Sakuchii: I'm back! I'm finally back with another chapter of PxP!

Aiko: Hope you guys enjoy the chapter! Our author is so tired that... geh...

Yukiko: Even we are not the in the mood to say anything...

Sakuchii: And I own nothing expect these fingers of mine! :D

Chapter Thirteen: The Old Fairytale – Korishabetto

The young fake crown prince wandered around the palace, trying to kill some time. Hitomi was in a meeting and Shirou had been left all alone. He had decided to look around the palace so that he would know it better. After all, it was a rare chance to get inside the palace.

After hours of walking the boy was getting tired and he decided to head back to his room. He knew very well, that Hitomi wouldn't like if she found him walking around. Indeed, she had told him not to leave his room when she wasn't around.

"Good evening, Fubuki-sama," the gray-haired male heard a voice greeting him. When he turned around, he saw Hitomi's older brother Akira smiling at him. Sayaka was standing next to her butler and glanced at the crown prince.

Shirou nodded to greet the butler; he had learned that he should not speak to maids and butlers unless he needed something from them. And greeting was done by nodding ones head.

"It's rare to see you without Hito-chan," Sayaka grinned, taking few steps ahead. She nodded lightly while curtsying and Shirou answered to her with a nod.

"Anami-san is currently in a meeting so I didn't want to bother her." Shirou answered kindly and Sayaka's eyes widened in disbelieve. Never had she seen the prince acting so kind. Sayaka glanced at Akira while raising her eyebrow and the butler shrugged. He too wasn't sure what had happened to the prince.

"I… I see.." the noble girl stammered, turning back to Shirou. She wasn't sure at all how she was supposed to react to the sudden change of the prince's behavior. It seemed that Hitomi wasn't making a huge number out of it, so she decided to do the same. To tell the truth she liked this kind Atsuya more than that rebellious and self-centered bastard.

"Then should we go?" Sayaka asked from Akira, as she was getting tired. Right now she wanted to take a refreshing herb bath and relax a little. Taking violin lessons for six hours a day was tiring. Akira smiled and offered his hand to his master. Sayaka blushed while taking his hand and they walked past Shirou.

The young prince waited for them to pass him and was about head towards his room. He could only take a step ahead, when he suddenly saw something sharp and long flying past him and then hitting the wall. The boy was so surprised and caught off guard that he fell down, his eyes widened from shock.

Sayaka turned around when she heard and a loud voice of someone falling down. When she saw the scenario of Shirou laying down on the floor and an arrow sticking out the wall, she screamed. This made Akira to react and when turned around and saw the crown prince, he immediately ran to him.

"Are you okay?" Akira asked while kneeling to help the crown prince and then looked around, searching where the arrow was shot from. He couldn't see anyone in the direction, the person had managed escape fast.

"Wha- Wha-?" Sayaka stammered as she stood next to Akira, her whole body trembling from fear. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. This clearly had been an assassination of the crown prince and she had seen it with her own eyes. How could this possible happen and in the royal palace too? Who could be after the life of the crown prince?

"What has happened, here?" Shirou, Sayaka and Akira heard a voice asking when Akira was helping Shirou back on his legs. Hitomi walked - more like dashed – towards the trio with worried look on her face. "I was just heading towards Atsuya-sama's room when I suddenly heard someone screaming so I rushed here. Mind someone please explain me what exactly had happened here?" the girl asked and Akira stared at her. Hitomi didn't like the look in his eyes. She kept waiting for the answer.

Akira took a deep breath and then exhaled. He once more turned his glance to his younger sister and stared straight into her maroon colored orbs. "Someone is after the prince's life." he told simply and Hitomi's glance changed immediately to Shirou. She stared at the boy and noticed that he looked fine, expect for the terrified look on his face. Finally, she noticed the arrow that was on hanging on the wall.

Hitomi's eyes widened and she took hold of Shirou's arm. She was about to go, but first turned towards her brother, "Take the arrow and don't tell anyone what just happened. No one should know that someone is after prince's life. I don't want worry them, especially his Majesty." Hitomi told and Akira nodded while taking the arrow and cut it half. He then wrapped his hand around Sayaka and took the terrified girl to her room.

