I shunted out of my room with the light falling gently around me. I remember only being at the servant's sleeping quarters once when I was younger. Since then, I've forgotten where it is, but after dinner most of the servants, save Gash and Koruru of course, go into the kitchen. So it must be in the kitchen, or connect to the kitchen somehow. I must also confess that have almost never ventured into the kitchen. As I realize this, I also realize that I'm far more spoiled than I originally thought. Snorting, I pushed the thought behind everything else, and allowed Koruru to float to the front of my mind.

The castle looked odd at night. Odd, but not exactly unpleasant. Through the halls to the dining room, and to the door that separates the Dining Room with the Kitchen. I pushed against it and found it locked. What the hell? I didn't even know this door was lockable! After a solid five minutes of pushing, I have to do the one thing I promised my father I wouldn't do. I had to use Zakeru.

We demons have special powers, and they all vary. My father doesn't use his around me, but I assume he was a lightning demon just like me. My weakest spell is Zakeru, but with years of rigorous training its become stronger than many other spells. I had to promise not to use my powers wastefully, since if I lost control many demons would die. But hey, this wasn't really frugal, since I might lose a friend if I didn't do this. I went through the worst experience of my life to get them back, and I would not allow one of them to leave me cold.

"Za-ke-ru..." I murmured, feeling a powerful jolt of electricity try and jump out of my fingertips. Biting down on my lip I managed the hold back most of the attack and only enough the destroy the lock. Afterwards my arm feels numb and tingly. I shake it vigorously and another jolt falls free. It jumped into the ground and vanished, leaving a dark scorch mark. "Dad's gonna kill me for that..." I murmured and pushed the door open, walking into the dark kitchen.

I never imagined our kitchen at night. The servants don't bother keeping the floors clean, I notice. I think there's a thin layer of sand on the floor, although what purpose that serves I haven't the slightest clue. I'm surprised at how clean it looked, because I always thought that they used bloody knives to slice garlic cloves and spat in the stew and chopped off fingers to jokingly put in the turkey.

Looking around, I see a medium sized door. I could get in if I just stooped a little bit. My father, much larger than myself, could probably not fit in this doorway unless on all fours. My eyes had to adjust to the slight darkness of the room, but I noted that there were several windows. Since this room was technically underground, people on low bunks probably got very little air. The room smelled like sweat and grass, and at that moment a wave of terror strikes me. This room is exactly like I dreamed it. Burlap blankets and the location of Koruru's bunk. Massive déjà vu.

I pull myself up onto her bed which is indeed made for one person only. Although I never considered her to be large or anything remotely like that, I realize that the only way I could be on the bed and not fall off would be to have either one of my legs positioned to the edges of the bed. The long and short of it: I'd have to straddle her.

With a gulp of air I did this. She didn't awaken, thankfully, seeing as this is a pretty awkward position, no? My hand trailed upwards and pulled down the burlap blanket covering her face, and my breath hitched only to be released in a thankful sigh. No skeleton. No weeping Gash. On impulse I needed to check something else. I slid down her bed a bit and rested my head on her chest, listening for a heartbeat and breathing. She was doing both, thankfully, but I also noticed that Koruru's chest was quite soft and comfortable. I gulped as heat rushed to my face once I realized what I was doing.

It took me a couple seconds for me to cover her back up and jump off her bunk. My heart went crazy when I heard her shift and sit up, rubbing her eyes sleepily. She glanced down at me and yawned. "Zeon? What are you doing here?"

"I had a nightmare is all. I'm, uh, I'm going back to my room now." I said and took jerking, hurried steps out of there, as a smile twitched on my features at her quiet call of good night. Back upstairs, back to my room to return to sleep after I kicked off my slippers. I was sleepy, and fell asleep almost as soon as my head made contact with the pillow.

The day began as plainly as any day before it. Koruru and Gash awoke me from my slumber, I went downstairs to dine with my father and stepfamily (just as I had predicted I had received a fair chewing out because I used my lightning powers even though I wasn't supposed to) and I whooped Gash in a game of chess. By noon, things were normal, but once the clock finished chiming, things got... out of hand.

Hyde came around again. For a fleeting moment I thought he had come to apologize. But instead he had brought a girl with him. She had pinkish hair only a couple shades closer to red than Koruru's. they had similar eyes, but this girl looked less kind and more violent. Her hair was long and straight, and Hyde introduced her as Tio. When she asked him why he had come, he merely said that his boss wasn't going to pay for the wedding between him and Tio.

