Princess Ouran-Chp8

The next day, Haruhi offered to bring in Count Kaoru’s breakfast. The least she could do for him after his bloody ordeal was to look after him as much as the doctor and Count Hikaru would allow her too. After all, the baby inside her is still her husband, and since she couldn’t love the one she want, she might as well make an effort and love the one she’s with. In order to do that, she had to make her Oka-sama feel better, and this was where the oni-neko root given by Nekozawa came in.

As she entered the room, she saw Count Kaoru having a slightly fitful sleep, moving here and there occasionally, as if she was having a bad dream. Flashbacks of her own nightmarish encounter with the creature rang in her mind, making her wonder what would Nekozawa’s reaction be if he were to ask of her mission, but that would be a matter settled later. She had important business to attend to. Haruhi put the tray of milk and bread on the table and reached over to caress Count Kaoru’s belly. If she were to try and love her baby fiancée, she might as well get a head start now.

Taking out the oni-neko root and a small bowl she smuggled from the kitchen out of her shirt, she filled the bowl with the milk from the jug and placed the root into the bowl. Almost immediately, the root began to come to life at the touch of the milk—catching Haruhi off guard—and made a sort of gurgling kitten-like sounds, moving its arms and legs like a baby would when it sees its mother. Seeing the oni-neko root moving like that made her thought of what she would do when the time came to take care of her future baby husband.

Carefully, she crept under the bed with the oni-neko root in the bowl of milk with her, taking care not to spill it. She moved it slightly where the Countess’ head may be and bit hard on her finger, drawing blood from it. As she put two drop of blood onto the root, she heard the family doctor and Count Hikaru coming in. She lay as quietly as possible so that they would not know where she was while she eavesdropped on their conversation.

“His temperature is down, sir. I cannot explain why, but it is.”

“But he still has a fever, does he not?”

“Yes, but it’s a good sign. It means his body is responding to the treatment. But, sir, if it’s alright with you, if you still want to continue with the engagement ceremony, I think it’s best if you perform it with your brother on bed. We don’t want to take any chances.”

“Listen to me, doctor. If you have to choose when the time comes, save the baby. My son will bear my beloved brother and my name and I know my brother would wish nothing else but the life of our son be spared. He is the last thing I want to lose, do you understand? Save him.”

Haruhi’s heart clenched as she heard those words before both the doctor and Count Hikaru left. Save the baby? Only the baby? What about his brother? What about Count Kaoru who had been carrying this baby for so long? What about him? Was his life so insignificant that he was expendable like the children in the cellar? How could he even decide and confirm her Oka-sama’s so-called wishes without even knowing how he truly felt about the wellbeing of himself and their child? How could he? Does he not love his brother as he claimed to be with all his heart and soul, enough to disown themselves from their previous Hitachiin lineage and marry each other despite the obvious taboo, and have been through so much trials and tribulations to conceive their little miracle child?

After making sure no one else was in the room, she crept out from under the bed and leaned on Count Kaoru’s belly, whispering to him, “My husband, my dear little husband. If you can hear me, things aren’t so good out here. But soon you’ll have to come out. You’ve made your ‘mother’ very sick, and you’ve made all the others around her worried for you and your ‘mother’. Though I’m in no position to say this, but your father isn’t one of the world’s greatest people either, and soon you’ll find out more disappointing things about him.

“I want to ask you one favour for when you come out, just one: don’t hurt him. You’ll meet him; he’s very pretty even though sometimes he is sad for many days at a time. You’ll see, when he smiles, you’ll love him. I know I did, and I still do. Listen, if you do what I say, I’ll make you a promise. I’ll be the best wife you’ll ever have, and I’ll take you to my kingdom and make you a prince. I promise you, a prince.”

As Maya left the room to let her Oka-sama rest, she made a solemn vow that she would try her best to convince Nekozawa to allow her to bring her baby husband along and make him a prince to rule alongside with her on her throne.

--:--

Count Kaoru’s recovery was miraculous. Her appetite has regained and her colour returned, getting much better as time went by. He was even well enough to actually get off bed and carry on with the engagement ceremony, although he still needed to move about with her trusty wheelchair. The doctor couldn’t understand it, but he was glad all the same that his treatment worked.

