The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Princess and the Assassin, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 2 - "Is your beauty meant to entrap me, then?"
Lounging on his stolen throne, Shishio burst into laughter at the sight of his chief assassin. "What's this, Battousai? You were never interested in women before."
Battousai glared, his face coloring a little. "Lord Shishio, I request to be excused from my next assignment."
"Why?" Shishio asked, still thoroughly amused. "So you can shack up with your first wench? Not a chance."
"I am not your only assassin," Battousai growled. "Usui or Kamatari can take care of it just as well as I could."
"Yes," Shishio said sweetly, "but then I'd miss out on the amusement of watching you try to kill someone with a girl trailing from your wrist."
Battousai pressed his lips together. Seeing that further argument would be pointless, he bowed and turned to leave the room, slowing his pace in order to allow Tomoe to keep up.
"Bye, Tomoe," Shishio called after them, his eyes gleaming.
Battousai froze in his tracks.
With her usual deliberate movements, Tomoe turned back and bowed. "Good-bye, Shishio-san," she said quietly. Then she continued on her way, murmuring to Battousai as she passed him, "We should be going."
Battousai resumed walking without a word, but his eyes were fixed on her suspiciously. As soon as they were out of earshot of Shishio's men, Battousai jerked to a halt and demanded, "How do you know Shishio?"
Tomoe took her time answering. "He is half-fae," she finally said. "King Oberon knows him well."
'Of course,' Battousai thought bitterly. 'Faerie is my only refuge, and now I find he's been invading that, too...'
"What are you going to do?" Tomoe asked after a minute. "Will you take me with you to assassinate your next target?"
He groaned, putting a hand to his face annoyance. "It's impossible."
"Not impossible," she pointed out. "I would probably get killed, but what is that to you?"
He shot her a dark look. "You are used to your heartless Unseelie folk, but I am not such a one." Right after that, however, he suddenly looked away and mumbled, "At least, that's the comforting lie I tell myself..."
She gazed at him without speaking. Finally, she said, "It's not a lie. Most of the men in my father's court would not put my safety before their own convenience."
He looked over at her with a small, humorless smile. "Are you trying to make me feel better, or are you just stating facts?"
"Does it matter?" she shot back, a little too quickly. As if to cover that, she raised her chin and said imperiously, "I ask again. What are you going to do, Battousai?"
He cocked his head, frowning. Out of curiosity, he asked, "What would you like me to do?"
She stared back at him. No one had ever asked her anything like that before.
"After all, you're the one who will be affected. Technically, I could slay a man with or without being bound to you - it doesn't make sense for you to have no input."
Tomoe said, very slowly, "You are my fiancé, at least for the moment. I will defer to your decision."
"If I really was your fiancé, I would want to know your wishes."
"You Seelie men don't marry lightly, do you," she muttered, then glanced back at him. "Or is it not that you are Seelie, but that you are...you?"
Choosing to ignore this, he simply shrugged. "Very well. If you refuse to inform me of your preferences, I'll have to go with my own plan."
Again, she looked at him without saying anything.
He sighed and continued, almost apologetically, "There's nothing for it. I must speak to my grandmother...she is the only one with the power to reverse one of King Oberon's spells."
He saw her stiffen. "Your grandmother is Titania," she realized, her voice flat.
Battousai gave her a thoughtful, unhappy look. "Believe me, I see the problem. However, unless you have a better suggestion, it must be done."
"You want to take me to the Seelie court."
He frowned and held up his wrist. "Do you want to be dragged around during a battle, then?"
'I'd almost prefer it,' she thought, but did not say so out loud. She simply looked at him, her mouth silent and grim, but her eyes pleading.
"Tomoe-san..."
"Let's just get it over with."
o.o.o.o.o
The fae of the Seelie court were delighted to see their prince again. "Ken-chan!" the handmaids cried, running to fling their arms around him and play with his hair and toy with the hilts of the swords at his waist. "Come play with us, Ken-chan!"
"I'm here on business," he said shortly, striding right through their affectionate arms and the drifting, gauzy appendages to their clothing.
"Ken-chan's cheating on us!" they cried with reproachful laughter when they saw Tomoe, making her way with some difficulty in his wake. "Ken-chan's been hiding away other girls! So naughty!"
