The Moon Fairy.

They gazed at the fireworks with their hands grasping one another in a tight hold, her head on Akashi's shoulder. Her skin glowed underneath the night sky, although Akashi didn't notice that it had grown weaker as the days she passed here on the mortal world grew longer. Gold and crimson captured azure orbs in an intimate stare before they shared a kiss, disregarding the difference of their temperature and weight. AkafemKuro

The sun was a fraction dimmer atop the Teikou continent, as if unwilling to shine some of its glory to the world below. People of Teikou could only hope that the almighty sun god would bless them some of his smile for the sake of their long-awaited Festival of Feathers. It was a beautiful festival, said to originate from the gods themselves. It was the day they would release white birds to the sky, hoping for a blessed year ahead of them.

People of Teikou couldn't be more wrong about the origins of their own festival.

For example, the one who governed the sun's light wasn't a god. No, most certainly not. He must be busy doing other things He must do. No, he let the sun, the moon, the wind, and all other things be governed by faeries.

And that brought us to the reason why the sun refused to sun brightly on top of the joyous nation. Ogiwara Shigehiro, Faerie of the Sun, had been stubbornly pouting on his throne. The orange-haired Faerie sat with his knees tucked under his chin, showing an indignant yet adorable pose for a high-ranking Faerie such as him. Other Faeries and beings that moved within the day were all under his protection, though they all would gladly give their lives away if it meant protecting Ogiwara from harm.

And protecting his innocence, too.

Ogiwara was what humans would call an 'airhead'. Blazing Dominion of the Sun he might be, but he was still fond of pulling pranks towards other Faeries such as the leaders of Green Domain, Kiyoshi of Forest and Riko of Flowers, and that was why it was incredibly rare for him to look as upset as he did now.

"Are you really really sure?" His voice echoed throughout the spacey throne room, sounding extremely reluctant to hear the answer. "Yes." His twin answered, her voice sounding extremely monotonous. But Ogiwara knew better, Kuroko was ecstatic to go down.

There stood, contrasting all of his attributes as the Sun Faerie, was Kuroko Tsuyuri, his twin and opposite.

They were born together, at the very same time on a very different Domain. He was born here, in the Bright Domain while Kuroko was born in the Dark Domain. He sat indignantly with his orange-and-yellow outfit, while Kuroko stood elegantly with her dark transparent dress that complemented her extremely pale skin. He was bright as the sun, while she was gleaming like the moon.

Kuroko Tsuyuri was in any sense, his twin and the person he was eternally bound to protect; after all, moon was always hidden by the sun itself. Ogiwara loved her with all his heart, just as much as she did. And that was why he didn't want his beloved Tsuyu to go down there and see for herself, as she had eloquently put it.

"Please, Shigehiro-kun." Polite as ever with the honorifics. "I believe that this year, it's my turn to oversee the Festival of Feathers. Kagami-kun did it last year and it went smoothly, and he was the Light Faerie. Certainly I, the invisible Moon Faerie, should be able to oversee a human festival and go home without being seen. Please?" Kuroko's faerie glitter turned from its usual white to blue, signaling that she was rather sad. Ogiwara hated to disappoint her, but...

"Please, Shigehiro-kun?" Kuroko tilted her head slightly, making her piercing azure eyes shone like sparkling diamonds under Ogiwara's prism-window. The Faerie of the Sun sighed as he fluttered to his twin's place, pulling her into an affectionate hug. "If you ask me, I really really don't want you to leave..."

"I know, Shigehiro-kun is sweet."

"But okay, I will shine the sun upon Teikou and let you oversee the Festival of Feathers. But..." Ogiwara sighed as he took out a sparkling topaz, the key to enter his Domain from the human world. "Take this with you. After you oversee the festival, go back to our world with that so don't lose it." Kuroko took the sparkling topaz with an apparent excitement on her beautiful pale face. Ogiwara smiled and ruffled her hair.

"Have fun and be safe, okay? Remember, don't let-"

"-any of the humans see me. I understand. I'm going now, Shigehiro-kun."

She flew away from his Domain, spiraling downward until she found the portal to the human world. Ogiwara closed his eyes and sang, allowing the sun to shine its brightest on Teikou continent. All for the sake of his darling sister, who'd never seen the human world below...

Under normal circumstances, Ogiwara would have let any Dominion to go down the portal, being the only Domain with direct portal towards the human world, he had that privilege. But Kuroko...

Kuroko was just too beautiful for human standards. She was one in a hundred up here in their world, and that already warranted a whole lot of protection by the Faeries and beings of the Dark Domain. But down there...?