The engagement ceremony was a success altogether. With both the blessings from the priest and Renge-sama, Haruhi and Count Kaoru’s baby were officially engaged and the Counts Haruhi’s parents-in-law. Haruhi eyed at the engagement ring which was help put on by Count Hikaru and the other engagement ring worn as a necklace around Count Kaoru’s neck, reserved for her fiancée to wear it when he’s born. Everyone who had showed up at the previous engagement ceremony was there, including Mori who was the ring-bearer for the ceremony. Though her heart ached slightly at being unable to be engaged to him instead, she was happy all the same for having him to witness the ceremony. The only thing missing in the picture was her father. It’s been too long since she was in the Hitachiin Manor. He never came up the mountain to visit her, and she had not heard even a word or single news from him. It was as if she was totally cut out from the outside world and became a forgotten person in her village. She often wondered at times how and what he was doing without her, but to want to go down and visit him was out of the question.

She would have to live with the fact that she was no longer a member of the Fujioka family for good.

Mori had also been updating her about his undercover mission. It turned out that he and his fellow law-enforcer colleagues were almost having a breakthrough with the case as they managed to smuggled a couple of children from the cellars and keep them hidden with the team in their secret camp in the woods and the children were willing to testify against Count Hikaru. They even managed to convince some of the black market dealers’ errand boys to join in the testimony and when the time is right, they will arrest him and Kyouya and his men. He promised that when everything was over, he would try to find a home for Count Kaoru and his baby in his or Honey’s family estate so that she can both fulfill her duties as the Hitachiin’s daughter-in-law and be close to her father again as Ranka will be allowed visitations as he pleased.

Haruhi secretly looked forward to that and promised not to breathe a word and leave everything to him, swearing not to try and be a heroine and help him. So far, only Haruhi had the privilege to hear Mori spoke more than just replies to orders and commands, and she felt very lucky to see the side of Mori where no one else could, and she was not going to spoil blissful moments like these, even if it was just platonic sister-brother talk.

Later that night, after the ceremony, Haruhi was awakened by the familiar sounds of purring. It was no other than Nekozawa who standing over her bed. Haruhi’s heart thumped nervously at the sight of him, the incident still fresh in her mind.

“Your Oka-sama looks much better now, Your Highness, and that you are finally engaged with the little child in her. You must be relieved.”

“Yes, thank you,” Haruhi replied, her eyes not daring to meet Nekozawa’s. She wanted to keep her mouth shut about the incident, but her conscience beat her to it. “But things haven’t turned out so well.”

“No?” Nekozawa asked, surprised.

“I…I had an accident…”

“An accident, you say?”

“Yes…”

Haruhi shut her eyes tight, not wanting to look at Nekozawa any further, trying to prepare for what’s coming to her next. Nekozawa eyed at her suspiciously before calling out the winged kittens. As expected, only Belzenev flew out instead of the usual bunch, and from the tone of the grunt Nekozawa made, she knew he had expected much. Belzenev flew up to Nekozawa’s shoulder and mewed and hissed angrily at his ear. Haruhi could only assume that she was telling Nekozawa about the incident. Her heart raced even harder as Nekozawa’s face grew—if possible from his already secluded face—dark and angry.

“You broke the rules!” Nekozawa bellowed, pointing an accusing finger at her.

“It was only two slices of otoro,” Haruhi tried to explain. “I thought no one would notice…”

“It seems that we have made a mistake,” Nekozawa said as he took out the dagger she had kept wrapped and hidden under her pillow after retrieving it from the creature’s lair. Haruhi froze. Was he going to kill her with that?

“A mistake…?”

“You failed. You can never return.”

“But it was an accident!”

“You cannot return!” Nekozawa insisted, his voice much angrier than before. “You broke the rules, and therefore you must pay! The moon will be full in three days and there is nothing you can do about it. Your spirit will remain among humans forever. You’ll age like them, you’ll die like them, and your memory will fade in time. And we will vanish along with it. You will never see us again!”

Before Haruhi could stop him, Nekozawa had already disappeared into the shadows along with the dagger and her fairy friend. She knew she had chosen the wrong ending for the legend. She would never return to Ouran and she would never become the Princess she had longed for. And her baby husband would never become the Prince she had promised.

As she cried herself to sleep, she knew she had screwed up big time.