This is one of five one-shots written as part of a Holiday Specials incentive that is severely lacking due to my busy school schedule. Normally, these specials are wordpress-only, but I feel that not many know about them and given that I haven't updated for several weeks, I thought it would be a good idea to bring them over for everyone that hasn't read them to get a chance to do so.

Do consider these AU despite occurring in the same universe as the stories from which they are derived. I generally like to consider a lot of these "what if" scenarios, but a lot of them can fit within the stories (however, I can't add them for craft reasons).

I have also chosen to post them separately from the related stories because it would be too strange to have a sudden break in between events, so I hope you don't mind this.

That said, I hope you enjoy reading them (or this). Also, future specials will be posted as follow-up chapters to their respective entries.

Story: Empress

Pairing(s): Kouen|Asta

Word Count: 3330

Rating: T

Summary: Something is definitely wrong with his wife; Kouen just wished he knew what that was.

Author's Comment: I feel that I create many characters that give me so much secondhand embarrassment. I guess I should say spoiler for a future pairing? Whoops, but it's pretty background.

Playing the "s/he loves me or s/he loves me not" game as a kid ruined me. I thought Asta being a giant dork would take it too far and thought this was a good idea.

Originally posted on February 14, 2015. Written as a Valentine's Day special.

Love Me Not | IO ASTA and REN KOUEN

{ i }

Hua took Asta on a walk around the vast flower gardens surrounding Io Castle. Her attendant dedicated hours to several acres of daisies, making sure they were properly maintained and watered on a regular basis. They were her pride and joy.

The flowers were beautiful, brown buttons surrounded by pure white petals facing towards the morning sun.

"I thought I could make a bouquet for Carina," said Hua with a timid smile, "but I know she doesn't like flowers."

Asta slapped her across the back, startling her. "Carina will love anything from you, so stop worrying about it so much."

"Do you really think so?" asked Hua nervously.

"I have known Carina half her life, you can trust me when I say that she'll definitely appreciate whatever gift you bring her," replied Asta, proud of her knowledge. "I bet you can make a gift out of a smelly old shoe and she will appreciate the thought that went into it. Seriously, Hua, Carina is the least picky person in the world."

Hua smiled gratefully. The raven-haired attendant soon redirected her attention to the flowers, explaining in detail all the care that went into their maintenance at Asta's inquiry before the two went on their separate ways. Hua went off to pick daisies to make a small bouquet for Carina while Asta went running through the field, enjoying the feel of the grass beneath her bare feet and the caress of the flowers against her legs.

Asta hunted Hua down after she exhausted herself running up and down the hills, succeeding in falling once and earning a nasty scrape on her chin that had bled quite a bit. She discovered Hua crouched down picking flower petals from a daisy while muttering beneath her breath. Curious as to what she was saying, Asta approaching with the stealth of a cat, managing the move close enough to overhead her.

"She loves me"—a flower petal came off—"she loves me not"—another followed. Hua continued the little chant, picking off one petal as she said each phrase until she came down to the last one, her face lighting up with her smile as she said, "She loves me."

Hua felt her presence, rather she noticed her shadow cast over her body, and jerked around after tossing the flower out of sight. Her cheeks were bright red. "Your highness!"

"What were you doing?" asked Asta excitedly. "With the flower?"

"It's just a silly game," Hua explained, embarrassed.

"A game? Really?"

"It's silly."

"Tell me about it." Asta crouched down beside her. "What do you do?"

Hua cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Well, you take a flower and think about the person you love, you pick off a petal alternating between the phrases s/he loves me and s/he loves me not to see if your feelings are mutual. The last petal is supposed to symbolize the truth. Of course, you shouldn't take these too serious—"

Asta pulled a daisy from the earth. "I want to try it."

"Ah, but you are very loved by Prince Kouen, you don't need to do that?"

She scoffed. "I want all the validation I can get."

"But this isn't—"

Asta was no longer listening to Hua. She was picking off the daisy's petals, alternating excitedly between the phrases "he loves me" and "he loves me not," until she made it to the last petal, picking it off as she said, "He loves me…not?"

She turned to Hua quizzically. "Hua? What is this? This flower lied to me!" She dramatically threw the remains of the flower to the ground and reached for another. "I'm trying it again!"

"Uhm, your—"

"He loves me," Asta chanted, pulling off a petal. "He loves me not."

