Kamui-rella, or, Candy-coated fluff Ch.8
Disclaimer: Don't even think about suing me...you just thought about it!! Don't even think it!!
A/N: This should be the final chapter of my twisted fic; maybe I will write a sequel/epilogue later...sorry that I haven't updated for so long, lots of other things have been taking up my time. *Turns chibi and bows* Gomenasai minna-san!
The chill winter air was sharp with frost as the green-eyed man rode across the snowy courtyard. The others who followed him ran to the door of the manor they had stopped before and thumped with mittened fists on the splintering wood and then blew on their hands, stamping their feet. The rider dismounted and went to the door himself just as it opened.
Subaru had the misfortune to meet Kanoe right after she'd emerged from her room in a state of nature. Ye gods, he thought, if this is the housekeeper then I'm probably not going to have a very easy time of this."Good morning, madam," he bowed (very deeply) at her, doing his best to ignore the scanty clothing and the chains and whips she held in both hands. "May I be shown the children?"
Kanoe sneered. "Why, do you want to eat them, your Highness?"
"Eh...no," Subaru replied quickly before his mind could spring to unhealthy fantasies. "I would like to see if any of them can wear this. " He took the glass shoe from his coat and handed it to her for inspection. After a few minutes she gave it back, a grin on her face so wide it would have shamed the Chesire cat. "Please do come in, sir." As the Prince and his entourage did so she curtsied at each of them in turn and provided a face-warming view of her cleavage each time. (Keiichi, who entered last, actually turned his face as he went by.)
Very promptly she'd lined up the children; Fuuma glared from a corner, Satsuki (with Yuuto under one arm as though he were a instruction manual) yawned and fiddled with her glasses. "Here they are, sir," said Kanoe, who'd put the usual gallon of mousse into her hair and who now tossed it about in all its chow mein-like waviness. Subaru chewed his lip. The tall one didn't look small enough...the girl's glasses and apathetic face eliminated her....and the hostess herself was nothing like the shy boy with purple eyes and fruit-scented hair. "Uh, are there any more....?" Subaru prompted, hesitant. He couldn't be sure if this older woman was the mother or the housekeeper...Ryuu hadn't mentioned anyone aside from his father.
Kanoe thought for a moment, not of whether she should show the Prince Kamui-rella but of how much she could pawn off the shoe for. At least a couple million yen, she decided, and put on her saccarine-imbued smile. "Of course." As the stupid boy waited with his servants, she went to find the two Pocky people.
Yuzuriha stumbled into the foyer, confused, and gasped at the sight of the Prince. After a bow she put her hand in Inuki's ruff, a nervous habit, and said, very faintly, "How may we assist you, sir?" Kusanagi rumbled something similar behind her.
Subaru didn't actually hear them; he saw no trace of the one he searched for in any of these people. Starting to become frantic, he demanded, "Any more?" if he couldn't find Ryuu here...he'd have to look in the neighboring countries...for his own had already been scoured clean, searched so much that he imagined it as a desert in which he was trying to find one gem.
Kanoe scowled. This Prince was more insistent than she'd imagined; she'd have to show him Kamui-rella or he might fine her, or imprison her, or even kill her. "Kamui-rella!" She shouted, and waited as the boy slipped from Fuuma's room (where he had been polishing the Shinken for the fifteenth time that day) and crept down the stairs. No one saw Subaru's face turn a terrible gray; the name was unfamiliar to him--he must continue this search which was eating him steadily...he put a hand to the wall and thought he would faint.
Kamui was almost unrecognizable; his fair skin was dark with ashes and polish; streaks of soot were in his hair; the violet eyes were fatigued and lidded. So when the Prince saw him dimly through the haze of hopelessness, there was no recognition. Kanoe pushed her stepson forward. "This is Kamui-rella, sir. He is a menial servant, quite unworthy of any test. For your inspection."
Subaru weakly nodded and gave Keichii the shoe with a near-habitual movement. The latter knelt and placed it before Fuuma, who'd already seated himself. Subaru, despite his despair, chuckled inwardly when he saw how huge Fuuma's foot seemed next to the tiny bit of crystal. Satsuki was marginally closer to a decent fit, but even she could only wedge her toes into the shoe. Yuzuriha refused to try, and Kusanagi grinned and shook his head, displaying one enormous size 22 shoe for the Prince to see. So there was only the cinder-covered Kamui left. When Subaru bent and put the shoe before him, the tears were a hair's breadth from spilling over, but he closed his eyes and blindly sat, lifting one foot.
The Prince guided Kamui's foot to the shoe with sheer will; already he was contemplating a life of running after Ryuu's lovely shadow and dying in some foreign place alone and desolate. He returned when he heard no disappointed sighs, no one making any sounds, for that matter. Looking down, he saw the servant's grimy foot perfectly through the crystal; as they both stood, Kamui wiped at his face (now with tears parting the ash) and borught out the other shoe from somewhere and put it on.
Hinoto watched them from behind a corner of the manor as they rode away slowly. "Yes...believe in the force..." she sniffled into a handkerchief with Yuzuriha, who bawled into an agitated Inuki's fur, and Kusanagi, who was pretending he wasn't crying.
^^^^^^
Over the course of the next few months, quite a few weddings took place; Subaru and Kamui had theirs in March, when the buds were first sprouting and the young birds were taking first flights. The only inconvenience, though, was that neither could decide what to wear and how they would be referred to. The Queen overheard an intersting dialogue very late one night as she passed her son's apartments; she later transcribed it and published in in her memoir, Fire Child: The Story of a Deprived Girl's Rise to Queenhood. (Buy it today in a bookstore near you! Only 22.99 for a beautiful hardcover volume.) Here it is, as she wrote it:
Male Voice 1: Would you like to be the "bride" or shall I?
Male Voice (?) 2: Su-chan, why don't we both be brides?
Male Voice 1: Hmmm... ::there is a while of silence:: ...good idea. ::another break::
Male Voice 2: ::giggle::
Male Voice 1: *quietly* So, it's decided? White? ::rustling:: And what about a cute little necklace? With engraved words...like "sorry, I'm taken"?
:: giggles::
Male Voice (?) 2: Oh...and the ring...
::pause::
Male Voice 1: Just wait till you see yours.
::giggles--rustling::
Male Voice (?) 2 : Mine will be even better...
After the Prince and Consort were wedded, Nataku-sama requested permission to marry Fuuma, the Consort's brother. The Queen made a minimal note of this in her autobiography; mostly she discussed the confusion over whether to call the newlyweds the Princess and Consort or the Prince and Consort. (It ended up as "Nat and Fu") Apart from the Royal ceremonies, two Pocky sales respresentatives were also united in matrimony later in the year. Thankfully, there was little confusion over the titling of the couple.
(Excerpt from A History of the Realm)
A/N: Hoho, did you like? I may do a sequel thing if someone wants one. Here's the sequel's trailer:
(gloomy music)
*Screams*
VOICE-OVER: Subaru Sumeragi, happily honeymooning in a small Pacific isle..
(pan of island beach: Subaru and Kamui are making a very large sand castle with little buckets)
(Shadow falls over them; Subaru falls. Close-up of his neck as he kneels and someone pokes his eye out)
*Kamui screams*
VOICE-OVER: Coming soon...I Know The World's Going to End This Summer...
::ahem:: anyway...review please! As always, constructive criticism is welcomed!!