CHAPTER 13

LIKE ROMEO AND JULIET

The morning sun streamed through the open window and touched upon the closed eyelids of Princess Moka, causing her to stir. Her eyelids fluttered open and she yawned. She felt something warm and firm in her hand, and when she looked, she realized that it was Tsukune's hand gripping hers; they hadn't let go all night. She would have blushed had it been in her nature, but thankfully for her it wasn't, so she simply allowed a happy half-smile as the memories of last night returned to her in all of their glory. But then her daydreaming was cut off with a very loud interruption.

"Good morning lovebirds!" Ruby shouted as she burst open the door. Moka, startled, let go of Tsukune's hand and fell flailing from her chair. She got up, doing her best to rein in her temper, and she saw Ruby closing the door behind her.

"Ruby! What the hell!" Moka said. Then, she realized what Ruby had said. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes widened. "How do you know-"

"Crystal ball." Ruby said matter-of-factly.

"Oh. Wait, why were you spying on me?"

"Well, I can predict the future, so I knew what was going to happen, and I just couldn't resist and… ohhh it was so cute!" Ruby said, blushing and twirling in a circle. Moka's face turned red as she realized that Ruby had indeed seen what happened the night before.

"Ruby!" Moka snapped, causing said witch to stop twirling and focus. "I will ask you to please never spy on me again!" Moka ordered as politely as she could.

"Fine." Ruby huffed, her face in a pout. Then her eyes flickered to Moka's. "So… where does it go from here?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Moka, let's think about this: you're the princess, and you all but started dating a commoner. Personally, I have no problem with it, but how do you think that everyone else will react?"

"Who cares what Koko has to say? I'm the older sibling; I can just overrule anything that she has to say!"

"It's not just Koko that I'm talking about; other kingdoms might take this as a sign of weakness and attack; also, what would the townspeople think? They might revolt!"

Moka opened her mouth to retort with a witty comment, but closed it when none came. She realized that Ruby was right: what she and Tsukune were doing was considered immoral; some of the royal families might think that the Akashiya family was tainting the so-called royal bloodline. Also, they might take it as an insult, as in that none of them are better than an ordinary commoner.

"What are we going to do?" she quietly asked.

"Do you love him?" Ruby's voice came in loud and serious.

"Excuze me?" Moka asked, taken aback.

"Do you love him? I won't help you unless you're willing to take this all of the way."

"Y-yes." Moka said. Even though she had already established that with herself, it was still hard to say aloud. Ruby smiled.

"Well then!" Ruby said, all smiles and goofiness again. "I think that you should just keep it a secret for now; see each other in secret like Romeo and Juliet." Moka sighed and sweat dropped in exasperation.

"Ruby, I could have thought of something as obvious as that."

"I never said that my help would be useful!" Ruby said.

Moka was about to retort when Tsukune groaned. Her attention was quickly diverted and she dashed over to the raven-haired boy's side. Ruby smiled and quietly left the room, knowing that they were going to have a tender moment.

Besides, she could always watch it on the crystal ball.

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"Tsukune, are you okay?" Moka asked desperately.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He managed to groan out. "Moka, what are we going to do?" She didn't need to ask what he was referring to. She sighed for the second time in an hour, thinking about the conversation that her and Ruby just had.

"I don't know, Tsukune." She answered honestly. There was one thing that she did know, though: Tsukune had done enough for her. Now it was her turn to step up. "But just let me handle it, okay?" Tsukune grinned.

"Alright, Moka! You got it!" He said happily. Seeing him smile made Moka feel a little better. Only a little, though.

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Ugh… this is my shortest chapter yet… sorry the days waited to words typed don't really match up… I'll do better next time though, I swear!