The Faerie Chronicles of Kenshin & Kaoru: The Sleeping Prince, a Rurouni Kenshin fanfic by Raberba girl
Chapter 7 - In which Kenshin formulates a plan.
"Light down, light down, now, True Thomas,
And lean your head upon my knee;
Abide and rest a little space,
And I will show you wonders three."
from "The Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer"
o.o.o
"Chou."
"Whoa!" The fire sprite jumped and whirled to find the former assassin behind him, tailed by his mortal queen. "You! Whaddaya think you're doin', sneaking up on people like that?"
"Sorry." Kenshin flashed him a smile. It was late, they were the only ones about in the corridors. "Long time no see. How have you been?"
Chou shrugged. "Being the Faerie Queen's lover has its advantages."
"Mm. Some disadvantages, too, this one guesses."
Chou grimaced. "Let's not talk about that."
"Hi, Chou," Kaoru said cautiously.
He gave her an equally wary look. "Hi, Jooh."
"What are you doing here?" she wanted to know.
He shrugged. "Spying for Bamboo Curtain Head."
"Oh!" she realized. "So this is where you keep disappearing off to on 'business'?"
He looked indignant at her expression. "Hey, you think I like screwing around with that crazy fairy? I'm a spy, you know! It's hard work."
"Uh huh," she answered, still smirking.
"Chou," Kenshin cut in meaningfully. "Let's take this somewhere private."
They moved to one of the unoccupied rooms nearby, and the fire sprite sighed once the door had been shut and sound-proofed. "What do you want, Battousai?"
"Chou," Kenshin drawled, "it occurs to this one that you owe him a large favor."
"Crap." The sprite's eyes darted from side to side, as if looking for an escape, but he knew there was none. Confronting a man whose wife you once tried to assassinate doesn't leave you a lot of options.
Kenshin smiled his pretty smile. "Nothing big, don't worry."
"Which means I'll still owe you favors!" Chou returned indignantly.
"True," Kenshin answered smoothly. "So perhaps you wouldn't mind performing two at the moment. One requires the use of that convenient headband of yours; the other needs...let's see, an Unseelie blade and a mortal one."
"Admantine isn't allowed in the Seelie court," Chou said smugly.
"And yet somehow you still have such a blade hidden in your boot, isn't that so?" Kenshin answered cheerfully.
Chou cursed, until Kaoru whacked him. "Watch your language in front of your queen, baka!"
Chou rubbed the back of his head resentfully, still looking at Kenshin. "You're crossing Titania. You idiot."
"What's wrong, Chou? Are you frightened?" Kenshin returned.
"Of a woman? No way!" Chou licked his lips apprehensively. "Look..."
"You look." Kenshin's expression was suddenly deadly. "We need to get out of here. Kaoru-dono is in danger, and this one has been delayed too long already. You will help free us, and you will contact Saitô, and then you will bring Sôjirô here and make sure that, at the first opportunity, the two of them are returned home safely."
Kaoru's lips tightened, but she did not voice her protests yet.
Chou looked at those burning gold eyes, and could not help shuddering. The last time he had seen those eyes had been during a battle with their owner, and it had not gone well for him at all. "Fine. Fine, already!" He reached up and, in a practiced gesture, smoothly removed his headband. "Here. And you'd better not have lice or anything," he grumbled as he handed it to Kenshin.
"Fae never have lice."
"You're only part fae," Chou pointed out.
"Sort of." Kenshin settled the thing on his own head. For a minute, he wore a look of concentration, then startled Kaoru when he suddenly said, "Hello, Saitô."
"Huh?" Kaoru looked around, but the room was deserted except for the three of them.
Her attention was drawn back to Kenshin when he chuckled and said, "No. This one is quite alive and well, thanks for asking."
"Who're you talking to?" Kaoru asked, but he only waved her off. "Kenshin!"
"Talkin' to Bamboo Curtain Head," Chou grunted. "Magic. Quiet."
"He's talking to Saitô?" Kaoru exclaimed, unable to believe it.
"Is that so," Kenshin was saying quietly, looking unhappy. "Tell them...tell them that this one loves them, and that their mother is coming home soon, that she is."
Kaoru's chest suddenly tightened, as she realized that Kenshin must be talking about the girls. They probably missed her and Kenshin so much...all of a sudden, it didn't seem like such a bad thing to go home.
Kenshin's face suddenly cleared. "Yes," he said strongly. "Yes, she is. Chou will be returning briefly to collect Sôjirô and bring him back here. Once it's safe to leave, Chou has instructions to bring Kaoru-dono and Sôjirô back home by tomorrow afternoon - this one is counting on the two of you to make sure that Kaoru-dono is safe."