Ogiwara couldn't shake a really bad feeling he was having, but continued to sing anyways. This was Kuroko. She would be alright.

The Red Emperor had been somewhat worried about the sky-color before the festival, but as the clouds cleared away for the mighty sun to appear, he sat more comfortably on his throne without anyone noticing any difference.

The Camellia Palace was busier than its usual tranquil days and it meant a whole lot of things for the Emperor to look after. People coming to congratulate him, or to pray for the good of the Empire, or to wish an eternal glory for the beloved Teikou Empire. The whole Rakuzan was celebrating the coming of the annual Festival of the Feathers, along with the other cities.

But of course, being the Capital, Rakuzan was flooded by people from other cities like Touou and Kaijou. Even reclusive people of Shuutoku and Yousen had decided to travel quite a long way to the capital. Rumor said that if you celebrate the festival in Rakuzan, you might have a chance of glimpsing the god's most beautiful creature, an angel.

But as the Emperor, Akashi Seijuurou knew better.

He knew that the rumors about an angel falling down the sky had been utter nonsense spoken by the Minister of Tourism, Mibuchi Reo. It was what attracted the whole population to come and gather in Rakuzan, anyways. After what seemed to be an eternity, the Emperor finally declared the start of the festival by releasing a very rare white-colored bird of paradise.

The others soon followed his lead, releasing thousands of other white birds as Akashi retreated away from the crowd, as if wanting to blend in to watch the beautiful scenery. But his golden eye caught something out of ordinary.

Instead of white flying upwards towards the big blue sky, it was falling down. Akashi made haste to the nearby lake, only to find a sparkling orange-colored topaz on top of the bush. He silently picked it up and realized that it was not an item of this world.

It was too perfect, too aglow to be something that came from his world. The Red Emperor looked up towards the sky to see a figure no bigger than himself came crashing down to a nearby clearing.

Pocketing the beautiful topaz within his robes, the Emperor of Teikou made his way towards the clearing, curiosity flaring within him like a wildfire.

The moment he entered the clearing, the air seemed to distort and bend, allowing him to see something he shouldn't have been able to see. He blinked a few times to get rid of the nausea bubbling inside his stomach only to gaze at... at an angel.

She must be an angel. She couldn't be anything else. From her teal hair, a color so out of this world, to her extremely pale skin, gleaming like the moon. She was the living personification of moon itself.

For a moment, the Emperor forgot his own name. He forgot about the festival or even the entire Empire. He only remembered the beauty of something so out of this world being imprinted directly within his mind.

But eventually, the figure rose from the ground. Everything seemed to stand still as she fluttered with her thin, nearly transparent wings, spreading sparkles of diamonds on her wake. Crimson and gold met with brilliant azure, locked in an intense gaze between a human and a winged creature, until those azure tore away from him to look at her surroundings.

"How beautiful," she declared as she took in her surroundings with her nearly expressionless face. "Not as beautiful as you are." Akashi spoke in return, making the angel faced him once more.

Great gods, she was beautiful. In almost every way Akashi had wanted his future Empress to be. Beautiful, mesmerizingly elegant, and even in silence, she radiated nothing but kindness and tranquility.

"A human..." Her voice... did he mention that it sounded like bells tolling across the hills? Akashi was never one to sound like a lovestruck fool, but this... this creature...

"I am Akashi Seijuurou," there wasn't any kind of recognition in her eyes as the Red Emperor spoke his name. She merely blinked as if he had just said another civilian's name. He peered at her intensely, but she didn't seem to be bothered. "It is rare to see someone who notices me so easily. My name is Kuroko Tsuyuri, Faerie of the Moon."

Faerie. Of course, he had read about them in one of the history scrolls. It was said that angels were too busy to handle the mother nature, so another being was tasked with it, and those beings are called Faeries.

"I have never seen one of your species before." Akashi put his hand under his chin, inspecting her even more closely. But this time, he focused to more than just her beauty. The girl was barefooted, although her feet never touched the ground; constantly fluttering with her nearly-transparent wings. She wore a dress that would be scorned in the palace for being so exposing, but it complemented her beautifully. It was dark as the night itself, with flutter of stars decorating her bare skin. Her shoulders were completely exposed, along with her lower thighs. She was pale, beautiful, and perfectly unblemished.

"We are not supposed to be seen by humans, after all." She elaborated simply, completely disregarding the fact that she was in the presence of one. "You don't strike me as a blabbermouth, Akashi-san." A completely polite form of referring strangers she didn't know, but it seemed foreign to the Emperor's ears. "I don't think you will ever tell people that you've just met a Faerie."

"Indeed, I am no blabbermouth, as you eloquently put it."

