The Beautiful Thing About Princes and Queens
by Lady Norbert
A/N: So I've come back to this, finally, but with a twist. See, for my thirtymumbleth birthday last fall, the wonderfully talented and unfairly adorable fanfic author known as lunarism sent me a Mystogan/Mirajane fic as a gift. I loved it. And ever since it arrived, I have been stuck on what to do for this story because quite frankly, nothing I was coming up with was anywhere near as good as what she gave me.
The solution finally presented itself, and with her blessing, I am presenting that gift fic as the ninth chapter of this story. It's where the plot was headed anyway, as you might imagine. I did edit it slightly to make it fit stylistically; she wrote the fic in past tense, while this story is in present tense, and I did give it a different title to match the titling theme. Other than those two small changes, though, it is exactly as she gave it to me and I am so pleased to be able to share it with all of you. (And if you're not reading lunarism's other stories, you don't know what you're missing.) Thank you again, sweetpea!
I did intend for there to be a tenth chapter, but to be perfectly honest, this wraps everything up beautifully and I think it's good where it is. Thank you to all my readers and reviewers for your wonderful comments!
Chapter Nine: Having Faith
One year later...
The morning sun of Edolas, hanging in a sky tinged pink and blue with dawn, lights a world sparkling with dew. The topiary gardens of the palace seem to be adorned with diamonds as Jellal tiptoes through them on his way to the Fairy Tail guild hall. And when Mirajane smiles, a light shines even brighter than that of the morning sun.
She leans out of the central window like a ship's figurehead, the guild's guiding grace above the banner of their insignia. Her silver hair falls past her shoulders beyond the window frame, rippling in the gentle wind.
"Come up!" she calls to him.
"Come down! I'm not supposed to be here, for more reasons than one. Your entourage of bridesmaids would have my head."
"All right." Her bell-laugh chimes, and she twirls to scurry down the stairs. She sneaks out the back door and runs, barefoot, across the wet grass to where Jellal waits, to this day still awe-struck by her presence.
"Are you ready to be a queen?"
"I'm… a little afraid, truthfully. Are you sure… are you sure I'll be all right?"
Jellal shakes his head in wonder, amazed that she can be so oblivious to her own radiance, her own power to heal the broken hearts and homes of Edolas. "Mirajane, you're the queen this country needs. That I need."
Mirajane presses her face to his chest, humming contentedly. "Really?"
"You've saved this country in ways I could never do alone."
"Oh? Tell me," she whispers, breath tickling his collarbone.
"You taught me about my people. I came here, knowing nothing about Edolas besides the vague memories I had as a child. And when I came back, I was so hopelessly lost. I wore a crown, but I wasn't a leader. You taught me everything - from economic strengths and weaknesses to the traditions of the festivals. You gave me the kind of knowledge I needed to be a king."
Mirajane looks up at him, eyes shining from under long black lashes. Jellal chuckles.
"What are you laughing at?" She pouts.
"My miraculous good fortune."
"Oh, hush." She stands on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his smiling lips. Even after a year privy to her kisses, Jellal still feels a roller coaster thrill every time her lips brush his.
A rustle and the slam of a door sound from inside the guild hall. "I should go," Mira tells him ruefully.
"I'll miss you."
She smiles over her shoulder as she flits over the grass, pausing at the doorstep. Jellal bows to her, and she curtsies back, oddly formal, oddly serious, but fitting for a king and his queen. Then she disappears through the door and into Fairy Tail's maze of corridors and camaraderie.
Jellal is welcome at Fairy Tail, and little by little he has learned to be comfortable among the frequent brawls, teasing jokes, and drinking contests. All these things he'd glimpsed back in Earthland's Fairy Tail as an observer from the outside, distancing himself in a personal exile. But now he has been drawn into their midst, the shining crown on his head insignificant to them. Slowly, he is growing accustomed to friendship.
