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One day over breakfast, Kokomi is told that she is due for marriage in a month’s time.
Marriage with the Prince of Narukami; an attempt from two kingdoms to fix their tarnished relationship. Her father takes it lightly, her mother smiles in approval at the mere mention of Prince Ayato, and in the corner of the dining hall, Kujou Sara stands up a little taller. She assumes that no one else notices, but either way it doesn’t matter as long as Kokomi does. Sara is not happy, and neither is she.
Her fork scrapes against the porcelain plate a little too loudly when she finishes her meal. She gives her family—the Royal Family of Watatsumi—a sheepish smile, kindly announcing her departure with a curtsy.
*
For all her eighteen years of living, Sara has stood by her side. Kokomi remembers growing up alongside the darker haired girl like the back of her hand. Back then, Sara was all bruised knees and chipped teeth and Kokomi was jealous 24/7 because her family needed her to be perfect at all times, just in case the tabloids caught her. She remembers Sara being there for her in those times, even when she was seven and Sara, at the ripe age of six, had no knightly obligations forcing her to care about Kokomi’s wellbeing.
She thinks of when they would play mermaids at the beach located just south of the palace, and Sara would play the role of the pirate here to sweep the mermaid off to the land of the people, how Sara still cared about her even then. Days like those are what she chooses to remember.
It feels ironic looking back on it now, now that Kokomi is in fact being swept away to a new world—just not one with Sara.
She can’t pinpoint why this upsets her so greatly, the idea of leaving behind her best friend. She supposes that it was always a possibility, with her being a princess and all. She just didn’t expect it to come so soon.
Neither does Sara, apparently. She thinks. She hopes.
“Hm,” her voice is gravelly on their walk through the garden and, secretly, she hopes it’s a result of being equally as upset. “So, we’ve a month left until you are to leave. That’s not a very long time at all.”
“No, it isn’t,” Kokomi acknowledges some time after. She pulls her cardigan tighter over her body; the slip dress doesn’t provide much warmth against the cold breeze. Sara notices and leans into her, smiling a little and tossing an arm over her shoulder, tucking her in against her side.
“Ah,” she sighs, “You’re all grown up now, ‘Komi.” Sara looks down at her and it makes her cheeks go red. Kokomi pushes her off with an embarrassed huff, annoyed at how small Sara makes her feel when she looks at her like that.
“Grown up enough to be married? I turned eighteen three months ago,” If Kokomi sounds annoyed, it’s because a part of her is. She understands her duties as a princess, understands that sometimes things won’t be in her control. But the thought of being married off to someone so far away from home. . . it irks her.
“Please, it was bound to happen eventually, Your Excellency.” Sara kicks at a rock, blows her bangs out of her face. Kokomi hones in on the way her long hair shines in the light, feels the emotions begin to simmer in her stomach and crawl up her throat.
“Well, I know that,” because she does. “But I mean. It’s just. . . sudden.” She forces the tears to go away. She has no reason to be so upset.
Sara picks a dendrobium from one of the flower beds. Kokomi scolds her and smacks her hand but takes the flower from her fingers and claims it as her own.
“It’s sudden, and it’s to Prince Ayato of all people.” She falters, lets out a quiet groan and clutches at her stomach. “Archons, I might throw up.”
Sara just rolls her eyes, uses her foot to nudge Kokomi forward down the path. “Have you met him yet? The Prince?”
“Once or twice, maybe,” Kokomi shrugs, plucks the petals off when she sits down at the fountain in the center of the garden. “I don’t know, we got along well enough but it wasn’t anything special.”
“I see,” Sara watches her hands intently on the flower, not yet sitting down. Her gaze makes Kokomi squirm. “So, what? You’d rather Princess Ayaka be your beau?”
Kokomi snorts and covers her mouth the moment the noise slips out. Her cheeks burn again.
“Possibly,” is her answer when she manages to calm down. Kokomi wonders for a moment where that thought even came from. “That was really random of you to ask.”
Sara shrugs, mumbles something about Kokomi liking girls, too and how she wouldn’t forget something like that, still continues to watch Kokomi’s fingers toy with the flower petals.
