A/N; Catsafari posted a Cat Returns/Princess Bride movie trailer she did, deliberately using As You Wish as her inspiration. I was so heavily amused by her casting choices that it inspired me to write this. I already had a rough idea, but she gave me the juice to actually write it down.

21. Guilty

Haru refused to be dragged. Holding her head high like she had been crowned after all, she walked like a lady into the crowded throne room.

Everyone turned dead silent at the sight of her, almost forgetting to breathe as she steadily made her way down the open floorwork at a slightly faster pace than she had done only the day before in a flowing white gown and a rainbow's worth of jewels on her throat and forearms.

Only the chains on her hands and ankles could have put any doubt on her rank. She had even been allowed to keep some of the nice clothes that had been forced on her.

Since she wanted no doubts on herself, she had gone out of her way to pick the plainest dress in her wardrobes that hadn't been a nightgown; a simple blue dress with only a little bit of lace on the cuffs and collar for decoration. She stood calmly in front of her new monarch, surrounded by guards that were there more for effect than because anyone thought they could actually hold her against her will.

Lune, the newly crowned king, was still pale and tired from the sudden loss. Despite his personal grief, he gave the young woman in front of him a sad apologetic look as he sat on his father's throne. "Haru Yoshioka, you stand accused of killing King Phoebus-"

"Guilty," she stated in a loud clear tone, not interested in standing through the entire kangaroo trial. "Don't bother pretending I have a way out. I killed him as I reached the altar, I'm not sorry, and he was asking for it."

"Ah ha, see?!" one advisor screamed while pointing a finger at her. "She's confessed! She's guilty!"

Lune rolled his eyes with a groan. "Stand down, Jigo. We already knew." He gave Haru an extremely apologetic look. "The entire kingdom knows he was asking for it. But while the penalty for regicide is well-known, I think you have been put through enough."

Haru blinked as confused talk began bubbling from the royal court. 'Wait, he can't do this.' "Um, your majesty-"

"I will not tolerate disputes!" Lune declared at the top of his lungs, proving that he did inherit some little of his father after all. "We all know that Haru Yoshioka was backed into a corner. There are more than enough witnesses that my father would not take a polite or even impolite refusal. I refuse to call for her execution."

He gave his new friend a gentle smile despite the furious uproar from the surrounding gentry. "Instead, I will sentence her for life to a location of my own choosing. I'd openly declare it now, but I'm certain that at least a few of my subjects had a certain fondness for my father, and there's no point in signing their death warrant as well. This 'trial' is concluded. Disperse."

"You can't do this! It's the law!" a count nearly shrieked.

"Disperse!" King Lune bellowed in a way that would have made his father proud. He had to stand to his full height to do it, and he was clumsily undoing the clasp of his thick royal cape to leave it on the throne. "That means the guards as well! I will escort the prisoner myself!"

There were still angry mutterings as the richly dressed court slowly flowed out of the large throne room, but the young king was clearly not paying attention to them.

Instead he approached his friend to clasp her hands with barely a flinch. "Come along, Haru. I don't want your last hours here to be in that cell."

The young brunette managed a somewhat baffled giggle. "I can't say I slept much in the cell." She took in a deep breath as he led her through the small door next to the throne that was usually reserved for advisors and the servants that waited exclusively on the royal family. Her words were low and worried, but not for herself. "Lune… you know there will be trouble for this."

"I don't care," he snarled under his breath. "My father…" He stopped briefly to get both his rage and grief under control. "My father…" Lune had to steady himself again before tightening his grip on Haru's hands and marching forward with determination. "As far as I'm concerned, he committed suicide. You were nothing more than his weapon of self-destruction."

Haru again tried to block out the memory of the richly dressed corpse at her feet. As if haunting her when he was alive wasn't bad enough, the old king continued to haunt her after his overdue death. "Just because we both know that doesn't mean the other kingdoms will. I know the common people will love you for this, but-"

"No buts," Lune insisted as he led his friend into the suite that Yuki was still occupying, since their own marriage had been delayed by the old king's demise.

The royal fiancée stopped pacing the room to offer them a weak smile. "The announcement went as expected?" the pale-haired woman asked as she used the key she had been toying with to unlock Haru's chains.

"Just about," Lune sighed as he collapsed on the closest couch like the mock trial had taken most of his strength. "Despite admitting to Father being a tyrant, the courtiers are still crying for her blood."

"I hope they cry themselves hoarse," Yuki snarled, making Haru sit on a divan with her so that the pale woman could tenderly rub her friend's red wrists.

"Oh, they probably will," Haru comforted her friend with a sad laugh. "Few things anger the gentry more than not getting their way. No offense, my friend," she added to the new king.

