Romeo and Cinderella

Chapter 15
And Selfishness

I woke up with a start. This was it. I had officially named myself crazy. Insane. Normal people don't dream about singing to explosions… right? I didn't know anything anymore. With a sigh, I got up and dressed myself.

It was cold. No surprise. Monday, January 2nd—time to see how many languages I could cram into my head in one day. Not wanting to look all that nice for my aged, blind, decrepit old man of a tutor, I threw on an unflattering faded blue cotton gown with long sleeves and called it fashion.

No sooner than when I made it down the Grand Staircase, someone knocked at the front door. Expecting my language tutor, I answered the call with a certain feeling of dread hanging in my heart.

The next thing I knew I was on the ground. I didn't really know exactly how I had gotten on the ground but I was there and Miku was on top of me. Oh. Miku.

"Um... Hi, Miku," I whispered, considering the small amount of air that was getting to my lungs with a hundred-and-fifty pound girl on my chest.

"Hey, Rin!" she nearly screamed with excitement. "I couldn't wait for you to come out into the Marketplace so I came straight to you instead. I'm so glad you answered. Come on! We need to pick up your dress."

"My… dress?" I remembered visiting the tailor and Miku paying for her to make me something. "It's done already?"

"It's just the prototype, but yeah! She works really fast. That's why I always go to her," Miku babbled. "Oh! I suppose I should get off of you now." Miku hopped up like a rabbit, her hair bobbing like little ears. She was so cute.

"Thanks," I said as Miku helped me up.

"So come on!" Miku directed.

"I don't know if I can, Miku. I have language tutoring today," I protested.

"Aw," she pouted. "Can't you skip just for one day?"

"Well…" I paused to think about it. I really didn't want to do tutoring today—or any day, for that matter. And I was really curious as to how my dress came out. Plus I really didn't want to do tutoring today. "Hurry before the tutor gets here." And we were off.

The last time I had ran this fast was… probably only a day or two ago. But still, it felt so nice to run. It was like freedom. I hadn't felt a lot of freedom in my life, so when it was given to me like this, when I could take freedom from authority's hands, it felt good. It ended all too soon when we made it, breathless, to the Tailor Shoppe.

The bell on the door jingled when we entered. Miki was in the back room, somewhere, since no person could be seen but all kinds of clatter could be heard.

"Miki!" Miku called. "We're here for our fitting!"

In a matter of seconds, Miki came out to see exactly who "we" was. With a smile, she welcomed us: "Miku, Rin! Come in, come in. I have your dresses right in the back. Hold on for just a second."

Miku and I waited impatiently for a few moments longer before the redhead returned with two leather bags on hangers.

"This one," she began, lifting a heavy bag of fabric onto the counter, "is Miku's." She removed a lovely garment from its covering. The dress was a divine blue-gray color. It was mainly very plain, but had an attractive tailored look. Miki turned the dress over to expose ruffling in the back so that it would flow beautifully with movement. "If you could take that to the back table for me, Miku, that would be just lovely," Miki requested. As Miku followed through, Miki thanked her then turned her attention to me. "Now yours was a challenge. I had to make up a lot of the design as I went but," she spoke as she pulled up the other bag, "I think it turned out well."

Miki pulled the leather cover off of my dress and, with some difficulty considering its weight, held it up for me to look at. It was the most beautiful, intricate piece of work I had ever seen. The top of the bodice was yellow with a sweetheart neckline, edged with lace and a red gem in the middle. The rest of the bodice was a black corset, also lined with lace and beading, going down with each section of boning. The skirt of the dress was done in layers. The first tier was sheer black lace overlapping yellow silk at an asymmetrical angle. The next was yellow with black ribbon crisscrossing all over it and was lined with tassels. After that came a long layer of black, with hundreds of red beads on the edge. From its corners peeked a yellow then black layer of fabric, followed by another layer of black with a yellow X. Finally fell a yellow layer followed by two rows of black ruffles.

"Do you like it?" Miki asked me.

"Its… its…" Words escaped me.

"Come, come. Let's have you try it on." Miki took me over to a dressing platform where she had me strip down to put on the lovely new dress.

As I leaned over a table for Miki to lace me up, I looked at myself in the mirror. The dress fit me like a glove. I wasn't sure I had ever seen myself wearing something so flattering. When I was able to stand upright, I moved to the pedestal and turned back and forth to take it in from every angle. There were four very thin straps at the top lined with red beads. I touched them, feeling the delicate glass on my fingertips. The decoration brought the entire design together.

I felt Miku come up behind me. "It's so beautiful on you," she whispered, flabbergasted.

"Thank you," I replied softly.

I was rather sad when I had to take the masterpiece off. "I still need to touch it up, make it perfect," Miki had explained. Of course, I had no idea how it could get any better. So I reluctantly let Miki unlace me and returned to the drab gown I had arrived in.

"If you come here before the Masquerade Saturday, I'll help you two get ready," Miki told us.

"That sounds wonderful!" Miku exclaimed. "Thank you so much Miki! We'll be back then."

