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Taken

if i did not yet make it clear, the pairing is bambiXkaguya. i was sorta hoping for it to be a surprise, but i guess it had to come out sometime. glad some of you like that pairing idea though! this one's for all of us who facefaulted when we read the ending and internally (or externally!) screamed "Kaguya married Seeu? WTF?"

Chapter 7: Shaken (Seeu's Perspective)

My hand lowered the few centimeters toward her head, seeming to take an eternity to reach. Each millimeter seemed to take an hour, and each second seemed to last forever. How could I touch this girl I'd brought back to my castle? I had grasped her to bring her through the star collapser into my castle, but it had been a necessary and hasty movement, over in a second. This was slow, deliberate, and did not seem at all necessary to me. She said she needed to be touched, but I had survived without it. I had survived a lot of things.

I closed the distance between us, terrified and at the same time, almost excited, to be touching another person. I could count on one hand all of the people who had ever touched me. There was my mother, Kagami, and now this girl, this Princess of the Choosing. It had been three hundred years since I'd had bodily contact with another human, or even something that looked like a human. All the dolls that had run this place had run down long ago, and the air was growing stagnant. In the absence of a working air filtration system, I'd had to move to different parts of the castle for fresh air when the air in one room or hallway became too polluted with my breathing. I lived here alone now, self-sufficient without the need for the dolls that had taken care of me as a child. I never really understood how I outlived them. I must have been the only creature on the planet that was immune to the virus. I had been alone for three hundred years, and now I was not.

I stood in the palace's massive kitchen alone, preparing a thin soup out of the vegetables that still grew in the garden. I didn't bother to farm them, since a few wild plants still grew without much effort on my part, and these few were plenty to feed two people. The soup I prepared would feed both me and the girl who now lived here, but we would not eat together. At least, we never had before. If she happened to come in while I was cooking or eating and decide to sit down to her portion, I wouldn't stop her. It seemed like she liked my cooking; maybe it was that, or maybe it was the only food available, so she took it. I had assumed when I first brought her there that she wouldn't feel comfortable poking around the kitchen looking for things she knew how to cook and then trying to use my utensils, which I really didn't think she was accustomed to, so I had cooked for her. It had become a habit, but I preferred to think she might have liked my cooking a little.

The process of cooking for her made me think. I supposed I had done a lot for her recently, and although I didn't know for sure, I suspected she didn't appreciate them as such. She probably knew the legends about her, and possibly even believed them, since she had decided to let Kura capture her. She didn't know the reasons I'd tried to protect her from him, then. She didn't know what kinds of things she's be forced to do, and the things that would be done to her if she were captured. She didn't know why I didn't just leave her in Eden to be taken by Idou and the rest of Kura's followers.

I knew, however, what Kura did with any attractive woman he could lay his hands upon, no matter if she were one of his quasi-slaves or not. I knew what he did with anyone who could enhance his political power. I knew what he did with anyone who was defenseless. None of them were good things. He was not to be trusted. I noticed the large knife I held was hitting the cutting board with increasing force, as if I were holding, perhaps, Kura's head there instead of a harmless cucumber. I calmed myself. She was safe. She was here with me, and I could protect her from anything Kura could send. I was certain of that.

I sat in the room where I spent most of my life, the one where I could receive holographic images in an elliptical grid, which I used to observe my charge. Perhaps it was spying, or was rude to intrude, but I felt she must know I was watching her, since she'd called to me and I'd answered. Besides, it wasn't as if I watched her change clothes or anything like that. She did, however, seem to be wearing the same clothes all of the time. It didn't really matter. I was more concerned with her actions. It was amazing how she seemed to need to be doing something at every moment. She didn't sit still long, as I was often found to do, and she didn't seem to care much for sedentary activity. She walked in circles a lot, maybe afraid to explore the rest of the house. I made a note to tell her it was safe. At least she'd have something more to look at than the route between the kitchen and the parlor where she usually slept. I also made a note to show her a real bedroom.

