Princess Mononoke Fan Fiction ❯ Personal ❯ Moment ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Disclaimer: Okay, so I don't actually own Princess Mononoke. But I know the person who does! Yeah, my friend B-chan; she bought it with her own money and everything! What? Oh, well, the rights don't belong to her; gosh, how picky you lawyers are...

A/N: And I'm back again, with the sixth chapter! (This is the part where you go 'duh!') As noted in number five, there's probably only going to be one more after this. Two at the outside, but I'm pretty sure it'll all fit in one. (worry, worry) I hope the last couple chapters haven't been too boring or anything. They've been short, I know that, eh heh... But either way, some stuff should actually happen in this chapter! Shocking, I know. Hope ya'll enjoy it :)

XooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooX
Chapter Six: Moment
XooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooX



And then it was the day of the festival. Nearly everybody stopped working for the day to celebrate with friends and family. Ashitaka spent most of the day with Toki and Kuroku and their friends, helping to put up decorations and prepare the feast they would eat at sundown.

At dusk Lady Eboshi stood by her window and watched the lamps being lit while she combed out her hair. When it was loose it hung to her waist. She wore her best kimono for the occasion, and she couldn't help but wonder what Ashitaka would think of it - though of course all he'd say would be something like 'what a lovely kimono, my lady.' She chuckled to herself.

After putting the finishing touches on her outfit, she went down to the carnival. It was a sight to see; the people of Iron Town tended to be hard working, so it was nice to see them relax once in a while. There was singing and dancing and games and food, and the city was even more crowded than usual because all the sailors had come ashore to see the parade. The procession would wind through the streets several times before the night was over. She talked to people in passing, but in a somewhat distracted way; she kept scanning the crowds for Ashitaka.

And then someone behind her said, "L-Lady Eboshi? What a beautiful kimono..."

She had thought the fan was rather silly, but now she understood. It was very useful for hiding how she was grinning like a lunatic. "Why, thank you." She looked him up and down. "You look nice as well." The thought that he would look good in anything occurred to her, but she didn't mention it. It would have been entirely too cliché, and he looked sufficiently awkward and pleased anyway. He'd found a fine blue kimono with black fish patterns on it somewhere; perhaps Kuroku had lent it to him. It looked like it was made for him, though, but maybe that was just her.

A thread of song reached them over the sound of the crowd, and just as she was opening her mouth to speak, Ashitaka said, "Would you like to dance?" He grimaced slightly, as if his brain was just now analyzing the words, after they were already out of his mouth, and he added a highly belated, "My lady?" in vain hopes of remedying the situation.

She raised a delicate eyebrow, highly amused. "Well, it might be a little difficult," she said, glancing at her right shoulder, "but I supposed we could give it a try..."

She could barely remember the last time she danced. It was before she'd come to Iron Town, she was pretty sure of that. She doubted she'd been very much in love with whoever she'd danced with then, because she suspected she'd have a very hard time forgetting this dance. The worst part was, Ashitaka was shorter than her. It was wonderful. It was so wonderful that she wished she could kiss him, and wondered if he might just let her sometime tonight.

After the song was over they stared at each other for a moment. And then they laughed at the absurdity of it all, because everyone was looking at them, and danced to the next song too. Lady Eboshi wondered what people would say in the morning. She couldn't wait to hear it.

And afterwards they walked around together and saw the sights. She bought Ashitaka food, despite his protests. They watched the parade. He laughed and smiled when she talked, and never got a far-off look. It was quite possibly, Eboshi reflected, one of the best nights of her life up till now.

All parties must eventually come to an end, however. There were some who would be up all night, of course, but most people had things to do in the morning. As much as she would have liked to ignore the fact, she knew that both of them belonged to the latter group. Ashitaka offered to walk her home. She just had to laugh at that, but she let him anyway.

As they walked towards her house, the streets gradually grew quieter. They had been surrounded by crowds just about an hour ago, but now there seemed to be no one around. She smiled slightly. "Ashitaka?"

He looked up at her expectantly. What pretty eyes, she thought. And then she kissed him, holding him close.

No one can tell the future. Sometimes one future is very likely; if a boy has caught a deadly disease, he will most likely die. But there's perhaps a one-in-a-million chance that he might make it after all, and everybody knows that one-in-a-million chances crop up one time out of ten. No one can tell the future because there are a thousand ways events could go every minute, and the further in the future you go, the more ways it could branch out. And yet we only see one course of events. So maybe, somewhere, every other possible course also happens. You never knew; maybe, somewhere, they pulled apart and Ashitaka looked into her eyes and kissed her again. Maybe an image of San flashed through his mind, and he jerked away in disgust.

Or maybe, as actually happened, he pulled away after a moment and gaped slightly, like a fish out of water. Then his poor, stunned brain rearranged itself to absorb the full effects of the shock later, and he noticed that they'd reached her house. He managed a weak smile. "Well... good night."

She watched him go, and wondered whether it was.

Xoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooX

A/N: Well... T.T Gosh, that's a little sad, isn't it? I can't believe there's only one chapter left already, though. Regardless of how long it's taken me to actually post this thing, this is only my fifth day writing it @.@ Hey, did anyone catch all the things from Eboshi-sama's dream in chapter one? If you did, I'm impressed. I figure that no one reading this as I'm posting it will probably remember, but maybe someone who read it straight through... Also, yes, I did steal the whole thing about the futures nearly entirely off of Terry Pratchett. What can I say; Discworld is my absolute favorite series of all time :) (nervous grin) Y'know, as happy as I am to have gotten this far, I'm having a terrible premonition that I might be dying very soon. Like as soon as I post the last chapter, for instance. You might not want to read it. Seriously. I think a lot of people are going to hate me... (sweatdrop, sweatdrop) Er, review?