Chapter 2: Who Can Resist a Prince?
Tsukasa and a particular brand of designer athletic shoes shared a common philosophy to life: "Just do it." Don't bother with verbal explanations, don't look for approval from others before you act. "Just do it."
Holding with this philosophy, Tsukasa took a deep breath, trusted in his ability to out shout his offspring, and began bellowing out a fairy tale.
"Once upon a time there was a brave and handsome prince called Domyogi who ruled over the fair land of Eitoku with his noble knights of the F4." Satisfied that the twins had ceased complaining and shut their mouths, he lowered his own voice a bit. "Prince Domyogi and the Knights of the F4 had grown up together and pledged eternal loyalty to each other.
Sir Nishikado, Sir Hanazawa, and Sir Mimasaka - "
Mariko interrupted with a happy, unexpected squeal. "Uncle Akira!"
"Wha - ?" Tsukasa blinked in confusion.
Tohru snickered nastily. "She likes Uncle Akira 'cuz he always takes her clothes shopping.
Mariko and Akira sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N- ow! OW!"
"Mariko-chan, don't hit your brother," Tsukasa admonished vaguely, too impressed with his oldest daughter's right hook to do any effective parenting at that moment.
"Yaah!" insisted Kyoko, wriggling worriedly in her father's lap as Tohru twisted his fingers in his twin's curly hair and yanked as hard as he could, provoking a blood-curdling scream from Mariko as well as another dead-on punch.
Tsukasa snapped out of it after another moment. "Ack! Ssh! Ssh! Mommy'll hear you! You gotta stop! C'mon, shut up!"
As the twins disappeared in a noisy tangle of flailing limbs and flying fists, Kyoko started to cry. Any moment, Tsukushi was going to come storming up the stairs on a veritable warpath and he was going to be sleeping on the futon in his study for the night.
Panicking, Tsukasa tried to shush them once again. "I'm telling a story! And.. And you'll miss the parts with blood!"
That shut them up immediately.
"Blood?" said Tohru eagerly. "People getting killed?"
"Ew," said Mariko with an eerie, rapt expression.
Kyoko stopped crying.
"Hey, it worked," Tsukasa mumbled to no one in particular before picking up the story again.
"So Prince Domyogi and the Knights of the F4 ruled over Eitoku, where everyone had enough money and everything they wanted, but the Prince was often displeased with the people of the land, for they had grown greedy and spoiled after living so long in a golden age of prosperity. And the Prince and his Knights had nothing but contempt for the wealthy, petty citizens. They had lost their respect not just for others, but even more importantly, for the Prince and his knights. So the F4 devised a way to punish those citizens who thought themselves as high as a prince or knight."
"Wait a minute," objected Tohru. "Why does the prince have a bunch of knights called the F4 if there's only three of them?"
"What are you talking about?" said Tsukasa impatiently.
"The F4," Tohru explained, as if talking to a child. "How can it be called the F4 if there's only three of them?"
"There's four of them!" insisted Tsukasa.
"No, three. Sir Nishikado, Sir Hanazawa, and Sir Mimasaka. That makes three."
"And Prince Domyogi! That's four!"
"But you never said the prince was part of the F4!" chimed in Mariko, siding with her brother.
Tsukasa's mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally knit his brows together and bit out, "The prince was a knight, too. That's why he's Sir Prince DOmyogi."
The twins looked unconvinced, but stopped arguing.
"Anyway," Tsukasa began, giving all three children a threatening glare, "Any citizen who did not pay the proper respect to the Knights of the F4 was sentenced to be thrown out of the city by the very people who used to be their friends and neighbors."
"Mean," murmured Tohru, looking a little sorry for the stuck-up people of Eitoku.
Tsukasa ignored him. "This did work for the respect problem between the people and the F4,
but it did not make them respect each other more. In fact, they began to fight amongst themselves for attention and favor from the F4.
"Now, one day, a girl viciously assaulted Sir Prince Domyogi while he was riding through the city with his knights. The prince was ready to sentence the girl to be thrown out of the city, but another girl came to her rescue, a peasant girl who had come to live in Eitoku. She was called Makino, and she was from a poor and lazy family in the country who wished their only daughter to marry a rich man - any rich man - so they would never have to work again.