The Faerie showed a small smirk that somehow befitted her angelic face. But her expressions were wiped clean almost immediately after. "I am supposed to oversee the Festival of Feathers, but I seem to have dropped a very important item of mine." Akashi quirked a curious eyebrow. Even without her elaboration, he somehow knew that the brilliant topaz he had seen earlier was the said important item.

"Oh? And what does this important item do?"

"Ah!" Suddenly, the second batch of white birds got released into the sky. The Faerie's eyes instantly lit up in excitement. "I am sure you have thousands of question to ask me, Akashi-san. But can we please enjoy the festival first?"

A foreign smile made its way up to the Red Emperor's normally stone cold face.

"I don't see why not."

It has been too long since the last time he had a person who didn't know about his Emperor status, and it was quite refreshing.

Beings of the Bright Domain had started to gather around the Blazing Throne, singing the last song of sundown which will send their entire realm into a rest. Small creatures like bees and butterfly pixies to Lady Riko's flower pixies were all there, joining the choir of sunset.

Standing in the middle of the choir as their conductor and lead singer was of course, the one and only Faerie of the Sun, Ogiwara Shigehiro. He didn't raise a his wand to lead the choir and whatnot, he only sung the song he was born with and everyone else's song will revolve around his as an enhancer. Gently lulling the sun to its rest, Ogiwara felt his glow and faerie dust weakening as his time was over.

"Geez, what a long day!" Ogiwara yawned and stretched as the Bright Domain's dominant blue and white color gradually changed into the violet and orange ones, it was time for everyone to rest. Ogiwara flew tiredly to his throne and exhaled a long breath.

The orange-haired Faerie put his chin on top of his palm, trying to fight off the inevitable sleepiness that came with the rise of the Dark Domain. He could see his neighboring Domain's color started to spread around, along with small lights and lanterns being lit for the night. The sleepy residents of Dark Domain started to rose from their sleep and welcome their night with vigor.

As usual, the Dark Domain's surface was shrouded in thick black clouds, refusing to let the human world see the bright stars off season. Ogiwara always loved seeing the early stages of Dark Domain's rise, it contrasted his own Domain heavily, after all.

Mornings were always busy for denizens of Bright Domain. Their activities started early, with Ogiwara having to wake up every 5 AM to sing the song of sunrise. After that, he was allowed a few hours of lazing around until he needed to made the sun shine brighter for the afternoon, and then the song of sunset. While in the Dark Domain, they were only required to sing the song of new moon every first day of the month and the song of full moon on the middle day of the month. And maybe rare songs of meteor shower during winter, but other than that, the Dark Domain was pretty lax.

Ogiwara smiled as he heard the distant sounds of owls cooing from his twin's Domain, so he could go to sleep now and rest for the day.

The Sun Faerie was about to close his eyes before he saw a phenomenon that shocked him.

The dark clouds just beneath the starry sky of Dark Domain started to scatter away, as if they were being swept away by the winds. But that was impossible. He knew that Koganei of Winds did not have the authority to clear away the dark clouds of Dark Domain. Ogiwara's eyes suddenly widened, sleepiness forgotten as he made his way towards the Blazing Castle's balcony, staring with absolute shock.

"Is it... Lady Moon...?" Curious denizens of Bright Domain crowded under his castle to see their neighboring Domain's irregularity.

Ogiwara stood frozen, his heart pounding hard as his face contorts into one full of fear and distress.

Kuroko had cleared the clouds to her Domain, allowing humans to see the heavenly stars.

A few heartbeats later, Ogiwara could hear sounds of storm appearing behind him in an immediate hurry. Aomine of Thunder and his twin, Kagami of Light. They were the Dominions of Cyclone Domain and were best friends with both Ogiwara and Kuroko.

"Oi, Shige, what's the meaning of this?! Why's Tsuyu allowing those humans to-!"

BOOM!

"Calm down, Ahomine, you're scaring the Bright Domain's citizens!" Kagami shouted to his furious twin. As Aomine took a calming breath, the sounds of thunder started to recede to only a brief thunders away in the Cyclone Domain.

"To think of it, where's Kuroko? We didn't feel her in the Dark Domain when we flew past earlier."

Ogiwara took a deep breath and frowned. "She was responsible for overseeing the Festival of Feathers this year..."

"So? She should be home a few hours ago! That festival ended when the fireworks are up and we don't need to oversee the Feast-part!" Aomine thundered, earning them another thundering sound a few miles away. "But... that's the problem. She's not home yet."

The three Dominions all stood in silence until Kagami's eyes tripled their original size in sudden realization and fear. "What is it, Bakagami?!" Aomine asked, fearing the worst for his best friend. "The only reason Kuroko would clear the stars... it's not because she wants to show a human anything, right...?"

