When Snow Melts
A/N: I actually wrote this for school (we had to modify a Greek myth), but I wrote it as this fic first, before changing the names. Anywho. Review when you're done, please!
.x.x.x.x.
"I'll be right back, mother! Don't worry!" Kaoru called, laughing.
The woman stood with crossed arms. "Be careful. Don't speak to anyone you don't know. These are dangerous times, Kaoru." She frowned. "Are you listening to me? I want you to be safe, darling."
"Yes, yes, I know!" Her daughter sighed melodramatically. " 'If I were to lose you, I don't know what I would do…' I've heard it all a million times!"
"I just…"
"Want me to be safe, I know. I'll be back before dark. Don't worry!" She stepped out of the small house into the warm sunshine. Occasionally this beautiful peace was broken by the war that ravaged feudal Japan, but this summer morning, all seemed right and good in her world.
What a great time to be alive!
Unnoticed by the cheerful girl, the prematurely white-haired lord ran a hand through his messy hair and smiled coldly, the turn of his lips not reaching his icy blue eyes. She was perfection—and all that was left was for the trap to snap shut.
.x.x.x.x.
"OH! What is that?" Kaoru murmured to herself, noticing a sparkle in the otherwise matte green of the turf. She fell to her knees, dropping her basket of herbs behind her. Feeling through the grass, her muddy fingers eventually found a hard stone of some kind. She pulled it up curiously and tried her best to wipe some of the filth off onto her worn kimono sleeve. Once she had cleaned it, she nearly let go of it in surprise. There, in her dirty, work-toughened hand, rested the most exquisite crystal flower set in a band of gold. Furtively she looked around, and seeing no one, she tucked the ring into a fold of her kimono.
This was a terrible mistake.
The lord kicked his horse and came out of concealment at a full gallop. As Kaoru looked up in surprise, he was already upon her and took her up in front of him on the saddle. A stifled shriek passed her lips before she realized that she was too far from anyone else to be heard, and it would probably make it worse for her than remaining silent.
"Clever girl…" the lord chuckled in her ear with a playful smile, tightening his arm around her waist with the movement of the horse. "She remains silent and doesn't bother screaming."
Kaoru bit down hard enough on her lip to draw blood. "Who are you?"
"You mean you don't recognize me? How ignorant the peasants are in my lands." He pulled his head back from beside hers, slightly disappointed.
Her eyes widened. "Your…lands?"
Although she couldn't see, he rolled his eyes. "Must I repeat myself? Yes, my lands. Moreover, you, as a peasant on my lands, belong to me."
"Then you are…!"
"Lord Enishi, yes," he cut her off, bored. "And you, dearest Kaoru, are to be my wife."
.x.x.x.x.
"Kaoru? Kaoru! Where are you?" the mother called into the rapidly darkening night. There was no answer but the chirping of cicadas, and the sun's final wink before disappearing below the horizon.
For weeks she searched in vain, scouring the countryside until the only place left unexplored was the palace of their lord. The prospect of looking there filled the poor woman with dread. For, as much as she loved her daughter, she feared Lord Enishi and his legendary stormy and unpredictable personality. Among her few acquaintances there were many tales of his cruelty and ruthlessness, which grew increasingly more detailed and far-fetched with every telling.
Yet, she could never leave her daughter with such a monster.
.x.x.x.x.
Thinking back, Kaoru found it hard to pinpoint the exact moment that it happened. Was it when he swept her onto his horse? Was it when he presented her (separate) chambers to her with such grace? Was it the first time she heard him laugh genuinely?
No, she decided, it was when he had come to her the first night.
She had been lying in her futon, trying but failing to hold back the tears of homesickness. There was a small knock on the wooden frame, and the paper door slid open, a messy, snowy-colored head of hair quietly looking through. Without a word, Enishi entered her room and came to kneel by the futon.
"Kaoru?" he had asked her softly.
Her head turned to face him, cheeks slightly damp with tears, and his normally stoic expression took on more of that of a shocked and saddened child. His blue eyes widened in lack of understanding. "Kaoru…why are you crying? Are you not happy?"
Slowly she shook her head.
"I…don't understand. I want you to be happy, Kaoru."
Kaoru turned her back on him. There was a long silence before he spoke again.
"You don't have to marry me…if you don't want to. I won't make you, if it makes you unhappy." Then he had smiled at her, a smile so genuinely sweet that her heart had melted.
Yes, she decided, that was when she had fallen in love.
.x.x.x.x.
One afternoon the next month when Kaoru came down the grand staircase, she was surprised to see a ragged beggar woman standing in the great entrance hall. Her surprise more than tripled when she realized that it was her mother.
"Mother!" she cried, racing down the steps as fast as the beautiful, ornate kimono would let her.
"Kaoru!" her mother cried right back, clasping two hands to her heart. "Come home with me! This isn't safe!"
A door on the left slid open and out stepped Enishi, elegantly clothed in dark blue and silver foreign garb. "Kaoru, darling, who is this?"
"… 'Darling'?" the older woman questioned suspiciously.
"Mother—"
He stepped to Kaoru's side. "She is to become the Lady of the Northern Lands. Would you deny her this, and a life of comfort by my side?"
"Enishi—"
"She tries to speak!" her mother cut in, attempting in some way to regain her daughter from her noble kidnapper.
Kaoru looked down. "I have not yet accepted your offer, my lord…"
The mother's face lit even as the lord's fell. "But…you will accept, right, Kaoru? I…I really wish it."
"Kaoru…my darling…come home…please," pleaded her mother.
Distraught, Kaoru was torn between the two she loved, feeling her heart breaking into tiny pieces at even the thought of leaving the life she knew in favor of this wealth, grandeur, and unfamiliarity.
"I…" she began softly, studying the floor.
Both the lord and her mother leaned forward slightly, eager for her response.
"I will…spend half the year with each. I can't choose between you."
Enishi's breath quickened. "So that means…"
She nodded. "…I will marry you. However, I shall only live here in the winter. I beg permission to return to my mother once the snow melts."
Overcome with joy, he granted it. "I could never see my bride unhappy!"
Her mother was also ecstatic, for she both kept her daughter and had that same daughter become Lady of the North. And so, for the rest of the summer, their lives were filled with delight. However, when winter came, despite the knowledge that her daughter would return to her, the mother fell into a depression, until the snow melted and they were united once more.