"It's not like that," he said gruffly, though the color creeping into his face only lent fuel to their teasing. Ignoring them, he came before the throne and bowed to the queen. "Grandmother, I greet you."
Titania looked down upon him, her eyes flashing. "What's this, Kenshin? You dare to bring an Unseelie into my halls?" The other fae gasped, staring at Tomoe with frightened, angry eyes.
"She is under my charge," he said firmly, taking responsibility for any consequences. "I have come to beg a favor of you, Grandmother."
A smile curled the queen's mouth. "And what might that be?" she asked in a deceptively lazy tone; her gaze remained keen.
Battousai's eyes narrowed, and he held up his wrist. "The spell can't have escaped your notice. Please, free us."
Titania sighed. "And just how did my troublesome grandson end up in such a predicament?"
He shrugged. "King Oberon was upset that I killed one of his men."
Tomoe's eyes flicked to him, but she said nothing.
"You killed an Unseelie?" Titania repeated, quite interested. "And why would my Kenshin do something like that? I thought you were loath to take life. Was it a matter of self-defense, perhaps?" Her tone challenged him to lie.
Yet Battousai looked at her and said, after a long pause, "No."
"Your Majesty," Tomoe spoke up, her tone soft and coldly polite. "I offer my condolences on your loss." She noted the warning look Battousai gave her, but did not respond to it.
The queen quirked an eyebrow. "My loss?"
"Yes," Tomoe continued, ignoring Battousai's intense stare. "I would have liked to meet Junko-san, as she seems to have been a worthy person."
The court was silent. Only now did Tomoe glance at Battousai: he looked angry, and...fearful.
"Junko?" Titania murmured, as if thinking. "Junko...oh!" She laughed, a sweet, silvery peal that startled Tomoe with its loveliness. "That handmaid of mine. Yes. Very irritating, that now I am one short; I'll have to pay Oberon back for that. Of course," she laughed again, "I suppose you've already taken care of that, Kenshin. What a good boy you are."
Tomoe, only half-surprised at the queen's heartlessness, looked over at Battousai. His face was clouded by those useful bangs again, but the pained tightening of his mouth was still visible. "I see," Tomoe murmured.
Battousai took in a breath, let it out, then raised his head. "Grandmother. The matter at hand, if you please."
The queen smiled. "That pesky spell, is it? Very well. Come here, my love."
Battousai approached, but was suddenly brought up short by the stinging in his wrist. He looked over his shoulder in surprise to see Tomoe still standing in the same place, her hands clenched tightly together.
Titania grinned at her in a rather predatory way. "Don't worry, dear. I won't bite. If Kenshin has vouched for you, that is good enough for me."
Still Tomoe did not move. Her eyes were fixed, unseeing, on the wall above Titania's head.
"Tomoe-san," Battousai called softly.
Finally, her feet began to move, one tiny step after another until she stood beside him. On an impulse, he reached for her hand, but pulled back before grasping it.
Titania grinned again. "Of course, there must be a price for this favor, Kenshin."
His eyes narrowed. "Of course." He glanced at the girl beside him, stiff with terror. "But it is I who will pay it all."
The queen laughed. "Very well, then. What I require of you is one kiss, my bonny sweetheart. And one on the girl's behalf as well."
The court burst into laughter. Battousai, acting swiftly before she could more clearly specify her terms, leaned forward to place a dry kiss on Titania's right cheek, and another on her left. Then he backed away and silently dared her to protest.
She frowned, but her people were crying out gleefully, "No foul! No foul! A kiss is a kiss!"
"Fine," she huffed. "So you win again, Kenshin. Give me your hand." It was a simple matter for the Faerie Queen to cut the hairs apart, though the brief spark of released magic zapped Battousai and Tomoe a little painfully. "There," Titania said shortly, "it's done. And now you'll be rushing off again, since I'm of no further use to you."
He shook his head. "I still have a little time. If it will please you, I'll stay." The handmaids burst into cheers, but Battousai was surprised when Tomoe suddenly clutched at his arm. Looking at her, he found her eyes wide in desperation as she stared at him. Then she dropped her head and slowly slid to her knees, gripping his sleeve harder than ever, her breath coming in gasps.
"Tomoe-san?" he asked in concern, reaching down to steady her. "Tomoe-san, what is it?"
