I stumbled down to the breakfast room one morning, as I did everyday. I sat down, alone, as I did everyday. I poured coffee, mixed in cream, and picked up my bagel smothered with regular cream cheese, as I did everyday. There was nothing new at Isola. Nothing. Except....
"It's getting cold..." I whispered to myself, and felt comforted when Annie jumped up in my lap and cuddled against the warmth of my body. Finishing my breakfast, I climbed upstairs to change out of my spaghetti strap top into something a little more weather-appropriate.
Shuffling through the huge wardrobe that my.. I suppose I could call him boyfriend, Riku, had given me, I found a pair of thick jeans, black, and a black shirt embosed with a heartless crest, with matching heels. "Feeling a little down today, are we?" I said to myself.
Truthfully, that pull I had been feeling tugging at my heart was extremely strong this morning. I did not know what it was, but could only guess that it was something that, some part of me that, for some reason, wanted to go back to my homeworld. I wasn't quite sure why, but... well, we're off topic here.
"Good morning, Rose." I turned to see who the speaker was, although I really knew.
"Hello, Riku..." I averted my eyes from his, not wanting him to see that I was in pain inside.
"It hurts, doesn't it?" I nodded. "Here..." He touched my chest over my heart, and the pain lessened a little.
"Thanks..." I kissed him, feeling better. "You're home early." It was more of a question than a statement.
"I have been assigned the most dreadful task by the council." (The council was the group of people who he worked with... namely the villians that our enemy, Sora, was fighting to defeat).
"What is it? It can't be that bad."
"I have to hold a Christmas party in a month."
"What?" I was a bit confused, because I didn't know that they had Christmas on Isola, although that explained the weather.
"A Christmas party, a full-fledged thing. Cruella de Ville would be better suited to it, but she lives in an apartment, and everyone but myself agreed that Isola would be the best place to hold it."
I didn't quite see why he felt like this was bad news. It would give me something else to do than what I generally did when he wasn't around (which was reading and exploring the castle, among other things)
"Awesome!"
He looked at me, aghast. "Awesome?"
"If you get me what I need, I can organize it, the decorating at least..."
"Really? Rose... seriously?"
"Yes, I'm serious! I'd love to do it!" I gave him a hug. "I love decorating! It's a personal hobby, actually."
"Okay, well I'll just go and leave you with your bows or whatever it is you use to decorate..." he started to walk out of the room, but I stopped him.
"Oh no you don't. I need you to help me make a list! C'umon, we're going to my office."
Once I had sat down and pulled out a clipboard, I began. "Do you have anything already? Like, decorations."
"Umm... I think we've got some stuff in a closet somewhere..."
"Okay, well, we'll look at that later, I guess. But we need fresh-cut trees."
"Alright... how many?"
"Errr... let's see... we'll need about ten for the front balcony, five feet tall, ten more for the balconies and twenty to line the entrance hall, about seven feet tall each, and, oh yes, two for our bedrooms, maybe eight feet tall? and five foot ones for all of the other bedrooms. And, oh yes, we'll need a twenty-foot high one for the entrance hall and a thirty-foot for the main ball-slash-dining room." As I finished writing this down, he just stared.
"How many is that total?"
"About, um, seventy-four."
His eyes grew wide. "Seventy-- seventy-four?"
"Yeah."
Sitting back in his chair he closed his eyes. "What else?"
"Well, we'll need lights for all of them. And a theme."
"A theme?"
"Like, Music or Gold or something."
"How about 'A Heartless Christmas?' It's the easiest."
"Riku, dear, listen to yourself. It's a contradiction. Now, let's go look at what you've got already."
"Okay, let's go."
"Yay!"
As we were walking towards the room, he began to express his doubts. "Why are you doing all of this? Will it be too hard?"
"Well.. it'll be nice to have something to do-- ah, I mean, decorate. Yes, decorate. I love to decorate things."
"Wait, Rose. Something to do? Rose," he stopped and looked at me in that way that makes me want to melt. "Rose, you're bored here, all the time, aren't you?" I averted my eyes and concentrated on the peice of dust on the floor by his feet. Lifting my chin the way he did when he gave me my first kiss, "You should have told me earlier."
"Well, I'm fine when you're here... and you always seem so worried when you get back."
"Rose..." His eyes looked at me, concerned. I averted my eyes once more. "Rose... is there anything else?"
"No." When I looked back at him, there was a flicker of mischeviousness in my eyes. "Well, something else I want now..."
