Linda Mason: "My father was a lot like you, just a man with a family. Never amounted to much, didn't care. But as long as he was alive, we always had plenty to eat and clothes to keep us warm."

Jim Hardy: "Were you happy?"

Linda Mason: "Yes."

Jim Hardy: "Then your father was a very successful man."

Holiday Inn

x

Saturday 21st December 2012: Happy

Yuki had received word that the DuBois home needed some attention. Apparently an... incident had occurred and now the kitchen was in a state. When she received the message, she didn't question the details – she knew Muta well enough to know he experimented – and she knew that she would discover the issue at hand when she arrived.

When she did arrive, she could only infer that something had exploded.

Messily.

Usually Muta was one to clean up his own mistakes – at least, in the kitchen – but Yuki could see that this was going to need an extra bout of elbow grease. Elbow grease, and a lot of time. She rolled up her sleeves and whistled for Broom to come over. She brought out a cover for Broom's bristles and stretched it over its head, enabling it to help clean without damaging itself, and tapped for it to get moving. As if sensing the horrendous mess it had been asked to deal with, Broom set to work sluggishly, deliberately dragging its bristles along.

Yuki only shook her head tiredly and started to scrub down the table. Whatever cooking experiment had gone wrong, had gone really wrong. She was just glad she hadn't been around at the time. She wasn't particularly surprised they had called her in, either; it took some experience to recover the room after an incident like this.

A distracted little whistle slipped from her lips; the same tune as her dance from Thursday – and she revelled in the happy echoes her melody bounced back to her. The kitchen's cold surfaces were the perfect structures for echoes, and here even her small whistle gained confidence in the room.

The doorbell rang clear and crisp across the house. Yuki paused. The last time she had answered it... well, she wasn't entirely sure what had happened. She thought she had just been talking to a guard, when it turned out to be the crown prince himself. Evidently she had picked up Haru's penchant for strange doorstep meetings.

If she had been Haru, she might have picked up something to fend herself with this time – a frying pan... or Broom, again – but she wasn't Haru. She was a young Cat who had learnt to act the quiet maid on instinct... and knocking the guest unconscious would distinctly fall out of that category. So she waited a few seconds and, when it became perfectly obvious that everyone was still asleep that morning, smoothed out her apron and went to answer the door.

A familiar mismatched-eyed, lilac-grey Cat stood on the doorstep. Those strange eyes of fire and ice lit up upon seeing her there, but Yuki was frozen in place.

"It's you."

A sheepish, apologetic grin spread across his face. "It's me," he agreed.

Yuki opened and shut her mouth for several dubious moments, a whole host of emotions passing through her. Some easier to express than others, some foreign to the young maid. Eventually she managed to croak out, "You're a prince."

His expression became, if possible, more sheepish. He gingerly rubbed at the back of his head with one hand. "I know."

"Prince?" she echoed. Her voice was finally coming back, and it was coming back with a vengeance.

"I know, but–"

"It didn't cross your mind to even drop a hint? Not even a casual, 'Oh, by the way, my father's the King'?" she demanded. "Nothing?" Yuki paled and performed a hasty bow, suddenly remembering just whom she was addressing. "I'm sorry, Your Highness, please don't have me deported."

The Prince sighed and – from the little Yuki could see in her current bow – it looked like he was silently facepalming too. "I'm not going to have you deported."

"Publically disgraced?"

"No."

"Beheaded? What about exile?"

"No, and no."

Yuki unsteadily rose out of her bow. "So... what do you do then?"

"We host very expensive balls, mainly."

His words prompted an unintentional smile from the maid. A little of her tension melted away. "So... you're the prince," she repeated, but her words were calmer than last time. "When exactly were you going to enlighten me?"

"I knew you would work it out eventually."

"There's one thing I don't understand – why didn't you just tell me who you were to begin with... Your Highness?" She blushed, suddenly thinking back to what she had said and done unknowingly around the future king. "You would have saved me from a lot of embarrassment," she mumbled.

"Would you have acted the way you did had you known?"

Yuki blushed again. "I expect not."

"Well then, I'm glad I didn't tell you the truth instantly." The Prince smiled. "I enjoyed Thursday."

"... So did I."

"In that case, no harm done." He offered his hand to the maid. "I believe that, this time, I owe you an honest introduction. I am, indeed, Prince Lune, crown prince to the Cat Kingdom... but you may call me Lune."

Yuki's blush worsened, and she abruptly shook her head. "Oh, no, Your Highness – I'm just... I mean, I can't..."

"My friends call me Lune... and I'd like to be able to consider you my friend."

Yuki bowed hastily. "Thank you, Your Highness."

"Please, it's Lune."

