This chapter of the Fabulous Fall Fic 2020 Collaboration was brought to you by: mimagfan
Chapter Five
Humming to herself in the slightly lightened room of the early morning, she twirled around with the thin mauve dress held against her front. he flared skirt floated softly in the air. She already felt half in-character.
Today Kuon had to leave especially early and she had a lot to prepare. She'd woken up just after him. It was enough to miss his departure though, and she was regretting not having the chance to get the sort of goodbye she'd gotten yesterday. Her eyes turned dreamy as she recollected the moment. That kiss was something. Was there anything he couldn't do? Those lips were too skilled in moving, enticing and pulling her in for more. Her poor heart fluttered in remembrance.
She fanned herself and her eyes glanced unconsciously toward the lower side of the closet. Despite her disappointment, she had used Kuon's early departure to her advantage and crafted madly in the hour that followed. She finished the sewing. She was finally reaching completion and it was coming along nicely. She was pretty proud of herself. It just lacked a little something, a finishing touch to be perfect. With a little luck she might be able to find it today.
Exceptionally, Kuon wouldn't come back to the hotel room to put on his disguise. He wasn't finishing until around midday and there were a lot of things they wanted to see. hey'd decided Kyoko would come to him before they headed for the convention centre. It was risky but worth it.
He took the costume off today, well most of it, so he would be able to don it right away the minute he was finished with his modelling show.
It wasn't that their hotel room was especially far, but they had attracted a lot of attention these last days and several fans were haunting the corridors of the hotel. There were too many chances of being delayed by detours and hiding from zealous fans if Kuon was to come back to the room to change.
He was to be done at half past one in the afternoon today, barely forty minutes before the first panel would start. With the makeup to do, there already wasn't much spare time left. If they had to play hide-and-seek with fans they would miss it.
Kyoko coming to him permitted at least thirty-five out of the forty minutes between when Kuon finished and the panel started. The trick would be to not go into his reserved dressing room but in some vacated one where no one would think about looking for Tsuruga Ren. That was the only way they would escape the show unseen. At least, that was the plan once Kyoko came looking for him,disguised and waiting for him to enter a vacant dressing room to follow after him and paint his face.
She dropped the straight but lush ginger wig on her bed. Mauve cocked headdress, white waistband and a light long pink veil soon tagged along on it.
She was ready to switch to make-up when a breakfast she hadn't ordered arrived. Damn Kuon, he was spoiling her.
She opened her door to let the server bring the tray in and ate. She wasn't really hungry. She was too excited to focus on feeding herself. She nipped at it half-heartedly until she watched her reflexion in the mirror as she ate. A laugh erupted at the sight. She was in her bathrobe, picking at her food like she was tortured by it and a big frown marring her face as she did her best to eat some. She was the perfect picture of Kuon when he didn't want to swallow any food but she was forcing him.
She shook her head in amusement. Bad habits. He was her giving bad habits. She couldn't bring herself to care; she was too happy.
She took a few more bites out of pure obstinacy before giving up and storing all the leftovers in their tiny fridge for tonight. Dropping all pretence, she rushed to the bathroom and grabbed her fancy make-up kit.
Giggling to herself, she caught a brush between two fingers and started to paint her face. Kuon didn't know about this part. Oh, he knew what fairy-tale it was and also knew she hesitated at length on the version to inspire their costumes. She did a lot of research before this week on the tale and the origin of it and discovered it went far back in the past. There were countless variants, but few described their clothing. It was all guesswork based on the period when it could have happened.
There were few adaptations that proposed it and though the R'Mandy choices gave some freedom, all for the sake to placate people's views on that matter she was sure, it still let too many openings and too much skin appear. There was no way Kuon's identity could be concealed if she had left it like that.
So she chose the Disney version. That, Kuon knew.
What he didn't know was how far she took it, though he could have guessed it if he had assembled two and two together. She told him there would be heavy make-up and that it was a Disney variant.
But it went straight over his head for once and she was kind of excited about that. It would be a surprise.