He knew what I was talking about. Smiling, he continued on. "The decorations are this way. You love to decorate things, remember?"
"I love something else even more." I jumped in front of him. "Please?"
"Mmm... alright." He lowered his lips to mine, gave me a light peck, and dissapeared.
"Riku, no good!" I complained. Getting no response, I continued on in the direction we were heading. At the end of the hallway, I found a door with dust on the handle. "Has it been that long?" I opened the door and turned on the light. When I saw what was inside, I gasped.
This was no closet. No, this was a warehouse. Miles of gold ribbon, any thickness and pattern you could dream of, two huge pyramids of white and gold lights, a shelf of cookbooks, rolls and rolls of wrapping paper, piles of tissue paper, mounds of bags, dozens of garlands, at least fourty wreaths, and ornaments... there were three rows of ornament boxes.
"Hello again, Rose," came Riku's voice from behind me. Then, without warning, he grabbed me and leaned me over, you know, the way they do in movies, and frenched me.
"Mmmmm... Riku..." I mumbled when he stopped for breath.
"Better?" he asked, righting me.
"Much." I smiled, then looked around again. "You have a lot of stuff here."
"Well, my predecessors, whoever they were, liked to decorate things, as well."
"I guess so."
"Will this work?"
"Yeah... it really actually will."
"Anything else you'll need?"
"Just one more..."
He looked at me skeptically. "Honestly. What?"
"Helpers. And not heartless. I need humans, human women, preferably."
"Well... there are the princesses..."
"Princesses?"
"The Princesses of Heart. We've captured a few, I'm sure they could help."
"Captured?" I looked at him, surprised.
"Remember, I do work for the darkness. You accepted this when..."
"Shh..." I said, putting a finger on his lips. "I'm sorry that I mentioned it. It just took me by surprise. If they are willing -- willing -- to help me, then I would love to have them here."
"I'm sure they would like to. Do I have to help, too?" He gave me his sad puppy look.
"How many Princesses are there?"
"About six, I think, excluding Kairi."
I decided to ignore the last two words, and continued, "Then, no, you don't have to help at all." I smiled. "Just get them here and find the trees, then put them up where I say, and we'll be good."
"Put the princesses where you say?"
"No, silly, put the trees where I say. Would the princesses be staying with us?"
"Yes, actually. We don't like to move them around too much. They generally stay in the guest bedrooms at Hollow Bastion. Of course, they don't come into contact with anyone; even their food is --"
"Stop it, stop it! I don't want to hear anymore! Just -- just get them here tomorrow. I'll keep them under my wing."
"If you want to work with them, then you'll have to come with me to Hollow Bastion tomorrow morning and ...sign... a contract."
I suspected by his tone that this 'contract' wasn't just writing, but at the moment I didn't really care. "Okay, then. We need to make rooms for them."
"Alright. Come on, we'll go to the guest hallway and get them some rooms there."
"Okie!" I ran out of the room and stopped. "Which way?"
"Umm... long way or short way?"
"Short, I guess." When I said this, he tapped twice on a seemingly random tile on the floor with his foot. Suddenly, the entire section of the floor that we were standing on lifted up and zoomed out of the corridor and through a maze of hallways.
"Here we are," he said, jumping off then helping me off. "There are six rooms here. One for each."
"What are their names?" I asked, as I opened the first door.
"Well, there's Snow White, Jasmine, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, and Alice."
"Cool," then, upon entering the room and turning on the light, I changed my statement. "Ick! How long has it been since these rooms have been cleaned?"
This particular room seemed to have once had red furninshings (which included a canopied bed, a silk chaise lounge, and several silk colored chairs) with deep mahogany woods. However, all of these were covered by a thick layer of dust, and the furniture was covered with white sheets.
"Thank goodness for these sheets," I said, lifting one off, sneezing. "It would have been a monster to clean out all of this furniture."
Then I went to the bathroom. It all seemed in good order, although the silver accents needed some polishing, and the soap and towels needed to be replaced. The other rooms were almost exactly the same, except the color scheme was different; after the red, there was a teal, a deep blue, an iridescent blue-pink, a yellow, and a light blue. They all needed almost the exact same cleaning.
"Okay, if we want to have these rooms ready by tomorrow, then we better get going!"
"What's up with the 'we?'" Riku asked, once more trying to sneak out.
"They will be your guests, too, silly!"
"One such as me, of my rank, does not play host to prisoners like this! They're your guests, and will be here are your invitation."
"Riku."