Miki smiled. "I can hardly wait."

.

When I returned to the manor, my tutor was there waiting expectantly. I had only managed to kill about two hours, which meant that I would have to dedicate the rest of my day to learning about the wonders of the French, English, Spanish, and German languages. I admit it. It was pure torture, but it was totally worth getting to see such an amazing design on myself.

The rest of the week flew by as I anticipated the Masquerade. It was mostly a happy anticipation, that is, until Friday. That was the day that Kaito paid my manor a visit. Time for yet another awkward luncheon…

.

"Ah, Luka. I must say this food is just lovely today," Kaito complemented.

I internally thanked Luka for acting like she was flattered. "Why thank you, Kaito. I'm glad you find it fit to your taste."

"You're quite welcome. I may just have to move here rather than take Rin just for your expertise." I dropped my fork. Everyone looked over at me. Everyone.

I smiled. "So sorry. My hand slipped," I explained, holding back an assortment of curses at what Kaito had implied. There went my good mood. Why couldn't he just go away? Everyone's lives would be better if he went away. I could be happy. I would run away with Len and—wait. What am I saying? He's my brother. That's… that's totally immoral and frowned upon in most nations.

I picked up my fork and had a servant get me a new one before continuing with my miserable lunch and, overall, miserable day. I looked up at the shining chandelier over the table. If only it could fall, right where Kaito was sitting. I stared and willed for it to happen, but the chandelier did not move. As if it was mocking me.

.

"As with any normal feeling of love, right now, I'll make sure you fall for it. I won't leave a trace. We can always hide in the garden depths, forever waiting. The blended scent of our sweat…"

"It feels like I've been taken."

.

Saturday, January 6th. The day of the Masquerade was here. I waited all morning for Miku to knock on my door and take me to the Tailor Shoppe. It was about 11:30 a.m. when she arrived. The Masquerade wasn't until eight o'clock that evening, but Miku insisted one needed to be this early to make it on time. We first made the long trek to Miku's manor for lunch. I didn't mind. Miku's family was nice and their food tasted awesome.

"I've been hearing about a Masquerade from Miku all week," Miku's mother was saying. "So… do you have a date? Is he cute? I want to know all about him. When is the wedding?" She gasped. "Is it forbidden love? Are you going to run away together?"

"Mom! Rin can't handle more than one question at a time," Miku said, saving me.

"Sorry," she apologized, waving her hand at me. "I just get so excited by these things."

"It's okay," I insisted. "I guess I do have a date, but I don't really like him. My parents are forcing me to marry him."

"Oh, how terrible!" Miku's mother gasped. "I would never do that to my child, right Miku?" Before Miku could answer, her mother went on. "Well I'm sure that there must be someone else that you have feelings for. Otherwise you couldn't be so picky. So who is he? Will I get to meet him? I suppose not, since I'm not your mother. Oh, I wish I were. Do you want to be adopted? I can get someone to do the papers and you could live here and we could all be a big happy family. Doesn't that sound nice? I just know you would love it here! And then we'd—"

"Mom!" Miku yelled. "You're rambling again. No need to scare away the guest."

We all laughed and the meal continued on with a nice assortment of small talk that made me feel happy to be alive and with people I liked. For a moment I seriously considered moving in.

"Oh, it's time for us to go. We don't need to be late for the final fitting," Miku said after lunch was through. "Bye Mom, Dad, Mikuo!" she called. "Come on. Let's go!"

The walk to the Tailor Shoppe was a long one. It was a good thing I had done so much walking lately. Otherwise, I would be even more utterly miserable.

"So glad you could make it!" Miki yipped when we came through the door at four o'clock. "Hurry, now. There's not a moment to lose."

In moments Miku and I were stripped down in preparation to work our way into the beautiful dresses that Miki had made for us. I looked over at Miku who was being dressed first. I now saw more of her dress. The cool gray fabric was slitted up the sides so that a teal fabric was revealed when Miku moved. It was done quite beautifully and tastefully. I was yet again astounded by the talents the Miki held.

"How long have you been sewing?" I asked her as she began the drawn out lacing-up process necessary for my dress to stay up.

"Since I was born," Miki answered. I giggled a bit.

"That's an awful long time."

"But it pays off, don't you think?"

I looked off at something invisible, positive emotions dancing around inside me. "Yeah, it really does."

Once we were fully dressed in our lovely attire, Miku announced the next step: "Time for hair!"

"What?" I said.

"Well you can't just go somewhere with normal hair. You must do something with it. Or else you'll be just like everyone else. Come on!" Miku started taking me to the back room of the Tailor Shoppe. "I know just what we can do with you."

I was thankful for bathing recently. Otherwise I'm sure all of my hair would have been pulled out of my skull by Miku's vigorous brushing and pulling. Thanks to bathing, my hair was relatively smooth and tangle-free. Remember: Water is your friend.

