CHAPTER XXX

                                    

                                          
When Honoree stirred up at around four o'clock in the morning and saw that Yuuji was nowhere sleeping on his futon, the depth of her love for him and its impossibility begins to sink in to her again. She pulled herself up and washed her face before running to the shrine with a thick knitted scarf around her neck and arms. She staggered for a moment as the raw cold envelopes her until she found her way inside the honden and realizes how afraid she is as the pounding of her heart nearly bringing her to tears slows down. She found him standing in front of Inari's statue with her crystal ball on his hands.
                          
Yuuji smiles at her and speak in a low tone of voice. "Did I scare you?" he said. "Did you feel that stabbing pain just thinking that you'll never see me again?"
                          
Honoree took several steps closer to him, steadying her breathing pattern. "Dummy!" she put a hand on her chest and inhaled deeply. "I never had any idea this could be so... so painful. You're leaving me again?"
                          
"Again? I never left you, stupid!" Yuuji turns away, blushing and when he looks back his eyes has the gold hint in them. "I'm sorry, but Inari-sama doesn't have the power to make me like you. It couldn't be."
                          
I knew it. "Is this... goodbye then? Is that why you're here? To say goodbye?"
                          
He didn't answer her.
                          
"You've endured my absence for a month, but I endured yours for years."
                          
"What do I have to do, Yuuji-san? Tell me what I have to do so we can be together and I will do it." Honoree gritted her teeth and met his eyes. "One thing immortality doesn't teach deities like you is that we, humans, have only one lifetime to live and one heart to give. I would gladly give ten years of my life so I can spend a day with you Yuuji-san."
                          
Honoree's words were like a knife piercing through Yuuji's soul. She was filling his entire being with feelings he never knew possible. "You told me that you don't know if you can love me the way I wanted you to, but..." he paused, "You're already exceeding my expectations." He took her hand into his and faces her. "There is one thing that you can do."
                          
"Tell me and I will do it."
                          
Yuuji smiles at her and leans forward to kiss her cheek. "Honoree Ishirama, love, will you marry me?"
                          
----
                          
It wasn't until Honoree turned seventeen did she goes back to Yuuji's kingdom. It was summer vacation in her world and she plans to spend a month with him and the other with her father at Tokyo.
                          
His whole family welcomes her at the lobby with Katsumi standing beside Minori. They got married two years ago and are living happily since then. Kenta ran straight to Honoree and starts blabbing how he miss her so much while Toshi handed her a bouquet of flowers.
                          
The wedding took place after a week. Honoree and Yuuji wears a special kind of white kimono made from the kingdom's finest fabrics. The special thing about the ceremony is that Inari is there to witness the exchange of vows and to also personally hand them her gift. Honoree was surprise to know that the beautiful woman before whom she met at the offering hall and the great Inari-sama is the same. But today, Inari was not in the form of a beautiful woman but a handsome middle age man. 
                          
Takao was there too and he couldn't help but gasped in amazement of the magical place he was brought. He'd been there once, but not in the mansion of Yuuji's family. Honoree promises him that they'll get married again at the shrine when she reach the age of twenty one, wishing that her parents and friends will be there for her when it happen.
                          
This time, King Takano made a spell that will contain Honoree's life inside a pearl of which is altered later on to become a ring. When Kenta brought the rings forward, Queen Aki begins to cry. Toshi calm her down, laughing softly and reminding her that she doesn't have to worry because he'll never get married.
                          
"You're just saying that because you're a player!" Queen Aki teased.
                          
It was Honoree who starts the exchange of vows. "Yuuji-san, from this day forward, I am yours and you are mine. I love you, of that much I don't know, but I promise to treasure every single day with you for the rest of my life." Honoree felt a tear rolls down her cheek as her shaking hand slip the ring into Yuuji's ring finger. It glows brightly and vanishes, leaving a tattoo similar to what they have before.
                          
Yuuji picked up his ring and speak. "Honoree, my love, over the course of my long life I have come to believe that we, kitsune spirits, doesn't have to dream dreams because we will not have anything that we couldn't get. Until I met you, until you've shown me the other side of life. You are my dream come true. I am yours and you are mine. I love you and I will love only you for eternity." He slip his pearl of life in Honoree's ring finger and they watch it glows brightly, almost blinding, before it vanishes, leaving a tattoo on Honoree's skin.
                          
Their vows move Inari to tears and as a reward she granted Honoree the potion that will make her body capable of living long, telling her that she may drink it when the right time comes.
                          
As far as Honoree can comprehend, that day was just the start of her own fairy tale.
                          
She refuse to be afraid of what will happen after, believing that whatever lies ahead will always wrap up into a happily ever after.
                          
"Why is it that you always look fat in a kimono?" Yuuji said.
                          
"Huh? I suddenly realize you look old in yours."
                          
"Old? Well, at least I didn't look like a stuffed pig."
                          
Honoree punched him in the stomach.
                          
"Ouch! What's that for? I'm just telling the truth!"
                          
"That's what you get for telling the truth!" Honoree laughs, she couldn't ask for more.
                          


                          
END