"Follow me," Hitomi told to Shirou and the boy slowly raised his head and looked at the girl with gentle look. She knew very well that he was scared, who wouldn't after being targeted by an assassin. She then smiled lightly at the boy and did something she as a personal maid shouldn't have. She took the boys hand and led him to his room.

Hitomi knew very well that she shouldn't let her personal feelings get before her position, but she hoped that her dead parents would forgive her this time. She just couldn't leave the poor pauper-prince alone. Had it been Atsuya, she wouldn't have acted this way, after all the pink-haired boy had been trained from any sneak attacks since he was little. But this boy, he didn't know what it meant to be a part of royal family he didn't know that people were after his life. She felt bad for him.

As Hitomi closed the door to crown princes' room, she exhaled loudly. Turning her glance to Shirou she took few steps ahead and then started to speak in serious tone. "I really didn't plan on holding you lesson now, but hearing his Majesty's words and seeing what happened today… I guess you leave me with no other choice." the girl told and Shirou tilted his head, not getting her.

"It's about time I told you about the old fairytale of Snow Kingdom. The fairytale that tells the history of Snow Kingdom… Korishabetto."

-OO-

"I'm so glad to see that you're doing fine, Tsukina-san. It's been six years." Yukiko curtsied. Tsukina stared at the girl, disbelieve written all over her face as Osamu helped her to her seat. She sat down, stammering. "How..."

"Do I know your name?" Yukiko interrupted her while raising her eyebrow. She then smiled kindly, "Even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me," she took a gulp from her tea and stared straight into Tsukina's lavender colored eyes. The black haired girl avoided her glance by lowering her head.

There was a moment of silence, but Yukiko broke it quickly as she hated those moments more than anything. "Nee-san should be here at any moment, so we will then do what you came here for. After that we would like you to listen to our request." the indigo-haired girl told and Tsukina nodded her head. She didn't feel herself comfortable sitting with a person who claimed that she knew her, but she had to bear with it. After all she wanted to know about her future, as ridiculous as it might sound.

Being left all alone, Shirou had abandoned her and now she didn't know what she should do next. She had come to the fortunetelling shop in hopes that she would find her new way, but she wasn't sure about the things anymore.

"We're back," they suddenly heard a voice speaking. Yukiko already turned towards the front door in hopes that her sister had arrived, but was deeply disappointed when she saw Aoi Yuuya walking in together with Kazemaru. She pouted hard and glared at Yuuya with the corner of her eyes.

Yuuya noticed her glace and raised his eyebrow, "Why such grumpy look, it looks as if you didn't want to see me?" he smirked which made Yukiko to cross her arms in anger. She turned away from Yuuya and murmured. "Your face is the last thing I wanted to see…"

Yuuya sighed and then glanced at Kazemaru, "Women… they're so complicated human beings." he joked while laughing hard and Kazemaru sweat dropped. Tsukina laughed desperately. She was amused how close these people were with each other. Their relationship reminded her of the one she had with Shirou. Tsukina sighed. Once more she was thinking about that dead person, even though she wanted to forget him. But that wouldn't be so easy at all.

"Nee-san, she sure is late…" Yukiko sighed as she placed the tea cup on the table being done with her evening tea. She glanced at Tsukina and then at the two kids who were playing happily with Osamu. She smiled happily, now that Midorikawa and Hiroto had found their partners those two were the only ones left. "I hope that we will find them soon…" she mumbled to herself.

All of a sudden a huge light appeared before Yukiko and Tsukina almost blinding them, followed by small tornado. The girls closed their eyes of the sudden light and wind, "What's going on?" Tsukina yelled. Haruya and Fuusuke quickly climbed into Osamu's lap and the older male hid them. Yukiko tried to squint her eyes, but it was useless, the light was too strong.

Finally, the wind stopped and the light faded away. They all heard a loud crack of wood breaking down and then a frustrated voice yelled, "And this is your idea of save transportation? I thought that I was going to die!" Yukiko saw Mai sitting on top of the broken table, which had now scattered into little pieces.

