A/N: Revised.
Part I: Botan-Hime
Once upon a time, in a place called Gamogun, was a castle called Adzuchi-no-shiro. The castle was a lovely old place, surrounded by tall, stone walls and inside was a pond filled with lotus-lilies and a cherry blossom forest beyond it for fifty metres and the courtyard carpeted with lush green grass. In the manor lived the feudal lord who was a brave, wealthy Yuki Naizen-no-jo - a great samurai. His wife had been dead for a number of years from a dreadful illusion and has been heartbroken ever since. He had no son but had a beautiful daughter, who regained the title of princess for her family's prosperity, her kind heart and her warm presence at the age of seven.
Princess Hiromi. She became a consolation prize at the age of two since she was the daughter of, not only a feudal lord, but a Daimyo: a great landowner, second to the highest status of the Samurai class and third from the emperor. She had undeniably lost count marriages rejected by her and her father. Tiredly, Hiromi had sworn to not to marry anyone. Whatever 'marriage' or 'marrying' meant.
That was her vow.
One day…
"Excuse me!" a maid-in-waiting, Tohru, slid the shoji doors with a curtsy before entering into the tiny girl's bedroom. Hiromi was in the middle of her studies were done. "Excuse me sensei, sir, but Yuki-sama wishes Hime-sama to be at the Receiving Room at once! He insists to have her studies interrupted and apologizes to you, sensei."
The little girl dropped her calligraphy brush and nearly spilled her black ink as she squirmed to get her knees out from underneath the tiny table. Suddenly, she let out a grunt as her knee hit the table.
"Careful, Hime-sama, you mustn't hurt yourself," the instructor soothed, concern shown on his old features.
Excited, the energetic child ran ahead of the maid and then immediately slowed in her steps when she saw her etiquette instructor at the entrance doors of the Receiving Room. Her instructor was a tall blonde with almond-hued eyes, Tsunade-baa-sama or Shishou as Hiromi addressed her. She had donned in a simple green kimono dotted with Sakura petals and a golden obi with blue koi prints for their visitors.
She cautioned her young student and fixed Hiromi's golden hairpin, which held her short brown locks in place. She then smiled, "Come, child. Meet the young gentleman." A hand gently pushed her through the threshold and the poor girl felt the tension brewing.
Hiromi blushed, then scorned bitterly at the thought. A gentleman huh. It's not like I haven't seen one before.
Yuki-sama perched on a small podium that rose a foot from the ground, littered with pillows swathed in expensive silk and cotton blankets. Hiromi had assumed these were the visitors' gifts for her father had not bought himself such luxuries since the death of her mother.
"Ah, Hiromi," the daimyo greeted, "Come here, child." He wore the ceremonial orange, dobuku sugata with pink peonies dotted on the hakama.
Hiromi approached her father and bowed graciously. Yuki held out his hand to ruffle her hair as Hiromi recited: "Thank you for calling me Chichi-ue. I am pleased to meet our guests."
"Such a polite hime. You are a daughter of mine indeed."
Before acknowledging the company, Hiromi eased on a pleasant demeanor. Turning, her eyes met two fellows.
One had donnedthe iron o-yoroi, which shone brilliantly in the sunlight as he towered considerably over her. With his helmet unworn, the middle-aged noble revealed ebony locks sheared to his neck. He bowed before her at a straight angle; his samurai armor clinked while the leather stretched inside the metal. It was different to see a naked armor, no colors woven, no clan association... Two newly polished, onyx sheaths caught her eyes, which the man tapped in recognition. His midnight blue eyes reminded her of violets amongst his rugged and bony -tanned- features.
On his left was a little boy who appeared slightly older. He wore a simple white kosode, dark blue obi and hakama that bloused around his ankles. He had two shades of hair, one grey and the other dark blue and had fierce crimson eyes. A look of disgust adorned his face.
Not this again. Hiromi frowned. Another crude noble boy.
"Bow, my son," the noble called on him, his head down.
"I will bow down to no one," he retorted simply. Hiromi's eye twitched.
What a playmate this boy will turn out to be! Boring.
"Forgive me, my Lord, my son is a bit hot-headed today, am I correct Kai?" the elder Hiwatari placed a heavy hand on the boy's shoulder.
Noblemen always use the SAME excuse, Hiromi sighed, her patience thinning.
"Bow," his father growled under his breath.
Kai bowed down regretfully to the princess, gritting his teeth in anger. Angrily, he muttered his curtsy line, "I am pleased to meet you Princess Hiromi."
The answer is no, Hilary scowled at the tiny boy.
"Now greet her like we do in the foreign lands," the noble ordered.
"Ungh," he glared at his father. How could his father be so cruel!
"Now." The noble cautioned. Daimyo Yuki noticed this and instantly knew this boy will never last a second with Hiromi. He frowned. They would have been a great pair to begin with; as the past suitors have been but this time, the boy was closer to her age and offered more gifts that anyone.
Kai walked over the girl and placed a kiss on her cheek. Her ears began to feel hot and her cheeks reddened, Eh? She itched to push him off but didn't want to disappoint her father. The noble might think the daimyo's child was destructive and rude. Remember, Hiromi, proper etiquette.
The ladies in the whole room were giggling, which made her even more flushed. The lord felt a bit uneasy at this too. Kai returned to his father and bowed to her again, waiting. Hiromi gently rubbed her sleeves against her cheeks.
The lord spoke, at which Hiromi snapped her neck back at him, "This is Lord Susumu, the supreme general of the the samurai army of the Chrysanthemum Throne, Suzaku division, and his only heir Kai. Together, hey have traveled to different countries and learned different cultures. Please do understand, daughter."
