August 10, Summer, year 36

A… feast. Well, I guess that means I don't have to try and figure out what to cook. We're apparently going back to his glade again before then too. Good, he could stand the chance to relax.

It'll be just us at the glade, more the better. Maybe I can massage the stress out of him.

At Skye's request, Kaemon had agreed to watch the younger trio, with Hotaru keeping an eye on the older pair. And it hadn't taken much convincing from either himself or Claire for all but the youngest, but Hotaru's promise that Hoshiko would be there to play with made Meredith choke down her wails and agree to give Mommy and Daddy some quiet time.

Claire almost asked him if he wanted her to come along or if he wanted to be alone, but with the grip he had on her hand the only way she was going to free herself was if she hit him over the head and caused some form of blunt trauma.

Only when they were in the cloud carriage did she finally manage to get her hand back and she didn't bother trying to conceal the wince as she attempted to massage life back into her fingers.

He did notice, his face creasing into an unhappy frown. She understood well enough that he didn't mean to hurt her, but this new side to Skye was really starting to get on her nerves. And as he'd learned, when provoked, she hit back.

"Want to tell me what's on your mind?" her voice was mild enough to actually cut. Oh no, she was not pleased with his actions. "Or would you rather cause several more nights of lost sleep with my trying to puzzle out why you're starting to remind me of someone I'd rather forget."

A low blow, but an accurate one. Skye winced, and ran a hand through his hair. The silence was long and extended when she gave him no helpful opening.

"I'm not good at this," he finally sighed, a statement she was used to. "Where do I even begin?"

"The beginning?" Claire said, smile razor sharp. "I must admit it's nice to be where we can't be heard so if you have to say something at the top of your lungs all you'll do is scare a few animals."

"Somehow my dear, I think you'll be doing more of the shouting."

He was rewarded with something he hadn't heard in a couple of days. Her laughter.

"True, true," and though there was mirth in her voice, underneath it was the simmering worry, hurt and anger that made her watch him closely. "Would you like me to point out things I've noticed?"

He gave her a sideways glance, and reached up to rub the back of is neck.

"How much trouble am I in?"

"Bruises," she said flatly. "When is the last time you actually gave me those?"

He turned so pale he looked to be made of the clouds themselves. Claire blinked several times in the silence.

He hadn't noticed?! How in the nine hells was that even possible? Indignation started to rise, adding color to her cheeks, but the temper was cut short when Skye did something she'd seen only rarely.

He actually started to cry. Anger turned to concern in a split second as he looked down at his lap and only his lap, letting the tears fall unchecked.

Claire was stumped, to say the least. Maybe he hadn't realized because he had been so stressed. And her jumping the gun with such a comment… She just reached out, and pulled him to her, his head landing on her shoulders.

"Shhhh," she soothed gently. "It's alright…"

He was doing his active best to stay in control. But the shock still rang through him. Bruises. He had given her bruises. By not paying attention to what he was doing, letting the stresses of the court get to him—and how quickly the had for that matter—he had inadvertently hurt the dearest person in his life.

And here she was trying to tell him that it was okay. Holding him and letting him cry. Sometimes life really was a strange and confusing thing.

The tears were drying up as they landed, and this time it really did take only ten minutes from where they were dropped to reach the clearing and the waterfall. Claire supported Skye the whole way, seeing at last what Kaemon had meant by his statement at Yasuo's funeral.

Skye wasn't made for the type of back-biting, simpering, rich life that these people were throwing at his feet and forcing him to live. Not if they were turning her kind, playful, sometimes-an-idiot-husband into a… mess like this.

A blanket had already been spread, and there was a picnic basket nearby courtesy—she assumed—of Hotaru and Kaemon. She just pushed Skye gently down on to the blanket so that he was lying on his stomach, and started to run callused, experienced fingers along his shoulders, working at the tense muscles and knots all along his back.

As she did so, he began to talk. About the pressure, about the requests that were barely veiled demands for moremoremore from many of the courtiers, the side comments his mother made that were commands more than gently persuasive comments, the fact that Toshihiro seemed to hate him beyond reason, that Akio wasn't getting any headway in finding out who killed their father and people were starting to blame him… it all spilled out.

Finally, the last of the words trickled away into silence, and her hands stopped moving. Skye continued to lay there and let out a long, clearly relieved sigh.

"I'm sorry," he said softly. "I should have been more aware of what I was doing. But between my mother suggesting this Lady or that one for a marriage after…"

His voice caught, and her own heart jumped into her throat. Rather than say anything, she just stretched herself out on his back, loosely draping her arms around his neck.

"Mother doesn't understand," he said finally, a little breathlessly. "And on the one hand I do… realize why she says it. But she still doesn't understand. If there's a time after you… I don't think I want anyone else."

Now it was Claire's turn to sigh softly.

"Don't do that to yourself," she said gently, chin resting on his shoulder, mouth next to his ear. "Don't get lost in the memory of what I was because you're not ready to take another step forward. And don't lose to a memory when I'm still standing right next to you… or," and her lips curved slightly, "on top of you."