Kaoru rolled her eyes.
After listening a little longer, Kenshin answered quietly, "Sharp as ever, aren't you. Saitô, you must keep this knowledge to yourself." His face hardened. "But don't try anything. Kaoru-dono, Sano, Sôjirô, Kenji...there will be many to stop you if you do." Then he smiled. "Of course. Now, is there anything else on your end?"
After a minute, his eyes widened. "A full report isn't necessary! Are there any messages, this one meant." He listened quietly. "Tell Sano this one is sorry-" He rolled his eyes. "True. But tell them anyway. This one is very sorry. It will be better when Kaoru-dono is back home, and when Kenji awakens." He sighed at the response. "That is understood. Goodbye, Saitô."
He reached up and removed the headband, returning it to Chou. "Thank you. Now-"
Chou flapped a hand at him. "Yeah, yeah; way ahead of you." He vanished, then re-appeared almost at once with Sôjirô, who was fully dressed and armed.
Kaoru jumped at the suddenness of it, and Kenshin laid a hand on her shoulder. "For them, it probably seemed to take much longer," he murmured in explanation.
"Himura-Ô," Sôjirô said cheerfully, "Kaoru-Jooh! It's good to see you both well. How are things progressing?"
"They're progressing," Kenshin grumbled, "however painfully slowly."
"Sôjirô," Kaoru said weakly. He smiled and lifted a hand in greeting.
"Thank you for coming," Kenshin said. "This one needs someone trustworthy here, to look after Kaoru-dono."
"That's my job, after all," Sôjirô agreed.
"Well," Chou said loudly, "now that that's all dealt with, I'll just be on my way then-" He gulped when he suddenly found a mythril sakabatô at his throat.
"Don't be running off just yet," Kenshin said sweetly. "Your blades, Chou."
"All right. All right!" As Sôjirô looked on curiously, Chou drew a steel sword from his back and stooped to retrieve the admantine knife hidden in his boot. Kenshin, meanwhile, was looping the strands of enchanted hair around his and Kaoru's wrists, so that there remained about five centimeters between them with no slack. Then he took Chou's knife and instructed Kaoru to take the heavy sword.
Laying the blades as close together as possible on the hairs, Kaoru looked up at him expectantly, and Kenshin took a deep breath. "Now, all you need to do is press hard and slowly, Kaoru-dono. And please do not interrupt this one, any of you." Kaoru pushed down with the sword, half-expecting it to part the hairs at once; instead, it felt like she was pushing down on something tough and flexible, as if she was trying to use a butter knife to cut rope.
Kenshin, meanwhile, had adopted a look of deep concentration. It took a monarch to break the spell of another monarch, and he somehow had to figure out how to convert his king's authority into magic, so that it would have an effect. Such a thing came naturally to fae like Titania, Oberon, and now Enishi, but Kenshin's magic was heavily crippled by his mortal blood, and it took him a full five minutes to discover how to do it. When it actually happened, it was instantaneous. The spell shriveled, and the hairs parted so quickly that both he and Kaoru accidentally cut each other.
"Oww," Kaoru complained, sucking at the small wound on the side of her wrist.
"Apologies, Kaoru-dono," he said, wincing and pressing his fingers over the more serious slash on his arm. He was glad he had thought to give her the more dangerous weapon.
"She's coming," Chou suddenly said.
Kenshin quickly returned the blades (which disappeared instantly into Chou's clothing) and knotted the hairs together again. "She might notice they are no longer enchanted," he whispered to Kaoru. "Keep your hand down, this one will try to keep her distracted."
"Got it," she murmured back.
"I'm out of here," Chou said. He was about to translocate, but a glare and a sharp nod from Kenshin stopped him. Sighing, he grabbed Sôjirô again, and the two of them vanished.
Kenshin pushed Kaoru into a deeply-cushioned chair and kissed her, slipping his hands into her clothes; catching the idea quickly, she yanked open his top and pressed one hand against his chest, twining the other in his hair. They were just in time, for at that moment, the door opened to admit the queen, who froze when she saw them. "Ew," she commented. Then, sweetly, "I mean, sorry for the intrusion."
Kaoru mustered up a glare and fumbled to straighten her top; Kenshin flushed artfully as he straightened and tugged his clothes back into place, giving the queen a sheepish smile. "Apology accepted. Good night, Grandmother."
"I don't think so," she said with a cool little smile. "It seems like your cute little make-out sessions are quite intense..." She glanced meaningfully at the wound on Kenshin's arm, then frowned when he only grinned and playfully licked at the blood. "I sensed something break," she said shortly. "You're not trying to escape again, are you?"