Confused still, she nodded politely.
"Your son is to stay here, yes?"
"Yes, my lord."
He's staying! Hiromi bit her lip. We'll just see about that.
I'm staying! NO! Kai stomped his foot hard on the ground, crossing his arms and his lips into an aggravated frown.
"Father, may I now be excused?" she flashed a sweet smile at her father.
The Daimyo smiled and nodded. Hiromi turned her heels toward the door, all eyes set on her. They were all wondering how the little princess would react to the little noble-boy.
Pouting, she envisioned the wasted time with this sourpuss. I'm doomed.
Alone, she left the room quietly. As soon as the hall was clear and she was out of sight. She quickly rubbed her cheek with her kimono sleeve like there was no tomorrow.
She heard the sound of the door of the Receiving Room close.
Good. Hiromi drew in a large amount of the oxygen, her cheeks huge and round then…
"EEWWWWW!" Hiromi shrieked in a high pitch, close to a bloodcurdling one. "Ew. EW. What did he just to me? EW!"
In the room, Tsunade and her maids chuckled. They just got their answer. It won't be easy convincing the princess. The lord sighed and faced the company with an apologetic smile. Quirking an eyebrow, Kai wondered what they were laughing about.
He was to protect her from harm that may come. He scoffed at the idea. "What harm? The castle was always surrounded by guards, watching our every move like vultures."
"Guards are not enough. Hiromi-hime must have someone to watch over her or she'll end up with the same fate as her mother."
"Can't she watch over herself?" he whined. Kai walloped the lily-filled pond water with his swift hand, splashing water on the rocks nearby. Glad to get that off, Kai spat on the ground as the noble who was three times his size bigger towered over him. Glaring at his father, he thought it would've been fitting to kiss a frog than the princess.
"Why did you make me do that!" he barked, in his little self.
"You know very well why," the noble squatted down to Kai's level.
He looked wearily away from his father's blue eyes, "I don't want to talk about it." His father will just remind him of his mother again.
"With your appearance, the princess will surely fall for you, Suzaku," the arrogant noble ruffled his son's slate blue hair. "It will help us gain power and gradually take over Yuki Naizen-no-jo's large holdings. We will be this close to getting what we want."
Getting close to what you want, thought he furiously, huffing in annoyance. "You told me that already," mumbled the tiny noble's son.
"Then you should know the next part: you and Hiromi must be coupled together." Tagekashi slowly picked a lily off its long, endless stalk and admired its beauty. The flower had white petals splashed with purple near the opening of the bulb; he took a moment and smelled it.
"I don't like her!" Kai yelled at his father out in the courtyard.
"Your heart will change," he sounded confident as he placed a comforting hand on the tiny boy's shoulder.
He swatted the upper-class man's hand away from his shoulder, "NEVER! That brat is worst than any girl that I've ever met!" Kai quarrelled.
He stayed quiet as he watched his son whine and complain. Kai had only met and loved one girl in his life,
his mother who was now dead. The other women in the home, he had met were all older him and were his maids. Not once had Kai met a girl his age.
Princess Hiromi was the first.
Hiromi was in her purple gossamer dress with little thin straps as her sleeves as her maid attended to her aid. She sat on the wooden floor, hysterically yelling 'Ew' and 'Gross' for the last half an hour. She was with her maid-of-honor, Sadayo-san who had been with her for seven years, equal to Hiromi's life.
"Get it off!" Hiromi squeaked to her maid. The black-haired maid held a towel cloth and gently wiped the princess's cheek.
"HARDER!" she yelled eerily.
"But hime-" the maid started, fixing a long strand of black hair off her porcelain face.
"I SAID HARDER!" she yelled. "I don't like him and the nerve of that boy coming onto to me like that!"
The young maid sighed and roughly wiped her cheek. That kiss meant nothing. The princess is overreacting as usual. "You know hime, the little boy is beautiful," she winked at the little girl. "None like the other boys we have seen so far willing to take your hand." The maid placed the towel back to the wooden basin of cold water.
After numerous scrubs on Hiromi's cheek, it had turned into deep shade of red. Hiromi reached her cheek with her hand and gently rubbed it, "He is, isn't he?"
Sadayo nodded at Hiromi, smiling.
Hiromi looked down at her thin dress, "He's just going to be one of those boys who will flash me fake smiles and give me broken promises. He'll leave and never come back. Why does father keep bringing young boys here anyway? He knows that I don't them. The last few saw me as a sister." she flushed.
Sadayo's muscles tensed up; she couldn't answer her. For if Sadayo had, Hiromi wouldn't understand a word of it. Her father searcged for the right husband to keep the peace in his land, aiming for the sons of powerful nobles who led an impressive samurai army in hopes of putting a fight against the other nobles or great landowners when the time of war came. It was a tradition he had to follow even though it ached him every time; he did not want to let go of his daughter.
Sadayo carried the washbasin close to her chest and began to walk out of the princess's bedroom. Watching her leave, Hiromi followed suit but then was stopped by Sadayo, "You can't get out of the room in that dress. Tsunade-sama won't be pleased. Wait here until I get you a new kimono."
"Shishou won't mind," Hiromi said in defense.
"No. Hime must stay here," Sadayo placed a hand on her shoulder, "or I'll get in trouble."
Hiromi had no any other choice but to obey.
Sadayo left the room, slipping through the paper blinds. Moments later another person came in…
"Oh," was all she could say.
A/N: Enjoyed it? Let me know!