"Ah, I thought that I could use teleportation well… But it seems that Mido-chan is the only one who has mastered it… and so it seems that we were randomly teleported here." the indigo haired girl laughed under Mai and received a deadly glare from the girl on top of her. "Thank god we even got here, what if we were teleported somewhere else?" Mai sighed and stood up.

She only now realized that she was in the middle of a disaster, the table being scattered around the living room with the cups and other things that had been on it. Mai looked around her and stopped when her eyes met up with Yukiko's. "Ah, Yukiko-chan." she could only say and the indigo-haired girl gulped loudly.

"Yuki-chii just perfect! Help me up!" Mai heard Aiko's voice under her and realized that she was standing on top of the indigo-haired sorceress. Mai quickly walked away and Yukiko helped her older sister up. When Aiko was standing on her two feet she wiped the dust from her cloak and then turned to her younger sister. "So did anything happen while we were away?" she asked.

"The Spy arrived," Yukiko told without any further explanations. Aiko's eyes widened and she looked around the room, her glance finally stopping at Tsukina. "Yamashita Tsukina, we've been waiting for your arrive." Aiko bowed and then took of her hood, revealing her indigo colored hair and amber eyes and the three scars on her right cheek. Tsukina nodded lightly, not knowing what else to do.

"Then, shall we take a look at your future?" Yukiko smiled at Tsukina, offering her to sit down on the chair that had somehow survived the little tornado. Aiko glanced at Yukiko while raising her eyebrow and the twins changed few strange glances. Yuuya guessed that they were using Aiko's telepathy since the older twin needed more info.

Finally Aiko opened her eyes and then walked to Tsukina. Yukiko did the same and she then took hold of Tsukina's hands and closed her eyes. All of sudden a fire-red aura started to grow around her.

Mai walked to Yuuya and whispered, "What is she doing?" Yuuya glanced at the girl and then smirked. "Those two are specialized in fortunetelling, but first they need to know the persons past. And that's Yukiko's specialty." the boy told and Mai turned to look at the indigo-haired girl. Mages sure were awesome people, so different from normal human.

The aura around Yukiko started to fade away and she opened her eyes. "Yamashita Tsukina, 16. Being taken away from your home as a little baby, you don't know the place of your origin. That is why you've been travelling around the world to find clues about yourself. Because of this you even had to leave the person who is really dear to you, like a brother. You just came back from your latest trip and got shocked to know that he's no longer with you." Yukiko explained Tsukina's past in short details and the black haired girl was surprised. How could she know so much about her? Who were these people?

"And now for your future," Aiko smiled happily and took hold of Tsukina's hand and with her free hand she took hold of Yukikos hand. Yukiko glanced at her older sister and the girls nodded. They then closed their eyes and fire-red aura surrounded Yukiko while Aiko was surrounded by icy-blue one.

"Look closely, this is their fortunetelling," Yuuya whispered to Mai and Kazemaru and the couple stared at the twins, not daring to even blink their eyes or breath.

"Father, the power you gave to us,
we will always treasure it.
Mother, the sacrifice you made for us,
we will always remember it.
Brother, you're dear to us,
don't ever forget it.
Now, we ask for you to help us,
and show this girls future!"

The girls were surrounded by mixed colors of icy-blue and fire-red. Tsukina stared at the two girls standing before her and she completely forgot her reason to come to the shop in the first place. She had wanted to know her future, but she couldn't have guessed that it would be done this way.

The aura faded away and Aiko opened her eyes, "Okay, it's done." she smiled happily letting go of Tsukina's hand. The black haired girl stood up and looked at the sorceress. "So, what did you see?" she was curious what kind of obvious lie these two would make up for her. Though, they past had been current… Well, Yukiko did mention about them knowing each other so it was possible that they also knew about her past.

Aiko turned around and giggled while speaking to the older girl. "How should put this…? You will soon see the dear one you thought you would never see. And you will be quite surprised about who he actually is." the indigo-haired girl explained and then turned to her younger sister, hoping that Yukiko would continue.