After two minutes, she reached the final petal and with a devastated expression, uttered the hateful words, "He loves me not."

Despite, Hua's attempts to interrupt her sudden urge to try the game again, Asta decided that she was doing it all wrong. "I keep starting with he loves me, so I should just switch it to he loves me not."

"No, that's not how it—"

"He loves me not," Asta began, determined. "He loves me."

But as she reached the last petal, her devastation doubled when it landed on "he loves me not" a third time. Unable to give up, she took another daisy, then another, then another, and another, each one resulted in the same unwanted response.

"Hua!" cried Asta, clinging to her attendant's arm. "What if it's true? What if he doesn't love me at all? What if I'm imagining it all?" She couldn't imagine a world without the confidence that her husband truly loved her. They might not have been working out in the beginning, but things were different now. They were a real marriage now…or so she thought? What if it was all one-sided? She gasped, feeling tears spring into her eyes. "What if he loves his concubine? Hua, please tell me he isn't in love with his concubine! Which one is it? She's probably the prettiest one—"

"He doesn't have a concubine, your highness. He's extremely loyal to—"

Asta started to cry both loudly and inelegantly. "You know he's never even said he loves me!" She sobbed, wiping her tears on the sleeves of her silk robes. "I love him so much and I tell him every day, but he never says anything back! It is one-sided! I'm the only one feeling this way! What am I going to do? I gave him my kingdom! I gave him my love! I gave him my body! He took my body, Hua!"

Hua tried to reason with her, though she looked uncomfortable about the subject of their conversation. "But, he truly—"

Asta cried harder, interrupting her attendant, and hugged her knees to her chest, burying her face atop them.

"But princess—"

"He doesn't love me!" she blubbered. She heard her attendant sigh as she took a seat beside her. "Why doesn't he love me?"

{ ii }

She was doing it again.

Kouen turned around as his wife ducked behind the wall with a squeak. Koumei reached his side as he redirected his eyes forward.

"You are aware your wife is following you," Koumei commented.

"Ignore her. She'll grow tired of it eventually."

Something was bothering her. That alone was evident in her behavior. She didn't resort to such extremities unless it was grave, so while he ignored his wife's shenanigans, Kouen tried to recall their entire day yesterday. Once he figured out the reason influencing her actions, he could put an end to it, but as far as he could remember, yesterday had been pleasant. Had he done something to upset her? If so, what? What did he do or say that upset her?

Kouen put the thought out of his mind. Koumei wouldn't be in Ione long, so he needed to handle their business promptly. He would take care of his wife once he and his brother were through talking.

However, none of that stopped Asta from tailing him around castle. She believed herself quite sneaky, he knew, but she was not the least bit discreet. If she truly put her mind into her actions, she would have viewed it the same as hunting and it would have given her an edge.

After seeing his brother off for the afternoon, he made sure to catch Asta in the act. He tricked her when he made a sudden turn down a hallway and waited for her to appear. She took a right turn sharply, coming to an abrupt halt when she realized he was standing in front of her.

She gaped at him, brilliant blue eyes widened in astonishment.

"What are you doing, Asta?"

Her freckled cheeks colored. "W-Walking."

"Alone? That is unlike you."

She visibly swallowed, tiny beads of nervous sweat appeared on her brow. "I-I wanted to talk about…dinner, yes, dinner," she stammered. "Will Koumei be joining us for dinner?"

"No."

"Okay. I will tell the cooks."

Very awkwardly, Asta extricated herself from that hallway and ran off. She looked over her shoulder multiple times before she disappeared down the nearest flight of stairs.

He expelled a breath and continued to the castle's private library. He expected Asta to follow him there. After entering and taking his seat on the upper floor, he decided to give her fifteen minutes before he started reading.

Asta surprised him by being there in ten. She knocked, announcing her arrival, and peeked in with a rather innocent gaze. He set aside the large tome he had picked up and waited for her to make her way upstairs to him.

She approached him slowly, and quite timidly, which meant something was very wrong. She stopped being so reserved a long time ago.

"Have you spoken to the cooks, princess?" he asked, lifting his eyes to hers.

Asta frowned, leaning against the desk. "Yes, I told them," she mumbled. "They're making arrangements for him."

"Is that all?"

"Oh—I mean, no," she stammered. "I wanted to spend some time with you."

Kouen didn't trust her. "Sit."