At that very moment, Ogiwara's heart felt like it was being poured a scalding hot water. He flinched, but he tried to understand what kind of emotion was attacking his heart- what kind of emotion Tsuyuri was feeling. And the Blazing Dominon fell to his knees.

Love.

Ogiwara shivered, stuck in his own thoughts of wary and fear as his best friends tried to ask him what was wrong. Kuroko... gods above, he shouldn't have let her down...

Kuroko had fallen in love with a human, and it was all his fault.

The Red Emperor had never seen stars so bright within his life.

Even in winter, the stars had never been so bright before. So clear and mesmerizing. On the first day of the weeklong Festival of Feathers, the people of his Empire had been blessed by a sky littered with bright stars.

And all that was possible by only a song sung by glowing lady next to him.

Teal-colored tresses blew with wind as Tsuyuri sang a quiet melody to the clouds. They hear and obey, scattering themselves for the lady of their Domain. Akashi couldn't see it clearly, but he could see the flutters of diamond-like dusts similar to the Moon Faerie's own trailing behind as the clouds scattered. They must be the cloud faeries.

Akashi watched in sheer awe as the melodious tones started to bring life to the forest around them. Winds seemed to stop, allowing only comfortable breezes instead of the usual strong ones. The forests seemed to come to life. Owls, flying squirrel, and all other fauna that resided over darkness started to chirp, as if trying to complement the Moon's song. The water in the lake turned even clearer and Akashi could clearly see blue diamond dust from the surface. The water faeries were singing along as well.

When he looked up to the sky, he could almost make out a phantom-like castle beyond the stars, and judging by the fond smile on the faerie's face, it must have been her home.

It was...

"Breathtaking, is it not?" The pale faerie offered as she admired her own handiwork. Her eyes met with the gold and crimson ones again, this time softer and less blank.

They had spent the festival talking to one another as they watched thousands of birds being released to the sky. The Red Emperor saw clear fondness hidden under a stoic facade. He had... towards the faerie...

He had been enchanted, so to speak.

Once, little Seijuurou had asked his mother, the late Lady Empress, about one thing that was as sacred as time itself. He had asked about love, and his lady mother had been stroke his hair with sheer gentleness and smile on her face.

She had told him of her tales in the youth. How she had met his father under the strict gazes of their families and found strength and charisma emanating from his father the late Emperor. How they had stared into each other's eyes and felt a spark. How the Emperor had literally swept her off her feet and asked her to lend him her power in building the Teikou Empire. How her golden eyes had found kindness and love underneath the absolute power and intimidating strength of his late father's crimson ones. It had been love at the first sight for them.

At first, he couldn't believe her. Love was scarce between him and his father, after all. The only love he had known to be absolute had been his mother's own. But his lady mother had convinced that 'you will understand my words someday, proud child of mine' and never in his life did he believe on love at the first sight... until now.

Kuroko Tsuyuri had enchanted him the very moment she looked at him. Her quiet and calm demeanor, her unexpected yet delightful sass, and her clear appreciation of beauty. She was a calming sound within the storm, quiet as the night, lovely as the stars. Kuroko Tsuyuri was beautiful as the moon itself, shrouded in darkness yet aglow amidst them.

But with only looking at her, Akashi understood immediately that it was impossible for him to have her. Her long teal tresses, her pale skin, her azure-colored orbs, her fluttering wings, her diamond dust, and the silver stars glowing on her skin, it all served as a reminder to him that there was just no way for them to be together.

As if paying no heed to his current predicament, the Red Emperor bravely reached forward towards the Moon Faerie's idle hand and grasp it within his own.

Tsuyuri, surprised by his action, silently gazed at him for an explanation, but she didn't repulse him. Akashi said nothing as he kept on gazing at the clear night sky, tightening his hold over Tsuyuri's hand ever so slightly. Tsuyuri, in turn, kept her silence and joined him for a night of stargazing.

The faerie ended up putting her head on top of the Emperor's shoulder, hands tightly bound together as they kept their amicable silence until the night pass.

Ogiwara Shigehiro paced, eyes red and bloodshot from neglecting his nightly rest. Aomine and Kagami had left a few hours ago, saying that if Kuroko hadn't return from down below within the next day, they would flew higher to the Diamond Castle to meet with Kuroko's father, the Faerie of Shadow.

It scared him, honestly. Mayuzumi Chihiro was one of the very few faeries Ogiwara could never sway with his smiles and bright demeanor. He, along with the King of Faeries were those faeries he couldn't help but feel wary of. And apparently, Lord Mayuzumi hadn't been impressed with the twin his daughter was born with.