"Also, you will know about your real family and who you really are." Yukiko smiled and Tsukina fell on her knees. She covered her head with her hands, tears rolling down her cheeks and mumbled, "Are you kidding me?" Yukiko and Aiko turned to her with questioned looks.

"I've been searching for my root from a very young age and still know nothing about my real family. And now you're telling me that I will finally know who I am…" she mumbled, kept a short pause and continued. "And Shirou… How the hell I'm supposed to meet a dead person?"

Aiko's eyes widened but then she walked to Tsukina, "There is such thing as timing. Maybe you weren't supposed to know about your family till know. And what comes to Shiro-chii… why are you so sure that he's dead? Have you seen his body?" the girl asked and Tsukina raised her head. She sniffed few times and then stood up, her body shaking.

"How do you know… what are you guys?" the black haired girl asked. She wasn't sure what was going anymore. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to come to the fortunetelling shop.

"We are mages," Aiko told bluntly and Tsukina's jaw dropped. She tried to come up with something to say, but she was too stunned to speak. Where there even mages in this world? She had heard of them during her trips, but she had always thought that they lived in isolated county and were completely different looking species from humans.

"And with this, we have finally come to our request," Yukiko suddenly spoke and Tsukina turned to look at the younger twins. Right, she had promised to listen to the twins' request. She wanted more specific information about her future, but it had to wait for little longer. "We need your help, Yamashita Tsukina, Spy." Yukiko told in serious tone while turning towards the black haired girl.
"How can I possibly help you?" Tsukina asked. She didn't understand just why did mages need help from her? What could she possible that they couldn't?

"Have you ever heard of Korishabetto?" Aiko asked and Tsukina's eyes widened slightly. Somehow, that name sounded frankly familiar. "It's the historic tale of Snow Kingdom," they suddenly heard Mai speaking and the indigo haired twins smiled, "BINGO!"

"But what does it have to do with anything?" Kazemaru was curious. Why were they bringing up that old tale? Yuuya, who was standing next to Kazemaru, suddenly spoke before Aiko and Yukiko had the chance. "I don't if you people know it, but that tale is a real story not just some made up fiction." From Mai's and Kazemaru's stunned looks he got that they didn't know it was based on real people.

"Korishabetto actually plays quite big role in our mission," Aiko laughed and Yukiko continued after her, "I'm sure most of you know the story already, but let me refresh your memories little," the indigo haired girl smiled.

-OO-

"So listen to me closely, since I will not explain this to you a send time," Hitomi told to Shirou as she walked around the room while holding a heavy looking novel in her hand. She then placed it on the table before Shirou and glanced at the boy.

"Korishabetto is an old fairytale of Snow Kingdom, but it is also a historic tale." the girl explained and then turned away from the gray-haired boy. "Being written over five hundred years ago by certain Enoe Nobuyuki, the story tells about the royal family of the Snow Kingdom." the maroon eyed girl kept a short pause.

"The young prince of Snow had an illness that even the most genius doctors couldn't cure. He was sent to Excaty, the country of mages, so that they would cure him. There he met a sorceress who took after him and fell in love with her. After his illness was cured, on his 16th birthday he asked her to be his wife."

"And what did she answer?" Shirou was getting curious of the girls story. He really loved listening to stories. Tsukina would always tell him something about her trips around the world. Hitomi glanced at the boy, "She accepted his propose, and they married each other." the girl smiled and Shirou couldn't stop his smile either. He was so relieved to know that they ended up together.

"But a relationship between mage and human is forbidden. And the royal family came to know this when the Queen gave birth to baby boys." the girl explained and Shirou wanted to ask what happened, but Hitomi was faster. "The Queen lost her life right after giving birth and the two babies were born with cursed fates. The older would unconsciously infect people by deadly illness and his younger brother had the ability to cure people just being around them."