“Do you believe you will be happy?” Again with the random questions. “With Prince Ayato, I mean.”
Kokomi can’t say. She tries to think about a life with the Prince, thinks about how lonely the palace will be when she’s all alone with only the Prince and his sister and all of his guards to keep her company. Not a single person of her own, just the gap in her soul reminding her that she doesn’t belong there.
She looks to Sara. Watches the blue light dance across her features, carving into the shadows of the face she’d managed to memorize by heart. Tries to imagine the day that Sara isn’t there; fails when she realizes that the mere idea of such a day hurts her heart more than she’d ever admit out loud.
“Do you suppose I’ll be able to bring you with me?”
Sara laughs. Kokomi just watches the way her shoulders bounce and forces a small laugh of her own because doesn’t want to tell her that she’s serious.
*
On Monday, Kokomi is expected to choose a wedding venue. By Sunday, she’d have moved on to royal cake testing. It’s a little strange to be doing it all without the assistance of Prince Ayato. She mentions as much to her mother on a stroll around the palace, who just waves her off under the guise of it “being the woman’s job to organize”.
It’s annoying, especially since her mother keeps dragging her off to do so many different things.
As if they don’t have the rest of the month to plan. As if she even wants to go through with this marriage.
There’s nothing wrong with Ayato, per se. Kokomi’s met him before and they’ve gotten along decently, yeah, but she knows it is not enough to be married to him. She rolls the words around on her lips. Kamisato Kokomi, Queen of Narukami. Queen Kamisato Kokomi, formerly Princess Sangonomiya Kokomi of Watatsumi. Wife of King Ayato.
It doesn’t feel right. She wonders if it ever will.
*
The venue Kokomi eventually decides on is a small, wooden estate located in the middle of a Watatsumian flower field. It is perfect, she thinks, and if she is to be at all uncomfortable on her wedding day then it may as well be in a place where she feels surrounded by life.
“Really, Kokomi?” Her mother thinks differently. Raises an eyebrow at her from above the magazine where Kokomi found the place. It’s not a wedding venue by nature, but Kokomi knows her family could rent out anything they wanted, so if she wants it to be a wedding venue, then it will become one.
“I like it,” she says, quieter than usual because maybe being meek is the way to the Queen’s heart.
It almost works.
“I can see that, dear, but the Kamisato’s hail from the city. You do know that, right?” Of course Kokomi knows that; she’s been there. “Let’s keep looking. I still think that the shrine near the beach would make for a lovely occasion.”
Her mother settles on a red velvet cake, as well.
*
Prince Ayato officially arrives in Watatsumi with two weeks left until the wedding, and Kokomi is nothing short of horrified at just how real everything now feels.
Ayato is here and he is single now but when he leaves it will be with her by his side and she will officially be regarded as his wife. Sangonomiya Kokomi will no longer exist, just Kamisato Kokomi, the new reigning Queen of Narukami. It’s enough to throw her into hysterics.
And of course, Sara finds her when no one else does.
Hours after the King and Queen freak out and send every guard they have to find their daughter, hours after the sun has started to set, Sara finds her hidden behind the foliage of one of the coves littering the outskirts of the Royal Beach. Kokomi is hunched over, and she is dry heaving, and she cannot breathe.
Sara doesn’t know what to do except hold her.
She rushes forward and she scoops Kokomi into her arms; ignores the way sand flies everywhere when she does and the way Kokomi’s snot flings out onto her because she’s much more focused on helping her breathe again.
“Komi,” she repeats it several times before Kokomi seems to finally hear her. “I’m here, Komi, I’m here.” There’s a pang in her chest when her eyes grow wider and she starts clutching at anything she can get her dainty hands on. She’s red and she’s slobbery and her eyes look emptier than Sara’s ever seen them before and it feels like she’s saving someone from death after hours of trying when Kokomi finally starts to copy her breathing.
When she moves, it’s only to wrap her limbs tightly around the trunk of Sara’s body. She continues to breathe but it doesn’t last very long until the constant rise and fall of her chest is replaced with sobs that wrack through her entire body. Sara pats at her back, tries to reassure her in the only way she can because Kokomi will not hear if she speaks.
