Aini and Iri sat pouting on the bed as V sat in the middle, Celina happily cuddled into her side and flipping through the pages of the storybook, trying to pick a story.
"I told you not to gang up on your older sister." V shrugged.
"But did you have to punish us by having Celina pick the story?!" Aini cried in outrage. "She's gonna pick some romantic story!"
"Pirates and ninja's!" Iri yelled out in agreement.
"Would you rather I took the TV away?"
Both fell silent at that.
"You guys shouldn't be so upset." V continued with a shrug. "The last story was romantic, and you said I did a good job of telling it."
Aini murmured something under her breath, still pouting, while Iri seemed to take a curious interest in the next story.
"This one." Celina said happily, holding the open book to V. V glanced at the title, then smiled.
"Should I tell this one different as well?"
Celina nodded her head vigorously while Iri shouted his agreement. Aini was still pouting.
"Alright then."
o.0.o.0.o
Cinder-Yellow, Part One
Once upon a Pokéball, there was a short man named Wilton. He was not a duke or a king, not a prince or a noble, or a merchant from far away. He was none of those romantic things at all. No, he... was a fisherman.
He was not terribly rich, but he was not terribly poor either. He had entered a perfectly happy medium where he could live comfortably and happily and not be disturbed.
One day, however, he got hit with some wonderful but equally terrible news.
There was a knock at the door, and he was greeted by a tall man.
"Mr. Wilton Anbā?" he asked, reading off a small piece of parchment. Wilton blinked.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry to inform you, sir, but your sister, Amber, and her husband, Samson, were killed in a horrible carriage accident."
Wilton almost collapsed then and there. He was very close to his younger sister. Unlike him, his brother-in-law was a very successful merchant. He made a ton of money every year, and could always afford to splurge on the two loves of his life, his wife and his little daughter, who was only four at the time.
"Their girl..." he muttered. "What happened to their little girl?!"
"The girl is safe." the man stated, stepping aside and showing a little girl with, no older than four, with her head bowed as a small suitcase sat next to her, a beautiful doll in her arms. "With no other living family members, we need a caregiver for her. If not, she will go to the orphanage in town."
"I accept." Wilton stated immediately.
Wilton hardly knew what he accepted at the time.
Everything that Amber and Samson owned, including their daughter, suddenly belonged to Wilton. Upon accepting to raise the girl, he also accepted to care for their chateau, and to manage the large fortune left to her until she came of age to rightfully inherit it. Wilton was very careful not to spend to much of the fortune, as he didn't want to squander it all on the daughter so she had none, and the girl seemed happy with the simplistic life as a fisherman's niece.
Wilton didn't care much for money, but he happily took to raising the girl. He, after all, never married or had a child of his own, and fatherhood seemed to come naturally to him. Her name was Amarillo del Bosque Verde, but the fisherman took to calling her Yellow. The nickname stuck.
Yellow was a kind, caring, and gentle girl. She wouldn't hurt a bug-type pokémon, even if someone asked her too.
When Yellow was around six years old, her Uncle Wilton suddenly announced that he was getting married. Initially, she was surprised. For as long as she had known her uncle, he never showed an interest in marriage, nor had anyone ever shown interest in him. But regardless, she was very happy and supportive, even more so when he said that the woman he was going to marry had two daughters a little older than her, one being nine and the other seven.
A little before the marriage, Wilton invited this mysterious woman and her daughters over so they could get better acquainted. Yellow was very excited to meet her new family. She cleaned up their perfectly quaint little three-bedroom cabin, helped her Uncle Wilton make a grand dinner, and made sure that her most favorite pet pokémon, Chuchu the pikachu, was groomed, her best flower tucked behind her ear. Yellow, in turn, put on the dress her uncle liked most, a simple pale green garment with a white bow, and wove flowers into her hair, and waited for her new family.
When she heard a knock at the door, the little girl was so excited she hardly waited for her uncle to finish what he was doing. She jumped up from her perch on her chair and eagerly opened the door. What was on the other side was not something she was expecting.
She saw a short woman with blond hair graying and two young ladies, the older with red hair and the younger with silvery-blue hair. The girls were donned in dresses that was a montage of lace, bows, and ruffles, the woman wearing expensive looking jewelry. The two girls were already passing their mother in height.
They looked at her.
She looked at them.
Yellow then remembered her manners and stepped back, curtsying politely.
"M-My name is A-Amarillo del B-Bosque Verde." she swallowed the stutter that she acquired growing up and stood. "B-But you may call me Yellow."
A moment of silence.
Then...
"Look at this thing, dressed like she's a bloody princess." the silver-haired girl said with a scoff. Yellow blinked in surprise at her demeaning tone. "What are you, a glorified servant?"
"N-No, I'm-"
"Yellow? What're you doing, sprout?" her Uncle asked as he came down the stairs. She smiled brightly at him. He glanced up, and beamed at the trio. "Ah, Agatha! I see you've met Yellow!"