"The older brother was taken to Excaty as soon as he was born and the younger one lived his life in the palace, being the only child. He didn't know that he had a brother. No one in the kingdom knew that the Queen had given birth to twins. That was the secret of royal birth room." Hitomi told and Shirou nodded. He was sad that things had to turn that way for the royal family.

"What brought more trouble for the royal family, was a good friend of the Queen, who had crush on her. He was extremely angry when he heard that she would marry a prince and his anger grew ever more when he heard that she died while giving birth to son's of mere human." the cinnamon haired girl told and Shirou flinched. He wasn't expecting such thing happening. "What did he do?"

Hitomi closed her eyes and exhaled, "He tried to kill the two princes, after all they were the reason why he lost his loved one." the girl told and Shirou's face saddened. Why such turn over? Why couldn't people be happy? "Though, he was stopped by his former friends, who were the stronger mages of Excaty. He lost great amount of magical power and it took years for him to restore his powers. In our years it would be around six." Shirou wondered if that really was so long, but didn't want to interrupt the maid.

"Then what happened to him and the princes?"

"The younger brother fell in love with his personal maid. And what comes to the older brother, he lost his memory in the great war of mages and somehow wondered all the way to Snow's capital Yukidamura. There he found a pauper girl and fell in love with her. By this time they were nearly sixteen, and well the old enemy was back for revenge." Hitomi sighed and took the book that was on the table. She placed it back on the bookcase and Shirou tilted his head, not really understanding her actions.

"How does the book end?" the gray-haired boy was curious. He didn't get, why the girl told him all this and then left out the most important thing. Hitomi showed; what it seemed to Shirou; a miserable smile and closed her eyes. "If you want to know then you should read it."

She was now sure of it. At first she had doubted, but after hearing the kings' words she was sure of it. The history was repeating itself.

-OO-

"He's finally asleep," Atsuya heard Ohiyoko whispering as she walked down the stairs. The boy who was sitting on the couch in the living room reading a book, took his glance of the book and turned to Ohiyoko while smiling.

"It's been a long day, huh?" the pink haired boy said when Ohiyoko sat next to him. The girl nodded her head and then spoke, "It surely has been. I've never seen Akira crying so much, he really loved Okaa-san." Atsuya heard Ohiyoko's weak voice trembling as the girl did her best not to cry.

Not knowing what to do, the prince wrapped his hands around Ohiyoko and let the girl to lay her head on his chest. Ohiyoko took hold of Atsuya's shirt and sobbed, "It hurts Atsuya-kun. It hurst…" the girl once more broke into tears and Atsuya tried his best to comfort her. It hurt for him too, to see the person he loved crying.

"Don't worry Ko-chan, I'm here for you. Everything will surely be alright." Atsuya comforted the ivory-haired girl as he gently caressed her head. The ivory-haired girl kept sobbing while embracing him. He embraced her back and gentry assured that everything would be alright. Soon, Ohiyoko's trembling weakened.

"I'm sorry," the girl apologized while drying her red eyes. Atsuya smiled kindly and placed his hand on Ohiyoko's cheek. "Don't mind it. I will always be there for you whenever you're in trouble." he smiled, making Ohiyoko to fluster and she turned away from the boy while mumbling something, which Atsuya wasn't able to put into words.

"You jerk," he suddenly heard two words from the girl and couldn't help but to chuckle. "It's getting late already, so we better head to beds now." the boy told, as he felt himself tired from everything that had happened. But he knew that Ohiyoko was even more tired. No one could take lightly the dead of their parent.

Ohiyoko agreed with the boy and was about stand up when she suddenly noticed the book that was on the table. "That…" her eyes widened and she reached for it. Atsuya turned to look at the girl gazed look and then spoke, "Oh, I found it in my room. It's quite rare for peasants to have any books." he stated and Ohiyoko turned to him.

"That book…" her eyes wandered around the room while avoid Atsuya's glance and the boy raised his eyebrow. He didn't get why the girl was so nervous. "Actually… We have that book because Dad once used to work in the royal palace." Atsuya gasped and he turned to the girl with widened eyes.

