Kiku felt the wind being knocked out of him. He was stunned, but there was no denying the little black heart on his shoulder that marked him as the Queen of Hearts. The magic that saved his Kingdom had selected him. It was the honor of all honors.
He felt like throwing up.
"Did you hear me Kiku? Kiku!" his mother almost yelled, tapping his arm and snapping him out of the daze he slipped into.
"I'm sorry mother, what did you say?" Kiku answered, mind still reeling. He simply couldn't believe what he was seeing.
"I said cover yourself and head home immediately. I must go get your father."
"But mother, the crops, I mean I haven't finished watering them and it would be imprudent of me to leave them in this heat when-"
"My dear son, don't you understand? You are the Queen!" his mother interrupted, looking at him with a face that held half amazement and half scolding. "What does a few rice crops matter? You must go home at once and I must get your father! Go Kiku!"
"Mother I-" Kiku started but his mother had already rushing off to the other side of the fields. It was almost an amazing sight, he couldn't remember the last time he saw his mother run.
Kiku looked at himself in the well again. He was flushed and dirty and probably smelled terrible. He was as far away as from a Queen as he could possible imagine, but that accursed mark stull stood stark against his rapidly sun-burning skin. He started at it angrily, mentally willing it to reconsider, to go away. When it didn't, even after Kiku's stare down where he tried to look as angry as possible, ever the obedient son, Kiku adjusted his clothing and returned up the past home.
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Kiku didn't know how he expected his calm, stoic father to react to the magic mark on his shoulder, but it definitely wasn't like this. He was not in his house five minutes before his father burst inside, panting and red-faced, with his mother at his heels. He had such a wild, almost crazed look in his eyes, it almost scared Kiku.
"Where is it? Let me see it son!" he boomed, rushing at him. Kiku jumped back a little, startled, but turned down his yukata to reveal the telltale heart.
He heard his father gasp and a hand reach out to lightly brush over his skin with reverent fingertips. His face was the picture of disbelief and wonder.
"My son. My son. Queen!" he almost whispered looking at Kiku like he had never seen him before. Kiku was surprised to glimpsed tears in his eyes before his father turned around abruptly to save face.
"Kiku," his mother said, rushing from her bedroom. "You must go and take a bath now, and make sure you are as clean as possible. Use this!" she pressed wonderful smelling lump in his hand.
Kiku was surprised. Last year for their 20th anniversary his father had traveled to the nearest big city to buy his mother the most delicious smelling, luxurious soap that she adored. She had gotten as a wedding gift all those years ago, and long since run out, but kept the wrappings because of the smell. It was made from goat's milk and left the skin soft and supple, and was extremely rare and very expensive. His mother coveted it, only using it a few times to make it last as long as possible, keeping it locked away in her jewelry box that only held her engagement ring and her mother's pearls as one of the few treasures in her simple farm life. It was always Kiku's most shameful desire to be able to splurge and buy such luxury all the time, to fill his nose with the scent and have it linger on his body. His mother had let him use some just once, and he craved more but he knew asking for it would be ungrateful.
"I will iron your best clothes now, so you can change into them when you're done." She continued, "Please hurry, your father and I must use the bath afterwards."
"Why, where are we-"but he didn't get the chance to finish as his mother all but pushed him down the hall towards the bathroom.
"Ah Kiku! Stop wasting time with silly questions!" his mother commanded, walking past him further down their home to Kiku's room. Kiku stood in front of the bathroom door standing after, still confused. Silly questions? His mother had pulled him out of the fields, demanded he go home, gotten his father, and now had told him to take a bath in the middle of the day with her precious soap and was off ironing his best clothes. He did not think that asking what was going on was wasting time. Not at all. But he still did what he was told and started the bath, filling the tub with clear, cool water.
As he started undressing, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Now, naked, without the ripples of the water in the well and the harsh light of the sun on him, he thought he looked even less queenly than ever. He was short and skinny and unremarkable in every way. His hair was simply and cheaply cut with a bowl, although it has grown out a bit. He remembered reading in school that in times before the Suits, Queens were always women because they could bear the children of the King and they were most often very beautiful. He failed on both accounts. He was just an average man.
He turned around and looked at the mark on his back, black and unapologetic, and he sighed. He ran his hand over it, at first as his father did, with light fingertips but that quickly evolved into hard rubbing, as if he could erase the magic's choice.
How foolish, Kiku thought signing as he sunk into the nice, cooling water. But as he looked and smelled the bar of soap in his hand and began to wash he spread the suds over his shoulder a few more times than strictly necessary in a last ditch attempt to rid himself the mark.
"Kiku!" he heard his mother call through the door. "Your clothes are ready! Hurry up and finish, we need to get to town as soon as possible!"
Kiku signed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day and finished his bath at a more hurried pace. He could hear the impatience in his mother's voice, and with how strangely she'd been acting, he did not want to anger her. She could be very scary when angry.
After he came out, fresh and clean and delectable smelling, his mother rushed him into his room to dress while his father started his bath. This was all so bizarre, but Kiku didn't want a scolding from his mother again, so obediently put on his best clothes, black linen shirt white jacket, and white slacks with shiny black shoes still warm from the iron and decided to ask no more questions.
When fully dressed and looking significantly more presentable, he waited patiently in the family's sitting room for his parents. Tama, his black and white cat, came to and sat next to him instead of on his lap, as if instinctively he knew that Kiku couldn't have cat hair all over him, wherever it was he was going. For the life of him, he couldn't remember what happens when a Suit is found, that never really seemed important in school since no one from this part of the Kingdom was ever selected and since there was a fully functional Suit set in power.
He did know, however, that new suits had to go to the palace in the capitol for training and then the rest of their reign. Kiku's mouth went dry at the thought of him reigning over anything besides rice crops. He also knew that something had to happen between the finding and travel to the capitol, but he couldn't remember what. He wished he would have paid more attention in to his studies, or the day his mother came in excitement over the new Suits, at least then he would have an idea of what was going on.
He must been trapped in his own thoughts for a long time as he was startled when his mother and father walked in. He could hardly believe it was them, they looked so different. His mother was in a very fine and beautiful kimono, one he had never seen, and had put on make-up, and had her hair done in a fashion that framed her face beautifully. His father wore a much simpler but just as fine of an outfit, and his hair was combed and styled perfectly and he had on what looked like his wedding shoes. They looked more like nobles from the capitol than farmers of the country. If it were not for their faces, Kiku would not know these people. They were not the parents he had known all his life.
"Come son," the man who looked like his father said his usual steady voice. "We must go. Your mother sent a message ahead to your aunt and she will be waiting."
As they walked out, Kiku smelled the familiar sent that was on him. His mother had even let his father use her special soap. And now, Kiku realized, they were not walking into town. A carriage, an actual carriage, not just a cart pulled by a donkey but an actual closed carriage with a horse awaited them in front of their house. On a rice farm. In the middle of the country.
As Kiku climbed in after his parents, he thought the day's events. Of his mark and mother's commands and his father's hidden tears. Of using the almost sacred soap and the carriage that they were slowly departing in. But most of all, he thought of how the whole world had gone crazy.