She counts how long it takes for the storm to blow over.
It comes at minute thirteen; the quiet “Sara,” murmured against the sticky skin of her neck. Sara regrets not pinning up her hair before she’d left for the beach because now she’s sweaty and slobbery and Kokomi is, too. “Sara, oh,” for a moment, she thinks that she may start crying again but it never comes. Kokomi just hiccups and peels away from the sweat and now they are face to face and Sara can barely see the details of her best friend’s features but she can smell the threat of vomit on her tongue.
Guilt washes over her like rain. For not doing more, for not originally caring enough. She admits to herself now that she never fully understood how heavily this weighed on Kokomi until being placed in this situation—had forgotten that just because she is a princess used to receiving doesn’t mean that she cannot still feel pain at some of her offerings.
She wishes it were possible to just. . . conjoin. It would be easier that way, to have Kokomi living inside of her. Easier to take the pain straight on herself and just keep Kokomi hidden from anything that tries to hurt her.
Sara pulls her closer and tells her everything will be okay. She gives her the most reassuring smile she can muster, tucks her back against her neck. Sara’s fingers find their way into her hair, and she begins to carefully unknot the sections that have tangled over time.
There’s a lot of sniffling before there are words spoken again between them. Sara doesn’t mind; she knows that she will always have time for Kokomi.
“I don’t want to be alone,”
“I know, darling,” Kokomi shakes in her arms. Sara thinks she may be crying again, but she doesn’t say anything about it if she is. She just keeps on patting her back and shushing her and—every now and again, whenever it feels right—she will press a kiss against her head.
*
Eventually, Kokomi thinks that she will have to talk to Ayato about things.
He finds her first, knees up to her chest in the library with one of Sara’s huge sweaters drowning her. She’s reading some book series that she overheard the other guards talking about—A Legend of Sword—when Ayato decides to sit himself down across from her and nods approvingly at the choice.
“That is a very good series,” is all he says to her. Kokomi just looks up at him through her brow bone.
“I just started it about ten minutes ago,” she sighs, leans back in the chair and unravels herself. She pulls the sweater closer to her, like she’s scared she’ll lose it. “I’m afraid I cannot agree nor disagree with you just yet.”
Ayato shrugs as if to say fair enough, and Kokomi just squints at him. It’s awkward, and it takes way too long for one of them to speak again. She wonders how she could ever live a life like this.
“Can I be honest with you, Your Excellency?” Ayato’s voice is ridiculously polite, and he moves to look into her eyes when he speaks. It doesn’t make her feel small in the same way that it does with Sara. Right now, Kokomi just feels like she’s not prepared enough yet to be his partner. Like he is a king already and she is barely a noblewoman. Like they are not yet equals, even if they are.
She hums, encourages him to continue. Prays for some kind of a miracle.
Ayato folds his hands in his lap. “I am not the fondest of our current situation,” he falters, furrows his brows. “I pray that neither are you. This would be very awkward if you prove to be content.”
All of the air she had pent up in her lungs dissipates. Kokomi slouches down, clutches at her chest and squeezes her eyes shut at the revelation. She whispers thank you, over and over again. To Orabashi. To the Raiden Shogun. She sends a thank you to Barbatos, as well, if he even hears her from this far away.
“Sorry,” her voice is hoarse when she gets up again. She feels like she’s floating. “No, Prince Ayato, I am not satisfied with our current situation. It terrifies me more than I would like to admit.”
*
“I would much rather just rule alone,” Ayato tells her during another one of their talks. This time, they are walking through the palace’s aquarium. “Politics are much messier than I think either of our parents believe. I doubt that a wedding between two heirs would fix the state of our islands.” Kokomi nods in agreement, but she’s barely listening. “I, personally, would much rather rule alone. Solve the issues on my own.”
“That is very noble of you, Ayato,”
“Noble,” he scoffs and rolls the sleeves of his own jacket back down his arms. The aquarium is usually cold, but the warmth of Sara’s sweater keeps her safe.
“What will you do when you become the Queen of Watatsumi?”
“When I become Queen?” Kokomi hesitates and nearly misses her next step. She flushes when she catches herself, clears her throat. “Um.” She tries to think. What will she do when she eventually becomes the Queen?