She didn't. She crept up beside him and placed her hand atop his shoulder. She leaned down to find his mouth and he lifted his chin to meet her as she did, allowing her to kiss him. Brief as it was, he took it as a greeting.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I know."

She moved back, away from him. "And?"

"What?"

"What do you mean what?" she demanded.

She lost him. He arched an eyebrow, waiting on her to elaborate, but she only stared at him, as if in anticipation.

He didn't understand.

Asta's eyes filled with tears.

"Asta?"

She jerked away from him and ran down the stairs. She made it out the door, slamming the door behind her hard as she let out a very loud cry.

He leaned onto the arm of his chair and stared at the entrance downstairs blankly. He didn't understand why she made such a hasty retreat. He did invite her to sit.

He shrugged. She would tell him once she finished crying.

{ iii }

"I don't understand all this crying!" complained Lady Bo, wiping the snot from Asta's face with a handkerchief. "I thought you were only going out for flowers, Hua."

Hua jolted at the sound of her name and straightened her back. "We did—"

"Then what is the meaning of this?" asked her caretaker, pointing at Asta, who was barely keeping it together. "This is unsightly. Princesses do not cry!"

"I cry!" shouted Asta. She didn't care that she did. She was sad. She actually believed that she and Kouen made it through the worst part of their marriage and now lived happily in love. How wrong she had been in a world where confessing her love only warranted an 'I know.' What did she do wrong? Or rather, what did his concubine do right?

"Hua?"

"Well, we did go pick flowers, but her highness caught me in the middle of a game and—"

"A game?"

Asta cried harder at the reminder of the game. Recalling how many flowers she destroyed to attain the same answer again and again and again. It replayed in her head like a nightmare.

"The flower game," Hua said softly.

Lady Bo took Asta's chin in her firmly. "Listen to me, princess, you will stop your crying immediately," she ordered, "and understand that that flower game was simply that—a game. It is a game played by little girls that are too young to realize that none of it is real."

"B-But when I said I loved him, he said I know!" cried Asta.

Lady Bo was silent for a moment and then asked all of the attendants to exit the room. Once they did, she turned her attention fully to Asta.

"Arranged marriages rarely inspire love, but you, my dear naïve child have been blessed that our prince holds you in such high regard else he would have already found another woman to take your place."

Asta blinked up at her caretaker. She definitely understood the intent, but for some reason, that did not make her feel better. "W-What?"

"You are a grown woman, stop believing in silly flower games and go to sleep."

"That doesn't make me feel better!"

"Go to sleep, princess!"

Lady Bo abandoned her with only those words. She understood it was a game. What bothered her was that Kouen never said he loved her when she said it.

Asta crawled under the table with Joa, moving only a few feet from where she had been seated on the floor previously. She planned to find a better way to make him admit he didn't replace her with a concubine and that he loved her. After closing her eyes, she mulled over all the things she wanted to hear him say and slowly drifted off to sleep.

{ iv }

Kouen discovered Asta sleeping under the table with the cat upon entering their room. He dismissed his attendants, preferring to handle the situation without an audience. He left her there until he dressed into a sleeping robe, carrying her into bed. Joa followed them, hopping onto the red coverlet and burrowing underneath the blankets beside Asta. Kouen considered sleeping in his solar for a moment, but slid under the blankets beside her.

He had trouble sleeping, but did manage to do so. He woke in the middle of the night with Asta clinging to him, arms wrapped around his head and a leg on his stomach, and the cat on his face. He removed Joa from his face to its disdain and pried his wife off him, stuffing a pillow between them. She wrapped herself around it unconsciously, allowing him to breathe, but she was mumbling—chanting it seemed like. He narrowed his eyes and listened close to her grumbling, deciphering it after several minutes of her whimpering.

He heard her clearly after the third time she said it. "He doesn't love me."

He pinched her nose until she opened her mouth in complaint. "Joa." He released her, frowning, when she turned away from him, lying flat on her back with her face in the opposite direction. "I want…strawberry tarts, Lady Bo."

Exhausting as it was to wake up every morning with her wrapped around him like a boa constrictor, he didn't remember what it was like not to share a bed with his wife. Even without her present, he would wake up in the middle of the night expecting to find her clinging to him and would find himself wanting to feel the slight weight of her on him, the softness of her pale hair on his skin, and the faint scent of flowers and bath oils radiating from her body.