"What did you- say?" he stammered amazed, making Ohiyoko even more uncomfortable and the girl sighed loudly. Atsuya didn't get it. How a peasant could have worked in the palace and moreover what made them to lose their status?

"I…" Ohiyoko tried to come up with something, but as she didn't know what to say she sat next to Atsuya. "Korishabetto," the girl read aloud while sliding her finger on top of the books' cover. "This is the only thing that's left from the time when dad was working in the palace." the girl told and then turned to Atsuya.

"You can read?" the boy was amazed more about the fact that the girl was able to read than that her father had worked in the palace. Ohiyoko smiled kindly and answered, "I learned only the basic when I was small." she told and then turned her glance back to the book.

"Back then, dad was still working in the royal palace," the girl continued and stood up. Atsuya followed the girl closely with his eyes and waited as she walked to the kitchen. When she returned back, she had a familiar looking knife in her hands. Atsuya's eyes widened when he saw the familiar pattern of royal family combined with a cherry blossom pattern. He raised his head to look at the ivory-haired girl.

"This knife was given to father by the king himself, or so dad has told us. I wouldn't believe it, if it didn't have the royal crest on it… and if I didn't have any memories from when we were living in the palace." the girl told and then sat down, giving the knife to Atsuya. The young prince studied the knife and was assured that it's wasn't a copy.

"But why did you get kicked out? And how you ended up as peasants?" the crown prince asked. Ohiyoko smiled weakly and sighed, "I don't remember it clearly, but six years ago when dad returned from his trip together with the King, His Majesty suddenly fell ill and couldn't move his body anymore. Father's situation was the same. Mother was also sick, and suddenly a strange man appeared and kicked us out of the palace. With no money or anything, we were driven here. Father died soon after we were kicked out leaving me with only mother and Akira." Ohiyoko told the long story as short as she could.

"Akira was still small so he doesn't know about it. I've told him that dad went to drink often and played with women and that's why we were left with no money. This way I will protect him from knowing that we are actually noble family." the girl continued with dark face and Atsuya's mouth dropped down.

The girl was living in lies. Getting kicked out of the palace, lying about her father, and now even losing her mother, things were surely harsh on her. "Do you…" the boy gulped as he tried to put his question into words. Ohiyoko turned to him and the boy stammered. "Do you remember anything about the man you kicked you out?" he did have a thought of who it could be but he first needed the girl to remember.

The ivory haired girl thought about it for a while and then spoke, "I don't remember his appearance, but his name had something to do with wolf." With this Atsuya was sure that it was Ookami Akemi. From what Ohiyoko had told him, it seemed that her father had been in good terms with the King. Akemi must have wanted to remove all the rivals for the control and used Ohiyoko's fathers' sickness to kick him out of the palace.

He was now getting a bigger picture of everything, but still he couldn't understand one thing. If the girl and her family had lived in the palace for the first ten years of her life, then how come he couldn't remember her or her family at all? Even the name "Konoe" didn't ring a bell at all. Atsuya glanced at the girl and tried to think of satisfying solution, but his mind was so tired that he couldn't come up with anything.

Standing up from the couch, the boy spoke, "Maybe we should get some sleep now? We can continue tomorrow with refreshed minds." he told and was about to head back to his room. Ohiyoko's words stopped him in the middle way.

"Umm… Atsuya?" the girl asked quietly and the crown prince turned to look at her. She kept a short pause and then started, "Can you please tell me how the book ends? I have tried to read it, but with my skills it's impossible…" Atsuya's eyes glazed and he turned away from the girl. Taking few steps ahead he finally spoke in cold-blooded tone. Having read the ending quite many times, he remembered it maybe little too well.

"The four main characters… They all die in the end."

-OO-

"And that's pretty much what happened back in the old days." Aiko sat down as she had finally explained the whole story of Snow Kingdoms past to Tsukina. The older girl stared at the twins with widened eyes, catching some air and trying to find something to sit on.