"…I could change that."

She chuckled low and quiet, but it was sad. That had been delivered without any of his usual panache and even his tone was half-hearted at best.

"No, not at this moment," she whispered at last. "But I don't want to be a burden…"

His head turned so that they were at least partially eye-locked. The intensity in his sea-green eyes was almost startling.

"Never," he said softly, reaching one hand up and back to lightly cup her cheek. "You're never that. You came to help me, and you are love, you are. You and the children are a rock I can cling to when things get to be difficult. Just watching our miracles eases my heart and mind, and your willingness to drop everything and come… even with such a duty as the farm…"

There were no words to properly describe everything that Skye wanted to say. How she had dropped everything in a second to come with him, even after such fear-filled nights, how she continued to go about and ignore what the conventional People were whispering behind her back and to her face… Instead he twisted slightly, slid an arm around her waist and pulled her carefully down beside him.

She rolled with the move, landing on her back with a slight 'whuff' of expelled breath,, and automatically reached up to pull her braid out from behind her back. Lying on hair, especially long hair, was uncomfortable.

Skye's arm remained curved along her stomach, though she knew it couldn't be a comfortable position. Yet he showed no signs of wanting to move, or wanting her to move. So the silence stretched for a good long time. Long enough that the usual animals started to creep back out to return to whatever they'd been doing before Skye and Claire had invaded their space.

"Bruises…?"

The word was so quiet that Claire almost missed it.

"Yeah," her voice was quiet. "There was a reason I was thumping you to get out of hugs in case you hadn't noticed. I probably left a few of my own, didn't I?"

There was a touch of chagrin in her voice, and he looked over at her with a faint, clearly not happy, smile.

"No more than I deserved," he sighed softly, running his other hand through his hair in an attempt to push it out of his face. "I didn't think court would make it happen this quickly though…."

"Question."

"Mm?"

"Can't you… turn more than half of it over to Dai? Why should you play their puppet when he's trained for it, and actually wants to do it? You're going to turn everything over to him anyways…"

The question was reasonable. Skye turned it over in his mind as Claire used the tail end of her braid to languidly play with a couple of the flying cats.

"That's… a good point," he said at last. "It might take some doing, but I might be able to make it work… I do get a request since it's my birthday. It would probably put Dai in more charity with me as well."

"Oh he likes you," Claire said absently, trying not to giggle as one kitten stalked her braid. "It's Toshi who loathes you for no real reason that anyone can come up with. Dai thinks that since you're giving him what he's trained for, you're the greatest thing since sliced bread."

The image made Skye chuckle, and a smile spread across Claire's face.

"You know, that's the first real laugh I've heard out of you in the past week," she teased gently, wincing a little as the kitten grabbed and tugged. "So broody lately…"

"Like you when you were pregnant?"

She didn't even hesitate, swatting him lightly upside the head. He ducked, smiled, and rested his head on her arm, intending to only be there for a brief moment. She apparently had other ideas.

This time it was Claire's arm that snaked around his shoulders, and gave a firm pull, landing his head on her chest, between her breast. Her arm then slid up, lightly cradling his head while her other arm came around and her fingers started to run through his hair. He blinked for several seconds, then relaxed, closing his eyes and breathing in the smell of his wife.

It was the scent of the farm. Earth, vegetables, grass, sunshine, animals, and hard work. Overlaying it was the smell of roses, the flowers that she grew with love and care, that she planted meticulously every six and a half years alongside several normal roses, an intermingling of the Moon and the Earth.

Just like them.

He didn't cry this time, just let out several long sighs and drew closer to her. His ballast, his center, his other half. And after several long moments of silence, she started to sing very softly.

He felt the notes as much as he heard them, pressed up against her chest as he was. The songs were familiar, music that she loved and enjoyed habitually while out working. Some of them he even could sing along with, if he so chose. Soon enough, soft tenor mixed with delicate soprano, creating a magic that was entirely mystic free.

It was like this that the messenger bird found them, adding a soft trill of its own to get Skye's attention. He was reluctant to leave the sanctuary of his wife's voice and arms, but when the trill repeated, louder and more demanding, he did.

"Alright songbird," he sighed, sitting up and holding out his hand. "What news have you that needs my… our attention."

Claire, propping herself up on her elbows, smiled at the change in pronouns. She might not have been queen—certainly didn't want to be queen—but they were connected enough that the 'our' was deeply appreciated.

Skye plucked at the tiny ribbon around the bird's neck, freeing the message crystal, which landed on Claire's overall-clad stomach, releasing it's message.

Again in the language she couldn't understand. Annoyance wrote itself clearly across her faces as Queen Tsukiko spoke to her son. He too made a face, and swept the crystal away into the water of the pool before it had finished.

"Gist?"

"It's almost time for the feast so she wishes us to return. She also makes mention that several available women will be there and wishes my opinion upon them."

Which explained why he flung the crystal away. The blonde sighed, and shook her head lightly.

"I guess we should be getting back then?" it was clear she didn't relish the thought, even though it would reunite them with their children.

