*Slaps self on the head* Okay… when I wrote chapter 13, I had forgotten what I wanted the prince's name to be, so I made up another one. I later remembered it and planned on changing it before I uploaded it, but I didn't. So for those of you who read about a prince Mitsuko, his real name is Miruto -_- But the Kabalarian thing still works ^_^ My bad. And thanks for all the reviews! You guys are great! *hugs* By the way, I've changed the last one to say his real name, so no worries.
In other news, this is a LONG chapter! And I do mean lengthy. Scroll down and see for yourself! Bonus! I just couldn't find a good point to stop… But hey, it's not like you'll complain :P
Upon entering, the queen received a deep bow from everyone (that is… Sen at least tried from her position on the bed). Her majesty was a tall woman, who looked to be about forty years old. She had curly, red hair, and she wore a white kimono with a silver design on it similar to that of the one on the prince's robes.
"Good morning, mother!" the prince said after swallowing his mouthful of ham.
The queen nodded her head to him, but was silent. She was looking intently at Haku and Sen.
"Are your names Haku and Chihiro?" she asked after a few minutes of silent thinking.
"Yes," they both answered.
"How did you know our names?" Haku asked.
The queen was silent for a moment, then said, "Come with me; there is something you must see." She turned her back and began to leave the room.
Sen, Naomi, and Haku gave each other confused looks, and got up to fallow, Dayu on Sen's shoulder (I know… I completely forgot about him for a couple chapters. Let's just say that he's been with Sen the whole time. Kay? Kay.). Boh put down what he was eating and gave the prince a pitiful look. Prince Miruto shrugged to him and got up to fallow, taking a piece of bacon with him.
Once everyone was close behind her, the queen led them all down the long hall. It was longer than any of them had expected, because it felt like they had been walking for at least five minutes, and they walked so far down that there were no more servants bustling about with their chores so far down. As they continued to walk in silence, the hall gradually got darker from nobody bothering to turn lights on at the end of such a long hallway. They at last came to a door at the end of it, isolated from every other part of the castle. The queen walked up to it and then turned around to speak to them.
"Through this door is where the previous queen of this castle lives. She is my husband's mother, and well… the reason she is so isolated is to keep people safe from her… she became insane after the death of her husband. Seven years ago, on one of my trips down here to visit her, she went into a sort of… trance. She began to mutter things about the crops, the weather, and the relationships between people living here. I caught part of what she was saying, and she said that there was a hurricane coming in precisely a week. I ignored her, knowing that she was, after all, mad. It turns out though that a week after that, there really was a hurricane. The dungeons were flooded for at least a month, major repairs had to go to the roofs, and we lost almost all of our crops to the hail. After this, I began to wonder about the woman's predictions, and as she made more, she continued to be accurate.
"Five and a half years ago, or six moths after the hurricane, she predicted something about a human child who would encounter this world. She kept repeating it, unlike her other predictions, so I decided to write it down and tell the king about it. Her exact words were, 'After six moons, the night will reveal a human girl who stumbled upon this world… She will be named Chihiro, though she will be called Sen… She will be one to defeat an evil power, along with her dragon friend, Haku… But not yet; she will depart, though she will return in a matter of time… when she would be summoned by the almighty being…'
"This… prophecy, you could call it, only slightly interested me. The evil being, I thought, wasn't very important, since there are plenty of evil creatures in the woods beyond the castle grounds. I figured she could have meant any of them. The part that interested me though was the bit about the almighty being. This world is controlled by Gyukudo, as you know, who is known by many as this 'almighty being' who was spoken of. I committed this prophecy to memory, because if Gyukudo ever has a reason to call upon the aid of a human girl, something important must be hidden in the future. And as it turns out, the Xovio Cartel, who I'm sure you've heard of, are growing with power and seeking to do only evil. They may very well be the evil who you are supposedly destined to defeat.
