My Queen

"Will you be my queen?" I lightly kiss Precious' hand and I smirk as she blushes. She stands in front of me, hiding her abashment under her hoodie.

And the whole crowd falls silent. Or maybe it's because I was just focused on her.

"Qu-queen?" She stammers, finally meeting my gaze.

I nod, with a smile. Why haven't I thought of this before? Playing by the rules against Mrs. Lion. I just hope it's not too sudden, but then again...

"I'd love to!"

I'm awestruck by her bright smile. I want her to keep that smile, I don't want it to ever go away.

Nathaniel couldn't take it anymore, he left without turning back. But that's just one problem solved.

I hold her close, in teleport range, and I take her to my office. And I lay her on the couch.

I stroke her cheek, lightly brushing her bottom lip. "... My hands are full." I lean in. "Can you remove my mask?"

Without a word, she slowly takes off my half-mask. 

I tease her with a small kiss, in which I part from her once she wants more, she lets out a small whine. Cute. But if I give her it all now, she won't appreciate it in the future. Besides, I have to have self-control around her.

"Thank you..." I mutter. "For playing along so easily... I thought it would be too sudden, but..." I pause. "We don't have to keep this up, you know."

"But I really do love you, Nigel."

I crack a smile. "Very well, then, I have something for you." I slide her cloak off her shoulders. "If you don't mind..."

She closes her eyes as I begin to undress her, clothing her in an outfit I tailored for. An outfit that looks similar to mine.

I top it off with a mask, a hyena mask.

"Mrs. Hyena..." I lean in to kiss her again, but then she speaks up.

"Does this mean I get to join the Rabbit Hole?" She seems excited.

"What? No! You seen what happened to Rodriguez. It's risky."

"But I still get to help..."

"Just this once, for the zoo." I don't want her to suffer the same fate. I knew she would learn about the organization sooner or later. "For now, I just need you to look cute for me."

"So you could keep kissing me?"

"I'll stop, see how long before you come back, begging for my affection."

"I didn't mean it!" She fiddles with her fingers. "You don't know how long I've been waiting for this day..."

"I've been waiting longer. I fell for you since you were with the Boutielettes."

"We met at the time?"

"We had one close encounter, but most of the time, I kept my distance."

"Close encounter? Oh, you mean that enchanting night? That was you?"

"Enchanting? All I did was visit..."

"It was romantic, but it seemed you left in a hurry."

"We wasn't possible at the time." 

It was near the day I joined the zoo as a spy. She was their driving force. When I found that out, I told the rest of my teammates about Castle Boutielette. We were already keeping a close eye on it after Kayate gave me a report of the case he just recieved from her parents. 

But it wasn't just us and the zoo who were interested in the princess, and we had to stay around the castle, to patrol. As I was going around the castle, she was attacked. The rest of the crew went after the beast the crime lord sent and it fell onto me to sneak her back into her room.

Of course, she was surprised about the whole situation, but I didn't expect her to fall in love. She didn't want to let me go. I've had this effect on most girls and took no regard of it, but this time, it's the girl I fell in love with. Not that it'll change anything... Up until now, this was considered a forbidden love, but still I flunked, teasing the limit of how far we must remain.

I almost kissed her. If I hadn't been careful, if Nathaniel hadn't entered the room, our lips, just only a breath apart, her yearn for me... I could've made it worse.

Nothing was worst than the anger I felt hearing her screams, getting harrassed by her dear beloved Nathaniel.

Showing up in her life opened her heart that he wasn't the only love in the world, at there's an option. But I guess since then, she gave up searching for me. I thought by now she'd have forgot.

"Wait, does that mean you were spying on me?"

"We kept close tabs on you since the zoo gave an interest." I smile, but something still tugged at me. "So you know what the Rabbit Hole is? Who told you? Jack?"

"It was Mr. Wolf."

"Ghost... should've known."

"... Was I not supposed to know?"

"It's not that, it's just..." I pause, trying to word my thoughts correctly. "I didn't want you to get involved in all of this... violence and misery. Why did you come back?"

"My parents are still out there..." She looks off into the distance, then looks back at me with smile. "All my life, I was tricked. Now I have no where else to go." How could she be so calm? "I guess the agony always finds us all eventually."

"I'm sorry about your parents."

"Why are you apologizing? They're still out there, just don't want to be found." Her tail wags. "And maybe, I'll be able to meet them one day."

It's sad. I don't know if I should tell her their horrible fate. It's good she has hope... maybe they're actually still alive.

"And I'm happy to have all of you. You, Nigel, and Kayate, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Badger, Mr. Jackal, and Emma... Gosh, I'll even give Nathaniel a point for being there for me even though he was abusive..."

"You're lucky we found you in time." My mind can't help but drift back to the situation at hand. "So, what happened? Why were you in the woods?"

"I believe I can explain that..." The air beside us gets dense and morphs, as if glitching into shape. It's Kayate. He rarely uses his teleportation, if not never.

"Kayate! I thought I lost you," Precious says.

"Actually, you led me toward you. When you used your ability." He then gets on one knee. "... Mrs. Hyena."

She looks flustered. "Don't kneel! Please, rise..."

I smile. She's not used to high status, it seems.

"As you wish..." He stands.

"M-my ability?" 

"You're not aware?" He then softens his gaze in realization. "Of course, you wouldn't remember after Rewriting time."

"So that's why I felt that déjà vu..." I think back.

"It appears only Rabbit Hole members aren't affected." He crosses his arms, contemplative. "But not forgetting previous strings of time isn't the only thing that happens to me. I can feel your aura when you use it, even from far away. That's how I found you now, and at Train Victoria..."

"Interesting, maybe it's because you both have bending time and space abilities." "Now that we have that figured out, what about when you both arrived here?"