"Makino shouted rudely at the Knights of the F4, and the prince was forced to sentence Makino instead, but just the sight of the mighty prince was enough for Makino to fall in love at with the prince at first sight."
At this, both twins had burst into gales of giggling, which only set off Kyoko, who had no idea why they were laughing, but figured it would be fun to go along with it.
Going red, his hair curling even tighter to his skull, Tsukasa demanded, "What's so funny?"
"Mommy didn't fall in love at first sight, Daddy!" Mariko managed to gasp through her laughter.
"Yeah!" Tohru cried, near hysterical himself. "When Mommy met you, she kicked you in the face!"
"What are you talking about, me and Mommy? I never said this story was about - Hey! Who told you that!"
"Ji'wo!" yelled Kyoko gleefully, throwing up her hands.
"Uncle Sojiro, Daddy," said Mariko triumphantly. "He said Mommy kicked you in the face and declared war on you and him and Uncle Rui and Uncle Akira. And he said you had a sister complex."
Tsukasa's fist shot forward to knock out Sojiro, only to remember in frustration that Sojiro was not currently present in the room and he was going to just have to sit on his temper until Sojiro showed up later that night with the rest of the guys.
"That's it. No more hanging out with Sojiro," Tsukasa got out through gritted teeth. "And I'm telling this story, so keep your commas to yourself."
"'Commas'?" repeated Tohru with a straight face.
Mariko tittered. "He means 'comments.'"
"Augh! You're all against me! Will you just listen to the damn story?"
In perfect unison, both twins delightedly mocked, "Ooo... Daddy said a bad word!"
Just do it. Just do it. Tsukasa counted to ten before trying again.
"As punishment for her rudeness, Makino was to be shunned by all of Eitoku until there was nothing for her to do but give up and go home to the goats and her family in the country. But the peasant girl wasmore stubborn than the rest of Eitoku, and even when the girl she'd tried to defend deserted her, she refused to leave the city."
"And she kicked you."
"Makino vowed to fight for her right to stay in Eitoku with her prince - "
"And she kicked you."
"And yes, Tohru!" snapped Tsukasa. "She kicked me! Right in the face! Happy now?"
"Yes," said Tohru calmly.
Tsukasa gave him a suspicious look, expecting him to make another interjection at any moment, but the boy stayed quiet.
"Sir Prince Domyogi was surprised by the girl's refusal to give up and tried every idea he had to make her go home, but she would not give in. Even worse, the rest of Eitoku was now seeing that they did not have to obey the Knights of the F4, either. The prince was in danger of losing control over his kingdom.
"Realizing that Makino wanted to be with him, the prince arranged to have her brought to his palace and dressed in appropriate clothing. Since he saw that she was an unusual girl, he offered to let her spend time talking to him in the palace, privately, so that the citizens of Eitoku wouldn't know she was getting away with insubordination.
"But Makino refused the prince! She rejected his generous offer and left the palace in a huff. The other Knights of the F4 could not understand the importance of continuing Makino's punishment, but Sir Prince Domyogi knew the order must be kept. However, he did not see the reason for unnecessary cruelty toward Makino, and so soon he ordered that only he was allowed to punish the girl. Makino came to love him even more, especially when he straightened his hair.
"It was at this time that two new people came to Eitoku, one a court jester, the other a beautiful princess from another land."
Uh... That seems a good place to stop for now. Ack, gomen! Gomen! I really figured on moving farther ahead in the HYD storyline that this, but those damn kids keep interrupting me! I like them way too much. I'm going to have to write more stories with them in it after I finish this one. Next chapter I'll try to get through more plot and not just dialog. -sigh- Not really sure I'm satisfied with the way this fic is going. Tsukasa seems OOC, which irritates me, since I'm madly in love with him, but oh, well. As if Tsukasa would ever tell a story this long anyway. Review, please, if you know what's good for you and I promise to try harder on chapter 3.