I looked in the mirror after Miku finally let me see what she had done to me. There were beautiful beads embedded in my hair that was mostly pulled back into a clip. A few strands were expertly left to frame my face like a picture. With my hair plus my dress I felt more beautiful that the Greek goddess of love. I was almost sure that she would come down to me and strike me out of jealousy.

"Rin… You look gorgeous," Miku breathed, stunned by her own work. "You may just kill someone with that look."

I smiled a little. "You think so?"

"I know so."

.

It was eight o'clock. I was running only a little bit late, having trouble finding my little mask on a stick. I just love those masks on a stick. They're just so cute. I wish I owned more of them. I had one mask that had a removable stick so you could dance and still keep your face hidden, so I chose that one for the night. Besides, it was black, and black matched my dress.

I entered the Ballroom through the staircase that was inside. I didn't really expect to make a grand entrance, but I did anyway. Everyone stopped to stare. Many of the men held their mouths open as their dates seethed with jealousy. In the middle of the floor, my fiancée was waiting for me. Gross.

"You look beautiful," he told me.

As much as I didn't care for his opinion, I thanked him by his name. "Thank you, Kaito."

The music that was playing at the time was the waltz. The waltz had always bored me. I much preferred something like the rumba or the tango. Especially the tango. At least the song was one where you switched partners so that I wouldn't have to deal with Kaito for much longer. I made small talk with each of my dance partners. All of them commented on my beauty and held me a little closer than was necessary. That is, until I traveled to a man dressed in black. I didn't exactly recognize him at first until I took his hand. I looked up and smiled at my brother.

"So glad you could make it," I told Len.

He chuckled. "Why would I miss such an event?"

The song went through one more round then ended and, believe it or not, a tango began to play.

Len threw me back in a dip. "Care to tango?" Len asked me.

He pulled me back up and spun me into him. "I would love to," I replied, feeling a mischievous grin crawl on my face.

If Kaito were watching this, I would pay to see the look on his face. The tango was by far the sexiest dance known to man. Most of it consists of your partner's leg in your crotch and a rhythm of slow, slow, quick, quick, quick. Len was an amazing leader, making sure I didn't run into anyone as we drifted across the floor. I couldn't keep my eyes off of him through the whole thing, something that was totally uncharacteristic of a tango, but I couldn't help it. I couldn't shake the memories that I had of Len. The way he held me. The way he loved me. The way he kissed me. How could anyone ignore that when it felt so good?

"Rin…" he whispered into my ear.

"Len…"

"Wanna do something we'll regret?"

I nodded. "More than anything."

.

It's harder than one would think to make it out of a huge room full of people without your fiancée noticing. Len and I managed to slip out the back and make it into one of the servant halls. From there, we could run into the greenhouse. Only members of the family were allowed in the greenhouse (and I was sure that my father himself had never even set foot in it), so there would be no one there, with all of the household busy. And with so many people at the Masquerade, we wouldn't be missed.

I took him to a bench and sat facing him. His lips crashed onto mine. And not a moment too soon. I was going to go crazy (crazier) if I hadn't been with him sooner. It was wrong. It was sick how much I needed him. Absolutely disgusting how much I loved this.

Len paused for a moment. He moved his face back and pulled off my mask. "You're so beautiful," he said, kissing me again. "And I'm so selfish. I don't want anyone to have you. I want you all for myself."

"That's okay with me," I told him. He returned his lips to their rightful place—locking with mine. He was my drug. And I felt higher than the night sky.

I took the clip out of my hair. Sorry, Miku. I hope you know I appreciate your efforts put forth into making me look beautiful.

"You should take off your dress," Len suggested. "I wouldn't want to mess it up."

"Yeah. I would just hate that," I answered, undoing the bow in the back. Len did the rest of the job for me. I strew the work of art carelessly on the ground.

Len moved over me. "Why so many corsets?" he asked staring at the one I had under my dress. "It's inconvenient."

"Only to torture you, Len," I countered.

"It's working," he said.

"Good." I pushed Len off of the bench and he caught himself before hitting the ground back first. I laid on top of him and kissed him, unable to quench my thirst for his mouth, all the while unbuttoning his shirt as he reached around to unlace said "inconvenient" corset. "Happy now?" I tried once I was rid of that annoying torture device.

"Very," Len returned. He once again worked to pleasure me. "You know how we said we should be honest with each other?" he asked between kisses.

"Yeah," I breathed.

He flipped us over so that he was on top. "I should tell you. The maids at my manor…"

"Uh-huh."

He chuckled a bit. "I've slept with them. All of them."

I stopped. "Now that just won't do," I said slyly.

Len traced his lips along my chin. "What are you going to do?" I felt him smile as he moved to my collarbone.

"You'll have to be punished," I alleged.

He felt his hand up my thigh to my chest."What's my punishment?"

I brought my hand to his lower abdomen. "I just might make you stay here all night."

"Mm… Sounds terrible. Whatever shall I do?" He groaned.

"You'll just have to bear through it."

.

I couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry. I must have merely been hallucinating Kaito's face in the door. I was crazy after all. Right?