Disclaimer: RK and the PB aren't mine, so please don't sue. Or spank.
Author's note: *evil grin* Yeh, I'm definitely going over to the dark side at the moment… That isn't where I belong, and I don't intend to stay there, but in the meantime… Just don't take anything too seriously okay? *notices she's been asking that of her poor readers a lot lately* I really ask a lot of you guys, don't I? Sorry about that. *apologetic look* But it's all in the name of suspense and anticipation, and that's the truth. It's not just because I'm inherently evil.
Well, enjoy!
The Princess Bride: Kenshin Style ElevenKaoru sat by the window of her luxurious room, gazing outside and recalling everything that had happened over the past few months.
It had been a full ten weeks since she had left her home in the tiny valley behind, and the busiest ten weeks of her life. She couldn't believe how much her life had changed. Her engagement to the Prince was to be officially announced the next day.
Her eyes wandering over the city, separated from her grand new home by the sprawling palace gardens, she remembered the journey to her new home.
The countryside rolled gently by the carriage windows. Kaoru leant her elbow on the little armrest, cupping her chin in her hand, and stared out at the world passing by.
They were on their way to Kyoto, the capital city, and part of Kaoru felt vaguely excited, but most of her just felt dead, the way she had ever since Kenshin's death. As the carriage had approached the Great Road, an irrepressible feeling of hope had surged through her, demanding that somehow, by some miracle, she would see Kenshin travelling along the road, alive and unhurt and ecstatic to see her: she even thought of what she'd say to him.
"I'm so sorry, Kenshin, but the Prince has ordered me to marry him. But you are alive, so I will run away and we will marry and escape to another country, where we can stay together forever."
She'd imagined how he would look at her and smile.
Kenshin was not walking along the Great Road.
Kenshin was dead.
It was as the carriage finally rolled to a halt on a grand driveway that the final nail in the coffin was thumped home. She was here: the door was opened, and her Prince's hand was held out to help her down and guide her into the palace.
This was it. This was her new life, and it was happening right then, as she finally placed her fingers in the Prince's awaiting hand, and stepped, first one foot, then the other, out into her new world. She would marry the Prince, she would give him his heir, and she would leave Kenshin behind forever.
"Do you like your new room?"
The Prince watched her with expectant eyes as she took hesitant steps to the middle of the huge chamber. It was beautiful, with delicately painted screens and large open windows showing her a glorious view of the sunset, which was turning the sky orange and red, preparing for the darkness of Kaoru's first night as the Prince's fiancé. Despite the warmth created by the glowing sun, Kaoru shivered, and wrapped her arms around herself. She couldn't help it: she felt so out of place here, and all she wanted was to have her simple old life back, with Kenshin on her parents' farm. She closed her eyes with an irritated expression on her face. She must stop thinking like that. She was here now.
She suddenly realised the Prince was still waiting for her to reply. She turned to him with a forced smile. "Yes, it's lovely, thank you," she said. The Prince noticed the way her dark hair shone like spun gold when she span to face him. He also noticed the lack of genuine happiness in her smile.
"Lovely, but not where you really want to be," he observed, leaning back against the wall and monitoring her with his gleaming eyes.
She looked away, an uncertain look on her face. "You're right. I don't really want to be here. But I agreed that I would marry you, and that agreement includes my living here. So here is where I'll live," she said, mustering her courage and stepping forward to meet his eyes again defiantly.
A smile crept across the Prince's lips. She amused him more and more, every time he was near her. She defied him as no one else in the country dared to. A determination akin to the thirst for the hunt rose in him as he stared her down.
She only gazed back with greater strength. His smile widened a fraction. She looked like a goddess, with the flaming light of the sunset flowing from behind her, highlighting the contours of her body softly through her layers of clothing.
Finally, she looked away, backing down. The Prince was satisfied. Too much free-spiritedness was a fault in anyone- anyone but himself, of course.
"I shall leave you to your night's rest then, my lady," he said in a deep, quiet voice. He inclined his head in the mockery of a bow to her, and she stiffened.