"Thank you... Lune."

"Miss Yuki, were you planning to attend the Christmas Eve Ball?"

"Oh, no... No, of course not," she hastily replied. "I mean... look at me..." She glanced down to her maid attire, old and worn and suffering from use. She looked back up to the Prince, smiling sadly. "I'm just a maid. I'm not a lady or from any respected family, I'm just... well, me."

"Did you respect me any less before you knew I was the Prince?" he asked. "When you believed I was a guard, did that make me any less of a Cat?"

"No, of course not. But–"

"So you are no less of a Cat because of your lineage."

Yuki chuckled quietly. "You would be one of a few to think that."

"Well, I am the prince," he reminded her with a smile. "And I say that I would love to see you at the ball."

"That's... That's awfully kind of you, Your Highness–"

"Lune."

"–but I really can't. It just... It just wouldn't be my place."

"Is anything I say going to be able to persuade you otherwise?"

Yuki's apologetic smile said it all.

Lune sighed and ran one hand through the fur between his ears. "Alright, Miss Yuki. But just because you can't come to the ball, doesn't mean I can't see you now. The rest of the household sound asleep – I have a feeling we have a while before they stir. Why don't you show me round the house?"

"I... can't really just let strangers in..."

An uncannily impish grin worked its way across Lune's face. "Well then, we'll have to make sure they don't find us. And, remember, if anyone asks, I am the Prince."

ooOoo

"–and when I came in, there was just this stain – this single purple stain – streaking from the floor to the ceiling!" Yuki laughed. She motioned to the air with one hand to indicate just how far ranging it had been. "I mean, literally, it was bright purple–"

"Purple?" Lune echoed.

Yuki nodded enthusiastically. "Like this... deep, vibrant purple, just running up the wall – and they'd left no note, no nothing, to explain what it was!" Yuki tried to hold back her giggles, raising one hand to her mouth to repress it, but the laughter escaped regardless. "I mean, I still don't know what it was – was it paint? Was it food colouring? I don't know!"

"Didn't you ask the owners?"

"Well, I thought about it, but it's not the place of the maid to ask, really. Nothing that specific, anyway. I did..." Yuki admitted, "pause as I left to ask whether there was anything I should have, you know, cleaned specifically, but all I got was a stiff 'no' and a funny look and I figured the knowledge wasn't worth pursuing after."

Lune exhaled slowly and leant back to glance up to the sky. "You must see some crazy stuff in your line of work."

"Nothing as crazy as you'll have seen," Yuki returned. "I mean, politics? Royalty? Nobility? There must be all kinds of stuff going on behind those doors."

"Yes, but I mostly keep my whiskers out."

"So do I," Yuki agreed. "But I still see the messes they leave." She fell into silence and watched the world below. Lune picked himself up, leaning forward beside her to follow her sweeping gaze over the DuBois grounds.

"I like this place. I really do."

"Well, the DuBois home is rather impressive–"

"Not that," Lune said. "This place. The roof. I'll bet Lady Louise doesn't even know about this place..."

Yuki smiled wanly. "I wouldn't bet on that. Louise has always struck me as the kind of Cat who was rather indomitable as a kitten. She probably explored all over her home. But... no one comes up here nowadays."

"It's another of your hideaways?"

"I guess so. Lune, you should see this place at sunrise – the sun comes just over those hills and you can watch the light fill the valley. It's one of the reasons I love working here." She turned and saw Lune watching her. "What?"

"You never cease to amaze me, you know that?"

"Well, you do hardly know me."

"You can see the beauty in such simple things – song, dance, sunrises..."

"It's easy to see the beauty in that stuff though," Yuki insisted.

"Not for everyone, it isn't." Lune stared out across the view, his eyes taking in the rich colours of the valley. "Yuki, I had always thought that happiness was hard to find because I escaped from the palace so little. I couldn't help but think that happiness was something you had to go out and find but... I see I was wrong. Happiness isn't something that you can find – it's something that comes to you when you stop looking for it. It's something you have to learn to see in the small things."

Yuki was silent for a long moment. Then, "Lune, weren't you happy at the palace?"

"Not in the way you are. Yuki, you don't have any of the privileges or the easy life I do, but you're still happy. You still find time to just... stop and enjoy life. Like this place."

Yuki blushed and lowered her head. "Lune, you can learn to see the world that way too. All it takes is... the right eyes."

"I think I'm beginning to understand, but I think I'm going to need your help. Yuki, allow me to visit you more often – the moments I've spent with you have been some of the... craziest, most memorable, amazing moments that I can remember. And I want to create more memories."