Kuroko and he had different fathers and the same mother. They were both precious children of the mother nature herself, sired by different faeries of different Domain. Ogiwara's father was named Hayakawa Mitsuhiro, a Faerie of Heat, and a high-ranking assistant of the former Sun faerie who had rose up to be the King of Faeries, Nijimura Shuuzou. While Kuroko's father had been Mayuzumi Chihiro, the former leader of the Dark Domain as the Faerie of Shadows.

Lord Mayuzumi had met him twice in his entire existence, both hadn't been a pleasant occurrences. Ogiwara had sworn that he would protect Kuroko, Mayuzumi had told him plain and simple that he didn't trust the new Sun Faerie with his daughter.

And now, imagine what chaos will happen the moment he found out his daughter had not returned from the mortal world under Ogiwara's supervision?

Chaos, that was for sure.

The violet and orange sky of his Domain started to fade into a calm and tranquil blue, signaling that the day must be started. Denizens of his Domain started to rose for a song, but Ogiwara slumped tiredly to his throne, worried and fearing for his sister.

At that day, the sun rose a few hours later than it should be before disappearing under the kind singing of the watery domain of Izuki of Rain.

He needed to visit the only faeries capable of seeing the mortal world, maybe it was time for him to pay his friend Imayoshi of Mirror for the sake of his own sanity.

Akashi had rose from a rather uncomfortable slumber noticing that he was not on top of his soft feather bed. The events of the previous night resurfaced in his mind like a pleasant tea in the morning, but he realized the absence of feathery light touch of Tsuyuri's head on top of his shoulder.

He heard the entire town, still stuck on their previous festivity and will be for another five days. Akashi smirked. The Festival of Feathers was the only week he could ever be off from his duties as Emperor since everyone would be celebrating instead of fussing around like fools.

Noticing more of his surrounding, he noticed that even though rain was falling, he wasn't wet at all. A barrier had been laid out in form of a sphere-like shadow just right above him to shield him from the rain. A few meters away from him, a confused-looking faerie stood just beside the lake, staring at her own reflection, or maybe conversing with the water faerie underneath them. He wasn't sure.

The Emperor stood up and dismissed the shadow barrier with a wave of his hand. He felt the rain's warm droplets fall to his clothes with no care at all. His thoughts focused to the Moon Faerie, whose glow seemed to be dimmer under the gray clouds of the gloomy weather.

"You did not see it, sweetling?" She cooed softly towards the small water pixies, who frowned as if extremely disappointed that it couldn't help the faerie at all. "Never fear. Thank you for your cooperation." Although her voice was somewhat monotonous, a kind smile was plastered on her face as the water pixie dissolved into bubbles of water.

"Good morning, Tsuyuri." Akashi greeted casually, earning a smile from the Moon Faerie. "Good morning, Akashi-san." They shared a look before Akashi pulled her into his embrace. "I thought last night had been a dream." He whispered lowly, mostly for himself. But the faerie seemed to chuckle at the thought. "It was no dream, Akashi-san. But the Festival of Feathers is over, I must find my topaz so I can return home." Akashi tensed.

"Shigehiro-kun must be worried sick for me, that will certainly explain why it rains today." She remarked as she sighed to his chest. "Shigehiro?" Akashi raised an eyebrow at the clear worry and fondness. "My twin brother. He is the Sun as I am the Moon... I must find it, Akashi-san. Can you please let go of me?" Akashi did not, however. He kept her tight in his embrace, as if refusing to let go.

"Akashi-san?" Tsuyuri chimed in his ear.

"The Festival of Feathers will last until five more days, which means we still have five more days for you to find that item of yours." Akashi was careful as the rock within his robes seemed to grew hotter by the second. That was it. That was the very item Tsuyuri needed to return to her home, and it was in Akashi's hands.

He could do this. She could be his Empress, he just needed to keep that stone with his person at all times.

"But, I was supposed to go home after the release of the flocks of birds."

"You could reason with you want to stay and oversee the festival thoroughly until the end."

By the looks of it, Tsuyuri herself wished to stay longer in the world so bizarre and foreign to her, and Akashi made sure to use that. The slight worry and anxiety which clouded her eyes earlier melted into its usual deadpanned stare. "I see... you have a point there, Akashi-san." A confident smirk rose on the Emperor's face. "I am always right, Tsuyuri. Now, why don't we go and enjoy the festival? We can stop by in my home to change our clothes and join Rakuzan in its all festive glory."

"But-!"

"You will have fun, Tsuyuri, trust me. I am absolute."