"Just because you are to be my husband, and king of this country, does not mean you can be impolite and pass it off as politeness, my Prince," she said in a tight voice. This man- yes, he was just a man, no matter his title or power- annoyed her with his smirking and superior attitude.
Her eyes sparked, and he could practically see her hair all rising like an angry cat's. He only smirked at her again, and, stepping clear of the wall to stand in front of her, he spoke in low tones. "I hope that one day, you will not only call me 'your Prince', but by my name, Shishio," he said.
The comment threw Kaoru completely. Before she could even decide whether he had been in earnest or only mocking her further, he had withdrawn, closing the door behind him, leaving her alone in the huge, imposing room. Uncertainty flickered across her face as the light died from the day. She couldn't make out this man. She wanted Kenshin back to help her understand and feel safe. But no.
She sat down on the end of her bed, and began shrugging out of her clothes in preparation for sleep.
She frowned. "Shishio…"
Kaoru had gradually become accustomed to her new life. She had also grown to tolerate the Count's usual shadowing of her steps. When she had asked the Prince about it, he had only smirked and said, "I can't leave my fiancé unguarded now, can I?"
Kaoru was not so naïve that she didn't catch the double meaning of those words. Count Enishi kept her protected: the way a bird in a cage is protected. She would not escape with the Prince's eyes only on her, whether literally or via the Count.
Fortunately, while the Count was undeniably a strange person, he had always been fairly polite and genteel in his treatment of Kaoru. It was only the knowing smile, or the knowing look, that so often crossed his features, that bothered and unsettled her. It reminded her that, no matter how gentlemanly or respectful the Count may act towards her, he was the Prince's right hand man, and not her friend.
Kaoru had also grown used to the Prince's behaviour. His patronising attitude and general arrogance never stopped irking her, but she learnt to deal with it by either glaring at him, even while the servants cringed just to see her defy him, or simply staying away from him. It made life easier for her that he spent so much time hunting: she rarely saw him more than a few times a week, and those times did not always include conversation or lengthened time together, and they were never alone together.
Gradually, Kaoru's dreams, and nightmares, of Kenshin went away. The gentle memory-dreams that made her wake up crying stopped, and the visions of a hundred different deaths he could have suffered ended not long after that. He had become a quiet memory in the back of her mind, now.
It was when her courtesy tutor, Yumi, spoke to her one day that she was jolted for the first time in ages.
They had been going through the art of tying various kinds of obi when Yumi had presented Kaoru with a new piece of cloth, of a soft violet colour.
"It's another gift from the Prince: not that he'd call it that," the older woman had said, offering it to Kaoru.
She'd taken it into her arms with a soft light in her eyes. It was the colour of Kenshin's eyes. Images and memories came flooding into her heart like the surging of water through floodgates.
Yumi had seen the look in her student's eyes.
"I know that expression is not about the Prince," she said matter-of-factly.
Kaoru looked up in surprise, with tears shining at the corners of her eyes. Seeing the look on Yumi's face, she'd only shaken her head, conceding Yumi's point.
Yumi sighed. "You can't go on like that. You loved someone deeply, but if you are thinking of him while engaged to the Prince… It isn't fair to you, your previous love, or your fiancé. I know you look down on the Prince: you're practically the only person in the kingdom still alive who dares to. Yet he tolerates you. I can't understand why. But you should get over your own superior attitude and take note of what he has offered you: not just power and wealth, but himself.
"He may be unlike other men, but he is still a man, a person. And he deserves your respect, for many reasons. Most of all, because he puts up with your childish behaviour all the time, and accepts with so little anger the fact that you refuse to leave behind the memories of a man who abandoned you long ago."
Kaoru had felt her mouth gape open, and her head reeled. This woman had always been outspoken, but she had touched on things Kaoru had not wanted to think about, and made Kaoru feel both ashamed and deeply hurt.
Yumi just shook her head. "That will be all, then. I will leave you to think about my final lesson to you for today."
She'd left Kaoru without another word.