"None taken." He gave her a smile that he had to have inherited from his mother. "I'm afraid that this will be a banishment, Haru. Yuki and I will never be able to see you after today. We can't risk anyone finding you. But your new keeper assures me that you're going to be perfectly happy at your new home."

Haru breathed sadly, knowing that her old home was lost to her forever. It would have been too obvious, and Hiromi would not have been able to keep it a secret without getting her mouth bricked shut.

It hadn't really felt like home since losing Humbert, anyway.

Yuki must have been able to read her thoughts, because she wrapped her arms around the poor girl. "Our first daughter will be named after you," she whispered, scooting a little further down the divan and taking the girl with her so that her fiancé could sit on the other side to also hug their friend and add his two cents with an angry smile.

"And the gentry can scream until they're mutes if they don't like it."

ooOoo

The plan was overdramatic, as far as Haru was concerned. But it had a high chance of working, so she pulled the black hood over her face as deeply as she could, tucked her hands inside the long black cloak so that only a bit of the white dress underneath was showing, and waited for the signal.

She was in a small room with only a guard for an attendant. He was securely blindfolded to keep from knowing who he was in the room with. There were eight guards like that, all in separate rooms along this corridor, and all with the same instructions.

Don't talk to the girl.

Keep the girl safe until the signal.

Open the door at the signal.

The church bells began ringing, making Haru shudder as she remembered her aborted wedding. They had seemed to mock her misery before, but now there seemed to be a note of promise in those bellowing tones.

At the sound of the bells, the guard blindly reached for the door handle and twisted it enough to open it for her. Haru hesitantly peeked to see where she was in the lineup.

There was a different soldier marching down the corridor at a measured pace that also reminded the poor girl of her unwanted wedding. He was carrying a torch and a blank expression. As he passed open doorways with cloaked women, they left their rooms to follow him at the same measured pace in a single line.

Haru was the sixth girl to leave her room and join the stately march. It wasn't long until she and the seven other girls were even moving the same foot as the soldier leading them.

Despite the need for it, the complete anonymity felt stifling. All of the girls pressed into being decoys had the same height and build as Haru, and they were all wearing the exact same dress of plain muslin underneath a long black cloak. Even their hair was tied back in a low ponytail underneath the hood so that nothing would be given away by a stray lock.

'Just a little longer, Haru. Just a little longer.'

There were two guards at the double doors leading outside the castle.

As each maiden made the transition from inside to outside, she was joined by guard that marched by her side down the steps leading to eight identical carriages that were plain enough not to attract unneeded notice from peasants.

The fact that it was nearing midnight would also help to discourage too many watchers.

When Haru passed through the doorway, she heard a small scuffling, like one soldier throwing one of his fellows behind him in order to forcefully join her. It was impossible to actually see it thanks to the deep hood that obscured everything but what was directly in front of her. She took in measured breaths, hoping that it was just impatience that drove the man now marching next to her.

All the maidens were covered and identical to even a probing eye. He had no way of knowing it was personally her.

As each maiden was helped into a carriage, the soldier accompanying her closed the door after her, climbed on the back, and signaled the driver to begin their trek.

Every single carriage was going to go in a separate direction after leaving the castle grounds, further complicating future attempts to pin down her location.

Even though Haru was sixth, the soldier at her side put one hand on her elbow to steer her past the sixth carriage and to the seventh one that had a much larger driver than the others. "This is making it obvious," she hissed at him from the corner of her mouth.

"Sorry," he apologized just as softly as he helped her into the carriage. "You should have let the girl on the other side of the hallway go first." Then he closed the door securely, and she could hear the familiar noises of him walking around the carriage in order to climb onto the back.

But because the lineup got switched, they had to wait for the seventh girl to get in the sixth carriage and drive off. Although it was pitch black inside the carriage, Haru pulled back her hood with some relief before patting the seat down to get her bearings.

The seat was a bit deeper than she was expecting, and there was a thick woolen blanket waiting for her.

Since it was late, she went ahead and wrapped the blanket over her cloak for an extra layer of warmth and curled herself up on the seat to get some sleep as the coachman clicked his tongue at the horses, and they were on their way.

Her heart ached to lose her new friends as well as her old ones, but there wasn't anything she could do about it other than pray that the soldier riding the back of the carriage hadn't mistaken her. She yawned and used her arm for a pillow as the bumps in the road slowly rocked her to sleep.

