Masquerade
By Ekai Ungson
Please see previous chapters for the full disclaimer.
This fic is for Luna, in gratitude for created grace, beauty, and friendship.
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"Is there something bothering you, ojousama?"
"… No. There's nothing at all."
Fourteen: Void
"You can tell me about it, ojousama," said Miki. "I have been with you since you were but a baby. I know everything about you… and I know when you have too much in your heart that you are hiding."
"I don't love him," Tomoyo blurted out.
"Ah, but that much was easy enough to see," said the old housekeeper. "You love Hiiragizawa-sama."
Tomoyo looked away. "Yes. I do. Love Eriol. But… he betrayed me."
"And what does your heart say?"
"… That I would rather not live without him, despite his betrayal."
"Then ojousama, you know the answer."
Tomoyo shook her head. "No. I am in a contract with the Kourin duke. All of us are dependent on the fact that I must stay with him."
"But, ojousama—"
"I can't break my oath," Tomoyo said finally. "My love for Eriol does not matter. It doesn't seem like I matter to him anyway."
"How do you know that?"
"Because, Obaasan, if he loved me like he said he did—he'd have followed me here."
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It was on a gray day that silence fell upon the mansion—a painful heavy silence in the absence of a good man.
Daidouji Ken was dead.
He had died in his daughter's arms, his last breath dedicated to reassuring her.
"Everyone's time comes sooner or later, chiisa hana," he had said softly. "Mine is now. Be happy, my little flower. I will be with your mother now, watching over you forever."
And with that the Flame and the man who had conquered her were reunited.
The wake lasted three days, and on the dawn of the fourth day, amidst the rain and the sunrise, Tomoyo's father was buried beside his beloved wife.
Tomoyo threw a flower down to his coffin—a single red rose, a symbol of his undying love to her mother. At that moment she realized that she was free—free like the birds to fly with no obligations surrounding them.
And at that moment everything went black.
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"She's WHAT!" Obaasan Miki's yell reverberated throughout the mansion.
"Tomoyo-sama is with child," the doctor said. "All she needs is rest—she seems exhausted."
Mai looked at the elderly housekeeper as the doctor gathered his equipment and left. "It's not Kourin-san's, is it?"
Miki shook her head. "Impossible. Tomoyo-sama's child is most definitely…"
"Hiiragizawa-sama's?"
The housekeeper nodded.
"What are we going to do?"
"… Nothing, for now."
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"I'm WHAT?" Tomoyo asked.
"Pregnant, as it seems, Tomoyo-sama," Miki repeated. "The doctor we called in when you fainted at the burial said so."
Tomoyo breathed in. This was a problem. No… this was a miracle. An amazing, beautiful miracle. She was carrying Eriol's child.
"Tomoyo-sama?"
"… I don't want Kourin to know about this," she said with finality. "I want to tell him myself."
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Kourin Shinosuke reacted with all the calmness of a raging volcano as Tomoyo tried to reason with him.
"I have to break this off. It's not too late—you can still find someone else to marry you. You can find someone who's better than me, who can bear your children, who will not disgrace your name."
"No," he refused. "You're mine now, Kurotori. I paid for you."
Tomoyo backed up a step. The mania was burning bright in his eyes. Suddenly, she was scared.
"We're going through with the ball," Shinosuke said with a twisted smile on his face. "I want the whole world to know how happy I am at the birth of MY child."
Tomoyo's eyes widened. "What?"
"I'm not giving you up so you can go back to that Hiiragizawa, Tomoyo. You're mine."
Outside the door, Miki heard it all. She hurried away to find a pen and a piece of paper.
Later, she sent an errand boy to the house of Hiiragizawa Eriol.
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Invitations were sent out across the country to a masquerade ball to be hosted at the Daidouji mansion.
One of them made its way to Hiiragizawa Eriol.
It came with a letter.
Hiiragizawa-sama—
It would interest you to know that the child Daidouji-ojousama is carrying is not Kourin Shinosuke's.
It was not signed.
tsuzuku