AN: Hi everyone! This fic is based on a wonderful little novel by Gail Carson Levine, called Ella Enchanted. I suggest you read it if you get the chance, because it is totally awesome! Oh, me and my A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel obsessions…..

Also, I like to include much Roman history, customs, and culture, and I realize I do it a lot by looking back at the chapters I have already written.

Fair note, there will be some über weird and cracky pairings to come! I'm not telling you now, since you'll just have to wait and see. There may or may not be OC's in here, depending on what I feel like doing. So enough of my blabbing, let's continue this, shall we?

This was originally written on February 17, 2012.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ella Enchanted or Codename: Kids Next Door, I am but a teenager who has an unhealthy obsession with Darren Criss, Roman/Greek Mythology, Harry Potter, and writing, in my sister's, Emma's, (Yougotburned, I think it is now … I don't remember, She's like April, always changing it. =D hehe, love you two!) words, "Totally awesome stories that are so addicting!" hahaha.

Words: 2,556

Okay, enough with my babbling, I assume you are here to read another ¾ fic…what can I say, I tried writing this for another couple but I just kept seeing Wally and Kuki in this…anyways! Please read and review!

I was always known as the outcast of the kingdom of Kyrria. I have long ebony hair that lies in soft, elegant curls. No, it is not because of my hair, I know many people who have ebony hair. No, what makes me different is my slightly tinted skin and slanted, amethyst eyes. I was extremely clumsy and tripped over my own, small feet.

Another reason why is because of a curse. This curse came about an hour after I was born. That fool faerie Henrietta thought she was giving me a gift; she could not have been more wrong. I was an inconsolable newborn and would not cease my crying, despite the best efforts of my Father and our cook, Kami. Mother was prone to fits of rage, and I'm told she began throwing things about the room, screaming that Lady Josephine of Frell wasn't afraid of smacking a baby, especially her own. Father and Kami had fled to the next room to escape her wrath, and at that moment, Henrietta appeared. She clucked her tongue sympathetically at Father, touched her wand to my head and said, "My gift to Kukihana is obedience. She shall always do what she is told to do. Now stop your crying, child."

I stopped immediately.

Father and Kami were horrified, but no matter how they tried to explicate to Henrietta that this was certainly not a gift, she paid them no heed. I could picture in my mind Father's eyes lit with fire, rising to his daughter's defense for the first of what would be many times. I could imagine Kami beside him, a hand resting gently on his arm to calm him while still trying to make Henrietta see reason. It is never a good idea to anger a faerie, especially one as impulsive as Henrietta.

I could not picture Henrietta. I did not know what she looked like.

She refused to remove the spell, and Father and Kami agreed not to tell Mother anything about it.

I first became aware of my curse of obedience on my sixth birthday. I can remember the day perfectly, perhaps because Kami tells me the story of it so often.

"For your birthday, I had baked two dozen, beautiful little cupcakes with green icing," she would begin. "Two cupcakes for each year." She said, as she tickled my stomach for every syllable.

Our head maid, Sonya, had sewn me a beautiful gown for me. "Blue as midnight with a white sash. You were small for your age even then, and you looked like a china doll and your cheeks red from excitment. Our manservant, Stanlee, or Lee, as he liked to be called, husband of Sonya, had built me a beautiful picnic table. In the middle of the table stood a beautiful vase filled with flowers that Sallee, Lee and Sonya's daughter, had picked for me that day. In the early afternoon, Father and I had a tea party, and he gave me a beautiful elfin made green dress that would never dirty no matter how much I would lay on the ground.

After dinner, Kami set down a plate of cupcakes in front of me. "Eat," she said absentmindedly.

The first cupcake was scrumptious. I consumed the second with relish. The third was a little harder to consume. Father looked at me as I reached for the fifth.

"Kuki, what are you doing?" he asked in alarm as I forced the fifth cupcake down my dry throat.

Kami looked over and chuckled. "Little piggy! Let her have her fill, Sir Buddy; it's her birthday!" Father hated being called by his birth name, Ruburd. Only Kami ever had the privilege of calling him by Buddy, other than his sisters, who were the same way. In formal settings, Father was always addressed as Sir Ruburd of Frell.

I felt awful, and so scared. Why couldn't I stop? Tears began rolling down my face as I reached for the sixth cupcake. Each bite was now like torture; the sticky mix of icing and cake kept clinging to my tongue and throat as I struggled to force it down.

Father understood what was happening first. "Kuki, stop eating!"

I stopped.

It did not matter who it was that issued me a command; I had to follow it no matter what. If I tried to resist, I would be overcome with intense pain and nausea, which abated as soon as I obeyed. It had to be a direct order, such as "Go to bed," or "You must pick up your toys." I had no troubles ignoring "Why don't you go to bed?" or "I wish you would pick up your toys."

This curse was inconvenient at best, and highly dangerous at worst. Someone could order me to hop on one foot all day. Someone could demand that I give them all my money. Someone could tell me to cut off my own head, and I would have to do it. As I grew older, I learned to delay my obedience, but each moment cost be dear- in breathlessness, nausea, dizziness, and other complaints.

Father had asked my faerie godmother to take away the curse, but she had said that only Henrietta could remove it. The only other chance was for me to break the curse myself. However, I didn't know how, and I didn't know who my faerie godmother was to ask her.

Henrietta's plan to make me an accommodating and dutiful child backfired spectacularly. Instead, the spell made a mutineer out of me. Father rarely demanded that I do anything. Mother knew nothing of the curse, and was seldom around to interact with me. But Kami had a never-ending supply of kind, for-your-own-good orders. "It's cold out, Kuki. Put on your hat." "Hold this bowl while I stir, sweet." I resented such commands and made this known by obeying them in the most frustrating ways. I would hold the bowl, but move around the kitchen. Kami would laugh and scold me, and then change her instructions, which I would proceed to evade in some other way. We would continue to play this game, with Father watching in amusement and egging us on, until either I chose to obey or Kami changed her command to a request.