"One moment…" and there was a faintly mischievous smile on Skye's face. "I have a little bit of devised entertainment all my own."

It didn't take her more than a moment to figure out what she meant, and even as she laughed, he was leaning in to kiss her.

They were a few minutes late to the public feasting, which was really little more than gift-giving and entertainment done by the nobles, with a few plates of food to tide off hunger. Skye had dressed suiting his rank, as had his children and his wife. A rare concession, brought on by the comment that certain blue gauzes combined with one pink and gold outfit suited her quite nicely.

The gifts were… standard but the People's standard. Everyone was attempting to one-up one another, from complex weavings in fabrics that glowed, to plants that actually bloomed jewels.

None among them noticed that each of Skye's children carried a musical instrument, or that Claire's outfit was less designed for looking pretty than for being impressive with dancing. She had decided in lieu of being able to make him his favorite foods, she would gift him with a dance, and show these People that she could do something impressive that took more effort than their frippery and trinkets.

At last with the gifts given, Queen Tsukiko turned a sly gaze to Claire.

"What does our interloper have to give to our son?" The question was said in a manner that produced no few smiles of malicious pleasure.

Claire carefully extracted herself from her seat, and went to stand in the middle of the floor, before the giant pile of gifts.

"While I make no delusions about my ability to make a greater gift that any of these… items behind me, I can still give something that no one else can. However," and she smirked. "since I'm fairly certain that bedroom talk would go rather badly here-" several people choked on their wine, and her kids all stifled laughter, "I think I'll do something a touch more conventional."

There was the barest hint of color on even Tsukiko's face, something that Claire didn't fail to notice, even as the dance tempo was begun by Alan. Lauren joined in after only a moment on the panpipes from Melissa, Meri played a pair of maracas more-or-less in time, and Jamie and Mirei lifted their voice in song, a mix of gentle tenor and cheery alto.

And Claire danced.

The veils and gauzes became nothing more than a colorful mist as she twirled, spun, dipped, and twisted, each move a promise of what would come later, of what had come many times before. She had eyes only for Skye, and he stared back at her, awed in spite of himself. He knew she could dance, but he'd never expected something so… vibrant for a present. Especially considering the way she'd been so upset with him at the beginning of the day.

Among the nobles, reactions varied. Some were actively scandalized—such moves shouldn't bee seen outside of a brothel—others were too stunned to think properly, and yet others admired her more for her display.

For Skye and several others the end came all too soon as Claire went into a calculated sprawl, veils shifting into silence. Her blue eyes were flared with a triumph that couldn't be denied, even as her body protested vehemently the use of such extravagant moves.

Slowly, applause began, Starting with Kaemon, who's sardonic smile was praise all on its own, it rippled outwards until even the disgusted were grudgingly admiring the sweat-soaked blonde.

She rose after a long moment, gave a slight nod of her head to acknowledge them, and returned to her place beside her husband, face flushed from her exertion. He promptly gave her a long, clearly-appreciative kiss.

At the back of the room, several silver-haired women were the most scandalized, but one with cat-green eyes stared across at the blonde who had stolen the prince out from under her fingers. There was anger in those eyes, and calculation as well. But now was the wrong time for such a confrontation, there would be chances in the upcoming future.

"That was… impressive," and the compliment was reluctantly given from Tsukiko. "We suppose it was a worthy gift for our Eldest."

Claire's head had moved to Skye's shoulder once the kiss was completed, and she just smirked. She had gotten the better of the entire court with that performance, and was quite cheerful about the whole thing.

Shortly after that several dancers of the Tranquility Court were summoned, as if to thwart Claire, but nothing they did came anywhere close to the impassioned, vibrant dance she had performed.

"You're going to be the talk of the court," Skye murmured.

"And here I thought I already was…"

Following the public 'feast' was a private family one, in the Rose Room. Here there was enough food to satisfy the two families—one of seven, the other of nine—and Claire waved away the many compliments on her dance, grinning with pride.

Even Toshihiro gave her a compliment, as grudging as the Queen's had been. Hoshi and Meri were in one corner, playing with the maracas—loudly­—as they giggled together. Alan, Mirei and Yue occupied another corner, the Moon child bursting with questions about their music.

It was inevitable though, that such exertions took their toll and long before the festivities normally would have worn down, the family of seven took their leave. Happy conversations echoed all throughout the corridors of Tranquility, punctuated by singing, music, and laughter.

Phew, that was fun! Hard, and my body won't be happy with me for the next few days, but well worth it. The looks on their faces were priceless! If I hadn't scandalized the court before, I certainly have now!

Oh, and Skye didn't have to a lot of convincing to get Daisuke to take three days in four of Court duty, he practically jumped at the chance! Tsukiko wasn't too happy with it, but after he pointed out that Dai was going to be the next king, she gave ground.

Makes me wish I could light off a firework in the Council chambers to make them hurry up and finalize things. Ah well, I can't get everything I want… Though now I wonder if these people have a Fireworks Festival?