She eventually went into the kitchen at about her usual time and consumed the soup I'd made earlier. Perhaps she didn't know, or had forgotten that I was watching. I say that because she talked to herself. Surely she wasn't talking to me, since she seemed to be having an internal debate. She would eat about half the soup, pause, tell herself to stop eating so much, and sit there silent for a bit. Eventually, she ate all of the provided meals, however. Perhaps I should have made less, but if she eventually ate all of it, did that not mean she wanted all of it? I didn't know. I ate only what I wanted, but did she perhaps have some sort of conflict in her desires about food? She had gained a bit of weight in the few days she'd been in my house, but that only brought her up to the weight she'd been when I'd taken her from Eden. She'd lost weight in her flight with the Bamviverie woman. Did she think there was something wrong with gaining weight? Why did she not simply eat what she wanted and no more or less? Why did she care so much?

I could not stop watching her. I could hardly believe another human was in my castle. It had been so long since I'd seen a human in my house, and seen one through only my own eyes, and not the holographic images sent to me by others. I had seen her, Idou, and many others when I'd taken her from Eden, and again when I'd taken her from Geo, but even those brief experiences had sent me retreating back into the quiet of my castle. Now my castle was no longer quiet. It had transformed when she entered it, as I had watched her spread noise and movement throughout her little section of it ever since she'd arrived. It wasn't even annoying, as I'd expected. After all, the crowds in Eden and Geo had been noisy, clamoring, and horrible. I had expected her boisterousness to have the same effect on me. I hadn't expected to spend most of my time here, glued to the holographic grid, watching her every move and hanging on her every word.

The child seemed sad. Perhaps it was only a side effect of being alone in my castle like this, or perhaps it was something else. I had been watching her a long time from the holographic grid; maybe I'd gone too long between times of going to see her in person. She did have needs, as she'd informed me awhile ago. Was this what would happen if no one patted her head or held her hand? She would lie about, silent, forgetting her usual employments? She would stare off into space for meaningless hours? She would become like… me?

"I believe you are lonely," I stated matter-of-factly, standing behind the couch on which her prone form lay.

"I miss my friend," she answered. "You know, the girl who was with me when you went to Geo to get me."

"Miss Bamviverie," I replied. Perhaps she thought I didn't know who she was.

"Yes," she breathed. She was silent. I was silent. How could I remedy that?

I tried to pat her head as I had before, adopting a swift, natural motion rather than the tremulous, hesitant one I'd used before, but she brushed my hand away. I tried to hold the hand that came in contact with mine, but she took it away. "Quit it, Seeu. I'm not in the mood for that."

"I thought that was why you were lonely. No one was here to pat your head or hold your hand."

"I miss Bambi," she answered, my chip telling me Miss Bamviverie's name was saidin a particularly affectionate manner, though I don't know what words she used.

"You need Miss Bamviverie to pat your head and hold your hand?" I asked, a little confused.

"Something like that," she answered.

This was the first I'd heard of her needing a specific person for those things. I had thought I would suffice. Perhaps it had been a mistake to bring her here, if she was just going to waste away like this. I could not let Kura have her, though. Seeing her manipulated and tortured would be just like seeing it happen to him. I couldn't bear the thought of Kagami, or anyone connected to him, under Kura's control. Of course, no one should be subjected to that filth's presence, much less his will, but Kagami… or his family… it broke what heart I had left to think of it.

If I could not allow the young girl to leave, then perhaps, could I bring Miss Bamviverie here? No doubt my charge would be even safer with the master of the Pyro here, assuming Miss Bamviverie felt about the princess the same way the princess did about her…

I would not be able to capture her easily and spirit her away like I had done with the girl who now lay despondently on my couch. If I were to bring Miss Bamviverie here, I would have to convince her to come quietly or else battle her. I didn't want to think of the repercussions of a battle between to living weapons, nor did I want to hurt the young, inexperienced warrior. I would not force her to come, since that would only endanger my charge further. If she had the desire to protect her and be near her, she would come quietly. But what of her service to Kura? Surely she wasn't as naïve as the girl I had twice rescued. Surely she didn't believe Kura might be an honest man. Why did she continue in his employ without the young girl's goading? Perhaps it would not be a good idea to give her the opportunity to come here after all. Gold had been there to protect Kaguya up until I brought her to me, and he would restrain Miss Bamviverie where she was if necessary, but I could not bring her here without Gold. He and I could protect the child if Miss Bamviverie decided to attack, but even that seemed too dangerous a risk. How loyal could Miss Bamviverie be to Kaguya if she continued to associate with Kura?