CHAPTER 2

Once the play was over the beautiful actress, Aruna, entered the ladies' dressing room. She quickly weaved though the nearly full room of other female performers to the dressing table she claimed as her own. This time it was the one farthest from the door. She began to scrub at her face, mainly her lips.

The female in the closest chair, a thin red head named Chimako began to chuckle at Aruna. "Girl sometimes you take things to seriously. It's just a stage kiss."

Aruna stopped her scrubbing and glared up at Chimako and whined. "You know how I hate Akoshi. He's so stuck up. I swear he put polish on his horns."

"The good looking ones always." Chimako said turning so her back faced Aruna, a gesture for Aruna to unzip her she had been one of Aruna soldiers.

"I don't care if he's good looking that personality of his sucks." Aruna said as she unzipped her friend. "I'm starving, do you want to come with me to get some food after we clean up?" She asked as she turned back to her mirror to really take off her make up.

"Yes, I would have ate before hand I was so nervous I was afraid I would trip during the battle scene." Chimako admitted as she shook out her sweaty hair.

Aruna began to imagine the whole play coming to a halt because of all the soldiers tripping over themselves.

"It's not funny!" Chimako narrowing her blue eyes at Aruna. "It's a real possibility, I'm just glad I don't have to do this again. Tomorrow I get to the wonderful Princess Kaguya." Chimako smiled as she began to brush her hair.

"I'll come watch you tomorrow since it's my day off." Aruna beamed as she to do undo her hair was well. "I wish we could have gotten the same day off though." She grumbled as she ran her fingers though her light blonde hair.

"I do too but this way you won't always upstage me." Chimako teased as she finished her hair in record time.

As she and her Chimako changed into what was appropriate for the rest of the night her green eyes kept darting to her mirror to look at the closed door, she dreading hearing a knock. 'I don't which would be worse.' She thought as finished dressing.

"Do you think we'll run into the royal bandits?" Chimako whispered as they exited using the nickname the group had picked up among the young people.

"Maybe, it's a pretty big festival." Aruna whispered back trying to quickly exited the hallway they were in.

"Slow down, I know you're in a hurry for more than one reason but these shoes are meant for slow walks." Chimako chided as she tried to keep up.

"Yeah we perform in them regularly." She retorted trying not to all out run. 'I hope I'm not escaping one trap for other she thought as they exited the hall.

Chimako led them quickly to the grilled meat section of the food stands. "Is that you ever eat wolfy?" Aruna ribbed as she watched Chimako woofed down her grilled beef chunks quickly.

"Don't deny a werewolf her meat, I thought foxes were suppose to be smart." Chimako shot back as she dumped her container into a nearby bin.

Once they finished began to walk around but soon ran into a crowd. "What's going on?" Aruna trying to peak over the crowd but was unable to.

"It seems we have found our celebrities." Chimako replied easily seeing over the crowd with no probably. She was quiet tall, more than half a foot taller than Aruna who barely cracked five feet. "Do you want to try and fight though the crowd?" Chimako grinned down at her.

"I know that grin. I don't have much a choice." Aruna sighed. She straightened to full height and steeled herself to do this. "Let do this." She said mostly to herself as followed Chimako through the crowd.

They push themselves to the front where it seemed the bandits had been requested to put on an impromptu concert of their own.

Aruna looked up at Chimako who couldn't seem to keep eyes on just one of the guys. 'I wonder which one she thinks is cute. I think Nozomu looks like her type.' Aruna thought as she looked over to the princess. 'She's seems nervous in front but it is a big crowd for something like this. She's still cute though. The palace put out that booklet about them didn't do her justice. I wonder if the rumor that got spread is true about her and Mitsuru.' Aruna thought as she dragged her eyes away to look over each guy. 'Then again the booklet didn't do any of them justice.' She thought until her eyes final settled on Misoka. Who to her shock was staring at her. She could feel herself start to blush under his intense stare.