Kokomi spots a fish, watches it swim around in the ridiculously large tank. It is small, and after today she will probably never see it again. She thinks about how nice it must be to be able to just blend in, to not have to worry about such important things like ruling over an entire island.
“I am not sure,” she scratches behind her ear, pulls the sweater even closer to her. Ayato looks at her.
“You wear that a lot,” he notes. “That sweater. And it is too large for you. I suppose it belongs to someone else?”
“Sara’s,” she tells him.
“Ah,” Ayato acknowledges with a smile. Kokomi turns her head to look at him, surprised when she sees that he’s begun to laugh a little. “You two spend a lot of time together, don’t you?”
Kokomi breathes. They haven’t moved yet, and as she predicted, she’s already lost the fish. She considers what she should tell him, then settles on the truth:
“We are best friends. She understands me better than many people do.”
“She is your designated knight,” Ayato points out again and Kokomi breathes because she’s starting to feel oddly defensive over her. She doesn’t know what Ayato intends to do by bringing Sara up, but doesn’t like how she’s begun to feel ashamed over simply having a friend. It comes out sharper than intended, the quick:
“Don’t you have any friends?” And Kokomi begins to feel guilty, only stops when Ayato continues to laugh at her.
“None that I give my sweaters to,” he looks at her like he knows something that she doesn’t. “Or that bring me back to the palace so late into the night, refusing to let me go.”
She doesn’t know what he’s getting at with this.
“Do you suppose that you would be able to picture yourself as satisfied if it is with Sara by your side?” Kokomi’s mouth opens, prepared to snap back but then she falters again.
“If you are asking me if I would like to bring her with me to Narukami,” Kokomi speaks carefully. “Then yes.”
Ayato’s laughter returns and Kokomi is overwhelmed with the urge to punch him.
“That is nowhere near close to what I was asking you, Your Excellency,”
She looks at him. Watches the blue bounce off of his skin through squinted eyes and suddenly, she’s thinking back to Sara that night in the garden and the way her face glowed before her. She wishes it was Sara here with her now. She wouldn’t have been nearly as frustrated.
“We will speak of this another time,” Ayato says and Kokomi’s still angry at him. “In the meantime, know that I have no intentions of marrying you. It also seems as though you have no intentions of being a queen of any sort.”
“I did not say that,”
“It is obvious.” Ayato grins at her, all teeth. He bids her goodnight and Kokomi just huffs, more confused than she’d been before.
*
Before Sara manages to meet up with Kokomi again and ask how her talk with Ayato went, she’s cornered by Ayaka in the observatory.
“This palace is so grand,” Ayaka’s voice is gentle when she speaks. It surprises Sara at first. “So many different rooms. . . You know,” she’s turning to Sara now, “We don’t even have an aquarium back home. What a funny concept that is, an aquarium in a palace!”
It’s amusing, hearing her speak of the Watatsumian Palace like it was an entirely different world.
“It is rather large,” Sara agrees with her, thinking it funny how different the Kamisatos were reacting to being here compared to Kokomi.
Ayaka continues gazing up at the stars.
“So you are the infamous Sara,” Sara snorts in retaliation. Everyone knows her by now, of course. Kujou Sara, who saved the princess when she was lost. Kujou Sara, the princess’ knight in shining armor. Kujou Sara, the pretty knight that Kokomi seems to favor.
“I am,” she acknowledges. “And you are Princess Ayaka, Kokomi’s soon-to-be sister in law.”
It’s Ayaka’s turn to snort now, but she quickly becomes ashamed and moves to conceal her face.
“Oh, please. I would be ready to welcome her into the family with open arms, but I know the kind of man my brother is.” Sara tenses immediately at the mere possibility of a threat. Ayaka seems to notice, gets flustered again and recorrects herself. “He is not cruel,” she reassures, “Just far more independent than he should be. I fear my brother would much rather remain single forever than get married, even if it’s to another royal member.”
Sara blinks, let’s the dust settle in her stomach. She feels better knowing this. Knowing that Kokomi’s disdain for this situation isn’t just one sided.