'I guess it doesn't matter that much if he got me wrong. I'll still be far away from the castle by morning.

ooOoo

Haru wasn't sure what was going on when she began waking up. The cushioning underneath her didn't feel like her sleeping mat from her childhood home. It wasn't anywhere near as soft as the gigantic bed she had been given while waiting for the king to put everything together for the wedding he was demanding out of her. It was softer than the cot in the cell after the 'wedding', though.

Haru reluctantly rubbed her eyes into opening with a loud yawn.

She was in the carriage still. But it wasn't moving. There was a tiny amount of light streaming in from the sides of the black curtains that had been pinned down to keep closed. Her head cocked to one side to listen, but couldn't make out anything other than birdsong.

"That's odd," she muttered under her breath as she rose to a sitting position and did the best body stretch she could manage, considering the tight quarters of the carriage. "I'd have thought they'd have woken me up if we got there."

Then again, she had been sleeping the night away. The soldier and driver hadn't been. Maybe they had made camp somewhere they weren't likely to be happened upon?

Without warning, a different sound assaulted her ears, making her gasp audibly.

It wasn't the same as birdsong, though perhaps in the same family. It was the song of her childhood.

There was only one person, living or dead, that could have played it for her.

Haru scrambled to stand up, banged her head on the low roof as a result, and forcefully twisted the carriage door open with a loud bang as it collided with the exterior. She stumbled out with wild eyes until she saw something that made her heart nearly jump out of her chest.

There he was. Humbert Gikkingen, leaning against one of the many trees in the forest surrounding them, and next to a river that wasn't so different from the one they used to wash and play in as children. The song was produced by the reed pipe he made some years after joining her family but long before he left to seek his fortune so that he could provide for her. His heart was in his green eyes as he watched her, waiting for her reaction to seeing him again as he continued to play for her alone.

Those were the only similarities to how things had been before he left. He was dressed much more finely than she had ever seen of him before, stating without words that he now had the money to marry her. But he wasn't as obnoxious about it as the courtiers she had been forced to talk to in the king's castle. Just a light grey suit that suited his pale skin and thick orange hair wonderfully.

Except… she couldn't see his skin anymore.

Against her will, Haru remembered every single story that Hiromi's grandmother used to tell the children of the village about the Sky Pirates. Part human, part animal, and all trouble.

Well, she already knew about that last part. While Humbert had been perfectly fine with following her lead growing up, not all the mischief they had gotten into as kids had been her idea.

His new appearance made it clear that he did not heed her warnings about Sky Pirates. For reasons she would wring out of him later, he had joined up with them instead.

The weight of all those lost years between them came crashing down on her, and her hands felt like they were on fire from the blood she had been forced to spill to remain faithful to this sweet, though sometimes exasperating man that even Hiromi had urged her to move on from.

Still feeling very tired, Haru walked up to the cat man who had yet to take his slanted eyes off her and leaned down slightly in order to carefully pinch his reed flute between two fingers. It wasn't enough to cut off the sound, but it was enough to make him finish the song with a last trill.

Haru gently removed the flute before making herself comfortable on his lap just like old times and wrapped her arms around his neck, keeping the reed flute in one hand so it wouldn't get accidentally damaged. "I'll scream at you later for leaving me alone that long," she informed him in a too-steady tone before almost vengefully taking back her personal claim on his now furry lips.

From the way he was gripping her and taking his own claim on her lips, he was even looking forward to his scolding.

xxXxx

A/N; And as a small bonus since it was years after the fact that I realized this was a loophole:

Haru narrowed her eyes at the black-clad Sky Pirate that had stopped cold in his tracks from the new situation and set the stolen dagger against her 'kidnapper's throat. "Don't come any closer, or I'll run him through," she threatened half-seriously.

The cat man slowly shook his head in disbelief… and began laughing fit to kill.

Haru's eyes suddenly went as big as saucers as a slow gasp escaped her control.

She knew that laugh. She knew it better than her own name.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Natoru said helplessly as he flushed scarlet with embarrassment.

That only increased the Sky Pirate's laughter.

"On the contrary," Haru retorted with a dead certainty, leaving the captor for their pursuer. "I think this is exactly what it looks like."

That made the cat man's guffaws die almost immediately as her hand ripped the black scarf from his head with an almost brutal enthusiasm.

It was Humbert. Although he had changed a lot since they had kissed each other goodbye all those years ago, she knew that golden hair, those vibrant green eyes… that guilty flinch when he realized that he was in trouble with her.

Haru stared at him, taking in his new fur coat, his twitchy triangular ears, and even spared a glance for his nervously swishing tail before look up into his worried eyes.

It took her a long minute to say anything to her childhood sweetheart. "What part of 'watch out for sky pirates' did you not understand, Humbert?" she asked almost cordially before bursting into a tirade.