around it a strange little manjuu was hopping on one leg and singing:
Today I bake, tomorrow I brew,
The next the girl's child Yuuko will claim.
Lucky it is that no one knows
That Rumpelstiltskin is my name.
Sakura squealed with delight at this and flung her arms around her husband, she was so grateful for that name. Soon afterward the little manjuu came back and asked, "Now what names have you for me today?"
"Is your name Klaus?" she said.
"No."
"Is it Heinz?"
"No."
"Is it perhaps… Rumpelstiltskin?"
"AH! Rumpelstiltskin is found out!" screamed the little manjuu. "That was a fun game! Let's play again!"
"You still can't have my baby!" Sakura was beginning to get rather frustrated with all of this. Really, she had to have a near heart attack three nights in a row with the whole "spin straw into gold" thing, was married, got pregnant not three months later, and then right after she gave birth was threatened to have her baby taken away from her! She was getting sick of this.
"I know, I know! But maybe somebody else can play? That king looked like fun! OH! I can have him turned into a beast and if he doesn't guess my name, he stays like that forever until someone can love him despite his ungliness!"
Before Sakura could say anything, the little manjuu, Rumplestiltskin, was hopping down the hallway. She stood there for a while, dumbfounded, until Watanuki began to cry. Then it was the farthest thing from her mind except when she saw a white blur and her father in law run past.
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1.) I couldn't help myself! Hm, I suppose that could be a theory as to who Watanuki's parents are (Ooooh! I just read the spoilers for the next chapter and I think we're getting there!), but I doubt it. Don't take me seriously.
A/N: … Wow. I don't know this came from! It's like, the same PLOT as Rumplestiltskin what with the whole spinning straw into gold and having to guess the thing's name, but really… way off. But that's a good thing. Hope you liked the SakuSyao fluff! I thought it to be okay seeing how I don't really write it. But I hope I can make a chapter with it in my collection of one shot fluffs!
Finally, I actually made this two pages longer than it originally was. Be happy.
Next Chapter! No more of this (meaning announcing the next chapter). Cinderella might take a while, it's not that easy to cast everyone and make it humorous (shocking, I know). So no more of this "next chapter" business. Still taking suggestions, though! Like I want to do this one a reviewer suggested… can't remember what, I'll have to check.