"What?"
"You're pride's getting in the way. Listen to yourself." I put my hands on his shoulders and looked at him. "This is not my Riku. I know that."
"Your Riku loves only one woman, cares for only one. Just you."
"Then help me! If you care for me that much, you help me! Please!"
"I cannot! It would ruin everything!"
"It would not! If you don't help me, then I may as well go up to the top tower and jump off. Then what would you have? I need you to help me."
"You would never jump off the tower."
"I would if it would get your attention."
"Rose! Don't talk like that. I just... I can't help you. It's against the rules. Making a home for prisoners! I captured them, you know. I did all the dirty work. They hate me. How could I do this for them?"
"They hate you? Then redeem yourself." He still shook his head. "You're just being a stubborn ass! If you won't do it for them, do it for me. I can't do this alone. Riku, please..." I kissed him, long and full. "Please."
He sighed, defeated. "All right."
"If anyone gives you greif, send them to me."
Laughing, he said, "I certainly will."
"Whatever. I could take one of them on."
Laughing, he shook his head. "Let's drop the matter. What do we do first?"
"Open the curtains and the windows, let these rooms air out a little bit. Then we'll take the sheets off the furniture, take out the towels and the bedcovers and get them washed, then polish all of everything and dust. By then, the bedcovers should be done, so we can re-dress the beds and have everything ready by six tonight."
"Six? Rose, you realize it's just now noon."
"Yes, and we have six rooms to clean. We'd better get to work." He sighed, resigned, and began pulling off the furniture covers.
Much later, almost everything was done. "Rose, it's eight now -- eight -- and I'm hungry. We skipped lunch!"
"I know I know... one more pillow to fluff... okay. Well, all we need now is soap to go with it all."
"Oh god, let me take care of that," he said, snapped his fingers, and perfectly arranged baskets, containing hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, and lotion (all scented) appeared on the counters in the bathrooms. "Done!"
"Yes, Riku... done." I yawned. "How about some dinner?"
"Yes. Let's go." He picked me up and we flew down to the kitchen.
"You seem impatient," I noted, as he set me down.
"Cleaning is tedious work."
"Of course it is."
He walked to the fridge and pulled out some cold meat and cheese, along with a bottle of white wine. "This alright?"
"Yeah." (The wine was of no consequence, there's something at Isola that kept it from damaging a person).
After dinner and a shower, we were both sprawled, half-naked, on the soft rug infront of the fireplace in his room, drip-drying. (You know, we didn't use towels after our showers, we only put on underwear/panties/other undergarments).
"Are you positive you want to go through with this?" he asked, weaving his hands in my hair.
"Yes, of course. If I have help--"
"It's not the decorating I'm worried about, it's the... um, contract you need to get the help."
"Why would you be worried about it?"
"It's... um, not signing your name. If you are under contract, even for a short period of time, you have to sign in blood--"
"I don't mind that."
"I figured you wouldn't, but to be sure you keep the contract... as soon as you sign, this appears on you... it feels as if it's burned on." He pulled down a corner of his boxers (not all the way down, just to show his right hip-bone-area), and there was a black heartless crest burned onto his skin. I could actually run my hand over it and feel where it had burned away a little bit of flesh. "Ah..." he caught my hand, then looked at me apologetically. "It hurts."
"Sorry... does it come off when the contract is over?"
"Yes. That much I know for sure. But it hurts to get it on, to have it on, and your angel cannot protect you." He gestured at the necklace I had around my neck.
"It's okay. I'll deal with it." I laid my head on his chest and he ran his fingers through my hair until we both fell asleep.
The next morning, he woke me when it was still dark. "Rose?"
"Mmm... what is it?"
"We need to leave for Hollow Bastion soon. Come on, get up, get dressed." he helped me up off the carpet.
"Alright." I smiled at him, still half asleep. "Lemme go..."
"Okay. Wear the crest. It's the only way they'll let you in."
"Got it..." I walked out the door and towards my room.
After some deliberation, I picked out a blue-and-black dress, shredded at the bottom (which reached to my knee) and strapped my guns onto my thighs. I put on a pair of stilettos, fixed my hair in a messy updo, and wandered to the kitchen, where I knew he would be waiting.
When he saw me, he stopeed dead. He was wearing his customary heartless-crest uniform, but obviously liked what I was wearing. "I have never seen you look like that," he said, taken aback.
"Well, you've never seen me want to make an impression," I said, grabbing half a bagel spread with cream cheese. "Are you ready to go?"