"Although you say that your names are Haku and Chihiro, I am still not satisfied. I have brought you here to see if the mad woman beyond this door will recognize you." With that, the queen opened the door, and held it open for the two of them to walk through (as anxious and nervous as they were). They did as was expected, though they were as a loss for words. When Naomi, Boh, and Prince Miruto tried to walk in behind the two, the queen stopped them.
Speaking to Ruby, she explained, "I'm sorry, but too many people would intimidate the woman… I don't want anyone to be hurt."
"In that case," Sen said from the room, holding Dayu out to Naomi, "you take him. I don't want the lady to freak out."
With that, the queen walked into the room and closed the door behind her.
Inside the dimly-lit room, Sen and Haku were staring at a tiny old woman, who was rocking herself in a chair, and holding a book in front of her, upside-down. She was wearing what looked like very old pajamas, and her hair was very white and tied into a bun at the top of her head.
"Itsuki," the queen called softly to the old lady, "do these two seem familiar to you?"
"I'm reading a book, queen Runa," the old lady said coldly. Then quickly turned her head to face them and put her book down. When she saw Sen and Haku's faces, she got up with amazing speed and rushed over to them.
"Just remain calm and don't move," the queen whispered to them as the mad woman began to touch their faces. She muttered under her breath to herself as she took a good look at each of the two who were presented to her. Then, out of nowhere, she jumped backwards and pointed to Sen.
"Her… she… is the one… from my head….," she stammered before she once again began to speak wordless nonsense to herself.
After a few more minutes, the queen called attention to Haku and said to the old lady, "What about the boy? Do you know him, too?"
The crazed woman stared at Haku for a moment, and then said, "He is… the dragon boy…" She then retreated back to her rocking chair.
Haku and Sen both looked at the queen uncertainly. They were just a bit weirded out, if you can imagine. The queen motioned towards the door, signaling that they were finished there.
Meanwhile, a certain prince of the castle was yet again showing off how easily he could beat his own record of idiocy.
"You know you want this bacon," he said to Naomi with what was, coincidently, a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth. "You didn't eat anything back in you friends' room; you have to be hungry. And look," he said, pointing to the meat hanging limply over his bottom lip, "it wouldn't be the only thing you got for your benefit."
Naomi scowled at him, and Dayu, from his perch on her shoulder, shook a fist. "No, thank you. I'd rather not eat anything covered in your slobber, let alone anything you've touched at all."
"I'll eat it," Boh volunteered.
"No, it's for Naomi."
"I told you: I don't want it."
"Too bad," the prince said as he took the bacon from his mouth. He ripped off the part of it that he wasn't chewing on and held it out to Naomi. "You'll start to feel dizzy if you don't eat something. Now eat it."
"I'll eat something back in the room," she reasoned.
The prince looked more disappointed than Naomi had expected, and she felt sorry. She reluctantly took the prince's offer and ate the stupid bacon, which seemed to cheer him up.
'Why would he care?' Naomi thought to herself. But just then, the door opened and out came Haku, Sen, and the queen.
"What happened?" Naomi asked.
"Itsuki recognized them," the queen said to the three who had been waiting in the dark hall. She then realized something and gained an excited, wide-eyed look on her face. She turned to Haku and asked, "Can I see your dragon form?"
Haku grinned and promptly changed himself for the queen's satisfaction. After a few moments of queen Runa looking approvingly at the dragon in front of her, Haku let himself go back to him human form.
"This is wonderful," the queen blurted out, excitement growing in her. "We must have a feast in your honor. All five of you," she said to Haku, Sen, Naomi and Boh. "Miruto, bring them back to their room and I'll make the arrangements," she added with a broad smile as she began to rush back towards the part of the castle that actually had people in it.
They began to walk, Sen and Haku pretty much speechless at the thought of people gorging themselves in their honor. Boh and Naomi had the same thing on their minds though: What about the seal they were supposed to give to Kamagii? But then it didn't really matter when they got it to him; as long as it was safe in the mean time.
"Do you plan on spending the night here?" the prince asked to nobody in particular for the sake of conversation.