When I was eight, I made a friend of one of the servants named Leona. Usually I would play with Jezebel, Jess for short, but she was sick with a cold. Sal was out at the market with her mother. I never really liked Leona that well, she was very strange and always acted as if she was hiding something. We were playing one afternoon in early winter when Kami came outside and told me to put on my hat. I placed it on my head gingerly as she went back inside I grumbled to Leona.

"I hate it when she's bossy."

Leona looked smug. "I always obey my elders."

"Well, you don't have to." I whined.

"Yes I do! If I don't, Father will slap me."

"It's different for me. Guess what? I'm under a spell!" I suddenly felt important, like the prince or princess in one of the fairy tales Father always read to me. Leona's eyes widened comically.

"Tell me your spell or I will cut you!"

I laughed at her excitement and told her.

"So if anyone gives you an order, you have to obey? Even me?"

"Yes."

"Can I try?"

"No," I snapped out. I hadn't expected this. "Let's have a race."

"Fine. But I command you to lose."

"Let's not race."

"I command you to race, and I command you to lose."

We raced; I lost.

We made flower circlets; I had to give Leona the nicest, most colorful ones. We played princesses and ogres; I had to be the ogre every time. After an hour into our play, I was screaming at her, calling her all sorts of nasty names. She began to cry.

I never saw Leona again. Father found her family a new situation far, far away, and after scolding me for the things I said to Leona, he gave me a rare order: to never tell anyone about the curse. It was unnecessary; I had learned to be careful.

Right after I turned fifteen, Father and I caught a terrible cold. Kami whipped up her special curing soup. It was made of diced carrots, leeks, and chopped celery, as well as a long, single strand of yellow-white unicorn hair each. Father and I both wrinkled our noses at those hairs floating around in the broth. Kami had ordered that we eat the unicorn hairs, but because Father was not under a curse, he ate everything but, and plucked the hair out. I grimaced as I swallowed mine with some tea.

The next morning, I was feeling much better, but Father was looking worse than ever. I applied cool cloths to sooth his fever and held his hand while he slept. I sang to him softly and he would smile in contentment, but then a coughing fit would interrupt our moment. That night, before I left for bed, Father squeezed my hand faintly and said, "Good night, sweetie. I love you." That was the last thing he ever said to me.

As I left the room, I heard his last words to Kami: "I'm not even that ill. Don not send for Lady Josephine, Kami. I'd rather have you here with me." Lady Josephine was my mother who was hardly ever home.

The following day, Father was conscious, but it was as though he wasn't there. His gaze was unfocused and he mumbled things inarticulately under his breath. He didn't speak directly to Kami or myself.

The village physician came calling, and I wandered down the corridor after he shooed me away from Father. I came up to the staircase and thought of all the fun Father and I had had so many times when we slid down the banister. Oh how mother would say that I was being so un-lady like if she were to ever see me. We would slide over and over, running back up the stairs each time, yelling and singing as we sailed down.

I eventually made my way down the stairs and outside, contemplating the long walk to the old castle just outside of Frell. I wanted to make a wish and knew that it was most likely to be answered if I made it there.

Sonya had told me it was haunted and Lee said that it was crawling with mice. It used to belong to King Xavier when he was a boy until the new castle had been established. Though the old castle is still used for balls and weddings.

I went to the candle grove. The candles were small trees that had been pruned and tied to wires to make them grow in the shape of candelabras. I ignoring the skittering of mice and the overgrown vines hanging over my head. To make a wish, I needed to give something in return. I squeezed my eyes shut tight and contemplated what I could offer.

"If Father gets well quick, I'll be good, not jus obedient. I'll try harder not to be clumsy and I won't tease Kami that much." I spoke in quiet voice, as if someone could come waltzing in and see me here.

I didn't bargain for Father's life, because I didn't know that he was in danger of dying.

I made my way back to the manor, Kami waiting by the door with a worried look on her rosy, tear stained face.

As soon as I approached the door, she enveloped me in a hug, tears began to fall down her rosy cheeks. Her blonde hair was disheveled and her dress was crocked and untidy.

I looked up at her in confusion as more tears began to fall down her cheeks.

"Kami, why are you crying?" I asked her in a gentle voice. "I am fine, no harm has come to me, see." I said, motioning down at myself, which only seemed to make Kami cry more. "Kami, you're scaring me, what is going on?" I asked her, a hitch in my voice as my mind came to the realization at what had happened.

"No…" I said out loud, tears beginning to trek down my face as well as I gripped onto Kami, "N-n-no, please, Kami, tell me it is not true." I said, my voice cracking as I tried to quell myself, but to no avail.

Kami seemed to cry harder as she took a handkerchief from her dress pocket and dried her flowing tears. "It is, I am so sorry Kuki." Kami said, "Your father is dead." And as if by some universal cue, we both began to cry again.

-

End of chapter! That was depressing! Right? Geeze, I really hope this doesn't continue, but unfortunately, it does not, since I'm already on Chapter 20 of this story. But it does get better! If you review, you will get an excerpt from the next chapter! Wouldn't you like that! So please leave me a kind review since I do so hate flamers.

Love you all!

Next chapter: Sir Buddy's funeral is in commence and there may be a very regal appearance….you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

Oh! How would you write the disclaimer? Submit a disclaimer on why you don't own KND or Ella Enchanted and it will appear next chapter and you'll get a double excerpt from the next chapter, wouldn't you like that? So review, I want at least 10 for my next post, if not, I will post in two days. I'm thinking of posting every other day, but if we get to my requested amount of reviews, I will post it the next day.