The only answer was Titania's tinkling laugh. Battousai jerked his head up and stared around, for the first time taking in the elaborate decorations in the hall, the gorgeous clothes of the fae, the flowers and food and even their too-beautiful faces. 'Glamour,' he realized, 'Seelie glamour, almost all of it. It's hurting her.' At that thought, he straightened up and shouted at them, "Drop it! Drop it all!" They only burst into laughter, watching eagerly to see what the Unseelie girl would do.
Fury crept over Battousai. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes, gathering his magic close around him, then casting it outwards with a wordless yell. "Hyaaaah!" Power blew through the hall, seeming to dissolve almost everything it touched: the fancy trappings and decorations turned to rags and debris; the food turned to dust and other, less savory things; the fae who had been wearing nothing but dead leaves or cobwebs suddenly shrieked when their clothing was revealed for what it really was.
"Goodness, Kenshin!" the queen exclaimed, her attempt at an angry tone dissolving into giggles. "Don't you think that was an overreaction?"
Battousai glared at her. "I don't care." He turned back to Tomoe and knelt down to her level. "Tomoe-san, I'm so sorry."
"It doesn't matter," she mumbled. "The binding spell is gone, at least. You can go kill people now."
He stared at her.
She pushed away the discomfort and looked up at him. "I'm all right. I am no longer your concern, Battousai." She rose to her feet, disgusted when she stumbled and had to be steadied by his hand on her arm. It took a moment for her to gather herself enough to bow to the queen. "Thank you, Your Majesty. I will now take my leave."
"I'll escort you," Battousai offered.
The handmaids threw up a chorus of protest at this, and the queen frowned thunderously. "You promised to stay, Kenshin."
He looked a little annoyed. "I'll take her no farther than the edge of the gardens."
"We'll go with you!" the handmaids cried, and gathered around Battousai and Tomoe in a tumultuous group, dancing and singing. Tomoe gazed at them in mild surprise.
"They can get silly," Battousai muttered in her ear. "I'm sorry."
"No," Tomoe said softly. "I've just...never seen anyone like them at...at home."
Battousai wondered if she thought that was a good or a bad thing, but he hesitated to ask.
They made their way slowly out of the court and through the gardens, bright with sunshine and the glittering wings of birds and butterflies. As she had done on the way in, Tomoe could not seem to keep her eyes off them. "It's so beautiful," she murmured.
He paused, then ventured to say, "There are beautiful things in the Unseelie court as well, are there not?"
She sighed. "It's not the same. Our beauty...it is meant only to lure and entrap, or it hides rottenness beneath."
"The same could be said for this place," he replied darkly.
"Not for everything, though." Tomoe knelt, touching the tips of her fingers to a delicate pink flower petal. "Here...some things, at least, are pure."
There was a pause. Then Battousai reached down and, very gently, let a lock of her hair slip through his fingers. "Is your beauty meant to entrap me, then?"
Tomoe froze. He couldn't mean what she thought he did, could he? Emotion suddenly flooded her heart, and she gasped at the warmth of it.
Battousai, mistaking her reaction, quickly withdrew. "I'm sorry. That was out of line."
Tomoe rose and, without looking at him, asked softly, "Battousai...when I return to the Unseelie court...will you...?"
There was a long silence between them, filled only with the singing of the handmaids as they danced out among the flowers.
"If Shishio has business with King Oberon," Battousai said slowly, "there is a chance I might need to come to the court again."
Tomoe shuddered. "It would be wise for Shishio to see as little of us together as possible."
"...Tomoe-san."
She looked at him.
He smiled a little - those smiles of his were beginning to break her heart, because they never warmed the hard ice of his eyes. Tomoe realized for the first time how her own eyes must look to others.
"Tomoe-san, if it will please you, I'll come to the court...without Shishio."
Her face was as impassive as before as she said, "Yes. It will please me." She hesitated. "Except..."
He waited.
She could not bring herself to give full voice to what she wanted. "It is awkward...to hear such an address...when I only call you 'Battousai.'"
He gave her a very cautious look. "Is that so...Tomoe?"
She smiled, a tiny smile that took his breath away. "Yes, that is so."
To be continued...
Author's Notes: Glamour is a kind of disguising magic.
There was not anything romantic going on between Kenshin and Junko, but he was upset over the queen's heartlessness.