Kaoru sank against the wall, gripping the obi tightly in white fingers. Abandoned? Yumi didn't understand at all! She hadn't been there, hadn't known how much Kenshin and Kaoru had loved each other, or why he'd gone away…
But Kaoru hadn't known, either. Kenshin had only said that he'd had things to tie up and lay to rest before they could be together. Kaoru would never know what he'd meant by that.
But he hadn't abandoned her! He would never have simply left her for no good reason!
Kaoru's anger drowned in a stream of tears. She couldn't go back, now, though. Kenshin was gone, whatever the reason for his departure. And Yumi had been right: Kaoru did look down on the Prince. Was she being a hypocrite, criticising her fiancé for an arrogant attitude, but showing one herself in the process? Was she truly acting like a child in her constant defiance of the Prince?
She didn't know, she didn't know…
And was it true, that the Prince 'tolerated' her? Would he really just have her got rid of, or even killed, if it suited him?
Kaoru couldn't quite bring herself to believe that. He may be harsh and distant, and far too self-assured, but was he truly that cold-blooded? Surely not…
It was only hours later that Kaoru had grown to appreciate what was behind Yumi's words. A carefully governed jealousy, and incredulity at Kaoru's reaction to being engaged to Shishio. Yumi, herself, was in love with the Prince. Yet she was only a servant who taught protocol and manners to the young woman who was to marry that man. Kaoru had found herself feeling great sympathy for Yumi.
The whole thing had been a humbling realisation for Kaoru. It was hard for her, but she began to contemplate that the Prince was not so undesirable and despicable a person as she had wanted to believe.
Had she made him hateful in her own eyes, just because she had to marry him?
Had she forced herself to see Shishio as this horrible Prince, just because he wasn't her farm boy Kenshin?
Though Yumi had, in truth, been a fair, if blunt, teacher, the learning of courtly ways and speech had been a slow course for Kaoru. It had been a tremendously boring and tedious ordeal, and the only comfort Kaoru had had was in the daily escape from it all with her pony. She went roaming about the enormous palace grounds, including the hillsides on the northwestern fringes of the grounds. She had gone there many, many times to watch the sun go down over the land, and greet the coming of the night.
One such time, as she sat on the grassy slope, watching the sunset die away and listening to her pony grazing close by, she was suddenly aware of someone watching her.
Turning and looking up, she saw a figure melt out of the growing shadows.
"You seem to be intent on loneliness, my dear lady," said a voice Kaoru had become long accustomed to. A voice that made her less hostile than it once had, even while she could never welcome the sound of it.
The Prince had been watching her for some little while. She had been lying back on the grass at first, gazing up at the burning sky, her skin and hair glowing in the orange and gold light. As the sun had sunk beneath the horizon, she had sat up, curled into a smaller space, looking small and weak in the vast landscape. But Shishio knew she was strong: stronger than most of the people he was forced to mix with. She'd taken her time in noticing his presence, though.
Turning away from him, she said, "Only intent on having some time to myself each day. Is that not allowed? I thought everyone needed time to think now and again."
The Prince walked closer, and stood beside her, as she remained knelt on the ground. She kept her eyes to the front. He looked down at her dark head, tracing the faint glimmers of silver moonlight in her hair with his eyes. Yes: she was strong.
The stars were beginning to appear overhead, Kaoru noted. She didn't usually stay this long, and she began to think about leaving.
But the Prince was stood there, watching her.
"You are welcome to think, if that is what pleases you," he said.
She glanced up at him angrily, suspecting mockery behind his words. He seemed to either mock or simply disdain almost everything she said. Why does he have to act this way all the time?
"I wish you had never chosen me. And though I have made this promise, and will keep it as necessary, I will not pretend to care about you, or even like you. I will not stoop to that kind of dishonesty." She stood up, brushing off her kimono angrily.
She was about to walk away, when his voice stopped her. He sounded actually annoyed: of all the emotions he had displayed over the past weeks, he had never seemed to be annoyed with her: he never seemed annoyed by anyone, as if everyone was simply too beneath him to be able to cause him any anger.