"I think we should," said Boh. "I wouldn't want to seem rude by staying for a feast, then leaving right after our hosts provided such hospitality for us." In reality though, he just wanted to stay around food as long as he could.
Everyone stared at him. Where the hell did he get that list of vocabulary? Maybe he spends too much time listening to Yubaba negotiating with customers…
Haku laughed after a few seconds. "Well if it's so important to you that you would take on your mother's tactics of persuading us, then I guess it would be alright," he said, still laughing.
They had finally reached the room. When they entered it to wait for the feast in their honor, they all seemed to notice the same thing.
It was Naomi who spoke up first, though, "Where will we all sleep? There's only one bed in here," she pointed out to prince Miruto.
His majesty took on a very… appropriate look to go along with what he was thinking. "Well there's an empty room next to this one that shares the balcony. Then there's at least one more empty one across the hall. If there aren't enough though, I could certainly have one of you accompany me to my own bedroom…," he said as he was drawn once again to the table of food. Naomi rolled her eyes; it was like he wanted that bruise on his back to get bigger. As luck would have it, she had the opportunity to elbow him in the back as he turned towards the food from her side. Dayu, ever faithful and on Naomi's side, guffawed at the prince and cheered Naomi on.
For the first time since Naomi had been taken captive of him, the prince grimaced in pain, but then took on a look that seemed to admit that he got what was coming to him.
"Anyway...," Haku began uncertainly after seeing Naomi's attitude towards the prince, "when we get around to sleeping arrangements, I think that Chihiro should get this room. She is, after all, supposed to be the most important one here," he added with a grin at her.
"You spoil her, you know that?" Naomi said. Haku just nodded, pleased with himself, causing Sen to giggle and blush from her position next to Haku on the bed. "Well, I don't really care for the balcony, so you can have the room next this one, Haku. I'll sleep across the hall. Boh can, too," she added, pointing to the child who didn't protest to it at all; he was taking care of some unfinished business with the wide assortment of breakfast foods at the table.
"Haku, will you show me where the baths are? I want to be a bit cleaner for the feast later on," Sen said.
"I'll come, too," Naomi said, heading towards the door.
As Sen and Haku got up too, the prince looked at all of them as if he could find out what to do by their faces. "What am I supposed to do with the kid?"
"Just stay in here with him until Haku gets back," Naomi said.
The prince chuckled. "Good idea… we can do some manly bonding. Maybe I can find out how to calm you down from him," he said flippantly.
Naomi scowled at him. She knew very well what he meant. "Just watch your mouth around him," she said coldly.
"Will do," he said, saluting her as the three friends walked out of the room.
Once they were on their way with Haku leading them, Sen asked Naomi about her 'relationship' with the prince.
"What 'relationship'? I just treat him the way he deserves to be treated. If you haven't noticed, he isn't exactly polite." Dayu gave a high-pitched sigh from Sen's shoulder at the very thought of Naomi and the prince getting together.
"But you have to admit," Haku cut in, "from what you said he did when he first captured you, compared to how I've seen him treat you recently, he seems to have gained more respect for you than he must have for most women."
"That's true," Sen agreed. "You said that before, he had been offending you physically… but now, he seems to only make slightly inappropriate comments."
Naomi blushed. "So what are you getting at?"
"Well… think about it. With his personality, you could assume that he treats women with tremendous disrespect. But then, he seems to respect you for how you react to his behavior," Sen explained. "I'd say he's got a thing for you for reasons beyond your body, at this point."
Naomi could feel the shade of pink on her cheeks deepen. What Sen was saying is true; in the elevator that morning, he had openly thanked her for treating him the way she did. And she did think he was funny the way he managed to associate her with whatever the topic of conversation was… No! What was she thinking?!
"We're here," Haku stated, much to Naomi's relief, as they reached their destination. "The baths are just through this door. You shouldn't have any trouble finding whatever you need. Will you be able to find your way back to the room?"
"I'm pretty sure I'll remember which way to go. Thanks," Sen said as Haku kissed her on the forehead and walked off with Dayu now on his shoulder.
