I'm back! This is a little bit of a shorter chapter this time around, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless!


After a whole day of council work, Kuon was relieved to finally finish his work and have time to see Kyoko again. In between meetings, he had at least been able to spend a bit of time with Hana playing with her dolls and talking to her more. She was really the cutest little girl he had ever met. Although Kuon had planned to just sneak into the Sky Palace to see Kyoko, as he teleported to a usually secluded area of Kyoko's palace, he was surprised to see that the servants were bustling around the castle, hanging up various banners and decorations in hues of green and gold. He froze like a little kid caught doing something wrong. When the servants noticed him, they immediately sunk to their knees in bows.

"Crown Prince," They all greeted him in unison. Kuon widened his eyes in surprise.

"I'm not the Crown Prince yet," Kuon responded in confusion.

"We are required to greet you this way as the future consort of our Crown Princess," A servant spoke up. Kuon shifted uncomfortably, not used to the large amount of servants bowing to him in this way.

"Do you know where the Crown Princess is?" Kuon asked.

"The Crown Princess is currently admiring the lotus pond in the palace," A servant replied. Kuon uttered a short thanks before heading over to the lotus pond. When he arrived, he saw Kyoko sitting on a bench with her elbows on her knees, gazing out blankly at the pond.

"Hey," Kuon smiled as he came up to her. Her eyes focused on him, and she smiled back.

"You're back," Kyoko replied.

"What were you thinking about?" Kuon wondered, taking a seat next to her and taking her hand in his own.

"I just came here to try to figure something out," Kyoko replied. After thinking more on her conversation with her mother the day before, Kyoko had remembered her mother saying that she had been impregnated when she touched a golden lotus on Goraku Mountain. Kyoko had come to the lotus pond to figure out what that could possibly mean. Was her father a lotus? Was she part-lotus?

"Lotuses really do listen, don't they? I remember when I was on Goraku Mountain that my best friend was a lotus who I could talk to about anything," Kuon reminisced, causing Kyoko to turn to him as she suddenly remembered the dreams of a golden-haired immortal that she had ever since she had been born. She looked closely at her fiancé, and slowly she realized that he had the exact same body proportions as the immortal in her dreams.

"Was the lotus golden?"

"Yes, but how did you know?" Kuon looked at her in confusion. Kyoko remembered when she had first met Ren and had mistaken him for the immortal in her dreams. However, she had dismissed the thought when she realized Ren didn't have blonde hair and green eyes. How had she missed what had been hiding in plain sight after she met Kuon?!

"I think I met you before I was born..." Kyoko replied, causing Kuon to look even more confused.

"My mother told me recently that when she touched a golden lotus at Goraku Mountain, she became pregnant with me. I hadn't looked into the story of my birth before, but I've always had these dreams of a handsome immortal with blonde hair and beautiful emerald eyes ever since I was young."

Kuon dropped her hand in shock. "You were the golden lotus?!" Kuon asked, and Kyoko nodded. Kuon immediately pulled her into a hug, causing Kyoko to squeak in surprise.

"I never had the opportunity to say thank you for always listening to my troubles," Kuon murmured into her hair.

"I always wished that you could hear me because I could only listen to your troubles, but I was never able to console you," Kyoko replied.

"Even if you couldn't say anything, I always felt like I wasn't alone whenever I went to talk to the golden lotus. I could never explain why I had that feeling, but now it all makes sense," Kuon smiled. Kyoko pulled out of the hug and brushed a stray lock of blonde hair away from Kuon's face with a smile.

"Do you know that immortal in my dreams was my first crush? I had no idea who he was, but maybe I already knew back then that I would marry a fairy prince," Kyoko smiled.

"Oh? Sorry to disappoint you, but I've become fairy king since then. I can't make you a fairy princess, but I would love for you to be my fairy queen," Kuon smirked, looking around at the various flowers around them and seeing a perfect candidate for his plan. Kuon stood up and went over to a cropping of flowers with long stems. He picked two of them that had fully bloomed and fastened them together into a ring, hiding what he was doing with his back. Kyoko tried to peer over him to see what he was doing, but he hid his creation from her until he was finished.

"Kyoko?"

"Yes?"

Kuon stood up with the ring in his hand and took her hand in his own, sliding the ring onto her ring finger. "In the Fairy Kingdom, we have different customs for marriage than the Sky Palace. When a man wishes to marry a woman, he will propose to her with a ring that symbolizes his promise to love her for eternity. Although some immortals will propose with jeweled rings as a display of their wealth, it's always been a tradition for the royal family to propose with rings that the man crafts out of flowers. Ever since I was young, my parents taught me how to craft a flower ring for the day when I would propose to my future wife," Kuon explained. Kyoko marveled at the intricately crafted ring and smiled at him.

