Lune arrived with Quin and Yuki right on schedule, and the whole estate turned out to greet them.

"How are they?" Baron von Gikkingken asked the prince privately, while Haru distracted Quin and Yuki with tricks involving slight-of-hand.

"My brother has descended into madness. He will die soon. Quin did not react to the elixir at all, for which I am glad. Yuki suffered another beating before we left, but she should be fine from now on," Lune answered.

"You said yourself, Highness, that the situation would get worse before it was over," Humbert reminded his friend.

Lune nodded before deciding to change the subject.

"How is my saviour doing?" he asked.

"As far as I can tell, your Highness, she is happy and in love," Humbert answered. It filled him with a warm, contented feeling to be able to say such a thing.

"And you also, I see," Lune said with a sly smile. "I suppose it was inevitable, the two of you, the only free half-cats in the Kingdom, falling in love."

Watching the two females and the kitten together, the males both found themselves content.

"I wish you both the best of happiness, Baron," Lune said. "Might I have the honour of giving the bride away, since her father will obviously not be able to?"

"We aren't getting married any time soon, Highness," Humbert cautioned, casting the royal an only mildly reproving look.

The grey laughed. "No, I don't suppose you are," he said. "I just meant when the time does eventually come."

"I would be honoured by your involvement in my wedding, but you'd have to ask Haru," the ginger answered with a sideways grin.

"Yes," Lune agreed. "Weddings do seem to be something females dominate. I honestly have no idea why, but there it is."

"Uncle, uncle!" Quin cried out, running up to the two adult males and jumping up into Lune's hold. "Look! Look what Miss Haru found in my ear!" The kitten said, waving around a grey coin from the human world.

"However did that get there?" Lune asked in mock surprise, taking the coin from his nephew to examine it.

"Miss Haru asked me if I was certain that I had been washing my ears properly, but I'm not sure that I have been," the crown prince admitted.

"May I see the coin?" Humbert asked, holding out his hand.

"Of course," Lune answered, handing it over.

Quin watched, curious, as the baron looked over it a few times before flicking his wrist and making the coin disappear. "Huh?" the kitten asked, staring at the now empty hand. "Uncle Lune, where did the coin go?" the small one asked, turning from Humbert to Lune.

"Honestly, I do not know," Lune said, a little surprised himself.

"Baron Humbert von Gikkingken," Haru said, her voice like a mother scolding her child, and all the males flinched slightly at the tone.

Looking over, they saw that both females were actually smiling. Haru winked at Humbert and blew him a kiss, which he pretended to catch, turning it into the coin.

"Of course, love is worth so much more than money," he said with a sigh, handing over the coin to the kitten prince before striding up to Haru and dipping her, kissing her soundly.

The day passed in a surprisingly normal fashion after that, until Muta served dinner and all the cats parted ways to sleep.

"Humbert, may I express a concern?" Haru asked before she left for bed.

"Of course," he said instantly. "What's the matter?" More importantly, how could he fix it?

"Will Lune get into trouble if it's found out that he poisoned the King?" she asked.

"No," Humbert answered. "It is written in the law, he did what he had to do. Believe me when I say that he didn't want to put his brother through this any more than he liked seeing Yuki covered in bruises."

Haru nodded her understanding.

"Goodnight love," she said, leaving at last.

A messenger arrived in the morning, surprising the entire household. The letter was for Lune.

"The potion worked a great deal faster than expected," he said. "My brother, the king, is dead."

There was no joy that day, as the royal family returned to the castle many days sooner than they had anticipated, with Baron von Gikkingken and his secretary in toe.

The court was worried. The Crown Prince was too young to take the throne, would the queen take the throne in her own right or would she be a regent until her son came of age? What would be Prince Lune's position in all of this?

Once the royal family appeared, they got it sorted out very quickly.

Quin was too young to rule, and wasn't interested in it just yet anyway. Yuki would continue as Queen of the Cat Kingdom, and marry Lune to appease those who wanted a King to rule.

Haru hugged herself when she heard that. Those two… they really were in love, and they finally got to be together after all those years…

It almost made her cry that happily ever after really could happen.

"Lune wants to give you away when we get around to marriage," Humbert whispered in her ear.

"I'd like that," she whispered back, kissing his furred cheek.

Yes, happily ever after. Perhaps not the life she had dreamed for herself when she was just a little girl, but she wouldn't trade in what she had gotten for what she had once wanted. It was so much better this way after all.