"And the history has repeated itself once again. The king fell in love with a mage from Excaty, or Chaos to be more precise and they got married." Yukiko smiled and Tsukina's turned to the girl, disbelieve written all
"Soon the twins, Fubuki Shirou and Fubuki Atsuya II were born into this world. Being the older one, Shirou was sent to Excaty and lived there for ten years. Atsuya lived normal life in the palace." Aiko continued after her sister and then Yukiko took over her, "But six years ago was the great war of mages and all the mages' from Chaos died. Only we, the direct children of those powerful mages managed to survive, but we too had our own consequences."

Tsukina shook her head while trying to block the story they were telling her. She didn't need it… she wouldn't believe such obvious crap. Was she really supposed to buy all those lies? Was she supposed to believe that Shirou was actually crown prince and that he was cursed by some old fairytale?

Mai glanced at Tsukina and then turned to the Okazaki twins, "But if the history is repeating itself then wouldn't this all end like in the book? Will they all die?" her eyes got wet just by the idea of the crown princes' dying and she quickly took hold of Kazemaru's hand. The blue haired boy smiled at her gently and wrapped his arms around Mai to comfort the girl.

Aiko glanced at the black haired girl while lowering her glance. "Actually we don't know what will happen from now on." she told and glanced at her younger sister. "We changed the original flow of the story by taking Shirou into the palace while Atsuya became the poor pauper." Yukiko told and then sighed, "I hope that the story will change and that even someone of them is able to survive." she put on a forced smile. Mai knew that they were hiding something from them. She clearly wasn't telling everything she knew.

"I'm not going to buy this crap," they all heard Tsukina mumbling and turned their heads towards the black haired girl. Tears rolling down her cheeks, she stood up and walked to Aiko. "Why are you all telling me these lies? It's hard enough to know that I will never see Shirou again, but… but… now you have to tell me all these made up stories about legends and fairytales… WHY?"

Aiko's eyes widened when Tsukina broke into tears and buried her head on the indigo-haired girls' chest. The girl smiled lightly and carefully caressed Tsukina's head. "I guess, you're the stubborn type who doesn't believe until she sees it," the girl chuckled and then raised Tsukina so that their eyes me.

"That's why tomorrow you're sneaking into the palace to see it yourself." Aiko smiled and dried the teardrops that had filled Tsukina's swallowed cheeks. "But for now, we're going to sleep."

"And you really need to wash that stupid color off your hair…" Yukiko laughed while brushing her hand through Tsukina's black hair. "I really love your lavender-colored hair," she complimented the girl while smiling widely.

-OO-

Hitomi opened the door to crown prince's room, to make sure that he was already sleeping. Finding Shirou sitting on the by the window and looking down the city, didn't please her at all. "It's time for you to go sleep now." the girl told and Shirou was surprised when he heard her voice.

"Good Night, Hitomi." the boy greeted her, though the maroon eyed girl didn't get him completely. The boy then glanced out the window for the last time and walked to his bed. Watching the pauper boy walking to elegantly Hitomi couldn't stop her smile. She had finally made a crown prince out of a pauper.

"Soon, it's your 16th birthday…" the girl suddenly mumbled and Shirou smiled. He still found it amusing that he had the same birthday as the crown prince.

Hitomi, who was completely in her own thoughts, suddenly got goose bumps and glanced at the boy, "Oh my, how could I have forgotten such important fact." the girl mumbled aloud and Shirou glanced at her. She started to panic and walked around restlessly.

"What did you forget?" the boy asked and Hitomi turned to him.

"The ball!"

"What?" Shirou wasn't sure if he had heard the girl right.

"Half moth before the crown prince's birthday, the ball is held." Hitomi told and then realized that she would need to explain herself better as this boy didn't know what it meant. "You know the thing were people dance." Shirou gulped at Hitomi's words. It meant only more trouble for him.

Aiko: So it was actually something like this that happened?

Sakuchii: This chapter seems so rushed, sorry to disappoint you after so long hiatus!

Yukiko: See you guys again in autumn!

Aiko: Why so long?

Sakuchii: The chapter-update-plan has this story in August...

AxY: Aww man...

Sakuchii: Hopefully I just might come around earlier than that! Till then!
~ deshii