She applied foundation, mascara, grey eye-liner and grey eye-shadows to make her eyes pop-out and slightly more elongated. Then came the bronze-orange colour on her forehead, her cheeks, and most of her nose except the tip. She switched to the bottom part of her face and smeared on white colour this time, covering the other half of her cheeks, her chin, and going down on her neck too. She accentuated her features, shadowing some parts to make her cheekbones come through and to create the illusion of a thinner and longer nose.
She then delicately melded a small little button of wax on the tip of her nose, making sure it would hold in all situations and wouldn't inhibit her to breathe through her nostrils before painting it in black, tapping some dots and drawing some whiskers.
She would have the need for the ears to hold up the headdress, so she slowly sat the headband with the fake red but very cute and fluffy ears on top of her head and waited until her make up was perfectly dry before carefully putting on the flowing dress. She slipped her arms into the fuchsia sleeves, loving the gentle weight and smooth texture of it. It felt so thin and silky that she barely felt the cloth on her skin. It molded the top of her body while the skirt itself splayed around her legs to the floor and hid her bare feet.
She attached the white sash, already keeping her wallet, phone and voucher safe, low on her hips and made use of the little cuts arranged at the waist of the dress to hide as much as she could of the belt so that it wouldn't show. She observed the result in the mirror to check if it was visible, and was glad when it wasn't the case. She fixed her tail at the back, and once done, she swirled around, arranging it all a bit while testing the fluidity of its movements.
A grin spread across her face. "Perfect."
No one would be able to guess that tail wasn't her own real one, hidden as it was.
She removed the ears to attach the wig, then put it back on and settled them inside the cocked headdress to keep it in place before slipping on the pink outdoors slippers that were waiting for her near the bottom of the bed.
She stared at her face in the glass and laughed aloud.
"Pleased to meet you, Sir Robin," curtseyed a very believable foxy Marian.
They had two main activities planned for the day with maybe a little bonus stop. She couldn't avoid the dealer room forever, and she might find what she was missing for her secret project. One of the events was to begin at the very end of the day during nightfall, which was apparently the reason why this event was placed so late. She had read on the website that the organizers were sorry for setting it late but wanted to use darkness for some events, and the shorter days of winter made it perfect for that.
Kyoko thought it was a nice twist and considering it wasn't the only one, she was really excited to see what exactly it would entail. Games room had sustained some changes and just for today instead of the usual video games proposed, other kinds of games were offered. This event was also the very reason she chose those characters. She had been able to see some light teasers on the site and something caught her eye. Something she thought she couldn't suffer to pass on because it hit close to home though it would have been nice if it had been possible for the last day.
She grabbed her veil and a small backpack, unavoidable today, and left her room, already in character.
Flashes strafing all around, his tight "princely" attire, and the white noise of too much loudness were what his senses were mostly able to absorb at the moment as cameras clicked one hundred times by the minute and questions were thrown at him.
The show was slowly wrapping up despite the havoc on display and they were finally reaching the end of the interviews. Kuon could already see Kijima being freed of his role and starting to make googly eyes at some photographers. He was the only one left.
Soon though, even he was able to be freed from his duties. A goofy all-too-relaxed Kijima snaked an arm around his shoulders as the area emptied from everyone.
"So, buddy, up for a drink?" he proposed to Kuon.
"I already have plans, sorry," he said, declining curtly. He was still raging with the way his comrade was pursuing Kyoko since their combat even though he didn't know it was her.
Kijima seemed to be on the verge of objecting when his gaze was attracted toward something else. He shifted his head to that direction without letting go of Kuon, though.
Feeling stuck, Kuon eventually addressed Kijima on what was so captivating. Kyoko was going to wait for him.
"What are you so intensely looking at?"
"I-…I don't really know" he idly replied to Kuon. Kuon's irritation rose a bit and he sighed, finally managing to untangle himself from the claws of Kijima.
But the man in question continued unfazed, seeming more and more focused on the direction he was looking.
"It's just that my eyes caught something earlier and I can't seem to get it out of my head. It was a mix of purple, or violet maybe, and red or orange, like a tail, really strange." He kept babbling absently.
Kuon stared at him like he had lost his mind.