“That is a relief to hear, given that Kokomi isn’t necessarily pleased either,” Sara sighs even just thinking about it. How stressed Kokomi has been, the pressure it’s placed on all of her relationships. “I worry about her. Sometimes I wonder if this is even the life she should live. A royal one.”
Ayaka seems to understand. She gives Sara a once over after awhile of just standing together, looks at her face like she wants to say something but forces it down.
“And you?”
“What about me?”
“Is this the life you should be leading?” Sara pauses, thinks for a moment. It was never something she’d considered. Her family were from a lineage almost as old as the Sangonomiya’s themselves, sworn to remain loyal to them until the day they died. She thinks of her parents, then, and the way they broke the Kujou oath not long after she was born, and wonders if she’d ever be able to live with herself for doing that.
“I am sworn to remain by Kokomi’s side,” is the answer she decides to go with.
“Only hers?” Archons, Sara mentally grumbles to herself, Ayaka is so inquisitive.
Sara speaks faster than she thinks and before she realizes what she’s admitted to, she’s outright saying “Yes.” to Ayaka’s question. It sounds wrong at first, but the more Sara contemplates her question, the more she realizes that perhaps she. . . truly did only care for Kokomi.
Huh. Imagine that.
“Ahh,” Ayaka giggles in a way that sounds much more like I knew it and it makes Sara scowl at her, their growing buddyship slowly drifting away. For some reason, she’s not as frightened as she maybe should have been. Ayaka now had the ability to ruin her life, but Sara had a feeling that she wouldn’t. She seemed too kind.
“You know, we do not intend on taking Kokomi with us to Narukami directly after the wedding.”
She perks up.
“I have invited my own plus one to the occasion, a sailor named Beidou. She’s a friend from Liyue Harbor, and I am sure she has enough room on her ship for two if you would like me to put in a request for you.”
Sara rolls the offer around in her mind, but Ayaka seems to have already expected her agreement because she goes right back to talking.
“I will tell her about you and Kokomi. Good night, Sara,” bowing her head, Ayaka heads for the staircase down from the observatory. She hesitates at the first step, turns around to look at her. “But if I may, do not let Kokomi go. You seem to have a very special relationship. I would hate to see you lose each other.”
Sara pictures a life without Kokomi, feels how miserable it makes her to even imagine such a thing. Yeah. She would hate to see it too.
*
Some time between then and now, things change between Kokomi and Sara.
Like a lightswitch has finally turned on after years of being presumed broken. It’s midnight of day four until the wedding and Kokomi finds herself pressed up against the bandages that bind Sara’s chest together during the day, fingers dipping in and out from beneath the wraps. Sara just lays there, arm loosely secured across Kokomi’s waist. She doesn’t like the texture of silk on her fingers (too sleek) but she refuses to let the girl go knowing that soon enough, she’ll be slipping away forever.
She remembers Ayaka’s words to her. Remembers the existence of the Beidou person who could potentially save the both of them from this horrible situation. Sara throws her free arm over her head, groaning. Kokomi shifts in her arms, shuffles so that she’s sitting on her lap now with both legs bracketing Sara’s waist.
“Sara,” Kokomi whines, lifting the arm from over her eyes. “What’s the matter?”
Sara doesn’t even know where to begin.
Should she begin with her talk with Ayaka? How Prince Ayato doesn’t want to marry her either? Or would beginning with Beidou be better? Would Kokomi even want to run away with her? Maybe she could begin with her feelings, just tell her straight up how she was starting to see her differently.
Kokomi smacks her shoulder with the flat of her palm, whining loudly in an attempt to get her attention back. Sara can’t help but notice that Kokomi’s been slightly different too.
Or maybe it’s just wishful thinking.
“‘M here, ‘m here,”
“Where’d you go?” Kokomi furrows her brows and squints, throwing on her angry face and Archons, Sara feels her heartbeat pick up in her chest because how can someone be so pretty putting on a face like that? Sara’s overwhelmed with the urge to touch her.
“I was thinking,” instead, she forces her hands behind her head. Kokomi isn’t pleased with this answer and scoots further up her lap, now lightly banging her fists against Sara’s chest. Sara just rolls her eyes at her. After a moment of deliberation amidst herself:
“You are sure you don’t want to marry the prince?”