"Yellow? You never mentioned a daughter." Agatha stated, raising an eyebrow.
"Daughter? Oh, no, this is my niece. I told you about what happened to Amber, right? Well, this little girl is the only direct family member left. She's set to inherit a huge fortune."
"If she's so rich, why does she have weeds in her hair?" the redhead asked, cocking her head as she stared down at Yellow through her glasses.
"They aren't weeds!" Yellow meekly defended, gently touching the flower headband-like crown behind her bands and placed here and there throughout her hair. "They... They're flowers from our garden!"
"Yellow's always taken a liking to simple things." Wilton shrugged, smiling fondly at his niece. "Regardless, come sit! Yellow's been so excited to meet you!" he turned to the other two girls, smiling brightly. "You must be Lorelie and Karen! My, you're just as your mother described!"
The two girls smiled, as if already knowing all the wonderful things their mother had said.
They quickly sat down for dinner, and Yellow wanted to impress her new, soon-to-be family. They obviously weren't happy with her appearance, so she decided she would impress them with her work ethic.
So she served the dinner splendidly and was the first to jump if any of them needed anything.
Eventually, Yellow realized she was running back and forth so much to the kitchen, that her Uncle Wilton, Agatha, and her daughters had already finished their meals.
"You're not hungry, Yellow?" Wilton asked, noticing her untouched plate of food. Yellow shook her head with a bright smile.
"I want to see the gardens." Karen suddenly announced.
"I would as well." Agatha said. "Wilton?"
"But Yellow is still eating." he stated, glancing between his fiancé and his niece. Yellow waved her hands in front of her face.
"It's okay, Uncle! I'm fine on my own."
Wilton looked skeptical.
"You sure, sprout?"
"Absolutely!" Yellow nodded enthusiastically.
"Alright, then..." Wilton said, although hesitantly. Yellow flashed an encouraging smile, and Wilton finally gave in, taking, Agatha, Lorelie, and Karen out to the gardens. Yellow looked down at her meal, a few bites taken from between the times she had gotten up to fetch whatever the trio had needed.
Happily, she took a bite of her food, but grimaced slightly.
It was cold...
o.0.o.0.o
Yellow's Uncle Wilton married Agatha later on in the spring, after her seventh birthday. She tried very hard to keep a optimistic outlook on her new life with her new family, but no matter what she did, her new aunt and cousins just did not seem to like her.
Though never in front of her uncle, they enjoyed ordering her about, to make the beds, to do the laundry, and so on. Eager to make them happy, she hardly recognized she was being taken advantage of. Rather, she puttered along, happily obliging to any request from her new family, enjoying life with her uncle, and living peacefully.
By the time she was twelve, Yellow had grown into a pretty young woman. She had golden blond hair always tied in a signature ponytail and eyes that sparkled like drops of amber. Though petite in size, she made up for it with her overwhelmingly huge heart.
One day, while Agatha and her daughters had gone to visit relatives, Yellow was in town, running a small errand to the toymakers shop.
"Hey Yellow!" the nine-year-old apprentice of the toymaker, also known as the Trick Master, waved. In all due honesty, Emerald seemed to be more about fixing the toys while his boss went about inventing them. Though his more farfetched ideas mostly failed, he was still an expert at fixing older toys while Emerald seemed to specialize in fixing up newer ones. "Here to pick up Amber again?"
"Yes." she smiled. Emerald grinned.
"Trick! Yellow's here!"
The Trick Master, almost as short as Emerald, came into the room, grinning.
"Yellow! We've repaired Amber again. Now, if I paid you..."
"No." Yellow said immediately with a laugh, taking the doll she had named lovingly after her mother and gently placing her into her empty basket. "Amber is mine and always will be."
"Do you blame a collector for trying?" he asked, shrugging.
"I can't believe you care so much for that thing." Emerald said offhandedly "The paint only chipped a little."
"A little leads to a lot, thus costing a higher bill." Yellow stated with a smile, dropping some coins onto the counter. "Thanks again!"
"I'll get that doll one day!" the Trick Master exclaimed. Yellow simply laughed as she walked out the door and back onto the the path to home.
What she saw when she reached the house horrified her.
The quaint little home that she had shared with her Uncle for nearly a decade was in flames. The entire house was engulfed in smoke, fiery red flames licking the wooden walls.
Despite the fact that many townspeople had water types blasting the fire, it wouldn't go out. Eventually, the house smoldered away to nothing but ashes and a frame of what was once a loving home.
Yellow knew her uncle was dead. It was a feeling she knew all to well. A feeling that no one should have to feel, but she has felt three times.
Her dear Uncle Wilton was dead.
o.0.o.0.o
When Agatha returned home with her two daughters, all their belongings in tow, she was not much of a comfort. In fact, she seemed to set out to make Yellow's life worse. It was only after the good fisherman's untimely death did she show her true colors. Cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of young Yellow's beauty, inside and out. Her kindness made her sick, and she wanted to see her cry.