Kijima suddenly whispered loudly. "See?! There!" He pointed at the opposite corner of the big show room where one of the entries figured.
"I didn't see any—"
But truth be told, just as he was speaking the words, he saw something. For one second. A waving of coloured cloth disappearing just as they looked.
His colleague rubbed the back of his head in frustration. A frown appeared and Kuon opened his mouth to give credit to his friend and apologize for not believing him right away. But his friend turned away to accost some new woman with a big charming smile.
Kuon shook his head at Kijima's antics and was ready to turn around to the dressing room when his eyes caught the very figure his friend was talking about.
He had to say the person, because he was sure it was a person, was skilled because he had good eyes and he barely caught the sight of some long veil and a tail trailing behind the figure before she or he retreated again.
He guessed the person was coming from the comic-con and that it was a cosplay. At least he was pretty sure—unless tails had started to grow on people when he wasn't looking, that is.
All of sudden, the figure peeked again around the corner of the wall and though he couldn't see the face clearly from this distance, he instantly recognized the clothes.
He strangled himself.
Kyoko. It was Kyoko.
With a tail.
He needed to leave. Now.
He needed to see that from closer.
He thanked the supervisors and stylists he crossed paths with as he swiftly tracked back to his own dressing room. He discharged the extravagant princely outfit he was wearing once in his dressing room and quickly put back his normal one. He looked at his watch; he still had some time before the settled time for their meeting. He left the room without a regard behind and hunted for some forgotten and free dress room.
Once that goal was achieved, he donned the smooth costume he brought with him. Forest green breeches and cloak of slightly lighter tone, like grass, for the dress shirt; slipped on in merely a minute. Thick brown belts and high brown boots came soon after.
He then switched his contact lenses for the blue ones and finally added the brown wig, far lighter than the tone of his actual coloration, nearly cinder blonde. Barely brown.
He pulled out the last accessories: bow, arrows, and the vibrant green hat with a flamboyant red feather attached to it.
Eventually, Kuon cracked open the door and passed his head through the interstice looking for her.
Though he would have preferred to just go in search of her freely, he accepted to follow her plan. Thus, he endured it and went back inside. Grabbing his hat from the top of his head and sliding out just his hand, he made the cap dangle outside like instructed.
It took one or two minutes but someone eventually pulled at the hat and an adorable painted-face Kyoko slipped her head through the gap of the door kept mildly ajar. Kuon grinned at her focused expression. She didn't see him yet.
How cute!
He caught her soft hand with two of his fingers and drew her in promptly, making her squeak then gasp when she found herself pasted to his broad chest, caged in his embrace. He glided the tips of his fingers on her nape in a soft caress, capturing her head in the heart of his palm but not messing her make-up. His eyes tingled with sweet amusement.
"You pulled a trick on me, fair Lady," Robin expressed.
She lifted her head to him and her eyes glimmered with joy before she answered. "I hope you aren't too disenchanted. It was a surprise, Sir Robin."
He tugged her closer, breathing on her face. "Rather than that, Milady," he whispered, leaning in to push with his knee on the door leaf thus making it drop shut, "I feel bewitched."
Brushing on her own, his lips captured hers through his next breath. His arms crossed on her back, crushing her deliciously into his torso as his hands held her hips until one hand soared up toward the top to lose itself in her fake hair. Tempting her lips, his own pressed and pulled, demanding reddition and seducing her poor senses into new moves. And just more. More kissing.
He let go of her, at last and very reluctantly, but still kept her close. His face hovered over hers, mere inches apart, his quick breath coming out fast as they kept their gazes locked. "You look mesmerizing."
"What a greeting." She breathed out, still in a daze. She hadn't expected it would have such an impact.
"I love cute animals," he commented, shrugging.
She blushed then snorted. "What a dork."
"You didn't tell me," he countered, grinning.
"I know."
"It's cute."
She pushed him back, a refreshed shot of blood rising to her cheeks and she was suddenly glad for the make-up.
"Will you please stop that? We don't have that much time if we want to do the same on you too, remember?" She reminded him, trying to distract him. Too many compliments at once. And he needed to stop looking at her like she was some sort of perfect sweet to eat.