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him, all the while walking towards the empty Camellia Castle. Most of people he did not wish to deal with must be off somewhere enjoying the festival, after all. For the mean time, he needed to think of how to hide Tsuyuri's wings and woo her to stay. And he had just the right way of to do it.

The moment he stepped on the mirrored surface in the outskirts of the Reflective Domain, Ogiwara was met with a blank stare that sent him a jolt of familiarity. His sister had inherited those blank, soulless stare from her father the Shadow Faerie.

"Lord Mayu-!"

"You look horrible."

Always so direct and straightforward, though unlaced with Kuroko's politeness. Mayuzumi Chihiro stared down at him with a completely expressionless face. "The King had sent a formal rainbow-message inquiring the sudden change of weather in the mortal world. He was under the impression that today was supposed to be sunny instead of rain."

"I... had a little business last night and so was unfit to sing the song of sunrise." His voice sounded clipped and strained, it always do whenever he spoke with a man who was technically his father as well. Lord Mayuzumi dismissed him with a wave of his hand. "I had heard from the twins of Cyclone Domain. You are fussing too much. My daughter is a being of precision and thoroughness, she would not leave her job half-done."

"But her job is done. We are to oversee the release of thousands of our far-cousin the descendants of the avian faerie, and she had done that!"

"Do you know that on the mortal world, that festival spans for seven days? I am sure that the moment Tsuyuri comes to that knowledge, she will not leave until she oversaw the entire thing until the end. My baby girl inherits more of my nature than her mother's spontaneous way of living."

Ogiwara never liked it when Lord Mayuzumi said something that further differentiate him from his baby sister. They were one and the same, the opposite faces of a coin. So his father had been a spontaneous fun-loving faerie, and he had also inherited his mother's spontaneous way of living, as the Lord had eloquently put it. So what?

"Please return back to your own Domain, Blazing Dominion of the Sun. Return the weather to what it should be. It would very much disappoint my darling daughter to enjoy a festival without even a ray of sun. Good day to you." And then Lord Mayuzumi disappeared, melted with the shadows of his own wings.

Ogiwara, feeling very much like a kicked puppy, disappeared in a lick of fire to return to his own throne.

"Shigehiro-kun...!"

There was an underlying happiness within Tsuyuri's rather inaudible sigh as the first ray of sun touched the top of Camellia Castle. The whole Rakuzan cheered as the sun showed itself amidst the clearing gray clouds.

He and Tsuyuri were amongst the people, wearing plain clothes as to blend with the people around. Akashi had worn a simple maroon yukata, devoid of his usual heavy robes. He had put the topaz within the safest place in the palace, a place where no one except for him knew about.

The moment he arrived in Camellia Castle, Tsuyuri seemed to draw up her conclusion and asked him if he was the Emperor. Akashi had threw a smirk to her and ask 'what if I was?' to which the faerie replied with a simple 'then you're still Akashi-san, the person who found me in the forest' much to Akashi's glee.

He whisked her to the inner palace, where his ladies in waiting felt surprise over seeing a floating lady within their Emperor's embrace. He told them to dress her up in something elegant yet simple, something that will compliment her the best as he made his way to his own bedchamber.

He changed his clothes and hid the topaz safely within his only magical device, a safe he had inherited from his mother the late Empress.

And that brought us to their current predicament. Akashi had his arms around hers, fearing for her safety within thousands of humans who had crowded the entire city of Rakuzan. Her own yukata had been pure black with a silver dragon curling around her body. Her hair was done upwards with intricate braids and a silver headdress, she looked absolute stunning. Like an Empress.

Hands tangled with one another, Akashi led her to various places. They stopped to watch attractions, they stopped to shop, they went everywhere they could until Akashi decided that it was time for dinner.

The day flew so fast, and Akashi couldn't help but feel anxious for the next five days he had left.

On the fourth day of the festival, they sat on the highest point in Rakuzan City: the heavenly tower of Shirogane.

They gazed at the fireworks with their hands grasping one another in a tight hold, her head on Akashi's shoulder. Her skin glowed underneath the night sky, although Akashi didn't notice that it had grown weaker as the days she passed here on the mortal world grew longer.

When a huge firework of golden phoenix exploded with vigor atop them, gold and crimson captured azure orbs in an intimate stare before they shared a kiss with one another, disregarding the difference of their temperature and weight.

On the fifth day of the festival, Akashi watched as Tsuyuri frantically tried to search for her topaz within the woods. He, of course, made an attempt to appear as if he was helping to find it. But Akashi knew that it was all in vain.

Just a little more. He already knew that Tsuyuri was in love with him, he knew that she wanted to stay with him. But the faerie stubbornly insisted to find her topaz no matter what.