Haku approached the door to what was now destined to be Sen's bedroom, and read the note he found on the door.
"I found the kid his own room to sleep in… It's the one directly across from this door… Naomi's room is to its left… I'm with the kid in his room, though. Come find me and I'll show you you're room."
Haku turned around and found his way into Boh's room. The prince was sitting on a short bed, watching Boh wheel himself around on one of those trucks. You know, the kind that are for little kids, but they have a motor and stuff… that kind.
"Ah, so you found it," the prince said, standing up.
"Yup. Could you…?"
"Show you your room? Sure."
"Boh, stay in here while Prince Miruto shows me my room. I'll leave Dayu in here, too."
Boh grunted a reply as he terrorized a city he had build out of blocks.
The prince showed Haku to his room and took a seat at a table. The room looked exactly the same as Sen's, with the exception that everything was on the opposite side.
"And you said before that the two rooms are connected by the balcony?"
The prince nodded. "Oh by the way, my mother just told me a few minutes ago to inform you that the feast will be for dinner, so you have at least six hours to go."
"She knows that we're staying tonight, then?"
"Well actually, when I told her, she acted like she had already insisted that you would."
Haku chuckled slightly. "Well, we shouldn't leave Boh by himself for too long," he said as he got up to leave.
"Er… before we get back to the kid… can I ask you something?"
Haku gave the prince a confused look, but nodded anyway.
"Well…," he began, and Haku noticed that his face was now a deep shade of crimson, "doyouknowanywaythatIcouldgetthatNaomigirltosoftenuparoundme?"
The prince had blurted it out all so fast that Haku could barely understand any of it. "…Come again?"
"Well… You obviously know how I am to women… And see the thing is, when I am myself with them, they usually are prone to get giggly with me. I have to say, that gets rather dull after 18 years. But then there's Naomi, who is so different from most people… and her ways of slapping me about seem to have a positive effect on me. Now if I could only change her mind about me and get her not to hate me anymore, then maybe I wouldn't screw up this time…" His voice trailed off.
"Are you saying that you think Naomi is good for you, and that you want a second chance with her, now that she's earned your respect?"
"Yes…"
Haku couldn't help but chortle at this confession. He found it slightly amusing the way that he and Sen were just talking about this, and now the prince was confirming all of their suspicions. "Well first off, you need to show her that you respect her. That means no more disturbing comments. For another thing…. Go out of your way to do stuff for her. I'm not saying flowers and candy or anything… just do things to show her that you pay attention. Got it?"
"Yeah. Thanks dude," he said, getting up from his chair. "Better go check on the kid now…" They both got up and went back to Boh's room.
"Wow, that was one of the most relaxing baths I've ever had," Sen commented as she and Naomi walked down the hall, back to the room. Naomi happily agreed with her.
Meanwhile, Haku and Prince Miruto were watching Boh play with his little toys as the prince found out more ways to handle women from Haku. Suddenly, the door swung open, and in came Naomi and Sen.
"Back already?" the prince noticed. Sen responded with a cheery nod, but Naomi just ignored the fact that the prince was even in the room. Sen walked over and sat next to Haku on the bed, where Dayu hopped onto her shoulder once again, but Naomi lingered for a moment in the doorway. Recognizing his chance, the prince sprung up to pull out a chair across from him for Naomi.
"Have a seat," he said, bowing his head and gesturing his hand to the empty chair he had just pulled out. Naomi looked at him uncertainly, half expecting this gesture to be some way of setting Naomi up for a stunt… but she was very surprised when he didn't touch her at all as she sat down. He threw a sly grin to Haku, then sat back in his chair.
"Oh girls, the feast is planned for dinner tonight, so now that it's about three o'clock… we have about four hours," the prince explained.
"Can we look around the castle in the mean time?" Sen asked.
"Sure."
"Great, but first, are there already rooms saved for everyone to sleep in tonight?"
"Yes, I've worked it all out. Sen, you will be in the room you were in this morning, of course; Haku will be in the next room over, Boh will be in here, and Naomi will be in the room to the left of this one. You probably already know though from the note that was on your door."