"Oh? Me too? I will look like you?" Kuon interrogated, staring at her with interested eyes.
"Well, not exactly like me," she explained. "But close. I'm just going to make your nose longer than mine and your ears won't be hidden but that will be the main differences."
"Where?" he asked, looking around her head. "Where are your ears?"
"They are hidden, I told you," said Kyoko, stepping back and unconsciously grabbing her headdress when he made a face like he was hunting for them and on a mission.
"They are under it," he professed and reached a hand out. She slapped his hand away.
"Ouch."
"They are holding the hat in place, you can't see them," she said in warning.
He pouted.
"Not now," she tempered.
He perked up. "So later?" Kuon excitably inquired with big puppy eyes. She averted her eyes from this massive weapon.
"Yeah…if you want," she conceded, wondering why he was weirdly obsessed with it and he finally accepted to sit still so that she could do his make-up. She didn't notice the tension coming back in Kuon as he closed his eyes and she began to put foundation on his face, all focused on the task at hand.
As she told him, she didn't change much. She defined his eyes in the same tones and painted his face in the same bronze-orange and white colours. She just shaded the contours of his face and the sides of his nose a bit deeper making it look like the orange was slightly darker. And then, when it was the moment to put into place the foxy nose, she used a little more wax than for hers.
Kyoko finished herself: little dots and white whiskers.
She then settled the soft, furry headband ears on his head over the wig and did her best to conceal the band through the false locks so that only the ears would be visible.
She pulled away some metres to observe the finished effect and couldn't help a giggle to bubble out at the adorableness of it all.
It instantly made Kuon want to look at the glass but she blocked him at the shoulders.
"Nope. Wait a minute. There is still the tail," she said and then proceeded to attach the red tail to the back of his brown belt and moved the waistband under his loose dress shirt so the tail would wildly peek from under it but the base and fixation point would stay invisible to everyone's eyes.
Then and only then did she make Kuon stand and turn around.
He stared at his reflection with bewilderment and really tried to resist but laughs cracked out of him.
"I look like a fox. A big fox," he said when he calmed down.
"That's kind of the point," she said, amused.
He chuckled.
"And it's a damn success! There is no way someone will recognize me. I look like the perfect copy of the adaptation. Well, but bigger," he conceded.
"And sexier," softly mumbled Kyoko before looking at the clock on the wall. "We need to go, Kuon!" she exclaimed.
He too glanced at the time before giving her his hand. "Milady."
Marian smiled sweetly. "Sir Robin," she replied and took his hand.
Kuon grabbed his arrows and bow and put on his cloak and they dashed through the corridors, running as fast as they could to the centre of the convention. They showed their badges reserved for this event, booked in advance, and eventually made it to the booth and the circle of people already sitting as the storyteller was taking the mic. Two foxes joined the group of people and settled down at the end of it while the presentation started. The panel was about tales, the origin of those, how they started, how they were deformed with time. How starting in the Middle Ages, tales had mostly concerned the telling of anecdotes or more malicious or magical stories—imaginary or fantasy fictions.
The man gave several examples of stories that changed with time but mostly explained how it all began: through the art of oral tradition. People would tell each other stories, inventing imaginary worlds while they gathered together around a campfire to warm themselves or a minstrel would relate stories as they travelled from kingdom to kingdom. The heart of it being it was only oral at the time thus the stories would often get twisted or distorted from one teller to another. He proposed to every participant to dabble in the art of storytelling, one of the origins, like they all did it in the past.
The man smiled in front of the perplexing silence that followed, people not really knowing how to start or how to proceed.
"I'm going to choose one person present here to begin a story, a fairy-tale or something of the sort," proposed the storyteller. "That first person will tell the beginning of his story aloud and then the people at his right and left will continue the story. But they won't speak it aloud, they will whisper it in the ear of the next person on the right and on the left," he explained.
"It will be fun and show the true power of oral storytelling but it will also show how much a story can be distorted," he finished.
The participants looked a little sceptical but all gladly accepted to attempt.