Kokomi doesn’t miss a beat.
“Positive. And I,” she hesitates, the angry face now turning into one of confusion. “Ayato mentioned something about me being Queen one day and. . . I am not sure how much I enjoy the thought of it.” This is new, but not unexpected from Kokomi, Sara thinks.
“You would make a wonderful queen, Komi,” she says honestly, because she truly believes it. “I am not sure if you would be happy, though.”
Kokomi shakes her head and she’s still looking down at her fingers toying with the bandages. “No, I wouldn’t,” Sara’s glad that she’s being honest with her too. “But I don’t think I have much of a choice. I cannot really escape from royalty.”
It would be selfish to keep what Ayaka told her a secret. A strand of hair falls in Kokomi’s face and Sara’s rushing to push it back and behind her ear, cupping the girl’s face afterwards in an attempt to calm her down from whatever it was she was thinking.
Sara sighs, feels the nerves bundle up in her chest.
“Actually,” Kokomi pushes her face into Sara’s hand and the pout is back and Sara is angry at how quickly her face starts burning. “Princess Ayaka told me that one of her friends she’d invited to the wedding is a sailor,” Kokomi doesn’t catch on. Surprise, surprise. “A sailor with her own ship. And Ayaka said. . . maybe she wouldn’t mind taking someone home with her.”
“Oh,”
“I know, Komi, it’s really sudden but I didn’t want to not tell you about the opportunity, you know? And—”
“I will not leave without you by my side.” Sara’s face flushes. She’s amused when she sees that Kokomi’s does, as well. Angry and frustrated at the suggestion, Kokomi starts pounding on her chest again. “You moron! I could not fathom the idea of marriage to Prince Ayato because I was so concerned about leaving you behind, and now you ask me to leave you and everything else behind, as well? How dare you even suggest such a thing!”
Sara laughs but it comes out as a wheeze from Kokomi beating her up.
“Tell Princess Ayaka that I will not be leaving alone with some woman I do not know. I will not leave without you, so it’s either you come with me or I just have to suck it up and get married because the Raiden Shogun herself knows that I would rather be an island away from you than a world—”
“Relax,” Sara says too loud. She’s still flushed, still breathless from the lashings and the laughter and a little from what she’s begun to understand as Kokomi’s confession. It makes Kokomi stop at least, makes her sit and reevaluate and after a moment of silence between them, it even makes her start rubbing at her punching bag in an attempt of an apology.
“Stop laughing at me, you heathen,” she grumbles beneath her breath and Sara feels like she’s floating.
“I’m laughing because you are being ridiculous,” Sara sits up on the bed, pulling Kokomi closer to her. Her mind races with the possibilities of what Kokomi could have meant with her rant. Maybe Sara was getting ahead of herself with this.
And then she’s reminded that in four days time, her Kokomi would be married and living in a nation far away from where she belonged with Sara.
“It is not my fault that you were so eager to send me away, Sara.”
“Archons,” Sara feels the height of her euphoria; the height of her desperate longing for Kokomi and then she feels the warmth of her cheeks underneath her hands.
And then she feels the warmth of her lips, and the vague taste of toothpaste on her lips because they are kissing.
Finally, they are kissing.
Kokomi’s brain gives out. Sara kisses her like the world will end if it doesn’t and it’s Kokomi’s first kiss ever so she’s not too sure how good it is for Sara, but she hopes that she likes it. She hopes that she likes her.
Eighteen years of friendship, a marriage threat, an anxiety attack and a kiss and Kokomi finally understands the reason why she feels so strongly about not leaving Sara isn’t just because she’s scared she’ll be lonely, but because she has feelings for her. She finally realizes what Ayato must’ve been insinuating—it would be easier to rule a kingdom if she had Sara, kissing her like this everyday.
“Wait,” she gasps, breathless from the burning feeling that completely swarms her. Sara does wait, listens to her rules accordingly and sits with her pupils blown wide. “D-do you like me, then?”