"What does the bride have to do to promise that she'll love her husband for all eternity?"

"Well at the wedding, they usual seal their vows with a kiss," Kuon replied. Kyoko smiled and tilted her head up to kiss Kuon.

"I will love you for eternity, my fairy king," Kyoko giggled.

"As will I, my fairy queen," Kuon replied, raising Kyoko's hand and pressing a kiss to the flower ring.

...

Kyoko and Kuon made their way back to Kyoko's palace after finding out their connection from long ago, although they had opted to take the longer route so that Kuon could see more of the palace he would soon marry into. As they passed over a bridge, Kuon brushed his hand along the railing. The design and crevices felt very familiar under his touch. Instinctually, Kuon followed a route that he somehow knew even though he had not been to this part of the palace before.

"Kuon? Where are you going?" Kyoko snapped him out of his trance.

"I thought this was the way back to your palace?"

Kyoko shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "It's not exactly."

"What about we go this way then and see more of the palace that way before heading back?" Kuon suggested, continuing along the familiar path since he was curious. He stopped as he found Kyoko tugging on his arm.

"No!" Kyoko exclaimed, a scared look in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kuon wondered.

"Please don't go that way! That path leads to Korosu Terrace. I-It's where Ren jumped off from…"

Kuon immediately removed his hand from the railing and felt Kyoko's hand on him shaking. He put a hand over hers.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," Kuon apologized.

"C-Can we just teleport to my palace? I would rather not walk around this area at all," Kyoko stuttered. Kuon nodded and teleported the two of them to her room. Once they were alone, Kyoko immediately embraced him.

"P-please never go to that part of the palace. I c-can't-" Kyoko choked out as she trembled from the fear she had felt. Kuon wrapped his arms around her slim form.

"I won't go there again," Kuon promised, wiping away a tear that slid down Kyoko's cheek with his thumb. She rose on her tiptoes to kiss him softly before breaking out of his embrace to sit on her bed. Kuon followed her and sat next to her.

"I will not leave you like he did, Kyoko. Nothing could make me do that," Kuon tried to console her.

"What if I s-stole your eyes and you h-hated me?" Kyoko stuttered, and Kuon wrapped his arms around her shaking form.

"The only way you could get me to leave you would be if you didn't love me anymore and wanted me gone," Kuon replied. Kyoko looked up at him as if seeing him for the first time. Her mind tried to work out his words.

"Why would you think I didn't love you?" Kyoko murmured, wondering if Ren had been led to believe she didn't love him. That couldn't be the reason he left, right? All this time, Kyoko had believed he left since he couldn't forgive her for taking his eyes and for his treatment in the Sky Palace.

"Maybe if you had fallen in love with another man, then I would want to leave you with the man who made you happy instead of me," Kuon replied, thinking of what would have happened if Ren had been able to come back to life with the Soul-gathering Sheep Pillow that Kyoko had tended to all those years. Would he have never met her and fallen in love with her? Kyoko circled her arms around him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Never. I promise you, I will never love another immortal. I will love you for all of eternity, Kuon. No one could change that," Kyoko promised. Kuon tilted his head down to kiss her brow.

"I have a feeling we already told each other these words earlier, my Fairy Queen?" Kuon joked. She tilted her head up and giggled.

"I know, but I truly want you to know that you are the only one that will ever be in my heart," Kyoko said.

"And you are the only one who will ever be in my heart as well, Kyoko," Kuon smiled. He shifted them around so that they were both lying on her bed and kissed her deeply.

"K-Kuon, is it all right if we go to bed early tonight? I'm sorry, but I'm just a bit tired," Kyoko asked as she pulled away from the kiss.

"Of course. But am I at least allowed to stay here with you, holding you in my arms through the night?"

"Only if I can do the same," Kyoko teased back. Kuon kissed her again as he wrapped his arms around her, using his magic to change both of them into their night wear. The two immortals drifted to sleep in each others' arms, content that nothing could ever disturb the happiness that they had found together.

Kyoko woke up the next morning in Kuon's arms feeling very strange. Why did she suddenly feel so weak? Through the night, one of Kuon's arms had come to rest itself on her, and try as she might, she didn't have enough strength to lift it off. Through her struggle, Kuon woke up and took his arm off her himself. She slowly sat up, clutching her head in pain.

"Kyoko? What's wrong?" Kuon asked in concern, worried that he had hurt her. She tried to stand up but stumbled. Kuon caught her before she fell to the ground. "Kyoko!"