"Never fear, love," Akashi assured as the frantic faerie, wide-eyed and shivering in fear, mumble words of 'I can't find it. It's gone. I can't find it' to his warm chest. "I assure you that all is well."

Because it will.

On the sixth day, Tsuyuri declared that she didn't want to go to the festival because she was too tired. Akashi watched her slept the day away within the inner place, once again ignoring the fact that she no longer left her sparkling diamond dust on her wake.

The moment the blue fire went out had signaled the end of the Festival of Feathers. Akashi closed the ceremony, thanked the people and his ministers, and the gods above for their blessings. The night was darker and colder than usual, thick black clouds shrouding even the crescent moon- hiding the fact that there was no moon up in the sky.

Because it was confined within Akashi's palace.

He had moved the sleeping faerie to his own room yesterday, earning a burst of whispered vigor from the ladies in waiting. Tsuyuri's wings, for the very first time since Akashi met him, stopped fluttering in a constant motion as she slept. Akashi had chained her hands and feet to the bedposts, hindering her from leaving in his absence.

When midnight came, Akashi returned to his chamber to see Tsuyuri awake and waiting for him, her eyes lit up in anger from being bound against her will. Akashi chuckled sweetly as he caressed her delicate teal tresses with his fingers.

"Good morning, love," He greeted, smiling at the Moon Faerie as the darkness of the night loomed over the two of them. "Akashi-kun," she said in return, voice emotionless and devoid of any underlying tones except for anger. "Please let go of me. The Festival of Feathers is over and I need to return to my own Domain."

"The night still fell even when you are not there, Tsuyuri. Don't you think they have gone and replace you?" Akashi asked, his face full of confidence that he had win this war. Tsuyuri shot him a glare, but she lacked the energy to actually retort. Before she could say anything scathing, she fell to another slumber, her glow further weakening to almost nonexistent.

Akashi removed the chains on her limbs and pulled the slumbering faerie tight in his embrace.

Chaos.

That was the only word capable of summarizing the entire situation up in their world. Ogiwara had been chipping away within his throne, his sanity thrown into question as he seemed to withdraw to his own world. No, no, no, he wasn't crazy! Although he was probably close to it. Why? Beings and faeries alike asked the same question, because Ogiwara had felt it.

It was probably the single thing that gnawed within Ogiwara's mind constantly. It left him shivering to himself, hugging his knees as he tried to make sense of the thing that was happening to him. Nothing helped, nobody helped, not even the healing song of some angels that had noticed something wrong with the sun could help.

Of course, of course nobody could help him. Because it wasn't happening to him, it was happening to Tsuyu.

She was disappearing. Not her body, but her mind. It felt so incredibly scary. The days she spent away from her Domain were taking their toll on her. Every faerie must stay true to their own element, even his father still had to pop out in the Bright Domain despite living in the Diamond Castle. They had to stay in touch. But, Tsuyu...

It was agonizing. It was like some part of him was cracking, threatening to disappear forever and leaving behind a huge hollow shell. Only it wasn't appearing in a place he could see or fix. It appeared within his mind.

The connection he had with Tsuyu had always been something he'd taken for granted. But at this moment, when he felt like he was threading on a single string to keep Tsuyu's mind from slipping into the oblivion, it felt so painful.

Lord Mayuzumi had taken his former post as the Dominion of Dark Domain to fill the absence of the Lady Moon. Faeries, pixies, and other beings all started to feel wary and anxious. The balance had been disrupted. Their normality shattered. Denizens of the Bright Domain came to see Ogiwara regularly, trying to reassure him that no, he wasn't insane. He was only worried of the Lady Moon...

Only in a particular day, Ogiwara felt the thread connecting him to Tsuyu snapped like a cord. The Blazing Dominion screamed so painfully loud that the sun started to blaze hotter than it should. The other faeries had came away from their Dominions to calm him down. But Ogiwara didn't care anymore.

He left the his throne in the Bright Domain, marching straight through the gates to the mortal world to take his moon, his baby sister, back.

The Emperor of Teikou took a long stride away from an utterly useless meetings discussing things he really didn't care about. He didn't have the patience to deal with thousands of others trying to go against him in his choice of Empress. He didn't care, not anymore. There was one time when Akashi Seijuurou had been a great Emperor benevolent to all, but that Emperor was no more.

He had grown detached from his duties, preferring to solve all of his problems by himself and not taking advice from his own council. He spent his time disappearing into a room deep within the inner palace, the Emperor's sacred place which nobody was allowed to enter.

The country was running still, but the people fear that one day, it will spiral into a dictatorship nobody wished to endure.