She gets her answer when Sara kisses her again, just moments after pulling away. When Sara murmurs an agreement against her lips and then against her throat and her neck and her shoulders. When Sara is suddenly all over her, and when Kokomi feels herself slipping away.
*
It’s a little cruel, when Sara reflects on things, how her best friend turned lover’s wedding day falls exactly a month before her birthday. Had things gone to plan, Sara would’ve been celebrating the big eighteen all by herself.
She admits that she feels a little bad for two timing Prince Ayato like this, but not as bad as she feels about betraying all of Watatsumi in the way that she will be three hours from now. Not much is being left behind for her, of course, but she knows just how much is at stake for Kokomi if things were to go wrong with their plan.
Even if things went right, the two major islands of Inazuma would shun them if they ever attempted to return.
Sara wonders how Kokomi is so calm with everything. Surely if anyone was to freak out about leaving everything behind, it would be the Princess.
All thoughts and concerns leave her head the moment the dressing room door opens because suddenly, it all disappears. In comes the Princess herself, draped in what must’ve been in the handful of wedding dresses Sara wasn’t there to see her try on and she is very glad that she didn’t.
This may not be her wedding, but for a moment, she can pretend.
Kokomi’s walking forward and she’s all light pink and blue and her dress is puffy around the shoulders and puffy everywhere else—at some point, Sara thinks she struggles to breathe even just looking at her. Kokomi is beautiful, and she is willing to give up a life of security if it means she will have a life with Sara. Because she loves her. Because they love each other.
It doesn’t feel real. Kokomi blushes under her gaze (or maybe that’s just the makeup. . .?) Either way, Sara smiles at her, grabs her hand and nods approvingly at her gown. In less than three hours, this world will be long gone and Kokomi will be all she has.
Sara looks her over again. Watches the stars in her eyes; the same stars that shone so brightly eight, thirteen, eighteen years ago.
A world with no one but Kokomi by her side. Sara thinks she could get used to it.
*
Once upon a time, there was a princess and a knight.
The princess lived in a tall castle far away from other people. She was the fairest princess there ever was, and every prince in the land wanted to claim her as their own to rule beside them. Despite this, her true dream was to live freely. What the princess desired most in this world was not the hand of another, it was her own autonomy.
One day, when she returns home from picking flowers, the princess is told by her family that she has been sold off to the richest prince who offered, and now she must begin her way to his castle as soon as possible for their royal wedding.
“Help me!” Cried the princess from the backseat of her carriage. She was crying, for she knew that no one was coming to save her.
Then, leaping out from the foliage of the thick forest came a rogue knight, long banished by her own kingdom. She had heard the cries of the princess, and could not live with herself if she knew that she let someone fall victim to their circumstances.
Quicker than one can even see, the knight managed to slay the guards protecting the chariot and saved the princess, scooping her up onto the knight’s horse. The princess just gasped, looking up with a blush on her face to her savior.
“How could I ever repay you?” She asked.
The knight just smiled, and together, they rode off into the sunset.
*
There is a wedding and then there is not.
Kokomi makes it down the aisle to Ayato, who gives her an inquisitive look at her decision to go through with things. The priest makes it to the vows. Sara watches anxiously from her place near the altar; watches the looks on the faces of the two Royal Families.
“If anyone can show just cause why this couple cannot lawfully be joined together in matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.” Kokomi stiffens.
Moment of truth.
Before either of them can comprehend things, Sara is jumping forward and grabbing Kokomi by the arms and they are running as fast as their legs can take them to the beach where they’d spent so many days together and now will never see again. Their heels begin to obstruct them, so they both fling them off and toss them back to the shore.
Someone is following them, multiple people are but Sara cannot hear past the blood rushing through her head and all she can think about is saving Kokomi.
Beidou is waiting just where she said she would with the plank down ready for the two to get on board. Sara knows that they must move quickly, but sees that they must move quicker than anticipated when the Watatsumian guards begin to close in from every side.
“Go, go, hurry!” Sara picks Kokomi up when they reach the ship and lifts her more than halfway up the plank. “Start moving!” She yells to Beidou, head whipping back and forth as she tries to keep her eyes on everything happening around her.
