Happy Ending - A Sequel to 2015's Cinderella

3 - Dinner

                                                     
                                                     ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

I reached the double stairs to find Kit standing at the landing of the steps opposite of me. His gaze is glued on me as I make my way down the stairs, the beautiful dress Ana picked highlighting my every step, flowing and twirling with each one. Once I reached him, I could tell his breath was caught in his throat, my cheeks flushed  at the thought.

"You're breathtaking, my darling" Kit breathed as he kissed the back of my gloved hand. "And you look as handsome as can be, my king" I responded, never mind wanting his eyes to leave mine. He offered me his arm, which I gladly took as he escorted me down the remaining steps. He led me to the dining room, a large table was filled with enough food for the both of us; he pulled up a chair for me and I gratefully accepted it, sitting down and smoothing my dress before he pushed the chair back in for me. He sat on the chair next to me and I'm grateful, the table is wide enough for him and I to be completely isolated from each other if he so chose to sit in front of me.

We both ate with one hand as either one of us refused to let go of the other's hand. We ate mostly in silence, until my king broke it.

"Please, tell me more about you. I feel like I've known you for twenty years but hardly know anything about you." He crooned
"What is it that my king wishes to know about me?"
"Everything. Tell me everything there is to know about you. Your childhood, Your parents, How you ended up with those awful women, why was it that you were riding out that day we met. I want to become an expert on you."

I took a breath. "I was treated like a princess in my early years, quite spoiled by my parents with materialistic things and love. My father remarried over a decade after my mother died, and my stepfamily didn't exactly take kindly to me." His brows furrowed at that, "How so?". "I don't understand it myself, but ever since they arrived I was like a complete outsider to my own home. When my father was on a trip, my stepmother began to rant about how Anastasia and Drizzela always shared a room and weren't specifically fond of it. I offered them my room and I was supposed to stay in the attic temporarily, only until the other rooms were redecorated, but... they were never finished since the house fell into financial despair after my father's death...". Kit's grip on my hand tightened, "my dear... my darling Cinderella.... I am so sorry, I know how terrible it is to burry both parents..." I return the grip, knowing of his mother's passing from our conversation during the ball and his father's from the recent news flooding the kingdom. "I know... they're all in a much better place now, and all we can do is honor their memories now. My mother always taught me to have courage and be kind, so that's exactly how I faced my stepfamily. With each passing day, I became more and more just a maid to them, to the point where I was no longer addressed as Ella anymore but rather as Cinderella. It was a cruel way for them to point out the cinders and ashes that gathered on my face every night when I tried to keep warm in the attic by sleeping close to the fire."

"Oh, my love... then may I ask why you introduced yourself as such to me?" He asked, with nothing but curiosity. 

"At that moment, I wasn't a daughter, nor a sister, much less the princess you thought you were looking for... I wasn't Ella. I was simply the maid Cinderella."

He immediately stopped eating and took both of my hands in his, forcing both of us to inelegantly drop our utensils. "If that's the case, then my love" he began, "I wish for nothing more than for you to be known as Ella. My Ella. You are freed from your servitude and the future queen, and if a nickname such as Cinderella has such a crude past, I wish it to define you not." My heart swelled at his passion. I reach a hand to caress his cheek, "you are nothing but kind, my love, and I appreciate your compassion and sentiment more than you could ever imagine." He coaxed that same hand from his cheek to his lips and planted a kiss to the back of it, which sent me erupting into a fit of laughter, he smiled.

"What happened next, my love?"
I smile at the thought, the bee thing that could have happened to me. I couldn't take their newfound insult on top of their demands, so I went for a ride on Major for some fresh air. It just so happens that I ran into a stag that a certain prince was after."

He smiles, knowingly. I continued, "and I met you, which was just what I needed at that moment. Then came the knees of your ball, my stepmother absolutely refused the notion that I would attend out of shame of her and her daughters being seen with a woman as filthy and covered in rags. In my spare time, I fixed up my mother's dress so that I would have a chance of going and not looking out of the ordinary, but my stepmother saw it and her and her daughters ripped it to shreds right before they left."

"What cruelty! You have only ever been the sweetest woman to them, yet even when it cost them nothing, they couldn't find it in their hearts to reciprocate! How did you even make it to the ball, then?"

"I dashed to the gardens, crying when an older woman approached me, asking for bread and milk, which I gladly gave her. She turned out to be my fairy godmother, she was the one to transform my dress, shoes, hair, made me my own carriage and even cast a spell on me so my stepfamily would not recognize me, but everything only lasted until midnight apart from the slippers. Oh Kit, that night we spent together was nothing short of wonderful... when you sent out for the woman with whom you danced with, I was nothing short of overjoyed. Somehow, my stepmother found out. That's when she locked me in the attic and destroyed my other slipper to keep me from you after I refused her offer . She would have let me go in exchange for a position as head of the royal household, she would have controlled you, played you as naive. I couldn't put you nor the kingdom in danger, so I risked my chance with you."

He laughed to himself, "my... fate must really want us together then, because for the hunt for you, I had to make a bargain with the duke that I would have wed Princess Chelina of Zaragosa if you weren't found."

This new information took me aback, I never would have guessed Kit would have taken such a huge risk for a slim chance at his own happiness.

"You risked your own happiness for me?" I smile and question in disbelief,
"And you risked your own safety for mine" he cupped my cheek and leaned in for a sweet kiss, which I gladly reciprocated.

We finished eating shortly after and procrastinated retreating to our rooms as much as we could, so he showed me around every corner of the castle and we even revisited his secluded area of the garden. He insisted on pushing me on the swing yet again and I happily obliged; after swinging back and forth a few times, my left shoe fell of once more. After Kit's and my burst of laughter died down, he knelt and put it back on me as he always has; he looked up at me, with nothing but pure love and nostalgia in his eyes. "There," he breathed, "I'm really glad I met you, and found you again". I leaned forward to kiss him once more and he met my lips halfway before we retreated and turned in for the night.