"Escape?" he said innocently. "Is this one a prisoner here, then?"
She shrugged. "Only if you choose to see it that way."
"A prisoner," Kaoru pointed out, "is a person who is held somewhere against his will."
"There you are, then," Titania said sweetly. "We are certainly not holding either of you here against your will."
"You are simply preventing this one from leaving, that you are."
Titania sighed. "Oh Kenshin...why are you being so stubborn about this? Don't you like it here?"
"I don't," Kaoru said.
"No one asked you what you liked," Titania snapped.
"Neither enjoyment nor comfort is the issue, Grandmother, and you know it," Kenshin said quickly, unwilling to see a clash between the two women. "This is not a game."
"Of course it's not," Titania said in a deadly voice. She came close and reached out to lay her hand against Kenshin face, gently tracing the red cross with her thumb. "I know that even more than you. So why are we playing on different sides?"
"Playing on different sides?" Kaoru said significantly.
Titania grinned. "It's all the same to us fae, love."
Kenshin reached up and politely removed the queen's hand. "Grandmother, this one appreciates what you wish to do. But please, try to respect his wishes-"
"It's you I care about, Kenshin," she burst out. "I tried to hate you! But I...couldn't. Not when you refused to hate me in return. So now my favor shines on you again, yet you wish to return to the shadows!"
"This one wishes you to allow him to make his own choices, that he does."
"Kenshin," she said desperately, "why do you insist on going? Your child is safe, he can no longer be harmed."
"He's in a coma!" Kaoru cried angrily.
Titania gave her an annoyed look. "He sleeps safely, he remains in the world of the living. What more do you want?"
"We want him to be with us, of course! We want to hug him, to comfort and encourage him, to hear him call us 'Mother' and 'Father'! We want him to..." Kaoru couldn't finish, she was crying.
"We want him to be free," Kenshin said quietly.
Titania rolled her eyes. "It's not a difficult spell to break, you know - at least for me. I could revive him easily at any time."
Kaoru gasped and raised her head, but Kenshin squeezed her hand warningly. "No."
"No?" Kaoru said in shock. "'No'? Are you crazy, Kenshin?"
He turned his head to look at her. "There will be a price. There is always a price."
"What price?" she demanded. "What could you possibly balk at paying, for Kenji's sake?"
Titania suddenly giggled. "Kenshin," she said, her eyes glimmering with mirth, "it's not such a terrible thing, you know."
"Watching my son," he said through gritted teeth, "laughing his life away as the love-toy of the Faerie Queen is not something this one will allow."
Kaoru made a choking noise.
"Even if it means he'll wake up?" Titania said sweetly.
"We told you before - we want him to be free. Not have him awaken only to end up in drugged slavery."
"Kenshin," Kaoru whispered. He looked back at her, and she drew him a little away. "I hate the thought," she said quickly, still whispering. "I hate it. I don't want that for Kenji. But Kenshin...sleeping the rest of his life, for all practical purposes dead? I don't know...I don't know; but can't we at least think about it before we refuse?"
"Not now," he whispered back. "Not now, when there is still another option."
Hope came into her expression. "Is there really a way, Kenshin? A way to bring him back for real?"
"Of course there is." He kissed her. "That is what this one is fighting so hard for. Please believe, Kaoru-dono - you will have Kenji back, wholly himself, perfectly sound. You remember what was promised."
She smiled. Kenshin did not make promises lightly. "All right. I trust you," she said again. She kissed him. "I love you."
Titania couldn't stand it anymore, so she bid them a frosty good night and swept away.
When she was gone, Kenshin went and collapsed limply into the chair; Kaoru came back to perch on the arm. "Sometimes," he mumbled, "I hate this place, but..."
"But what?" Kaoru prompted, wishing idly that he'd slip his hands back under her clothes.
"The handmaids are hurting," he murmured, staring into the distance. "The queen is like a spoiled child, desperate for guidance yet determined to refuse it. The rest of the court is idle and restless...they're so unhappy."
Kaoru, looking at him, remembered how the fae were so glad to see Kenshin, with a look in their eyes almost as if they were starving... She realized, suddenly, that the fae needed him. "Kenshin," she said firmly, "they're not your responsibility."
He lolled his head to the side to look at her, and smiled. "Yes. This one has not forgotten. Kenji is our responsibility-" He suddenly sat up. "Kaoru-dono, there is a plan. This one is in need of your help."
Kaoru's eyes lit up, and she slipped down into his lap to listen.
To be continued...