It had been Elfman, Mirajane's timid brother, who finally gave Jellal the courage to take out the diamond ring he hid in the drawer of his bedside table for months, unbeknownst to anyone besides Coco, his young servant. Apparently, one day she had trotted off to Fairy Tail alone, without his permission, to instigate an intervention. Every night, Jellal took out the ring and studied the rainbow refractions it cast against the walls when it came in contact with starlight. Every night, Jellal debated a proposal, and every night he went to sleep fearing she would not consent to be his queen, for any number of made-up reasons.
Coco knew this, and, arriving at Fairy Tail, asked to see Elfman. She told him of Jellal's internal doubts, and Elfman resolved to set the king straight on a few things. It was perhaps a little strange to receive a lesson in bravery from a man scared of kittens, but Fairy Tail was a testament to the sentiment that anything is possible.
On a blustery, blue-skied day in March, Jellal sat on a stool at Fairy Tail's bar. He'd come to visit Mirajane, but she was out grocery shopping, so he waited and observed the guild's cheerful chaos. Everyone here acted so differently than the faces he knew back in Earthland. Bubbly little Levy was tough and vicious as a tiger, cheerful Lucy would roast you alive for any misstep, powerful Natsu was timid but not without talent, and Cana the drunk wouldn't touch a sip of alcohol.… the list went on and on. The only person who seemed unchanged, in fact, was Mirajane. Her gentle touch still healed in ways she would never know, her smile still calmed rapid heartbeats, her kindness and devotion to this family of fairies never wavered. That fact was an anchor he could argue kept him sane amid all these changes.
"Waiting for Mira, Your Majesty?" the hulking, white-haired Elfman asked, sitting on the stool next to him and ducking his head in an approximation of a bow.
"Jellal." The king smiled. "Just Jellal, please."
"I'm sorry, I forget every time!"
"Please don't worry about it," Jellal pleaded, choosing to change the subject to avoid hurting Elfman's feelings. "Yes, I am waiting for Mira."
"She'd never wonder about this herself because she has such strong faith in you, but we're all waiting too."
Jellal gave the man a quizzical look. "Waiting for what?"
"For you to take that ring out of your bedside table and put it on her finger instead!"
"How do you know about – ah. Coco came to talk to you, didn't she."
"You know…" Elfman took a deep breath, seeming to steel himself, "You know – Jellal – she'd say yes in a second."
The blue-haired man was taken aback. He'd always believed that even if he did propose, Mirajane would take some time to weigh the consequences of being queen, of being with him, for the rest of her life. It didn't seem to him a decision one makes in a heartbeat.
"It's true," Levy chimed in from his other side. She and Lucy had just arrived. He was surprised to see them congenial at all, let alone so clearly fast friends.
"So, have you two finally decided to stop tearing the guild apart with your feuds?" he asked good-naturedly, nodding to their linked arms.
"Well…"
"Mira got sick of our fighting and made us talk out our differences last time, 'cause we broke all the first floor windows. She said it was a therapeutic intercession for the good of Edolas," Lucy said, rolling her eyes.
"After a while, I started to realize maybe Lucy wasn't that bad."
"And although Levy could improve in a lot of ways – "
"Hey!"
" - I'm glad that we don't always fight now."
"So," Levy continued, "we figure we owe Mirajane a favor. Life's a lot better with a best friend."
"So basically, Your Majesty, it's like this. You propose to Mirajane, or we beat the crap outta you," Lucy said with narrowed eyes.
Jellal sighed, taking a moment to consider. He wanted to ask her to marry him, more than anything in the world. What stopped him was uncertainty. Would she consent to be his wife, to be his queen? Certainly, she was the perfect candidate to help him lead this country. And certainly, he was terribly, terribly in love with her. But would she say yes?
However, envisioning her enthroned by his side, imagining her presence in the palace each day, he knew that he could no longer continue to pay the price of fear, which demanded he live in lonely isolation. It was like his time on Earthland, choosing to avoid the possibility of happiness out of a belief it wasn't deserved, wouldn't be returned. A king must open his heart to his people. And Mirajane held his key.
"I'll do it tonight."
Hours after the sun had set, when the guild hall cleared and its occupants slept soundly in their beds, Jellal watched Mirajane wipe down the bar and tables. The care she took with her work, even the most menial of cleaning jobs, was so incredibly endearing that he couldn't help but smile while she finished up.