So when she and her obviously wonderful daughters reached the chateau and stepped inside, she heard Yellow crying from somewhere in the house. Leaving their luggage in the foyer, she allowed her girls to run rampant in search of their new rooms while she searched for Yellow.
She came upon the girl in an overly cheerful room with a mural of flowers on the wall, bright yellow bedspreads and tools for artists on a small desk in the corner. She was sitting on a chair, curled up and obviously distressed.
"Amarillo." she stated. The girl stood, slowly and shakily, looking over at them tearfully.
"Arceus, this is tacky." Karen immediately spat. "Who designed this?"
"M-M-M-My m-m-mom." Yellow stuttered.
"Overly bright and cheerful," Lorelie mused, looking around. "But the size will do for my room. It's the biggest room in the house, after all."
"W-W-What?" Yellow asked, looking horrified.
"You won't mind right, Yellow?"
"N-No! This is my room!"
Her cries went unheard as the now fifteen year old girl began to take stuffed animals, now long forgotten, off the shelves and dumping them into a box.
"S-Stop!" Yellow cried out, grabbing at her arm as she reached for a particularly important stuffed animal. Lorelie looked at her like she was the most disgusting thing on earth, then smacked her across the face. Yellow stumbled back in shock, staring up at the woman, flabbergasted.
"Don't touch me." she hissed, then resumed her task. Still holding her precious doll, Yellow stumbled into the next room, only for the now thirteen-year-old Karen to dart around her.
"Sorry, this is my room, Blondie."
Tearfully, Yellow darted to the next room. Lorelie bolted ahead of her.
"My study." Lorelie stated, studying her nails. Yellow opened her mouth, tears still budding. Lorelie stared coldly back at her. She looked over her shoulder at Karen, and she suddenly had an inkling of what they were going to do.
She bolted down the hall as Lorelie and Karen pounded after her. Yellow was never much of a runner to begin with, but with the two slamming her into walls and tripping her every chance they got, she hardly stood a chance. They claimed each room as their 'storage room' or their 'music room' or their 'dance room' or their 'art room'. The list went on, and suddenly, Yellow found herself in the foyer, alone.
"A-Aunt Agatha!" Yellow cried out as the woman approached her. "Th-They've taken all the rooms! There's nowhere for me to go!"
She scoffed.
"That's Lady Agatha to you, servant. The attic is free." she stated coldly. Her eyes shot to the doll in her arms. "Why do you still have that thing, Amarillo?" she demanded, reaching up and planning to snatch it out of her arms. "You won't have time for playing."
Yellow suddenly snatched the doll back, cradling it against her as she shook her head.
"You won't take Amber." she stated.
"You dare to take that tone with the woman willing to give you a home?!" Agatha shrieked shrilly. "How dare you, Amarillo! You will not get dinner tonight!"
"My name is Yellow," she said, going towards the staircase and ignoring the punishment she was given. "And this is not a home."
Somehow, she managed to quell her tears until the got upstairs, where the only things in the room was a mattress in which the hinges creaked every time she moved and an old dresser and closet. She sat on the creaky, uncomfortable bed, clutching Amber close to her chest.
"My uncle is dead." she thought as she laid down, tears overtaking her again. "My uncle is dead."
The thought echoed over and over again, each time bringing a new wave of body-wracking sobs over her small body.
Yellow, since the death of her parents, have never felt so alone.
o.0.o.0.o
And thus as time went by, the chateau fell into disrepair, all the family fortunes spent on the vain and selfish cousins. Yellow was humiliated and beaten day in and day out, finally falling so far from grace, as her aunt liked to call it, she was forced to become a servant in her own home.
And yet, she continued to correct Agatha, Lorelie, and Karen anytime they chose to call her anything but Yellow, no matter the abuse, no matter the punishment, no matter the pain. She wanted, at least, to hold onto the one thing her uncle left to her. Her beloved nickname.
After one particular day, when Yellow approached them covered in cinders, the girl had adopted a new nickname, courtesy of her cousins.
Cinder-Yellow.
o.0.o.0.o
"I still don't like it." Aini pouted. Iri shrugged indifferently, though V could tell that he seemed to have taken an interest.
"It's going to be beautiful." Celina sighed dreamily. Aini looked disgusted and Iri looked weirded out.
"She's going into one of her weird modes again." Aini sighed.
"Well, it's kind of your fault you have to hear the tale of Cinder-Yellow." Vale stated with a shrug standing up.
"Mom," Aini sighed, shaking her head. "That name sucks."
o.0.o.0.o
And the point that I agree with Aini. XD
So yeah, introducing a revamped version of Cinderella, this time centering Yellow and Red! I was thinking of doing Thumbalina, but when I tried to write it, I couldn't get into it. And besides, I thought Cinderella is a much better story for this couple.
I chose Agatha and Lorelie because they were pretty big villains in the Yellow Arc of the manga. Karen... just kind of got mushed in there.
XD
So everyone seemed to like The Monster and the Thief. Will you like Cinder-Yellow just as much?
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^