He had hated sleeping alone since.

Asta called his name.

Even though she talked in her sleep, had frequent nightmares, and drooled.

Kouen turned on his side, propping his upper body up with his elbow. He rested his cheek on his hand and stared at Asta's pale, freckled face. He definitely liked it better in Ione.

{ v }

Lady Bo woke Asta the following morning long after her husband had started his day. She rubbed her somnolent eyes, more interested in sleeping for another hour or two than trying to find something to do. Hua appeared in her periphery, drawing her attention from the morning-lit wall, and saw her setting a pot of red flowers on her table.

"Red flowers?" asked Asta curiously. She tended to lean towards white flowers when it came to decorating.

"Prince Kouen asked me to bring you flowers," said Hua, smiling secretly at her.

"He also asked that you be given this," added Lady Bo, opening a box before her eyes to display a gem-encrusted necklace.

Asta took it delightedly. "Is it mine? Really?"

"I do hope you stop doubting your importance," said Lady Bo. "Eat your breakfast first, and then go thank him properly for having to put up with you."

Lady Bo exited after Asta's breakfast was brought in, leaving only Hua in her company.

"He is very fond of you," said Hua, grinning. "You should be happy."

Asta was downright giddy, but came to a realization that drained the mirth from her. "Or maybe he thinks he can buy me with cheap flowers and a fake necklace?"

"Princess, no," Hua said, dismayed.

"Are you saying that's a lie? He probably thought I was acting suspicious yesterday and instead of talking it out with me, he decided to buy me happiness," ranted Asta. "Well, he needs to know that he can't do that! Hua, where is my husband?"

"Princess, a lot of thought—"

"Don't follow me, Hua, I know exactly where to go," announce Asta, grabbing a handful of flowers in one hand and snatching the necklace's box in the other. "Nobody is to disturb us!"

Asta confronted Kouen shortly inside her mother's library by setting the damaged flowers and the necklace in front of him. He sealed his book shut, lifting his eyes to her, very blasé and irritating of him.

"Are you trying to buy me?" asked Asta.

Kouen returned to his book, uninterested in whatever the conversation became.

"You are, aren't you?" she demanded.

"If you do not like your gifts, you can ask one of your guards to accompany you to the artisan province to find ones that you do," he answered.

"Why are you buying me gifts?"

He looked at her blankly.

"Why are you buying me gifts?" she repeated.

"I am well within my right to waste my money on whatever I see fit."

That wasn't an answer, but he did have a point. "Yes, but—"

"What is the problem?"

She bristled. "I think you are trying to make me happy with gifts because you don't know why I'm angry and that's not right. You can't buy me."

"Perhaps, I am trying to prompt you into starting a conversation you would not have otherwise," he replied, serious.

"What conversation?" she demanded, feeling her cheeks burn from the embarrassment.

"Stop being stupid, Astoria."

"You're doing this on purpose!"

"And if I am? What are you going to do? Dismantle more flowers? Cry?"

Asta's entire face turned a darker shade of red. She let rip a thousand curses in her head. He knew. He was doing it all on purpose.

Kouen pushed his seat back and rose. He took her firmly by the back of the neck, startling her. "Get it through that little brain of yours already, Astoria, you're the only woman I want." He tugged her into a kiss that made her knees weak. She needed to grab onto the desk behind her to stay on her feet. "Is that all?"

"Stop calling me Astoria," she said, breathless.

"Then stop acting foolish."

She frowned. "Fine."

"Keep your evening free," he told her, releasing her nape.

"Are we going somewhere?"

Kouen nodded, returning to his seat.

"Where? No—don't tell me. I want to be surprised." Asta turned away to leave, but moved back suddenly. She stepped closer to her husband, feeling her stomach knot as she leaned forward to kiss him. "Thank you."

She remembered to take her gifts on her way out.

Asta encountered Carina outside.

"It's kind of gross how happy you look right now," said Carina.

"Really?" asked Asta, cheeks flushed. She covered them.

"Look at you, you're practically glowing, wait—don't tell me you and the prince…in there?"

"We didn't!" cried Asta, catching her implication.

Carina grinned. "Really?"

"Don't tease me! Lady Bo!" called Asta, running off to find her caretaker. "Carina is being inappropriate!"

"Stop being so dramatic!" shouted Carina, chasing after her. "Don't tell Lady Bo! What are you five?"