"Y-yeah." On my way out, I grabbed a black purse.
The gummi ship ride was not long, because we were able to warp, and once there, we got off -- well, I'm still not quite sure. We took a few lifts, up and over and left and right. Hollow Bastion was no different than Riku had told me it was, so I wasn't surprised until I stepped into the hall where all a manner of people were gathered.
"Well, well, Riku, who is this?" asked a tall, skinny lady with horns on her hat and a long, black cloak.
"This is Rose, Maleficent. She has a request to make."
"So, this is the infamous Rose," a tall man dressed in red with a hook on his hand came up and ran his cold metal hook over my chest. I took a few steps back and crossed my hands over where he had touched.
"Hook, please don't touch her that way," said Riku, stepping in front of me. "You don't want the heartless crawling up your back, do you?" This time there was a hint of malice in his voice.
"I suppose not."
"That is enough," this time it was Maleficent. "Why are you here?" The question was directed at me.
"I- if you want the Christmas party held at Isola, then we will need some help." Riku looked a little surprised that I had chosen to answer so boldly.
"Get the heartless to do it," said a squid-like, purple-skinned lady in the back of the room. "Why would you need anything else?"
"Because heartless are heartless!" I said, a little exasperated. "I need sensible human ladies to help me. I need the princesses."
When I said this, all was silent. Then, Maleficent, who was apparently the leader, spoke. "How do you propose we do this, Riku? Obviously you have spoken to her about this."
"Rose made up rooms for them yesterday. You very well know that there is no way off Isola without my authorization. She needs them to help."
"You would take prisoners into your own home as guests?" The hook-handed man's voice contained a hint of mockery.
"They would not be my guests, they would be hers." I shot Riku a glare but said nothing.
"Girl," said Maleficent, "do you know what it would be to enter under contract with us?"
"Sign in blood and..." I hesitated, but the purple squid lady intervened.
"Maleficent, I am sure she knows. How could she not see Riku's when they are in bed together?" At this, both Riku and I glared at the lady.
"Ursula, you know very well that --" Riku started, but was cut off by laughter.
"You are still a boy of fifteen," said Maleficent. "Come now Rose, let's make up this contract."
"First I want to see the girls. There should be six, if I am correct."
"Yes... very well. Hook, go and get them. Now, girl, let's write up this contract and have you sign."
The contract was simple, written on a sheet of green parchment, it said that I could have the six Princesses of Heart at Isola until three days after the Christmas party, as long as I agreed to not let them off the island or speak to them of any of the council's activities. (It also stated, at the bottom, that this was only being allowed because it would be in service for something that would be for the pleasure of the council members). The princesses, all six of them, were then brought into the chamber. They were all handcuffed together with gags over their mouths, each looking insolent and defeated at the same time, each in dirty clothes and hair.
"Here are your assistants," said Maleficent. "Will the be sufficient?"
"Yes... yes, quite..." I was taken aback at their appearance, but would not say anything, although I knew that Riku sensed my discomfort.
"Now it is time to sign." Maleficent pulled out a knife and an inkwell, along with a black quill. "Give me your left arm."
Closing my eyes, I obeyed her command. There was a flash of searing pain in my arm, then everything seemed to go black. However, I was caught by Riku's strong arms and healed by his soft touch. When I was able to stand up again, he stepped back.
"Sign," said Maleficent, not caring about my pain. She handed me the quill, and I slowly signed my name in my own blood. (She had caught what had fallen from my arm in the inkwell). As I got closer and closer to finishing signing, there was a burning pain on my right hip, and by the time I had gotten to my last name, it was nearly unbearable. I bit my lip and finished with the quill. When I was finally done, I dropped the pen and collapsed on the floor, grasping where it burned.
"Get her out of here," came Maleficent's voice, and then I felt Riku lifting me off the floor and heard the clink of chains and soft footsteps. When we were a fair enough distance away, Riku set me down against a wall and dropped the lead.
"Rose, are you alright?" he asked tenderly, caressing my face with his hand.
"Y-yeah. It just... hurts..."
"I can't do anything to help you... I wish..."
"I-it'll be fine... just gimme a minute." I was finally able to stand up, as the pain was starting to null. "Alright, now, let's get these shackles off," I said, walking towards the six princesses. "Riku, do you have the key?"
"Yeah, but..."
"But what?"
"We shouldn't take the shackles off here," he whishpered in my ear.