Kyoko felt very excited. Creating her own fairy-tale must be so much fun, so magical and beautiful; how could she be so lucky?
The man asked the participants to form two half-circles facing each other, one on the left and one to the right, before they would start and waited for people to execute themselves before taking back the mic.
Kyoko and Kuon followed the move and sat next to each other on left side.
Once that task done, he looked at everyone for a few seconds before pointing at one person. Perhaps it was because he looked especially delectable in this costume Kyoko thought, or because their disguises were pretty vibrant but most probably it was because he was standing out with his height that Kuon was the one chosen to start the story.
"You, over there," said the storyteller. "The handsome Robin Hood with his beautiful Marian at his side, could you stand, you and your charming Lady Marian?"
"Me, Sir?" questioned Robin trying to hegde the attention away as his dear Marian stood too.
"Yes, you. Who else could it be?" said the man, rolling his eyes and making most people chuckle.
"We are humble passerby, Sir." Robin bowed and Marian curtseyed a little. "No need to concern yourself with us, Sir."
The man laughed. "You are good at your role, Robin Hood but were you in the circle?" he asked.
"No one can fool you, Sir," admitted Robin.
"Then you are in, come here," said the storyteller.
Robin grimaced toward Lady Marian but she smiled happily and gave him a reassuring nod.
They climbed on stage and the man gave the microphone to him.
"Tell us a story, just a few sentences to get us started," commanded the man and Kyoko took a step back to give some room to Kuon.
Kyoko saw him taking the mic, pondering, and suddenly a smile flourished on his face and he turned very soft eyes at her. She tilted her head, confused. What was he thinking?
"Once upon a time," he started in a clear voice, glint in the eye, "a cute little girl with two ponytails wandered in a big magical forest hoping to hide her tears. She knew a clearing with fairies further in there where she would be able to calm."
Her eyes expanded to unknown sizes when she understood what story he was relating.
"But when she passed by the bushes and reached it, she found a young boy, lost and nursing his broken wings. The first thing the small girl said upon this sight was 'Are you a fairy?' The boy smiled and decided he will be her fairy." Kuon stopped and brushed away the heavy moved tears flowing out from his girlfriend's eyes and took her in his arms.
"I grasp that this story has a special significance for the both of you?" asked the man.
Kuon nodded and the storyteller let them be while he demanded the other participants to imagine how the story could continue and to whisper it in their seatmate's ear.
She wanted to talk to him, thank him, say anything but her eyes were too blurred and her mind was obsessed with a thought. Kuon led them out of stage and into a secluded area where she could recover.
Is he truly saying what I think he is?
She turned her wet eyes at him, needing the answer.
"I'm really sorry, I didn't know it would upset you this much, are you angry I talked about it without asking you first?" he interrogated, concerned.
She shook her head crazily and spluttered the question haunting her: "Does this mean you consider our story… our meeting as—-as a fairy-tale?"
His heavenly smile stretched on his face like it didn't want to ever disappear. "How could I not?" he told her. "There are so many things…What were the chances of meeting again? What—"
She kissed him. "Me too, me too." She hiccupped in his neck and they stayed like that for a while.
Once calmed down, they ate the leftovers Kyoko packed for them and then Kuon proposed to go listen to what the stories became before going to the dealer's room as they still had some time before the next event.
They went back and listened to completely morphed stories of Kuon's retelling of their meeting but she had some issues focusing. She was very hesitant concerning the dealer's room because she didn't want to spend too much and she couldn't steal Kuon's wallet today to prevent him from having it with him.
But she couldn't avoid it forever and she did need to find something. So she finally caved. She wouldn't look at anything but the thing she was looking for. She still had time to buy Maria's souvenir and if she lingered too long, she wouldn't ever get out of that place, she just knew it.
Which had been pretty wise because at the activity came to an end, people were talking to them a lot, asking for pictures with them and though this was fine, there were also some groups of people beginning to look suspiciously at Kuon with lot of whispers and stares and excitement so she quickly nodded toward her companion and they went in soon after.