My eyes widened at the nerve of him. He had come to our kingdom to ask his former girlfriend--who was perfectly faithful and loved him unconditionally--to pay for his wedding to another girl. I watched Koruru get angry again, Her soft, curly hair became spiky and her fingers grew long and sharp and became made of metal. Her eyes changed and she was suddenly not the kind hearted, peaceful Koruru, but was an angry, evil Koruru. She screamed at him to get out, slicing at him with her nails. As he and his new girlfriend ran out of the castle and off the grounds, Koruru changed back and began to cry again.

We took her inside and she went into the kitchen, into the freezer for an ice-cream sandwich. Comfort food. We didn't see Koruru until nightfall at the bench. She was listening to the rhythmic lullaby of the creaking, and she had her hands folding in her lap. We also noticed that she had scratches on he feet. The fact that she was barefoot was nothing new since none of the servants had shoes, but since there was nothing for them to scratch their feet on, that was something worrisome.

We attempted to join her on the swinging bench when she ordered us to leave her alone and go back into the castle. Gash and I exchanged a look, but didn't move. We saw her starting to change and high-tailed it out of there. We didn't play chess that night, but merely stared up at the sky and talked about anything we could think about. Therefore we talked about Koruru.

"Can you believe the nerve of Hyde? What a bastard."

"Total bastard. Did you see Tio though? I'd like to tap that."

"Gash that's disgusting..."

"I'm totally serious! I mean, if Hyde hadn't dumped Koruru for her I'd... Mm-mm, if you know what I mean."

"Dude, stop, that's gross."

"Please, bet you think about doing that to Koruru."

"Ew, no! Koruru's my friend! She's more of a babysitter than a love interest."

Gash laughed at that. "Yeah right. You'd like her to sit on sumthin' else--"

I hit Gash over top the head with the wooden chess board. He laughed, rubbing where he was hit without any sort of hostility.

"Okay, maybe not. But she's a good catch. I can't imagine why he'd dump her."

"Because she's too modest. He wanted something that'd have trouble keeping their legs together."

Gash merely nodde

d and allowed the room to fall into silence. We stared up at the waning moon, knowing that the Half-Moon would be upon us soon, then the crescent moon and then there would be no moon at all. I was slightly saddened by that, but I knew that after the new moon, there would be another moon, and once it was full I would drink up its light like it was the best thing since sliced bread. Which it was.

"I'd still tap that."

That statement earned Gash another whack on the head.

The next morning Koruru seemed to be better. We freely talked about random things, and Gash brought up an upcoming concert that they wanted to attend. He said that Koruru could probably get the day off to attend, but he probably couldn't. Actually, when he asked, Queen Eduron gave him the day off to go to the concert. He was overjoyed, and I suddenly wanted to go. I had never--and it shames me a little to admit this--never gone farther than the royal garden. I had no idea what the kingdom was like.

They laughed and handed me their third ticket. Now I just had to not make a fool of myself by losing the ticket or being so oblivious to my surroundings that I looked less like a Prince and more like a mindless country bumpkin.

Excited, I told my father about the concert I was going to. I had never heard of the band, but Koruru and Gash both liked them so I guess I could give them a try. He was happy that I was giving new things a try, and that I was finally going off the royal grounds. This would be a good experience for me, and he would hear none of Eduron's mindless protesting.

Everyone convened to my room to synchronize our efforts. I knew Koruru had a fair amount of good clothes, but Gash had none. He was a little smaller than me, so I gave him some of my tighter fitting clothes. They looked great on him. A simple hoodie and loose jeans, plus a pair of sneakers that sat placidly in my closet. He looked good, and I gave him a thumbs up, saying he could keep them since I never wore anything I gave him in the first place.

We would meet in the main hall an hour before the concert started, which gave us plenty of time to leave and get to the place where the concert would be taking place. That meant that we would be leaving almost right after dinner, which was great planning on Koruru's part. The fuller we were when we left, the less likely we were to be whining about hunger when we got their. She probably didn't want to hear our whining.

So with a stretch I lay on the bed and thought about the concert to come. I feel asleep thinking about what songs they would be singing and how would see my subjects.

Hyde is synonymous with asshole.

REVIEW OR KORURU DIES NEXT CHAPTER