"Mhmm… Boh, do you want to come see the rest of the castle with us?" Naomi asked.
"Sure."
And so, the five of them explored the rest of the castle with the prince as their tour guide for three and a half hours before the feast would begin. Yes, that's right; for three and a half hours, they looked around. And for those three and a half hours, Prince Miruto successfully began to get Naomi to warm up to him. He held doors open for her, he seemed to address her when explaining what different rooms were, he restrained from making comments or acting on them, ect… The castle was much larger than any of them had though. There were seven floors all the same size, which was extraordinarily large. In fact, they didn't even finish with the sixth floor when a voice rang through the halls.
"A feast for five of hour honored guests will take place in the dining hall on the first leveling thirty minutes! Everyone is welcome to celebrate! Servants have the rest of the day off!"
"Oh I almost forgot to tell you all: my mother was so thrilled that you're here, she left told me that she would leave some gifts for you in your rooms. She didn't tell me what they would be, but she did say that she wanted you to find them before the feast," the prince said.
Excited, the five of them each bid the prince farewell, as he was off to prepare for the feast, and they all rushed to their rooms to see what they had received. Sen and Naomi were delighted to find kimonos of the finest silk lied out on their beds. They were white with silver trimming, similar to what the queen wore, except for the fact that it did not have the seal of the royal family on them like the king, queen, and prince all had on their clothes. As for the boys, they found robes for themselves, also made of silk, which were the same style as what the prince had. Theirs too were white with silver collars and sleeves. As for Dayu, he found himself a tiny, black hat on the nightstand next to Sen's bed.
After quickly dressing into them, the five guests found their way to the dining hall, which was already packed with residents of the castle. They were greeted by the queen, who brought them to seats on either side of herself, the king (who had the face of his son, though he had red hair, a beard and a mustache) and the prince, who were all at a separate table from the rest of the celebratory people who were there to gorge themselves silly.
"May I have your attention, please!" the king called out as the five guests sat down, Dayu sitting next to Sen's plate on the table. The crowed grew silent, ready for the up-coming toast. The king raised his glass, and continued. "As many of you know, there has been a tale floating around about a human and her dragon-boy friend, who are destined to overcome Kosho and the rest of those Xovio Cartel cronies." The crowd stirred as people anxiously whispered to one another about this. "Last night, we were honored to welcome these two people to the castle. This feast is in honor of Sen and Haku, who are the ones from the prophecy, and their friends, Dayu, Naomi and Boh. Cheers to them all!" he said, thrusting his glass into the air after gesturing towards the five of them. The room was suddenly filled with glasses chinking together. The king motioned for them all to stand and take a bow. They did so, and were applauded heartily by everyone. "Let the feast begin!" said the king.
The five guests, as they ate, were constantly praised by residents of the castle. Sen and Haku, when not interrupted by these praises, were telling the king, the queen and Dayu about Sen's last visit to the Spirit World, as well as about what they had been through so far this time around. Boh, or course, was too busy stuffing his face to talk. Naomi, surprisingly, was deep in conversation with the prince about things like the way Yubaba was running that particular region of the world. They also, at first, talked about things like their favorite foods, music, and so on. At one point, they were so low on topics, having talked the entire night, that the prince resorted to asking about such unimportant things. For example, Naomi's favorite color, what she though about the weather, what her favorite flower was… (Or was there another reason besides a lack of ideas for that one? Well duh.)
After three hours of celebrating, Boh was a mess, Naomi and Prince Miruto were getting tongue-tied from talking the entire night, Sen and Haku were almost annoyed from so many questions, and Dayu, the king and queen were a bit worn out from listening so intently to every word that their honored guest were saying.
When the crowd began to thin, they finally called it a night and retreated to their rooms. They were all surprised to find that they had yet more gifts: pajamas! Naomi and Sen both found spaghetti-strap night dresses on their beds, and the boys found night shirts and pants to match. They were all the same patter as their other clothes: white silk with silver trimmings.
