a/n: Okay, I've been promising to start posting this for over a year now. I guess I should own up and actually do it! So here it is, the first chapter. Right now we're looking at roughly 5-7 chapters total. Enjoy and drop a review if you're so inclined! :)

Disclaimer: I don't own RK

The Kingdom
Prologue: Obedience

"...Yukishiro Enishi."

She was bored. She twirled a lock of hair in between her fingers and stifled a yawn. She didn't want to be here in the first place.

"Kaoru!" She flinched.

"Yes, mother?"

"Pay attention! This is your future we're talking about," she scolded, eyes narrowing at her only child. "The future of the Kingdom."

"Yes, mother." She sighed as quietly as she could and gave her mother her attention.

"Now," her mother continued, "we have reached an agreement with the Yukishiro clan of the north. You are to be wed to the eldest son in the spring. That will expand and connect our territories..."

Kaoru nodded like she cared, but found her attention wavering again. She did not want to take a husband, especially one she did not know, but the law said that she was required to do so within the next six months. Hence her mother's rather vicious efforts in finding her a husband that would benefit both her and the Kingdom.

She wanted to let out a bitter laugh at that. God forbid it didn't better the Kingdom. She couldn't remember a time when she did something just for herself and not for the good of the Kingdom. Everything had to be done to help the Kingdom in some way or it simply wasn't done. That was her mother's law.

God save the queen, she thought sourly, resting her cheek in her palm.

"Kaoru!" She jumped, her face falling from its newly found resting place.

"Yes?"

"You are not paying attention," her mother said again, acid dripping from each word. A threat in itself.

She rolled her eyes. She was so sick of it all. She had played nice for almost eighteen years now. She wanted to be rebellious like every other child. But she wasn't like every other child. She was the only heir to the Kamiya name, the only one there would ever be as her father was dead. As such, she had obligations to the Kamiya name. So she did the only thing she could do.

She bowed her head and replied, "Yes, mother."

a/n: Hoping to get the next chapter out fairly soon!