"Done," she said, "Now why is it that you stayed so late?"
"Would you like to go for a walk with me?"
She cocked her head, and he knew he'd piqued her curiosity.
"The moon is beautiful tonight," he told her, looking out the windows to the clear night sky beyond the glass. Crystalline stars formed constellations he half-remembered from his childhood. "You could teach me about Edolas's constellations."
"Of course."
He offered his arm, and with her hand resting in the crook of his elbow, they stepped out onto the cobblestones of their capital city. Wandering the streets, going nowhere in particular, Mirajane extolled the stories of the stars with her eyes trained upward towards the sky. .
"That's the Sorcerer, there, that cluster of small ones are his beard. And next to him is the mermaid. See how her arms stretch out, like she's swimming? And then, below them…below them is the Queen. The north star, the brightest in the sky, is the middle point of her crown. She's the first constellation the astronomers came up with here in Edolas. The king was lonely, and there was no one in the kingdom who he could trust to be his queen, so he asked the astronomers to make one for him out of stars, to watch over the empire from the heavens."
Jellal's eyes weren't looking at the stars. They were watching Mirajane. "I'm lucky. I don't have that problem."
Ever so slowly, Mirajane lowered her gaze back to earth. A slight blush colored her cheeks. She bit her lip, holding back a smile. Jellal braced himself to ask the question which had rested on the tip of his tongue for far too long without utterance.
"Mirajane, will you marry me?"
"Yes."
Measuring time by the pounding rhythm of his heart, Jellal calculated that it took less than a beat for her halcyon answer to grace the night.
Jellal recalls that night as he makes his way back to the palace, following the alleys and empty streets that he'd learned to use early in his reign, to avoid the complications of being a king alone in the city. Since that night, three short months ago, his world has been the daydreams he'd fostered in secret. He still fulfills his royal duties, governing with all the benevolence he can while still maintaining order in a country stricken by corruption and chaos. But now, Mirajane comes to the palace each day and joins his councils, acting as chief advisor, adding her clarion voice to the meetings of greedy nobles and austere military officers. She offers a measure of compassion and reason, a gentle breath of fresh air to decisions suffocated by disagreement.
Nights he spends at Fairy Tail, laughing and drinking with the guild to which he finally feels he has a right to belong. And when he and Mira had announced their engagement the next morning, the fairies had seized the opportunity to throw a party of enormous proportions. It's what they do best.
Jellal spends the morning fretting over his unruly hair and nervously adjusting and readjusting his royal uniform, fidgeting with the epaulets and decorations. When the men of Fairy Tail arrive to save his sanity, he thinks that he has never been more grateful.
"This is how you attach the sash," Gajeel instructs, adjusting the damn thing so it looked the way it did in portraits.
Eventually, the church bells ring Sunday noon, and the men arrive at the cathedral full of jokes about Fairy Tail's newfound royal status and warnings to protect Mirajane's honor. Crowding in through the double doors, they make their way to the front and join the guild's ladies in the rows reserved especially for them. The cathedral pews are full to bursting – uniformed soldiers and officials sit mixed with nobility and commoners; this is an occasion where all are welcome. Jellal takes his place in front of the altar, nodding his thanks to the robed priest who stood beside him.
The first note from the organ pipes rings out, reverberating amid the Gothic arches and gathered congregation. The chatter dies to a hush, and that familiar wedding march begins to play.
The carved doors swing open, and Mirajane, illuminated by sunlight, shining like an angel, steps forward. Her dress blossoms from her hips to a circumference of glittering finery, her arms are bare, and the veil in her silver hair cascades in a lace waterfall to the floor. Finally, she reaches the altar, refusing to meet Jellal's eyes. But when she stands before him, the priest reciting the ceremonial scripture, she finally looks up, and in her face Jellal sees the kind of quiet elation he himself has felt since the moment he caught sight of her silhouette in the arched doorway. It is a culmination of all things, a fulfillment of futile wishes made real by bravery and kindness.
"I do."
"You may now kiss the bride."
And in front of the Edolas masses, a coronation by the grace of the stars, he does.