Here is the promised 'longer one-shot'. This is a companion piece to 'Coffee Saucer Eyes' and will probably be able to be read as a companion to all my Tin Man stories, especially since I like ones that end with a 'happily ever after'. Thank you so much to everyone who has read and/or reviewed my other story. I hope you guys enjoy this as well!
Sidereal

I

The first time those bright blue eyes stared into his soul Wyatt Cain stood before the royal family as he was installed as a Tin Man. The queen was blessing the academy's graduates as they set out to protect her cities. The littlest princess watched him with big, innocent eyes as he received her mother's blessing with pink ears. The lavender-eyed queen's words washed over him as the princess smiled at him, a mischievous look on her small features. Cain straightened as his commander pinned the small tin star to his broad chest, pride taking up a home in his heart.

As the post-ceremony celebrations whirled around him, he could tell that the mischievous look he'd seen on the youngest princess was well placed as he watched the royal guard scrambling about; looking under tables, behind pillars, under tapestries. He smiled to himself, the blue eyed princess was a handful to be sure. He pitied the guards who would be assigned to her when she was older. She was proving to be a handful already, a formidable opponent to whomever the queen would choose to protect her. As her guards ran one way he caught sight of a bright red dress dancing through the crowd, finally spotted by a fortunate guard who immediately took up the chase.

Cain hid a laugh as the little princess led her protector's in a merry chase before scrambling under a nearby table. The poor man chasing the princess skittered to a halt and looked around wildly for the hidden princess. Cain caught his eye and nodded towards the table. The guard smiled and lifted up the cloth, peering under the table. There was a squeak as a flash of red darted towards Cain and hid behind him, clutching his pant legs. Bright blue eyes stared into surprised light blue ones and the princess offered a wide, toothy grin before taking off across the dance floor yet again.

I

The second time those bright blue eyes stared into his soul they peered out from a framed picture. Wyatt Cain sat somberly beside the Mystic Man, dressed in black and surrounded by those also dressed in black. The somber mood was offset by the picture that had been chosen for the occasion. The likeness of the princess was painted in bright colors, she wore a red dress and her coffee saucer blue eyes were happy and she was smiling. Cain could hardly believe that the mischievous little princess he had watched trick her guards only a year or so before was dead, about to be interred into the cold earth. His son, Jeb, was almost two months old and he couldn't imagine the pain that he would feel if he lost his own child. The tearless eyes of the queen astounded him. Wyatt Cain had never considered himself particularly emotional, but he would have been a wreck.

"Our beloved princess will be sorely missed as we attempt to move on without her." The queen's advisor had been chosen to present the princess' eulogy. Cain ignored the richly dressed court lackey, remembering the big grin that had covered the little girl's face when he had found her. Her adorable stubbornness, calling him 'her' tin man. A half smile curled his lips and he ducked his head to hide it as the advisor continued his speech.

"She was a bright light at all times, her insatiable curiosity, and her penchance to attempt to satiate that curiosity." Cain grinned, the way that was said must have been a polite way to say that she was a trouble-maker. Probably a fact that this fancy advisor had much experience with.

Cain could hear sobbing and crying from all around him as the people of the O.Z. mourned the loss of their young princess. He stared at the picture of Princess DG, wishing that she would suddenly step out and laugh like she was just playing a trick on everyone. But she didn't, as he knew she wouldn't. And yet something still felt off about the whole thing.

I

The third time Wyatt Cain saw those blue eyes he thought he was dreaming, or finally dead. He felt as though he had fallen out of the iron suit and into wide blue eyes. He had been stuck in the misery of watching his family tortured over and over for eight annuals. His beloved Adora, his son Jeb, and watching his inability to help them.

He had been hardly recognizable when he had fallen from his prison into a pair of wide, bright blue eyes. He took his first breath of fresh air in eight annuals, his lank hair brushed his shoulders, a silver sheen from the suit laid on his skin, and he was stiff from annuals of immobility. It wasn't until he was clean and shaved that he even felt like a semblance of his old self. He turned around and there were those eyes again. He was dead set on going after Zero, leaving those eyes and the head case behind. Then her spunk started up and she refused to let him leave without them. He was about to refuse again and her eyes got wider and he found that no matter how he wanted to, he couldn't say no.

So they stayed with him, and those big blue eyes stayed with him. They made him venture through the fields of the Papay, risk his life time and again. One glance in those wide bright, blue eyes and Cain would jump through flaming hoops and had leapt off a cliff with nary a look back. He could hardly believe that this tiny slipper was the same princess that he had thought to be dead. And with that knowledge came fear for her safety and a sense that all would be right in the world. Then came the Northern Isle, and the freezing lake, and he thought that she was gone.

