Petite Princess Yucie Fan Fiction ❯ 30 Kisses: Arc and Yucie ❯ Records ( Chapter 22 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Title: “Records”
Author: Wish Wielder
Pairing: Arc/Yucie
Fandom: Puchi Puri Yucie
Theme: #1 (look over here)
Disclaimer: “Puchi Puri Yucie” and all respective properties are © Takami Akai. Meg D. (Wish Wielder) does not, has never, nor will ever own “Puchi Puri Yucie.”

“Records”

Arc didn’t generally consider himself an eavesdropper. However, there was something about the raised voices that just shouted “look over here!” Maybe it was because the voices belonged to Yucie and Drago-sama, or maybe it was the desperation in Yucie’s voice - he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that he was now crouched behind a tree, spying on his wife. She stood on the small overhang before Drago-sama, a thick, leather-bound book in her arms. She was begging him for something, from the looks of it, and she kept holding the book out to the ancient dragon. Drago-sama looked almost perfectly impassive, but Arc could see a tiny glimmer of something - regret? Pride? - in those aged eyes.
“Please, Drago-sama! Please do this for me!” Yucie asked. Drago-sama heaved a deep sigh and shook his head.
“I cannot, Yucie,” he said. “This is the natural order of things. You ask me to uproot the very balance of the five worlds! Do you have any idea how disastrous this would be? As guardian of the Human World I cannot allow it.”
“Then as my friend!” Yucie cried. “As my father’s friend! Can you honestly deny me this?”
“You must understand what you ask, Yucie,” Drago-sama said. Yucie’s eyes narrowed into that determined stare Arc knew so well, and she gave Drago-sama a decisive nod.
“I ask for the chance to make me the last Platina Princess,” she said firmly. “I ask for the chance to keep anyone else from being the Tiara’s pawn. I ask for the chance to make that cruelty - that pain - end with me and the other four.”
Drago-sama looked away, a deep frown turning his lips. Yucie held the book up once more.
“I’ve recorded everything in here,” she said. “From becoming a Puchi Puri to my friends’ return. It’s all here. Gurenda helped me make an exact copy, and Ms. Rosa agreed to keep that one safe at the Royal Library, but you know how it is there. By the time the next Princess is ready to be born it could be hidden somewhere in the basement. I need you to take this one and keep it safe. Pass it on to Jing if it comes time for him to take over before she’s born.”
“I cannot -” Drago-sama started, but Yucie wouldn’t here it.
“You can, you just won’t!” she screamed. The book fell from her hands, and she crumbled to her knees beside it. She hunched forward, burying her face in her palms as sobs racked her frame. Arc looked away, wincing at the sight of her so distraught.
So that’s what she had been so busy with. For the past few months, she would lock herself in their room for hours at a time. She had said it was something important that had to do with the Eternal Tiara, and he had seen the book lying on the desk near the balcony, but he had never pressed her. Maybe that was best, but now…it hurt. It hurt to see her so…so crushed. He knew the trials of the Tiara had hurt her - more than any of them, with the possible exception of the other Puchi Puri, who had almost died because of the Tiara - but it had been over a year, almost two. He had thought - hoped - that she was finally starting to heal, but he wasn’t so sure anymore.
“Yucie, the Tiara keeps the five worlds in balance. You saw what happened in the Fairy World with Diabolos -” Drago-sama said, and again Yucie cut him off.
“The Tiara knocked the worlds out of balance! That was why Diabolos attacked,” she said, her voice choked with tears. “It wasn’t there before Papa completed the Tiara.”
“It needed to be destroyed by the Tiara, and though you girls found a way around that, Arc still suffered,” Drago-sama said. Yucie turned a fierce eye his way.
“It had seventeen years to develop and attack while we were waiting to reach an age where the Tiara would choose us! The Tiara created it - why would you want that to happen again a thousand years from now?” Yucie asked. “We were lucky with the Fairy World, but a thousand years ago the Tiara caused the Magical World to be destroyed. Which world will the Tiara cost us next?”
“If the next person to assemble the Tiara chooses to do so nothing in that book will deter him from that goal,” Drago-sama said.
“If he knows what it will cost it will!” Yucie cried. “If he knows of the trade the Tiara requires he won’t dare assemble it! He won‘t dare put his daughter through that!”
Drago-sama sighed again and looked at the book. Arc could see him chewing it over in his mind, and he knew Yucie’s argument was validifying itself as more time passed. He knew the old dragon would take the book long before the wrinkled paw reached out for the tome.
“All right, Yucie,” Drago-sama said, and Arc saw Yucie smile. “If I can’t talk you out of it…”
“You can’t,” she said. She offered a weak smile as she stood. “I just had to try to keep the Tiara away from the worlds.”
“Go home, Yucie,” Drago-sama said. “I’m sure Arc is very worried about you by now.”
Arc watched as they said their goodbyes, and he allowed Yucie to walk on a few moments before he turned to follow her. When she neared the end of the forest, he called out to her, causing her to whirl around in shock. He stepped out from behind a nearby tree and walked over to her.
“Is that what you’ve been doing, Forehead? Writing a history of the Tiara?” he asked. Her eyes widened as she realized he had seen her, and she looked away as tears filled her eyes.
“Queen Erlsel thought it would help me deal with everything, if I wrote it down,” she said, “but I thought…when I finished, I realized it might prevent these things from happening again.”
“How so?” he asked. She looked up at him as the first tears fell.
“When we…when you were looking for information on the Tiara, all you could find was that one passage saying how it was scattered in the five worlds. No one from Magazerent’s time recorded the truth, and Papa collected the pieces without knowing what it would cost. No one from the time before Magazerent wrote about it, and because of it the Tiara was completed and her world and friends were destroyed,” she said. She stopped, unable to continue as she remembered the Great Magician. She covered her face with her hands, crying into her palms as she broke down. Arc reached forward, pulling her into his arms in a comforting embrace. He rubbed her back and let her cry; she needed to. He couldn’t remember her crying after the other four were returned, but again: he had thought she was healing.
“You did a good thing, Yucie,” he said. “I’m proud of you.”
Her fists tightened on his tunic, bunching the brown fabric between her fingers. She coughed as she tried to stop her tears, and he placed a hand on her cheek, making her look at him. He brushed his thumb below her eye, wiping away some of her tears before he kissed her forehead.
“Just don’t keep me in the dark next time. You’re not alone in this. You shouldn’t have to deal with it on your own,” he said. She smiled and nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck in a needy sort of hug.
“I’m sorry,” she said. He shook his head.
“Don’t be,” he said. He tucked her away at his side and began walking towards the main road. “Come on, Forehead. Let’s get home.”
Drago-sama sighed as he looked at the book he had agreed to safeguard. He knew it wasn’t the wisest of things to do, but maybe Yucie had a point. What harm could truly befall the worlds if the Tiara remained destroyed?
He flipped open the cover and smiled at the first page.
For Magazerent, because no one should ever have to choose between her friends and her world.

owari

a.n.: Wheeee!!! I love this one. I loved the idea for it, and…yeah. Magazerent’s my favorite female character - I love the story behind her so much - and when the idea came in my head, tying her in like that, I had to write it.

Summer break! And I got ideas for the rest of the Kisses! These should be done soon…I hope. Assuming I get time to work on them between the summer job and packing (we’re moving this summer!!!!! -dances-). Ja ne!

Comments and constructive criticism welcomed. Please, don’t flame. If you can’t say your CC without flaming, don’t bother. Flames will be used to fuel Az’s bonfire for the yummy s’mores.