"Oh... okay then. C'umon girls, just a few more steps, then I'll have those horrid things off of your hands and mouths." I motioned for them to follow me, but I didn't need to; Riku had brought the gummi ship right up to where we were standing.
"All aboard, girls," he said over the external mic. "We've got a house to decorate."
The girls and I all giggled, then I motioned for them to climp aboard. After they were all safely on, I got on. "Okay, now can I take these things off?"
"Go on, the key's on the table."
"Yes!" I exclaimed, holding the key. Then, I pulled out my knife that was next to my guns under my dress. Using this, I cut off all of their gags. "Better?" I asked.
"Much better," said the little girl in the blue dress and white apron. The older girls didn't look like they were ready to trust me yet.
"Here, maybe this'll help," I said, un-shackling each of them. When they were all finally free, I smiled. "Welcome, I'm Rose, your hostess for the next week."
"Watch it with that 'hostess'stuff," chimed in Riku, who had put the warp on now.
"Oh shut up," I said, giggling and pushing him playfully. Then, turning to the girls, I said, "Do you know why you're here?"
"What do you care?" spat the brunette in the tattered yellow dress. At this, I sensed a flare of anger from Riku, but shook my head.
"Becuase you will be guests in my home, helping me with a few preparations."
"That's what he said before," replied the brunette, glaring at Riku "but we ended up like this."
"I was doing what I was told to do under my contract to save one of you, although Sora got to it first..."
"Sora?" said the black-haired girl dressed in what looked like a belly dancer outfit. "Is he here?"
"Like hell he's not," said Riku, getting angrier.
"Riku!" I said, and stepped in front of him, my back to the Princesses. "Please?" I put my puppy dog face on, then gave him a short kiss, making him blush. "Please? They are our guests."
"Your guests."
I sighed. "I don't want to get into that again," and turned back to the princesses. With a sudden jolt, I knew we were at Isola. "Welcome," I said, "To Isola del Cielo. It's where you'll be helping me decorate for a Christmas party to be held in two weeks for the Council. However, you will be treated a guests and not as prisoners. First, let me show you to your rooms."
I walked off the ship with everyone staring at me. I heard Riku say grudgingly "go on" and they finally started walking towards the front gate. Once we got into the entrance hall, they all stopped in their tracks.
"Whoa..." said the girl with the short black hair, her dress looking as if it was once yellow with a blue bodice. "Rose, I believe you," she said. "I'm Snow White. A pleasure to meet you."
"The pleasure is mine," I replied, smiling.
"This is Alice," she said, putting her hands on the little blond's shoulders.
"Nice to meet you," I said, smiling some more.
"Since Snow White seems to trust you, I suppose I can, too..." said the tall blonde. "I'm Cinderella."
"And I'm Aurora," said another one.
The other two girls sighed and smiled at one another, and then at me. "I'm Jasmine," said the one that looked like a belly dancer.
"I'm sorry for my behavior before," said the last girl. "I'm Belle. I just-- it's been hard for me. I've lost my prince..."
"Most of us have lost our princes," said Aurora sadly. "Alice is the only one who hasn't... because she didn't have one in the first place."
"You've all lost your--" I took a sharp breath, imagining what it would be like to lose Riku. "No..."
Riku, who had been standing at the back of the entrance hall, suddenly disappeared in that blue-black darkness.
"Well.. we try to forget," said Cinderella, after a breif pause.
"Alright... I really want to stop thinking about this," I said, shaking my head. "C'umon, I'll take you guys to your rooms and you can get cleaned up so we can start decorating."
On the way to the rooms, Alice asked, "What exactly is happening here, why are we here?"
"I suppose I should have answered this sooner," I replied, turning a corner. "The council decided that Riku should hold a Christmas party here at Isola, because it was the best residence of all of the council members. He came home yesterday and told me, and I volunteered to do most of it. However, I need help because this is such a large house... and I said I wanted human women, not heartless. So, Riku recommended you guys."
"Wow," said Belle, as I opened the first door.
"This is Snow White's room; but because they're all the same I'll give you a tour." I walked into the room. "There isn't much, but here's the wardrobe, and you can choose whatever you want to, and here's the bathroom," I said, opening a curtain on the wall. "You'll find fresh soap and everything else you'll need to keep yourselves clean. Also, if you ever need anything, there's a pull right here," I gestured to a silver rope hanging from the ceiling. "One of our chefs will come and you can order what you want to eat. However... they are all heartless. We and Riku are the only humans in the castle."