Dayu was instructed to keep Boh company during the night, who immediately went to sleep with no trouble at all. Naomi, after receiving an awkward good-night from the prince, slept peacefully.
Sen, on the other hand, was just now realizing what that night had been all about. They had celebrated the fact that she was supposed to defeat demons that had a lot of power and anger. This got her rather nervous; in an attempt to calm down, she got out of bed and walked out onto the balcony. She stood there under the stars, leaning against the railing, thinking about what might happen later on.
Suddenly, she felt a furry nose find its way into her ear, and she heard a voice in her head say, "What's the matter, Chihiro?"
Haku, in his dragon form, was standing behind her, nudging his snout gently into the side of her neck.
"I was just thinking about if that crazy old lady was right in predicting that we would actually defeat the Xovio Cartel."
"Don't worry about it," Haku told her as she scratched him under the chin. He groaned at the wonderful feeling with his eyelids half-way closed. Then, much to Sen's surprise, he started to purr. The low rumbling in the dragon's throat calmed her immediately.
"What about you? What are you doing out here?" Sen asked as she realized that the dragon's purring reminded her of the time she found him snoring, waiting to take her for a ride.
Haku started to lick Sen's shoulder, working his way up her neck and responded, "I saw you come out here and I wanted to know if you were okay." Sen giggled as Haku's velvety dragon tongue worked its way behind her ear. And gradually, she felt the short, warm licks become kisses planted on her neck and a pair of arms wrap around her middle as Haku became human again.
Sen sighed as a pleasant shiver ran down her spine. "My hero; always there to make sure I'm never down."
"Well somebody has to," he said. "You're too adorable to waste on frowns and lonely tears."
"What about tears of joy?" Sen asked as her eyes watered at what he had said.
Haku turned her around so that she was facing him and he leaned forward, bringing their foreheads together. "As long as they're for me." Then suddenly he moved back, as if surprised by something. "How did you do that?"
"What?"
"Oh, don't pretend that you don't know. Now tell me how you made me love you even more just now than I used to."
Sen started laughing, and (with some difficulty) she turned her smile into a pout, as if she had been caught. "Gee, officer, if you let me off with a warning, I promise never to— mmmmmm."
Haku had tried, but failed miserably in keeping from interrupting her. The way she had her bottom lip curled forward while she spoke was so irresistible, he had to kiss her.
"On the contrary," he began to say with his mind as his tongue explored every crevice in her mouth, "you need to promise me that you'll never stop."
"Deal."
Sen rested one hand on his shoulder, and she had the other behind his neck. She was enjoying that moment so much that she didn't notice her fingers kneading the skin underneath Haku's hair, much like cats sometimes do while napping. Haku completely melted and felt himself almost go limp right then and there from so many sensations at once. Reluctantly, Haku broke the kiss to carry Sen back into the room and onto her bed, holding her like a groom would carry his newly-wed wife.
He set her down on her back and then, still standing, started kissing her deeply again for what he thought would be the last time that night. "You can't imagine how much I don't want to go back to bed."
"Then don't go."
"But tomorrow we need to get up and—" Sen started to massage the back of his neck again, "—and… and… oh, screw it." He jumped over Sen and onto the bed, landing next to her on his back. Sen turned onto her side to face him and she held onto his arm. He kissed her head and gently moved a strand of hair from her face. As they lay there, Haku staring at the ceiling and Sen clinging to his arm, they fell asleep.
"Lights out, Rin!"
Aaah, I love fluff! And that's all it was, mind you. They kept their clothes on -_-' Well, the reason this was so long is because I didn't want to separate any of the information, because reading it all together has a better effect than taking it in slowly. Another reason is because it was an entire day that this chapter is about, and all of the events have to do with one another, so I just had to keep them all together. Please review, and thanks for reading! (Is it just me, or does that quote up there seem as equally out of place as appropriate?) Word count for this chapter: 5117! *gasp* That doesn't include all my ramblings before and after, either.