Kokomi makes it up, and Sara laughs when she has to pick up the heavy weight of her own dress from how soggy the sea water has made it.
There is shouting behind her, and for a moment Sara thinks that she actually may not make it even from halfway up the plank.
Someone grabs her leg. She kicks them in the face once, twice to kick them into the water. Pulls out the sword she’d been required to carry with her and slices when the other guards try to get closer. Her ears have gone silent at this point; drumming at the same beat of her heart rate. Someone grabs her dress, she slices off more than half of it and turns to keep running.
Sara forgets what happens next.
*
Someday far into the future, there is a cottage near the coast of a Liutian beach.
There is someone snipping at crops, the sound of running water from a tap being turned off and a bell being rung and then there is the girl who once was Princess Sangonomiya Kokomi of Watatsumi. She looks different now, her once pristine pink hair exchanged for a choppier version littered with blue. This time though, her smile is real.
And there is Sara, this time tanner than she’d been before and her hair much, much shorter. Kokomi loves it. Can’t get her hands away, even when Sara protests because she’s covered in dirt and she’s way too lazy to take a shower again today.
Kokomi smiles at her in the way that makes the mountain of her heart shake in her chest.
“I will shower with you, my love,” she leans into her body, arms wrapped tightly against her waist and Sara begins to wonder if after everything that happened, she truly deserved this. After stealing the princess from her people, ruining the most anticipated event of not one but two nations.
Kokomi looks up at her then, as if she knows what Sara is thinking. She presses a kiss against her jaw, trails the kisses down until her lips are resting over the heartbeat in her throat.
“I love you,” is all she says, because it’s all she needs to. Sara feels her muscles give, slouching into the arms of her partner.
There is a knock on their front door, the sound of keys jangling and someone muttering incessantly. Kokomi giggles because she already knows it’s Beidou here to deliver her monthly Inazuman newspaper article.
“Oi, lovebirds!” Sara just grumbles and opens the door, feigning annoyance at the woman that’d saved them so long ago. Beidou looks her up and down with a disapproving look on her face (Sara makes sure to copy it), holds for a moment, gives in eventually and brings the girl in for a welcoming hug.
The cottage fills with the laughter of three.
“Whaddya have for us this month, Dou Dou?” Kokomi lays herself down with Beidou on their worn out couch, looking up at her from her lap. Beidou just cackles, fake shoving the girl off before slapping the newspaper down on their dingy little coffee table.
“Sheesh, this place is falling apart,”
“Yeah, well, Zhongli isn’t exactly the richest person in the world,” Sara grumbles, falls into the chair across from them. She squints in the fading light of the room.
Kokomi has the newspaper, and she only tosses it down for Sara to see after several long seconds of gazing at it. When she does let it go, she sighs wistfully and lets herself melt into the couch, a satisfied look on her face.
“Fontaine! They think we’ve headed off to Fontaine,” Kokomi giggles, looks up at Sara and blows her a kiss. She pretends to catch it.
On the cover of the magazine is Prince Ayato, alone at the altar beneath a caption that tells everyone “the princess and her thief have been spotted in Fontaine—keep a lookout!” He is smiling as he looks over to where Sara had run off with Kokomi in tow so long ago and it makes something in Sara’s chest dissipate. She melts down into her own seat now, too, sighing with relief. She thinks of everything they’d been through, murmurs a quiet thank you to whichever Archon can hear her best but also to all of them because she is finally with her Kokomi, and they are finally at peace.
*
Beidou bids them goodbye not long after, and as much as Sara likes her, she is grateful because now it means that she can prepare for the night.
Sara lights the few candles they’d been using to keep their house visible. From the room over, she can hear Kokomi turn on the running water of the bath and sink herself in. Sara smiles in the doorway of the bathroom, watching the girl who'd given up everything for her dunk herself in the water.
Kokomi sees her after a few seconds and feigns a grumpy face, lips puckering and eyes furrowing and Sara takes it as the perfect opportunity to join her.
She strips herself bare, steps in behind Kokomi’s body (now littered with new freckles from her days in the sun), sits down with the girl in between her legs. She presses a warm kiss against her shoulder blade, feels the world shift into place when Kokomi sighs out of relief.