"You seem to be wholly preoccupied by the terms of our agreement, my lady. I doubt you realise how mercenary that makes you sound. However, I wonder: do you know all of them?"
She spun round. He had a dark shine in his eyes as he looked at her intently. There was no smirk on his face this time.
"What?" she whispered, with cold anger. She hadn't liked what his tone had been implying at all.
He stepped towards her. His voice had become deep and insistent. "Do you accept the responsibility of what a wife owes to her husband, Kaoru?"
Before she could say anything in reply, before his meaning even sank in, she found her lips covered by his mouth. He didn't touch her in any other way: he didn't deny her an escape or force her into an embrace. He simply caught her in a kiss she could not possibly have predicted.
His lips were unnaturally warm, and though he did not kiss her roughly, his mouth was hardened beyond softness by his burns.
Kaoru was too shocked to move. After a moment, he pulled away from her to regard her as she stood, cold and frozen, like a beautiful statue of ice, in the rising moonlight.
"Our engagement will be announced to the people in two days' time. Be ready to look and act the way a Prince's fiancé should look and act. And remember your promise," he said, walking away from her, vanishing into the darkness.
Kaoru barely heard his words. She was still frozen with shock. She had known, of course she had known what a promise of marriage meant… But it was different when you were actually experiencing it, rather than simply thinking of it as a future inevitability.
She had wanted Kenshin to be the only one ever to touch her lips. Her childish hope flew away on the cold night breeze that caressed her, gone with the wind of a past life. She was not Kenshin's anymore. She was Shisio's now. That was the promise she had made.
She fell to her knees, and sobbed into the grass as the warmth of the sun died from the land.
Author's note: I'm unreasonably proud of this chapter, considering. I'm not even sure why.
And to all your speculations about who will be who… there's only really a couple of characters left secret, so I'm keeping it as classified information! I have to get my authorial kicks somehow, don't I? ^_^ You'll have to wait and see…
And I'm well aware that most of you are probably preparing to kill me, or indeed flame me, as a result of this chapter, but please don't! I've said this a few times, but things will pick up soon, I promise. I can't be evil forever… I need fluff to survive!!
*BANG!* Ouch…. *looks around to see a very angry Kaoru holding another bucket, and ready to throw it at Akari's head this time* Kaoru: LIAR! You're EVIL!!!
Gah! I'm sorry Kaoru! *runs away as Kaoru goes chasing after her with a death glare all over her face*
BYEEEEE FOR NOOWWWW!! *runs into the distance clutching her computer*
To my reviewers: general message of THANKS! for all the support and enthusiasm over my choices for the Prince and Count! I was so incredibly chuffed that you approved!! ^_^
Thank you to Emma (you need to get more regular m'dear *laughs* much appreciated tho, you know. As ever. And I'll be sure to make you shower me with praise on Sunday *wink*), awc (good to know you're pleased with the choices! And as for Kenshin… He'll be back eventually I suppose, but he hasn't been replying to my e-mails… *giggle* I'm SO evil.), LittleDragon5, Ela (hello! Hope you managed to get hold of the book and are enjoying it: it really is an excellent piece of entertaining literature. Wow, I just keep plugging the PB, don't I? ^_^), InuYasha fan (It's as in 'I wouldn't want your love if I had it'. Hope that clears it up!), EvilPrincessMelphis (well, you got a different, sick kind of fluff this time… *ducks flying weapons* Sorry!! ^_^), LilInuyashaMunky, Skipper (It is K/K! It IS! *runs away from sight of sword*), Mai (yeh, I think most of the author's notes were made up. Florin doesn't exist! But he does a pretty convincing job. It took my friend ages, and a huge pile of evidence, before I believed that Morgenstern and Goldman were the same person! But inspired by one of his notes, I got a t-shirt printed with 'Westley lives', like in his lil story involving