Her first impression of the place was: GIANT. Like really. Next instant, she was engulfed in the magic it brimmed with. She saw many enchanting things. Things she dreamt about having. Huge, magical books that looked very old and that apparently contained even older tales, stuffed fairies plushies she could have sold her soul for if she didn't already have her own human fairy, and also little cute bracelets in every form imaginable that you could snap around your wrist softly.
All this time, Kuon chuckled softly beside her, watching her gaze at things or fall into La-La-land regularly.
After some time, Kyoko forbade herself to look at what wasn't strictly accessories for her secret. It was too damn dangerous. She already resisted thrice buying Maria's souvenir earlier! And she did take her a little trinket that she didn't consider like an actual souvenir. So, no more blind wandering.
She passed by the booth she needed twice before realizing this one contained all sorts of incredible baubles and hidden wonders if you knew how to look In a small wooden box pushed on the side of the stand, she discovered some tiny, tiny, holed pearls seemingly barely tinted in the box. When you took some in your hand and light went through you could see the pale colours reflected. This was it. This would add the little magical touch to them.
She quickly bought all of them, taking advantage of Kuon looking at another stand a few meters away and tapering off her voucher severely though she didn't regret it the least.
She and Kuon wandered some more after that and before they knew it, it was the moment for them to go to the game hall. They reached it in time and it was yet another huge and extravagant place making them wonder if the location of the convention had been orchestrated by the President himself.
They entered the salon, looking around and passed the crowd of cosplayers, blown away by the number of decors present. There were at least a dozen of them. She saw cosplayers on an accosted half-broken ship of Prince Eric and Ariel's rock where some people were sitting and taking pictures. Every ten minutes, fragments of the song Part of Your World would start just above it and cosplayers could either sing along, replay the scene, or just listen to it.
Kuon later showed her the Rapunzel tower where you could try yourself at climbing if you had the knowledge and a garnet. It also possessed hidden stairs she guessed, because she saw people emerging from the top to look through the opening. She briefly wished they could have tried this one too but they didn't have a coupon for it and they advanced.
They walked past décor proposing to lose you in the fake treasure of the cavern of Agrabah and to try to find the lamp, winning in case of success a coupon for another décor.
Finally, at the other end of the big salon they found it. Quite concealed by the other things, there laid a little but very cute wood décor where you could try to find the tiny pond somewhere there and reenact the scene of Robin and Marian if you wished to.
Quite frankly, Kyoko thought it didn't seem that impressive and she was pretty sure she could see the pond from where she stood— but she chose this activity for one precise reason: the little wood reminded her of their clearing and she thought it could be fun.
They made their way to the gatekeeper and gave their coupons. But they had barely made a foot on the small path that Kuon took her hand in his and began to run.
"Wander with me, Marian, Lady of my heart," he demanded as he turned back to her and led her to accelerate their little jog.
"Wait for me, Sir Robin," said a giggling Marian as she lifted her skirts and followed after him, urged by his hand all the way to the little pond.
The song Love initiated its first measures and they stopped at the pond covered in adorable fake lotus flowers and clovers. Kuon took her in his embrace before brushing their fake noses with tender amusement.
"Not that bad, right?" he uttered with a fond smile as his eyes scorched her with their fond shimmer laying silently inside.
She circled his waist with her arms and coiled up in his sweater covered chest, glowing.
"Not that bad at all," she muttered in his neck.
They stayed like that for a while, enjoying the warmth of the other before calling it day because they desired no more than being alone at that moment.
Hello dear readers.
As the organizer, I'm really proud to present you with this Fall collab. I'd like to thank and congrat the amazing writers for participating and bringing so many fabulous ideas along. I'd also like to thank Ncisduckie for helping me in organizing this collab and Black for accepting last minute to shape and design an autumn background for us.
I hope you will still like my humble chapter and that you will love the story we prepared and carefully wrote for all of you. I wish it will bring some happiness to all the people reading this in this difficult period. I hope you are all safe and spending a wonderful fall.
Kisses.
~mimagfan
This author can be found at:
AO3: (website goes here) /users/Mimag/pseuds/Mimag
FFN: (website goes here followed by a slash) u/4389653