Notes: Super sorry for the extremely years-late update, but I decided to start writing again and thought I might as well finish my old stories. I'll try to update more regularly but I promise I will complete it! A million apologies and thanks for all the feedback, reviews, follows and favorites! You guys are the best!

All chapters have been edited and reuploaded, and only chapter 3 was significantly changed. (Sorry if I spammed your inbox...) If you're too lazy to go back, I made Hisui and Kokuyo (yeah, I realized I misspelt his name) give Doumeki good aim and "goodness", to line up with his canon abilities more. More on his "goodness" to follow. These chapters will get longer but premise is still the same. My writing has matured, guys. I swear.

Completely in the crack and making stuff up territory, since I started writing this story before things like, oh I don't know, CLAMP revealed who Watanuki's real parents are and who Doumeki married. I did try to incorporate as much canon as I could while keeping to my original set-up.

"Princess" is used as a title here and not indicative or restricted to one particular gender.

About Japanese names, in Japanese it would be logical to change Watanuki's name to Hiroko (the kanji for 'Kimi' in Kimihiro is indicative of the male gender) but that sounds too dissimilar in English so I decided to just add -ko at the end (which is how one could typically feminize a name in Japanese) and be done with it.

VII: Cursed

Fifteen years later, the princess of Holic was pouting in the gardens. Nearby, the prince of Hanshin, Shizuka, was munching on some rice balls while listening to Himawari, the princess's best friend and secret-but-not-really crush. (Honestly, it was the second worst kept secret in Holic; the only thing secret about it was how the princess didn't know that everyone else knew.) The princess hated Shizuka, his stupid expressionless face, his sarcastic teasing, his bottomless pit of a stomach, his increasingly outrageous homemade lunch demands (those were for Himawari, bastard!), and his constant presence, especially around Himawari! But most of all, she hated their marriage contract and how she had to marry him. For the good of the kingdom and other unselfish things. Even though she was really a he.

Now, and you had to see this coming, the very worst kept secret in Holic was that the princess of Holic was really a prince. Princess Kimihiroko should have been Prince Kimihiro, but because of the marriage contract between Holic and Hanshin, the prince was named Kimihiroko and raised as a girl. Sometimes even Kimihiroko forgot he was a boy and mixed up all her pronouns. He was a boy, dammit! For all the good it did him, he silently cursed his parents every day of his life. (This, his parents assumed was a given and adequately armed themselves with good luck charms and Mokonas.)

In truth, the marriage contract was only part of the reason Kimihiroko was raised a girl. The other was the Curse. It happened on his birth celebration.

Shortly after the birth of their child, Clow and Yuuko threw a big party in their castle and invited everybody: friends, family, random strangers, customers, fairies, good and bad. They presented "Princess Kimihiroko" to whole kingdom. (They had wasted many days arguing over what name to give him, Yuuko wanted to name him "Sakura" like they planned. Clow had thought it over and decided to give the boy a break two Sakuras were confusing and tried to convince Yuuko that Kimihiroko was more original. Yuuko gave in after Clow tricked the Mokonas into calling the baby Kimihiroko who responded to it.)

The 12 fairies came forward and blessed the baby boy, unknowingly bestowing gifts to him that were usually gifted to a girl, like long eyelashes and the ability to balance a household budget on a small and tight economy. (If you wonder why the gifts seem so trivial and plain, well, magic is tricky, don't cha know, and things like superhero powers don't work as well for babies as they do adults. Luckily, Clow had managed to convince them somehow not to gift large breasts, to Kimihiroko's everlasting gratitude. Yuuko was suspiciously silent on the matter.) The Mokonas were the last to bless the princess; first Black Mokona gifted him with a bowl of ramen (what? It was really good ramen. And blessed. And lucky. But mostly delicious.), while White Mokona whispered in his little ear the answer to life the universe and everything (admittedly wasted on him because little babies don't know what a 42 is, silly).

Then Madoushi stepped forward with extreme prejudice and ghostly menace. Her voice boomed out in the hall, "To the little princess, I bring a gift and it is this; on your sixteenth birthday, you will prick your finger on a spindle and die!" And with the last remaining magic in her being, she cast the curse and vanished.

The hall erupted with noise. Clow and Yuuko were stunned. Kurogane roared for everyone's attention. They quieted and looked at him. "Look, we'll just give her some new gifts to fix it," Kurogane growled. Everyone murmured, some in relief, some in disbelief.

White Mokona piped up and summed everyone's thoughts on the matter, "Wow, Kuro-pyon, that was actually smart!"

"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN?!" Kurogane bellowed. Fai, who could not resist teasing the stoic and surly Kurogane of course, chimed in his agreement and the room devolved into chaos once again.

Clow and Yuuko however were deep in conversation, comprising entirely of stares. It went something like this:

Did she say what I think she said? Clow's left eyebrow raised.

Yeah, she did, Yuuko's lips quirked.

Well, everything's worked out rather well, Clow's nose twitched.

Oh, goodie, Yuuko's eye gleamed with unholy glee. Clow gave a quick, silent and rather futile apology to his son for his crazy mother.

What Clow and Yuuko meant with their silent exchange was that the curse seemed to be gender-specific…

Meanwhile, the fairies were bickering over what new gifts to give. "If you change the item from spindle to…." "But then Madoushi could change it so all she has to do is spill a little blood and die…" "Then we'll make her skin unbreakable!" "NO!" "What a horrible idea!" "We could change it from death to sleep…" "Well, she wouldn't die, but that'd still be a damn shame to lose an heir to eternal slumber…" "Maybe we could make the princess's betrothed wake her…" "Oh, true love's kiss always works…" Which got nods all around.

So they pronounced, "Kimihiroko, when you prick your finger, you won't die, but you will fall into a deep sleep, from which you will wake with a kiss from your—"

"—Prince Shizuka," interjected Yuuko with a cackle.

"From Prince Shizuka of Hanshin," the fairies agreed. Clow sighed. It was all rather helpless. And just when things were looking up for his son.

Final author's note: Yeah, I lied, it's still crack-erific.