Just as they sang was coming to an end Aruna felt a hand grab her shoulder and pull her back through the crowd. She tried to grab at Chimako's sleeve but missed. Once they had room she spun to see who had been so rude. She came face to face with Akoshi. He dressed to the nines in a very expansive kimono. The dark blue looked almost black in the dim lighting which only enhanced the gold marbled throughout it.

"I've been looking for you everywhere darling." He smirked keeping his hand on her shoulder. "Why are you still in this form? Why not show off your beautiful ears and tails?" He asked as his other hand drifted up to her head.

Aruna pulled out of reach and snapped back. "I'm not your darling. I'm trying to conserve energy like the palace has informed us to do just like everyone else here. Why don't you go look for someone else, you have plenty of admirers."

"I adore that you play hard to get. It makes you so intriguing. Those girls are only interested in my title as 4th to the crown and they've all flocked to the newest attraction. So why don't we spend this rare evening alone and enjoy what's left of tonight's celebration." He said with the same smirk on his face as he held his hand back out to her.

Aruna and Akoshi had been so wrapped up in their spat that they hadn't noticed most of the crowd had began to file away as the singing had stopped. "Aruna you okay?" Aruna heard Chimako ask. Aruna turned their heads to see Chimako standing right there along with the Bandits.

Aruna could feel a blush creep on to her face as she stepped away from Akoshi before she mutter a response Akoshi took a step towards the group and bowed to Mahiru. "Princess you're even more beautiful then the rumors have stated. My name is Akoshi, I hoped you enjoyed the performance tonight. It was an honor to perform for you."He said as he returned to his full height.

Chimako quickly came to Aruna's side as this spectacle was happening hoping to give them a quick exit if needed.

"Oh it was a wonderful performance, thank you so much we all did enjoy it. Were you all in it?" Mahiru asked turning from Akoshi to the girls with a big smile on her face.

"Yes Princess we all were, I was just lowly soldier tonight but tomorrow there's a wonderful performance at stage two. You should make see it. Aruna here was the princess tonight but tomorrow it's my turn." Chimako gushed with a huge silly grin on her face.

"You were so beautiful! I've never anything like that before. It was a wonderful performance." Mahiru gushed back catching Chimako's spontaneous energy.

"Thank you very much." Aruna replied as she slowly bowed to Mahiru. "There will be lots of performances over the next few days please try to see as many as you can. Our people have been practicing tirelessly for this event. She said as she took a small stepped back to try and make an unnoticed exit.

"We will be sure to see as much as we can, I'm sure the palace has a plan for us for most of our time here." Misoka replied before anyone could make unachievable promises.

"More schedules?" Akira whined before anyone could shush him.

"Oh that's too bad." Chimako muttered as looked over her group and the Bandits.

"Well why don't you lovely ladies show us where you'll be performing ans we'll see if we can see if can seek away from our babysitters long enough to make see your act." Nozomu said as he started to walk in a random direction to try and get the group moving.

"Oh that's a wonderful idea." Chimako chirped as she followed beside him. The group began to follow them. She looked over her shoulder and yank her head in the direction to tell Aruna to follow.

"Hey! I'm performing again tomorrow!" Akoshi shouted chasing after the group.

Aruna sighed deeply. 'I wish I had the energy for this.' She thought as she began to reluctantly followed the group. She glance over at Misoka was beside her seeming just as reluctant as her.

"The performance must have been exhausting, you seem tired. We won't offend if you leave. You need to take care of yourself." Misoka whispered even though there was no need the group seemed to be distracted by their new tour guide Chimako.

"It was, I really should take the out I have a big day tomorrow. I'm worried about Chimako though she can get into trouble if left by herself." Aruna whispered back as she started to slow her steps.

"What trouble can she get into with us. She'll be fine." Misoka replied as he too slowed his steps to match hers.

"It's not you guys I'm worried about but thank you. I really should go." She said stopping fully now. She turned and bowed to him before heading off.

'She not at all what I imagined after all these years." Misoka thought as he watched her walk off. When he turned back around and realized he had been left by the group. He quickly catch up his brief absence seemingly unnoticed.