someone wearing one saying 'Westley never dies' ^_^), impatientgurl (*grin* Glad you like it so much!! ^_^), Redhead Samurai (ah, now you see it's Shishio! *hiss* But he's great as the Prince. Really evil. And deserving a whack with a bokken. ^_^), NightRain (it's so interesting to hear everyone's speculations… *grin* I love following the book in lots of places too: there's lots of bits that just have to be written the same, they're too good to change!), genocide ex-sync*in (*hands over a bucket in light of Shishio/Kaoru thing* yeh, sorry about that… This is K/K tho, I promise!!), lidmoon02, Sasami9876 (Girl. *wink*), Demon Neko-Chan (thank you for doing so, it makes me very happy! ^_^), Girl (yeh, I'm gonna have to spank Kenshin if he doesn't get his butt moving back here! *pauses* spank… Kenshin… *drool*), Rin-chan (^_^ Don't worry about Kenshin.. he'll hold his own, wherever he is…), pretty Luthien (*wink*), Jellybob 15 (you may have noticed by now that Kenshin is never far from my authorial thoughts… yeh, so Kaoru says she's moving on, but she SO isn't. *geez* ^_^), Celtic Oak (cheers for that! It's good to know a die-hard PB fan approves of my decisions. ^_^ And yes, the albino could NOT go without a mention. He's too cool a support cast member), TenkunoMeiou, TwinBakaNekos, MegumiFuu (*grins at Squall's pearls of wisdom* I just felt Humperdinck's attitude matched Shishio's general disdain for humanity rather well. ^_^), D45 (I know, they aren't very long chapters, I have this weird internal timer that suddenly clocks out after a particular bit in the story… What can I say? It's out of my hands. ^_^ And please, keep growling at the Prince, he's way too rude. *glares at Shishio pointedly* And I DID update early! HA! *appreciates the PB reference muchly tho* ^_^), Tevrah (with Shishio playing him? Not likely! *runs in fear from Shishio's manic let's-take-over-the-world-before-dinner-time laughter*), DarkElf (oh yes, he's evil all right. *chucks a pointy object in the Prince's general direction with an innocent smile* ^_^), authoress formally known as eve of mirkwood (I can't suggest any name ideas I'm afraid, it's too important a thing. *wonders how convincing a get-out clause that was* ^_^ Ah, but camping is cool! I've never been on a proper camping trip! Excpet one time when I went to Snowdon in Wales with my school. It was crap, before you ask. *pout* Yes, the Dread Hitokiri Battousai! *giggles muchly* I was proud of that one. ^_^), Kaoru: Kawaii Sakura (that's ok! Glad to hear from you! *hangs head with a sweatdrop, wondering if this reader will ever remember and manage to type what she is trying not to forget* ^_^ I used to have a room with a really sloping, low ceiling along one side, and my bed was there, so just imagine hitting your head every morning when you sit up for about a month before you learn not to sit up like that in the morning… *sweatdrops at self* eh hehe…), lalafoofoo (thanks! ^_^), monkeysme (*won't tell about any future characters* I'm so mean, aren't I? *Megumi style laugh* ohohohoho!!), Shizuka (*laughs at all these wild guesses and theories* You'll just have to wait and see! Hee hee! Er… are you sure you're okay all crossed up like that? *looks at crossed fingers, toes and legs in concerned puzzlement* ^_^), nae-chan (aha! A Yumi there is! Partly due to your mention of her, in fact… ^_^ She is a pretty cool character, at the end of the day, in my opinion. She deserved to be there, even in a little part.), Papaya! (*catches sandwich with her big mouth* fank-oo!! And pweash be haffy or the haffy danshe dushn'd worwk pwopewly.. *takes sandwich out of her mouth having swallowed a big bite* mmm.. Anyway! Thanks for the card. It's fluffy! *sighs longingly for the chapter that will allow quantities of fluff to return* Yeh, I moaned about it when it was there, but I miss it now it's gone… *pout* ah well. Not too much longer, if all goes to plan!).
Whew! Thank you all so much!
And I'll be back soon with more! Four or five days, depending on me I guess! I should probably get on with some revision now… *shuffles back to her hermitage to do some work* buh.
Leave a review and cheer me up while I revise! That's a good idea! ^_^