Emperor Akashi Seijuurou was absolute. He was always right and people were to obey him. They all knew this, but the Emperor could still listen to a voice of reason. But during the matter of his chosen Empress, the Majesty refused to back down.

The council had been shown her, His Majesty's chosen Empress. And she was no human. From the overly-exposed deathly pale skin of hers to the teal-colored hair, her transparent wings. And eventually to the dead-look on her face as the Emperor propped her up and caressed her like a doll on her owner's lap.

They had been told that her name was Kuroko Tsuyuri, she was the rumored fallen angel the Minister of Tourism Mibuchi Reo had spoken about. But the Minister himself seemed extremely surprised when His Majesty presented them to his... doll.

Because it was just impossible to refer to something who didn't move, talk, or even think for herself as anything else.

There was an occurrence, though, that made them both relieved and scared beyond their wits. On a day the sun seemed to blaze brighter than it should be, His Majesty's doll had moved away from the Emperor's embrace. Frantically flying away from the room as she tried to find something within the Emperor's room.

His Majesty had ordered his entire men to capture her, alive although harmed or unharmed was of no matter, and promised to reward them with money and social standings, something he had never done before. Eventually the one who had found her had been the only Magician in the Court, who seemed to realize that she was a faerie, from the ancient times. Great Wizard Midorima had found her, captured her, and brought her back to the Emperor's arms.

The faerie cried so desperately the entire room seemed to tremble with her. But the Emperor ignored her cries in the favor of her unwilling embrace. Until the moment he took a sparkling orange topaz in front of the teal-haired faerie and crushed it with his own hands. "There, now you won't be able to leave, no?" The faerie had widen her eyes in fear as the Emperor shooed everyone out of the room, leaving only Great Wizard Midorima within.

On these days, people of Teikou Empire were plagued with fear. After all, nobody could trust a man who would hold the god's beloved creation a prisoner in a golden cage. But nobody could oppose him, nobody.

Because Emperor Akashi Seijuurou was absolute as he was always right.

The room was basked in sunlight, perfectly lit in its circular angle. It had flowers, most beautiful of flowers and tall curtains.

Emperor Akashi Seijuurou entered the door, making a creaky noise as the wood was being pushed. He walked through the veils of white curtain and climb the marble white stairs surrounded by flowers directly into the glass-covered circular room.

A golden cage stood in all its glory, tall as the ceiling itself made in pure gold. A beautiful craftsmanship humming with a magical barrier effective only for magical beings. All of this, only to confine a figure sitting- staring at the blue sky with eyes which saw and reflected nothing.

The Emperor shifted closer to the cage, kneeling to meet the Empress of Teikou's figure on the ground. He had thought of the day she had actually dared to move and try to escape. But the fire in her eyes and the vibrant emotions on that day had convinced him even more that there was no way that the Moon Faerie will ever be able to leave the cage anymore.

"This is all your fault, you know?" The Emperor whispered to the golden cage, affection and love seeping in each and every syllable in his sentence. "If you had not try to disappear, I will never even think of doing this to you." Sweet lies. He had had every intention to lock her away in the golden cage away from the world, away from those who may hurt or love her the way he could.

There was a slight sound of clinking, as if the chain was being moved. The Red Emperor smiled as his eyes connected with azure orbs of the only faerie to ever grace a human lands. He reached into the cage, fingers delicately cupping her chin and tilt her beautiful face upwards. Dull azure clashed with brilliant crimson and gold in sheer emptiness before the Emperor decided to ask her a question he knew she would never answer.

"Is there something you wished to say to me, Tsuyuri?"

Silence befell the room for long moments and as expected, no answer came from the dull-eyed faerie as she stared and stared. The Emperor sighed before eventually chuckling to himself, obviously amused. "Of course not. I have some matters I need to attend to. Don't worry, love, I shall return soon."

As he walked away, he couldn't help but turn back to see his Empress once more, as if fearing the moments he spent away from his faerie would be the moment she tried to disappear again. But she didn't. She only blinked in silence, eyes dull and body unmoving, tied by the silver chains fastened on her wrists and ankles.

Akashi Seijuurou smirked a victorious smirk as his ears caught a distance desperate cries from a certain sun-faerie just above his castle, vying endlessly for the moon Akashi had refused to give back. Kuroko Tsuyuri, the Moon Faerie, the Empress of Teikou Empire, sat there like a doll within a golden cage. Finally on the place she was meant to be...

She was a caged faerie, the Red Emperor's faerie. Not the Sun's or the world's. All his.

This is the longest oneshot I've ever made! And of course, it's AkaKuro :D

Have some questions? Care to tell me what you think?

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