An Untitled Fairy Tale
Just a sudden brainstorm. Something to do when I can't think of what to do with Kimi o Kanjiru suru. Since this is an AU, I decided to take the liberty of spicing the characters' personalities up. Hope you guys bear with the change! Regarding the title, I made it like so because I want to present it in the setting where fairy tales are often set: kingdom, era where people farm, and lots and lots of magic. Romance, fantasy and a little humor all rolled into one fic!
This is dedicated to the people who take time to review my Furuba work: Chocolate Drop, Innocent Sake, Clow Angel, and the other people I forgot to mention, but I really am grateful to. Arigatou gozaimasu for reading!
Prologue: The First Time Their Paths Crossed
Sixteen-year-old Honda Tohru wiped a sweat from her brow and stretched her overworked arms. The whole morning, she worked on the rice fields with her masters. She then went home to continue the household chores. This afternoon, she went back to the fields to help in placing hay in the stable.
As she carried the hay in her arms, she passed by a group of peasant girls giggling.
"Oh, Prince Yuki is so dashing! I wish he's mine!"
"Me too, me too! He's got the looks, the brain, the title, the wealth…oh God, if he dares to get near me within 3-foot range, I'll grab him and make sure I don't lose him!"
"True, true!"
Laughter.
Tohru smiled to herself. Everyone in the whole kingdom knows and adores the very popular Prince Yuki Sohma, future heir to the throne of the palace. Any woman in the village would die happily if only he would glance her way.
Unfortunately, the prince wasn't approachable. According to the people who work in the palace, Yuki rarely talks. His silence could be very frightening to the people who weren't used to his attitude, thus earning him the nickname "Ice Prince".
However, she herself has not seen the famed prince yet, for he rarely goes out, if he ever does.
"Oh well, it is not my concern. Meeting him is the most far-fetched thing that could happen. Imagine, he is like heaven, so high and mighty. And what am I? Just an ordinary peasant girl in his kingdom."
Tohru pushed the stable door open and threw the hay down. "All done!" She collapsed on the hay happily and shut her eyes. She just had to rest for a couple of minutes, then she could get started on the dinner of her masters already.
Her eyes suddenly flapped open when she heard something run back and forth, its squeaks echoing in the stable.
"A mouse?" Grinning, she took the broom. Chasing one would provide me exercise!
She then caught a flash of movement behind the haystack. She tiptoed towards it and aimed her broom at it with all her might. "Come out!"
Just as the broom hit the stack, something exploded and a second later she was shocked to see her broom on top of a young man's head.
"H-How did…that happen?" she squeaked.
The young man stood up, uncaring to the fact that he was naked. She didn't know who he was, but she could feel a certain aura of authority…even royalty surrounding him.
"Damn, this is not a good day," he muttered. "First, I got tricked by Shigure to date that ridiculous princess, and then she suddenly hugged me, making me transform, and when I tried to hide in a sack, it got hauled off to who-knows-where." He looked at her, frowning deeply. "And now, someone has seen me transform!"
Tohru silently gulped and turned her back on him.
Shigure? Sohma Shigure, the prince who writes novels?
And this boy before me - this naked boy- just dated a princess awhile ago?
Transform?
"Hey you!"
She jumped. "H-Hai?"
"I need clothes," he said arrogantly.
"Ah, yes!" She immediately began to find him clothes, then tossed him the only one she could find.
He was dismayed when he inspected the outfit, but he wore it anyway. "Tell me, woman, where am I now?"
"In the Kingdom of Kaibara. You are in a stable amidst the fields owned by my master, the family of Saki," she replied.
"And who are you?" He wanted to know.
"Me? I'm just a househelper. I'm Honda Tohru." She reached out and shook his hand. "Nice to meet you!"
"D-Don't touch me!" he yelped, inching away from her.
Although surprised, she dismissed it with a shrug. "OK." She sat down on the hay again, looking at him. "So who are you?"
A look of shock registered on his face. "You…do not know me?"
"Yes, that is why I'm asking who you are," she said, amused.
He turned away. "I don't see why you should know."
"Well, considering that you transformed into a naked person before me, I think I deserve to know, right?" she asked lightly. "But if you won't tell me, I guess that would be fine."
He stood up abruptly. "It doesn't matter. This would be the last time we'll meet anyway." He looked at her. "Do not bother to remember this day. Forget that you've talked to me. Forget what you've seen. If I hear anything related to the transformation, I shall have my soldiers hunt you and kill you." With that, he started towards the door.
"Do not worry, Mister!" said Tohru reassuringly. "My mother told me that only bad people talk about other people without their permission. I'll take your secret to my grave, Mr.Whoever-You-Are."
He paused, then his face became blank again. "Do not expect any thanks."
"Your name then," she begged.
He was silenced briefly, then he shrugged. "Sohma Yuki." With that, he left.
Tohru was speechless for a few seconds.
The meeting…was it real?
I just met the Ice Prince!
"Thank God I found you!" said Shigure, laughing. "You should have seen the princess' face when smoke appeared and her Princey disappeared. Good thing I distracted her, and I took her to 'Tori to have her memory erased."
Yuki didn't reply. He was merely in deep thought.
"Yuki? You're not thinking, are you? You're starting to scare me," said his cousin, frowning.
"I just don't find it possible that there is a person in the kingdom who do not know me," he said quietly.
"There is?" His cousin was shocked.
He shrugged. "Never mind. I'll never see her again anyway," he said dismissively.
"Her, huh?" There was a teasing smile playing on the elder Sohma's lips.
Yuki ignored him and gazed at his hands instead. It was the first time he felt a touch of the hands which wasn't silky soft as the hands of the princesses he had met before - women who never had experienced labor before. On the other hand, the girl's hands were firm, like the hands of a hardworking mother.
And the touch was so warm…
And she obeyed me when I ordered her to find me clothes, not knowing that I'm the prince!
What's her name again?
Honda…Tohru.
Ah yes.
Tohru.
tsuzuku