"I don't know what's happening…" Kyoko trailed off, trying to use her magic to change out of her night wear. However, try as she might, her magic just wasn't working at all.

The two turned to the door as they heard a frantic knock. Kyoko looked at herself and Kuon to make sure they were both presentable and called out weakly, "Come in!"

A soldier that Kyoko had a faint recollection of seeing at the Far Sea immediately opened the door and bowed. "Crown Princess, this morning, the barriers around King Reino's prison all shattered."

Kyoko widened her eyes in concern and tried to stand again, but she still couldn't support her own weight. "Kyoko!" Kuon called out in concern, steadying her himself. Kyoko let him set her back on the bed, and she tried to perform the most basic of magic to ignite a candle on her dresser, but that didn't work either.

"M-my magic, i-it's not working at all. I think that's why the barriers I placed around King Reino's prison aren't working," Kyoko realized.

"Call the palace medic," Kuon turned to the soldier at the doorway. The soldier bowed and disappeared.

"Kuon, please, you have to go to the Far Sea in my place and reapply the barriers," Kyoko pleaded.

"I have to make sure you're okay, though. You know your power is linked to you life, right? If you're without your magic for too long, you won't be able to sustain your immortality."

"The palace medic will help me recover, but you're the only one I can trust to prevent King Reino from escaping. You should know better than anyone what would happen if he escaped," Kyoko replied.

"But-"

"I'll be fine, Kuon. Please," Kyoko begged. Kuon nodded reluctantly and pressed a kiss to her forehead before teleporting away.

A few minutes passed, and the palace medic and soldier reappeared. The medic immediately went up to Kyoko to examine her condition.

"Crown Princess, is your magic not working at all?" The medic asked.

"No."

"How long ago did you see symptoms of weakness?"

"I felt a little weird after I returned from the Ghost Kingdom…" Kyoko replied.

"Did you ingest anything abnormal?"

Kyoko remembered the weird taste of the food in the Ghost Kingdom and wondered exactly for how long Vie Ghoul had known she was the Crown Princess. What if they had poisoned her food?

"The food at the Ghost Kingdom had an off-putting taste," Kyoko replied.

"It must have had Yowamaru potion. I haven't seen symptoms like these ever since the war 70,000 years ago. Yowamaru potion was used on our soldiers in warfare by King Reino. Sometimes he would poison the water that we drank, and groups of soldiers would drop like flies a few days after ingesting the potion due to their weakness. If they went for too long without their powers, they would die. I had thought that King Reino's supply of Yowamaru potion had run out, but he must have been saving a store of it for a day like this. It's lucky that I know how to make the antidote. It'll take about two hours, Crown Princess," The medic bowed. Kyoko nodded.

"Please hurry," Kyoko said as the medic teleported away. She turned to the soldier. "Vie Ghoul will probably attempt to break out King Reino, but you must stop them at all costs."

"I will fight them with my life, Crown Princess," The soldier bowed before teleporting back to the Far Sea. Kyoko lied down and cursed herself for being so stupid and not being able to recognize that the food in the Ghost Kingdom had been poisoned sooner. Now she couldn't do anything but wait and hope that Kuon would be able to stop Vie Ghoul.


After writing an angst-filled chapter for Bus 1225, it was refreshing to write a lil fluff in this story before the plot starts to speed up next chapter. Thank you to all who reviewed last chapter!

H-Nala- Kyoko's marriage to Ren was not formally recognized before since the ceremony was done on her own without consulting Saena. Even though Kyoko married Ren in the mortal realm, the Sky Palace still considered her marriage to be null and void, and thus her child was technically born out of wedlock, especially since she was engaged to Kuon at the time. If she gets pregnant with Kuon, it will be considered out of wedlock since no one except her knows that he was actually Ren, and Kyoko's marriage to Ren didn't even count legally back then. Hope that answered your question!

valie france- I hope at least the beginning of this chapter was happy. I don't think the next few chapters will be sad, per say, in Kyoko and Kuon's relationship, although I can't promise anything since I'm returning to the plot of Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms soon. Thank you for always writing such wonderful comments that make my day :).

PaulaGaTo- Ding! You were right! The potion that Vie Ghoul put in Kyoko's food was the reason behind Kyoko's weakness! Nice job at guessing it! And Kuon is finally able to show his affection to Kyoko in public since he's set to marry her formally soon :). Thank you for always leaving me a review!

Coolestbee- Yes indeed. Finally everyone's talking out their problems and detangling their lives. Saena is pitiful, and Sho will definitely get his comeuppance eventually, but we'll have to see whether Kuon saves the day next chapter. Thanks for reviewing!