I

The fourth time those blue eyes saw him they were full of fear right after she'd hit the zipperhead. He couldn't explain the sudden feeling of relief at seeing them widen just before she lunged to catch him in a relieved hug. He laughed inside at the way her eyes widened when he asked if she was taking directions from a dog, and again when the 'dog' turned into her old tutor. He could read her every emotion in those big eyes of hers. He followed her to the crack of the O.Z. and found the home that his family had made. Those eyes were nearly as sad as his own when she rested her tiny hand on his shoulder and offered whatever comfort she could in that simple gesture. That one moment in time meant more to him than he would admit, especially while kneeling over the grave of his wife. He could tell when she was happy and he came to believe that he knew what every expression meant, but he had never seen her eyes as haunted as when she came out of that hellish cave, the exuberance that characterized her drained from her soul by the knowledge of what she had done.

They were sparkling again as the five intrepid explorers set off to find Ahamo, the missing consort deep in the Realm of the Unwanted. Cain thanked Ozma that she was back to her old self. In the underground world he knew that he could finally read her perfectly when he suggested that they split up and she protested. She felt safer with the whole group, she said, but looking directly into her coffee saucer eyes he knew that she meant 'I feel safer with you', and he couldn't bring himself to refuse her. Even if he had known that they would be captured by longcoats, he probably still wouldn't have been able to refuse her, though he would have tried. His need to protect her warred constantly with her own need to be independent and do what she wanted. He could see the irony in his thoughts of pity towards her future bodyguard, when he had become that hapless person. The entire time that they were in the underground realm he was on edge, constantly looking for any sign of danger, anything that could possibly be a threat to his princess. He was terrified when she was swept away by the seeker, yelling and kicking, beautiful eyes wide with fear.

I

The fifth time Wyatt Cain was pulled into those wide blue eyes they were in the face of a terrified girl who had just lost the one thing that could save her new home. In his relief at her safety he hadn't even worried about the emerald until she was safely back to the resistance camp. The entire ride back, feeling her pressed close in the saddle, he had thanked every deity for her safe return. When she announced that she intended to save her sister, he wasn't surprised, merely resigned to the fact that no matter how much he tried to keep her safe, she would always find some way to foil his plans. As they made plans for the attack on the Tower she seemed to be growing into her role as princess, finding the right words to say deep within herself.

It was with pride that he watched her bolster the courage of their friends. The viewer and the head case might have known what she was doing, but they were still comforted by her words and her embrace. When he told her that he was aware of her intentions she turned falsely innocent eyes upon him and he almost grinned as he explained that he had done the same (or rather, similar) thing for his men, time and time again. "There was less hugging when I did it" was his response when she asked how she was doing. She smiled up at him and saved the pep talk that she had prepared for the Tin Man. When she offered him a hand instead of a hug he read the uncertainty in her eyes. They were wide, and bluer than ever. He knew he shouldn't, there would be no going back if he did. But Wyatt Cain did the thing that he had wanted to do since he had fallen out of the suit. He ignored her proffered hand and pulled her against him in a hug that said all the things that he couldn't bring himself to voice aloud.

In the tower he breathed a prayer as the young princess began her journey to save her sister. He could see her in his mind's eye. Jaw set and eyes determined as she climbed rung over rung to the top of the tower where her sister was held hostage by an evil witch. He had seen her expression when she set off, he knew that it would practically kill her to fail. And when he set off to turn off the machine, her eyes were all he could see.

I

The sixth time those eyes, so much like coffee saucers, saw him he was tired and bleeding. There was triumph in her eyes and when he saw her sister, he knew that they had won. He could tell that she was embarrassed when her companions bowed to her, and when she pulled them into a hug they knew that she would be the same no matter what titles were added to her name. He had never felt so proud of anyone as he did at that moment, standing beside his princess as the eclipse ended and the O.Z. was illuminated yet again, the traces of evil wiped from it's beautiful landscape.

A tiny hand slipped into his as they watched the O.Z., her eyes were wide and deeper than ever as he gently squeezed the hand that she had trustingly slipped into his own, rougher, hand. She was scared that he might pull away, he could tell, and even though he knew that he should, he couldn't bring himself to do anything but smile down at her. It was a brilliant smile that flashed his way the moment he accepted what they had both been fighting since the moment she had saved him. The way those eyes had stayed with him since she had giggled up at him should have been his first clue that his life was about to change tremendously for the best. As she leaned against him his own blue eyes stared down into her own wide, coffee saucer eyes.

I

The seventh time those bright blue eyes peered up at him they were coming from the face of a newborn baby girl with her mother's eyes and her father's blonde hair. Wyatt Cain smiled as he held the new princess of the O.Z., his second chance at having a family. He smiled down at the tired woman lying on the bed, perspiration dotting her forehead. The new baby cradled in her father's arms had screamed until she was handed to her ecstatic father. Now he leaned over and handed the tiny bundle of wonder to his wide eyed wife. They made a beautiful picture, the tin man-turned consort mused with his typical half smile. The queen's dark hair and wide blue eyes offset the infants shock of blonde hair and matching eyes as they stared at each other. And as Wyatt Cain leaned on the side of the bed and grinned down at his new daughter he realized that those coffee saucer blue eyes were inescapable and now he'd have two pairs to manipulate him.

Fin