"So we shouldn't be surprised or frightened if there are heartless roaming the halls?" asked Jasmine.
"Well... it takes some getting used to," I said, shrugging. "As for the matter of meals, the kitchen is.... well, I'm not quite sure. All you need to do is say something like 'kitchen,' turn a corner, and it will be right there. We eat in the dining hall at dinner, generally at six-thirty. As for lunch... well, we generally do the same thing we do for breakfast and any other time we want to eat -- go to the kitchen."
"This is very generous of you..." said Aurora uncertainly, as if it was too good to be true.
"Make no mistake, we will be working hard for the next two weeks," I said, winking at them. "Decorating this house will be difficult. But right now... I say you guys go on and get cleaned up -- your rooms are down the hall -- and come on in the kitchen when you're done. See you later!" And I walked out of the room, towards the library, where I knew Riku would be waiting for me.
When I walked in the room, he was seated on a sofa, staring into the fire. I came up behind him and began stroking his head.
"I still don't like them here," he said. I walked around and sat next to him on the couch.
"You're getting over yourself," I replied, now not touching him in any way.
"Yes... well... I love you too much and it makes you so happy..." he smiled half-heartedly.
I smiled back, saying, "You're too sweet." I them ran my finger down his face, and he reached over and pulled me into a rough kiss. It was beautiful... we ended up with me laying with my head beside his neck, his hands on my stomach, my hands over his.
The next few weeks were spent getting the house ready for the party; the trees were adorned with white lights, gold ribbon, and gold and glass ornaments, the stair rails and columns were wrapped in ribbons, and I had found a dress I could wear that would match everything; made of gold and white silk, and it fitted my body tightly, accenting every curve. it had a large bow in the back, and I found some gold earrings and a gold necklace with a teardrop pearl pendant, along with some shimmery shoes.
The princesses and I had some very interesting conversations, and one day one of them asked why I tolerated living at Isola with Riku. They couldn't understand how I could love Riku when he was obviously working for the dark side.
"Well..." I pondered for a second, and continued. "He warned me, when I first met him, that he did work for the evil side. So I went to see Sora... but he ended up doing something unforgivable to me, and Riku was there after it was over. He took me in, helped me recouperate, and... we fell in love with each other. I couldn't help it. He is just so... he's my prince."
"What would Sora do that's unforgivable?" asked Jasmine, who had apparently met Sora before. "It's not like he raped you or anything."
I kept silent and turned back to the bow I was fixing, and the girls let the matter rest, thankfully.
The afternoon before the party, when the girls were scheduled to go back to Hollow Bastion, I met each one in the kitchen for lunch.
"I don't want to let you go back," I said earnestly. "But I can't break the contract."
"We understand," replied Belle, looking at the ground.
"However, I will not let you leave empty-handed." I pulled out six large baskets. "These contain extra dresses, soap, towels, lotions, hairbrushes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, ribbons, jewelry, pens, and paper. Also, there is bread and water and ham, which will keep at any temperature. I have written to Maleficent regarding where you are to live, and have secured a larger room with a bathroom and beds for you; if you don't get what she promised you would, there are buttons on the inside hem of your undergarments. Just press them and I'll know and fix things."
The all just stared at me, disbelieving. "Thank you," said Alice, picking up a basket, and the others followed suit. Suddenly, Hook burst into the room.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, a little stunned.
"Why, I'm here to pick up the girls," he cackled.
"Alright, I guess. Bye, and thanks again." I gave them each a hug, then they were led out, baskets in hand, by Hook.
A few minutes later, I was still sitting in the kitchen chairs, staring into space. All around me, heartless were busy cooking various foods for the Christmas feast to be served later that night.Then Riku came in and sat next to me.
"What did you give Maleficent in exchange for the room?" he asked quietly.
I looked away and mumbled, "Nothing much... I just have to keep the scar from the contract."
He bent down and kissed my neck. "It's your decision. Now, let's go get ready. If I know you, you'll need several hours to get ready."
I smiled up at him. "Yeah... probably. Have you seen my dress yet?"
"No, show me." We walked upstairs to get ready.
The party was fun, and most of the people there enjoyed the decorations, asking Riku how he managed to do it all. I got deserved credit for what I did, of course. There was socializing, eating, then dancing... however, I liked the end of the party, after everyone had left, and Riku and I were sitting cuddled on the rug infront of the fire in the main hall. (Our favorite place to sit is in front of the fire during the winter... it so, well... close). We didn't have to say a word. We knew that everything had been a success.