Yuki looked away from the Cat, glancing down to the ground, and then up to the sky. She released a long, low breath. "This is crazy," she said. She turned her sky-blue gaze to the young royal. "I mean, a maid and a prince? Friends?"

"There have been crazier friendships."

"I'm a nobody, and you're the Cat who's going to rule the Kingdom. How much crazier can it get?"

"You're not a nobody, Yuki. You're a Cat. I'm a Cat. Heck, even if you were Human, it wouldn't make any difference – you're no less a person because of what you do." He hesitated. "Well, apart from the politicians..." He grinned. "Those Cats are closer to rats."

Yuki tried to hold back a giggle. "Lune!"

"Hey, you don't have to work alongside them." His eyes lit up as he glanced to the white Cat. "It's good to see you laugh again, Yuki. You should laugh more often."

"But then, Oh Prince, how would I act the meek and humble maid?" she asked innocently.

"You wouldn't. You would just be you."

"But just me isn't a perfect maid."

"Good. Because no Cat's perfect. And I think I like just you more than the meek and humble maid."

"Well, you'd be the first," Yuki mumbled.

"No, I don't think I am." Lune smiled. "The real you is far too lovely."

"Now you're just saying that..."

"No, I really mean that."

"I think most nobility would freak out if they learnt how their meek and humble maid really acted when not watched," Yuki muttered.

"Oh, you mean the Cat who dances in the ballroom?" Lune asked. "The Cat who sings in the kitchen when she thinks no one is listening? Yes, I could hear you through the window. Do you mean the Cat who likes to sneak up to the roof to watch the rising sun? That Cat?"

Yuki squealed as, in a rare loss of composure, Lune tickled her sides.

"Yes! Yes – now would you stop that?" She batted away the Prince, and kept one arm around her side as she tried to regain her breath. A few stray giggles slipped through her. "Yes, I meant that Cat."

"Well... I guess that would put a few of the nobility into cardiac arrest..." Lune pondered. "Imagine a maid having a personality?!"

"Now you're just hamming the point up."

"I am indeed."

Somewhere in the depths of the house, there was the intoning ringing of the clock striking the hour. Yuki shot up. "The kitchen! I still haven't cleaned it all up!" Her head snapped to Lune. "And you should be heading back too – did you inform anyone you were leaving the palace?"

Lune's silence said volumes.

"Oh, never mind." The maid was stumbling off the ledge along the slated side of the roof, and scurrying across the flat section towards the door. "I need to get going and so do you, but..." She hesitated at the door and glanced back to the Prince. "But this has been fun," she admitted. "And... I hope to see you again."

"As do I, Yuki. As do I." He approached the door and glanced down the staircase. There was the telltale sounds of life below. "Now we only have the challenge of making it downstairs unseen. I don't suppose there are servant corridors?"

"There are, but I'm not sure that the future king..."

"This future king is more than happy to use the servant corridors if it gets him out unseen." There was the barest of an eye roll at his own words. "The last thing I want today is another round of, 'Your Highness,' and 'Good morning, Prince.' I get enough of that when I'm at the palace."

As they detoured through the mansion, sneaking in silence until they – unnoticed – reached the door, Lune turned to the other Cat. "Please, Miss Yuki, promise me one thing."

"How can I refuse a prince?"

"Please... at least consider coming to the ball. I don't care if you come in your maid uniform or the plainest of dresses – just come. It will be nice to have at least one friendly face among the crowds." Lune smiled wanly and added, "It will also make a break from having all the ravishingly empty-headed young Cats throwing themselves at me."

"Lune, I... I don't know."

"At least consider it. I will be saving a dance for you."

Yuki blushed at the young Cat's fervent words. "Fine, Lune. I promise."

The Prince's face split into an uncharacteristically wide grin. "Thank you, Yuki. I will be waiting for you!"

Yuki lingered at the door as the grey Cat disappeared down the path. She had a bad feeling she had just set the ball rolling – if only she knew exactly what it was rolling towards. But, even as she squished the nerves rolling in her stomach, she couldn't quench the gentle flames of happiness warming her insides.

There was a crash, followed by the sound of Muta's ardent swearing, and that flame of happiness quietened down. It sounded like Broom had once again got beneath someone's feet.

At least that was normal.

Even if nothing else was anymore.

ooOoo

A/N: Only four days to go! Thank goodness – I'm bushed! I'll be honest... I'm not entirely sure how to tie up all the loose ends of this story. It's much less planned/paced than previous stories, but I did warn you guys of that before starting this. There were times when I have considered stopping this story, but the fact that I have never left a posted story hanging in hiatus is a record I want to keep clean. So, while this story may become... interesting/frantic, it will be finished.

Eventually.

I think.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

Cat.